Transformative Schooling

Discussions of achievement gaps are commonplace in education reform, but they are rarely interrogated as a symptom of white supremacy. As an act of disruption, award-winning scholar Vajra Watson pierces through the rhetoric and provides a provocative analysis of the ways schools can become more racially inclusive. Her research is grounded in Oakland where longitudinal data demonstrated that Black families were sending their children to school, but the ideals of an oasis of learning were being met with the realities of racism, low expectations, and marginalization. As a response to this intergenerational crisis of miseducation, in 2010, the school district joined forces with community organizers, religious leaders, neighborhood elders, teachers, parents, and students to address institutionalized racism. Seven years later, Watson shares findings from her investigation into the school district’s journey towards justice. What she creates is a wholly original work, filled with penetrating portraits that illuminate the intense and intimate complexities of working towards racial equity in education. As a formidable case study, this research scrutinizes how to reconfigure organizational ecosystems as spaces that humanize, heal, and harmonize. Emerging from her scholarship is a bold, timely, and hopeful vision that paves the way for transformative schooling.

In the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world of education today, leaders need to take an engaged, activist, and courageous approach to help build optimistic futures for all students. Transformative Leadership in Education presents an alternative approach to leadership for deep and equitable change. Using vignettes, stories, research, and drawing on scholarship from a range of disciplines, noted scholar Carolyn M. Shields explores the concept of transformative leadership and its potential to create learning environments that are just and inclusive. Drawing on examples from transformative school leaders, Shields demonstrates that this leadership can promote academic achievement, family and community empowerment, democratic engagement, and global citizenship. Special features include: End-of-chapter guiding questions to help readers reflect on their own practice and to apply the concepts in their own contexts Vignettes and stories from students, teachers, and community members illustrate how transformative leadership can promote academic achievement and democratic engagement A robust companion website with extra resources, video and audio clips, and an author blog to further understanding and lead to sustained action toward the goals of transformative leadership. This exciting text will appeal to all aspiring and practicing leaders who want to prepare students to be successful, caring, and engaged citizens of the global community.

This edited volume brings to the foreground the inequities of contemporary schooling in Canada. The editors and authors perform a critical examination of the Canadian schooling space, highlighting the agency and action of marginalized communities and their efforts to address injustice within contexts of schooling. Grounded in the unique perspective of each author, this book provides a venue for transformative practice to create inclusive and socially just contexts for diverse populations, specifically as experienced by peoples who inhabit the intersections of various modes of oppression.

Transformative Education for the Second Renaissance follows educator John PW Hudson through a personal and professional journey that led him to respond to what he sees as underlying fissures in the bedrock of educational practice. At the height of his career, he was seconded by the Richmond (BC Canada) school district to teach a demonstration class in the Nanashan Xian Middle School in Shenzhen, China, at the request of the school, and philanthropists Joe and Margaret Li, initiators of the project and sponsors. His assignment was to demonstrate and explain Western teaching methods to educators and other interested parties including university students and their professors from various parts of China, local and national education officials, teachers at the Nanshan Xian middle school (where he lived and taught for two years), and civic officials as well. Most days a television camera was in the room, and several adults sitting watching. Throughout his career, Hudson was intensely interested in how children learn, how and why they thrive or fail, educational philosophy, and how educational infrastructures and practices impact learners and professionals alike. After teaching Music, English and business education for twenty years at the junior high school level, Hudson turned his sights to the elementary level and taught intermediate classroom for the last thirteen years before going to China. All of these experiences left him with lingering questions which came into sharp focus in China, where traditional practices are entrenched. Primarily, Transformative Education for the Second Renaissance explores history, philosophy, research, politics and real human stories to encapsulate the driving forces of education that need adjustment, particularly assessment. Hudson describes the transition from analog to digital as the Second Renaissance, and how findings in brain research characterize how our understanding of learning has changed in modern practice from transmissive to transformative. Not a traditional academic treatise, Hudson’s book reads more like a coffee shop discussion, but the reasoning and conclusions will resonate with experienced educators. Hudson’s goal is to kick-start discussion about the changes he proposes, and frame a narrative to move education into our rapidly changing educational landscape. This is not a book on methods; it is a foundational work that Hudson hopes will lead to lively discussion and critical debate.

Various pedagogies, such as the use of digital learning in education, have been used and researched for decades, but many schools have little to show for these initiatives. This contrasts starkly with technology-supported initiatives in other fields such as business and healthcare. Traditional pedagogies and general digital technology applications have yet to impact education in a significant way that transforms learning. A primary reason for this minimal impact on learning is that digital technologies have attempted to make traditional instructional processes more efficient rather than using a more appropriate paradigm for learning. As such, it is important to look at digital technology as a partner and use transformative applications to become partners with students (not teachers) to empower their learning process both in and out of school. The Handbook of Research on Transformative and Innovative Pedagogies in Education is a comprehensive reference that identifies and justifies the paradigm of transformative learning and pedagogies in education. It provides exemplars of existing transformative applications that, if used as partners to empower student learning, have the potential to dramatically engage students in a type of learning that better fits 21st century learners. Covering topics such as gamification, project-based learning, and professional development, this major reference work is an essential resource for pre-service and in-service teachers, educational technologists, instructional designers, educational administration and faculty, researchers, and academicians seeking pedagogical models that inspire students to learn meaningfully.

The leading authorities in the field produced this comprehensive resource, which provides strategies and methods for fostering Transformative Learning (TL) practice in a wide variety of higher and adult education settings. The book answers relevant questions such as: What are effective practices for promoting TL in the classroom? What is it about TL that is most helpful in informing practice? How does the teaching setting shape the practice of TL? What are the successes, strengths, and outcomes of fostering TL? What are the risks and challenges when practicing TL in the classroom?

Foster reflective teacher leadership and make real change happen! Teachers are powerful change agents in the on-going process of school improvement. This insightful, must-read companion guide to Donohoo’s best-selling Collaborative Inquiry for Educators helps school leaders develop a sustainable professional learning culture. Practical suggestions and in-depth research shed light on your path as you explore the benefits and challenges of adopting authentic teacher collaboration across schools and districts. Learn valuable lessons from leaders in the field and discover: A rationale and framework for engaging in inquiry The vital conditions needed to ensure systemwide collaboration Common pitfalls and the four stages of school improvement

A 2022 SPE Outstanding Book Honorable Mention Our society urgently needs education that motivates, challenges, engages, and affirms all students. No matter their previous successes or failures, every student has enormous learning potential and important contributions to make now and in the future. Such meaningful learning experiences don't just happen, they need to be intentionally designed. This book supports those who will undertake this vitally important work. Learning that Matters: A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education is a pragmatic resource for designing courses that engage college students as active citizens. This "work" book provides research-informed approaches for creating learning experiences and developing innovative, intellectually-engaging courses. Whether a novice or a veteran, by engaging with the text, collaborating with colleagues, and reflecting on the important work of a teacher, any motivated educator can become a transformative educator. Every college course has the potential to transform students' lives. Through implementation of critical concepts such as connected and authentic assessments; dilemmas, issues, and questions; portable thinking skills and engaging strategies; and a purposeful focus on inclusivity and equity, readers begin the process of change needed for preparing students who will be able to address the monumental challenges facing our society. Click HERE to watch the book launch. Click HERE to hear the authors discuss their book. Perfect for courses such as: Education Curriculum and Instruction | Design for Transformative Learning | An Introduction to Evidence-based Undergraduate Teaching | New Faculty Orientations | Freshman Seminar Faculty Trainings | Center for Teaching & Learning | Workshops in Course Design