The Dreamkeepers 4-8-12

The Dreamkeepers was an enjoyable narrative of what good multicultural teaching can look like from teachers with different styles, but with the success of their students as the goal.  I also was encouraged by the afterword which contained some inspiring profiles of more (and more recent) teachers that work hard because they view their students in high regard and need to help these students recognize their own potential for success. 

I realize this study was performed to highlight the education and history of the African-American population, but culturally relevant teaching applies to all classrooms, and can be implemented broadly.  As I read the book, I thought about my own school and how we might better integrate these ideas and methods where I work.   Ladson-Billings ‘fictional school’ which is described beginning on p. 154, incorporates three ideas I like, which we have tried, but may just need to address from a different perspective.  First, problem-solving is always an approach to applying concepts learned in class, but the idea of using issues involving the community, such as the city budget, homelessness, road conditions, and crime (p. 154) is very close to home and relevant to these students’ lives.   Therefore, these would be the topics to use in many academic classes to motivate students and apply their learning.  Secondly, we have tried getting our students involved in Community Service activities, with varied results, but I thought if we asked them to start with what they would want to see done in their own neighborhood or community, they might ‘buy in’ or commit to it more readily.  Lastly, our student council also does not have a sound commitment from students.  Ladson-Billings suggests council members be involved in discussions around curriculum, instruction, personnel, finances, school policy, hiring and firing issues, and be members of a disciplinary board (p. 155).   Though some of these topics seem too personal, at least for a small school or to begin with, they are important and make students become more interested, responsible, and committed to a school when they are part of the decision-making for it.

Another thing that I thought about as I was reading in relation to my teaching was the best way(s) to approach culturally relevant teaching at the high school level.  The model teachers in The Dreamkeepers were elementary or middle school level, where students are with one teacher for most of the day or a significant block of time.  In high school, classes are normally 50 minutes to one hour, or 90 minutes at some schools.   I’d like to learn how to best incorporate this into my own teaching, with 55 minute classes, four days a week.  Is there any relevant literature that refers specifically to high school practice?

There were many stories from the book that encouraged me.  Larry’s success, on p. 120, made me smile, after having been put in ‘the kitchen junk drawer’ as Ms. Lewis says.  A boy like that, who had been through such trauma, needs special care and when he got it he became a leader in his class.   He may never have been successful without a teacher like her.  There are so many students that are like Larry, and we need more teachers like the ones we’ve read about in this book.

One of Ladson-Billing’s points for her ‘Vision of a Culturally Responsive School’ that I see as particularly ‘relevant’ is this one – “Help African-American students understand the world as it is and equip them to change it for the better."  But, as I tend to do, I want to broaden it and say this applies to all students:  We need to teach all our students excellent skills and knowledge to understand racism and its history so that they can be critical thinkers and problem solvers and make the decisions required to combat these issues in the future (p. 152-153).