Language is one of the greatest predictors of personal, social, academic, and professional success. No one is born a reader; instead, learning to read is a process that requires time, effort, and availability. The only way for reading comprehension to develop is through practice: one learns to read by reading. As such, it is integral to acknowledge the importance of knowing how to read and facilitating this skill in schools and at home. Reading is a cornerstone for learning and no child will know academic success if their reading ability is compromised. Modern Reading Practices and Collaboration Between Schools, Family, and Community is a premier reference book that consolidates knowledge on reading competence. It presents the processes inherent in the act of reading and the mechanisms underlying the teaching and learning of reading, as well as all recent research in this area. Covering topics such as communication development, learning motivation, and transliteracy, this innovative title is an excellent resource for preservice teachers, childhood educators, educators of K-12 and higher education, academic libraries, teacher training lecturers, faculty and administration of K-12 and higher education, researchers, and academicians.

Moving towards Inclusive Education: Diverse National Engagements with Paradoxes of Policy and Practice presents perspectives from Asia-Pacific and Europe that have seldom been heard in international debates. While there may be global consensus around United Nations' goals for inclusion in education, each country's cultural and religious understandings shape national views regarding the priorities for inclusion. Some countries focus on disability, while others bring in concerns about culture, ethnicity, language, gender and/or sexuality. In this fascinating collection, senior commentators explore the ethical difficulties as well as hopes for a more inclusive education in their countries, raising questions of interest for educators, policy-makers and all who support the work of inclusive education. Contributors are: Vishalache Balakrishnan, Bayarmaa Bazarsuren, Cleonice Alves Bosa, Yen-Hsin Chen, Lise Claiborne, Tim Corcoran, Bronwyn Davies, Carol Hamilton, Dorothea W. Hancock, Mashrur Imtiaz, Maria Kecskemeti, Silvia Helena Koller, Yvonne Leeman, Sonja Macfarlane, Roger Moltzen, Sikder Monoare Murshed, Sanjaabadam Sid, Simone Steyer, Eugeniusz Switala, Wiel Veugelers, and Ben Whitburn.

Now in a new edition, National Geographic Learning brings the world to your classroom with Life, a six-level integrated-skills series with grammar and vocabulary for young adult and adult English language learners. Through stunning National Geographic content, video, and engaging topics, Life inspires a generation of informed decision-makers. With Life, learners develop their ability to think critically and communicate effectively in the global community.

Digital technologies are transforming economies and societies around the world. As such, markets demand new types of skills and competences that students must learn in order to be successful. IT and emerging technologies can be integrated into educational institutions to improve teaching methods and academic results as well as digital literacy. IT and the Development of Digital Skills and Competences in Education compiles critical research into one comprehensive reference source that explores the new demands of labor markets in the digital economy, how educational institutions can respond to these new opportunities and threats, the development of new teaching and learning methods, and the development of digital skills and competences. Through new theories, research findings, and case studies, the book seeks to incite new perspectives to understandings of the challenges and opportunities of the utilization of IT in the education sector around the world. Due to innovative topics that include digital competence, disruptive technologies, and digital transformation, this book is an ideal reference for academicians, directors of schools, vice-chancellors, education and IT experts, CEOs, policymakers in the field of education and IT, researchers, and students.

Teacher Acculturation provides rich description of lived experiences of novice teachers from the 1950s through present day. The thought-provoking stories provide a springboard for critical discussions about gender/sexuality, culture/race/ethnicity, Indigenous perspectives, SES/class/religion, and the challenges facing teachers in different contexts.

As the world becomes more navigable, opportunities arise for people to live in different countries and for students to study internationally. Such capabilities require universities and other institutions of higher learning to accommodate cultural diversity. Promoting Ethnic Diversity and Multiculturalism in Higher Education is an essential scholarly publication that examines the interaction between culture and learning in academic environments and the efforts to mediate it through various educational venues. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics including intercultural competence, microaggressions, and student diversity, this book is geared towards educators, professionals, school administrators, researchers, and practitioners in the field of education.

The contributors to Amplified Voices, Intersecting Identities: First-Gen PhDs Navigating Institutional Power in Early Careers overcame deeply unequal educational systems to become the first in their families to finish college. Now, they are among the 3% of first-generation undergraduate students to go on to graduate school and then become faculty, in spite of structural barriers that worked against them. These scholars write of socialization to the professoriate through the complex lens of intersectional identities of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, ability and social class. These first-generation graduate students have crafted critical narratives of the structural obstacles within higher education that stand in the way of brilliant scholars who are poor and working-class, Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian, immigrant, queer, white, women, or people with disabilities. They write of agency in creating defiant networks of support, of sustaining connections to family and communities, of their activism and advocacy on campus. They refuse to perpetuate the myths of meritocracy that reproduce the inequalities of higher education. In response to a research literature and to campus programming that frames their identities around "need", they write instead of agentive and politicized intersectional identities as first-generation graduate students, committed to institutional change through their research, teaching, and service. Contributors are: Veronica R. Barrios, Candis Bond, Beth Buyserie, Noralis Rodriguez Coss, Charise Paulette DeBerry, Janette Diaz, Alfred P. Flores, Jose Garcia, Cynthia George, Shonda Goward, Luis Javier Penton Herrera, Nataria T. Joseph, Castagna Lacet, Jennifer M. Longley, Catherine Ma, Esther Diaz Martin, Nadia Yolanda Alverez Mexia, T. Mark Montoya, Miranda Mosier, Michelle Parrinello-Cason, J. Michael Ryan, Adrian Arroyo Perez, Will Porter, Jaye Sablan, Theresa Stewart-Ambo, Keisha Thompson, Ethan Trinh, Jane A. Van Galen and Wendy Champagnie Williams.

This open access book addresses the evasive problem of why truly effective educational innovation on a wide scale is so difficult to achieve, and what leaders may do about this. Examining the case of system-wide reform processes centering on teaching a thinking-rich curriculum, it discusses general issues pertaining to implementing deep, large-scale changes in the core of learning and instruction. The book emphasizes challenges related to professional development, assessment, achievement gaps, and the tension between knowledge and skills in 21st century curricula. It summarizes insights the author has gained from approximately 25 years of engaging with these topics both as an academic and as a practitioner who led a national change process. With a Forward by David Perkins

In today’s multicultural and inclusive classrooms, educators are faced with more challenges than ever before. Besides being interpreters and implementers of the curriculum, teachers need to understand curriculum design, curriculum approaches and models, legislation and prescribed policies. Curriculum studies in context offers sound, detailed and practical direction with reference to the CAPS, to help teachers to enhance teaching, learning and assessment.

Curriculum studies in context narrows the gap between the curriculum plan, instructional design and teaching practice. The views of Tyler, Stenhouse, Freire and various ubuntu theorists serve as a theoretical grounding for a deeper understanding of the teacher’s role as interpreter of the curriculum. Reference is made to the influence of contextual aspects, decolonisation, Africanisation and curriculum innovation.

Contents include the following:

• The theoretical framing of curriculum design
• Understanding the curriculum in context
• The role of ubuntu principles in curriculum design and innovation
• Considering policy documents during curriculum interpretation and implementation
• Practical guidance for curriculum innovation towards effective teaching, learning and assessment

Curriculum studies in context is aimed at teachers in the General Education and Training (GET) and Further Education and Training (FET) phases.