Pathways To Success in School: Culturally Responsive Teaching

This text is designed to help preservice and in-service teachers identify pathways to productive teaching and learning for students from culturally and experientially diverse backgrounds. To better serve an increasingly diverse population, teachers need to be competent in selecting and developing culturally responsive curricula and instructional approaches that better facilitate learning for all students. They must be able to attend to diversity within and across cultural groups, and validate students' cultural knowledge acquired outside the classroom. To provide equitable access to learning, they must be able to strategically select or develop instructional approaches that build upon their students' learning propensities, cognitive schemata, experiential backgrounds, and perceptions. The chapter authors in this text present ways of understanding ones' own thinking (metacognition), and ways of thinking about teaching and learning situations and constructing productive strategies. The reader is engaged in: Learning about the context in which he or she will practice, Understanding key aspects of student's cultural and experiential background and learning preferences, Exploring ways to bring these factors together in framing and selecting meaningful curriculum content and learning experiences. The volume is organized into three interrelated sections: Part I presents two approaches to becoming a competent practitioner; Part II offers approaches to developing and using culturally relevant pedagogy; Part III addresses curriculum content and design. Helpful pedagogical features are included to facilitate its use as a textbook: Each of the three main parts begins with an overview that provides an introduction and summary of the main ideas addressed and the relationship among ideas presented by different authors; each chapter opens with focus questions and concludes with suggested learning experiences; chapter-end refe

Table of Contents:
Contents: Preface. Part I: Becoming an Expert Navigator: Developing Teaching Competence. K.D. Hollins, Learning to Build Bridges Over Troubled Waters. E.R. Hollins, Becoming a Reflective Practitioner. Part II: Using Culture as a Compass: Creating Culturally Authentic Curriculum and Pedagogy. N.C. Presmeg, Culturally Mediated Instruction in Mathematics: Strengths and Barriers. F.D. Perkins, People Like Us: African American Children Respond to Self-Affirming Texts. K. McElroy, E.R. Hollins, Productive Science Teaching for Inner-City African American Students. L.C. Moll, Writing as Communication: Creating Strategic Learning Environments for Students. C. Pewewardy, Culturally Responsive Teaching for American Indian Students. Part III: Drawing on the Landscape: Developing a Global Perspective. V. Villanueva, Jr., Sophistry, Aristotle, Contrastive Rhetoric, and the Student of Color. S.Y. Shropshire, Including Diverse Perspectives in the History Curriculum. S.Z. Athanases, Building Cultural Diversity Into the Literature Curriculum. A. Mueller, Celebrating Our Differences Through Multicultural Activities: The Collaboration and Integration of Music Across the Disciplines. P.K. Abell, Recognizing and Valuing Difference: Process Considerations.

About the Author :
Etta R. Hollins, Eileen I. Oliver

Review :
"One of the major problems facing American schools is not only the lack of qualified teachers with strong subject-matter backgrounds, but also the lack of teachers who are familiar with and open to the cultural diversity of their classrooms....This important, timely book seeks to address this lack of preparation in what the editors define as 'culturally-responsive teaching.' Such teaching involves understanding their students' cultural backgrounds to develop instructional activities that bridge the gap between the student's culture and mainstream culture. It also involves continually reflecting on one's instruction....This reflection needs to be grounded in a solid cultural understanding of the impact of home culture on their students' learning--a key theme running through this collection." —Contemporary Psychology "Highlights the notion of using culture as a compass or a lens for making pedagogical decisions....A particularly useful and interesting text, both in its approach to 'uncovering' and its presentation of case studies/vignettes of teaching and learning in culturally diverse classroom settings." —Cynthia B. Dillard The Ohio State University "Leading edge in how to integrate a diverse curriculum.... Unique and responsive to teachers' needs." —Jean Madsen University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee