Description
Book SynopsisThis text takes the reader inside children's classrooms and reveals the lessons about race that are communicated there, both implicitly and explicitly. It examines how ideas about race and racial inequality take shape and are passed along in the classroom and schoolyard.
Trade ReviewIn this pioneering ethnography in elementary schools, Lewis shows brilliantly how racism is taught and learned in the small places of everyday life. -- Joe Feagin * University of Florida and author of Racist America *
A wonderful and timely book. Ethnographically rich, theoretically sophisticated, and clearly written, this book addresses the ubiquitous issue of race in all its complexity. -- MichFle Foster * author of Black Teachers on Teaching *
A compelling ethnography of the racial landscape of contemporary schools. -- Barrie Thorne * author of Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School *
Race in the Schoolyard is a wonderful book for social scientists studying race, education, and childhood studies. The book showcases the talents of a gifted fieldworker whose theoretically rich work sits on the cutting edge of a growing body of scholarship examining the social worlds of children. School officials, parents, and, most especially, a new generation of teachers will benefit from these lessons on race. * American Journal of Sociology *
Instructors may recommend this book to students to whom the topic is surely vital and engrossing and for whom the text will be lively and engaging. * Contemporary Sociology *
Lewis moves beyond traditional research methods used to examine achievement gaps and differences in test scores to look closely at the realities of schooling. I highly recommend this work for every person involved in teaching and learning. * Multicultural Review *
Through eloquent case studies of three California elementary schools-a white-majority 'good' school, a mostly minority 'tough' school, and an integrated 'alternative' school-[Lewis] demonstrates that schools promote racial inequalities through their daily rituals and practices. Even the notion of a "color-blind" America-an especially popular ideal in the white school-perpetuates racism, Lewis argues, because it denies or dismisses the very real constraints that schools place on minorities. Lewis is nevertheless an optimist, insisting that schools can change ideas of race. . . . Highly recommended. Undergraduate collections and above. * Choice *
Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgements
ONE Examining the Color Line in Schools
TWOThere is No Race in the Schoolyard: Color-Blind Ideology at Foresthills
THREE Struggling with Dangerous Subjects: Race at West City Elementary
FOUR Breaking the Silence: Race, Culture, Language, and Power at Metro2
FIVE Learning and Living Racial Boundaries: Constructing and Negotiating Racial Identity in School
SIXSchooling and the Social Reproduction of Racial Inequality
SEVEN Schools as Race-Making Institutions
APPENDIX Research Methods: Stories from the Field
Notes
Bibliography
Index
