Diversity
- The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom
edited by Lisa Delpit and Joanne Kilgour Dowdy (The New Press, 450 W. 41st St., New York, NY 10036; 229 pp., $24.95 hardcover). A collection of essays on the history of language attitudes in education that reaches beyond the “Ebonics” debate to probe how language affects identity, status, and classroom performance. Edited by two renowned African-American scholars, the book’s contributors include Herbert Kohl, Geneva Smitherman, and Asa Hilliard III. - Educating Our Black Children: New Directions and Radical Approaches
edited by Richard Majors (Routledge/Falmer, 29 W. 35th St., New York, NY 10001; 271 pp., $23.95 paperback). A collection of essays by contributers from the United Kingdom and the United States that explores “positive social-inclusion policy and practice.” Themes covered include mentoring schemes and how to evaluate mentoring, rites-of-passage programs and masculine identity, black supplementary schools, and African- centered knowledge systems. - Power and Place: Indian Education in America
by Vine Deloria Jr. and Daniel R. Wildcat (Fulcrum Publishing, 16100 Table Mountain Pkwy., Suite 300, Golden, CO 80403; 176 pp., $17.95 paperback). Two prominent Native American scholars discuss the education of American Indian students. They stress the unique educational and cultural hurdles these students face in traditional, Western-based classrooms because of the clash of “two distinct value systems and worldviews.” The book covers preschool through postgraduate education. - Alternative Schooling for African American Youth: Does Anyone Know We’re Here?
by Christopher Dunbar Jr. (Peter Lang, 275 Seventh Ave., New York, NY 10001; 133 pp., $23.95 paperback). A detailed picture of the experiences of a group of middle school students attending alternative schools, and of the triumps and travails of their administrators and teachers. The author, a Michigan State University professor who once taught in alternative schools, offers practical suggestions for improving such education. Overcoming the Odds: Raising Academically Successful African American Young Women
by Freeman A. Hrabowski, Kenneth I. Maton, Monica L. Greene, and Geoffrey L. Greif (Oxford University Press, 198 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016; 272 pp., $25 hardcover). Provides, based on interviews with successful young black women and their families, information on the motivations, experiences, and attributes that lead to success. Discusses what these women view as the challenges facing African-American women and offers what the book calls “specific and inspiring examples of the practices, attitudes, and parenting strategies that have enabled these women to persevere and triumph.”Stand and Prosper: Private Black Colleges and Their Students
by Henry N. Drewry and Humphrey Doermann (Princeton University Press, 41 William St., Princeton, NJ 08540; 344 pp., $29.95 hardcover). Traces the development of private black colleges, from their establishment to the present. Includes descriptions of the current state and recent history of America’s 45 private black colleges, including case histories of four highly successful schools: Talladega College, Stillman College, Spelman College, and Xavier University of Louisiana.- Learning While Black: Creating Educational Excellence for African American Children
by Janice E. Hale (The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2715 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218; 256 pp., $15.95 paperback). Presents what one reviewer has called “a fresh and feisty look at the miseducation of African-American children.” Written by a Wayne State University professor of early-childhood education, who compares hidden educational assumptions in the classroom to “racial profiling” and points out the inherent disadvantages current reform strategies hold for black children. - Shades of White: White Kids and Racial Identities in High School
by Pamela Perry (Duke University Press, Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708; 280 pp., $18.95 paperback). Explores what it means to be a young, white American at a time when racial politics and cultural identity are much-explored topics. Includes in-depth interviews with students from two high schools—one suburban and predominantly white, the other urban, multiracial, and minority-white—in an attempt to understand the everyday social processes by which high schoolers define white identities. - To Show What an Indian Can Do: Sport at Native American Boarding Schools
by John Bloom (University of Minnesota Press, 111 Third Ave. S., Suite 290, Minneapolis, MN 55401; 176 pp., $24.95 hardcover). Explores the history of sports programs at two federally operated boarding schools, Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania and the Haskell Institute in Kansas, from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. Draws on the recollections of past students, both male and female, to demonstrate the importance of competitive sports in the students’ lives and how athletic competition helped them establish “a sense of community, accomplishment, and dignity.”
For more information on these books, contact the publisher or your local library or bookstore. To order, call (888) 887-3200 or visit www.edweek.org/products/bookshelf.htm.
