http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/5840 Dr. Joel Malin - Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership Sun, 05 Apr 2026 18:57:04 GMT 2026-04-05T18:57:04Z http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/7026 Should religious schools be publicly funded? Issues of religion, discrimination, and equity Yoon, Ee-Seul; Malin, Joel R; Sellers, Kathleen M; Welner, Kevin G This issue offers a critical opportunity to reflect on an enduring question in education: Should religious schools be state-funded? To facilitate this reflection, this issue offers six studies from Canada, Spain, and the United States. Each delves into the unique relationships between state-funded schooling and religion in their respective contexts. In particular, these studies examine how the relationships have shifted due to numerous factors, including changing legal rulings, political ideology, demographic shifts, global migration, and education privatization. The authors carefully integrate (and interrogate) the histories and places where they conducted their analyses. Taken together, these studies offer invaluable and timely insights into the intended and unintended consequences of state funding that expands school choice, marketization, and privatization, particularly with respect to religion. This issue thus aims to inform the ongoing debate about the (potential) impact that publicly funding religious schools has on equity, segregation, and discrimination. Ultimately, we hope this issue highlights the importance of a nonsectarian approach to public education so as to create an inclusive education space wherein all human identities are welcomed and affirmed. http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/7026 http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/7025 Political battles in suburbia White, Rachel S; Evans, Michael P; Malin, Joel R Media reports have shown suburban school officials being threatened and school board meetings erupting into chaos. Rachel S. White, Michael P. Evans, and Joel R. Malin examine whether these politically contentious experiences are occurring everywhere, or if there is something distinct about the contentiousness suburban superintendents face. Drawing on a national survey of superintendents, they asked: How do political experiences of rural, suburban, and urban superintendents differ? The results paint a bleak picture about the stresses of the superintendency, and the direct toll they have on some superintendents’ well-being. However, they also identify ways to support suburban superintendents as they face political challenges. http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/7025 http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/7024 Equity-centered knowledge brokering: Taking stock of challenges, strategies, and possibilities Malin, Joel R; Shewchuk, Samantha The pursuit of equity is a cornerstone of progress across diverse fields. Emerging literature across several fields has begun to focus on how knowledge brokers can take an equity-centered approach. This narrative synthesis draws upon that literature to explore what it means to be an equity-centered knowledge broker and to consider the challenges and possibilities inherent in that role. It identifies critical equity issues/dimensions vis-à-vis five main brokering strategies. From this review, the strategy facilitating relationships emerges as a first-order strategy for equity-centered brokers, with impacts stretching into all other areas. Therefore, equity-centered brokers should attend heavily to developing authentic, trusting relationships, value diversity, and elevate multiple forms of knowledge. This article also highlights some challenges and ongoing tensions relevant to equity-centered brokering. Relational, equity-centered knowledge brokering is time- and resource-intensive. Likewise, ongoing debates center on the merit of assuming a neutral brokering posture. Overall, it is hoped this article will benefit knowledge brokers, those with whom they partner, and those scholars who seek to understand and support them. http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/7024 http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/7023 Demobilizing knowledge in American public schools: Censoring critical perspectives Hornbeck, Dustin; Malin, Joel R Controversies have erupted in recent years over the teaching of critical perspectives in United States K-12 schools, particularly related to issues of diversity, race, gender, and sexuality. These tensions have resulted in attacks on critical curriculum, with nearly one-third of states banning curriculum that offers critical views of the racial past of the U.S. and over 200 bills introduced in 40 states that would restrict curriculum related to diverse topics. In this study, we apply a knowledge mobilization framework to examine what and whose knowledge is being restricted in U.S. K-12 schools, and how and why this is happening. Our findings indicate that in 16 Republican-dominated states, policies have been enacted to restrict the teaching of critical perspectives on race, sexuality, and other controversial subjects and to perpetuate a positive view of U.S. history. The study sheds light on the prevalence, underlying nature, and consequences of these educational policies. http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/7023