bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Integration as Perpetuation: Learning from Race Evasive Approaches to ESL Program Reform
Authors: Hurie Andrew H. , Callahan Rebecca M.
Published: November 2021

Background

Currently, most Latinx emergent bilingual (EB) students are educated in English-medium programs alongside English-dominant peers. Legally mandated social integration of EB students coincides with a prescriptive linguistic emphasis on content-language integration in ESL (English as a second language) programs; both integrative approaches are particularly salient in the current hyperracial climate in the United States.

Focus of Study

We explore two schools’ responses to Latinx EB population growth via the intersecting racial and language ideologies informing and influenced by programmatic changes, educator perceptions, and pedagogical practices.

Research Design

This qualitative multiple case study spans two Texas schools selected by purposeful maximal sampling over the course of two separate academic years. Data include semistructured interviews, focus group interviews, and participant observations.

Findings

We find that institutional structures across the sites tended to promote a denial of responsibility for racial stratification and a concomitant disciplining of the school curriculum. We argue that both integrative approaches ultimately perpetuated white racial domination.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We suggest that ESL research and practice would benefit from an explicit questioning of racializing discourses and boundaries of academic disciplines as part of a racially literate critical practice designed to counter the normalization of whiteness.
Building the Field of Social Media and Education: Reflections from #Cloud2Class Conference Organizers
Authors: Brandon Diana L.
Published: November 2021

The American Educational Research Association sponsored the 2018 #Cloud2Class conference. Through virtual or in-person participation, more than 100 individuals participated in a three-day conference focused on social media and education. Several presentations addressed aspects of social media. Structured discussions took place around both these projects and other areas of the field that need more attention. Collaborations/partnerships formed around similar ideas and resulted in the publication of projects, revision of teaching practices, presentations at conferences, and professional networking. Strategies for organization and challenges that arose are also included for those who wish to host a similar event.
College Capital and Constraint Agency: First-Generation Immigrant English Language Learners’ College Success
Authors: Varghese Manka , Fuentes Ronald
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Language-minoritized and emergent-bilingual (EB) students have historically and frequently been underexamined in the context of research on minoritized students’ pathways in higher education. Understanding the school to college pipeline for emergent bilinguals (EBs) is becoming a critical area of study to help identify and address the barriers that they experience as they attempt to transition to and navigate postsecondary education. Despite there being a greater knowledge of the barriers experienced by EBs in getting to college, less is known about the resources they bring and their agency, the way they actually mobilize the resources that they possess in negotiating their success to get to and complete college.

Purpose/Research Question

This study examines why and how some EB students can successfully navigate their environments in order to apply for, get into and complete a selective four-year college. It is guided by two overarching questions: (1) What forms of capital do first generation immigrant EBs draw on to apply for and navigate selective four-year college? (2) How do first generation immigrant EBs navigate and complete selective four-year college?

Research Design

We examined the pathways of EBs through a conceptual framework which frames their college success as being a result of the relationship between what we refer to as their college capital which they have access to and that they draw on, and their constraint agency. Through interviews, this study analyzes 33 first generation undergraduate immigrant EBs’ transition to and completion of tertiary education, with further analysis being supplemented with in-depth case studies of five out of the 33 EBs. Additionally, we interviewed 14 university administrators and instructors involved in the admission and instruction of EB students on campus.

Conclusions/Recommendations

EB immigrant students drew on different forms of college capital, which included traditional and non-traditional. Students who drew more on traditional kinds of capital participated more in high participatory agentive ways while students who drew more on non-traditional forms of college capital participated more in low participatory agentive ways. Both forms of participating (low and high) lead to students navigating and completing four-year college. We suggest that more differential forms of help, resources and EB-student–focused partnerships between high school, community colleges, and four-year college which include working on their agentive selves are needed as well as challenging the racism and linguicism that holds White monolingual students as the norm to configure policies and services that will help EBs’ postsecondary pathways.
A Divergence of Interests: Critical Race Theory and White Privilege Pedagogy
Authors: Crowley Ryan M. , Smith William L.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Informed by the increasing racial disparity between the nation's predominantly White teaching force and the growing number of students of color in K–12 schools, along with the well-documented struggles that White teachers have in exploring race and racial identity, the authors critique the use of White privilege pedagogy as a strategy for promoting antiracist dispositions in White pre-service teachers.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

By deploying several concepts central to critical race theory, as well as critiques that note the shortcomings of past attempts at racial reform (Brown v. Board of Education, Voting Rights Act), the authors investigate the effectiveness of White privilege pedagogy within the teacher education setting.

Research Design

To construct our conceptual critique of White privilege pedagogy within teacher education, we reviewed the extant literature that discussed the range of shortcomings to this pedagogical approach. To create a more historical and structural critique, we demonstrated how the tenets of White privilege pedagogy conflicted with key principles of critical race theory and with lessons from past racial remedies. We contend that White privilege pedagogy arises from a racial liberalist worldview and requires an untenable convergence of interests that limits its long-term impact. We parallel our critiques of White privilege pedagogy with arguments used by critical race scholars to explain the limited impact of previous efforts at racial reform.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The authors urge teacher educators to move away from the individualized and over-essentialized representations of racism inherent to White privilege pedagogy in favor of historical, structural, and intersectional discussions of race, racism, and the construction of White privilege.
A Beautiful Struggle: Reimagining Neighborhood Schools in Urban Communities
Authors: Quartz Karen Hunter , Geller Rebecca Cooper , Mcqueen Shanté Stuart
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Historians of education have chronicled the essential link between schools and communities from a variety of perspectives, exploring how ideology, material conditions, and political struggles have shaped public education. Viewing school reform historically allows us to see how schools are tied to their particular contexts, breathing in and out the values, beliefs, and conditions of local communities. This link is especially important to acknowledge in the high-poverty urban communities targeted by school reformers in the current policy landscape, which pits privatization against local democratic control of schools. This paper contributes to scholarship on school reform by portraying a local struggle to reimagine a longstanding neighborhood urban school in the context of an expanding marketplace of school choices.

Purpose

Our study uses an asset-based community school development framework to analyze the rich 90-year history of a particular school in the greater Los Angeles area. We were guided by the following research questions: (1) What are the multiple and overlapping demographic, political, educational policy, social, and economic contexts that have shaped or defined the history of the school since its opening? (2) How has this history shaped the community's relationship to the school now? (3) How does this history inform current efforts to increase public will and community engagement at the school?

Research Design

We conducted this historical case study as participants of a local design team comprised of university and school partners charged with re-envisioning a struggling neighborhood middle school as a K–12 university-assisted community school. Data sources included artifacts, primary and secondary historical sources, and in-depth semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of 14 current and past staff, faculty, alumni, parents, and community members.

Findings/Results

Our findings are visualized in a timeline that captures the school's reform history, changing demographics, and community context across three periods of school reform. We interpret this history by focusing on three tensions: reform means versus ends, public versus private goods, and critical hope versus despair. By grappling with these democratic tensions, we conclude, urban communities can counter the dominant policy discourse of failing and turnaround schools to reimagine the promise of neighborhood schools as anchor democratic institutions in urban communities.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We recommend that community school reformers consider local histories of neighborhood schools and their communities as important reform assets. Reflecting on these histories can help establish a shared understanding of education as a public good, affirm the linked fate of schools and communities, and set the stage for collective problem-solving.
Opting Out in the Empire State: A Geographic Analysis of Opting Out in New York, Spring 2015 & 2016
Authors: Chapman Kathryn P. , Ross Lydia , Dorn Sherman
Published: November 2021

Background

Recently, states have experienced widely varying participation in annual assessments, with the opt-out movement concentrated in New York State and Colorado. Geographic variation between and within states suggests that the diffusion of opting out is multilayered and an appropriate phenomenon to explore geographic dimensions of social movements in education.

Purpose

The study analyzes the geographic patterns of opting out from state assessments in school districts in New York State.

Research Design

We conducted linear regression and geographically weighted regression on district-level proportions of third- through eighth-grade students in local public school districts for 2015 and 2016 (n = 623), excluding New York City and charter schools. Independent variables included the district-level proportion of students with disabilities, identified as English Language Learners, and identified as White; census-based small-area child poverty estimates for the districts; and the geographic population density of the district. Linear regressions excluded racial and ethnic dummy variables to reduce collinearity problems, and geographically weighted regression limited geographically varying coefficients to child poverty and population density based on preliminary analyses.

Findings

The unweighted ordinary least squares (OLS) of district-level opting out in both spring 2015 and spring 2016 are weakly predictive as a whole (adjusted R2 < .20). In both years, population density was a statistically significant but low-magnitude predictor of change in opt-out behavior using OLS. The proportion of students with Individualized Education Plans was positively associated with opt-out behavior, and district-level child poverty was negatively associated with opt-out behavior. The proportion of White students was a statistically significant positive predictor of opt-out behavior in spring 2015 but not statistically significant for 2016, though with a coefficient in the same direction (positive). Analyzing the same data with geographically weighted regression more than doubled the adjusted R2 for each year and demonstrated that there were areas of New York State where the coefficients associated with child poverty and population density reversed direction, with suburban Long Island and the western upstate region as areas with a magnified negative association between district-level child poverty and opting-out percentages.

Conclusions

In the past five years, social networks have enabled the long-distance organizing of social and political movements in education, including opting-out and teacher walkouts. However, the long-distance transmission of ideas does not explain intrastate variations. In this study, geographically weighted regression revealed the local variations in relationships between opting-out and two key variables. Local networks still matter critically to social organizing around education.
Does Implicit Bias Matter at the Administrative Level? A Study of Principal Implicit Bias and the Racial Discipline Severity Gap
Authors: Gullo Gina Laura , Beachum Floyd D.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Implicit bias, or stereotypes and attitudes that may or may not reflect known positions, has been implicated in teachers’ disciplinary interactions with students; however not all of the differences in discipline severity by race are accounted for by teachers. School administrators have received little attention concerning implicit bias, although they are involved in the decision-making process that determines disciplinary outcomes.

Purpose

The present study sought to explore the influence of school principals’ and assistant principals’ implicit biases on the severity of discipline experienced by students of different races (evaluated using perceived racial stereotypicality).

Participants

Pennsylvania schools with at least 10 reported incidences of exclusionary discipline and 10–90% students of Color were invited to participate in this study, with a resulting sample of 43 administrators representing 22 schools nested in 7 school districts, accounting for 3,898 unique student behavioral incidents.

Research Design

This study employed a non-experimental, cross-sectional quantitative design using both collected and extent datasets.

Data Collection and Analysis

Student behavioral data and resulting outcomes were collected from schools using extant, student-blinded datasets and coded for analysis. Data on administrators’ implicit bias and demographics was collected via a short survey and online completion of the Implicit Association Test for Race. The data was analyzed separately for objective and subjective discipline decision-types, using hierarchical linear modeling.

Findings

The study yielded three major findings: (a) School administrators held pro-White implicit biases, (b) Administrators’ implicit bias accounted for differences in discipline severity by student race only for subjective discipline decision-types, and (c) Student race accounted for some of the differences in objective discipline decisions.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Implicit-bias remediation efforts in schools should be extended to school administrators involved in discipline decisions, and school policies must be evaluated for bias. Research should extend this study to increase sample size and district inclusion so that district-level differences are examined and evaluated for policy-level biases.
Feeling and Acting like a Teacher: Reconceptualizing Teachers’ Emotional Labor
Authors: Horner Christy Galletta , Brown Elizabeth Levine , Mehta Swati , Scanlon Christina L.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Empirical research indicates that teachers across ages and academic contexts regularly engage in emotional labor, and this emotional labor contributes to their job satisfaction, teaching effectiveness, burnout, and emotional well-being both within and outside the classroom. However, because the initial research on emotional labor was situated in the service industries (e.g., restaurants, call centers, airlines), researchers have suggested that the emotional labor framework as it applies to teaching only provides a partial picture of teachers’ deeper and more complex emotional practice.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study aims to determine whether and how teachers’ descriptions of their own emotional practice map onto existing emotional labor constructs (emotional display rules, and deep and surface acting) and how the framework may be adapted to better support teachers’ implementation of emotional labor.

Setting

Participants worked in five charter schools within the same school district but in different areas of a mid-Atlantic metropolitan city. This district identifies itself as serving 4,000 students from “underserved communities” across 13 locations.

Population/Participants/Subjects

Full-time K–12 educators (N = 68) who worked across academic subjects (e.g., math, science, language arts) or special subjects (e.g., music, art) participated.

Research Design

The current study is qualitative; we employed adapted grounded theory.

Data Collection and Analysis

We conducted individual face-to-face semistructured interviews with participants; audio recordings were transcribed verbatim. We developed a codebook through a collaborative and iterative process, and we achieved high interrater reliability before using Dedoose to code the full corpus of data.

Findings/Results

There were two key findings: (1) teachers perceived feeling rules in addition to display rules, and (2) teachers described an emotional acting strategy in which they modulated the expressions of their authentic emotions, which we call modulated acting, in addition to surface and deep acting.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Including teachers’ perceptions of feeling rules and use of modulated acting in emotional labor research has the potential to enhance our understanding of how emotional labor relates to outcomes that are important for both teachers and their students. In addition, we urge teacher educators to include emotional labor in their curricula. Though further research is needed to build a strong literature base on ways in which teachers’ emotional labor may connect to their own and their students’ outcomes, the emotional labor constructs already have the potential to be useful for both preservice and practicing teachers.
“I wanted to follow in her footsteps”: Activating, Nurturing, and Extending Community Cultural Wealth for Students of Color Entering STEM Pathways
Authors: Rincón Blanca , Fernández Érica , Hinojosa Juanita K.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupations account for the second-fastest growing sector in the United States. As racial and ethnic “minorities” become the college-age majority, there is a need to facilitate access and success for Students of Color in STEM fields.

Purpose

The present study seeks to investigate the ways in which important others shape the initial educational and career aspirations of Students of Color pursuing STEM pathways.

Research Design

This study draws on a mixed-methods research design using both survey and interview data to investigate similar and different facets of the college and career decision-making processes for Students of Color in STEM fields.

Results

Findings from this study suggest that as Students of Color narrow their decisions to attend college, select a STEM major, and pursue a STEM career, the network of people who influence these decisions widens beyond parents and family members to include K-12 teachers and other institutional agents. This network, then, activates, nurtures, and/or extends the community cultural wealth for Students of Color entering STEM pathways.

Conclusion/Recommendations

Our findings suggest that at every decision-making point (e.g., going to college, selecting a STEM major, and pursuing a STEM career), family members (e.g., parents, siblings, and extended family) directly or indirectly shaped the STEM pathways of Students of Color. As such, we argue that families cannot be ignored in the pursuit toward diversifying the STEM workforce.
Hotdog as Metaphor: (Co)Developing Stories of Learning through Photo-Cued Interviewing
Authors: Johnson Kayla M.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Photos are a powerful tool for eliciting stories that may otherwise go untold in traditional interview formats. Photo-elicitation type methods vary widely in their ontological, epistemological, and teleological orientations, providing different tools for understanding participants’ experiences and interpretations of those experiences. Photo-cued interviewing (PCI) is an emerging approach that adds to the photo-elicitation method milieu, with a specific strength for understanding varied facets of learning. In this paper, I explore how PCI diverges from existing photo-elicitation type methods and how it can be a useful tool for educational researchers interested in understanding more about student learning, particularly in spaces like study abroad.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Using a case study approach, this manuscript illuminates how PCI can help elicit and (co)develop stories of learning— specifically, narratives that illustrate the learning that resulted from students’ experiences in study abroad programs.

Research Design

This study draws from interviews and focus groups with 62 secondary and postsecondary students who participated in a variety of study abroad programs. I perform an inductive qualitative analysis to understand how the PCI method helped to (co)develop stories that illustrated what and how students learned during their study abroad programs.

Findings/Results

PCI helped to (co)develop stories of learning in a number of ways, including: 1) facilitating students’ initial reflections, 2) revealing impact beyond the experience, 3) merging stories of learning to create new narratives and understandings, 4) adding nuance to preliminary stories, and 5) allowing for more focused storytelling.

Conclusions/Recommendations

I offer PCI as a photo-elicitation method useful for prompting student reflection and learning, understanding how meaning is made from experiences, and reflexively participating in the interview process as a researcher. I also call for greater use of the PCI method in educational research in order to explicate its uses and boundaries.
Applying Critical Race Theory as a Tool for Examining the Literacies of Black Immigrant Youth
Authors: Nalubega-Booker Kendra , Willis Arlette
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

There is a growing body of literature about the educational experiences of students who are African immigrants in U.S. schools. This study looks closely at a Ugandan immigrant's educational experiences in the U.S. as well as the laws and policies that preempted her education.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purpose of this study is to examine the disconnect between the rhetoric and practice of second language/bilingual laws in one school district in a Midwestern state, with regard to the experiences of an African immigrant whose has a diverse linguistic background.

Research Design

This study is crafted through a critical race theory lens and applies critical policy analysis to understand current practices. Using autoethnography, we provide a first-person reflection on the lived experiences of a young African immigrant student and her family. Then, drawing on critical race theory in concert with critical policy analysis, we examine the implementation and practice of second language/bilingual laws and policies in the state of Illinois.

Findings/Results

We find that the discourse and rhetoric surrounding second language/ bilingual laws and policies on federal, state, and local levels do not align with actual practices in school districts and classrooms. We describe how the lack of coherence between discourse and practice has contributed to delimiting an African immigrant student's access to mainstream language and linguistic education and other academic opportunities.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We conclude with recommendations to improve bilingual services to speakers of African languages: acknowledge that some African immigrant students possess a diverse linguistic background; address and challenge the dominant attitudes that deprive African immigrant students of a quality educational experience. We call upon administrators and policymakers to evaluate and correct the disconnect between second language/bilingual laws and policies. We recommend that cultural competence be central to second language/bilingual laws and policies throughout the planning and implementation processes.
White Supremacy and Teacher Education: Balancing Pedagogical Tensions When Teaching about Race
Authors: Enumah Lisette
Published: November 2021

Context

University-based teacher education programs are increasingly committed to teaching about race and racism, but programs continue to face challenges in preparing justice-oriented educators. Critical scholarship on teaching about race and racism has identified some core concepts that teachers should learn, including an understanding of systemic racism. A deeper understanding of the structure and function of White supremacy as a system, specifically as it operates within teacher education as a social institution, can provide insight about the challenges faced by teacher educators (TEs) who teach about race and racism. Drawing from articulations of the characteristics of White supremacy, the author identifies operant mechanisms of White supremacy in teacher education.

Purpose

This article offers a framework for the logic of White supremacy as consisting of three core concepts: (1) the logic of racialized distribution of power; (2) the logic of intentional White ignorance and historical erasure; and (3) the logic of dehumanization of people of color through violence and White cultural hegemony. The study examined the tensions that emerge for teacher educators who aim to teach teachers to disrupt White supremacy but are working from within White supremacist institutions.

Research Design

The theoretical framework was used to examine emerging tensions experienced by TEs in a cross-institutional qualitative study that used phenomenological methods. Data were collected from teacher educators across multiple institutions and included interviews, classroom artifacts, and focus groups.

Findings

Findings aligned to the White supremacy framework. Tensions related to the racial distribution of power focused on differentiated support for teacher candidates (TCs) of color and navigating moments of racial tension. Tensions related to White ignorance and erasure centered on responding to White students’ resistance decentering Whiteness. Finally, tensions related to dehumanization of people of color focused on challenging deficit ideologies.

Recommendations

The findings suggest that being open to and conscious of these tensions through critical reflection can be productive for teacher educators. More research is needed that considers the distinct needs of TCs of color and White TCs when learning about race and racism. In addition, further research can apply the logic of White supremacy in cross-institutional studies and continue to engage TEs as participants to explore linkages between interpersonal and institutional effects of White supremacy in other contexts.
“All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic”: The Presence of Anti-Latinx Political Rhetoric and Latinxs as Third World Threats in Secondary U.S. Citizenship Curriculum
Authors: Busey Christopher L. , Corral Álvaro J. , Davis Erika L.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Anti-Latinx political discourses have long positioned Latin America and, by extension, U.S. Latinxs as economic, sociocultural, and political threats to the general welfare of the United States. In formal school curricula, this threat narrative has become one of the many political curricular discourses for codifying citizenship as White, and noncitizens as Other (read Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American).

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purpose of this study was to illustrate how collapsible Latin American tropes and current anti-Latinx sentiments are reproduced in social studies curricula across the United States. Drawing from and expanding upon Leo Chavez's notion of the Latinx Threat Narrative as a framework, we analyzed secondary social studies curricular standards across all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine how anti-Latinx and anti-Latin American political rhetoric is reified in U.S. civic and citizenship-based curriculum. The following research question guided our study: In what ways do secondary U.S. civic and citizenship education curricular standards situate Latinxs and Latin America within the Latinx Threat Narrative and current anti-Latinx political sentiment?

Research Design

To carry out our study, we conducted a critical content analysis of secondary social studies curricular standards with a particular focus on U.S. history, civics, and economics content standards and benchmarks across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Situating our theoretical framework as an analytic tool, we systematically extracted and analyzed all standards with explicit or implicit references to Latinxs and Latin Americans.

Findings/Results

Findings indicate that Latin America and, by extension, Latinxs are regularly situated as social and political dangers to the overall welfare of the United States, suggesting the presence of what we refer to as the Latinx Third World Threat Narrative. We argue that this hemispheric homogenization of Latinx peoples in curricular standards flattens important historical and cultural distinctions, thereby facilitating exchange of anti-Latinx stereotypes present in contemporary political rhetoric. We also show how U.S. Latinx civic agency is encoded as an illicit, corrupt, and destabilizing force.

Conclusions/Recommendations

In light of our findings, we suggest that educators pay specific attention to the political amalgamation of Latinx subjectivities. Additionally, policy advocates and educators must move beyond understanding curricular representation as just an impediment to students’ heritage knowledge and begin to understand state-backed curricular standards as part of a larger political apparatus.
Getting Better at Getting Better: Improvement Dispositions in Education
Authors: Biag Manuelito , Sherer David
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Continuous improvement methods are becoming increasingly popular in education. Existing research has emphasized the technical aspects of improvement practice and has rarely focused on important social phenomena that underlie improvement work, such as the mindsets and identities of successful practitioners. To address this gap, we conducted an exploratory study of educators involved with networked improvement communities (NICs).

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Two questions guide our study: (1) How do participants in networked improvement communities describe the key dispositions of educational “improvers”? and (2) What do participants report as the types of activities, social processes, and tools that enable the development of these dispositions?

Research Design

We used purposive and snowball sampling to recruit participants from diverse roles and who had received training in improvement science and/or had been involved in a NIC. We asked respondents to refer us to colleagues who were incorporating improvement science principles and tools into their professional work. In total, we interviewed 22 participants.

Data Collection and Analysis

We conducted semistructured, virtual interviews using Zoom. We audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim each interview for analysis. Through a collaborative and progressive process using NVivo 12 software, we applied open and axial coding methods to the data to identify emergent themes and patterns.

Findings/Results

Respondents report that educational improvers engage in disciplined inquiry, adopt a learning stance, take a systems perspective, possess an orientation toward action, seek the perspective of others, and persist beyond initial improvement attempts. Results also suggest that having opportunities to practice improvement with guidance from a coach, having access to a learning community of trusted colleagues, working in an environment where there are resources to support improvement work, and having leaders who model an improvement mindset support educators’ ability to engage in new practices that shift how they see themselves and relate to their work.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study helps identify important dispositions associated with continuous improvement work in education. It also highlights the potential for NICs to bring about substantive changes in how participants connect to their professional practice, as well as with their colleagues, and how they pursue solutions to complex problems. Our research also suggests the need to provide educators with authentic opportunities to engage in fundamentally novel types of activities to cultivate new ways of approaching work that help all students learn and succeed.
Make Kindergarten “Funner”: Examining how Kindergarteners Made Sense of the Changed Kindergarten
Authors: Brown Christopher P. , Barry David P.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Over the last two decades, policymakers’ standards-based accountability reforms in the United States have fundamentally changed public schooling in general and kindergarten specifically. As this has occurred, little has been learned about how the children themselves make sense of these changes in schooling.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purpose of this article is to address this issue by providing insight into how a sample of kindergarteners enrolled in a public kindergarten in Texas made sense of their experiences in kindergarten today in relation to two research questions: a) How did they make sense of their educational experiences in kindergarten?, and b) How would they like to alter kindergarten so that it reflects their understanding of schooling?

Research Design

This is an explorative qualitative, video-cued, multivocal ethnographic research study. Data were generated through focus-group interviews with 19 kindergarteners in Texas. The students were asked about how they made sense of the changed kindergarten through viewing a micro-level example of their kindergarten classroom in Texas. The video the kindergarteners watched and commented on provides a coherent narrative that captured shortened versions of each of the activities they participate in over a typical day in their classroom.

Findings/Results

The findings shared in this article illuminate these kindergarteners’ understandings of kindergarten as well as whether or not they believed they would be able to succeed in a school system that expects them to learn more academic content and demonstrate their knowledge on an increasing number of standardized tests. These findings also provide insight into the changes these kindergarteners would like to see made to kindergarten to improve their learning experiences in school.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The kindergarteners in this study framed kindergarten as a place they go to learn academic content that they believe will allow them to progress to and through subsequent grade levels. Though they enjoyed kindergarten and had strong relationships with their teacher, they would like more opportunities for physical activity and choice throughout the day, which echo the sentiments of other early childhood education stakeholders and researchers. As these were kindergarteners enrolled in a typical public kindergarten, additional insight into these issues could be gained by seeking out the voices of children in different kindergarten programs (e.g., private, play-based, half-day, etc.) or from these same children at different points in their educational careers.
Honoring Their Stories: Exploring the Richness of the Refugee Experience
Authors: Olguín Ana Aracelly , Sanders-Smith Stephanie C.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Since 1975, 3 million refugees have resettled in the United States. However, researchers and educators know little about the lives of refugee children and families entering the American educational system. Much of the extant research groups refugee children in families with other immigrant groups, failing to recognize the complex histories that children fleeing civil unrest bring with them.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study brings a spotlight to the story of a refugee family from Guatemala, focusing on their experiences premigration, during migration, and after resettlement in the United States. Our focus was on seldom-heard experiences from the perspective of a refugee family. Members of the family left their home country because of civil war to resettle in a foreign country but within a familiar community. They found resettlement more challenging than they expected; they had difficulty activating cultural capital within this new field because of varying levels of community support.

Research Design

This is an intrinsic case study that explores the specific case of a mother and daughter. Participants were interviewed at length about their migration experiences. Interviews were analyzed in multiple cycles of coding, with a focus on the participants’ own words and emotional responses. This study uses a Bourdieusian lens for analyses and to aid in defining feelings of unease that the participants described when reflecting on their experiences.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Learning about a refugee family's journey is a privileged experience. There is much that educators and others who work with refugee children can learn from extended conversations with families. This study is one example of millions of stories that children bring with them into the classroom. This study's impact is to honor and give a platform to the refugee population whose voices are often not heard in schoolhouses across the county.
Caregivers’ Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Their Children’s Behavior
Authors: Reich Stephanie M. , Dahlin Melissa , Tulagan Nestor , Kerlow Marina , Cabrera Natasha , Piroutek Mary Jane , Heyming Theodore
Published: November 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic has financial and emotional impacts on families. We explored how caregivers’ financial strain and mental health are associated with changes in their young children’s behavior during the pandemic. We additionally considered whether having a sense of purpose moderated these associations. Caregivers ( n = 300) in the emergency department of a children’s hospital were surveyed anonymously about changes to their employment (e.g., reduced/increased hours and job loss), ability to pay for expenses and whether their child’s behavior had changed. Aligned with the Family Stress Model, caregivers’ financial strain was associated with poor mental health, inconsistent sleep routines, and changes in children’s problematic and prosocial behaviors. A sense of purpose buffered some of these relationships. Families are differently affected by the pandemic and our findings underscore the need for supporting caregivers’ mental health and connecting them with resources.
The effect of stigma on social participation in community-dwelling Chinese patients with stroke sequelae: A cross-sectional study
Authors: Lu Qi , Wang Dongrui , Fu Li , Wang Xue , Li LiYa , Jiang Lihong , Deng Cuiyu , Zhao Yue
Published: November 2021

Objective

To explore the effect of stigma on social participation in community-dwelling Chinese patients with stroke sequelae.

Design

A cross-sectional survey study.

Setting

The study was conducted in two community centres in Tianjin, China.

Subjects

Community-dwelling Chinese patients with stroke sequelae.

Measures

Chinese version of Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness, Chinese version of Impact on Participation and Autonomy, Modified Barthel index, Self-Rating Depression Scale, Social Support Rating Scale, Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire, background and disease-related questions. Pearson’s correlation coefficients were computed between stigma and social participation. The impact of stigma on social participation was estimated by hierarchical multiple regression analysis after controlling for demographic, physical and psychosocial characteristics.

Results

In total, 136 patients with stroke sequelae were included in this study, with a mean age of 67.8 years. The Chinese version of the Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness had a mean score of 48.4 (SD 16.9), and the Chinese version of the Impact on Participation and Autonomy was 67.1 (SD 21.1). Significant correlations were found between stigma and social participation. Pearson’s correlation coefficient ranged from 0.354 to 0.605 ( P < 0.01). Enacted stigma provided a significant explanation for the variance of social participation by 1.1% ( P < 0.05). Felt stigma provided a significant explanation for the variance of social participation by 2.9% ( P < 0.001).

Conclusion

Felt stigma and enacted stigma have independent associations with social participation. Patients with stroke sequelae who reported higher stigma experienced a lower level of social participation.
A new nomogram for the prediction of bone metastasis in patients with prostate cancer
Authors: Bai Gang , Cai Zhonglin , Zhai Xiuxia , Xiong Jian , Zhang Fa , Li Hongjun
Published: November 2021

Objective

This study aimed to establish a new prognostic nomogram for bone metastasis in patients with prostate cancer (PCa).

Methods

This study retrospectively analyzed clinical data from 332 patients diagnosed with PCa from 2014 to 2019, and patients were randomly divided into a training set (n = 184) and a validation set (n = 148). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to establish a prediction model based on the training set, and a nomogram was constructed for visual presentation. The calibration, discrimination and clinical usefulness of the model were evaluated using the validation set.

Results

Total prostate-specific antigen, clinical tumor stage, Gleason score, prostate volume, red cell distribution width and serum alkaline phosphatase were selected as predictors to develop a prediction model of bone metastasis. After evaluation, the model developed in our study exhibited good discrimination (area under the curve: 0.958; 95% confidence interval: 0.93–0.98), calibration (U = 0.01) and clinical usefulness.

Conclusions

The new proposed model showed high accuracy for bone metastasis prediction in patients with PCa and good clinical usefulness.
Predictors of perirenal haematoma post-percutaneous ultrasound-guided renal biopsy
Authors: Xu Shihao , Xiong Bing , Lin Saifeng , Li Qiao , Wang Lei , Zhao Wenjie
Published: November 2021

Objective

To perform a prospective study to determine the risk factors associated with perirenal haematoma development after percutaneous renal biopsy (PRB).

Methods

This multivariate prospective study collected demographic and clinical data from all consecutive adult patients that underwent real-time ultrasound-guided PRB of native kidneys. All biopsies were performed by two well-trained ultrasound physicians using 16G biopsy needles. Routine renal ultrasounds were performed within 12–24 h after biopsies in order to observe post-biopsy perirenal haematoma formation. Patients were stratified based on the occurrence of post-biopsy haematoma development.

Results

This prospective study enrolled 218 patients and stratified them into a haematoma group ( n = 126) and a non-haematoma group ( n = 92). Binary logistic regression analysis identified female patients (odds ratio [OR] 1.990; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.125, 3.521), patients with a body mass index (BMI) ≥28 kg/m2 (OR 2.660; 95% CI 1.097, 6.449) and patients with immediate post-biopsy active bleeding (IPAB) (OR 2.572; 95% CI 1.422, 4.655) as being more likely to have perirenal haematoma after real-time ultrasound guided PRB of native kidneys.

Conclusion

Female sex, a BMI ≥28 kg/m2 and IPAB were risk factors for perirenal haematoma after real-time ultrasound-guided PRB of native kidneys.
Turning crowds into communities: The collectives of online citizen science
Authors: Baudry Jérôme , Tancoigne Élise , Strasser Bruno J
Published: November 2021

Over the past two decades, a number of digital platforms have been developed with the aim of engaging citizens in scientific research projects. The success of these platforms depends in no small part on their ability to attract and retain participants, turning diffuse crowds of users into active and productive communities. This article investigates how the collectives of online citizen science are formed and governed, and identifies two ideal-types of government, either based on self-interest or on universal norms of science. Based on an ethnography of three citizen science platforms and a series of interviews with their managers, we show how different technologies – rhetorical, of the self, social, and ontological – can be diversely combined to configure these collectives. We suggest that the shift from individual projects to platforms is a defining moment for online citizen science, during which the technologies that sustain the collectives are standardized and automatized in ways that make the crowd appear to be a natural community.
Collaborative Healthcare in Incarcerated Settings
Authors: Tadros Eman , Barbini Melanie , Kaur Lovdeep
Published: November 2021

A total of 2,162,400 adults were incarcerated in the United States in 2016. Sub-optimal health status, existing healthcare disparities, and fragmented healthcare delivery among incarcerated populations are concerning and warrant redress. This article highlights the need for and discusses the benefits of collaboration between healthcare professionals in incarcerated settings. The roles of primary care health professionals, pharmacists, and medical family therapists (MedFTs) in correctional facilities are outlined. Through integrated healthcare models, enhanced communication, improved continuity of care, and holistic treatment plans, existing gaps in healthcare delivery in correctional facilities can be filled. By working together and assuming nontraditional roles, medical professionals can help improve health outcomes of incarcerated individuals. Collaborative healthcare models in incarcerated settings can elevate public health in a cost-effective, yet positive manner.