bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Toward Academic Gender Justice: Trans Faculty Reconceptualizing Gender Equity
Authors: Pitcher Erich N.
Published: November 2021

Context

Despite debate about the status of women faculty within U.S. universities, the discourse of gender equity often follows genderist logics (e.g., only two genders).

Focus of Study

I draw on the perspectives of ten trans faculty to reconceptualize gender equity. Using critical trans politics, I co-create an academic gender justice framework through three readings of the data. Notions of academic gender justice will improve the livability of transgender academics’ lives.

Research Design

In the larger qualitative study from which these data were derived, I engaged narrative inquiry. This study used a thinking-with-theory analytical approach, and I co-theorized with participants to develop five tenets.

Findings

I offer five tenets: Conceptualizing gender as multifaceted, the mutual constitution of social identities with multiplicative effects, centrality of trans individuals naming the conditions of their oppression, the salience of multiple systems of oppression within participants’ experiences, and the importance of resisting dominant norms to improve workplace conditions for trans faculty.

Conclusions

Higher-education leaders should engage the core tenets of academic gender justice in an effort to build more equitable and just institutional cultures for trans academics. Rethinking policy through the lens of academic gender justice is also needed.
Diluting Mexican American History for Public Consumption: How Mendez Became the “Mexican American Brown”
Authors: Santiago Maribel
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

To adapt to increasingly diverse classrooms, some school districts are trying to offer additional curriculum that represents the diversity of their students. California, where half of school-age children are Latinx, is at the forefront of including Latinx histories in its curriculum. The state's 2017 California History-Social Science Framework claims to prioritize “engaging and relevant” history curriculum. Yet, as this article reveals, curricular inclusion does not always lead to complex representations of Latinx histories.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This article focuses on Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County (1946), a Mexican American school desegregation case, as an example of how Latinx experiences were diluted to appeal to a larger audience, gain traction, and justify their addition to the California framework.

Research Design

This article includes analysis of five forms of data: historiography of the case, primary documents regarding the court trial and appeal, primary documents related to Mendez becoming part of the California framework, educational resources, and interviews with people who advocated for Mendez to be taught in K–12 classrooms.

Findings

Although Mendez was included in the California History-Social Science Framework, the version that was embraced was more about Brown v. Board of Education than Mendez or Latinx school segregation. To appeal to a larger audience, the Mendez story had to attach itself to an already celebrated and well-known event. This gave rise to the “Mexican American Brown ” interpretation that stretches the historical truth, exaggerating the connection between Brown and Mendez. Educational and curricular resources facilitated this process in three ways: (1) claiming that Mendez was the legal precursor to Brown; (2) fabricating Earl Warren's participation in Mendez; and (3) exaggerating the role that Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP had in Mendez. Historical actors were then used to corroborate the Mexican American Brown story. This article ends with analysis of what is lost when Mendez is represented in the California framework as the Mexican American Brown.

Conclusions

Mendez v. Westminster's addition to the California framework signifies that it is an event worth learning. Yet, it is Mendez's relationship to Brown that made it worthy. This leads to an “illusion of inclusion,” which gives the impression that Mexican Americans are being incorporated into the curriculum but actually fails to represent their unique experiences. Historical events that validate the stories of Latinx communities are still very much missing from curricular materials.
An Ethnographic Case Study of Affordances in an Architecture Design Studio
Authors: Rands Melissa L. , Gansemer-Topf Ann M.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Studio-based courses—the primary approach in design education— have been viewed as effective environments for learning. This study uses an ecological approach to explore how the studio environment creates opportunities for social interaction through immersive studies of studio learning.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

We engaged in an ethnographic case study of a beginning architecture design course aimed at exploring the ways the learning environment of the studio affords social interaction, and how these interactions shape students’ understandings and behaviors as they learn. Particular attention was paid to the physical, structural, and instructional affordances that contribute to learning in the studio environment.

Setting

Over the course of one semester, we observed nine students and their instructor in Architecture Design 1 (AD 1), a first-year architecture studio at a large, public research institution.

Population/Participants/Subjects

The student participants ranged in age from 18 to 25, four of the participants identified as students of color, two identified as international students, three identified as female, and six, male. The instructor, who identifies as female, had taught AD 1 at the university for eight years prior to the study and holds a master's degree in architecture.

Research Design

We engaged in an ethnographic case study using an ecological approach, focused on the relationship between humans and their environment. We view learning and knowledge as individually constructed by the learner in a socially situated, public context; as such, a case study design using ethnographic methods of data collection was employed.

Data Collection and Analysis

Our data sources included observations of daily studio activities, participant interviews, researcher reflections on studio visits, and course artifacts such as the course syllabus and assignment handouts. We analyzed data using a two-cycle method of coding and analysis focusing on identifying patterns or themes in the data.

Findings/Results

We found several physical, structural, and instructional affordances that contribute to learning. The physical affordances of the studio environment of AD 1 included the open layout, public/private workspaces, and co-working in proximity to others. The structural affordances were long blocks of unscheduled work time, the project brief, and the sequencing of the projects, tasks, and deadlines. The instructional affordances included formal and informal critique, “mini-lectures,” and demonstrations.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Although focused within a design discipline, our findings have broader applicability to collegiate academic environments that support student learning. Recommendations include creating fluidity in the classroom space, centralizing feedback, demonstrating emerging understandings visually, and constraining constructivist learning environments.
Structural or Cultural Pathways to Innovative Change? Faculty and Shared Governance in the Liberal Arts College
Authors: Warshaw Jarrett B. , Ciarimboli Erin B.
Published: November 2021

Background

Popular commentary portrays private liberal arts colleges (LACs) as ensnared within a “death spiral” due to unprecedented enrollment and financial challenges. But, in contrast to ominous predictions, recent evidence suggests strong levels of innovative activity and resilience in the sector, as reflected in the creation and adoption of methods, approaches, and configurations new to these campuses. In periods of rapid change and transition, LAC stakeholders are likely to seek research on how different change-centered strategies enhance or constrain the faculty role and the relationship between shared governance and innovation.

Purpose

This study focuses on how faculty engage with administrative leaders and professional staff in academic innovation and decision making in LACs. It applies competing theoretical perspectives—the structural-bureaucratic and cultural lenses of analysis—to determine which one best captures the changes taking place on these campuses and to assay broader outcomes associated with using one approach over another.

Participants

The 43 research participants in this study encompassed faculty members (49%), senior-level administrators (21%), trustees (7%), and professional staff (23%).

Research Design

This study employed an embedded case study design that was replicated across three LACs, whose innovative activity was on par with national averages in the sector.

Data Collection and Analysis

Site visits were conducted at each LAC, during which individual interviews were conducted, documentary materials were collected, and field notes were recorded. The analysis included an application of process, values, and pattern coding to examine the relative fit of the structural-bureaucratic and cultural accounts.

Findings/Results

The results indicated that the faculty role largely concentrated on contributing content and operationalizing details of academic innovation. Although emerging forms of shared governance were carefully designed, they had tenuous connections to the overall innovative capacity of faculty and their campuses.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The value of the cultural lens of analysis lies in its ability to account for the ways in which interactions and communication among faculty and stakeholders enhances or constrains academic innovation. A cultural perspective also illuminates three broader patterns from the cases to explain (1) the increasing fragmentation between administrators and faculty and within the professoriate, (2) the compartmentalization of academic work vis-à-vis the “unbundling” of faculty roles, and (3) the failure of purely structural recourses to produce innovative change. Because innovation in LACs matters for strategic differentiation and for the contributions of private higher education to the postsecondary system, broader implications for research and policy are discussed.
Manifestations of Mathematics within the Power Dynamics in a Pre-K Classroom
Authors: Karsli-Calamak Elif , Allexsaht-Snider Martha
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Young children's engagement with mathematics is occurring in a context in which school transition and readiness concerns that invoke increased institutional rules and disciplinary practices involving power dynamics are coming into play. These trends made us curious to undertake an in-depth investigation of the different ways children and their teachers engage in mathematics in preschool classrooms today.

Purpose/Focus of Study

In our video-ethnography study we explored the ways mathematics manifested itself in a Pre-K setting and how mathematics functioned in different ways throughout the school day. The question guiding our research was: Recognizing the context of current transition and readiness concerns in early childhood education, in what ways is mathematics manifested in the interactions of teachers and children in a Pre-K classroom?

Setting

The study took place in a childcare center, accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, in the United States.

Participants

Participants in this study were four 4- to 5-year-old children and their teachers in an ethnically diverse classroom.

Research Design

The study drew on a video-ethnographic method through semester-long observations and video-recordings in a Pre-K classroom. The analysis began with (a) labeling manifestations of mathematics in the video data through open coding, proceeded to (b) the examination and the categorization of the various manifestations of mathematics, was followed by (c) the identification of the key scenes which best represented each category, and ended with (d) the multimodal analysis of the key scenes.

Findings

This research illustrated that formal mathematics teaching and learning contexts included the kinds of disciplinary and bodily control practices that have been evident in studies of children at the preschool level transitioning into school. The study demonstrated the ways that mathematics, with its authoritative and classificatory nature, became a disciplinary tool itself during the course of the day. Also evident were the ways in which all actors in the classroom drew on mathematics for problem-solving in real-life situations within a power/resistance dynamic.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This research raises questions of how disciplinary practices might limit children's mathematics learning. The finding that mathematics was implicated in the practices of power dynamics among teachers and children and among children opens up possibilities for teachers to recognize how mathematics is being used informally and creatively by children. Teachers can then use this knowledge to build on young children's identities as powerful and competent mathematicians, using mathematics in problem solving during day-to-day interactions.
Understanding Unfulfilled AP Potential Across the Participation Pipeline by Race and Income
Authors: Rodriguez Awilda , Hernandez-Hamed Esmeralda
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Each year, large shares of students who could do well in Advanced Placement courses and exams—known as AP potential students—do not participate, particularly students of color and low-income students. There are a number of prevailing reasons, both structural (schools do not offer the courses, or teachers do not accurately identify students) and as well as student- centered (lack of motivation, conflicts with other activities, or lack of self-efficacy).

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study seeks to empirically test these common reasons for foregoing AP participation with the following research questions: How are student and school characteristics related to the probabilities of students attending a high school that offers a corresponding course, enrolling in the course, and taking the exam? To what extent are explanations such as students’ constraints on time, lack of motivation, or lack of self-efficacy related to the probability of AP course- and exam-taking, net of student- and school-level measures? How well do AP potential estimates align with teacher recommendations into advanced coursework? We focused on differences across race and class throughout.

Research Design

We define AP potential as a 60% percent probability or better of receiving at least a 3 on an AP exam in either math or English. Using a nationally representative sample of sophomores in 2002 whom we identified as having AP potential, we answered the first research question with a sequential logit. We then used postestimation commands in Stata to examine motivation, hours working, hours in extracurricular activities, and measures of English and math self-efficacy to address the second research question. For the third research question, we modeled the probability of student misidentification—or the probability that the teacher of a student with AP potential will not identify them for honors or AP courses—using a logit.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We found that large shares of students did not fulfill their AP potential, which varied by student background and subject area. We did not find support for many of the student-centered reasons for forgoing AP, such as lack of motivation and constraints on time due to work or extra-curricular activities. We did find, however, that teacher identification and academic self-efficacy mattered to AP course- and exam-taking, especially for marginalized students, suggesting viable policy and practice levers to improve equitable AP participation. We discuss implications for policy, practice, and research.
The Myth of a Political Powerhouse: The National Education Association and Presidential Election Campaigns, 1972–2016
Authors: Grove Deeann
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Hillary Clinton was “booed” while speaking at the National Education Association (NEA)'s annual representative assembly. The media suggested this evidenced a weakening of a powerful alliance. Since the NEA first endorsed Jimmy Carter in 1976, the claim that the Democratic party is “a wholly owned subsidiary of the NEA” has persisted. This characterization of the NEA and Democratic Party relationship has become so ubiquitous in political discourse that it is rarely questioned. As a result, the NEA is often portrayed as a powerful political player in national elections, while little evidence supports this conclusion.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study uses archival evidence to identify the NEA's political influence during presidential election campaigns to provide scholars a more nuanced history as they seek to understand current political happenings.

Research Design

The historical analysis used internal campaign and NEA documents located in 13 archives housed in six presidential libraries, four university libraries, two state historical societies, and one public policy institute as well as the NEA Collection at The George Washington University.

Findings/Results

Two factors explain NEA's limited influence on presidential politics despite its significant donations to the Democratic Party. First, Republican candidates used the NEA to attack Democrats as beholden to radical special interest groups. Democrats evidenced the success of this Republican strategy by taking positions the NEA opposed in an attempt to convince voters of their independence. Second, many NEA members did not support the NEA's involvement in party politics because they believed political activism was inconsistent with teacher professionalism or they were conservatives unwilling to support a Democratic candidate.

Conclusions/Recommendations

As they look to future presidential campaigns, scholars should remember: 1) Republican candidates’ attacks on the NEA have been part of a strategy to convince voters that Democratic candidates were beholden to special interests. Policy differences between Republican candidates and the NEA served as later justification for this strategy rather that its cause. 2) Democratic candidates supporting policies the NEA opposes is not an act of political courage. They have long found the power of the NEA rests not in its endorsement but in the opportunity for voters to see them stand up to this special interest group. Given the NEA's commitment to endorsing a candidate and the Republican strategy, Democrats have been able to challenge the NEA without fearing that it will cost them an endorsement or campaign contributions.
Teacher Coaching to Improve Instruction at Scale: Opportunities and Challenges in Policy Contexts
Authors: Blazar David
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Teacher coaching, defined by sustained observation and feedback cycles, has a longstanding theory of action that has held up to several rigorous evaluations in recent years. Policymakers and practitioners have taken note of these findings, rolling out coaching programs in classrooms and schools across the United States as a key policy initiative to improve instructional quality and student outcomes at scale. One likely factor leading to its success is that coaching program activities are situated much more closely to key outcomes than other initiatives (e.g., certification, licensure). However, coaching too exists in a broader policy context that creates both opportunities and challenges for success. On one hand, coaches are uniquely positioned not only to help teachers improve their practice but also to serve in leadership and capacity-building roles for their broader education systems; on the other hand, coaches’ role in system infrastructures can mean that their work is impeded by these same organizational factors, including top-down hierarchies and competing reform interests.

Purpose/Objective/Research Design

This piece synthesizes qualitative and mixed methods research presented in this volume in order to situate coaching programs within broader policy contexts and identify avenues for continued exploration.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Navigating these tensions requires additional research and data on the conditions and mechanisms that drive effective teacher coaching and how these conditions and mechanisms can be replicated at scale. One mechanism that should serve as the focal point of ongoing work are the coaches themselves. What skills and dispositions do coaches need in order to work with teachers to develop instructional practice while also effectively navigating policy conditions in their schools and districts?
Understanding Tenure Reform: An Examination of Sense-Making Among School Administrators and Teachers
Authors: Rodriguez Luis A.
Published: November 2021

Background

Since 2015, 23 states have issued a variety of reforms to the teacher tenure process. Many of these reforms have made it more difficult for teachers to receive tenure, either by extending the pre-tenure probation period or requiring some form of evidence of teacher performance. How educators and school leaders make sense of changes to tenure-granting policies likely transforms their perceptions of the teaching profession and has ramifications for staffing practices in schools. However, little research has sought to understand how states and districts have implemented tenure reform, how educators make sense of these reforms, and how teacher and school leaders’ understanding of changes to tenure statutes influence school practice and staff relations.

Focus of Study

The purpose of this study is to explore the sensemaking process of school stakeholders most directly affected by changes to teacher tenure policies—teachers and school leaders. To this end, this study examines the referential cues on which school staff tend to rely to understand tenure reform as well as their collective accounts of how reform translates into changes within the context of their work. Setting and Participants: Participants in this study included 30 pre-tenured teachers and 10 school leaders across 10 school sites within a single large, urban district in Tennessee.

Research Design

In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants during the 2016–17 and 2017–18 academic years. Transcripts of interviews were coded for recurring themes to address the research questions of the study.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Findings illustrate how school leaders relied on outdated state and district supports, while teachers referenced peer interactions to make sense of tenure reform. In addition, school leaders considered the enacted reforms an improvement to the previous tenure process, however, few school leaders indicated that tenure reform influenced teacher staffing and professional development within their schools. Teachers suggested tenure reform provided a sensible form of professional accountability in theory but was nevertheless undermined by a lack of communication, administrative support, and conflicting policy aims in practice. Findings highlight the robustness of peer networks in teacher sensemaking. More generally, this research has implications for the implementation of concurrent policy initiatives within schools and future directions for research on distributed and fragmented sensemaking.
Comprehensive and Superficial Data Users: A Convergent Mixed Methods Study of Teachers’ Practice of Interim Assessment Data Use
Authors: Jennings Austin S. , Jennings Amanda
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Teachers’ practice of interim assessment data use is subject to an array of individual, social, and organizational contextual factors. While contemporary research situates interim assessments within teachers’ broader practice of data use, teachers do not make sense of interim assessment data in isolation. This interconnectedness of data sources serves as an important context for understanding how teachers make sense of interim assessment data.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Teachers’ ability to connect data sources to inform a common instructional practice has important implications for their instructional decision making. The present study maps the interconnectedness of interim assessment with other data sources as one of two dimensions of teachers’ practice of data use. Furthermore, this article explores how those dimensions are related to similarities, differences, and patterns in how teachers make sense of interim assessment data.

Population/Participants/Subjects

Data come from 88 grade 3-5 mathematics or English language arts teachers across 10 elementary schools in two states. All participants completed a survey about their data use practices. A subsample of 23 teachers completed an extended survey and participated in an interview data about how they use interim assessment data. Research Design: We conducted a convergent mixed methods study of teachers’ practice of interim assessment data use.

Data Collection and Analysis

Quantitatively, we analyzed the interconnectedness of data sources across teachers within an epistemic network analytic framework. Qualitatively, we coded interview transcripts to gather evidence of how teachers use interim assessment data to make instruction decisions. We integrated our quantitative and qualitative findings and recoded interview transcripts to develop a nuanced perspective on the similarities, differences, and patterns in how teachers make sense of interim assessment data.

Findings/Results

Findings reveal teachers rarely interpret interim assessment data in isolation and meaningfully vary in the extent to which they perceive it informs their broader instructional practice. Taken together, these two dimensions of teachers’ practice of interim assessment data use are indicators of significant patterns in the authenticity of teachers’ data use with implications for their instructional decision making.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The present study maps the interconnectedness of data sources within teachers’ instructional practice and how it serves as one of two dimensions that explain similarities, differences, and patterns in how they make sense of interim assessment data. Our findings have implications for how instructional support coaches, administrators, interim assessment developers, and researchers can support teachers’ use of interim assessment data for instructional purposes.
The Role of Situation Perception in Teaching
Authors: Martin-Raugh Michelle P. , Kell Harrison J. , Tannenbaum Richard J.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Rich classroom discussions are thought to provide several benefits to students, including improved connections to course content and general literacy development, and they provide a rich evidence stream from which teachers can make inferences about student learning to contribute to decisions about next teaching and learning steps. However, the way in which teachers perceive complex social situations characterized by student behaviors and aspects of the learning environment varies. Research has shown that expert teachers are better than novice teachers at identifying information that is important in complex social situations and that this expertise translates into improved teaching decisions.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study examined whether situation perception is related to teachers’ performance when they lead classroom discussions.

Research Design

A total of 126 elementary school teacher candidates completed video-based situation perception and personality measures; scores were used to predict performance in simulations of facilitated classroom discussions.

Findings/Results

Situation perception was associated with candidates’ performance in discussions (r = .20, p < .05), and agreeableness was associated with situation perception (r = .21, p < .05) and performance in leading discussions (r = .19, p < .05).

Conclusions/Recommendations

Findings provide preliminary evidence to suggest that situation perception may be an important skill for teachers in leading discussions.
Who is Watching? What Do They Want? A Foucauldian Analysis of Teacher Candidates’ Experiences with the edTPA
Authors: Kessler Meghan A. , Jones Alexis , Johnston-Parsons Marilyn
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This article is a policy discussion of the edTPA preservice portfolio assessment; it uses Foucault's work and our data to suggest a more critical and activist approach to the assessment. Currently 764 teacher education programs in 40 states have included the edTPA as part of their requirements. In Illinois, it is a newly required high-stakes portfolio assessment required for teacher licensure.

Purpose/Objective

We studied our teacher candidates’ experiences with edTPA portfolio. We wanted to know how they experienced this new assessment and how that might inform our program. As instructors, we had heard many complaints from our candidates, and we wanted to examine their experiences from their perspectives.

Participants

In this study, we collected narrative accounts from two different cohorts of teacher candidates in Year 1 (2015–16) and Year 3 (2017–18) to better understand their perspectives (total N = 37). The participants were interviewed at the end of their student teaching semester after they had completed their portfolio.

Research Design

We collected narrative accounts from two different cohorts of teacher candidates in Year 1 (2015–16) and Year 3 (2017–18) to better understand their experiences with the edTPA (total N = 37). We gave participants a choice of whether to do individual or focus group narratives. Participants were interviewed at the end of their student teaching semester after they had completed their portfolio.

Findings

As teacher educators, we aimed to support our candidates’ development into critically engaged educators. However, we found that the regulatory powers in the policies and procedures of the edTPA had a negative effect on our candidates’ experiences with it. We also did not give them the tools they needed to sufficiently analyze this particular assessment, despite having discussed testing policies in the schools and their negative implications for teachers and students. Further, we found a normalization of the edTPA between Year 1 and Year 3 of implementing this assessment that suggested a trend toward normalization over time—from energetic critique in Year 1 to acceptance and a just-get-it-done attitude in Year 3.

Conclusions

We conclude with implications for teacher educators, including a call for more critical engagement with this and other disciplinary technologies that our candidates may be subject to. As teacher educators, we advocate for a more explicit critical analysis with candidates to help them more deeply understand the history, context, and implications of corporatized, standardized assessments in teacher education, in particular the edTPA, and testing in the schools.
Adapting and Using Early Warning Indicators in Different Contexts
Authors: Pierson Ashley , Frazelle Sarah , Mazzeo Christopher
Published: November 2021

Background

Research shows that educators can identify half of future high school dropouts as early as Grade 6—and three quarters or more of future dropouts by Grade 9—by monitoring readily available data on attendance, behavior, and course performance. These data have come to be known as the ABCs of dropout prevention, and the measures are some of the more commonly used early warning indicators.

Purpose

Developing and deploying an early warning indicator system (EWIS) is a complex endeavor for school districts, especially smaller districts without access to a large internal research team or experience implementing similar data-oriented initiatives at scale. In this chapter, we describe four key considerations that school districts and others should take account of when designing an EWIS: building broad consensus on the purpose of the system, planning around system design and data availability, validating indicators and setting thresholds, and implementing and monitoring the system.

Research Design

This article is based on a review of the relevant literature on designing EWISs and our experiences. We have partnered with multiple districts and states in recent years and advised these organizations on early warning indicator selection, as well as system development. References to the literature are noted where applicable. The omission of references indicates that that portion of the text is based on our experiences working directly with districts and states.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Developing early warning indicators—and an EWIS—is a complex technical and human undertaking, akin to implementing a large districtwide initiative at scale. Districts of any size are well served by thinking carefully about the process and going slowly, if needed, to ensure they get the details right. Planning the system and building consensus for implementation, choosing indicators that are right for the district context, and validating and setting the right thresholds for those indicators are essential for building widespread leadership, staff, and community support for the EWIS, as well as developing the conditions for effective implementation and use.
African American Head Start Teachers’ Approaches to Police Play in the Era of Black Lives Matter
Authors: Henward Allison Sterling , Lyu Sung-Ryung , Jackson Quiana M.
Published: November 2021

Background:

Scholars in the fields of early childhood education (ECE) and multicultural education have argued that preschools are key sites in which children learn about race and racism. However, there is little research on how teachers negotiate conflicting tensions and enact antiracist approaches within Head Start (HS) classrooms that use comprehensive and commercialized curriculums.

Study Purpose:

This article is about the challenges early childhood educators face when young children (ages 3–5) bring painful and uncomfortable issues of race, racism, and incarceration to preschool. This study is part of the research project Negotiating Head Start Curriculum (NHSC), a comparative study of policy implementation in four cultural communities in the United States. Here we focus on educators’ response to the “Jail Scene,” a pivotal scene taped in an HS classroom serving African American children.

Research Design:

The method used in the NHSC project is a multivocal ethnographic research method combined with a comparative case study design. We selected classrooms in each community that implemented both Creative Curriculum® and Teaching Strategies Gold®, led by experienced teachers in Chicanx and Latinx, Samoan, and white Appalachian communities. We made videotapes of similar activities across all sites. We then used these videos as cues for focus group interviews with educators (teachers, directors, and instructional personnel). We applied constant comparative, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Voloshinovian literary analysis to 41 interview transcripts of 132 educators’ talks.

Findings:

Analysis of transcripts indicates Black teachers are more likely to recognize racism, including the effects of incarceration and arrest on children’s talk and play, in ways unavailable to teachers from outside their community. Despite extant research suggesting early childhood teachers of color are no more likely to engage with young children about racism than white teachers, our study found that Black teachers offer nuanced, careful, and responsive approaches to antiracist pedagogy. They respond in sensitive, child-led, playful ways, inserting counternarratives within the confines of scripted curricula.

Conclusions:

ECE teachers’ disparity of interpretation has particular importance as ECE moves to professionalize the field. If elementary school patterns are any indication, the field should expect a sharp increase in the percentage of white, middle-class teachers instructing children of color. Unintentionally, these teachers may fail to recognize the play and talk to contain challenges born out of racism and inequality. We suggest policymakers, curriculum designers, and the broader field of ECE must carefully consider the approaches of teachers of color and take these approaches seriously.
Leveraging Women’s Leadership Talent to Promote a Social Justice Agenda in Ethiopian Schools
Authors: Tekleselassie Abebayehu Aemero , Roach Virginia
Published: November 2021

Background:

Research that identifies and celebrates the positive attributes of women educational leaders advancing a social justice agenda in traditionally male-dominated, Sub-Saharan African (SSA) societies is sparse. Studying female educational leadership in SSA conceptually brings to the fore issues associated with the intersectionality of gender, leadership, pervasive abject poverty, and cultural mores from a critical theory lens that runs counter to the White, western, male conceptions of leadership underlying much of the existing literature in the field.

Purpose:

With a focus on Ethiopia, we sought to understand the way in which women educational leaders, as traditionally oppressed groups in a patriarchal society, utilize their past marginalization as they advance a social justice agenda to promote educational opportunities for traditionally underserved students, particularly females.

Research Design:

Using transformative leadership as our theoretical lens and semi-structured interviews as our methodology, we conducted a grounded phenomenological study of eight Ethiopian women who were in educational leadership positions ranging from assistant principal to regional supervisors. We recruited the women leaders through direct contact, reputational nomination, and leadership positions they held.

Findings/Results:

Our findings paint a portrait of these female leaders as tenacious and determined, with a strong sense of self-agency and moral courage, whose identities are born out of their humble beginning and multi-focal understanding of issues from being female, from poor communities, submersed in male-dominated culture. These identities drove the participants to work towards emancipatory policies to acknowledge and intervene in “power differences” that directly influence school performance for girls and women in Ethiopia.

Conclusions/Recommendations:

Increasing workforce diversity with respect to gender, recasting leadership preparation programs as equity-oriented institutions, and addressing key public policies to support women in leadership positions are foundational recommendations that can lead to gender equity in education in Ethiopia.
Monolingual Language Ideologies and the Idealized Speaker: The “New Bilingualism” Meets the “Old” Educational Inequities
Authors: Chang-Bacon Chris K.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

After decades of restrictive U.S. language policies geared toward English-only education, recent years have seen a proliferation of dual-language programs, Seal of Biliteracy awards, and bilingual education programming more broadly. The demand for such programming ostensibly suggests growing consensus around the benefits of linguistic diversity—dubbed “The New Bilingualism” by The Atlantic in 2016. However, recent research suggests that the pivot to this New Bilingualism is largely taking place in contexts of privilege, disproportionately benefiting English-dominant, middle- and upper-class communities as compared with multilingual communities where demand for bilingual programming is not “new” at all.

Focus of Study

This piece explores how recent, well-intentioned expansions in bilingual education programming may actually reinforce historical inequities. Putting forth a framework of idealized language ideologies, the article documents how bilingualism has historically been encouraged for some and denied to others in U.S. education and policy contexts.

Research Design

Through historical analysis, this article documents how language ideologies overlap with racism and nationalism in educational and policy contexts across key periods of U.S. history and into the present day.

Conclusions/Recommendations

A framework of idealized language ideologies foregrounds (1) idealized language practices, (2) idealized speakers, and (3) institutional interests, highlighting how these dynamics function to maintain educational and broader social inequities. Applying such a lens makes it possible to simultaneously acknowledge positive expansions of bilingual programming, while also questioning the framing of such programming as “new” or as a panacea for educational inequality. In a time of rapid expansion for bilingual educational programming, this piece demonstrates that even bilingualism can be normatively framed as an idealized language ideology to reinforce problematic language hierarchies. Thus, it is imperative that teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers reckon with these historical dynamics to ensure that educational models designed to ameliorate linguistic inequities do not end up reproducing them instead.
Before the AD: How Departments Generate Hiring Priorities that Support or Avert Faculty Diversity
Authors: White-Lewis Damani K.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although academic departments have more tools to advance faculty diversity than ever before, many still downplay their own responsibility throughout the hiring process. This results in a cycle of apathy that activates once searches are already under way, and structural change is out of reach. Yet few studies empirically outline what structural change entails so that departments can play a more active role in improving search processes before hiring begins.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study materializes the underlying mechanics of academic hiring by describing the process of departmental hiring priorities, and identifies how adjusting them can create the optimal conditions for supporting faculty diversity.

Population/Participants/Subjects

Participants were 23 academic personnel spanning four academic departments, including deans, department chairs, equity administrators, and faculty search committee members.

Research Design

This qualitative study uses a blend of multiple case study and grounded theory designs. The multiple case study method guided the site, case, participant selection, and data collection procedures. Grounded theory was employed primarily in the data coding and analysis phases.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data were collected from an institutional site fictitiously named Northfield University, a research-intensive four-year university located in the western region of the United States. Four departments were selected as case studies based on convenience sampling from four broader divisions: social sciences, life sciences, humanities, and physical sciences. Twenty-three participants spanning multiple positions and departments participated in a total of 31 semistructured interviews. These data were initially coded and analyzed using the constant comparative method and then further analyzed using cross-case analysis.

Findings/Results

Findings reveal the primary determinants of departmental hiring priorities that bred subfield conservatism, or the hesitancy to expand the department in new and different hiring directions based on resource constraint and subfield reproduction. This was a realistic yet troubling organizational response that inhibited opportunities for diversity before searches even began. Results also document the steps that departments took to thwart subfield conservatism in order to more aptly attract and elevate racially minoritized candidates.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study highlights the untapped potential that hiring priorities hold for advancing faculty diversity. Department chairs and deans are uniquely positioned to implement initiatives that rearrange the structural conditions of faculty hiring that empower faculty to create equity-oriented positions beyond traditional departmental boundaries.
“What happens in the fort, stays in the fort!”: Awakening Embodied Play Literacies through Fort Building in an Early Childhood Methods Classroom
Authors: Thiel Jaye Johnson
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Neoliberalism has both feet firmly planted in educational contexts around the globe (United States, Australia, United Kingdom). Due to the precarious nature of unstructured play and its unwillingness to fit neatly into a neoliberal framework of quality and high returns on investments, play for play's sake has taken a backseat to standards, “evidence-based” curriculums, and high-stakes testing. These changes are often justified as a way to “mind the gap” or as a way to build a quality workforce in years to come, however, there is a large body of research (including a call from the Pediatrics Association) that suggests play for play's sake is necessary for wellbeing, humanization, and learning itself.

Focus of the study

In this study, I considered how teachers might get reacquainted with play as a practice in early childhood methods courses through engaging in fort building pedagogy. Specifically, I consider the ways an attunement to embodied play literacies opens up possibilities beyond the commodification of schooling associated with the affective forces of neoliberalism. This essay tries to better understand the ways fort building in particular, moves bodies away from stories of neoliberalism through experimentation and playful practice.

Participants and Setting

The teachers represented in this study range from soon-to-be teachers to practicing teachers in undergraduate and graduate methods courses in three different university classrooms across the Southeastern United States. The events that produced this data were part of weekly face-to-face class meetings.

Research design

This article uses narrative writing and thinking-with-theory as a postquali-tative research approach to better understand the ways fort building as an embodied play practice can work against the affective forces of neoliberalism in educational practice. Using action research, this article analyzes the happenings that took place during fort building pedagogy in several early childhood methods courses across the span of five years and three states. Data sources included: observational fieldnotes, written reflections, videos, audio recordings, and photographs.

Conclusions

Analysis illustrates the importance of teachers (preservice and inservice) getting reacquainted with playful practices from their early years (such as fort building) to unearth and reawaken embodied literacies of play. These reawakenings suggest that when teachers engage in such practices, they actively begin to resist neoliberal ideations of schooling through the process of making forts collectively with peers. The article concludes that fort building is a vital practice in making way for new stories in education and in remembering why play for play's sake is important in early childhood settings.