PRODUCTS

Improvement Science Across the Disciplines: Driving Improvement in Healthcare, Business, and Social Services examines the way improvement science is employed outside of the traditional field of business. This book provides a multidisciplinary examination from the fields of education, nursing, social work, and criminal justice—and explores the universality of improvement methodologies in fields of service. Contributing authors will use an improvement lens to describe addressing problems of practice in their respective disciplines.

Improving Together: Case Studies of Networked Improvement Science Communities examines a range of network improvement communities who are using improvement science to examine problems of practice. Operating in varying contexts, NICs provide a platform for communication and other forms of data sharing in order to create meta-findings on a particular phenomenon. The text focus on not only the use of IS in each context/node, but also processes of building and launching networks and considers how particular media and infrastructure are used to share knowledge within the network.

Improvement Science: Methods for Researchers and Program Evaluators moves beyond traditional research methods textbooks by responding to people working in improvement science and program evaluation. This book is tailored to the need for specific improvement research methodologies and frameworks collected and presented in an edited volume written by research faculty associated with or teaching in leadership programs.

A Soul-Centered Approach to Educating Teachers has been created by A Black Education Network (ABEN), a national organization whose mission is to reverse the backward slide of Black students by utilizing culturally informed research, technology, and visionary community networking within the African Diaspora to facilitate academic and cultural excellence wherever scholars are. This interactive book presents portraits, narratives, and essays to illustrate the impact of ABEN on Black educators and those they serve.

Traditional teacher education, curriculum, and instruction is largely disconnected from the lived experiences of diverse students and their communities. Current debates around Critical Race Theory and its application to curriculum call into question culturally responsive practices while others are striving for ways to support equitable practices in the classroom. Questions about these practices include, What does teacher and learning look like when grounded in community voice and practice? How can we better integrate the history, context, experience, and voice of the communities being served? How can teacher education apply authentic problem solving to address the concerns of a community?

This inspirational and educational tale answers these questions for the myriad teachers, parents, administrators, school districts, community organizations, and community members who seek a better understanding of how to foster, access, and learn from spaces of Black excellence for Black children. Soul-Centered is essential reading for both scholars involved in a variety of disciplines in Education, and for community leaders interested in seeing how improved education practices can hugely benefit their constituents.

Antonia Darder is a Puerto Rican and American scholar, artist, poet, song writer and activist. She holds the Leavey Presidential Endowed Chair in Ethics and Moral Leadership in the School of Education at Loyola Marymount University. Her scholarship is known around the world and her efforts have earned her a large number of academic awards, including the Scholars of Color Distinguished Career Contribution Award by the American Education Research Association.

Three critical Darderean scholars (Kortney Hernandez, Sharon Cronin, and Eduardo Lopez), who have been lovingly mentored, empowered, and challenged by Darder, and who have developed their critical consciousness through the soulful educational wisdom of Darder, have come together to embrace the (im)possible task of curating a volume of some of her most powerful educational scholarship.

This volume includes Antonia Darder’s central writings on the topics of language, culture, inequality, and education. If one were to “read” Darder, as Paulo Freire encouraged us to “read the word and the world,” her works would speak volumes of her unwavering commitment to the struggle for liberation and an emancipatory vision of the world. This is embodied in all aspects of her work as the range of her scholarship spans across mediums and decades. The Antonia Darder Reader is essential reading as a keystone volume in multiculturalism, critical studies, cultural studies, and many other disciplines.

Perfect for courses such as: Social and Cultural Foundations of Education; History and Philosophy of Education; Teacher Education; Bilingual Education; Latinx and Education Studies; Critical Pedagogy; Critical Theory, Race and Education; Sociology of Education; Culturally Responsive Teaching; Social Justice and Research; Methodology

A 2022 SPE Outstanding Book Honorable Mention

Teaching Improvement Science in Educational Leadership: A Pedagogical Guide presents the reader with a range of pedagogies from a variety of viewpoints and approaches. The book provides a holistic picture for how one might develop stakeholder competency and capacity with improvement science as a signature problem-solving methodology for educational leaders. And while there are books that provide foundational knowledge on the field of improvement science (including the list of titles from Myers Education Press), this book differs in that it presents varying approaches for teaching others about improvement science. For those who want to develop the methodology but who need resources, the book provides the illustrations, examples, and other concrete applications so that those involved in teaching the subject matter can connect foundational knowledge of improvement to the applied context. This book serves as the guide for education leaders who wish to have the know-how for developing the knowledge, skills and dispositions relative to the field of improvement science—the education leader’s signature problem-solving methodology.

To learn more about Improvement Science and see our full list of books in this area, please click through to the Myers Education Press Improvement Science website.

Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Improvement Science | Educational Research for Administrators | Introduction to Program Evaluation | Action Research for School Practitioners | Educational Research | School Improvement | Teacher Leadership

Improvement Science in Education: A Primer 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. This 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.

PODCAST: Stacey Caillier at hthunboxed talks to Dr. Brandi Hinnant-Crawford about what Improvement Science looks like when equity and liberation are embedded in the PROCESS, not just the hoped-for result. https://hthunboxed.org/podcasts/s3e14-improvement-as-a-tool-for-our-collective-liberation-with-dr-brandi-hinnant-crawford/

To learn more about Improvement Science and see our full list of books in this area, please click through to the Myers Education Press Improvement Science website.

Perfect for courses such as: Educational Research, School Improvement, and Program Evaluation