By Jennifer Obidah and Karen Manheim Teel
Teachers College Press (2001)
129 pages
ISBN-10: 0807740128 ISBN-13: 978-0807740125

This fascinating account details the story of two teacher-researchers–Jennifer, who is African American, and Karen, who is White–as they set out on a collaborative three-year study to explore the impact of racial and cultural differences in Karen’s urban middle school classroom. Not anticipating that their own differences would become a threat to their project, the two women describe how they learn to confront and deal with the challenges they face so that they can work together. Their study presents the difficulties and importance of collaborations between teachers from different racial and cultural backgrounds as well as keen insights into how race and culture evolve in teacher-student interactions.

Of particular interest is an interview with the authors by Lisa Delpit and Dr. Delpit’s analysis of their experience. Teachers and researchers will also find valuable practical advice about conducting cross-cultural collaboration and suggestions for persevering during difficult times.
 

	5 stars – Exceptional. Hard to put down…a must read!

Our next book review will be in September 2008.

Debating Race By Michael

By Eric Dyson
432 pages
Basic Civitas Books (February 2007)
ISBN-10: 0465002064 ISBN-13: 978-0465002061

Whether chronicling the class conflict in the African-American community or exposing the failings of the government response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Michael Eric Dyson has never shied away from controversy. No stranger to intellectual combat, Dyson has always been ready to engage friends and foes alike in open conversation about the issues that matter. Debating Race collects many of Dyson’s most memorable encounters and most poignant arguments. Dyson shows that he is as eloquent off the cuff as he is on the book page, and Debating Race gives readers a front row seat as he spars with politicians, pundits, and public intellectuals. From John Kerry and John McCain to Ann Coulter and the hosts of television’s “The View”-Dyson shows the mental agility and rhetorical tenacity that have made him one of America’s most astute intellectuals, and with topics ranging from civil rights, the legacy of the O.J. Simpson trial, and the authenticity of Colin Powell there is something in Debating Race to touch a nerve in all of us.

	4 stars – Above Average. A great read. A page turner.

Coming in May: Because of Kids: Facing Racial and Cultural Differences in Schools by Jennifer Obidah and Karen Manheim Teel

By Jacqueline Jordan Irvine Palgrave
Global Publishing
208 pages
ISBN 0-31229-462-X

In Search of Wholeness: African American Teachers and their Culturally Specific Classroom Practices is a theoretical and practice-oriented treatment of how culture and race influence African American teachers. This collection of essays, edited by Jacqueline Jordan Irvine, assumes that teachers cannot become fully functional persons and competent professionals if their cultural selves remain denied, hidden, and unexplored. Part one reviews the literature related to teachers' race and culture. Part two includes research studies about teachers confronting issues of culture and race in their personal and professional lives. The final chapter focuses on the responses of three of the teachers whose stories are portrayed in the book. In addition to the compelling case studies, other topics explored include: multicultural professional development for African American teachers, African American teachers' perceptions of their professional roles and practices, a comparison of effective black and white teachers of African American students, the development of teacher efficacy of an African American middle school teacher, the professional development journey of an effective African American elementary school teacher, seizing hope through culturally responsive praxis, collective stories on culturally specific pedagogy.

	4 stars – Above Average. A great read. A page turner.

Coming in May – Debating Race by Michael Eric Dyson

Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice

By Paul Kivel
New Society Publishers; Revised edition (May 2002) 271 pages
ISBN-10: 0865714592
ISBN-13: 978-0865714595

Substantially revised and expanded, this new edition has more tools to help white people understand and stand-up to racism. Uprooting Racism explores the manifestations of racism in politics, work, community, and family life. It moves beyond the definition and unlearning of racism to address the many areas of privilege for white people and suggests ways for individuals and groups to challenge the structures of racism. Uprooting Racism's welcoming style helps readers look at how we learn racism, what effects it has on our lives, its costs and benefits to white people, and what we can do about it. In addition to updating existing chapters, the new edition of Uprooting Racism explores how entrenched racism has been revealed in the new economy, the 2000 electoral debacle, rising anti-Arab prejudice, and health care policy. Special features include exercises, questions, and suggestions to engage, challenge assumptions, and motivate the reader towards social action. The new edition includes an index and an updated bibliography.

	3 stars – Good.  Has good points and bad points.  A  good read but not ground breaking.

Coming in March: In Search of Wholeness: African American Teachers and Their Culturally Specific Classroom Policies edited by Jacqueline Jordan Irvine.

Unfinished Business: Closing the Racial Achievement Gap in Our Schools
By Pedro Noguera and Jean Yonemura Wing
336 pages
Jossey-Bass (March 2006)
ISBN-10: 0787972754
ISBN-13: 978-0787972752
In this groundbreaking book, co-editors Pedro Noguera and Jean Yonemura Wing, and their collaborators investigated the dynamics of race and achievement at Berkeley High School–a large public high school that the New York Times called “the most integrated high school in America.” Berkeley’s diverse student population clearly illustrates the “achievement gap” phenomenon in our schools. Unfinished Business brings to light the hidden inequities of schools–where cultural attitudes, academic tracking, curricular access, and after-school activities serve as sorting mechanisms that set students on paths of success or failure.

	4 stars – Above Average.   A great read.  A page turner.

Coming in February Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice By Paul Kivel

The Hip Hop Generation: Young Blacks and Crisis in African American Culture

by Bakari Kitwana

Basic Civitas Books (2003) 256 pages ISBN-10: 0465Z29795

ISBN-13: 978-0465029792

Bakari Kitwana, a former editor at The Source, identifies blacks born between 1965 and 1984 as belonging to the "hip-hop generation" a term he uses interchangeably with black youth culture ("Generation X" applies mainly to whites, he says). He calls hip-hop "arguably the single most significant achievement of our generation," yet blames it for causing much damage to black youth by perpetuating negative stereotypes and providing poor role models. But this book is about much more than just rap music; it takes a broad look at the state of post-civil-rights black America and the crises that have come about in the past three decades, including high rates of homicide, suicide, and imprisonment and a rise in single-parent homes, police brutality, unemployment, and blacks' use of popular culture (through pop music and movies) to celebrate "anti-intellectualism, ignorance, irresponsible parenthood, and criminal lifestyles." Serious problems indeed, but Kitwana acknowledges that members of this generation have more opportunities than their parents had, and he believes there is still time to make positive and lasting changes.

	3 stars – Good.  Has good points and bad points.  A  good read but not ground breaking.

Coming in January: Unfinished Business: Closing the Achievement Gap. Editors – Dr. Pedro A. Noguera and Jean Yonemura Wing

Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregationby Beverly Daniel Tatum

Beacon Press, April, 2007 168 pages

ISBN-10: 0807032840
ISBN-13: 978-0807032848

In this ambitious, accessible book, Tatum examines some of the most resonant issues in American education and race relations:

• The need of African American students to see themselves reflected in curricula and institutions
• How unexamined racial attitudes can negatively affect minority-student achievement
• The possibilities—and complications—of intimate cross racial friendships

Tatum approaches all these topics with the blend of analysis and storytelling that make her one of our most persuasive and engaging commentators on race.

Can We Talk About Race? launches a collaborative lecture and book series between Beacon Press and Simmons College, which aims to reinvigorate a crucial national public conversation on race, education and democracy.

4 stars – Above Average.  A great read. 
             A page turner.  

The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture

By Lisa Delpit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

The New Press New York
Pub Date: 2002

ISBN: 1-56584-544-7

When her 11-year-old daughter came home from her new school speaking Black English, Lisa Delpit, a leading advocate for the rights of students to speak “their own language,” was horrified. Her daughter reassured her, “Mom, you don’t have to worry about me. I know how to code switch” (p. 39). This personal conflict is at the heart of the controversy about whether children should be encouraged to speak the language of power, Standard English, or the language of comfort and identity that they learn in their homes and other cultural settings. Delpit describes language as “one of the most intimate expressions of intimacy, ‘the skin that we speak’” (p. 47). She asserts that if we want children to adopt the language of schooling, we need to affirm the language of home.

This collection of thought-provoking essays addresses the issues that arise when children are given the message that their languages are not valued. The majority of authors focus on Black English, often through illuminating personal stories. Asa Hilliard, for instance, surveys the historical roots of Standard English and the Bantu language from which Black English is derived, providing enlightening information for those who question the validity of Black English as a legitimate language.

When language dialects are heard as markers of class, discrimination toward white students occurs as well, according to linguist Michael Stubbs, who describes the effects of class differences in language in Great Britain. Victoria Purcell Gates tells how a child from southern Appalachia and his mother were dismissively treated by school personnel based on their “hillbilly” dialect, which was equated with a lack of intelligence.

Rather than viewing language differences as deficits, this volume provides teachers with a variety of positive ways to view the different languages that students bring to school, thus affirming and including all students.  

5 stars – Exceptional.  Hard to put
                   down … a must read!    

First R: How Children Learn Race and Racism

By Debra Van Ausdale and Joe R. Feagin

Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Pub Date: 2001

ISBN: 0-8476-8862-3

Joe R. Feagin explain how young children become aware of racial differences and learn racist attitudes, even before they start preschool, in a compelling, eye-opening study of what racism means to children.
The authors point out that young children (ages 3 to 6) are neither innocent of nor inexperienced in processing racially influenced information in ways that maintain and sustain a White dominant society. They are not "too little" to understand race or ethnic identity, and they can and will use those concepts to discriminate and segregate.  Van Ausdale and Feagin found that young children use racial terms, apply racial elements (e.g., skin color, facial features), and act in ways that are, at times, racially hostile and discriminatory. Adults, in these settings, are generally unaware or in a denial state regarding these problematic behaviors. Believing that children are cognitively incapable of processing racial issues, they readily dismiss children's ownership to these behaviors and maintain that young, innocent children merely 'echo' adult perceptions of race and racism.  This rich observational data resulted in contextualized descriptions of actual events in the daily lives of these children.

Van Ausdale and Feagin advocate for additional scholarship examining the nature of children's knowledge of race and ethnicity in their own social, interactive settings. They maintain that traditional cognitive models of human development, in terms of young children, do not take into account the social context in which young children acquire the complex constructs such as race. This is groundbreaking work.  It is important for educators to understand how racism develops to address its harmful results in older children and adolescents.

   
3 stars – Good.  Has good points and bad points. A good read but not ground                  breaking.

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong

By James W. Loewen

Touchstone, Simon & Schuster Publications
Pub Date: 1995

ISBN: 0-684-81886-8

High school students hate history. When they list their favorite subjects, history always comes in last. They consider it the most irrelevant of twenty-one school subjects; bo-o-o-oring is the adjective most often applied.

James Loewen spent two years at the Smithsonian Institute surveying twelve leading high school textbooks of American History. What he found was an embarrassing amalgam of bland optimism, blind patriotism, and sheer misinformation, weighing in at an average of four-and-a-half pounds and 888 pages.  In response, he has written Lies My Teacher Told Me; in part a telling critique of existing books but, more importantly, a wonderful retelling of American history as it should - and could - be taught to American students. Beginning with pre-Columbian American history and ranging over characters and events as diverse as Reconstruction, Helen Keller, the first Thanksgiving, and the My Lai massacre, Loewen supplies the conflict, suspense, unresolved drama, and connection with current-day issues so appallingly missing from textbook accounts.

4 stars – Above Average.  A great read.  A                 page turner.

White Privilege,Essential Readings on the Other Side of Racism

By Paula S. Rothenberg

Worth Publishers
Pub Date: January 2005, Second Edition

ISBN: 0716787334

This volume encourages us to explore the ways in which some people or groups actually benefit, deliberately or inadvertently, from racial bias.  It covers the power of invisibility, the power of the past, the power of privilege, and the power of resistance.
Readers are challenged to explore ideas for using the power and the concept of white privilege to help combat racism in their own lives.  Essays in the second edition add new levels of complexity to our understanding of the paradoxical nature of white privilege and the politics and economics that lie behind the social construction of whiteness.

5 stars – Exceptional.  Hard to put down … a must read!

We Can't Teach What We Don't Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools
By Gary R. Howard

Multicultural Education Series, Teachers College Press
Pub Date: February 2006

ISBN: 0807746657

With lively stories and compelling analysis, Gary Howard engages his readers on a journey of personal and professional transformation. From his 25 years of experience as a multicultural educator, he looks deeply into the mirror of his own racial identity to discover what it means to be a culturally competent White teacher in racially diverse schools.

In this expanded Second Edition, Gary Howard outlines what good teachers know, what they do, and how they embrace culturally responsive teaching. Howard brings his bestselling book completely up to date with today’s school reform efforts and includes a new introduction and a new chapter that speak directly to current issues such as closing the achievement gap, and to recent legislation such as No Child Left Behind. With our nation’s student population becoming ever more diverse, and teachers remaining largely White, this book is now more important than ever.  We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know continues to facilitate and deepen the discussion of race and social justice in education.

4 stars – Above Average.  A great read. A page turner.

The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children
By Gloria Ladson-Billings

Published by Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1994, 187 pages

ISBN: 0787903388

This book is about hope for educational liberation. It is about pedagogy, practice, and assessment. The Dreamkeepers is about teaching children and learning from students' experiences.

Gloria Ladson-Billings takes the reader on a journey into the educational past of the African American community, through its present, and toward future possibilities.  Ladson-Billings conveys her message through a variety of media and from a variety of perspectives.  She conjoins a heartfelt account of her own story as an African American child and student with the stories of students from her past and the stories of the eight teachers who participated in this study.

The author critically addresses questions many have asked but few have analyzed. These questions include: What does it take to teach African American children successfully? What is culturally relevant pedagogy? What does culturally relevant teaching look like in a classroom? Further, why is culturally relevant pedagogy significant to the education of African American children?

The Dreamkeepers is not a prescriptive how-to manual.  The author passionately shares the teachers' stories and presents descriptive scenarios to demonstrate pragmatic application of concepts.  Through these stories, Ladson-Billings steers the educator to analyze his or her pedagogy while she encourages readers to assess how pedagogy and practice affect the teaching and learning process.

4 stars – Above Average.   A great read.  A page turner.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

By Anne Fadiman

Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1998

341 pages

ISBN: 0-374-52564-1

On October 24, 1982, three-month-old Lia Lee was carried into the emergency room of the county hospital in Merced, California. Lia's parents, Hmong refugees from the hill country of Laos, spoke no English; the hospital staff spoke no Hmong. On a later visit, Lia's doctors would determine that she was suffering from a severe case of epilepsy, a misfiring of the brain's neurons. Her parents, however, believed that her seizures were caused by the flight of her soul from her body and called her condition by its Hmong name: qaug dab peg ("the spirit catches you and you fall down"). 

In her stunning work of cross-cultural reportage, Anne Fadiman presents Lia's story from both perspectives; the case through the eyes of Lia's parents and those of Lia's doctors.  Fadiman casts her net ever wider, examining Western medical culture and the history and spiritual traditions of the Hmong.  Her descriptions of everything from complicated medical procedures and emergency room protocol to Hmong healing ceremonies and refugee camp life in Thailand are sharply focused and compelling. Through her telling of the story of a single Hmong child, she communicates the essence of two very different worldviews, and holds out the hope that they might one day be reconciled.

4 stars – Above Average.   A great read.  A page turner.

Becoming Multicultural Educators: Personal Journey Toward Professional Agency

By Geneva Gay (Editor)

Jossey-Bass; 1st edition , 2003

368 pages

ISBN: 0-7879-6514-6

To help both new and seasoned teachers to become more effective with their students from diverse backgrounds, Becoming Multicultural Educators edited by Geneva Gay, offers fourteen compelling stories from different regions, cultures, ethnic groups, and stages of professional and personal growth in developing multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. One contributing author declares community participation and social activism are the keys to his professional growth. For another, multicultural understanding comes when she learns to unveil the masks of insidious negative stereotypes. Through these stories, we share their struggles as these educators come to understand diversity among ethnic groups and cultures, resolve conflicts between curricular and multicultural goals, and find authentic models and mentors for their students. But most important, we learn how this laudatory group of educators has come to realize that they need to know themselves if they are to truly know their students. Well-grounded in education theory, Becoming Multicultural Educators is both personal and inspiring. This is the book that will help teachers, and those who prepare them, blossom as educators and human beings.

4 1/2 stars– Above Average. A great read. Hard to put down.

Courageous Conversations About Race: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools

By Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis Linton

Corwin Press, 2005

304 pages

ISBN: 0761988777

Examining the achievement gap through the prism of race, this comprehensive text explains the need for candid, courageous conversations about race so that educators may understand why performance inequity persists, and learn how they can develop a curriculum that promotes true academic parity. To help guide policy analysis and instructional reform, the authors present a systemwide plan for transforming schools and districts.

Practical features of this book include:

    * Implementation exercises
    * Prompts, language, and tools that support        profound discussion
    * Activities and checklists for administrators
    * Action steps for creating an equity team

Only when educators have established both a language and a process for addressing the intersection of race and achievement, will they be able to restructure their schools in ways which improve student performance and fulfill the promise that every child has a right to learn regardless of their race, culture, or class.

4 stars – Above Average.   A great read.  A page turner.

Coming in May- Becoming Multicultural Educators by Geneva Gay

Toward Digital Equity: Bridging the Divide in Education

by Gwen Solomon, Nancy Allen, Paul Resta

Allyn & Bacon, 2002

288 pages

ISBN: 0205360556

Twenty-three nationally-known educators discuss educational technology and diversity, provide historical and philosophical insights into digital divide issues, and offer practical suggestions for teachers, administrators, and policy makers. This book is designed to help educators understand complex technology issues and to equip them to meet whatever challenges keep their students from having full access to a quality education through technology. It discusses how schools acquire hardware, software, and connectivity, and why some schools experience such success in these endeavors and others are heartbreakingly behind. Perhaps most importantly, it examines the most current research in the effectiveness of technology and pedagogy in diverse settings to make suggestions on how teachers can create powerful learning environments for all students.

4 stars – Above Average.   A great read.  A page turner.

Coming in April- Courageous Conversations About Race by Glenn E. Singleton and Curtis Linton