This Issue

ONE OF MY TEACHER EDUCATION students recently described the children in her fourth-grade student teaching placement: Of 22 students, five were Latino, six were African American, three were Asian American, six were European American, and two had just immigrated, one from Russia and one from India. Six of the children were receiving instruction in English as a second language, and 15 of the students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches. Five children had significant learning disabilities, so a special education teacher provided in-class support for 2 hours every morning.

Although my student had taken coursework on "individual and cultural diversity," she was still somewhat in shock. As a White, middle-class, monolingual woman, she had grown up in a predominantly White neighborhood, attended relatively homogeneous K-12 schools, and been in an overwhelmingly White teacher education cohort. Not surprisingly, she worried about how she would meet the needs of what she dubbed her "mini United Nations." Moreover, having gone to elementary and secondary school before the advent of "inclusive education," she was not used to the presence of children with disabilities in general education classes.

My student's experience is not unique, nor are her concerns. U.S. society is becoming increasingly diverse, and that diversity is reflected in its classrooms. It is estimated that within the next two decades, 65% of the U.S. population will be people of color (Hodgkinson, 2000, cited in Grant, 2003), putting a topsy-turvy spin on the meaning of majority and minority. Recent increases in immigration, particularly from Latin America and Asia, have led to classes where children come from a wide range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds; indeed, in just the 10 years between 1990 and 2000, the population of K-12 students learning English as a second language doubled--from 2.2 million to 4.4 million (Allen, 2002). Efforts to achieve inclusive classrooms mean that children with disabilities, who would have previously been taught in separate classrooms or even special schools, are now educated alongside their nondisabled peers. Criticisms of tracking and ability grouping have resulted in more academically heterogeneous classrooms, with children who need instruction in basic skills next to those who qualify for gifted and talented programs.

When this diversity is accepted and appreciated, something rich and wonderful can be created in our classrooms. But there is no doubt that the changing demographics can exacerbate the difficulties that novice teachers (and even more experienced teachers) have with classroom management. Creating a respectful, productive classroom environment is always a challenge; this challenge is even greater when students and teachers come from different cultural backgrounds, or when students differ in terms of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, cultural and linguistic background, sexual orientation, ableness, and academic aptitude. Unless teachers have the knowledge, skills, and disposition to effectively guide diverse groups of children, they are likely to face classes characterized by disrespect and alienation, name-calling and bullying, disorder and chaos.

The articles in this issue address different aspects of classroom management in a diverse society, but a number of common themes are echoed throughout the volume. The first theme is that the fundamental task of classroom management is to create an inclusive, supportive, and caring environment. All too often, discussions of classroom management are framed solely in terms of rules, rewards, and penalties. In contrast, the authors in this issue view classroom management in terms of human relationships--relationships between teachers and students and among students themselves. Soodak, for example, observes that inclusive education is primarily about belonging, membership, and acceptance. Curran reflects on the importance of ensuring that English Language Learners are active members of the classroom community--meaning that they must be included in classroom activities (not given other projects--a worksheet, for example--to work on while the other students engage in group activities). Delpit and White-Bradley argue that teachers who choose to engage with the hearts and minds of their students, to develop human beings rather than robots, must first be willing to develop a relationship with them...