bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Strange Fruit Indeed: Interrogating Contemporary Textbook Representations of Racial Violence toward African Americans
Authors: Brown Anthony L. , Brown Keffrelyn D.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Recent racial incidents on college and high school campuses throughout the United States have catalyzed a growing conversation around issues of race and racism. These conversations exist alongside ongoing concerns about the lack of attention given to race and racism in the official school curriculum. Given that the field of education is generally located as a space to interrogate why these difficult issues of race in schools and society still persist, this study illustrates how contemporary official school knowledge addresses historical and contemporary issues of race and racism. To do this, we examine how historic acts of racial violence directed toward African Americans are rendered in K–12 school textbooks. Using the theoretical lenses of critical race theory and cultural memory, we explicate how historic acts of racial violence toward African Americans receives minimal and/or distorted attention in most K–12 texts.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

We examined the knowledge constructed about racial violence and African Americans in the United States. Using the theoretical lenses of critical race theory and cultural memory, we show how the topic of historic acts of racial violence toward African Americans receives minimal and/or distorted attention in most K–12 texts. The purpose of this study is to illustrate that although accounts of racial violence that historically have been excluded from textbooks are now being included, this inclusion matters little if it is presented in a manner that disavows material implications of racial violence on sustained White privilege and entrenched African American inequities.

Research Design

The findings from this study come from a textbook analysis of 19 recent U.S. history social studies textbooks adopted by the state of Texas. Drawing from the tradition of recent critical textbook studies, this study used a literary analysis methodology.

Findings/Results

In this study, we found that although narratives of racial violence were present throughout the texts, they often rendered acts of violence as the immorality of single actors or “bad men doing bad things.” Additionally, these presentations portray violence as disconnected from the institutional and structural ties that supported and benefited from such acts.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The findings from this study illustrate the limited historical and sociocultural knowledge about race and racism provided to teachers and students through K–12 social studies textbooks. These findings have direct implications for how teachers and students conceptualize and grapple with real issues of race and racism in schools and society. We suggest that the knowledge contained in school texts must go beyond simply representing acts of racism, situating such acts of racism within the discursive and material realities that have shaped the lives of African Americans in the United States.
What Predicts Fear of School Violence among U.S. Adolescents?
Authors: Akiba Motoko
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Ensuring a safe learning environment for every student at school is a major responsibility of educators, school administrators, and policy makers in our society. Students’ fear associated with school violence affects their school attendance, learning motivation, and academic achievement. Although predictors of adults’ fear of crimes have been studied extensively in the field of criminology, only a small number of studies have been conducted to examine the school and teacher factors associated with students’ fear of school violence.

Objectives

The objectives of this study are (1) to examine the characteristics of students who fear being victimized by school violence and (2) to examine teacher and school characteristics associated with students’ fear.

Research Design

This study is based on a secondary analysis of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) data collected from a nationally representative sample of 2,787 15-year-olds in 111 schools in the United States.

Findings/Results

The study found that low achievers reported a higher level of fear of school violence than high achievers. In addition, classroom disorder and a lower level of school mean parental education level were associated with a higher level of fear, and students’ sense of belonging and student–teacher bonding were associated with a lower level of fear. Low academic achievement and a weak sense of student belonging at school were the two strongest predictors of students’ fear.

Conclusions/Recommendations

It is important for school administrators and teachers to focus on developing a sense of school community and maintaining orderly and effective classroom environments. Teachers play an important role in developing a close and trusting relationship with students, providing meaningful learning and social activities for students to strengthen their sense of belonging at school, and developing caring and effective classroom environments. School administrators should provide support to teachers and develop a school climate that promotes a sense of school community among students through involving students and their family members in important school decision-making processes.
Educational Thinking and the Conservation of the Revolutionary
Authors: Duarte Eduardo Manuel
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Prior work on Hannah Arendt and education has focused on democratic education, multicultural education, and conservatism in education. Most of these studies have concentrated on her essay, “The Crisis in Education.” While this study extends that work, it does so by taking up the lesser studied but equally relevant piece, “Reflections on Little Rock.” Furthermore, sparse attention has been paid to Arendt's work on thinking in relation to work on education. This piece seeks to fill these gaps in the scholarship on Arendt and education.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Following Arendt, my inquiry is concerned with what we might call “the life of the student mind.” Two central questions guide this inquiry: What are students qua students doing that prepares them in advance for renewing a common world? How, as students, are they engaged with the world without being asked to take responsibility for it?

Research Design

This study is a comparative exegesis of Arendt, reading her early essays, “Reflections on Little Rock” and “The Crisis in Education,” through the lens of Thinking, the first volume of her final and posthumously published work, The Life of the Mind. The study is heavily supported by research conducted in the Arendt digital archives.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This exegesis reveals new insights into Arendt's mapping of the educational sphere and the principal activity taking place therein, namely, educational thinking. The close comparative reading of Arendt's early and later work produces a philosophical construction of the educational sphere as a liminal zone between past and future, a gap between the private sphere of the home, and the political sphere of the public realm. In turn, the primary result of this study is the articulation of a distinctly Arendtian conception of educational thinking as occurring in an existential space of solitude where students, withdrawn from the continuity of everyday life, engage in an activity that enables them to reflect upon and critically reimagine the world and thereby prepare for world-caring.
Making Adequate Yearly Progress: Teacher Learning in School-Based Accountability Contexts
Authors: Rinke Carol , Valli Linda
Published: November 2021

Context

This study addresses recent changes in professional development policy, practice, and theory, in which professional development has increasingly become continual, collaborative, and school based. We consider both traditional notions of structure and content as well as context in developing a more complete understanding of professional development for today's teachers.

Purpose

We conducted this study to understand more fully the delivery of school-based professional development within a high-stakes accountability context. We build on the accountability, professional development, and school context literature and expand the explanatory framework to include teacher experience with, and use of, school-based professional development in instructional practices.

Research Design

We conducted case studies of professional development in three elementary schools with varying levels of pressure to make adequate yearly progress. Although these three school sites operated within the same federal, state, and district policy contexts, the school contexts varied considerably. We focused in particular on professional development around short constructed responses, a form of paragraph writing required for the state exam.

Conclusions

We argue that school leadership, culture, and resources, as well as the structure and content of professional development, filter policy initiatives before they ultimately shape teacher learning experiences. Although high-stakes accountability policies increased the quantity of professional development, the quality of teacher learning opportunities depended on the context in which it was delivered.
Moral Reasoning of Education Students: The Effects of Direct Instruction in Moral Development Theory and Participation in Moral Dilemma Discussion
Authors: Cummings Rhoda , Maddux Cleborne D. , Cladianos Antonia , Richmond Aaron
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Results of the few studies that have investigated moral reasoning in education students suggest that such reasoning may be less advanced for them than for college students with non–education majors and that education students do not appear to advance in moral reasoning from freshman to senior year.

Purpose

The purpose of the present study was to test an educational intervention designed to advance moral reasoning scores of undergraduate elementary and secondary education students.

Setting

The study was conducted in undergraduate classrooms at the University of Nevada, Reno, a Western Land Grant institution.

Participants

Participants were undergraduate elementary (n = 94) and secondary education majors (n = 98) and undergraduate students majoring in English literature and philosophy (n = 42).

Research Design

The study was a quasi-experimental design.

Data Collection and Analysis

Undergraduate education students enrolled in four sections of an introduction to educational psychology course received interventions designed to advance moral reasoning. English and philosophy courses were chosen as control groups. Over a period of 5 weeks, students in the intervention groups were taught moral development theories and participated in online dilemma discussion. An additional 3 weeks were devoted to pretesting and posttesting activities.

Results

A 2 x 5 mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA; time by group) with repeated measures on time was conducted to analyze pre- and posttest2 DIT P-scores for all five subgroups. Significant increases in mean DIT P-scores were found for the elementary and secondary intervention groups but not for the control groups. Gains in both the elementary and secondary groups were maintained at posttest2 at the end of the semester, but there were no significant differences from posttest1 to posttest2. To determine the effectiveness of hypothetical versus real-life dilemma discussion on moral reasoning, a 2 x 3 mixed ANOVA (time by group) was conducted. The ANOVA main effect for time and the interaction were significant, whereas the main effect for group was not significant.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Results of the present study support findings of previous studies providing evidence that principled moral reasoning can be advanced by deliberate educational interventions. Future studies should investigate whether gains will be maintained over longer periods of time than a single semester and whether mere gains in moral reasoning scores translate to a broader range of moral behaviors.
Increasing Racial Isolation and Test Score Gaps in Mathematics: A 30-Year Perspective
Authors: Berends Mark , Peñaloza Roberto
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although there has been progress in closing the test score gaps among student groups over past decades, that progress has stalled. Many researchers have speculated why the test score gaps closed between the early 1970s and the early 1990s, but only a few have been able to empirically study how changes in school factors and social background characteristics relate to that convergence. The main reason for this is the lack of data for multiple student cohorts—information necessary for the examination of such relationships.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

We analyzed nationally representative data from 1972, 1982, 1992, and 2004, examining the mathematics achievement of four high school senior cohorts, and several school and family background characteristics. We examined how changes in these measures (in terms of means and coefficients) relate to the black-white and Latino-white test score gaps and to changes in school minority composition.

Population/Participants/Subjects

For our analysis, we used the following nationally representative data sets, which are part of the Longitudinal Studies (LS) program at the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES): National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72); High School and Beyond senior cohort of 1982 (HSB-82); National Education Longitudinal Study senior cohort of 1992 (NELS-92); and Educational Longitudinal Study senior cohort of 2004 (ELS-04).

Research Design

Conducting secondary data analyses of these nationally representative data, we estimated a series of regressions for each senior cohort, entering the race dummy variables to estimate the unadjusted predicted mathematics test score difference between black and white students and between Latino and white students. Next, we estimated a series of multilevel regressions for each cohort to analyze how trends in school and social background measures are related to trends in the black-white and Latino-white mathematics test score gaps. Finally, we used the pooled coefficients in the decomposition of the difference between the predicted means of white and black test scores.

Findings/Results

Our estimates revealed that between 1972 and 2004, increases in school segregation corresponded to significant increases in the black-white and Latino-white test score gaps, outweighing the positive changes in family background measures for these minority groups.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Understanding how our society can address these countervailing forces—the improving socioeconomic conditions for black and Latino families on the one hand, and the increasing racial isolation of these students in schools on the other— necessitates innovative ideas and experimentation.
An Organizational Perspective on the Origins of Instructional Segregation: School Composition and Use of Within-Class Ability Grouping in American Kindergartens
Authors: Buttaro Anthony , Catsambis Sophia , Mulkey Lynn , Steelman Lala Carr
Published: November 2021

Background

This investigation was sparked by research findings on secondary education showing school segregation to be closely associated with homogeneous grouping practices, such as tracking and between-class ability grouping.

Research Design

We conduct secondary analyses of national data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K).

Objectives

Using these data, we investigate the degree to which the racial and ethnic composition of schools is associated with use of ability grouping practices as early as kindergarten. We focus on within-class ability grouping for reading instruction because it is the most common form of homogeneous grouping for the early grades.

Results and Conclusions

We find that this form of grouping is practiced by a majority of kindergarten teachers and schools, although frequency of use is quite varied, and some teachers and schools use it only sporadically. The most intensive use of within-class ability grouping exists in schools that serve high proportions of minority students and in schools with high variability in students’ reading readiness. The association between student body composition and use of this instructional practice remains even after variability in student academic skills and other structural characteristics of schools are accounted for. Schools serving primarily minority students that use within-class ability grouping have higher average gains in reading achievement by the end of the school year than comparable schools that do not use this form of grouping. Use of this instructional practice is not associated with increases in average achievement gain scores for schools serving students of diverse or primarily White backgrounds. Our findings provide the foundation for further studies of the structural, cultural, and political features of schools associated with the use of ability grouping at the onset of schooling.
International Evidence on Ability Grouping with Curriculum Differentiation and the Achievement Gap in Secondary Schools
Authors: Schofield Janet Ward
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The achievement gap between students from different backgrounds is an issue of grave concern in the United States and in many other developed countries. U.S. research suggests that tracking and other forms of ability grouping with curriculum differentiation may be implicated in increasing this gap. Unfortunately, U.S. researchers often neglect the increasingly rich and methodologically sophisticated literature from other developed countries related to this topic.

Purpose/Objective

This article brings readers’ attention to a wide variety of high-quality research that is commonly underused by U.S. scholars interested in the origins of the achievement gap. It does this by reviewing what research from other developed countries says regarding two fundamental questions addressed by U.S. researchers: (1) Is having higher achieving schoolmates/classmates commonly associated with larger achievement gains for secondary school students? and (2) Is ability grouping with curriculum differentiation commonly associated with a larger achievement gap for secondary school students? This article explores the latter question in ways not typically possible in the U.S. Specifically, it asks: (a) Do hierarchical tiered educational systems, which provide separate schools with markedly different curricula for students with different abilities and career aspirations, increase the achievement gap? and (b) Do school systems that have relatively large amounts of ability grouping with curriculum differentiation or that start this practice early have a larger achievement gap than others?

Research Design

A narrative literature review was conducted focused on the preceding questions. High-quality research typically (a) conducted in secondary schools in other developed countries, (b) authored by researchers outside the United States, and/or (c) published in non-U.S.-based sources is highlighted.

Conclusions/Recommendations

International research supports the conclusion that having high-ability/high-achieving schoolmates/classmates is associated with increased achievement. It also suggests that ability grouping with curriculum differentiation increases the achievement gap. For example, attending a high-tier school in a tiered system is linked with increased achievement, whereas attending a low-tier school is linked with decreased achievement, controlling for initial achievement. Furthermore, there is a stronger link between students’ social backgrounds and their achievement in educational systems with more curriculum differentiation and in those with earlier placement in differentiated educational programs as compared with others. However, numerous methodological issues remain in this research, which suggests both the need for caution in interpreting such relationships and the value of additional research on mechanisms that may account for such relationships.
Explicit versus Implicit Questioning: Inviting All Children to Think Mathematically
Authors: Parks Amy Noelle
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Open-ended, or implicit, questioning has been described as central to reform teaching in mathematics. However, concerns about equity have caused some researchers to question whether this kind of teaching is productive for all children.

Purpose

This study explores the role that implicit and explicit questions played in encouraging mathematical thinking in an elementary mathematics class taught by a reform-oriented teacher.

Setting

The study took place in a third-grade classroom located in a small urban school.

Participants

Participants in the study were a European American teacher, a student teacher, and 19 third-grade students in an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse classroom.

Research Design

The study drew on ethnographic interpretive methods to collect data through a yearlong observation of 5 focal students in the third-grade classroom. Conversations during mathematics class were audio-recorded and transcribed. Data also included written field notes, student work, informal interviews with children, and formal interviews with the teacher. Analysis began with open coding of the transcripts and field notes and proceeded to more fine-grained coding and examination of other data.

Data Collection and Analysis

Analysis showed that implicit questions seemed to privilege some children, particularly those who shared the language and cultural practices of the teacher, whereas explicit questions allowed a wider variety of children to participate competently in the mathematics classroom.
Predicting Homework Distraction at the Secondary School Level: A Multilevel Analysis
Authors: Xu Jianzhong
Published: November 2021

Background

Students continue to struggle with homework distraction well into the secondary school years. Recently, the concern over homework distraction has been growing, as new electronic media have offered diverse and nearly ubiquitous forms of diversion to students while they are doing homework. It is surprising to note, however, that a systematic examination of a broad spectrum of factors that contribute to homework distraction is noticeably absent from much contemporary literature. Thus, there is a critical need to examine a range of variables that may influence homework distraction and, consequently, what implications might be drawn from this line of research to help students better handle homework distraction.

Purpose

The aim of the present study is to propose and test empirical models of variables posited to predict homework distraction at the secondary school level, with the models informed by (a) relevant theoretical approaches (e.g., volitional control) and (b) findings from homework research that alluded to a number of factors that may influence homework distraction.

Research Design

The study reported here used cross-sectional survey data.

Participants

The participants were 1,800 students from 97 classes in the southeastern United States: 969 eighth graders from 52 classes, and 831 eleventh graders from 45 classes.

Results

Results from the multilevel analyses revealed that most of the variance in homework distraction occurred at the student level, with grade level as the only significant predictor at the class level. Findings further revealed that at the student level, the variation in homework distraction was influenced by gender, self-reported grades, the context of doing homework at home, and student attitudes toward homework.
State Strategies to Improve Low-Performing Schools: California's High Priority Schools Grant Program
Authors: Timar Thomas B. , Chyu Kris Kim
Published: November 2021

Background

School accountability policies and high-stakes testing have created new demands on state policy makers to provide assistance to low-performing schools. California's response was the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming Schools Program (II/USP) and the High Priority School Grants Program (HPSGP).

Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study explores the effects of the HPSGP on improving academic performance of the lowest performing schools in California. The study focuses on the organizational factors that influenced resource allocation decisions. The discussion addresses what might be done to ameliorate some of the key problems implicated in nonperforming schools.

Participants

Data for this study came from site visits to 15 schools that received HPSGP funding. Of the 15 schools we studied, 10 were high schools, and the remainder elementary schools. Eleven of the schools were urban, and four were rural.

Program Description

Schools in the bottom 10th percentile are eligible to apply for HPSGP funds. The State of California provided 655 schools with $400 per pupil each year for three years, with an optional fourth year. Participating schools also could apply for an optional planning grant of $50,000 in the initial year.

Research Design

Using qualitative case studies of 15 schools in California, the study compares HPSGP recipient schools that made significant academic improvement with HPSGP schools that remained stagnant. The site visits, which took place between February and May 2006, comprised structured interviews with principals, teachers, HPSGP and special program coordinators, and school site council members, as well as classroom observations and focus groups. During a two-day visit, at least five people at each school were interviewed.

Conclusion

This study found that organizational characteristics, such as leadership of principals, member participation in decision-making, and existence of coherent goals and plans, have a significant influence on the ability of schools to make effective use of grant funding and to achieve higher student performance. The study's main finding was that improving schools were deliberative and purposive in their use of program funds. Nonimproving schools, on the other hand, were opportunistic, lacking a plan or vision for using funding to build effective regimes of teaching and learning.
Do Virtual Professors Dream of Electric Students? University Faculty Experiences with Online Distance Education
Authors: Major Claire Howell
Published: November 2021

Background

Faculty acceptance of distance learning plays an important role in its success or failure in higher education. Information about faculty experiences of teaching online can improve understanding about this delivery mode's potential longevity in academe. Exploratory qualitative research has begun to uncover and unpack faculty experiences with online learning. Such studies provide a focused and detailed picture of faculty perceptions of teaching online; however, they have not been considered for what they add to cumulative knowledge.

Purpose

The purpose of this research was to employ a rigorous and systematic approach to make meaning of individual studies that investigated faculty experiences of teaching online by considering the studies in aggregate.

Research Design

This study drew upon qualitative synthesis methods to investigate faculty experiences with online teaching. In particular, the study used metaethnography, an interpretive approach, to synthesize findings from nine original studies conducted by 23 researchers involving interviews with 117 faculty members with online teaching experience.

Data Collection and Analysis

This study involved searching electronic databases and tables of contents of key journals to gather relevant articles. It relied upon analysis techniques common to metaethnographic approaches, including reciprocal translation analysis (translating themes into each other), refutations synthesis (attempts to explain variations and contradictions), and lines-of-argument analysis (building a general interpretation from findings of separate studies through reliance on qualitative analysis such as constant comparison).

Findings

This article presents findings from a qualitative synthesis of university faculty experiences with online distance education. Results show that faculty members believe teaching online changes the way they approach and think about teaching, course design, time, instruction, and students.

Conclusions

Finding new ways to understand existing literature was one of the chief goals of this study. These results represent a starting place for improving current practice as well as for guiding future research.
Reimagining the Past/Changing the Present: Teachers Adapting History Curriculum for Cultural Encounters
Authors: Sawyer Richard , Laguardia Rmando
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

How students develop a capacity to examine and imagine the past impacts how they think about the present and imagine the future. This study contributes to research about teachers’ beliefs and practices about teaching United States history through cultural encounters and nontraditional historical narratives. Although there is a small but growing body of research concerning teachers’ beliefs and practices regarding historical thinking and inquiry, little research exists on teachers’ beliefs and practices about history teaching from a cultural encounters perspective.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The study examined teachers’ perspectives of a professional development effort designed to promote their students’ historical thinking within a cultural encounters curriculum. This curriculum emphasized the role of perspective and historical narrative. The research questions were: (1) What were the K–12 participants’ specific examples of lessons and units related to historical cultural encounters? (2) How did they conceptualize their teaching for historical cultural encounters? (3) How did they begin to reconceptualize their views about a cultural encounters history curriculum?

Research Design

The study used a qualitative design to examine perceptions of 21 K–12 teachers. A conceptual framework about history teacher thinking and reconceptualization informed the design. Three forms of data— surveys, individual interviews, and lesson plans—were collected about teachers’ perceptions of practice and their applications of those perceptions in their classrooms. The surveys were administered throughout the 3-year program cycle and at the final evening colloquium. Interviews were conducted with the 21 teachers approximately 3 months after the end of the project. Lesson plans that teachers constructed at different points in the professional development project were analyzed after its conclusion.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The teachers in this study were each situated differently in their perceptions of a cultural encounters approach to teaching history. Their conceptual frameworks toward history, grounded in their own professional knowledge and teaching expertise, were an important factor in how they reconceptualized their views of curriculum. In addition, their discussions of both intended and enacted teaching provided a forum within which to experiment and try to solve emergent challenges and dilemmas that grew from their perceived changes in their views of practice. As they examined and in some cases began to teach history through often-excluded historical stories and voices, they confronted in differing ways their own stories and narratives in relation to traditional U.S. history.
Bridging Home: Building Relationships between Immigrant and Long-Time Resident Youth
Authors: Dryden-Peterson Sarah
Published: November 2021

Background

There is rising evidence that relationships that bridge between immigrants and long-time residents are critical to immigrant integration and to the overall heath of communities. The processes by which this bridging social capital is built are not well understood. Schools in new immigrant destinations, as spaces in which diverse youth come together, provide a unique opportunity to examine how immigrant and long-time resident youth connect to each other and build relationships.

Purpose

This article examines the processes of building relationships between immigrant and long-time resident youth and explores the meaning and consequences of these processes for the individuals involved. The article further suggests ways in which schools might adopt strategies to promote personal interaction, cooperative action, and collective identification to aid in the development of these relationships.

Setting

Lewiston, Maine is the setting of this study. Between February 2001 and May 2003, 1,200 Somalis arrived in Lewiston, a town of 35,690 people, 97.3% of whom were White at the time of the 2000 Census.

Research Design

Using the methodology of portraiture, this study examines, as an exemplary case, one relationship between two students: a Somali immigrant, and a White longtime resident. Portraiture is a methodology built on relationships, which mirrors the theoretical issues under investigation.

Findings/Results

This study provides new insights into how bridging relationships are built. The participants capitalized on the common space of their new immigrant destination school to transform casual personal interactions into a bridging relationship based on collective identification. Through dialogue, particularly about race, they challenged each other and themselves, and each came to understand the other in new ways; they also became invested in each other and dependent on each other to grow and to understand themselves and their places in a changing town.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The research identifies processes of personal interaction, cooperative action, and collective identification as central to the building of bridging relationships. It also reveals the necessity of a focus on race when researching, analyzing, or cultivating these relationships. Lessons for educators and schools seeking to foster relationships between immigrant and long-time resident youth include engaging students in direct dialogue about race and cultivating skills in empathetic storytelling and listening in order to “double-think,” or receive a counter-story.
The Storytelling Project Model: A Theoretical Framework for Critical Examination of Racism through the Arts
Authors: Bell Lee Anne , Roberts Rosemarie A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Research in Europe and the United States shows that racial position shapes and gives voice to the stories people tell about race and racism, and filters how such stories are perceived and understood by listeners. Although not uniformly the case, people from the majority White racial group tend to emphasize forward progress and the declining significance of race. Minoritized people of color more often note the enduring impact of racism as a barrier to racial progress.

Purpose

This article describes the evolution of a theoretical model for teaching critically about racism and racial stories utilizing the arts. We reflect on the collaborative theory-building process used to develop the model, our use of the arts to create spaces of teaching and learning where racial stories can be unsettled and reexamined, and the potential of this model to guide educational projects in which participants construct alternative stories geared toward social justice.

Research Design

This is an analytic essay that describes the development of a theoretical construct.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We discuss plans for future research on the relevance of the model for teachers, teacher staff development, and curriculum design in secondary and post-secondary classrooms and in community-based dialogues and collaborative action networks.
From Information to Experience: Place-Based Augmented Reality Games as a Model for Learning in a Globally Networked Society
Authors: Squire Kurt
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

New information technologies make information available just-in-time and on demand and are reshaping how we interact with information, but schools remain in a print-based culture, and a growing number of students are disaffiliating from traditional school. New methods of instruction are needed that are suited to the digital age.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purpose of this study is to explore how curricula that are designed to capitalize on the affordances of mobile media might be employed in schools.

Population/Participants/Subjects

The study took place during a 2-week unit in a poor urban school district with roughly 50 at-risk middle school students. The partnering teacher adapted the model curriculum, which involved students investigating a rash of illnesses originating from a popular local beach. This qualitative case study, derived from field notes, videotapes, interviews, and document analyses, describes the practices that emerged and the strengths and limitations of the curriculum. From a classroom management perspective, the narrative elements of the unit enabled teachers to create a dramatically different classroom culture, one that was built around students performing as scientists. Students’ performance was heavily dependent on the kinds of inscriptions that they made to organize data, suggesting the importance of designers developing tools to scaffold learning, but also suggesting trade-offs in having students struggle to organize information versus doing it for them. Most noteworthy to teachers was how the technology-enhanced curriculum enacted students’ identities as problem solvers and knowledge builders rather than as compliant consumers of information, reinforcing for them the schism between what is expected of students in school and how they interact outside of school. Teachers and students lamented the lack of opportunities to actually participate in community issues beyond the classroom, suggesting that the future of such curricula may reside in building community-school-home partnerships.
State Law, Policy, and Access to Information: The Case of Mandated Openness in Higher Education
Authors: Mclendon Michael K. , Hearn James C.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Every state in the nation has legal requirements, state “sunshine laws,” to ensure accountability and fairness in institutions receiving state funds and operating under state authority. These laws have come to significantly influence the ways in which the business of higher education is conducted.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This reflective essay provides perspective on laws mandating openness in higher education. It describes differences in the laws across states, reports select findings from a study on the impacts of the laws on public colleges and universities, and examines some of the implications of the contemporary debate over access to information on public campuses.

Research Design

The article builds on a previous field study of state sunshine laws that included site visits to six states and interviews with nearly 100 officials with firsthand perspective on the laws.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Information resources have expanded tremendously, yet the nature and extent of their availability to the larger public remain in question. How can deeply held values of openness and access be accommodated productively to privacy and security concerns, with minimal threats to each? The article seeks to contribute to a growing body of literature on information policy and its uses in society—in this case, how the public information laws of state governments influence the climate of data access and decision-making in public higher education.
On Pretending to Listen
Authors: Burbules Nicholas C. , Rice Suzanne
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This article is part of a series of studies carried out by the authors in this special issue on the general topic of listening and its specific relevance to teaching.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

We examine the common activity of pretending to listen and argue that thinking about it carefully reveals some important insights into the practice of listening more generally. Then we turn to the question of pretending to listen in the context of teaching.

Research Design

This is a conceptual and normative study drawing from relevant philosophical literatures.

Conclusions/Recommendations

A romanticized view of listening suggests some kind of totally encompassing focus and understanding: The good listener is hearing everything, understanding everything, blessed with profound insight and infinite patience. Having set up this ideal type, however, we then judge every deviation from this perfect model as a moral failing. This way of thinking about moral conduct, we conclude, is often misleading and counterproductive.
Two Types of Interpersonal Listening
Authors: Waks Leonard J.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although the concept of listening had been neglected by philosophers of education, it has received focused attention since 2003, when Sophie Haroutunian-Gordon addressed it in her presidential address to the Philosophy of Education Society.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Haroutunian-Gordon offered a cognitive theory of listening, according to which an act of listening involves raising questions about both the speaker's utterance and the listener's own beliefs.

Research Design

This article draws on the methods of philosophical analysis to provide a competing account of listening. This account distinguishes between two types of listening, a cognitive (thinking) type and a noncognitive (empathic feeling) type.

Findings/Results

By considering a number of familiar classroom incidents, I show that both kinds of listening have important roles in teaching and learning.

Conclusions/Recommendations

I conclude by questioning whether the empathic type of listening can directly be taught. I conclude that it cannot be, but that teachers can provide three kinds of “helps” indirectly to foster its growth in learners.
Parental Agency in Educational Decision Making: A Mexican American Example
Authors: Mcclain Margy
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This article explores the experiences of one Mexican American family as they make a key curriculum choice for their 9-year-old son. Relatively little attention has been paid to parents’ beliefs, attitudes, and, in particular, experiences as they actively engage in—and sometimes affect—their children's schooling. Parents’ agency in utilizing various kinds of educational strategizing, especially immigrant and urban working-class parents, has been overlooked. Deficit theories of low-income families have a long history in educational thought. Although more recent scholarship has debunked these theories, they remain pervasive across the country. Educators often do not recognize the many ways in which urban parents may be involved in their children's schooling. Voices of parents themselves speaking to their experiences with schools are just beginning to emerge.

Purpose

This article offers a rich example of the educational decision-making process of one Mexican American family. I take a phenomenological approach to examine human agency in specific familial decisions about this child's schooling that support the parents’ own vision of education. Here is a story of thoughtful, reflective decision-making that took place over a period of several years, when the parents finally decided to move their son from a transitional bilingual program at a public school to a parochial school taught in English.

Research Design

This is a narrative inquiry based on interviews and observations that took place with one family and one focal child through the course of a calendar year. It is situated within the frame of an ethnographic study on the educational life worlds of the family. The analysis draws on van Manen's use of phenomenology to examine how parents reflected upon experience to better understand a situation, resulting in “lived experience,” an understanding of the meanings a particular person finds in an event.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Immigrant and other urban parents may be actively engaged in their children's education, asking important and valid curriculum questions in ways that remain invisible to educators. I suggest alternatives to deficit theories that render parents’ perspectives invisible. Terms usually reserved for teachers can also be applied to parents: “knowledgeable observers” who make “pedagogically thoughtful” decisions about “curriculum.” This perspective would recommend that educational practice and policy use theoretical frameworks stressing parents’ roles as strong, positive, and active agents on behalf of their children and the need to develop dialogue based on respect. Further qualitative research in particular can provide needed depth in our understanding of parents’ struggles to negotiate the boundaries of culture, history and biography as they guide their children through the complex maze of school.
Teacher Effects and the Achievement Gap: Do Teacher and Teaching Quality Influence the Achievement Gap between Black and White and High- and Low-SES Students in the Early Grades?
Authors: Desimone Laura M. , Long Daniel
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although there is relative agreement on the pattern of the achievement gap, attributing changes in the gap to schooling is less clear. Our study contributes to understanding potential teacher and teaching effects on achievement and inequality.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

We intend our work to contribute to understanding the school's role in addressing the achievement gap. We investigate the extent to which specific aspects of teacher quality (degree in math, experience, certification, math courses, and professional development) and teaching quality (time spent on math instruction and conceptual, basic procedural, and advanced procedural instruction) influence mathematics achievement growth and the achievement gap between White and Black students and low- and high-SES students in kindergarten and first grade.

Research Design, Data Collection and Analysis

In this secondary analysis, we examine the first four waves of data from the National Center for Education Statistics’ Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (2000), a nationally representative longitudinal sample of students who were kindergartners in 1998. We use multilevel growth models to estimate relationships.

Findings/Results

We found evidence that lower achieving students are initially assigned to teachers who emphasize basic instruction, and higher achieving students are assigned teachers who emphasize more advanced instruction. The use of advanced procedural instruction and time spent on math were related to achievement growth for traditionally disadvantaged populations—Black students and low-SES students. Other types of instruction and teacher quality variables were not related to achievement growth.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We found weak or no effects for teacher quality and type of instruction, which suggests that these aspects of teacher and teaching quality may operate as sorting variables. This may explain a part of the findings of past cross-sectional and gain studies that would likely interpret correlations between teachers and teaching as part of the effect of instruction. We found that low achievers tend to get teachers who spend less time on instruction, a variable we found significant in influencing achievement growth. If, as our study found, time on instruction matters, and disadvantaged students are more likely to get the weakest teachers who spend less time on instruction, we can identify an area in which schooling exacerbates the achievement gap but has the potential to ameliorate it.