A new book co- edited by University of New Orleans School of Education professor Brian Beabout examines how schools respond to the environmental, geo-political, cultural, and fiscal crises that impact the operation of schools. The Routledge International Handbook of Schooling in Times of Crisis examines the unique challenges and opportunities that emerge for schools when normal modes of doing school cannot continue.

Beabout is an Associate Professor of Education and Director of the UNO School of Education. In addition to his role in the book, Dr. Lynn Walters-Rauenhorst, Assistant Professor of Practice, contributed a key chapter to the volume.
“My research has focused on how schools in New Orleans changed after Hurricane Katrina and the state takeover in 2005 as well as how schools changed in the post-Soviet nations of Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989,” said Beabout. “So accepting the invitation to join the editorial team felt like a natural choice.”

Walters-Rauenhorst's chapter deals with how political turbulence in the USA during the last decade has complicated the role of teaching history in public schools. “While we often think of school crises as being precipitated by natural events or war, recent trends in the United States and other countries of polarizing culture wars, book bans, and ongoing curricular debates highlight the importance of school leaders understanding what teachers want and need in order to navigate student curriculum standards and divergent community expectations” Walters-Rauenhorst explained. 
This truly international book has editors from the USA, Australia, and Northern Ireland and additional chapter authors from Gaza, Spain, Puerto Rico, England, Fiji, India, Chile, Nepal, New Zealand, Sweden, The Netherlands, and Thailand.

“This book is an important step in preparing schools and educators not only to serve students during predictable times,” Beabout said, “but to succeed in supporting children in what appears to be increasingly common times of crisis.”