Call for Manuscripts

School-University Partnerships

Online, Themed Issue to be published in September 2021

 In Spring 2020, COVID-19 changed the landscape of education. From kindergarten to college, classes were abruptly shifted to distance learning. No longer able to engage face-to-face, school-university partnerships scrambled to navigate ongoing apprenticeships and collaboration.  Educators of all levels wrestled with how to provide quality instruction while concerns about students’ well-being weighed heavily. Although widespread, the impacts of the global health pandemic were felt hardest by schools serving Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. With disproportionate rates of virus infection amongst their communities, higher percentages of parents employed in essential work, and less access to technological and health resources, longstanding racial inequities among BIPOC students were magnified.

With persisting racial and economic disparities, the health pandemic highlights a need for schooling as it was to be dismantled and re-envisioned.We advocate for school-university partnerships to play a critical role in the creation of more equitable and just schools. Our proposed theme issue, “Re-envisioning School University Partnership with Anti-Racism at the Center” will bring together diverse voices across varied school-university partnerships that are committed to and engaged in anti-racism work. Collectively, the issue will highlight the need to address inequities in partnership work and offer ideas for cultivating more socially-just learning environments.

Our proposed theme provides an opportunity for PDS partners to re-envision equitable school-university partnerships using the NAPDS Nine Essentials. Under the overarching theme of anti-racism, the guest editors seek a collection of research and practitioner-oriented articles that capture the complex layers of this social issue including: the systemic inequities that school-university partnerships have faced or are facing that have been magnified by COVID-19, the efforts of PDS partners in overcoming such inequities, and the actions of PDS partners in addressing racial and economic disparities. We value and encourage submissions from educators in the field, graduate students, university faculty, and community members.

Potential Topics: The guest editors would like for this themed issue to re-envision school-university partnerships through anti-racism. Potential topics might include:

  • Identifying inequities: This topic focuses on the efforts by school-university partnerships to identify and address racialized disparities in student learning and opportunities.
  • Equity in Education: This topic focuses on the cultivation and effectiveness of anti-bias, anti-racists, and/or culturally responsive practices into PDS models.
  • Diversifying the Teaching Force: This topic focuses on the efforts by school-university partnerships to recruit, retain, and build upon the knowledge of faculty, administrators, and teachers of color.
  • Technological Justice: This topic focuses on the innovations by school-university partnerships to bridge the digital divide and/or provide distance learning to meet the needs of students from low socio-economic backgrounds.
  • Engaging Anti-Racism: This topic focuses on the collaborative efforts to unpack racialized world views and systems amongst faculty, teachers, and teacher candidates.
  • Centering Black Voices: This topic focuses on engaging communities of color in school-university partnerships and education reform.

Submission Timeline: November 1, 2020

Submissions of Articles: January 15, 2021

Notification of Conditional Acceptance Articles: March 15, 2021

Revised/final version of articles received by editors: June 15, 2021

Anticipated publication: September 2021

Guidelines for Submissions:
Submissions for both proposals and final articles should:
●     Use APA, 6th edition
●     Use 12-point, Times New Roman font
●     Be double-spaced
●     Have 1” margins
●     Have no author identifying information
●     Final article submissions should be between 5,000 and 6,500 words (excluding references, appendices, charts, and tables) and must also include a separate page with title, abstract (100 – 150 words) and 3 – 5 key words and a separate page with bios (no more than 50 words) for each author

Submissions: Please submit the following submission documents to SUPSept2021@gmail.com:
●     Cover Letter: A brief cover letter including author information
●     Blinded Manuscript: Manuscript with no author identifying information

Questions?
Please contact:
Dr. Shamaine Bertrand skbert1@ilstu.edu
Dr. Erin Quast eaquast@ilstu.edu
Dr. Kyle Miller kemille@ilstu.edu