Susan Engel – författare

An unexpected portrait of the first year of school for America’s youngest learners.  When we think of kindergarten, many might imagine joyous free play, and a tangle of trucks, dress-up clothes, and blocks, as five-year-olds explore their vivid imaginations and budding social skills. Others might envision a quiet group sitting cross-legged in a circle during story time. Neither of these scenes would be an inaccurate representation of the pivotal year of entry into traditional education in this country. However, neither offers a complete picture of what children do every day in those seemingly transparent, yet actually mysterious, classrooms. What can or should we expect during the first year of school? How are children learning and growing during those hours spent away from their homes?Susan Engel embarked on finding these answers in American Kindergarten: Dispatches from the First Year of School. Engel toured twenty-nine classrooms across fourteen states, observing each closely, with a special eye toward the ways each classroom’s goals reflect its community. As she made her way across the country, Engel found that on the surface, kindergarten students are similar: good-natured, eager to learn, and deeply affectionate. Their classrooms, too, feature many of the same expectations, routines, and activities. But the differences between the classrooms were striking and often surprising. Over the two years of her classroom visits, Engel identified five promises that teachers and their classrooms make to their students: reading, order, thinking, identity, and love. Engel found that schools differ in how they prioritize and keep the promises they make; some make all five promises, while others emphasize only one or two. The five promises capture a set of values, aspirations, and goals that drive everything that happens in a classroom.Engaging and incisive, American Kindergarten is the story of the promises our country’s schools make to five-year-old children, and how those promises are kept and sometimes broken.

This book explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognisable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialised development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinised, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate.This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy.

This book explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognisable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialised development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinised, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate.This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive analysis of some of the world’s most pressing global development challenges – including how they may be better understood and addressed through innovative practices and approaches to learning and teaching.Featuring 61 contributions from leading and emerging academics and practitioners, this multidisciplinary volume is organized into five thematic parts exploring: changes in global development financing, ideologies, norms and partnerships; interrelationships between development, natural environments and inequality; shifts in critical development challenges, and; new possibilities for positive change. Collectively, the handbook demonstrates that global development challenges are becoming increasingly complex and multi-faceted and are to be found in the Global ‘North’ as much as the ‘South’. It draws attention to structural inequality and disadvantage alongside possibilities for positive change.The Handbook will serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars across multiple disciplines including Development Studies, Anthropology, Geography, Global Studies, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies, Political Science, and Urban Studies.The Introduction of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book explores the history, structure and current operations of the World Bank, which despite being the largest development organisation and the largest development research body in the world with tremendous direct and indirect influence on developing economies, has rarely received the critical attention its importance merits. The book’s unique contribution is twofold: it provides an original analysis of the interaction between economic theory, political practice and the Bank’s development praxis as well as two detailed, grounded studies of the Bank’s lending practices. The book starts with a detailed examination of the development theory and practice of the World Bank from its Keynesian origins to the current shift through the Washington Consensus to the so-called post-Washington Consensus. The second part is a detailed analysis of the Bank’s lending practices in two countries, Vietnam and Indonesia. The case studies extensively utilise World Bank sources —analysing the Project Appraisal Documents for some 113 loans. They also draw on the secondary literature and on interviews with World Bank staff, government officials, academics and NGOs in both countries. The case studies enable the development of empirically-based conclusions regarding the impact of Bank policies on the economic and social development of two important Southeast Asian nations making possible an assessment of the extent to which the rhetoric of the post-Washington Consensus has been incorporated into the Bank’s lending practices. This book will be of interest to both advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as specialist audiences in the fields of international political economy, development, international organizations and Southeast Asian Studies.

This book explores the history, structure and current operations of the World Bank, which despite being the largest development organisation and the largest development research body in the world with tremendous direct and indirect influence on developing economies, has rarely received the critical attention its importance merits. The book’s unique contribution is twofold: it provides an original analysis of the interaction between economic theory, political practice and the Bank’s development praxis as well as two detailed, grounded studies of the Bank’s lending practices. The book starts with a detailed examination of the development theory and practice of the World Bank from its Keynesian origins to the current shift through the Washington Consensus to the so-called post-Washington Consensus. The second part is a detailed analysis of the Bank’s lending practices in two countries, Vietnam and Indonesia. The case studies extensively utilise World Bank sources —analysing the Project Appraisal Documents for some 113 loans. They also draw on the secondary literature and on interviews with World Bank staff, government officials, academics and NGOs in both countries. The case studies enable the development of empirically-based conclusions regarding the impact of Bank policies on the economic and social development of two important Southeast Asian nations making possible an assessment of the extent to which the rhetoric of the post-Washington Consensus has been incorporated into the Bank’s lending practices. This book will be of interest to both advanced undergraduate and graduate students as well as specialist audiences in the fields of international political economy, development, international organizations and Southeast Asian Studies.

Decades of work in psychology labs have vastly enhanced our knowledge about how children perceive, think, and reason. But it has also encouraged a distorted view of children, argues psychologist Susan Engel in this provocative and passionate book--a view that has affected every parent who has tried to debate with a six-year-old. By focusing on the thinking processes prized by adults, too many expert opinions have rendered children as little adults. What has been lost is what is truly unique and mysterious--the childlike quality of a child's mind. Engel draws on keen observations and descriptive research to take us into the nearly forgotten, untidy, phantasmagorical world of children's inner lives. She reminds us that children fuse thought and emotion, play and reality; they swing wildly between different ways of interpreting and acting in the world. But just as a gawky child may grow into a beauty, illogical and sometimes maddening childishness can foreshadow great adult ability. Engel argues that the "scientist in a crib" view encourages parents and teachers to expect more logical reasoning and emotional self-control from children than they possess. She provides a concise and valuable overview of what modern developmental psychologists have learned about children's developing powers of perception and capacity for reasoning, but also suggests new ways of studying children that better capture the truth about their young minds.

“A remarkable book. Whether you are an educator, parent, or simply a curious reader, you will come to see, hear, and understand children in new ways.”—Howard Gardner, author of Multiple IntelligencesAdults easily recognize children’s imagination at work as they play. Yet most of us know little about what really goes on inside their heads as they encounter the problems and complexities of the world around them. Susan Engel brings together an extraordinary body of research to explain how toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary-aged children think.A young girl’s bug collection reveals how children ask questions and organize information. Watching a boy scoop mud illuminates the process of invention. When a child ponders the mystery of death, we witness how ideas are built. But adults shouldn’t just stand around watching. When parents are creative, it can rub off. Engel shows how parents and teachers can stimulate children’s curiosity by presenting them with mysteries to solve, feeding their sense of mastery and nourishing their natural hunger to learn.“A fascinating read for parents who wonder, simply, what is my child thinking? Why do they love collecting? Where did that idea come from? A celebration of children’s innovation and sense of wonder.”—Emily Oster, author of Expecting Better“Combining insight, scientific acumen, and exquisite narrative, The Intellectual Lives of Children allows readers to peer into the minds of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers as they explore and learn in everyday moments, emphasizing what constitutes real learning.”—Kathy Hirsh-Pasek, Science

Despite American education’s recent mania for standardized tests, testing misses what really matters about learning: the desire to learn in the first place. Curiosity is vital, but it remains a surprisingly understudied characteristic. The Hungry Mind is a deeply researched, highly readable exploration of what curiosity is, how it can be measured, how it develops in childhood, and how it can be fostered in school.Children naturally possess an active interest in knowing more about the world around them. But what begins as a robust trait becomes more fragile over time, and is shaped by experiences with parents, teachers, peers, and the learning environment. Susan Engel highlights the centrality of language and question-asking as crucial tools for expressing curiosity. She also uncovers overlooked forms of curiosity, such as gossip—an important way children satisfy their interest in other people. Although curiosity leads to knowledge, it can stir up trouble, and schools too often have an incentive to squelch it in favor of compliance and discipline.Balanced against the interventions of hands-on instructors and hovering parents, Engel stresses the importance of time spent alone, which gives children a chance to tinker, collect, read about the things that interest them, and explore their own thoughts. In addition to providing a theoretical framework for the psychology of curiosity, The Hungry Mind offers educators practical ways to put curiosity at the center of the classroom and encourage children’s natural eagerness to learn.

Despite American education’s recent mania for standardized tests, testing misses what really matters about learning: the desire to learn in the first place. Curiosity is vital, but it remains a surprisingly understudied characteristic. The Hungry Mind is a deeply researched, highly readable exploration of what curiosity is, how it can be measured, how it develops in childhood, and how it can be fostered in school.“Engel draws on the latest social science research and incidents from her own life to understand why curiosity is nearly universal in babies, pervasive in early childhood, and less evident in school…Engel’s most important finding is that most classroom environments discourage curiosity…In an era that prizes quantifiable results, a pedagogy that privileges curiosity is not likely to be a priority.”—Glenn C. Altschuler, Psychology Today“Susan Engel’s The Hungry Mind, a book which engages in depth with how our interest and desire to explore the world evolves, makes a valuable contribution not only to the body of academic literature on the developmental and educational psychology of children, but also to our knowledge on why and how we learn.”—Inez von Weitershausen, LSE Review of Books

This Handbook provides a comprehensive analysis of some of the world’s most pressing global development challenges – including how they may be better understood and addressed through innovative practices and approaches to learning and teaching.Featuring 61 contributions from leading and emerging academics and practitioners, this multidisciplinary volume is organized into five thematic parts exploring: changes in global development financing, ideologies, norms and partnerships; interrelationships between development, natural environments and inequality; shifts in critical development challenges, and; new possibilities for positive change. Collectively, the handbook demonstrates that global development challenges are becoming increasingly complex and multi-faceted and are to be found in the Global ‘North’ as much as the ‘South’. It draws attention to structural inequality and disadvantage alongside possibilities for positive change.The Handbook will serve as a valuable resource for students and scholars across multiple disciplines including Development Studies, Anthropology, Geography, Global Studies, Indigenous and Postcolonial Studies, Political Science, and Urban Studies.The Introduction of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

A leading educator and psychologist offers a bold reframing of the very purpose of education.

A School of Our Own tells the remarkable story of the Independent Project, the first student-run high school in America. Founder Samuel Levin, a high school junior who had already achieved international fame for creating Project Sprout-the first farm-to-school lunch program in the United States-was frustrated with his own education and saw disaffection among his peers. In response, he lobbied for and created a new school based on a few simple ideas about what kids need from their high school experience.