Diversity in Research in Action is an essential resource for educators and policy makers who are committed to transforming and invigorating public education in the United States and around the world.There is almost universal agreement that we cannot go back to a pre-Covid world. Our capacity to shape the future for all our children will depend upon our re-imagining the ways in which they are educated. Their prospects and the realization of their potential require that we develop new approaches to pedagogical practices that are participatory, ensure empowerment, and revalue the importance of care in all human societies.
In Diversity in Research in Action, Bobbie Kabuto, a great woman scholar herself, writes on diversity, white privilege, inclusion and equity in her introduction of Denny Taylor, Anne Haas Dyson, and Catherine Compton Lilly, who are the eminent social scientists whose research is featured in the book. Kabuto and the featured scholars encourage us to pursue a humane re-imagining of public education and how teachers can support children who are learning to read and write.
Taylor, Dyson and Compton-Lilly address the massive power asymmetry, and advocate for a culture of social rights as the foundation of public education that rejects long held reductionist ideologies and concomitant practices of tests and measurement. They encourage us to establish more equitable educational pathways and provide evidence based, proven approaches to teaching and learning that harness the dynamism of this time when there are so many tremendous challenges.