(2003). Teaching Caribbean Students: Research on Social Issues in the Caribbean and Abroad. The issues and findings in the research essays in this collection focus on two main themes: the identification of challenges in preparing Caribbean students for the new global network and the isolation of the challenges posed in developing these global relations. Part 1, \Socially Sensitive Pedagogies,\ contains: (1) \Domain-Specific Modern Language Course Developments for Caribbean Integration\ (Beatrice Boufoy-Bastick); (2) \Creole Interference or Linguistic Elasticity?\ (Ingrid Waldron); (3) \Use of Case Method in Educational Administration\ (Austin Ezenne); (4) \Situated Attainment: Measuring Under Achievement in Jamaica\ (Tony Bastick); and (5) \El Colectivo Tonguas: The Development of a Bilingual, University-Level Creative Writing and Performance Poetry Extracurricular Program in the Puerto Rican Context\ (Loretta Collins). Part 2, \Adapting to School and Society,\ contains: (6) \Identity Development of Caribbean Girls in Canadian Schools\ (Beverly Jean-Daniel); (7) \Caribbean…
(1998). Country Schoolwomen: Teaching in Rural California, 1850-1950. This book focuses on the lives and work of women teachers in two rural California counties between 1850 and 1950. It explores the social context of teaching and what teaching meant and provided to women teachers. Chapter 1 explores the shifts between 1840 and 1930 in representations of the woman teacher in the United States. Chapter 2 discusses the ways that assumptions about early 20th-century feminism, demands for rural education reform, ideas about progressive education, and the activism of key women educators in positions of power and influence shaped the rise of the bureaucratic educational state in California. Chapter 3 discusses the economic and demographic history of rural Tulare and Kings counties, California; the growth of their public school systems; racism and migrant workers; early one-room and private schools; and changes in the demographic profile of the teaching population. Chapters 4-6 draw on interviews to explore the lives of women teachers in the two counties…
(1986). Plan for Improving the Enrollment, Retention and Transfer of Minority Students. A specific action plan for increasing the enrollment, retention, and transfer of minorities in California's community colleges is presented, as developed by the participants at a December 1985 invitational symposium. Introductory material explains the goals and objectives of the symposium and identifies the five major recurrent themes raised throughout the small and full group discussions; i.e., institutional racism, open access, intersegmental articulation, community partnership, and advisory boards. Next, five recommendation areas are discussed: (1) institutional commitment (i.e., commitment to improving minority student recruitment and retention by colleges, districts and the system); (2) partnerships between the different educational systems aimed at increasing the transfer rates of minority students; (3) uniform standards forming a clear set of expectations for all students in areas such as course prerequisites, basic skills, academic progress, and probation/dismissal… [PDF]
(2004). Scaffolding Conscientization through Inquiry in Teacher Education. Teacher Education Quarterly, v31 n1 p81-96 Win. It is common knowledge that the great majority of preservice teachers are white while the student population is becoming increasingly diverse. Surveys consistently find that although a large proportion of white preservice students anticipate working with children of another cultural background, as a whole they bring very little cross-cultural background, knowledge and experience, and little awareness or understanding of discrimination, especially racism. Preservice students of color tend to bring greater commitment to multicultural teaching, social justice, and providing children of color with an academically challenging curriculum. As teacher educators, these authors have wrestled with using multicultural critical pedagogy to prepare such preservice students both to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students well, and to use multicultural critical pedagogy. They have found Paulo Friere's problem-posing pedagogy to be especially helpful. Their teaching processes provide… [PDF] [Direct]
(2007). Edison Is the Symptom, NCLB Is the Disease. Phi Delta Kappan, v88 n6 p438-443 Feb. Engaging students requires giving them a say in what they learn and how they will learn it. However, in strictly disciplined, rule-bound schools with test-driven curricula, this cannot happen. Edison Schools, Inc., a for-profit Education Management Organization (EMO), and Confluence Academy, an Edison-run school located in one of the most economically disadvantaged areas in the heart of inner-city St. Louis are logical expressions of the nation's contemporary system of education, especially the way that we educate poor minority children. Edison is profiting–literally and metaphorically–from the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. And Confluence is simply following federal and corporate marching orders. But Confluence and Edison are symptoms of a much larger social disease, a disease that creates the conditions for these companies to exist and thrive and for these schools to be regarded as models for our future. Educational management organizations (EMOs) such as… [Direct]
(1994). Too Much Schooling, Too Little Education: A Paradox of Black Life in White Societies. This book attempts to demonstrate some of the ways African-Americans can use their cultural base to educate children. The book fits into the Afrocentric school of thought with its aim to develop subject-centered analysis and solutions for children. The book makes the commitment that education is a cultural imperative for all African-American people who aspire to be truly self-determining. The book is divided into five parts with sixteen chapters, a foreword and an afterword. Mwalimu J. Shujaa wrote the introductions to each part. The foreword is entitled \Cultural Work: Planting New Trees with New Seeds\ (Haki R. Madhubuti). The afterword is entitled \The Afrocentric Project in Education\ (Molefi Kete Asante). Part 1, \Evaluating Our Assumptions about Education and Schooling: Developing African-centered Orientations to Knowledge,\ includes: (1) \Education and Schooling: You Can Have One without the Other\ (Mwalimu J. Shujaa); (2) \Black Intellectuals and the Crisis in Black…
(2005). Achievement of Black Caribbean Pupils: Good Practice in Lambeth Schools. British Educational Research Journal, v31 n4 p481-508 Aug. The aim of this research article is to investigate how pupils from Black Caribbean backgrounds are helped to achieve high standards in British schools and to identify a number of significant common themes for success in raising the achievement. It draws evidence of good practice from 13 case study schools in the local education authority (LEA). The main findings of the research carried out show that Key Stage 2 (KS2) and General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) results have improved significantly in the case study schools in the last seven years and all schools are performing above national average with Black Caribbean pupils. The study has also identified a number of good practices in successful schools. Among the key features that contribute to the success in the case study schools for raising the achievement of Black Caribbean are: strong leadership with emphasis on raising expectations for all pupils and teachers; the use of performance data for school self-evaluation… [Direct]
(1981). Parents and Their Children: A Study of Congruence on Attitudes About School. A Study of Schooling in the United States. Technical Report Series, No. 13. The focus of this study was upon the congruence of responses between parents and their children to items pertaining to functions of schooling, school evaluation, school problems, and other school issues. Paired comparison data is reported for parents and students from 25 secondary schools. The interpretive frame of reference for this study stemmed from a decision making/problem solving model involving parents and students. This approach to education requires a \meeting-of-the-minds\ or a common understanding of the attitudinal differences between the participants. From this perspective, being able to predict a child's attitude from the parent's attitude–and vice versa–is less important than determining to what extent they hold the same attitudes. The bulk of data analysis and interpretation in this study was based upon observed percentages of response agreement between parents and their children. An example is presented of parent and student responses to a question designed to…
(1998). Religion, Race, and Reconstruction: The Public School in the Politics of the 1870s. SUNY Series, Religion and American Public Life. This book examines the impact of public education on the national culture in the context of educational reform and Reconstruction during the 1870s. Chapter 1, "Prologue to the Seventies," traces the evolution of the American public school through the social, economic, and industrial changes of the early 19th Century, culminating with the Civil War. This chronological perspective continues through the 1870's, with the replication of Horace Mann's public school model throughout the Northern States. Chapter 2, "Church, State, and School," looks at the Cincinnati Bible War, which arose from the competition between Catholic schools and public schools during that decade. The second half of this chapter examines the involvement of African-Americans and other minorities with the issues of religion and education throughout the nation. Chapter 3, "Dividing the School Funds," examines the struggle over school funding in the context of Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall…
(1992). Hearing My Mother's Voice: A Study of Sisters and Mothers. There seems to be an assumption among many people that parents can mold the later adult personality of their offspring by manipulating their childhood upbringing. To tease out the variables in childrearing and to discover some of the sources of the childbearing practices of mothers in the 1980s, a study of sisters and their mothers (N=48) in the Wellington, New Zealand region was undertaken. Pairs (N=50) of sisters between the ages of 28 and 38 who had children were interviewed about their perceptions of their mothers' ideas on breastfeeding, toilet-training, "spoiling," and mealtime rules. They were asked what they remembered about their mothers' attitudes toward discipline, education, "working mothers," sexuality, and racism. The women were asked to respond to an audio tape which featured the statements of a 6-year-old child in various play situations. The results demonstrated differences in the disciplinary ideas of the 1980s sisters and the 1950s mothers. The… [PDF]
(1995). A District-Wide Multi-cultural High School Curriculum. This document contains a proposal for a district-wide multicultural high school curriculum for the Belleville Public Schools, Edison (New Jersey). The curriculum is designed to promote student bonding for peace and harmony by focusing on the total school environment and raising student, parent and staff consciousness about the many different cultures of the community and their contributions to society. It will help students develop positive self-esteem as students of different cultural backgrounds learn to understand and accept each other. The planned \culturally coherent multicultural curriculum\ is a diverse curriculum that is connected in visible and explicit ways to show a sense of compelling purpose in education. Enlisting public support is an integral feature of the curriculum development plan. Planned outcomes include student outcomes in learning, behavior, and skill areas. Learning activities will include a variety of approaches, including arts, role plays, multicultural… [PDF]
(1973). The Urban School: A Factory for Failure. A Study of Education in American Society. This book describes what has happened to one group of young black children in an urban school inside a black community persistently and doggedly contained by surrounding whites. Even beyond the realities of racism, their education was influenced by the pervasive impact of schools in perpetuating the existing inequalities of American society. This then is an account of how one school began to shape the lives and options of one group of black children, and how the children responded at different times with compliance, defiance, or simple withdrawal. The data for this study were gathered in St. Louis between September 1967 and January 1970. Chapter One focuses on the city school system and the school itself, its social and cultural milieu as well as the training, attitudes, and values the teachers brought with them to the various classrooms. Chapters Two and Three describe the kindergarten experience of one group of children, from the first day of school to the last. Chapter Four…
(1998). One High School Teacher's Unexamined Pedagogy of Race. A case study was conducted to examine the implicit beliefs and practices of one white high school mathematics teacher in the context of race. The study explores the subtle ways in which the dominant, hegemonic ideology and discourse saturates everyday life in schools. The teacher studied was a white females mathematics teacher in a small town high school in the Midwest with 19 years of teaching experience. The student population was 67% white, 24.3% black, and the remainder of various ethnicities. The teacher was observed for eight class periods and was interviewed on six different occasions. She saw herself as an advocate for students with special needs and was maternal and affectionate toward her students. She tended to see mathematics as removed from culture, and only related it to the everyday life of students in a superficial way. In a sense, her care for her students may be viewed as paternalistic and hegemonic in that it reifies existing power relationships. While she… [PDF]
(2021). School-Family-Community Partnerships for Educational Success and Equity for Black Male Students. Professional School Counseling, v25 n1 part 4. Throughout the past decade, scholars have argued that the persistent achievement gap between Black male students and their White peers is a result of unequal and inadequate educational opportunities instead of inherent differences in their capability or character. School counselors can help support Black males by using equity-focused school-family-community partnerships that provide a strong network of support, resources, and increased educational opportunities–all of which contribute to positive academic outcomes and help eliminate barriers caused by systemic racism. In this article, we apply a step-by-step partnership process model to a case in which a school counselor used partnerships to advocate for Black students facing racism and educational inequities in a school district…. [Direct]
(1969). Problems of the Minority Student on the Campus. The problems of the black student on campus are not new. He has had to accept, at the level of consciousness, the ideals and values of US society while actually being continuously rejected by the same society through various forms of discrimination. He has had to organize his life in recognition of the fact that structured racism within US society denies him of many opportunities to participate in it as a full-fledged citizen. On the basis of his personal experience it has been difficult to differentiate whether white acceptance is based on his true personality or on assumptions that he has \stereotyped\ Negro habits, feelings and attitudes. He experiences an inner struggle concerning which of 2 roles to play, one that is expected of him and another that is his natural self, for whites who fail to understand what it really means to be a Negro in US society. At much loss to his psychological stability, he has suppressed this conflice in the past and accepted a role that fits into the… [PDF]