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.

Are you seeking a collaborative working environment with knowledgeable and accomplished colleagues who share your commitment to the future of digital higher education? The Online Learning Consortium is seeking a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) to represent OLC and its mission to advance quality digital teaching and learning experiences for the modern learner.

As Chief Knowledge Officer for OLC, you’ll be at the forefront of the changing higher education landscape, working with the talented team that keeps the OLC community engaged with relevant and valued resources for driving the quality agenda. And you’ll enjoy doing it primarily from your home office, with opportunities to travel to our industry leading conferences and unique consulting engagements on the campuses of our member institutions and partners. As OLC’s CKO, you will provide a knowledgeable voice in representing OLC and its mission to the public.

Ideally, you’ll be an established thought leader in the field of digital learning, with a community of followers, experienced in talking with press and industry influencers about relevant issues, trends and research.

Boise State University is pleased to announce a doctoral student research assistantship in the Curriculum and Instruction Ed.D. program starting in the fall of 2018. The position will support a newly-funded research project (VCAST) that involves developing video-based online learning modules for prospective secondary mathematics teachers. The application deadline is March 1, 2018. The position involves working with the VCAST project team for up to 20 hours a week during the two 16 week semesters. The position is renewable for three years, with the potential to fund for a fourth.

As a research assistant for the VCAST project you will have opportunities to:

• work with faculty with diverse areas of expertise including: teacher education, mathematical knowledge for teaching, online learning environments;
• conduct, present, and publish mathematics education research under the direction of mathematics educators;
• acquire skills in data management, qualitative and quantitative research methods, and design-based research;
• build knowledge about prospective teachers’ understanding of students’ ideas involving functional reasoning.

Benefits: The research assistant will receive a full tuition and fee waiver in fall and spring semesters, a stipend of approximately $20,000 for work in the fall and spring semesters, and student health insurance. In addition, shared office space and a laptop computer will be provided.

Read the position announcement for more information.

The Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET) has just released a Call for Papers for a special issue to be published in early 2019, entitled “Re-Examining Cognitive Tools: New Developments, New Perspectives, and New Opportunities for Educational Technology Research”. The special issue seeks to rekindle and re-energise scholarly interest in, and dialogue around, the concept of educational technologies as cognitive tools for learning, with a particular focus on higher education and other post-secondary education contexts. A major goal is to encourage researchers and practitioners to take a fresh look at the concept and its possible applications in light of developments in not only technology, but also learning theory, pedagogy, instructional design, cognitive science, and psychology, that have taken place since the concept was first popularised in the early 1990s.

The guest editors of the special issue are Christopher Drew and Mark J. W. Lee.

While full manuscripts are not due until 1 August 2018, prospective authors are strongly encouraged to make initial contact with the guest editors well ahead of that date (ideally prior to June 2018), providing them with a brief proposal or abstract outlining the nature, content, and aims of the article they intend to submit.

The full Call for Papers is available at https://goo.gl/7mc7Uh .

Queries may be directed to ajet.cogtools@gmail.com . However, kindly note that manuscripts are *not* to be sent to this address (see the Call for Papers for submission instructions).

Call for Proposals for Special Issues

The Electronic Journal of Communication (EJC) is seeking proposals for special issues edited by scholars on a variety of topics addressing human communication, including, but not limited to:

–electronic, digital, or social media scholarship;
–communication studies (including interpersonal, organizational, mass media, political,
gender-related, history, and other contexts)
–journalism;
–information science and/or human-computer interaction;
–related fields of study

For over 25 years, EJC has developed thematic issues that address emerging, innovative, or niche topics, research methods, or pedagogical interests with the goal of highlighting scholarship and stimulating further interest.   Proposals for special issues consist of:

–a brief description of the topic, theme, or area of interest to be addressed by the issue
–a brief explanation of its significance or importance
–any further information that would help illuminate the particular perspective taken
and/or the proposed editor’s qualifications
–CV for the proposed editor (individuals may also choose to co-edit)

To view themes of past issues, please see:   http://www.cios.org/www/ejcmain.htm
Examples of previous calls for papers may be read at:  http://www.cios.org/www/ejccalls.htm

Please send questions, indications of interest, or proposals for further discussion to:

Teresa M. Harrison
Managing Editor, EJC
Professor, Department of Communication
University at Albany, SUNY
Albany, NY 12222
http://www.albany.edu/communication/t_harrison.php
tharrison@albany.edu   @tmaharrison