Carl A. Grant

Race, Class, and Gender in Education Research: An Argument for Integrative Analysis

Race, social class, and gender tend to be treated as separate issues in education literature. We review a sample of education literature from four journals, spanning ten years, to determine the extent to which these status groups were integrated. We found little integration. We then provide an example from research on cooperative learning to illustrate how attention to only one status group oversimplifies the analysis of student behavior in school. From findings of studies integrating race and class, and race and gender, we argue that attending only to race, in this example, oversimplifies behavior analysis and may contribute to perpetuation of gender and class biases.

Best Practices in Teacher Preparation for Urban Schools: Lessons from the Multicultural Teacher Education Literature

Abstract This author presents a review of the teacher education preservice research literature on multicultural education. The purpose of the review was to discover “best practice” for preparing teachers to teach urban students. Forty-four studies were analyzed for their attention to race, class or gender issues. The review includes studies of workshops, courses, programs, practica, and field experiences. Also, included is a discussion of the research literature on cooperating teachers and university supervisor. Accompanying the review of the studies is a multicultural analysis based upon Sleeter and Grants five approaches to multicultural education. Five “best practices” are identified and discussed.

A Candid Talk to Teacher Educators about Effectively Preparing Teachers Who Can Teach Everyone's Children

This article focuses on characteristics necessary to be an effective teacher for all children, regardless of their academic ability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, family structure, sexual orientation, and ability to speak English. The article gives attention to the issues of equity and social justice as it addresses the knowledge and skill base of effective teachers.

The Literature on Multicultural Education: review and analysis

This paper presents a comprehensive review of journal articles on multicultural education about which much has been written. The location and tracing of this literature is described.

Biography and social structure in the socialization of student teachers: a re‐examination of the pupil control ideologies of student teachers

This study examined the effects of the student teaching experience on the pupil control ideologies of student teachers and attempted to assess the relative contributions of biography and social structure in determining student teacher attitudes toward pupil control. The subjects were forty elementary student teachers from one midwestern university. The results indicated that student teachers did not become more custodial in their views toward pupil control by the end of the experience. Furthermore, cooperating teachers exerted little influence on student teacher pupil control ideologies once the effects of biography were removed. It was concluded that biography does play an important part in the socialization of student teachers and that future research on student teaching should consider the effects of biography and social structure together within an interactive model of socialization. Finally, the limitations of focusing exclusively on student teacher ideologies are discussed and the concept of perspec...

Cultivating Flourishing Lives A Robust Social Justice Vision of Education

Presented at AERA 2010 as the Social Justice Award Lecture, this article calls attention to the purposes of education in the 21st century and the need for a robust, social justice vision of education. Here, it is argued that education is about the cultivation of a flourishing life and not only the narrow preparation for employment. To realize education that cultivates students’ flourishing minds and lives, this article proposes five core principles for this robust social justice vision: self-assessment, critical questioning, practicing democracy, social action, and criteria for adjudication.

Education that Is Multicultural--Isn't That What We Mean?.

Education today must prepare individuals to live in a racially and culturally pluralistic society. This fact has been recognized by Congress, the courts, and many educational organizations. In 1972, Congress passed legislation enacting the Ethnic Heritage Studies Program. This legislation, which has been called the first official recognition by Congress of the heterogeneous population of this country, proposes that people living in a multiethnic society need to have a greater understanding of their own history and the history of others. It is believed that this knowledge will contribute to

Who determines teacher work: The teacher, the organization, or both?

Abstract This paper examines how teachers responded when some organizational constraints on their work were loosened and why they responded as they did. It first reviews the sociological literature on teacher work to identify the main determinants studied. It then presents results of an ethnographic study of teachers in an urban school. The literature tends to portray teacher work as overly determined and may remove more responsibility from teachers for determining their own work than is warranted.

Oppression, Privilege, and High-Stakes Testing

Today, discussions about high-stakes testing of students rage in the popular media, in the Oval Office, in Congress, and within state houses across the nation. Also, reactions to these discussions of high-stakes testing are underway in schools and communities, among and between teachers, students, parents, and administrators. Former President Bill Clinton is credited with initiating the present discussion of high-stakes testing. In his 1997 State of the Union address, Clinton challenged the nation to undertake “a national crusade for education standards—not federal government standards, but national standards—representing what all students must know to succeed in the knowledge economy of the twenty-first century” (National Research Council, 1999, p. 14). Clinton argued that “Every state should adopt high national standards, and by 1999, every state should test every fourth-grader in reading and every eighth-grader in math to make sure these standards are met” (p. 14). Clinton declared, “Good tests will show us who needs help, what changes in teaching to make, and which schools need to improve” (p. 14). With these words, the focus on standards and high-stakes testing increased tenfold.

Intersectionality and Student Outcomes: Sharpening the Struggle against Racism, Sexism, Classism, Ableism, Heterosexism, Nationalism, and Linguistic, Religious, and Geographical Discrimination in Teaching and Learning.

In this article the authors consider NAMEs focus on intersectionality as a tool for theorizing, researching, and employing in pre-K through college practice at preservice and inservice levels. A review of research using three or more identity axes to investigate student outcomes is included. The authors also discuss the benefits of analyzing educational questions intersectionally, noting cautions.