This beautiful, thought-provoking article is a heartfelt manifesto to “develop an entirely new way of understanding learning that embraces the true engine of the mind – imagination.” According to author Stephen T. Asma, professor of philosophy and cofounder of the Research Group in Mind, embracing so-called “imaginology” would allow educators to “heal the terminal divide between the sciences and the humanities [and] also promises to reunite the body and the mind, reintegrate emotion and reason, and tesselate facts and values.” Asma takes readers through the long history of incorporating – and, more importantly, ignoring – the role of imagination in education. This article is heavy on philosophy and cognitive science, but for educators and school leaders looking to inspire some paradigm-shifting thinking, Asma’s offering affords lots of opportunities for discussion and reflection. Of particular interest to educators will be Asma’s contention that imaginology is a way to collapse the STEM/liberal arts dichotomy. There are also some interesting sojourns into the connections between imagination and creativity and the role of imagination in forming cognition and consciousness. Even deeper, Asma reframes “imagination as the ‘plate tectonics’ of mind and culture.” In this new framework – away from imagination as ancillary – “fractured territories on either side of a great divide become mere continents riding on the hidden motions of creativity below. Imaginology beckons us deeper.”

In the past few months, there has been an increasing urgency to prepare for the impact that AI will have on our schools, on our students, and on ourselves. In this timely book, author Rana el Kaliouby provides an introduction to her life’s work – to “reclaim humanity by bringing emotional intelligence to technology.” Having had an early interest in computer science, el Kaliouby forecasted that machines and AI would be more ingrained in our work and our lives. Over time, she grew passionate about bringing about a more human-centered approach to how we interact with our machines, eventually deciding to bring more EQ, or emotional intelligence, to the development of the IQ in AI. Rana el Kaliouby shares the journey she has taken to determine how to engage in this work ethically and responsibly alongside the journey she has taken in her personal life. Her story, which unfolds in different countries and across different fields, is layered, as is her ongoing work to “bridge the gap between humans and machines.” This priority to go beyond the two-dimensional, to dig deeper, explore further, think harder, and be more human is a refreshing take on the potential impact of AI. As educators navigating this inflection point in technology and in our practice, this book may offer a perspective that resonates with the future we hope our students experience.

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In this challenging book, Teachers College Professor Christopher Emdin details the harm that even well-intentioned teachers inflict on students of color when they require all students to adapt to the White norms of most school and classroom settings rather than to adjust their teaching and incorporate students' rich cultural backgrounds. Drawing from his own experiences as a teacher as well as his observations of many other teachers, Emdin shows in compelling, but also at times, heart breaking detail how students from non-White backgrounds are often marginalized, ignored, underestimated, and even punished for behaviors that are valued in their own cultures. Such a response alienates students and leaves them unempowered and uninspired. Emdin's book is an important reminder to all educators that our jobs are to teach children a curriculum rather than to teach a curriculum to children, with the former requiring teachers to get to know and value the backgrounds of their students and to interrogate how their approaches to teaching and classroom management might alienate some students in their care. For school leaders, Emdin also describes how current evaluation, classroom observation, and promotion practices undermine the efforts of teachers to adapt their teaching approaches to embrace the backgrounds and identities of their students.

Schools are steeped in language and communication at every level, from the pre-kindergarten classroom to the senior seminar. Word study, word choice, and word order are foundational elements of a child’s education and a school’s ethos. In a world where the wrong word at the wrong time or place can tear at the fabric of a school community, wouldn’t it be nice to know some magic words? Just in time, Jonah Berger’s Magic Words: What to Say to Get Your Way, a research-driven playbook, identifies several powerful words that can help us to forge and fortify relationships. Based on data collected through natural language processing tools that analyze word frequency and efficacy, Berger makes the case for simple shifts in our language including turning actions into identities – for example, rather than say to a child, “can you help clean up the blocks,” ask, “can you be a helper and clean up the blocks?” – and using could instead of should. Berger argues against language that hedges (“a bit”; “I guess”; “maybe”) in favor of decisive language (“definitely”; “clearly”; “unquestionably”) and makes a strong case for using the present rather than the past tense when storytelling. Berger is not only interested in speaking, however, but also in listening – using concrete, detailed language in response to what others are saying to us can work real magic when it comes to demonstrating attention and care.

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Many researchers have defined intercultural competence as focusing on the individual’s acquisition of skills, attitudes, knowledge and ways of thinking that could help them to avoid thinking that their own customs or cultures are superior to others and to move towards understanding and valuing many different cultures and customs. Recent research by Karanikola, Katsiouli, and Palaiologou further highlights the importance of intercultural and global competencies being taught in schools. Such competencies aid in the development of individuals who are respectful of themselves and others and can work collaboratively to reach common goals in local and global communities. Additionally, having teachers who are properly trained and motivated to support students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds can positively impact these students. The results of the researchers’ semi-structured interviews revealed that teachers did not fully understand the differences between intercultural and global competencies, but they were able to identify some aspects of both and their general importance for students’ development. Some key practices for implementing these competencies are project-based teaching and learning, role-playing, and different dialogue and discussion techniques. Schools around the world can use this research to understand the importance of implementing relevant training to help foster students who are empathetic global citizens, are informed, and use social justice to enact change.

A central tenet of Clint Smith's bestseller, How the Word is Passed, is that memory exists somewhere on a continuum between history (the facts) and nostalgia (the feelings), and that how we choose to remember is crucial. The book takes readers on a tour of seven monuments and places that are central to the history of slavery in the United States, among them Jefferson's plantation at Monticello, Galveston Island (where the first Juneteenth was celebrated), and Blandford Cemetery, where Confederate veterans are buried. Unsurprisingly, those places are reckoning with their connection to the institution of slavery in different ways. Smith asks the reader to question our commonly accepted symbols, how they are presented in public spaces, and what that says about us as a country. For example, should statues of Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee come down or should statues of prominent Black Americans go up – or both? Who should make that decision, voters or elected officials? In addition to being a journalist and social scientist, Smith is a published poet, and the lyricism of his writing adds to the power of this book. With many schools around the country questioning their connection to problematic mascots, traditions, and benefactors, Smith’s travels, both physical and literary, offer guideposts for leading conversations on history vs. nostalgia and memory vs. memorialization.

This is the picture book that could spark, every time we turn the page, a welcome flurry of thinking, conversations, and the kind of adventurous journeys of discovery we hope our youngest students will find inside the covers of very good books. Award winning author and illustrator, Wallace Edwards, takes generous two-page spreads to ask an “I wonder” question and then to delight the imagination with drawings that make us laugh, imagine, realize, or ask a new question. Some pages seem everyday-ordinary: I wonder where the banana went. Some seem to open a wide corridor of possibilities: I wonder who was here before me. Parents and teachers will recognize the gentle invitation to inquiry throughout, but so will the children, who may see in the open-ended, few-words-needed text an uncommon opportunity to provide their own stories and wonderings. Asking why some things are difficult gives a chance to reflect on challenges that require adaptations and affordances. (Of course, porcupines and balloons must connect with superb care!) And the "I wonder who decides what is important" pages represent the decisions we make because of our values: Which object will the flamingo give the one blue ribbon award to – a rocket ship, a red apple, or a fancy shoe? With a goal to support learning and self-discovery, Do You Wonder? is the essential question asked, but still to be answered, in these delightful, and likely to become beloved, pages.