Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2023 -

This thoroughly researched, scholarly case study systemically examines the present higher education system. Eaton (sociology, Univ. of California, Merced) identifies the disparate players involved and examines their interactions. He compares the foundational goals and principles of higher education to present-day outcomes that have skewed the rewards/benefits away from the stated goals. As Eaton demonstrates, the withdrawal of public financing and the substitution of student loans as a means of access to education has driven both systemic inequality and the transformation of higher education into a vast hedge fund. This financialization creates a closed system in which elite institutions educate the future financiers who later use their credentials to benefit investors rather than benefit students. This sophisticated, data-driven investigation into the complex relationships between financial institutions and higher education reveals a portrait of inequality, limited access, and the transformation of higher education from a public good into something quite different. Eaton also offers a way to reimagine the current system that would realign it with its traditional values. He has provided a valuable public service in developing and presenting this thoughtful, well-researched analysis.Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, advanced undergraduates through faculty, and professionals.

In 2011, as a new faculty member seeking to understand her students, Mathews (English, Rollins College) began a deep dive into a world unlike her own undergraduate experience. This in-depth study of fraternity and sorority life offers readers an ethnographic view of how and why Greek life continues to play a significant role in the lives of many college students. The book focuses on such topics as recruiting approaches, gender populations and hook-up culture, LBGTQ+ students, social justice, sorority squads, and how new movements impact deeply held fraternal traditions and the future of Greek organizations. Mathews digs deep into a world below the surface of publicly marketed university life, engaging readers in conversation regarding the future of these organizations, which both critics and advocates of Greek life can appreciate. Mathews brings together research, thoughtful reflection, and personal accounts with a captivating style. Campus leaders will value the opportunity for campus discussion alongside potential research topics with an in-depth bibliography for students. This is necessary reading for higher education professionals.Summing Up: Essential. General readers through faculty; professionals.

During a time when incidents of anti-Semitism are on the rise, a guide to Jewish children's literature is to be celebrated. Enduring Questions is an excellent place to start. The authors chose their title to indicate the structure and themes of the text. The enduring questions they address include what makes Jewish children's literature Jewish? What is Jewish history? What are love, wisdom, humor, ritual, evil, and justice? For each chapter, authors provide summaries of suggested texts, sidebars with pedagogical suggestions from American teachers, and thoughtful responses to these enduring questions. Focused on providing classroom teachers from preschool to grade 6, librarians, and parents with books and stories they might choose, the text also includes extensive bibliographies of Jewish children's literature, digital resources for teachers, and scholarly books and articles on Jewish children's literature. The authors state their aim is to "provide a framework about the use of Jewish children's literature as an opportunity for all children, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to be philosophers and engage in dialog and debate." The book is written in a very readable, accessible manner and successfully achieves this goal.Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.

Ryder's new book is a much-needed expression of what might be termed a classic approach to the foundational study of education. As such, it aims to draw relationships among the metaphysical, epistemological, and axiological assumptions people hold and the educational practices, institutions, and policies they endorse. Ryder's goal is to bring a systematic analysis to bear on these ideational relationships. The first part of his book seeks to understand how these relationships manifest in the works of four key thinkers: Plato, Rousseau, Dewey, and Freire. Part 1 covers some familiar territory but is written in a lively style that will engage even beginning undergraduate students. Part 2, better suited for upper-division undergraduate and graduates students, applies this systematic analysis to a range of contemporary educational and social matters while remaining anchored in a critical and normative perspective. Here, Ryder (Khazar Univ., Azerbaijan) also explicates a compelling, relational educational and social philosophy that has much meaning for the present. Systematic in its approach but never narrow in its orientation and outlook, this book is among the most important written on the foundations of the education field in the last 25 years.Summing Up: Highly recommended. Undergraduates through faculty, professionals, and general readers.

Teachers and parents frequently express concern about children's use of technology both in schools and at home. They raise questions about the amount of time children should spend in front of screens, what constitutes appropriate use of digital devices, and whether children are safe when they are online. Laidlaw (Univ. of Alberta, Canada), O'Mara (Deaking Univ., Australia), and Wong (Univ. of Alberta, Canada) show readers how digital devices such as iPads have disrupted stale, more traditional forms of teaching, learning, and engagement that take place in schools and homes today. Through myriad research studies, they demonstrate the positive impact that digital devices have on children's critical thinking, learning, and growth, even among children with disabilities. The authors address important questions that educators and parents have in terms of what constitutes appropriate technology use; what it means to be literate in today's digital world; teachers' and parents' roles in this endeavor; and perhaps most importantly, children's agency as producers and users of digitally mediated knowledge. Rich in research and anecdotes from the authors and teachers, this significant book challenges conventional thinking and practice regarding children's technology use. It should be widely read.Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, advanced undergraduates through faculty, and professionals.

Shelton (democracy and justice studies, Univ. of Wisconsin) explores the history of the idea that education is the key to the good life in the United States--an idea he calls the "education myth." Shelton documents how the purpose of education has changed, narrowing from relatively broad democratic and social aims to "you only deserve an economic livelihood if you get yourself the right education" (p. x). Strikingly, Shelton locates an origin of right-wing populism in the backlash against this narrowly professional-class, elitist, meritocratic mythology. He defends a social-democratic vision that favors a broad range of people, including workers with little formal education, as key to saving American democracy. Here, Shelton configures the democratic and social role of education within his broader vision of a social-democratic order centered on securing economic and social well-being. Given the current intense political divisions, Shelton's analysis is especially timely and, despite appearance, not doctrinaire. The analysis will challenge readers, no matter their political affiliation, to think differently about education and its relationship to "economic security and social respect" (p. ix). Shelton's style is accessible and honest, laying bare his commitments such that readers can determine for themselves how they influence his analysis.Summing Up: Essential. Undergraduates through faculty; professionals.

Many who work in America's public schools, teacher preparation programs, school district offices, and other such places often marvel at how out-of-touch education policy seems and wonder why it ignores the basic problems facing those in the trenches. In a masterful work, Phelps (independent scholar) suggests this disconnect stems from the misinformation, disinformation, and selfishness of policy makers. The book's eight chapters address the view of education policy from 2001, the triumph of strategic scholarship, the education establishment cartel, linchpins of the cartel alliance, the education reform cartel, the dense web of Common Core confederates, the permanent education press, and the view from 2023. While many of these topics have been examined before, Phelps brings a fresh, piercing, and astute outlook. This book would be a superb complement for a class using Fullan's Leading in a Culture of Change (Jossey-Bass 2020), Sizer's Horace's Compromise (Harper, 2004), or Duke's Leadership for Low-Performing Schools (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). While essential for those interested in school leadership and change, the work will also be of interest to those interested in public policy, ethics, or the political process.Summing Up: Essential. Advanced undergraduates through faculty; professionals; general readers.