Making a Difference - by Ian M Mette & Dwayne Ray Cormier & Yanira Oliveras (Paperback)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Supervision frameworks tend to lack the ability to identify, address, and provide feedback about how racial, cultural, and socioeconomic factors contribute to the sociocultural gap that so often exists between teachers and students in the US. To accomplish this, however, a more culturally responsive system of instructional feedback will need to support educators to consider how students who are minoritized, marginalized, and otherized in the US see themselves as belonging to a democratic US society.

Review Quotes

"The book, Making a Difference, is a first for the field of educational supervision and its practices in schools. Authors Ian M. Mette, Dwayne Ray Cormier, and Yanira Oliveras unpack important foundations for leaders who care about equity in schools and the moral leadership needed to steer systems and their people to create fair practices built on trust, respect for diversity, and leveraging belonging as foundational to the success of teachers and their students. The many lessons offered will make a difference in the lives of those who populate schools.

The reader will walk away energized by the messages about the value of codified processes involved with conducting classroom observations and engaging in conversations to unpack bias for both leaders and peers alike. The lift necessary to create new paradigms about this important work will yield more equitable practices for leaders, and teachers--all working on behalf of educating children.

This is a book that I will consult often." --Sally J. Zepeda, professor, Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy, Mary Frances Early College of Education, University of Georgia

About the Author

Ian M. Mette is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership where he focuses his interests on the development of culturally responsive instructional supervision and developing equity-minded school leaders in predominantly White rural spaces. Specifically, his work targets closing the gap between theory and practice to inform and support equitable school improvement efforts for all students
Dwayne Ray Cormier is an Assistant Professor and entrepreneur specializing in instructional supervision and asset-based pedagogies. His research focuses on developing unplugged and plugged andrological, pedagogical, and supervision tools that assess and codify educators' sociocultural gaps and examine their impact on cultural competence, teacher-student relationships, educational opportunity gaps, and school culture.
Yanira Oliveras is an Associate Professor of Curriculum & Instruction with a specialization on instructional supervision and school improvement. She had led the national implementation of instructional supervision in Belize. Through her work in Belize, she has engaged teacher preparation programs in the development of action plans to move from evaluation to instructional supervision, and from teacher-centered to student-centered instruction.