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Community Connections > Family Collaboration
The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities
Type: Horace Book Review
Author(s): Sonia Nieto
Source: Horace. Vol.18, #4. Summer 2002.
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 Throughout
The Light in Their Eyes, I was thrilled by the continuity between Sonia
Nieto's description of multicultural education and Coalition educators'
focus on personalized, sustained and supportive relationships among teachers
and students. Nieto, education professor at the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst, explores how teachers, through cultural connection and understanding,
promote learning and equity among all students, especially bicultural
students who have struggled academically.
Nieto provides a compelling, concise discussion of learning and inequality.
But rather than critiquing how schools are failing students, The Light
in Their Eyes emphasizes how teachers can use their comprehension of culture
and language to create better conditions for learning. Nieto enriches
her masterful synthesis of research on culture and learning with recollections
of her own school and family experiences. She also includes excerpts of
narratives by teachers reflecting on teaching with a focus on cultural
competence.
Nieto's prose soars as it creates a vision of the complex but possible
task of making school meaningful for all students. In particular, her
discussion of teaching and learning as a negotiation among students, families,
teachers and schools serves as an eloquent argument for personalized education
and the role of family and community in learning. Nieto concludes by noting,
"At the core of this book is my powerful belief in the effect, positive
or negative, that teachers can have on students through their interactions
with them, their families, and their communities." With that power
in their hands, teachers will feel it's both possible and imperative to
create schools that engage and embrace students.
reviewed by Jill Davidson
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This resource last updated: April 15, 2003
Database Information:
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Source: Horace. Vol.18, #4. Summer 2002.
Publication Year: 2002
Publisher: CES National
School Level: All
Issue: 18.4
Focus Area: Community Connections
STRAND: Community Connections: family collaboration
Family Collaboration: Parent/Teacher Communication
Community Collaboration: Communicating Goals & Strategies
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