Review of The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children (Paperback)

The author of Dreamkeepers makes the argument that African American children can be successful in school if changes are made by the education community.Gloria Ladson-Billings advocates for "culturally relevant teaching" which she believes will allow children to achieve academic success while maintaining a positive African American identity.By examining historical inequalities and the poor state of current education and achievement of African American children, the future may appear bleak or even destined for failure.Ladson-Billings offers examples of teachers, teaching methods, and ideas to keep the dream of education and success alive for African American children today.The focus of the book is the roles teachers have in helping children find success and examples of how teachers of African American children have been successful in this role.The way children should be taught is also discussed because she claims that the way children are taught is often more important than what they are taught.Ladson-Billings believes that these ideas could be used to get teachers, parents, and community members to redesign schools to better meet the needs of African American children, and after considering her reasons and evidence provided I am inclined to agree with these ideas.
The study was done in a predominantly low income African American community.To find successful teachers of African American children, Ladson-Billings asked parents and community members and then principals.When she had gathered a list of possible names, she chose only the names that had appeared from both groups.Ladson-Billings notes a distinction between excellent teaching and teachers because she does not want the examples to be dismissed as a cult of personality.Current problems in education will not be corrected if findings of success are viewed as exceptions, so she offers the examples in hopes that they can become the typical educational experience of African American children.
Through teacher interviews, classroom observations, and personal reflections the author develops the idea of culturally relevant teaching.To demonstrate how culturally relevant teaching might improve education, she describes three programs that are used in educating African American children.The first is to ignore differences that exist.It is designed to remediate or accelerate progress without attending or acknowledging to students' social or cultural needs.The second is the idea that problems are rooted in pathology and children need to be removed from it, so African American children are socialized into mainstream behaviors and values while teaching them basic skills.The third is culturally relevant teaching, where differences are seen as strengths.The concept of culturally relevant teaching is the cornerstone in Ladson-Billings' argument to improve the educational experience for African Americans.Student learning is facilitated by capitalizing on students' own social and cultural background.The broad nature of this conceptis a strength to its usefulness because teachers can accomplish this using many ways.Culturally relevant teaching is valid teaching style because it does not expect teachers to follow certain steps.Pedagogy that tells teachers to follow specific steps like teaching is a recipe is unrealistic and useless.Culturally relevant teaching practices can be used in countless teaching styles and curriculum because the underlying theme of appreciation of culture and differences will create a better learning environment and better results for African American children.




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