Conversations about race can be confusing, contentious, and frightening, particularly for White people. Even just asking questions about race can be scary because we are afraid of what our questions might reveal about our ignorance or bias. Raising Race Questions invites teachers to use inquiry as a way to develop sustained engagement with challenging racial questions and to do so in community so that they learn how common their questions actually are. It lays out both a process for getting to questions that lead to growth and change, as well as a vision for where engagement with race questions might lead. Race questions are not meant to lead us into a quagmire of guilt, discomfort, or isolation. Sustained race inquiry is meant to lead to anti-racist classrooms, positive racial identities, and a restoration of the wholeness of spirit and community that racism undermines. Book Features: Case studies of expert and experienced White teachers who still have questions about race. Approaches for talking about race in the K–12 classroom. Strategies for facilitating race conversations among adults. A variety of different resources useful in the teacher inquiry groups described in the book. Research with teachers, not on teachers, including written responses from each teacher whose classroom is featured in the book. “In Raising Race Questions Ali Michael is an excavator, determined to dig into every unexplored crevice of White teachers’ experiences with race in order to unearth the complex realities of racism and schooling, and a model of reflective inquiry, willing to lay herself and her assumptions bare in service to the reader's consciousness and her own. This book grew my consciousness in multiple ways, and that is the greatest gift an author can give me.” —Paul Gorski, founder, EdChange, associate professor, George Mason University “Ali Michael has a gift for getting people talking. This must-read book captures her ‘magic’ and shares useful strategies for teachers and schools working to develop their racial proficiency. As a White teacher engaged in this work, I've watched these tools help educators support one another as they make mistakes, reflect, and grow together.” —Lynn Eckerman, Teacher, Independence Charter School, Philadelphia, PA

What propelled me to write this book? In addition to being nudged by Spirit and my own Inner Guidance, I took a look around. What is this fixation on race, sex, gender, religion, class that preoccupies so many of our species? Where is our plentiful joy and wonder at the magnificence of Creation? More importantly, what can we do about any lack of wonder? Who are we, anyway, and why are we here? Personally, I am fascinated by the diversity and combinations in which we humans flourish — with our multitude of talents, looks and abilities. I love our creativity, our amazingly diverse yet similar energies and vibrations. To me, this variety is something to be honored and treasured, a reflection of the artistry and abundance of Creation. Despite the beauty that exists within diversity – racial, sexual, gender, and so on -- some of us appear to feel, believe and act as if our variety is an issue, going so far as to behave inimically toward others who outwardly "look or seem different.” From where do these attitudes stem and where do these perceptions lead? Is separation along color/sex/gender/religious lines what an-yone truly desires in the core of his/her being? It is indicative of a culture with distorted ideas about race that people can even figure out what looking alike and looking different mean. How are these differences of coloration interpreted? In a culture that loved our multiplicity of being, we would have a different conception of alike and different, as well as different feelings and vibrations within ourselves. We are in a new millennium. We have the time-space-place-resonance to be the enlightened beings that we are. The choice is open to each and every one of us.

This book focuses on the tensions that emerge in teaching the English language arts methods course within teacher education programs. The book features chapters that grapple with the historical legacies of influence on methods/pedagogy as well as contemporary challenges in teaching methods courses alongside field experiences. Multiple perspectives from those involved in teaching methods courses within English language arts teacher education programs are presented as a way to dialogue about current and future challenges. Dialogue is sustained throughout the book, as each chapter includes an adjacent response that prompts readers to ask further questions about the chapter’s content. Content with the chapters in the book focus on describing a “tension” or “dilemma” that the author faced when teaching the middle/secondary ELA methods course or adjacent field experience. Discussion in the chapters’ responses highlights the importance of the field’s history and its present response to the tension featured. This book will be a useful resource to teacher educators who wish to investigate new approaches to dilemmas faced in teaching the methods class to pre-service teachers.

The multiracial population of the United States is growing at an exponential rate, and it is estimated that as much as twenty percent of the entire US population will be mixed race by 2050. Despite this dramatic cultural and demographic shift, institutional structures of higher education continue to be organized along inflexible, monoethnic racial lines. "Mixed Race Student Politics" features sixteen graduate and undergraduate student essays that offer a window into the diverse experiences of being a mixed race university student in America, and at UCLA-the leading edge of mixed race student organizing. Together, the essays evince a "third wave" of a new mixed race movement, as well as a rising tide of mixed race politics. "Weaving together a diverse set of student narratives that challenge monoracial thinking, these essays provide a much needed contribution to the field of Critical Mixed Race Studies." Rudy P. Guevarra, Jr., author, "Becoming Mexipino: Multiethnic Identities and Communities in San Diego."

Learn how to foster critical conversations in English language arts classrooms. This guide encourages teachers to engage students in noticing and discussing harmful discourses about race, gender, and other identities. The authors take readers through a framework that includes knowledge about power, a critical learner stance, critical pedagogies, critical talk moves, and vulnerability. The text features in-depth classroom examples from six secondary English language arts classrooms. Each chapter offers specific ways in which teachers can begin and sustain critical conversations with their students, including the creation of teacher inquiry groups that use transcript analysis as a learning tool. Book Features: Strategies that educators can use to facilitate conversations about critical issues. In-depth classroom examples of teachers doing this work with their students. Questions, activities, and resources that foster self-reflection. Tools for engaging in transcript analysis of classroom conversations. Suggestions for developing inquiry groups focused on critical conversations.

Student retention continues to be a vexing problem for all colleges and universities. In spite of the money spent on creating programs and services to help retain students until they achieve their academic and personal goals, and graduate, the figures have not improved over time. This is particularly true for minority students, who have a greater attrition rate than majority students. Demographic information shows that the minority population in the United States is growing at a faster rate than the majority. It is imperative that educational institutions find ways to help improve retention rates for all students but particularly minority students. Retention rates should not differ appreciably among different racial/ethnic groups."The Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory and Practice" is the only scholarly, peer-reviewed journal devoted solely to college student retention. It has published many articles on minority student retention, and this topic continues to garner much attention. This book is a compilation of the very best of these articles, selected on the basis of reviews by a cadre of experts in the education field. The articles discuss African American, Latino/Latina, Asian and Asian Pacific, Native American, and biracial students, and institutional commitments to retaining a diverse student population. For those interested in this vital area, the collection will teach and inspire them to achieve greater heights and pay additional attention to retaining minority students in our colleges and universities.