Customer Reviews

Shooting for Excellence: African American and Youth Culture in New Century Schools

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I was impressed and excited with Shooting for Excellence, a wonderful blend of academic research, authentic pedagogical insight, and inspiring social awareness. Mahiri brings classroom and community-based reseatch to explore language learning that has won success among mostly minority and male students. He shows how building on African American youth culture and experiences fosters student ownership and achievement. It is the task of teachers to apply creative social and cultural awareness to these cultures, in order to address their historically oppositional nature. Mahiri's thesis is based on the oppositional nature of African American and other marginalized group cultures. In order to address these cultures, the writer analyses literacy practices outside of school. An important assumption is also the transformative potential of teaching practices which "make viable connections between streets and schools to create more shareable cultural worlds for learning." He also looks at teacher-aided struggle for voice through the development of writing skills. This leads to a study of change in classroom discourse and culture, and ways of reflecting diversity in the curriculum. Mahiri concludes by imagining new century schools as building on cultural diversity yet aiming for cultural transformation, teaching students the knowledge, skills and values that promote "nonoppressive human interactions that increase the prospects of individuals finding their personal gold." The concept of that knowledge and those values, however, is juxtaposed with, and oppositional to, Bloom's and Hirsch's belief that schools should transmit an ageless body of authoritative books and references that are representative of American heritage. Mahiri's notion of teachable values and knowledge is therefore dynamic and contextualized within the ferment of social activism and human rights discourse. Mahiri's notion of teaching as coaching or mentoring is of particular interest to me. I wonder how far Mahiri's notions--coaching, culturally responsive teaching, and the development of empowering literacies-are tied to the teacher who share cultural identity with his/her students. It seems to me that these connotations are essential to the notions mentioned, especially but not solely in the case of minority or disadvantaged students. I also wonder if certain marginalized cultures would be more apt to foster the notion of teacher as mentor and coach, than privileged ones.