Professional Development

As rural schools across the United States face ongoing teacher shortages, shifting community needs, and increasing demands on educators, the challenge of preparing and sustaining a strong local teacher workforce has become more urgent than ever. In Powering Teacher Apprenticeships: Case Studies on Rural Implementation and System Design, Katie Anderson-Pence presents a compelling and practical exploration of how teacher apprenticeship programs can transform educator preparation in rural communities. Drawing from real-world partnerships and implementation stories, this book examines how rural districts, universities, educators, and community organizations are working together to design apprenticeship pathways that are responsive to local needs and grounded in the strengths of rural places. Through detailed case studies, Anderson-Pence demonstrates that successful teacher apprenticeship programs are not built on one-size-fits-all models, but on collaborative systems that honor community culture, invest in relationships, and support aspiring educators throughout their development. The book highlights the essential components of effective rural apprenticeship systems, including strong mentor preparation, authentic clinical practice, coordinated support structures, braided funding strategies, and partnerships that align university preparation with district priorities. Readers gain insight into how rural schools are leveraging apprenticeship not only as a workforce solution, but as a long-term strategy for cultivating educators who are deeply connected to their communities and prepared for the intellectual, cultural, and emotional realities of teaching in rural settings. At the heart of Powering Teacher Apprenticeships is the idea that thoughtful system design matters. Anderson-Pence illustrates how sustainable apprenticeship pathways emerge when institutions and communities work together to create coherent, flexible, and human-centered models of teacher preparation. The book also offers practical guidance for policymakers and state leaders seeking to strengthen rural educator pipelines through supportive licensing structures, accessible funding models, and policies aligned with apprenticeship learning. For teacher educators, district leaders, and community stakeholders, this volume provides both inspiration and actionable strategies for developing apprenticeship programs that are immersive, relational, and rooted in place. Combining research, lived experience, and practical implementation insights, Powering Teacher Apprenticeships offers a hopeful and forward-looking vision for rural education—one in which communities are empowered to grow their own educators, strengthen local schools, and build sustainable systems that nurture both talent and belonging for generations to come. It is a powerful volume that will guide school administrators as well as preservice teachers, graduate students and faculty at Colleges of Education.Perfect for courses such as: Clinical Practice in Teacher Education; Place-Based Education and Community Engagement; Rural Schools and Community Partnerships; Education Policy: Teacher Workforce and Certification; Policy and Practice in Teacher Preparation Reform; Models of Teacher Apprenticeship and Mentorship; Issues and Innovations in Rural Schooling; Designing Sustainable Educator Pipelines

Hidden in Plain Sight: Women Leaders in the Academy is an essential resource that examines the experiences, challenges, and achievements of women leading in higher education. Written for current and aspiring women academic leaders, it provides the tools, insights, and support needed to navigate this complex terrain successfully. Hidden in Plain Sight addresses a striking paradox: while many accomplished women hold academic leadership positions, they often remain invisible within their own institutions. Despite occupying roles of authority, women leaders frequently find themselves overlooked, unrecognized, and unheard. This contradiction exposes the gap between institutional claims that leadership is gender-neutral and the reality women face daily in academic settings. Drawing on demographic data, statistical trends, and evidence-based practices, this textbook offers practical guidance grounded in real experience. Readers will find case studies, personal anecdotes, and actionable strategies for advancing in academic leadership while maintaining personal integrity and well-being. The book explores various leadership approaches and identifies common pitfalls, equipping readers with knowledge to navigate challenges effectively. Hidden in Plain Sight serves as both mirror and map—reflecting the realities women leaders experience while charting pathways forward. It empowers current leaders to advocate for themselves and their institutions while inspiring the next generation to pursue academic leadership with eyes wide open and strategies firmly in hand. This is the guidebook for women determined to lead authentically, effectively, and sustainably in higher education. The book is written about and for women in leadership positions, and for women interested in educational leadership within the academy. It will also be of interest to college, university and public libraries; individuals including scholars in the discipline; and it can serve as a critical textbook in a variety of Leadership classes in undergraduate and graduate programs.Perfect for courses such as: Women and Leadership; Higher Education Administration; Gender Studies in Education; Educational Leadership and Policy; Sociology of Higher Education; Feminist Theory and Practice; Women's Studies Capstone Seminar; Organizational Behavior in Education; Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education; Professional Development for Graduate Students

The Critical Importance of Teacher Advocacy: Empowered Educators on the Front Lines is a powerful and timely anthology that amplifies the voices of education activists from across the United States who are committed to reimagining what it means to be an educator in today's challenging climate. At its heart, this book is a testament to the unwavering spirit of those who enter the classroom not just to teach, but to make a lasting impact on the lives of their students and the future of our society. In these pages, readers will find stories of courage, resilience, and resistance—narratives that highlight the importance of holding onto one’s core values amid increasing political, social, and institutional pressures. The educators featured in this compilation don’t just teach curriculum—they build authentic relationships with their students, create inclusive learning environments, and refuse to accept the status quo when it harms the very children they serve. More than a celebration of individual triumphs, The Critical Importance of Teacher Advocacy serves as a call to view education through a broader societal lens. It urges educators and readers alike to acknowledge how systemic inequities, policy decisions, and cultural narratives shape our schools and the experiences within them. Without this context, burnout is inevitable and attrition becomes a painful norm. This book also challenges its audience to think beyond immediate outcomes. The fight for justice and equity in education is a long game—one that may not yield tangible change within a single career or even a single lifetime. But these stories affirm that the work must continue. Educators must rise, speak out, organize, and even disrupt unjust systems to protect the very soul of our democracy. For new teachers, seasoned educators, and anyone invested in the future of public education, The Critical Importance of Teacher Advocacy is both a rallying cry and a source of deep inspiration. The work is hard—but these stories prove that it is always worth it. The book is a valuable teaching tool and textbook in a variety of classes for preservice teachers. It also is a great research tool for scholars working in teacher advocacy.

Writing as Artistry: EdD Students Learning to Write as Scholarly Practitioners is a timely guidebook that supports EdD students’ scholarly writing development while honoring and amplifying their rich practitioner knowledge and wisdom. EdD students are educational leaders and working professionals transitioning from expert-practitioners to scholarly practitioners who aim to positively transform the lives of students and communities. This resource addresses the significant need for mastering scholarly writing skills required for EdD students’ successful degree completion and real-life impact.The book’s conceptual approach frames scholarly writing as artistry. This perspective recognizes the work of practitioners as a deeply human and experiential process of solving problems of practice by drawing on prior knowledge and exploring new methods to improve practice. This view champions the idea that practitioners’ professional knowledge and rich prior experience are essential assets and that their insider knowledge is a necessary and key condition for rigorous practitioner inquiry. The authors adopt a critical stance that rejects the dominant notion of technical rationality, which historically views researchers as scholars and practitioners as mere “doers,” arguing instead that building successful experiences for EdD students requires and respects practitioners’ professional knowledge.The guidebook offers a scaffolded, practical approach to scholarly writing, aiming to guide the reader toward a practice-focused lens, provides practical tools for fostering scholarly writing, and builds students’ confidence as writers. It is centrally focused on developing practice-centered dissertations and culminating projects that align with professional-practice degrees.To support students throughout the process, the book provides a robust repertoire of writing approaches and strategies. It offers guidance on prewriting techniques for capturing initial ideas and helps students in effectively connecting their ideas with others. Critical to this artistic approach is the development of a unique writer’s voice and positionality, often through the use of reflexivity. The book includes comprehensive practical tools for navigating the often-challenging mechanics of scholarly work, detailing writing feedback and revision strategies, and including a range of templates and clear examples of student work. Furthermore, the guide provides essential advice for leveraging support structures, such as engaging with multiple mentors and critical friends. The guide also prepares students for diverse project types, including individual, collaborative, and alternative dissertation projects.Ultimately, mastering these skills is a critical way to support students in their work beyond graduation. The ability to write clear, scholarly reports is essential, as the skills learned must transfer from the Dissertation-in-Practice experience to the student's world of practice, thus ensuring real-world impact by enhancing leaders’ capacity to implement evidence-based solutions to complex problems.

From Getting Started to Graduation: A Student Guide to the EdD, a volume in The Coming of Age of the Education Doctorate Series book series, pulls back the curtain on the hidden curriculum of the EdD experience for students, fully supporting their journeys by making what is too often anxious and abstract more clear and concrete. Drawing from years of experience from designing and directing an EdD program, the authors provide an end-to-end playbook for students to draw from as they navigate their own EdD program of choice.Part I focuses on getting started. The book begins with an establishment of the why behind getting an EdD and how this is a distinct and unique experience unlike other graduate degrees. It pushes readers to think beyond the title, encouraging them to drill down into their core motivation for pursuing not just a degree but a transformative experience. Readers will then learn about finding the match quality between their goals and aspirations and the myriad program choices available to them. Once students have winnowed down their choices and found their fit, they will be coached on how to build survival systems that will help them thrive from the onset to the finish line. This includes learning how to pace themselves, how to lean on friends and family, how to create contingency plans, and how to create helpful constraints that make room for work-life balance. The book closes Part I with helpful tips for time and resource management, as well as how to build routines and habits that allow them to be kind of their future selves.Part II explicitly explores how to navigate this years-long quest and stay the course. Readers will learn how to get curious and keep that door open across coursework in order to allow for innovative and creative ideas to flourish and eventually lead to fusion—the key to creative thinking. With the door opened to ideas and exploration, the book sets the stage for how to become a scholar-practitioner through key habits of mind such as the what-if and maybe mindset and tackling the tough task of synthesis. Part II ends with the call to team up and to take this winding road together. The EdD experience can be lonely if students go it alone, and the volume explains how and why teaming up is not just nice but necessary to persevere as the way to reach the finish line.Finally, Part III pivots to helping students survive the intensive thinking, researching, and writing demands of the dissertation. Readers will tap into years of tips and tricks on how to break this mystifying and monstrous project into sizable and achievable small steps that fuel motivation for the long haul so that students avoid burnout during the final push as they near defending their projects and crushing their comps. When finished, EdD students will be able to leverage what is too often hidden from students and draw from the concrete examples, strategies, stories, and templates therein in order to start strong and finish strong.Perfect for courses such as: Introduction to Research; Research Methodology; Introduction to the EdD; The Scholar-Practitioner; Exploring Problems of Practice; Becoming a Change Agent

Beyond Compensation: Empowering Teachers’ Unions to Think Beyond Bread-and-Butter Issues is an incredibly important book that explores the value of union representation of teachers on the front lines of public education. After the 2018 Supreme Court ruling on Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), educators and other union members wondered why they should belong to a union. This book provides an answer and demonstrates that the role of teachers’ unions goes far beyond bread-and-butter issues as shown in the myriad priorities they are involved in. Teachers’ unions today are requesting additional funding for education to improve outcomes for all students—including those who are disadvantaged, as well as racial and ethnic and sexual-minority students and English-language learners. The goal of teachers’ unions is not simply to represent the rights of their members, but rather to improve education on the whole. They are seeking smaller class sizes, safer schools, and the addition of nurses and counselors, issues that go beyond increased pay for teachers. The book explores in detail the role of one teachers’ union, the Washington Teachers’ Union and its parent organization, the American Federation of Teachers, and their priorities as a roadmap for how other teachers’ unions might pursue these goals and the hazards they might face. The author discusses major educational issues such as teacher evaluation, merit pay for teachers, standardized testing, and community schools and warns about the dangers of vouchers and charter schools. Beyond Compensation is a volume in The Badass Teachers Association Education Series. The series serves to contribute to educators’ and educational leaders’ understandings of the need for teacher education, activism, and leadership in these areas. It will provide a place for future and current educators to learn more about these issues and how they can build their classrooms and communities into the spaces all students deserve. The series consists of print books and e-books for current educators, pre-service teachers, parents, and others in the greater community.

For any educator, administrator, or school leader who is committed to promoting student success, Unreached: What Every Educator Wants to Know About Engaging Families for Equity and Student Achievement is an indispensable resource. The premise of the book is grounded in the research that confirms that student achievement is closely tied to effective family partnerships, yet for many educators, identifying how to engage families as partners can feel overwhelming and nebulous. As a result, there is often a disconnect between schools and families that leads to families feeling excluded from the type of meaningful partnership efforts that can support student achievement. Unreached tackles this challenge by offering a clear roadmap for overcoming these barriers and cultivating trust between families and schools. One of the standout features of this volume is its focus on relevant, real-world applications designed to help districts and schools implement a sustainable approach that can support clear and meaningful gains for students.Trice Moore presents a series of practices, tips and a process for addressing the barriers that often prevent families from participating in their student’s education as partners. Drawing on research and practical scenarios, the book highlights the importance of viewing partnerships with families as a tool for advancing educational equity and offers insights on ways effective partnerships can play a pivotal role in promoting success for all students. At the heart of the book is a compelling overview of some of the systemic inequities and barriers that often exist in schools and how educators and school leaders can play a role in either perpetuating or dismantling those systems.Written by a leading voice in the field of family outreach and engagement, the book delves into the power of meaningful connections and offers four specific partnership recommendations and five authentic leadership practices to transform how schools partner with families to support student success. Unreached is not just a theoretical guide; it is a practical, hands-on resource filled with actionable strategies for educators, school teams and education leaders. Readers will learn how to earn trust with families, share responsibility and balance expectations respectfully across and beyond cultural differences within an environment where all parties feel valued and heard.The book also includes tools for developing family engagement plans, assessing your partnership approach and a recommendation summary for school teams. This workbook provides a thoughtful examination of the challenges linked to family engagement and a variety of tools for overcoming those challenges. It is an essential guide for educators seeking to bridge the gap between families and schools in ways that can help create an inclusive, equitable, and high-achieving environment for students. With a blend of practical scenarios, tools, tips and actionable insights, Unreached is a must-read for anyone interested in making gains in student achievement through culturally responsive family and community partnerships.Perfect for courses such as: Introduction, Intermediate, and Advanced courses in Family and Community Engagement, Leadership

Improvement Science in Education: A Primer, second edition, is the first and introductory volume in the Myers Education Press series, Improvement Science in Education and Beyond. It provides a comprehensive overview of improvement science as a framework to guide continuous improvement and reconceptualizes improvement by centering equity and justice as the purpose of improvement. The Primer is designed to introduce improvement science, a methodology with origins in manufacturing, engineering and healthcare, to educational audiences. The book first explores the philosophical and methodological foundations of improvement science, juxtaposing it with traditional forms of research so that clear distinctions can be drawn. Chapters in the latter half of the book introduce the principles of improvement, give guidance and tools for operationalizing the principles in practice, and conclude with questions to ensure you are improving with equity in mind. Constantly reminding readers to think about who is involved and impacted, the Primer makes improvement science accessible to novices and adds critical dimensions for experienced practitioners to consider. In the second edition of this best-selling book, Brandi Hinnant-Crawford, a nationally recognized authority in the methodology, has added valuable new content that updates the literature and enhances the focus of the volume by asking even more who questions: who benefits, who bears the burden, whose priorities and values are reflected, and who is heard when decisions are made. Improvement for equity requires more than profound knowledge and subject matter knowledge—it requires criticality. Improvement science is rapidly becoming the signature methodology for accomplishing continuous improvement in universities, public school districts, and professional development programs. Its goal is to create better learning environments.Perfect for courses such as: Educational Research; School Improvement; and Program Evaluation

Researchers working to clearly identify a research topic and theme have difficulty deciding how to focus their work. Using a potential-based learning focus, detailed in this text, readers are challenged to consider their role as researcher, scholar, and leader to guide their reflective work. Transformative Potential Based Research: A Guide to Successfully Finding One's Place in Research provides both the theoretical support and the guiding activities to help readers decide on an area of potential-based research. The result will prove to be transformational. To guide this work, Karen Moroz and Trish Harvey have developed a suitable framework. They invite readers to review the mountain metaphor shared within the framework and to keep the visual present at all times as they progress through the book. It is addressed often and readers will be invited to use, extend, and discuss it numerous times throughout their journey. Transformative Potential Based Research supports instructors and students through all stages of research, including: identifying and embracing relevant and essential topics, crafting research questions that accurately and concisely convey the purpose(s), exploring one’s own connection to the issue, developing and employing individual processes that lead to success, and determining a potential-based frame that motivates the writer and frames the workPerfect for courses such as: Dissertation; Research Methods; Educational Methods; Intro to Research Design; Academic Writing; Capstone Practicum; Educational Research; Understanding Research

In recent years, the field of education has been fraught with a variety of different challenges. A multi-year pandemic, book banning, and legislative efforts seeking to ban Critical Race Theory and LGBTQ positive curriculum have had negative effects on K-12 education, leaving many educators feeling the progress made in several states and communities before and during the 2018 teacher walkouts and strikes was now gone. Teacher morale is sitting at a historic low point, with teachers leaving the profession in droves. Education as an institution is at a crucial tipping point, and changes focused on equity and reducing the neoliberal hold on reform need to be implemented in order to keep schools as democratic spaces. The way this vision can be realized is through activism and existing social movement organizations that use both traditional and netroots practices. The purpose of Activists, Advocates, and Agitators is to provide readers with a history and analysis of 21st century teacher activism in K-12 schools to better understand the effectiveness of organizing and activism. Additionally, the text will introduce readers to present-day activist groups whose work is positively changing education and schools and the ways in which some teachers are working within their communities to assist in their specific needs.Activists, Advocates, and Agitators is the perfect book to instruct preservice teachers about the conditions that they will face in their classrooms, arming them with valuable strategies to help them to achieve their academic goals. Perfect for courses such as: Social Foundations of Education; Foundations of Education; Education Policy; Educational Leadership; Teacher Leadership; Sociology of Education; Politics of Education; and Democratic Education