Despite the ever-changing demographics of the United States and decisions made by the Supreme Court, racial tensions and turmoil continue to affect daily life in a multitude of environments. In educational environments, advancements in teaching technologies, in conjunction with these tensions, require a cooperation between parents and school personnel to promote student success. Social Justice and Parent Partnerships in Multicultural Education Contexts is a critical scholarly resource that explores the importance of cooperation between parents, teachers, and administrators to create valuable support systems that will promote student success through strategies using social justice. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics, such as parent collaboration, bilingualism, and community-based partnerships, this book is geared toward academicians, researchers, and teachers seeking current research on the importance of cooperation between parents and education professionals in encouraging positive student outcomes in multicultural learning environments.

"This book explores the pedagogies, strategies, and practical hands-on methods that teachers and administrators may use to develop stronger parent partnerships using social justice. It defines social justice as it relates to multicultural families and the intercultural dynamics that hinder or propel their success in U.S. schools. It examines the nexus of family, school and community relationships"--

One of the most significant dimensions of gender studies is that it is political. It raises questions about power in society and how and why power is differentially distributed between different genders. It asks questions about who has power over whom, in which situations, how power is exercised, and how it is, and can be, challenged. Different theories and perspectives within gender studies have different approaches to these questions and look for answers in different social processes. Many debates are on-going, as new data is revealed and new theories are put forth. Understanding Gender in the African Context is a scholarly reference that explores the complexities of the ideologies and social patterns that contribute to the field of gender studies. Featuring a range of topics such as human rights, feminism, and social media, this book is ideal for policymakers, sociologists, social scientists, civil society organizations, government officials, academicians, researchers, and students.

Recent research suggests that good relationships between parents and their children’s providers or teachers could lead to positive outcomes for children and families. Positive, mutually respectful, and collaborative relationships between families and schools and education providers and teachers contribute to young children’s school readiness, increase positive family engagement in children’s programs, and strengthen home-program connection, a critical factor to children’s school success. Bridging Family-Teacher Relationships for ELL and Immigrant Students is a comprehensive reference source that focuses on research-based pedagogical practices for teaching young English language learners (ELL) and immigrants. It specifically looks at strategies across the curriculum including social-emotional development, parent involvement, language development, and more. While highlighting major themes that include academic engagement and achievement among ELL and immigrant children, factors affecting partnerships with schools and home, the impact of home environments on school readiness, and student performance, this book shares pedagogical practices across different subjects that use partnerships with families of ELL/immigrants. It is intended for classroom teachers (early childhood and K-12), parents, faculty, school administrators, academicians, professionals, researchers, and students interested in family-teacher relationships.

As education continues to take great strides to become more inclusive and understanding of diverse students and cultures, teaching practices and methods for learning are an essential part of the puzzle and must be addressed to create culturally responsive educational experiences. Teachers must make meaningful connections between a student’s culture, language, life experiences, and background to what the student is learning in the classroom. By integrating culture into the classroom, student achievement can be fostered, and students can excel. Underserved populations may face discrimination when it comes to culture, language, or race, and their needs can often be neglected. By implementing culturally responsive teaching, students can feel valued, motivated, understood, and included in their education. The Research Anthology on Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning displays the best practices and lessons learned for culturally responsive teaching and learning across different types of institutions, classroom subjects, and with different types of students from diverse cultural backgrounds. The chapters focus on culturally responsive practices and how these methods for teaching can impact student success, empowerment, and cultural competence. This book is essential in understanding cultural diversity and inequity in education as well as the ways to address it. This book is ideal for faculty, teachers, counselors, administrators, principals, curriculum developers, instructional designers, professionals, researchers, and students seeking to improve their understanding of culturally responsive teaching and learning.

Now more than ever, the collaboration of researchers and practitioners from both PreK-12 and higher education in partnership and in research is imperative for solving problems in teaching and learning and for instituting fundamental change in education. There is growing empirical work on educational change and improvement in school-university partnership settings that should be explored. This applied research and research design impacts the initiation and institution of change in partnership settings. Thus, the role of research is an essential lever for reform. Practical perspectives are necessary to share for shaping a future in partnerships and to promote collaborative action and inquiry in school-university and professional development partnership settings. This includes changes in the partnerships’ classroom teaching, in school and college policies, student outcomes, course content, and in partnerships’ teacher education programs. Change and Improvement in School-University Partnership Settings: Emerging Research and Opportunities spotlights the types of research, research designs, and exemplar studies that were successful in producing changes and improvements in the longitudinal partnerships the author founded and directed. The chapters reveal what worked and why it worked along with brief descriptions of the exemplar studies that served as catalysts for change. In addition, a brief history of the partnership movement in America is given along with an overview of the current landscape of the different types of education partnerships prevalent today and their key research features. This book is ideal for researchers, scholars, teacher-researchers, change agents, professors, teacher educators, students, and graduate fellows interested in conducting practical and effective applied research for change and improvement in school-university partnership settings.

Historically, African American communities were marked by a strong sense of community, promoted by limited resources and racial segregation. However, with integration, African American populations grew less concentrated in the same areas, and this population of people began to rely less on each other. In an effort to attain equality, which still at times feels elusive and challenged, the sense of community and impact of education once prevalent among African Americans has suffered. Fostering Collaborations Between African American Communities and Educational Institutions is a pivotal reference source that explores pre-segregation experiences of community and education, as well as the changes among HBCUs and public education in predominately African American and poor areas. The book sheds light on the relationship between racial and educational disparities and reveals the impact of community and cultural co-dependence in moving African Americans toward a more socially equitable place within American culture. Covering topics such as the achievement gap, community relationships, and teacher education, this publication is ideally designed for educators, higher education faculty, HBCUs, researchers, policymakers, non-profit organizers, historians, sociologists, academicians, and students.

When children with learning challenges are identified, the educational community in the United States diligently applies a well-established model of remediation that has, for the most part, yielded positive results. Research, however, has demonstrated that the American perception of disability may vary from those in Eastern cultures. These cultural differences can play a significant role in the failure to achieve learning success on behalf of children from the Middle East, North Africa, and Southwest Asian (MENASWA) families. It is critical for the school community to recognize and acknowledge these differences and bring them into alignment in order to meet these students’ learning needs. Learning Challenges for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Students With Disabilities is an essential reference publication that identifies ways in which CLD families can be involved with schools to help build educators’ cultural competence and explores the idea of disabilities as a social model with a focus on strengths rather than a medical model focused on needs and weaknesses. Featuring coverage on a wide range of topics including racial identity, leadership wisdom, and family-school collaboration, this book is ideally designed for educators, principals, administrators, curriculum developers, instructional designers, policymakers, advocates, researchers, academicians, and students.

Evaluating Indigenous African Tradition for Cultural Reconstruction and Mind Decolonization is edited by Oluwole O Durodolu, and is an insightful book that challenges the derogatory portrayal of African Traditional Religion (ATR) and highlights the need for cultural reconstruction and mind decolonization. The book explores the derogatory descriptions that have been used to describe ATR and argues that subjecting religion to logical inquiry diminishes the essence of worship and promotes disbelief. The book examines the relevance of indigenous African tradition to cultural reconstruction and evaluates the place of African culture in the global context. The author argues that upholding the general principle of African Traditional belief, which upholds communalism and morality, can address problems such as corruption, poverty, and unemployment in the African continent. This book is an essential resource for academics, students, researchers, and anyone interested in understanding the relevance of African Traditional Religion in contemporary times and the need for cultural reconstruction and mind decolonization for the betterment of the African continent and the world at large.

Between adolescence and adulthood, individuals begin to explore themselves mentally and emotionally in an attempt to figure out who they are and where they fit in society. Social technologies in the modern age have ushered in an era where these evolving adolescents must circumvent the negative pressures of online influences while also still trying to learn how to be utterly independent. Recent Advances in Digital Media Impacts on Identity, Sexuality, and Relationships is a collection of critical reference materials that provides imperative research on identity exploration in emerging adults and examines how digital media is used to help explore and develop one’s identity. While highlighting topics such as mobile addiction, online intimacy, and cyber aggression, this publication explores a crucial developmental period in the human lifespan and how digital media hinders (or helps) maturing adults navigate life. This book is ideally designed for therapists, psychologists, sociologists, psychiatrists, researchers, educators, academicians, and professionals.