White Teachers / Diverse Classrooms: Creating Inclusive Schools, Building on Students' Diversity, and Providing True Educational Equity

by Julie Landsman (Editor), Chance W. Lewis (Editor)

Overview

The point of departure for this new edition, as it was for the first, is the unacceptable reality that, for students of color, school is often not a place to learn but a place of low expectations and failure. In urban schools with concentrations of poverty, often fewer than half the ninth graders leave with a high school diploma.

This second edition has been considerably expanded with chapters that illuminate the Asian American, Native American, and Latina/o experience, including that of undocumented students, in our schools. These chapters offer insights into the concerns and issues students bring to the classroom. They also convey the importance for teachers, as they accept difference and develop cultural sensitivity, to see their students as individuals, and avoid generalizations. This need to go beneath the surface is reinforced by a chapter on adopted children, children of mixed race, and “hidden minorities”.

White and Black teachers, and teachers of different races and ethnicities, here provide the essential theoretical background, and share their experiences and the approaches they have developed, to create the conditions – in both urban and suburban settings – that enable minority students to succeed.

This book encourages reflection and self-examination, and calls for recognizing and reinforcing students’ ability to achieve. It also calls for high expectations for both teachers and students. It demonstrates what it means to recognize often-unconscious biases, confront institutional racism where it occurs, surmount stereotyping, adopt culturally relevant teaching, connect with parents and the community, and integrate diversity in all activities.

This book is replete with examples from practice and telling insights that will engage teachers in practice or in service. It should have a place in every classroom in colleges of education and K-12 schools. Its empowering message applies to every teacher working in an educational setting that recognizes the empowerment that comes in celebrating diversity.

Each chapter concludes with a set of questions for personal reflection or group discussion.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781579225964
Publisher:	Stylus Publishing
Publication date:	04/22/2011
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	273,084
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Julie Landsman has taught in Minneapolis Public Schools for 25 years. She has also been a visiting Professor at Carleton College in Northfield Minnesota, and an adjunct professor at Hamline University and Metro State University in St. Paul. She has published numerous articles in journals such as Educational Leadership and Teachers and Writers Collaborative. She is the author of Basic Needs: A Year With Street Kids in a City School; A White Teacher Talks About Race; and Growing Up White: A Veteran Teacher Reflects on Racism, all three published by Rowman Education.
She has also published behavior guide called Tips For Creating a Manageable Classroom with Milkweed Editions. Julie Landsman authored Welcome To Your Life: Writings for the Heart of Young America, with David Haynes also with Milkweed. She also edited From Darkness to Light, Teens Write About Overcoming Trouble, with Fairview Press. Julie writes poetry and fiction and recently won the New Letters Prize for her short story, “Suspension”. She is currently co-editing a new book for Stylus with Robert Simmons and Steven Grineski entitled Going Deeper: Ideas From The Field For Having Open and Honest Conversations About Race. (tentative title) Julie is a frequent speaker and consultant around the country and abroad. She can be reached by email at [e-mail] or through her website at jlandsman.com

Chance W. Lewis is the Houston Endowment Inc., Endowed Chair and Associate Professor of Urban Education and the Co-Director of the urban education graduate program in the College of Education at Texas A&M University. Additionally, Dr. Lewis is the Co-Director of the Center for Urban School Partnerships at Texas A&M University. Dr. Lewis also serves as the Deputy Director for the Center of African American Research and Policy (CAARP) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. During his career, Dr. Lewis has over 100 publications include over 50 refereed journal articles in some of the leading academic journals in the field of urban education and teacher education. Additionally, he has received over $4 million in external research funds to support his research. To date, Dr. Lewis has author/co-authored/co-edited 4 books: White Teachers/Diverse Classrooms: A Guide for Building Inclusive Schools, Eliminating Racism and Promoting High Expectations (Stylus, 2006), The Dilemmas of Being an African American Male in the New Millennium: Solutions for Life Transformation; An Educator’s Guide to Working with African American Students: Strategies for Promoting Academic Success (Infinity, 2008); and Transforming Teacher Education: What Went Wrong with Teacher Training and How We Can Fix It (Stylus, 2010). Finally, Dr. Lewis has provided consultative services (i.e., professional development and research services) to over 100 school districts and universities across the United States and Canada. Dr. Lewis can be reached by e-mail at [e-mail] or via his website at chancewlewis.com

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Call to Action and Self-Reflection for White Teachers in Diverse
Classrooms—Julie G. Landsman and Chance W. Lewis
Part I. Foundations of Our Work: Recognizing Power, Privilege, and Perspectives
1) Being White: Invisible Privileges of a New England Prep School Girl—Julie Landsman
2) Reflections on Education: A Two Way Journey—Kahlia Yang and Aaron Rudolf Miller Hokanson

Part II: Culturally Relevant Teachers: Foundations and Personal Engagement
3) "Yes, But How Do We Do It?": Practicing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy—Gloria Ladson-Billings
4) The Empty Desk in the Third Row: Experiences of an African American Male Teacher—Robert Simmons
5) But Good Intentions Are Not Enough: Doing What’s Necessary to Teach for Diversity—H. Richard Milner
6) The Unintentional Undermining of Multicultural Education: Educators at the Equity
Crossroads—Paul Gorski
7) White Women’s Work: On the Front Lines of Urban Education—Stephen D. Hancock
8) When Truth and Joy Are At Stake: Challenging the Status Quo in the High School English Class—Julie Landsman
9) Color Blindness, Unconscious Bias, and Student Achievement in Suburban Schools—Justin Grinage
10) Tips for School Principals and Teachers: Helping Black Students Achieve—Dorothy F. Garrison-Wade and Chance W. Lewis
11) How Can Service-Learning Increase the Academic Achievement of Urban African American Students—Verna Cornelia Price

Part III: Knowing Who Is In The Classroom: How White Teachers Can Ensure All Children Achieve
12) What Are You? Are You Indian? Are You Chinese?: The Lifelong Journey of an Adopted Latina—Stephanie Flores-Khoulish
13) Daring To Teach: Challenging the Western Narrative of American Indians in the Classroom—Beverly Klug
14) Educating Black Males: Interview With Professor Emeritus Joseph White, Ph. D, Author of Black Men Emerging—Julie Landsman
15) Black/African American Families: Coming of Age in Predominantly White Communities—Val Middleton, Kieran Coleman, and Chance W. Lewis
16) Understanding Korean American Students: Facts, Not Myth—Ok-Hee Lee
17) Low Expectations are the Worst Form of Racism—Carolyn L. Holbrook
18) How Educators Can Support the High Expectations for Education that Exists in the Latino Family and Student Community—Jennifer Godinez
19) I Don’t Understand Why My African American Students Are Not Achieving: An Exploration of the Connection among Personal Power, Teachers’ Perceptions and the Academic Engagement of African American Students—Verna Cornelia Price
20) African American Student Athletes and White Teachers’ Classroom Interactions: Implications for Teachers, Coaches, Counselors, and Administrators—Bruce B. Douglas, Estrom DuBois Pitre, and Chance W. Lewis

Part IV: Creating Classrooms for Equity, Activism, and Social Justice
21) Educators Supporting DREAMERS: Becoming an Undocumented Student Ally—William Perez, Susana Munoz, Cynthia Alcantar, and Nancy Guarneros
22) Preparing Teachers to Develop Inclusive Communities—Sharon R. Ishii-Jordan
23) Culturally Responsive School-Community Partnerships: Strategy for Success—Bridgie Ford

Editorial Reviews

"The second edition of White Teachers, Diverse Classrooms adds seven essays to 14 of the original chapters. In the first edition, the editors selected essays about pedagogical methods that might close the achievement gap between white and African American students. The new edition contains sevena rticles describing approaches for teachers working with Latino, Asian, or Native American students. Summing Up: Recommended."

Choice

"The second edition of White Teachers, Diverse Classrooms adds seven essays to 14 of the original chapters. In the first edition, the editors selected essays about pedagogical methods that might close the achievement gap between white and African American students. The new edition contains sevena rticles describing approaches for teachers working with Latino, Asian, or Native American students. Summing Up: Recommended."

Acclaim for the first edition:

"Black and White teachers here provide an insightful approach to inclusive and equitable teaching and illustrate its transformative power to bring about success.”

"Practical advice for teachers and administrators on ways to improve the education of students of color, emphasizing that low expectations are the worst form of racism.”

"This is a very good book for teachers to put on their shelves; I recommend its use at the university level as a teaching tool as well.

From the Publisher

Acclaim for the first edition:

"Black and White teachers here provide an insightful approach to inclusive and equitable teaching and illustrate its transformative power to bring about success.

Education Digest

"Practical advice for teachers and administrators on ways to improve the education of students of color, emphasizing that low expectations are the worst form of racism.

Education Week

"This is a very good book for teachers to put on their shelves; I recommend its use at the university level as a teaching tool as well.

Multicultural Review