Irvine , J. J. (2003). Educating teachers for diversity: Seeing with a cultural eye. New York: Teachers College Press. (ISBN 0-8077-4357-7,123 pages)  

Adrian J. Henderson, MBA  

Jacqueline Irvine opened her discourse in Educating Teachers for Diversity: Seeing with a Cultural Eye with the declaration that too many pre- and in-service teachers, who proclaim a color-blind approach in teaching diverse students, are hesitant to see them as cultural beings. In particular, her view is that many practitioners believe that ethnic and cultural factors do not influence the ways in which they relate to diverse students or practice their craft. Having written and spoken to thousands of teacher education students, teacher educators, teachers, researchers, and policymakers about the social and cultural context of teaching and learning, the author emphasized that ethnic and cultural differences do matter and that the color-blind ideology is fiction. The author also stressed that “although many teachers prefer to apply a color-blind approach to their practice, research data support the claim that an individual’s culture and ethnicity does influence attitudes toward the ‘cultural other’ and basic human interactions” (p. xvi).  

The essays in this book are an updated collection of papers and lectures that the author has delivered, over the past 10 years of her career. Complex issues of how culture and ethnicity influence the teaching and learning processes have been the primary focus of the author’s professional life as a teacher educator and researcher. Therefore, the intent of this book was to counter growing perceptions by pre- and in-service teachers that the race and ethnicity of students they teach have no influence on how they teach and how students learn. Throughout the book, the author provided analyses of current conditions in education along with suggestions and practices that will hopefully make a difference in the lives of all children.  

In the opening chapter entitled, “The Education of Children Whose Nightmares Come Both Day and Night,” Irvine articulated a message of urgency on topics related to low-income, academically unsuccessful, African American students in public schools. Creatively, the author presented an experience that she had with a 9-year-old, African American boy to capture the essence of the book. Using the research literature, the author presented four common explanations (e.g., socioeconomics, sociopathology, genetics, and culture) for academic failure for African American students. The author also acknowledged the merits of three of these positions and pointed out their specific weaknesses and common limitations, such as their tendency to be deterministic and to require revolutionary political, social, and economic changes, but she concluded this chapter with some current research and work from the center she founded and directed, the Center on Urban Learning/Teaching and Urban Research in Education and Schools (CULTURES), arguing that teachers and schools were a part of the solution for, not the problem with, urban education.  

In the second chapter, “The Roles of Colleges of Education: Multiculturalism Through Curricular and Cultural Change,” Irvine maintained that in addition to teachers, Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education need to assume a leadership role in reversing the cycle of failure for students of color. She alluded that this can only be accomplished by producing teachers who are culturally responsive advocates of social justice. The chapter included a section on curriculum revision that proposed a strategy for Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education to use in designing a multicultural teacher education curriculum that is more attentive to issues of diversity. The chapter also included a section on organizational climate and cultural change for multiculturalism, which focused on the values, norms, and belief systems of teacher education students. The author suggested that the underlying assumption of this chapter was that Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education create an organizational climate and culture that supports and values diversity before addressing the issues of a multicultural curriculum.  

In Chapter 3, “Seeing with the Cultural Eye: Different Perspectives of African American Teachers and Researchers,” Irvine contended that most researchers fail to recognize the influence of the “cultural eye” in their own research in the classrooms of African American teachers. More importantly, the author alluded that these researchers often fail to understand how African American teachers situate themselves professionally and personally to address the problem of the Black-White achievement gap. The chapter included a section that explained the cultural eye in detail, researchers’ perspectives of the achievement gap, African American teachers’ perspectives of the achievement gap, the failure of researchers and African American teachers to see eye-to-eye on the Black-White achievement gap and seeing with an alternative vision, the third eye. The third eye perspective addressed four points: (a) changing the place where research is conducted, (b) changing how researchers are trained, (c) changing the nature of the research questions that are asked, (d) and understanding the influence of race in this type of work. In this chapter, the author argued that researchers (e.g., White) and African American teachers often view the classroom experience differently. For example, African American teachers commonly look at their classrooms culturally, while researchers view the classroom experience objectively.  

Chapter 4 is entitled, “Caring, Competent Teachers in Complex Classrooms.” In this chapter, Irvine illustrated that educating teacher educators is a daunting challenge of persistence. Furthermore, she proclaimed that educators must be careful of using words such as care and competence to prevent them from becoming words used in laudable yet shallow clichés and homilies. The chapter emphasized content on the complexity of care, complexity of the issue of competence, complexities of teaching, recommendations about care, competence, complexity, and context for teacher education policy and research. The author also stressed that the call for caring and competent teachers does not unearth the complexity of teaching, particularly in urban, culturally diverse classrooms. The focus on educating caring, competent teachers is relevant because they make schools where all children, regardless of ethnicity, income, gender, and physical condition, become successful learners and productive citizens in society.  

In Chapter 5, “They Bring More Than Their Race: Why Teachers of Color Are Essential in Today’s Schools,” Irvine explored the declining number of teachers of color in the United States. The author’s position was that teachers of color were needed, not just because they are role models or because they help to diversify districts’ teaching staffs. The author expressed, in this chapter, that teachers of color are essential to public schools because their teaching beliefs and instructional practices are related to school achievement of students whose academic performance continues to lag behind that of their peers, in particular African American and Latino students. The chapter also discussed teachers of color as cultural translators for students of color, higher expectations, mentoring, and advocacy for African-American students, culturally based teaching styles, and recruitment and retention strategies. Irvine contended that teachers of color are cultural translators and intercessors for their culturally diverse students, thereby directly contributing to their students’ school achievement. Teachers of color bring to their classrooms unique, culturally based pedagogical approaches that are often compatible with the learning needs of diverse students.  

Chapter 6, “Assessment and Equity in a Culturally Diverse Society,” is an essay about the dilemmas related to evaluation and assessment in urban schools. Irvine suggested that the primary goal of this particular chapter was to illustrate how assessment and current debates and controversies surrounding this issue would change if the goal were equity and social justice instead of sorting and gatekeeping. The chapter included a discussion matters such as language, knowledge, and culture, which focused on verbal language, nonverbal language, and learning preferences. It also included a section that discussed learning, teaching, and the assessment of acquired knowledge as it relates to issues of culture. In this chapter, Irvine illustrated many points, such as the disconnection between the assessment movement based on assumptions of equality and assessment based on equity by examining the contrasting languages of the two movements. Irvine further pointed out the labeling of culturally diverse students is facilitated by and based on assessment practices, specifically standardized test scores. The standards and high-stakes testing movement seldom addresses the goal of assessing student learning, not just for equal treatment, but for equitable treatment.  

The final chapter, Chapter 7, “Educating Teachers for Diversity: A Proposal for Change,” is an essay of how Irvine believed teacher education should be reformed to produce culturally aware and effective teachers. The chapter discussed the good news/bad news dilemma in teacher education with sections on failures of the past and a proposal for change, with an emphasis on teachers as culturally responsive pedagogists, teachers as systemic reformers, teachers as members of caring communities, teachers as reflective practitioners and researchers, teachers as pedagogical-content specialists and teachers as antiracist educators. The six reconceptualized areas were the guiding principles of the CULTURES program. The author also provided the reader with the components of the CULTURE program, a discussion on whether or not the program achieved its intended goals and the implications of the program for pre- and in-service teachers, including admissions and selection, time spent on test preparation, cultural-immersion experiences, and working conditions of teachers. The chapter concluded with a number of proposals of practical strategies and remedies for educating teachers for a diverse society.  

The author did an “excellent” job addressing a topic that is quite controversial. Her book summarized and analyzed important research, theory, and practice related to the education of ethnic, racial, cultural, and language groups in the United States and the education of pre- and in-service teachers about diversity. The focus on race and ethnicity of students was evident in Irvine’s discussions of such topics as the Black-White achievement gap dilemma, the role of Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education, the increasing focus on standardized assessments, and the scarcity of teachers of color. Based on the author’s analysis, these topics are salient issues that most educators, researchers, and policymakers tend to shy away from.  

Although Irvine addressed critical issues, the proposed practical strategies and remedies for educating teachers for a diverse society fall under question. According to the United States Department of Education (2004), programs and strategies that are directed toward improving academic achievement in educational settings must be grounded in scientifically based research, and their success evaluated continuously. “Scientifically based research is research that involves the application of rigorous, systematic and objective procedures to obtain reliable and valid knowledge relevant to education activities and programs” (p. 30). There is no evidence to suggest that the proposed strategies and remedies are research documented. Also, there is reference to the CULTURES program being evaluated by a third-party evaluator that showed the program’s effectiveness by documenting the participants’ positive reception of the instruction they received. Phillips (1997) pointed out that “evaluation is a systematic process to determine the worth, value, or meaning of an activity or process” (p. 36). In a broad sense, evaluation is undertaken to improve a process or to decide the future of a program. Phillips also suggested that evaluations be conducted at multiple levels. “In a comprehensive evaluation process, evaluation should occur at each of the five levels” (p. 44). The levels Phillips was referring to were: (a) reaction & planned action, (b) learning, (c) job applications, (d) business results, and (e) return on investment. The level of evaluation that was most evident in Irvine’s book was the level one evaluation of the CULTURES program.  

In summary, Irvine provided teachers, school administrators, teacher educators, deans of Schools, Colleges, and Departments of Education and policymakers with practical knowledge about ways to improve academic achievement and race relations in educational settings. Irvine not only gave detailed explanations of the characteristics of effective teachers for culturally and racially diverse schools, she also described the changes and reforms that must take place in teacher education programs in order to produce the kinds of teachers who are essential for today’s diverse schools. This book will definitely counter growing perceptions by pre- and in-service teachers that the race and ethnicity of the students they teach have no influence on how they teach and how students learn.  

About the Author:  Ms. Adrian J. Henderson is a doctoral student specializing in community college leadership in the School of Education at Colorado State University. Her scholarly interests include African American students, female reentry students, and female administrators in community college settings. Address correspondence to the author at Colorado State University, School of Education, 221 Education Building, Fort Collins, CO 80523 USA; e-mail adrian.henderson@colostate.edu.

References  

Phillips, J.J. (1997). Handbook of training evaluation and measurement methods (3rd ed.). Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.  

U. S. Department of Education, Office of the Deputy Secretary. (2004). No child left behind:  A toolkit for teachers. Washington, D.C.: ED Pubs. Retrieved June 15, 2004, from http://www.ed.gov/teachers/nclbguide/nclb-teachers-toolkit.pdf