Special Issue of International Journal of Multicultural Education
Call for Papers: “Technology for Equity and Social Justice in Education”
Guest Editors:
- Sherry Marx, Utah State University
- Yanghee Kim, Northern Illinois University
Please contact Dr. Sherry Marx (sherry.marx@usu.edu) and
Dr. Yanghee Kim (ykim9@niu.edu) for questions.
Theme Description
The use of technology in the classroom has become efficient, effective, and ubiquitous in recent years. Scholars in the areas of learning sciences, information technology, engineering education, science education, computer science, special education, and teacher education, among others, are harnessing technology to improve the educational experiences of diverse school children and those traditionally marginalized in particular subject areas. There is much potential for technology to enhance the social justice and equity goals of multicultural education around the world.
Technology has often been used to augment regular instruction for children needing additional help with learning. Culturally responsive computing (Scott, Sheridan, & Clark, 2015) is a popular topic that is presently influencing many technological application.For example, high tech applications such as virtual pedagogical agents (animated on-screen characters) have been designed to embody gender and racial diversity to better tutor girls and children of color in math and literacy. Mobile apps and e-textiles have been designed to incorporate key aspects of indigenous and minoritized cultures to better engage students who have been traditionally marginalized in the sciences. Similar technologies specifically aimed at girls, such as sewing and weaving with LED lights and circuits, are also gaining in popularity. With the goals of developing equitable participation and strong learner identities,humanoid robots have been developed to serve as cultural brokers between linguistically and culturally diverse kindergarteners (Kim, Marx, & Nguyen, 2017). In the field of special education, innovative technological advances have assisted students in not only learning subject matter, but also in communicating, improving mobility, and developing social relationships with others (Erdem, 2017).
Technology has been used to facilitate equitable pedagogy and communication across and between students who do not share a common language and to empower diverse school children to tell their own stories of educational and identity growth. Makers spaces have opened formal and informal opportunities for young children to engage with advanced and simple technology to develop expertise in science at an early age. As it is ever-advancing, the possibilities for technology to improve the educational experiences of diverse learners seem limitless.
This special issue highlights the power of technology to enhance both educational achievement and social justice for diverse learners including culturally and linguistically diverse students, refugees, those attending school in an additional language, those in need of special education services, as well as anyone traditionally marginalized in education. Articles will illustrate a variety of innovative ways that advanced and/or simple technology can enhance the equity and empowerment aims of multicultural education. International perspectives on this topic are encouraged, as are studies examining formal and informal educational settings. Authors are expected to incorporate up-to-date multicultural education literature to demonstrate the disciplinary context of their article.
Possible topics might include:
· Examination of a particular technology for enhancing educational experiences for diverse learners at any level (elementary, secondary, post-secondary, higher education, formal, informal, etc.)
· Examination of technology as a way to communicate across language groups with diverse students.
· Examination of technology that incorporates students’ cultural resources into learning activities.
· Examination of technology that purposefully takes into account gender, race, and/or other identity markers of learners.
· Development and evaluation of online environments to connect diverse communities of learners and teachers.
· Examination of technology that can enhance the intellectual, social, cultural development of those traditionally marginalized in educational systems such as girls, those with special needs, language learners, etc.
· Synthesis of literature that examines technology-based programs to enhance multicultural education.
· Critiques of technology programs not meeting their goals of empowerment.
· International examples of technology to enhance multicultural education.
References
Erdem, R. (2017). Students with special educational needs and assistive technologies: A literature review. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 16(1), 128-146.
Kim, Y., Marx, S., & Nguyen, T. (2017). Brokering collaborations among children for equity. The 12th International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL): Philadelphia, PA. June 20-22, 2017.
Scott, K. A., Sheridan, K. M, & Clark, K. (2015). Culturally responsive computing: A theory revisited. Learning, Media, and Technology, 40(4), 412-436.
IJME Submission Guidelines
1. Register first with the IJME (www.ijme-journal.org) if you are not a registered user. Please make sure that you have checked the “author” option in your profile.
2. Follow the IJME submission guidelines available from the website. Use the article template when preparing your manuscript. Manuscripts not following the submission guidelines will not be reviewed.
3. Submit your manuscript directly to the website. In addition, submit the author confirmation note (the first page of the article template) as a separate supplementary document and complete the metadata of your manuscript, as instructed in the journal’s submission webpage, by June 1, 2018.
IJME Selection Process of Manuscripts
1. Manuscripts will be judged on their strength and relevance to the theme of the special issue and should be aligned with the mission of IJME.
2. Manuscripts should neither have been previously published in another journal, nor are under consideration by another journal at the time of submission.
3. Each manuscript will be prescreened by special issue editors for its general fitness to the special issue. Then prescreened manuscripts will be subjected to a double-blind review by a panel of reviewers with expertise in the area. Those manuscripts recommended by the panel of experts will then be considered for final acceptance.
Recommended Timeline
1. June 1, 2018: Submission Deadline
2. August 1, 2018: Revision Request Decision by Special Issue Editors
3. October 1, 2018: Author Revision Deadline
4. December 1, 2018: Final Acceptance Decision
5. February 28, 2019: Publication of the Special Issue
A Brief Introduction of IJME
IJME is a peer-reviewed open-access journal for scholars, practitioners, and students of multicultural education. The journal is committed to promoting educational equity for diverse students, cross-cultural understanding, and global justice for marginalized people in all levels of education, leadership, and policies. The journal is indexed in numerous international databases such as ESCI, Scopus, ERIC, and Ebscohost and is ranked in the top quartile of social science journals from the world by Scientific Journal Rankings (SJR). The journal has been accessed by readers from over 140 countries since 2015.
For further details, please visit the journal website at www.ijme-journal.org.