Edited by: Althier M. Lazar, Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt
Foreword by: Guofang Li
Publication Date: September 7, 2018
Pages: 208
This book introduces readers to the inner workings and innovative programs of schools that successfully serve bilingual and multilingual students, especially those who affiliate as Latinx. Readers will meet administrators, teachers, caregivers, and community members who embrace work together to advance students’ learning. They do this through varied school-wide initiatives that include caring for students in authentic ways, developing students’ home and academic languages, recruiting caregivers and community members to mentor students, establishing positive and respectful climates, providing rigorous instructional interventions, and inviting students to take leadership roles. This book will inspire teachers and school leaders to see the possibilities for humanizing schools with the ultimate goal of helping all students succeed.
Book Features:
Althier M. Lazar is a professor of teacher education at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt is professor emerita of education at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York. They are co-editors of Practicing What We Teach: How Culturally Responsive Literacy Classrooms Make a Difference.
"The strongest merit of this collective book is that readers are inspired from the variety of solutions described, which has transformed education for multilingual students."
—International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
“…confirms the authors’ and editors’ commitment to humanizing pedagogy, relationships, and care by illuminating the often-overlooked work of educators who affirm diversity and who seek to build a better world for and with their students and families. What this volume ultimately offers are multiple examples of school programs and models that other educators, scholars, and teacher educators can adapt, leaving readers with a message much like that of a student’s poster referenced in Chapter Ten: ¡Sí Se Puede!—You Can Do It!”
—Teachers College Record
“This book is a powerful resource for pre- and inservice teachers, educators, school leaders, and researchers who are seeking to change the status quo in today’s schools…With a rich collection of powerful cases and best practices, this book offers hope and possibilities for everyone to reimagine different ways of doing school for the most disadvantaged.”
—From the Foreword by Guofang Li, professor and Canada research chair, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver
"This is a meaningful and worthwhile book that offers multiple pathways to educational success with children often labeled as 'at risk.' The authors insist, however, that it is not the students or the teachers but a stagnant pedagogy, often mandated by the state, that places them at risk. Readers are provided with considerable details of additive and transformative practices that lead to educational success in or out of classrooms, which is what all students deserve."
—Luis C. Moll, professor emeritus, University of Arizona
“Lazar and Schmidt have brought together an important collection of chapters that show the human faces of the students, teachers, administrators, and community members who have created schools meeting the needs of minoritized students in underserved communities. Readers will find inspiration from the variety of solutions described in this volume, which has transformed education for multilingual students.”
—David and Yvonne Freeman, professors emeriti, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
“How do you transform the view that multilingual students are the Other? How can educators assist in this transformation? What role does the inclusion and teaching of students’ language and literacy practices play? Lazar and Schmidt give us answers in this book. The case studies describe how educators have changed their practices to humanize the education that multilingual students receive.”
—Ofelia García, The Graduate Center, CUNY
“This book is a moral imperative, given the dehumanization that is rampant in U.S. society and schools. We all need the regenerative spaces that come to life in this book. We need the promise of schools that foster language and literacy development in a manner that sustains our individual, cultural, and collective humanity. This book offers hope for what can be, what is, what will be.”
—Maria del Carmen Salazar, University of Denver
"This volume made me reflect upon the fact that the essence of humanity is forging connections. While we sometimes carve up the world and study small pieces, we must also put the pieces back together into a coherent and meaningful whole—as this book does—that helps us create successful school communities."
—Claude Goldenberg, Stanford University
Table of Contents
Foreword by Guofang Li
Acknowledgments
PART I: WHERE WE ARE, WHERE WE'VE BEEN, AND WHERE WE NEED TO BE
Chapter 1. Schools of Promise for Multilingual Students
Althier M. Lazar
Chapter 2. Nurturing Lifelong and Life-Wide Literacies Through Humanizing Pedagogies
Nadia Granados and Norma González
Chapter 3. A School That ROARS
Lee Gunderson and Reginald D'Silva
PART II: HUMANIZING SCHOOLS THROUGH CAREGIVER AND COMMUNITY COLLABORATION
Chapter 4. Humanizing Education: Teachers and Caregivers Collaborate for Culturally Responsive Literacy Learning
Patricia Ruggiano Schmidt
Chapter 5. Framing Literacy as "Revolutionary": Creating Transformative Learning Opportunities in a Predominantly Latinx-Serving High School
Steven Z. Athanases and Marnie W. Curry
Chapter 6. Creating Welcoming Environments for Latinx Families in New Latino Diaspora Schools
Melissa Pérez Rhym
PART III: PORTRAITS OF HUMANIZING SCHOOLS
Chapter 7. The Effects of Humanizing School Culture on the Literacy Engagement of Bilingual Students: Portrait of a High School in South Texas
Suniti Sharma and Usha Gurumurthy
Chapter 8. "I'm Multilingual": Leveraging Students' Translanguaging Practices to Strengthen the School Community
Ivana Espinet, Brian Collins, and Ann Ebe
Chapter 9. Language and Literacy Learning Beyond Elementary School
Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
Chapter 10. Learning and Practicing a Humanizing Pedagogy: One Teacher's Journey
Shelley Hong Xu and Jamie Schnablegger
PART IV: FINAL WORDS FROM A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Chapter 11. Building Equity, Literacy, and Resilience Within Educational Systems
Mark Conley
About the Contributors
Index
Professors: Request an Exam Copy
Print copies available for US orders only. For orders outside the US, see our international distributors.