Resources for Greater Understanding of Diversity Issues

by James S. Foster

Published in SEDL Letter Volume XII, Number 2, December 2000, Diversity in Our Schools: New Opportunities for Teaching and Learning

Minority teacher recruitment

The Policy Information Center of the Educational Testing Service has developed a series of reports, titled Teaching for Diversity: Models for Expanding the Supply of Minority Teachers, that underscore the need to increase the number of minority teachers in America as well as offers concrete recommendations for pursuing this goal. The studies also argue for the need for all teachers — regardless of their race and culture — to become more knowledgeable about diversity issues and better equipped to work with the changing student populations in their classrooms. Teaching for Diversity: Models for Expanding the Supply of Minority Teachers is available for $6.50, prepaid. Make check or money order payable to the Educational Testing Service. Send requests to the Policy Information Center, 04-R, Rosedale Road, Princeton, NJ 08541. A summary of the report is available at http://www.ets.org/.
First published in 1996 and updated in 2000, the National Education Association National Directory of Successful Strategies for the Recruitment and Retention of Minority Teachers provides introductory, summary, and contact information for specific recruitment programs operated by the states, universities, school districts, and education associations. Also included is a comprehensive bibliography of additional works of interest. More information about the directory and NEA’s efforts is available at http://www.nea.org/recruit/minority/ (Note: link no longer active 7/2004).
Teaching for Diversity is the report of a SEDL workshop that examined two related policy issues critical for teacher education: the need to prepare a teaching force able to work with and teach effectively an increasingly diverse student population and the need to increase the representation of teachers of color in the teaching force. This report can be read on-line at http://www.sedl.org/pubs/policy09/.
In September 2000, the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education published Educating the Emerging Majority: The Role of Minority-Serving Colleges & Universities in Confronting America’s Teacher Crises. The 48-page paper discusses not only the role of minority—serving institutions (MSIs) in graduating minority teaching candidates, but the demand for teachers of color and the public policy challenges facing MSIs. It also includes case studies of teacher education programs at selected MSIs around the country. The paper may be downloaded from http://www.ihep.org/assets/files/publications/a-f/EducatingEmergingMajority.pdf.
Additional information on teacher recruitment issues, including minority and urban teacher recruitment, can be found at the "Recruiting New Teachers" Web site (link no longer active 10/2009). Included at this site are issues of "Future Teacher," a newsletter about recruiting, developing, and supporting a qualified and diverse teacher workforce.

Digital divide

"While the number of Americans connected to the nation’s information infrastructure is soaring, minorities, low-income persons, the less educated, and children of single-parent households, particularly when they reside in rural areas and central cities, are among the groups that lack access to information resources." This is the summation of the 1999 study Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, the third and latest of a series of U.S. Department of Commerce reports on American’s access to telephones, computers, and the Internet. You can read it on-line. Other reports can be accessed via the department’s recently established Web site Closing the Digital Divide (link no longer active 10/2009), a comprehensive clearinghouse for information related to efforts to provide all Americans with access to the Internet and other information technologies.
"Even as digital technologies are bringing an exciting array of new opportunities to many Americans, they actually are aggravating the poverty and isolation that plague some rural areas and inner cities," claim the authors of Losing Ground Bit by Bit: Low-Income Communities in the Information Age, a report of the Benton Foundation. This report is available online and highlights what is needed to alleviate the discrepancies in access to information technology and resources and profiles a series of programs and initiatives that are working in underserved communities.
The Benton Foundation, in association with the National Urban League, has also produced the Digital Divide Network, (link no longer active 10/2009) a Web site designed to enable and facilitate the sharing of ideas, information, and creative solutions among industry partners, private foundations, nonprofit organizations, and governments focused on narrowing the growing gap between those who have access to technology and information skills and those who do not have such access.

Equity

Funded by the National Science Foundation, Weaving Gender Equity Into Math Reform seeks to assist staff developers, curriculum writers, and school leaders in expanding the equity content of their workshops, videos, and written materials for teachers. The project is investigating the specific question of gender equity in mathematics education reform, as well as the larger equity issues that these reforms pose for students from various academic, socioeconomic, and linguistic backgrounds. The project has published a highly relevant set of materials, all available electronically at its Web site. Visit Weaving Gender Equity into Math Reform at http://www.terc.edu/wge/
We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools Published in 1999 by Teacher’s College Press, this book seeks to discover what it means to be a culturally competent teacher in racially diverse schools. Using stories from his 25 years of experience as an educator, the author engages the reader with the personal and professional transformations he faced as he explored his own perceptions of race, education, and society.

We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know was written by Gary Howard. It can be ordered at a cost of $20.95 by calling 1-800-575-6566. Additional information on this and other associated titles can be viewed on-line at http://www.teacherscollegepress.com
A Hope in the Unseen: An American Odyssey from the Inner City to the Ivy League. Written by Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind, and based on his Pulitzer Prize-winning series of articles, this universally acclaimed book tells the story of an inner-city child’s social and educational experience from high school through his first year at Brown University. With acute reporting and meticulous narration, Suskind paints a vivid portrait of minority issues, educational opportunity, economic hardship, and a young man’s intellectual struggles and successes.

A Hope in the Unseen was published in paperback in 1999 by Broadway Books and is widely available through bookstores. More information on this book can be viewed on-line at http://www.randomhouse.com/broadway/index_home.html
Holler If You Hear Me: The Education of a Teacher and His Students Published in 1999 by Teacher’s College Press, this book couples the author’s transformation as a teacher with the first-person narratives of his students. Acclaimed for its attention to the voices of the students in a large urban school system, this book serves as a model for engaging diverse students and their creativity.

Holler If You Hear Me was written by Chicago public school teacher Gregory Michie. It can be ordered at a cost of $19.95 by calling 1-800-575-6566. Additional information on this and other associated titles can be viewed on-line at http://www.teacherscollegepress.com

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