Skin That We Speak

Joanne Kilgour Dowdy is a professor of adolescent/adult literacy at Kent State University in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, and Curriculum Studies. A graduate of the Juilliard School in the theater division, Dr. Dowdy continues to use her drama training to prepare teachers for the literacy classroom and as a performer who facilitates writing development through interactive workshops. Her major research interests include documenting the experiences of black women involved in education from adult basic literacy to higher education. She has written or edited twelve books. Her book Ph.D. Stories: Conversations with My Sisters was awarded the 2009 American Educational Research Association Narrative and Research Special Interest Group’s Outstanding Book Award. She lives in Ohio.MacArthur Award winner Lisa Delpit is the retired Felton G. Clark Distinguished Professor of Education at Southern University. The author of the bestselling Other People’s Children and “Multiplication Is for White People,” co-editor (with Joanne Kilgour Dowdy) of The Skin That We Speak, co-editor (with Theresa Perry) of The Real Ebonics Debate, editor of Teaching When the World Is on Fire, and co-author (with Christopher Emdin) of The Sacred Art of Teaching (all published by The New Press), she lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

• ContentsPreface viiLISA DELPITIntroduction xvLISA DELPITPart One: Language and IdentityC H A P T E R 1 Ovuh Dyuh 3JOANNE KILGOUR DOWDYC H A P T E R 2 Ebonics: A Case History 15ERNIE SMITHPart Two: Language in the ClassroomC H A P T E R 3 No Kinda Sense 31LISA DELPITC H A P T E R 4 Trilingualism 49JUDITH BAKERC H A P T E R 5 Some Basic Sociolinguistic Concepts 63MICHAEL STUBBSC H A P T E R 6 Language, Culture, and the Assessmentof African American Children 87ASA G. HILLIARD IIIC H A P T E R 7 I ain’t writin’ nuttin’: Permissions to Failand Demands to Succeed in Urban Classrooms 107GLORIA J. LADSON-BILLINGSC H A P T E R 8 “. . . As Soon As She Opened Her Mouth!”:Issues of Language, Literacy, and Power 121VICTORIA PURCELL-GATESPart Three: Teacher KnowledgeC H A P T E R 9 Topsy-Turvies: Teacher Talk and Student Talk 145HERBERT KOHLC H A P T E R 1 0 Toward a National Public Policy onLanguage 163GENEVA SMITHERMANC H A P T E R 1 1 The Clash of “Common Senses”: TwoAfrican American Women Become Teachers 179SHUAIB MEACHEMC H A P T E R 1 2 “We don’t talk right. You ask him.” 203JOAN WYNNEAppendix: Linguistic Society of America Resolution onthe Oakland “Ebonics” Issue 221

“Although these lucid, accessible pieces speak most directly to teachers and would be teachers . . . the issues are broad enough to attract more general readers, especially parents.”—Publishers Weekly