Texts Teachers Learn By

Teacher’s textbooks tend to bypass basic skills and knowledge and go straight to orientation.

Here are some of the latest titles from the Teachers College Press:

• A Critical Inquiry Framework for K-12 Teachers: Lessons and Resources from the U. N. Rights of the Child;

• The Wrong Kind of Different: Challenging the Meaning of Diversity in American Classrooms by University of Delaware sociologist Antonia Randolph. This sounds promising until you read the blurb and find that it merely dissects the superficial use of the D word to advocate more of the same: “Through extensive interviews conducted in a large Midwestern district, Antonia Randolph explores how teachers perceive students from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds and the unintended consequences of a kind of ‘colorblind multiculturalism.’ She unearths a hierarchy of acceptance and legitimacy that excludes most poor Black students and favors certain immigrant minorities.” ;

• What Every Principal Needs To Know To Create Equitable And Excellent Schools: “Key scholars show how to put into practice a commitment to equity and excellence across the Pre-K-12 spectrum. Readers learn directly from experts in each of the content domains (literacy, mathematics, science, social studies, music, early childhood, special education, English language learners, world languages, and physical education) how a commitment to social justice and equity can be grounded in core subject areas, why each has a place in the school, and what they need to know and do in each subject area.” ;

• Literacy for a Better World by Laura Schneider VanDerPloeg who “doesn’t just inspire us with cool perspectives and ideas about social justice teaching, she shows us how it works in real classrooms,” according to the forward by David Schaafsma of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

• Socially Responsible Literacy: Teaching Adolescents for Purpose and Power by Paula M. Selvester and Deborah G. Summers of California State University-Chico. “The ideas and reflections that come with each chapter guide teachers and students to specific roles and responsibilities that generate respect and hope,” Shirley Brice Heath of Stanford writes in the foreword.

Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia.

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