The Skin That We Speak: Thoughts on Language and Culture in the Classroom

Description

A look at the politics of language instruction for students of colour. A fresh, cutting-edge work, The Skin that We Speak takes the discussion of language in the classroom beyond the highly-charged war of idioms - in which English only' means standard English only - and provides teachers and parents with a thoughtful exploration of the varieties of English spoken and the layers of politics, power and identity that those forms carry.'

Lisa Delpit, a MacArthur Fellow, received the award for Outstanding Contribution to Education in 1993 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which hailed her as a "visionary scholar and woman of courage." She is the author of Other People's Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (The New Press) and is currently the executive director for the Center for Urban Education and Innovation at Florida International University. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy is Associate Professor of Adolescent/Adult Literacy at Kent State University in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, and Curriculum Studies. She is the author of GED Stories: Black Women and Their Struggle for Social Equity.

"Although these lucid, accessible pieces speak most directly to teachers and would be teachers . . . the issues are broad enough to attract more general readers, especially parents." -Publishers Weekly