Educating for Equity and Excellence

In this collection of articles, Geneva Gay invites readers to make educational equity and excellence for all students a reality, not just an ethic or an ideal. Through teaching narratives and pragmatic examples, Gay illustrates that a combination of ideology, ethics, personal commitment, and praxis on the part of educators is essential to achieving equity for underachieving racial and ethnic minority students. The text is organized into three themes: Identity (how the identities and behaviors of educators are influenced by their membership in ethnic and cultural groups); Ideology (how the beliefs, attitudes, and expectations of educators shape their behaviors and instruction); and Action (suggestions for equitable teaching, classroom management, curriculum development, and teacher preparation). Each individual essay can be read separately, but they are especially powerful when read in conjunction with each other. Educating for Equity and Excellence is applicable to a broad spectrum of teaching contexts, including early childhood, elementary, secondary, and college.

Book Features:

• A good blend of ideas and actions for teaching diverse students, including Black, Asian American, Native American, and Latinx students.
• Narratives from the personal experiences of the author as well as those of other education scholars, researchers, and practitioners.
• Suggested teaching actions applicable to educating students at different grade levels and abilities.
• Easy-to-understand chapters, with pragmatic explanations, that describe complex conceptual ideas.
• Recommended actions for promoting and sustaining equity across contexts.

Geneva Gay received the 2023 AERA Division B (Curriculum Studies) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Geneva Gay is professor emerita in the College of Education, University of Washington, Seattle. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award of Division B (Curriculum Studies) of the American Educational Research Association and the first Multicultural Educator Award presented by the National Association of Multicultural Education. Geneva’s books include Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice, Third Edition.

“ Educating for Equity and Excellence illustrates how Geneva Gay’s work, over many decades, has provided detailed theory and practical implications essential to enacting equitable and excellent education for all students through culturally responsive teaching.”

—Teachers College Record

“This essay collection comprehensively centers a thorough analysis of culturally responsive teaching around Geneva Gay’s decades of pathbreaking multicultural theorizing, curriculum, and instructional research-to-practice. In addition to a thoroughly enchanting and affirming analysis of the power of ‘eternal Blackness’ within African American cultural expressiveness, another major contribution of this volume is its rigorous integration of the extensive foundational knowledge base that is so vital for preparing teachers and researchers to develop effective culturally pluralistic learning environments. Bravo!”
—Joyce E. King, Benjamin E. Mays Endowed Chair for Urban Teaching, Learning & Leadership, Georgia State University

“Dr. Geneva Gay’s Educating for Equity and Excellence includes classic pieces for educators who are committed to reaching all learners, especially culturally diverse students. This collection links theory to practice of culturally responsive teaching. Gay identifies three major themes: identity, ideology, and action. This text is an excellent resource for educators. Enjoy Dr. Gay’s wisdom and her many examples.”
—Valerie Ooka Pang, professor emerita, San Diego State University

“Geneva Gay has been inspiring and guiding my work for over four decades. This compelling collection of her seminal writing will ensure that her thinking and scholarship will continue to shape and inform the personal and professional growth of transformational educators for years to come.”
—Gary R. Howard, founder, REACH Center for Multicultural Education, and author, We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know

“In this new book, esteemed scholar Dr. Geneva Gay brings essential critically race-conscious insights to her seminal work on culturally responsive teaching. Situated in Black epistemology, the work provides crucial, contemporary guidance for teacher educators and pre- and inservice teachers in their work with all students, while centering the need for educators to prioritize critical care and educational excellence for Black girls.”
—Christine Clark, senior scholar in multicultural education, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Contents

Series Foreword James A. Banks  vii

Introduction  1

PART I: Identity

1.  Expressive Ethos of Afro-American Culture  9

2.  Ethnic Identity in Early Adolescence: Some Implications for Instructional Reform  23

3.  Implications of Selected Models of Ethnic Identity Development for Educators  31

PART II: Ideology

4.  Teachers’ Achievement Expectations and Classroom Interactions With Ethnically Different Students  45

5.  Teachers’ Beliefs About Cultural Diversity: Problems and Possibilities  54

6.  Teaching To and Through Cultural Diversity  74

PART III: Action

7.  Curriculum Theory and Multicultural Education  101

8.  Preparing for Culturally Responsive Teaching  140

9.  Connections Between Classroom Management and Culturally Responsive Teaching  156

10.  The Younger the Better: Culturally Responsive Teaching for Lil Sistas  196

Bibliography of Works by Geneva Gay Included in This Book  220

Index  221

About the Author  230

2023 AERA Division B (Curriculum Studies) Lifetime Achievement Award, to Geneva Gay