The Minority Voice in Educational Reform: An Analysis by Minority and Women College of Education Deans. Louis A. Castenell and Jill M. Tarule, eds. Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation, 1997. 170 pp.
CHERRY A. McGEE BANKS
University of Washington at Bothell
The face of higher education is changing. In 1993, white females and people of color made up 47 percent of the faculty in U.S. colleges and universities (Thomas D. Snyder, Charlene M. Hoffman, and Claire M. Geddes, eds., Digest of Education Statistics, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics, 1997). Although still disproportionately small, the number of women and people of color who have become deans of schools of education has also increased. As the demographic profile of faculty and administrators in higher education changes, norms, behaviors, values, and ways of knowing in the academy are challenged. Research and personal experiences illustrating those challenges are presented in The Minority Voice in Educational Reform: An Analysis by Minority and Women College of Education Deans. Several authors in this text crafted their chapters by weaving personal and professional elements of their lives together with research. Nancy Hersel does this in her chapter “Family and Work Issues for Women in Higher Education.” Hensel not only shares research on family and work issues for women in the academy, she adds a personal dimension to her chapter by discussing her experiences as a working mother and mentor to faculty members who were also working mothers.
In organizing The Minority Voice in Educational Reform, Louis A. Castenell and Jill M. Tarule were aware that many women and minority College of Education deans are in a unique position in the academy. They are outsiders within. Patricia Hill Collins notes that “outsider within” status can create an ability to see patterns that may elude people who are more immersed in a situation. Castenell and Tarule write that at professional conferences where deans of education gather, women and people of color frequently discuss issues and concerns in informal settings on the margins of the conferences. This text captures the substance of those conversations. The authors use their vantage point on the margins to raise questions and share insights about the academy and K–12 education. Castenell and Tarule note that historically voices on the margins have been a harbinger of change. They remind readers that “as we came to know more about racism from DuBois, more about the Holocaust from Anne Frank, so can we come to know more about the critical issues facing education from the chapters in this book” (p. xix).
The Minority Voice in Educational Reform includes nine chapters divided into two parts. The first part examines the challenges and tensions that result when women and people of color assume leadership positions in the academy. The second part highlights the significance of power, conflict, race, and gender in reforming K–12 schools. Taken together the two parts of the book encourage readers to think about the relationship between students in university and K–12 classrooms. Educators in both settings are encouraged to create learning environments in which students can know, care, and act to improve the quality of human life (see James A. Banks, An Introduction to Multicultural Education, 2nd edition, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999). Introductions to each part of the book would have helped readers make connections between students in education programs and K–12 students.
The chapters in each part of the book cover a wide range of topics. Despite the range of topics covered, the text holds together. It is united by a common theme of change and diversity explicated throughout the book. Each of the nine chapters raises questions and encourages readers to think more deeply about the challenges and opportunities that result when women and people of color are centered in educational change.
Portia H. Shields’s insights on deaning at Howard University, a historically black university, Barbara Shade’s reflections on implementing a teacher education program with a multicultural focus, and Jane Stalling’s discussion on the importance of mentors and the challenges she faced during a period of dwindling resources give readers an inside view of the dean’s office. Visions, hopes, and strategies for reforming schools are highlighted in chapters by Fannie Wiley Preston, on changing the public perception of schools and schools of education; by Marilyn J. Haring, on site-based management and teacher empowerment; and by Trevor E. Sewell and Constance V. Hine, on testing and assessment. Readers who know the names of these and the other authors will be able to put their work in context. Unfortunately, biographical sketches of the authors are not included. Readers are given only the authors’ names and institutional affiliations.
The continuing impact of racism and sexism as separate and intersecting factors in higher educational and K–12 settings is discussed in several chapters. Hugh J. Scott, for example, helps readers understand how the continuing impact of racism results in educational disadvantages for African American students. Scott identifies seven imperatives for improving the life chances and educational lot of African American students. Beverly Lindsay examines issues related to women educational leaders who are African American in her chapter titled “Surviving the Middle Passage.” She raises important and provocative questions that highlight race and gender as a collectivity.
Not everyone will agree with the perspectives included in this text, but it is nevertheless a work that will stimulate discussion for all those interested in school reform.
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