Outstanding Book Awards
Chair: Pamela Konkol, pamela.konkol@cuchicago.edu
Please contact committee chair pamela.konkol@cuchicago.edu with the book title, author email, and publisher contact; Pamela is happy to answer questions about review criteria and what makes for an “outstanding” book as defined by the SPE. Too, SPE has a great panel of reviewers, but there is always room for more! Please consider volunteering to review a text or two.
Nominations for 2025 have already closed, but nominations for 2026 can begin now. Reviewers consider how well each text, among other attributes, assists readers in understanding the relationship between education and the social complexities in which schools are contextualized and in fostering inquiry into the history, current status, and future alternatives of teaching, learning, and education.
You do not have to be a member of the SPE to nominate a text, and self-nominations/publisher nominations are welcome. The review process is competitive. SPE hopes that winners who are not yet members will choose to support the organization through membership. Texts must have been published in 2024, 2025, or 2026 to be considered. Nominations will be through October 1, 2025, as our reviewers need time to read, contemplate, and review.
Although the Society does not require awardees to be members of the organization, it is hoped that authors who do not currently hold membership in the Society will elect to support the organization through becoming a member. We also welcome publisher and institutional support of our organization. If you would like further information about becoming an individual or institutional member, please contact our Secretary/Treasurer Bob Morris at rmorris@westga.edu.
2025 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Awardees
Albright, T. and Brion-Meisels. (2025). Critical Thinking on Youth Participatory Action Research. Routledge.
Bunch, M. S. (2024). The Magnitude of Us. An Educator’s Guide to Creating Culturally Responsive Classrooms. Teachers College Press.
Darling-Hammon, K., Evans-Santiago, B. (Eds). (2024). T*Is for Thriving. Blueprints for Affirming Trans* and Gender Creative Lives and Learning in Schools. Mylers Education Press.
deMarrais, K., Roulston, K., and Copple, J. (2024). Qualitative Research Design & amp; Methods. An Introduction. Myers Education Press.
Duncan, K.E. (2023). Civic Engagement in Communities of Color. Pedagogy for Learning and Life in a More Expansive Democracy. Teachers College Press.
Fraser-Burgess, S., Heybach, J., & Metro-Roland, D. (Eds.). (2024). The Cambridge Handbook of Ethics and Education. Cambridge University Press.
Gross, N. (2024). Brothers in Grief. The Hidden Toll of Gun Violence on Black Boys and Their Schools. The University of College Press.
Groves Price, P. (Ed.) (2024). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Race and Education. Oxford University Press.
Kelly, M. G. (2023). Dividing the Public. School Finance and the Creation of Structural Inequity. Cornell University Press.
Kiwan, D. (2024). Academic Freedom and the Transnational Production of Knowledge. Cambridge University Press.
Kozulin, A. (2024). The Cultural Mind. The Sociocultural Theory of Learning. Cambridge University Press.
Limerick, N. (2023). Recognizing Indigenous Languages. Double Binds of State Policy and Teaching Kichwa in Ecuador. Oxford University Press.
Riddell, J. (2024). Hope Circuits. Rewiring Universities and Other Organizations for Human Flourishing. McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Rudnick, D. (Ed.) (2024). Resisting Divide-and-Conquer Strategies in Education. Pathways and Possibilities. Myers Education Press.
Sandles, D. (2024). The Alchemy of Teaching. Developing Educators through Transmutative Practices. Myers Education Press.
2025 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Honorable Mentions
Antunes, A. and Howard, J. (Eds). (2024). All In. Community Engaged
Scholarship for Social Change. Myers Education Press.
Bishop, E. (2024). Whiting Out. Writing on Vulnerability, Racism, and Repair.
Myers Education Press.
Bocast, B. S. (2024). If Books Fail, Try Beauty. Educated Womanhood in the
New East Africa. Oxford University Press.
Budhai, S. S. and Hill, D. (2024). The Impact of the Scholarly Practitioner
Doctorate. Developing Socially-Just Leaders to Make Equitable Change.
Myers Education Press.
Chavarria, E. S. (2024). Practicing Restorative Justice. Real Solutions to
Address Racism in Our School Communities Using Anti-Racist Strategies.
Myers Education Press.
Cook, D. A. and Bryan, N. (2024). Critical Race Theory and Classroom
Practice. Routledge.
Covino, K. and Mulcahy, C. M. (Eds.) (2024). The Intersections of Critical
Pedagogy, Critical Literacy, and Social Justice. Toward Empowerment,
Equity, and Education for Liberation. Lexington Books.
Goddard, C. (2024). Learning for Work. How Industrial Education Fostered
Democratic Opportunity. University of Illinois Press.
Han, S., Kim, J., Meacham, S. and Wee, S. (2023). Supporting Korean
American Children in Early Childhood Education. Teachers College Press.
Hargreaves, A. (2024). Leadership From the Middle The Beating Heart of
Educational Transformation. Routledge.
Hartlep, N. D., Strayhorn, T. L., and Bonner II, F. A. (Eds.) (2025). Belonging in
Higher Education. Perspectives and Lessons from Diverse Faculty.
Routledge.
Jones, J. R., Higgins-Harrell, A. D., Little, J. (Eds). (2024). Code Red.
Conversations and Solutions for an Education System in Crisis. Myers
Education Press.
Kerkhoff, S. N. and Spires, H. A. (Eds). (2023). Critical Perspectives on Global
Literacies. Bridging Research and Practice. Routledge.
Kramer, B. (Ed). (2024). Activists, Advocates, & Agitators. 21st Century
Justice-Oriented Teacher Activist Organizations. Myers Education Press.
Kubow, P. K. (2023). Citizen Identity Formation of Domestic Students and
Syrian Refugee Youth in Jordan. Centering Student Voice and Arab-Islamic
Ontologies. Routledge.
Robinson, S. A. and Ellis, A. L. (Eds.) (2023). Critical Literacy and Its Impact
on Black Boys’ Reading Readiness. Information Age Publishing.
Shapiro, S. H. (2023). Interpreting COVID-19 Through Turbulence Theory.
Perspectives and Cases from Early Childhood and Special Education. Routledge.
Shirley, D. and Hargreaves, A. (2024). The Age of Identity. Who Do Our Kids
Think They Are… and How Do We Help Them Belong? Corwin Press.
Shreiner, T. L. (2024). Teaching Data Literacy in Social Studies. Principles
and Practices to Support Historical Thinking and Civic Engagement.
Teachers College Press.
Taylor, K. A. (2024). American Educators, Activist, and Advocate. Eleanor
Rebecca Powell Archer. Lexington Books.
Wang, A. H. and Grogan, M. (Eds) (2024). Intersectionality and Leading
Social Change in Education. Professional Learning to Transform Self,
Others, and the Field. Routledge.
Yang, H. and Xu, W. (Eds). (2023). The Rise of Chinese American Leaders in
U.S. Higher Education: Stories and Roadmaps. Springer.
2024 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Awardees
Aldridge, D. P., Hale, J., and Loder-Jackson, T. (2023). Schooling the Movement: The Activism of Southern Black Educators from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights Era. University of South Carolina Press.
Cowhey, M. (2023). Families with Power. Centering Students by Engaging with Families and Community. Teachers College Press.
Druckman, J. and Sharrow, E. (2023). Equality Unfulfilled. How Title IX’s Policy Design Undermines Change to College Sports. Cambridge University Press.
Dues, J. (2023). Win-Win. W. Edwards Demin, the System of Profound Knowledge, and the Science of Improving Schools. Myers Education Press.
Emdin, C. (2021). Ratchetdemic. Reimagining Academic Success. Beacon.
Harris, L. M., Sheppard, M. and Levy, S. (Eds) (2023). Teaching Difficult Histories in Difficult Times. Stories of Practice. Teachers College Press.
Garcia, D. (2021). Teach Truth to Power. How to Engage in Education Policy. MIT Press.
Hernandez, K., Cronin, S., and Lopez, E. (Eds.) (2023). The Antonia Darder Reader. Education, Art, and Decolonizing Praxis. Myers Education Press.
Jackson, S. (2023). The Patchwork of World History in Texas High Schools: Unpacking Eurocentrism, Imperialism, and Nationalism in the Curriculum, 1920-2021. Routledge.
Jenkins, T. S. (2023). The Hip Hop Mindset. Success Strategies for Educators and Other Professionals. Teachers College Press.
Kelly, H. and Roberson, H. M. (Eds). (2023). Thinking About Black Education. An Interdisciplinary Reader. Myers Education Press.
Mullen, C. A. (Ed.). (2021). Handbook of social justice intervention in education. Springer.
Natow, R. (2022). Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education. Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector. Teachers College Press.
Polizzi, J. and Frick, W. (2023). Understanding Suffering in Schools. Shining a Light on the Dark Places of Education. Routledge.
Robbins, A. (2023). The Teachers. A year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable, Important Profession. Dutton.
Roulston, K. (2023). Quests for Questioners. Inventive Approaches to Qualitative Interviews. Myers Education Press.
Wallace, D. (2023). The Culture Trap. Ethnic Expectations and Unequal Schooling for Black Youth. Oxford University Press.
2024 Society of Professors of Education Outstanding Book Honorable Mentions
Bendikson, L. and Meyer, F. (2023). It’s not Rocket Science: A Guide to the School Improvement Cycle. Myers Education Press.
Brewer, T. J. (2021). Homeschooling. A Guidebook of Practices, Claims, Issues, and Implications. Brill|Sense.
Fischman, W. and Gardner, H. (2022). The Real World of College. What Higher Education is and What it Can Be. MIT Press.
Frederick, R. and Shockley, K. (Eds). (2023). A Soul-Centered Approach to Educating Teachers. A Black Education Network (ABEN). Myers Education Press.
Klein, E. and Taylor, M. (2023). Our Bodies Tell the Story. Using Feminist Research and Friendship to Reimagine Education and Our Lives. Myers Education Press.
Neal, L., Militz-Frielink, S., Colompo-Tohtsonie, M., Lewis, R., Moore, A. (2023). Legacy of Action. How Dr. Geneva Gay Transformed Teaching. Apprentice House Press.
Pape, S., Bryant, C., JohnBull, R. Karp, K. (2023). Transforming Identities. How an EdD Program Develops Practitioners into Scholar-Practitioners. Myers Education Press.
Sardegna, V. and Jarosz, A. (Eds). (2023). English Pronunciation Teacher. Theory, Practice and Research Findings. Multilingual Matters.
Watkins, K. Gilbertson, E. and Nicolaides, A. (2023). The Action Research Dissertation. Learning from Leading Change. Myers Education Press.
Wright, M. (2023). Centers for teaching and learning. The New Landscape in Higher Education. Johns Hopkins University Press.
2023 OUTSTANDING BOOK AWARDS
Achieng-Evensen, C., Stockbridge, K., & SooHoo, S. (2022). Freirean echoes: Scholars and practitioners dialogue on critical ideas in education. Myers Education Press.
Berkovich, I. (2021). Education policy, theories, and trends in the 21st century: International and Israeli perspectives. Springer.
Blumenfeld-Jones, D. S. (2022). Reimagining curriculum studies: A mosaic of inclusion. Springer.
Broderick, A. A. (2022). The autism industrial complex: How branding, marketing, and capital investment turned autism into big business. Myers Education Press.
Dueweke, A. (2022). Reckoning: Kalamazoo College uncovers its racial and colonial past. Myers Education Press.
Goldstein, T. (2021). Our children are your students: LGBTQ families speak out. Myers Education Press.
Hakimali Merchant, N., Shear, S. B., & Au, W. (2022). Insurgent social studies: Scholar-educators disrupting erasure and marginality. Myers Education Press.
Helfenbein, R. J. (2021). Critical geographies of education: Space, place, and curriculum inquiry. Routledge.
Hernandez, K-A. C., Chang, H., & Bilgen, W. A. (2022). Transformative autoethnography for practitioners: Change processes and practices for individuals and groups. Myers Education Press.
Joseph-Salisbury, R., & Connelly, L. (2021). Anti-racist scholar-activism. Manchester University Press.
Kridel, C. (2022). Harold Taylor and Sarah Lawrence College. A life of Social and Educational Activism. Excelsior Editions. SUNY Press.
Laidlaw, L., O’Mara, J., & Wong, S.S.H. (2022). Secret lives of children in the digital age: Disruptive devices and resourceful learners. Myers Education Press.
Lomotey, K. (2022). Justice for Black students: Black principals matter. Myers Education Press.
Moon, S. (2022). The flows of transnationalism: Questioning identities and reimagining curriculum. Routledge.
Robinson, J. M., O’Loughlin, V. D., Kearns, K., & Plummer, L. (2022). Teaching as if learning matters: Pedagogies of becoming by next-generation faculty. Indiana University Press.
2023 OUTSTANDING HONORABLE MENTIONS
Buford, M. V., Sharp, M. J., & Stebleton, M. J. (2023). Mapping the future of undergraduate career education: Equitable career learning, development, and preparation in the new world of work. Routledge.
Coffey, H., & Arnold, L. (2022). Transformative critical service learning: Theory and practice for engaging community college and university learners in building an activist mindset. Myers Education Press.
Kinard, T., & Cannella, G. S. (Eds.). Childhoods in more just worlds: An international handbook. Myers Education Press.
Kramer, B., & McKenzie, J. (2022). Children and trauma: Critical perspectives for meeting the needs of diverse educational communities. Myers Education Press.
McConnell, C., Conrad, B., & Uhrmacher, P. B. (2020). Lesson planning with purpose: Five approaches to curriculum design. Teachers College Press.
Nicolaides, A. (2023). Generative knowing: Principles, methods, and dispositions of an emerging adult learning theory. Myers Education Press.
Peterson, D. S., & Carlile, S. P. (2022). Improvement science as a tool for school enhancement: Solutions for better educational outcomes. Myers Education Press.
Pica-Smith, C., Veloria, C. N., & Contini, R. M. (2020). Intercultural education: Critical perspectives, pedagogical challenges and promising practices. Nova Science.
2022 Outstanding Books
Britzman, D. P. (2021). Anticipating Education. Concepts for Imagining Pedagogy with Psychoanalysis. Myers Education Press.
Jackson, L. (2021). Beyond Virtue. The Politics of Education Emotions. Cambridge University Press.
Ryan, A. M., Tocci, C. and Moon, S. (2020). The Curriculum Foundations Reader. Palgrave Macmillan.
Tienken, C. and Mullen, C. (Eds). (2022). The Risky Business of Education Policy. Routledge.
2022 Honorable Mentions
2021 Outstanding Book Awards
2021 Honorable Mention
2020 Outstanding Book Awards
Adesope, O. O., & Rud, A. G. (2019). Contemporary technologies in education: Maximizing student engagement, motivation, and learning. Palgrave Macmillan.
Anderson, G. & Cohen, M. (2018). The new democratic professional: Confronting Markets, Metrics, and Managerialism. Teachers College Press.
DeLeon, A. (2018). Subjectivities, Identities, and Education after Neoliberalism. Rising from the Rubble. Routledge.
deMarrais, K., Brewer, T. J., Herron, B. A., Atkinson, J. C., and Lewis, J. A. (2019). Philanthropy, Hidden Strategy, and Collective Resistance, A Primer for Concerned Educators. Myers Education Press.
Dotts, B. W. (2019). Educational Foundations. Philosophical and Historical Perspectives. Cambridge University Press.
García, D. (2018). Strategies of Segregation: Race, Residence, and the Struggle for Educational Equality. University of California Press.
Greteman, A. (2018). Sexualities and Genders in Education Towards Queer Thriving. Palgrave.
Hughes, S. A. & Pennington, J. (2017). Autoethnography: Process, product and possibility for critical social research. Sage Publications
Love, B. (2019). We Want to Do More Than Survive. Abolistionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom. Beacon Press.
Martuesewicz, R. A. (2019). A Pedagogy of Responsibility. Wendell Berry for EcoJustice Education. Routledge.
Michie, G. (2019). Same as it Never Was. Notes on a Teacher’s Return to the Classroom. TCPress
Sameshima P., Maarhuis, P., & Wiebe, S. (2019). Parallaxic praxis: Multimodal interdisciplinary pedagogical research design. Vernon Press.
Smith, D., Caruthers, L., and Fowler, S. (2019). Womanish Black Girls. Women Resisting the Contradictions of Silence and Voice. Myers Education Press.
Tucker-Raymond, E. and Gravel, B. (2019). STEM Literacies in Makerspaces. Implications for Learning, Teaching, and Research. Routledge.
2020 Honorable Mentions
Carr, Paul R. & Thésée, Gina. (2019). “It’s not education that scares me, it’s the educators…”: Is there still hope for democracy in education, and education for democracy? Myers Education Press.
Iorio, J. M. and Parnell, W. (2017). Meaning Making in Early Childhood Research: Pedagogies and the Personal. Routledge.
Sameshima, P., White, B., & Sinner, A., (Eds.). (2019). Ma: Materiality in teaching and learning. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
2019 Outstanding Book Award
Blair, E. (Ed.). (2018). By the light of the silvery moon: Teacher moonlighting and the dark side of teachers’ work. Gorham, ME: Myers Education Press.
Bullough, R. V., & Rosenberg, J. R. (2018). Schooling, democracy, and the quest for wisdom: Partnerships and the moral dimension of teaching. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Cochran-Smith, M., et al. (2018). Reclaiming accountability in teacher education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Fitz-Gibbon, J. H. (2017). Corporeal punishment, religion, and United States public schools. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Pivot.
Gershon, W. S. (2017). Curriculum and students in classrooms: Everyday urban education in an era of standardization. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Hinchey, P. H., & Konkol, P. J. (2018). Getting to where we meant to be: Working toward the educational world we imagine/d. Gorham, ME: Myers Education Press.
Jorgensen, C. G. (2017). Discovering John Dewey in the twenty-first century: Dialogues on the present and future of education. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kridel, C. (Ed.). (2018). Becoming an African American progressive educator: Narratives from 1940s Black progressive high schools. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Museum of Education.
McRae, E. G. (2018). Mothers of massive resistance: White women and the politics of white supremacy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Rice, S., & Rud, A. G. (Eds.). (2018). Educational dimensions of school lunch: Critical perspectives. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Tienken, C. H. (2017). Defying Standardization: Creating Curriculum for an Uncertain Future.
Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
2019 Honorable Mentions
Dei, G.J.S., & Jaimungal, C. (2018). Indigeneity and decolonial resistance: Alternatives to colonial thinking and practice. Gorham, ME: Myers Education Press.
Gershon, W. S. (2018). Sound curriculum: Sonic studies in educational theory, method, & practice. New York, NY: Routledge.
Rankin, J. G. (2018). Sharing your education expertise with the world: Make research resonate and widen your impact. New York, NY: Routledge.
SooHoo, S., Huerta, P., Huerta-Meza, P. M., Bolin, T., & Stockbridge, K. (2018). Let’s chat: Cultivating community university dialogue. Gorham, ME: Myers Education Press.
You, Z., Rud, A. G., & Hu, Y. (2018). The philosophy of Chinese moral education: A history. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
in U. S. Higher Education. Routledge.
2017 Outstanding Book Award
Cameron, E., & Russell, C. (2016). The fat pedagogy reader: Challenging weight-based oppression through critical education. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
De Lissovoy, N., Means, A. J. & Saltman, K. (2015). Toward a new common school movement. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Douglas, T.M.O. (2016). Border-crossing brothas: Black males navigating race, place and complex space. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Hinchey, P.H. (2016). A critical action research reader. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Jones, S., & Woglom, J. F. (2016). On mutant pedagogies: Seeking justice and drawing change in teacher education. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense Publishers.
Michael, A. (2015). Raising race questions: Whiteness and inquiry in education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Ng-a-Fook, N., Ibrahim, A., & Reis, G. (2016). Provoking curriculum studies: Strong poetry and the arts of the possible in education. New York, NY: Routledge.
Rice, S., & Rud, A. G. (2016). The educational significance of human and non-human animal interactions: Blurring the species line. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Spring, J. (2015). Economization of education: Human capital, global corporations, skills-based schooling. New York, NY: Routledge.
Wu, J. (2016). Fabricating an educational miracle: Compulsory schooling meets ethnic rural development in Southwest China. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
2017 Honorable Mentions
Matias, C. E. (2016). Feeling white: Whiteness, emotionality, and education. Rotterdam, Netherlands: Sense.
Neal, L. I., Militz-Frielink, S., Moore, A. L., Avila, K., Colompos, M., & Walter, S. (2016). Borders, bras, and battles: A practical guide to mentor undergraduate women to achieve career success. Baltimore, MD: Apprentice House.
Rankin, J. G. (2017). First aid for teacher burnout: How you can find peace and success. New York, NY: Routledge.
Shaker, G. G. (Ed.). (2015). Faculty work and the public good. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Shiller, J. T. (2016). The new reality for suburban schools: How suburban schools are struggling with low-income students and students of color in their schools. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
2016 Outstanding Book Award
Fernandez, A. and Lutz, C. (2015). Schooled: Ordinary, Extraordinary Teaching in an Age of Change. TC Press.
Iorio, J.M. & Parnell, W. (Eds.) (2015). Rethinking Readiness in Early Childhood Education: Implications for Policy and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
Laura, C. (2014). Being Bad: My Baby Brother and the School to Prison Pipeline. TC Press.
McLaren, P. (2015). Pedagogy of Insurrection: From Resurrection to Revolution. Peter Lang.
Nunez, I., Michie, G., and Konkol, P. (2015) Worth Striking For: Why Education Policy is Every Teacher’s Concern. TC Press
Schubert, W., He, M. F., and Schultz, B. (2015). The SAGE Guide to Curriculum in Education. SAGE.
Sullivan, S. (2014). Good White People. The Problem with Middle-Class White Anti-Racism. SUNY Press
Waks, L. (Ed.) (2015). Listening to Teach: Beyond Didactic Pedagogy. SUNY Press
2016 Honorable Mention
Aviles, A. (2015). From Charity to Equity: Race, Homelessness, and Urban Schools. TCPress.
Gerstl-Pepin, C and Reyes, C. (2015). Reimagining the Public Intellectual in Education. Peter Lang.
Laird, Susan. (2015). Mary Wollstonecraft. Bloomsbury.
Oberg de la Garza, T. Lavigne, A. (2015). Salsa Dancing in Gym Shoes: Exploring Cross-Cultural Missteps in the Classroom.
O’Hara, K.E. [Ed.] (2014) Teacher evaluation: The Charge and the Challenges. Peter Lang.
Jean Anyon. Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education, and a New Social Movement. Routledge.
Alan Block. The Classroom: Encounter and Engagement. Palgrave.
Noah De Lissovoy. Education and Emancipation in the Neoliberal Era. Palgrave.
Sonia Nieto. Why we teach now. New York: Teachers College Press.
Isabel Nunez, Crystal Laura, & Rick Ayers. Diving In: Bill Ayers and the Art of Teaching into the Contradiction. New York: Teachers College Press.
2015 Honorable Mentions
Conra Gist. Preparing Teachers of Color to Teach. Palgrave.
Kate Phillippo. Advisory in Urban High Schools: A Study of Expanded Teacher Roles. Palgrave.
2013 Outstanding Book Award
Peter Cookson, Jr., Class Rules: Exposing Inequality in American High Schools (TC Press)
Melissa Valiska Gregory, Teaching Excellence in Higher Education (Palgrave)
Joel Spring, Common Core: A Story of School Terrorism
Micah Uetricht, Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity (Verso)
2012 Inaugural Winners
Society of Professors of Education 