Tough Fronts

by L. Janell Dance

Tough Fronts takes the difficult issues in urban education head on by putting street-savvy students at the forefront of the discussion on how to best make successful changes for inner city schools. Individual chapters discuss scholarly depictions of black America, the social complexity of the teacher-student relationship, individual success stories of 'at-risk' programs, popular images of urban students, and implications for education policy. With close attention to the voices of individual students, this engaging book gives vitality and legitimacy to arguments for school changes that have been lacking in previous discussions.

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 26, 2002

Reviews

[Kerri Louann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved the way she tied together social and cultural capital in the classroom!

[Magda A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dance presents valuable research on the effects of caring on street-savvy urban African and Latino/a students from low income communities. She proposes a typology of these students and their teachers. Teachers are grouped into the categories of uncaring/unempathetic, caring/unempathetic and caring/empathetic, while the students are classified as hard, hardcore wannabes and hard enough. Her conclusion is that only the caring/empathetic teacher gains moderate to adequate support from the hard enough student. Dance adds that a minimum requirement for a teacher to reach street-savvy students is to “be down” which she defines as “to be hip or cool; to be included or a part of something; to understand someone or something; to be respected or accepted by someone or some group” (p. 10). Dance stresses the importance of “keeping it real”, a term used by Prudence Carter in her book Keepin’ It Real. A trusting connection with “down” teachers can make a great difference for these children.