What's Really Said in the Teachers' Lounge: Provocative Ideas about Cultures and Classrooms.

This publication explores how teachers' cultural origins, as well as those of their students and colleagues, impact growth and learning, and how teachers can make classrooms more culturally responsive. The book is divided into two parts with a "bridge" chapter between them. Part 1, "Conceptual Provocations" includes five chapters: (1) "Your Culture Is Showing" explores cultural adaptability, origins of cultural identity, and cultural values; (2) "Climate of Political Correctness" covers the politics of victimization and questionable assumptions; (3) "Just How Different Are We, Anyway?" looks at disorientation, student and teacher subcultures, multiple cultures that interact, and confronting biases and prejudices; (4) "Some Cultural Misunderstandings" discusses examples of mainstream concepts that make learning difficult for children from different cultures; and (5) "Beauty and Grace in School Rituals (Richard Powell and Jeffrey A. Kottler) examines the structure of school rituals and accommodating cultural rituals. Chapter 6 (the "bridge chapter) "Teaching As If You Were an Anthropologist," presents an alternative way of thinking about a teacher's work. Part 2, "Purposeful Actions," includes four chapters: (7) "Being and Doing Things Differently in the Classroom" (Jeffrey A. Kottler and Ellen Kottler) looks at the rules within student cultures and making learning culturally relevant; (8) "Narrative Approaches to Culture and Learning" (Gerald Monk and J. A. Kottler) explores differences in adult and child knowledge and applications of narrative approaches in the classroom; (9) "Internationalizing the Classroom" (Elaine Jarchow and J. A. Kottler) discusses international perspectives and activities for elementary, junior, and senior high school; and (10) "What Matters Most" serves as a summary and conclusion. (Contains 119 references.) (ND)