Developing Multicultural Educators

Written in a narrative style, with complex concepts and theories explained in everyday language, and full of practical, current examples, this concise text asks educators to examine their identities. It demonstrates how the social construction of identities has shaped individuals’ perceptions, judgments, and understanding of the world. Noel integrates the right mix of personal experiences of multicultural educators, literature from that field, and information from the psychological, philosophical, and sociological foundations of education to help educators plan for diversity in their teaching. Alongside up-to-date statistics and examples are timely discussions of immigration, community involvement, the achievement gap, sex and gender, hate crimes, and bullying—issues that touch multicultural educators on a daily basis. Advantageous pedagogical tools—group and individual activities, guided discussion questions, case studies, and end-of-chapter reflective writings—help readers gain a clear vision of how to be an effective teacher in today’s diverse communities.

Written in a narrative style, with complex concepts and theories explained in everyday language, and full of practical, current examples, this concise text asks educators to examine their identities. It demonstrates how the social construction of identities has shaped individuals¿ perceptions, judgments, and understanding of the world. Noel integrates the right mix of personal experiences of multicultural educators, literature from that field, and information from the psychological, philosophical, and sociological foundations of education to help educators plan for diversity in their teaching.Alongside up-to-date statistics and examples are timely discussions of immigration, community involvement, the achievement gap, sex and gender, hate crimes, and bullying¿issues that touch multicultural educators on a daily basis. Advantageous pedagogical tools¿group and individual activities, guided discussion questions, case studies, and end-of-chapter reflective writings¿help readers gain a clear vision of how to be an effective teacher in today¿s diverse communities.

This book explores how to make teacher preparation more multicultural.

2013 Recipient of Philip C. Chinn Award from the National Association of Multicultural Education Providing an essential foundation for pre-service and in-service PK-12 educators, this engaging and practical book focuses on essential questions and theoretical concepts about becoming a multicultural educator. Award-winning authors William A. Howe and Penelope L. Lisi bring theory and research to life through numerous activities, exercises, and lesson plans designed to heighten the reader’s cultural awareness, knowledge base, and skill set. Responding to the growing need to increase academic achievement and to prepare teachers to work with diverse populations of students, this text show readers how to incorporate cultural knowledge into more effective classroom practice. The fully updated Second Edition is packed with new activities and exercises to illustrate concepts readers can apply within their own classrooms and school-wide settings.

To help both new and seasoned teachers to become more effective with their students from diverse backgrounds, Becoming Multicultural Educators edited by Geneva Gay, offers fourteen compelling stories from different regions, cultures, ethnic groups, and stages of professional and personal growth in developing multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. One contributing author declares community participation and social activism are the keys to his professional growth. For another, multicultural understanding comes when she learns to unveil the masks of insidious negative stereotypes. Through these stories, we share their struggles as these educators come to understand diversity among ethnic groups and cultures, resolve conflicts between curricular and multicultural goals, and find authentic models and mentors for their students. But most important, we learn how this laudatory group of educators has come to realize that they need to know themselves if they are to truly know their students. Well-grounded in education theory, Becoming Multicultural Educators is both personal and inspiring. This is the book that will help teachers, and those who prepare them, blossom as educators and human beings.

Rethinking Multicultural Education for the Next Generation builds on the legacy of social justice multicultural education, while recognizing the considerable challenges of reaching today’s college students. By drawing on breakthrough research in two fields – neuroscience and animal studies – Nadine Dolby argues that empathy is an underlying element of all living beings. Dolby shows how this commonality can provide a scaffolding for building an exciting new approach to developing multicultural and global consciousness, one that has the potential to transform how our students see and relate to the world around them. This book features classroom vignettes and reflections, discussion of research with pre-service teachers on the concept of empathy, and pedagogical suggestions for fostering the new empathy in students. Incorporating discussions of animal emotions, sustainability, and our responsibilities to all living creatures and the planet, Dolby challenges multicultural educators to rethink both curriculum and pedagogy and to begin new and bolder conversations about how empathy for humans, animals, and the planet must be part of a new approach to teaching.

Multicultural education is a construct that has been very useful for many years in harboring sensitivities teachers need in addressing diverse students. Now the discipline needs refreshing. In the global society, the idea of multicultural education, a decidedly Western formation, needs to expand its conceptual boundaries. Salient issues in multicultural education such as individual identities, social justice, and equity are bedrock concerns of multicultural educators. These concepts are considered necessary but not sufficient in shaping an evolving model of multicultural education. The complexity of humans and modern and emerging societies requires a broadened scope of the understanding of contemporary multicultural theory and practice. Evolving Multicultural Education for Global Classrooms addresses multicultural education from a comprehensive viewpoint that acknowledges the historical benefit of multicultural education and recognizes a need to inform the discipline with a broader viewpoint. As most knowledge on multicultural education comes from a Western perspective and the scholarship on the topic is weakening, the chapters in this book present new practices and classroom applications that are internationally transferable. Topics covered include teacher education, social justice, educational equity and inclusion, online education, and cultural sensitivities. This book is ideally intended for teachers, educational theorists, sociologists of education, inservice and preservice teachers, administrators, teacher educators, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in a fresh global perspective on multicultural education.