The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children

256 Pages·2009·18.78 MB·English

by  Gloria Ladson-Billings

L

THE
DREAMKEEPERS

THE
DREAMKEEPERS
*
SUCCESSFUL TEACHERS OF
AFRICAN AMERICAN CHILDREN
SECOND EDITION
Gloria Ladson-Billings
JJ JOSSEY-BASS™
A Wiley Brand
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Tables 3.1, 4.1, and 5.1 are reprinted from Ladson-Billings, G. "Like Lightning in a Bottle:
Attempting to Capture the Pedagogical Excellence of Successful Teachers of Black Students."
QSE, 3(4), 335-344. Reprinted with permission.
The epigraph on p. 12 7 is from On the Pulse of Morning. Reprinted with permission of Random
House, Inc.
Cover design by Paula Schlosser.
Front cover photograph© Nita Winter, Corte Madera, California.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ladson-Billings, G !aria, 194 7 -
The dreamkeepers: successful teachers of African American children/ Gloria Ladson-Billings.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-470-40815-5 (pbk.)
1. African Americans-Education. 2. Teaching. 3. Educational anthropology
United States. I. Title.
LC2717 .L33 2009
371.829'96073-dc22
2008055675
Printed in the United States of America
SECOND EDITION
PB Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
CONTENTS
*
Foreword to the New Edition vii
Preface xv
The Author xxi
1 A Dream Deferred 1
2 Does Culture Matter? 17
3 Seeing Color, Seeing Culture 33
4 We Are Family 59
5 The Tree of Knowledge 85
6 Culturally Relevant Teaching 111
7 Making Dreams into Reality 139
Afterword 157
Appendix A: Methodology 179
Appendix B: Context 193
Notes 203
Index 217
Discussion Questions 221
V

FOREWORD TO THE NEW EDITION
*
It may be those who do most dream most.
-STEPHEN LEACOCK
I
t is hard to believe that seventeen years have passed since
I left the classrooms of eight wonderful teachers I called the
"Dreamkeepers." Their stories have been read by thousands of pre,
service, in,service, and community teachers, as well as graduate
students and would,be teacher educators. The names of Gertrude
Winston, Ann Lewis, Elizabeth Harris, Julia Devereaux, Patricia
Hilliard, Peggy Valentine, Margaret Rossi, and Pauline Dupree
have spread across the country and around the world. 1
What Happens When We Get It Right?
In the original study I set out to demonstrate that there were
teachers who were capable of teaching African American
students to high levels of proficiency. Most of the scholarly lit,
erature positions African American students as problems and
seeks to determine what is wrong-with their education, their
families, their culture, and their minds. I wanted to ask another
question, a question that would explore success models. I wanted
to know what was right with African American students' educa,
tion and what happens in classrooms where teachers, students,
and parents seem to get it right. I searched for these teachers
by polling African American parents, and their straightforward
answers helped me find an extraordinary group of teachers. As
vii
viii FOREWORD TO THE NEW EDITION
a crosscheck I asked principals and colleagues at schools in the
district to recommend outstanding teachers to me. If a teacher's
name appeared on both lists-that from the parents and that
from the administrators and colleagues-she became a candidate
for the study.
The most memorable thing about these teachers was that they
had such few obvious similarities. True, they were all women, but
I presume that to be an artifact of elementary teaching (many
more women teach in elementary schools than men). But there
were few other characteristics that held them together. Five of
the women were African American and three were white. They
attended a variety of colleges and universities and came from a
variety of geographic regions. After three years of working with
these teachers I found two qualities that may explain their sue,
cess. The first was experience. These women were very experi,
enced teachers. None had fewer than twelve years of teaching
experience. Of course we know of many teachers who have been
teaching a very long time and still struggle to be effective with
African American students. In a subsequent study I demonstrated
that it was possible for relatively inexperienced teachers to be
effective in classrooms with diverse groups of students. 2
The second and perhaps more compelling factor was that each
of these teachers could point to a transformative moment in their
lives that forced them to reassess the way they did their work.
Several of the teachers referenced their work in the civil rights
movement. Another spoke of her experience in the Peace Corps.
Still another talked of a crisis of faith that forced her to leave her
religious order. These moments of transformation stand in stark
contrast to the experiences of well,intentioned young people
who come into teaching every year hoping to do some good for
those "poor Black children." In my subsequent study with novice
teachers I realized that it was important to select candidates who
already had some life experiences that forced them to look closely
at their lives and the lives of those less fortunate than they.