Michèle Foster, author of Black Teachers on Teaching
A wonderful and timely book
Barrie Thorne, author of Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School
A compelling ethnography of the racial landscape of contemporary schools
Book Description
Could your kids be learning a fourth R at school: reading, writing, ’rithmatic, and race? Race in the Schoolyard takes us to a place most of us seldom get to see in action¾our children’s classrooms¾ and reveals the lessons about race that are communicated there. Amanda E. Lewis spent a year observing classes at three elementary schools, two multiracial urban and one white suburban. While race of course is not officially taught like multiplication and punctuation, she finds that it nonetheless insinuates itself into everyday life in schools. Lewis explains how the curriculum, both expressed and hidden, conveys many racial lessons. While teachers and other school community members verbally deny the salience of race, she illustrates how it does influence the way they understand the world, interact with each other, and teach children. This eye-opening text is important reading for educators, parents, and scholars alike.
About the Author
Amanda E. Lewis is an assistant professor of sociology and African American studies and a fellow at the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classroom and Communities SYNOPSIS
The way race and racial inequality are reproduced in day-to-day interactions in American schools is frequently invisible to even well-intentioned teachers and administrators, argues Lewis (sociology and African American studies, U. of Illinois). She Pierre Bourdieu's notion of social capital as an analytical tool in her ethnographic study of three schools set in urban and suburban contexts. She describes how differing levels of social capital are reproduced by schools, thereby reproducing social inequality. Annotation ©2003 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Art & Photography
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