A must read for teacher educators and teachers of students of color

books:

	• Culturally Specific Pedagogy in the Mathematics Classroom: Strategies for Teachers of Diverse Students Jacqueline Leonard Lawrence Erlbaum, 2007 - 207 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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A must read for teacher educators and teachers of students of color

Educating all students, especially students of color in mathematics has been less than exemplary. This text uses culture as a springboard to deepen teacher pedagogy and enhance student learning experiences.

Salik Mukarram
Benjamin Banneker Association

Culturally specific pedagogy is more effective pedagogy.

CULTURALLY SPECIFIC PEDAGOGY IN THE MATHEMATICS CLASSROOM: STRATEGIES FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS (New York and London: Routledge, 2008) by Jacqueline Leonard is designed to assist teachers in helping students overcome achievements gaps in mathematics. Leonard employs `critical race theory,' data from various research efforts and case studies, and attention to social justice. She argues for culturally specific pedagogies that enable students to explore connections between themselves, their culture and history, and math. The history of the `Underground Railroad' and the story of Bessie Coleman are offered as examples of histories that provide inspiring contexts for mathematical deliberations.

This book is an important contribution to the theory and practice of addressing "underachievement in mathematics among African American and other minority populations" (xiv). Moreover, because the general principle--that culturally specific pedagogy is more effective pedagogy--applies to other areas of study, all teachers are likely to be helped by attention to Leonard's work.

Theodore Walker Jr.
Southern Methodist University
Dallas, Texas 75275

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'"Culturally Specific Pedagogy in the Mathematic Classroom" offers a wide variety of conceptual and curricular resources for teachers interested in teaching mathematics in a way that challenges stratification based upon race, class, gender and other forms of oppression that students face in today's world! With the publication of this book, all teachers will have available to them instructional strategies in mathematics for meeting the academic needs of culturally diverse students. They will have an explanation of the linkage between culture and students' mathematical cognition and problem solving! The ease in which Leonard brings the reader along, and the caring way she tells a story about making mathematics a fun and social justice experience makes for an exciting learning opportunity for all students and teachers' - Carl A. Grant, University Wisconsin-Madison, United States, From the Foreword.'Mathematics educators are in a period of deep concern about our ability to educate all students in mathematics. Most students of color do not have the opportunities to fully learn mathematics. Nothing more important can be done for these students and their teachers than to publish this book addressing the miseducation of these students and offering a way to change what we are doing' - Carol E. Malloy, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, United States.This compelling text advocates the use of culturally specific pedagogy to enhance the mathematics instruction of diverse students. It accomplishes this by making clear the link between research and practice and offering lesson templates that teachers can use with ethnically and culturally diverse students and with females. Specifically, the text draws on sociocultural theory and research on culture and mathematics cognition to focus on three goals: using qualitative research to extend the literature on culturally based education to African American and Latino children in their development of mathematical knowledge and skills; using cognition research as it applies to better understanding of minority students' goals, cognitive forms, and the interplay or transfer of out-of-school and in-school practices; and using pedagogical research to field-test new instructional methods for culturally diverse and female students." Culturally Specific Pedagogy in the Mathematics Classroom" features a model of culturally specific mathematics instruction that is grounded in Critical Race Theory; uses comprehensive analyses of both qualitative and quantitative data to make the case that culturally specific pedagogy enhances student achievement; presents cultural representations in problem solving and problem posing; interweaves case studies, vignettes, and specific examples to help teachers to visualize what culturally specific pedagogy is and how to use it; and includes problems and questions developed by and of significance to preservice and inservice teachers. This clear, powerful text is intended for teacher educators, researchers, and upper-division and graduate-level courses in multicultural/diversity education, mathematics education, and curriculum and instruction.

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