Against the Current: Inclusive Multicultural Education Practices for Contentious Times

Teaching that aims to be inclusive of marginalized communities is under attack in the United States, evidenced, for example, in widespread school book banning efforts, prohibition of Advanced Placement African American history, and a general tenor of fear among educators across the K-12 and higher education spectrum. This fear originates from a variety of pedagogical attempts at teaching content or utilizing practices that do anything other than valorize the dominant narrative and status quo in the United States. Classroom teachers and college instructors ask what can be done to uphold the practices they know to support students from all backgrounds to experience educational success and inclusion that won’t capture the ire of parent groups, school boards, or educational commissions bent on squelching such critical efforts.

Against the Current: Inclusive Multicultural Education Practices for Contentious Times addresses these issues by providing examples from K-12 and higher education classrooms where educators’ practices offer a path forward.

Each chapter in the book presents an example of ways educators practice multicultural inclusivity and offers insights on how to do so even in hostile environments. Chapters in Part 1 of the book offer re-framings of flashpoint issues, including such topics as anti-Muslim racism and fugitive pedagogical practices. While the chapters in Part 1 offer a grounding in ways educators might rethink the work at hand, the chapters in Part 2 offer innovative tools or practices that educators across grade levels--including higher education--can use, including frameworks for cultivating deep listening when confronting emotionally charged topics in the classroom and curriculum materials for family and community engagement. Finally, Part 3 of the book offers case studies of this work in action, including examples at the individual teacher or instructor level, the classroom level, and the schoolwide level. The volume includes a guide for readers with discussion and reflection questions, extension activities, and additional resources for each chapter.

Against the Current is critical reading in a variety of settings. It can be used in professional development programs to better equip teachers. College and university libraries will want it in their collections. As a teaching textbook, its content will apply to a large number of classes in multicultural education, inclusive teaching and learning, and other courses, thus equipping preservice teachers with valuable tools as they prepare to enter schools.

Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Education; Educational Equity; Foundations of Education; Multicultural Education; Social Justice and Education; Teacher Education; Teaching Methods; Educational Practice; Educational Studies

Sherry L. Deckman is a professor of education at Lehman College, the City University of New York (CUNY) and an affiliated faculty member and Executive Officer on the PhD Program in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center, where she is also an affiliated faculty member in the Social Welfare and Women’s and Gender Studies programs. She is also the current editor of the Journal for Multicultural Education.

Dr. Deckman’s recent research and teaching have focused on how educators are prepared to work with students from diverse race, class, and gender backgrounds, as well as how educators address issues of race, class, and gender inequity in schools. Other recent research has explored how undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds negotiate race, class, and gender while participating in culturally focused performing arts groups, which is the topic of her 2022 book, Black Space: Negotiating Race, Diversity, and Belonging in the Ivory Tower, an American Educational Studies Association Critic’s Choice awardee.

Dr. Deckman’s research has appeared in top venues in the field such as Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, the Journal of Teacher Education, and Urban Education. Dr. Deckman’s career in education began as a high school teacher in Washington, DC and Fukuoka, Japan. Since then, she has supported beginning and pre-service teachers in Boston and Cambridge, MA, upstate New York, and across New York City. Dr. Deckman completed her doctorate at Harvard University.

Melanie Waller is a lecturer of education at Queens College, City University of New York. Her work focuses on urban and suburban education with a particular emphasis on political life and education.