The Dreamkeepers by Gloria Ladson-Billings

The book’s main thesis is that, while there is not necessarily a single “right” way to improve student achievement, there are important commonalities among the ten or so teachers’s approaches that Ladson-Billings profiles. This book takes as its aim a focus on teachers who have success with African American children.

I’ll skip the book’s background and just say that I have been intrigued by culturally relevant / responsive / sustaining pedagogy for a few years now, and as always, I wanted to go back to the source, which Ladson-Billings, and especially this book, are. At just 156 pages (minus a second-edition afterward, and a lengthy appendix), it’s not long, and it’s also written in that hard-to-achieve balance between academically authoritative and literate / accessible. This is a classic, and I really enjoyed it. Appendixes address methodological and contextual issues.Book: The Dreamkeepers, by Gloria Ladson-Billings The final chapter examines prospects for improving the academic performance and the school experiences of African-American students. Chapter 6 focuses on three teachers in the study and their teaching of elementary literacy and mathematics programs. Chapters 3, 4, and 5 discuss three critical aspects of culturally relevant teaching: the teachers' conceptions of themselves and others the manner in which classroom social interaction is structured and the teachers' conception of knowledge. The chapter identifies a lack in the literature on the experiences of African-American students specifically and offers culturally relevant teaching as a way to address this gap. Chapter 2 discusses the growing educational and anthropological literature on ways in which schools can be made more compatible with the students' cultural backgrounds. Chapter 1 points to the growing disaffection of African Americans with the kind of education their children receive today in the public schools. The author reports on the positive results of culturally conscious education and highlights eight teachers who, though they differ in personal style and methods, share an approach to teaching that strengthens cultural identity. This book highlights several individuals and programs that have been responsible for improving the academic achievement of African-American students.

The Dreamkeepers by Gloria Ladson-Billings