Arnetha F. Ball

Cynthia A. Tyson

Studying diversity in teacher education

Ted Lardner

This pioneering study of African American students in the composition classroom lays the groundwork for reversing the cycle of underachievement that plagues linguistically diverse students. African American Literacies Unleashed: Vernacular English and the Composition Classroom approaches the issue of African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in terms of teacher knowledge and prevailing attitudes, and it attempts to change current pedagogical approaches with a highly readable combination of traditional academic discourse and personal narratives. Realizing that composition is a particular form of social practice that validates some students and excludes others, Arnetha Ball and Ted Lardner acknowledge that many African American students come to writing and composition classrooms with talents that are not appreciated. To empower and inform practitioners, administrators, teacher educators, and researchers, Ball and Lardner provide knowledge and strategies that will help unleash the potential of African American students and help them imagine new possibilities for their successes as writers. African American Literacies Unleashed asserts that necessary changes in theory and practice can be addressed by refocusing attention from teachers’ knowledge deficits to the processes through which teachers engage information relevant to culturally informed pedagogy. Providing strategies for unlearning racism in the classroom and changing the status quo, this volume stresses the development and maintenance of a real sense of teaching efficacy— teachers’ beliefs in their abilities to connect with and work effectively with all students— and reflective optimism— teachers’ informed expectations that all students have the potential to succeed.

Vernacular English and the Composition Classroom

African American Literacies Unleashed

Rocio Garcia-Carrion

Roseli Rodrigues De Mello

Educational inequalities have strongly impacted disadvantaged and underservedpopulations such us indigenous, Roma, migrant children, students with disabilities,and those affected by poverty. A wide array of research has contributed toexplaining the mechanisms and effects of inequalities in the achievement patterns,dropout rates, disengagement in the school experiences of children and youthtraditionally excluded. Research also suggests the negative consequences for childdevelopment – including cognitive, language, and social–emotional functioning – ofpoverty and lack of quality education in the early years. Consequently, the currentunequal access to optimal learning environments for every single child to succeedin education and to have a better life perpetuates the exclusion and neglects theright to education for those minorities. This Research Topic aims at moving beyondcauses and shed light upon effective solutions by providing successful pathways forintegration and inclusion of the learners most heavily affected. Scholars worldwide are looking for successful actions with children, youth, andcommunities of learners historically underserved to overcome educational andsocial exclusion. These transformative approaches go beyond the deficit thinkingand are grounded in theories, empirical evidence, and multidisciplinary interventionsoriented towards achieving social impact, which refers to the extent to which thoseactions have contributed to improve a societal challenge. The international networkof “Schools as Learning Communities” is advancing knowledge on deepening andexpanding the impact of what has been defined as Successful Educational Actions(SEAs); that is, those interventions that improve students’ achievement and socialcohesion and inclusion in many diverse contexts, regardless the socioeconomic,national, and cultural environment of schools. Drawing on the evidence generated by this network of researchers to address the globalchallenge of inequality by studying educational actions oriented towards achievingsocial impact and potentially transferrable to other contexts, this Research Topic aimsat deepening on this approach. In short, our purpose is that the contributions includedin this Research Topic contribute to reduce educational and social inequalities andespecially benefit those populations most in need.

Overcoming Inequalities in Schools and Learning Communities: Innovative Education for a New Century

Studying Diversity in Teacher Education is a collaborative effort by experts seeking to elucidate one of the most important issues facing education today. The contributors address historically persistent issues such as understanding how to teach diversity, while also providing research and case studies on how the issues are being resolved. Concluding the volume with an agenda for future research, Studying Diversity in Teacher Education is a necessary resource for all educators.

Studying Diversity in Teacher Education

Sarah Warshauer Freedman

Roy Pea

Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language, Literacy, and Learning

Arnetha F. Ball

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