Vol. 9 No. 1 (2020)

The 2020 issue of Educational Renaissance reflects, in some small parts, the changes we are experiencing this year. The article #learningtoreflect: Preservice Teachers’ Reflections on Instagram by Dr. Monica Billen gives greater understanding as to how social media can impact learners reflective practices as they approach developing their own teaching practices. This article also contributes to the newer field of studying the lift social media plays in student’s academic lives.  Attention continues on teacher recruitment and retention with Teacher Candidates as the teacher of record assists partner school districts with the teacher shortage, by Drs. Rich, Smith, and Alexander out of Northwest Missouri State University. Next the important focus on engagement and retention of Black male teacher candidates with Desperate Measures: How teacher preparation programs can engage and retain black male teacher candidates, by Drs. Ernest Black and Ed Rice.  And finally, distance education. Before COVID-19 changed schools drastically in March of 2020, Drs. Bock, Caballero and O’Neal-Hixson describe a hybrid eMentoring model in The TCSEFP hybrid eMentoring model: A distance education mentoring model. And in one of the early articles for lessons learned during the emergency transition from face to face instruction to virtual learning Drs. Atkins and Danley, out of the University of Central Missouri write a case story in, Supporting teacher candidates during Covid-19: Lessons Learned.