Not available to order
Publication date:
11 March 2002Length of book:
240 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9780742518230
This book combines theory, practice, and ethnography in an exploration of how teachers can fully implement diversity and antiracism as a foundation of their teaching approach. The author, a white mother of children of color, whose work is influenced by her own experience being raised in an antiracist, activist family, developed her curriculum over many years of active involvement with parents and teachers in schools. She presents her curriculum along with ethnographic reports of the processes of change that teachers experience as they fully explore the realities of race relations, its history, and the lived experiences of others. Kailin shows how immersion in this exploration enables teachers to develop curricula and teaching practices that are effectively antiracist and fully connected to students' lives.
Like Paulo Friere, Julie Kailin stresses the necessity for critical consciousness and for an ability to reflect upon the assumptions that underlie and perpetuate racism, 'othering,' racial profiling, and the rest. Never taking refuge in old idealism, never depending upon blank materialism, Dr. Kailin remains true to important political and economic theories of social structure and social change; but she never condemns those of us who are teachers to the helplessness induced by determinism. Readers cannot help but become personally involved and engaged through their encounter with Dr. Kailin. We can help realize the hopes she arouses through our own deliberate action for decency, social justice, and —if we come together—ongoing change.