bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Demystifying Disproportionality: Exploring Educator Beliefs about Special Education Referrals for English Learners
Authors: Park Soyoung 
Published: November 2021

Background Federal civil rights law requires that English learners (ELs) with potential disabilities be identified in a timely and appropriate manner. Decades of research documenting the problem of disproportionality among ELs in special education suggest, however, that educators struggle with the proper identification of ELs with disabilities. ELs are found to be underrepresented in special education in the early elementary years and overrepresented beginning in upper elementary school. Although these disproportionality patterns are well documented, little is known about why this phenomenon persists. Purpose of Study This study addresses this gap by following 16 ELs and their educators in real time through the special education referral process. Using participant observation research methods, I explore mechanisms in the field that might explain disproportionality. Specifically, I examine educator beliefs about whether and when to refer ELs to special education, as well as how those beliefs manifest in the referral process for ELs. Research Design This qualitative research study was part of a yearlong multilevel project looking at the special education identification process for 16 ELs at two elementary schools in an urban district. The project involved data collection and analysis at the federal policy, district, school, and student levels. I used a combination of document analysis methods, participant observation research methods, and triangulation among interviews, field observations, and archival documents. Whereas the larger study investigated the entire special education identification process for ELs, this article focuses on just the referral process. Relevant data collected include interviews with school staff, observations of the referral process for ELs, and documents tied to the ELs’ special education referrals. Conclusions The educators in this study were found to adopt one of two stances regarding EL referrals to special education: wait to be sure and the sooner the better. These stances reflected educators’ beliefs about special education, ELs, and teachers. Teachers acted on these beliefs in way that led to the co-construction of “English learner” and “disability.” The findings suggest that educator beliefs about whether and when to refer ELs to special education serve as mechanisms that help to explain disproportionality for this student group. This study brings to light how the prevention of erroneous co-construction of EL and disability statuses requires changing the ways in which English learner and disability are conceptualized—shifting away from deficit views of these student groups and toward recognition of their many assets.
Toward Academic Gender Justice: Trans Faculty Reconceptualizing Gender Equity
Authors: Pitcher Erich N. 
Published: November 2021

Context Despite debate about the status of women faculty within U.S. universities, the discourse of gender equity often follows genderist logics (e.g., only two genders). Focus of Study I draw on the perspectives of ten trans faculty to reconceptualize gender equity. Using critical trans politics, I co-create an academic gender justice framework through three readings of the data. Notions of academic gender justice will improve the livability of transgender academics’ lives. Research Design In the larger qualitative study from which these data were derived, I engaged narrative inquiry. This study used a thinking-with-theory analytical approach, and I co-theorized with participants to develop five tenets. Findings I offer five tenets: Conceptualizing gender as multifaceted, the mutual constitution of social identities with multiplicative effects, centrality of trans individuals naming the conditions of their oppression, the salience of multiple systems of oppression within participants’ experiences, and the importance of resisting dominant norms to improve workplace conditions for trans faculty. Conclusions Higher-education leaders should engage the core tenets of academic gender justice in an effort to build more equitable and just institutional cultures for trans academics. Rethinking policy through the lens of academic gender justice is also needed.
Diluting Mexican American History for Public Consumption: How Mendez Became the “Mexican American Brown”
Authors: Santiago Maribel 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context To adapt to increasingly diverse classrooms, some school districts are trying to offer additional curriculum that represents the diversity of their students. California, where half of school-age children are Latinx, is at the forefront of including Latinx histories in its curriculum. The state's 2017 California History-Social Science Framework claims to prioritize “engaging and relevant” history curriculum. Yet, as this article reveals, curricular inclusion does not always lead to complex representations of Latinx histories. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article focuses on Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County (1946), a Mexican American school desegregation case, as an example of how Latinx experiences were diluted to appeal to a larger audience, gain traction, and justify their addition to the California framework. Research Design This article includes analysis of five forms of data: historiography of the case, primary documents regarding the court trial and appeal, primary documents related to Mendez becoming part of the California framework, educational resources, and interviews with people who advocated for Mendez to be taught in K–12 classrooms. Findings Although Mendez was included in the California History-Social Science Framework, the version that was embraced was more about Brown v. Board of Education than Mendez or Latinx school segregation. To appeal to a larger audience, the Mendez story had to attach itself to an already celebrated and well-known event. This gave rise to the “Mexican American Brown ” interpretation that stretches the historical truth, exaggerating the connection between Brown and Mendez. Educational and curricular resources facilitated this process in three ways: (1) claiming that Mendez was the legal precursor to Brown; (2) fabricating Earl Warren's participation in Mendez; and (3) exaggerating the role that Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP had in Mendez. Historical actors were then used to corroborate the Mexican American Brown story. This article ends with analysis of what is lost when Mendez is represented in the California framework as the Mexican American Brown. Conclusions Mendez v. Westminster's addition to the California framework signifies that it is an event worth learning. Yet, it is Mendez's relationship to Brown that made it worthy. This leads to an “illusion of inclusion,” which gives the impression that Mexican Americans are being incorporated into the curriculum but actually fails to represent their unique experiences. Historical events that validate the stories of Latinx communities are still very much missing from curricular materials.
An Ethnographic Case Study of Affordances in an Architecture Design Studio
Authors: Rands Melissa L. , Gansemer-Topf Ann M. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Studio-based courses—the primary approach in design education— have been viewed as effective environments for learning. This study uses an ecological approach to explore how the studio environment creates opportunities for social interaction through immersive studies of studio learning. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We engaged in an ethnographic case study of a beginning architecture design course aimed at exploring the ways the learning environment of the studio affords social interaction, and how these interactions shape students’ understandings and behaviors as they learn. Particular attention was paid to the physical, structural, and instructional affordances that contribute to learning in the studio environment. Setting Over the course of one semester, we observed nine students and their instructor in Architecture Design 1 (AD 1), a first-year architecture studio at a large, public research institution. Population/Participants/Subjects The student participants ranged in age from 18 to 25, four of the participants identified as students of color, two identified as international students, three identified as female, and six, male. The instructor, who identifies as female, had taught AD 1 at the university for eight years prior to the study and holds a master's degree in architecture. Research Design We engaged in an ethnographic case study using an ecological approach, focused on the relationship between humans and their environment. We view learning and knowledge as individually constructed by the learner in a socially situated, public context; as such, a case study design using ethnographic methods of data collection was employed. Data Collection and Analysis Our data sources included observations of daily studio activities, participant interviews, researcher reflections on studio visits, and course artifacts such as the course syllabus and assignment handouts. We analyzed data using a two-cycle method of coding and analysis focusing on identifying patterns or themes in the data. Findings/Results We found several physical, structural, and instructional affordances that contribute to learning. The physical affordances of the studio environment of AD 1 included the open layout, public/private workspaces, and co-working in proximity to others. The structural affordances were long blocks of unscheduled work time, the project brief, and the sequencing of the projects, tasks, and deadlines. The instructional affordances included formal and informal critique, “mini-lectures,” and demonstrations. Conclusions/Recommendations Although focused within a design discipline, our findings have broader applicability to collegiate academic environments that support student learning. Recommendations include creating fluidity in the classroom space, centralizing feedback, demonstrating emerging understandings visually, and constraining constructivist learning environments.
Structural or Cultural Pathways to Innovative Change? Faculty and Shared Governance in the Liberal Arts College
Authors: Warshaw Jarrett B. , Ciarimboli Erin B. 
Published: November 2021

Background Popular commentary portrays private liberal arts colleges (LACs) as ensnared within a “death spiral” due to unprecedented enrollment and financial challenges. But, in contrast to ominous predictions, recent evidence suggests strong levels of innovative activity and resilience in the sector, as reflected in the creation and adoption of methods, approaches, and configurations new to these campuses. In periods of rapid change and transition, LAC stakeholders are likely to seek research on how different change-centered strategies enhance or constrain the faculty role and the relationship between shared governance and innovation. Purpose This study focuses on how faculty engage with administrative leaders and professional staff in academic innovation and decision making in LACs. It applies competing theoretical perspectives—the structural-bureaucratic and cultural lenses of analysis—to determine which one best captures the changes taking place on these campuses and to assay broader outcomes associated with using one approach over another. Participants The 43 research participants in this study encompassed faculty members (49%), senior-level administrators (21%), trustees (7%), and professional staff (23%). Research Design This study employed an embedded case study design that was replicated across three LACs, whose innovative activity was on par with national averages in the sector. Data Collection and Analysis Site visits were conducted at each LAC, during which individual interviews were conducted, documentary materials were collected, and field notes were recorded. The analysis included an application of process, values, and pattern coding to examine the relative fit of the structural-bureaucratic and cultural accounts. Findings/Results The results indicated that the faculty role largely concentrated on contributing content and operationalizing details of academic innovation. Although emerging forms of shared governance were carefully designed, they had tenuous connections to the overall innovative capacity of faculty and their campuses. Conclusions/Recommendations The value of the cultural lens of analysis lies in its ability to account for the ways in which interactions and communication among faculty and stakeholders enhances or constrains academic innovation. A cultural perspective also illuminates three broader patterns from the cases to explain (1) the increasing fragmentation between administrators and faculty and within the professoriate, (2) the compartmentalization of academic work vis-à-vis the “unbundling” of faculty roles, and (3) the failure of purely structural recourses to produce innovative change. Because innovation in LACs matters for strategic differentiation and for the contributions of private higher education to the postsecondary system, broader implications for research and policy are discussed.
Manifestations of Mathematics within the Power Dynamics in a Pre-K Classroom
Authors: Karsli-Calamak Elif , Allexsaht-Snider Martha 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Young children's engagement with mathematics is occurring in a context in which school transition and readiness concerns that invoke increased institutional rules and disciplinary practices involving power dynamics are coming into play. These trends made us curious to undertake an in-depth investigation of the different ways children and their teachers engage in mathematics in preschool classrooms today. Purpose/Focus of Study In our video-ethnography study we explored the ways mathematics manifested itself in a Pre-K setting and how mathematics functioned in different ways throughout the school day. The question guiding our research was: Recognizing the context of current transition and readiness concerns in early childhood education, in what ways is mathematics manifested in the interactions of teachers and children in a Pre-K classroom? Setting The study took place in a childcare center, accredited by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, in the United States. Participants Participants in this study were four 4- to 5-year-old children and their teachers in an ethnically diverse classroom. Research Design The study drew on a video-ethnographic method through semester-long observations and video-recordings in a Pre-K classroom. The analysis began with (a) labeling manifestations of mathematics in the video data through open coding, proceeded to (b) the examination and the categorization of the various manifestations of mathematics, was followed by (c) the identification of the key scenes which best represented each category, and ended with (d) the multimodal analysis of the key scenes. Findings This research illustrated that formal mathematics teaching and learning contexts included the kinds of disciplinary and bodily control practices that have been evident in studies of children at the preschool level transitioning into school. The study demonstrated the ways that mathematics, with its authoritative and classificatory nature, became a disciplinary tool itself during the course of the day. Also evident were the ways in which all actors in the classroom drew on mathematics for problem-solving in real-life situations within a power/resistance dynamic. Conclusions/Recommendations This research raises questions of how disciplinary practices might limit children's mathematics learning. The finding that mathematics was implicated in the practices of power dynamics among teachers and children and among children opens up possibilities for teachers to recognize how mathematics is being used informally and creatively by children. Teachers can then use this knowledge to build on young children's identities as powerful and competent mathematicians, using mathematics in problem solving during day-to-day interactions.
Understanding Unfulfilled AP Potential Across the Participation Pipeline by Race and Income
Authors: Rodriguez Awilda , Hernandez-Hamed Esmeralda 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Each year, large shares of students who could do well in Advanced Placement courses and exams—known as AP potential students—do not participate, particularly students of color and low-income students. There are a number of prevailing reasons, both structural (schools do not offer the courses, or teachers do not accurately identify students) and as well as student- centered (lack of motivation, conflicts with other activities, or lack of self-efficacy). Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study seeks to empirically test these common reasons for foregoing AP participation with the following research questions: How are student and school characteristics related to the probabilities of students attending a high school that offers a corresponding course, enrolling in the course, and taking the exam? To what extent are explanations such as students’ constraints on time, lack of motivation, or lack of self-efficacy related to the probability of AP course- and exam-taking, net of student- and school-level measures? How well do AP potential estimates align with teacher recommendations into advanced coursework? We focused on differences across race and class throughout. Research Design We define AP potential as a 60% percent probability or better of receiving at least a 3 on an AP exam in either math or English. Using a nationally representative sample of sophomores in 2002 whom we identified as having AP potential, we answered the first research question with a sequential logit. We then used postestimation commands in Stata to examine motivation, hours working, hours in extracurricular activities, and measures of English and math self-efficacy to address the second research question. For the third research question, we modeled the probability of student misidentification—or the probability that the teacher of a student with AP potential will not identify them for honors or AP courses—using a logit. Conclusions/Recommendations We found that large shares of students did not fulfill their AP potential, which varied by student background and subject area. We did not find support for many of the student-centered reasons for forgoing AP, such as lack of motivation and constraints on time due to work or extra-curricular activities. We did find, however, that teacher identification and academic self-efficacy mattered to AP course- and exam-taking, especially for marginalized students, suggesting viable policy and practice levers to improve equitable AP participation. We discuss implications for policy, practice, and research.
The Myth of a Political Powerhouse: The National Education Association and Presidential Election Campaigns, 1972–2016
Authors: Grove Deeann 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context During the 2016 presidential election campaign, Hillary Clinton was “booed” while speaking at the National Education Association (NEA)'s annual representative assembly. The media suggested this evidenced a weakening of a powerful alliance. Since the NEA first endorsed Jimmy Carter in 1976, the claim that the Democratic party is “a wholly owned subsidiary of the NEA” has persisted. This characterization of the NEA and Democratic Party relationship has become so ubiquitous in political discourse that it is rarely questioned. As a result, the NEA is often portrayed as a powerful political player in national elections, while little evidence supports this conclusion. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study uses archival evidence to identify the NEA's political influence during presidential election campaigns to provide scholars a more nuanced history as they seek to understand current political happenings. Research Design The historical analysis used internal campaign and NEA documents located in 13 archives housed in six presidential libraries, four university libraries, two state historical societies, and one public policy institute as well as the NEA Collection at The George Washington University. Findings/Results Two factors explain NEA's limited influence on presidential politics despite its significant donations to the Democratic Party. First, Republican candidates used the NEA to attack Democrats as beholden to radical special interest groups. Democrats evidenced the success of this Republican strategy by taking positions the NEA opposed in an attempt to convince voters of their independence. Second, many NEA members did not support the NEA's involvement in party politics because they believed political activism was inconsistent with teacher professionalism or they were conservatives unwilling to support a Democratic candidate. Conclusions/Recommendations As they look to future presidential campaigns, scholars should remember: 1) Republican candidates’ attacks on the NEA have been part of a strategy to convince voters that Democratic candidates were beholden to special interests. Policy differences between Republican candidates and the NEA served as later justification for this strategy rather that its cause. 2) Democratic candidates supporting policies the NEA opposes is not an act of political courage. They have long found the power of the NEA rests not in its endorsement but in the opportunity for voters to see them stand up to this special interest group. Given the NEA's commitment to endorsing a candidate and the Republican strategy, Democrats have been able to challenge the NEA without fearing that it will cost them an endorsement or campaign contributions.
Teacher Coaching to Improve Instruction at Scale: Opportunities and Challenges in Policy Contexts
Authors: Blazar David 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Teacher coaching, defined by sustained observation and feedback cycles, has a longstanding theory of action that has held up to several rigorous evaluations in recent years. Policymakers and practitioners have taken note of these findings, rolling out coaching programs in classrooms and schools across the United States as a key policy initiative to improve instructional quality and student outcomes at scale. One likely factor leading to its success is that coaching program activities are situated much more closely to key outcomes than other initiatives (e.g., certification, licensure). However, coaching too exists in a broader policy context that creates both opportunities and challenges for success. On one hand, coaches are uniquely positioned not only to help teachers improve their practice but also to serve in leadership and capacity-building roles for their broader education systems; on the other hand, coaches’ role in system infrastructures can mean that their work is impeded by these same organizational factors, including top-down hierarchies and competing reform interests. Purpose/Objective/Research Design This piece synthesizes qualitative and mixed methods research presented in this volume in order to situate coaching programs within broader policy contexts and identify avenues for continued exploration. Conclusions/Recommendations Navigating these tensions requires additional research and data on the conditions and mechanisms that drive effective teacher coaching and how these conditions and mechanisms can be replicated at scale. One mechanism that should serve as the focal point of ongoing work are the coaches themselves. What skills and dispositions do coaches need in order to work with teachers to develop instructional practice while also effectively navigating policy conditions in their schools and districts?