Grappling with Diversity

Readings on Civil Rights Pedagogy and Critical Multiculturalism

Edited by Susan Schramm-Pate & Rhonda B. Jeffries

Subjects: Multicultural Education, Social Context Of Education, Social Studies Education, Curriculum
Paperback : 9780791473283, 282 pages, February 2008
Hardcover : 9780791473276, 282 pages, February 2008

Alternative formats available from:

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Imagine No Fences, No Borders, No Boundaries
Susan Schramm-Pate, Richard Lussier, and Rhonda B. Jeffries

PART I THEORETICAL AND HISTORICAL CONTEXTS
Intersections of Race, Class, Gender, and Sexual Orientation

1. Remembering Rosa: Rosa Parks, Multicultural Education, and Dominant Narratives of the Civil Rights Movement in America
Dennis Carlson
2. A Space of Their Own: Women Educators in the New South
Katherine Chaddock and Susan Schramm-Pate
3. Horton Hears a Who: Lessons from the Highlander Folk School in the Era of Globalization
Pepi Leistyna
4. Willie Lee Buffington and Faith Cabin Libraries: Doing Practical Good in a Disordered World
Tamara Powell
5. Dangerous Minds: Constructing Urban Education Between Hope and Despair
Suellyn Henke
6. Queering the Body: The Politics of "Gaydar"
Jennifer Esposito and Benjamin Baez

PART II METHODOLOGICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL CONTEXTS
Curriculum, Culture, Relevance, and Praxis
7. The Impact of Trickster Performances on the Curriculum: Explorations of a White, Female Civil Rights Activist
Rhonda B. Jeffries
8. Hegemonic Representation: A Critique of the Multiplicity of Dixie 
Susan Schramm-Pate
9. The World Language Other than English Program (WLOE): Confronting Diversity Through Reading, Writing, and Discussion
Richard Lussier
10. The Cincinnati Freedom Center: Implications for a More Emancipatory Praxis
Adam Renner
11. Come and Listen to a Story: Understanding the Appalachian Hillbilly in Popular Culture
Mary Jean Ronan Herzog
12. Stories of Women of Mixed Heritage: The Importance of Culture
Silvia Bettez
13. I Can Relate to This! "Leveling Up": Mathematics Curriculum and Instruction Through Personal Relevance and Meaningful Connections
Laura B. Kent and Terri Caron

Contributors
Index

Addresses the concerns of the marginalized in the American school curriculum.

Description

Written for classroom and pre-service teachers who wish to adopt a "civil rights pedagogy," Grappling with Diversity illuminates the diverse worldviews of people in our nation's history who are usually omitted, marginalized, or misrepresented in the American school curriculum. In order to prepare young people to interact in a variety of contexts with people who are different from themselves, the contributors take a serious look at teaching them to examine the origins and assumptions underlying mainstream thinking, which divides the nation into North and South, us and them, rich and poor, black and white, and to analyze alternative educational frameworks for understanding people and the planet. They also explore the concept of privilege by asking which stories are privileged in contemporary culture, what readings are available, and whose interests are served by them.

Susan Schramm-Pate is Associate Professor of Curriculum Studies at the University of South Carolina and coauthor (with Katherine C. Reynolds) of A Separate Sisterhood: Women Who Shaped Southern Education in the Progressive Era. Rhonda B. Jeffries is Associate Professor of Curriculum Studies at the University of South Carolina and coeditor (with Gretchen Givens Generett) of Black Women in the Field: Experiences Understanding Ourselves and Others through Qualitative Research.

Reviews

"I like the depth this book brings to examining and teaching controversial issues in education. It reinforces clearly the aphorism that 'it is not what is poured in, but what is planted that counts.' This work plants germinal analytical seeds, seeds that may grow in fertile undergraduate or graduate soil on issues such as multiculturalism, progressive education, women in education, social justice pedagogy, urban education, gay and lesbian issues in education, and 'race' and education." — Erskine S. Dottin, author of Creating a Professional Community through Means-Ends Connections to Facilitate the Acquisition of Moral Dispositions