Affirming Student Ethnic Identities

Affirming Student Ethnic Identities introduces a researched-based model that shows educators how to support student ethnic identity development while teaching subject matter content.

Teachers share their stories, detailing how their own ethnic identity development transformed their teaching and their ability to connect with their students. The text includes research that informs the discussion of important issues such as “code switching,” “acting White,” “the importance of familial and given names,” and “ethnic slurs” that are likely to surface when teachers support students in exploring their ethnicities and proclaiming their ethnic identities. Lesson designs for use at the elementary, middle, and high school grade levels are provided, as well as a structure for designing an ethnic identity development curriculum.
Ethnic identity is a critical developmental process for all students, and this book offers new teaching strategies designed to help students achieve their academic goals by fully embracing their histories, traditions, and customs.
Book Features:

• New Strategies for Helping Students Achieve Academic Goals: Responds to research showing that students with a strong sense of ethnic identity have higher levels of academic achievement, persist in educational endeavors, and have a higher college-going rate than students without a strong sense of ethnic identity.
• A New Model for Promoting Ethnic Identity Development in Education: Introduces the author’s Ethnic Identity Exploration and Proclamation in Education model designed to support all students in K–12 school settings.
• Fills a Void in Teacher Education: Provides theoretical principles and conceptualizations of ethnic identity for different groups, pedagogical strategies to help preservice and classroom teachers to reclaim and celebrate their ethnic identities, and the structure for ethnic identity curriculum development.
• Best Practices Based on Research with Classroom Teachers: Includes guidance for implementation with discussions of difficult issues, useful lesson designs, teachers’ personal work on ethnic identity exploration, profiles of teachers who share their personal struggles, and more.

André J. Branch is associate professor of teacher education at San Diego State University, the cofounder and director of the International Research Network of Ethnic Identity Pedagogy, and serves with the California State University Center for Transformational Education Preparation Programs.

"Clearly, powerfully, and with substantial research evidence, Professor Branch illuminates the importance of preparing educators to help all students value themselves, their ethnic identities, and the ethnic identities of others. Simultaneously, he explains strategies that have successfully built the capacity of educators to affirm their students' ethnic identities. This book is more than a ‘must read.’ It is a call to action for those of us who care enough and who are courageous enough to improve educator preparation in ways that will make a positive difference for all students.”
—Joseph F. Johnson Jr., professor and dean emeritus, San Diego State University

“Drawing on decades of experience working with teachers, André J. Branch offers a much-needed, highly usable resource for helping teachers develop the ethnic identities of their students. Affirming Student Ethnic Identities equips teachers with a well-conceptualized and research-based framework for ethnic identity development and illustrates it with multiple examples of teacher practice and classroom activities. A must-have resource for teachers and teacher educators!”
—Christine E. Sleeter, professor emerita, California State University Monterey Bay

“Identities matter. The manner in which we see, know, and understand our multiple identities is vital to school success and overall well-being. André Branch provides readers with important contributions to how educators can understand, support, and affirm ethnic identities of all students in schools. At a time when ethnic identities are under attack, Branch offers important protective factors through curriculum and instructional support that can help students thrive. Elementary and secondary educators will benefit immensely from this much-needed book.”
—Tyrone C. Howard, Pritzker Family Endowed Chair in Education, UCLA

“Dr. Branch offers a powerful examination of the absence of ethnic identity development in educator preparation programs. This accessible, reader-friendly text provides strategies and guided lesson plans to help P–12 educators facilitate meaningful discussions about ethnicity and race, while fostering a strong sense of ethnic identity among an increasingly diverse student population.”
—Cathy Kea, professor emerita, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University

“Dr. Branch does an excellent job of helping readers to understand the many facets of ethnic identity development, as well as providing an instructional model for classroom teachers. Teachers’ stories of their own ethnic identity development and how their development helped them to connect with students adds to the richness of the text. This book can be very useful to all educators, and especially classroom teachers.”
—Linda C. Tillman, professor emerita, University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill