Lifescaping Practices in School Communities is a guide for school administrators and helping professionals (school counselors, school psychologists, school social workers, and other stakeholders) looking to promote relational wellness and student success in their school. This informative new resource will introduce readers to an ecological approach by using action research and appreciative inquiry to guide and engage school-wide change. Also offered are first-hand models of conceptual lifescaping projects using action research and appreciative inquiry by first-time practitioners from different school communities.

Showcases the latest theory and application of social construction across a range of disciplines with a focus on real-world practice in addition to theoretical work, thus making it useful for advanced students, scholars, and practitioners alike.

This comprehensive text, written by experts in each topical area, provides research-based approaches designed for work with youth in the difficult transition from adolescence to adulthood. Developmental in its orientation, the text moves from population definition and identification, to causal factors and issues most often identified with placing youth at risk, to a prevention–intervention paradigm specifically created for teens. Illustrative case studies and enlightening sidebars enhance reader self-awareness, promote self-study and skill development, and aid in the comprehension of the concepts and applications of chapter material. Complimentary PowerPoint slides, test banks, and instructional activities are available for instructors' use by request to ACA. *Requests for digital versions from ACA can be found on www.wiley.com *To request print copies, please visit the ACA https://imis.counseling.org/store/detail *Reproduction requests for material from books published by ACA should be directed to publications@counseling.org

Measurement-based assessment has dominated our educational systems at the expense of the learning and the well-being of students and teachers. In this book, Gergen and Gill propose a radical alternative to this broken system, which is based instead on an inspirational conception of schools as sites of collective meaning-making and a relational orientation to evaluation. The authors acknowledge that it is within the process of relating that the world comes to be meaningful for us, and equally, learning and well-being are embedded in relational process, which testing and grades undermine. Providing detailed illustrations using cases from pioneering schools around the globe at both the primary and secondary level, this book demonstrates how a relational orientation to evaluation in education can enhance learning processes, foster students' engagement, vitalize relationships, and elevate the evaluation of teaching and the school as a whole. Featuring collaborative learning, dialogic pedagogy, and flexible curricula, relational evaluation truly speaks to the demands of a rapidly changing world.

Comprehensive overview of the theoretical, conceptual, and applied/practical presentations of action research as it is found and conducted solely in educational settings The Wiley Handbook of Action Research in Education is the first book to offer theoretical, conceptual, and applied/practical presentations of action research as it is found and conducted solely in educational settings. Covering primarily PK-12 educational settings, the book utilizes a cross-section of international authors and presentations to provide global perspectives on action research in education. Part I of The Wiley Handbook of Action Research in Education focuses on various foundational aspects and issues related to action research. Part II is centered on chapters that present theories and principles that help to guide the use of action research in educational contexts. Part III focuses on specific applications of educational action research in practice. Part IV provides an outlet for seven educational practitioners to share their experiences in conducting action research. Each of these authors also discusses the importance and value that action research has had on him or her, both professionally and personally. Discuss action research in PK-12, as well as in higher education settings The first book to focus on the importance and application of action research exclusively in educational settings Offers world perspectives on action research in education Written by a team of international scholars The Wiley Handbook of Action Research in Education is an excellent book for advanced undergraduate students, graduate students, and scholars studying and/or researching educational action research.

National and international teacher education organizations and scholars have called for an increased emphasis on clinical practice in educator preparation programs. These recommendations include specific efforts to increase the duration, diversity, and quality of experiences that teacher candidates engage in during their time in P-12 schools while earning their teaching license. This book includes a robust set of chapters that include conceptual, theoretical, and empirical chapters related to innovative approaches in clinical practice in educator preparation. Authors include teacher educators from around the United States and Canada from a variety of types of higher education institutions. The book provides readers with examples, evidence, and ideas to thoughtfully consider their future direction in examining, planning, and implementing clinical practice experiences for teacher candidates.

Inclusive education has been phased into South Africa since 2001 but relies heavily upon adequate support services to support learners and teachers experiencing barriers to learning and development. This book focuses on the different levels of support provided in South African education – from School-based Support Teams to District-based Support Teams through to special and full-service schools, and how these could be reconceptualised to provide improved support to learners and teachers. Current research indicates that inclusive education is being implemented in varied and fragmented forms across the country, and the point of departure of this work is that education support services need to be improved and reconceptualised to ensure better support for inclusive education.

This book examines some of the most important challenges facing administrators and other professionals in PreK-12 schools today: safety and security, hiring and evaluating members of the faculty and staff, dealing with students’ academic and behavioral challenges, assessing student performance, responding to disengaged or overly engaged parents, and handling external pressures from the community. It also explores ideas for how to design the types of school our students will need in the future and cope with the realities of trying to develop these schools in a difficult educational environment. Preferring practical advice over unsupported hypotheses and adopting clear, instructive language rather than educational jargon, the authors draw upon their own experience as well as some of the best research currently being conducted in the field of educational leadership. The book is suitable for self-study, workshops, education courses, and in-serve programs. The target audience is current and prospective PreK-12 administrators, teachers, student teachers, and staff.

Social constructivism is one of the most prominent theoretical approaches in the social sciences. This volume celebrates the 50th anniversary of its first formulation in Peter Berger and Luckmann’s classic foundational text, The Social Construction of Reality. Addressing the work’s contribution to establishing social constructivism as a paradigm and discussing its potential for current questions in social theory, the contributing authors indicate the various cultural understandings and theoretical formulations that exist of social construction, its different fields of research and the promising new directions for future research that it presents in its most recent developments. A study of the importance of a work that established a paradigm in the international sociology of knowledge, this book will appeal to scholars of sociology with interests in social theory, the history of the social sciences and the significance of social constructivism.