Creating Culturally Considerate Schools

Are you seeing your students clearly?

This unique collaboration between a veteran educator and a psychotherapist shows that the educators who are most effective in teaching diverse student populations are the ones who can "see students clearly and respond to their needs without hesitation or bias." Framed around an original, eight-stage model of diversity development, this book provides readers with essential tools for building a sturdy foundation of mutual respect upon which schools without bias can be constructed. Included are specific strategies for creating a school environment that

• Gives voice and consideration to all students
• Shows interest, empathy, and respect for all staff members
• Advocates respect and reverence of individuality
• Adapts innovative policies—despite resistance—that best serve the total school community

In addition to vignettes, anecdotes, and case examples, the authors provide worksheets for problem-solving, conflict resolution, clear communication, rules of engagement, reflection, and scenario study. This book will help educators boost student achievement by giving them how-to strategies that work across content areas to create a culturally considerate classroom and school climate that supports student success and reinforces the strength of individual teachers, administrators, and auxiliary personnel.

Kim L. Anderson’s career path has been a diverse and divergent one. Prior to obtaining a graduate degree in social work from Washington University in St. Louis, she was a freelance writer, photographer and graphic artist with interests in “outsider art,” expressions of oppression and liberation beyond conventional artistic borders or boundaries. After many years of private practice as a licensed clinical social worker, clinical supervisor and educator, Kim received a post-graduate certificate in art psychotherapy and now is a board certified art therapist. She is the author of Culturally Considerate School Counseling: Helping Without Bias, published by Corwin Press in 2010. Ms. Anderson presents her eclectic work at numerous local, regional and national events and venues, engaging her audience through compelling narrative, careful research, evocative experiences, and instructive storytelling. Read Kim Anderson′s blogpost: http://niusileadscape.org/bl/ and follow her on Twitter @kandersonlcsw! Bonnie M. Davis, PhD, is a veteran teacher of more than forty years who is passionate about education. She taught in middle schools, high schools, universities, homeless shelters, and a men’s prison. She holds a doctorate in English from St. Louis University and is the recipient of numerous awards, including Teacher of the Year in two public school districts, the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Anti-Defamation League’s World of Difference Community Service Award. She has presented at numerous national conferences and currently works in school districts across the country. Dr. Davis’ work centers on examining what “we don’t know we don’t know” about ourselves in order to more effectively teach students who don’t look like us. Moving from self reflection to action, her books offer educators culturally responsive, standards-based instructional strategies that bridge culture, language, race, and ethnicity. Dr. Davis’s publications include the How to Teach Students Who Don’t Look Like You: Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies(2012);How to Coach Teachers Who Don’t Think Like You: Using Literacy Strategies to Coach Across Content Areas (2007); The Biracial and Multiracial Student Experience: A Journey to Racial Literacy(2009); and Creating Culturally Considerate Schools: Educating Without Bias (2012) with coauthor Kim L. Anderson. She is currently working on the Equity 101 Series with Curtin Linton, Executive Vice President of School Improvement Network.