Kristien Zenkov Ph.D – författare

This bookextends the national discussion about the Professional Development School (PDS) movement of the past three decades. The volume highlights school/university partnerships’ focus on collaborative activities that endeavor to promote social justice in and across P-12 and university classrooms, educational institutions, and communities. Professional Development Schools and Social Justice: Schools and Universities Partnering to Make a Difference guides veteran teachers, undergraduate and graduate pre-service teachers, and university faculty to understand how the PDS model might be oriented toward social justice ideals. Co-authored by school- and university-based educators, each chapter details the social justice work of specific partnerships and provides concrete instructional and curricular methods for application within both teacher education and PK-12 settings. Readers are provided insight into a range of elements of Professional Development Schools, including the development of PK-12 and teacher education curricula, processes of program implementation, and research and data collection.

Today’s educators—pre- and in-service teachers and teacher educators serve increasing percentages of adolescents who have limited relationships to school. These young people are often our most diverse youth; they are frequently English Language Learners (ELLs) and immigrants, and they are too often part of multi-generational dropout and disengagement trends. Teachers are desperate for pedagogical philosophies, curricula, and practices that will support them with helping young people appreciate the value of school, engage or re-engage youth with this most foundational of our public institutions and aid adolescents in the development of the core literacy and writing skills they need to be successful in school and beyond. This volume will assist teachers in recognizing the increasing diversity of their students who often look very different from and have life and school experiences that are very different than those of the educators who serve them. Current and future educators must utilize relevant curricula and creative pedagogies that honor students’ diverse cultures and school and community experiences, while respecting our highest ideals for educational equity and social justice. With this volume, the authors respond to the quickly shifting demographics of schools’ student populations and the disengagement trends teachers frequently encounter but rarely know how to address. We offer compelling, relationship-driven pedagogical principles and instructional strategies that appeal to diverse youths’ voices and cultures and rely on broad, visually- and technology-based notions of literacy.