Beyond a Dream Deferred

Multicultural Education and the Politics of Excellence

1993
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Becky W. Thompson and Sangeeta Tyagi, editors
Foreword by Derrick Bell

“At last, a collection on multicultural education authored by those involved. Ranging from broad reflections to case studies, from feminist and ethnic to gay and lesbian studies, the essays themselves embody the diverse perspectives they analyze. Speaking in different voices, they convey the complexity and conflicts that animate present struggles to democratize institutions of higher learning.” --Renato Rosaldo, Stanford University Contributors include Margaret L. Andersen, Estelle Disch, Troy Duster, Lisa Kahaleole Chang Hall, Evelynn Hammonds, Evelyn Hu-Dehart, Earl Jackson, Jr., Ian Haney López, Carole C. Marks, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Barbara Omolade, Becky W. Thompson, Sangeeta Tyagi, and Cornel West.

“At last, a collection on multicultural education authored by those involved. Ranging from broad reflections to case studies, from feminist and ethnic to gay and lesbian studies, the essays themselves embody the diverse perspectives they analyze. Speaking in different voices, they convey the complexity and conflicts that animate present struggles to democratize institutions of higher learning.” --Renato Rosaldo, Stanford University

Contributors include Margaret L. Andersen, Estelle Disch, Troy Duster, Lisa Kahaleole Chang Hall, Evelynn Hammonds, Evelyn Hu-Dehart, Earl Jackson, Jr., Ian Haney López, Carole C. Marks, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Barbara Omolade, Becky W. Thompson, Sangeeta Tyagi, and Cornel West.

Within and outside of the Academy, Thompson and Tyagi's comprehensive anthology will become a major work. With contributions from scholar-activists who are deeply involved with the issues of multicultural education, this progressive book provides the theoretical and practical framework for educational paradigms in the coming century.

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Johnnetta Cole, President, Spelman College

Beyond A Dream Deferred is a multidisciplinary work that consolidates progressive perspectives on multicultural education, establishing it as a crucial sphere in a society charged with reimagining its national identity in all its diversity. Drawing on the perspectives of faculty, administrators, and students-both activists and intellectuals-contributors include Troy Duster, Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Earl Jackson, Jr., Chandra Mohanty, and Cornel West.

Becky W. Thompson is assistant professor in the Center for Research on Women at Memphis State University.

Sangeeta Tyagi is assistant professor f sociology at Roanoke College in Virginia, where she teaches comparative race and ethnic relations and Third World feminist theory.

Derrick Bell is professor of law at New York University.

Within and outside of the Academy, Thompson and Tyagi's comprehensive anthology will become a major work. With contributions from scholar-activists who are deeply involved with the issues of multicultural education, this progressive book provides the theoretical and practical framework for educational paradigms in the coming century.

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Johnnetta Cole, President, Spelman College

The guidelines (practical and theoretical) that Thompson, Tyagi and their smart contributors lay out for ‘re-skilling’ university educators are subtle and timely. The coming to Washington of a new administration shouldn't tempt us to imagine we don't need these new skills. We do.

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Cynthia H. Enloe, Professor and Chair of Government at Clark University

At last, a collection on multicultural education authored by those involved. Ranging from broad reflections to case studies, from feminist and ethnic to gay and lesbian studies, the essays themselves embody the diverse perspectives they analyze. Speaking in different voices, they convey the complexity and conflicts that animate present struggles to democratize institutions of higher learning.

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Renato Rosaldo, Stanford University

If you want to know what multicultural education is all about, this book is the single best place to start. . . . . This book is clear and accessible to a broad audience. It is a major contribution to the theory and practice of multicultural education across the disciplines. And it’s a good read.

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Contemporary Sociology

If you want to know what multicultural education is all about, this book is the single best place to start. . . . Derrick Bell’s foreword, the editors’ introduction, and the contributors’ essays are all written with the scholarly engagement the authors advocate. This book is clear and accessible to a broad audience. It is a major contribution to the theory and practice of multicultural education across the disciplines. And it’s a good read.

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Life Course

Beyond a Dream Deferred, offers description of some efforts to revise racial belief systems currently transmitted in American universities. . . . . The detailed, practical accounts provide, nevertheless, more information than most anti-PC polemics have.

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American Studies International