The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children »

Gloria Ladson-Billings is the Kellner Family Chair in Urban Education and Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.?Previously, she?served on the faculty of Santa Clara University and?worked as a teacher and consultant in the Phila-delphia public school sys—tem.?She?is the former president of the?American Educational Research Association, and was?elected to the National Academy of Education. Dr. Ladson-Billings?is the author and editor of numerous articles and books, including The?Dreamkeepers, Crossing Over to Canaan, and Beyond the Big House.

In the second edition of her critically acclaimed book The Dreamkeepers, Gloria Ladson-Billings revisits the eight teachers who were profiled in the first edition and introduces us to new teachers who are current exemplars of good teaching. She shows that culturally relevant teaching is not a matter of race, gender, or teaching style. What matters most is a teacher's efforts to work with the unique strengths a child brings to the classroom. A brilliant mixture of scholarship and storytelling, The Dreamkeepers challenges us to envision intellectually rigorous and culturally relevant classrooms that have the power to improve the lives of not just African American students, but all children. This new edition also includes questions for reflection

Library Journal

Although statistics paint a harsh picture of the education of African American children, Ladson-Billings (curriculum and instruction, Univ. of Wisconsin) integrates scholarly research with stories of eight successful teachers in a predominantly African American school district to illustrate that the "dream" of all teachers and parents-academic success for all children-is alive and can be emulated. The presentation of examples from "intellectually rigorous and challenging classrooms" emphasizes the cultural and social aspects of the issues in education as a whole. The author's own experiences as a student and teacher of teachers support the need to make the problems of African American children a central issue in any debate on the American educational system. The in-depth bibliographical notes and the excellent appendixes discussing the methodology and the context of the study should be useful for education students and the libraries serving them.-A.R. Huggins, Memphis State Univ. Libs.