Promising Practices for Engaging Families in Literacy fulfills the need from parents and teachers to improve home/school assistance in every child's literacy development. Literacy skills are required and valued in all academic areas and at all levels of education from preschool through adulthood. This volume provides suggestions and support to improve parent/child involvement in literacy activities from preschool through teacher education programs. Research is provided to undergird the documented practices that increase student academic achievement through improved literacy skills across academic areas. Practices include connections between home and school across age groups, developmental needs groups, universities, community groups, and technologies.

Exceptional management skills are crucial to success in educational environments. As school leaders, principals are expected to effectively supervise the school system while facing a multitude of issues and demands. Multidimensional Perspectives on Principal Leadership Effectiveness combines best practices and the latest approaches in school administration and management. Exploring the challenges faced by principals, as well as the impact of new managerial tactics being employed, this book is a comprehensive reference publication for policymakers, academicians, researchers, students, school practitioners, and government officials seeking current and emerging research on administrative leadership in educational settings.

Never Give Up is an amazing true story. It is a case study of an experienced elementary school teacher who was motivated to change her teaching practices from teacher-centered, transmission approaches to student-centered, transformational approaches in the context of a Professional Development School. You would think she would have accomplished her goal with support from the PDS participants in a year or two. Instead, she spent seven years encountering struggles, set-backs, and occasionally small triump until she achieved bone deep change in her teaching practice. What was she aiming for and why did it take so long? How did she finally achieve her goals? This book is about her journey of change. On one level, this is a story of a teacher as she struggles to change her teaching practice in way that center on childern's learning rather than on teacher centered rote learning. On a deeper level, it is a look at how innovative reform movements and wellmeaning professional development efforts fall short of bringing about deep seated change in teaching methods. It raises weighty questions such as how teacher preparation programs should begin the process of instilling habits of exploration, experimentation, research and learning in their pre-service teachers so that they continuously work at updating and upgrading their teaching practices. It is a message to curriculum developers, policy makers and the public at large that lasting teacher professional development takes more time and support than the more immediate workshop approaches. It raises many questions about how teachers learn and how they can keep their practices fresh and innovative throughout their careers.

"In professional and academic contexts nothing is more important than helping people to understand and engage with democratic society. Sant has written an excellent book which helps greatly towards that end. She has developed incisive new arguments about the nature of contemporary politics and education. Using the most recent as well as classic literature, she explores key ideas and issues. Through wide ranging discussions and by referring to her own valuable empirical work she characterizes and creates thoughtful insights and innovative pedagogical approaches. This book achieves the very difficult task of illuminating complex ideas at the same time as helping to determine practical ways to achieve social justice through education. Political education has been neglected for too long. This book is a bold new step in its achievement." -Ian Davies, Emeritus Professor, University of York, UK This book examines political education in times of democratic crisis, polarisation and uncertainty. Using populism as a diagnostic tool, the book scrutinises current democratic practices and considers alternatives for future social studies and citizenship education. The author examines contemporary events including Brexit, the Catalan referendum for independence and protests in Chile to ask how democratic educators can respond to times of crisis. Centered on themes of knowledge and ideology, the book draws together political philosophy and educational research to map out, critically analyse and offer alternatives to dominant debates on political education. It will be of interest and value to scholars examining the relationship between democracy and educational theory and practice. Edda Sant is Senior Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. A former social studies teacher, her research interests lie in citizenship, political and democratic education. She has published widely in this field, and in 2016 was recognized with a Children's Identity & Citizenship European Association Award.