Praise
"For educators and parents who seek to find ways to create safe and supportive educational environments where all children can be successful, Innovative Voices in Education is a must read. Eileen Kugler provides her readers with insights that will be helpful in addressing some of the complex and controversial issues that confront schools today as they respond to an increasingly diverse student body. The advice and lessons skillfully shared by the contributors are based on solid research and practical experience, and go well beyond the type of superficial do's and don'ts that characterize too many of the sensitivity trainings offered in schools today. Clear and compelling, this book is an invaluable resource."
Dr. Pedro Noguera
Professor of Education, New York University
"This book, prepared with both a depth of understanding and sensitivity, provides a context for the future and a perspective for preparing teachers to teach our children to succeed in the 21st Century. It provides important information that will facilitate schools being more ready to successfully meet the needs of their students through understanding the richness and complexity of diverse communities."
Dr. Mark R. Ginsberg
Dean, College of Education and Human Development, George Mason University
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"Thoughtful, insightful and rich with depth and detail, this book explores the nuances of diversity’s power in public education. As a teacher who has taught for almost 20 years in one of the nation’s most diverse schools, I quickly identified with the authentic spirit of the voices on these pages. This unique collection of first-person accounts provides a breadth of experiences that should be a must-read for any teacher, parent, principal or superintendent." Alan Weintraut Dow Jones Newspaper Fund National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year 2006; English Department Chair, The A-Blast student media adviser, Annandale High School, Virginia |
Insights on bullying: "The authors give practical ways to help teachers and students delve more deeply into understanding how stereotypes are created and ways that we can critically look at messages about appearance, ability, gender, race, and sexuality. This is risky but important work that has far-reaching effects on our students." Sarah Carolan First Grade Teacher, Harlem Success Academy, New York City |
"This book has value and possible applications for a variety of stakeholders in the field of education. With the shifts in population and demographics in the United States (and, in fact, in many countries), almost all educators are in classrooms with diverse students and will find both inspiring stories from their colleagues as well as some practical resources for engaging their own students in this book. … (T)he true value of this book lies in taking all five sections together and reading the book as a whole, to enhance the realization that engaging diverse communities involves the much-needed perspectives of all five parts."
Katie E. Klingbeil
Book Review: School Community Journal, Spring 2013
"As educators, we all need this practical book to help us foster and teach intercultural competence, a skill necessary for our students and their families to help them thrive and grow."
Juli Kwikkel
Elementary Principal for Storm Lake, Iowa
National Association of Elementary School Principals Board Member, 2007-2010
"When the impact culture has on teaching and learning informs an educator's practice, students and families benefit. Through these deeply personal accounts of their professional journeys, these authors share reflections that are both thought provoking and insightful."
Pam Booker
Equity and Integration Supervisor Roseville Area Schools, Minnesota
"This book is indeed innovative in that it includes a spectrum of perspectives that need to be heard. While traditional books on diversity usually focus on one group—mostly teachers and students—this book draws from experienced educators from both the US and abroad. It examines different types of schools, and includes individuals and organizations devoted to access, equity at all levels. In addition, it presents models that have succeeded. Teachers, teacher educators and policy makers alike will find valuable and crucial information in this volume."
Dr. Xaé Alicia Reyes
Associate Professor, Neag School of Education & PRLC Institute, University of Connecticut
Fulbright Sr. Specialist-Thailand 2009; Visiting Scholar-ETS, Princeton, NJ 2010
Juli Kwikkel
Elementary Principal for Storm Lake, Iowa
National Association of Elementary School Principals Board Member, 2007-2010
"When the impact culture has on teaching and learning informs an educator's practice, students and families benefit. Through these deeply personal accounts of their professional journeys, these authors share reflections that are both thought provoking and insightful."
Pam Booker
Equity and Integration Supervisor Roseville Area Schools, Minnesota
"This book is indeed innovative in that it includes a spectrum of perspectives that need to be heard. While traditional books on diversity usually focus on one group—mostly teachers and students—this book draws from experienced educators from both the US and abroad. It examines different types of schools, and includes individuals and organizations devoted to access, equity at all levels. In addition, it presents models that have succeeded. Teachers, teacher educators and policy makers alike will find valuable and crucial information in this volume."
Dr. Xaé Alicia Reyes
Associate Professor, Neag School of Education & PRLC Institute, University of Connecticut
Fulbright Sr. Specialist-Thailand 2009; Visiting Scholar-ETS, Princeton, NJ 2010
"In our complicated, mixed up, diverse world with its different languages and cultures, there is nothing more challenging than confronting “the other," and yet nothing more enriching. Eileen Kugler has done all of us interested in understanding this world and promoting education in order to do so a great service. I strongly recommend this book for both parents and students who wish to create a better and more harmonious world."
Ambassador Akbar Ahmed
Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies, American University, Washington DC
Author, Journey into America: The Challenge of Islam
"Teaching all too often gets subsumed under government legislation and regulations at the expense of real learning. This book explores the notion that teachers don’t only facilitate learning but also learn from their students. In fact, this is seen as a normal occurrence where learning is a two way street and where cultural diversity is encouraged as a way of promoting understanding and respect."
James Luthy
Senior Teacher Calamvale Community College, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
"Having taught multicultural education for more than three decades, I found the content in Innovative Voices in Education both engaging and scholarly. It was refreshing to see the authors’ transparency and underlying emotion as they shared snapshots of their personal stories. Clearly, these experiences shaped their commitment to excellence in teaching and school leadership. I believe that all educators could benefit from reading this book and by acting on the inclusive values that it promotes."
Dr. Claudette Merrell Ligons
Professor of Curriculum and Instruction
College of Education, Texas Southern University, Houston
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On parent engagement: "Time and again, teachers tell us that they feel woefully unprepared to work with families, especially families from different cultural backgrounds than their own. This wonderful book provides a wealth of deep and much-needed insight into how to make meaningful connections with families, affirming their traditions, confirming their dreams for their children, and assuring a common goal of success for all students. It is packed with practical tips, advice, frameworks, and above all, compelling stories." Anne T. Henderson Senior Consultant, Community Organizing and Engagement, Annenberg Institute for School Reform |
"Eileen Kugler honors her readers by giving them the space to acknowledge the strength of diversity, the power of interdependence, and the soul of relationships and connections. She presents us with the face and voices of the 21st century. It is not testing that will create equity and opportunity for all of our students: it is the belief, ability, confidence, and respect for each other that is at the heart of a democratic society, and a quality public education. Do you want to know what a good school looks like? Read this book." Arnold F. Fege Director of Public Engagement and Advocacy, Public Education Network |
"The chapters in this book lead the reader through a depth of experiences by each of its authors. The individual voices are skillfully woven together by the common thread of education and the impact this “system” has on the lives of the individuals who participate as students, parents, teachers, administrators, and community members. Each chapter highlights the importance of listening to individual voices, being open to different perspectives, and having the courage to embrace nontraditional ideas and methods that build and sustain positive relationships inside of the school and with the broader community. As an educator and parent, I found inspiration in its pages."
Dr. Jeanne M. Frugé-Rodriguez
Consultant for Teaching Excellence ACP, YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas
"Simply put, schools can be as transformative as they are dehumanizing. Leveraging diversity is a powerful mechanism for helping policymakers, teachers, and school leaders move beyond ineffective one-size-fits-all approaches. We are all different, therefore we all have different realities. Eileen Kugler's book is filled with voices and stories that help us all to continue to question the authority of knowledge and to examine traditional value and belief systems that are not always inclusive of the worldviews of an emerging majority of students and families entering public schools in the United States. This book reminds us that to be educated means to have the ability to know oneself and others deeply and to create community and challenge dominance."
Howard J. Ross
Founder & Chief Learning Officer, Cook Ross Inc.
Author, ReInventing Diversity: Transforming Organizational Community to Strengthen People, Purpose and Performance.
"Innovative Voices in Education provides contemporary and renewed perspectives on the changing faces of diversity in local and global learning communities. Drawing on practical classroom experiences, stories, and theoretical frameworks, the authors weave a tapestry of understanding through their unique contexts. This book is a relevant and accessible read for those hoping to champion the benefits of engaging diverse populations."
Andrea Berg
Executive Staff Officer, Professional Development, Alberta Teachers’ Association, Canada
"Innovative Voices in Education points out the tragedy that our education system has failed so many students of color. Despite the passage of Brown v Board of Education some 60 years ago and NCLB passed 10 years ago we have not made significant strides in closing the achievement gap. Generations of students still lack the quality of education enjoyed by others. Kugler's compilation of research and commentaries provides us with the keys to helping resolve educational inequities. Until we understand the powerful connection between culture and learning, and the harmful affects of bias in our schools, the gap will never be closed. This book goes beyond illustrating the problems to offering valuable, practical suggestions for the educational community - and yes, it offers HOPE."
William A. Howe
Past-President of the National Association for Multicultural Education;
Education Consultant for Multicultural Education, Culturally Responsive Education, Gender Equity and Civil Rights at the Connecticut State Department of Education
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"Innovative Voices in Education is an insightful examination of the emerging realities of humanity’s coming of age through new expressions of individual conscience and reciprocity between families, schools and communities in the fullest sense." Rosemary Fennell, Founder, Multicultural Community Service, Washington, DC "The diversity of voices within this very book confirm the global importance of this critical conversation. The expert accounts are riveting, the analyses and actionable |
On culturally responsive teaching: "The book skillfully presents culturally responsive pedagogy. Further, it captures forcefully and eloquently the importance of Montana’s Indian Education for All (IEFA) initiative, making a compelling case for the use of the guiding principles of IEFA for multicultural education pre-service training in a global context." Dr. Walter C. Fleming Department Head and Professor, Native American Studies, Montana State University |
recommendations affirming. This is not a volume of condemnation or accusation; rather, it serves to thoughtfully and optimistically address the opportunities available to us all in the education of our children."
Cecily Kaiser
Publishing Director, Abrams Appleseed
Author, If You're Angry And You Know It and On The First Night Of Chanukah
"As the student population at schools across the country becomes more and more diverse, it is refreshing and rewarding to read this insightful compilation of the wisdom of some very special educators who have found creative yet practical ways to address some of our most challenging concerns."
Esther J. Manns
Assistant Principal, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia
"As a current Assistant School Director and Ethics Instructor, reading Innovative Voices in Education further affirmed the need to do all that we can to build cultural capital on our campuses and in our students. The authors candidly examine and reflect upon personal experiences, challenge the status quo of educational inequity, and provide a vision of hope and excellence for all children. This is a must read for any educator committed to innovative and culturally-responsive teaching, learning, and leading."
Natalie Hernandez-Rubio
Assistant School Director, YES Prep Southeast, Houston, Texas
"Helping write this book was like hovering closer to a campfire on a cool evening, and my fellow contributors were the companions sharing that fire. I am honored and humbled to have been included in the process. I have been pulled deeper into the circles of culture and diversity, and I believe Innovative Voices in Education: Engaging Diverse Communities will be a valuable reference for anyone seeking to learn more about cultural diversity in schools; our largest asset moving forward toward continued positive education reform."
Sean Grainger
Vice Principal, Mattie McCullough Elementary School, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Chapter author: Multicultural to Intercultural: Developing Interdependent Learners
Cecily Kaiser
Publishing Director, Abrams Appleseed
Author, If You're Angry And You Know It and On The First Night Of Chanukah
"As the student population at schools across the country becomes more and more diverse, it is refreshing and rewarding to read this insightful compilation of the wisdom of some very special educators who have found creative yet practical ways to address some of our most challenging concerns."
Esther J. Manns
Assistant Principal, Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia
"As a current Assistant School Director and Ethics Instructor, reading Innovative Voices in Education further affirmed the need to do all that we can to build cultural capital on our campuses and in our students. The authors candidly examine and reflect upon personal experiences, challenge the status quo of educational inequity, and provide a vision of hope and excellence for all children. This is a must read for any educator committed to innovative and culturally-responsive teaching, learning, and leading."
Natalie Hernandez-Rubio
Assistant School Director, YES Prep Southeast, Houston, Texas
"Helping write this book was like hovering closer to a campfire on a cool evening, and my fellow contributors were the companions sharing that fire. I am honored and humbled to have been included in the process. I have been pulled deeper into the circles of culture and diversity, and I believe Innovative Voices in Education: Engaging Diverse Communities will be a valuable reference for anyone seeking to learn more about cultural diversity in schools; our largest asset moving forward toward continued positive education reform."
Sean Grainger
Vice Principal, Mattie McCullough Elementary School, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada
Chapter author: Multicultural to Intercultural: Developing Interdependent Learners
