Reviews

Multicultural Teaching in the Early Childhood Classroom: Approaches, Strategies and Tools, Preschool-2nd Grade by Mariana Souto-Manning

lmurray74's review against another edition

5.0

This is one of my all time go-to books for educational inspiration. Multicultural education, as advanced in this book, is far from the four F's: festivals, food, fairs and folktales. A commitment to social justice underpins all that is addressed in this book. It does young children a huge disservice if you avoid critical issues in these early years of schooling. Very young children already have strong feelings regarding social justice (although they wouldn't articulate it as such) and there is a need to explore critical issues with these capable learners.
The chapters in the book address Multicultural Education as Transformative Education; Interviews: Encouraging Children to Ask Questions; Critical Inquiry: Supporting Children's Investigations; Culture Circles; Community Resources and Home Literacies; Technology; Storytelling and Story Acting; Reflecting on the Possibilities of Teaching Multiculturally.
Mariana Souto-Manning draws on the wealth of experience and reflection she holds, and draws on the knowledge and expertise of others in the field. The book offers practical advice backed up by critical analysis. The chapter I go back to time and time again is the chapter on community resources and home literacies but all chapters in this book inspire my life as an early childhood educator.

donifaber's review

4.0

Provides practical ways of implementing ideas from exemplary classrooms: interviewing community members, inquiry based on children's questions, cultural circles using multicultural literature to address issues of fairness, community resources and home literacies accessed by visits, using technology towards story production, and forum theater for changing stories.