bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Two Ideals of Educational Justice
Authors: Stillwaggon James
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This essay takes up McClintock's (2004) critique of educational discourses as overly dependent upon a distributive model of justice and largely ignorant of the formative assumptions that ground educational policy and practice.

Purpose/Objective

The question that McClintock's analysis begs is how educational scholarship became attached to a theoretical model that seems to fail its own requirements. My aim is to identify some of the sources of our assumptions about educational justice in order to tether them to their origins and understand how these ideological influences continue to shape our contemporary purposes

Research Design

I analyze a selection of significant moments in the history of educational thought in terms of their respective contributions to one of two ideals of justice: the distributive and the formative. My aim is to show how these two long-standing ideals influence contemporary thought on educational justice and to question whether our adherence to these ideals as we have inherited them serves the needs of contemporary thinkers and the populations they seek to serve.

Conclusions/Recommendations

By drawing attention to the confused status of distributive and formative ideals in education in contemporary educational discourses, the principal conclusion of this essay is that educational research's narrow reliance upon a distributive model exacts a formative injustice upon disenfranchised populations. By indicating the confusion of these ideals, we may read back critically against the commonly accepted notion of education as a democratic tool against economic injustice.
Data Use Practices for Improved Mathematics Teaching and Learning: The Importance of Productive Dissonance and Recurring Feedback Cycles
Authors: Christman Jolley Bruce , Ebby Caroline B. , Edmunds Kimberly A.
Published: November 2021

Background

A growing number of studies argue that data use practices in schools have not sufficiently attended to teachers’ learning about students, subject matter, and instruction. The result has been changes in instructional management (e.g., student grouping, assignment of students to tutoring) rather than instructional improvement. Further, there is a paucity of research on how teachers make sense of data and their ensuing instructional actions.

Purpose

We report findings from qualitative research on an intervention designed to put teacher learning about mathematics instruction center stage in data use practices. The research sought to understand what happened as teachers made sense of data in their professional learning communities (PLCs), what changes they made in their mathematics instruction, and why they made the changes.

Research Design

The theoretical foundation for the research is situative theory, which conceptualizes teacher growth as “a process of increasing participation in the practice of teaching, and through this participation a process of becoming knowledgeable in and about teaching.” A case study approach was chosen to illuminate the complex interrelationships among intervention components and their influence on teachers: (1) between individual teacher sensemaking about data and collective sensemaking in PLCs and (2) between sensemaking and instructional changes. Additionally, case study methodology facilitates theory building grounded directly in data by providing nuanced accounts of the phenomena under study that uncover concepts and coherently relate them to one another. Teacher interpretation of data is ripe for theory building.

Findings

The case study of Ms. Walker illustrates in rich detail the developmental nature of her growth and the important roles of dissonance, collegial discussion, and productive dissonance in that process. Due to considerable progress in both her questioning strategies and her ability to build on student thinking to focus on important mathematical ideas, Ms. Walker was able to move beyond surface instructional adjustments to demonstrate substantial instructional improvement.

Conclusion/Recommendations

We argue that a fuller understanding of how teachers experience dissonance, and the supports necessary to make that dissonance productive, can enrich the design and implementation of data use practices. The research also offers an example of the contribution that microprocess studies can make to research on data use practices. We encourage researchers to attend carefully to teacher sensemaking and interrogate the concepts of dissonance and productive dissonance in future theory building about data use practices.
Is All Classroom Conduct Equal? Teacher Contact with Parents of Racial/Ethnic Minority and Immigrant Adolescents
Authors: Cherng Hua-Yu
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Parental involvement is a key ingredient in the educational success of students and an integral component of involvement is teacher-parent communication. One body of research finds that minority immigrant parents face barriers in interacting with schools, and communicate less with schools than native-born White parents. However, we know little of how schools reach out to parents.

Purpose

In this study, I use a nationally representative sample of high schoolers to examine patterns of teachers communicating with parents.

Population/Participants/Subjects

I utilize a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school sophomores, the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS:2002).

Research Design

This study employs quantitative analyses of secondary data, including two-sample tests for proportions, logistic regression, and predicted percentages.

Findings/Results

Even after considering measures of student behavior and other factors, I find that mathematics teachers are more likely to contact parents of third-generation Black and Latino youth about disruptive behavior than parents of third-generation White youth. Mathematics and English teachers are less likely to contact immigrant Asian parents about academic and behavioral concerns, even when students are struggling. Teachers are also less likely to contact minority parents with news of accomplishments.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The findings of this study point to the important role that race and nativity play in shaping teacher communication with parents. Education policy should be cognizant that racial/ethnic and immigrant disparities exist in teacher-parent contact, and encourage more training in teacher preparation programs and professional development coursework for teachers and school administrators. Moreover, existing programs and interventions on multicultural / diversity training should be evaluated for their impact on teacher perceptions and behavior.
Beyond Knowledge Ventriloquism and Echo Chambers: Raising the quality of the Debate in Teacher Education
Authors: Zeichner Kenneth , Conklin Hilary G.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

For over two decades, there has been a steady call for deregulating U.S. teacher education, closing down allegedly poor quality college and university programs, and creating greater market competition. In response to this call to disrupt the dominance of colleges and universities in teacher education, and because of the policies and funding allocations of the U.S. Education Department and private foundation funding, non-university providers of teacher education have proliferated in certain areas of the country. A critical aspect of the current call for greater deregulation and market competition in teacher education has been the declaration that university teacher education has failed. While there is no dispute about the need for improvements in the dominant college and university system of teacher education, it is also important to critically evaluate the warrants for the value of programs that critics claim should replace college and university programs.

Purpose

The focus of this paper is to illustrate how research has been misrepresented to support policies and programs that would simultaneously reduce the role of colleges and universities in preparing U.S. teachers and support the expansion of the role of non-university providers. We also examine the print news media's role in uncritically reproducing a narrative of failure about university teacher education and promoting the success of new non-university programs—attention that has served to inflate the public perception of these organizations and programs beyond what is warranted by the available evidence.

Research Design

Four cases are presented that illustrate the efforts to manufacture a narrative of the failure of colleges and universities in preparing teachers, and to construct a narrative of success for the non-university programs that have been funded to replace them. The authors use the concepts of echo chambers and knowledge ventriloquism to show how this process operates.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Following the presentation of the cases, specific recommendations are offered for raising the quality of the debates about the future of U.S. teacher education. These include greater transparency in the process of reform, better communication between researchers and stakeholders, using research that has been vetted to inform the debates, and genuinely exploring different policy options for teacher education.
A Model of Continuous Improvement in High Schools: A Process for Research, Innovation Design, Implementation, and Scale
Authors: Cohen-Vogel Lora , Cannata Marisa , Rutledge Stacey A. , Socol Allison Rose
Published: November 2021

This article describes a model for continuous improvement that guides the work of the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools, or NCSU. NCSU is a research and development center funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, the research arm of the United States Department of Education. At the core of the Center's work is an innovative process to bring to scale practices that have been shown to improve student achievement in high schools in Broward County, Florida, and Fort Worth, Texas. To do so, the Center's model of improvement relies on three core principles. First, a prototype is built to reflect the core elements of programs or practices that have been shown to be effective locally. Second, rapid-cycle testing is used to allow the prototype to be revised in ways that adapt it to a particular school context. Third, a researcher–practitioner partnership is employed that strives to both take advantage of and build local ownership and expertise. In so doing, the continuous improvement model addresses well-known challenges faced by those attempting to scale up educational innovations, challenges such as building teacher buy-in and attending to the organizational context in which innovations are to be enacted.
Implications for Scaling up Advanced Course Offerings and Takings: Evidence from Florida
Authors: Iatarola Patrice
Published: November 2021

This article summarizes a set of research studies that focus on high school course offerings, takings, and effects. Improving high school experiences and having students graduate from high school ready for college are national priorities under President Obama's Race to the Top initiative. Doing so by expanding access to advanced courses dates back a decade to President George W. Bush and the National Governors Association's efforts in the No Child Left Behind era. Courses are still seen as the gateway to higher student performance and access to college. From research done in collaboration with Dylan Conger and Mark Long, we found that taking more rigorous math courses increases students’ likelihood of being ready for college math, and that gaps in math course taking explain about one third of the gap between White and Black students and White and Hispanic students’ readiness for college. Advanced courses do matter—even taking just one advanced course improves students’ test scores, likelihood of graduating from high school, and likelihood of attending a four-year university. Schools, however, could do more to overcome the gap. We found that the best predictor of schools’ offering advanced courses was their having a critical mass of students with very high prior achievement. Resources, however, were not a factor.
Measuring Teacher Effectiveness Using Value-Added Models of High School Achievement
Authors: Gawade Nandita G. , Meyer Robert H.
Published: November 2021

This article uses empirical data to consider the consequences of particular characteristics of instruction and testing in high school for the modeling and estimation of value-added measures of school or teacher effectiveness. Unlike Mathematics and Reading for most elementary and middle school grades, there is a lack of annual testing of students in all secondary grades and subjects. The development of value-added models in high school is complicated by the resulting unavailability of direct measures of prior knowledge and readiness of the student for the relevant course. Another distinction between high school and earlier grades is the presence of greater differentiated instruction in high school caused by supplemental course requirements or by student self-selection into different courses. We show that the traditional value-added model used in NCLB grades and subjects can be generalized to the high school context. Specifically, prior-year test scores in related or core subjects can be used to control for differences in student aptitude for the course or subject being evaluated. Similarly, we can account for relevant differences in classroom characteristics—such as the average prior achievement of the students in the classroom—if they are assumed to be beyond a teacher's control.
Evaluating Students with Disabilities and Their Teachers: Use of Student Learning Objectives
Authors: Joyce Jeanette , Harrison Judith R. , Murphy Danielle
Published: November 2021

Over the past decade, there has been a movement toward increased accountability, focusing on teacher performance, in U.S. education. The purpose of this article is to discuss student learning objectives (SLOs) as one component of high-stakes teacher evaluation systems, within the context of learners with special needs. We describe SLOs and their origin, reviewing how the current Race to the Top states (i.e., states awarded competitive funds) are using SLOs in inclusive classes where general education teachers teach both students with and without disabilities. We found substantial variation in how SLOs from different regions were designed to incorporate the progress of students’ teachers’ evaluation ratings. These variations were particularly evident in three areas where decisions must be made: the population to be targeted, the goals to be targeted, and the weight of the SLOs in teachers’ evaluations. Potential exists for these decisions to negate the positive effects of SLOs; however, in the systems that balance the stakes and the weight of the SLOs, there is potential for the SLOs to lead to improved inclusive practices and differentiated instruction.
Examining Competing Notions of Social Justice at the Intersections of High-Stakes Testing Practices and Parents’ Rights: An Inclusive Education Perspective
Authors: Waitoller Federico R. , Pazey Barbara L.
Published: November 2021

In this article, we examine tensions that can materialize at the intersection of high-stakes accountability assessments and the rights of parents of students with dis/abilities. We bring to the surface and analyze the competing notions of social justice that have fueled the implementation of both high-stakes testing and the inclusion of students with dis/abilities in public schooling. Our purpose is to problematize narrow discussions about high-stakes testing and students with dis/abilities, contextualizing them in broader struggles for inclusive education. To achieve this task, we examine an event, framed as a case study, which emerged from a larger research project. Our analysis is informed by an understanding of inclusive education as situated practice in which historically evolving notions of justice are tangled and enacted to negotiate situated identities. We conclude with implications for practice and accountability models.
Culturally Relevant Pedagogies: Possibilities and Challenges for African Canadian Children
Authors: Henry Annette
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Ladson-Billings's concept of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for African American children has been widely reinterpreted in various contexts for racialized students. In this reflective essay, I consider its challenges in Canadian contexts.

Focus

I use my early ethnographic work to illustrate important aspects of culturally relevant pedagogies, to raise cross-cultural differences, and as a springboard to engage with newer theorizations.

Research Design

These studies took place in a majority Black K–5 school; in addition, I conducted two studies in Illinois. I argue that the goals of culturally relevant education for Black students within the formal mechanisms of Canadian schooling are impeded by the official policy of multiculturalism that frames the Canadian imaginary and does not include Black people.

Conclusions/Recommendations

In the quest for pedagogies relevant to students’ lives, I call for fuller conceptualizations of Blackness that complicate notions of culture, transnational relationships, and global migrations. Lastly, I call for teachers to embrace the nexus of issues that students negotiate in their daily lives as part of any potentially transformative pedagogy.
Social Justice Policymaking in Teacher Education from Conception to Application: Realizing Standard VI
Authors: Burns Leslie David , Miller Sj
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

This article describes the fundamental role of social justice in public education and professional teacher education.

Purpose

The purpose of this policy analysis is to explicate the theorizing, conceptualization, formalization, and implementation of the first standard for social justice teaching and teacher education in U.S. history, published by the National Council of Teachers of English and approved by the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education in November 2012.

Design

Using a policy narrative approach, the authors explicate the grassroots political processes, professional political action and advocacy, and policy procedures and scholarship undertaken to construct a successfully vetted, approved, and fully implemented national policy in one subject-area professional association (SPA). The authors demonstrate how other SPAs and affiliated groups may pursue similar policies for socially just teaching and teacher education across disciplines, fields, and contexts across education.

Conclusions

Using research to theorize responsive teaching pedagogies and using findings from social psychology research to generate a socially just orientation to teaching in public schools, the authors highlight the ways in which social justice teaching is not simply a possible orientation for professional educators to consider but a fundamental tenet and primary consideration of public education overall. The authors conclude that SPAs and public education professionals not only may but must engage in social justice policymaking for educational equity in order to succeed in attaining education reforms that truly serve the public good.
Help Avoidance: When Students Should Seek Help, and the Consequences of Failing to Do So
Authors: Almeda Victoria , Baker Ryan , Corbett Albert
Published: November 2021

Background

Across computer-based and traditional classroom settings, recent studies have identified motivational orientation, prior knowledge, self-regulation, and cognitive load as possible factors that affect help-seeking behaviors and their impact on learning. However, the question of whether there is an optimal point for determining when a student needs help has not been fully explored.

Purpose of Study

Using data from two modules of the Genetics Cognitive Tutor, the present study investigates this question by examining whether the relationship of help avoidance (failing to seek help when it is needed) and student learning is dependent on the student's level of prior knowledge. We also investigate how the relationship between help avoidance and student learning is mediated by the amount of prior practice, or the number of attempts at a problem step.

Research Design

We obtained existing data from the use of the Genetics Cognitive Tutor. We conducted a series of correlational analyses to better understand the relationship between help avoidance and student learning. We correlated students’ proportions of help avoidance at different levels of knowledge with measures of robust learning. We also analyzed the relationship between students’ proportions of help avoidance and measures of robust learning, taking the amount of practice or the number of attempts at a problem step into account.

Results

Our findings suggest that, except at very high or very low knowledge, help avoidance is generally stably (negatively) related to robust learning outcomes. Our results also indicate that help avoidance is more strongly associated with learning outcomes early in the practice sequence, suggesting that students should be encouraged to seek help on problem-solving skills on the first problem, rather than waiting until later problems. Similarly, our results reveal that help avoidance is more negatively associated with learning outcomes on early attempts at a problem step than on later attempts, indicating that students should be encouraged to seek help on the first attempt if help is needed.

Conclusions

These findings represent a step toward understanding when students should seek help, with the potential of improving the design of metacognitive support within adaptive learning systems.
Policy-Induced Disparities in Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Teacher Qualifications
Authors: Rosenbaum Rene P.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Research reveals the Head Start program has made impressive gains in increasing the qualifications of its teachers since the passage of the Coats Human Services Reauthorization Act of 1998. These gains have been attributed to the initiatives implemented by the Administration of Children and Families to increase the qualifications of Head Start teachers nationwide. The slow growth in the credentialization of Migrant and Seasonal Head Start program teachers and the resultant teacher qualifications disparity gap that has resulted, on the other hand, has been attributed to the unique characteristics of Migrant and Seasonal Head Start families and programs.

Purpose

The study documents the widening annual teacher qualifications disparity gap between Head Start (HS) teachers and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) teachers since the passage of the 1998 Head Start Act and asks if the teacher qualifications disparity is a Head Start policy-induced outcome. It is hypothesized in this regard that the way the workforce provisions to increase the qualifications of Head Start teachers were written into the legislation and the actions taken by the ACF in response are contributing factors to the growth in the MSHS teacher qualifications disparity gap.

Research Design

The qualitative case study analyzes Head Start data to confirm the growing teacher qualifications gap between HS and Migrant Head Start programs. To examine the cause of this growing disparity a review of the literature was conducted, the provisions of the 1998 and 2007 Head Start Acts were examined, as were the programmatic initiatives by the Administration of Children and Families to help Head Start programs increate their share of teachers with early childhood education degrees. The Large Program Effect is introduced as an analytical construct to illustrate the effects large HS programs had on the HS teacher labor market and on the MSHS teacher qualifications disparity gap.

Conclusion

The article offers an alternative explanation to the growing teacher qualifications gap grounded in the legislative provisions of the 1998 and 2007 reauthorizations of the Head Start Act and the programmatic actions taken the ACF to implement major HS teacher labor market reforms. The findings suggest two course of action, one meant to reverse the policy-induced disparities the other to avoid their perpetuation in the future.
Connecting Math Attitudes with STEM Career Attainment: A Latent Class Analysis Approach
Authors: Dang Myley , Nylund-Gibson Karen
Published: November 2021

Background

For many years now, there have been many job vacancies in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), but not enough workers to fill these vacancies. Much attention has been given to understanding and changing this situation in our country.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to address this dilemma by understanding what may be gained by investigating student's attitudes towards STEM in high school. Specifically, we study the relationship between students’ math attitudes and math self-efficacy beliefs and their career outcomes in STEM. Further, we do this across different English proficiency levels to see if any understanding may be gained by studying these groups differently.

Research Design

This study implemented secondary analysis by using a nationally representative sample of U.S. 10th graders from the Education Longitudinal Study. A latent class analysis was used to classify students’ math attitudes and self-efficacy.

Results

The results from this study provide empirical support suggesting that across all three English proficiency groups, students with high math attitudes and high math self-efficacy were more likely to have a career in STEM. When examining demographic characteristics, female students were more likely to have lower math attitude and lower math self-efficacy, which helps to explain why there is an underrepresentation of female students in STEM fields. We also found that race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status operated differently for each of the English proficiency groups.

Conclusions/Recommendations

This study directly links student math attitudes and self-efficacy to later career choice. This study has implications for researchers and policymakers who are developing interventions, suggesting that fostering positive math attitudes and self-efficacy would help encourage more students to pursue careers in STEM, particularly for non-native English speakers and female students.
Identifying the Determinants of Chronic Absenteeism: A Bioecological Systems Approach
Authors: Gottfried Michael A. , Gee Kevin A.
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Chronic school absenteeism is a pervasive problem across the US; in early education, it is most rampant in kindergarten and its consequences are particularly detrimental, often leading to poorer academic, behavioral and developmental outcomes later in life. Though prior empirical research has identified a broad range of determinants of chronic absenteeism, there lacks a single, unified theoretically driven investigation examining how such factors concurrently explain the incidence of chronic absenteeism among our nation's youngest schoolchildren. Thus, it is difficult to determine the relative importance of one factor over another, hence making it challenging to develop appropriate supports and services to reduce school absences.

Purpose/Research Questions

Our study filled this critical void—we investigated multiple determinants of chronic absenteeism that were grounded, theoretically and empirically, in Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of development. Specifically, using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Class of 2010–11 and the method of hierarchical generalized linear modeling, we analyzed how the co-occurrence of key (a) process, (b) person, and (c) context (micro-, meso-, exo- and macrosystem) factors was associated with kindergarteners’ probability of being chronically absent.

Findings/Results

Children who have poorer health, higher internalizing behaviors, and more frequent engagement in learning activities at home had higher odds of chronic absenteeism. Also, children from larger families and of lower socioeconomic status faced increased odds of chronic absenteeism. Conversely, children holding positive attitudes towards school had lowered odds of chronic absenteeism, a finding that remained robust across socioeconomic status groups. Finally, parent–school connections were associated with lowered odds of absenteeism.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Overall, our findings strongly suggested that addressing chronic absenteeism will require comprehensive and multifaceted approaches that recognize these multiple factors. With this theoretically grounded, more descriptive approach, it is more feasible to identify key factors and subsequently design policies and practices to prevent absence behavior.
Social Capital in Schools: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis of the Equity of Its Distribution and Relation to Academic Achievement
Authors: Salloum Serena , Goddard Roger , Larsen Ross
Published: November 2021

Background

Schools face pressure to promote equitable student outcomes as the achievement gap continues to persist. The authors examine different ways in which social capital has been conceptualized as well as prior theory and research on its formation and consequences. While some theoretical and empirical work conceptualizes social capital as a mechanism for prosocial outcomes, other scholars address it as an apparatus of social status.

Purpose

This study was conducted to advance knowledge about (a) the validity of measuring social capital as an organizational construct, (b) the equity of social capital distribution in schools, and (c) the relationship between school social capital and academic achievement.

Research Design

In this paper, the authors examine these possibilities using data collected from 96 Midwestern high schools. Confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, and structural equation modeling were employed to depict the relationships among social capital, socioeconomic status, and academic achievement in schools.

Findings/Results

The authors found that variance in social capital was significantly related to school membership and that confirmatory factor analysis supported the construction of a school social capital measure. Moreover, more than half of the variance in social capital is unrelated to social class, and social capital is a positive predictor of academic achievement.

Conclusions/Recommendations

Because of its positive relation to achievement, investments in the development of social capital may be worthwhile. Interventions designed to develop social capital in schools should be guided by efforts to strengthen access to school-based resources in poor and low achieving schools.
The Problem with Screen Time
Authors: Squire Kurt D. , Steinkuehler Constance
Published: November 2021

Background

Since 1999, a “two hours a day” restriction has been recommended for screen time for children, yet American households continue to consume far more media than such recommendations allow. At the basis of such largely ignored admonitions is a dosage model of technology in which a presumed homogeneous substance called “screen time” is the intervention and changes in some set of continuous and measurable variables (e.g., literacy, aggression, social acuity, BMI) are the outcomes. However, to treat “screen time” as a meaningful unit of analysis is to carve the world at the wrong ontological joints. If we want to make claims about what is and is not good for children and counsel parents on how to regulate, mediate, and participate in media use in the home, we need to understand the black box of screen time and unpack how technology is used in specific ways in specific material and social contexts, and the relationship of that activity to systems of meaning beyond the device or screen.

Purpose

In this article, we unpack the notion of screen time as a way to problematize the dosage model of media use and the regulatory admonitions given parents based on it.

Research Design

In this investigation, we use Stake's instrumental case study methods to examine in detail a single child's activity in the videogame Madden; the meaning, function and context of this play; and how it is tied to other forms of engagement and the activity of American football. “Madden” is our bounded case, but, as we will show, the meaning of playing Madden comes from its location within the broader activity of “American football.”

Data Collection and Analysis

Observations of the 7-year-old male's gameplay and attending activities for a period of 3.5 months, with multiple informal interviews about his activity across that observational period, including a 90-minute structured interview midway through observations. Field notes and screenshots were taken on both informal and formal observations.

Findings

This case study illustrates how digital games, streamed and live video, print documents, tangible manipulatives, and physical action are caught up in a single coherent transmedia endeavor whose means and instruments are constructed first, perhaps, by media producers but then deconstructed and repurposed by users themselves. The videogame as practiced is a simulated system tied to the real world it represents, and, as such, play is deeply embedded in a complex semiotic, material, and social context.

Conclusions

Constructs such as screen time quantity distract us from other, more explanatory constructs such as productive practice, critical consumption, developmental progressions, and intertextuality.
Cognitive Modeling and Self-Regulation of Learning in Instructional Settings
Authors: White Marie C.
Published: November 2021

Self-regulation of cognition and behavior is an important aspect of student learning and academic performance in the 21st-century classroom. The purpose of the chapter is to present how an integrated framework of cyclical phases and developmental levels of self-regulated learning play a significant role in modeling and self-regulatory learning as key processes for learning. A review of empirical studies and theoretical models supports the effectiveness of modeling on students’ self-regulated learning. These studies provide evidence of the critical role of models during instruction as an important contextual factor that can promote self-efficacy, motivation, self-regulation, and achievement. To understand how characteristics of the model, the observer, and reinforcement interact to affect learning and behavior, it is necessary to investigate how social cognitive theory has uniquely contributed to our current understanding of modeling. Critical to effective modeling is the belief that learning and teaching are interactive processes in which both teachers and learners engage in planning, implementing, assessing, and refecting on the events and outcomes.
Individual Differences and Learning Contexts: A Self-Regulated Learning Perspective
Authors: Ben-Eliyahu Adar
Published: November 2021

This article examines how individual differences (giftedness) interact with learning contexts (favorite versus least favorite courses) to influence learning processes and outcomes. The findings show that gifted and typically developing students differ solely in their expectancies for success and grades among a large variety of measures, including motivation (goal orientations, expectancies, and values) and self-regulated learning (self-regulated emotions, behaviors, and cognitions). These results imply that the learning context can override individual differences. Through the lens of the integrated self-regulated learning model (iSRL; Ben-Eliyahu & Bernacki, 2015), the article discusses why there are contextual differences in learning. By bridging the literature on mastery goal structure and self-determination theory, it is proposed that learning contexts focused on development and self-progress (i.e., mastery goal structured contexts) lead to adaptive achievement outcomes because competing basic needs are satisfied, competition decreases, and resources for learning are freed. Given the importance of self-regulated learning, students should be encouraged to develop learning habits and strategies based on self-regulation, which should be considered a 21st-century skill that can be scaffolded by educators in formal and informal learning settings.
Expanding the Boundaries of Kindergartners’ E-book Reading: Metacognitive Guidance for E-book Support among Young Children at Risk for Learning Disabilities
Authors: Shamir Adina
Published: November 2021

The increasing range and number of electronic books (e-books) available in the children's book market has motivated educators and researchers to investigate how well these platforms can contribute to advancing emergent literacy. Such research has nonetheless been conducted on a much smaller scale in the area of self-regulated learning (SRL) with e-books targeted at young children at risk for learning disabilities. The article discusses recent research conducted with kindergartners 4.5 to 7.0 years old. In the research reported, the 78 participants were randomly divided into three groups of equal size: experimental (educational e-book with meta-cognitive guidance), experimental (educational e-book without metacognitive guidance), and control (the regular kindergarten program). The findings indicated that the metacognitive guidance embedded in the educational e-book supported phonological awareness (rhyming) but not vocabulary acquisition.
Exploring Options: From Preparation to Placements
Authors: Randi Judy
Published: November 2021

This article describes and compares the preparation experiences of the 25 exemplar elementary, secondary English, and math teachers entering teaching through college-based (CB) programs or the New Jersey Teacher Education Project, one of the nation's first alternative routes (AR) to certification. The article then follows these teachers into their first experience “on the other side of the desk.” For CB candidates, their initial foray into teaching occurred in a classroom “borrowed” from a mentor teacher, who worked side by side with the novice. For AR candidates immediately assigned to a classroom of their own, the initial placement extended throughout the school year, and mentors were at times difficult to find. The article continues to follow these novice teachers through their first six years and presents data on those who remained in their initial placement setting and those who chose to leave teaching or move on to a new school. The article highlights the challenges novice teachers face when teachers’ preparation and expectations are mismatched with school culture and work assignments.
Final Choices: Surveying Career Options
Authors: Randi Judy
Published: November 2021

This article follows the 25 exemplar elementary, secondary English, and math teachers prepared in New Jersey's alternate route program (AR) or college-based programs (CB) through their 11th year. The article examines retention and attrition patterns, including moving from school to school or to education-related positions outside of K–12 classroom settings. The article presents data on teachers’ reasons for staying or leaving, including their career aspirations. The article concludes with a discussion of the findings and the implications for teacher education.
Developing a Profiling Tool Using a Values Approach to School Renewal
Authors: Brown Raymond , Heck Deborah , Pendergast Donna , Kanasa Harry , Morgan Ann
Published: November 2021

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to outline the evidence-based development of a learning approach to school renewal that employs information from key members of a school community (teachers, parents, students) to promote school-based discussions about school renewal.

Setting

The study took place in an independent system of Catholic schools. Schools in this tradition have an enduring history in the development of Catholic education and have partner schools in Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, India, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Research Design

The study employed a qualitative sociocultural design focused on generating narratives that could be used to describe the school as a community of practice and the development of a valid and reliable School Renewal Profiling Tool (SRPT) that provides an empirical picture of a school's culture and practice.

Data Collection and Analysis

Data collection included school visitations, classroom observations, in-depth interviews, and publicly available school documentation and data gathered from a case study site, a coeducational secondary college located in the center of a metropolitan city. Data collected were subjected to thematic analysis and principal components analysis (PCA). Data gathered from the SRPT items were then presented to the school community in the form of a collated report for feedback and school renewal purposes.

Findings

Findings suggest that the SRPT has the potential to capture local ways of knowing and doing as resources to promote organizational school renewal through refecting individual perceptions of participation in collective practice.

Conclusions

The research surrounding the development of the SRPT contributes to the field of school renewal in two distinct ways. First, the development of the SRPT offers an approach to school renewal that focuses on the values upon which a school community is based. Second, the SRPT avoids the difficulty of what Fielding (2004) refers to as “speaking about and for others,” where the original thoughts of respondents are couched in the language and values of the researcher.
Challenging Respectability: Student Health Directors Providing Services to Lesbian and Gay Students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Authors: Nguyen Thai-Huy , Samayoa AndrÉs Castro , Gasman Marybeth , Mobley Steve
Published: November 2021

Background

Researchers have tended to favor scholarship that looks at institutional forms of support for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students in the context of resource centers specifically tailored to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. Our study makes two distinct contributions to the study of gay and lesbian students of color: (1) We move away from resource centers as a focal point of support for students and attempt to explore the role of student health at 11 HBCUs; and (2) We draw attention to the ways in which health administrators challenge the influence of respectability to promote the delivery of healthcare that is attuned to the needs and experiences of sexual minorities, thereby providing evidence that pushes back against dominant narratives that reinforce HBCUs as homogenous communities of conservatism and homophobia.

Research Question

This study seeks to answer the following questions: (1) How do student health directors at HBCUs promote policies and practices that are attuned to the health of their gay and lesbian students? and (2) What conditions are developed to cultivate a student health center that not only addresses students’ physical health, but is also “in a position to reaffirm these students”?

Participants

Eleven student health directors at 4-year private and public HBCUs.

Research Design

The inquiry is situated within the tradition of narrative analyses. Semistructured interviews were conducted with our participants.

Data Collection and Analysis

We structured each interview around six broad open-ended questions that offered opportunities for us to tease out unique areas of tension during the interview and to “lead the respondent on a journey, to a frame of mind from which she will understand our ‘big’ questions.” These questions included perceptions of challenges and successes of campus inclusiveness for sexual minority students, clinical services, sensitivity training for staff, and the presence of same gender loving brochures and messaging.

Findings

Our data offers a narrative that illuminates the forces that shape the challenges and opportunities for student health directors (SHDs) to engender change within and outside student health centers and how that ultimately affects the provision of health services to gay and lesbian students. More importantly, it showcases how efforts are made to challenge the influence of respectability to ensure student health and well-being. The findings are organized under the following themes: (a) building trust, (b) partnerships, (c) resistance, and (d) envisioning next steps.

Conclusions

We provide an extensive discussion in how student health directors manage the challenges associated with dominant institutional ideologies, as well as critical implications for future research and practice.
Choosers, Obstructed Choosers, and Nonchoosers: A Framework for Defaulting in Schooling Choices
Authors: Delale-O'Connor Lori
Published: November 2021

Background/Context

Prior research overlooks the importance of drawing distinctions within the category of defaulters or “nonchoosers” in schooling choices. Defaulters are both a theoretically and empirically interesting population, and understanding the processes by which families come to or are assigned the default school offers insight into the micromechanisms contributing to the reproduction of inequality through education.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study

In this study, I use in-depth interview data to understand defaulting and propose a basic framework that gets beyond a chooser/nonchooser dichotomy. The purpose of this work is to help researchers and school district officials to identify areas of school choice systems that are incompatible with would-be choosers. This study further offers a useful framework for thinking about defaulters and their role in the school choice process.

Population/Participants/Subjects

This study draws from survey and interview data from 28 low-income to working-class African American parents in the Chicago Public Schools whose children were at a choice juncture (the transition from eighth grade to high school).

Data Collection and Analysis

This study utilizes survey and in-depth qualitative interviews. Surveys and interviews were conducted in person and lasted from 30 minutes to 2 hours each. Parent respondents filled out a survey that included demographic information, family and child activities, community connectedness, and basic activity around choosing a high school and then answered open-ended questions about their specific choice activities, their ideas about education, and their information networks. I employed inductive coding to analyze the interview data.

Findings/Results

In this study, I find that families who arrived at the default outcome did so in ways that followed patterns similar to those found in studies of choosers. Families’ inclination to choose, capacity for choice, and school preferences, as well external barriers, compose a framework that helps to explain how some parents labeled as “nonchoosers” or defaulters in other studies are actually actively engaging in the choice process and, further, how the choice process itself can lead those who perceive themselves as choosers to be classified by researchers as nonchoosers or defaulters.

Conclusions/Recommendations

The defaulter framework provides insight into the barriers that some families face to active choosing and, as such, suggests potential micro- and macro-level interventions to meet the needs of a variety of potential types of participants in choice systems.