Darling-Hammond, Linda, French, Jennifer & García-Lopez, Silvia Paloma, eds. (2002)
Learning to Teach for Social Justice.
New York: Teachers College Press.
As our society is becoming more and more diverse, increasingly teachers will have students from diverse backgrounds in their classrooms. However, preparing teachers to work with diverse students has not been given appropriate attention.
Learning to Teach for Social Justice is a collection of essays that illustrate the experience and struggle of prospective teachers who teach student populations diverse in terms of language, culture, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation and gender. Authors are Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP) students from mainstream and from non-mainstream cultures. Readers hear the authors’ perspectives through their own voices as they struggle to learn to be teachers of students from diverse backgrounds and to be agents of social change.
The volume has four parts: Part I: What is Diversity; Part II: Does Who We Are Influence How We Teach?; Part III: Who Are Our Students and What Do They Need?; and Part IV: What Is the Problem and What Can We Do About It? Each prospective teacher’s story is a chapter. Each part begins with an overview by the editors containing suggested questions that readers can use for their own reflection or discussion. The first and the last chapters are contributions from Darling-Hammond, the authors’ professor and a prominent scholar dedicated to preparing excellent teachers for all students.
In Part I, the authors look at the concept of diversity, the importance of inclusion of others’ perspectives, the danger of labeling individuals as part of a group and the value of incorporating the history of marginalized groups into the core of the school curriculum. In Part II, one of the chapters is written by a white female STEP student who deals with the question: “Can White teachers support learning by students who are from backgrounds other than their own?” Another chapter addresses the issue of multiple identities that can be caused by the dividedness of home and school cultural contexts. Because the school culture in the United States is primarily that of the mainstream, students from non-mainstream cultures may experience culture clash. The author of this chapter, who is from a non-mainstream background, relates her experiences dealing with such cultural bifurcation as a U.S. public school student. Other issues addressed in Part II include being inclusive of gay people, institutional discrimination that students from non-mainstream cultures may experience in school, and oppressive language in the classroom. One author offers a strong section on turning an occasion of oppressive language into a learning moment for students.
Chapters in Part III are excerpted from two kinds of case studies that the authors had done for their STEP courses. Authors illustrate what they learned, in adolescent and curriculum case studies, about who their students are, what they need, and how to meet their needs. Part IV is devoted to the issue of tracking, which often results in dividing students into privileged and underprivileged groups in terms of access to learning opportunities, funding, qualified and experienced teachers, quality teaching resources, quality curriculum, and thereby opportunity for success. It also presents reform proposals for teaching English language learners. The section suggests ways to create a well-functioning learning community with support for the individual student, and ways a teacher can promote all students’ learning by allowing them to take ownership of their own learning and be active participants.
Many of us have an unforgettable teacher who had a significant influence, good or bad, in our life. As Darling-Hammond writes, “[p]erhaps the most important differences in what happens to children at school depend on who their teachers are: what they understand about children and about learning, what they are able to do to respond to the very different approaches and experiences children bring with them to the learning setting, what they care about and are committed to as teachers” (p.150). She contends that becoming a teacher who contributes to social change involves personal transformation. The prospective teachers in this book go through such transformation by critically reflecting on their own and their students’ experiences and perspectives. It is through this journey that they gain an understanding of self, others, school and society, which makes a vital difference to become a quality teachers of all students.
Even though most of the writers are fairly new to teaching, their stories eloquently illustrate what it takes to become a multicultural teacher. Practicing and pre-service teachers can find value in this book as they struggle to find better ways to teach students from diverse backgrounds.
