Gloria T Alter Editor

Dr. Gloria T. Alter was a teacher educator for over 20 years—an Associate Professor at Northern Illinois University (NIU), a Visiting Associate Professor at DePaul University, and an Assistant Professor at Valparaiso University. She received education degrees from Valparaiso University (B.S.), the University of Denver (M.A.), and Northern Illinois University (Ed.D). She also completed an M.Div. in Theology at Fuller Theological Seminary and was a postdoctoral student and a visiting scholar at Harvard University.


Dr. Alter’s academic work includes numerous invited and refereed presentations at national and international conferences, and publications in journals such as, Educational Leadership, Multicultural Review,Social Education,Theory and Research in Social Education, and Urban Education. Her most recent publication, co-authored with Bill Fernekes, is “Human Rights Education and Issues-Centered Social Studies,” in the Handbook on Teaching Social Issues (2nd ed.) published by Information Age.

Dr. Alter’s research primarily addresses diversity and social justice issues in social studies curriculum and instruction. She taught a wide variety of courses in elementary and secondary education with an emphasis on social studies and developed courses in citizenship and social justice education.

Dr. Alter served as the Editor of Social Studies and the Young Learner, a national, refereed journal of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). And she was the guest editor of the first special issue of Social Education to focus on LGBTQ+ topics. In addition, she was the President of the International Assembly of NCSS and Associate Editor of its Journal of International Social Studies.

William R. Fernekes (B. A., M. A., Ed. D., Rutgers University) taught social studies and Spanish from 1974-1987 at Hunterdon Central Regional HS in Flemington NJ, and served as supervisor of social studies at Hunterdon Central from 1987 to his retirement in December 2010. He received his doctorate in social studies education and curriculum in 1985 under the tutelage of Jack L. Nelson, a leading scholar in social studies and issues-centered education. Co-author with Beverly C. Edmonds of Children's Rights: A Reference Handbook (Santa Barbara CA: ABC-CLIO: 1996), he has published widely in the fields of Holocaust and genocide studies, human rights education, and issues-centered social studies education. His 2002 publication for Greenwood Press, The Oryx Holocaust Sourcebook, was recognized as an outstanding reference book by Choice magazine. Most recently he authored two essays dealing with human rights education: “Global Citizenship Education and Human Rights Education: Are They Compatible With U. S. Civic Education?” Journal of International Social Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, 2016 and “On the Matter or Black Lives: Studying African-American History Using a Human Rights Perspective.” Teaching Social Studies, Vol. 17, No. 1, Winter/Spring 2017. With Gloria T. Alter, he has co-authored an essay on “Human Rights Education and Issues-Based Social Issues” for the forthcoming Handbook on Teaching Social Issues, 2nd edition (Charlotte NC: Information Age Publishing, 2021, in press). He is currently completing a biography of US Senator from NJ Clifford P. Case II. He is a founding member of Human Rights Educators USA.