Speaking the Unpleasant. The Politics of (non)Engagement in the Multicultural Education Terrain. SUNY Series, The Social Context of Education.

Chavez, Rudolfo Chavez, Ed.; O'Donnell, James, Ed.; Sleeter, Christine E., Ed.

This book addresses the clashing, controversial ideological and ontological postures that emanate when multicultural education issues are the sum and substance for engagement by learners in various educational settings. After a preface (C.E. Sleeter) and foreword "Tongue-Tying Multiculturalism" (D. Macedo), the book offers the following 17 essays: (1) "Engaging the Multicultural Education Terrain: A Holographic Montage for Engagers" (R.C. Chavez); (2) "From Claiming Hegemony to Sharing Space: Creating Community in Multicultural Courses" (S. Nieto); (3) "Mediating Curriculum: Problems of Nonengagement and Practices of Engagement" (B. Cross); (4) "Engaging Students' Re-Cognition of Racial Identity" (J. O'Donnell); (5) "Toward a Just Society: Recalibrating Multicultural Teachers" (L.T. Diaz-Rico); (6) "Fostering Engagement: Barriers in Teacher Education" (G.S. Cannella); (7) "Confessions of a Methods Fetishist: Or, the Cultural Politics of Reflective Nonengagement" (M. Dressman); (8) "Upstream in the Mainstream: Pedagogy Against the Current" (R.E. Bahruth and S.F. Steiner); (9) "Engaging Special Education Practitioners with Language and Culture: Pitfalls and Challenges" (J. De Leon, C. Medina, and R. Ortiz); (10) "Exploring the Use of History in Multicultural/Multilingual Teacher Education" (K. Tellez and S. O'Malley); (11) "The Struggle for Cultural Self: From Numb to Dumb" (S.M. Rumann); (12) "Challenging Privilege: White Male Middle-Class Opposition in the Multicultural Education Terrain" (R. Smith); (13) "Moving Off Center: Engaging White Education Students in Multicultural Field Experiences" (C.R. O'Grady); (14) "Identity and Engagement in Multicultural Education" (B.J. Cahill and E.M. Adams); (15) "Lowering the Shields: Reducing Defensiveness in Multicultural Education" (D.J. Goodman); (16) "(E)strange(d) Relations: Psychological Concepts in Multicultural Education" (N. Lesko); and (17) "Teaching Within/Against the Backlash: A Group Dialogue About Power and Pedagogy in the 1990's" (G.L. Anderson, M. Bentley, B. Gallegos, K. Herr, and E. Saavedra). (All papers contain references.) (SM)