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From Myers Education Press—the publisher who brought you such titles as A School with a View, Childhoods, and Student Activism in the Academy—comes a story or rather…a series of stories that are as out of this world as its protagonist. Long before he became a renowned Critical Studies professor at Chapman University, Peter McLaren was just another Toronto native trying to survive in a conservative working-class family. His father fought in WWII while his mother put food on the table, but—like his father—Peter was caught in his own battles dodging abusive teachers and navigating through an academic roller-coaster. Sure, his home life may be ripped from a '50s sitcom on the surface; but his background and the rest of his life from that point on was far from one…or maybe it was. This book chronicles Peter’s cross-country climb up the educational ladder as a teacher steeped in the school system, his encounters with various key players in history—from the Black Panthers to Timothy Leary, and everything else in between.Perfect for courses such as: History of Education, Race and Ethnic Studies, Sociology of Education, Social Justice and Education, Democracy and Civics, Community Engagement, Policy Studies, and Critical Race Theory.

2024 SPE Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention Transforming Identities is the story of one doctoral program that was developed to transform the individuals who participated in the program personally and professionally, leading to improved ways of working within their professional practice. The book details the components of the program believed to have contributed to students' transformed personal and professional identities. The description of the program serves as a frame for 14 individual, compelling stories of transformation. These stories include identities experienced during the program, programmatic components that were mechanisms for change, and the impact of these alums' transformation on their professional organizations. In the final chapter, the editors look across the alums' stories of transformation to inform those who are developing/redeveloping doctor of education programs. Mechanisms of change highlighted by these former students include courses, communities of practice, advisers, and comprehensive examination. The book also synthesizes alums' descriptions of the phases of their transformation, what it means to be a scholar-practitioner, and what meaningful contributions “look like” within their professional contexts. The Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Doctor of Education (EdD) program was created with the expressed programmatic outcome of developing leaders who possess the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to rigorously examine educational problems of practice with stakeholders within their context of professional practice. Transforming Identities frames this discussion of identity transformation from an improvement science perspective as depicted by Bryk et al. (2015) (see also Author et al., 2022). Using this framework for the Applied Dissertation, the program supported its scholar-practitioners to partner with their colleagues in educational institutions and to independently take on the challenges and opportunities they encountered in their work within their context of professional practice. The initial chapters in the book provide an overview of the EdD program, to frame the remaining chapters in which graduates from the program describe their inspirational stories of transformation. They describe the ways in which the program components, including their dissertation, transformed their identity as well as their work within their context of professional practice. These stories present the ways in which these change agents within their organizations have served as insiders who, with greater knowledge and access to knowledge, were able to become the bridge between research and practice, and practice and research and thereby change their organizations from the inside. These stories of transformation highlight how their skills and insights accurately identify the variability in the contexts in which their problem of practice is situated, the variability in the successes of interventions within similar contexts, and the most appropriate way to move the organization forward toward improved outcomes. Each chapter tells the author’s story of transformation from practitioner to scholar-practitioner through the dissertation study and beyond.

A 2023 SPE Outstanding Book Award Winner How do Paulo Freire's ideas echo across time and contexts? What does the dialogical nature of text mean for critical pedagogy today? Inspired by Paulo Freire, this text utilizes a dialogical framework, inviting the reader into a deeper conceptual and contextual consciousness through the use of many voices. In this book you will hear from several intellectual generations of Freirean scholars including Nita Freire, Donaldo Macedo, Antonia Darder, Peter McLaren, and Tom Wilson. Freirean Echoes acts as an archive housing the writings of these and other scholars and activists for posterity. A living collection, the book allows for author voices to be in dialogue with each other and with the reader. This collective “talking text” echoes, reverberates, and amplifies critical Freirean ideas, thereby inviting the reader to extend Freirean thought into their lived experiences.

The How and Why of Laboratory Schools: Innovations and Success Stories in Teacher Preparation and Student Learning is an eagerly anticipated exploration crafted by esteemed researchers and practitioners from some of the foremost Laboratory Schools across the United States and internationally. These institutions, also recognized as demonstration schools or university-affiliated schools, play pivotal roles in the landscape of education, serving as bastions of innovation, research, and professional development. At their core, Laboratory Schools are multifaceted entities, assuming key responsibilities such as teacher training and professional development, serving as hubs for research and innovation, embodying models of best practices, fostering collaboration within university communities, shaping curriculum development and evaluation, and championing inclusion and special education. Their impact reverberates throughout the educational sphere, shaping the future of teaching, learning, and educational policies. The How and Why of Laboratory Schools serves as a beacon in the realm of education literature, offering an array of accessible examples that inspire and enlighten researchers, practitioners, and policymakers alike. With a global perspective, this volume provides a comprehensive snapshot of both the research and practice within Laboratory Schools worldwide, featuring exemplary models not only from the United States but also from various international settings. Spanning an variety of topics including demonstration schools, teacher preparation, innovative pedagogy and curriculum, early childhood education, elementary and primary education, middle and secondary education, STEM-focused initiatives, promotion of democracy, establishment of research laboratories, support for diverse learners, preservice teacher education, collaboration models, and the role of teachers as researchers, this book encompasses the diverse facets of Laboratory Schools' contributions to education. Moreover, the book serves as a blueprint for the development of new Laboratory Schools, offering insights into various models, funding mechanisms, and strategies for integration into university research and teacher training programs. By showcasing successful examples and providing practical guidance, this book empowers educational institutions to embark on the journey of establishing their own school, enriching both their local communities and the broader educational landscape. Beyond the present, this book also articulates a compelling case for the future of Laboratory Schools, highlighting their potential to continually innovate, adapt, and lead educational transformation in the years to come. Through its insightful analyses and compelling narratives, The How and Why of Laboratory Schools heralds a future where Laboratory Schools remain at the forefront of educational excellence and innovation, not only domestically but also on the international stage.Perfect for courses such as: Comparative Education; Education Reform; Professional Development Models; School Improvement; Foundations in Education; Early Childhood Education

Researchers working to clearly identify a research topic and theme have difficulty deciding how to focus their work. Using a potential-based learning focus, detailed in this text, readers are challenged to consider their role as researcher, scholar, and leader to guide their reflective work. Transformative Potential Based Research: A Guide to Successfully Finding One's Place in Research provides both the theoretical support and the guiding activities to help readers decide on an area of potential-based research. The result will prove to be transformational. To guide this work, Karen Moroz and Trish Harvey have developed a suitable framework. They invite readers to review the mountain metaphor shared within the framework and to keep the visual present at all times as they progress through the book. It is addressed often and readers will be invited to use, extend, and discuss it numerous times throughout their journey. Transformative Potential Based Research supports instructors and students through all stages of research, including: identifying and embracing relevant and essential topics, crafting research questions that accurately and concisely convey the purpose(s), exploring one’s own connection to the issue, developing and employing individual processes that lead to success, and determining a potential-based frame that motivates the writer and frames the workPerfect for courses such as: Dissertation; Research Methods; Educational Methods; Intro to Research Design; Academic Writing; Capstone Practicum; Educational Research; Understanding Research

Curriculum and pedagogy are the heartbeat of our schools. They encompass what we do and do not teach–what content and approaches we either choose or are mandated to choose, or leave out or are mandated to leave out. Curriculum entails the overall educational experience of schooling, while pedagogy is the art and craft of teaching–or the translation of curriculum into student knowledge and growth. Hence, curriculum and pedagogy are sociocultural phenomena that impact and are impacted by context (e.g., students, community, colleagues, geography, etc.). Once upon a time, curriculum and pedagogy were the spaces in which educators could exercise creativity and exploration, reflecting the individual needs of their students and communities. However, as political structures shifted and the standards movement took hold in the late 20th century, freedoms around curriculum and pedagogy began to fade with increased oversight over and standardization of “best practices” with greater emphasis placed on performance and efficiency. Pedagogical practices were soon framed around producing results (test scores, graduation rates, measurable learning objectives derived from prescribed state standards), while curriculum became a prescribed structure formatted to reflect state standards with an eye toward test performance. Curriculum and pedagogy were further impeded by hegemonic forces calling for censorship of teaching and curriculum, such as the ban on Ethnic Studies in Tucson, Arizona, and continued attacks on Critical Race Theory nationwide. Further, curriculum became a tool for concealing and/or silencing the experiences and voices of our diverse students, educators, and communities. The results of these phenomena are teachers feeling uninspired and deprofessionalized and students feeling devalued and unheard–especially marginalized students. Since curriculum and pedagogy directly impact the experiences of teachers and students, they must be transformed. However, how do we do that within today’s tenuous PreK-12 environment? How do we transform curriculum and pedagogy so that they reflect, liberate, and ensure justice for students and educators in preschools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and the content areas taught within them? Moving from Traditional to Transformative Curriculum and Pedagogy addresses these challenges by providing clear and direct guidance for current and aspiring educators committed to transforming the status quo in their classrooms and schools. Innovative and creative methodologies and practices that aspiring and practicing educators can use right away are the primary focus of this book. Because the editors and contributors are former or current PreK-12 practitioners and/or education scholars, this book is written for a broad educational audience. The editors and contributors provide preservice and practicing teachers entry points for transforming the educational landscape in favor of liberatory, transformative practices in PreK-12 schools across grade levels, content areas, school types, and geographic regions. Additionally, this book is ideal for teacher preparation programs as well as PreK-12 professional development, as this book guides readers through theoretical and empirical discussions, supported by hands-on applications that enable real-time application, and concludes with interactive features, like case studies, extension activities, and discussion prompts.

2024 SPE Outstanding Book Award Honorable Mention The idea of the doctorate is undergoing a transformation as experts explore the nature of “doctorateness” and its relevance for current organizational and societal challenges. The professional practice doctorate has emerged as a highly useful framework to address these challenges and it necessarily requires a distinctive approach to the doctoral dissertation. The Action Research Dissertation: Learning from Leading Change shares a framework for the action research dissertation, outlining the specific ways in which action research fosters the development of scholar-leaders. It offers both doctoral students who are practitioners in applied fields, and the faculty who guide them in their doctoral research, a comprehensive and applied approach to action research that focuses on facilitating and leading change in organizations, as well as ways to address how to translate the findings of this work into a rigorous, dissertation research study. Throughout the book, the authors explicitly address the connection between the parallel and mutually-reinforcing processes of taking action and conducting research, offering rich insights, tools, and case examples that outline specifically how to use action research to both guide a change effort and generate useful insights to contribute to theory-building. This is an essential book for a variety of readers, including professional practice doctoral students, faculty directing the studies of those students, program administrators, professional development coordinators, and many others.Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Action Research, Action Research, Applied Research, Qualitative Research, Mixed Methods Research, and Case Study Research

Virtually all national standards now require students and teachers to understand the particulars of disciplinary literacy. But recently emerging scholarship suggests that disciplinary literacy is, by itself, an incomplete and potentially problematic approach to secondary literacy instruction. By asking students to “think like” or even “be like” experts, students may receive implicit messaging about whose knowledge is—and isn’t—valued. Critical disciplinary literacy (CDL) creates space for, and highlights connections between, critical literacies and disciplinary literacies. CDL acknowledges disciplines as unique communities with their own specialized (and often exclusionary) skills, norms, practices, and discourses, but deviates from conventional applications of disciplinary literacy by responding to the ways in which power systems and the analytic skills needed to understand them work differently based on the disciplines at hand. A CDL instructional approach acknowledges that applying the critical literacy skills of “reading the word and the world” to understand the power dynamics of vaccine distributions requires a different skill set and strategy approach than looking at textual representations of masculinity in Romeo and Juliet.Written by a team of educators with over 70 combined years of classroom experience, Power Tools: 30 Critical Disciplinary Literacy Strategies for 6–12 Classrooms offers readers research-based, multidisciplinary, ready-to-implement disciplinary literacy strategies from critical literacy lenses. The book sets itself apart from other strategy textbooks by offering creative strategy implementation that calls attention to power systems. Educators can learn, for example, how they might employ read-alouds to explore the global refugee crisis, or use the exit ticket strategy to help students reflect on the relationship between race and COVID statistics/experiences.Power Tools: 30 Critical Disciplinary Literacy Strategies for 6–12 Classrooms provides standards-aligned lessons that both challenge and extend traditional engagement practices to build a more just world. Each chapter includes:An overview of each strategy, situated within the research of best practices;Two disciplinary examples for each CDL strategy (e.g., an example of a CDL think-aloud in seventh grade math and tenth grade ELA classroom). Chapters provide resources such as examples of student work, discussion prompts, dialogue between teacher and students, and reprintables;Ideas for addressing resistance to CDL instruction.Preservice and in-service teachers, as well as teacher educators and researchers, looking to do and support justice-oriented work in disciplinary spaces will find value in the book.Power Tools is an ideal text to implement in courses such as Disciplinary Literacy, Secondary Literacy, Content Area Literacy, Methods/Strategies for Teaching Social Justice, Multicultural Education, ELA methods, Science methods, Social Studies methods, and Mathematics methods.

This new release of the classic text Pragmatism is absolutely timely. James' seminal statement of pragmatism's underpinnings and its treatment of essential philosophical questions (the nature of truth; the one and the many; free will; etc.) could not come at a more appropriate time. In a “post-truth” era of fake news, alternative facts, and a belief that "truth isn't truth," James' presentation of pragmatism as a method of adjudicating truth-claims is a must-read.Perfect for courses in: Philosophy of Education (Graduate Level), American Philosophy (Graduate and Upper-Level Undergraduate), American Studies, Special topics class on William James or Pragmatism, Sociology of Education (Graduate Level), Religious Studies.

Reflecting on Autoethnographic and Phenomenological Experiences: A Caregiver’s Journey is a unique critical qualitative inquiry study that uses the author’s experience as a caregiver to his wife suffering from dementia as the basis of a critical autoethnography. It explores components of positive caregiving that may be not only melancholic and empirical, but also emotionally painful. The book employs multiple approaches that include critical narrative, phenomenology, autoethnography and experiential writing. Through a phenomenological lens of an insider that includes self- and other-hood, marriage, career, fatherhood, suicide, despair, triple grief, loss, caregiving, cooking, housekeeping, advocating mind reading, and encouraging, a narrative illustrating self-reflection on particular experiences is constructed. These culminating experiences result in first-hand and didactical understandings by the caregiver. Individual, personal, and subjective interpretation of relational happenings are explored. Reflective journaling and observations of the seasons of marital life seek to understand if and how shared experiences transcend multiple contexts and help the reader understand experiences of dementia. Reflecting on Autoethnographic and Phenomenological Experiences: A Caregiver’s Journey is a volume that will be invaluable to qualitative inquiry researchers, autoethnographers, and those readers interested in the research of caregiving.