Cummins 1991

Cummins, Jim. 1991. "Empowering minority students: A framework for intervention." In Minami and Kennedy 1991. (Reprint from Cummins 1986.) Interest level: academic.

Examines the pattern of minority students' academic success and failure. Presents a theoretical framework for predicting the effects of educational interventions. Argues that educational reforms (compensatory and bilingual education programs) have been relatively unsuccessful in the United States due to relationships between educators and minorities.

Points out that minority student groups who demonstrate widespread failure in school tend to be subordinate to the majority group. Suggests that for programs to be accepted by minorities and to be successful, educators and policy makers need to empower minority students (page 372). Studies

• classroom interactions between teachers and students
• relationships between schools and minority communities, and
• intergroup power relations within society as a whole.

For the past 20 years, programs and policies regarding "L1 instruction, community involvement, and nondiscriminatory assessment" have merely served as a veneer deflecting attention from the general orientation and attitudes of educators who interact daily with minority students (pages 386--387).

• Bibliography module: Cummins 1991
• In overview module: Bibliography (Literacy): C
• In modular book: Bibliography (Literacy), by Doris Gallemore, Trudi C. Hunt, Jeanne Swanson, and Stephen L. Walter
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 28 June 1999

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