MT Open Press

Educator Reflections

Pamela Kramer Ertel — 2025-04-17

The monograph, Educator Reflections: The Power of Our Stories, highlights the diverse professional journeys of various educators within Middle Tennessee State University and their partner schools as they share their experiences in the teaching profession. Contributors represent all educational levels, from preschool through higher education.

Teachers from various levels recount their unique paths to the profession, emphasizing pivotal moments and acknowledging the heroes and mentors who influenced their professional development. These shared experiences aim to inspire and guide individuals at different stages of their careers, including those just considering teaching as a career, preservice teachers, current educators, and those nearing the conclusion of their educational journey who seek to continue making a positive impact.

The book concludes with targeted recommendations and insights designed to propel the profession forward in a constructive direction, motivating readers to engage further with the content and their professional development.

If you have ever considered a career in education at the preschool, elementary, or high school level, aspired to be a college professor, or been inspired by a remarkable teacher, you will find resonance in the powerful stories these incredible educators share. Their experiences highlight the profound impact of teaching and will leave you inspired to embark on or continue your journey in the field of education.

**Paperback version to be available for purchase by end of April 2025**

--Publisher's Note: Each chapter has been editor and press reviewed, and the entire book has been externally reviewed by experts in the field as part of the quality review process. Indexed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).--

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56638/mtopb00325

ISBN (paperback): 979-8-9871721-5-5
ISBN (digital PDF): 979-8-9871721-4-8
LCCN: 2025933025

Intercultural Engagement Through Short-Term Faculty-Led Study Abroad

Priya Ananth — 2023-09-15

The main objective of this edited volume is to offer pedagogically sound and creative ways of integrating elements of intercultural competence into class activities, tasks, and assignments in short-term faculty-led study abroad programs. The intercultural competencies, categorized in the areas of knowledge, skills, and attitudes, included characteristics such as awareness about self and other cultures, creative thinking, problem-solving, empathy, tolerance towards ambiguity, withholding judgment, to name a few. By purposefully embedding these characteristics in their course activities, faculty leaders could better assist their students in deepening intercultural and global competencies. These competencies prepared the students for a changing global work environment and helped them manage a more diverse workforce at home.

This book is arranged into three sections. Section I provides the basic framework to understand short-term faculty-led study abroad programs both from a theoretical as well as administrative perspectives. Section II showcases 11 contributions from faculty leaders who share details regarding their programs demonstrating how intercultural competencies were strategically incorporated into the activities, tasks, and assignments of their study abroad curricula. Section III presents the conclusions with recommendations for faculty and administrators to plan and design short-term faculty-led study abroad programs.

This book will contribute uniquely to the field by providing theoretically driven model courses from a broad spectrum of disciplines that would encourage the creation of new short-term faculty-led study abroad programs at the university level and empower current faculty leaders to strengthen or adapt their programs. The book will interest a broad readership of multidisciplinary study abroad educators, including faculty leaders, faculty leaders-in-training, faculty scholars, and administrators.

--This book project received partial funding from the Digital Seed Grant program at the James E. Walker Library (MTSU) and the Office of International Affiars at Middle Tennessee State University (2022-2023).

Privacy and Safety in Online Learning

Denise FitzGerald Quintel — 2023-01-31

This collection features essays, case studies, and pedagogical approaches that explore how educators managed the privacy, security, and safety concerns that rushed into our lives as we shifted into emergency remote learning in 2020. While the COVID-19 pandemic brought this concern into focus, privacy issues with online learning continue to exist alongside us and our students.

This book provides readers insight into the current state of privacy issues, describes the challenges and rewards of developing more privacy-focused learning environments, and presents several resources and tools that readers can bring to their own teaching practices.

Representing a variety of perspectives from K-12, higher education, and libraries, contributors describe the challenges they encountered and offer solutions to help ensure the safekeeping of students’ online lives. How do we navigate these online environments, who collects our data, and how can we protect our most vulnerable populations?

-Publisher's Note: Each chapter has been peer-reviewed, and the entire book has been externally reviewed as part of the quality review process. Indexed in the Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB).-