Customer Reviews

Human Diversity in Education: An Integrative Approach

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One thing is certain - no matter how much US Americans may wax poetically about the good old days when things, including public education, were much more simple, those days are not going to return. As recent census data has indicated, the demographics of the US are continuing to change and the nation is getting more and more diverse. Within the next forty years, those of us living may witness a changing of the majority guard from White to Biracial and Hispanic/Chicano Americans.

That being the case, pre-service teachers and those considering a career in education need to be able to work with those most unlike them. They will need to examine the barriers they have build in their own mind, and create new categories for dealing with difference. The text points out that most pre-service teachers want to work in communities similar from whence they came. With the present teaching force being made up of an 88% White-Middle-Class and 66% female, well, that may not be a reality for those pre-service teachers once they become certified. Human diversity in education: an integrative approach addresses many of the issues that pre-service teachers and others who wish to (or actually do) work in education must understand.

This text is excellent for illuminating diversity and multiculturalism. It is rich in information and resources and information. It will be a most welcome addition to the shelf of any educator or student serious about diversity and multicultural education.

I am not really a fan of textbooks, and many that I have been prescribed to read have been rather dry in content and delivery. This is not the case with "Human Diversity in Education" which was a recommended text in my grad class. The writing style is not at all dry, in fact, it makes for engaging and informative reading, and I breezed through it quite quickly. The text is organized quite effectively, covering a multitude of issues to do with diversity and multiculturalism:
Chapter 1 deals with education in a changing society, providing ideological perspectives on multicultural education.
Chapter 2 covers the historical and theoretical perspectives to do with multicultural education.
Chapter 3 explores culture and the culture-learning process, with various definitions of culture, socializing agents, etc.
Chapter 4 covers classrooms and schools as cultural crossroads
Chapter 5 focuses on intercultural development.
Chapter 6 is on creating classrooms that address race and ethnicity.
Chapter 7 deals with the classroom as a global community, covering curriculum transformation ,among others.
Chapter 8 is on developing learning communities, learning and learning style.
Chapter 9 explores religious pluralism in secular classrooms.
Chapter 10 discusses collaborative classrooms, and also gender and sexual orientation.
Chapter 11 explores the importance of age and developmental status in creating developmentally appropriate classrooms.
Chapter 12 discusses the inclusive classroom.
Chapter 13 looks at the role of social class and social status in teaching and learning.

At the end of each chapter, there is a summary, a chapter review, key terms,active exercise, reflective questions, endnotes, and references. The book also has a glossary, name index, and subject index.

All in all, this is a great resource and go-to text for pre-service teachers, educators, and anyone who has an interest in the issue of diversity as it applies to the field of education and more. Insightful, informative, and interesting!

Human Diversity in Education is a great supplemental or support text for a diversity course in education or for any teacher or student who wants to know more about the historical and social perspectives of student diversity in American schools. The importance of language use and learning styles is emphasized and research is presented (although the text does not present an in-depth discussion of current research or applications). The only negative is the lack of coverage on individual diversity, although the absence of text book opinions and presentation can spark great discussions in class!! Overall, an extremely well organized and easy to read text!!

This is the textbook for my Cultural Awareness class this semester. So far it has been an excellent book that is very detailed.
The authors address the topic of multicultural education, the reasons for it and the natural human reactions to it.

To be honest, I was expecting this book to be a collection of politically correct truisms, with its head in the clouds and no basis in actual practicality. It does occasionally fall into that trap, suggesting virtually simultaneously, for instance, that we must not allow those with minority sexual preferences to be marginalized by their peers (a concept that I'm perfectly on-board with, by the way) AND insisting that we have to respect and acknowledge the validity of the religious beliefs of all students (even, presumably, those whose religions teach that homosexuality is an abomination.) Now, I'll admit that both of these things sound like excellent goals, but if you can tell me how to accomplish both simultaneously, you're doing better than this book did.

Still, the book was far less dominated by this sort of problem than I'd expected, and actually contained a lot of very thought-provoking, interesting information and ideas for discussion. What's more, it was actually one of the best-edited textbooks that I've seen, having only about five grammatical/typo type errors in it, which is far fewer than I've been forced to come to expect. ("That continues be..." rather than "continues to be..." in the preface on page xviii, "The Educational of All Handicapped Children Act..." rather than "The Education of..." on page 48, in the "1982" section of the table on issues of disability, "...how to adopt to those differences,..." rather than "adapt", on page 160, "Television, radio, film, and the Internet has spread..." rather than "have spread" on page 227, as well as the less clearly wrong, but somewhat awkward construction of "ameliorating the major problems we confront (e.g. global warming, preserving the environment, increasing poverty, and the loss of community) on page 333; personally, I don't consider preserving the environment to be a "problem" like the others listed; DESTRCUTION of the environment is a problem of that sort; preserving the environment is a challenge, not a "problem". Also, on page 427, "(Stevie) does face extra challenges due to his diagnosis of Down Syndrome." No, the challenges do not stem from the DIAGNOSIS. They stem from the Down syndrome. Being diagnosed has not added a single challenge to the boy's life; it has probably eased a few of them.

It's not new, given the OK condition of the book but I did get what was promised and not only that but I also got it earlier than the expected date of arrival.

I recived it fast and it was exactly as i was told. thank you very much. im very satisfied !!!

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I'd say the best reads are college issue teacher text books. The writing in this is actually good, it's not Harry Potter but I've read both my teacher text books for college and haven't been overly bored yet. I took the class for this text on line, haven't had a problem with it yet. Not convoluted or overly verbose. Good photos and graphs. Small chapters as well, always a plus.

This is a great overview of the issues related to diversity and cross-cultural competence in education. This book is geared toward teachers but is also useful for school psychologists and other educational professionals. I was impressed to see that the book references The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman's important work about issues related to globalization. The chapters about the changing demographics of the US and the important implications of our newly globalized economy were innovative and helpful. The case studies were also a useful tool in the book.
This text was used for a graduate level course in diversity I recently finished. It was not quite advanced enough for the rigour of the course. The book worked well when supplimented by more in-depth articles from original authors in the field. Despite the slightly overly general nature of the text, it was well written and effective overall.