54: A Review of A River Forever Flowing: Cross-Cultural Lives and Identities in the Multicultural Landscape by Ming Fang He

Dr. Ming Fang He’s book, A River Forever Flowing (2003, Information Age Publishing), is a text that uses the identity exploration of three Chinese women teachers through a cross-cultural narrative approach to “create new ways to think about, talk about, and write about” (p. xvii) the importance of personal identities and “their relevance to multicultural education” (p. xvii). As a multicultural education text, A River Forever Flowing weaves personal experiences through narrative with theoretical understandings into an educational context that challenges teachers to affirm diverse student populations.

He’s book supports the idea that multicultural studies should be a fluid method that takes into account that as life experiences occur, “our roles shift accordingly” (p. 116). The influx of research supports the reality that there is an increase in diversity within the schools’ student populations. Conversely, with a teaching population that is becoming more monocultural, there is an overwhelming need to present training for teachers to effectively teach students who are culturally diverse. In A River Forever Flowing, Dr. He presents a method to begin the groundwork to prepare teachers for diverse classroom environments.