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Reducing Prejudice and Stereotyping in Schools, by Walter Stephan. New York: Teachers College Press, 1999. 143 pp. $22.95, paper. Reviewed by Lauri Johnson, The State University of New York at Buffalo.
I was riding the subway to work recently while reading Reducing Prejudice and Stereotyping in Schools, a title in James A. Banks' Multicultural Education series. Staring at the title of the book, a young White woman in her thirties sitting across from me caught my eye. "I'll bet that's a good book. Are you a teacher?" "A teacher of teachers," I replied. "And it is a good book."
Her comment left me pondering the current state of race relations, school integration, and teacher education in urban America. Do educators really want to deal with racial prejudice and stereotyping in schools? As a society, do we have the will (Hilliard, 1991) to educate all children and the knowledge base and pedagogical skills to create equitable classrooms?
In this age of "accountability," standards, and high stakes assessments when poor children of color are increasingly racially isolated and "pushed out" of substandard urban schools, we need books that remind us of the critical role that schooling can play in intergroup relations and the creation of a democratic society. Reducing Prejudice and Stereotyping in Schools helps marshal the evidence and chart the path for equitable and integrated educational environments for all students.
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