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The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities
In this 10th Anniversary Edition of her popular text, Sonia Nieto reviews where we have been and where we should be going in our pursuit of creating multicultural learning communities in our schools. With a new Introductory Chapter and a new Epilogue, Nieto addresses some of the changes we have experienced during the past decade that help explain the current sociopolitical environment, our increasing diversity, the altering conditions in schools and in society, the influence of poverty on learning, and the impact of NCLB on classrooms and schools. This updated edition of The Light in Their Eyes focuses on the significant role of teachers in transforming students' lives. It considers recent theories, policies, and practices about the variability in student learning and culturally responsive pedagogy and examines the importance of student and teacher voice in research and practice. It also provides an update, in their own words, on former students whose journal entries were included in the first edition.
272 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1999
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About the author
Sonia Nieto
44 books16 followersSonia Nieto is Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy and Culture at the College of Education, University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
May 10, 2009
I just finished reading this book for my last unit which centered on diversity and mulitculturalism in education. It was an interesting read, especially when Nieto explored the area of language as culture and linguistics. (This was not something I would otherwise read!)
February 12, 2013
I wouldn't say I agreed with Nieto on a lot of things she writes, but this book provided me with an introduction to some of Paulo Freire's ideas--of humanizing pedagogy and education as a mode of demonstrating compassion to the oppressed.
January 16, 2011
Very insightful book.
August 15, 2012
When that light "turns on" in a child, it makes all the tears of frustration, long days, and sleepless nights worth it. It's really there...you just have to believe in them.
August 31, 2012
love her, and love this book. took two courses with her, and definitely helped me put together a framework for working with the babies.
June 13, 2017
I want to return to this one at some point. So inspiring and deeply challenging. My biggest takeaway so far is the centrality of relationships, of getting to know your students as they really are in order to see and work with their strengths. Also, the importance of structural change--but in an environment where structural change seems less and less possible, teachers need strategies to sustain their multicultural practices. The personal story of a teacher learning Spanish in order to better relate to his students is a great example of a teacher as learner, and "A with B."
April 25, 2019
I will be returning to this book frequently as I continue my career in education!
April 11, 2022
The information was great m, but most of the studies referenced were from the 90s. This version was updated in the 2000 oughts. It would be interesting to see updated data.
January 17, 2011
Some stuff I wrote for a class:
Sonia Nieto takes readers through a very clearly communicated rationale for multiculturalism and suggestions for implementation that it both easy to read and convincing. By sharing her personal experiences and her positionality as Puetro Rican woman, she reads as an authority on the subject while communicating that she is a real human person by occasionally using first person pronouns. While doing this, she avoids some of the pitfalls that dictatorial decrees handed down from educational administrators (usually white men). I found her arguments to have an empathic quality as she convinces through case studies of the journal entries of her students rather than statistics or “scientific” studies. All of this reminds me of the conflicts between psychology and philosophy, Thorndike and Dewey, positivism and post-positivism in education that we covered in EDU P&L 800. This book seemed to strongly represent a qualitative bias, encouraging strong relationships and connections between teachers, pedagogy, and students while rejecting the predominating focus on statistics and “one-size-fits-all” corrective techniques. Her reflexive, interpretive stance with many elements of critical theory was quite beautiful for me to read and feels firm but less aggressive than some of the other articles I've read. On the other hand, this position may make it difficult for unbending authoritarian figures within education administration and politics, those who perhaps need to understand her arguments the most, to take her seriously. Her accessibility to the soft-hearted teacher who melts at the idea of “light in their idea” and the mantra that all students can learn is perhaps a hindrance to top down reorganization but ideal for instigating the necessary changes she proposes in the attitudes and beliefs of teachers.
By starting at re-examining learning, Nieto centers the book on a goal, if not the goal, which often seems obscured by other writers who move past it as an assumption. I feel that this allows her to present a comprehensive look at multicultural education in a small amount of space that is also pointed and addresses everyday praxis. On the other hand, it could be that my lack of familiarity with with multi cultural, equity, and even basic theoretical education studies that makes this book so appealing, as it seems written for teachers rather than graduate students. To me, the book addressed the questions that Banks & Banks raised about equity pedagogy and how to reinvent everything while making small changes. The additive approach Nieto took also seemed to make a lot of sense without being too optimistically, and unrealistically, positive.
While Nieto doesn't use the word equity much, she is clearly focused on offering ways to help differently-advantaged students succeed in an upper-class dominated school setting. Several times throughout the text she discounts the supposed idea of a “level playing-field” which speaks more to equality than equity. At the same time, I also feel that she presents that equity, in the “making up the difference” sense, is not the answer either. The chapter on “Who Does the Accommodating?” really struck me powerfully. Since I have always had the invisible white privilege, I never considered the idea that everyone different was accommodating me. What would it be like for me to take a class in a different culture and different language and what would I be able to learn about both myself and others by taking a class in Black English or Spanish? While Nieto doesn't go quite this far, I wonder if the educational system also disadvantages those of the dominant culture by never requiring them to learn how to accommodate others.
The Light in Their Eyes (1999) is starting to become a little dated as since she wrote the book America has had the opportunity to look at itself more critically through tragedies, growing environmental concerns, and even the middling economy. To me, these recent developments have added an idea that America's individualism has shifted towards selfishness in a world that is increasingly going to require cooperation and altruism. One way to look at this might be that schools are an excellent place to explore these ideas through creating multicultural education starting with teacher beliefs and attitudes, following Banks & Banks' five dimensions of multicultural education, and trying for an equitable society.
Sonia Nieto takes readers through a very clearly communicated rationale for multiculturalism and suggestions for implementation that it both easy to read and convincing. By sharing her personal experiences and her positionality as Puetro Rican woman, she reads as an authority on the subject while communicating that she is a real human person by occasionally using first person pronouns. While doing this, she avoids some of the pitfalls that dictatorial decrees handed down from educational administrators (usually white men). I found her arguments to have an empathic quality as she convinces through case studies of the journal entries of her students rather than statistics or “scientific” studies. All of this reminds me of the conflicts between psychology and philosophy, Thorndike and Dewey, positivism and post-positivism in education that we covered in EDU P&L 800. This book seemed to strongly represent a qualitative bias, encouraging strong relationships and connections between teachers, pedagogy, and students while rejecting the predominating focus on statistics and “one-size-fits-all” corrective techniques. Her reflexive, interpretive stance with many elements of critical theory was quite beautiful for me to read and feels firm but less aggressive than some of the other articles I've read. On the other hand, this position may make it difficult for unbending authoritarian figures within education administration and politics, those who perhaps need to understand her arguments the most, to take her seriously. Her accessibility to the soft-hearted teacher who melts at the idea of “light in their idea” and the mantra that all students can learn is perhaps a hindrance to top down reorganization but ideal for instigating the necessary changes she proposes in the attitudes and beliefs of teachers.
By starting at re-examining learning, Nieto centers the book on a goal, if not the goal, which often seems obscured by other writers who move past it as an assumption. I feel that this allows her to present a comprehensive look at multicultural education in a small amount of space that is also pointed and addresses everyday praxis. On the other hand, it could be that my lack of familiarity with with multi cultural, equity, and even basic theoretical education studies that makes this book so appealing, as it seems written for teachers rather than graduate students. To me, the book addressed the questions that Banks & Banks raised about equity pedagogy and how to reinvent everything while making small changes. The additive approach Nieto took also seemed to make a lot of sense without being too optimistically, and unrealistically, positive.
While Nieto doesn't use the word equity much, she is clearly focused on offering ways to help differently-advantaged students succeed in an upper-class dominated school setting. Several times throughout the text she discounts the supposed idea of a “level playing-field” which speaks more to equality than equity. At the same time, I also feel that she presents that equity, in the “making up the difference” sense, is not the answer either. The chapter on “Who Does the Accommodating?” really struck me powerfully. Since I have always had the invisible white privilege, I never considered the idea that everyone different was accommodating me. What would it be like for me to take a class in a different culture and different language and what would I be able to learn about both myself and others by taking a class in Black English or Spanish? While Nieto doesn't go quite this far, I wonder if the educational system also disadvantages those of the dominant culture by never requiring them to learn how to accommodate others.
The Light in Their Eyes (1999) is starting to become a little dated as since she wrote the book America has had the opportunity to look at itself more critically through tragedies, growing environmental concerns, and even the middling economy. To me, these recent developments have added an idea that America's individualism has shifted towards selfishness in a world that is increasingly going to require cooperation and altruism. One way to look at this might be that schools are an excellent place to explore these ideas through creating multicultural education starting with teacher beliefs and attitudes, following Banks & Banks' five dimensions of multicultural education, and trying for an equitable society.
January 13, 2014
"When learning is defined primarily through standardized test scores, learning is restricted by narrowing the curriculum and pedagogy and reducing teacher motivation" (p. 33).
"Because developmentalism fails to ground itself within a critical understanding of power relationships of dominant and subordinate cultures, it has often privileged White middle-class notions of meaning and success" (p. 43)
In discussing the "at-risk" labeling of students: "...students' very cultural and ethnic identity, among characteristics, places them at risk without even taking into account the individual abilities or talents they may have" (p. 50).
"...an intriguing study of a school district int he process of detracking found that students of color benefited from their placement in heterogenous classes because they experienced an important change int he quality of the interactions they had with their teachers (Billegas & Watts, 1992). Such interactions...are a key ingredient in promoting student learning and achievement" (p. 61).
"Because developmentalism fails to ground itself within a critical understanding of power relationships of dominant and subordinate cultures, it has often privileged White middle-class notions of meaning and success" (p. 43)
In discussing the "at-risk" labeling of students: "...students' very cultural and ethnic identity, among characteristics, places them at risk without even taking into account the individual abilities or talents they may have" (p. 50).
"...an intriguing study of a school district int he process of detracking found that students of color benefited from their placement in heterogenous classes because they experienced an important change int he quality of the interactions they had with their teachers (Billegas & Watts, 1992). Such interactions...are a key ingredient in promoting student learning and achievement" (p. 61).
May 14, 2015
I love the deep ideas she has in this book and the eloquent ways she is able to convey them!
May 23, 2016
A must have for your multicultural teaching library.
April 20, 2023
Had to read this for class and I thought it was boring overall, but had some good points to learn about.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews