bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Effects of Inequality and Poverty vs. Teachers and Schooling on America's Youth
Authors: Berliner David C.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This paper arises out of frustration with the results of school reforms carried out over the past few decades. These efforts have failed. They need to be abandoned. In their place must come recognition that income inequality causes many social problems, including problems associated with education. Sadly, compared to all other wealthy nations, the USA has the largest income gap between its wealthy and its poor citizens. Correlates associated with the size of the income gap in various nations are well described in Wilkinson & Pickett (2010), whose work is cited throughout this article. They make it clear that the bigger the income gap in a nation or a state, the greater the social problems a nation or a state will encounter. Thus it is argued that the design of better economic and social policies can do more to improve our schools than continued work on educational policy independent of such concerns.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question

The research question asked is why so many school reform efforts have produced so little improvement in American schools. The answer offered is that the sources of school failure have been thought to reside inside the schools, resulting in attempts to improve America's teachers, curriculum, testing programs and administration. It is argued in this paper, however, that the sources of America's educational problems are outside school, primarily a result of income inequality. Thus it is suggested that targeted economic and social policies have more potential to improve the nations schools than almost anything currently being proposed by either political party at federal, state or local levels.

Research Design

This is an analytic essay on the reasons for the failure of almost all contemporary school reform efforts. It is primarily a report about how inequality affects all of our society, and a review of some research and social policies that might improve our nations’ schools.

Conclusions/Recommendations

It is concluded that the best way to improve America's schools is through jobs that provide families living wages. Other programs are noted that offer some help for students from poor families. But in the end, it is inequality in income, and the poverty that accompanies such inequality, that matters most for education.
Rediscovering Morality through the Concept of Childhood
Authors: Burdick-Shepherd Stephanie
Published: November 2021

This chapter looks at John Dewey's consideration of childhood as a platform from which to view the significance of childhood in moral life. It argues that the concept of childhood is integral to our thinking in the teaching and learning relationship. When we consider childhood from Dewey's platform, we see that childhood is relevant to society both because it is a source of continued renewal and growth for our society and because its plastic and imaginative grounding enables children and their childhoods to fundamentally change educational relationships.
“Grow by Looking”: From Moral Perception to Pedagogical Responsibility
Authors: Stengel Barbara S. , Casey Mary E.
Published: November 2021

To teach for instrumental and innovative growth for both student and teacher is not simply a technical challenge. It is a moral task, requiring intimacy in the service of developing autonomy. It involves moral sensitivity and moral perception in prompting and framing responsible pedagogical action. It is an emotionally fraught enterprise, one that runs headlong into the human resistance to development and growth (Bion, 1994). What follows is an uncovering of this pedagogical responsibility. As we shall show, the way in to the moral dimensions of a teacher's work is the same path that leads to academic effectiveness. Taking the moral seriously is not a diversion from the preparation and development of effective teachers, nor is it an added consideration; it is central to the very possibility of responsive and responsible education.
Living with Uncertainty While Maintaining Educational Values (A Critical Overview)
Authors: Barrow Robin
Published: November 2021

This paper endorses the overall argument of the preceding contributions. It argues for an approach to teacher education focused more strongly on the nature of the educational enterprise and the why, wherefore and how of teaching specific subjects. The importance of distinguishing between the provisional nature of knowledge claims and relativism is stressed, as is the distinction between the uncertain and the arbitrary.
Negotiating Problems of Practice in Research–Practice Design Partnerships
Authors: Penuel William R. , Coburn Cynthia E. , Gallagher Daniel J.
Published: November 2021

This chapter focuses on how researchers and practitioners negotiate the focus of their joint work within design-based implementation research (DBIR). Studying and facilitating successful negotiation of the problems that become the focus of work and the search for solutions is important for developing DBIR, because of its commitment to focusing on persistent problems of practice from multiple stakeholders’ perspectives. Case studies of two different research–practice partnerships provide a context for exploring two different perspectives on negotiation. In one case study, the notion of partnerships as forms of cultural exchange across institutional boundaries that differ with respect to goals, norms, and practices is used to analyze a design partnership focused on repurposing curriculum units in elementary science. In the second case study, the concept of framing as developed in social movement theory is used to illuminate issues of status and authority within a partnership between a district and researchers. The chapter concludes by describing the contributions of each perspective to an understanding of how teams jointly negotiate the focus of their work and by providing some recommendations for how teams can do so successfully.
Teacher Effects, Value-Added Models, and Accountability
Authors: Konstantopoulos Spyros
Published: November 2021

Background

In the last decade, the effects of teachers on student performance (typically manifested as state-wide standardized tests) have been re-examined using statistical models that are known as value-added models. These statistical models aim to compute the unique contribution of the teachers in promoting student achievement gains from grade to grade, net of student background and prior ability. Value-added models are widely used nowadays and they are used by some states to rank teachers. These models are used to measure teacher performance or effectiveness (via student achievement gains), with the ultimate objective of rewarding or penalizing teachers. Such practices have resulted in a large amount of controversy in the education community about the role of value-added models in the process of making important decisions about teachers such as salary increases, promotion, or termination of employment.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review the effects teachers have on student achievement, with an emphasis on value-added models. The paper also discusses whether value-added models are appropriately used as a sole indicator in evaluating teachers’ performance and making critical decisions about teachers’ futures in the profession.

Research Design

This is a narrative review of the literature on teacher effects that includes evidence about the stability of teacher effects using value-added models.

Conclusions

More comprehensive systems for teacher evaluation are needed. We need more research on value-added models and more work on evaluating value-added models. The strengths and weaknesses of these models should be clearly described. We also need much more empirical evidence with respect to the reliability and the stability of value-added measures across different states. The findings thus far do not seem robust and conclusive enough to warrant decisions about raises, tenure, or termination of employment. In other words, it is unclear that the value-added measures that inform the accountability system are adequate. It is not obvious that we are better equipped now to make such important decisions about teachers than we were 35 years ago. Good et al. have argued that we need well-thought-out and well-developed criteria that guide accountability decisions. Perhaps such criteria should be standardized across school districts and states. That would ensure that empirical evidence across different states is comparable and would help determine whether findings converge or diverge.
Assessing Habits of Mind: Teaching to the Test at Central Park East Secondary School
Authors: Duckor Brent , Perlstein Daniel
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Educational researchers and policymakers have often lamented the failure of teachers to implement what they consider to be technically sound assessment procedures. In recent years, the belief that teachers are unwilling or unable to implement appropriate assessment procedures has contributed to the rapid expansion of high stakes, standardized testing in schools. Supporters of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have contrasted teachers’ assessment practices with standardized testing, arguing that teacher-created classroom assessments lack the technical characteristics required to produce trustworthy measures of student learning or compare large populations of students.

Research Question/Focus of Study

Through a case study of New York City's Central Park East Secondary School (CPESS), in the years when it served as a model for progressive American school reform, Duckor and Perlstein demonstrate the usefulness of an alternative to reliance on the technical characteristics of standardized tests for constructing and judging assessments: teachers’ self-conscious and reasoned articulation of their approaches to learning and assessment.

Research Design

In order to determine CPESS teachers’ assessment practices and the process through which they were developed, Duckor and Perlstein conducted semi-structured oral history interviews with a sample of CPESS teachers. They triangulated teachers’ recollections through a content analysis of course assignments, rubrics, grading reports, and other artifacts of assessment at CPESS. The sources of this data included published accounts of CPESS and primary sources provided by teachers or uncovered in archival research.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Duckor and Perlstein conclude that when teachers are given opportunities for genuine, shared reflection on teaching and learning and classroom practices are tied to this understanding, fidelity to what they call the logic of assessment offers a more promising framework for the improvement of schooling than current forms of high-stakes, standardized accountability. Thus, instead of expecting teachers to rely on data from standardized assessments or replicate features of standardized testing in their own assessment practices, researchers, policymakers and teacher educators should promote fidelity to the broader logic of assessment.
What is a Culture of Evidence? How do you Get One? and … Should you Want One?
Authors: Peck Charles A. , Mcdonald Morva A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Contemporary state and national policy rhetoric reflects increased press for “evidence-based” decision making within programs of teacher education, including admonitions that programs develop a “culture of evidence” in making decisions regarding policy and practice. Recent case study reports suggest that evidence-based decision making in teacher education involves far more than access to data—including a complex interplay of motivational, technical, and organizational factors.

Purpose

In this paper we use a framework derived from Cultural Historical Activity Theory to describe changes in organizational practice within two teacher education programs as they began to use new sources of outcome data to make decisions about program design, curriculum and instruction.

Research Design

We use a retrospective case study approach, drawing on interviews, observations and documents collected in two university programs undergoing evidence-based renewal.

Conclusions

We argue for the value of a CHAT perspective as a tool for clarifying linkages between the highly abstract and rhetorically charged concept of a “culture of evidence” and concrete organizational practices in teacher education. We conclude that the meaning of a “culture of evidence” depends in large measure on the motivations underlying its development.
The Challenge and Promise of Complexity Theory for Teacher Education Research
Authors: Cochran-Smith Marilyn , Ell Fiona , Ludlow Larry , Grudnoff Lexie , Aitken Graeme
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

In many countries, there are multiple studies intended to improve initial teacher education. These have generally focused on pieces of teacher education rather than wholes, and have used an underlying linear logic. It may be, however, that what is needed are new research questions and theoretical frameworks that account for wholes, not just parts, and take complex, rather than reductionist perspectives.

Purpose

This article examines the challenges and the promises of complexity theory as a framework for teacher education research. One purpose is to elaborate the basic tenets of complexity theory, summarize its previous uses, and identify key challenges. A second purpose is to propose a new research platform that combines complexity theory with critical realism (CT-CR) and prompts a new set of empirical questions and research methods.

Research Design

Drawing on scholarship from sociology and education, the underlying design—or logic—of this analytic essay is this: explanation of the basic tenets of complexity theory applied to teacher education, assessment of previous research informed by complexity theory, response to the major epistemological and methodological challenges involved in using complexity theory as a research framework, and proposal of a new set of questions and methods.

Findings/Results

Complexity theory is appealing to teacher education researchers who want to avoid simplistic and reductionist perspectives. However, most previous complexity research has not addressed the critiques: the proclivity of complexity theory for retrospective description; the assertion that, given its rejection of linear causality, complexity theory cannot provide causal explanations with implications for practice; and the charge that complexity-informed research cannot deal with the values and power inequalities inherent in the normative enterprise of education. Integrating complexity theory with critical realism provides a way to address these fundamental challenges. Building on this new platform, the essay proposes a new set of empirical questions about initial teacher education along with several innovative research methods to address those questions.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This essay concludes that the combination of complexity theory and critical realism offers a unique platform for teacher education research, which has theoretical consistency, methodological integrity, and practical significance. The essay recommends that its proposed new empirical questions and methods may have the capacity to show us where to look and what processes to trace as teacher candidates learn to enact practice that enhances the learning of all students, including those not well-served by the current system.
Cuban Teacher Perspectives on Race and Racism: The Pedagogy of Home–School Relations
Authors: Kempf Arlo
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Cuba's education system has been the focus of academic study by researchers on and off the island who frequently cite the comparative success of Cuban students on measures such as the UNESCO math and language assessments. Few studies, however, consider the significance of race within Cuban education generally or the home–school relationship in particular. Indeed, there has been no empirical work made available on these topics for nearly a decade. Significant sociopolitical changes are underway in Cuba, with implications for the role of the state in the cultural life of the nation. Education is a key transmission point between the state and its people, with teachers as frontline cultural workers.

Purpose

This article examines the way Cuban teachers address racism in their professional practice, with a specific focus on teacher home visits to address racism with parents/guardians. The author analyzes the relationship between Cuban teachers and the families of students they teach (an under-researched form of teacher practice in an under-researched context). Little is known about teachers reaching and teaching parents directly about issues such as racism. Further, there is limited research on the ways in which understanding of citizenship and professional responsibility impact teachers’ work and pedagogy in their interactions with parents.

Setting

Havana, Cuba.

Participants

All interviewees were teachers from downtown Havana. Twenty-two male and 23 female teachers participated. Fifteen of the teachers were Mestizo (of mixed race), one was Chinese-Cuban, 21 were Afro-Cuban, and eight were White. Survey participants were drawn from across Havana's 15 boroughs. Among respondents, 67.4% were female and 32.6% were male. As far as race, 57.8% identified as Mestizo, 18.9% identified as Afro-Cuban, 22% identified as White, and 1.3% identified as Chinese.

Research Design

This is a mixed-method study using qualitative interviews (N=45 participants), and a quantitative survey (N=150 respondents).

Conclusions/Recommendations

Teachers regularly enter the homes of parents in an effort to promote diversity and to counter perceived racism among parents/guardians. The fact that teachers have the authority and sense of entitlement to do so points to possibilities for a significant retooling of the ecology systems framework. Many teachers undertake this work with parents/guardians just as they would when addressing student academic performance. This race-work is supported by state-generated social capital that, in Cuba, embeds conceptions of race within a larger public context, as opposed to treating race as a private matter to be subjectively and privately understood. As quasi-curriculum, antiracism is something everyone is expected to learn. This suggests that a careful consideration of the way concepts of nation, citizenship, and professional responsibility inform teacher preparation and practice in Cuba may deepen our understanding of teachers’ race-work in North American contexts.
Standardized Writing Opportunities: A Case Study of Writing Instruction in Inclusive Classrooms
Authors: Bray Laura E. , Mrachko Alicia A. , Lemons Christopher J.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

For an increasing percentage of students with disabilities, writing instruction is taking place in general education classrooms. The practice of instructing students with disabilities in general education classrooms is commonly referred to as inclusion. For elementary and middle school English teachers, inclusion requires that they teach students with varying instructional needs how to write. While numerous studies have examined writing instruction and interventions for students with disabilities, little research has closely examined the phenomenon and implications of providing writing instruction in inclusive classrooms.

Focus of Study

In this study, we examined the writing opportunities provided to students in four eighth-grade English classrooms at a full inclusion middle school.

Research Design

We employed a qualitative case study design to collect multiple sources of data, including writing tasks, grading requirements, prewriting activities, lesson plans, writing task information sheets, and interviews with teachers. Our analysis sought to triangulate findings from these multiple data sources to examine the types and quality of writing instruction provided in these inclusive English classrooms, along with the factors that influenced this instruction.

Findings

The findings from this study indicate the writing opportunities provided to students were of poor quality and were influenced by state standards and high-stakes accountability assessments. Furthermore, students with disabilities were provided with nearly the same writing opportunities as their nondisabled peers, with little differentiation, modifica-tion, or accommodation. The study also exposed organizational features and accountability policy pressures that promoted the instructional practice of standardization.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Our findings suggest that including students with disabilities into a general education English classroom does not necessarily lead to high-quality writing opportunities for those students. Current accountability policy emphasizes the standardization of learning goals and outcomes, with little focus on the actual types and quality of instruction provided to students. We argue that for students with disabilities, focusing solely on teaching grade-level learning standards and improving high-stakes accountability assessments is not the solution for improving instructional opportunities and outcomes. Our findings also revealed that, under certain conditions, standardization of instruction is a potential unintended consequence of inclusive education.
When It Comes to the Mathematics Experiences of Black Pre-Service Teachers… Race Matters
Authors: Mcgee Ebony O.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

There is a growing body of research that conceptualizes mathematics learning and participation as racialized experiences; that is, learning experiences structured in part by the negative and unjust race relations that are present in U.S. society. However, the role racialized experiences play in the lives of Black elementary education pre-service students from urban contexts, as both students and future teachers of mathematics, is under theorized.

Theoretical Framework

Using critical race theory's racial micro-aggressions and the development of a mathematics identity, the author explores the mathematics experiences of 13 Black advanced undergraduate students who are elementary education majors. The participants’ narratives reflect their experiences as both students of mathematics and future teachers.

Research Design

A qualitative phenomenological research design was used to explore the prior and current mathematical experiences of the study participants and their future trajectories as teachers of mathematics. Reponses were coded to reveal themes of racialization and the development of the participants’ mathematics identities.

Results

The participants’ narratives cited Black male fathers and close male relatives as their first mathematics teachers, the presence of culturally affirming at-home mathematics activities, and detailed aspirations to teach mathematics fearlessly to their own children and future students. Their more recent experiences included academic struggles in mathematics, often stemming from racial stereotyping and non-affirming college mathematics teachers. Their voices suggest that, within the context of learning mathematics, they have generated self-constructions that include racism as part of their shared African American experience in mathematics schooling that have implications for their teaching of mathematics.

Conclusion/Recommendations

Recommendations include the provision of professional development that targets gaps in mathematics that are the result of inadequate and discriminatory learning opportunities, and culturally sensitive professional development for mathematics college faculty, with differentiated training for mathematics faculty not born in the U.S. In light of the high proportion of Black teachers working in urban schools who face a host of difficulties, this research also supports the continued development of combatting racial micro-aggressions in mathematics education as a decisive tactic to improve the retention of Black elementary education teachers.
Historical Perspectives on Diverse Asian American Communities: Immigration, Incorporation, and Education
Authors: Paik Susan J. , Kula Stacy M. , Saito L. Erika , Rahman Zaynah , Witenstein Matthew A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Asian Americans have recently been reported as the largest incoming immigrant population and the fastest growing racial group. Diverse in culture, tradition, language, and history, they have unique immigrant stories both before and after the Immigration Act in 1965. Historians, sociologists, educators, and other experts inform us that immigrant arrival into a new country has long-standing effects for any cultural group, but there is limited research that collectively and systematically examines historical immigrant experiences, particularly for diverse Asian American populations.

Purpose

The purpose of this analytic study is to provide a survey of the historical context experienced by diverse Asian American groups and to link these variations to their current educational outcomes. Based on an adapted model of incorporation, the article analyzes the historical experiences into a taxonomy to understand past and present trends. The research question under consideration is: “How do historical experiences of diverse Asian American immigrant populations link to their current educational outcomes?”

Research Design

The study design employed a historical analysis based on a taxonomy, which helps classify and systematically organize information to understand patterns and themes. To apply the adapted model across the subgroups of East Asian, South Asian, and Southeast Asian major groups, the authors gathered, reviewed, and systematically organized over 100 sources (e.g., literature review, census data, websites, other historical information, etc.).

Findings/Results

The findings illustrate the diversity that exists within and between Asian American groups in terms of their immigration, incorporation, and educational experiences. The modes of incorporation, as well as additional barriers and opportunities, varied across all Asian American communities. There is further need to disaggregate data as some groups experienced more barriers than opportunities and continue to struggle in the United States.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Historical contexts can help inform educators, policy makers, and researchers on ways to support Asian American students and their families. In understanding upward mobility, the nature of co-ethnic communities also played a role for the success of some groups. This study challenges the model minority stereotype by discussing the diversity that exists within and between Asian American groups and reveals how key stakeholders can work together to support positive opportunity structures and partnerships.
The OECD as Pivot of the Emerging Global Educational Accountability Regime: How Accountable are the Accountants?
Authors: Meyer Heinz-Dieter
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

PISA has catapulted the OECD—an organization whose mission is the global growth of market economies—to a central role in international education policy making, rivaling and sometimes outdoing the various national governments in influence. While claiming scientific evidence as the basis for the accountability regime it promotes, the policy frameworks and principles it has adopted over the past two decades are rooted in ideas about the superiority of market mechanisms that are contested in many member nations. Yet, while exerting strong influence on national educational practices in pursuit of a narrow and contested policy agenda, it is not easily influenced through established democratic processes.

Purpose

In this paper, I discuss key OECD ideological and policy shifts that form the background for PISA. Secondly, I focus on the OECD's governance mechanisms and the obstacles it presents to public scrutiny.

Research Design

Drawing on recent scholarship on the power of transnational policy networks to influence national policy through the soft power of epistemic communities, this paper analyzes policy documents and relevant research from OECD and PISA to identify ideological commitments and configurations of power that form the backdrop for PISA.

Conclusion

I propose that in a world of global policy making, the influence of organizations like the OECD highlights deficits in the constitution of the global democratic public sphere that would foster the accountability of these organizations.
From the Assessment OF Education to the Assessment for Education: Policy and Futures
Authors: Baker Eva L. , Gordon Edmund W.
Published: November 2021

Context

Educational reform in the United States has had a growing dependence on accountability achieved through large-scale assessment. Despite discussion and advocacy for assessment purposes that would assist learning, provide help to teachers’ instructional plans and execution, and give a broader perspective of the depth and breadth of learning, the general focus still remains on accountability, now elaborated with sanctions for schools and personnel.

Focus of Study

To generate scholarly discussion, options for practice, and grounded predictions about testing in the next decades, the Gordon Commission on the Future of Assessment in Education.

Participants

Convened over a two-year period and with 30 people on the steering committee, the commissioners included well-known scholars grounded in psychometrics, assessment design, technology, learning, instruction, language, subject matter, and teaching in discussion. Commissioners, additional authors, and reviewers were largely drawn from universities, private profit, and nonprofit institutions. Professor Edmund W. Gordon was the Chair of the Commission.

Design

A knowledge acquisition and synthesis study, the product design relied on papers authored by expert scholars describing their understanding of productive student testing in their own domains. The commission funded papers on a wide variety of topics. This paper focuses on two of the major topics of the reports, the emphasis on shifting assessment to help rather than simply to mark progress and how future contexts, including technological change, may impinge on testing options.

Conclusions

The paper calls for a transformation of assessment purpose and use, from annual, time-controlled accountability assessments to more continuous assessments used in the course of a learners’ acquisition of understanding, motivation for learning, collaboration, and deep application of knowledge in problem solving, communication, and authentic settings. Assessments should emphasize helping students of varying backgrounds and goals as well as their teachers. The role of technology as an assessment design, administration, and reporting toolset is described, in the context of changing knowledge expectations and a global competitive environment.
Postmodern Test Theory
Authors: Mislevy Robert J.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This article explains the idea of a neopragmatic postmodernist test theory and offers some thoughts about what changing notions concerning the nature of and meanings assigned to knowledge imply for educational assessment, present and future.

Purpose

Advances in the learning sciences—particularly situative and sociocognitive stances—call into question the adequacy of the trait and behaviorist psychological perspectives under which educational measurement evolved. This article argues nevertheless that its models and methods, appropriately reconceived and extended as necessary, can be useful in assessment framed in a contemporary view of learning.

Research Design

This is an analytic essay.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The model-based reasoning that characterizes test theory is useful not because it measures extant traits defined and evidenced in the same way for all students, but because it helps us organize our thinking, marshal and interpret evidence, and communicate our inferences and their grounding to others. A skeptical attitude about models in assessment makes our uses of them more flexible, more powerful, and, ultimately, more effective at meeting and fulfilling the aims of education than they would be if we believed that they accurately captured the totality of the phenomenon. Our understandings of students’ learning and programs’ effects are enriched by multiple perspectives and diverse sources of evidence, some new or previously neglected but others with familiar (albeit reconceived) forms.
Social Epistemology and the Pragmatics of Assessment
Authors: Gergen Kenneth J. , Dixon-Román Ezekiel J.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The assessment of students, along with teachers and school systems, has largely taken place within a context of positivist science. An enormous range of scholarship now challenges the positivist paradigm, offering a social espistemological alternative. This alternative invites a reexamination of assessment processes and their policy implications.

Purpose/Objective

After sketching out the social constructionist alternative to positivist epistemology, the research centered on the pragmatics of existing assessment practices, including an analysis of who is helped or harmed but such practices.

Setting

The research included extended across a wide range of contemporary educational settings.

Research Design

The research was primarily analytic, drawing from wide-ranging sources in education and allied disciplines.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Among the general outcomes of current assessment practices are the fostering of social division and distrust, the creation of hierarchies of worth, and the diminution of pluralism. Within educational systems we find a sacrifice of curriculum and pedagogy for the production of higher test scores, and the diminution of teacher motivation and engagement. Within communities, there is a disregard for local needs and values, a loss in student motivation, and an increase in family tensions. Possible alternatives to current testing practices, along with recommendations for future policies, are considered.
Introduction: Raiders of the Lost Archives
Authors: Thelin John
Published: November 2021

This is an introductory essay for the special section on historical analysis since 1865 of in loco parentis as a legal, institutional, and social feature of the American college and university campus.
Scaffolding Collective Engagement
Authors: Meyer Debra K. , Smithenry Dennis W.
Published: November 2021

While recognizing that instructional scaffolding in a whole-class context can engage students’ learning as they move through individual zone of proximal developments (ZPDs), in this chapter, we argue that instructional scaffolding also can collectively engage a class through a shared ZPD when participant structures and discourse practices provide for coparticipation and alter traditional notions of teacher support and shared responsibility. A case study of a chemistry classroom is presented to substantiate this argument and illustrate how instructional scaffolding can be used as a support for collective engagement.
Student Engagement in High-Performing Schools: Relationships to Mental and Physical Health
Authors: Conner Jerusha , Pope Denise
Published: November 2021

This chapter examines how the three most common types of engagement found among adolescents attending high-performing high schools relate to indicators of mental and physical health.
A History of Informal, Out-of-School Education
Authors: Coughlan Ryan W. , Sadovnik Alan R. , Semel Susan F.
Published: November 2021

Informal, out-of-school education encompasses a variety of programs existing alongside the founding and growth of public schools. This chapter explores the history of the institutionalization of informal, out-of-school education, including programs offered by religious institutions, social service organizations, cultural institutions, special interest organizations, the media and universities. Access to these programs is neither uniformly offered nor guaranteed, a situation that potentially exacerbates existent inequities.
Learning from and with Aboriginal Learners: Rethinking Aboriginal Education in Canada
Authors: Panina-Beard Natalia
Published: November 2021

This chapter presents an overview of Aboriginal education in Canada that focuses on linking the transgenerational effects of colonialism with current issues. Educational models, partnerships, and programs already exist that make an enormous impact on outcomes for children and youth in and from Aboriginal communities. Examples of six successful programs that were developed in partnership with Aboriginal communities and range from elementary school through post-secondary school are highlighted.
Learning Contexts for Children and Young People with Learning Differences
Authors: Daniels Harry
Published: November 2021

This chapter sketches some possibilities for the development of learning contexts for children and young people with learning differences that may be derived from the influence of Russian psychologist L. S. Vygotsky. It argues that these pedagogic possibilities should be implemented alongside the development of a curriculum that prepares all young people to participate in a rapidly developing knowledge society.
“The University for the Poor”: Portrayals of Class in Translated Children's Literature
Authors: Forest Danielle E. , Garrison Kasey , Kimmel Sue C.
Published: November 2021

Background

Scholars of children's literature have been investigating portrayals of females and racial groups for several decades, yet few have examined depictions of social class. Research on social class depictions in children's literature is needed in order to identify books that affirm children's class identities and offer portrayals of socioeconomic diversity.

Focus of the Study

This study investigates portrayals of social class in 35 titles receiving the Batchelder Award or Honor between 2001 and 2013. The Batchelder Award recognizes outstanding translated books with international origins. International books for children were selected in this study because American titles are thought to be middle class in orientation; the researchers hypothesized that the international books might provide a more complex analysis of social class.

Research Design

The inductive approach to qualitative content analysis was utilized. At least two researchers read and coded each book in the sample. The researchers examined passages referencing social class as well as other cultural constructs such as race/ethnicity, gender, religion, and nationality.

Findings

The researchers identified several markers that served as indicators of social class status: living conditions, food, safety and protection, healthcare, leisure, education, occupation, residence, speech and mannerisms, clothing/dress, death rituals, and material possessions. Social class was often associated with other identities such as a character's religion or ethnicity. Characters from typically marginalized class groups, such as the poor and the working class, were portrayed sensitively and with dignity.

Conclusions

The markers of class identified in this study may serve as a framework for other researchers interested in examining class in children's literature or media. The findings may help teachers and teacher educators identify and select books that realistically and respectfully portray members of different social classes.
“So We Have to Teach Them or What?”: Introducing Preservice Teachers to the Figured Worlds of Urban Youth through Digital Conversation
Authors: Seglem Robyn , Garcia Antero
Published: November 2021

Background

Extant literature contends that it can be difficult for White preservice teachers to develop culturally relevant curriculum for the diverse students whom they will encounter in classrooms. Though there is a significant body of research about culturally responsive pedagogy, teacher education programs have struggled with how to best reconcile the needs of students of color with the experiences and misconceptions of White teachers.

Purpose/Focus of Study

Using a figured world framework, we explore how social interaction made possible through digital tools shaped the actions and identities of 16 preservice teachers. Research Design: This qualitative case study focuses on three preservice teachers from Illinois to illustrate the cumulative and different process of change that each went through during his or her interactions with 10th-grade students from Los Angeles. Beginning with a holistic coding of the corpus of data, we looked at chat room transcripts, preservice teacher reflections, and writing samples from approximately 3 months of interaction between the two groups for this study. Coding the data in multiple cycles, we explored how preservice teachers’ digital interactions with urban high school students contributed to preservice teachers’ figured worlds.

Findings

Providing preservice teachers with virtual access to urban youth's figured worlds allowed these future teachers to better understand the cultural artifacts of these students’ worlds. In doing so, they were forced to acknowledge the importance of maintaining the belief that all students, including those from urban backgrounds, can and want to engage in rigorous learning. The project also provided the preservice teachers with an opportunity to learn more about the discourse of these students, giving preservice teachers insights about how to navigate the language of their students’ cultures, to evaluate their students’ academic language needs, and to instruct their students about shifting their language use to communicate across settings and purposes. Finally, opportunities to interact with urban youth allow preservice teachers to begin to develop identities that are more culturally responsive in nature.

Conclusions

The results we explore in this article highlight the potential that virtual spaces offer for developing constructive dialogue between urban youth and preservice teachers, which can lead to reflective, culturally relevant teachers. “So we have to teach them or what? Well, they need to understand where we come from. We don't come from Illinois.”
Venture Philanthropy and Teacher Education Policy in the U.S.: The Role of the New Schools Venture Fund
Authors: Zeichner Kenneth , Peña-Sandoval César
Published: November 2021

Background & Purpose

This article focuses on the growing role of venture philanthropy in shaping policy and practice in teacher education in the United States. Our goal is to bring a greater level of transparency to private influences on public policy and to promote greater discussion and debate in the public arena about alternative solutions to current problems. In this article, we focus on the role of one of the most influential private groups in the United States that invests in education, the New Schools Venture Fund (NSVF), in promoting deregulation and market-based policies.

Research Design

We examine the changing role of philanthropy in education and the role of the NSVF in developing and promoting a bill in the U.S. Congress (the GREAT Act) that would create a system throughout the nation of charter teacher and principal preparation programs called academies. In assessing the wisdom of the GREAT Act, we examine the warrant for claims that education schools have failed in their mission to educate teachers well and the corresponding narrative that entrepreneurial programs emanating from the private sector are the solution.

Conclusions

We reject both the position that the status quo in teacher education is acceptable (a position held by what we term “defenders”) and the position that the current system needs to be “blown up” and replaced by a market economy (“reformers”). We suggest a third position (“transformers”) that we believe will strengthen the U.S. system of public teacher education and provide everyone's children with high-quality teachers. We conclude with a call for more trenchant dialogue about the policy options before us and for greater transparency about the ways that private interests are influencing public policy and practice in teacher education.
Collective Pedagogical Teacher Culture and Teacher Satisfaction
Authors: Stearns Elizabeth , Banerjee Neena , Moller Stephanie , Mickelson Roslyn Arlin
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Teacher job satisfaction is critical to schools’ success. As organizations, schools need teachers who are satisfied with their jobs and who work with one another to build school community and increase student achievement. School organizational culture shapes teacher job satisfaction in many ways, but it is still unclear which facets of organizational culture have the greatest influence on teacher job satisfaction and whether some of these facets may have moderating effects on others.

Purpose of Study

This study investigates the association among two aspects of organizational culture (professional community and teacher collaboration), teacher control over school and classroom policy, and teacher job satisfaction. We use the term Collective Pedagogical Teacher Culture to refer to those schools with strong norms of professional community and teacher collaboration.

Research Design

We use a nationally representative sample of U.S. kindergarten teachers from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey in 1998–1999 and hierarchical linear modeling to examine the association between aspects of school organizational culture and teacher job satisfaction.

Findings

We find that professional community, collaboration, and teacher control are predictive of satisfaction and they also have interactive influences. The association between teacher collaboration and job satisfaction, as well as that between control over classroom policy and job satisfaction, is most pronounced in schools with weaker professional communities.

Recommendations

Future reform efforts that foster greater professional communities, teacher collaboration, and control over classrooms can exist alongside more conventional reforms such as raising curricular standards and instituting greater accountability. Fostering a strong teacher pedagogical culture will help to bolster teacher job satisfaction.