Student mental health is a huge issue in the education sector, and due to overwhelmed mental health systems, greater pressures are placed on teachers to offer pastoral support to students. This book is packed with practical strategies to help teachers with supporting their students. The Little Guide for Teachers series is little in size but BIG on…

To be sure, learning happens within a vast and complex ecosystem: not only in schools and not only with teachers. School leaders, policymakers, parents, food and nutrition workers, groundskeepers, WASH experts, and students themselves, among many others, contribute to a thriving education ecosystem. Alongside teachers, these individuals co-create…

Approaches to Learning (AtL) is widely included in many state standards for preK, as a process-oriented disposition that describes how children learn. Play is one pedagogical strategy teachers can employ to support the development of AtL. This paper uses Vygotsky's depiction of two kinds of play, object play and socio-dramatic play, to provide the…

While educators have limited control over the broader geo-political challenges and physical violence affecting school safety, mental and emotional distress that students experience must also be considered. There are ways to keep children safe and calm fears in the face of the growing unease associated with school shootings in the United States,…

Teachers who crave more leadership responsibilities but don't want to leave the classroom are often left with few options. Even when teacher leadership positions are available, many teachers don't know about them or have chances to develop the skills to succeed in them. Teacher leadership programs at higher education institutions fill this gap.…

For far too many students, schools are "not" places of belonging. This is due, in part, to the cultural mismatch between schools and students that, despite even the best of intentions, too often leads to student harm and negative student outcomes. Gloria McDaniel-Hall and Nina F. Weisling provide insights for understanding…

The literature on teacher leadership tends to omit mention of the dark side of leadership. This is troubling since, after all, examples of bad leaders come readily to mind. This paper delves into the literature on bad leadership, illuminating it with reference to Iris Murdoch's moral psychology, to elaborate an explanation as to why leaders often…

This essay focuses on the affective dimension of epistemic injustice -- specifically, the affective harms and burdens of epistemic injustice on individuals and groups -- and examines how pedagogy may help disrupt the "affective injustice" that epistemic injustice entails. This theorization facilitates the ability to recognize that…

It would be unjust to claim that trauma response is a shared and equal responsibility of all educators without also acknowledging that the unequal share of emotional labor currently falls to the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ colleagues. The authors recognize and condemn this dynamic and aim to provide all educators with the awareness and tools to respond to…

This article describes the author's journey into the world of teaching. The author begins with his transition into academia and his goal to become an antiracist educator. He reflects on teaching (and observation) moments in the classroom and moves to descriptions and insights of specific lessons teaching Eve Ewing's "1919" poetry…

This conceptual paper puts forward the construct termed "teacher curriculum competence," which is an amalgamation of theoretical or formal and personal practical teacher knowledge and orientations in relation to curriculum. We situate the competence in institutional, political, and philosophical contexts. Drawing on research related to…

Standards for Professional Learning set the vision for high-quality professional learning by defining the content, processes, and conditions that lead to great teaching and learning for all students and educators. Learning Forward believes that all educators have a role to play in advocating for Standards for Professional Learning adoption and…

Pedagogical approaches emanating from posthumanist and neomaterialist theoretical frameworks can potentially redefine what learning and teaching are. In this paper, I argue, however, that these discussions are marked by a distinct absence, having to do with the role of teachers and the nature of teaching itself. Attempting to make up for this…

The concept of #BlackGirlMagic has resonated with Black women and Black girls across the world. Black Girl Magic is as unique as a fingerprint and serves as an invitation for Black girls to be present as their true, most powerful selves. In reflecting on the power of Black Girl Magic for Black girls as 5 Black women in psychological science and…

Intentional emergence (IE) as a pedagogy centers students in learning and calls for the educator or facilitator to take a different role. It is important for educators to mindfully regulate their presence in the classroom to allow students to notice the role of authority in leadership practice. This article provides recommendations for productive…