Teacher Education, Diversity, and Community Engagement in Liberal Arts Colleges


Book Description

Teacher Education, Diversity, and Community Engagement in Liberal Arts Colleges examines the promise of and issues related to preparing teachers for cultural diversity through community engagement in the liberal arts colleges. This book emphasizes the transformational power of community engagement to both teacher education and the small liberal arts college. Through a careful examination of literature and reflections on practice, Lucy W. Mule underscores the community-engaged approach to teacher education, emphasizing deep relationships with culturally diverse communities, community-based pedagogy, and a consideration of institutional contexts. Building on recent conversations in the areas of teacher education, diversity, and community engagement in liberal arts colleges, she cogently examines a range of issues, from how teacher education's vision, curriculum, and pedagogy can be modified to be more consistent with the goal of educating for cultural diversity through community engagement to some of the program, institutional, and external challenges to community engagement in teacher education. The field of teacher education and small liberal arts colleges will find in Teacher Education, Diversity, and Community Engagement in Liberal Arts Colleges an excellent reason to enact purposeful change and transformation.




Handbook of Research on the Educator Continuum and Development of Teachers


Book Description

In light of recent sociological events and the COVID-19 pandemic, education has undergone an incredible change in both policy and delivery. As a result, many educators have sought different career paths. It is essential to maintain a concentrated effort to retain educators; however, recruiting teachers into the profession is only one area of focus; there must be intentional support for teacher development along the educator continuum in order to sustain the profession through institutional struggles. The Handbook of Research on the Educator Continuum and Development of Teachers expands on the body of research related to the educator continuum with a holistic view of teacher development. This book combines theory, concepts, and research studies that pinpoint facets of the educator continuum, providing researchers with scholarly contributions that advance the profession. Covering topics such as instructional coaching, special educator career development, and teacher retention, this major reference work is a valuable resource for educational faculty and administration, teacher colleges, educators of K-12 and higher education, pre-service teachers, government officials, teacher education administrators, libraries, researchers, and academicians.




Cultural Diversity and Education


Book Description

Now available in paperback, the sixth edition of this definitive text provides students a strong background in the conceptual, theoretical, and philosophical issues in multicultural education from a leading authority and scholarly leader of the field---James A. Banks. In the opening chapter author Banks presents his well-known and widely used concept of Dimensions of Multicultural Education to help build an understanding of how the various components of multicultural education are interrelated. He then provides an overview on preparing students to function as effective citizens in a global world; discusses the dimensions, history, and goals of multicultural education; presents the conceptual, philosophical, and research issues related to education and diversity; examines the issues involved in curriculum and teaching; looks at gender equity, disability, giftedness, and language diversity; and focuses on intergroup relations and principles for teaching and learning. This new edition incorporates new concepts, theories, research, and developments in the field of multicultural education and features: A new Chapter 5, "Increasing Student Academic Achievement: Paradigms and Explanations" provides important explanations for the achievement gap and suggests ways that educators can work to close it. A new Chapter 7, "Researching Race, Culture, and Difference," explains the unique characteristics of multicultural research and how it differs from mainstream research in education and social science. A new Chapter 14, "Principles for Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Society" contains research-based guidelines for reforming teaching and the school in order to increase the academic achievement and social development of students from diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, language, and gender groups. A new Appendix—"Essential Principles Checklist"—designed to help educators determine the extent to which practices within their schools, colleges, and universities are consistent with the research-based findings described in the book.




Appropriating the Discourse of Social Justice in Teacher Education


Book Description

In recent years there have been strong movements of reforms in teacher education. The most common are intended to adjust teacher preparation to the standardization demands of NCLB, Race to the Top, and CAEP to make teacher education more accountable. These reforms—carried out in the name of excellence, accountability, diversity, and inclusion—constitute subliminal efforts to appropriate the possibilities for real transformation in teacher education. However, in spite of the pervasive rhetoric to identify diversity and social justice with the accountability and standardization movement, there are endeavors to create transformations in teacher preparation that are authentic. These deliberate changes seek to counteract the neoliberal vision of school reform and strive to reclaim the original goals of public education represented in a vision of rigorous content knowledge, democratic schooling, and social justice. Appropriating the Discourse of Social Justice in Teacher Education is a testimony to that kind of authentic reform. It documents the transformational efforts of a teacher education program that infused the preparation of its teachers with a vision of education as a public good. This book validates the claim that the process of reproduction of social inequalities in teacher education is not a perfect, static process, but on the contrary, the real “seeds of transformation” within teacher education departments are abundant.




In the Nation's Compelling Interest


Book Description

The United States is rapidly transforming into one of the most racially and ethnically diverse nations in the world. Groups commonly referred to as minorities-including Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, and Alaska Natives-are the fastest growing segments of the population and emerging as the nation's majority. Despite the rapid growth of racial and ethnic minority groups, their representation among the nation's health professionals has grown only modestly in the past 25 years. This alarming disparity has prompted the recent creation of initiatives to increase diversity in health professions. In the Nation's Compelling Interest considers the benefits of greater racial and ethnic diversity, and identifies institutional and policy-level mechanisms to garner broad support among health professions leaders, community members, and other key stakeholders to implement these strategies. Assessing the potential benefits of greater racial and ethnic diversity among health professionals will improve the access to and quality of healthcare for all Americans.




Teacher Education for Democracy and Social Justice


Book Description

Examines just how the important goals of educating for democracy can be achieved from the perspective of those working in teacher education and in P-12 schools.




New Pathways in Teacher Preparation and Certification


Book Description

In this compelling and timely collection, Eric Wearne and a group of diverse contributors make the case for a new approach to teacher preparation and certification, in which institutions are empowered to educate, prepare, certify, hire, and develop teachers who have been prepared by different educational traditions. In the first part, contributors offer a background in history, policy, and economics to argue the need for more creativity in teacher preparation. In the second part, Wearne and contributors showcase how a variety of different, creative educational organizations have prepared teachers more clearly suited to their specific school models— from Montessori teacher preparation, to teaching online, to teaching in classical schools. Overall, this collection prompts those involved in teacher preparation to work to find creative solutions for improving teacher education, certification, and hiring and is relevant for scholars, policymakers, educators, and administrators working in or studying teacher education programs.




Studying Diversity in Teacher Education


Book Description

Studying Diversity in Teacher Education is a collaborative effort by experts seeking to elucidate one of the most important issues facing education today. First, the volume examines historically persistent, yet unresolved issues in teacher education and presents research that is currently being done to address these issues. Second, it centers on research on diverse populations, bringing together both research on diversity and research on diversity in teacher education. The contributors present frameworks, perspectives and paradigms that have implications for reframing research on complex issues that are often ignored or treated too simplistically in teacher education literature. Concluding the volume with an agenda for future research and a guide for preparing teachers for diversity education in a global context, the contributors provide a solid foundation for all educators. Studying Diversity in Teacher Education is a vital resource for all those interested in diversity and education research.




Teacher Preparation for Linguistically Diverse Classrooms


Book Description

At the forefront in focusing on the preparation of mainstream classroom teachers to work with K-12 students in the U.S. who speak native languages other than English, this book both contributes to the research base and provides practical information.