Urban Education

The changing demographics of America’s population increases the need for educators to develop multicultural curricula for the nation’s schools. This article describes the efforts of a group of teachers to learn about the funds of knowledge of Mexican students by doing field research in a state in Mexico with one of the largest migrations to Chicago. The article discusses their successes and the challenges of developing curricula that go beyond the “heroes-and-holidays” approach to ethnic cultures and that consider issues such as transnationalism, illegal immigration, and racism. It contextualizes these issues in the broader context of multicultural education.

Thirteen urban educators teaching from 1st through 12th grade selected from 7 cities across the United States were interviewed in this qualitative research study to determine if the classroom management strategies they use reflect the research on culturally responsive teaching. Participants revealed using several management strategies that reflect culturally responsive teaching: development of personal relationships with students, creation of caring communities, establishment of business-like learning environments, use of culturally and ethnically congruent communication processes, demonstrations of assertiveness, and utilization of clearly stated and enforced expectations. Questions arise concerning the ability of teacher education programs to effectively prepare preservice teachers for successful classroom management in urban schools.

The current study explores the relationship between perceived teacher efficacy and specific practices of family involvement exhibited by 110 elementary schoolteachers from a large urban school district. Bandura’s construct of self-efficacy provided the theoretical framework for examining teacher efficacy. The study investigated the predictive value of self-efficacy beliefs for determining specific family involvement practices exhibited by teachers. Self-efficacy was measured with the Teacher Efficacy Scale and the Family Involvement Teacher Efficacy Scale. Results from this investigation revealed that teacher efficacy was significantly correlated to and was a predictor of five different types of family involvement practices, as reflected in Epstein’s typology of home-school and community partnerships. The study raised questions related to the effective preparation of teachers in this area and the types of experiences that facilitate the development of teacher efficacy beliefs in the area of home-school and community partnerships.

This article suggests that colleges and universities can improve intergroup relations on campus by implementing a cooperative learning technique known as the jigsaw classroom. What is argued is that use of the jigsaw classroom will facilitate a recategorization process by which members of racial-ethnic groups other than one’s own (“them”) will begin to be seen as being members of a more inclusive “we.” Included in this article is an examination of on-campus racial discrimination, a discussion of some social psychological work that is useful in helping us understand why this discrimination exists, and a discussion of the ways in which the jigsaw classroom has the potential to reduce this discrimination.