Half an Inch from the Edge: Teacher Education, Teaching, and Student Learning for Social Transformation is a book about the tensions and opportunities reflected in today’s public school classrooms in the U.S. Through detailed case studies of four classrooms, the authors explore socially transformative pedagogy in action. The result is a narrative that intertwines a critical social analysis of our educational system with real-life examples from K-12 classrooms. The four teachers highlighted in the book are new, urban, socially-conscious educators of Color who strive to make their classrooms something new and something different—spaces where youth can learn about and express their own cultural identities as a part of the curriculum. These stories are told through the creation, implementation, analysis, and assessment of teachers’ action research projects as they complete their Masters degrees and begin their first years as full-time teachers. Central to each of the case studies—which span multiple grade levels and content areas—is a focus on self-reflection, a deep desire to build meaningful relationships with students, and a quest to make learning relevant to students’ lived experiences. Also painfully clear is the role of failure, and the tremendous creativity, ingenuity, and persistence of these new teachers, as they learn alongside their students and together fight the injustices inherent in their schools, districts, and the national system of education. Ultimately, the portraits of these teachers show that amidst all of the forces working against them and their students, there is hope—hope that the great experiment of American public education can transform into a system that serves all students.

International Education Inquiries is a book series dedicated to realizing the global vision of Education 2030. This vision involves “ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.” The founding editors seek to provide a forum for the diverse voices of scholars and practitioners from across the globe asking questions about transforming the vision of Education 2030 into a reality. Published chapters will reflect a variety of formats, free of methodological restrictions, involving disciplinary as well as interdisciplinary inquiries. We expect the series will be a leading forum for pioneers redefining the global discussion about the people, places and perspectives shaping Education 2030 outcomes. Education 2030 topics of interest include, but are not limited to, • Improving access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education; • Ensuring equal access for all women and men to affordable and quality education; • Increasing the number of youth and adults who have skills relevant for sustainable living and livelihoods; • Ensuring equal access for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations; • Achieving levels of literacy and numeracy required to engage in communities and employment; • Acquiring the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including: * Human right * Gender equality, * Promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, * Global citizenship education, * The appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contributions to sustainable development, • Providing safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all; • Recruiting, preparing, supporting, and retaining quality teachers.

For the vast majority of Native American students in federal Indian boarding schools at the turn of the twentieth century, the experience was nothing short of tragic. Dislocated from family and community, they were forced into an educational system that sought to erase their Indian identity as a means of acculturating them to white society. However, as historian John Gram reveals, some Indian communities on the edge of the American frontier had a much different experience—even influencing the type of education their children received. Shining a spotlight on Pueblo Indians’ interactions with school officials at the Albuquerque and Santa Fe Indian Schools, Gram examines two rare cases of off-reservation schools that were situated near the communities whose children they sought to assimilate. Far from the federal government’s reach and in competition with nearby Catholic schools for students, these Indian boarding school officials were in no position to make demands and instead were forced to pick their cultural battles with nearby Pueblo parents, who visited the schools regularly. As a result, Pueblo Indians were able to exercise their agency, influencing everything from classroom curriculum to school functions. As Gram reveals, they often mitigated the schools’ assimilation efforts and assured the various pueblos’ cultural, social, and economic survival. Greatly expanding our understanding of the Indian boarding school experience, Education at the Edge of Empire is grounded in previously overlooked archival material and student oral histories. The result is a groundbreaking examination that contributes to Native American, Western, and education histories, as well as to borderland and Southwest studies. It will appeal to anyone interested in knowing how some Native Americans were able to use the typically oppressive boarding school experience to their advantage.

Our current students are digital natives, born into a world of widespread online sharing. Aligning the technologies we use in our courses with their skills and approaches to collaborative learning is an opportunity we should take. The new media share text, images, audio and video material rapidly and interactively. This volume will provide an overview of these new social media including Skype, YouTube, Flickr, blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Examples and cases of how instructors around the world are meaningfully incorporating them into their management, marketing, and other business courses are provided. One of the more robust trends is the use of three-dimensional immersive virtual world interfaces for teaching and learning. The leading one is Second Life. Examples of the use of Second Life in business courses will be discussed. The use of wikis to foster collaborative development of course related material by learners will be presented with case examples. Faculty members are co-creators of course content with their learners. Among the topics covered is how faculty members can be supported in their deployment of social media projects and course structures. How social media can enable the structuring of course activities involving students, prospective students, alumni, employers, businesspersons, and others in rich sharing and support with each other will be discussed. Indeed seeing courses as networking venues beyond learning forums will be parsed.

This book, an inaugural publication from the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA), Teacher Education: Innovation, Intervention and Impact is both a product of, and seeks to contribute to, the changing global and political times in teacher education research. This book marks an historically significant shift in the collective work and outreach of the Australian Teacher Education Association (ATEA) as it endeavours to become an even more active contributor to a research-rich foundation for initial teacher education and to a research-informed teaching profession. The book showcases teacher education research and scholarship from a wide range of institutional collaborations across Australia. Studies highlight the multiple ways in which teacher education researchers are engaging with students, teachers, schools and communities to best prepare future teachers. It informs both teacher education policy and practice and is ‘a must read’ for those engaged in the education community. Above all it marks a shift for teacher educators to build a research rich teaching profession.

Examines the impact of Common Core State Standards on teaching and learning within elementary classrooms. Focusing on the influence that Common Core has on teacher education programs and how the implementation of educational technologies is continuously changing the field, this book is suited for teacher educators, researchers, administrators, classroom teachers, and policy makers.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teacher preparation programs modified their practices to fit the delivery modes of school districts while developing new ways to prepare candidates. Governmental agencies established new guidelines to fit the drastic shift in education caused by the pandemic, and P-12 school systems made accommodations to support teacher education candidates. The pandemic disrupted all established systems and norms; however, many practices and strategies emerged in educator preparation programs that will have a lasting positive impact on P-20 education and teacher education practices. Such practices include the reevaluation of schooling practices with shifts in engagement strategies, instructional approaches, technology utilization, and supporting students and their families. Redefining Teacher Education and Teacher Preparation Programs in the Post-COVID-19 Era provides relevant, innovative practices implemented across teacher education programs and P-20 settings, including delivery models; training procedures; theoretical frameworks; district policies and guidelines; state, national, and international standards; digital design and delivery of content; and the latest empirical research findings on the state of teacher education preparation. The book showcases best practices used to shape and redefine teacher education through the COVID-19 pandemic. Covering topics such as online teaching practices, simulated teaching experiences, and emotional learning, this text is essential for preservice professionals, paraprofessionals, administrators, P-12 faculty, education preparation program designers, principals, superintendents, researchers, students, and academicians.