THE TEACHERS OUR CHILDREN NEED
An
exciting new book edited by Angela Valenzuela reminds us of the power of
teachers. And it shows us how
communities can work together to make sure our children have the teachers they
need if we’re serious about educating them – all of them -- to know their
cultural heritage as the extraordinary asset they bring to school.
Growing Critically Conscious Teachers, just published by Teachers College Press, was
written by leading activist Latino scholars to provide communities with a way
to make teaching, and educating the next generation of teachers, academically
rich and culturally empowering. The
subtitle, “A Social Justice Curriculum for Educators of Latino/a Youth,”
addresses the gap between a predominantly white teaching profession and the
increasing Latino child population not just here in Texas, but throughout the
US.
As
of 2014 "TEA reports Texas schools are 51.8 percent Hispanic, 29.4 percent
Anglo, 12.7 percent African-American, 3.7 percent Asian." Even more noteworthy is that "Hispanics
will outnumber Anglos by 2020 — that’s five years from now — and will account
for more than half of the state’s population by 2042." (Stats via Texas Tribune). In fact, NCES says "The number of
Hispanic students enrolled during (2002-2012) increased from 8.6 million to
12.1 million students, and their share of public school enrollment increased
from 18 to 24 percent."
Growing
Critically Conscious Teachers results from the years of study and activism of
the National Latino/a Education Research and Policy Project (“Nal-Rep”) and is
firmly grounded in theories of teaching and learning and in leading research on
language acquisition and child development.
From these foundations, parents and teachers and policy makers can learn
from chapters on culturally relevant curriculum, teacher education, participant
action research, and social justice education specific, practical ways to make
the vision of equitable schooling a reality in their communities.
As
Angela Valenzuela so beautifully expresses in the concluding chapter,
"Ours is a deep and defining commitment to equity, social justice, and a more beautiful world that centers
community, teachers, teaching and teacher preparation as essential parts of the
solution to the deep sense of alienation that so many of our children and
teachers experience in our nation's schools."
I
was honored to join with Angela and her co-authors and publishers at beautiful
celebration of the publication of the book when we were in Washington, D.C. for
the Annual Meeting of the American
Educational Research Association. I am even more pleased to have this book for
my students and the teachers who mentor them in our public schools. In her first book, Angela Valenzuela
documented the “subtractive schooling” that hinders Latino youth from thriving
as students and learners. Growing Critically
Conscious Teachers shows how we can move beyond “subtractive schooling” to make
our schools “additive” not just for the children, but for all of our
communities.
