BOOK REVIEW

Dreamkeepers Successful Teachers of African American Children

Dreamkeepers Successful Teachers of African American Children

This book covers several individuals and programs that are responsible for raising achievement of African-American students. The author reports on positive results of culturally conscious education and highlights eight teachers who, although they differ in style and methods, share an approach to teaching that strengthens cultural identity. Chapter 1 identifies the growing discontent of African-Americans with the kind of education their children in public schools today. Chapter 2 discusses the growing educational and anthropological literature on how schools can be more compatible with the cultural traditions of students.

Chapter identifies the lack of literature on the experiences of African-American students specifically, and offers a culturally sensitive training as a way to bridge this gap. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 discuss the three most important aspects of a culturally sensitive teaching: teachers' conceptions of themselves and others, how the class of structured social interaction, and teachers of the concept of knowledge. Chapter 6 focuses on three teachers in the study and teaching basic literacy and math programs. The final chapter discusses the prospects for improving academic achievement and school experiences of African-American students. Applications address the methodological and contextual issues.

In "Dreemkeepers: Successful teachers of African-American children" (Ladson-Billings, 1994) explores the question of the successful teaching of African-American students. The text is based on extensive research of eight excellent teachers of African-American students. Ladson-Billings provides a colorful snapshot of each teacher. Due to its extensive qualitative research, she drew forth a common ideology subscribed to these teachers. These ideals are covered under the concept of "culturally sensitive teaching. This is an important part of the carefully studied in the text. Messages comparative tables are interwoven throughout the book, which opposed the ideology of cultural characteristics with the traditional methods of assimilation. This book is a valuable resource for all teachers and can serve as a useful model for qualitative researchers.

(Ladson-Billings, 1994) The use of history to convey ideas makes the book compelling and quick read. In addition, in several chapters, it offers a clear and extensive examples to illustrate the subtleties cultural value in education. These examples are set out in bold, and correspond directly to the points previously highlighted in an easy to read tables. As a resource, this format is particularly useful. At the end of the text, it has two annexes, one methodology, and other description of the ...