BOOK AWARDS
Chair: Pamela Konkol pamela.konkol@cuchicago.edu
Nominations for 2023 have already closed, but nominations for 2024 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 2022, 2023, or 2024 to be considered. Nominations will be until through October 1, 2023, as our reviewers need time to read, contemplate, and review.
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.
2022 Outstanding Books
Blakely, E. and Hemphill, D. (2021). Opening Third Spaces for Research in Education. Challenging the Limits of Technocratic Methods. Myers Education Press.
Boutte, G. S., King, J. E., Johnson, Jr., G. L., and King, L. J. (2021). We Be Lovin’ Black Children. Learning to Be Literate About the African Diaspora. Myers Education Press.
Britzman, D. P. (2021). Anticipating Education. Concepts for Imagining Pedagogy with Psychoanalysis. Myers Education Press.
Burke, K. J. and Greteman, A. J. (2021). On Liking the Other. Queer Subjects & Religious Discourses. Myers Education Press.
Burkholder, Z. (2021). An African American Dilemma: A History of School Integration and Civil Rights in the North. Oxford University Press.
Golann, J. W. (2021). Scripting the Moves. Culture and Control in a No-Excuses Charter School. Princeton University Press.
Hoechsmann, M., Thesee, G., and Carr, P. R. (Eds.). (2021). Education for Democracy 2.0. Changing Frames of Media Literacy. Brill | Sense.
Jackson, L. (2021). Beyond Virtue. The Politics of Education Emotions. Cambridge University Press.
Nuñez, I. and Goulah, J. (Eds.) (2021). Hope and Joy in Education. Engaging Daisaku Ikeda Across Curriculum and Context. Teachers College Press.
Paraskeva, J. M. (Ed.) (2021). Critical Transformative Educational Leadership & Policy Studies: A Reader. Discussions & Solutions from the Leading Voices in Education. Myers Education Press.
Roulston, K. and DeMarrais, K. (2021). Exploring the Archives. A Beginner’s Guide for Qualitative Researchers. Myers Education Press.
Ryan, A. M., Tocci, C. and Moon, S. (2020). The Curriculum Foundations Reader. Palgrave Macmillan.
Schubert, W. H. and He, M. F. (2022). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies. Oxford University Press.
Stitzlein, S. (2020). Learning How to Hope. Reviving Democracy Through our Schools and Civil Society. Oxford University Press.
Sumara, D. and Alvermann, D. E. (Eds). (2022). Ideas that Changed Literacy Practices. First-Person Accounts from Leading Voices. Myers Education Press.
Tienken, C. and Mullen, C. (Eds). (2022). The Risky Business of Education Policy. Routledge.
Thomas, M. A. M., Rauschenberger, E., Crawford-Garrett, K. (Eds.) (2021). Examining Teach for All. International Perspectives on a Growing Global Network. Routledge.
Waitoller, F. (2020). Excluded by Choice. Urban Students with Disabilities in the Education Marketplace. Teachers College Press.
2022 Honorable Mentions
Berkovich, I. and Eyal, O. (2021). A Model of Emotional Leadership in Schools. Effective Leadership to Support Teachers’ Emotional Wellness. Routledge.
Brewer, T. J., Harman, W. G. (Eds.). (2021). The Commodification of American Education. Persistent Threats and Paths Forward. Myers Education Press.
Charest, B. (2021). Civic Literacy in Schools and Communities. Teaching and Organizing for a Revitalized Democracy. Teachers College Press.
Gasman, M. (2021). Candid Advice for New Faculty Members. A Guide to Getting Tenure and Advancing Your Academic Career. Myers Education Press.
Hextrum, K. (2021). Special Admission. How College Sports Recruitment Favors White Suburban Athletes. Rutgers University Press.
Maarhuis, P. L. and Rud, A. G. (Eds.) (2021). Imagining Dewey. Artful Works and Dialogue about Art as Experience. Brill | Sense.
Peterson, D. S. and Carlile, S. P. (Eds.) (2021). Improvement Science. Promoting Equity in Schools. Myers Education Press.
Pica-Smith, C., Contini, R. M., and Veloria, C. N. (2019). Social Justice Education in European Multi-Ethnic Schools. Routledge.
Powell, R. and Cantrell, S. C. (Eds.). (2021). A Framework for Culturally Responsive Practices. Implementing the Culturally Responsive Instruction Protocol (CRIOP) in K-8 Classrooms. Myers Education Press.
Spaulding, D. T., Crow, R., and Hinnant-Crawford, B. N. (Eds.) (2021). Teaching Improvement Science in Educational Leadership. A Pedagogical Guide. Myers Education Press.
Zehnder, C., Metzker, J., Kleine, K., and Alby, C. (2021). Learning that Matters. A Field Guide to Course Design for Transformative Education. Myers Education Press.
2021 Outstanding Book Awards
Aydarova, E. (2019). Teacher Education Reform as Political Theater. Russian Policy Dramas. SUNY Press.
Banks, J. A. (2020). Diversity, Transformative Knowledge, and Civic Education. Selected Essays. Routledge.
Blair, E., Roofe, C., & Timmins, S. (Eds.) (2020). A Cross-Cultural Consideration of Teacher Leaders’ Narratives of Power, Agency, and School Culture. Myers Education Press.
Charest, B. & Sjostrom, K. Eds. (2019). Unsettling Education. Searching for Ethical Footing in a Time of Reform. Peter Lang.
deMarrais, K., Herron, B. A., & Copple, J. (Eds.) (2020). Conservative Philanthropies and Organizations Shaping US Educational Policy and Practice. Myers Education Press.
Dyches, J., Sams, B., & Boyd, A. S. (2020). Acts of Resistance: Subversive Teaching in the English Language Arts Classroom. Myers Education Press.
Hartlep, N. D., & Ball, D. (Eds.). (2020). Racial battle fatigue in faculty. Perspectives and lessons from higher education. New York: Routledge.
Heybach, J. & Fraser-Burgess, S. (Eds.) (2020). Making Sense of Race in Education. Practices for Change in Difficult Times. Myers Education Press.
Llewellyn, K. & Ng-A-Fook, N. (Eds.) (2020). Oral History, Education, and Justice. Possibilities and Limitations for Redress and Reconciliation. Routledge.
Lund, D. E. (Ed.). (2018). The Wiley International Handbook of Service-Learning for Social Justice. Wiley-Blackwell.
Mullen, C. A. (2020). Canadian Indigenous Literature and Art Decolonizing Education, Culture, and Society. Brill.
Pawlewicz, D. (2020). Blaming Teachers. Professionalization Policies and the Failure of Reform in American History. Rutgers University Press.
Quinn, T. (2020). about Museums, Culture, and Justice to Explore in Your Classroom. Teachers College Press.
Ravitch, D. (2020). Slaying Goliath, The Passionate Resistance to Privatization and the Fight to Save America’s Public Schools. Knopf.
Shockley, K. G. & Lomotey, K. (2020). African-Centered Education. Theory and Practice. Myers Education Press.
2021 Honorable Mention
Aghasaleh, R. (2019). Children and Mother Nature, Storytelling for a Glocalized Environmental Pedagogy. Brill.
Belmonte, D. (2020). The Age of Accountability. The Assault on Public Education since the Time of A Nation at Risk. Myers Education Press.
Cann, C. N. & DeMeulenaere, E. J. (2020). The Activist Academic. Engaged Scholarship for Resistance, Hope and Social Change. Myers Education Press.
Evans-Santaigo, B. (Ed.) (2020). Mistakes We Have Made. Implications for Social Justice Educators. Myers Education Press.
Matias, C. (2019). (Ed.) Surviving Becky(s). Pedagogies for Deconstructing Whiteness and Gender. Lexington Books.
Rankin, J. G. (2020). Increasing the Impact of Your Research. A Practical Guide to Sharing Your Findings and Widening Your Reach. Routledge.
Trinder, V. (2020). Teaching Toward a Decolonizing Pedagogy. Critical Reflections Inside and Outside the Classroom. Routledge.
Tsyrlina-Spady, T. & Renn, P., Eds. (2020). Nurture, Care, Respect, and Trust. Transformative Pedagogy Inspired by Janusz Korczak. Myers Education Press.
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.
Tienken, C. H. & Mullen, C.A. (Eds.). (2016). Education policy perils: Tackling the tough issues. New York: Routledge & Kappa Delta Pi.
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.
2018 Outstanding Book Award
Casey, Z. A. (2017). A Pedagogy of Anticapitali$t Antiracism Whiteness, Neoliberalism, and Resistance in Education. NY: SUNY Press.
English, A. and Waks, L. (2017). John Dewey’s Democracy and Education: A Centennial Handbook. Cambridge University Press.
Hartlep, N. D., Eckrich, L. L. T., Hensley, B. O. (Eds.). (2017) The Neoliberal Agenda and the Student Debt Crisis
in U. S. Higher Education. Routledge.
Farenga. S. J. and Ness. D. (Eds). (2017). Alternatives to Privatizing Public Education and Curriculum A Festschrift in Honor of Dale D. Johnson. Informa UK Limited.
Gallegos, B. (2017). Postcolonial Indigenous Performances, Coyote Musings on Genizaros, Hybridity, Education, and Slavery? Boston, Sense Publishers.
Schultz, B. (2017). Teaching in the Cracks: Openings and Opportunities for Student-Centered, Action-Focused Curriculum. Teachers College Press.
Sensoy, O. and DiAngelo, R. (2017). Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education, Second Edition. Teachers College Press.
Tillett, W. (2017). Living the Questions: Dispatches from a Life Already in Progress. Information Age.
Waks, L. (2016). The Evolution and Evaluation of Massive Open Online Courses: MOOCs in Motion (The Cultural and Social Foundations of Education). Palgrave,
Warren, C. (2017). Urban Preparation: Young Black Men Moving from Chicago’s South Side to Success in Higher Education. Harvard University Press.
2018 Honorable Mentions
Boerman-Cornell, B. Kim, J. and Manderino, M. (2017). Graphic Novels in High School and Middle School Classrooms. Rowman and Littlefield.
Cypres, A. T. (Ed). (2016). Leadership: Learning, Teaching, and Practice. Information Age.
Rajan, R. (2016). From Backpacks to Broadway. Children’s Experiences in Musical Theatre. Rowman and Littlefield.
Sameshima, P., Fidyk, A., James, K., and Leggo, C. (Eds). (2017). Poetic Inquiry: Enchantment of Place. Vernon Press.
Mullen, C. (2017). Creativity and Education in China Paradox and Possibilities for an Era of Accountability. Routledge.
Sigurdsson. G. (2015). Confucian Propriety and Ritual Learning. SUNY Press.
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.
2015 Outstanding Book Award
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.
2014 Outstanding Book Award
Robert Lake and Tricia Kress, Paulo Freire’s Intellectual Roots: Towards Historicity in Praxis
Philip Atbach, Gregory Androushchak, Liz Reisberg, and Maria Yudkevich, The Global Future of Higher Education and the Academic Profession: The BRICs and the United States
Kerry T. Burch, Democratic Transformations: Eight Conflicts in the Negotiation of American Identity
Peter W. Cookson, Jr., Class Rules: Exposing Inequality in American High Schools
Simone Weil Davis and Barbara Sherr Roswell, Turning Teaching Inside Out: A Pedagogy of Transformation for Community- Based Education
Melissa Valiska Gregory, Teaching Excellence in Higher Education
Daisaku Ikeda, America Will Be!: Conversations on Hope, Freedom, and Democracy
James C. Jupp, Becoming Teachers of Inner-City Students: Life Histories and Teacher Stories of Committed White Teachers
John Kuhn, Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education
Alexander J. Means, Schooling in the Age of Austerity: Urban Education and the Struggle for Democratic Life
Richard D. Osguthorpe and Matthew N. Sanger, The Moral Work of Teaching and Teacher Education: Preparing and Supporting Practitioners
Micah Uetricht, Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity
2013 Outstanding Book Award
Kerry Burch, Democratic Transformations: Eight Conflicts in the Negotiation of American Identity (Bloomsbury)
Peter Cookson, Jr., Class Rules: Exposing Inequality in American High Schools (TC Press)
Simone Weil Davis and Barbara Sherr Roswell, Turning Teaching Inside Out: A Pedagogy of Transformation for Community-Based Education (Palgrave)
Melissa Valiska Gregory, Teaching Excellence in Higher Education (Palgrave)
Vincent Harding and Daisaku Ikeda, America Will Be! Conversations on Hope, Freedom, and Democracy (Ikeda Center)
James Jupp, Becoming Teachers of Inner-City Students: Life Histories and Teacher Stories of Committed White Teachers (Sense Publishers)
Tricia Kress and Bob Lake, Paulo Freire’s Intellectual Roots: Toward historicity in Praxis (Bloomsbury)
John Kuhn, Fear and Learning in America: Bad Data, Good Teachers, and the Attack on Public Education (TC Press)
Alex Means, Schooling in the Age of Austerity: Urban Education and the Struggle for Democratic Life (Palgrave)
Matt Sanger and Rich Osguthorpe, The Moral Work of Teaching and Teacher Education: Preparing and Supporting Practitioners (TC Press)
Joel Spring, Common Core: A Story of School Terrorism
Micah Uetricht, Strike for America: Chicago Teachers Against Austerity (Verso)
2012 Inaugural Winners
Rud, A. G., & Garrison, Jim (eds). (2012). Teaching with reverence: Reviving an ancient virtue for today’s schools. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Zhao, Y. (2012). World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press
Breault, D. A. & Callejo Perez, D. M. (2012). The Red Light in the Ivory Tower: Contexts and Implications of Entrepreneurial Education, Peter Lang.
Michie, G. (2012). We Don’t Need Another Hero: Struggle, Hope and Possibility in the Age of High-Stakes Schooling. Teachers College Press.
Cameron, J. (2012). Canaries reflect on the mine: Dropouts’ stories of schooling. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Schultz, B. D. (Ed.). (2011). Listening to and learning from students. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
Ramirez, L.G., Flores, Y., Gamboa, M., Gonzalez, I., Perez, V., Ramirez-Castaneda, M., & Vital, C. (2011). Chicanas of 18th Street: Narratives of a Movement from Latino Chicago. University of Illinois Press.
Society of Professors of Education 