Our Books - Ideas That Shape Scholarship

For years, the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) has called for colleges and universities to implement high-impact practices (HIPs), or educational procedures that provide significant academic advantages to students. 'High Impact & Experiential Learning as Enhancing Quality on Campus' provides examples of such strategies from thirteen colleges and universities as they have been applied in the classroom and in service of each featured college and university’s mission statement and quality enhancement plan. Each institution included in this collection has committed to some such project or initiative (in some cases, the commitment goes back multiple decades), and each reflects the diversity of contemporary higher education in the United States. Public and private, small and large, selective and open access, religiously affiliated and non-sectarian, are all included here. The institutions provide a variety of creative examples of implementing experiential learning and the myriad HIPs as identified by the AAC&U, including: Capstone Courses and Projects, ePortfolios, First-Year Seminars and Experiences, Service Learning/Community-Based Learning and Undergraduate Research. Each chapter is framed around the project’s scope and significance, a clear expression of the purpose of the project, evidence of the institution’s commitment and capacity for the effort and how the project is aligned with stated goals and institutional priorities. Drawing from fields as broad as sociology, psychology, the humanities, and environmental sciences and studies, 'High Impact & Experiential Learning as Enhancing Quality on Campus' appeals to multiple classrooms and institutional goals. Given the expanded interest in experiential learning/HIPs in higher education over the past two decades, this first-of-its-kind collection offers a roadmap for faculty and administrators to implement the practices outlined in each chapter in service of students’ learning and their larger institutional goals.

'Uncovering Possible: Pedagogies for Apocalyptic Times' is an edited volume that holds our experiences as educators, activists, and community members navigating the global pandemic of the past several years. This pandemic is situated within the context of ongoing interconnected crises: oppressive systems, worsening climate, and economic urgency, all at an unsustainable pace. The work in this volume confronts the grief, loss, and injustice that apocalypse brings, while also engaging with the possibility and intentional, resilient joy necessary to build a better world. This volume is an invitation to explore both the impacts of this and many other apocalyptic events in learning spaces, as well as (re)imagine what’s essential to learning in community. Through research, storytelling, reflections from the field, poetry, and interactive activities, this volume shares lessons from those on the front lines of apocalyptic learning, inviting the reader to find their place in building the more equitable communities we need and deserve. This apocalypse is situated within a social context that extends beyond this single event. For many, apocalypse has, and continues to happen, through colonial white-supremacist capitalism. What we carry forward must include the collective knowledges capable of carrying us not just through this apocalypse but the apocalypses ahead.

Within sociocultural traditions, language, dialogue, and social literacies play an institutional role in learning and human development. Discourse practices, however, go far beyond the traditional focus of using speaking and listening to support the learning of content knowledge. Teacher discourse practices ought to promote critical literacies and linguistic practices, and promote anti-racism and social and environmental justice. Classroom discourse, however, is missing from teacher education programs on a large scale in these significant ways. Teacher educators need to understand the social and political policies, pedagogical role, and multitude of practices for helping pre-service teachers and teacher practitioners learn to acquire and facilitate quality discursive practices in K-12 schools and understand related pedagogy. This book, ‘Cultivating Dialogue, Language, and Literacy for Social Justice in Teacher Education’, offers a variety of models for integrating discourse practices and pedagogies into the field of teacher education, including pre-service teaching, professional development, and even critiques on policy and subsequent affordances and consequences that inhibit or promote the quality of teacher discourse and the purposes for which teachers utilize classroom discourse. I would recommend this book for teacher education programs as well as professional developers who work with pre- and in-service teachers. Additionally, I recommend this book for researchers committed not only to classroom discourse analysis, but to promote speaking and listening among teachers and students in ways that enhance learning and development.

Community-engaged (CE) teaching is not a new concept. However, in the past several years, it has gained increased emphasis, as is evident by the changes to institution mission statements and the allocation of institution resources to support faculty development in CE teaching, as well as to support CE coursework and research. The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic forced many faculty members to pivot to an all-online instruction model, impacting community-engaged teaching and research in both predictable and unexpected ways. Community partners, facing similar struggles to serve their communities with restrictions on face-to-face interaction, were often too overwhelmed to work with higher education volunteers. Legally, universities could not ask students to risk their health with face- to-face community engagement. In fact, the number of CE courses decreased dramatically in 2020 and 2021 due to the unique challenges posed by the pandemic. At the same time, the pandemic presented some CE faculty with new opportunities for community-engagement. Some responded swiftly to the immediate needs of the local, regional, or national community with which they worked, taking advantage of the affordances of digital technology or capitalizing on the issues that the pandemic itself created or exacerbated. This collection captures the incredible work (of pivoting and innovating) in community-engaged teaching. With a primary focus on community-engaged teaching in higher education, this collection explores how faculty, students, and community partners navigated their work during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, it raises important questions about how we might stay engaged with community during a crisis.

When trying to figure out a solution to a problem, wouldn’t you involve in the process those affected by the issue? For the longest time, education research didn’t —the voices of those most affected by educational disparities and inequities were not part of the solution to the very issues which they faced. By including students’ and youth’s perspectives, education researchers can now begin to identify and understand the issues that pervade students’ contexts under a more nuanced light, and thus, embrace the notion that students and youth are not passive recipients of change, but rightful architects of the solutions to the critical challenges affecting them. This edited volume aims to showcase the value that can be created by amplifying the voices of marginalized and minoritized students and youth, and examining their experiences through various qualitative methods. The chapters in this volume include projects conducted in different settings and countries and address important issues concerning students and youth, including post-secondary education, special education, learning disabilities, the juvenile justice system, among others. This volume is for you if you are interested in equity and education research and it will serve you as a reference for research that has actively and consciously included student and youth voices. Whether it be through instruction, research or policy, this volume aims to inspire you to put in motion the work that remains to be done, so that we can provide all students and youth, regardless of their characteristics and context, with the specific resources they need to thrive in their personal and academic journeys.

As the world turns toward increased cultural and commercial integration, it is not clear that humanities programs are sufficiently equipped to engage a global turn in higher education. Furthermore, though “global engagement” has emerged as a buzzword with cache across campus and community organizational missions, the current humanities canon may likewise be ill-equipped to meet the moment. Accordingly, the chapters contained in this volume, which reflect a richly global diversity of authors, themes, and disciplines, critically examine structures that determine the what and how of humanities dissemination worldwide, including technological innovation as well as the dominance of English (-translated) works in the curriculum and the global humanities market. Additionally, we examine blendings of the local and the global, the particular and the universal, the many faces of the cultural other, and possibilities for un-othering in humanities arts and letters, curriculum, and pedagogies.

The idea of “Asia” is contested in the literature as a concept in terms of unification in any sense e.g., regionally, economically, and politically (see Duara [1995] 2019; Acharya, 2010), which makes a book of this nature challenging. The use of inclusion and diversity as a lens of discovery is not only synchronically topical but provides an important outlet for unheard voices and marginalized perspectives otherwise silenced or ignored in education and Asian literature. The lens by which the book is written combines multiple streams of diversity and inclusion with that of K-12 and higher education in an Asian context, and it allows room for individual Asian voices and perspectives both in and outside the classroom. Inspired by a panel presented at the 2021 New York Conference on Asian Studies (NYCAS) on the very topic of inclusivity and diversity in Asian education, the book broadened the original focus from the COVID-centered to one that allowed the exploration of a wider geographic area and cultural area as well as new subjects. Moreover, our text includes a focus on individuals with disabilities, multicultural education, and cross-disciplinary efforts across cultures. This book covers broader topics regarding inclusivity and diversity in education from multiple Asian perspectives and ranges from various educational levels (that is, elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions), different school settings (that is, public and private schools), and a variety of Asian countries and areas (that is, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, and Taiwan). This book gives a well-rounded representation of the issues through theoretical focus, practical applications, and research studies, contributed by authors from various international institutions and countries or countries of origin, including Bangladesh, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, and the United States.

'Style, Meaning and Pedagogy' can be useful to students and researchers of different backgrounds; it can assist them to deeply fathom literary and non-literary texts and scaffold their critical thinking when approaching human language like poems, headlines, blurbs or paintings. Admittedly, the print and visual texts chosen in the book were produced in the 14th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. Whereas some of them are up-to-date and timely as they tap upon the emotions of the last pandemic (i.e., “And the People Stayed Home”), others: - Provide a profound view of peace and fellowship (i.e., “Abou Ben Adhem”); - Introduce a description of the system of etiquette followed in 1918 (i.e., “Manners”); - Unravel the dichotomy of face and beauty (i.e., “Memory”); - Examine the dialectical relationship between rhetoric and metaphors (i.e., “How Do I Love Thee?”); - Stress the power of art and pedagogy in the medieval age (i.e., “Laurentius de Voltolina’s Painting”); - Revisit dialogism and intertextuality in Afro-American Literature (i.e., “Dreams”); - Stimulate students’ critical reflections (i.e., “Poem in Your Pocket”); - Showcase the informative and persuasive dimension of media discourse (i.e., “The NYT”); - Bring to the fore reader-response theory and positive self-talk (i.e., “Thinking”). The book is a gem for students pursuing their English Studies in Higher Education. It is a rich resource for novice researchers and university professors teaching courses such as Literary Linguistics, Discourse Analysis, Literary Criticism, Poetry, Rhetoric, to mention but a handful. With an exhaustive list of readings and references, insightful methodology and signposts for critical reflections, 'Style, Meaning and Pedagogy' proffers you a chance to question the textual and semiotic selections people dwell on to produce their own texts. And with the short tasks and exercises at the end of each chapter, you will be able to savour and simultaneously retain much of the invaluable input prepared just for you.

‘Global Perspectives on Online Education During a Time of Emergency’ presents viewpoints on the unprecedented shift to online education as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to broaden and deepen readers’ understanding of studies that could better address academic issues related to teaching and learning online. The pandemic triggered the disruption of national educational systems and a rapid transition to online education, but there were few guidelines on how to proceed. Consequently, the role of educational technologies and distinctions between formal and informal learning became blurred (Greenhow & Lewin, 2016). This volume examines how educators adopted new pedagogical practices, adapted to flexible working environments, and tackled new technologies to maintain educational systems following the global outbreak of the coronavirus. It showcases innovative practices and critiques several learning theories of online education. The chapters are developed using two main approaches: empirical investigations and reviews of existing research. The empirical chapters present significant new findings of broad relevance. The review chapters use established studies to describe recent developments of broad significance and highlight unresolved questions and future directions. The volume, as a whole, provides research-based insights on evidence on the contexts and conditions of the emergency transition to online education worldwide and useful recommendations on emergent directions in online education. This is a vital text for educational researchers, technologists, and practitioners. It includes empirical data, theoretical questions, and methodological approaches addressing online education. The volume explores flexible learning, alternative pedagogical practices, and changes in digital environments, examining futuristic approaches at a crucial moment of global reform in online education.