bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Trusting What you Know: Negotiating the Relational Context of Classroom Life
Authors: Raider-Roth Miriam B.
Published: February 2022

How do children understand the ways that classroom relationships shape their capacity to trust what they know? This article argues that students have remarkable abilities to read the relational tenor of their classrooms and shape their spoken knowledge accordingly. Based on an in-depth study with sixth-grade students, this research demonstrates that students’ construction of trustworthy knowledge in school depends heavily on the quality of their relationships with teachers and peers. In order to study the relational context of learning, the study employs student self-assessment work as its vantage point. Using the Listening Guide methodology of narrative analysis, the study examines children's understanding of this highly relational school practice as a window for viewing how teacher-student and peer relationships can both augment and constrain children's trust in their emerging knowledge. This research reveals children who vividly portray a process of sharing and suppressing knowledge that relies on their understandings of salient school relationships—relationships with themselves, peers, and teachers. The study locates the integral link between students’ understandings of these school relationships and their capacity to trust their knowledge and learn in school. The article challenges researchers and teachers to examine the complex relational life in our schools and the ways in which classroom environments can both support and constrain students’ ability to trust what they know.
At the Interstices: Engaging Postcolonial and Feminist Perspectives for a Multicultural Education Pedagogy in the South
Authors: Asher Nina
Published: February 2022

This article argues for a decolonizing multicultural education pedagogy, which engages the interstices—in-between, hybrid spaces—that emerge at the intersections of different cultures, histories, and locations. It also examines how those who work for social transformation are implicated in the very systems and structures they are attempting to deconstruct. The author draws on postcolonial and feminist theories, her own border crossings, and her reflections on her multicultural education pedagogy to discuss how she engages the particular interstitial identifications of her Southern students. A critical analysis of White students’ autobiographies reveals the complex ways in which issues of race and racial difference intersect with their lives. Implications in terms of rethinking multiculturalism as relevant to all—White students and those of color—are discussed.
Learning Democratic Reason: The Adult Education Project of Jürgen Habermas
Authors: Brookfield Stephen
Published: February 2022

The work of Jürgen Habermas is often cited in adult educational literature as underpinning dialogic traditions and practices central to the field. But to many adult educators the density of Habermas's analysis and complexity of his language limit his influence on their practice. This article's intent is to render a comprehensive analysis of the totality of Habermas's work that demonstrates its enduring applicability for the adult education movement's traditional concern with developing in learners and citizens the critical reasoning necessary to democracy. In so doing the author relies strongly on Habermas's own words (rather than on secondary interpretations of these) and attempts to communicate Habermas's complex ideas in an accessible manner.
Historical and Contemporary Explorations of the Social Change and Spiritual Directions of Adult Education
Authors: English Leona M.
Published: February 2022

This article addresses twin purposes of adult education: education for social change and education for spiritual growth. In reviewing the historical roots for both purposes, as well as emergent contemporary interests, the author makes the case that renewed attention is being, and ought to be, given to these purposes both by academics and by practitioners. The author argues that mining the field's history for its underlying inspirations and foci (read: purposes) may indeed be one way to address present struggles and to offer a way forward for adult education. Attention is given to key events in our present-day thinking and to the repository of adult education history, in order to explicate the long commitment of adult educators to spiritual and social change concerns.
Teacher Educators’ Professional Learning Described through the Lens of Complexity Theory
Authors: Zellermayer Michal , Margolin Ilana
Published: February 2022

In this study we review our own experience of coordinating learning in a professional community of student supervisors in the context of curricular change that took place in the elementary school program of our teacher education college. We present an analysis of four excerpts of conversations about change selected from a larger corpus of data, consisting of transcripts of the weekly department meetings that took place during an entire academic year in which the curricular change was implemented, representing four critical events that brought about the emergence of the interactive dynamic of this self-organizing community. We explain the catalytic power of these events through the theoretical framework of complexity theory. We show how complexity theory can be used for focusing on the dynamics of professional learning at work, as a process of influencing each other's learning and development, possibly leading to the reciprocal transformation of the members of the community.
Hiring Practices of African American Males in Academic Leadership Positions at American Colleges and Universities: An Employment Trends and Disparate Impact Analysis
Authors: Jackson Jerlando F. L.
Published: February 2022

This study examined the status of African American males in academic leadership positions at American colleges and universities in comparison with other males (e.g., Asian). Guided by disparate impact theory, descriptive trend analyses and impact ratios were computed using the 1993 and 1999 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF). These national-level data demonstrated that, although White males continue to hold the overwhelming majority of academic leadership positions, African American males have made modest advancements in upper level administrative positions at specific types of higher and postsecondary education institutions (e.g., 2-year and private institutions). More specifically, these results suggested that a disparate impact exists between the hiring of African American males and White males in academic leadership positions.
Nonhierarchical Curriculum Differentiation and Inequality in Achievement: A Different Story or More of the Same?
Authors: Ayalon Hanna
Published: February 2022

Although the ideology behind curriculum differentiation presents it as a strategy for reducing educational inequalities, the research shows that, contrary to expectations, differentiation enhances inequalities. This may be a result of the stratified nature of most forms of curriculum differentiation that have been analyzed in existing research. Previous research has not looked into the implications of nonstratified curriculum differentiation on educational inequalities. This article attempts to fill this void by examining the effect of variations in subject offerings on gender and socioeconomic inequality in course taking and achievement in Israeli secondary education, where students can choose from among advanced courses that yield similar educational opportunities. Multilevel analysis was performed on 18,704 academic track students, distributed among 198 schools, who graduated in 1992. The main findings are as follows: Curricular differentiation is associated with increasing gender and socioeconomic inequality in course taking. When students can choose alternative subjects, boys and socially privileged students increase their concentration in advanced sciences courses. That concentration is accompanied by increasing inequality in achievement. The findings are interpreted, taking into account the constraints that ascriptive characteristics of the students pose on making curricular choices.
Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A Framework for Teacher Knowledge
Authors: Mishra Punya , Koehler Matthew J.
Published: February 2022

Research in the area of educational technology has often been critiqued for a lack of theoretical grounding. In this article we propose a conceptual framework for educational technology by building on Shulrnan's formulation of “pedagogical content knowledge” and extend it to the phenomenon of teachers integrating technology into their pedagogy. This framework is the result of 5 years of work on a program of research focused on teacher professional development and faculty development in higher education. It attempts to capture some of the essential qualities of teacher knowledge required for technology integration in teaching, while addressing the complex, multifaceted, and situated nature of this knowledge. We argue, briefly, that thoughtful pedagogical uses of technology require the development of a complex, situated form of knowledge that we call Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK). In doing so, we posit the complex roles of, and interplay among, three main components of learning environments: content, pedagogy, and technology. We argue that this model has much to offer to discussions of technology integration at multiple levels: theoretical, pedagogical, and methodological. In this article, we describe the theory behind our framework, provide examples of our teaching approach based upon the framework, and illustrate the methodological contributions that have resulted from this work.
From Coherence in Theory to Coherence in Practice
Authors: Hammerness Karen
Published: February 2022

Historically, one of the central concerns that has plagued the field of teacher education is the observation that fragmentation characterizes the experience of learning to teach. Too often, university-based teacher education programs consist of a set of disconnected individual courses; separate clinical work from coursework; and lack a vision of teaching and learning. Therefore, some teacher educators have argued that creating structurally and conceptually coherent programs will result in more powerful learning for prospective teachers. Yet, although empirical work on such programs is growing, there is little research on the nature of coherence and on how it might develop. To that end, this article documents one teacher education program's efforts to become more coherent, focusing on the ways in which the program tries to become more coherent and on the challenges of coherence. The article concludes with implications for teacher education program design and evaluation, with a focus on the power, complexity, and problems of coherence.
Standardized Tests and Froebel's Original Kindergarten Model
Authors: Jeynes William H.
Published: February 2022

The author argues that American educators rely on standardized tests at too early an age when administered in kindergarten, particularly given the original intent of kindergarten as envisioned by its founder, Friedrich Froebel. The author examines the current use of standardized tests in kindergarten and the Froebel model, including his emphasis on moral education, play, and family involvement. This article explains the extent to which research supports the value of Froebel's model. The author asserts how increasingly, over the last four decades, American educators have departed from the Froebel kindergarten rubric supposedly, in part, to compete with Japanese students. Ironically, however, the Japanese still cherish and practice Froebel's original concept. The author contends that American educators should return to the Froebel rubric and provides a vision for doing so.
It Depends: A Sociohistorical Account of the Definition and Methods of Identification of Learning Disabilities
Authors: Gallego Margaret A. , Durán Grace Zamora , Reyes Elba I.
Published: February 2022

In the midst of unprecedented knowledge generation in the field of education, the definition of learning disabilities and the methods used for its identification have essentially remained the same for nearly 30 years. Working from a sociohistorical perspective, the authors’ distinct professional positions within education (university academic, federal program officer, and school administrator) serve as the lenses to examine the constancy of the official definition and the means for the identification of learning disabilities relative to changes throughout the historical chronologies of educational theory, policy, and practice. The concept of context as that which weaves is used to illustrate the relationships across several historical episodes.
Who Are These Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students?
Authors: Garcia Eugene E. , Cuéllar Delis
Published: February 2022

The national demographic transformation that has become more evident in the last decade was easily foreseen at least 10 years ago. Our future student growth is as predictable: In a mere 35 years, White students will be a minority in every category of public education as we know it today, and non-English-proficient students will grow significantly. Unfortunately, these emerging majority ethnic and racial background students continue to be “at risk” in today's social institutions.
Narrative Inquiries of Geographically Close Schools: Stories Given, Lived, and Told
Authors: Craig Cheryl J.
Published: February 2022

Using the “story constellations” version of narrative inquiry, I tell of two schools—Cochrane Academy and Hardy Academy—that evolved from a shared social narrative history and that were given stories of school and stories of reform that had many features in common. I detail how the founding principals’ narratives informed the teachers’ knowledge and shaped the school contexts in distinctive ways. I illuminate how different confluences of factors gave rise to different metaphors—with different interpretive twists—that the educators subsequently came to live school reform by.
A Mother and Her Daughters: Jewish Teachers and the Fight against Apartheid
Authors: Wieder Alan
Published: February 2022

Background

Before 1999, there was little research on teachers and apartheid aside from some biographical sketches. “A Mother and Her Daughters” is part of an ongoing oral history project of teachers who fought apartheid. It is contextualized through the literature on Jews and apartheid in South Africa and joins the growing literature on teachers in the country. Purpose: The article describes and analyzes the lives of three Jewish women, a mother and two of her daughters, who as teachers challenged the apartheid regime in their communities and in their schools. The elder teacher taught in a Jewish day school and brought the issues of apartheid to Jewish studies, and her daughters taught in black schools during the struggle years. The lives of the three women portrayed are analyzed within the context of the political divide among Jewish South Africans during apartheid.

Setting and Participants

“A Mother and Her Daughters” is part of an oral history project in South Africa with over 200 teachers from each of the apartheid government designated ethnic groups: Africans, coloureds, Indians, and whites.

Research Design

I have spent the last six years working on an oral history project with teachers who fought apartheid. The first people that I interviewed were referred to me by university colleagues in South Africa. As the project continued, I spoke to teachers who often provided me with lists of other teachers. The methodological process is what ethnographers define as network sampling, or snowball sampling. As I have argued elsewhere, and with a sensitivity to issues of memory, culture, class, race, ethnicity, gender, and power and their relationship to oral history, I view my work as testimony as oral history. While most oral historians conduct research by identifying informants and conducting interviews, testimony as oral history recognizes that individuals need to speak—to testify and provide witness to their lives.

Conclusions

The women portrayed in the article joined many other South Africans on the ground to fight the apartheid regime. The lives of the Silbert women are important because they went against the norm of their own Jewish community, and white South Africa, to work for the end of apartheid and for a democratic South Africa. They went against the grain of most South African teachers and represent what scholar and politico I. B. Tabata called “teachers with the fighting spirit.” Marlene, Beth, and Patti Silbert combined pedagogy and politics to fight apartheid. Their stories are significant because with other “teachers with the fighting spirit,” they were part of derailing apartheid and facilitating the election of Nelson Mandela in 1994. In addition, individually and collectively, the stories of the Silbert women offer possibilities of education for democracy—in South Africa and throughout the world.
Learning to Teach as Assisted Performance
Authors: Mewborn Denise S. , Stinson David W.
Published: February 2022

Background

Although preservice teachers bring well-established views of teaching to their teacher education programs, Tabachnick and Zeichner (1984) claimed that it is possible to amend preservice teachers’ views. They portrayed the learning of teachers as a negotiated and interactive process rather than as one that is predetermined by teachers’ prior experiences. Feiman-Nemser (2001) suggested that having preservice teachers examine their beliefs in light of images of good teaching should be one of the central tasks of preservice teacher education.

Purpose

The study reported in this manuscript was conducted in an effort to document and examine the interplay between novice teachers’ personal theories, their mathematics education coursework, and their field experiences.

Research Design

Using all four methods of data collection attributed to ethnographic research (Eisenhart, 1988)—artifact collection, participant observation, ethnographic interviewing, and researcher introspection—this interpretivist study (Zeichner & Gore, 1990) attempted to document and examine the learning of seven preservice elementary teachers as reflected in their mathematics methods coursework and subsequent field experiences.

Findings

This manuscript describes three tasks from the mathematics methods course—critiquing an essay written by a teacher as she reflected on her teaching practice; working one-on-one with a child in mathematics for an extended period of time; and observing an experienced teacher teach an elementary mathematics lesson—that provided preservice elementary school teachers with opportunities to learn and grow as teachers by making their beliefs explicit and then reflecting on their beliefs and linking these beliefs to the practice of teaching mathematics. The tasks described engaged the preservice teachers in examining beliefs critically in relation to visions of good teaching, developing an understanding of learners and learning, and developing the tools and dispositions to study teaching.

Conclusions

While an analysis of the data showed evidence that the preservice teachers became aware of their beliefs, reflected on their beliefs, and began to change their beliefs, the purpose of this manuscript is not to claim that the teachers changed for the good and that this change was enduring. Rather, the goal is to illuminate the tasks, provide the preservice teachers’ responses and reactions to the tasks, and to argue that these tasks constitute a form of learning to teach mathematics through assisted performance.
Is Music Haram? Jordanian Girls Educating Each Other about Nation, Faith, and Gender in School
Authors: Adely Fida J.
Published: February 2022

Purpose

This research explores the importance of extracurricular activities, specifically music performances of a high school music group in Jordan, for the education of adolescent girls about patriotism, the proper way to live their faith, and their role as young women in contemporary Jordan.

Setting

Article is based on research in a high school for girls in a Jordanian city.

Research Design

The research presented in this article draws upon an ethnographic study, including interviews and observation, of a girls’ high school in Jordan, and event analysis of school-sponsored assemblies in and outside of school.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The participation of adolescent girls in music performances at patriotic events—the culmination of extracurricular activities at school—brought to the fore conflicts between patriotism and new forms of religiosity and gendered propriety, creating opportunities for young women to deliberate about these critical issues.
On Sentimental Education among College Students
Authors: Sabin Portia Culver
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

This study attempts to join the debate around the definition of “education” by looking at it as an ongoing, everyday social practice. It follows decades of work done on “love” in America and opens an inquiry into “friendship” as a product of situated practical action. It also challenges social science to shift its focus from the shaped individual to the social processes of shaping and transforming.

Purpose

To study the development and maintenance of relationships between college students in America.

Setting

A freshman-only college dormitory in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Population: Twenty-four18- and 19-year-old first- and second-year college students.

Research Design

This is an ethnographic study of students. The author lived in a college dormitory and conducted participant observation and informal interviews with the students.

Conclusions/Recommendations

“Education” may be understood as an ongoing social practice. Social interaction cannot be approached from the standpoint that behavior is based on previously accumulated knowledge. Rather, interaction must be understood as the complex locus of people doing things together: being held accountable, coercing, and resisting each other. As meaning is made through social interaction, the process of social interaction might be termed an ongoing, deliberate, critical process of finding out what is going on. And people find out by instructing and being instructed by those around them. It is for this reason that we suggest that the focus of our research needs to be shifted from the shaped or transformed individual to the social processes of shaping and transforming.
Caught in the Current: A Self-Study of State-Mandated Compliance in a Teacher Education Program
Authors: Kornfeld John , Grady Karen , Marker Perry M. , Ruddell Martha Rapp
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

The nationwide preoccupation with accountability continues to grow, with teacher credentialing programs facing growing scrutiny through state-mandated accountability systems. In response to Senate Bill 2042 passed by the California state legislature in 1998, the California Commission for Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) established new standards to which all credentialing institutions in the state must comply. Implementing credential programs aligned to the new standards could have an enormous impact on teacher education in California. The way we use language in particular contexts not only represents perspectives, but creates them as well. Therefore, California's new teacher education standards, replete with their highly prescriptive language, could conceivably result in a new standardization of the way teacher educators conceptualize and implement programs throughout the state.

Focus of Study

The authors examine the impact of California's state-mandated revision of teacher education programs on their department's—as well as on individual faculty members'— approach to teacher education. They explore the extent to which faculty were able to uphold their department's ideals of a progressive, learner-centered teacher education program—in spite of the state's stringent new requirements.

Setting

The research took place in the secondary teacher education department at a California State University.

Participants

The participants were all ten full-time faculty members in the department at the time of the program revision.

Research Design

In this qualitative self-study, the authors conducted and analyzed interviews with department members, and analyzed discussions in department meetings, program documents, and conversations (formal and informal) among the authors themselves. Drawing from critical discourse theory, the authors investigate the ways that the discursive practices in state regulations governing teacher education variously positioned members of the department, making particular teacher educator subjectivities available, and examine how faculty members both adopted and resisted these subjectivities as the department developed and implemented the new state-required program.

Findings

In spite of claims by faculty that the standardization process had little impact on their approach to teaching, the authors’ analysis of interview and conversational data and documents suggests otherwise. Faculty members’ increased use of technocratic language and terminology reflecting compliance with the new state standards reveals a substantive shift in the ways they think about what they do.

Conclusions

The authors argue that no one should assume he or she is immune to the effects of top-down standardization; but they note that this type of self-study process can enable faculty to realign their actions with their beliefs, to regain control of their discourse and of their identities as teacher educators.
School Bullying and Current Educational Practice: Re-Imagining Theories of Educational Transformation
Authors: Jacobson Ronald B.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Bullying within schools continues despite thoughtful and well-researched anti-bullying strategies deployed against it. The bulk of research targeted toward understanding and eradicating bullying within schools is of an empirical nature. In other words, through data collection, questionnaires, interviews, ethnography, observation, case studies, etc., researchers have sought to carefully assess bully/victim characteristics as well as the social processes that fuel bullying within schools.

Purpose

This project considers educational transformation (i.e., how we might transform those we educate) through a variety of pertinent, yet diverse, lenses. Specifically this paper is situated in the conviction that in order to stop bullying we must affect desire. We ask, then, how philosophical theories of transformation, specifically those regarding changes in dispositions, might contribute to our understanding of school bullying and current strategies aimed at reducing it. In short, the driving question underlying this project simply asks: how can we help the bully to no longer desire to bully?

Research Design

In contrast to the traditional empirical methodology which has been directed toward bullying research, this project employs several alternative philosophical and theoretical lenses, seeking to view bullying and the strategies aimed against it from diverse perspectives, raising fresh insights into this ongoing educational dilemma. Three broad philosophical lenses are employed, seeking to understand the processes of rational change (i.e., how one's mind is changed), the desires that operate in relations of domination (i.e., bullying), and the social/cultural forces that may work to create characters such as bullies and victims.

Conclusions/Recommendations

As a result this project broadens current anti-bullying strategies, adding helpful insights regarding the “heart” change (i.e., transformations of desire) which may be necessary to effectively reduce bullying within schools. This interdisciplinary approach outlines future avenues of response not only aimed at transforming the bully/victim relationship after the fact, but also toward cultivating specific kinds of relationships within schools which may head off bullying before it develops.
The Joint Enterprise of Social Justice Teacher Education
Authors: Mcdonald Morva
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Responding to the challenges of the demographic imperative and calls for greater program coherence, social justice teacher education programs aim to integrate social justice in the professional preparation of teachers. Such programs intend to improve the preparation of teachers to teach students from diverse backgrounds, and in doing so they strive to keep the moral and ethical purposes of teaching and schooling at the center of teachers’ preparation.

Purpose

This study examines two social justice teacher education programs to explore teacher educators’ conceptions of social justice and the conditions that appear to support their joint enterprise.

Research Design

Findings presented are based on a year-long qualitative case study. Data sources include interviews with teacher education faculty and a review of program and course documents.

Findings

Grounded in communities of practice theory and a theory of social justice, I found that faculty conceptions of justice varied from an emphasis on meeting the needs of individuals to a concern with broader structural inequities. The mutual engagement of faculty appeared to be supported by external resources that provided structure and expertise, the selection of faculty with commitments to social justice and collaboration, and formal and informal opportunities to collaborate.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study has implications for both practice and research in teacher education. In terms of practice, this study suggests that social justice teacher education relies on more than the efforts of individual teacher educators. Teacher education programs aiming to integrate social justice may benefit from implementing structures that enable faculty to work together in both defining and enacting such a vision of teaching and learning. The dimensions of social justice articulated by Mills and SJSU faculty offer teacher educators with a way of conceptualizing justice that attends to a core concept in the field—the goal of attending to individual student's needs—and to a less common concept of justice as tied to alleviating oppression.
The Blaine Game: Are Public Schools Inherently Anti-Catholic?
Authors: Justice Benjamin
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

Conservative jurists and scholars have reached the conclusion that the traditional separation of public funding from religious organizations in K-12 education was “born of bigotry,” and inherently anti-Catholic. This claim rests on the misuse of revisionist historical interpretations that emphasize ethno-cultural conflict to the exclusion of widespread political understandings about republican government and the compatibility of the (then) anti-republican Vatican.

Purpose/Objective

This study questions the claim that public education is inherently anti-Catholic by focusing on the meaning of anti-Catholicism in two key historical periods in the development of public education.

Research Design

The study draws on historical documents from New York State as a case study, but also draws on other sources, primary and secondary, from the ante- and post-bellum periods of the nineteenth century.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The article argues that while the development of the public school was un-catholic, in the sense that it did not give Catholic Church authorities what they wanted, its development was not the result of bigotry, but rather of concern about the proper governance of mass education in a republic. It concludes that scholars and judges should engage in more sophisticated analysis of the past, rather than resorting to the casual use of terms like “bigotry” and “anti-Catholicism.”
The Transition to College from a Demographic Perspective: Past Findings and Future Possibilities
Authors: Maralani Vida
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

This essay reviews recent demographic literature on school transitions. I describe how a demographic perspective, by which I mean using methods that are standard in the study of population processes, is a useful way to examine differences in access to and completion of post secondary schooling in the United States.

Focus of Study

I focus on studies that have been published in the past twenty years in the primary demographic journals. In addition, I describe several ways that a demographic perspective can inform future research on the transition to college. I provide several examples from recent studies that take this approach and review some methods and data sets that support research in this area.

Research Design

This is a literature review of articles published in the primary demographic journals over the past 20 years.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The existing literature on schooling published in the demographic journals is thin. The bulk of the existing studies focus on immigrant children and their advancement in school. This emphasis is quite relevant because race/ethnic differences in school progress are substantial. Missing from this literature, however, are studies that examine the role of age, timing, and the life cycle in educational attainment. This perspective offers the opportunity to apply well-developed theories and methods to the study of educational disparities. This perspective can provide useful lessons for public policy as well.
Does Segregation Still Matter? The Impact of Student Composition on Academic Achievement in High School
Authors: Rumberger Russell W. , Palardy Gregory J.
Published: February 2022

The Coleman report, published 12 years after the Brown decision, confirmed that widespread school segregation in the United States created inequality of educational opportunity. This study examines whether racial and socioeconomic segregation, which is on the rise in the United States, is still contributing to the achievement differences among students. The study used data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey of 1988 to estimate multilevel models of achievement growth between Grades 8 and 12 in mathematics, science, reading, and history for a sample of 14,217 students attending a representative sample of 913 U.S. high schools. The study found that the average socioeconomic level of students’ schools had as much impact on their achievement growth as their own socioeconomic status, net of other background factors. Moreover, school socioeconomic status had as much impact on advantaged as on disadvantaged students, and almost as much impact on Whites as on Blacks, raising questions about the likely impact of widespread integration. The impact of socioeconomic composition was explained by four school characteristics: teacher expectations, the amount of homework that students do, the number of rigorous courses that students take, and students’ feelings about safety. The results suggest that schools serving mostly lower-income students tend to be organized and operated differently than those serving more-affluent students, transcending other school-level differences such as public or private, large or small. This article then addresses the question of whether such school characteristics can be changed by policies to reform schools and funding systems versus policies to desegregate schools.
Conservative Alliance Building and African American Support of Vouchers: The Endof Brown'sPromise or a New Beginning?
Authors: Apple Michael W. , Pedroni Thomas C.
Published: February 2022

A new kind of conservatism has evolved and has taken center stage in many nations, one that is best seen as “conservative modernization.” Although parts of these conservative positions may have originated within the New Right, they are now not limited to what has traditionally been called the Right. They have been taken up by a much larger segment of government and policy makers and have also even been appropriated by groups that one might least expect to do so, such as African American activists in cities like Milwaukee.

In this article, we examine a growing phenomenon: the growth of seemingly conservative sentiments among some of the least powerful groups in this society. Perhaps the most significant organization to emerge has been the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO). It has mobilized around voucher advocacy for urban working-class communities of color. BAEO has attracted significant attention not just for its iconoclastic alignment with conservative educational reform, but also for accepting funding from far-Right foundations. This article analyzes the complexity of the discursive and sociopolitical space that BAEO occupies. The organization's awareness of its critics, allies, and the limited range of educational options within which low-income African American families must act belies the notion, put forward by some, that BAEO is simply a front organization for the educational Right. Nevertheless, BAEO's importance to the larger rightist project in education cannot be overstated.

At the core of our analysis is a concern about what is at stake for all of us if a rightist educational agenda succeeds in redefining what and whose knowledge is of most worth and what our social and educational policies are meant to do. Yet, no matter what one's position is on the wisdom of BAEO's strategic actions, this case provides a crucial example of the politics of how social movements and alliances are formed and reformed out of the material and ideological conditions of daily life.

A critical but sympathetic understanding of groups such as BAEO may enable us to avoid the essentialism and reductionism that enters into critical sociological work on the nature of ongoing struggles over educational reform. It can provide a more nuanced sense of social actors and the possibilities and limits of strategic alliances in a time of major conflicts over educational reform during a period of conservative modernization.
Connecting Hand, Mind, and Community: Vocational Education for Social and Environmental Renewal
Authors: Arenas Alberto
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

The main goal for vocational education at the secondary level has historically been the preparation of youth for the world of work. As a result, research, policy, and practice in this area have mostly focused on how to smooth this transition, address high costs, and ensure that there are positive economic returns to the individual and society. The focus on these goals, although important, has meant that other vital areas have not been addressed: namely, how to ensure that vocational education promotes a sense of empowerment, fosters a stronger sense of community, and seeks to protect the natural environment.

Purpose and Focus of the Study

This article stresses the importance of imbuing the theory and practice of vocational education with social justice and concern for environmental degradation at the local level. The approach to vocational education presented here proposes the use of productive learning as a foundation for a well-rounded education that breaks down the nefarious dualisms of contemporary education (i.e., the separation of mind from body, theory from practice, individuals from collectivity, and school from community) while exposing students to a critical pedagogy of work and to its potential for social and environmental renewal.

Setting

To illustrate the theoretical insights provided in the first two sections of this article, the author explores a public secondary school in northern Colombia that, under difficult social and material conditions, has developed a noteworthy vocational program.

Research Design

This analytic essay illustrates its main points with examples derived from a case study in which field observations, extensive in-person interviews, document analysis, and telephone conversations were conducted between 1997 and 2000.

Findings and Conclusions

The school helps to illustrate what a long series of writers from the late 18th century onward have stated: that productive work ought to be an intrinsic component of any responsible form of education. Moreover, it makes clear the importance of contextualizing learning in authentic settings. Although some important inroads have been made in connecting vocational education to critical pedagogy, the connections with environmental sustainability are still in their infancy. Despite calls from international organizations such as the International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, a branch of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO-UNEVOC) to link vocational education and training to sustainable development, much work still needs to be done in the areas of theory, policy, and practice.
Accountability, Rigor, and Detracking: Achievement Effects of Embracing a Challenging Curriculum as a Universal Good for All Students
Authors: Burris Carol Corbett , Welner ED Wiley Kevin , Murphy John
Published: February 2022

Background

This longitudinal study examines the long-term effects on the achievement of students at a diverse suburban high school after all students were given accelerated mathematics in a detracked middle school as well as ninth-grade ‘high-track’ curriculum in all subjects in heterogeneously grouped classes. Despite considerable research indicating the ineffectiveness and inequities of ability grouping, the practice is still found in most American high schools. Research indicates that high-track classes bring students an academic benefit while low-track classes are associated with lower subsequent achievement. Corresponding research demonstrates that tracks stratify students by race and class, with African American, Latino and students from low-socioeconomic households being dramatically over-represented in low-track classes and under-represented in high-track classes.

Purpose

In light of increasing pressure to hold all students to high learning standards, educators and researchers are examining policy decisions, such as tracking, in order to determine their relationship to student achievement.

Design

This study used a quasi-experimental cohort design to compare pre- and post-reform success in the earning of the New York State Regents diploma and the diploma of the International Baccalaureate.

Data Analysis

Using binary logistic regression analysis, the authors found that there was a statistically significant post-reform increase in the probability of students earning these standards-based diplomas. Being a member of a detracked cohort was associated with an increase of roughly 70% in the odds of IB diploma attainment and a much greater increase in the odds of Regents diploma attainment – ranging from a three-fold increase for White or Asian students, to a five-fold increase for African American or Latino students who were eligible to receive free or reduced-price lunch, to a 26-fold increase for African American or Latino students not eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Further, even as the enrollment in International Baccalaureate classes increased, average scores remained high.

Conclusion

The authors conclude that if a detracking reform includes high expectations for all students, sufficient resources and a commitment to the belief that students can achieve when they have access to enriched curriculum, it can be an effective strategy to help students reach high learning standards.
Neotracking in North Carolina: How High School Courses of Study Reproduce Race and Class-Based Stratification
Authors: Mickelson Roslyn Arlin , Everett Bobbie J.
Published: February 2022

Background/Context

This article describes neotracking, a new form of tracking in North Carolina that is the outgrowth of the state's reformed curricular standards, the High School Courses of Study Framework (COS). Neotracking combines older versions of rigid, comprehensive tracking with the newer, more flexible within-subject area curricular differentiation to form an overarching, multilevel framework for high school curricula. The Course of Study Framework requires 8th graders to select one of three Courses of Study prior to entering high school: Career Preparation, College/Tech Preparation, or College/University Preparation. Exceptional children are enrolled in Occupations, a fourth COS. The COS reform was instituted, in part, to facilitate reaching North Carolina's twin goals of equity and excellence for all students.

Purpose

The purposes of this article are to investigate if neotracking facilitates or hinders reaching these goals; if there is a relationship between district and school demographics, students’ racial backgrounds and their COS assignments; and if between- and within-school variations in COS placements result in greater or less race and social class stratification in opportunities to learn.

Research Design

Using aggregate data on COS enrollments among Class of 2005 high school seniors in the entire state of North Carolina and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), we evaluate COS enrollment patterns by student, school, and school system characteristics.

Findings

Results indicate that although a majority of students across North Carolina enroll in the College/University Prep COS, the variations in enrollment reflect the race, ethnic, and social class stratification in North Carolina. Students in affluent NC school districts are significantly more likely to enroll in the top COS than those living in less affluent school districts. COS enrollments vary by students’ race and ethnicity, too. Likewise, COS enrollments are related to the racial composition of a high school's student body.

Conclusions

Neotracking tends to reproduce race and social class stratification of opportunities to learn, resulting in the worst of both worlds: the majority of North Carolina's high school graduates may not be prepared either for higher education or for the workplace—one of the very problems that the accountability movement and the NC Course of Study program was intended to address.
Public and Catholic School Responses to IQ Testing in the Early 20th Century
Authors: Ryan Ann Marie , Stoskopf Alan
Published: February 2022

Background

Between 1910 and 1930, IQ tests were introduced to and institutionalized in American schools. IQ testing represents an important component of the first wave of test-driven educational reform in American history, but surprisingly, there is relatively little research focusing on public educators’ perception of these tests at the time, and even less so for Catholic educators.

Focus of Study and Research Design

In this article, we compare the public and Catholic school discourse that accompanied the introduction of IQ testing during these early and critical years. This historical study analyzes the discourse among educational researchers, administrators, and teachers in these two parallel educational settings through an examination of conference proceedings from the National Education Association and the Catholic Educational Association. These documents reveal the evolving attitudes toward the role of IQ testing in teaching and learning during the 1910s and 1920s. Our analysis demonstrates significant differences between these two groups in their responses to test-driven reform. We argue that these differences can be attributed to the contrasting ideological stances, institutional practices, and historical experiences of public and Catholic school educators.

Conclusions

We found a greater degree of questioning the purposes of IQ testing among Catholic educators due to a culture of skepticism toward modern notions. This allowed Catholic school educators to debate the validity and value of IQ testing much earlier and for a longer period than their public school counterparts. Critical reexaminations of IQ testing in public schools occurred well after the tests became a standard mechanism for placing students into learning tracks, making it considerably more difficult to advocate for undoing a practice that seemed to be addressing students’ needs. Whether more educational opportunities were really opening up for students because of IQ testing was not seriously questioned by most public school administrators during this era.