Call for Authors:
Future issues of
Voices for Educational Equity
DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion)
in an Era of Racial Reckoning — submission deadline, June 15, 2022
SEL (Social Emotional Learning) — submission deadline, October 15, 2022
“DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) in an Era of Racial Reckoning”
Almost since the 1960s when schools began to get serious across the nation about implementing school desegregation in the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, educators have advocated a variety of solutions to make schools more inclusive and to raise the educational achievement of historically underrepresented students. Beginning with school busing in the 1960s, a variety of approaches have been put in place, including widespread tutoring and mentoring in the 1990s and No Child Left Behind during the Bush years. Currently, DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) is in vogue, riding a strong tailwind from the Black Lives Matter movement, growing progressivism in the Democratic party, and the focus of educators on evidence and outcomes-based assessment of school success. DEI has taken on additional urgency since the murder of George Floyd, public outrage over police murders of young Black men, and the growing controversy over “critical race theory” in determining what will and will not be taught about the United States’ troubled history of slavery and racism. The following questions seem relevant in addressing DEI success to date and the status of America’s racial reckoning in education:
1. How should schools and teacher education programs respond to the “critical race
theory” controversy? What is the proper role for education in the wake of urgent calls for racial reckoning in American society?
2. How widely have state boards of education and school districts embraced DEI? Are rural schools benefitting as well as urban and suburban schools?
3. What new programs and clinical best practices have emerged from DEI innovations?
4. What do evidence-based assessments reveal about the success of DEI to date? What further steps should be taken to increase success in the future?
5. Does DEI show promise for transforming teacher preparation and schools?
“SEL (Social Emotional Learning)”
Schooling, perhaps understandably, has always stressed cognitive development as the primary way of learning and knowing. Indeed, until the last half of the twentieth century most schooling, outside mathematics and the laboratory sciences, consisted of rote memorization of “factual” information. A major breakthrough occurred with Howard Gardner’s research on multiple intelligences beginning in the 1980s, research on differing student learning styles, and the emergence of the special education field to address needs of students with a variety of learning disabilities. Today, social emotional learning has emerged as a discrete educational focus, not only to address special student needs but to acknowledge the wide range of backgrounds and cultural experiences that influence student success. This issue of Voices will assess the state of social and emotional learning through questions such as these:
1. What theories explain social and emotional learning and what are current research
findings on how educators might most fruitfully address social and emotional
learning needs?
2. How should social and emotional learning needs be addressed in the school curriculum and be integrated with other student learning?
3. What models exist in teacher preparation curricula for effective pre- and in-service teaching for social and emotional learning?
Articles and columns should be submitted as Word document email attachments double spaced in 12 pt font to Jerry Berberet, editor (wgberberet@aol.com). A pool of reviewers, published scholars holding the doctorate or equivalent expertise and with specialties in the journal’s subject fields, is being developed. As a usual practice an unsolicited refereed article will be reviewed by two such scholars who will provide feedback to the journal editor that will be communicated to the respective author. Invited articles will be refereed by one such referee if the scholarship in question is outside the expertise of the journal editor. The journal editor will select referees, acting on recommendations of editorial board members as appropriate, and will send articles to be reviewed to referees. As a normal practice, referees will provide their feedback to the editor within thirty days of receiving a manuscript to be reviewed. The author will normally then have thirty days to revise and return the refereed article to the editor. The editor will make final decisions on articles to be published, consulting with the journal publisher and/or editorial board as appropriate.
Case studies examining equity from a variety of perspectives are especially welcomed. Articles and case studies should be 2,500-5,000 words and include a short author bio, an abstract of 100-150 words, a brief review of relevant research literature bearing on the article subject, and a reference bibliography. Columns are opinion pieces, ordinarily of 500-1,000 words, reflecting the views of the author. Book reviews should be 500-750 words in length. Authors are invited to email Jerry Berberet or call (850-766-2656) to discuss a potential submission or to ask questions.