bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Connections and Contradictions in Teacher Practices for Preparing Globally Minded Citizens in Two IB Public Schools
Authors: Quaynor Laura
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

With 13 million immigrants arriving in the United States between 2000 and 2010, immigration is at its highest level in a century. At the same time, there has been an exponential increase in the number of IB PYP and MYP schools in the United States, from 88 registered in 1997 to 1,470 in 2013. Much of this increase has been in Title I schools serving diverse populations. This work examines classroom practice at the intersection of these phenomena.

Purpose

Within two different schools that offer IB programs and serve substantial numbers of immigrant and refugee youth, how do teachers prepare youth for citizenship?

Setting

This study took place at two public middle schools in suburban neighborhoods in the southeastern United States.

Population

Participants included seven middle school teachers, two administrators, and 27 sixth-grade students from 11 different countries.

Intervention/Program/Practice

Both schools were registered as IB World Schools.

Research Design

This article reports on a comparative case study of six classrooms in two International Baccalaureate schools.

Data Collection and Analysis

The author shares findings based on 65 classroom observations over the course of one semester, nine interviews with adult teachers and administrators. Data was analyzed using a phenomenological approach, beginning with analyzing data from each classroom, then from each school, and finally comparing themes between classrooms and students in the two schools. Data analysis began with codes based on theoretical frameworks for citizenship.

Findings/Results

A wide divergence in teacher practice was observed, with some practices exemplifying a flexible teacher orientation towards global education, acknowledging the global experiences, multiple languages, and variety of viewpoints that students brought into the classroom. Other practices exemplified a fixed teacher orientation towards global education, ignoring the variety of student experiences, languages, and viewpoints in the classroom.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Based on the differences in implemented curricula in the two schools across classrooms, the author proposes expanding frameworks for understanding global education. Global education can be implemented with a flexible or fixed orientation, as educators design activities and present content in ways that recognize or disregard students’ identities and experiences. The study suggests that the use of International Baccalaureate programs is no guarantee of a global education connected to the experiences of immigrant and refugee youth. Modifications in teacher practice and school structures are necessary in order to make global education relevant to diverse youth.
Pygmalion in the Classroom and the Home: Expectation's Role in the Pipeline to STEMM
Authors: Lee Se Woong , Min Sookweon , Mamerow Geoffrey P.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Although students frequently begin forming ideas about potential college majors or career choices prior to entering college, research on Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics (STEM), and (M)edicine has almost exclusively focused on students’ experiences in postsecondary institutions. To better understand the full length of the STEMM pipeline—from high school through to postsecondary levels—it is essential to identify and explore factors that influence students’ choices in STEMM while they are in secondary schools, a setting that is arguably the first critical step of the pipeline.

Purpose/Objective

Among factors that influence students’ choices to pursue STEMM fields, this study examines the influence of students’ self-efficacy and expectation, as well as the expectation and encouragement they received from parents and high school teachers on their decisions to major in, complete a degree in, and pursue a career in STEMM. Given this focus on expectation specifically, the study employs a conceptual framework developed through the application of prior literature on teacher and parent expectations, as well as Social Cognitive Career Theory.

Research Design

Using the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY) 1987 data, the study investigated students’ decision making at three distinct time points along a typical STEMM education/career path and predicted their persistence in the STEMM pipeline by utilizing logistic regression analyses. To further examine whether such sets of expectations are moderated by gender, analysis also included interaction terms for gender and teacher expectation, as well as those of gender and parent expectation.

Findings/Results

The results of this study indicate that expectation plays a significant role in students’ choices in STEMM and teacher expectation is shown to be especially influential. Focusing on gender differences, males’ choices in STEMM were shown to be most affected by their teachers’ educational expectations and encouragement while females’ choices were most affected by those of their parents.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The decision to pursue education and a career in a STEMM is not a one-time decision, but a longitudinal process that begins during secondary education and carries on through into college. The findings of this study provide meaningful information about the importance of students’ self-efficacy and expectation within the STEMM pipeline, as well as the influence teacher expectations and encouragement can have on students’ pursuit of and persistence in STEMM.
Developing Creativity through Critical Inquiry
Authors: Bailin Sharon
Published: November 2021

This commentary argues that creativity is best viewed in terms of significant achievement and that such achievement is best developed through promoting critical inquiry.
Everyone's Creative: George E. Lewis and Ubiquitous Improvisation
Authors: Coleman Kwami
Published: November 2021

This is a response essay to an interview with George E. Lewis, the Edwin H. Case Professor of American Music at Columbia University, conducted by Cara Furman of Teachers College. The essay explores Lewis's thoughts on quotidian creativity and the ubiquity of improvisation, their necessity in academic institutions, and their potentially life-transforming effects for all people.
Reward, Task Motivation, Creativity, and Teaching: Towards a Cross-Cultural Examination
Authors: Hennessey Beth A.
Published: November 2021

Background

Extrinsic incentives and constraints, such as the promise of a reward or the expectation of an evaluation, have long been used by educators to motivate students. Previous research has consistently found that expected reward consistently undermines intrinsic task motivation and creativity of products and performance in students of all ages. For a majority of learners, the promise of a reward made contingent on engagement in an open-ended task frequently serves to undermine intrinsic task motivation and qualitative aspects of performance, including creativity.

Purpose

The implications of these experimental findings for education in the U.S. and around the world are immense. Teachers contemplating the use of reward incentives must avoid them in situations where creativity is at stake. This article explores whether the motivational and performance processes triggered by the promise of a reward are a universal phenomenon or whether they are, at least in part, culturally-dependent.

Research Design

Five parallel studies in five separate nations focused on elementary school students who had been randomly assigned to experimental (constraint) and control (no constraint) conditions. The complexities of the relation between task motivation and performance outcomes are reviewed and cross-cultural implications are explored.

Conclusions

While there is no consensus on the impact of extrinsic constraints across cultures, there is no evidence to suggest that intrinsic motivation is anything but a powerful and positive driving force for students of all ages and backgrounds—teachers are best advised to work to increase the intrinsic motivation and creativity of their students on a case-by-case basis until we understand more.
Learning by Doing: The Characteristics, Effectiveness, and Persistence of Teachers who Were Teaching Assistants First
Authors: Fortner C. Kevin , Kershaw David C. , Bastian Kevin C. , Lynn Heather H.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

In response to a shortage of highly qualified teachers, states and school districts have enacted a number of policy innovations over the last two decades. While researchers have evaluated many of these reforms, little is known about the initial effectiveness of individuals with prior teaching assistant experience. We review existing literature related to teaching assistants and utilize administrative data to examine a number of characteristics of individuals who transition from work as teaching assistants to jobs as regular classroom teachers.

Study Purpose

Individuals who become classroom teachers after having prior experience in schools working as teaching assistants may perform differently than other teachers due to additional exposure to classroom practices. The purpose of this study is to identify differences in the characteristics, effectiveness, and persistence of teachers who work as teaching assistants prior to entering the classroom as regular classroom teachers.

Population

While the population of focus varies somewhat across research questions, we generally focus on teachers with less than five years of experience working in elementary and middle school grades in all North Carolina public schools from 2005–2006 to 2009–2010. Additional data on teaching assistants employed from 2000–2001 to 2009–2010 in North Carolina public schools allows identification of individuals who had prior experience as teaching assistants in the state.

Research Design

Using administrative data records, we utilize quantitative descriptions of teacher characteristics and persistence to identify differences between teachers who entered the classroom with prior teaching assistant experience and other groups of teachers. For effectiveness comparisons, we estimate value-added models to compare the effectiveness of teachers in the identified groups of interest.

Findings/Results

Overall, we find that teachers who began as teaching assistants are (1) older, more racially diverse, lower-scoring on licensure exams, and more likely to enter the profession alternatively; (2) more effective in elementary-grades math and reading; and (3) more likely to remain as classroom teachers in North Carolina public schools.

Conclusions/Recommendations

These findings indicate that former teaching assistants represent a quality and highly persistent labor source and call for continued research to understand how additional exposure to classrooms benefits early-career teacher performance.
Changing the Context of Student Engagement: Using Facebook to Increase Community College Student Persistence and Success
Authors: Fagioli Loris P. , Rios-Aguilar Cecilia , Deil-Amen Regina
Published: November 2021

Background

Community college leaders are now turning to social media/social networking sites for new avenues and opportunities to increase students’ interaction, engagement, and collaboration with peers, faculty, and staff. Social media may be a particularly attractive option because it can provide a potentially effective and exciting mechanism for catalyzing such connections for students.

Purpose/Objective

This study examines the use of social media/social networking sites and its relationship to academic outcomes in the context of community colleges.

Population/Participants

We used longitudinal data from about 17,000 students who joined a Facebook based online application (the Schools App) in seven community colleges across the country. We compared these members to students who did not join the app for an overall sample size of about 98,000.

Research Design

This study used a quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching and random effects regression to estimate the effects of online engagement on student outcomes.

Findings/Results

We find that there is, indeed, a relationship between social media use and academic outcomes. The most active users as well as passive users had the highest GPAs and chances of continuing the next semester compared to inactive members of the online community as well as compared to nonmembers.

Conclusions/Recommendations

We find that certain forms of online engagement have a distinct relationship with GPA and persistence. The results of this study also suggest that, although potentially valuable, it is not easy to build an online community. Sustaining continued use of the application was challenging and strongly dependent on the quality and relevance of the posted comments and discussion. Nevertheless, this study found that for those who continued to use the application, there were positive effects in terms of student outcomes. Our findings further support the notion that integration is relevant for community college student persistence, but the nature of that integration—more simultaneously social as well as academically oriented—is important to consider in both offline and online contexts. Recommendations focus on a more strategic use of social media, which puts specific emphasis on answering questions and getting involved in online communities and not using social media solely for marketing or dissemination of information purposes. On campuses where students realized that answers to pertinent questions were available (through administrators and peers), online engagement was of high quality. Sustaining high quality online interaction is therefore one element in ensuring a positive effect on student engagement and outcomes.
The Effect of High School Socioeconomic, Racial, and Linguistic Segregation on Academic Performance and School Behaviors
Authors: Palardy Gregory , Rumberger Russell , Butler Truman
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision on Brown v. Board of Education concluded that segregated schools were inherently unequal and therefore unlawful. That decision was not based solely upon the notion that segregated black schools were inferior in terms of academic instruction, curricular rigor, resources, etc., but also on research that showed segregating black children had negative social-emotional and behavioral consequences. However, the vast majority of the research on school segregation over the past 50 years, has focused on its effects on academic achievement and opportunity to learn. As a result, little is known about the effects of school segregation on social-emotional and behavioral outcomes. This is a critical gap in the literature because other research indicates that school behaviors are as strong or stronger predictors of long-term educational, social, and employment outcomes as academic achievement.

Objectives

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of three forms of school segregation—socioeconomic, ethnic/racial, and linguistic—on school behaviors (i.e., attendance, grade retention, and suspension) and academic performance (reading and math achievement test scores and GPA) in high school. The study also examines the degree to which each of three school mechanisms (school inputs, peer influences, and school practices) mediates the effects of segregation on student outcomes.

Research Design

The study uses survey data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:02). A sequence of multilevel models are fit to the data to address the research objectives.

Conclusions

American high schools are highly segregated by race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and English language status. Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic segregation are strongly associated with school behaviors and academic performance. The negative effects of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic segregation on school behaviors and academic performance inordinately effect black, Hispanic, and low SES adolescents because they are far more likely to attend segregated schools. School practices that reduce disorder and disruption and emphasize academics strongly mediate of the effects of segregation as does having friends at school with an academic focus. Adopting positive behavioral practices to reduce behaviors that interfere with learning without increasing suspension and expulsion are likely most critical for ameliorating the effects of segregation. Reducing academic tracking is also recommended, given that it likely contributes to negative within-school peer influences among low SES and minority adolescents. However, greater integration is likely necessary to fully address the consequences of segregation.
Feet to the Fire: New Orleans Kids Rethink Their Devastated School System
Authors: Wholey Jane , Burkes Betty
Published: November 2021

Before 2005, when Hurricane Katrina destroyed most New Orleans public schools, youth voice was rarely heard in the superintendent's office. In this chapter, we tell the story of a youth organization that grabbed the historical moment to rethink one of the lowest-performing school systems in the United States. “The Rethinkers,” as they called themselves, advocated for policy change at well-attended, youth-led news conferences, coaxed agreements from officials in front of TV cameras, and held their civic leaders’ feet to the fire. Eventually, the Rethinkers earned a seat at the school reform table in New Orleans. We describe the first generation of Rethinkers as they gradually deepen their dedication to one another and their cause. We highlight the critical role adult partnerships played in the success of the Re-thinkers. These adults deeply respected youth voice and shared skills such as critical thinking, architectural design, and public speaking. Finally, we describe how the Rethinkers have built victories from a strong set of beliefs that include mutual respect and honest relationships with outsiders based on common goals.

“We have a vision: a great education for every kid in New Orleans, no matter what neighborhood they stay in, no matter how much money their parents make, no matter the color of their skin.” – Isaiah Simms, Rethink-er, age 11, at a 2006 news conference
“Planting the Seeds”: The Influence of the Council on Education Policy and Practice
Authors: Bertrand Melanie , Ford Arlene J.
Published: November 2021

This chapter explores the influence of a youth participatory action research (YPAR) group, viewing the group's efforts as challenges to manifestations of racial inequality in education, such as the inequitable distribution of educational resources. The authors examine how individuals in positions of relative power—teachers, school administrators, and public officials— respond to the group's advocacy efforts. The analysis illustrates the complexity of the group's influence: Some individuals report that the Council sparks meaningful changes, while others have negative reactions. Overall, the chapter sheds light on the ways that YPAR can encourage change in education by incorporating the voices of Black and Latina/o youth into educational policy and practice.

“What really stuck with me was this idea of traditional versus organic forms of leadership… and that it's my responsibility to help my students develop as leaders.” – Ms. Bauman1
We Fought for Fairness and Won
Authors: Bradley Maceo
Published: November 2021

After a morning scramble to locate a permission slip that he needed to turn in to a teacher, Maceo Bradley arrived late to school, only to be met by a police officer who issued him a ticket for tardiness. Maceo's experience watching several classmates get ticketed as he waited for the officer to write up his ticket prompted him to want to learn more about policing practices inside schools. He soon discovered that a disproportionate number of African American and Latino students across the Los Angeles Unified School District were receiving similar tickets, with fines, for both truancy and tardiness. Encouraged by his teacher and by adult organizers outside of school, Maceo then became engaged in a collective effort to stop this policy of ticketing students. In this chapter, he recounts how he felt when he received the ticket, he shares his analysis of ticketing polices, and he describes his experiences of speaking out against these practices in front of city council members and the head judge of the Juvenile Court in Los Angeles. Maceo concludes that policies that criminalize youth work counter to their intended outcomes and that youth have an important role to play in standing up for social justice.
The Permanence of Racism in Teacher Education
Authors: Seriki Vanessa D. Dodo , Brown Cory T. , Fasching-Varner Kenneth J.
Published: November 2021

Using the chronicles of three friends, this chapter presents a counterstory that sets the stage for the examination of racism in teacher education, within the United States of America, using critical race theory (CRT) as an analytical tool. The setting of these chronicles is during a time when postracial rhetoric in the United States was at its highest—just after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama. The three friends take the readers on a journey through their graduate experience in teacher education and into their first faculty position in teacher education. Their experiences, as students and junior faculty, are akin to what many faculty and students of color and their White allies experience daily in teacher education programs across the United States. The analysis of their chronicle, using CRT, reveals that postracial discourse has disguised racism and racial microaggression in teacher education. Racial microaggres-sion is as pernicious as other forms of racism and, through its passive-aggressive orientation, validates institutional and individual lack of attention to issues of race.
Who's Qualified? Seeing Race in ColorBlind Times: Lessons from Fisher v. University of Texas
Authors: Donnor Jamel K.
Published: November 2021

This chapter examines the policy arguments advanced in Fisher v. University of Texas, an antiracial diversity in higher education case argued before the United States Supreme Court. The author contends that the arguments put forth by the petitioner are intended not only to frame White people as the expressed victims of opportunity-expanding policies, such as diversity, but also to construct people of color as undeserving of admissions to one of America's most preeminent public institutions of higher education. In addition to being ahistorical, the anti-diversity arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas purposely dismiss the structural arrangements and institutionalized practices responsible for the development of the University of Texas's diversity policy. The chapter concludes with a recommendation for a multidiscipline approach to education policy analysis in order to better understand and contextualize how race is operationalized in contemporary public policy debates.

In 1942… segregation was considered fair. –Terry H. Anderson

… the fact that special treatment for minority applicants upset working and middle-class whites so much more than preferences for applicants whose parents are faculty members, alumni, or major contributors cannot be explained solely by recent Supreme Court decisions holding that any racial classifications must be reviewed with utmost suspicion.

–Derrick Bell
Education across Borders: The Relationship between Age at Migration and Educational Attainment for Mexico-U.S. Child Migrants
Authors: Miller Karyn
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

The flow of people, including children, across international borders is a growing trend. While research has emphasized the relationship between parental migration and children's educational outcomes, little is known about how child migration itself influences educational attainment.

Purpose

To examine the relationship between Mexico-US. child migration and (a) completed years of schooling and (b) likelihood of dropping out of school.

Subjects

33,705 Mexican-born individuals between 7 and 22 years old.

Research Design

Secondary data analysis.

Data Collection/Analysis

Using data from the Mexican Migration Project (MMP134), pooled OLS and logistic regression models were used to examine the relationship between Mexico-US. child migration and (a) completed years of schooling and (b) likelihood of dropping out of school. The sample was split into three groups representing age at first migration (0–6, 7–12, 13–15), allowing for investigation of age-specific incentives and barriers to investment in education. Further descriptive analysis explored what children who drop out of school do instead.

Findings

Mexican-born children who first migrate to the United States between the ages of 0 and 6 may have an educational advantage relative to their peers who stay behind, while those who migrate between the ages of 13 and 15 have an educational disadvantage. Specifically, migration in early childhood is related to more years of schooling and increased persistence in school for compulsory school-age children; migration in later childhood is associated with an increased likelihood of dropping out of school. Parental education and household wealth are strong, positive predictors of educational attainment, while being from a community with high migration rates is related to fewer years of schooling and a higher likelihood of dropping out. Of those who drop out, the majority of females are engaged in housework while the majority of males are employed as unskilled workers. Further, migrant students who drop out of school in the United States are more likely to be poor, male, members of large families, and have parents with low levels of education.

Conclusions

This study suggests that educational policy regarding migrant students cannot be divorced from the larger, national immigration debate. It also identifies hey characteristics of migrant students who drop out of school in the United States, which has implications for practice. Schools and support services can target this vulnerable population and the specific challenges to educational attainment it encounters.
The Laundromat as the Transnational Local: Young Children's Literacies of Interdependence
Authors: Ghiso MarÍa Paula
Published: November 2021

Background

The learning of students from (im)migrant backgrounds has long been a consideration for the field of education. The “transnational” turn in research has brought to the forefront the need to account for students’ language and literacy practices as situated within multiple national affiliations, fluid migration histories, global technological networks, and plural identities. Understanding the global/local dynamics of young children's literacies across contexts can help us consider how the literacy curriculum specifically, and educational institutions more broadly, may be reimagined to be more attuned to their transnational experiences.

Focus

Informed by Chicana and transnational feminist theories, this study examines how first grade Latina/o emergent bilinguals interacted with a literacy curriculum that sought to value their transnational experiences and multilingual repertoires, specifically by integrating photography and writing as a platform for children to inquire into community experiences they identified as salient. The curricular invitations were designed as a Third Space hat unsettled the often-reified boundaries between what counts as academic literacy learning in school and the practices and experiences of Latina/o children in out-of-school contexts.

Research Design

A total of 103 six- and seven-year-olds over the two years participated in this ethnographic and practitioner research study. One hundred and one identified as Latina/o, and all qualified for free and reduced lunch. Data sources (children's writings and photographs; audio recordings; interviews with the teachers and children; researcher reflective memos; and fieldnotes of participant observation in the school and community) were coded using thematic and visual analysis, with attention to how specific textual or discursive features functioned socioculturally.

Findings/Conclusions

I focus on one of the prominent themes in the data—the community space of the Laundromat—to discuss how the children participated in literacies of interdependence that linked individual flourishing with community wellbeing through their care work in supporting their families. I use the term literacies of interdependence to refer to young children's multilingual and multimodal literacy practices that both reflected and enacted their cultural practices of mutuality. Through transactions with neighborhood spaces as texts, the children surfaced multiple and contrasting narratives of immigration and inquired into their transnational identities. Findings from this study point to how researchers and educators may be more attentive to Latina/o children's values and practices of interdependence and understand the “transnational local” as embodied in concrete spaces within their lived experiences.
Making Mistakes: Emotional Adaptation and Classroom Learning
Authors: Mccaslin Mary , Vriesema Christine C. , Burggraf Susan
Published: November 2021

Background

We studied how students in Grades 4–6 participate in and emotionally adapt to the give-and-take of learning in classrooms, particularly when making mistakes. Our approach is consistent with researchers who (a) include cognitive appraisals in the study of emotional experiences, (b) consider how personal concerns might mediate situational experiences, and/ or, (c) examine the interplay of emotion generation and regulation in emotional adaptation.

Purpose of Study

Our aim was to better understand how students think, feel, and cope— their emotional adaptation—when making mistakes in the pursuit of classroom learning and how this might impact their relationships with peers. We explored the possibility of individual and contextual differences in students’ emotional adaptation dynamics and considered how they might uniquely coregulate students’ coping with making mistakes in classrooms.

Participants

Participants were fourth- through sixth-grade students who attended one of five schools within a single district. Schools were labeled as relatively high or moderate in poverty density, defined by the percentage students receiving free or reduced lunch support.

Research Design

Students’ self-conscious emotions and coping strategies were measured with the School Situations (SS) inventory, a pencil-and-paper measure of children's self-conscious emotions in three classroom social/instructional contexts: private, small group, and whole class. SS assesses how students experience (generate) and cope with (regulate) self-conscious emotions (guilt, pride, shame) in response to situations they commonly encounter or witness in classrooms. SS was administered in November and again in May after students completed a mathematics pretest and posttest, respectively.

Findings

Findings revealed the importance of context—cultural (poverty density), social (classroom social/instructional format), and personal (readiness)—in the coregulation of students’ self-conscious emotions and coping. It is difficult for students with fewer resources (due to school poverty density or readiness to learn) to cope with negative emotions when making mistakes and to realize pride upon success. Further, an exploratory factor analysis based on students who participated at both pretest and posttest revealed five unique emotional adaptation subscales—Distance and Displace, Regret and Repair, Inadequate and Exposed, Proud and Modest, and Minimize and Move On—that are relatively stable across the school year and linked with readiness and learning.

Conclusions

The stability of students’ emotional adaptation profiles suggests that students develop characteristic emotional adaptations to classroom learning demands. Further, the modest strength of these relationships supports the conclusion that students’ emotional adaptations are malleable and open to intervention.
Examining Mandated Testing, Teachers’ Milieu, and Teachers’ Knowledge and Beliefs: Gaining a Fuller Understanding of the Web of Influence on Teachers’ Classroom Practices
Authors: Neumann Jacob W.
Published: November 2021

Background

Much research has been done on the factors that influence teachers’ work. Yet the nature and scope of those factors, and their impact on teachers, remain unclear. Indeed, different literature bases on teachers’ work present different and often contradictory conclusions. For example, some researchers claim that mandated accountability testing exerts the greatest impact on teachers’ work. Yet other researchers claim that teachers’ knowledge and beliefs have an equally strong impact on their work, as does mandated testing. These contradictory findings in the research seem to happen at least in part because most research into teachers’ work only looks at one or two influences on that work and ignores how multiple factors work together to influence teachers’ work.

Purpose

Recognizing this background, this study examines three factors that influence teachers’ work: mandated accountability testing, teachers’ knowledge and beliefs, and teachers’ milieu. The article examines each factor, both individually and collectively, for their combined influence on teachers’ work.

Setting

This study was conducted at a public middle school in south Texas.

Population

Four social studies teachers participated in this study: 2 eighth-grade U.S. history teachers, 1 seventh-grade Texas history teacher, and 1 sixth-grade world cultures teacher.

Research Design

The study encompasses 5 years of weekly interactions with social studies teachers at the school. I logged approximately 450 hours of nonparticipant observations, made field notes and audio recordings of regular classroom activities, conducted 13 semistructured interviews and had numerous informal conversations with the teachers, and attended teachers’ department meetings. Open coding was used to closely analyze research texts.

Findings

The analysis finds that these three factors do not influence teachers’ work in isolation. Instead, they combine to form a complex “web of influence” on teachers’ work. The article crafts a narrative of these teachers’ experiences with these different factors and illustrates how the factors combine to impact their work.

Conclusion

This article holds implications for school leaders, policy makers, and teacher educators. In short, it offers evidence about the unintended consequences of not taking a holistic approach to school leadership, educational policy, and teacher education.
Social Justice for the Advantaged: Freedom from Racial Equality Post-Milliken
Authors: Horsford Sonya Douglass
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

In Milliken v. Bradley (1974), the U.S. Supreme Court deemed unconstitutional a metropolitan-wide desegregation plan in Detroit that sought to achieve racial balance in part by busing white suburban students to the city's majority black schools. In a stark departure from Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), Milliken left the question of how, or even whether, to equalize education for black students up to local parents, educators, activists, school board members, state legislators, and other private and public community stakeholders.

Purpose/Objective/Focus of Study

In this article, I consider school desegregation as a form of social justice for blacks and racial equality for all, 40 years post-Milliken. Drawing from research on school desegregation as social justice and Bell's theory of interest convergence, I argue that integration and equality in the post-Civil Rights Era requires attention to the competing visions of social justice I describe as black equality and white freedom.

Research Design

Framed by distributional and relational dimensions of social justice and Bell's theory of interest convergence, this paper presents a conceptual analysis of school desegregation as social justice post-Milliken.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The competing interests of black equality and white freedom central to Milliken remain fundamental to the question of school desegregation 40 years later. In light of growing political and public support for local control, school choice, and neighborhood schools, I conclude by discussing the implications of local control for black students and racial equality within the current context of widening economic equality, political polarization, and racial isolation in the United States and the world.
The History of the Democratic Adult Education Movement in Spain
Authors: Oliver Esther , Tellado Itxaso , Yuste Montserrat , Fernández Rosa Larena
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Traditional adult education in Spain treated the learner as a mere object that could be shaped by the educator. Although current practices of the democratic adult education movement in Spain reveals a completely opposite standpoint on adult education, there has been little analysis of the several influences converging and complementing one another to form the historical antecedents for the creation of the democratic adult education movement that emerged in the turn of the century, in 2000, in Spain.

Purpose

This article aims to study the origins of the democratic adult education movement in Spain by examining (1) the historical educational experiences in Spain, particularly before the dictatorship period and (2) the influences of some social and educational theories.

Research Design

Using historical analysis and literature analysis, this article is focused on the history of adult education in Spain, and, more particularly, presents an exhaustive document analysis based on historical aspects associated with the formation of the democratic adult education movement.

Findings/Results

The findings suggest that the shaping of the democratic adult education movement in Spain has been influenced by three main strands: the Spanish libertarian movement of the early 20th century, Paulo Freire's work and insights on adult education, and other social and educational theories from contemporary authors who conceive education as a tool for overcoming inequalities. In the present article, we show the influence of these strands on the DAE by identifying three main characteristics underpinning the movement, that is, the participants’ self-organization and management based on egalitarian dialogue, the recognition of the universal capability of communication and knowledge creation, and the access to higher culture by the working-class people.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This article concludes that many of the educational practices developed under the democratic adult education movement are radically democratic, given that it promotes providing working-class people with access to higher culture while building up solidarity ties with the most disadvantaged. The present research shows how the DAE movement and all its components open up new lessons for successful inclusion practices in adult education and its effects on the promotion of social transformations at the local, national, and international levels.
The Modern School of Francisco Ferrer i Guàrdia (1859–1909), an International and Current Figure
Authors: GarcÍA-Yeste Carme , Redondo-Sama Gisela , PadrÓS Maria , Melgar Patricia
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Throughout history, a country's economic and military strength has influenced its times of cultural splendor and the rise of famous intellectuals and artists. Spain has been an exception to this. At the turn of the 20th century, a surprising series of events that no one could have predicted occurred. At the time, Spain had recently lost the last of its overseas colonies. A few years later, the Moroccan War was also a failure. All these events sent Spain into a state of confusion and provoked strong political tensions within the country: popular uprisings, street fights, and a general state of economic, political, and military weakness. Simultaneously, the cultural and intellectual scene developed a fascinating degree of momentum. Spain became the cradle of some of the world's foremost painters, poets, writers, and intellectuals, such as Picasso, Machado, Lorca, and Buñuel. Among them, the Catalan pedagogue Ferrer i Guàrdia (1859–1909), who was important in the libertarian tradition of popular culture, became a world figure with his educational project, the Modern School. This project was specifically aimed at the lowest social classes so that they would have access to a scientific, democratic, quality education, thereby developing their skills in a society where education was limited to the upper classes and contributing educational development to improve social conditions. Both his project and Ferrer i Guàrdia himself were persecuted and attacked until he was finally sentenced to death in October 1909.

Purpose

This goal of this study was to analyze Ferrer i Guàrdia's indefatigable fight for an egalitarian, high-quality pedagogical project. Specifically, the figure of Ferrer i Guàrdia was analyzed in the context of a socially and militarily decadent country, which led to his defamation, persecution, and death—in contrast with the international impact and prestige he achieved.

Research Design

This research was based on historical methods, specifically drawing on analyses of literature review, historical documents, books, and articles (both scientific articles and newspaper articles from the time) regarding the life and work of Ferrer i Guàrdia and the historical context in which he lived.

Findings/Conclusions

The article concludes with a summary of the great current value of Ferrer i Guàrdia's libertarian approach to education, which consisted of transforming education to provide high-quality learning for all regardless of socioeconomic class.
Teacher Knowledge and Instructional Quality of Beginning Teachers: Growth and Linkages
Authors: Desimone Laura M. , Hochberg Eric D. , Mcmaken Jennifer
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

We lack strong and consistent information about which measures of knowledge matter most for good teaching and student learning, and what are trajectories of improvement for novice teachers.

Research Questions

We explore the level, variation, and change in teacher knowledge and instruction in the first two years of teaching, the relationship between Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) and more distal measures such as certification.

Sample

We studied 45 middle school math teachers in their first two years of teaching, in 11 districts of varying size and urban status in two southeastern and two mid-Atlantic states.

Research Design and Analysis

This is a longitudinal (two-year) study of natural variation, which includes descriptive, correlational, individual growth curve, and regression analyses.

Data Collection

Based on multiple administrations of survey data, MKT assessments, and classroom observations using the Instructional Quality Assessment (IQA), we developed measures of (a) the rigor of lesson activities and classroom discussion, (b) the quality of classroom discussion, (c) the relative emphasis on procedural versus higher-order cognitive demands, (d) the proportion of time spent on basic versus advanced math topics, and (e) the number of topics covered, or instructional breadth.

Findings

Key findings are as follows: (1) many beginning math teachers in our sample had neither a degree in math nor substantial coursework in math; (2) teachers generally had low MKT scores, a balanced approach to emphasizing cognitive demands, low levels of discussion quality, and substantial across-teacher variation in topic coverage; (3) teachers improved in some but not all measures of instructional quality; (4) there were no direct relationships between MKT and instructional quality; (5) we found little evidence that MKT is a better predictor of instructional quality than distal measures, but we did find suggestive evidence that MKT may help to explain their predictive power; (6) we found suggestive evidence that taking more advanced math courses predicts desirable teaching practices; and (7) the number of weeks of student teaching in math was consistently related to more rigorous instruction and less emphasis on basic topics.

Conclusions

These results have implications for shaping teacher preparation programs, teacher in-service professional development, and certification policies, as well as how we study new teachers and calibrate our expectations for improvement in novice teachers.
In Their Own Words: Erasing Deficits and Exploring What Works to Improve K–12 and Postsecondary Black Male School Achievement
Authors: Warren Chezare A. , Douglas Ty-Ron M. O. , Howard Tyrone C.
Published: November 2021

This article outlines the imperative for strengths-based research to counter deficit perceptions and perspectives of Black males in contemporary discussions of their school achievement in the United States. The importance of young men of color in shaping research agendas, practice, and public policy is argued followed by a brief overview of the papers featured in the special issue “Erasing the Deficits: My Brother's Keeper and Contemporary Perspectives on Black Male School Achievement.”
Do Incentive-Based Programs Improve Teacher Quality and Student Achievement? An Analysis of Implementation in 12 Urban Charter Schools
Authors: Kaimal Girija , Jordan Will J.
Published: November 2021

Context

Policymakers have increasingly advocated for incentive-based approaches for improving urban schools.

Purpose of the Study

Few studies have examined the implementation of incentive based approaches in the urban charter school context. This paper presents research findings from a 4-year longitudinal study of the implementation of a comprehensive incentive-based program for school improvement.

Setting

The study was conducted in cluster of 12 charter schools in a large urban school district.

Participants/Subjects

Participants in the study included classroom teachers, administrators, and staff in the charter schools; program staff from the school district; and consultants to the project.

Research Design

The study used a mixed methods design, which included a comparative case study, and quasi-experimental design.

Data Collection and Analysis

Qualitative data elements included semistructured interviews and observations of program activities. Quantitative data elements included the official classroom teaching evaluation scores, teacher attitudes survey data, standardized student achievement scores from state and district assessment programs, and researcher-developed surveys of teacher and administrator perceptions.

Results

The results suggest that, in addition to questions about the viability of this comprehensive incentive model, there were several challenges related specifically to the context of the schools that affected program implementation. These included: misconceptions about performance pay; difficulties learning, understanding and sustaining a complex professional development model; poor fidelity of program implementation; varying capacities of the leadership teams; inability to sustain the incentive component; differences in the contexts and missions of the participating schools; and high teacher turnover at the schools. All the 12 schools reported some improvement in student achievement which led to performance rewards; however, this was not substantial or consistent over the course of the 4 years of implementation. The program also did not impact teacher retention at the schools. Schools that benefited the most from the program demonstrated an alignment of goals between the program staff, school leadership, and teachers.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The study findings suggest that even comprehensive incentive-based models are not yet viable and have limited effectiveness. Educators needed significant salary increases to be incentivized by money and incentive-based models need to be simpler in design for participants to understand them. The aspect that was somewhat sustained was the professional development and collegiality among the teachers indicating that a professional community is what teachers appreciated most from the program.