Creating a Home in Schools: Sustaining Identities for Black, Indigenous, and Teachers of Color

The authors of this book provide caring advice to Black, Indigenous, and Teachers of Color (BITOC) to help sustain them into and through the teaching profession. Through an examination of BITOC in the education workforce, the assets that these educators bring to the teaching profession are identified, as are some of the most critical challenges they face in today’s schools. The book illuminates the importance of cultivating and supporting social cultural identities as resources that will serve prospective teachers and their increasingly diverse students. Rooted in an identity sustaining framework, the authors strongly encourage BITOC to bring their full cultural, social, and linguistic assets into the classroom while simultaneously encouraging their students to do the same. Creating a Home in Schools will help readers successfully negotiate and navigate the teaching profession, from pathway programs, to teacher education, and into the classroom.

Book Features:

• Explores major contextual constraints that BITOC will have to understand and navigate.
• Identifies the cultural and linguistic assets BITOC bring with them and how to make these a central part of their teaching.
• Focuses on the importance of a strong sense of identity and how to approach teaching and learning in identity sustaining ways.
• Offers guidance for enacting culturally sustaining pedagogies that are rooted in BITOC identities to serve the needs of their students.

Francisco A. Rios, professor, and A Longoria, assistant professor, are both at Woodring College of Education, Western Washington University.