The latest resource from esteemed early childhood authors Margie Carter and Deb Curtis, and introducing Wendy Cividanes and Debbie Lebo.

Reflecting on Practice for STEM Educators is a guidebook to lead a professional learning program for educators working in STEM learning environments. Making research on the science of human learning accessible to educational professionals around the world, this book shows educators how to relate this research to their own practice. Educators’ collective work broadens the scope of an organization’s reach, and through this effort, the organization grows its social capital in its local community and beyond. This book offers opportunities to engage in processes that lead toward organizational learning by attending to the professional growth of the educators. Tran and Halversen show how learning together can shape the language and meanings by which educators do and talk about their work to support visitors’ experiences. The book provides guidance on how teams of educators can build community as they engage in reflective practice. Reflecting on Practice for STEM Educators will be essential reading for leaders of any organization that aims to educate and engage the public in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It will be particularly useful to educators who work in museums, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, youth organizations, after-school programs, and nature, science, and conservation centres.

This book presents a theory of learning that starts with the assumption that engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which we get to know what we know and by which we become who we are. The primary unit of analysis of this process is neither the individual nor social institutions, but the informal 'communities of practice' that people form as they pursue shared enterprises over time. To give a social account of learning, the theory explores in a systematic way the intersection of issues of community, social practice, meaning, and identity. The result is a broad framework for thinking about learning as a process of social participation. This ambitious but thoroughly accessible framework has relevance for the practitioner as well as the theoretician, presented with all the breadth, depth, and rigor necessary to address such a complex and yet profoundly human topic.

Reflecting contemporary theory and research in early art education, this volume offers a comprehensive introduction to new ways of thinking about the place of art, play, and aesthetics in the lives and education of young children. Enlivened by narratives and illustrations, 16 authors offer perspectives on the lived experience of being a child and discovering the excitement of making meaning and form in the process of art, play, and aesthetic inquiry.

Aimed at museum educators, Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today seeks to marry museum and multicultural education theories. It reveals how the union of these theories yields more equitable educational practices and guides museum educators to address misrepresentation, exclusivity, accessibility, and educational inequality. This contemporary text is directive; it encourages museum educators to consider the critical multicultural education theoretical framework in their day-to-day functions in order to illuminate and combat shortcomings at the crux of museum education: Museum Educators as Change Agents Inclusion versus Exclusion Collaboration with Diverse Audiences Responsive Pedagogy This book adopts a broad definition of multiculturalism, which names not only race and ethnicity as concerns, but also gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, age, and class. While focusing on these various facets of identity, the authors demonstrate how museums are social systems that should offer comprehensive, diverse educational experiences not only through exhibitions but through other educational activities. The authors pull from their own research and practical experiences which exemplify how museums have been and can be attentive to these areas of identity. Multiculturalism in Art Museums Today is hopeful and inspiring, as it identifies and commends the positive and effective practices that some museum educators have enacted in an effort to be inclusive. Museum educators are at the front-line interacting with the public on a daily basis. Thus, these educators can be the real vanguard of change, modeling critical multicultural behavior and practices.

Increasingly students and practitioners in human services are asked or seek to include community engagement, participation and capacity building in their work with groups. In this book expert authors Amanda Howard and Margot Rawsthorne provide guidance on the theory and practice of working with communities, from preliminary planning and scoping before direct work with the community begins, through to evaluation. They explore key issues including developing an understanding of community life, facilitating and supporting community action, understanding and acting on structural inequity, managing negotiation and conflict, and building productive networks. They draw extensively on their own work with communities and research to create a dialogue with the reader on the interaction of task and process in everyday community practice. Written in a friendly and accessible style and featuring the voices of community workers throughout, this is a vital guide for anyone seeking to encourage positive change in an important field of practice. 'This is a splendid addition to the community work literature, offering wise and judicious guidance for those engaged knee-deep in community practice ... it acknowledges that the increasing emphasis on individualised service options has too often led to the neglect of understanding the benefits of collective action within diverse and dynamic communities.' - Dr Winsome Roberts, Honorary Senior Fellow, Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne