New Books in Education

Ethics and civics have always mattered, but perhaps they matter now more than ever before. Recently, with the rise of online teaching and movements like #PlayApartTogether, games have become increasingly acknowledged as platforms for civic deliberation and value sharing. We the Gamers: How Games Teach Ethics and Civics (Oxford UP, 2021) explores these possibilities by examining how we connect, communicate, analyze, and discover when we play games. Combining research-based perspectives and current examples, this volume shows how games can be used in ethics, civics, and social studies education to inspire learning, critical thinking, and civic change.We the Gamers introduces and explores various educational frameworks through a range of games and interactive experiences including board and card games, online games, virtual reality and augmented reality games, and digital games like Minecraft,Executive Command, Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, Fortnite, When Rivers Were Trails, Politicraft, Quandary, and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The book systematically evaluates the types of skills, concepts, and knowledge needed for civic and ethical engagement, and details how games can foster these skills in classrooms, remote learning environments, and other educational settings. We the Gamers also explores the obstacles to learning with games and how to overcome those obstacles by encouraging equity and inclusion, care and compassion, and fairness and justice.Featuring helpful tips and case studies, We the Gamers shows teachers the strengths and limitations of games in helping students connect with civics and ethics, and imagines how we might repair and remake our world through gaming, together.Rudolf Inderst is a professor of Game Design with a focus on Digital Game Studies at the IU International University of Applied Science, editor of “Game Studies Watchlist”, a weekly messenger newsletter about Game Culture and curator of @gamestudies at tiktok. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

During Leo Lambert’s 19-year tenure as president at Elon University, the institution moved from a regional college to becoming one of the U.S.’s top 100 national universities. It is consistently ranked #1 for undergraduate education, ahead of Brown and Princeton. Lambert describes the five core “Elon Experiences” and other high impact practices that have helped Elon become one of the leaders in active and engaged learning. He also discusses the other strategies that enabled Elon to advance so significantly, including: adding a law school, creating a top-ranked School of Communications, an AACSB-accredited Business School, and a new School of Health Sciences, and constructing over two-thirds of the buildings and facilities on its beautiful North Carolina campus. In Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College (Johns Hopkins UP, 2020) he shares numerous insights from Elon and a diverse set of 16 other colleges and universities that have intentionally focused on building deep connections for students with faculty, staff and their peers.David Finegold is the president of Chatham University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

In Districts That Succeed: Breaking the Correlation Between Race, Poverty, and Achievement (Harvard Education Press, 2021), long-time education writer Karin Chenoweth turns her attention from effective schools to effective districts. Leveraging new, cutting-edge national research on district performance as well as in-depth reporting, Chenoweth profiles five districts that have successfully broken the correlation between race, poverty, and achievement. Focusing on high performing or rapidly improving districts that serve children of color and children from low-income backgrounds, the book explores the common elements that have led to the districts' successes, including leadership, processes, and systems. Districts That Succeed reveals that helping more students achieve is not a matter of adopting a program or practice. Rather, it requires developing a district-wide culture where all adults feel responsible for the academic well-being of students and adopt systems and processes that support that culture. Chenoweth explores how districts, from urban Chicago, Illinois to suburban Seaford, Delaware, have organized themselves to look at data to guide improvement. Her research highlights the essential role of districts in closing achievement gaps and illustrates how successful outliers can serve as resources for other districts. With important lessons for district leaders and policy makers alike, Chenoweth offers the hard-won wisdom of educators who understand the power of schools to, as one superintendent says, "change the path of poverty."Host Laura Kelly is an assistant professor of Educational Studies at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, where she researches and teaches about language and literacy learning and teaching in culturally and linguistically diverse educational contexts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

In Universities on Fire: Higher Education in the Climate Crisis (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023), futurist Bryan Alexander explores higher education during an age of unfolding climate crisis. Powered by real-world examples and the latest research, Alexander assesses practical responses and strategies by surveying contemporary programs and academic climate research from around the world. He establishes a model of how academic institutions may respond and offers practical pathways forward for higher education. How will the two main purposes of education—teaching and research—change as the world heats up? Alexander positions colleges and universities in the broader social world, from town-gown relationships to connections between how campuses and civilization as a whole respond to this epochal threat.Brady McCartney is an environmental educator and the Consortium Director of the EcoLeague, an environmental education consortium currently based at Dickinson College's Center for Sustainability Education. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

How are hiring and admissions decisions made in the hard sciences if not by merit? What are the risks of allowing science to be politicized? Professors Dorian Abbot (University of Chicago), Anna Krylov (University of Southern California), David Romps (University of California, Berkeley), and Bernhardt Trout (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), join the show to answer these questions and others. Resources:  Dorian Abbot "The Views That Made Me Persona Non Grata at MIT" Yascha Mounk "Why the Latest Campus Cancellation Is Different" Bret Stephens, "What Does a University Owe Democracy?"   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Dorian Abbot is an Associate Professor of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had invited Abbot to deliver their prestigious Carlson Lecture, but rescinded the invitation after receiving complaints about an article Abbot had written for Newsweek, titled "The Diversity Problem on Campus." In response, Princeton University's James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions invited Abbot to speak at the James Madison Program. He'll do so live on Zoom on October 21st, at 4:30 PM ET. Abbot joins the podcast to discuss MIT's capitulation, academic freedom in the hard sciences, and more.Abbot's essay "The Diversity Problem on Campus" is here. Abbot's article "MIT Abandon's its Mission. And Me" is here.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Why do so many students and academics worry that they are imposters? Is it normal to experience this kind of self-doubt? This episode explores: The difference between imposter syndrome and imposter phenomenon. How we can better understand imposter syndrome. Why it strikes some people. How to recognize it when it does. Tips for helping others and ourselves. Our guest is: Dr Darragh McCashin, who is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at Dublin City University (DCU), and is interested in digital youth mental health, and clinical/forensic applications of technology. Previously, Darragh was a Marie Curie Fellow/PhD student at University College Dublin (UCD), examining technology-enabled youth mental health within the EU H2020-funded TEAM-ITN project, specifically the role of technology-assisted cognitive behavioural therapy for children using mixed methodologies. A second strand to Darragh’s research is that of forensic/criminal psychology. With an MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology (University of York), Darragh has previously worked as an Associate Lecturer and Research Assistant in the Online-Protect research group at the University of Lincoln case formulation tools for those with convictions for internet sexual offences.With respect to policy-making, Darragh is currently the taskforce leader for Mental Health of Researchers within the Policy Working Group of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), and co-founded the researcher mentoring programme Referent. Darragh also sits on two COST Actions: Researcher Mental Health Observatory (CA19117; Working Group Chair), and the European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet (CA16207; management committee member for Ireland).Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.Listeners to this episode may also be interested in: How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community, by Mia Birdsong It’s a Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence, by Frank Martela Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, by Nedra Glover Tawwab The Rejection That Saved My Life, by Jessica Bacal The Academic Life podcast on belonging and the science of creating connection and bridging divides The Academic Life podcast Dealing With Rejection The Academic Life podcast On The Museum of Failure Welcome to The Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today’s knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Find us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Today I sat down with Nadia Davis to discuss parenting and mindfulness. Nadia is the author of Home Is Within You: A Memoir of Recovery and Redemption (Girl Friday Books, 2021).Nadia Davis is the mother of three sons, a writer, attorney, kundalini yoga teacher and former executive director and elected official.She graduated from U.C.L.A. with a degree in Sociology and Specialization in Juvenile Justice, Loyola Law School with a Doctorate, and has received numerous state and national awards for her work improving the lives of others, including the John F. Kennedy Jr. Public Service Award, National Womens' Political Caucus Woman of the Year, and Hispanic Woman of the Year L.U.L.A.C. Her journey of recovery from childhood and adult trauma, a near death car accident, chronic pain, public shaming, addiction and mental health is an inspiration to many. She shows readers a way out of darkness into connection with their infinite true selves and our home within. Nadia lives in Southern California happily co-parenting her three sons. For more information, please visit her website. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

Why is education so important in a democracy? Are democracies capable of producing the citizens they need? What do John Locke and Alexis de Tocqueville have to teach us about education in a liberal democracy? Jeffrey Sikkenga, Executive Director of the Ashbrook Center, joins Madison's Notes to answer these questions and more.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education

This book delves deep into the question of what is legal education for? Who does it serve, and how, as educators can we reflect on what we deliver in the law classroom? In answering this question, What is Legal Education For? Re-assessing the Purposes of Early Twenty-First Century Learning and Law Schools (Routledge 2022), editors Dr Rachel Dunn, Professor Paul Maharg and Dr Victoria Roper bring together a collection that grew out of a Modern Law Review Seminar, which celebrated the works of Peter Birks' earlier collection, Pressing Problems in the Law: What is the Law School for? (1996). What is fascinating about this collection is that each chapter offers a unique lens of analysis to consider the role of legal education in society, from the perspective of lawyers, educators and students. We had a really great discussion which considers the challenges that legal educators face, specially with regard to the increasing corporatisation of law schools and what this means both from an international perspective, and also for students from minority backgrounds. This book will be useful for anyone interested in law, law teaching and lawyering, and marks an essential contribution in the evolution of legal pedagogy. Jane Richards is a doctoral student at the University of Hong Kong. You can find her on twitter where she follows all things related to human rights and Hong Kong politics @JaneRichardsHK. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/education