The Need for Story: Cultural Diversity in Classroom and Community

Emphasizing the complex relationships among story, ethnicity, and gender, this book explores the nature of story--the basic functions it serves, its connections to the diverse sociocultural landscape of society, and its power in the classroom. In addressing concerns about how to most effectively serve increasingly diverse student populations, the book demonstrates through example the need for and the power of story. Chapters in the book are: (1) "Introduction: The Need for Story" (Anne Haas Dyson and Celia Genishi); (2) "Multiculturalism, Community, and the Arts" (Maxine Greene); (3) "Life as Narrative" (Jerome Bruner); (4) "The Power of Personal Storytelling in Families and Kindergartens" (Peggy J. Miller and Robert A. Mehler); (5) "Multicultural Literature for Children: Towards a Clarification of the Concept" (Mingshui Cai and Rudine Sims Bishop); (6) "What Is Sharing Time For?" (Courtney B. Cazden); (7) "'The Blacker the Berry, the Sweeter the Juice': African American Student Writers" (Geneva Smitherman); (8) "Gender Differences and Symbolic Imagination in the Stories of Four-Year-Olds" (Ageliki Nicolopoulou and others); (9) "'And They Lived Happily Ever After': Cultural Storylines and the Construction of Gender" (Pam Gilbert); (10) "Princess Annabella and the Black Girls" (Vivian Gussin Paley); (11) "'I'm Gonna Express Myself': The Politics of Story in the Children's Worlds" (Anne Haas Dyson); (12) "'All the Things That Mattered': Stories Written by Teachers for Children" (Sal Vascellaro and Celia Genishi); (13) The Contribution of the Preschool to a Native American Community" (Susan J. Britsch); (14) "Stories as Ways of Acting Together" (Shirley Brice Heath); (15) "Writing as a Foundation for Transformative Community in the Tenderloin" (Carol E. Heller); and (16) "Conclusion: Fulfilling the Need for Story" (Celia Genishi and Anne Haas Dyson). (RS)