There are many exciting new titles for the month of October! Below is a selection of some of OISE Library’s recent acquisitions. They include books on topics from gender to migration, with a large selection of case studies.

In Dyslexia in Early Childhood: An Essential Guide to Theory and Practice Barbara Pavey explores the topic of dyslexia in early childhood through the latest research and best practices in the field. n addition to helpful discussions and insights into the difficulties that these children and their teachers face. Recognizing and diagnosing dyslexia in young children can be challenging, especially before the child learns to read and write. Pavey points to the importance of speech, language and play in diagnosing these young children, and offers exercises and suggestions for doing so. The author uses what she refers to as a “dyslexia-friendly position,” allowing her to discuss how to fix teaching, rather than how to “fix” disabled children. This positive approach makes for a refreshing read on the subject. More OISE Library books on the subject of dyslexia can be found here.

Imdorf, Hegna and Reisel’s Gender Segregation in Vocational Education addresses the well known, but often ignored, subject of gender segregation in vocational education. It is the thirty-first in a series on comparative social research produced by Emerald Books. The culture, context and outcomes of segregation in vocational education are explored through a number of case studies including examples from Canada, Bulgaria and Norway.  The book is split into three parts: International Comparisons, Intra-National Comparisons, and Educational Choices and the Life Course. Differences in educational opportunity, access and acceptance can have a profound impact over the life-course, as these differences actively shape the directions in which young people will move and grow. The international team of authors represented in this volume came together following a series of conferences in order to bridge a gap in research and open new pathways to discovery that can benefit real workers. Students who are interested in women’s studies, the feminization of certain workplaces and the institutional barriers that women face in vocational education will find this book stimulating. These issues will also be of interest from a social justice perspective. This book is a welcome addition to our growing collection of books relating to gender and vocational schools.

Literacy Acquisition in School in the Context of Migration and Multilingualism: A Binational Survey is a multi-chapter discussion of a case study and its implications for the study of literacy acquisition as it is influenced by migration and multilingualism. The central case study was of children in the first and seventh grades in Turkey and Germany. Literacy acquisition was studied in a number of ways, with knowledge of the social contexts in which the children were learning.

Using the data generated in the study, a number of authors lead by Inken Sürig explore the implications of the data from the perspectives of both linguistics and sociology. This allows them to examine both actual patterns of language and literacy development and the social contexts and implications that arise from these acquisitions. They reach many conclusions through these perspectives, one of which being that the differences depending on locale and culture for literacy acquisitions are not as different as they had assumed. Those interested in the importance of context in teaching, literacy acquisition, migration and comparative research methods will find this new book fascinating.

MultiPluriTrans in Educational Ethnography: Approaching the Multimodality, Plurality and Translocality of Educational Realities. This volume contains multiple essays centering on the topic of educational ethnography in an international context. The language and topics covered in this volume are suited for students interested in the complex intersections of theory and practice, as well as students who are looking to explore the complexities of ethnography in education.

The authors begin with a series of questions: How does the field currently define itself? What sources of information will become increasingly important for scholars wishing to pursue these kinds of topics? The answers to these questions illustrate how varied and nuanced the definitions that shape the field are. The authors take up the terms ‘multi, pluri and trans’ as referring to the most popular suffixes applied to research topics in the field of educational ethnography, as it is a field that pushes the boundaries of many traditional research practices. In addition to this, the term ‘inter’, as referring to concepts such as intersectionality and interdisciplinary studies, is also explored. The case study subjects include family life, childcare and prison rehabilitation.

Preparing Educators for Online Learning: A Careful look at the Components and How to Assess Their Value. In this new book, editors Stacy Hendricks and Scott Bailey have put together an interesting and engaging volume on the importance of of online literacy in current trends of teacher training. How can principals, teachers and students adapt to new trends in technology, and how will these change the teaching and learning experience? The increasingly large skill set demanded of a successful teacher or principal means that teacher education programs, and students themselves, must adapt to new demands.

Discussions of what the online learning experience looks like and the assessment of quality in these programs are paired with a section on the lived experiences of students and teachers in online learning. The final section of the book, Relevance, is a helpful guide for hiring competent online teachers, as well as space in which the importance of online learning for the elementary grades is addressed.This new acquisition relates to the new OISE Library display in the lobby of the OISE building: “Teaching and Learning Online”. For more resources like this one, please feel free to browse the display and do not be shy to ask one of our staff members to remove a book you would like to use from the display case!

You can find these titles, and many more new additions to the OISE collection, on the ground floor of OISE Library. They will be available on the “New Acquisitions” shelf across from the reference desk.

Happy reading!