The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teaching of African American Children [Book Review]

(The Wisconsin English Journal, Fall 2003, Vol. 45, No.2)

Schools everywhere have been challenged to improve the academic achievement of African American students.  In her book, Ladson-Billings advocates for culturally relevant teaching as a means to achieve that goal. Culturally relevant teaching, she claims, “helps students choose academic success.” (13) Following a short but important discussion early in the book about the failings and obstacles of the desegregation of schools as institutional policy, she focuses on a classroom level of desegregation for student achievement. She argues that African American students’ achievement levels are improved only when “individual classrooms are desegregated.” 

To clarify this desegregation of the classroom she distinguishes between excellent teachers and excellent teaching.  She prefers to look at teaching ideology and common behaviors, not at individual teaching styles. The eight teachers in her three-year study were selected based on recommendations and testaments of principals and parents, not on the students’ standardized test scores.  Five of her teachers were African Americans and three were white. Her study, she claims, is not a prescription or a recipe; instead, she offers models for improving practice and developing grounded theory.

In her chapters she focuses on three critical aspects of culturally relevant teaching: the teachers’ conception of themselves and others, the manner which classroom social interactions are structured, and the teachers’ conception of knowledge. The points she makes about these aspects are illustrated with narrative excerpts from Ladson-Billings’ own literacy autobiography as well as with narrative comments from the teachers involved with the study. Through these vignettes, we are able to visualize the concept or theory being advocated. Early on she claims that the actual teaching provides “a useful heuristic for teachers and teacher educators who wish to take on the challenge of being successful with African American students.” (13) Indeed, these rich narrative comments provide the strength of her well-articulated arguments.

It is from her explanations of these three critical aspects of culturally relevant teaching that we understand the heart of her message. For example, in her discussion of the teachers’ conception of themselves and others, she discusses several key ideas. Does the teacher see herself as an artist and teaching as an art? Does the teacher see herself as a part of the community and teaching as giving something back to the community and in so doing, encourages students to do the same? Does the teacher believe all students can succeed? Does the teacher help students make connections between their community, national, and  global identities? Does the teacher view teaching as drawing knowledge out rather than putting knowledge in?  (34) Teachers with culturally relevant practices would answer yes to these questions.

In her discussion about the manner in which classroom social interactions are structured, Ladson-Billings claims the student-teacher relationship is not fixed and hierarchal as much as it is fluid, equitable and extends beyond the classroom into the community. The teacher with culturally relevant practices connects with all her students, not just some of them. She encourages a “community of learners” rather than competitive achievement. And she encourages students to learn collaboratively, not in isolation. (55)

The teachers’ conception of knowledge is a crucial aspect of culturally relevant teaching. In this section of her study, she recruits a social constructivist view of teaching and learning. Knowledge is not static and unchanging but is instead constantly being recreated and shared by teachers and students. Students learn to view knowledge critically. A teacher who practices culturally relevant teaching is passionate about content. In helping students to develop necessary skills, she recognizes excellence as a complex standard which takes into account diversity and individual differences. (81) Each of these theories and concepts is given life in her book with her narrative examples of culturally relevant teaching which she gathered from her study.

In the preface to her book, Ladson-Billings discusses the power of the dream metaphor in the experiences of the African American in the United States. She recalls the sadness of Langston Hughes’ poem about deferred dreams as well as the power of Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” oratory. And her study, methodical, analytic, and illustrative as it is, supports her contention that her book is not about despair but about optimism, of keeping the dream alive. Reading her book gives us many concrete, specific, and useful changes we can make to our teaching and thinking in order to assure the success of all our students.

Gloria Ladson-Billings. 1994. The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children. Jossey-Bass Publishers. (350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA, USA. 94104) 187 pp. ISBN 0-7879-0338-8. Paperback.