culturally responsive teaching

oreomocha12

but_that_s_just_ladson-billings_pdf.pdf

Home >Social Science homework help >culturally responsive teaching

Gloria Ladson-Billings

But That's Just Good Teaching! The Case for Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

FOR THE PAST 6 YEARS I have been engaged in

research with excellent teachers of African American

students (see, for example, Ladson-Billings, 1990,

1992b, 1992c, 1994). Given the dismal academic

performance of many African American students (The

College Board, 1985), I am not surprised that various

administrators, teachers, and teacher educators have

asked me to share and discuss my findings so that

they might incorporate them in their work. One usual

response to what I share is the comment around which

I have based this article, "But, that's just good

teaching!" Instead of some "magic bullet" or intricate

formula and steps for instruction, some members of

my audience are shocked to hear what seems to them

like some rather routine teaching strategies that are a

part of good teaching. My response is to affirm that,

indeed, I am describing good teaching, and to

question why so little of it seems to be occurring in

the classrooms populated by African American

students.

The pedagogical excellence I have studied is

good teaching, but it is much more than that. This

article is an attempt to describe a pedagogy I have

come to identify as "culturally relevant" (Ladson-

Billings, 1992a) and to argue for its centrality in the

academic success of African American and other

children who have not been well served by our

nation's public schools. First, I provide some

background information about

Gloria Ladson-Billings is associate professor of education at the

University of Wisconsin-Madison.

THEORY lNTO PRACTICE, Volume 34, Number 3, Summer 1995

other attempts to look at linkages between school

and culture. Next, I discuss the theoretical grounding

of culturally relevant teaching in the context of a 3-

year study of successful teachers of African

American students. I conclude this discussion with

further examples of this pedagogy in action.

Linking Schooling and Culture

Native American educator Cornel Pewewardy

(1993) asserts that one of the reasons Indian children

experience difficulty in schools is that educators

traditionally have attempted to insert culture into the

education, instead of inserting education into the

culture. This notion is, in all probability, true for

many students who are not a part of the White,

middle-class mainstream. For almost 15 years,

anthropologists have looked at ways to develop a

closer fit between students' home culture and the

school. This work has had a variety of labels

including "culturally appropriate" (Au & Jordan,

1981), "culturally congruent" (Mohatt & Erickson,

1981), "culturally responsive" (Cazden & Leggett,

1981; Erickson & Mohatt, 1982), and "culturally

compatible" (Jordan, 1985; Vogt, Jordan, & Tharp,

1987). It has attempted to locate the problem of

discontinuity between what students experience at

home and what they experience at school in the

speech and language interactions of teachers and

students. These sociolinguists have suggested that if

students' home language is incorporated into the

classroom, students are more likely to experience

academic success.

THEORY INTO PRACTICE / Summer 1995

Culturally Relevant Teaching

Villegas (1988), however, has argued that these micro-

ethnographic studies fail to deal adequately with the

macro social context in which student failure takes place.

A concern I have voiced about studies situated in speech

and language interactions is that, in general, few have

considered the needs of African American students. 1

Irvine (1990) dealt with the lack of what she

termed "cultural synchronization" between teachers and

African American students. Her analysis included the

micro-level classroom interactions, the "midlevel"

institutional context (i.e., school practices and policies

such as tracking and disciplinary practices), and the

macro-level societal context. More recently Perry's

(1993) analysis has included the historical context of the

African American's educational struggle. All of this

work--micro through macro level--has contributed to my

conception of culturally relevant pedagogy.

What is Culturally Relevant Pedagogy?

In the current attempts to improve pedagogy,

several scholars have advanced well-conceived

conceptions of pedagogy. Notable among these scholars

are Shulman (1987), whose work conceptualizes

pedagogy as consisting of subject matter knowledge,

pedagogical knowledge, and pedagogical content

knowledge, and Berliner (1988), who doubts the ability

of expert pedagogues to relate their expertise to novice

practitioners. More recently, Bartolome (1994) has

decried the search for the "right" teaching strategies and

argued for a "humanizing pedagogy that respects and

uses the reality, history, and perspectives of students as

an integral part of educational practice" (p. 173).

I have defined culturally relevant teaching as a

pedagogy of opposition (1992c) not unlike critical

pedagogy but specifically committed to collective, not

merely individual, empowerment. Culturally relevant

pedagogy rests on three criteria or propositions: (a)

Students must experience academic success; (b) students

must develop and/or maintain cultural competence; and

through which they challenge the status quo of the

current social order.

Academic success

Despite the current social inequities and hostile

classroom environments, students must develop their

160

academic skills. The way those skills are developed

may vary, but all students need literacy, numeracy,

technological, social, and political skills in order to be

active participants in a democracy. During the 1960s

when African Americans were fighting for civil rights,

one of the primary battlefronts was the classroom

(Morris, 1984). Despite the federal government's failed

attempts at adult literacy in the South, civil rights

workers such as Septima Clark and Esau Jenkins

(Brown, 1990) were able to teach successfully those

same adults by ensuring that the students learned that

which was most meaningful to them. This approach is

similar to that advocated by noted critical pedagogue

Paulo Freire (1970).

While much has been written about the need to

improve the self-esteem of African American stu-dents

(see for example, Banks & Grambs, 1972; Branch &

Newcombe, 1986; Crooks, 1970), at base students must

demonstrate academic competence. This was a clear

message given by the eight teachers who participated in

my study. 2 All of the teachers demanded, reinforced,

and produced academic ex-cellence in their students.

Thus, culturally relevant teaching requires that teachers

attend to students' academic needs, not merely make

them "feel good." The trick of culturally relevant

teaching is to get students to "choose" academic

excellence.

In one of the classrooms I studied, the teacher,

Ann Lewis 3 , focused a great deal of positive attention

on the African American boys (who were the numerical

majority in her class). Lewis, a White woman,

recognized that the African American boys possessed

social power. Rather than allow that power to influence

their peers in negative ways, Lewis challenged the boys

to demonstrate academic power by drawing on issues

and ideas they found meaningful. As the boys began to

take on academic leadership, other students saw this as

a positive trait and developed similar behaviors. Instead

of entering into an antagonistic relationship with the

boys, Lewis found ways to value their skills and

abilities and channel them in academically important

ways.

Cultural competence

Culturally relevant teaching requires that students

maintain some cultural integrity as welt as academic

excellence. In their widely cited article, Fordham and

Ogbu (1986) point to a phenomenon called "acting

White," where African American

Ladson-Billings

But That’s Just Good Teaching!

students fear being ostracized by their peers for dem-

onstrating interest in and succeeding in academic and

other school related tasks. Other scholars (Hollins, 1994;

King, 1994) have provided alternate explana-tions of this

behavior. 4 They suggest that for too many African

American students, the school remains an alien and

hostile place. This hostility is manifest in the "styling"

and "posturing" (Majors & Billson, 1992) that the school

rejects. Thus, the African American student wearing a

hat in class or baggy pants may be sanctioned for

clothing choices rather than specific behaviors. School is

perceived as a place where African American students

cannot "be themselves."

Culturally relevant teachers utilize students' culture

as a vehicle for learning. Patricia Hilliard's love of

poetry was shared with her students through their own

love of rap music. Hilliard is an African American

woman who had taught in a variety of schools, both

public and private for about 12 years. She came into

teaching after having stayed at home for many years to

care for her family. The mother of a teenaged son,

Hilliard was familiar with the music that permeates

African American youth culture. In-stead of railing

against the supposed evils of rap music, Hilliard allowed

her second grade students to bring in samples of lyrics

from what both she and the students determined to be

non-offensive rap songs. 1

Students were encouraged to

perform the songs and the teacher reproduced them on

an overhead so that they could discuss literal and

figurative meanings as well as technical aspects of

poetry such as rhyme scheme, alliteration, and

onomatopoeia.

Thus, while the students were comfortable us-ing

their music, the teacher used it as a bridge to school

learning. Their understanding of poetry far exceeded

what either the state department of education or the local

school district required. Hilliard's work is an example of

how academic achievement and cultural competence can

be merged.

Another way teachers can support cultural

competence was demonstrated by Gertrude Winston, a

White woman who has taught school for 40 years. 6

Winston worked hard to involve parents in her

classroom. She created an "artist or craftsperson-in-

residence" program so that the students could both learn

from each other's parents and affirm cultural knowledge.

Winston developed a rapport with parents and invited

them to come into the classroom for I or 2 hours at a

time for a period of 2-4 days. The parents, in

consultation with Winston, demonstrated skills upon

which Winston later built.

For example, a parent who was known in the

community for her delicious sweet potato pies did a 2-

day residency in Winston's fifth grade classroom. On

the first day, she taught a group of students 7 how to

make the pie crust. Winston provided supplies for the

pie baking and the students tried their hands at making

the crusts. They placed them in the refrigerator

overnight and made the filling the following day. The

finished pies were served to the entire class.

The students who participated in the "seminar"

were required to conduct additional research on var-

ious aspects of what they learned. Students from the pie

baking seminar did reports on George Washing-ton

Carver and his sweet potato research, conducted taste

tests, devised a marketing plan for selling pies, and

researched the culinary arts to find out what kind of

preparation they needed to become cooks and chefs.

Everyone in Winston's class was required to write a

detailed thank you note to the artist/crafts-person.

Other residencies were done by a carpenter, a

former professional basketball player, a licensed prac-

tical nurse, and a church musician. All of Winston's

guests were parents or relatives of her students. She did

not "import" role models with whom the students did

not have firsthand experience. She was deliberate, in

reinforcing that the parents were a knowledgeable and

capable resource. Her students came to understand the

constructed nature of things such as "art," "excellence,"

and "knowledge." They also learned that what they had

and where they came from was of value.

A third example of maintaining cultural com-

petence was demonstrated by Ann Lewis, a White

woman whom I have described as "culturally Black"

(Ladson-Billings, 1992b; 1992c). In her sixth grade

classroom, Lewis encouraged the students to use their

home language while they acquired the secondary

discourse (Gee, 1989) of "standard" English. Thus, her

students were permitted to express themselves in

language (in speaking and writing) with which they

were knowledgeable and comfortable. They were then

required to "translate" to the standard form. By the end

of the year, the students were not only facile at this

"code-switching" (Smitherman, 1981) but could better

use both languages.

161

THEORY INTO PRACTICE / Summer 1995

Culturally Relevant Teaching

Critical consciousness

Culturally relevant teaching does not imply that it

is enough for students to chose academic excel-lence and

remain culturally grounded if those skills and abilities

represent only an individual achievement. Beyond those

individual characteristics of academic achievement and

cultural competence, students must develop a broader

sociopolitical consciousness that allows them to critique

the cultural norms, values, mores, and institutions that

produce and maintain social inequities. If school is about

preparing students for active citizenship, what better

citizenship tool than the ability to critically analyze the

society?

Freire brought forth the notion of "conscienti-

zation," which is "a process that invites learners to

engage the world and others critically" (McLaren, 1989,

p. 195). However, Freire's work in Brazil was not

radically different from work that was being done in the

southern United States (Chilcoat & Ligon, 1994) to

educate and empower African Americans who were

disenfranchised.

In the classrooms of culturally relevant teach-ers,

students are expected to "engage the world and others

critically." Rather than merely bemoan the fact that their

textbooks were out of date, several of the teachers in the

study, in conjunction with their students, critiqued the

knowledge represented in the textbooks, and the system

of inequitable funding that allowed middle-class students

to have newer texts. They wrote letters to the editor of

the local newspaper to inform the community of the

situation, The teachers also brought in articles and

papers that rep-resented counter knowledge to help the

students develop multiple perspectives on a variety of

social and historical phenomena.

Another example of this kind of teaching was

reported in a Dallas newspaper (Robinson, 1993). A

group of African American middle school students were

involved in what they termed "community problem

solving" (see Tate, this issue). The kind of social action

curriculum in which the students participated is similar

to that advocated by scholars who argue that students

need to be "centered" (Asante, 1991; Tate, 1994) or the

subjects rather than the objects of study.

Culturally Relevant Teaching in Action

As previously mentioned, this article and its

theoretical undergirding come from a 3-year study of

successful teachers of African American students.

162

The teachers who participated in the study were ini-

tially selected by African American parents who be-

lieved them to be exceptional. Some of the parents'

reasons for selecting the teachers were the enthusiasm

their children showed in school and learning while in

their classrooms, the consistent level of respect they

received from the teachers, and their perception that the

teachers understood the need for the students to operate

in the dual worlds of their home community and the

White community.

In addition to the parents' recommendations, I

solicited principals' recommendations. Principals'

reasons for recommending teachers were the low

number of discipline referrals, the high attendance

rates, and standardized test scores. 8

Teachers whose

names appeared as both parents' and principals' rec-

ommendations were asked to participate in the study.

Of the nine teachers' names who appeared on both lists,

eight were willing to participate. Their partici-pation

required an in-depth ethnographic interview (Spradley,

1979), unannounced classroom visitations, videotaping

of their teaching, and participation in a research

collective with the other teachers in the study. This

study was funded for 2 years. In a third year I did a

follow-up study of two of the teachers to investigate

their literacy teaching (Ladson-Billings, 1992b; 1992c).

Initially, as I observed the teachers I could not see

patterns or similarities in their teaching. Some seemed

very structured and regimented, using daily routines

and activities. Others seemed more open or

unstructured. Learning seemed to emerge from stu-dent

initiation and suggestions. Still others seemed eclectic-

very structured for certain activities and unstructured

for others. It seemed to be a researcher's nightmare-no

common threads to pull their practice together in order

to relate it to others. The thought of their pedagogy as

merely idiosyncratic, a product of their personalities

and individual perspectives, left me both frustrated and

dismayed. However, when I was able to go back over

their interviews and later when we met together as a

group to discuss their practice, I could see that in order

to understand their practice it was necessary to go

beyond the surface features of teaching "strategies"

(Bartolome, 1994). The philosophical and ideological

underpinnings of their practice, i.e. how they thought

about themselves as teachers and how they thought

about others (their students, the students' parents, and

other

Ladson-Billings

But That’s Just Good Teaching!

community members), how they structured social

relations within and outside of the classroom, and how

they conceived of knowledge, revealed their similarities

and points of congruence. 9

All of the teachers identified strongly with

teaching. They were not ashamed or embarrassed about

their professions. Each had chosen to teach and, more

importantly, had chosen to teach in this low-income,

largely African American school district. The teachers

saw themselves as a part of the community and teaching

as a way to give back to the community. They

encouraged their students to do the same. They believed

their work was artistry, not a technical task that could be

accomplished in a recipe-like fashion. Fundamental to

their beliefs about teaching was that all of the students

could and must succeed. Consequently, they saw their

responsibility as working to guarantee the success of

each student. The students who seemed furthest behind

received plenty of individual attention and

encouragement.

The teachers kept the relations between them-

selves and their students fluid and equitable. They

encouraged the students to act as teachers, and they,

themselves, often functioned as learners in the class-

room. These fluid relationships extended beyond the

classroom and into the community. Thus, it was com-

mon for the teachers to be seen attending community

functions (e.g., churches, students' sports events) and

using community services (e.g., beauty parlors, stores).

The teachers attempted to create a bond with all of the

students, rather than an idiosyncratic, individualistic

connection that might foster an unhealthy

competitiveness. This bond was nurtured by the teachers'

insistence on creating a community of learn-ers as a

priority. They encouraged the students to learn

collaboratively, teach each other, and be responsible for

each other's learning.

As teachers in the same district, the teachers in this

study were responsible for meeting the same state and

local curriculum guidelines. 10 However, the way they

met and challenged those guidelines helped to define

them as culturally relevant teachers. For these teachers,

knowledge is continuously recreated, recycled, and

shared by the teachers and the students. Thus, they were

not dependent on state curriculum frameworks or

textbooks to decide what and how to teach.

For example, if the state curriculum framework

called for teaching about the "age of exploration,"

they used this as an opportunity to examine conven-

tional interpretations and introduce alternate ones. The

content of the curriculum was always open to critical

analysis.

The teachers exhibited a passion about what they

were teaching-showing enthusiasm and vitality about

what was being taught and learned. When students

came to them with skill deficiencies, the teachers

worked to help the students build bridges or scaffolding

so that they could be proficient in the more challenging

work they experienced in these classrooms.

For example, in Margaret Rossi's sixth grade

class, all of the students were expected to learn alge-

bra. For those who did not know basic number facts,

Rossi provided calculators. She believed that by us-ing

particular skills in context (e.g., multiplication and

division in the context of solving equations), the

students would become more proficient at those skills

while acquiring new learning.

Implications for Further Study

I believe this work has implications for both the

research and practice communities. For researchers, I

suggest that this kind of study must be replicated again

and again. We need to know much more about the

practice of successful teachers for African American

and other students who have been poorly served by our

schools. We need to have an opportunity to explore

alternate research paradigms that include the voices of

parents and communities in non-exploitative ways. 11

For practitioners, this research reinforces the fact

that the place to find out about classroom practices is

the naturalistic setting of the classroom and from the

lived experiences of teachers. Teachers need not shy

away from conducting their own research about their

practice (Zeichner & Tabachnick, 1991). Their unique

perspectives and personal investment in good practice

must not be overlooked. For both groups-researchers

and practitioners alike-this work is designed to

challenge us to reconsider what we mean by "good"

teaching, to look for it in some unlikely places, and to

challenge those who suggest it cannot be made

available to all children.

Notes

1. Some notable exceptions to this failure to consider

achievement strategies for African American students

are

163

THEORY INTO PRACTICE / Summer 1995

Culturally Relevant Teaching

Ways With Words (Heath, 1983); "Fostering Early Liter-

acy Through Parent Coaching" (Edwards, 1991); and

"Achieving Equal Educational Outcomes for Black Chil-

dren" (Hale-Benson, 1990).

2. I have written extensively about this study, its meth-

odology, findings, and results elsewhere. For a full dis-

cussion of the study, see Ladson-Billings (1994).

3. All study participants' names are pseudonyms.

4. At the 1994 annual meeting of the American Educa-

tional Research Association, King and Hollins presented

a symposium entitled, "The Burden of Acting White

Revisited."

5. The teacher acknowledged the racism, misogyny, and

explicit sexuality that is a part of the lyrics of some rap

songs. Thus, the students were directed to use only those

songs they felt they could "sing to their parents."

6. Winston retired after the first year of the study but

continued to participate in the research collaborative

throughout the study.

7. Because the residency is more than a demonstration

and requires students to work intensely with the artist or

craftsperson, students must sign up for a particular artist.

The typical group size was 5-6 students.

8. Standardized test scores throughout this district were

very low. However, the teachers in the study

distinguished themselves because students in their

classrooms consistently produced higher test scores than

their grade level colleagues.

9. As I describe the teachers I do not mean to suggest

that they had no individual personalities or practices.

However, what I was looking for in this study were ways

to describe the commonalties of their practice. Thus,

while this discussion of culturally relevant teaching may

appear to infer an essentialized notion of teaching prac-

tice, none is intended. Speaking in this categorical man-

ner is a heuristic for research purposes.

10. The eight teachers were spread across four schools in

the district and were subjected to the specific admin-

istrative styles of four different principals.

11. Two sessions at the 1994 annual meeting of the

American Educational Research Association in New Or-

leans entitled, "Private Lives in Public Conversations:

Ethics of Research Across Communities of Color," dealt

with concerns for the ethical standards of research in

non-White communities.

References: Asante, M.K. (1991). The Afrocentric idea in education.

Journal of Negro Education, 60, 170-180.

Au, K., & Jordan, C. (1981). Teaching reading to Hawaiian

164

children: Finding a culturally appropriate solution. In H.

Trueba, G. Guthrie, & K. Au (Eds.), Culture and the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography

(pp, 69-86). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Banks, J., & Grambs, J. (Eds.). (1972). Black self-concept:

Implications for educational and social sciences, New York: McGraw-Hill.

Bartolome, L (1994), Beyond the methods fetish: Toward a

humanizing pedagogy. Harvard Educational Review, 64,

173-194.

Berliner, D. (1988, October). Implications of studies of expertise

in pedagogy for teacher education and evaluation. In New

directions for teacher assessment (Invitational conference proceedings). New York: Educational Testing Service.

Branch, C., & Newcombe, N. (1986). Racial attitudes among

young Black children as a function of parental attitudes: A

longitudinal and cross-sectional study. Child Development, 57, 712-721.

Brown, C.S (Ed.). (1990). Ready from within: A first person

narrative, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.

Cazden, C., & Leggett, E. (1981). Culturally responsive

education: Recommendations for achieving Lau remedies

II. In H. Trueba, G, Guthrie, & K. Au (Eds.), Culture and

the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography (pp. 69-86). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Chilcoat, G.W., & Ligon, J.A. (1994). Developing democratic

citizens: The Mississippi Freedom Schools as a model for

social studies instruction. Theory and Research in Social Education, 22, 128-175.

The College Board. (1985). Equality and excellence: The

educational status of Black Americans, New York: Author. Crooks, R. (1970). The effects of an interracial preschool

program upon racial preference, knowledge of racial

differences, and racial identification. Journal of Social

Issues, 26, 137-148. Edwards, PA (1991). Fostering early literacy through parent

coaching. In E. Hiebert (Ed.), Literacy for a diverse

society: Perspectives, programs, and policies (pp. 199-

213). New York; Teachers College Press.

Erickson, F., & Mohan, C. (1982). Cultural organization and

participation structures in two classrooms of Indian

students. In G. Spindler, (Ed.), Doing the ethnography of schooling (pp. 131-174). New York: Holt, Rinehart &

Winston.

Fordham, S., & Ogbu, J. (l986). Black students' success: Coping

with the burden of "acting White." Urban Review, 18, 1- 31.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder

& Herder.

Gee, J.P. (1989). Literacy, discourse, and linguistics:

Introduction. Journal of Education, 171, 5-17.

Hale-Benson, J. (1990). Achieving equal educational outcomes

for Black children. In A. Baron & E.E Garcia (Eds.),

Children at risk: Poverty, minority status, and other issues

in educational equity (pp. 201-215). Washington, DC:

National Association of School Psychologists.

Heath, S.B. (1983). Ways with words. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Hollins, E.R. (1994, April). The burden of acting White revisited:

Planning school success rather than explaining school

failure. Paper presented at the annual

Ladson-Billings

But That’s Just Good Teaching!

Meeting of the American Education Research Association,

New Orleans.

Irvine, J.J. (1990). Black students and school failure. Westport,

CT: Greenwood Press.

Jordan, C. (1985). Translating culture: From ethnographic

information to educational program. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 16, 105-123.

King, J. (1994). The burden of acting White re-examined: Towards

a critical genealogy of acting Black. Paper presented at the

annual meeting of the American Educational Research

Association, New Orleans.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1990). Like lightning in a bottle: Attempting

to capture the pedagogical excellence of successful teachers

of Black students. International Journal of Qualitative

Studies in Education, 3,335-344.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1992a). Culturally relevant teaching: The key

to making multicultural education work. In C.A. Grant

(Ed.), Research and multicultural education (pp. 106-121).

London: Falmer Press.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1992b). Liberatory consequences of Literacy:

A case of culturally relevant instruction for African-

American students. Journal of Negro Education, 61, 378-

391.

Ladson-Billings, G. (L992c). Reading between the lines and

beyond the pages: A culturally relevant approach to literacy

teaching. Theory Intro Practice, 31, 312-320.

Ladson-Billings, G. (1994). The dreamkeepers: Successful

teaching for African-American students. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

McLaren, P. (1989). Life in schools. White Plains, NY: Longman.

Majors, R. & Billson, J. (1992). Cool pose: The dilemmas of Black manhood in America. New York: Lexington Books.

Mohatt, G., & Erickson, F. (1981). Cultural differences in teaching

styles in an Odawa school: A sociolinguistic approach, In H,

Trueba, G. Guthrie, & K. Au (Eds.), Culture and the bilingual classroom: Studies in classroom ethnography (pp,

105-119), Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Morris, A. (1984). The origins of the civil rights movement: Black

communities organizing for change. New York: The Free Press.

Perry, T (1993). Toward a theory of African-American student

achievement. Report No. 16. Boston, MA: Center on

Families, Communities, Schools and Children’s Learning,

Wheelock College.

Pewewardy, C. (L993). Culturally responsible pedagogy in

action: An American Indian magnet school. In E. Hollins,

J. King, & W. Hayman (Eds.), Teaching diverse populations: Formulating a knowledge base (pp. 77-92).

Albany: State University of New York Press.

Robinson, R. (1993, Feb. 25). P.C. Anderson students try hand at

problem-solving. The Dallas Examiner, pp. 1, 8.

Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the

new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57, 1-22.

Smitherman, G. (1981). Black English and the education of Black children and youth. Detroit: Center for Black Studies,

Wayne State University.

Spradley, J. (1979). The ethnographic interview. New York: Holt,

Rinehart & Winston.

Tate, W.E (1994). Race, retrenchment, and reform of school

mathematics. Phi Delta Kappan, 75, 477-484.

Villegas, A. (1988), School failure and cultural mismatch:

Another view. The Urban Review, 20, 253-265.

Vogt, L., Jordan, C., & Tharp, R. (1987). Explaining school

failure, producing school success: Two cases.

Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 18, 276-286. Zeichner, K.M., & Tabachnick, B.R. (1991), Reflections on

reflective teaching. In B.R Tabachnick & K.M. Zeichner

(Eds.), Inquiry-oriented practices in teacher education (pp. 1-21). London: Falmer Press.

165