Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Teaching in PreK-12 classrooms requires not only pedagogical knowledge and field-related skill, but also creativity, flexibility, and responsiveness. Teachers, as lifelong learners and as leaders in education, must make sense of curricula, policies, research, and evidence in order to guide and shape their practices in unique and diverse contexts. How teachers make use of these “best practice” guides varies — there is no one-size-fits-all program or method that can be picked up and applied without classroom teachers’ localized and reflective contextualization. Designed for use by preservice teachers, experienced educators, mentors and coaches, school leaders, and teacher preparation faculty, Recognizing “Best Practices” as Locally Situated calls teachers into their power to disrupt, transform, and lead towards change in PreK-12 schools. This volume makes visible the critical work teachers engage in daily as they evaluate, interpret, implement, and assess the impact of particular strategies, resources, and approaches in their classrooms. Teachers must iterate on their teaching practice in cycles of continuous learning and reflection toward educational equity and social justice. Recognizing “Best Practices” as Locally Situated celebrates the voices, power, and pedagogical practices of teachers across a variety of content areas and settings, ranging from early childhood to adolescence and from transnational contexts, including multilingual classrooms in the U.S., Lebanon, and Ukraine, along with teacher preparation programs in the U.S. and Europe. Through vignettes, analysis, reflective prompts, lesson plans, resources, and activities, the authors make clear that teachers are agentic, innovative, and adaptive practitioners who translate evidence-based “best practices” into context-specific, responsive, and learner-centered pedagogical moves that build upon the assets of their students to support learning. They invite readers into their (trans)local worlds as readers’ shape and reconfigure their own (trans)local classrooms, schools, and educational ecosystems. Recognizing “Best Practices” as Locally Situated aims to bring together the voices of practitioners across K-12 education to examine their situated and expert testing, adaptation, and refusal of “best practices” within their classrooms and communities. The authors explore a best practice, as housed in this partially archived version of the U.S. Department of Education's Best Practices Clearinghouse or as explicitly named in research or practitioner literature. They explain the ways they have tested, accepted, rejected, modified, or otherwise adapted and contextualized that “best practice” within their own teaching context and with equity, inclusion, diversity, belonging, and social justice in mind. Recognizing “Best Practices” as Locally Situated provides an important overview and critique of currently circulating “best practices” for both novice and experienced educators. It provides classroom-tested pedagogical modes and resources with methodologies for engaging critically with “evidence,” including through generation of new evidence and knowledge bases situated within particular communities, times, places, and policy contexts. As part of Dr. Linsay DeMartino and Dr. Lisa Fetman's book series Demystifying Social Justice Education: Moving from Trendy to Transformative Equity and Justice Practices in Schools, this book aligns through its focus on equity and justice and the dismantling of taken-for-granted or “trendy” practices and policies in education. The collection of texts draws upon the lived experiences of educators, education researchers, community program leaders, and students and families to provide new evidence and as contributions to the literature centering around what is possible in equitable, responsive, belonging, and socially-just education.Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment in Diverse Classrooms; Introduction to Educating For Equity And Social Justice; Cultivating Culturally Responsive Classrooms; Critically Reflective Teaching; Adolescent Identities, Literacies, and Communities; Integrated Content and Language Learning (TESOL/TEFL/Bilingual Ed); Literacy Methods in Multilingual Classrooms; Resisting and Transforming the Purpose of Education: Education for Freedom; Professional Development and Leadership; Inquiry-Based Professional Learning; Introduction to Teacher Leadership And School Improvement

Teaching Through Generational Traumas: Adaptive Practices to Combat Dissociation While Addressing the Impacts of Respectability offers a powerful and timely exploration of what it means to teach, learn, and thrive in higher education while navigating the weight of generational wounds. Written by historian and educator Detrice L. Roberts, this book blends personal reflection, scholarly research, and experience-based classroom practice to uncover how trauma, identity, and resilience shape today’s student experience. At its core, this book challenges the idea that education is only about transmitting knowledge. Instead, Roberts presents the classroom as a space of transformation where students must be equipped not only with intellectual tools but also the social and emotional skills necessary to face the complexities of modern life. Drawing on frameworks including Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), the VARK learning model, and culturally relevant pedagogy, Roberts simultaneously offers instructors and students pathways to recognize identity, manage emotions, and build meaningful and productive connections between past and present. There exists a culture of dissociation amongst students today, but they are more adaptive to learning that incorporates real world engagement that allows for them to actively participate in the learning process. Being able to differentiate instruction relies on our understanding of the types of learners that we have in our classroom and exploring the factors associated with why students are disconnected academically. These very factors can then be addressed and used to enhance student experiences and ability to learn through learner-defined curriculum development. Teaching Through Generational Traumas moves through layered themes reflecting Roberts’s dual perspective as both teacher and learner. Part I situates the conversation historically, acknowledging how generational traumas rooted in slavery, segregation, and systemic racism, continue to impact Black students in higher education. Part II explores the lived experience of respectability politics, dissociation, and the subtle pressures students face to perform identities that do not always align with their authentic selves. Part III shifts to pedagogical innovation, highlighting Roberts’s seven classroom practices: Socratic questioning, storytelling, critical pedagogy, SEL, opening rituals, culturally relevant teaching, and digital humanities. Each practice is illustrated through vivid classroom narratives, emphasizing how teaching strategies can nurture critical thinking while affirming student identity. In the final section, Roberts invites students, educators, and readers alike to consider methods of perpetual growth that extend beyond the classroom. She frames education not as a temporary pursuit, but as a lifelong journey of reflection, resilience, and meaning-making. The book closes with an Ode to the HBCU, honoring the historic and ongoing role of Historically Black Colleges and Universities as sites of cultural affirmation, intergenerational pride, and transformative education. Teaching Through Generational Traumas is a call to reimagine what education can be when it is rooted in empathy, awareness, and liberation. It speaks directly to faculty, administrators, and students at HBCUs and beyond, while also offering insights for those interested in the intersections of history, identity, and pedagogy. This book will resonate with readers who believe that classrooms should be communities of growth, reflection, and belonging. By weaving together scholarship, lived experience, and practical strategies, Roberts demonstrates how we can confront the challenges of dissociation, respectability, and trauma, and instead cultivate spaces where students and instructors learn, heal, and transform together.Perfect for courses such as: Foundations of Education; Teaching and Learning in Higher Education; Culturally Relevant Pedagogy / Multicultural Education; Trauma-Informed Teaching Practices (or Social and Emotional Learning in Schools); African American Educational History; African American History / African Diaspora Studies; Educational Leadership & Policy Studies; Sociology of Education / Education and Society

Digital Age Leadership: Building Effective Multi-Generational Online Teaching Teams is a practical guide for educational and organizational leaders managing diverse, multi-generational teams in online environments. In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, understanding how to lead teams made up of Baby Boomers, Generation X, Millennials, and Generation Z is essential for success. This book provides a framework for understanding generational dynamics, adapting leadership strategies, and building collaborative, high-performing teams in online settings. Each generation brings unique strengths, communication styles, and expectations to the digital classroom, creating both challenges and opportunities for growth. Digital Age Leadership explores how these generational traits influence leadership and team dynamics, providing practical strategies for building trust, bridging gaps, and fostering an inclusive and cohesive team culture. By leveraging the strengths of each generation, leaders can cultivate an environment where all team members thrive. These strategies will empower leaders to implement lasting change within their teams and organizations, ensuring long-term success and growth in the digital age. Drawing from extensive research and real-world experience, Digital Age Leadership serves as both an academic text and a professional development resource. It includes discussion questions, team exercises, and practical scenarios for immediate use, making it ideal for individual growth, team training, and academic course adoption. These elements ensure the book is accessible to educators, administrators, and organizational leaders. The book has proven to be the ultimate resource for leaders who want to build, develop, and sustain high-performing, adaptable teams in the ever-evolving world of online education. Digital Age Leadership: Navigating Multi-Generational Online Teaching Teams will appeal to a wide range of readers. These include educational administrators and corporate leaders responsible for managing online learning and training programs. K-12 online school principals and directors, higher education program administrators, department chairs, and professional development specialists who oversee virtual teaching teams will find great value in the framework presented in the book. The book will also benefit graduate students, faculty in educational leadership and technology programs, and corporate learning leaders managing online training. It targets professionals seeking both theoretical insights and practical tools for leading multi-generational online teaching teams.Perfect for courses such as: Educational Leadership in the Digital Age; Managing Multi-Generational Teams in Higher Education; Online Teaching and Learning Strategies; Leadership in Digital Education Environments; Transformative Leadership in Online Education; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Online Education; Technology Integration and Team Building in Education; Collaborative Learning in Virtual Environments; Building and Leading Remote Educational Teams; Developing Effective Online Teaching Communities

As rural schools across the United States face ongoing teacher shortages, shifting community needs, and increasing demands on educators, the challenge of preparing and sustaining a strong local teacher workforce has become more urgent than ever. In Powering Teacher Apprenticeships: Case Studies on Rural Implementation and System Design, Katie Anderson-Pence presents a compelling and practical exploration of how teacher apprenticeship programs can transform educator preparation in rural communities. Drawing from real-world partnerships and implementation stories, this book examines how rural districts, universities, educators, and community organizations are working together to design apprenticeship pathways that are responsive to local needs and grounded in the strengths of rural places. Through detailed case studies, Anderson-Pence demonstrates that successful teacher apprenticeship programs are not built on one-size-fits-all models, but on collaborative systems that honor community culture, invest in relationships, and support aspiring educators throughout their development. The book highlights the essential components of effective rural apprenticeship systems, including strong mentor preparation, authentic clinical practice, coordinated support structures, braided funding strategies, and partnerships that align university preparation with district priorities. Readers gain insight into how rural schools are leveraging apprenticeship not only as a workforce solution, but as a long-term strategy for cultivating educators who are deeply connected to their communities and prepared for the intellectual, cultural, and emotional realities of teaching in rural settings. At the heart of Powering Teacher Apprenticeships is the idea that thoughtful system design matters. Anderson-Pence illustrates how sustainable apprenticeship pathways emerge when institutions and communities work together to create coherent, flexible, and human-centered models of teacher preparation. The book also offers practical guidance for policymakers and state leaders seeking to strengthen rural educator pipelines through supportive licensing structures, accessible funding models, and policies aligned with apprenticeship learning. For teacher educators, district leaders, and community stakeholders, this volume provides both inspiration and actionable strategies for developing apprenticeship programs that are immersive, relational, and rooted in place. Combining research, lived experience, and practical implementation insights, Powering Teacher Apprenticeships offers a hopeful and forward-looking vision for rural education—one in which communities are empowered to grow their own educators, strengthen local schools, and build sustainable systems that nurture both talent and belonging for generations to come. It is a powerful volume that will guide school administrators as well as preservice teachers, graduate students and faculty at Colleges of Education.Perfect for courses such as: Clinical Practice in Teacher Education; Place-Based Education and Community Engagement; Rural Schools and Community Partnerships; Education Policy: Teacher Workforce and Certification; Policy and Practice in Teacher Preparation Reform; Models of Teacher Apprenticeship and Mentorship; Issues and Innovations in Rural Schooling; Designing Sustainable Educator Pipelines

As educational systems worldwide grapple with complex challenges requiring sustained, evidence-informed solutions, collaborative continuous improvement in education (CCIE) has emerged as a transformative approach to systemic change. Yet a critical gap remains: how do we effectively teach and learn these powerful improvement methods across the diverse landscape of educational institutions and professionals who work in them? This groundbreaking book addresses this vital question with practical wisdom and research-backed strategies. Teaching and Learning for Collaborative Continuous Improvement in Education: Challenges and Possibilities Across the Educational System tackles the pressing need to build CCIE capacity among higher education faculty, professional developers, state education department associates, and the broader network of professionals driving educational improvement initiatives. As policymakers increasingly turn to CCIE to inform system-wide reforms, this book provides the roadmap for spreading and deepening expertise across organizational boundaries and professional contexts. The authors examine three fundamental challenges facing the field: bridging knowledge gaps across diverse professional roles and organizations; balancing scholarly and practical applications of CCIE learning; and navigating the spectrum of delivery modalities from fully asynchronous to synchronous, and in-person to remote formats. Through real-world examples, chapter authors reveal both challenges and promising practices that transcend traditional silos and create meaningful learning communities. What sets this book apart is its collaborative approach to knowledge sharing. Rather than prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions, the editors and authors position themselves as colleagues and peers, sharing hard-won lessons from their own improvement journeys. Each chapter follows a systematic structure that includes contextual background, theoretical foundations, learning objectives and approaches, documented results, and honest reflections on lingering questions. The book's organization reflects its commitment to addressing real-world complexity. Following an introductory chapter that maps the current terrain of CCIE teaching and learning, subsequent sections dive deep into specific challenges: designing CCIE learning experiences for different audiences, adapting approaches for varying purposes, and leveraging different modalities effectively. Rich case studies and illustrative examples demonstrate how theory translates into practice across diverse educational contexts. Higher education faculty will find research-based approaches to curriculum design and pedagogy. Professional developers will discover strategies for building organizational capacity using theoretically-grounded and tested approaches. State education leaders will gain insights into system-wide implementation approaches. Most importantly, all readers will find concrete tools for learning with and from each other―breaking down the isolation that too often hampers improvement efforts. The book concludes with a look to the future―highlighting emerging trends and future opportunities in CCIE teaching and learning, while supplementary materials provide readers with immediately usable resources. It represents an essential contribution to the growing field of improvement science in education―and a vital resource for the professionals working to make that science accessible, applicable, and impactful across the entire educational ecosystem.Perfect for courses such as: Continuous Quality Improvement in Education and Human Services; Networked Improvement Communities; Improvement Science Capstone; Leadership for Continuous Improvement; Leadership Experiences, Application and Development; Leadership for Equity for Equity and Improvement; Instructional Leadership; Doctoral Seminar: Dynamics of Improving Schools and Districts; and Supervision of Instruction

Learning to See School Systems: Power, Practice, and Improvement in Public Education is a volume dedicated to the goal of improving school systems. In 1513, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince to help rulers understand the realities of power. Five hundred years later, Dr. Michael R. L. Odell — educator, researcher, and amused observer of Texas school systems — offers a modern reflection for those who lead the nation’s classrooms and districts. Learning to See School Systems is both satire and system map: a handbook for anyone attempting to lead improvement in institutions designed to resist it gracefully. Across twelve chapters, it reveals how public education mirrors the politics of Florence—ambition, reform, accountability, and fortune disguised as data. Each chapter blends humor with hard truth: board relations as diplomacy, improvement plans as rituals, dashboards as illusion, crises as curriculum. Beneath the wit lies a serious purpose—to help educators see their districts as living systems, governed by patterns that Improvement Science now names but Machiavelli already understood. For teachers, principals, superintendents, and school board members alike, Learning to See School Systems is a mirror of modern schooling—ironic, affectionate, and uncomfortably accurate. Read it for laughter. Keep it for survival. Share it with anyone about to lead their first staff meeting. “He who governs schools must learn to rule hearts that believe themselves ungoverned.” — from Learning to See School SystemsPerfect for courses such as: School Improvement and Reform; School Policy; Organizational Leadership and Change

Learning to See the University: Power, Practice, and Improvement in Academic Systems is a sharp and reflective exploration of power, policy, and survival in modern higher education. Written in the spirit of Niccolò Machiavelli’s The Prince, the book translates political realism into the everyday governance of universities, where authority operates through committees, budgets, rankings, accreditation, and carefully managed narratives rather than formal command. Neither parody nor exposé, Learning to See the University offers a clear-eyed account of how universities function beneath the language of shared governance and collegiality. Drawing on systems thinking and Improvement Science, it explains why reforms stall, why innovation must often appear as continuity, and why leadership in higher education is shaped more by timing, incentives, and legitimacy than by vision alone. Structured as a modern adaptation of Machiavelli, each chapter reimagines concepts such as virtù, fortuna, fear, reputation, and loyalty within the academic ecosystem. Departments emerge as semi-sovereign fiefdoms, committees as instruments of stability, rankings as tools of perception, and crises as catalysts for change. The tone is accessible, wry, and reflective. Humor provides distance without cynicism, allowing readers to recognize familiar institutional patterns while gaining clarity rather than frustration. New administrators will find a survival guide; experienced leaders will recognize a mirror. Intended for provosts, deans, department chairs, and graduate students in higher education leadership, Learning to See the University is suited for doctoral programs, leadership seminars, and administrative retreats. Ultimately, it is not a guide to manipulation, but an argument for realism with conscience—and for leading universities with wisdom, restraint, and integrity.Perfect for courses such as: Higher Education Leadership; College and University Administration; Higher Education Policy and Politics; Institutional Research and Effectiveness; Strategic Planning in Higher Education; Change and Innovation in Higher Education; Finance and Budgeting in Higher Education; Higher Education Law and Ethics; Leadership Theory in Education; Organizational Theory in Education; Systems Thinking and Improvement in Higher Education

John Dewey (1859–1952), one of the most prominent American intellectuals for the first half of the twentieth century, is considered by many to be the father of public education, advocating for the concept that the purpose of public education was to develop an informed citizenry that prepared them for active participation in public life. He was highly regarded for his lectures on the power of pedagogy, best documented in his seminal volume, Democracy and Education, a book that remains as relevant today as when it first published more than 100 years ago. He was famous for other lectures as well. Among them are the Bridgewater Lectures of 1922, represented here for the first time as a freestanding volume. Dewey gave these lectures at the Bridgewater Normal School in Bridgewater, MA, an institution founded by Horace Mann. The lectures touch on three themes: Social Purposes in Education Individuality in Education The Classroom Teacher They appear as full-length speeches, unaltered from their original form. Additionally, the volume contains three interpretive essays by recognized experts in the philosophy and pedagogy of Dewey: The Course and Its Occurrences Individuality, Sociality, and Temporality: Reflections on Dewey’s Bridgewater Lectures of 1922 Dewey’s Bridgewater Lectures and the Emergence of the Aesthetic in His Later Works This is a book that all Dewey scholars will want to have in their library. In addition, the themes in the volume make it an appropriate adoption for such classes as History of Education, Philosophy of Education and other foundation courses.

In today’s troubling times, we frequently find ourselves in conversations with educational scholars, educators, and university students about feeling overwhelmed with the attacks on and challenges facing education, and unsure of how to act in this moment. What does it mean to leverage scholarship for public impact? What impact on public debate, awareness, or policy can collective action as large groups of scholars and leaders make that more traditional scholarship cannot or simply does not aspire to make? That is, when scholars and leaders speak in a collective and public-facing way, what interventions can we make in movement building for public education and for the public commons more broadly? Collectives and the Commons: The Role of Educational Scholars in Movement Building for Justice grapples with such questions by diving into the years-long journeys of four scholar collectives working toward justice in and through education. Each emerged in different times, places, and circumstances, but in recent years have connected under a “collective of collectives” umbrella that allowed them to share resources and support one another in their work: CReATE (Chicagoland Researchers and Advocates for Transformative Education), CARE-ED (California Alliance of Researchers for Equity in Education), HSESJD (Hawai‘i Scholars for Education, Social Justice and Diversity), and EDJE (Education Deans for Justice and Equity). The result of this effort is this volume, which serves as a resource for scholars who are interested in working collectively for movement building and advocacy. With that goal in mind, each chapter consists of two key components: a narrative essay (how the collective formed, how they were organized and operated, their theory of change, the initiatives they undertook, how they pushed scholarship into the public space, challenges faced, and lessons learned or take-aways for others interested in educational advocacy) and a range of selected artifacts (research briefs and fact sheets; statements, petitions, testimonies; media and art work; and public events and symposiums).Collectives and the Commons is needed today more than ever. The current assault on education is an assault on teachers and students, and on the welfare of everyone. This book should be read by every scholar interested in seeing social justice applied to schools, classrooms and students. It can also be adopted in a variety of courses in Colleges of Education.Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Education, Educational Equity, Educational Leadership, Educational Policy, Foundations of Education, Multicultural Education, Race and Education, Research Methods, Social Justice and Education, Teacher Education

More than a century after William James published his provocative critique The PhD Octopus in 1903, his warnings about the corrupting entanglements between institutions and graduate students remain strikingly relevant. Doctoral Studies as Educational Industrial Complex revisits James’ concerns through a contemporary lens, offering a critical examination of doctoral education in the field of education in what feels like perennial crisis. Throughout the volume, contributors grapple with the tensions James identified: the obsession with credentials over genuine intellectual work, the “tyrannical machine” of institutional demands, and the misalignment between doctoral preparation and actual career paths. These tensions are particularly acute in practitioner-oriented EdD programs designed to produce scholar-practitioners who often remain in their local communities rather than entering the academy. Yet research-oriented PhD programs face their own crisis, as they continue to prepare scholars for a tenure-track job market that has dramatically contracted. With only 32% of faculty holding tenured or tenure-track positions in 2023—down from 53% in 1987—the traditional pathway to academic careers has fundamentally eroded. The book speaks to multiple audiences: faculty who supervise doctoral students and seek to understand the challenges they face; doctoral students navigating alternative program formats and uncertain career prospects; administrators responsible for program design and accreditation; and scholars interested in the future of higher education and professional preparation. By centering faculty expertise and critical analysis rather than external market demands, this volume offers a necessary counter-narrative to prevailing trends in doctoral education reform. Ultimately, this book argues for a reconsideration of what doctoral education should accomplish and for whom, grounding these questions in both historical perspective and contemporary realities.