Cummins, J. (1989). Empowering Minority Students. Sacramento, CA:
California Association for Bilingual Education.
Cummins discusses covert racism in our educational institutions
that
hinders the educational success of language minority students.
Misconceptions about language fluency needed for conversational
skills and
the fluency level needed for academic achievement at peer grade
level (and
the time it takes to acquire this level of fluency) plus a covert
tendency
to treat minority cultures and languages as inferior has hindered
language
minority students' education. Cummins suggests a change of orientation
from Anglo-conformity to an intercultural orientation that includes
an
additive cultural/linguistic incorporation, a collaborative community
participation program that actively recruits and includes the
minority
culture, an interactive/experimental pedagogy and an advocacy-orientated
assessment approach is needed to empower language minority students
instead of disabling them. Included are arguments and statistics
to
confront and educate opponents about bi-lingual education that
will help
language minority students achieve academically.
I chose this book because the book was recommended to me by an
educator
involved in multicultural education.
Questions for the author: What cultures, ethnicities and races
have you
worked with personally? The book mentions that there are many
differences
in bi-lingual programs. What factors, other than cultures, ethnicity
and
race, tend to influence major differences in the programs? Are
there any
good, unbiased assessment tools available for a person using
the advocacy
approach to assessment of minority children? How would you handle
students
who do not function well with the interactive/experiential model
of
teaching? Since it takes a student four to five years before
they can be
fluent enough to handle academic subjects in a second language,
doesn't an
educator also need this level of fluency in the student's language
before
he/she can incorporate it into the classroom?
Rosalind Wilcox
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