Preparing Mathematics and Science Teachers for Diverse Classrooms: Promising Strategies for Transformative Pedagogy.

PREPARING MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE TEACHERS FOR DIVERSE CLASSROOMS: PROMISING STRATEGIES FOR TRANSFORMATIVE PEDAGOGY

Edited by Alberto J. Rodriguez and Richard S. Kitchen. Laurence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.

On May 24, 2003, in small town Mississippi, a thin, dark girl wearing cap and gown walked across the commencement stage at her high school, reached out one burn-scarred hand for her diploma, shook the hand of her principal carefully with the other, and paused self-consciously as a camera recorded her scarred face in a smile. This historic event marked the first time that anyone in her family had graduated from high school--ever. Seated in the audience that evening was an overweight, astigmatic, middle-aged, Anglo teacher with a bad back and middle-class values. This graduation represented for her the culmination of years of tutoring this student, begging on her behalf for help from administration and other teachers, visiting her home (a site of poverty), and the one-step forward/two steps back paradox of fighting prejudice of all kinds. This former student is now successfully finishing a nursing program at a local community college. I mention all this not to boast, but to let everyone know my background, for I am that teacher. As I see it, this makes me more receptive to Preparing Mathematics and Science Teachers for Diverse Classrooms: Promising Strategies for Tranformative Pedagogy. Most of my students are mid-South, African Americans from single parent homes. However, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, Islamic, Hindu, and continental African cultures are some of the other groups represented in my school district along with Anglos.

The sTc (Sociotransformative constructivism) theory reviewed here is one that seeks to link social justice with multicultural teaching methods. Rodriguez defines sTc as "an alternative theoretical framework that supports the notion that knowledge is socially constructed and mediated by institutional, historical, and social codes, but at the same time sTc seeks to engage the learners in (de)constructing the structures of power from which those established codes spring." It acknowledges, rather than dismisses, the psychological, sociological, political, and cultural factors that influence educational experiences in America. The construct, according to Rodriguez, is power because this "imbues human interactions." Barnes and Barnes broaden the definition of construct by adding that "language and culture are important dimensions in students' construction of knowledge." "Learners," they write, "enter classrooms with unique sets of cultural influences, life experiences, prior learning, attitudes, and personalities." Validating these empowers students. Negotiating a bridge from these constructs to science and math knowledge and skills is the task of the sTc teacher.

The book's announced purpose is to sensitize prospective teachers of science and math courses to the needs of poor, female, ethnically diverse, or minority students. It challenges the middle-class power bases in education and seeks to revolutionize the framework to suit student needs, rather than changing the student to suit the educational system. This would allow individuals access to careers in research, industry, medicine, teaching--all things science and math that are generally considered closed to them.

Presently, students who are labeled gifted in math and science come from backgrounds where these subjects as taught are understood and valued. Students whose social backgrounds have assimilated different approaches or understanding of these subjects struggle because they are not able to construct meaning for themselves from the teaching. The projected reader targets are instructors of science and math education methods courses at colleges and universities. The authors seek to provide not only the formats for change but also arguments that new teachers are the ones to begin this radical departure from accepted teaching norms. A few of the methods mentioned are immersion into other cultures, self-critiquing, and home-visitation requirements. Rodriguez provides a fuller list in "A Compendium of Promising Strategies to Respond to Teachers' Resistance to Ideological and Pedagogical Change." The strategies are labeled, a description of how to use the strategy is given, the subject area noted, and the contributor is supplied. Training new teachers in these inquiry-based teaching methods, it is hoped, will effect changes at beginning teaching practices and, ultimately, filter down to the school districts where teachers are newly employed. Knowledge is socially determined, say the authors, and the social boundaries that hold forth learning to some prevent access to it for others. A teacher's willingness to provide an atmosphere that encourages interaction with the material and allows students to perceive relevance to their own cultural or gender needs will break down these barriers.

One of the chief attractions of the book is that it seeks to effect this change without lowering standards. This is not a maneuver to "dumb-down" the material, which would be unacceptable. Resistance to change comes from teachers who learned science and math within the framework of the middle-class work ethic, i.e., hard work plus innate ability will move those students who are destined to succeed into promising science and math careers. On the other hand, the students who simply do not have the required interest, drive, or abilities are already marked for failure, so there is nothing that the science or math teacher can do for them. The sTc method seeks to counteract the effects of culture and increase achievement. New teachers, however, want to persist in using the methods by which they themselves were taught. Cultural sensitivity, for them, does not belong in science or math courses. Methods instructors at universities can empower these prospective teachers to make changes at the elementary through high school level.

Editors Alberto J. Rodriguez and Richard S. Kitchen have put together twelve essays from teacher instruction courses from various parts of the nation that argue for divergence and assist instructors with stratagems for surmounting problems attendant in methods courses. Rodriguez instructs prospective teachers at San Diego State University, and Kitchen does the same at the University of New Mexico. The focus of their work is the American Indian and Latino populations. In the first three chapters, really studies, they put together a plan of action that addresses primarily these two groups. Rodriguez focuses on modeling inquiry-based learning centers and allowing students to work through specific problems requiring higher thinking skills. Kitchen describes a method called the Opportunity to Learn Scale used to increase sensitivity to learning needs over the entire course: "The Opportunity to Learn Scales include considerations such as gender equity, the use of language scaffolding to support the learning of English language learners, and whether the teacher actively encourages a diversity of students to participate during the lesson." Teachers observe other prospective teachers for these norms over a period of time and critique the responsiveness to cultural diversity and inclusion. Success for either Rodriguez or Kitchen varied, and there was no way to measure compliance once the teachers departed from the program and began teaching careers.

Marianne B. Barnes's and Lehman W. Barnes's report in Chapter 4 of an immersion approach in teacher professional development struck me as more promising, possibly because I am a teacher. Several schools were challenged to establish culturally diverse programs, and because the instructing team provided support and advice as the implementation was occurring, the effects could be measured. They also noted that "our team's work at one high school has the strong support and endorsement of the principal, an ingredient we feel is essential to its success." These teachers received training, praise, advice, and encouragement from the training team and produced positive results in classrooms. One particularly successful teacher wrote that she was able to become non-confrontational, did not fear her students, and did not suffer from a need to punish them. She also did not fear the loss of her teaching position. The difference in the Barnes' approach as compared to Rodriguez's or Kitchen's is that the teacher was empowered and passed it along to her students. This was not an adversarial power grab, but an attempt to change a system that was broken and needed replacement.

One of the most compelling contributions, for me, was written by Pauline W. U. Chinn, "'Eh, Mus' Be Smart Class': Race, Social Class, Language, and Access to Academic Resources." She recounts her own culture's dictates about women in math and science and reflects on how, unknown to her, career choices were already limited by what that culture declared was legitimate for her to aspire to. She describes her own struggles as a bright young female from a culture in which women are subordinate to men, in which fathers and brothers are expected to excel. Girls may achieve good grades in high school, yet even then, they must consistently keep watch lest they excel over a brother or another male from their culture. Marriage and family concerns must come first for women of her culture. Acceptable careers for women must not overshadow a husband's. Realizing that this happens for African American, American Indian, Latino, Muslim, Hindu and other cultures, she says that the first step to undoing this is to help all teachers realize the cultural forces that shaped them. Of her method of counteracting this, Chinn writes, "I assign exercises to help prospective teachers become aware of habitus, how they were shaped at home and school, and how gender or racial stereotypes that seem natural and universal are, in fact, cultural arbitraries." Standardized tests for her are a way of institutionalizing racism. Prospective teachers need to be provided with the knowledge and tools to make connections between culture and curriculum and address educational inequity.

Jacqueline Leonard and Scott Jackson Dantley write in "Breaking Through the Ice: Dealing With Issues of Diversity in Mathematics and Science Education Courses" that, "although these teachers in our classes are diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and economic status, a conversation about diversity is usually met with apathy." To counteract this Leonard advises a variety of steps that a methods instructor can take--selecting a culturally sensitive text, watching videotapes of excellent teaching in an urban setting, or using teaching methods known to benefit diverse learners. Leonard and Dantley sum up the results of their efforts by stating, "White women, for the most part, were much more willing to have an open mind or a broader perspective on racial differences and learning styles." Dantley comments on liter that led him to sensitize culturally his instruction: "Tobias' book, They're Not Dumb, They're Different (1990), found that science instruction was not user friendly in three categories: student-teacher interactions, physical environment, and content delivery." He also recommends methods for counteracting these influences.

Other contributors also make significant contributions to "unpacking teacher resistance" and helping teachers realize the importance of teaching math and science for diversity. Education methods instructors who wish to include cultural diversity training in their courses can receive some guidance and counseling through this book. As all the contributors comment, though, it is an uphill fight getting teachers to realize the need for such considerations. Without enlisting the support of principals and school districts, any changes may not be of the lasting kind. I can state unequivocally that principals and supervisors who do not support this kind of teaching can break a teacher who tries it. The authors would have done well here to include more ways of enlisting support.