The Dreamkeepers: Successful Teachers of African American Children

The Dreamkeepers

In the second edition of her critically acclaimed book The Dreamkeepers, Gloria Ladson-Billings revisits the eight teachers who were profiled in the first edition and introduces us to new teachers who are current exemplars of good teaching. She shows that culturally relevant teaching is not a matter of race, gender, or teaching style. What matters most is a teacher’s efforts to work with the unique strengths a child brings to the classroom. A brilliant mixture of scholarship and storytelling, The Dreamkeepers challenges us to envision intellectually rigorous and culturally relevant classrooms that have the power to improve the lives of not just African American students, but all children. This new edition also includes questions for reflection.

Praise for the First Edition

“The Dreamkeepers keeps hope alive for educating young African Americans.”
–Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, president and founder, National Rainbow Coalition

“The Dreamkeepers is an immensely important and useful book for teachers and teacher educators. . . . In a creative, credible, and persuasive way, Gloria Ladson-Billings has made a major contribution to the field of multicultural education.”
–JaCqueline Jordan Irvine, Charles Howard Candler Professor of Urban Education, Emory University

“Ladson-Billings integrates scholarly research with stories of eight successful teachers in a predominantly African American school district to illustrate that the ‘dream’ of all teachers and parents–academic success for all children–is alive and can be emulated.”
–Library Journal

“Here is a book filled with pride and questions that should stimulate anyone interested in improving education.”
–Booklist