Questioning Assumptions and Challenging Perceptions: Becoming an Effective Teacher in Urban Environments

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For a moment, consider you dont know what you dont know. What individuals know about urban schools is often based on assumptions and perceptions. It is important for individuals to examine these assumptions and perceptions of urban schools and the students who attend them. While many textbooks support how teachers should teach students in urban settings, this book asserts individuals can be effective teachers in these settings only if they first develop an understanding urban schools and the students who attend them. As readers progress through the chapters, they will realize they dont know what they dont know. Within a framework of cognitive dissonance, readers will continuously examine and reexamine their personal beliefs and perceptions. Readers will also investigate new information and varied perspectives related to urban schools. When readers finish this book, they will be on their way to becoming effective teachers in urban environments.

Reviews

That teachers need to understand themselvestheir talents as well as their shortcomings, their sensitivities as well as their biasesbefore they can be effective with students of all backgrounds is by now fairly well accepted. In Questioning Assumptions and Changing Perceptions, authors Connie Schaffer, Meg White, and Corine Meredith Brown go beyond platitudes to explore not only why but also how teachers and other educators can do so. This book will be useful for novice as well as veteran teachers who want to make a difference for themselves and their students. -- Sonia Nieto, Sonia Nieto, Professor Emerita, Language, Literacy, and Culture, College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Building on an urban ecological framework, this book powerfully shepherds preservice and inservice teachers into processes of reflection on unexamined assumptions that can lead to practices detrimental for youth. Educators interested in learning more about how their beliefs and mindsets shape their practice should read this book. The authors remind educators that they must be audaciously deliberate in their efforts to learn and develop as they work to support their students in urban environments who deserve our best everyday! This is an important book! -- H. Richard Milner IV, author of Rac(e)ing to Class, Confronting poverty and race in schools and classrooms

Author Bio

Connie Schaffer is a faculty member at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her teaching and research focus on preparing pre-service teachers to better understand the context of urban schools and the students who attend them. Meg White is an Assistant Professor in Teacher Education at Stockton University. Currently much of her teaching and scholarship is preparing pre-service teachers to be effective urban educators. Visit her blog: https://reflectionsinedblogblog.wordpress.com/ Corine Meredith Brown is Assistant Chair for the Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education Department at Rowan University. Her teaching and research focus on pre-service teacher preparation in diverse learning environments.