Customer Reviews

The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children (Jossey Bass Education Series)

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Ladson-Billings, wrote an extraordinary book on African American students and the struggles they face trying to receive an education equal to that of other races. She took a look into the classrooms of eight teachers who perhaps had different teaching styles, but all had one common goal to provide an education for all students. She wrote this book from an author, a student, a teacher,and a parent's prospective. She included such issues as being a cultural relevant teacher. Being a teacher who doesn't mind accomodating and adapting to the needs of her students. She also addressed the issue of teachers who were assimilators. If you have any plans or desires to teach, this is a must read book. This book was enjoyable, easy to read, and cultural relevant.

All too often, African American students are blamed as the ultimate cause of their own academic failure. Proposed reasons can span from ethnic or racial inferiority, to home neglect, to simple lack of motivation, or the notion that some students are just better than others.

I refuse to accept that the reasons offered above have everything to do with the disproportionate numbers of students of African heritage who consistently perform below the national averages on standardized tests and measures. I refuse these notions because I look to my brothers and sisters and I see intelligence, I see beauty, and I see wisdom.

In The Dreemkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children by Gloria Ladson-Billings, the author explores the issue of successful teaching of African American students. The text is based upon extensive research of eight excellent teachers of African American students. Ladson-Billings provides a colorful "snapshot" of each teacher. Through extensive qualitative research, she draws forth the common ideologies subscribed to by these teachers. These ideals are encompassed under the umbrella notion of "Culturally Relevant Teaching." This important piece is thoroughly explored in the text. Helpful comparative tables are interwoven throughout the book, which contrast Culturally Relevant Ideologies with the traditional Assimilationist Methods. This book is a valuable resource to all teachers, and can serve as a helpful model for qualitative researchers. Despite the unnecessary summaries which conclude each chapter, the text is very readable. I was impressed with the sincerity in the author's voice. Ladson-Billings acknowledges her own subjectivity in the Preface.

"I have written this book in three voices: that of an African American scholar and researcher; that of an African American teacher; and that of an African American woman, parent, and community member." (x)

Her use of story to convey ideas makes the book compelling and a quick read. Additionally, in several chapters, she offers clear and extended examples illustrating the finer points of Cultural Relevance in teaching. These examples are set off by bold type, and correspond directly to points previously highlighted in easy-to-read tables. As a resource, this format is especially helpful. At the end of the text, she provides two appendixes, one describing methodology, and the other describing the community in which the study took place. As a qualitative researcher, I found Appendix A, about methodology, to be particularly helpful after reading the excellent study.

Traditionally, research has focused upon white students and then generalized to the entire population. This book focuses on African American students, and the author is careful not to make any sweeping generalizations about that population, or the American population at large. However, the idea of Culturally Relevant Teaching is invaluable to all educators, as it can be applied to all students. The basic notion of tying in a student's life and existing knowledge into the curriculum has a natural place in the multicultural classroom. As the author states on page 52, these teachers share "an overriding belief that students come to school with knowledge...(that) must be explored and utilized in order for students to become achievers."

Creative methods used to "explore and utilize" this knowledge are described throughout the book. One of my favorite lesson "snapshots" uses the children's love of rap music to show them that they have a special knowledge in understanding the meaning of these songs. The teacher uses them as "translators," thereby empowering the students as negotiators of two languages. Certainly, the students attained a more personal and meaningful understanding of several words in "Standard" English.

In a country where much of the popular discourse about African Americans is limited to our failures, The Dreemkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children is a refreshing and inspirational perspective. In her concluding chapter, Ladson-Billings envisions an entirely Culturally Relevant school for African American children. Visions like this are the first step in making our dreams into reality. As the banner outside the imaginary school reads, "It takes a whole village to educate a child."

The author of Dreamkeepers makes the argument that African American children can be successful in school if changes are made by the education community. Gloria Ladson-Billings advocates for "culturally relevant teaching" which she believes will allow children to achieve academic success while maintaining a positive African American identity. By examining historical inequalities and the poor state of current education and achievement of African American children, the future may appear bleak or even destined for failure. Ladson-Billings offers examples of teachers, teaching methods, and ideas to keep the dream of education and success alive for African American children today. The focus of the book is the roles teachers have in helping children find success and examples of how teachers of African American children have been successful in this role. The way children should be taught is also discussed because she claims that the way children are taught is often more important than what they are taught. Ladson-Billings believes that these ideas could be used to get teachers, parents, and community members to redesign schools to better meet the needs of African American children, and after considering her reasons and evidence provided I am inclined to agree with these ideas.
The study was done in a predominantly low income African American community. To find successful teachers of African American children, Ladson-Billings asked parents and community members and then principals. When she had gathered a list of possible names, she chose only the names that had appeared from both groups. Ladson-Billings notes a distinction between excellent teaching and teachers because she does not want the examples to be dismissed as a cult of personality. Current problems in education will not be corrected if findings of success are viewed as exceptions, so she offers the examples in hopes that they can become the typical educational experience of African American children.
Through teacher interviews, classroom observations, and personal reflections the author develops the idea of culturally relevant teaching. To demonstrate how culturally relevant teaching might improve education, she describes three programs that are used in educating African American children. The first is to ignore differences that exist. It is designed to remediate or accelerate progress without attending or acknowledging to students' social or cultural needs. The second is the idea that problems are rooted in pathology and children need to be removed from it, so African American children are socialized into mainstream behaviors and values while teaching them basic skills. The third is culturally relevant teaching, where differences are seen as strengths. The concept of culturally relevant teaching is the cornerstone in Ladson-Billings' argument to improve the educational experience for African Americans. Student learning is facilitated by capitalizing on students' own social and cultural background. The broad nature of this concept is a strength to its usefulness because teachers can accomplish this using many ways. Culturally relevant teaching is valid teaching style because it does not expect teachers to follow certain steps. Pedagogy that tells teachers to follow specific steps like teaching is a recipe is unrealistic and useless. Culturally relevant teaching practices can be used in countless teaching styles and curriculum because the underlying theme of appreciation of culture and differences will create a better learning environment and better results for African American children.

Today's urban public schools in the United States are filled with hopeful, eager students who are considered in the racial minority while many of the teachers they will encounter are white and female. In most cases, they do not share the same experiences nor view the world through the same lenses. In some cases, they are worlds apart. Ladson-Billings has constructed a book that provides insights, concepts and ideas that address the bridging of the cultural gap between African American students and teachers assimilated into the majority culture. This book is smart and useful as it addresses what all teachers can do to teach African American children with cultural competence. I strongly recommend this book to parents, prospective teachers, new teachers, veteran teachers and teacher-educators.

The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children
By, Gloria Ladson-Billings

Gloria Ladson-Billings starts this book by posing this question, "Do African American students need separate schools?" She concludes her studies by saying, "What African American students need are better schools." Her main argument throughout this book is that culturally relevant teaching practices would be a huge part of creating these "better schools." Ladson-Billings suggests that there are many key characteristics of culturally relevant teachers. Some of these consist of the teachers seeing themselves as an artist and teaching as an art, they believe that all students have the ability to succeed, they demonstrate a connectedness with all of their students, and they help students develop necessary skills for their lives. These are just a few of the many characteristics that have to do with culturally relevant teachers.
In order to find out more about culturally relevant teaching, Gloria Ladson-Billings conducted a study to find and examine culturally relevant teachers. She started out this study by asking parents and community members for the names of some teachers who were very successful at teaching African American students. Next she asked the principals of area schools to provide a list of successful teacher's names. Once eight of the same teacher's names appeared on both lists, and those teacher's agreed to participate, she stared her investigations. She combined classroom observations, interviews, and personal experience to come up with her argument for culturally relevant teaching.
Ladson-Billings' argument for culturally relevant teaching came about because she saw negative effects on students whose culture and history did not appear in their textbooks or in their lessons. She believes that African American students need to achieve academic success while still maintaining a positive African American identity. She believes that it is the teacher's responsibility to help the students want to choose academic success. In her study she had multiple teachers who were just like this. They did not care where these students were or what other people had said about these students, they knew that they could succeed and that they would succeed with their help. They, many times, would work with them on an individual level to help them in whatever way that they could. In the end, all of the students who were thought of as being difficult or not intelligent enough to learn certain skills, ended up learning what they needed to know and sometimes more. That is what made these teachers such great teachers.
Personally, I agree with these reasons to support culturally relevant teaching. I think that if students do not see their cultural history correctly displayed in textbooks or in lessons in the classroom this could cause the children to see themselves as insignificant or inferior to those of a different cultural or racial background. I also agree that African American students should and can achieve academic excellence while still maintaining a positive African American culture and identity. I think that it is a wonderful teacher who can do both of these things, help them achieve academic excellence and maintain a positive image of themselves and their background. I hope that I can be one of these wonderful teachers who can do that.
I also believe that Ladson-Billings' evidence for culturally relevant teaching is both convincing and relevant. Most of her evidence is given through her classroom observations and her interviews with the teachers. She shows that when a teacher is culturally relevant, the students end up learning more and in many cases the students like that class more. In situations where the teacher is not culturally relevant the children do not learn as much or as easily and do not enjoy the class to the same extent as the other students with culturally relevant teachers. In the final chapter of this book she talks about one of her student teachers who is too impatient and does not bring in any cultural relevance when trying to teach three sixth graders math. That teacher ended up sending those students back to their seats with homework that they had no idea how to complete. This would be an example of a teacher who is not culturally relevant. The result was that the students did not find it interesting and did not learn anything from the lesson.
The one problem that I do see with her study is that she only examined eight teachers. I think that is hardly enough to base a whole argument off of. I do think that is definitely a great start but it may be more helpful so study many more teachers. She also only studies African American students. She does not even begin to look at any other races. I believe that culturally relevant teaching would be a wonderful idea for both African American students and students of any other race.
Altogether, I think that Gloria Ladson-Billings makes a wonderful argument for culturally relevant teaching. Her main point is that students will learn better and will enjoy learning more if the lessons are culturally relevant and if the teacher is also. The only weakness that I saw with this argument is the amount of people that she studied. Overall, I think that this is a good argument and was a great book for a future teacher to read.

I am a college student majoring in Education and I had to read this book for my Education class. I really enjoyed the book. It provided excellent examples of how culturally relevant teaching can help African American students.I would suggest that all teachers, student teachers, and parents of African American children read this book. The book explain prospects for improving the academic performance and school experience for students.The book not only stated facts; but also gave examples of how to be successful in your teaching.This book will be a good reference book for anyone interested in educating African American children.

Ladson-Billings offers her readers the challenge to change teaching practices to be more culturally sensitive to individual student's needs, particularly of African American students. She portrays a culturally relevant style of teaching through the lenses of eight superior teachers and examines the possibilities of how this pedagogy can be incorporated into today's schools.

The Dreamkeepers isn't a necessarily groundbreaking book, but i think white teachers (or any teachers for that matter) who haven't had much experience working with african american children will find the book helpful. If you've read any other stuff that falls under anti-racist or critical pedagogy, there won't be much that is new in terms of concepts. But what i found most useful are her sketches of the eight or so teachers who are very successful with african american children. She talks about their their upbringing, how that has influenced their teaching practices, and why they are successful in the classroom.

I found the book to be quite interesting. I can certainly agree with some of the information in the book. However, I found the writer to be one sided on many of the issues. I know that everyone has their cultural differences but I feel that everyone can learn. I feel that it is so important for a teacher to bring honesty, sencerity and a desire to teach to the table when she enter the classroom. However, we all know that does not happen.

I was very impressed with the book, The Dreamkeepers:Successful Teachers of African American Children by Gloria Ladson-Billings. I would recommend it to all teachers whether they be white or black. I would also urge African American parents to read this book because it is very insightful about the academic needs of African American students and how those needs should be met. The goal of this book is to give insight on educating through "culturally relevant teaching". Gloria Ladson-Billings gives a perspective to teaching that many people may not have considered before reading this book. Through culturally relevant teaching, for African American children specifically, educators use black culture to maintain it. In too many instances African American history and culture are not represented in textbooks and curriculum and many times when it is represented it is distorted in some way. This neglect in accurately teaching black children gives them a negative outlook on life and their people. The specific examples used by the author show culturally relevant teaching at work and how it has been successful.