Classroom Communication and Diversity: Enhancing Instructional Practice

Classroom Communication and Diversity provides a useful framework for helping both new and experienced teachers and instructors navigate the communication challenges in today’s diverse classroom. It encourages teachers to reflect on how their personal cultures influence their expectations regarding classroom communication. This textbook is distinctive in its distillation of research from numerous sources to provide the best viewpoint and systems for focusing on the needs of the individual learner.

Dana L. Powell and Robert G. Powell draw on research in both the communication and education disciplines, and provide useful strategies for improving teaching practices alongside theoretical models regarding diversity in the classroom. Much of the information found in this text is also inspired by the authors’ direct experience in schools and from the experience they have gleaned from other first-line instructors as well as from parents and children.

Among the many updates to this Third Edition are:

• Expanded coverage of students with diverse needs
• Discussion on working effectively with parents
• Coverage of cultural influences and the impact of race and ethnicity on disciplinary actions
• Examination of the role of social media and its impact on instructional communication
• The increase of educational technology use.

Teachers and scholars in the communication and education fields will find this text practical and valuable for their teaching efforts, and it is appropriate for instructional communication courses in both disciplines.

Dana L. Powell is currently a professor in the Department of Literacy, early, Bilingual and Special Education at California State University Fresno. (Fresno State). Prior to receiving her Ph.D in Special Education from the University of New Mexico, Dana had 15 years experience teaching students with learning, emotional and behavioral problems at a local high school and at a psychiatric hospital from adolescents in Albuquerque NM.

Robert G. Powell is Professor Emeritus, in the Department of Communication at California State University, Fresno. He has taught courses in instructional communication for more than 30 years. His research has examined the communication processes that promote academic engagement and performance in diverse educational environments.