Pedagogies for Diverse Contexts


Book Description

Diversity can be a rich source of possibility and opportunity in early childhood education. Appreciating that learning and development are shaped by culture and context, history and values, the diversity of cases found in this volume provide a useful tension in considering one’s own practices, policies and beliefs. Pedagogies for Diverse Contexts draws on the knowledge and professional experiences of actors from a wide range of countries and cultures. For some, early childhood’s dominant narratives have been influential, while others push back against universalistic orientations and the power of a neoliberal hegemonic agenda. Written to provoke, to stimulate and to extend thinking, these chapters provide insights and examples relevant not only for front-line practice and programme development, but for education, assessment, research and policy development. The twelve chapters are divided into four key sections which reflect major influences on practice and pedagogy: Being alongside children Those who educate Embedding families and communities Working with systems Considering varied international practices, this key text will enhance understanding, support self-directed learning, and provoke thinking at both graduate and postgraduate levels, particularly in the field of early childhood education and care.




Purposeful Teaching and Learning in Diverse Contexts


Book Description

Teachers have faced serious public critique regarding their effectiveness and professionalism in classrooms. At every level, their work is often measured solely against student achievement outcomes, often on standardized tests (Darling-Hammond & Youngs, 2002; Ravitch, 2010). Unfortunately, students who are coming from culturally, economically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds are often occupying the bottom rungs regarding academic achievement (Ladson-Billings, 1995; Milner,2010; Hucks, 2014). What are the obstacles and challenges teachers and students face in their respective school settings and how do they grapple with and overcome them? Finally, what do these teachers and students know that motivates and informs their work? The scholars in this volume will take up these questions and share the findings of their research in the field of leadership, teacher education, and achievement. These concerns are not limited to the geographic boundaries of the United States of America. Engaging purposeful teaching is an imperative that concerns students, teachers, teacher educators, educational leaders, and education policy makers around the globe. There are many educators worldwide who are committed to delivering this type of teaching and promoting learning that is engaged and active. The four sections of the book capture the work of educators in teaching in diverse global settings such as the Australia, United Kingdom, Jamaica, Turkey, and across America. As diverse populations of students enter American classrooms, it is important for their teachers to have relatable examples of purposeful teaching that are culturally responsive and culturally relevant.




Imagination for Inclusion


Book Description

Imagination for Inclusion offers a reconsideration of the ways in which imagination engages and empowers learners across the education spectrum, from primary to adult levels and in all subject areas. Imagination as a natural, expedient, and exciting learning tool should be central to any approach to developing and implementing curriculum, but is increasingly undervalued as learners progress through the education system; this disregards not only imagination’s potential, but its paramount place in informing truly inclusive approaches to teaching and learning. This book presents a new theory of imagination and includes discussion about its application to teaching and learning to increase the engagement of disaffected students and reinvigorate their relationships with curriculum content. Chapters include key ideas and discussion surrounding the benefits of introducing imaginative practices into the classroom for learners from a range of marginalised backgrounds, such as young people with disabilities and adult learners from socio-economically disadvantaged environments. In exploring imagination in the practice of inclusive education, the book includes chapters from researchers and practitioners in education who have fresh ideas about how learners and teachers have benefited from introducing imaginative pedagogies. The diverse collection, featuring writers with backgrounds from early childhood to adult education, will be essential reading for academics and researchers in the fields of education, inclusive education, social policy, professional development, teacher education and creativity. It will be of particular interest to current and pre-service teachers who want to develop inclusive practice and increase the engagement of all students with formal education.




Teaching across Cultures


Book Description

Teaching across Cultures: Building Pedagogical Relationships in Diverse Contexts captures the tensions, complexities as well as the transformational potentials of teaching across multiple cultural contexts. The book evolved from cumulative self-studies that examined one teacher educator’s teaching practice, the cultural impact on this practice, and how she facilitated transformative teaching and learning. While every act of teaching occurs across cultures such as institutional culture, invisible cultures, classroom cultures, among others, educators who teach as cultural outsiders have to navigate the tensions, complexities and contradictory realities of cross-cultural teaching. The tensions can be reduced or managed through responsive pedagogy, relationship building and teaching in the third space. These transformational approaches not only help to identify and close the perpetual gaps in teaching and learning but also position effective teaching within a pedagogical common ground that values student voices, facilitates pedagogical flexibility and uses diversity as a teaching tool. In a world of ubiquitous and interactive learning environments, both the physical and virtual spaces play a vital role in teaching and teacher-student relationships. The book points to the necessity of teacher educators’ learning through diverse professional networks but more importantly through self-study. It is only through this introspective examination of one’s teaching and students’ learning as well as taking an ontological attitude to teaching that educators can achieve success in diverse contexts.




Teacher Education and Black Communities


Book Description

The field of education has been and will continue to be essential to the survival and sustainability of the Black community. Unfortunately, over the past five decades, two major trends have become clearly evident in the Black community: (a) the decline of the academic achievement levels of Black students and (b) the disappearance of Black teachers, particularly Black males. Today, of the 3.5 million teachers in America’s classrooms (AACTE, 2010) only 8% are Black teachers, and approximately 2% of these teachers are Black males (NCES, 2010). Over the past few decades, the Black teaching force in the U.S. has dropped significantly (Lewis, 2006; Lewis, Bonner, Byrd, & James, 2008; Milner & Howard, 2004), and this educational crisis shows no signs of ending in the near future. As the population of Black students in K-12 schools in the U. S. continue to rise—currently over 16% of students in America’s schools are Black (NCES, 2010)—there is an urgent need to increase the presence of Black educators. The overall purpose of this edited volume is to stimulate thought and discussion among diverse audiences (e.g., policymakers, practitioners, and educational researchers) who are concerned about the performance of Black students in our nation’s schools, and to provide evidence-based strategies to expand our nation’s pool of Black teachers. To this end, it is our hope that this book will contribute to the teacher education literature and will inform the teacher education policy and practice debate.




Transformative Curricula, Pedagogies and Epistemologies


Book Description

This volume focuses on current demands, challenges and expectations facing African higher education institutions in general, and those in South Africa in particular. Subsequently, transformative curricula, pedagogies and epistemologies that define diverse practices of access and inclusion within the context of transformation and decolonisation are explored.




Transformative Pedagogies for Teacher Education


Book Description

This is the second book in the series Transformative Pedagogies for Teacher Education. Like the first book in the series it is geared towards practitioners in the field of teacher education. This second book focuses on action, agency and dialogue. It features chapters by a collection of teacher educators, researchers, teacher advocates and practitioners drawing on their research and experiences with teacher candidates to explore critical issues in teacher education. The book will be useful to teacher educators working with teacher candidates in different contexts, particularly diverse contexts. Given demographic shifts and the need for educators to respond to growing diversity in schools, educators will find valuable strategies in Transformative Pedagogies in Teacher Education: Critical Action, Agency and Dialogue in Teaching and Learning Contexts they can implement in their own practice. In addition to valuable strategies, authors explore different approaches and perspectives in teacher education in the preparation of teacher candidates for a changing world. Critical notions of education are posited from different perspectives and locations. This book will be useful for schools, school boards and districts engaging in ongoing professional development of teachers. It will also be of value to school leaders and aspiring leaders in principal preparation programs as working with new teachers and teacher educators is an integral part of their role.




Leadership in Diverse Learning Contexts


Book Description

This book presents the outcomes of research and practical endeavour in some of the diverse contexts in which learning takes place: classrooms, schools, professional development settings, community projects and service sector agencies. It invites the reader to engage with two related questions of contemporary concern in the leadership field: "What can we learn about the important influence of different contexts on leadership practice and how are people brought together as collective human agents in different patterns of distributive leadership?" In doing so, this collection emphasises three of the critical concepts at play when leadership is viewed, not as position, but as activity. The three concepts are purpose, context and human agency. When this view of leadership is understood, it is always about achieving shared goals with people power, no matter the circumstances in which they are gathered together.




Practicing What We Teach


Book Description

This book provides new teachers with concepts and pedagogical strategies designed to enhance the unique and individual characteristics of an increasingly diverse student population.




Transforming Classroom Culture


Book Description

Transforming Classroom Culture is an anthology of original work authored by diverse faculty who work in a variety of New England college and university settings - private and public, racially homogeneous and diverse. The authors focus on institutional contexts that promote innovation in teaching practice, faculty identity as a resource for effective pedagogy, and dilemmas and outcomes of student-faculty engagement in the classroom.