Publication Date: September 27, 2024
Pages: 240
Discover how the crisis of a global pandemic allowed educators to improve learning across the pre-K–adult pipeline. While acknowledging the scale of loss and difficulty the COVID pandemic engendered within the field of education, this book focuses on how sudden and forced changes to teaching and learning created “Pandemic Positives,” which can be captured and brought to scale. In particular: Part I addresses how Pandemic Positives came into being, with special attention to the presence of educator hope and creativity. Part II explores the Pandemic Positives that arose in three settings: when schools were closed, when learning turned online, and when schools re-opened. Part III provides strategies for replicating the Pandemic Positives so they become positive educational game changers. This book is grounded on trauma and mental wellness theory and includes the in-the-trenches experiences and voices of educators. The text features art created by the coauthors and shares both their professional and personal experiences, humanizing and enriching the book. Mending Education completes a trilogy composed of Breakaway Learners and Trauma Doesn’t Stop at the School Door by Karen Gross.
Book Features:
Karen Gross, author, educator, and artist, serves as an instructor of continuing education at Rutgers School of Social Work and visiting professor at various colleges in the United States and Canada. A former college president, she also served as a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Education. Edward K.S. Wang is an assistant professor of psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the director of policy and planning for the Chester M. Pierce, MD Division of Global Psychiatry, at Massachusetts General Hospital. Previously, he was the director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, and the National Advisory Council, Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration.
“Mending Education is the third book in a trilogy geared towards education and the systems engulfing the processes of education. The book is important for educators but also people from multiple disciplines, e.g., business, leadership, health care. Every profession thrives on the messages found within Mending Education through its stories of hope, creativity, resiliency, and vision. Educators were role models through the pandemic, showing creativity and positive examples of not just surviving but thriving in hard times. The authors have beautifully highlighted the tangible stories that give hope for education even though the profession is filled with crisis from within and outside. Likewise, the book provides a blueprint that other professions can use to scaffold their own vision, creativity, hope, and resiliency.”
—Barbara H. Long, dean, The Rev. Wilfred E. and Dr. Joyce A. Nolen School of Business and Professional Studies, Bridgewater College
“In their new book, Mending Education, Karen Gross and Ed Wang provide us with a readable yet authoritative review of the challenges and opportunities our education system faces in the aftermath of the pandemic and in the context of multiple ongoing stressors. While never dodging the severity of the issues, they offer a treatment plan built on lessons from the experience of social and emotional learning and from what we have gleaned from resilience studies as applied to the scholastic setting for students and teachers alike. This is a timely and necessary book."
—Gregory Fricchione, MD, director, Benson-Henry Institute for Mind-Body Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
“Mending Education is a book for our times—it recognizes the watershed moment created by the COVID-19 pandemic and examines how to embrace it moving forward. Old paradigms simply no longer fit the current landscape educators are facing. This book addresses the ‘now what’ for educators by offering hope, clarity, and innovative strategies.”
—Douglas Behan, director of continuing education and associate professor of professional practice, School of Social Work, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
“Mending Education is a must-read for veteran educators, preservice educators, and teacher educators. Drs. Gross and Wang center the voices of educators and affirm the multiple ways educators benefited their students and families during the pandemic. By doing so, educators who lived that experience find their creativity with online learning, their novelty for engaging students, and their focus on connecting with students and families not only highlighted but recognized as a path forward.”
—Elizabeth McAdams Ducy, associate professor of special education, Sonoma State University
“We have all bemoaned the COVID pandemic and its lasting negative effects, but Karen Gross and Edward Wang turn that pessimism on its head. This book defines the positive outcomes from the pandemic for education writ large and provides ways to create stickiness for lasting change. The coauthors’ extensive experience in education is augmented by the priceless data gathered through their research survey of teachers and educators. Along with their upbeat voices, their own delightful and smart original artworks are used to engage the reader and illustrate their points throughout, making this a must-have for educators everywhere.”
—Chris Messina-Boyer, educational crisis manager/crisis communications consultant, 20Buttonwood PR Solutions LLC
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