Educating African American Students ─ And How Are the Children?

Focused on preparing educators to teach African American students, this straightforward and teacher-friendly text features a careful balance of published scholarship, a framework for culturally relevant and critical pedagogy, research-based case studies of model teachers, and tested culturally relevant practical strategies and actionable steps teachers can adopt. Its premise is that teachers who understand Black culture as an asset rather than a liability and utilize teaching techniques that have been shown to work can and do have specific positive impacts on the educational experiences of African American children.

Each chapter begins with one to three key propositions or ideas and includes foundational knowledge and insights that effective teachers use to guide their teaching. The text addresses major elements shown to be useful for effectively educating African American students are addressed—wisdom from existing knowledge bases, educators’ dispositions, instructional strategies, and curricular transformations—and emphasizes four major teaching strategies: critical literacy, counternarratives, culturally relevant teaching, and contrastive analysis. Culturally relevant teaching exemplars for African American students from different content areas and grade levels are presented, along with commentaries about related issues to consider.

Gloria Swindler Boutte is Yvonne and Schuyler Moore Child Advocacy Distinguished Chair, University of South Carolina, USA.