Talking Diversity with Teachers and Teacher Educators

Featuring content-specific strategies, assignments, and classroom activities, this book will help pre- and inservice teachers develop the dispositions and knowledge they need to teach all students well. Focusing on the importance of creating a classroom community in which necessarily difficult dialogues are inspired and supported, the authors present content-area chapters on language arts, social studies, mathematics, science, ESOL, foreign language, and teaching exceptional students in the inclusive environment. Each content-area chapter includes a vignette illustrating a difficult conversation dealing with diversity and presents research-based, classroom-ready exercises, effective pedagogic strategies, and action-oriented interventions—many of which the authors created and used in their own classrooms. The book concludes with an appendix of instructional and curricular resources.

This practical volume provides teacher educators and professional development personnel with a framework for:

• Inspiring challenging and productive discussions about diversity in education.
• Using content-specific, research-based strategies for discussing diversity issues in deep and complex ways.
• Understanding how teacher candidates develop as culturally competent educators.
• Addressing conflicts that might arise when talking about diversity and self-awareness.

Contributors: Vonzell Agosto, Sylvia Celedón-Pattichis, Kathryn B. Chval, Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Bárbara C. Cruz, Cheryl R. Ellerbrock, Elaine V. Howes, Zorka Karanxha, Deoksoon Kim, Miyoun Lim, Patricia Alvarez McHatton, Adam Schwartz, Roseanne K. Vallice, Anete Vásquez, Eugenia Vomvoridi-Ivanović, and Eric Williams

Bárbara C. Cruz is professor of secondary education at the University of South Florida. Cheryl R. Ellerbrock is an assistant professor of secondary education at the University of South Florida. Anete Vásquez is an assistant professor in the Department of Secondary and Middle Grades Education at Kennesaw State University. Elaine V. Howes is in the faculty of the Master of Arts in Teaching program at the American Museum of Natural History, in partnership with high-needs schools in New York City.

“The style of this volume is as enriching, enlightening, and insightful as diversity is itself.”
—From the Foreword by Geneva Gay, University of Washington–Seattle