Women Educators’ Experiences During COVID-19: On the Front Lines examines the gendered experiences, challenges, and rapid changes faced by women in higher education during COVID-19. The book’s chapters cover lived experiences ranging from graduate students navigating the pandemic to those grappling with balancing motherhood and the academy. Through these diverse perspectives, this edited collection explores the impact of the diversity and nuances of the feminine identity on navigating higher education during an international health crisis. Ultimately, contributors provide recommendations for best practices and suggestions for change for administrators, faculty, and policymakers to dismantle the academy as a male-dominated institution. Scholars of communication, gender studies, and higher education will find this book of particular interest.
Women leaders and the COVID-19 pandemic are currently trending in the news. Major news outlets are all offering their positive opinions on how world-wide women leaders have addressed the crisis and reassured their people. While this sort of press coverage is certainly uplifting, little to no research has been conducted to investigate the effectiveness of women’s leadership decisions and strategies in these difficult times. In concert with these global struggles resulting from the pandemic are the challenges faced by higher education. Many colleges and universities have all but shuttered their doors and are conducting instruction, student support, and day-to-day business almost completely online. Women academic leaders bear a great load during global crises, with the combination of maintaining work responsibilities and caring for families and personal households. It is shown that women leaders may feel overwhelmed but remain heroes in unprecedented times of crisis. Women and Leadership in Higher Education During Global Crises informs readers and expands their understanding about specific challenges, issues, strategies, and solutions that are associated with women leaders in higher education, the implications during the current pandemic and other natural disasters, and how these strategies can be used for future agility and success. The chapters will cover narratives, strategies, and initiatives that women leaders are using to lead their institutions, departments, sectors, and organizations. It ties together the unimaginable challenges, joys, struggles, and successes encountered by women in leadership in higher education and is ideal for higher education administrators, teachers, leaders, faculty, provosts, deans, program leaders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in both the challenges and successes women leaders in higher education face during global crises.
Opportunities and Challenges in Teacher Recruitment and Retention serves as a comprehensive resource for understanding teachers’ careers across the professional lifespan. Grounded in the notion that teachers’ voices are essential for understanding teachers’ lives, this edited volume contains chapters that privilege the voices of teachers above all. Book sections look closely at the particular issues that arise when recruiting an effective, committed, and diverse workforce, as well as the challenges that arise once teachers are immersed in the classroom setting. Promising directions are also included for particularly high-need areas such as early childhood teachers, Black male teachers, STEM teachers, and urban teachers. The book concludes with a call for self-care in teachers’ lives. Chapter contributions come from a variety of contexts across the United States and around the world. However, regardless of context or methodology, these chapters point to the importance of valuing and respecting teachers’ lives and work. Moreover, they demonstrate that teacher recruitment and retention is a complex and multifaceted issue that cannot be addressed through simplistic policy changes. Rather, attending to and appreciating the web of influences on teachers lives and careers is the only way to support their work and the impact they have on our next generation of students.
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A READ WITH JENNA TODAY SHOW BOOK CLUB PICK! “Brave, fresh . . . unforgettable.”—The New York Times Book Review “A celebration of girls who dare to dream.”—Imbolo Mbue, author of Behold the Dreamers (Oprah’s Book Club pick) Shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize and recommended by The New York Times, Marie Claire, Vogue, Essence, PopSugar, Daily Mail, Electric Literature, Red, Stylist, Daily Kos, Library Journal, The Everygirl, and Read It Forward! The unforgettable, inspiring story of a teenage girl growing up in a rural Nigerian village who longs to get an education so that she can find her “louding voice” and speak up for herself, The Girl with the Louding Voice is a simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant tale about the power of fighting for your dreams. Despite the seemingly insurmountable obstacles in her path, Adunni never loses sight of her goal of escaping the life of poverty she was born into so that she can build the future she chooses for herself – and help other girls like her do the same. Her spirited determination to find joy and hope in even the most difficult circumstances imaginable will “break your heart and then put it back together again” (Jenna Bush Hager on The Today Show) even as Adunni shows us how one courageous young girl can inspire us all to reach for our dreams…and maybe even change the world.
The spring of 2020 marked a change in how almost everyone conducted their personal and professional lives, both within science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) and beyond. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global scientific conferences and individual laboratories and required people to find space in their homes from which to work. It blurred the boundaries between work and non-work, infusing ambiguity into everyday activities. While adaptations that allowed people to connect became more common, the evidence available at the end of 2020 suggests that the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic endangered the engagement, experience, and retention of women in academic STEMM, and may roll back some of the achievement gains made by women in the academy to date. Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic STEMM identifies, names, and documents how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the careers of women in academic STEMM during the initial 9-month period since March 2020 and considers how these disruptions - both positive and negative - might shape future progress for women. This publication builds on the 2020 report Promising Practices for Addressing the Underrepresentation of Women in Science, Engineering, and Medicine to develop a comprehensive understanding of the nuanced ways these disruptions have manifested. Impact of COVID-19 on the Careers of Women in Academic STEMM will inform the academic community as it emerges from the pandemic to mitigate any long-term negative consequences for the continued advancement of women in the academic STEMM workforce and build on the adaptations and opportunities that have emerged.
In an era of social media, influencers wield unprecedented power over global consumer decisions. As digital natives increasingly turn to influencers for guidance, the need for comprehensive research on their impact becomes paramount. Brands, aiming to connect with a precisely targeted audience, must grapple with ethical considerations in this rapidly evolving sphere. Global Perspectives on Social Media Influencers and Strategic Business Communication delves into influencer research and practices, exploring their impact on various industries and sectors. This book dissects the motives and characteristics of social media influencers and navigates the terrain of ethical considerations surrounding their collaboration with businesses and organizations. This book covers influencers' effect on brand loyalty, cultural norms, community building, and their role in business management, advertising, and strategic communication. The book dissects the impacts of social media influencers on audience behavior, exploring areas such as brand attitudes, purchase intentions, and the dynamics of parasocial relationships. It examines the nuances of engagement, differentiating between paid endorsements, sponsored content, and pure electronic word-of-mouth while also spotlighting the influence of live streaming on consumer behaviors. This book is a valuable resource for businesses, strategic communicators, marketers, scholars, and anyone seeking a profound understanding of the dynamic world of social media influencers.
Women and Leadership in Higher Education is the first volume in a new series of books (Women and Leadership: Research, Theory, and Practice) that will be published in upcoming years to inform leadership scholars and practitioners. This book links theory, research, and practice of women’s leadership in various higher education contexts and offers suggestions for future leadership development strategies. This volume focuses on the field of higher education, particularly within the context of the United States—a sector that serves a majority of students at all degree levels who are women, yet lacks parity by women in senior leadership roles. The book’s fifteen chapters present both hard facts regarding the current demographic realities within higher education and fresh thinking about how progress can and must be made in order for U.S. higher education to benefit from the perspectives of women at the senior leadership table. The book’s opening section provides data and analysis in addressing “The State of Women and Leadership in Higher Education”; the second section offers descriptions of three effective models for women’s leadership development at the national and institutional levels; the third section draws from recent research to present “Women’s Experiences and Contributions in Higher Education Leadership.” The book concludes with five shorter chapters written by current and former college and university presidents who offer “Lessons from the Trenches” for the benefit of those who follow. In short, the thesis of the book is that our world is changing; higher education collectively, as well as institutions of all types, must change. Bringing more women into leadership is critical to the goal of moving our society and world forward in healthier ways.
The pathbreaking investigation into motherhood and womanhood from an influential and enduring feminist voice, now for a new generation. In Of Woman Born, originally published in 1976, influential poet and feminist Adrienne Rich examines the patriarchic systems and political institutions that define motherhood. Exploring her own experience—as a woman, a poet, a feminist, and a mother—she finds the act of mothering to be both determined by and distinct from the institution of motherhood as it is imposed on all women everywhere. A “powerful blend of research, theory, and self-reflection” (Sandra M. Gilbert, Paris Review), Of Woman Born revolutionized how women thought about motherhood and their own liberation. With a stirring new foreword from National Book Critics Circle Award–winning writer Eula Biss, the book resounds with as much wisdom and insight today as when it was first written.
Well-educated populations are important aspects of any contemporary society, as education increases national and global development and the positive expansion of communities to participate actively in civil matters also increases. Educational equality is based on the principles of administrative competence and fairness of access and distribution of resources, opportunities, and treatment, which ensures success for every person. Ensuring equal access to quality education requires addressing a wide range of persistent inequalities in society and includes a stronger focus on how different forms of inequalities intersect to produce unequal opportunities or outcomes that affect marginalized and vulnerable groups. Policy and Practice Challenges for Equality in Education takes a multifaceted look at issues of equality and inequality in education as related to policy, practice, resource access, and distribution. As such, this book explores the potential practices in education that serve to mitigate and transform unproductive practices which have left societies scarred by social and educational inequalities. The chapters provide a critical analysis of the manifestations of inequalities in various educational contexts and discerns how broader social inequalities are informed by education-related matters. This book is ideal for sociologists, administrators, instructors, policymakers, data scientists, community leaders, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in educational equality and the unique challenges being faced worldwide.
