Culture or Chaos in the Village

The Journey to Cultural Fluency

By (author) Ursula Thomas Contributions by Karen Harris, Hema Ramanathan, Janet Strickland, Noelle Witherspoon Arnold

Publication date:

16 December 2010

Length of book:

154 pages

Publisher

R&L Education

Dimensions:

239x165mm
7x9"

ISBN-13: 9781607099246

Culture or Chaos in the Village: The Journey to Cultural Fluency seeks to provide a framework for examination of the factors that influence mediation of culture in the minds of teachers. The text moves in a manner that sets the tone for a courageous conversation. It is the intent of this book to facilitate a focused conversation, discussing the factors of race, class, and gender in conjunction with personal and professional belief systems of educators, preservice and inservice.

Chapter 1: Racial Identity Development: You are Here!
Chapter 2: Mediation framework and teacher education dynamics
Chapter 3: Brown Girl in the Ring
Chapter 4: The Three R's: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic or Race, Relationship, and Reflection
Chapter 5: But They Don't Speak English: Mapping Out How We Teach Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Learners
Chapter 6: The State of School-Based Speech-Language Pathology in Teacher Education:Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Chapter 7: Lead, Follow of Get out of the Way: Cultural Mediation, Social Justice and Educational Leadership
Chapter 8: Are We There Yet? Culture, Communication and Relationship: Making it to the Village
Chapter 9: The Family Reunion: Community and the Journey
Chapter 10: Pardon the Policy: Unpacking the Standards

Culture or Chaos has the uncanny ability to speak passionately and directly to those who study the teaching of children and those who actually teach children. From the first, to the last chapter the text bridges the often-gaping chasm between educational theory and teacher practice in an eloquent way that leads the reader to ask both researchers and teachers hard questions about establishing more socially just schools. The mix of the straightforward commentary, thorough engagement of relevant pedagogical literature and meaningful activities at the conclusion of each chapter makes this an excellent text for aspiring teacher leaders, educational researchers and administrators.