New Books in Education

Conventional thinking tells us that private school education is better than public schooling in the US. Why else would parents pay the hefty price tag often associate with private education, especially at very elite schools? But, Dr. Christopher Lubienski and Dr. Sarah Lubienski question this assumption in their new book, entitled The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2013). In this publication, the authors use two large-scale datasets on mathematics outcomes to isolate the effects of schooling on children and they find that public schools actually score better than their private school counterparts in this measure when the proper variables are held constant. To explain their findings, Lubienski and Lubienski argue that public school usually have better certified teachers and more often teach with more modern pedagogical methods. While the book does not contend that all public schools are great, the authors would like their findings that show traditional public schools do in fact show positive outcomes to be considered alongside a policy discourse that is increasingly dominated by calls of privatization and autonomy–such as vouchers and charter schools. Dr. Christopher Lubienski joins New Books in Education for the interview. You can follow him and the host of this podcast on Twitter at @CLub_edu and @PoliticsAndEd, respectively. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Philosophy does not have to be stuck in the clouds. It can have relevance in everyday life, for everyday people, and Scott Samuelson attempts to do just that in his book, entitled The Deepest Human Life: An Introduction to Philosophy for Everyone (University of Chicago Press, 2014). Samuelson weaves in a personal narrative from his experience teaching at Kirkwood Community College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa and a deep historical exploration of philosophy. His students provide interesting and everyday lessons that the author forges into the foundation for complex philosophical issues. The book is organized into four sections that each focus on a single question, yet vast question: What is Philosophy? What is Happiness? Is Knowledge of God Possible? and What is the Nature of Good and Evil?. From Socrates, to Pascal, from the Stoics to Epicureans, Samuelson allows for an easier understanding of advanced philosophical discourse, and without watering down the complexity. He joins New Books in Education for the interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

“This is a book that wants you to surpass and destroy it.” Eric Hayot‘s new book has the potential to transform how we teach and practice academic writing, and it invites the kind of reading and engagement that makes such a transformation possible. The Elements of Academic Style: Writing for the Humanities (Columbia University Press, 2014) is a style guide geared specifically toward academic writers in the humanities, paying special attention to the field of literary and cultural theory but applying equally well across humanistic disciplines. At turns funny, moving, and brilliant – not always qualities we associate with writing style guides – Hayot’s book treats writing as a process that encompasses “behavioral, emotional, & institutional parameters.” The first section of the book treats writing as a form of life, addressing the contexts and habits of the writer and the institutional contexts in which we teach and write. It also offers some strategies for getting writing done in the course of the typically crazy, packed life of the academic writer, and includes some great advice for thinking about the relationship between a dissertation and a book. The second section addresses strategies of academic writing, introducing the scalable “Uneven-U” model for conceptualizing the structure of paragraphs, essays, and beyond. It also includes some helpful ways to understand and craft openings and closings, and reminds us how important it is to keep the experience of our readers in mind as we write. The third section offers great advice on some of the elemental tactics of writing practice, including citation, sentence rhythm, and much more. The final section suggests a way to think about the writing in terms of “becoming”: a writer, a written work, a form of life. The Elements of Academic Style is a book well worth reading and rereading. I’ve already been using it in my teaching and writing, and it’s a fitting work to inaugurate the New Books Network Seminar! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

It’s becoming more and more common to see comparisons of educational attributes between other countries. From international tests like PISA or TIMSS rankings, to study habits, and classroom life, policymakers, educators, and even everyday people want to make cross-country comparisons. But, comparisons, if not analyzed correctly, can be grossly simplified or misinterpreted. So then, how can we do comparative education with nuance? Mark Bray, Bob Adamson, and Mark Mason provide a wonderfully robust handbook for just this question with their edited volume entitled Comparative Education Research Approaches and Methods (Comparative Education Research Centre [CERC], the University of Hong Kong, 2014). The book is largely comprised of chapters synthesized into “Units of Comparisons,” including: comparing places, systems, times, race, class, and gender, cultures, values, policies, curricula, pedagogy, ways of learning, and educational achievement. Each of these chapters thoroughly explains proper analysis of cross-country comparisons depending on unit and lens. In this second edition, Bray, Adamson, and Mason build upon classic foundations of the field, such as the Bray and Thomas Cube, while updating the book to reflect the newest trends and technological innovations that have occurred since the first edition published in 2007. Particularly, the rise of East Asia as a dominant actor in the field of comparative education is reflected throughout the book with examples and case studies from the region. All of the editors and contributors are connected to CERC at the University of Hong Kong, which provides a close familiarity with the region by the writers. The book has been translated into eight different languages and has been well received by countries throughout the world. Dr. Bray, CERC director and UNESCO Chair Professor in Comparative Education at the university, joins New Books in Education to discuss the book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

China has had an amazing developmental path over the past thirty years. Decade long double digit economic growth numbers along with more assertion on the international stage have led to some concern of a “Rising China”, one that may eventually threaten the status quo. But economic rise is not the only area in which China has dramatically developed, as education too has seen a major boost since opening up in the late 1970s. With international testing like PISA showing that China has some of the top students in the world, some policymakers in the West are looking to their system with envy. In Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon? (Jossey-Bass, 2014), Dr. Yong Zhao, Presidential Chair and professor at the University of Oregon’s College of Education, provides true nuance to the Chinese educational system, which might not be worth replicating after all. In Zhao’s book, he chronicles China’s long history of testing through the imperial exam system up to today’s gaokao, the Chinese university entrance exam. He further dives into China’s attempts to “catch up” to the West, often failing with ventures like the Chinese Educational Mission (1872-1881). Set on this historical narrative backdrop, Zhao weaves in contemporary educational issues from the Chinese system, such as rampant professorial research falsification and the test cramming lifestyle of the typical Chinese student. He concludes that the “authoritarian” type of education found in China should not be imported to the US, writing that it “stifles creativity, smothers curiosity, suppresses individuality, ruins children’s health, distresses students and parents, corrupts teachers and leaders, and perpetuates social injustice and inequity” (p. 187). Dr. Zhao joins New Books in Education to discuss this fascinating and pertinent topic. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

In the early 1830s, the French school teacher Eugénie Luce migrated to Algeria. A decade later, she was a major force in the debates around educational practices there, insisting that not only were women entitled to quality education, but that women’s education served a fundamental role in the French mission in the colonies. “Woman is the most powerful of all influences in Africa as in Europe,” she wrote in 1846, the year after she founded a school for the instruction of indigenous Muslim girls. In A Frenchwoman’s Imperial Story: Madame Luce in Nineteenth-Century Algeria, Rebecca Rogers (Stanford University Press, 2013), a Professor at the Université Paris Descartes and an expert in the history of the French educational system, lucidly explores Luce’s work in the field, bringing  a wealth of precise details– everything from what the lessons in the school room were like to prize-giving ceremonies and hygiene inspections. But Rogers also lets the reader in on the questions that remain about Luce’s own life. Rogers notes that while “Eugénie Allix’s efforts to establish and finance her school have left ample traces in the colonial archives,” there are many details of her life that are not present and which can only be lightly sketched. For example, “[C]ivil registers offer tenuous insight into Eugénie’s social network during her first decade of life in Algeria”… The circumstances of her second marriage “have left no trace in the archival record”… It’s an interesting meditation on the limitations of archives– how the story that is told of the life after is dependent upon the letters and signatures and red tape that the people of history have left behind them, as well as the moves the biographer must make to fill those gaps. So often the stories of women in history become the stories of all the men they knew and yet, in this case, the archive itself prevents that. As Rogers writes, the men in her life “[b]oth shaped her life in ways the biographer can only imagine” and yet the biographer is left to imagine precisely because the proof is not there. “She appears in the colonial archives as very much an independent woman,” which represents a rather refreshing reversal, almost as unique today as it would’ve been in the 19th century: a woman whose story stands solely on her work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

“All classes are sorta boring” (p. 19). This statement is one that college students might believe, along with many of their professors, but not Dr. Mark Carnes, author of Minds on Fire: How Role-Immersion Games Transform College (Harvard University Press, 2014). In Carnes’ book, he describes a new type of learning and classroom pedagogy called “Reacting”, where students take control of the class by being immersed into various roles in a certain event in history and given a competitive goal to complete by the end of the exercise, sometimes over a month long. For instance, students could be assigned as Jacobins in the French Revolution or Gandhi during the partitioning of British India. Each role is different and each student is tasked with various objectives to complete. The method, which can be used in disciplines beyond history, is akin to Model UN or mock trials, but on overdrive. Carnes, professor of history at Barnard College, asserts that through these immersion activities students will gain a better sense of morality, foster greater leadership and community-building skills, and learn more on a particular subject overall than a traditional class setting, as students are tasked with knowing their characters and historical background information much more intently than their typical class workload. The reacting method taps into the “subversive play” that has been present on college campuses for centuries–from fraternities, mixers, and football, to beer pong, Facebook, and World of Warcraft. The role immersion method gets students excited about going to class and even raises the stakes for how much students care, which can result in crying sessions after a tough loss in the imagined world, as Carnes witnessed on several occasions. Despite countering teachings from Plato, Rousseau, Dewey, and other educational thinkers, Minds on Fire provides a compelling case on how to rethink the modern classroom experience in higher education. Dr. Carnes joins New Books in Education for an interesting discussion on his book and urges anyone interested in implementing this new pedagogical tool to visit the Reacting to the Past website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Teachers have recently become a target in the educational reform debate. Most would agree that great teachers are crucial for education. However, there is no singular formula for a great teacher. So then, what makes a great teacher? Do those characteristics transcend culture? These questions and more are explored in a new book titled West Meets East:  Best Practices from Expert Teachers in the United States and China (ASCD, 2014). The book is a collaboration from several American and Chinese academics: Leslie Grant, James Stronge, Xianxuan Xu, Patricia Popp, Yaling Sun, and Catherine Little. Dr. Grant, Assistant Professor of Education at The College of William and Mary, joins New Books in Education to discuss West Meets East. In the interview, Dr. Grant provides an overview of her coauthored book, including how the project began with collaboration between The College of William and Mary and Yunnan Normal University, in Yunnan Province, China. Grant and her coauthors interviewed teachers across the US and China whom had all been honored with teaching awards by their respective countries. The authors explored four characteristics of these teachers: personal qualities, planning and assessment, instructional practices, and classroom management. While their comparative educational study showed distinct differences amongst the two groups, the researchers also found that some characteristics that cross over to both cultural groups of great teachers, like a shared sense of purpose and responsibility. This cross-cultural comparative book is ideal for teachers, policymakers, and anyone interested in education or comparative studies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

With a new focus on vocational and work ready education, the notion of a liberal education is becoming less valued in American society. Though, there are still defenders of this well-rounded and classic form of education. One staunch defender is Dr. Michael S. Roth, current President of Wesleyan University and author of Beyond the University: Why Liberal Education Matters (Yale University Press, 2014). As the title suggests, Dr. Roth contends that liberal education is still important in higher education and how it can be molded onto modern advancements, such as aligning liberal education with MOOCs. To illustrate liberal education’s impact on American society, Dr. Roth’s book casts an expansive list of intellectuals, politicians, and writers who all espouse “enlightened” principles of education. From Thomas Jefferson’s belief that better education was needed so that the elites would not unfairly run society, to W. E. B. DuBois’ and Jane Addams’ inspiration from their German experiences, and Benjamin Franklin’s lampooning of Harvard elitism, this book includes a diverse, yet connected, plethora of figures throughout history. Dr. Roth helps to relate these historical narratives to contemporary educational conversations by interjecting his personal experiences in various areas of the book. Old ideals of “specialization” and the current vocational craze especially bond to provide relevance to today’s conversations. The book closes with Thomas Dewey, the influential American educator, and with a moment from the author’s lecture in China, where liberal education is just beginning to take hold. Dr. Roth joins the New Books in Education to discuss his book, his interesting education career, and to tell us what “pragmatic education” means. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

“Don’t Send Your Kid to the Ivy League.”  This was the headline of a recent New Republic article that reverberated across the internet recently, going viral as it was shared over 160 thousands times on Facebook. The author of this piece, Dr. William Deresiewicz, joins the New Books in Education podcast to discuss his new book Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite and the Way to a Meaningful Life (Free Press 2014), which further elaborates upon his recent viral article and another from 2008,  “The Disadvantages of an Elite Education“. In Excellent Sheep, Deresiewicz draws on his decades of experience at Ivy League institutions; first, at Columbia where he did his undergraduate and graduate degrees, and then later at Yale where he taught for a decade. With an insiders view and a critical lens, he dissects what education at these types of institutions has become. He asserts that the hypercompetitive nature of elite institutions has taken away from self-discovery of students, a key facet to innovation and creativity. Deresiewicz’s book also confronts the social implications of a less meritocratic elite system of education. Particularly, he is concerned by the kind of elites that are being produced by prestigious education in America, with graduates that disproportionally pursue careers in self-serving fields like finance. Like his past viral essays, Excellent Sheep is a thought-provoking look at American society and provides keen insights into the world of elite education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education