bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Animating Discipline Disparities through Debilitating Practices: Girls of Color and Inequitable Classroom Interactions
Authors: Annamma Subini Ancy , Handy Tamara , Miller Amanda L. , Jackson Elizabeth 
Published: November 2021

Context Girls of Color are overrepresented in school disciplinary actions based on subjectively judged, minor infractions. Studies have consistently shown that this exclusionary discipline has long-lasting impact on Girls of Color and their educational outcomes, including increased risk for pushout and involvement in the criminal legal system. Focus of Study We sought to uncover the processes that animate the statistics of overrepre-sentation of Girls of Color in disciplinary actions. Said differently, we sought to understand where, how, and why Girls of Color were being disciplined in schools. Using a Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) lens and centering the voices of Girls’ of Color, this empirical study was guided by the question, What mechanisms propel and dispel disciplinary inequities for Girls of Color? Research Design The qualitative research took place in a suburban school district in the Midwestern United States marked by increasing racial, cultural, and linguistic diversity. This was part of a larger two-year study that centered the voices of more than 50 Girls of Color, their families (11), and their teachers (11), exploring understandings of and experiences with school discipline disparities for Girls of Color. Data sources for the full project included interviews with Girls of Color (32), families (10), and teachers (8); focus groups (Girls of Color = 17; families = 3; teachers = 3); classroom and district event observations, Education Journey Mapping (21); and a Cartographer's Clinic. Data for this study focus on the interviews and focus groups with Girls of Color, working to center them as knowledge generators. Conclusions/Recommendations Our analysis revealed the ways in which discipline disparities were animated by inequitable academic and behavioral responses of teachers to classroom interactions, which we name debilitating practices. Further, Girls of Color embodied repositioning as ways of maintaining their integrity and individuality when experiencing academic and behavioral injustices. We conclude with major implications for school personnel: (a) academically, educators must reflect on how ability is distributed and withheld in the classroom along racialized and gendered lines, and (b) behaviorally, positive behavior supports should be imagined and implemented through a race and gender conscious lens. Though we focus on classroom interactions, we also understand that public schools, schools of education, and society all have a role to play in dismantling the school–prison nexus. However, classroom interactions continue to be identified as the source of disciplinary disparities in both quantitative and qualitative studies. Consequently, teachers have an opportunity to change their classroom practices to academically and behaviorally support Girls of Color.
Examining the Virtual Diffusion of Educational Resources across Teachers’ Social Networks over Time
Authors: Liu Yuqing , Torphy Kaitlin T. , Hu Sihua , Tang Jiliang , Chen Zixi 
Published: November 2021

Context Individuals’ curation within social media provides a window into their sensemaking and conceptions of what is worth knowing. Within education, a majority of teachers use social media for professional purposes to access and share instructional resources. Purpose This work examines Pinterest.com and the intersection of influence across virtual and physical spheres as teachers choose and curate instructional resources. Setting: The study is conducted on 19 schools over five districts in three Midwestern states. Participants The sample consists of 108 elementary teachers in total: 34 early career teachers and 74 colleagues. Research Design This is a longitudinal observational study designed to repeatedly measure and track teachers’ online resource-seeking behavior over 52 weeks in the 2015–2016 school year. Data Collection and Analysis Resource curation data were collected for each teacher, as well as early career teachers’ egocentric school network and online network data. Using generalized linear growth modeling approach to examine relationships between teachers’ curation of resources, we identify differences in the impacts of teachers’ social networks across physical and virtual space. Findings Results indicate that teachers following one another within Pinterest have a higher rate of curating a resource, but Pinterest seems to act as a bridge between those less connected teachers within a school, with an even greater rate of curation for those teachers who do not closely work together. This seems to indicate that within the cloud of social media, Pinterest may be a conduit for information and resource distribution across schools. Conclusion As schools continue to seek improvement potential, leveraging social media connections and social capital within and outside the local context may prove useful for the flow of expertise and resources.
Teaching Synchronous-Service Teachers: Traditional Teacher Education at a Crossroads
Authors: Thomas Matthew A. M. , Lefebvre Elisabeth E. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Teachers enrolled in alternative training and licensure programs may have experiences that lie outside what is considered typical for both preservice teachers and in-service teachers. This article explores the experiences of a growing cadre of “synchronous-service teachers”—including, but not limited to, Teach For America (TFA) corps members— who are teaching full time while also completing coursework in teacher preparation programs. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of the Study This study considers how synchronous-service teachers perceived the education and training they received while enrolled in traditional teacher education coursework, as well as how they interpreted their broader interactions with the teaching profession and teacher education writ large. Research Setting and Participants This research was conducted in the Midwestern United States in a major metropolitan area with a TFA regional presence. Thirty-six corps members who completed coursework at a traditional teacher education institution opted to participate in this study. They were primarily White and female, and most entered TFA immediately following completion of their undergraduate degrees. The majority had little previous exposure to the education discipline. Research Design The thirty-six corps members were interviewed about their experiences while participating in TFA, teaching at their schools, and, especially pertinent to this article, learning at a partner university where TFA corps members in the region completed teacher education coursework. Findings/Results The findings suggest that corps members held primarily negative views about the teacher education coursework they experienced. They complained that the teacher education programming failed to provide immediately applicable insights and lacked rigor and relevance. Yet they also maintained paradoxical expectations about what teacher education, particularly for synchronous-service teachers, should or should not entail. Conclusions/Recommendations The article concludes by suggesting the potential utility of synchronous-service teachers as a conceptual category, noting that these teachers should be considered distinct from others. As such, providing synchronous-service teachers with teacher education programming designed for either preservice or in-service teachers may lead to missed opportunities in terms of professional learning and exacerbate negative sentiments about teacher education. The experiences and opinions of synchronous-service teachers can have considerable significance, particularly when these teachers go on to affect education leadership and policy. In sum, teacher education institutions are at a critical crossroads concerning how and whether to proceed with similar partnerships, especially as alternative recruitment and training programs continue to grow in the United States and beyond.
Research and Other Forms of Rhetoric in Media Coverage of Student Achievement
Authors: Lash Cristina L. , Frye Amanda , Carter Prudence L. 
Published: November 2021

Background Media play an important role in shaping public perceptions of education policies, yet few studies have explored how research evidence is included in media coverage of education reforms. Purpose In this study, we investigate how research appears in the public discourse of student achievement in the context of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (2011-2013). Specifically, we analyze the school reforms and strategies discussed by mainstream media outlets across a range of political perspectives and the extent that journalists used research evidence in their coverage of these issues. Research Design We conducted a content analysis of nearly 300 documents from ten mass media outlets to determine the extent of research use in coverage of student achievement between 2011 and 2013. We then conducted a discourse analysis of three focal publications— Townhall, The Washington Post, and The New York Times —to analyze the different rhetorical strategies journalists used to incorporate research and characterize key educational actors (teachers, politicians, and students). Findings The most prominent media discussions emphasized teacher quality for the improvement of student achievement, where “student achievement” was defined synonymously with “standardized test scores.” However, reporting on teacher quality incorporated little education research, while less-discussed reforms (such as increasing student learning time and IB programs) received significantly more evidentiary support. Conclusions/Recommendations We conclude that media and social science research operate within “social fields” or institutional settings with different values and norms. Thus, media coverage of student achievement uses emotional forms of rhetoric to present mainstream education reforms (such as changes to teacher evaluations) and uses social science research to report on less familiar initiatives. Our recommendations include several ways that journalists and education scholars can collaborate and exchange knowledge to more effectively inform the public of the evidence basis of education reforms.
Dilemmas of Leadership and Capacity Building in a Research–Practice Partnership
Authors: Vedder-Weiss Dana , Lefstein Adam , Segal Aliza , Pollak Itay 
Published: November 2021

Background Research–practice partnerships (RPPs) are proliferating in education, generating increasing interest and posing many challenges. In this study, we shed light on the challenge of supporting practitioners> leadership and building capacity in an RPP. In the RPP literature, practitioner leadership is often highlighted as both a way to improve design development and enactment and as imperative for capacity building and sustainability. However, cultivating leadership also creates challenges which have not yet been adequately explored. Purpose We explore these challenges and related dilemmas in a large-scale Israeli RPP designed to cultivate teacher leadership and build district capacity. We investigate how local actors asserted their leadership, the resources they drew upon, and the dilemmas this posed for us as researchers in an RPP. We critically reflect on how we addressed these dilemmas, and the consequences and implications of our courses of action. Setting This study explores our partnership with two large Israeli districts, as part of a state-wide professional development reform supported by the Ministry of Education and a philanthropic foundation. The partnership aims to support teachers> collaborative, reflective inquiry on teaching and learning, in weekly in-school meetings facilitated by in-school leading teacher. The partnership began six years ago and currently includes 158 schools (458 leading teachers). Research Design We use linguistic ethnographic methods to analyze leadership assertion in three focal cases, representing three different leadership roles, at different levels of the system: (1) a leading teacher demonstrating creative non-compliance in the team meetings she facilitated, (2) a coach exercising her voice and authority in her professional development workshops, (3) and a district manager independently shaping structures. Data Collection Data were collected during the first three years of the RPP, including (participant) observations, audio-recordings, and field notes of in-school meetings, professional development workshops, interviews, and informal conversations. Findings and Conclusions The analysis shows that leadership assertion played an important role in constructing actors’ identities as competent leaders but posed dilemmas for us, such as how to acknowledge leaders> expertise while also maintaining program integrity. The case studies underscore the difficulties involved in managing a partnership in a large-scale educational intervention and the challenges to maintaining productive dialogue with different partners. The paper advances our understanding of the complexities involved in supporting leadership at different levels of the system, in day-to-day interaction, and at multiple micro and macro contexts in which it unfolds, in particular in a large-scale RPP.
Puerto Rican Families’ Experiences of Displacement in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria and Their Receiving District's Enactment of Care
Authors: Rosario-Ramos Enid , Rodriguez Awilda , Sawada Jenny , Diaz Ana Mireya 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Florida's Mockingbird Public Schools (MPS) received approximately 3,500 students from Puerto Rico. The response to the displacement of Puerto Rican families involved quick decision-making by several stakeholders about how to receive students experiencing trauma and housing insecurity, and whose parents were under- or unemployed. How students experiencing displacement are integrated into their receiving districts is critical to their subsequent educational success and, given increases in extreme natural disasters, we need a better understanding of what care looks like in post-displacement contexts. Purpose Using a care framework, and drawing from interviews with district administrators, school personnel, high school students, and their caregivers, we examine the ways in which MPS enacted care toward Puerto Rican families as well as the ways in which families received such care. Research Design We conducted semi-structured interviews with a variety of MPS stakeholders. These included district personnel (10 interviewees), school personnel (38 interviewees), and families (40 interviewees among students and their caregivers). Analyses were conducted by four research team members by applying a constant comparative approach using NVivo software. Findings/Results Findings show that care was most successfully enacted and received when addressing families’ immediate needs, in contrast to supports for mental health needs, which were seen as insufficient by most stakeholders. Furthermore, we found supports for academic success were inconsistently deployed and unevenly received by students and their families, thus shaping students’ access to educational opportunities. Conclusion As educational disruptions and climate-related displacement becomes more common, it is important for receiving districts to develop policies and practices that facilitate displaced families’ access to quality education. MPS enactment of care was shaped by the local communities’ perceptions of themselves as caring individuals and organizations that felt compelled to aid people fleeing devastation in Puerto Rico. Yet, as Gay indicated, benevolence is not enough; displaced children need educational spaces willing to interrogate and disrupt socio-political and economic injustice in service of students’ personal, academic, and professional well-being. In MPS, we saw the limits of such benevolence reflected in deficit-oriented narratives about Puerto Rican students’ language proficiency and academic preparation, some personnel's unwillingness to support Spanish-dominant Puerto Rican children, and on the pushback against relief efforts experienced by district and school personnel. As a result, these truncated views on caring led to divergent experiences of caring across families, and inconsistent access to rigorous curricula and high academic expectations.
Teachers’ Opportunities to Learn through Collaboration over Time: A Case Study of Math Teacher Teams in Schools under Pressure to Improve
Authors: Weddle Hayley 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context While current research provides key insights about successful collaboration in which teachers experience deep learning and practice change, few studies analyze the content of teachers’ collaborative conversations about instruction. Even fewer explore how the content of collaborative conversations evolves over time, making it difficult to understand the impact of shifting policies, priorities, and personnel on teachers’ collective work. Purpose and Research Questions To explore teachers’ opportunities to learn through collaboration, I draw on the following research questions: How does the depth of teachers’ opportunities to learn from collaborative conversations evolve over time? In what ways do contextual factors (e.g., personnel, tools, leadership expectations, coaching) influence these opportunities to learn through collaboration? Participants This study is situated in two urban middle schools under significant pressure to improve student achievement. I selected one grade-level math team from each school, analyzing their conversations taking place during collaboration meetings. Research Design To better understand teachers’ collaborative learning, I rely on qualitative case study methods. Data collected include interviews and observations of two teacher collaboration groups over four years. I use Horn and colleagues’ (2017) taxonomy of teachers’ opportunities to learn in conjunction with cultural historical activity theory (Cole & Engeström, 2007) to examine teachers’ collective learning over time as this process unfolds in context. Findings/Results Across both groups, expectations from leadership to improve school performance shaped teachers’ opportunities to learn, as did the presence of teachers whose beliefs about math instruction foregrounded student thinking and exploration. Findings demonstrated that for one team, fluctuations in depth of learning also depended on the agendas and protocols used to frame collective work. For the second team, depth of learning opportunities was connected to shifts in personnel and group norms over time. For both teams, high-depth conversations represented no more than a third of the meetings observed in each year, reflecting the complexity of developing effective collaborative cultures supporting deep learning. Conclusions/Recommendations While high-depth opportunities to learn (OTLs) were infrequent for both teams, the reasons for this scarcity were shaped by each team's context. Leaders hoping to develop collaborative cultures with richer teacher learning opportunities should consider multiple factors shaping OTLs, including collaborative team norms, teachers’ beliefs about math instruction, protocols guiding discussions, and the role of accountability pressures in shaping expectations for collective work.
Teacher and Student Reciprocal Agency in Odds-Beating Schools
Authors: Leo Aaron , Wilcox Kristen C. , Kramer Catherine , Lawson Hal A. , Min Mina 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context In the field of education, the lens of agency has provided a valuable conceptual alternative to deterministic portrayals of schools as oppressive institutions where teachers and students have little power over the conditions in which they teach and learn. A number of studies have investigated teacher and student agency, but few have explored the relationships between the two, particularly in regard to how teacher and student agency relate in high-need and high-diversity contexts with exemplary student graduation outcomes. Purpose/Focus of the Study In an effort to address the paucity of research investigating the relationships of teacher and student agency, this analysis draws on seven qualitative case studies of secondary schools achieving a trend of above-predicted (i.e., odds-beating) graduation outcomes. We pursued the overarching research question: What are the relationships between teacher and student agency in odds-beating schools? Setting The study took place in a purposeful sample of odds-beating secondary schools identified through multiple regression analyses. The sample included schools in rural, suburban, and more urban communities and were distributed across various geographic regions in the state of New York. All schools shared a pattern of above-predicted graduation outcomes, taking into account student demographic factors (percentage of students economically disadvantaged, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and English language learners). All schools met the criteria of being within the normal range for wealth ratio as well. Research Design This qualitative multiple case study focused on data generated from interviews and focus groups with 302 participants, including teachers, student support specialists, and school and district leaders, as well as field notes gathered during guided school tours, and documents. These data were analyzed using qualitative comparative analysis methods in multiple phases of deductive and inductive coding. Conclusions Study findings indicate that when teachers are offered opportunities to act as agents, they tend to offer opportunities to their students similarly. This research also suggests that affordances for teachers to assert agency can mitigate the constraining effects of state accountability system compliance-oriented practices. We conclude that teacher and student reciprocal agency merits further study and offers theoretical insights of particular import in high-needs and high-diversity school contexts.