This work lucidates bell hooks' social and educational theory, with emphasis on her 1994 book, "Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom." Florence deals with the issues of marginality and cultural alienation that are so prevalent among certain groups within the American society and presents strategies to help develop critical consciousness and affirmation of formerly subordinated cultural traits and characteristics. Her study resonates with current themes raised by critical, feminist and multicultural scholars showing how marginalized groups may be guilty of reinforcing their own status through complicity with the dominant culture's world view, and how education can empower them to demand a more egalitarian society and one that recognizes cultural plurality.

Negotiating Identities in Contemporary Africa: Gender, Religion, and Ethno-cultural Identities explores the changing dynamics of identities in Africa, with a focus on gender, ethno-cultural, and religious identity. Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah argue that because identity defines who we are as individuals or groups, studies on African identities must focus on understanding the changing dynamics in the socio-economic and political spheres in the continent. These chapters cover subjects such as women’s career identity, gender roles and knowledge, childlessness, ethnocentrism and democracy, cultural identity through theater, Black identity in the diaspora, and diasporic consciousness. Using existing scholarship, the chapters in this edited volume challenge our understanding of what identity entails and provide new discussions on the hitherto politicized historiography of some identities in Africa.

-Addresses issues faced by change of career teachers, particularly fast track certification programs and immigrant teachers whose entry into the school systems is relatively abrupt; -Explores and highlights the impact of primary backgrounds and education on their engagement of students, their collaborations with the administration and parents as well as their receptivity to both formal and informal feedback from a range of constituents in the school system; -Focuses on high need inner city schools with a culturally diverse student body, which most state colleges and fast track alternative programs like the Teaching Fellows and Teach for America programs, serve.

-Addresses issues faced by change of career teachers, particularly fast track certification programs and immigrant teachers whose entry into the school systems is relatively abrupt; -Explores and highlights the impact of primary backgrounds and education on their engagement of students, their collaborations with the administration and parents as well as their receptivity to both formal and informal feedback from a range of constituents in the school system; -Focuses on high need inner city schools with a culturally diverse student body, which most state colleges and fast track alternative programs like the Teaching Fellows and Teach for America programs, serve.

This work lucidates bell hooks' social and educational theory, with emphasis on her 1994 book, "Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom." Florence deals with the issues of marginality and cultural alienation that are so prevalent among certain groups within the American society and presents strategies to help develop critical consciousness and affirmation of formerly subordinated cultural traits and characteristics. Her study resonates with current themes raised by critical, feminist and multicultural scholars showing how marginalized groups may be guilty of reinforcing their own status through complicity with the dominant culture's world view, and how education can empower them to demand a more egalitarian society and one that recognizes cultural plurality.