Search results for Case for Kindness

For decades, schools have invited families to get involved, to volunteer, to attend conferences, and to support school events. While well-intentioned, these traditional approaches to family engagement often reinforce deficit-based assumptions, privileging dominant cultural norms and overlooking the intellectual, cultural, and social wealth that families bring to education.Moving From Involvement to Equitable Community Collaboration challenges this status quo, offering a transformative vision in which families, educators, and communities become co-creators of educational systems. This collection centers equity in education by arguing that this cannot be achieved without shifting from models of parent involvement, partnership, and engagement toward authentic, collaborative practices that redistribute power and center the lived experiences of marginalized families. Drawing on research, Moving From Involvement to Equitable Community Collaboration demonstrates how schools can shift from seeing families as simply clients or supporters to recognizing them as leaders, cultural brokers, and advocates for systemic change. At its heart, equitable community collaboration reimagines the relationships between schools, families, and communities. It asks educators to foster reciprocal relationships, shared leadership, and collective responsibility, where families’ voices shape decision-making and reform. Through compelling examples, ranging from Latinx families codeveloping district policies to multilingual parents co-designing curricula with educators, this collection illustrates how collaboration rooted in trust and authentic care can transform schools into sites of justice, belonging, and flourishing for all students. Each chapter of Moving From Involvement to Equitable Community Collaboration weaves together scholarship, case studies, and practical tools to guide PreK–12 educators, leaders, and preservice teachers in embedding equitable collaboration into their daily practice. The book is organized into three dynamic sections: Conceptual Foundations introduces transformative frameworks for equitable collaboration, including relational power (“power with”), cultural brokering, and community cultural wealth. Taking the Next Steps offers practical strategies for building structures that sustain shared leadership, such as family advisory councils, co-designed curricula, and community-rooted partnerships. Interactive Features engages readers through reflective prompts, case studies, and curated resources that encourage self-reflection, dialogue, and application. By centering collective strengths rather than individual deficits, Moving From Involvement to Equitable Community Collaboration pushes back against competitive, individualistic models of education. It calls on schools to cultivate shared advocacy, mutual accountability, and structures that honor the expertise and leadership of the families that they serve. Importantly, Moving From Involvement to Equitable Community Collaboration frames this work as inherently sociopolitical, requiring schools to confront historic and current inequities, challenge hierarchies, and sustain practices that redistribute power over time. Written for educators, leaders, scholars, and community partners, Moving From Involvement to Equitable Community Collaboration provides both a critical lens and a practical roadmap for building reciprocal relationships that are culturally responsive, justice-oriented, and transformative. When working together, schools, families, and communities have the power to reimagine education, not in isolation, but in collaboration. This book shows how to take that essential step. Given our space, place, and time as we emerge from a worldwide pandemic, educational inequities that were always present have surfaced and were noticed by the masses and mainstream media. Coupled with unfounded claims leading to the removal of equity and justice programming in schools, it is of the utmost importance to sustain the momentum for socially-just educational practices. The purpose of Moving From Involvement to Equitable Community Collaboration is to demystify educational trends and provide alternative transformative educational practices to enhance the work of authentic social justice education in schools. This book series of collections will juxtapose trendy educational adoptions, which can result in more unintentional harm than good, with more authentic equity and justice models that serve all students across PreK-12 schools. Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Social Justice in Education; Community Engagement; Introduction to Educating For Equity And Social Justice; Introduction to Cultivating Culturally Responsive Classrooms; Foundations Of Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Practice; Introduction to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Schools; Principles of Professional Collaboration In Education; Introduction to Supportive Classroom Communities; Introduction To School Improvement, Introduction to Teacher Leadership And School Improvement; Principles of Teaching Diverse Learners; Introduction to Multiculturalism in Education

Recognizing the "diversity crisis" in regards to the cultural dissonance between educators and their diverse students, Diversifying the Educator Pipeline provides a critical examination of the mistakes we have made in our efforts to bolster the presence of Black educators. Grounded with the historical context of Black educators in America, Shaylyn Marks weaves research, practice and personal accounts to critically examine why efforts to diversify the educator pipeline have not yielded the desired results. With an analytical lens, the recruitment, preparation, and retention of Black educators is examined while offering alternative practices to strengthen these efforts. Acknowledging the cyclical nature of potential trauma and harm that occurs in educational spaces, insights and recommendations are provided for all stakeholders as a means to cultivate a diverse educator workforce that better supports and reflects diverse classrooms of students. Diversifying the Educator Pipeline illuminates issues pertaining to the ways in which Black students and educators are disenfranchised, and serves as a call to action for the education community.Perfect for courses such as: Socio-Cultural Foundations of Education; Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice; Cultural Perspectives in Education; Afrofuturism: in Search of the Black Fantastic; Black Feminist and Womanist Perspectives; Educational Leadership; Curriculum Development and Transformation; Advanced Topics in Education; Critical Thinking and contemporary Social Problem; Race and Ethnic Relations; The African American Experience in the United States; Cultural Diversity in U.S. Schools; and Sociology of Education

The most effective and long-lasting student strike in U.S. History took place at San Francisco State College in 1968. The first Black Student Union, the first Black Studies Department, the only College of Ethnic Studies, and the admission of thousands of students of color resulted from this four-and-a-half-month strike which shut down 80% of the campus. It has been called the movement which “changed academia forever.” Black students were only a small percentage of those on campus, but they managed to engage thousands of white, Latino, Asian, and indigenous students; SDS and the Third World Liberation Front; the faculty union; and a huge portion of the San Francisco Community. In the end, they were able to win most of their 15 demands. The book is written by two participants in the strike, one a member of the BSU leadership. Oral histories of strike leaders are integrated with discussion of the events and significance of this movement. What were the politics and strategies? Why was the strike successful and what are the insights for today’s mass movements?

The term “teacher leadership” is not without its problems, since some interpret it to have both corporate and hierarchical implications. Stewardship as Teacher Leadership: Portraits from the Profession discusses the impact of changing that language to stewardship, a term that is more inclusive, more professional, and more morally-based. At a time when the work of teachers is critiqued and denigrated, the concept of stewardship within the profession better supports the efforts of all teachers, but particularly early career teachers. Stewards have the best interests of the profession at the forefront of their actions. Through the “portraits” of a variety of teachers, readers of Stewardship as Teacher Leadership will engage with and recognize how teachers are stewards as they make intentional and deliberate choices in their daily work that have lasting impacts on their relationships with colleagues, their school programs, and the profession in a multiplicity of ways that traditional teacher leadership models often miss.Perfect for courses in:Foundations of Education | Introduction to Teaching | Student Teaching Seminars | Teacher Leadership | Educational Leadership

In the challenging world of doctoral studies, where less than 5% of the U.S. population holds a doctorate degree, support and guidance are crucial for success. From ABD to PhD and EdD: Navigating the Final Stretch of Your Doctoral Journey offers a unique and powerful approach to completing your doctoral degree through the often-overlooked strategy of peer mentoring/coaching groups. Drawing from years of experience mentoring doctoral students at prestigious institutions, Dr. Vickie E. Lake presents a comprehensive guide for both faculty and students. This book addresses the critical gap in support that many doctoral candidates face after completing their coursework, a period when guidance is most needed but often least available. From ABD to PhD and EdD is divided into three essential chapters:Doctoral Group Mentoring/Coaching: Learn the fundamentals of establishing and maintaining effective peer support groups. Understand the difference between mentoring and coaching, and how to leverage both for maximum benefit. Strategies for Success: Discover proven techniques for tackling each milestone of your doctoral journey, from comprehensive exams to the dissertation defense. This chapter offers practical advice on pre-writing strategies, time management, and overcoming common obstacles. Resources for Completion: Navigate the often-confusing world of university resources. Learn how to effectively utilize writing centers, librarians, graduate colleges, and professional organizations to support your research and writing process. This book is unique in its dual focus on both faculty and student perspectives. For faculty, it provides a roadmap for establishing and guiding doctoral support groups, addressing the challenges of workload balance and institutional recognition. For students, it offers a lifeline of peer support and practical strategies, especially valuable in an era of declining tenure-track positions and increasing pressure on completion times. From ABD to PhD and EdD doesn't shy away from addressing the current challenges in higher education, including the looming "enrollment cliff" and the decrease in tenure-earning faculty. Instead, it equips readers with the tools to navigate these changing landscapes successfully. Whether you're a doctoral student feeling isolated in your research, a faculty member looking to better support your advisees, or a university administrator aiming to improve completion rates, this book offers invaluable insights. It emphasizes the power of collaboration over competition, showing how peer support can transform the often solitary doctoral journey into a shared path to success. With its blend of personal anecdotes, research-based strategies, and practical advice, From ABD to PhD and EdD is more than just a guide—it's a call to action for a more supportive and effective doctoral education system. By fostering a culture of peer mentoring/coaching, this book aims to not only increase doctoral completion rates but also to cultivate a new generation of scholars equipped to support and guide others. Don't let the challenges of doctoral studies overwhelm you. Discover the power of peer support and expert guidance with From ABD to PhD and EdD – your roadmap to achieving your doctorate and beyond.

Improvement Science in Education: A Primer, second edition, is the first and introductory volume in the Myers Education Press series, Improvement Science in Education and Beyond. It provides a comprehensive overview of improvement science as a framework to guide continuous improvement and reconceptualizes improvement by centering equity and justice as the purpose of improvement. The Primer is designed to introduce improvement science, a methodology with origins in manufacturing, engineering and healthcare, to educational audiences. The book first explores the philosophical and methodological foundations of improvement science, juxtaposing it with traditional forms of research so that clear distinctions can be drawn. Chapters in the latter half of the book introduce the principles of improvement, give guidance and tools for operationalizing the principles in practice, and conclude with questions to ensure you are improving with equity in mind. Constantly reminding readers to think about who is involved and impacted, the Primer makes improvement science accessible to novices and adds critical dimensions for experienced practitioners to consider. In the second edition of this best-selling book, Brandi Hinnant-Crawford, a nationally recognized authority in the methodology, has added valuable new content that updates the literature and enhances the focus of the volume by asking even more who questions: who benefits, who bears the burden, whose priorities and values are reflected, and who is heard when decisions are made. Improvement for equity requires more than profound knowledge and subject matter knowledge—it requires criticality. Improvement science is rapidly becoming the signature methodology for accomplishing continuous improvement in universities, public school districts, and professional development programs. Its goal is to create better learning environments.Perfect for courses such as: Educational Research; School Improvement; and Program Evaluation

Many people believe that “education” has a disproportionately negative effect on them and those close to them. With so much wealth, technological prowess, innovation, and economic development, why do we still have marginalization, social inequalities, conflict, mass incarceration and generational poverty? The connection to democracy, Education for Democracy (EfD) and social justice is, for Carr and Thésée, clear, and this volume interweaves a narrative within these themes based on a Freirian theoretical backdrop. This book presents a vision for transformative education and EfD, seeking to cultivate, stimulate and support political and media literacy, critical engagement and a re-conceptualization of what education is, and, importantly, how it can address entrenched, systemic and institutional problems that plague society. Based on over a decade of empirical research in a range of contexts and jurisdictions, the authors strive to link teaching and learning with agency, solidarity, action and transformative change within the conceptual framework of a critically-engaged EfD.    Perfect for courses in: Sociology of Education; Social Justice and Education; Democracy and Civics; Community Engagement; Education Policy; Service Learning; Education Reform; Citizenship Education; Transformative Education; Politics of Education.

Why is the sense of taste so conspicuously absent from contemporary educational research and so severely rationed in the ways it is lived in universities and schools? After all, in the world, taste is a perceptual and epistemological powerhouse in the complicated process of staying alive as well as living a life. Taste is also a process of world making. It’s a way of reading, naming, mapping, imagining, remembering, and making worlds and connecting to the worlds of others--therefore it is curricular. In attending to how taste matters and matters of taste, chapters in Tasting Education: Viewing Curriculum, Pedagogy, Learning, and Educational Research Through the Sense of Taste invite participants to think about taste as a sense, and/or the sense of taste, as it plays out in the thinking and doing of education and its inquiry. This book takes up taste as an embodied set of meanings that are sensuous, pragmatic, and political: as a key part of the sensorium, and as engagement with the sensuosity of the olfactory, the nose, the mouth, the tongue as a way of making meaning of food, but also ways for making meaning from the food for thought and action that theory can provide. It also asks us to take into account the culture of food as it relates to education; whose palates are catered to and whose remain marginalized, deliberately destroyed, or are left-unfed? Taste, then, also becomes a way of resisting, challenging, and reimagining such modes as they play themselves out in curriculum and pedagogy and reveal collective commitments that include shared pleasure alongside political and social action (Siniscalchi, 2018). This book offers a space for deeper conversations around taste in curriculum and elsewhere, and how taste is being used to dismantle oppression in these spaces. The slow-food movement argues that “taste and pleasure” must return to the table (Siniscalchi, 2018). Tasting Education invites the mixed pleasures and problematics of taste to the table of educational research as well. Tasting Education will appeal to faculty and students in graduate-level courses related to curriculum, instruction, social foundations and leadership studies, as well as those involved with food studies courses.

It’s clear that American public education has been under assault for more than the last 30 years. So much of this current "age of accountability" has focused on blame, both of teachers and those who prepare them. Somehow, unlike in other professions, declarations were made to the effect that anyone could teach better than teachers, including business leaders and people from tony universities without teacher preparation. The Age of Accountability scrutinizes the attack on teachers through weaponized data. While an effective corporate tool to improve bottom-line goals, its use in education became more sinister and misanthropic. International PISA scores imply the mediocre ability of American students, fueling a belief that American education needed more than an upgrade. The only answer that would placate many was a complete upheaval, a redefinition of a teacher and who should be permitted to become one. We teachers ceded authority to these business and legislative forces. Their subsequent fervor for testing overwhelmed teaching and drove the joy out of schooling for students. It is time for a recounting of what has been done to the profession and to our children. Young teachers need encouragement and veteran teachers need reminding of their valiant and effective efforts.

Food, and the context surrounding it, frames much of our lives. Our culinary experiences are imbued with our physical, social, spiritual, and cultural identities. However, for many, food practices are alienating because certain culinary practices are privileged, while others are marginalized, especially in higher education spaces. Simply having access to safe and affirming food, drink, and dining spaces on campus and at off-campus events is a right that every student and faculty member should be able to enjoy. A Culinary Approach to Inclusion and Belonging in Higher Education is a new and innovative book that is unique in that it examines food as a social justice and inclusion issue. For some, religious traditions guide the consumption of only certain foods, accompanied by various periods of fasting and other important contexts around eating. Examples include the Jewish kashrut, a mandate on preparing and eating kosher food, and the Muslim halal and Ramadan, with daytime fasting. This extends off campus as well, to events and conferences that feature alcohol, which excludes those who choose or need to abstain. For those with medical conditions such as celiac disease (gluten-free), the absence of specific ingredients and foods is a medical necessity. For autistic students, or for queer and transgender people, the physical layout and social expectations of dining cause stress and isolation. International students lack a sense of belonging when the culinary decisions on a campus exclude familiar foods or settings, rendering a sense of invisibility for the students. Finally, we can look at Food Philosophy, how we think and what we believe about food, as similar to the field of Ethnic Studies, with an examination of who is included, excluded, and the need for transformation of the culinary system. Through its nine chapters, this book is designed to weave together explanatory material on various culinary needs with stories of challenges and successes in meeting the needs of those who live on, work on, or visit campuses. It highlights the need for identity-affirming culinary experiences that create a sense of inclusion and belonging. A Culinary Approach to Inclusion and Belonging in Higher Education is a great resource for researchers in cultural studies. In addition, it is an effective teaching tool for a variety of curriculum studies classes.Perfect for courses such as: Educational Leadership; Food Studies; Foundations of Education; Higher Education; Multicultural Education; Student Affairs