Pathways to Educational Inclusiveness

If theories in education and human development are to be as comprehensive and accurate as possible, care must be taken to adequately address issues of diversity, particularly with respect to development in different cultural contexts. Researchers who remain within the comfortable confines of the familiar can easily overlook crucial data or important differences in experiences, learning styles, needs, and trajectories. But to understand these differences, researchers must be willing to view human development as a cultural process, such that individuals’ learning cannot be viewed separately from their sociohistorical backgrounds (Rogoff, 2003). A broad frame of reference should be adopted to address the numerous influences on an individual’s development. One should incorporate not only experiences that are encountered during the development of racial or ethnic identity but also those that are due to gender, spiritual orientation, family socialization styles, and positions of privilege. The edited books reviewed here address different topics, but issues of cultural inclusiveness are key to both. Race-ing Moral Formation: African American Perspectives on Care and Justice (2004), edited by Vanessa Siddle Walker and John R. Snarey, identifies major gaps in the moral development research that result when diverse cultural perspectives are overlooked. This volume offers insight into various experiences of African American youth and adults that may dramatically influence moral socialization. Community Schools in Action: Lessons From a Decade of Practice (2005), edited by Joy G. Dryfoos, Jane Quinn, and Carol Barkin, emphasizes the importance of inclusiveness for the success of community schools. In this volume, inclusiveness refers not only to culture but also to responsiveness to a wide variety of needs found among diverse student populations, school staffs, families, communities, and partner agencies.