Perez, Amada Irma & Gonzalez, Maya Christina (illustrator). (2002). My Diary from Here to There. San Francisco: Children's Book Press. 31 pp., ISBN: 0-89239-175-8 (hc), $16.95 (ages 4-8).

Professional Literature

Gallas, Karen. (1998). "Sometimes I Can Be Anything": Power, Gender, and Identity in a Primary Classroom. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University. 153 pp., ISBN: 0-8077-3695-3 (pbk.), $18.95.

A practicing teacher-researcher offers keen observation and insightful interpretation of gender dynamics in first and second grade classrooms in this readable book.  As exemplified by excellent works published in the Practitioner Inquiry Series, of which this book is part, this practitioner research artfully interweaves stories of real children with rich qualitative data on gender-based interactions.  The reader is invited to peek into daily interactions between boys and girls and to discover with a surprise the delicate power play and dominance practiced by some boys and "survival strategies," such as silence and all-around friendliness, employed by some girls.  In the course of two years of working with the same children in "looped" first/second grade classrooms, the author was able to trace the progress of gender identity formation during the early years of schooling.  Despite the teachers' conscientious efforts to practice gender equity in instructional settings, the reality of forces relegating girls to the more passive, silent, and secondary position can be readily witnessed.  Although this work was an emotionally difficult piece to write according to the author, such a painfully candid piece reminds educators that much work is needed to raise gender-equity consciousness in teachers as well as in children, as young as first and second graders.

Grobman, Laurie. (2001). Teaching at the Crossroads: Cultures and Critical Perspectives in Literature by Women of Color. San Francisco, CA: Aunt Lute Books.  206 pp., ISBN: 1-879960-63-X (pbk.), $21.95.

This book presents a perfect marriage between theory and practice as well as between multicultural education and multiethnic women's literature.  Attempting to interconnect the "separate strands of critical and pedagogical perspectives vis-à-vis texts by women of color" (p. 5), the author proposes the "teaching at the crossroads" paradigm that integrates Western-based, ethnic-specific, mainstream feminist, and ethnic-specific feminist approaches.  Using Sandra Cisneros' The House in Mango Street and Leslie Silko's Storyteller, the author demonstrates how to teach at the crossroads of genre.  Toni Morrison's Beloved and Maxine Hong Kingston's China Men are utilized in the author's pedagogical discussion of identity. An extensive list of classroom exercises as well as a bibliography of literary criticism categorized by ethnic groups are appended to enhance the critical understanding of these literary works written by a Chicana, a Native American, an African-American, and an Asian writer.

Haag, Pamela. (1999). Voices of a Generation: Teenage Girls on Sex, School, and Self. Washington: American Association of University Women Educational Foundation.  95 pp., ISBN: 1-879922-21-5 (pbk.), $14.95.

This research report grew out of 150 Sister-to-Sister summits sponsored by the American Association of University Women in 38 states between November 1997 and July 1999, in which girls of 11 to 17 years of age listened to presentations and participated in small group discussions.  The author collected data from approximately 2,000 girls who responded to six open-ended questions given at registration. Girls candidly and perceptively voiced their opinions of the unrealistic societal expectations of girlhood communicated in the mass media; their perspectives on sex, teen pregnancy, sexual harassment, inter-sex respect, sexual violence, and sexual identity; their struggles with peer pressure, self-esteem, and friendship; and their attitudes about academic achievement.  The voices of girls allow the reader to peek into their sophisticated world of internal conflicts intertwined with self-assurance and self-pride.  This is an invaluable source for teachers and parents of teenage girls.

Koch, Janice, Sanders, Jo & Urso, Josephine.  (1997). Gender Equity Right From the Start: Instructional Activities for Teacher Educators in Mathematics, Science, and Technology. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  135 pp., ISBN: 0-8058-2337-9 (pbk), $24.00.

This comprehensive collection of activities is designed to provide teacher educators with instructional ideas and activities that can challenge their students' thinking of gender equity especially with regard to mathematics, science, and technology education.  The book covers six equity issues: (1) math, science, and technology as male domains; (2) peers', teachers', parents', and society's cultural expectations; (3) biased and inappropriate curriculum materials; (4) classroom interaction and atmosphere; (5) anti-intellectualism and attributional style; and (6) testing and assessment.  For each area, numerous easy-to-use and useful activity ideas are provided with labels indicating appropriate situations of use (e.g., "in class," "out of class," and "field") and appropriate levels and subject areas (e.g., "elementary science," "science," "mathematics," and "technology").  This book is to be used with the resource book that is reviewed in the following entry.  The last part of the book also contains a list of actual action research projects implemented in various universities in the United States.

Koch, Janice, Sanders, Jo & Urso, Josephine.  (1997). Gender Equity Sources and Resources for Educational Students. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.  120 pp., ISBN: 0-8058-2887-7 (pbk), $16.00.

This outstanding resource book for education students is a companion copy of the instructional activities book for teacher educators previously reviewed in this Book Review section. The goal of the project that yielded this excellent result is to help pre-service teachers become aware of socio-cultural impediments that keep girls from pursuing careers in math, science, and technology and implement gender-equity curriculum when they become professional practitioners.  The resources represent the depth and richness of existing research of gender issues in education, including articles, primary documents, statistics, vignettes, fact sheets, activity ideas, professional guidelines, reading list, electronic resource list, and organization list.

Westfried, Alex H. (2002). Reinventing the Culture of Womanhood in America and Brazil, an Anthropological Perspective . New York: University Press of America.  118 pp., ISBN: 0-7618-2276-3 (pbk), $29.00.

The author summarizes the book as "a story of Brazilian women's journey to independence, against overwhelming obstacles, in a country where the myth of masculinity was well established" (p. vii).  Following a brief historical overview of the feminist movement in Brazil since the 1964 transition from a military regime to democracy, stories of ten "innovative," emancipated women are interwoven with anthropological interpretations of gender roles, religion, family structure, and economic needs of this country.  Despite the lingering expectation of traditional gender roles, these accomplished middle-class women pursued careers in traditionally male-dominant professions such as those of an attorney, politician, scholar, university president, and corporate executive.  Brazilian women, including these feminist leaders, have contributed to bringing about advancement to women's education and employment conditions.  Free federal university education, substantial maternity leave, affordable day care services, and extended family structure have assisted Brazilian women to seek employment outside home while parenting.  By juxtaposing cultural resources and impediments of these two countries the author outlines what the United States could learn from the Brazilian feminist movement in terms of working women's conditions.  While his argument is in essence compelling, the comparison between the Brazilian and US conditions, relegated to the last two short chapters of the book, is simplistic and anecdotal.  Careful proofreading could have enhanced the joy of reading this informative text of the Brazilian women's movement.

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