I Heard What You Said By Jeffery Boakye

​A LEAD NON-FICTION TITLE FOR PICADOR IN 2022

A Black Teacher, A White System, A Revolution in Education. 

'Inventive, refreshing and humorous ... never fails to surprise and entertain' 
BERNARDINE EVARISTO


'Intense and compelling' 
DAVID LAMMY


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 to call out some of the most pressing issues of our times, Boakye offers sharp analysis, lively prose and a searing vision for how we can dismantle racism in the classroom and do better by all our students in the future.

Jeffrey Boakye is an author, broadcaster, educator and journalist.
Originally from Brixton in London, Jeffrey has taught secondary English for fifteen years. He is the author of Hold Tight: Black Masculinity, Millennials, and the Meaning of Grime; Black, Listed: Black British Culture Explored; What is Masculinity? Why Does it Matter? And Other Big Questions; and Musical Truth: A Musical History of Modern Black Britain.
He now lives in Yorkshire with his wife and two sons.

@jeffreykboakye
@picadorbooks
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