Human Restoration Project Logo: a heart within moving spheres.A blacked out version of the HRP logo.
Conference to Restore Humanity! 2025: Quest for Connection
menucloseEcosystemclose

Inform

PodcastWritingResearchListening

Guide

ResourcesEmpathy Interviews & Professional DevelopmentConference CollectionInterdisciplinary CurriculumWebinars & Videos

Grow

Conference to Restore Humanity! 2025: Quest for ConnectionAlliesOur Impact

About

Mission & FAQNew? A Brief OverviewFamily & Caregiver OverviewStaffContact

Support

Get InvolvedDonate & Merchandise

Join Our Discord Community!

The Floop logo.
A feedback-driven learning platform.
A satellite.

daily dose of research

Education, Politics, and Social Transformation

Apple

2006

Summary of how identity and social empowerment connect with (for positive and negative reasons) school.

featured contributor

Emma McMainA headshot of Emma McMain.
Emma McMain is an Assistant Professor in Educational Statistics and Research Methods at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, AR. Her teaching and scholarship explore how daily discourses (ways of sense-making about the world) and affects (ways of sensing the world) shape our identities, relationships, and social practices. Much of her work focuses on the potential of social and emotional learning (SEL) to both foster and undermine equity.
An image of the lighthouse with the text Third Coast Learning Collaborative.
Reimagining public middle schools in Western Michigan.
Text displayed "100 Days of Conversations About School"
Listening and learning from 400+ young people & educators.

Research

Access the Library

Human Restoration Project maintains a collection of works, from peer-reviewed articles to influential books, that highlight the need for a human-centered, progressive education. This pressing need for reformed schooling practices has been backed up by extensive research spanning the past century.

A list of research appearing on our Zotero page (citations).Research Library (Zotero)

We need contributors!

Help us maintain (what aims to be) the largest progressive education research digital library. Zotero is an open-source citation tool that allows for easy curating, referencing, and exporting. Get involved by:

  1. Creating an account on Zotero and accessing our library (public). Then, request editing privileges.
  2. (Optional) Install the Zotero Connector and Application.
  3. Add and catalog your citations to the library.

Our top Picks (start here)

Filter
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.

Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds

brown, adrienne maree

2017

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Teaching As a Subversive Activity: A No-Holds-Barred Assault on Outdated Teaching Methods-with Dramatic and Practical Proposals on How Education Can Be Made Relevant to Today's World

Postman, Neil

2009

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

"Learning Loss" Handbook

Human Restoration Project

2021

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem

Meier, Deborah

1995

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Kids these days: Why the youth of today seem lacking

Protzko, John; Schooler, Jonathan W.

2019

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Our Impoverished View of Educational Reform

Berliner, David C.

2006

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Readicide: How Schools are Killing Reading and what You Can Do about it

Gallagher, Kelly

2009

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

UDL: A Blueprint for Learning Success

Salend, Spencer J.; Whittaker, Catharine R.

2017

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Constructivist Approaches to Learning in Science and Their Implications for Science Pedagogy: A Literature Review

Cakir, Mustafa

2008

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

The Eight-Year Study: From Evaluative Research to a Demonstration Project, 1930—1940.

Joseph, Watras

2006

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Why “What Works” Won’t Work: Evidence-Based Practice and the Democratic Deficit in Educational Research

Biesta, Gert

2007

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Recess: Its Role in Education and Development

Pellegrini, Anthony D.

2005

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Work that matters: The teacher’s guide to project-based learning

Patton

2012

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

The Schools Our Children Deserve: Moving Beyond Traditional Classrooms and "tougher Standards"

Kohn, Alfie

1999

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Research Briefs

Lucas Education Research

2021

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Why They Can't Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities

Warner, John

2018

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

We Got this: Equity, Access, and the Quest to be who Our Students Need Us to be

Minor, Cornelius

2019

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Timeless Learning: How Imagination, Observation, and Zero-Based Thinking Change Schools

Socol, Ira; Moran, Pam; Ratliff, Chad

2018

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

The Book of Learning and Forgetting

Smith, Frank

1998

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

The Labor of Lunch: Why We Need Real Food and Real Jobs in American Public Schools

Gaddis, Jennifer E.

2019

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Teaching To Transgress

hooks, bell

2014

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

The End of the Rainbow: How Educating for Happiness Not Money Would Transform Our Schools

Engel, Susan

2015

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

On Critical Pedagogy

Giroux, Henry A.

2011

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School

Schneider, Jack; Berkshire, Jennifer C.

2023

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Ladson-Billings, Gloria

1995

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

"You Can't Fire the Bad Ones!": And 18 Other Myths about Teachers, Teachers Unions, and Public Education

Ayers, William; Crystal, Laura; Ayers, Rick

2018

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

The “New Racism” of K–12 Schools: Centering Critical Research on Racism

Kohli, Rita; Pizarro, Marcos; Nevárez, Arturo

2017

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Black Lives Matter at School: An Uprising for Educational Justice

Jones, Denisha; Hagopian, Jesse

2020

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Two decades of havoc: A synthesis of criticism against PISA

Zhao, Yong

2020

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Freire, Paulo

1970

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Excellent Sheep: The miseducation of the American elite and the way to a meaningful life

Deresiewicz, Wiliam

2015

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Crowdsourcing Ungrading

Buck, David

2020

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

What’s Wrong With Standardized Tests?

Fairtest

2023

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

The Path to Purpose

Damon

2009

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Less-structured time in children's daily lives predicts self-directed executive functioning

Barker, Jane E.; Semenov, Andrei D.; Michaelson, Laura; Provan, Lindsay S.; Snyder, Hannah R.; Munakata, Yuko

2014

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Gallup Student Poll Finds Engagement in School Dropping by Grade Level

Brenneman

2015

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education

Venet

2024

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes

Kohn

1993

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Children's Risk of Suicide Increases on School Days

Black

2022

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Trust Kids! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy

bergman (editor)

2022

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Autonomy, competence, and relatedness in the classroom: Applying self-determination theory to educational practice

Niemiec, Christopher P.; Ryan, Richard M.

2009

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Mental Health, Suicidality, and Connectedness Among High School Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic — Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, United States, January–June 2021 | MMWR

CDC

2021

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

A Punishing Decade for School Funding | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

Leachman, Masterson, Figueroa

2017

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

A Critique of Sociocultural Values in PBIS

Wilson, Alyssa. N.

2015

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

The End of Homework: How Homework Disrupts Families, Overburdens Children, and Limits Learning

Kralovec, Etta; Buell, John

2000

SEL
Public Education
Self-Determination
Social Justice
General
Ungrading
Beyond Education
Purpose-Finding
Critical Pedagogy
Promoting (Multi)Literacy
Play
Experiential Learning
Ending Homework
Ending Standardized Testing
Food Justice
Accessibility

Collections

No results found. Try broadening your search!

Join the Movement

Stay Informed

Thank you for subscribing.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Human Restoration Project is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. 1333 Buckeye Ave #1040. Ames, IA. 50010. United States.
‍
All content is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, share-alike international license unless otherwise noted.

I've read a lot about it being called a zero-sum game, right? This idea that we cannot both win. It's just not possible. I'm like, who said? There are all kinds of games and activities you play where you think someone has to lose, and then you realize, did you have to? The sharing of the orange. You all have seen these activities, but wow. I don't want to talk about where it came from, but I am curious. It's so ingrained in this country, and probably other countries, but I don't know.

Falami

Where's this from?

Partner
Coalitions
Get Involved