Acknowledgements
As educators, we frequently rely on a network of support to be the most effective professionals possible. This text is no exception. This adaptation uses in part or in whole Foundations of American Education: A Critical Lens by Dr. Melissa Wells and Dr. Courtney Clayton. We would like to thank these educators who contributed to parts of the book.
- Dr. Melissa Jenkins (University of Mary Washington), for her co-authorship of the “Day in the Life: Special Education Perspective” vignette in Chapter 1 and the special education section in Chapter 2.
- Dr. Christy Irish (University of Mary Washington), for her co-authorship of Chapter 4.
- Dr. Teresa Coffman (University of Mary Washington), for her co-authorship of Chapter 5.
- Dr. Janine Davis (University of Mary Washington), for her co-authorship of the “Day in the Life: Secondary Perspective” vignette in Chapter 1 and Chapter 6.
- Dr. Julia López-Robertson (University of South Carolina), for her co-authorship of the section of Chapter 7 focused on family engagement.
- Tanya Meline (LCSW, CCTP; Licensed Clinical Social Worker; Certified Clinical Trauma Professional), for her co-authorship of the sections of Chapter 7 focused on trauma, mindfulness, and school social workers.
We are so thankful to each of you for sharing your educational expertise as co-writers! Furthermore, the historical foundations portion of Chapter 3 is an adaptation of an existing OER resource, published under a CC-BY-NC 4.0 license: Cozart, D., Dotts, B., Gurney, J., Walker, T., Ingalls, A., & Castle, J. (2016). OpenEDUC: Investigating critical and contemporary issues in education. https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/education-textbooks/4. We are thankful for an OER community that believes in sharing work to make resources more accessible for learners.
We will use at least two other OER texts as resources. I realize the entries below are not in full APA format; the full names of these adapters and creators deserve to be noted, too, though.
As you can see, there are various resources here and they represent the best of the few education texts currently available in OER. (In fact, this Principles of Education course text has been the holdout for a few years; all my other texts are OERs but this due to the dearth of good texts.) Remember the course learning objectives and how such an introduction is a modest venture, but also one that takes on dozens of topics spanning education, psychology, economics, law, history, and culture.
Alfie Kohn’s blog is a fascinating look at equity and the education system. He focuses on testing issues. From having used his book as a course text, I know you are in for lively reading! These outside resources can always be tied to active discussions in the course. The question to ask oneself is “To what extent is ______ that _______ is stating typical or representative?” Answering this lets us avoid the misleading vividness fallacy whereby something shiny distracts us!
http://www.alfiekohn.org/blog/
http://www.alfiekohn.org/standards-and-testing/practical-strategies-save-schools/
The National Center for Fair and Open Testing
The site provides a useful overview of contemporary issues teachers face.
