Race and Gender in the Classroom

Teachers, Privilege, and Enduring Social Inequalities

By (author) Laurie Cooper Stoll Foreword by David G. Embrick

Not available to order

Publication date:

22 July 2013

Length of book:

182 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

ISBN-13: 9780739176436

Race and Gender in the Classroom explores the paradoxes of education, race, and gender, as Laurie Cooper Stoll follows eighteen teachers carrying out their roles as educators in an era of “post-racial” and “post-gendered” politics. Because there are a number of contentious issues converging simultaneously in these teachers’ everyday lives, this is a book comprised of several interrelated stories. On the one hand, this is a story about teachers who care deeply about their students but are generally oblivious to the ways in which their words and behaviors reinforce dominant narratives about race and gender, constructing for their students a worldview in which race and gender do not matter despite their students’ lived experiences demonstrating otherwise. This is a story about dedicated, overworked teachers who are trying to keep their heads above water while meeting the myriad demands placed upon them in a climate of high-stakes testing. This is a story about the disconnect between those who mandate educational policy like superintendents and school boards and the teachers who are expected to implement those policies often with little or no input and few resources. This is ultimately a story, however, about how the institution of education itself operates in a “post-racial” and “post-gendered” society.

Acknowledgments
List of Figures and Tables
Chapter 1: Constructing the Color- and Gender-Blind Classroom
Chapter 2: Race in the Color-Blind Classroom: Multiculturalism and Tracking
Chapter 3: What Problem? Gender in the Gender in the Gender-Blind Classroom
Chapter 4: Mapping the Ruling Relations
Chapter 5: The Countervailing Forces of Privilege
Chapter 6: Confronting Paradox
Appendix A: Initial Interview Instrument
Appendix B: Final Interview Instrument
References
Index

Ultimately, Race and Gender in the Classroom’s biggest contribution to the literature is the exploration of gender-blind sexism and social equality maxim among teachers. Race and Gender in the Classroom is highly accessible, readable, and relies on rich quotes from teachers. Overall, this book would be a must-have book for courses in sociology of race and ethnicity, sociology of gender, and sociology of education.