Gloria Ladson-Billings

In High Schools, Race, and America’s Future, Lawrence Blum offers a lively account of a rigourous high school course on race and racism. Set in a racially, ethnically, and economically diverse high school, the book chronicles students’ engagement with one another, with a rich and challenging academic curriculum, and with questions that relate powerfully to their daily lives. Blum, an acclaimed moral philosopher whose work focuses on issues of race, reflects with candour, insight, and humour on the challenges and surprises encountered in teaching—the unexpected turns in conversation, the refreshing directness of students’ questions, the “aha” moments and the awkward ones, and the paradoxes of his own role as a white college professor teaching in a multiracial high school classroom. High Schools, Race, and America’s Future provides an invaluable resource for those who want to teach students to think deeply and talk productively about race.

Start Where You Are, But Don’t Stay There addresses a crucial issue in teacher training and professional education: the need to prepare pre-service and in-service teachers for the racially diverse student populations in their classrooms. A down-to-earth book, it aims to help practitioners develop insights and skills for successfully educating diverse student bodies. The book centers on case studies that exemplify the challenges, pitfalls, and opportunities facing teachers in diverse classrooms. These case studies—of white and African American teachers working (and preparing to work) in urban and suburban settings—are presented amid more general discussions about race and teaching in contemporary schools. Informing these discussions and the cases themselves is their persistent attention to opportunity gaps that need to be fully grasped by teachers who aim to understand and promote the success of students of greatly varying backgrounds.

Gloria Ladson-Billings, acclaimed African American scholar and teacher educator, examines the field of teacher education through the accomplishments and contributions of well-known African American teacher educators— Lisa Delpit, Carl Grant, Jacqueline Jordan Irvine, Geneva Gay, Cherry McGee Banks, William Tate, and Joyce King. Using in-depth interviews and storytelling, Ladson-Billings depicts deeply personal portraits of these scholars’ experiences to confront race and racism, not only theoretically, but within their everyday professional lives in “the Big House” of the academy. Ladson-Billings gives these portraits even greater resonance and meaning by pairing these teacher educators with historical figures—such as Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, and Charlotte Forten—whose contributions to the struggle for social justice are a wellspring of hope and courage to all educators, and a tribute to African Americans whose political, scientific, and spiritual efforts made life better for us all. This compelling book is important reading for all educators who want to transform teacher education for the better. Features: A re-conceptualization of the process of teacher preparation presented from a unique and long-overdue perspective. Models of teacher education that support equitable and socially just practices. Fascinating portraits that examine the early teaching, research and publication, mentoring and collaboration, and satisfactions and frustrations of prominent African American educators.

In anticipation of the fiftieth anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, Catherine Prendergast draws on a combination of insights from legal studies and literacy studies to interrogate contemporary multicultural literacy initiatives, thus providing a sound historical basis that informs current debates over affirmative action, school vouchers, reparations, and high-stakes standardized testing. As a result of Brown and subsequent crucial civil rights court cases, literacy and racial justice are firmly enmeshed in the American imagination— so much so that it is difficult to discuss one without referencing the other. Breaking with the accepted wisdom that the Brown decision was an unambiguous victory for the betterment of race relations, Literacy and Racial Justice: The Politics of Learning after Brown v. Board of Education finds that the ruling reinforced traditional conceptions of literacy as primarily white property to be controlled and disseminated by an empowered majority. Prendergast examines civil rights era Supreme Court rulings and immigration cases spanning a century of racial injustice to challenge the myth of assimilation through literacy. Advancing from Ways with Words, Shirley Brice Heath’ s landmark study of desegregated communities, Prendergast argues that it is a shared understanding of literacy as white property which continues to impact problematic classroom dynamics and education practices. To offer a positive model for reimagining literacy instruction that is truly in the service of racial justice, Prendergast presents a naturalistic study of an alternative public secondary school. Outlining new directions and priorities for inclusive literacy scholarship in America, Literacy and Racial Justice concludes that a literate citizen is one who can engage rather than overlook longstanding legacies of racial strife.

"Gloria Ladson-Billings provides a perceptive and interesting account of what is needed to prepare novice teachers to be successful with all students in our multicultural society. This book is must reading for all those entering the profession of teaching today and for those who prepare them for this important work."--Ken Zeichner, associate dean and professor of curriculum and instruction, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison"The multiple voices in Gloria Ladson-Billings's book are compelling, provocative, and insightful-they provide a powerful 'insider' perspective on what it really means to learn to teach all children well."--Marilyn Cochran-Smith, professor of education and editor, Journal of Teacher Education, Boston College, School of Education "Ladson-Billings, one of the stellar researchers and most passionate advocates for social justice, has written yet another masterpiece. By weaving the novice teachers' voices, her personal teaching journey, and language rich in compelling research and inspiring metaphors, Ladson-Billings has documented how new teachers transform schools and teach poor children of color."--Jacquline Jordan Irvine, Candler Professor of Urban Education, Emory University, Division of Educational Studies"Masterful teacher and teacher-educator Gloria Ladson-Billings has given us--in highly readable form--a brilliant vision of what teacher education might become. In Crossing Over to Canaan we get a glimpse of how a carefully constructed teacher education program focused on teaching for social justice can produce excellent teaching, even by young, middle-class teachers-in-training, in diverse educational settings."--Lisa D. Delpit, Benjamin E. Mays Professor of Educational Leadership, Georgia State University The author of the best-selling book The Dreamkeepers shows how teachers can succeed in diverse classrooms. Educating teachers to work well in multicultural classrooms has become an all-important educational priority in today's schools. In Crossing Over to Canaan, Gloria Ladson-Billings details the real-life stories of eight novice teachers participating in an innovative teacher education program called Teach for Diversity. She details their struggles and triumphs as they confront challenges in the classroom and respond with innovative strategies that turn cultural strengths into academic assets. Through their experiences, Ladson-Billings illustrates how good teachers can meet the challenges of teaching students from highly diverse backgrounds--and find a way to "cross over to Canaan." She offers a model of teaching that focuses on academic achievement, cultural competence, and socio-political consciousness. Drawing from her own experiences as a young African-American teacher working in Philadelphia, she successfully weaves together narrative, observation, and scholarship to create an inspirational and practical book that will help teachers everywhere as they work to transcend labels and categories to support excellence among all students.

Multiculturalism is one of the most widely discussed concepts in education today. Now, educators, university students, scholars, or anyone interested in multiculturalism can turn to the Dictionary of Multicultural Education to gain further information on and understanding of this important field. As the authoritative reference work on the subject, the Dictionary includes in-depth explanations of the history, use, and implications of more than 150 terms as defined by scholars prominent in the field. This reference work comprises terms of relevant legislation, educational-theoretical concepts and methodologies, and sociopolitical movements and conditions.