Innovative Voices in Education: Engaging Diverse Communities by Eileen Kugler depicts the stories collected throughout the world, of teachers or activists in the community sharing their small but significant success and lessons learned. The book has a great value when it comes to its application in the education field. Along with the changes that occurred in the demographical area of the United States came the new resources for involving diverse students into the narrative.
The demographic shifts that have occurred in the recent years suggest the need for discussing the diversity. Thus, the student diversity has increased which leads to a greater requirement for individuals who will educate these students as well as engage them in the interactions within the diverse communities. The stories told in Innovative Voices in Education: Engaging Diverse Communities help in “bringing innovations in diversity out into the open” (Kugler 16), as well as inspiring those heavily involved in the educational sphere (parents, teachers, administrators, and members of the diverse community).
The book is divided into nineteen chapters that are further divided into five parts that relate to different topics. For example, the first part called “Building Respectful Schools” is a great introduction as it provides value for those people that have an influence in the field of education. The vice president of Cook Ross, Inc., Howie Shaffer comments on the value of Innovative Voices in Education: “it is clear that we need to muster the courage to both explore and repudiate our collective willingness to relegate our most vulnerable children to an educational system that too often does not recognize nor value our unique strengths” (Kugler 5). Shaffer then proceeds with saying that educators were unwilling to contribute to developing the diversity in schools for too long. He underlines the importance of respect towards such communities and elimination of the injustice system that exists.
The most important section of the book, in my opinion, is the Part Two called “The Personal Power of a Teacher.” This section offers value to those involved with the educational practice as it provides some practical resources as well as inspirational stories. In this section, authors underline the importance of the bilingual education and the storytelling. These two aspects are the fundamental means through which the teachers are able to put the value on diversity as well as increase the acquisition of the new language among students. Chapter 7 “Addressing Silence” is the most important when it comes to giving value to teachers. It gives practical tips on how to address the issues of race, religion, diversity, and sexual orientation on the classroom. First, a teacher should understand the students’ beliefs, then offer a variety of new opinions and resources, and then allow each student to change or reconstruct the opinion about the debated topic.
Because teachers are very often unprepared to cooperate with the parents of the students of different cultural background, the book offers a variety of tips that can become starting points for building relationships with the families. The book is filled with insights that can help in affirming the traditions of diverse families, supporting the dreams and aspirations of the students as well as setting up new goals.
The researchers that relate to the sphere of education can find various innovative stories that can offer ways and ideas for further research and inquiry. Some teaching programs that relate to diversity can be found in the individual chapters. On the other hand, the book is valuable to many because it is able to enhance the importance of engaging various diverse communities in the educational process. Moreover, by combining all parts of the book and reading it as a whole, it is possible to distinguish between its strengths and weaknesses. The weakness lies in the book being differentiated into five different parts, with the differentiations being unclear. For example, Chapter 15 “Valuing Diversity” can fit into different chapters and thus, is poorly categorized. In addition, because Innovative Voices in Education has multiple contributors, some parts are more engaging and compelling to read compared to others. Thus, there is a difference between the autobiographica storytelling and the theoretical concepts described in various chapters.
However, the positive impact of this book overpowers and minor flaws listed above. Innovative Voices in Education contains a variety of perspectives that further the idea that different population groups should work side-by-side to engage different diverse communities into the educational process. The chapters combine practical advice with theoretical approaches. Generally, the stories of teachers, activists, students and their parents depicted in the book are inspirational. They remids the readers that any person can make a contribution to increasing diversity. The presentation of the book done by Kugler – combining diversity innovation stories together – is inspiring in the way of bringing hope for the future of the diverse educational process. The book presents a useful outline for engaging students, parents and teachers into creating a comfortable working and learning environment. Each chapter of Innovative Voices in Education offers descriptions of the experiences and challenges that help to further the knowledge and understanding the topic. No matter if a person is a teacher, a school director, or an educational leader, the book is a must-read.
Works Cited
Kugler, Eileen. Innovative Voices in Education: Engaging Diverse Communities, Plymouth, UK: The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 2012. Print.