Books about Sociocultural from Amazon.com

The authors in this book use the metaphors of invisibility and visibility to explore the social and school lives of many children and young people in North America whose complexity, strengths, and vulnerabilities are largely unseen in the society and its schools. These “invisible children” are socially devalued in the sense that alleviating the difficult conditions of their lives is not a priority—children who are subjected to derogatory stereotypes, who are educationally neglected in schools that respond inadequately if at all to their needs, and who receive relatively little attention from scholars in the field of education or writers in the popular press.

The chapter authors, some of the most passionate and insightful scholars in the field of education today, detail oversights and assaults, visible and invisible, but also affirm the capacity of many of these young people to survive, flourish, and often educate others, despite the painful and even desperate circumstances of their lives. By sharing their voices, providing basic information about them, and offering thoughtful analysis of their social situation, this volume combines education and advocacy in an accessible volume responsive to some of the most pressing issues of our time. Although their research methodologies differ, all of the contributors aim to get the facts straight and to set them in a meaningful context.

New in the Third Edition: Chapters retained from the previous edition have been thoroughly revised and updated, and five totally new chapters have been added on the topics of:
*young people pushed into the “school-to-prison” pipeline;
*the “environmental landscape” of two out-of-school Mexican migrant teens in the rural Midwest;
*the perceptions and practices, in and outside schools, that construct African American boys as school failures;
*negative portrayals of blackness in the context of understanding the “collateral damage of continued white privilege”; and
*working-class pregnant and parenting teens’ efforts to create positive identities for themselves.

Of interest to a broad range of researchers, students, and practitioners across the field of education, this compelling book is accessible to all readers. It is particularly appropriate as a text for courses that address the social context of education, cultural and political change, and public policy, including social foundations of education, sociology of education, multicultural education, curriculum studies, and educational policy..
Price: $29.65 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In this popular text, Joel Spring provocatively analyzes the ideas of traditional and non-traditional philosophers, from Plato to Paulo Freire, regarding the contribution of education to the creation of a democratic society. Each section focuses on an important theme: “Autocratic and Democratic Forms of Education;” “Dissenting Traditions in Education;” “The Politics of Culture;” “The Politics of Gender;” and “Education and Human Rights.” This edition features a special emphasis on human rights education. Spring advocates a legally binding right to an education that includes an education in human rights. His argument is that until schools are required to fulfill a duty to protect human rights and teach others to protect human rights, government-operated schools will remain authoritarian rather than democratic institutions.

Wheels in the Head, a critically original work, is widely used as a text for courses across the fields of philosophical, social, political, and historical foundations of education, and critical issues in education. Reflecting its global relevance, a Chinese translation was published by the University of Peking Press in 2005..
Price: $27.79 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This text provides a brief yet comprehensive overview of a number of non-Western approaches to educational thought and practice Its premise is that understanding the ways that other people educate their children--as well as what counts for them as "education"--may help us think more clearly about some of our own assumptions and values, and to become more open to alternative viewpoints about important educational matters. The value of this informative, mind-opening text for preservice and in-service teacher education courses is enhanced by "Questions for Discussion and Reflection" and "Recommended Further Readings" included in each chapter.

New in the Third Edition:
*Chapter 2, "Conceptualizing Culture:" 'I, We, and The Other,' is new to this edition. It is a response to feedback about the problems inherent in our general discourse about "culture," and in addition provides an example of a culture that is near to us but nevertheless alien-the culture of the Deaf-World.

*Chapter 9-which deals with Islam and traditional Muslim education-has been substantially revised.

*The subtitle of the Third Edition has been changed to Indigenous Approaches to Educational Thought and Practice, reflecting not so much a change in the emphases found in the book, but rather, a recognition of the growing scholarly interest in indigenous peoples, their languages, cultures, and histories.

*Various points throughout the text have been expanded and clarified, and chapters have been updated as needed..
Price: $33.34 [Notify me when price goes down.]

In Political Agendas for Education: From the Religious Right to the Green Party, Third Edition, Joel Spring brings up-to-date his description and analysis of the current educational agendas of major political players and organizations. The focus of this edition is the 2004 presidential campaign and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Spring discusses the ideological perspective of each major political group and how its ideology is represented in No Child Left Behind: *The religious agenda of Republicans who identify themselves as compassionate conservatives; *The free market ideology of Republicans who consider themselves neoconservative Republicans; *The thinking of the New Democrats, who claim a major responsibility for passage of the No Child Left Behind Act and support its accountability requirements; and *The educational agendas and criticisms of No Child Left Behind offered by Ralph Nader's 2004 presidential campaign organization, the Green Party, the Rainbow Coalition, and the National Organization of Women. Political Agendas for Education: From the Religious Right to the Green Party, Third Edition is an essential text for courses dealing with the politics of education, foundations of education, educational leadership, and curriculum studies, and a must-read volume for educational scholars, professionals, policymakers, and all those concerned with the politics of education in the U.S. and its consequences for schools and society..
Price: $20.86 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The purpose of this textbook is to introduce beginning researchers to the study of policy making, how it has been examined from a scholarly perspective, and the salient issues to consider in conceptualizing and conducting policy research..
Price: $45.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A Place To Be Navajo is the only book-length ethnographic account of a revolutionary Indigenous self-determination movement that began in 1966 with the Rough Rock Demonstration School. Called Diné Bi'ólta', The People's School, in recognition of its status as the first American Indian community-controlled school, Rough Rock was the first to teach in the Native language and to produce a body of quality children's literature by and about Navajo people. These innovations have positioned the school as a leader in American Indian and bilingual/bicultural education and have enabled school participants to wield considerable influence on national policy. This book is a critical life history of this singular school and community.

McCarty's account grows out of 20 years of ethnographic work by the author with the Diné (Navajo) community of Rough Rock. The story is told primarily through written text, but also through the striking black-and-white images of photographer Fred Bia, a member of the Rough Rock community. Unlike most accounts of Indigenous schooling, this study involves the active participation of Navajo community members. Their oral testimony and that of other leaders in Indigenous/Navajo education frame and texture the account.

Informed by critical theories of education, this book is not just the story of a single school and community. It is also an inquiry into the larger struggle for self-determination by Indigenous and other minoritized communities, raising issues of identity, voice, and community empowerment. A Place To Be Navajo asks whether school can be a place where children learn, question, and grow in an environment that values and builds upon who they are. The author argues that the questions Rough Rock raises, and the responses they summon, implicate us all.
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This text-reader brings together powerful readings that critically situate issues of education in the context of the major cultural, moral, political, economic, ecological, and spiritual crises that confront us as a nation and a global community. It provides a focus and a conceptual framework for thinking about education in light of these issues. Readers are exposed to the thinking of some of the best and most insightful social and educational commentators.

Critical Social Issues in American Education: Democracy and Meaning in a Globalizing World, Third Edition, is intended to work on two levels. First, it helps readers to develop an awareness of how education is connected to the wider social structures of cultural, political, and economic life. Second, it encourages not only a critical examination of our present social reality but also a serious discussion of alternatives--of what a transformed society and educational process might look like.

The editors' goal is to deliberately engage readers in connecting the work of teachers to an ethically committed, politically charged pedagogy. The assumption on which they base the text is that educators must see their work as inextricably linked to the broader conflicts, stresses, and crises of the social world--it is not otherwise possible to make sense of what is happening educationally. What happens in school, or as part of the educational experience, reflects, expresses, and mediates profound questions about the direction and nature of the society we inhabit.

The text is organized thematically into five sections, which address, respectively, social justice and democracy; consumerism, culture, and public education; marginality and difference; moral and spiritual perspectives on education; and globalization and education. Each section is preceded by a brief essay that introduces the readings.

This Third Edition includes many new readings and addresses issues that have more recently emerged as especially significant--such as concerns about the implications of globalization and the post 9/11 world, commercialism, violence, and the ever-increasing influence of high stakes testing.

This compelling text is relevant for a wide range of courses in educational foundations, educational policy, curriculum studies, and multicultural education that address the social context of education, cultural and political change, and public policy.
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Price: $46.99 [Notify me when price goes down.]

L.S. Vygotsky, the renowned Russian psychologist, argued that the true test of any scientific theory is not the contribution that it makes to our understanding of the of the object of study but the extent to which it improves the practical activities of people, including activities that take place in educational settings. The fourteen original chapters included in this volume document innovations in second and foreign language teaching rooted in Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development. Researchers and language teaching practitioners will find implementations at the classroom and programmatic levels of Vygotskyan principles and concepts, including cognitive mediation, the zone of proximal development, activity theory, internatlization, verbalization, and materialization..
Price: $33.89 [Notify me when price goes down.]