I Heard What You Said

A powerful call to action over an education system that is default white, from a black man who has spent decades being failed by it as both a student and a teacher.

An Amazon Best Non-Fiction Book of 2022

'Essential reading' - The Guardian
'Sharp and witty with moments of startling candour' - The i
'Makes a powerful case' - Rt Hon Lady Hale
‘Revealing and beautifully written’ - David Harewood
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Before Jeffrey Boakye was a black teacher, he was a black student. Which means he has spent a lifetime navigating places of learning that are white by default. Since training to teach, he has often been the only black teacher at school. At times seen as a role model, at others a source of curiosity, Boakye’s is a journey of exploration – from the outside looking in.

In the groundbreaking I Heard What You Said, he recounts how it feels to be on the margins of the British education system. As a black, male teacher – an English teacher who has had to teach problematic texts – his very existence is a provocation to the status quo, giving him a unique perspective on the UK’s classrooms.

Through a series of eye-opening encounters based on the often challenging and sometimes outrageous things people have said to him or about him, Boakye reflects on what he has found out about the habits, presumptions, silences and distortions that black students and teachers experience, and which underpin British education.

Thought-provoking, witty and completely unafraid, I Heard What You Said is a timely exploration of how we can dismantle racism in the classroom and do better by all our students.
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'Hugely important' - Baroness Lawrence
'Deeply compelling, intellectually rigorous and essential' - Nels Abbey
'Personal and political, profound and playful' - Darren Chetty
'Written with passion, fury, knowledge and, in spite of the painful subject, wit' - Patrice Lawrence