PRODUCTS

Literary Imagination and Professional Knowledge: Using Literature in Teacher Education establishes a foundation for expanding the use of literature in teacher education curricula. The contributors to this collection have a wide variety of education and experience, thus bringing a richness to the content of the volume.

Literature can be a valuable means for illuminating subject matter in college courses focused on educational psychology, educational foundations, human development, educational assessment, and other areas critical to the development of future teachers. When literary excerpts are incorporated into the presentation of content, the resulting connections can serve to enhance--in both quality and scope--student understanding and classroom discussions.

This book is intended to provide specific suggestions and outlines for incorporating literature (e.g., fiction, poetry, and narrative) in teacher education courses. A variety of genres, historical contexts, and specific applications are represented. Among the literary works highlighted are Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Milton’s Paradise Lost, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Homer’s Odyssey, Dante’s Inferno, The Sum of Our Days by Isabel Allende. the Gilgamesh legend, the poetry of Jason Reynolds, the writings and artwork of William Blake, and classic folk and fairy tales. They are used as frameworks for introducing or exemplifying concepts typically covered in teacher education curricula. One chapter also describes a research investigation into the effects of using literature on pre-service teachers’ beliefs and attitudes about cultural diversity.

Perfect for courses such as: Educational Psychology │ Educational Foundations │ Child Development │ Teaching Methods - Elementary │ Teaching Methods - Secondary │ Student Teaching

Power Tools: 30 Critical Disciplinary Literacy Strategies for 6-12 Classroom is a unique textbook that offers readers an assortment of short, easy-to-implement disciplinary literacy strategies (which guide virtually all national standards) from critical literacy lenses. Recently emerging scholarship around critical disciplinary literacy (CDL) suggests that disciplinary literacy is, by itself, an incomplete and potentially problematic approach to secondary (grades 6-12) literacy instruction.

A more equitable approach—one that understands disciplines as unique communities with their own unique (and often exclusionary) skills, norms, and discourses (Moje, 2015)—would be more responsive to the ways in which power works differently based on the disciplines at hand (Dyches, 2018/2022). For example, examining systems of power and oppression involved in vaccine distributions requires a different skill set and strategy approach than looking at representations of masculinity in Romeo and Juliet. Power Tools provides multidisciplinary ideas for how to implement CDL in secondary classrooms. Moreover, given the current and ongoing attacks on justice-centered teaching, this text will also serve a critical need: showing teachers how they can teach to name and disrupt oppression in ways that are also standards/discipline-based.

The book offers 30 strategies, with 1-2 pages for each strategy. As an organizing feature in the beginning of the text, there is a vertical list of strategies in alphabetical order, with horizontal columns to the right: one for Critical Literacy Skill and another for Disciplinary Literacy Skill. This feature allows readers to quickly discern which tasks most immediately meet their instructional goals. Each brief chapter will follow the following format:
·A brief overview of each strategy, situated in research of best practices and critique;
·Two to three disciplinary examples for each CDL strategy (i.e. an example of a critical disciplinary literacy-oriented think aloud in seventh grade math and tenth grade ELA classroom). Strategy examples may include examples of student work, discussion prompts, dialogue between teacher and students, and reprintables;
·Ideas for addressing push back. This piece will be especially powerful for teachers concerned about fallout from opening up CDL oriented conversations. 

Power Tools is the perfect text for 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 Math methods. It is a valuable tool for both preservice and in-service teachers.

Win-Win: W. Edwards Deming, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools is for systems leaders who lead our country’s school districts, charter management organizations, and educational nonprofits and government agencies, as well as for those who train these system leaders in our graduate schools of education. The strategies for school improvement detailed in this book are based on the theories of W. Edwards Deming, who was known as the father of the quality movement and was hugely influential in post-WWII Japan. He is most well-known for his theories of management.

Win-Win offers real-world strategies to education leaders of improvement, based on Demings’ System of Profound Knowledge. A leader of improvement does not need to be expert in the four components of profound knowledge, but they do need to understand the basic theory, their interconnectedness, and why they are necessary for these efforts. Win-Win provides this basic understanding. This book equips the reader with the knowledge and skills needed to harness the power of the System of Profound Knowledge to improve the performance of schools systems, students, and teachers. It can be used in a variety of classrooms in Colleges of Education, and it is the perfect teaching tool in professional development efforts.

Perfect for courses such as: Organizational Change; Strategies of Educational Leadership; School/District Improvement Using Data Analysis; Supervision Theory and Practice; Theory, Research, & Leadership; Transformational Systems Leadership; Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations of Leadership; The Philosophy of Scientific Knowledge; Systemic Educational Reform; Applied Improvement Science Investigations

Perfect for courses such as:  Black Education from Slavery to Freedom │ Foundations of American Education │ Introduction to Africana Studies │ Introduction to Foundations of Education │ Schools & Society │ Race and Education │ African American Education │ African American Philosophy │ Education in African American Culture

An Introduction to Complexity Pedagogy: Using Critical Theory, Critical Pedagogy and Complexity in Performance and Literature offers readers an introduction to the basic concepts of complexity science and how they might be applied in the teaching of composition, creative writing, performance, and literature.

The book builds on Critical Theory (defined as Frankfurt Theory) and border theory, serving as a critique of neoliberalism in higher education and the teaching of critical thinking as a set of skills. Individual chapters are devoted to the following artists and writers:

• the Choctaw people
• author LeAnne Howe
• Chicana lesbian author Gloria Anzaldua
• performance artist Karen Finley
• the performance duo Bob Flanagan and Sheree Rose

The strength of this book is that it concentrates on the teaching of interrelated topics: borders (including the border between the able/disabled), complexity, mixed ancestry, ability/disability, texts, and performance, using the Mexico-U.S. border as the working example of a complexity system.

The work of the five aforementioned artists and authors are used to focus on political resistance within the context of decolonialism, but there are also references to mixed ancestry populations (including Redbones) and disability issues.

This complexity frame of reference allows the reader to see and understand both the artists’ narratives and viewpoints in the dynamic relations of shorter and longer time frames. No prior knowledge of complexity science is required and ample examples of complexity-related topics-- from coral reefs to zebra stripes--are provided. The focus is on students in state universities and community college transfer students, especially first generation students and students of color, with policy implications pointing to a critique of both elite small liberal arts colleges (SLACs) and research institutions.

An Introduction to Complexity Pedagogy: Using Critical Theory, Critical Pedagogy and Complexity in Performance and Literature is the perfect text for assignment in a variety of classrooms, including courses in Complexity Science, Composition and Rhetoric, Performance Arts, Cultural Studies, Critical Theory, Ethnic Studies, and many others.

Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Creative Writing | Advanced Composition | Introduction to Border Art | Introduction to Complexity in the Arts and the Humanities | Introduction to Multicultural Literature | Introduction to Chicanx and Native American Literature | Introduction to Performance Art and Social Justice | Special Topics: Complexity, the Environment, Literature and the Arts | Special Topics: Disability Studies and Performance | Special Topics: Critical Family Histories, Mixed Ancestry and Pedagogy

In Justice for Black Students: Black Principals Matter, Kofi Lomotey begins with a two-pronged premise: (1) Black students do not receive a quality education in US public (or private) schools, and (2) Black principals, like Black teachers, can make a positive impact on the academic and overall success of Black students. Through the chronicling of his own work over 50 years—as a practitioner and an academic—Lomotey puts forth this argument with a focus on Black principals. In this book, he positions his 1993 coining of the term ethno-humanism—a role identity which he attributes to successful Black principals—as a fundamental/critical component of the leadership of these principals. In reprinting three of his earlier articles and sharing new information (including a review of the literature on Black male principals), he provides a broad-based description of this role identity and then links it to the more recent concepts of culturally responsive/culturally relevant teaching/pedagogy and culturally responsive/culturally relevant school leadership, before describing the implications for Black students of his own work and of other research that has been conducted on Black principals. This volume is essential reading for all educators interested in seeing a significant improvement in the academic and overall success of Black students. Preservice teachers, practitioners, and administrators will find enormous value in the book’s message.

Perfect for courses such as:  Introduction to Education │ Leadership for Equity and Social Justice in Education │ Black Education │ Multicultural Education │ School Leadership │ Culturally Responsive Leadership

Transformative Critical Service-Learning offers hands-on tools for implementing, reflecting on, and assessing critical service-learning in classrooms and community spaces. Answering a need from practitioners for a practical tool for making sense of critical service-learning, the authors introduce the Critical Service-Learning Implementation Model as a way to encourage conversations among stakeholders. Materials include specific criteria to examine, examples of application and context, and ways to incorporate the model into reflective practices. Valuing partnerships, reflection, and analysis of power dynamics, the research and strategies offered here provide an entry point for faculty new to critical service-learning, while also offering new ideas and tools for long-time practitioners. Chapters offer particular attention to strategies for engaging students, syllabus development, and reflective cycles. Additionally, the authors offer a model for faculty development in the area of critical service-learning at the institutional level, including suggestions for faculty and administrators interested in increasing engagement with social justice and community spaces.

As institutions of higher education are focusing more on the ways in which they can meet the needs of the communities surrounding their campuses, The Carnegie Foundation’s Elective Classification for Community Engagement provides a special-purpose designation for higher education institutions with commitments in the area of community engagement. Universities must commit to institutional change in order to improve the outcomes for the communities surrounding the campus. The classification framework represents best practices in the field and encourages continuous improvement through periodic re-classification. Service-learning has been identified as one of the more effective methods for engaging undergraduate and graduate students in community engaged scholarship, which facilitates development of critical inquiry, understanding needs assessment, and deep reflection on inequality. The authors intend this book to benefit university faculty endeavoring to begin or develop service-learning courses, higher education administrators who want to train and engage university faculty in adopting a more community engaged teaching model, and P-12 teachers, who often serve as community partners with higher education institutions to facilitate justice-oriented approaches to teaching their diverse students.

Perfect for courses such as: Critical Thinking and Communication/Service-Learning │ Service-Learning Capstone │ Pathways to Effective Community Engagement │ School and Community Collaboration │ Teaching to Transform Society │ Food, Environment, and Sustainability │ Race and the Right to Vote in the US │ Education and Society │ Environmental Education │ Race, Place, and Memory

Improvement Science as a Tool for School Enhancement: Solutions for Better Educational Outcomes is a collection of equity-focused improvement science-in-action, school-based case studies led by practitioners. Chapter authors tell us how and why improvement science principles make system-wide improvements in classroom practice, how they learned from the problems encountered and, further, how they were then able to make changes within a school or district. A core principle of improvement science is variability in context (what works for whom and under what conditions)--a critical concept for improvement in each of the case studies. Each team analyzed their problem of practice from the perspective of the unique conditions in their context, considering what might work, and what might not work, and when the changes could be expanded for implementation school- or district-wide.

Early chapters describe the actions of school personnel to embed social and emotional learning as well as how to serve historically underserved students during disasters. Trauma-informed and restorative practices embraced by all staff enhanced student outcomes and reduced educational disparities in classrooms and throughout the school. The content then explores how improvement science change processes improve chronic absenteeism and discipline issues through whole-school practices related to school climate. Centering student and family perception, developing representative systems, and facilitating collaborative improvement projects were found to measurably improve the experience of students, increase equity, reinforce democratic principles, and empower school stakeholders, especially those whose voices have historically been ignored, to create meaningful system-wide school improvement. Finally, the material in the book provides concrete examples of improvement science as it applies in real-setting to address high school advisories, graduation rates, services for multi-lingual learners, students with disabilities, and reading clubs. Each chapter has an equity focus.

The editors and contributors provide examples of how to use the processes and tools of improvement science to increase equity system-wide. How to use improvement science to address educational disparities system-wide with urgency, commitment, and a belief in the success of every child, of every race, every ethnicity, gender, ability, and cultural identity, is the essence of this book.

Perfect for courses such as: Educating For Equity And Social Justice │ Cultivating Culturally Responsive Classrooms │ Integrating Methods And Curriculum Design │ Inquiry, Assessment, And Instructional Design │ Foundations Of Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Practice │ Math Literacy │ Physical Education │ Professional Collaboration In Education │ Language And Literacy Development Of Diverse Learners │ Equal Opportunity: Racism; Diversity And Equity In Schools │ Cultural Proficiency In Schools │ Language And Power In Education │ Teaching For Equity In Literacy │ Supportive Classroom Communities │ Cultural Diversity In Literature │ Engaging Students In Writing │ Introduction To School Leadership │ Introduction To School Improvement │ Teacher Leadership And School Improvement

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.

Writing Beyond Recognition: Queer Re-Storying for Social Change documents and analyzes the insidious ways heteronormativity produces homophobia and heterosexism, including how this operates and is experienced by those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered and queer.

Using critical arts research practices read through queer and feminist theories and perspectives, the chapters in the book describe how participants who identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered gained critical insights by learning to write and read about their experiences in new ways. Their revised queer stories function to enable a movement beyond merely recognizing to appreciating and understanding those differences. Robson offers a powerful argument about how everyone is narrated by and through discourses of gender and sexuality. Therefore, the content of the book is directed at all readers, not only those who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or queer. The book will be important as a text in any course or area of study that is focused on inclusive education, cultural studies in education, critical arts research methods, gender and sexuality studies, and critical literacy approaches in education.

Perfect for courses such as: Qualitative Research Methods | Social Justice | Ethnography | Critical Qualitative Inquiry | Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies | Participatory Action Research | Arts-Based Research | Writing | Autobiography | Curriculum Studies | Teacher Education | Cultural Studies | Reading and Literacy Education | Community Education | Adult Education