Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This comprehensive text addresses social and economic inequities and how they affect staff relationships, interactions with parents, and children's classroom experiences.

How can we create truly multicultural classrooms? In this fourth edition of her popular text, renowned early childhood educator Patricia Ramsey draws on a wide range of research and practice from different communities around the world to explore the complexities of raising and teaching young children in a world fraught with societal divisions and inequities.

Using engaging examples and stories, Teaching and Learning in a Diverse World offers concrete suggestions to encourage teachers to reflect on their own histories and experiences and to challenge and rethink their assumptions and attitudes toward children and teaching. It describes research-based classroom practices to engage children in exploring the complexities of race, economic inequities, immigration, environmental issues and sustainability, gender and sexual orientation and identities, and abilities and disabilities. It also addresses the challenges of teaching in the context of globalization, pervasive social media, and increasing standards and accountability.

Book Features:

Addresses social and economic inequities and how they affect staff relationships, interactions with parents, and children's classroom experiences. Offers strategies to help teachers initiate conversations with colleagues, parents, and children. Discusses long-term structural decisions about early childhood programs, as well as day-to-day classroom teaching plans. Includes questions that prompt teachers to recognize the influence of overt and covert societal forces on their motivations and views of children. Free supplemental resources, including a comprehensive list of suggested books for children, can be downloaded at www.tcpress.com.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Foreword (p. ix)
• Preface (p. xiii)
• Acknowledgments (p. xv)
• Part I Multicultural Schools and Classrooms (p. 1)
• 1 Growing Up in a World of Contradictions and Injustices: A Multicultural Response (p. 3)
• Purpose, Trends, and Scope of Multicultural Education (p. 6)
• Multicultural Goals for Children (p. 9)
• Families and Schools Working Together (p. 12)
• The Language of Multicultural Education (p. 12)
• 2 We Are All Learning (p. 15)
• How Adults Can Identify and Challenge Their Assumptions (p. 18)
• How Children Learn About Their Worlds (p. 20)
• 3 Creating Caring and Critical Communities (p. 38)
• Creating Caring and Critical Communities Among Adults (p. 40)
• Creating Caring and Critical Classroom Communities (p. 50)
• Part II Contexts of Learning (p. 63)
• 4 The Context of Race (p. 65)
• Reflections on Race (p. 65)
• Growing Up in a Racially Divided Society (p. 66)
• Children's Responses to Race (p. 73)
• Learning and Challenging What Children Know, Think, and Feel About Race (p. 79)
• 5 The Context of Economic Class and Consumerism (p. 84)
• Reflections on Economic Class (p. 84)
• Socioeconomic Divisions in the United States (p. 86)
• Children's Awareness and Feelings About Economic Class (p. 94)
• Reflections on Consumerism (p. 97)
• Living in a Consumerist Society (p. 98)
• Children's Understanding and Experience of Consumerism (p. 99)
• Learning and Challenging What Children Know, Think, and Feel About Economic Class and Consumerism (p. 102)
• 6 The Context of Culture and the Natural Environment (p. 107)
• Reflections on Culture Children and Culture (p. 107)
• Learning About and Challenging What Children Know, Think, and Feel About Culture (p. 118)
• Reflections on Culture and the Natural Environment (p. 120)
• Children's Knowledge, Attitudes, and Feelings About the Natural Environment and Sustainability (p. 122)
• Learning and Challenging What Children Know, Think, and Feel About the Natural Environment (p. 126)
• 7 The Context of Gender and Heteronormativity (p. 132)
• Reflections on Gender Identification and Roles (p. 132)
• Growing Up in a Gendered and Heteronormative World (p. 134)
• Children's Responses to Gender (p. 136)
• Reflections on Sexual Orientations and Identities (p. 139)
• Growing Up in a Heterosexist World (p. 141)
• Children's Understanding of Sexual Orientation and Identity (p. 144)
• Learning and Challenging What Children Know, Think, and Feel About Gender and Sexual Orientation (p. 145)
• 8 The Context of Abilities and Disabilities (p. 152)
• Reflections on Abilities and Disabilities (p. 152)
• Growing Up in an "Abled" World (p. 154)
• Social Participation of Children with Disabilities (p. 157)
• Children's Knowledge and Feelings Related to Abilities and Disabilities (p. 162)
• Learning and Challenging What Children Know, Think, and Feel About Abilities and Disabilities (p. 164)
• Conclusion (p. 169)
• References (p. 171)
• Index (p. 195)
• About the Author (p. 208)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Targeting parents and teachers, Ramsey discusses how young children understand and interpret issues of diversity. After providing an overview, the first section discusses different contexts of learning: racial, economic, consumer orientation, gender, sexual orientation, and disability. This second edition was expanded from the first (CH, Jun'87) to include a focus on parents, consumerism, and environmental issues, going beyond other texts, such as Perry and Fraser's 1993 edited work Freedom's Plow: Teaching in the Multicultural Classroom. Each chapter contains real life examples from either the classroom or home that assist the reader in seeing the connection between how a child understands a situation, and how the teacher or parent can assist the child in interpreting that understanding. One chapter that deals with the physical environment discusses how to use photographs, television, and books to shape a child's understanding. Numerous suggestions for improving communication are provided, and questions are raised that will help teachers and parents in conversations with children. The book concludes with a story illustrating the major points made in earlier chapters and a description of what could be accomplished if a true partnership existed among schools, families, and communities. The appendix provides age appropriate reading recommendations for each topic. Upper-division undergraduates and above; general readers and practitioners. P. A. Cordeiro; University of San Diego

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Patricia G. Ramsey is professor of psychology and education at Mount Holyoke College, and co-author of the bestseller What If All the Kids Are White?, Second Edition.