Book Review

Betty Merchant
University of Illinois

González, J. & Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). New concepts for new challenges: Professional development for teachers of immigrant youth. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics, xxiv+168.

As the new millennium dawns, the United States is experiencing a dramatic shift in the demographics of its population. For administrators and teachers, these statistics translate into real and immediate issues concerning the education of a broad range of students whose needs they feel ill prepared to meet.

There have been a number of attempts to improve the preparation of pre-service teachers so that they will be more effective in working with a broad range of students. For the most part, these efforts have failed to provide beginning teachers with the skills they need to successfully respond to the needs of a diverse student population. The staff development opportunities provided to practicing teachers have not been much more effective than traditional preservice programs in helping teachers re-conceptualize and transform their instructional practices in order to respond to the academic and social needs of the students in their classrooms.

Compared to preservice and inservice teachers, principals and superintendents receive even less training in working with diverse student populations and are provided with little to no information about effective instructional leadership in diverse settings. Administrators' lack of preparation in this area is reflected in their inability to provide guidance and support to teachers whose students come from differing racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Students of different nationalities and/or linguistic traditions present a particular challenge to monolingual English-speaking teachers and administrators. According to Conditions of Education (1997), in the 1993-94 academic year, 46 % of schools had students who were English language learners (National Center for Education Statistics, 1997). The report also indicates that the number of children who were English language learners increased from 1.25 million in 1979 to 2.44 million in 1995. Although recent immigration trends have contributed to an increase in the number of such students enrolling in American public schools, there are very few resources available to principals to assist them in working with teachers in creating a learning environment in which all students can experience success.

Josué González and Linda Darling-Hammond's recent book, New concepts for new challenges: Professional development for teachers of immigrant youth, (1997) makes an important contribution toward remediating this situation. Their book is part of a series on immigrant education published by the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC. Although the title of the book focuses on teachers, the text provides principals with important information about the social and academic needs of immigrant students, as well as the strengths that these students bring with them to the school setting. The authors of the book address administrators' needs for specific information by outlining the general structure and content of effective professional development programs and by providing detailed descriptions of programs that have demonstrated success in preparing teachers to work with immigrant students.

The authors begin their book with an historical perspective on cultural diversity in the United States, pointing out important differences between recent waves of immigrants and those who preceded them. One of the most significant of these differences is that current waves of immigrants are able to preserve contact with families and friends in their home cultures through improved transportation and technology. This contrasts sharply with the experiences of the grandparents of teachers and administrators who immigrated to the United States, and in the absence of such technology, abandoned their home cultures and languages comparatively quickly. The authors argue that we must move from a homogeneous system of schools to one that embraces the diversity represented in the student population. They also add an important caution—that public schools can be an arena in which old rivalries and religious divisions between immigrant groups are played out. In order for schools to play a role in resolving these conflicts, teachers must be skilled in human relations, creative problem solving, and conflict resolution. Although not specifically mentioned by the authors, it is essential that administrators, as the instructional leaders of their schools, acquire and model these skills. Assistant principals, in particular, should possess these skills, since they are often charged with maintaining student discipline and therefore most likely to mediate disputes between students from rival immigrant groups.

Chapter 1 provides a very useful overview of differing perspectives on immigrant education and the ways in which U.S. government policies have shaped the national debate about how best to educate immigrant students. The authors focus on the changing sociocultural and linguistic profile of the nation's public school students, as contrasted with the relatively stable demographic profile of the teaching force, comprised primarily of White educators whose families have lived in this country for several generations. González and Darling-Hammond examine the sociocultural and linguistic characteristics of diversity and provide an emerging view of effective practices generated from the research on effective instruction of linguistically and culturally diverse students. The authors also provide a list of promising structural arrangements for facilitating communication and collaboration within schools as well as between schools and other social institutions within the community for the purposes of supporting the education of language minority students.

One of the most important contributions of the authors in this section is the argument they put forth regarding the importance of providing teachers with opportunities for examining and reflecting on their beliefs and ideas about various immigrant groups. It is critical that administrators participate in such activities and, as part of this process, that they pay particular attention to reviewing the taken-for-granted policies and practices of the school for the purpose of identifying those that have a negative impact on the social and academic success of immigrant students. In the absence of administrative leadership in this area, teachers will continue to enforce policies and practices that are inappropriate in responding to the needs of a diverse student population.

Chapter 2 presents a conceptual overview of professional development during the preservice experience, the induction period, and throughout teachers' careers. The authors challenge the assumptions underlying traditional preservice education and professional staff development models and argue for communities of practice in which teachers come together to reflect upon and improve their practice by engaging in on-going inquiry, experimentation, and sustained change. This chapter is an important source of information for administrators who desire to transform professional development in their schools. The authors review the research on effective staff development approaches and identify emerging principles for guiding a new vision of professional development that encourages multiple forms of instruction and student assessment. Of additional importance to administrators is the authors' position that the definition and design of professional development opportunities should be broadly shared among all those who have a direct stake in the future of students. They suggest that school-based professional development and site-based management should be tightly linked, integral components of school-based improvement and argue strongly against professional development as a remedial activity for teachers or as mechanism of administrative control over teachers.

Statistics from the U. S. Department of Education (1996) indicate that the average age of public school teachers in 1994-95 was 43. In view of the aging teaching force and the legislation in several states which provides incentives to teachers for early retirement, increasing numbers of administrators are losing experienced teachers and hiring newly-credentialed teachers to take their place. González and Darling-Hammond cite a number of research studies that suggest that many new teachers feel inadequately prepared to deal with diverse learners. The authors also point out that even veteran teachers, when confronting students they are unable help, become discouraged and frustrated if not provided with the resources they need to succeed in teaching these students. In light of the research on the frustrations that both new and veteran teachers experience when working with immigrant students, it is essential that administrators learn to provide the kinds of professional development support described by the authors.

Chapter 3 presents structures, models, and practices in professional development which promote collaboration within schools, between schools and universities, and between schools and neighborhood-based youth organizations and community agencies. Arguing that traditional models of staff development have been largely unsuccessful, the authors propose a new model of professional development which engages teachers, principals, counselors, support staff, and community members in critically reviewing educational policies, practices, and student outcomes, in order to generate more effective approaches to instructing and evaluating immigrant students. The chapter provides clear, succinct explanations of a number of ways to nurture learning communities within schools, including cooperative learning, problem-based inquiry, peer coaching, and cognitive coaching. González and Darling-Hammond examine the research on the development of reflective practice, and in so doing, provide useful guidelines for administrators who are committed to working with teachers on creating a supportive climate for the development of professional learning communities. The last section of the chapter presents specific suggestions for moving from self-reflection to collaborative action, including team teaching and school-home interaction.

Chapter 4 is an outgrowth of the previous chapters, in that it synthesizes the research findings discussed earlier and provides detailed examples of professional development programs that embrace the structures, models, and practices in professional development that lead to transformed practice and improved learning environments, particularly for immigrant students. Three of the examples describe preservice teacher education programs: The Second Languages and Cultures Education Program at the University of Minnesota, the Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development Program (CLAD) at San Diego State University, and the Cross-cultural Language and Academic Development Program (CLAD) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The remaining two examples focus on inservice teacher development: The International High School in New York City, and the Bilingual Cooperative Integrated Reading and Composition (BCIRC) Model, based on a model developed at Johns Hopkins University. The rich description of each program responds well to administrators' need for detailed information about the specific components of such staff- development models, as well as the ways in which these components can be integrated into an effective program.

In the last section, the authors summarize the three themes around which their book is organized. The first theme focuses on the social and cyclical nature of learning that involves "visiting and revisiting questions of practice, collecting and interpreting data, revising hypotheses, and changing practice in light of new knowledge" (p.131). The second theme highlights the need for an anthropological orientation in understanding students and the teachers who work with them. According to the authors, this approach requires teachers to become involved in examining "themselves, the community they serve, the learning community in the school, and the relationships of these entities with one another" (p. 131). By sharing the information they gather as part of such inquiries with their colleagues, teachers become aware of the importance of soliciting multiple perspectives on a given topic. The third theme focuses on the promise of video and other technology to help school staff view and reflect on their work. In particular, the authors argue for the need for additional research on the use of video ethnographic and computer techniques as support for the professional development of teachers of immigrant teachers. The authors maintain that staff development programs for preservice and inservice teachers of immigrant students must incorporate these three themes in order to achieve maximum effectiveness, pointing out that the five programs featured in the book are exemplars of these themes.

The authors conclude by offering their book as a catalyst for discussion among educators who are responsible for the instruction of immigrant students. They also offer their book as a basis for teacher reflection about the ways in which their beliefs about these children influence not only their interactions with these students but the academic and social outcomes of these students.

Although I have taught courses in educational leadership and school change for 10 years, this is the first book I have found that provides concrete responses to the questions that confront principals as they try to respond to the professional development needs of teachers of immigrant students. Josué González and Linda Darling-Hammond perform an invaluable service in synthesizing the literature on this topic, and their book is significantly enriched by their own professional experiences and considerable research on the subject. The authors are university academics whose work is thoroughly grounded in the complex reality of schools, and who are sensitive to the kinds of professional development opportunities teachers and principals need to have in order to become more effective in educating immigrant students. This is the most informative and readable book on the subject of professional development for teachers of immigrant youth that I have come across to date; it should be required reading for all principals committed to creating communities of professionals dedicated to improving learning conditions for immigrant youth and all students.

References

National Center for Education Statistics (1997). The Conditions of Education, 1997. Indicator 45 [On-line]. Available: http//nces.ed.gov/pubs/ce/ c9745a01.html [1999, May 22].

U. S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics (1996). Schools and staffing in the United States: A statistical profile, 1993-94. NCES 96-124, by R. R. Henke, S. P. Choy, & S. P. Broughman. Washington, DC: Author.