The School of Education's Book Nook

Sandra Schamroth Abrams, Ph.D., assistant professor of curriculum and instruction, has two recent publications. 

Abrams, S.S. (2014). Integrating virtual and traditional learning in 6–12 classrooms: A layered literacies approach to multimodal meaning making. New York, NY: Routledge.

Integrating Virtual and Traditional Learning in 6–12 Classrooms introduces a model of “layered literacies” as a framework for describing and illustrating how students’ digital experiences can inform educational methods. Through the lens of layered literacies, educators can envision opportunities to draw upon adolescents’ out-of-school interests and activities to meaningfully integrate digital practices into academic contexts. Such an approach facilitates innovative teaching, inspired learning, and successful pedagogy, while  thoughtfully highlighting the role of technology within mandated standards-based instruction in public schools. Combining foundational and contemporary theories, supported by data from multiple studies of adolescent learning, and honoring teachers’ and students’ experiences and resources, this text helps educators reconceptualize the ways students learn through and with digital texts and negotiate the connection between online and offline spaces. A companion website extends the discussion onto the screen, engaging readers in an intertextual approach to learning that complements the concept of layering literacies across disciplines. With a foreword by Jennifer Rowsell, Ph.D., and an afterword by Bill Cope, Ph.D., and Mary Kalantzis, Ph.D., it will be of interest to experienced educators and administrators, as well as postgraduate, graduate, and undergraduate students of education.

Gerber, H.R., &  Abrams, S.S. (Eds.). (2014). Bridging literacies with videogames. Rotterdam, the Netherlands: Sense Publishers.

Bridging Literacies with Videogames provides an international perspective of literacy practices, gaming culture, and traditional schooling. Featuring studies from Australia, Colombia, South Korea, Canada, and the United States, this edited volume addresses learning in primary, secondary, and tertiary environments with topics related to: re-creating worlds and texts; massive multiplayer second-language learning; and videogames and classroom learning. These diverse topics will provide scholars, teachers, and curriculum developers with empirical support for bringing videogames into classroom spaces to foster meaning making. Bridging Literacies with Videogames is an essential text for undergraduates, graduates, and faculty interested in contemporizing learning with the medium of the videogame.

Maslak, M.A. (2015). Vocational education of female entrepreneurs in China: A multitheoretical and multidimensional analysis of successful businesswomen’s everyday lives. New York, NY: Routledge Press.

Mary Ann Maslak, Ph.D., professor of education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has published Vocational Education of Female Entrepreneurs in China: A Multitheoretical and Multidimensional Analysis of Successful Businesswomen's Everyday Lives. Routledge Press.

Calling on varied, pertinent social theories, Mary Ann Maslak, Ph.D., professor of curriculum and instruction, examines profitable businesses operated by Dongxiang Muslim women in the southern Gansu province of northwestern China. She explains the multifaceted formula for women's challenges and successes in their business endeavors and their goal of financial security. The author argues that informal learning is the most important type of education to employ knowledge and skills to earn a living in general, and design and operate small businesses by women in rural areas in particular. The book also grapples with the ways in which formal and nonformal education can both contribute to women’s successful design, development, and operation of small businesses in rural settings.

The book concludes with an original, timely, and necessary model for education that could be utilized by the women in this work. The model is one that positions informal education as the primary conduit for successful entrepreneurial work and combines elements of both formal and nonformal educational principles and practices—thus offering support for the successful operation of women's businesses.

This book is an example of Maslak's interest in interdisciplinary research that helps answer social scientific questions related to women's education in general, and Muslim ethnic minority women's education in particular. Her work draws on complementary disciplines to answer the complex questions that social scientific research seeks to answer.

Having lived and worked in Asia for more than 10 years, Maslak's scholarly work is also used in her effort to internationalize the curriculum for her undergraduate and graduate students in The School of Education by sharing both theories and practices of education that relate to the international composition of the urban New York City area.

This fall, Randall Clemens, Ph.D., assistant professor of administrative and instructional leadership,  contributed two texts, based on blogs—“Friends, Lovers, and Social Media Experimentation: The Need for New Ethical Guidelines" and "The Shape of Neighborhood Ethnography to Come: Blurred Spaces, Elastic Time, and Shareable Culture"—to Social Media in Social Research (w/ Sage).

“Friends, Lovers, and Social Media Experimentation” examines two recent and controversial cases regarding Facebook and OkCupid. The author explores the ethical decisions of the two social media companies. Drawing connections to historical examples of ethical malfeasance, the author argues for a new ethical framework that addresses evolving technologies and social media platforms.

The second text, “The Shape of Neighborhood Ethnography to Come,” reimagines a popular sociological methodology—neighborhood ethnography—in a 21st century context. Social media has disrupted the established place-based methodology. The author argues that hybrid spaces—including both physical and digital settings—provide new, innovative opportunities to study the lives of teenagers in low-income neighborhoods.

The contributions represent the combination of two research interests—the role of social media for qualitative research and the use of hybrid methods to examine teenagers living in low-income neighborhoods. The innovative book features blogs from a range of scholars covering significant trends in social media research. The compilation explores emerging publishing channels in an effort to reach diverse audiences.