Educational Leadership: Perspectives on Preparation and Practice identifies core knowledge and skills that educational leaders should be exposed to during pre-service preparation and throughout in-service professional development. The contributors discuss established pedagogical and experiential learning models as well as provocative new paradigms of their own to help prepare leaders and reinforce leadership effectiveness. Implicit throughout the book are five key leadership themes: sensitivity to student development and learning; continual professional development; responsiveness to developmental, socio-cultural, and learning contexts; accepting accountability; and advancing the field. The contributors draw upon many collective years of experience as educators and supervisors of educational leaders to offer perspectives on the application and integration of core leadership principles in leadership preparation and practice.

In this book about communities of practice in the international, higher education sector, the authors articulate the theoretical foundations of communities of practice (CoPs), research into their application in higher education, leadership roles and how CoPs sustain and support professional learning. Research demonstrates that communities of practice build professional and personal links both within and across faculty, student services and administrative and support units. This book describes how community of practice members may be physically co-located and how social media can be used to connect members across geographically diverse locations. It positions higher education communities of practice within the broader community of practice and social learning literature, and articulates the importance of community of practice leadership roles, and the growing focus on the use of social media for community of practice implementation. The multiple perspectives provide higher education leaders, academic and professional staff with the means to establish, or reflect on existing CoPs, by sharing insights and critical reflections on their implementation strategies, practical guidelines and ideas on how community of practice's theoretical underpinnings can be tailored to the higher education context.

Net-Generation Student Motivation to Attend Community College explores the factors that affect student retention rates in community college by presenting net-generation (or millennial) students with the opportunity to tell their stories and give insight into why they chose and completed their respective community college programs. The author views community colleges through the lens of second-chance organizations, where motivation plays a crucial role in determining whether these students will select and, more importantly, complete a two-year program at these institutions. Embedded in theories of intrinsic motivation (Identity Development Theory), the institution of education (Choice Theory), and college student persistence (the Theory of Self-Efficacy), this book utilizes a mixed method approach to address the unique challenges faced by community colleges in retaining net-generation students. The study also presents a conceptual framework deemed the "Akili model," which emphasizes relationships, personal growth, and support systems to empower educational institutions with tools to keep students in college.

The second volume of companion books on comparative student discipline identifies the best practices in dealing with student misconduct, on six continents, in a legally sound manner. It is essential for educators to examine national as well as international practices addressing student misconduct in schools because learner misbehavior often has a detrimental effect on the quality of teaching and learning in elementary and secondary schools. The countries covered are Brazil, China, Malaysia, Turkey and South Africa.

The fate of public education and therefore the future of our democracy is at risk. Powerful forces are eroding commitment to public schools and weakening democratic resolve. Yet even in deeply troubling times, it is possible to broaden social imagination and empower efforts toward systemic progressive reform. This book is an invitation for widespread participation in a complex process-re-envisioning education and democracy. To reenvision- to envision and then envision again-is to join with others in imagining new possibilities and bringing these into existence. Re-envisioning is a radically social process. Although distinct and varied individual contributions are required, transformative visions cannot be advanced through the agency of one charismatic person, or bound by one influential perspective. The process of re-envisioning, like all forms of democratic living and learning, draws energy and insight when connection and communion are sustained across dimensions of difference. Re-envisioning is an intensely creative and exploratory process. It is not accomplished through careful construction of "best laid plans" aimed at attaining certainty and control. Re-envisioning is instead experienced and evolved by preparing for, and then acting on, informed and strategic glimpses. These brief and fleeting impressions-multimodal and multi-sensory, incomplete and ambiguous, always in motion-offer potentials, but no definitive answers. Re-envisioning is a profoundly ethical and aesthetic process, centered in prospects for social justice, compassion, reform, and renewal. Social movements are rarely motivated by commitments to narrow objectives aimed at solving specific problems. Across time and cultures we are drawn to persons and processes, to ideas and images, that call us back to remember our highest principles, and move us forward to respond with acts of integrity and grace. Recurrent themes of beauty and power-here mirrored in chapter titles-inspire, guide, and liberate collective vision and principled action. Re-envisioning, although accessible to all, remains largely undeveloped and underutilized. Our collective ability to realize progressive aspirations for education and democracy can be significantly enhanced by integrating the process of re-envisioning with other, more familiar, educational and political reform strategies.

Designed to help middle and high school teachers, as well as students new to the rigor of college, Studying and Learning in a High Stakes World incorporates test preparation into classrooms without asking teachers to "teach to the test." Instead, it enables teachers to focus on course content while simultaneously providing high quality, scaffolded study strategies. Whether they are facing a high stakes exam, or merely preparing students for a chapter quiz, the strategies modeled in this book allow teachers to "use" tests as platforms for students' learning. This book is divided into three parts that address how to: *Get students organized and in the right frame of mind to study, learn, and take tests *Study for essay and objective tests *Answer essay and objective questions and take tests Studying and Learning features close learning strategies, ESL Best Practices, and alignment to the Common Core State Standards in order to help teachers make tests work for them.

This edited volume offers empirical, evaluative, and philosophical perspectives on the question of higher education as a human right in the Asia Pacific. Throughout the region, higher education has grown rapidly in a variety of ways. Price, accessibility, mobility, and government funding are all key areas of interest, which likely shape the degree to which higher education may be viewed as a human right. Although enrollments continue to grow in many higher education systems, protests related to fees and other equity issues continue to grow. This volume will include scholarly perspectives from around the region for a more extensive understanding of higher education as a human right in the Asia Pacific.

This challenging and provocative book reimagines the justification, substance, process, and study of education in open, pluralistic, liberal democratic societies. Hanan Alexander argues that educators need to enable students to embark on a quest for intelligent spirituality, while paying heed to a pedagogy of difference. Through close analysis of the work of such thinkers as William James, Charles Taylor, Elliot Eisner, Michael Oakeshott, Isaiah Berlin, Martin Buber, Michael Apple and Terrence McLaughlin, Reimagining Liberal Education offers an account of school curriculum and moral and religious instruction that throws new light on the possibilities of a nuanced, rounded education for citizenship. Divided into three parts - Transcendental Pragmatism in Educational Research, Pedagogy of Difference and the Other Face of Liberalism, and Intelligent Spirituality in the Curriculum, this is a thrilling work of philosophy that builds upon the author's award-winning text Reclaiming Goodness: Education and the Spiritual Quest.

This book argues for a modern version of liberal arts education, exploring first principles within the divine comedy of educational logic. By reforming the three philosophies of metaphysics, nature and ethics upon which liberal arts education is based, Tubbs offers a profound transatlantic philosophical and educational challenge to the subject.

Exploring the field of peace education, the bulk of the book analyzes and critically evaluates contemporary schools and universities. Providing some successful and not-so-successful alternative school and university projects and experiments, the book proposes peace and development education as a life process and presents a whole array of non-conventional tools and approaches. The unique feature of the book is that instead of putting emphasis on teaching peace and development, it insists on being and becoming what we teach. It makes a great textbook for education courses and programs, and a good handbook for peace educators and peace researchers around the world. The authors of the book are two teachers who are not attached to any regular educational institution anywhere in the world and are qualified to say what they have said in the book. The two authors have played significant, instrumental roles in promoting peace studies.

This book explains why virtually all children can achieve proficiency or higher. And it gives you the tools to do it. The notion that schools are Waiting for Superman or Wonder Woman to rescue them is at best a fantasy and at its worst, damaging to schools and school systems that advance this type of flawed thinking. This is why in this book the reader will be encouraged to embrace the concept that only through building effective teams (collective instructional leadership) will schools begin to realize their stated goal educate all students. It may take a village to raise children but it takes collective instructional leadership to educate them. This book takes great care to ask the questions that policymakers, educators, parents, students and the larger community want answered. For example, below are just some of the questions examined: .Can you handle the truth? .Why is team leadership needed? .How do campuses improve their team dynamics? .What methods do high performing nations use to excel? .What strategies really work in high poverty schools? .Where do American schools rank on the rigor scale? .What is trust and how is it developed? .What are campus learning disabilities? .How do beliefs about human capacity affect student achievement levels? .What methods motivate students to work hard? .What do we really mean when we say, All children can learn ? The Pyramid Approach was designed by Dr. George Woodrow, Jr. for use by educators. The Pyramid is research-based. It aligns theory with professional practice. In addition, it strives to take what we know and provide a practical framework to effectively apply that same knowledge in ways that promotes student achievement. The Pyramid Approach calls attention to the need for a systematic framework that recognizes the interconnectedness among research methods."

This book collects multiple disciplinary voices which explore current research and perspectives to discuss how spirituality is understood, interpreted and applied in a range of contexts. It addresses spirituality in combination with such topics as Christian mysticism, childhood and adolescent education, midwifery, and sustainability. It links spirituality to a variety of disciplines, including cognitive neuroscience, sociology, and psychology. Finally, it discusses the application of spirituality within the context of social work, teaching, health care, and occupational therapy. A final chapter provides an analytical discussion of the different voices that appear in the book and offers a holistic description of spirituality which has the potential to bring some unity to the meaning, expression and practice of spirituality across a variety of disciplines as well as across cultural, religious and secular worldviews. "A strength of the book is that each chapter is characterized by a fearless confronting of oppositional perspectives and use of the latest research in addressing them. The book takes the difficult topic of spirituality into almost every nook and cranny of personal and professional life. There is a persistent grasping of the contentiousness of the topic, together with addressing counter positions and utilizing updated research across a range of fields in doing this. The opening and closing chapters serve as book ends that keep the whole volume together."Terence Lovat, The University of Newcastle, Australia "The interdisciplinary nature of the work is by far the strongest aspect of this volume. It has the potential to contribute to a dialogue between different professions and disciplines. This prospective publication promises to promote a more holistic approach to the study of spirituality. This volume takes into consideration a wide variety of issues. The way the editors have structured the sequence of chapters contributes to facilitate any possible dialogue between the different areas."Adrian-Mario Gellel, University of Malta, Malta

This book presents thinking about and through transdisciplinary and professional development as an educative process. Rather than focusing on the delineation of the approaches offered, an analysis of these contributions points to commonality in those problems that benefit from a transdisciplinary perspective. The core elements of transdisciplinarity can lead to what might be called metanoia - another way of knowing; a knowing which is 'beyond that which is creative and transformative. This poses challenges for the practice of all professionals and is the core issue that this book addresses. The book brings together the constituting views of transdisciplinarity, or metanoia, and focus them on current professional practice. The book is structured in two parts and five sections. The first part deals with key issues in Transdisciplinarity; its actuality and how it creates knowledge. Section 1 has three original papers which look at Transdisciplinarity from a different lens. Especially, the Islamic voice has not been heard in this context before. Section 2 considers the knowledge aspect of Transdisciplinarity and how this might be confronted with existing disciplinary knowledge. Part 2 of the book is directly focused on professionals and their education. The third section considers research pedagogy and graduate education for the professional. This is followed in section 4 which offers a discussion on team work. In the final section six chapters present the transdisciplinary practitioner in different contexts.

This book provides the theoretical and analytical resources for an urgent rethinking of the social project of educating and educational leading. It examines what educational leadership is, namely the politics and power of leadership as a practice, and what it can and should be, offering a pedagogical and praxis-informed approach to educational practice. Drawing on research conducted at various Australian schools and education districts, it argues for a reframing of educational leadership as pedagogical practice/praxis to transform theorising and practice in the field. The book provides a rich account of educational leading through a practice lens, bringing into dialogue the theory of practice architectures with site ontologies, Bourdieu's thinking tools and feminist critical scholarship. The book tracks the practices and praxis of educational leaders as they grapple with the changing landscape and forces of educational policies that have informed Australian education. It reimagines education leadership by integrating Continental and Northern European understandings of pedagogy and praxis as being morally and ethically informed, as opposed to the narrower Anglophone notions of pedagogy as teaching and learning. The book adds to the body of knowledge on the "actual work of leadership" as a "distinct set of practices" that is morally and ethically informed. Readers will find a more holistic understanding of educational leadership practice and praxis, based on the everyday accounts of educational leaders, teachers and students in schools and education districts.

The Heart and Mind in Teaching: Pedagogical Styles Through the Ages provides an important historical context for an issue confronting every American teacher, administrator, student, parent, and citizen. As the art of teaching is rapidly replaced by formulas, clinical studies, and one-size-fits-all scientific pedagogy, it is important to ask the question, "How did we get here?" Authors Alyssa Magee Lowery and William Hayes trace the history of teaching from Greek philosophy to twenty-first century educational issues in an effort to provide some perspective in the long art versus science debate, ultimately finding that the two components may be able to coexist peacefully.

Too often teachers and students doubt their own abilities to forge collective work and dynamic critical learning in the midst of education reform practices that limit their opportunities to do so. This doubt can be heightened for elementary school teachers or even their students who are led to believe that they are not capable of engaging critically with their education and their world. The Problem-Solution Project erases this doubt through merging service-learning, critical pedagogy, and constructivism. This approach to teaching and learning is designed to empower teachers and students while they meet curriculum standards and actively contribute to the transformation of their world. Unique to this collection are the reported experiences of teacher educators who implement Problem-Solution Projects in their courses; preservice teachers' reflections on cohort-driven Problem-Solution Projects; and first-year and veteran teachers stories featuring Problem-Solution Projects initiated by their PK-5 students. Features include: Describes how Problem-Solution Projects advance service-learning and critical pedagogy. Discussion of how Problem-Solution Projects build on curriculum standards but resists standardization of implementation and repressive education reforms. First-hand accounts of teachers implementing Problem-Solution Projects. Detailed description of the steps and outcomes of doing Problem-Solution Projects with preservice teachers, inservice teachers, and elementary students. . Examples of Problem-Solution Projects across courses, subjects, disciplines, and contexts. Readers will find worthwhile the theoretical connections and the practical applications. Service-learning, urban education, multicultural education and teacher education, teacher preparation practitioners will find this text beneficial. The main audience: teacher educators across disciplines, pre- and in-service teachers working in elementary (PK-5) settings.

Winner of the AAACE Cyril O. Houle Award This book re-imagines the essence and role of adult education at both the individual and societal levels. It provides arguments for understanding adult education as a process of agency and empowerment, which has not only instrumental but intrinsic and transformative roles to play. This book brings together ideas from the capability approach with insights from recognition theory; the embeddedness approach; the political economic perspective for understanding public and private goods and the common goods perspective. The analysis draws on data from large-scale international studies - alongside qualitative data - and adopts a wide-ranging European comparative perspective. The book develops original instruments for measuring different dimensions of adult education as a common good, and its realisation in different social contexts. It is aimed at academics, students, practitioners, and policy makers interested in adult and/or higher education and the social justice perspective to human life.

The first book in the series Policy and Pedagogy with Under-three year olds: Cross Disciplinary insights and innovations establishes a path for the much-needed examination of the experiences of infants and toddlers in contemporary educational settings across the globe. Bringing together internationally renowned scholars in the field, it starts a series of discussions about the positioning of under-three year olds in contemporary practice and policy contexts. It takes an in-depth look at what this means for our understanding of under-three year olds and those who share their worlds. Featuring some of the most important contemporary topics in this pedagogical domain, such as care, well-being, belonging, professionalism and status, the contributors offer a kaleidoscope of perspectives for contemplating the new normality of very young children living their lives in group-based early childhood settings, and what gives rise to their current realities. It also explores some important policy directions and trends.

Technology, a product of science, is pushing against the linear boundaries of traditional storytelling. Moving in the direction of multiform stories and digital formats takes literacy well beyond the 3Rs. Students increasingly need to be critical and creative users of the new media. As the Internet becomes faster, more visually powerful, and easier to manipulate there will be an explosion of virtual environments, with literacy taking on a whole new meaning. While the word literacy has become almost synonymous with the word competence, the authors prefer the definitions found in the new language arts and science standards. For example, the National Science Education Standards suggests that scientific literacy implies that a person can identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed.

As this book explores important new dimensions of linguistic and scientific literacy it looks at developing literacies not covered well in schools today. It is the authors' belief that an understanding of science and the processes of science can make major contributions to the ability to learn, reason, make decisions, and solve problems. Thus learning about the natural world helps develop intellectual tools of inquiry that can be used with the language arts and other disciplines. Interdisciplinary activities can help develop the skills in both science and language that are becoming so essential for personal fulfillment, performing in the workplace, and being an informed citizen.

This book is designed as a supplementary text for methods classes in elementary science and language arts education. It is also intended as a resource and guide for preservice and inservice elementary and middle school teachers.

This book explores how contemporary educational research and curriculum occlude the vital and enduring relationship between education and well-being. Beginning with the consequences of the reductive tendencies of educational research and moving through the consequences of the technical and instrumental tendencies of curriculum, this book challenges how contemporary education as a whole reduces human beings to "things" and funnels them according to predetermined knowledge forms representative of the dominant socioeconomic ideology. Through a philosophical exploration of original conceptions of education and well-being, this book attempts to recover an understanding of education that embodies how we learn to uncover and relate to our own possibilities for a more meaningful life which is a life of well-being.

Learning about the history of cultural conflict helps teachers reduce it in classrooms. This book shows our common origins and reviews sources of conflict in the former Yugoslavia, Northern Ireland, and the Middle East. It reveals how prejudice and stereotypes about racial and religious minorities create problems in our schools. Beginning with the human exodus out of Africa 60,000 years ago, tension arose among ethnic groups separated by geographic barriers. Changes in population, immigration, work and the role of religion are creating clashes in society and schools. Students from different cultural backgrounds are being thrown together as mass transportation and telecommunications shrink our world. Inclusive classrooms with respectful learning environments can be achieved when we identify the sources of tension that separate and divide us. Students are more alike than different. Knowing about our common origin and challenges will help teachers become more effective.

This book offers an up-to-date overview of the research on philosophy of mathematics education, one of the most important and relevant areas of theory. The contributions analyse, question, challenge, and critique the claims of mathematics education practice, policy, theory and research, offering ways forward for new and better solutions. The book poses basic questions, including: What are our aims of teaching and learning mathematics? What is mathematics anyway? How is mathematics related to society in the 21st century? How do students learn mathematics? What have we learnt about mathematics teaching? Applied philosophy can help to answer these and other fundamental questions, and only through an in-depth analysis can the practice of the teaching and learning of mathematics be improved. The book addresses important themes, such as critical mathematics education, the traditional role of mathematics in schools during the current unprecedented political, social, and environmental crises, and the way in which the teaching and learning of mathematics can better serve social justice and make the world a better place for the future.