Non-governmental Organizations in Africa- the Leonenet Street Children Project in Sierra Leone

The purpose of this paper is to provide snapshots of observations, interventions, and processes in the day to day working of a child charity in Sierra Leone

[Review of] James Craig-Holte. The Ethnic I: A Sourcebook for Ethnic-American Autobiography

This is indeed a fascinating collection from a diverse group of ethnic-Americans. The book generally fulfills a need for the study of ethnic perspectives from the standpoint of literature and culture. Autobiographical insights, though basically personal, present us with historical, social, cultural, sexual and racial perceptions which are crucial to the interpretation of life, role, and identity in a pluralistic society. The major goal of Craig-Holte\u27s book is to provide an overview of the genre of ethnic-American autobiography and to examine the work of representative writers from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and historical periods

Creating Culturally Considerate Schools: Educating Without Bias

This book review first discusses the book’s major content divisions and follows with a general analysis of concepts. The book is structured into phases of equity development namely, selfexamination, reflection, integration, actualization, and educational equity (p. 12). The phases are further subdivided into eight manageable steps of personal and professional growth that would empower teachers to operate in culturally considerate classrooms, galvanized by school climates and cultures that support individual and collective student achievement. The eight stages of personal and professional growth are: acknowledgement of bias, assessment of current equity skills, acceptance of limitations, cognitive restructuring, expanding knowledge base, skill building, culturally considerate education and counseling, and reparation (p. 13)

Critical Components of Transforming Teaching and Leading: Recognizing Educational Success Professional Excellence, and Collaborative Teaching (RESPECT)

The purpose of this commentary is to disseminate significant content and to trigger discussion on the seven components of “A Blueprint for R.E.S.P.E.C.T. RECOGNIZING EDUCATIONAL SUCCESS, PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE AND COLLABORATIVE TEACHING (2012).” Teacher preparation programs in the United States are moving in the direction of a clinical model. Some reasons for doing so are to facilitate teacher leadership and respect, earn higher professional recognition, acquire higher financial compensation, and embrace more collaborative teaching. This formula should lead to American students receiving an education that meets competitive global standards. Highly effective teachers accelerate student learning, close achievement gaps that have persisted for decades, and build habits of mind that change the trajectories of students’ lives, resulting in lower dropout rates, lower rates of teen pregnancy, and greater lifetime earnings and career satisfaction (Chetty, Friedman, & Rockoff, 2011). Strong school leaders enable effective teachers to grow and thrive (Auguste, Kihn, & Miller, 2010). It is therefore important to discuss the Blueprint’s tenets for educational success, professional excellence, and collaborative teachin

[Review of] Michael Thelwell. Duties, Pleasures, and Conflicts: Essays in Struggle

Duties, Pleasures, and Conflicts is a collection of previously published material on related issues, different genres and varied circumstances written over many years. If a good book is one that can evoke interest and response in the reader while at the same time relaying some sort of message, this book ranks in that category

Child Soldier Narratives and Critical Incident Themes in Peace Education

Children are combatants in nearly three-quarters of the world\u27s conflicts and have posed difficult dilemmas for the professional armies they confront. There are moral and strategic arguments for limiting the use of child soldiers. When conflicts involving children end, experts say the prospects for a lasting peace are hurt by large populations of psychologically scarred, demobilized child soldiers. Parts of Africa, Asia, and South America risk long-term instability as generations of youth are sucked into ongoing wars. There is a need to teach about maintaining peace in post-conflict classrooms. The author proposes a lesson plan to develop themes for peace education using child-soldier narratives and critical incident questions. The teacher will supervise and give continuous and authentic feedback to student projects. The paper contains material on peace education, child-soldier narratives, and critical incident questioning. Students read background information on a selected country, a child- soldier narrative, and other relevant material. They work collaboratively to develop themes on peace education by responding to critical incident questions provided by the teacher. The teacher will analyze these responses and identify peace-education themes that emerged from them. The students complete a final project – a poster. The teacher will use the emerging themes to prepare future lessons on peace education

Creating Culturally Considerate Schools: Educating Without Bias BOOK REVIEW

This book review first discusses the book’s major content divisions and follows with a general analysis of concepts. The book is structured into phases of equity development namely, self-examination, reflection, integration, actualization, and educational equity (p. 12). The phases are further subdivided into eight manageable steps of personal and professional growth that would empower teachers to operate in culturally considerate classrooms, galvanized by school climates and cultures that support individual and collective student achievement. The eight stages of personal and professional growth are: acknowledgement of bias, assessment of current equity skills, acceptance of limitations, cognitive restructuring, expanding knowledgebase, skill building, culturally considerate education and counseling, and reparation (p.13).

Pedagogy, Child Soldier Memoirs, and Moral Intelligence in a Post-Conflict Classroom

Edited by Barry Mowell, Sub-Saharan Africa in the Classroom is written from a variety of perspectives and addresses numerous important human and physical themes. Each chapter shares the common goal of providing educators with substantive and balanced overviews of content, as well as strategies and resources to assist in teaching about Sub-Saharan Africa. One chapter, A Child’s Safari into Sub-Saharan Africa, is written specifically for elementary classrooms, but is adaptable to middle grades as well. One chapter, Sub-Saharan Africa in Cinema, is primarily written for the post-secondary level, but also lists films and provides ideas that would be suitable for secondary students. Secondary-level educators and their students are the target audience for the majority of the book’s content, but much of that content is also adaptable to other levels. For the convenience of educators who will use the book to plan lessons and classroom activities, the contributors have incorporated the Geography for Life, National Geography Standards and specify which standards are applicable to many of the topics they discuss. The authors are from a wide range of academic disciplines in the social and natural sciences as well as teacher-education programs. Each author has impressive credentials, and have conducted research and published extensively. In addition, three chapters have authors that are originally from countries in Sub-Saharan Africa who share their special insight as insiders. It is the goal of all contributors that this volume will be of value to educators in their efforts to acclimate students to this fascinating, complex and important world region