New Books in Education

How did young boys in premodern China learn? What educational texts did they use? What values informed their education? Katherine Ngo’s new book Unlocking the Treasury: Elementary Learning for Boys in Qing China (Lever Press, 2025) explores these questions through a focus on a Qing-dynasty textbook: Treasury of Elementary Learning (Youxue qionglin 幼學瓊林). One of the most popular textbooks in the Qing, Treasury is packed to the brim with allusions, references, exemplars, and much more. Katherine deftly unpacks Treasury, showing how it is at once a handbook for practical learning, a child-friendly version of the school of heart-mind, and an introduction to training for the civil-service examination.In addition to being a wonderfully rich and careful introduction to Treasury, this book highlights how education in the Qing was complex, eclectic, and anything but focused exclusively on rote learning. Unlocking the Treasury should be of interest to scholars of China, historians of the early modern world, but also anyone interested in the history of education, pedagogy, and different ways of learning.Unlocking the Treasury is also available as an Open Access ebook here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

In this engaging discussion, Nancy Ceulemans, a neurodevelopmental educational consultant and co-author of a guide for educators, dives into understanding children's behavior beyond traditional discipline. She uncovers the surprising impact of environmental toxins on kids, explains how sensory systems influence meltdowns and reactions, and offers practical tips for parents. Nancy emphasizes the importance of recognizing both hypersensitivity and hyposensitivity in children, promoting a holistic approach to support their emotional and behavioral needs.

A coalition of educators and allies has come together to push back against a variety of different kinds of attacks on higher education and students at colleges and universities, particularly in the United States. This group is driven by the belief that a democracy is only as strong as its commitments to academic freedom, intellectual integrity, human diversity, and individual dignity. The impetus among this particular group of academics and staff members is to make sure that students at all the campuses, in all the programs at those campuses across the United States are supported and free to engage in their chosen courses of study. The various ways in which this mission is being attacked or undermined, with the slashing of grants, attempts to control curriculum, freezing of campus free speech, snatching of students off the streets, and threats to the bottom line all contribute to destabilizing the educational paths of students, and the ability of the faculty and the staff to provide students with the education, research opportunities, and higher education experiences they are seeking at these institutions.I am joined on this installment of PostScript by three members of an organic group of educators—across disciplines—who came together in the early days of the new Trump Administration to try to figure out how to best support students at different institutions. One of the results of this collaboration among academics and educators across disciplines, institutions, and parts of the country, was to craft a letter directed at university administrators, governmental entities, and the public, explaining the value and import of education, especially in a democracy, and the need for a diversity of voices and contributors to that enterprise. I discuss the origin of the group, the genesis of the letter (which is available to sign here), and the deep concerns among those who work in higher education in the United States with Alison Gash, Daniel Laurison, and Nathan Lents.Alison Gash is Professor of Political Science and Head of the Department of Political Science at the University of Oregon. Daniel Laurison is Associate Professor of Sociology at Swarthmore College, the former Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Sociology, and a 2021-2023 Carnegie Fellow. Nathan Lents is Professor of Biology at John Jay College, Links:We are Higher Ed Letter: Speaking Out for Democracy and US Higher EducationWe are Higher Ed Website: https://www.wearehighered.org/Lilly J. Goren is a professor of political science at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI. She is co-editor of The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (University Press of Kansas, 2022), as well as co-editor of the award winning book, Women and the White House: Gender, Popular Culture, and Presidential Politics (University Press of Kentucky, 2012), Email her comments at lgoren@carrollu.edu or tweet to @gorenlj. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

In this episode of the Language on the Move Podcast, Brynn Quick speaks with Dr Agi Bodis and Dr Jing Fang about international tertiary students in Australia. They discuss how these students can make connections between their university experiences, their curriculum, and the professional industries they hope to one day be a part of. They also discuss how international students bring rich linguistic, cultural and intellectual experiences to their university and wider Australian communities.Dr Bodis is a lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie University as well as the Course Director of the Applied Linguistics and TESOL program. Dr Fang is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at Macquarie as well as a NAATI-certified translator and interpreter between English and Chinese. She also serves as a panel interpreter/translator for Multicultural NSW and as a NAATI examiner.For additional resources, show notes, and transcripts, go here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Bringing concepts from critical transitional justice and peacebuilding into dialogue with education, Schooling, Conflict and Peace in the Southwestern Pacific: Becoming Enemy Friends (Bristol University Press, 2024) by Dr. David Oakeshott examines the challenges youth and their teachers face in the post-conflict settings of Bougainville and Solomon Islands.Youth in these places must reconcile with the violent past of their parents’ generation while also learning how to live with people once on opposing ‘sides'. This book traces how students and their teachers form connections to the past and each other that cut through the forces that might divide them. The findings illustrate novel ways to think about the potential for education to assist post-conflict recovery.This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda’s episodes on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Dr. Kai Zhuang Shum, a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, shares her insights on positive psychology in education. She discusses the profound impact of fostering a positive outlook on student performance and mental health. Shum highlights successful programs promoting emotional resilience and well-being, emphasizing the role of initiatives like the PERMA model and culturally adapted interventions. Listeners will discover how integrating these principles can enhance hope and meaningful connections in school settings.

Chris Higgins, Associate Professor and Chair of Formative Education at Boston College, dives into transformative higher education. He argues for universities to prioritize self-discovery and holistic development over mere credentialism. Topics include the evolution of student values, critiques of checkbox learning, and the need for public universities to foster civic engagement. Higgins also emphasizes the lessons from Black Mountain College and the importance of embodied learning, challenging the current structures that limit personal growth.

Good workplaces require both autonomy--giving employees a sense of ownership over how and where they work--and collaboration in pursuit of common goals. They see employees for who they are and support them, pay them enough money to live comfortably, and provide the resources, training, and support they need to be successful. Innovative Library Workplaces: Transformative Human Resource Strategies (2025, Association of College and Research Libraries) provides the tools you need to make your workplace a good one for your employees. Though this book took root during the pandemic, it is not of the pandemic: The changes wrought are permanent. Innovative Library Workplaces proposes a way forward after this monumental disruption, recognizing that neither the pandemic nor the work culture prior to it is a good model for what comes next.Bridgit McCafferty is the Dean of the University Library & Archives at Texas A&M University-Central Texas and has led the library for twelve years. Prior to this, she oversaw reference and instruction services. She has taken on major administrative projects for her university, including recently chairing the SACSCOC Accreditation Reaffirmation Compliance Committee. She is the author of Library Management: A Practical Guide for Librarians and the coauthor of British Postmodernism: Strategies and Sources.Lisa Kallman Hopkins is an associate librarian at A&M-Central Texas. She is the head of Technical Services and assistant dean of the University Library & Archives. In her role as head of Technical Services, she is directly responsible for systems, E-Resources, and agreements, and manages cataloging and acquisitions, interlibrary loan, e-reserves and textbook reserves. She is the university copyright specialist and copyeditor. In addition to Innovative Library Workplaces, she has submitted chapters to Transforming Acquisitions & Collection Services: Perspectives on Collaboration Within and Across Libraries and Technical Services: Adapting to the Changing Environment.Dr. Michael LaMagna is the Information Literacy Program & Library Services Coordinator and Professor of Library Services at Delaware County Community College. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

In this episode of the Language-on-the-Move podcast, Dr Hanna Torsh speaks with Dr Prashneel Ravisan Goundar about his new book, English Language-Mediated Settings and Educational Inequality: Language Policy Agendas in the South Pacific published by Routledge in 2025.In this book, Goundar explores how educational inequalities are responsible for the way students perform in English language-mediated school settings. He seeks to establish an explicit connection between language testing and educational inequalities at the higher education level.With its focus on higher education, this research is a fresh reminder of the need to continuously revisit and unsettle inequalities that are embedded in education systems. In the South Pacific context, this study reveals the current issues, including medium of instruction challenges, lack of teaching and learning resources, teacher shortages, and language barriers. Goundar’s research seeks new answers to the problem of academic English language skills faced by undergraduate students. Since English is a second language for the majority of students in Fiji and as the quality of education varies between urban and rural schools, this cumulatively impacts students’ acquisition of English skills, and, consequently, their university performance. The important questions posed and addressed in this book are as follows: What are the language implications of colonisation on education in the South Pacific? What resources and learning opportunities are provided in schools to promote equal access to education content for students from non-English-speaking backgrounds? How do students from different schooling backgrounds in Fiji cope with an English language-mediated university learning environment? Do educational inequalities manifest in the performance of students from all schooling backgrounds, or are they confined to specific sociocultural zones? Drawing on a unique dataset from a context in the Global South, this book provides new insights for a more holistic approach to examining academic language proficiency and the use of language testing.English Language-mediated Settings and Educational Inequalities: Language Education Policy Agendas in the South Pacific is suitable for postgraduate students in language policy and planning, multilingual language policies for schools, medium of instruction studies, and language testing, and South Pacific studies.For additional resources, show notes, and transcripts, go here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Students often think of science as disconnected pieces of information rather than a narrative that challenges their thinking, requires them to develop evidence-based explanations for the phenomena under investigation, and communicate their ideas in discipline-specific language as to why certain solutions to a problem work. In Enquiry-based Science Education (CRC Press, 2020), Robyn M. Gillies provides teachers in primary and junior secondary school with different evidence-based strategies they can use to teach inquiry science in their classrooms. The research and theoretical perspectives that underpin the strategies are discussed as are examples of how different ones areimplemented in science classrooms to affect student engagement and learning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education