As the conservative political mood of our nation eliminates programs for the increasing numbers of bilingual children, educators are nevertheless expected to teach linguistically and culturally diverse learners with limited background knowledge and resources. This edited volume challenges « mainstream educators to critically examine how to best meet the needs of bilingual/bicultural children in contemporary America. Contents: Lourdes Diaz Soto: Introduction: The Political, the Dialogic, and the Critical - Haroon Kharem/Leila E. Villaverde: Teacher Allies: The Problem of the Color Line - Ryan Moser: Bilingual Abolitionists: Shadows of Facism - Propaganda of the Third Reich and the English-Only Movement - Lyudmila Bryzzheva: From Vygotsky to Bakhtin: Grand Theories and Teaching Practices - Colin Lankshear/Michele Knobel: Doom or Mortal Kombat? Bilingual Literacy in the « Mainstream Classroom - Ladislaus M. Semali: The Case of Repressed Native or Indigenous Languages - Richard De Gourville: What's Policy Gotta Do Wit Dis? - Cathy Gutierrez-Gomez: Golden Eagle Goes to Kindergarten - Miryam Espinosa-Dulanto: Are Schools Prepared to Support Excellence for Nonmainstream Children? Latino/a Voices as a Response - Irene Pabon: A Life Span / Toda Una Vida: The Pain and the Struggle That Will Strike / El Dolory la Lucha que Embiste - Lynus Yamuna: My Story and the Melanesian Knowledge - Rebecca Blum-Martinez: Parents as Guardians of the Mother Tongue - Maria de la Luz Reyes/Lisa Costanzo: On the Threshold of Biliteracy: A First-Grader's Personal Journey - Jofen Wu Han/Gisela Ernst-Slavit: Here They Come: Creating Rich Language-Learning Environments for Chinese-Speaking KindergartenStudents - Jocelynn Smrekar: Early Childhood Bilingual Classrooms - Maria E. Franquiz: Caring Literacy and Identity Struggles: The Transformation of a Chicano Student - Jim Cummins: Rights and Responsibilities of Educators of Bilingual / Bicultural Children.

There are an estimated forty-eight million Latinas/os living in the United States, roughly sixteen percent of the population. Not only are they the largest minority group in the country but also the youngest: one out of five children is Latina/o. The rise in the Latina/o population has caused for panic in some areas of the country, resulting in hostile and sometimes violent racism and xenophobia, and yet, much of that hatred is fueled not on facts but rather on myths about immigration.

To date, most studies on immigration have been data driven, focusing on migrating groups or policy analyses. "Latina/o Hope" is different. It incorporates salient theories on migration as it moves toward a new theorizing, one that views immigration from the immigrant's perspective. Thus, it integrates research into the depiction of various slices of immigrant experience-the young women disappearing in the city of Juarez, the various students at various stages of their educational journeys, the young children in need of ESL programs, the ethnically-mixed immigrants, the undocumented workers, and others.
"Latina/o Hope "discusses the impact of neoliberal policies and global capitalization on the daily lives of Latina/o immigrants, serving as an inspiration for dialogue, praxis and imagination to love and serve one another.

This edited volume is dedicated to contemporary teachers. Its goal is to provide a practical book for in-service and pre-service teachers of bilingual/bicultural children. The authors, each of whom is herself bilingual/bicultural, share personal wisdom garnered from working in classrooms with bilingual/bicultural learners. This book provides practical knowledge for teachers who are struggling to meet the needs of increasingly diverse classrooms.

The basic premise of this book is simple -- it brings together early childhood and cultural-studies professionals who are willing to provide a kaleidoscope of views capable of challenging the sanctity of the early childhood western lens. Marianne Block, Hedy Chang, Amos Hatch, Henry Giroux, Jan Jipson, Joe Kincheloe, Shirley Kessler, Sally Lubeck, Shirley Steinberg, Beth Blue Swadener, Nila Rinehardt, and Lourdes Diaz Soto call for a move toward the critical, toward the multicultural, toward the dialogic, toward the feminist, toward the personal, with the others, with the silenced, and in solidarity with multiple players.

This volume critically examines issues of power and voice in research with children. Chapters focus on the relationship between researchers and children and explore how to more adequately represent the complexities, multiple perspectives, and understandings that emerge when the research process more fully includes children and youth. Contributors explore issues of imposition and power that are inherent in traditional research and even more problematic with children. Authors document how children's voices can guide us in learning about research methodologies, theories, and praxis, as well as about issues of race, identity, class linguistic diversity and gender within larger postcolonial contexts and research traditions.

For the past 20 years, a range of scholars, educators, and cultural workers have examined dominant discourses of "childhood" using critical, feminist, and other postmodern perspectives. Located in a variety of disciplines, these poststructural, deconstructive, and even postcolonial critiques have challenged everything from notions of the universal child, to adult/child dualisms, to deterministic developmental theory. The purpose of this volume is to acknowledge the profound contributions of that large body of literature, while demonstrating the ways that critical analyses can be used to generate avenues/actions that increase possibilities for social justice for those who are younger while, at the same time, avoiding determinism. In this time of globalization, hyper-capitalism, and discourses that would control and disqualify through constructions like accountability, we believe that projects such as this are of utmost importance. The volume is divided into four major sections to reflect the multiplicity of human voices and perspectives (section I), contemporary circumstances and dominant discourses within which we all attempt to function (sections II and III), and the generation of new possibilities for constructing relationships together (section IV). Finally, a voice from the "heart" within a "reconceptualist" social science agenda for early childhood studies is presented.

There are an estimated forty-eight million Latinas/os living in the United States, roughly sixteen percent of the population. Not only are they the largest minority group in the country but also the youngest: one out of five children is Latina/o. The rise in the Latina/o population has caused for panic in some areas of the country, resulting in hostile and sometimes violent racism and xenophobia, and yet, much of that hatred is fueled not on facts but rather on myths about immigration. To date, most studies on immigration have been data driven, focusing on migrating groups or policy analyses. Latina/o Hope is different. It incorporates salient theories on migration as it moves toward a new theorizing, one that views immigration from the immigrant's perspective. Thus, it integrates research into the depiction of various slices of immigrant experience-the young women disappearing in the city of Juarez, the various students at various stages of their educational journeys, the young children in need of ESL programs, the ethnically-mixed immigrants, the undocumented workers, and others. Latina/o Hope discusses the impact of neoliberal policies and global capitalization on the daily lives of Latina/o immigrants, serving as an inspiration for dialogue, praxis and imagination to love and serve one another.