Re Envisioning Family Engagement And Literacy In Early Childhood Classrooms

Families are resources that are extremely powerful and important for young learners from minoritized backgrounds, yet such families are often overlooked, silenced, or ostracized. This book presents a much-needed framework for family and community engagement in the early childhood and elementary literacy classroom that embraces and foregrounds students’ unique cultural backgrounds. This book spotlights the families of minoritized learners and the crucial role that they play in building dynamic and inspiring environments for learning. To re-envision the engagement of these families in the early childhood classroom, the book provides an accessible understanding of Yosso’s theory of community cultural wealth. Covering key topics such as children’s literature and digital tools, the book features strategies for implementing culturally responsive classroom practices to create positive home–school partnerships. Each chapter highlights one type of capital in community cultural wealth—aspirational, linguistic, familial, social, navigational, and resistant—and gives teachers guidance on working with and supporting the efforts of families both inside and outside of the classroom. This book is an essential resource to inform current and future early childhood educators on how to gain deeper understandings of what families—especially from Communities of Color—already are doing for the education of their children, and how best to support them.

At the heart of any discussion about the future of libraries is the future of librarians—and how well our instructional programs, especially the Master of Library Science (MLS) degree, prepare them for their careers. This book continues the critical conversations around preparing future librarians.

With increasing diversity and widening disparities in the United States and globally there are significant challenges and opportunities throughout the educational landscape. Today’s educational stakeholders, particulary public school administrators and teachers, must re- envision education and collectively build equity-centered systems, structures, and practices. Confronting systemic inequality in education can be a daunting task, but it is nonetheless imperative. Connecting theory to practice, this book aims to promote inclusive educational excellence, and will offer valuable insights and inspiration to a wide range of educational stakeholders. Affirming diversity and advancing social justice requires dismantling oppressive customs and structures inside and outside of the classroom, fostering an equitable school culture, building inclusive learning environments, and increasing collective efficacy though best practice. Creating healthier schools and communities requires authentically investing in and supporting historically and socially marginalized students and families. Rooted in social justice and weaving together diverse voices from the field of education, this edited volume will examine equity-focused pre-K–12 pedagogical practices and showcase high-impact initiatives. Educators play a vital role in ensuring positive student outcomes and success, but often report feeling inadequately prepared for current challenges. Unfortunately, growing challenges are contributing to turnover rates and shortages as well as perpetuating social inequities among pre-K–12 students instead of dismantling them. A research study by the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and the Learning Policy Institute (LPI) reveals that public schools with higher percentages of low-income students and students of color are more likely to experience administrative and teacher turnover, which compounds equity issues affecting already vulnerable students. This edited volume will provide educational stakeholders (i.e., school administrators, teachers, service providers, parents/guardians, nonprofit leaders, community members) with a deeper understanding of pedagogical practices that affirm diversity and promote social justice, while offering a current view of educational inequalities juxtaposed with an urgent call to action. School districts across the United States must recognize inequalities and provide increasingly diverse students with needed support and resources, particularly as social dispairties continue to widen and adversely impact millions of students. Through a collection of diverse voices from the field of education (university educators; pre-K–12 district leaders, schools administrators and teachers; Nonprofit leaders serving children and youth) this book will illuminate current social inequalities impacting pre-K–16 students, establish the need to affirm diversity and advance social justice, share practical examples of transformative initiatives including mindful school-family- community partnerships, feature evidence-based pedagogical practices, and provide an array of helpful resources for 21st century educational stakeholders.

(sponsored by the Family School Community Partnership Issues SIG) Promising Practices for Engaging Families in Literacy fulfills the need from parents and teachers to improve home/school assistance in every child’s literacy development. Literacy skills are required and valued in all academic areas and at all levels of education from preschool through adulthood. This volume provides suggestions and support to improve parent/child involvement in literacy activities from preschool through teacher education programs. Research is provided to undergird the documented practices that increase student academic achievement through improved literacy skills across academic areas. Practices include connections between home and school across age groups, developmental needs groups, universities, community groups, and technologies.

As it stands, there is currently a void in education literature in how to best prepare preservice teachers to meet the needs of individualized learners across multiple learning platforms, social/economical contexts, language variety, and special education needs. The subject is in dire need of support for the ongoing improvement of administrative, clinical, diagnostic, and instructional practices related to the learning process. The Handbook of Research on Reconceptualizing Preservice Teacher Preparation in Literacy Education stimulates the professional development of preservice and inservice literacy educators and researchers. This book also promotes the excellence in preservice and inservice literacy both nationally and internationally. Discussing topics such as virtual classrooms, critical literacy, and teacher preparation, this book serves as an ideal resource for tenure- track faculty in literacy education, clinical faculty, field supervisors who work with preservice teacher educators, community college faculty, university faculty who are in the midst of reconceptualizing undergraduate teacher education curriculum, mentor teachers working with preservice teachers, district personnel, researchers, students, and curricula developers who wish to understand the needs of preservice teacher education.

Working with parents and families can be a challenge, especially when there are contradicting expectations. However, it can also be a joyful and empowering experience for both the program and the family if partnering with families is built into the program’s culture. Following a strengths-based approach, Family Engagement in Early Childhood Settings offers all programs, including family child care, center-based and school-based programs, strategies for building or enhancing interactions, engagement, expectations, communication and participation with families. This Redleaf Quick Guide provides clear information of what to do as well as what not to do when encouraging family engagement in early care and education programs. Readers will find helpful information on making the best first impressions with parents in-person and online, establishing effective and supportive intake meetings for both parents and program, setting expectations from both perspectives, two-way communication strategies including daily conversations, verbal and technological methods, conferences and documenting learning, and creating a culture of family engagement embedded into every part of your program.

This book covers initiatives related to higher education’s public mission such as university-community engagement, knowledge transfer, economic development, and social responsibility, using empirical and conceptual cases in the US, South America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. In order to develop a better understanding of public mission initiatives in higher education across the globe, the volume editors developed a theoretical framework emerging from organizational theory. Each chapter analysis uses both external environmental elements (political, economic, sociocultural, and technological), as well as internal institutional elements (mission, vision, leadership, and governance). Finally, each chapter highlights issues related to implementation and challenges with the intent of prompting readers to consider appropriate ways in which to adopt some of the lessons learned by the contributing authors.Chapter 10 is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.m.

Well-educated populations are important aspects of any contemporary society, as education increases national and global development and the positive expansion of communities to participate actively in civil matters also increases. Educational equality is based on the principles of administrative competence and fairness of access and distribution of resources, opportunities, and treatment, which ensures success for every person. Ensuring equal access to quality education requires addressing a wide range of persistent inequalities in society and includes a stronger focus on how different forms of inequalities intersect to produce unequal opportunities or outcomes that affect marginalized and vulnerable groups. Policy and Practice Challenges for Equality in Education takes a multifaceted look at issues of equality and inequality in education as related to policy, practice, resource access, and distribution. As such, this book explores the potential practices in education that serve to mitigate and transform unproductive practices which have left societies scarred by social and educational inequalities. The chapters provide a critical analysis of the manifestations of inequalities in various educational contexts and discerns how broader social inequalities are informed by education-related matters. This book is ideal for sociologists, administrators, instructors, policymakers, data scientists, community leaders, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in educational equality and the unique challenges being faced worldwide.