The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children

The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children

By: Gloria Ladson-Billings  

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Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

--ReverAnd Jesse L. Jackson, president and founder, National Rainbow Coalition

In this beautifully written book Ladson-Billings illustrates the inspiring influence of a select group of teachers who keep the dreams alive for African American students.

?Henry M. Levin, David Jacks professor of Higher Education, Stanford University

Ladson-Billing's portraits, interwoven with personal reflections, challenge readers to envision intellectually rigorous and culturally relevant classrooms that have the power to improve the lives of not just African American students but all children.

Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Customer Review: 3 out of 5
Black is only a color Yet it is not just a color - The book is one of the best ethnographic studies I've read based on African Americans so far. Ladson-Billings goes even as far to say that some people "reduce research findings to individual idiosyncracies" (p. 14) implying that there is a bigger picture that is not observed enough. This statement is kudos from a quality researcher! What tends to turn me off from the book is a particular part of the study itself and some of the results discussed of the ethnographic comparisons. In one portion of the study, she compares an inexperienced WM teacher in a more suburban, better off school, to an experienced BF teacher in a poor, urban district. (We will assume experienced is "5+ years experience" which I believe is what was implied for this term for this particular text.) I felt the comparison was more apples to oranges rather than being able to generalize a broad statement about how culture does or does not matter.

The tone of the book gets to the point where it feels like only the black race is in need, but any minority in any country has different sets of needs. While I would not expect each of these needs to be researched in one such book, in at least one or a few cases, blacks and latinos are lumped together. What about Asians, Muslims, minority races in foreign countries, or possibly even subsets or "subsets" or the races?

Her Appendix A and Appendix B help enhance the book. People whom also stood out to Ladson-Billings, but whom could not be included in the meat of the book itself were added. This was a wonderful idea!

What I like about this book is that is gives one ideas on how to work with a population where the black culture takes over. One thing I don't like is that the tone makes is sound like these cases are definitely common and not necessarily exceptionally hard to enact. For instance, choosing to not follow the curriculum guideline to battle with administration and risk your job this way is a teacher's choice or a group's choice, but the book's tone seems to imply that it is a duty for a teacher to do something like this. Also, inviting students to one's home and giving out a personal cell phone number- while I think this is a great idea, I think in too many cases, this kind of contact would be abused and not used properly. This books asks all teachers to give away their livelihoods in the sense that a future population will benefit that could otherwise affect you and others later on in life. While this is an understandable request, I don't consider it a fair request. Sometimes, I sense the book makes it seem like we can all be dreamkeepers, and this is not fair or true. The people who are described as dreamkeepers deserve their titles every bit, but they made these sacrifices within their own lives because they felt it was the right thing to do and they were in a situation where they could make it work. A person who does not produce results or have a certain amount of authority or good networking, even if that person does all the right things to become like one of the dreamkeepers described, doesn't necessarily mean they can keep their jobs or easily find another one. Read this book with a lot of heart, but a lot of caution too!!

There's a book in which I can't remember the title, but I think it has the words "cultural crisis" in the title and it points out an interesting racist situation described in a suburb of PA involving a policeman, researcher, and a visitor. In another example, it points out Asians and how even though they are stereotyped as the "successful" ones, most of your CEOs are not Asians (for now?) The book was copyrighted 2005 at the time I read it. Books like the one I'm trying to describe help support why the dreamkeeper book is a bit off for me.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Inspirational work! - Although this book focuses on a familiar theme in educational circles, that of how to reach African-American children in school, it focuses on a variety of areas where educators should pay attention. It does not conclude that only African-American teachers can teach African-American children. On the contrary, author Gladson-Billings highlights teachers from different ethnic backgrounds. Her thesis is not revolutionary, but challenging - teachers need to teach in culturally relevant ways. This book is a good compliment to works by Sonia Nieto and Lisa Delpit. New and old teachers can appreciate this work!

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Great Book - I have not had a chance to read this yet it is for one of my secondary education classes.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
The Dreamkeepers - Bought for Grad class but would buy anyway. Classic book dealing with teaching African American Children. This book will open your eyes. Highly recommend to all teachers!

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Great book for new teacher in urban schools - This is great book to research some of the best teaching practices for working with young African American students. I used this book as part of my teaching program and ordered this copy for my teaching resource library.

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