Writings & Talks

As countries become increasingly interdependent, student populations in the United States are becoming more culturally diverse. These students’ transnational perspectives present significant challenges to teachers, but a disconnect exists between the skills teachers need and those provided to them by colleges of education. As teacher preparation programs continue to cater to historic models of diversity, the programs show a glaring lack of recognition for the recent changes in school and community populations.

Internationalizing Teacher Education in the United States examines the impact of globalization on teacher education in the United States, explains the current barriers to teacher education becoming more internationally minded, and presents possible solutions for teacher education programs to consider. Other books address the multi-national challenges faced by American education in the 21st century, but this book takes it one step further, offering teacher educators practical and theoretical explorations of their vital role in the education of contemporary student populations in the United States.

This book is about teacher agency and leadership, but it is also an experiment in shifting the balance of power in research and writing. It is about making accessible the process of academic publishing in a way that capitalizes on the knowledge of people in diverse contexts and with novice eyes and is an experiment in sharing academic writing between master teachers and doctoral students. It is also a book on the power of action research and the belief we have as teacher educators about the transformative power of teachers in their own classrooms. Pairing master teachers from ten countries who were part of the Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program with graduate students, this book provides a framework to decolonize research practices in an effort to re-envision research methodologies on a global scale. The book also provides a tangible way to see how research processes support local transformation, and direct engagement of those at the margins to play a greater role in the production of scholarly knowledge. The cross-national scope of this book, with authors working in classrooms in countries as diverse as Turkey, Chile, and Bangladesh coupled work of novice US-based scholars to engage in the conceptualizing, researching, data analysis and writing of chapters speaks to the importance of new voices in the field of research. Additionally, the combination of teacher research projects in the classroom juxtaposed with chapters that speak to the process of teacher research in a global context provides both theoretical and empirical foundations for teacher research.

While many initial education benchmarks are being met, new and continuing challenges exist for adolescent girls in the developing world. Discrimination, violence, marginalization, and health-related issues prevail, making proper education at the middle school level crucial during this unique development time. As we continue to see the expectations for girls grow, education for girls must also find a new place within the evolving norms of political, economic, cultural and social life.

This volume takes a global look at the obstacles and enablers in girls’ education that can have lasting institutional, psychological and social consequences. It looks at many complex issues affecting education for adolescent girls around the world, including the underlying global demands for women in the formal workforce and the universal impact of gender-based violence, and provides a critical framework through which researchers may explore and critique these complexities.

A series of conceptual and empirical chapters critically explore the nature and consequences of the dominant onto-epistemological, methodological, and ethical orientations characterizing CIE research and practice, and suggest possibilities for change.