bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Quest for a Mainstream EAL Pedagogy
Authors: Haworth Penny
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Previous research shows that class teachers often have little training to teach students with English as an additional language (EAL), so they may operate on a trial-and-error basis, become frustrated easily, feel negative, and have little confidence in their ability to be successful with EAL students. In addition, mainstream teachers may be reluctant to prioritize relevant professional development if there are just a few EAL students in the class. Teacher educators may therefore struggle to help these teachers, particularly because the existing literature seldom provides any guidance on how to adapt effective EAL pedagogic frameworks for use in a busy mainstream class setting.

Purpose

This inquiry sheds light on the realities for teachers who have small numbers of EAL students in their mainstream classes, and the factors that influence their practice decisions with regard to these students.

Setting

The investigation was undertaken in four primary schools in the central North Island of New Zealand, a region that characteristically has just small numbers of EAL students. Each of these schools became the setting for the study for one term over the course of a four-term school year.

Participants

In each school, 1 teacher in a Year 1-2 class and 1 in a Year 5-6 class took part. The 8 class teachers had a range of general and EAL teaching experience.

Research Design

A qualitative approach, which used in-class observations interspersed with a series of in-depth reflective discussions with each class teacher, allowed for the evolution of in-depth insights over time.

Findings/Results

It was found that some teachers generated strategies for EAL students within the context of regular class instruction, whereas others worked with individual EAL students within the class. However, most teachers reported they experienced stress when trying to balance the individual needs of EAL students with those of the rest of the class. Ultimately, it emerged that the teachers’ efforts to develop useful working theories and practices with EAL students were influenced by the dynamic interaction of factors within and across three contextual layers: the personal-professional, the immediate classroom interaction, and the wider educational context.

Conclusions/Recommendations

In conclusion, it is argued that simply providing teachers with professional input on existing EAL pedagogy addresses just one part of the problem. If teacher educators intend to significantly influence teachers’ practice decisions with EAL students, it may be important to take a broader sociocultural approach that considers the interaction of factors within and across the three contextual layers of teachers’ professional lives.
Theories of Human Development that Enhance an Understanding of the College Transition Process
Authors: Guiffrida Douglas A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although theories of human development often play a central role in K–12 pedagogical practices, evidence suggests that developmental theories have not been used extensively to understand the college transition process or to develop programs to support students during these transitions.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of the Study

The author reviews theories of identity development, racial identity development, and intrinsic motivation to (a) understand how diverse developmental characteristics, stages/tasks, and cultural processes affect the college transition process and (b) identify strategies for preparing diverse students for, and supporting them during, their transitions to college.

Research Design

Salient theories of human development, particularly from the fields of social and cross-cultural psychology, were identified and critically reviewed.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The results indicate that in addition to providing students with adequate academic preparation and funding, college faculty and staff must also understand and support college student identity development (including ethnic identity development) and seek to foster intrinsic motivation among students.
Farmhands and Factory Workers, Honesty and Humility: The Portrayal of Social Class and Morals in English Language Learner Children's Books
Authors: Sano Joelle
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although much research has evaluated children's books for depictions of gender, little has centered on the portrayal of immigrants and social class. This investigation utilizes Bourdieu's theory of capital reproduction in education, Durkheim's conception of collective conscience and morals, and Bowles and Gintis's critique of schooling to evaluate these depictions and to investigate the functions of English language learner (ELL) education.

Focus of Study

This analysis investigates the representation of immigrants and class in children's books read aloud in ELL classrooms.

Research Design

Using lists provided by a leading school of education, the investigation uses a content analysis of 50 books often read aloud to ELL students based on five economic and cultural capital indicators. Additionally, the research included a content analysis of the morals presented by these books and by the past 20 Caldecott Medal-winning books.

Findings

Findings suggest strong differences in class portrayals and morals between ELL classroom and Caldecott Medal-winning books. Additionally, the evidence shows that the ELL books portray various ethnic immigrant groups differently, often supporting popular stereotypes about these ethnicities.

Conclusions and Recommendations

The study provides possible implications of the findings on the educational and career aspirations of ELL students and suggests that future researchers focus on participant-observation to expand these findings.
Present to Possibility: Spiritual Awareness and Deep Teaching
Authors: Miller Lisa , O'Reilly Mary Rose
Published: November 2021

One can, I think, listen someone into existence, encourage a stronger self to emerge or a new talent to flourish. Good teachers listen this way, as do terrific grandfathers and similar heroes of the spirit.

Teaching has much in common with the ancient art of spiritual guidance.
Toward a Pedagogy of Self
Authors: Richards Craig E.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The literature on emotional and social intelligence, based on the theoretical constructs of several authors, identifies self-awareness as a core skill for leadership development. However, there is very little research or theory on how one might develop a pedagogy of self-awareness for leaders.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study describes an innovative leadership development program in self-awareness in the Summer Principals Academy at Teachers College. It describes both the theoretical and practical pedagogy of self-awareness training. What follows is a description of that pedagogy and some preliminary research results based on the journals and feedback of 45 students who completed the program in 2006.

Intervention/Program/Practice

The intervention consisted of daily 45-minute sessions of training in sensory awareness. The primary modes of training focused on breath, body sensations, listening, and visualizations. The training occurred as part of a five-day-per-week, six-week intensive leadership development master's degree program over two summers.

Research Design

Participants recorded their thoughts and feelings in semistructured journal entries immediately following the training sessions. At the end of each week, they reviewed their journal notes and wrote a weekly reflection on their experiences with the practice. In addition to the weekly reflections, they wrote three-week, six-week, and summative reflections on their experiences with the practice. These qualitative data were entered into NVivo software, coded, and analyzed for themes.

Findings/Results

The themes that emerged from the data led to the development of cognitive maps for practitioners that provide heuristics and developmental guides for practice, as well as refinements of the training protocols.
Catching up in Community Colleges: Academic Preparation and Transfer to Four-Year Institutions
Authors: Roksa Josipa , Calcagno Juan Carlos
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions remains a contentious issue in higher education, with proponents showing that students do indeed transfer to four-year institutions and opponents arguing that starting in community colleges hinders baccalaureate degree attainment. One particularly salient issue in this debate is academic preparation. Although virtually all studies of transfer control for academic preparation, there is a dearth of research focusing on whether and how academically unprepared students can catch up in higher education.

Research Questions

We address two research questions: To what extent do academically unprepared students transfer to four-year institutions? And, can successful completion of intermediate outcomes, such as passing college-level math and writing courses, meeting specific credit thresholds, and earning an associate's degree, diminish the role of initial preparation and increase the probability of transfer?

Research Design

Using event history techniques, we estimate the likelihood of transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions. Analyses include 20,900 first-time degree-seeking students who enrolled in Florida community colleges in the fall of 1998. Student enrollment is tracked through the summer of 2003.

Results

Community colleges can indeed serve as an alternative road of access to four-year institutions, even for academically unprepared students: Almost 20% of students in our sample who entered community colleges unprepared for college-level work made the transition to four-year institutions. Moreover, we found that successful completion of intermediate outcomes, such as passing college-level math and writing courses, meeting specific credit thresholds, and earning an associate's degree, enhances the probability of transfer. However, the ability of community colleges to mitigate the negative effects of inadequate academic preparation on transfer is limited; regardless of the intermediate outcome completed, academically unprepared students continued to lag substantially behind their more prepared counterparts.

Conclusion

Community colleges can serve as a democratizing force in higher education; however, their ability to overcome inadequate academic preparation with which some students enter higher education is limited. Improving academic preparation in K–12 is thus a crucial component of enhancing transfer.
Disrupting Injustice: Principals Narrate the Strategies They Use to Improve Their Schools and Advance Social Justice
Authors: Theoharis George
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

A group of educators have demonstrated success not only with White middle-class and affluent students but also with students from varied racial, socioeconomic, linguistic, ability, and cultural backgrounds. A reoccurring theme from these schools and from the literature on school change is that exemplary leadership helps create the necessity for change and helps make the realities of change happen. More specifically, leaders at these schools where students traditionally marginalized are thriving come to administration with a commitment, or larger “call,” to focus their leadership on issues of equity and justice.

Purpose

Scholars and administrators alike have called for “constructive models” of this kind of leadership. This article provides examples of these accomplishments in practice. It also provides insight into the realities of leading for social justice by revealing what principals sought to accomplish and how they approached that work.

Participants

This article focuses on 6 principals—2 elementary, 2 middle, and 2 high school—who (1) led a public school, (2) possessed a belief that promoting social justice is a driving force behind what brought them to their leadership position, (3) advocated, led, and kept at the center of their practice/vision issues of race, class, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and/or other historically marginalizing conditions, and (4) had evidence to show that their work has produced a more just school.

Research Design

The qualitative study in which these analyses are grounded used a positioned subject approach. The method of data collection took place over one school year and included in-depth interviews with the principals, a review of documents and materials, site visits, discussions/interviews with school staff, a detailed field log, and a group meeting of the principal participants. This article is a focused discussion of aspects of a larger study, using the principals’ voices to illustrate key themes.

Findings

These leaders narrate the strategies they used to disrupt four kinds of school injustice: (1) school structures that marginalize, segregate, and impede achievement, such as pullout programs; (2) a deprofessionalized teaching staff who could benefit from focused staff development; (3) a school climate that needed to be more welcoming to marginalized families and the community; and (4) disparate student achievement levels.

Recommendations

A series of lessons emerged from this research: that social justice in schools is more than rhetoric—indeed, it can be achieved; that inclusive schooling is a necessary and enriching component to enacting justice; that increasing staff capacity is essential to carry out a comprehensive agenda focused on equity; and that creating a climate that deeply values racial, cultural, and economic diversity is a key strategy to enacting justice.
Learning from Success as Leverage for a Professional Learning Community: Exploring an Alternative Perspective of School Improvement Process
Authors: Schechter Chen
Published: November 2021

Background

Although the professional learning community as a means of improving student achievement has received growing support from researchers and practitioners alike, professionals are still exploring ways to develop interaction networks regarding teaching and learning issues.

Purpose

This study explores the evolving stages of a collective learning-from-success process within the framework of a professional learning community.

Research Design

A qualitative case study of a comprehensive (middle and secondary) public school community was conducted to explore practitioners’ collective learning from successful practices.

Data Collection and Analysis

A total of 12 detailed session transcripts from the learning-from-success sessions (circle of learners), 42 evaluation forms (21 internal and 21 external evaluations), 6 observations of the development team's sessions, and pertinent documents were collected for analysis. The analysis process involved identifying patterns in the data-recurring ideas and perspectives that depicted the social world studied.

Findings

Data revealed that this collective process moved through three distinct, but closely interrelated, dynamic stages: invitation and framework building; collective inquiry into colleagues'professional successes; and experimentation and dissemination.

Conclusion

Whereas collective learning has been approached from a deficit-based orientation, this study reinterprets the professional learning community to include the collective learning-from-success process, thus providing a new outlook for linking concepts with practical capabilities in light of public school reality.
Schools as Architecture for Newcomers and Strangers: The Perfect School as Public School?
Authors: Masschelein Jan , Simons Maarten
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The article reflects on the public role of education on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of Hannah Arendt's essay, “The Crisis in Education” and in facing the current transformation of public policy into “new public management.”

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Based on Arendt's essay, “The Crisis in Education,” the article explores that peculiar setting and architecture between family and world that is called school. The leading concern for this investigation is the school's public meaning. The point of departure is that today, the public role of education is an urgent concern, that is, the school's public role is questioned in view of the current processes of privatization, and what is critically described as the “capitalization of life.” In this contribution, based on a reading of Arendt's essay and relying on the analysis of a specific school design by the architect Wim Cuyvers, two different ways of thinking the public meaning of school education are explored. One way of thinking takes the school as an infrastructure of “intro-duction,” while the other way of thinking regards the school as an infrastructure of “e-duc(a)tion.”

Research Design

This article is an analytic essay.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The article shows that it is impossible to think “a new beginning in our world” without thinking the school as public space. Drawing on some thoughts of Agamben and the school architecture of Cuyvers, the article offers an outline for elaborating the Arendtian thinking of the “perfect school.” This school is conceived of as a space where people are exposed to things, and being exposed could be regarded as being drawn outside (or as e-ducation), that is, into public space. Public space is a “free space” or the space of “free time.” This free time is precisely the sense that the Greek “scholé” seemed to indicate—a space where (economic, social, cultural, political, private …) time is suspended and where people have time at their disposal for “a new beginning.” Whereas the museum is the setting that accumulates time, the school could be seen as the setting for suspending time. The school as “public architecture,” then, is not a space/time of “intro-duction” and “in-between,” but a space/time of “suspension” and “e-ducation.”
Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Early Education Interventions on Cognitive and Social Development
Authors: Camilli Gregory , Vargas Sadako , Ryan Sharon , Barnett W. Steven
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

There is much current interest in the impact of early childhood education programs on preschoolers and, in particular, on the magnitude of cognitive and affective gains.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Because this new segment of public education may require substantial resources, accurate descriptions are required of the potential benefits and costs of implementing specific preschool programs. To address this issue comprehensively, a meta-analysis was conducted for the purpose of synthesizing the outcomes of comparative studies in this area.

Population/Participants/Subjects

A total of 123 comparative studies of early childhood interventions were analyzed. Each study provided a number of contrasts, where a contrast is defined as the comparison of an intervention group of children with an alternative intervention or no intervention group.

Intervention/Program/Practice

A prevalent pedagogical approach in these studies was direct instruction, but inquiry-based pedagogical approaches also occurred in some interventions. No assumption was made that nominally similar interventions were equivalent.

Research Design

The meta-analytic database included both quasi-experimental and randomized studies. A coding strategy was developed to record information for computing study effects, study design, sample characteristics, and program characteristics.

Findings/Results

Consistent with the accrued research base on the effects of preschool education, significant effects were found in this study for children who attend a preschool program prior to entering kindergarten. Although the largest effect sizes were observed for cognitive outcomes, a preschool education was also found to impact children's social skills and school progress. Specific aspects of the treatments that positively correlated with gains included teacher-directed instruction and small-group instruction, but provision of additional services tended to be associated with negative gains.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Given the current state of research on the efficacy of early childhood interventions, there is both good and bad news. The good news is that a host of original and synthetic studies have found positive effects for a range of outcomes, and this pattern is clearest for outcomes relating to cognitive development. Moreover, many promising variables for program design have been identified and linked to outcomes, though little more can be said of the link than that it is positive. The bad news is that there is much less empirical information in the studies examined available for designing interventions at multiple levels with multiple components.
Children of Immigrants and Educational Expectations: The Roles of School Composition
Authors: Wells Ryan
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Many children of immigrants are not enrolled in high schools that sufficiently meet their needs, and subsequently, many are not making a successful transition to, and/or successfully completing, higher education. As immigration grows in the United States, educators and policy makers must understand how the educational processes for children of immigrants differ from nonimmigrants. Because expectations for higher education are a necessary, though insufficient, step toward college attendance and degree attainment, and because students have these attitudes influenced by the schools they attend, I examine high school composition for its effects on educational expectations and how compositional effects differ between children of immigrants and nonimmigrants.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This study intends to be another step on the path toward understanding the educational processes of children of immigrants specifically, and of all students more broadly, as the immigrant population grows in U.S. schools. Toward those ends, this study is based on two overarching research questions: (1) How do the immigrant compositions of U.S. secondary schools affect the educational expectations of all students? (2) How do the compositions of U.S. secondary schools affect the educational expectations of children of immigrants differently than nonimmigrant students?

Research Design

The research questions are addressed via secondary data analysis using data from the Educational Longitudinal Study (ELS:2002/2004), which were collected by the National Center for Education Statistics. I explore school composition effects on a binary dependent variable indicating whether a 12th-grade student expects to complete a graduate or professional degree. This study emphasizes a critical-quantitative approach by demonstrating that common theories and assumptions about educational expectations may be inaccurate for children of immigrants in today's schools.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Results show that children of immigrants are affected differently by school composition than are nonimmigrants, and in ways that contradict commonly accepted theoretical views. Specifically, this analysis demonstrates that comparative and normative theories of school effects are not accurate for children of immigrants, at least not to the same degree as they are for nonimmigrants. This is a reminder to researchers and practitioners alike that subgroups of students, in this case the children of immigrants, may not be affected by schools in similar ways.
Race and Cultural Flexibility among Students in Different Multiracial Schools
Authors: Carter Prudence L.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

One of the most critical functions of a well-integrated school is the development of “culturally flexible” students who, over the course of their social development, effectively navigate diverse social environs such as the workplace, communities, and neighborhoods. Most studies, albeit with some exceptions, have investigated the impact of desegregation on short- and long-term gains in achievement and attainment, as opposed to its impact on intergroup relations. Mixed-race schools are vital not only for bolstering achievement outcomes of previously disadvantaged students but also for promoting social cohesion in a diverse society.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

Specifically, this article examines the difference in cultural flexibility between black and white students enrolled in schools with different racial and ethnic compositions. Cultural flexibility is defined as the propensity to value and move across different cultural and social peer groups and environments. Furthermore, this article provides some insight into how students in different mixed-race and desegregated educational contexts experience their school's social organization and cultural environments, which influence their interactions and academic behaviors.

Setting

The study was conducted over a 6-month period in four high schools: a majority-minority school and a majority-white school located in a northeastern city, and a majority-minority school and a majority-white school located in a southern city.

Research Design

Survey data were gathered from a randomly stratified sample of 471 Black and White students attending. In addition, ethnographic notes from weeks of school observations and transcribed interview data from 57 group interviews conducted in the four schools with students in Grades 9–12 complemented the survey research.

Data Collection and Analysis

Findings reveal significant associations among self-esteem, academic and extracurricular placement, and cultural flexibility for black students. Also, black students in majority-minority schools scored significantly higher on the cultural flexibility scale than those in majority-white schools. Among white students, regional location and academic placement showed statistically significant associations with cultural flexibility. The ethnographic and interview data further explicate why these patterns occurred and illuminate how certain school contextual factors are likely linked to students’ cultural flexibility. Overall, this study's findings highlight some connections between student and school behaviors as they pertain to both students’ and educators’ willingness and ability to realize the visions of racial and ethnic integration wholly.
The Business of Education: Home Study at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin in the 1920s and 1930s
Authors: Hampel Robert
Published: November 2021

Background

Correspondence schools abounded in early 20th-century America. Several hundred for-profit vendors drew the vast majority of the annual enrollments, which peaked at one half million in the mid-1920s. Dozens of well-known universities created home study departments to expand their “extension” work. The handful of good studies of the origins of distance education falls short of what we need to understand this popular alternative to traditional schooling.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

In 1930, Abraham Flexner ridiculed home study at Columbia, and, to a lesser extent, Wisconsin and Chicago. His denunciation of the mercenary spirit of home study reverberates in contemporary discussions of the entrepreneurial aspirations of American universities. This article places the business practices of home study at Columbia and Wisconsin alongside the work of proprietary schools to see if Flexner's criticisms were accurate.

Research Design

The article compares the advertising, sales, and collection practices of Columbia, Wisconsin, and the for-profit outfits in the 1920s and 1930s. The archival sources for Columbia and Wisconsin include annual reports, financial statements, letters to and from the directors of home study, and other documents. For the private schools, the verbatim transcripts of the annual meetings of their trade association are especially valuable.

Conclusions

Flexner's critique is misleading. Columbia avoided the excesses that swelled the income and marred the reputations of many for-profit schools. Wisconsin did even more to distance itself from the proprietary firms. The article ends with ruminations on the options available to universities when they undertake work in a field dominated by the private sector.
Understanding the Teacher Job Search Process: Espoused Preferences and Preferences in Use
Authors: Cannata Marisa
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

There is an extensive body of research on school and student characteristics associated with teacher career decisions that has contributed greatly to our knowledge of teacher preferences. Yet this research also has a number of limitations, including a lack of attention to the sociocultural influences on teacher careers and the processes teachers use to find a job.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

This article focused on the processes that teachers use to find a job and how they came to work in particular schools. In doing so, this article developed a new theoretical conception of teacher career decisions that incorporates Bourdieu's cultural reproduction theory and theories of action. Together, these frameworks highlight how teachers navigate through the hiring process using their practical understanding of how they could make the best match, rather than focusing on explicit preferences.

Setting

Teacher applicants were recruited from six colleges that provide teachers to one Midwestern metropolitan area. This area was experiencing an oversupply of teachers.

Population/Participants/Subjects

Participants included individuals currently completing teacher education programs and looking for their first teaching job.

Research Design

Data for this article came from a mixed-methods study of teacher applicants’ career decisions. The study design included a survey of 289 prospective elementary teachers and in-depth interviews with a subsample of 27 prospective elementary teachers at two points in the hiring season.

Findings/Results

Teacher applicants’ espoused preferences for schools were consistent with previous research, yet the data indicate that teacher applicants often contradicted these espoused preferences by the actual behavior on the job search. They did so by focusing on the district rather than the school when identifying open positions and focusing on feelings of comfort and familiarity when deciding where to apply. Further, teacher applicants had few sources of information about schools and districts, which forced them to make assumptions about schools and thus reinforced perceptions of familiarity, fit, and comfort.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Teacher applicants’ practical understanding of the job search was informed by their social and cultural background and emphasized characteristics such as familiarity when making career decisions. Policy makers who want to improve the quality of teaching should focus on developing teachers who want to teach in hard-to-staff schools and on providing teacher applicants with access to more information about schools. Teacher educators should also consider ways to increase teacher applicants’ familiarity and sense of comfort with schools serving high proportions of racial minority or low-income students.
The Nature and Effects of Middle School Mathematics Teacher Learning Experiences
Authors: Hill Heather C.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Teachers’ mathematical knowledge has been the subject of recent federal policy, public programs, and scholarly attention. Numerous reports identify a need for improving this knowledge, and total federal spending on content-focused math and science professional development during the period 2002–2007 is estimated to be above $1.2 billion.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

In this study, we investigated the patterns in and the effect of professional development in the area of middle school mathematics. We focus in particular on professional development thought to influence teachers’ mathematical knowledge, and use a measure of such knowledge to gauge potential growth in a sample of teachers included in a national survey.

Research Design

We surveyed a nationally representative sample of roughly 1000 teachers in both 2005 and 2006 and obtained responses from 461 middle school teachers at both time points. The survey measured their mathematical knowledge for teaching at both time points and also inquired about their professional learning opportunities during the intervening year.

Data Collection and Analysis

We used survey data both to describe the nature of teachers’ learning opportunities during 2005-2006 and to associate participation in these learning opportunities with teachers’ 2005 knowledge scores as well as other characteristics. We also linked these learning opportunities to observed growth in teacher knowledge.

Findings/Results

Results indicate that extensive effort and expenditures have not dramatically transformed teacher professional development practices as compared to past descriptions, in that learning opportunities reported by teachers are still typically short and fragmented. However, there are indications that teachers’ mathematical knowledge might have improved somewhat during this time period.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Results from this study suggest a very mixed picture of the middle school mathematics professional development system. Effects on teacher knowledge are modest, and critics might claim that money would be better spent in hiring or induction programs.
The Situated Dynamics of Purposes of Engagement and Self-Regulation Strategies: A Mixed-Methods Case Study of Writing
Authors: Kaplan Avi , Lichtinger Einat , Margulis Michal
Published: November 2021

Background

Common conceptions of motivation and self-regulation view them as related but distinct entities. Most research on motivation and self-regulation investigates quantitative relations between level (e.g., self-efficacy) or type of motivation (e.g., mastery goals) and level of self-regulation.

Purpose

Alternatively, the current study proposes that motivation and self-regulation strategies are integrated in purpose-strategies action orientations, which are constructed through a situated and dynamic meaning-making process.

Participants and Setting

The current study presents a case analysis of one Israeli ninth-grade female student who engaged in a writing task.

Research Design

The qualitative case study employed mixed-methods data that included traces in the written product, microprocesses observation, stimulated-recall interview, and a general interview. Analysis sought to triangulate findings from the multiple data sources in order to construct the dynamic and situated flow of purpose of engagement and strategies.

Findings

Triangulation of data from these different sources demonstrated that individual and contextual characteristics interacted to result in a dynamic flow of situated purpose-strategies actions along the student's engagement in the writing task.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that the situated purpose of engagement should be an integral element in conceptions of self-regulation; that different purposes may call for different types of self-regulation; that conceptualization and investigation of motivation and self-regulation should be domain specific; and that mixed methods, as used in this article, can provide productive tools to assess the dynamic and situated process of self-regulation.
Homework Emotion Management at the Secondary School Level: Antecedents and Homework Completion
Authors: Xu Jianzhong
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

For many children, doing homework becomes an emotionally charged event and one of the most disappointing aspects of school life. It is surprising to note, however, that homework emotion management is noticeably absent from much contemporary homework literature.

Purpose

The primary propose of the present study was to propose and test empirical models of variables posited to predict homework emotion management at the secondary school level, with the models informed by (a) research and theory on emotion regulation and (b) findings from homework research that alluded to a number of factors that may influence homework emotion management. Another purpose of the present study was to examine whether homework emotion management is related to homework completion, one of the major outcome variables in the homework process.

Research Design

The study reported here used cross-sectional survey data. The participants were 1,895 students from 111 classes in the southeastern United States, including 1,046 eighth graders from 63 classes and 849 11th graders from 48 classes.

Results

Results from the multilevel analyses revealed that most of the variance in homework emotion management occurred at the student level, with grade level appearing as the only significant predictor at the class level. At the student level, the variation in homework emotion management was positively associated with teacher feedback, peer-oriented reasons for doing homework, arranging the environment, managing time, and monitoring motivation. Girls reported statistically significant higher scores in managing homework emotion than did boys. Follow-up analyses further revealed that homework emotion management was positively associated with homework completion.

Conclusion

As most of the variance in homework emotion management occurred at the student level rather than at the class level, homework emotion management was largely a function of individual student characteristics and experiences. The present study further suggests that monitoring motivation and managing time play a predominant role in homework emotion management (compared with other variables included in the present study). Consequently, there is a critical need to conceptualize these variables in the process of emotion regulation in general, and in homework emotion management in particular. In addition, there is a critical need for secondary schools to strategically engage students in the homework process to better manage their emotion while doing homework.
Homeless Education and Social Capital: An Examination of School and Community Leaders
Authors: Miller Peter M.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This study contributes to the literature on the schooling of homeless and highly mobile students. Although previous work has detailed the demographics of homelessness, the effects of homelessness on academic progress, and particular legal issues in homeless education, this research focused on how individual and institutional relationships influence homeless education.

Purpose/Objectives

The purpose of the study was to develop deeper understanding of how schools and shelters helped create educational social capital for students and families who were experiencing homelessness. The guiding research questions for the study were: (1) How do school and shelter leaders perceive social capital as influencing the education of students who are homeless? and (2) How do school and shelter leaders’ relational networks influence the education of students who are homeless?

Setting

Data were collected from three homeless shelters and three public schools that are located in a large city in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States.

Participants

A total of 31 interviews were conducted with shelter-based administrators, case workers, and child development specialists, and school-based principals and central office administrators.

Research Design

A qualitative collective case study research design was employed.

Findings

Homeless students and families appeared to have insufficient stores of productive social capital, and although schools and homeless shelters provided them with some important relationships and resources, school and shelter leaders’ own shortages of bridging social capital limited the extent to which efficient educative active could occur.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Based on the findings, it is suggested that schools and shelters prioritize social capital development and improve interorganizational networking. Specifically, purposeful efforts should be made to develop school-shelter-family networks that are heterogeneous in composition.
Student Interpretations of a School Closure: Implications for Student Voice in Equity-Based School Reform
Authors: Kirshner Ben , Pozzoboni Kristen M.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

School closure is becoming an increasingly common policy response to underperforming urban schools. Districts typically justify closure decisions by pointing to schools’ low performance on measures required by No Child Left Behind. Closures disproportionately fall on schools with high percentages of poor and working-class students of color. Few studies have examined how students interpret or respond to school closures.

Purpose

Our purpose was to document narratives articulated by students about the closure of their high school. Doing so is important because students, particularly students of color from low-income families, are often left out of policy decisions that affect their lives.

Population/Participants

Research participants were recruited from the population of youth who had attended the closed school and who remained in the district during the subsequent year. Twenty-three percent of students at the school were African American, 75% were Latino, and 2% were White. Over 90% of students were eligible for free and reduced lunch. A total of 106 students responded to surveys and peer interviews, and 12 youth who had dropped out of school participated in focus groups.

Research Design

This was a youth participatory action research (YPAR) study, designed collaboratively by former Jefferson students, university researchers, and adult community members. Data sources included open-ended surveys, peer interviews, focus groups, and field notes describing public events and YPAR meetings.

Findings

Our data show that most respondents did not agree with the decision to close their school. Student disagreement surfaced two counternarratives. First, students critiqued the way the decision was made—they felt excluded from the decision-making process that led to closure. Second, they critiqued the rationale for the decision, which suggested that students needed to be rescued from a failing school. Students articulated features of Jefferson that they valued, such as trusting relationships with adults, connection to place, and sense of belonging, which they felt were discounted by the decision.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Evidence from this study lends support to developmental and political justifications for robust youth participation in equity-based school reform. By developmental justification, we mean evidence that young people were ready to participate, which counters discourses about youth as immature or unprepared. By political justification, we mean evidence that youth articulated interests that were discounted in the decision-making process and that challenged normative assumptions about school quality. In our conclusion, we point to examples of expanded roles that students could play in decision-making processes.
Attitudes and Affect: Daily Emotions and Their Association with the Commitment and Burnout of Beginning Teachers
Authors: Jones Nathan , Youngs Peter
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The increasing number of districts implementing mentoring and induction programs suggests that policymakers are aware of the need to increase the support available to new teachers. The argument underlying many of these programs is based, at least partly, on assumptions about beginning teachers’ emotional responses to their work. Yet while considerable research has studied the effects of induction programs, few researchers have rigorously collected data on how beginning teachers’ affective experiences seem to impact their career plans.

Purpose of the Study

We tested a framework developed in the organizational behavior literature known as affective events theory (AET), which proposes that emotional responses to work, coupled with abstract beliefs about one's job, can influence overall judgments about job satisfaction. Specifically, we drew on research from education and organizational behavior to test whether mean levels of positive affect, negative affect, skill, and fatigue are associated with intentions to remain in teaching (i.e., commitment to one's teaching assignment), commitment to one's school, and levels of burnout.

Research Design

Sources of data in this study include survey data collected at two time points (fall 2007 and spring 2008) from 42 beginning general and special education teachers in three districts in Michigan and Indiana, as well as data collected using the experience sampling method (ESM), a time sampling method for gaining information about individuals’ immediate experiences. The inclusion of both data sources allowed us to capitalize on the richness of the ESM data—which accounts for variation in teachers’ momentary affective states—while also supporting the data with more traditional survey measures.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We found that mean levels of positive affect and skill are positively associated with commitment, even when controlling for prior commitment. Similarly, negative affect and tiredness seem to be predictive of teacher burnout. These results suggest that, by taking account of teachers’ emotional reactions to their work (in addition to features of their work environments), researchers, policymakers, and district administrators will be better positioned to support special and general educators during their early years of teaching.
“As Nature Has Formed Them”: The History and Current Status of Racial Difference Research
Authors: Skiba Russell
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Research in the latter half of the 20th century purporting to show significant racial differences in intelligence and social behavior appears to pit civil rights concerns against the freedom of scientific inquiry. The core hypotheses and presumptions of recent research on racial difference are not new, however, but spring from a two-century-old program of research that has sought to demonstrate racial differences in socially valued traits.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

The purpose of this review was to explore the history of racial difference research in order to (1) elucidate the central themes of that research and (2) explore the reasons for the persistence of those themes into modern racial difference research.

Research Design

The investigation is a historical analysis of research on racial differences from the late 18th century to the present.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Both the methodologies and the willingness to express the core hypotheses of a fixed differential between races on socially important characteristics have changed over time, yet adherence to a set of core research questions has remained relatively unchanged across generations of researchers. Although the consistent conflation of its political and scientific aims has, to some extent, compromised the scientific status of racial difference research, consistent links to social and economic policy have also ensured its intergenerational reproduction. Convergent shifts across a number of disciplines suggest that a Kuhnian-type paradigm shift may be under way that will redefine both the strategies and the types of questions that may characterize future research in the areas of race, ethnicity, and culture.