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AFFIRMING DIVERSITY: THE SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTEXT OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION (4TH ED.) by Sonia Nieto. New York: Allyn & Bacon, 2004. 496pp. $67.60.
Our schools reflect the sociocultural and sociopolitical context in which we live. This context is unfair to many young people and their families and the situations in which they live and go to school, but teachers and other educators do not simply have to go along with this reality. I believe one of our primary roles as educators is to interrupt the cycle of inequality and oppression. We can do this best by teaching well and with heart and soul. (p. xxii, italics added)
In the fourth edition of an excellent educational resource for teachers and teacher educators, Sonia Nieto reiterates the urgency to create not only affirming classrooms for students but also an affirming society in which "racism, sexism, social class discrimination, and other biases are no longer acceptable" (p. xxii). In this text, she creatively engages readers in a critical exploration of how multicultural education can have a substantive and positive impact on the education of all students. Like prior editions of the book, Nieto uses student case studies to illustrate the importance of implementing multicultural education that confronts issues of difference, power, and privilege in schools. Through student voices, she addresses how educators can challenge racism and other biases, as well as inequitable structures, policies, and practices of schools.
As a former classroom teacher and current professor, Nieto states up front her assumptions that drive the creation of and analysis in this text. First, she believes that multicultural education...