bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Understanding Tenure Reform: An Examination of Sense-Making Among School Administrators and Teachers
Authors: Rodriguez Luis A. 
Published: November 2021

Background Since 2015, 23 states have issued a variety of reforms to the teacher tenure process. Many of these reforms have made it more difficult for teachers to receive tenure, either by extending the pre-tenure probation period or requiring some form of evidence of teacher performance. How educators and school leaders make sense of changes to tenure-granting policies likely transforms their perceptions of the teaching profession and has ramifications for staffing practices in schools. However, little research has sought to understand how states and districts have implemented tenure reform, how educators make sense of these reforms, and how teacher and school leaders’ understanding of changes to tenure statutes influence school practice and staff relations. Focus of Study The purpose of this study is to explore the sensemaking process of school stakeholders most directly affected by changes to teacher tenure policies—teachers and school leaders. To this end, this study examines the referential cues on which school staff tend to rely to understand tenure reform as well as their collective accounts of how reform translates into changes within the context of their work. Setting and Participants: Participants in this study included 30 pre-tenured teachers and 10 school leaders across 10 school sites within a single large, urban district in Tennessee. Research Design In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants during the 2016–17 and 2017–18 academic years. Transcripts of interviews were coded for recurring themes to address the research questions of the study. Conclusions/Recommendations Findings illustrate how school leaders relied on outdated state and district supports, while teachers referenced peer interactions to make sense of tenure reform. In addition, school leaders considered the enacted reforms an improvement to the previous tenure process, however, few school leaders indicated that tenure reform influenced teacher staffing and professional development within their schools. Teachers suggested tenure reform provided a sensible form of professional accountability in theory but was nevertheless undermined by a lack of communication, administrative support, and conflicting policy aims in practice. Findings highlight the robustness of peer networks in teacher sensemaking. More generally, this research has implications for the implementation of concurrent policy initiatives within schools and future directions for research on distributed and fragmented sensemaking.
Comprehensive and Superficial Data Users: A Convergent Mixed Methods Study of Teachers’ Practice of Interim Assessment Data Use
Authors: Jennings Austin S. , Jennings Amanda 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Teachers’ practice of interim assessment data use is subject to an array of individual, social, and organizational contextual factors. While contemporary research situates interim assessments within teachers’ broader practice of data use, teachers do not make sense of interim assessment data in isolation. This interconnectedness of data sources serves as an important context for understanding how teachers make sense of interim assessment data. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Teachers’ ability to connect data sources to inform a common instructional practice has important implications for their instructional decision making. The present study maps the interconnectedness of interim assessment with other data sources as one of two dimensions of teachers’ practice of data use. Furthermore, this article explores how those dimensions are related to similarities, differences, and patterns in how teachers make sense of interim assessment data. Population/Participants/Subjects Data come from 88 grade 3-5 mathematics or English language arts teachers across 10 elementary schools in two states. All participants completed a survey about their data use practices. A subsample of 23 teachers completed an extended survey and participated in an interview data about how they use interim assessment data. Research Design: We conducted a convergent mixed methods study of teachers’ practice of interim assessment data use. Data Collection and Analysis Quantitatively, we analyzed the interconnectedness of data sources across teachers within an epistemic network analytic framework. Qualitatively, we coded interview transcripts to gather evidence of how teachers use interim assessment data to make instruction decisions. We integrated our quantitative and qualitative findings and recoded interview transcripts to develop a nuanced perspective on the similarities, differences, and patterns in how teachers make sense of interim assessment data. Findings/Results Findings reveal teachers rarely interpret interim assessment data in isolation and meaningfully vary in the extent to which they perceive it informs their broader instructional practice. Taken together, these two dimensions of teachers’ practice of interim assessment data use are indicators of significant patterns in the authenticity of teachers’ data use with implications for their instructional decision making. Conclusions/Recommendations The present study maps the interconnectedness of data sources within teachers’ instructional practice and how it serves as one of two dimensions that explain similarities, differences, and patterns in how they make sense of interim assessment data. Our findings have implications for how instructional support coaches, administrators, interim assessment developers, and researchers can support teachers’ use of interim assessment data for instructional purposes.
The Role of Situation Perception in Teaching
Authors: Martin-Raugh Michelle P. , Kell Harrison J. , Tannenbaum Richard J. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Rich classroom discussions are thought to provide several benefits to students, including improved connections to course content and general literacy development, and they provide a rich evidence stream from which teachers can make inferences about student learning to contribute to decisions about next teaching and learning steps. However, the way in which teachers perceive complex social situations characterized by student behaviors and aspects of the learning environment varies. Research has shown that expert teachers are better than novice teachers at identifying information that is important in complex social situations and that this expertise translates into improved teaching decisions. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study examined whether situation perception is related to teachers’ performance when they lead classroom discussions. Research Design A total of 126 elementary school teacher candidates completed video-based situation perception and personality measures; scores were used to predict performance in simulations of facilitated classroom discussions. Findings/Results Situation perception was associated with candidates’ performance in discussions (r = .20, p < .05), and agreeableness was associated with situation perception (r = .21, p < .05) and performance in leading discussions (r = .19, p < .05). Conclusions/Recommendations Findings provide preliminary evidence to suggest that situation perception may be an important skill for teachers in leading discussions.
Who is Watching? What Do They Want? A Foucauldian Analysis of Teacher Candidates’ Experiences with the edTPA
Authors: Kessler Meghan A. , Jones Alexis , Johnston-Parsons Marilyn 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context This article is a policy discussion of the edTPA preservice portfolio assessment; it uses Foucault's work and our data to suggest a more critical and activist approach to the assessment. Currently 764 teacher education programs in 40 states have included the edTPA as part of their requirements. In Illinois, it is a newly required high-stakes portfolio assessment required for teacher licensure. Purpose/Objective We studied our teacher candidates’ experiences with edTPA portfolio. We wanted to know how they experienced this new assessment and how that might inform our program. As instructors, we had heard many complaints from our candidates, and we wanted to examine their experiences from their perspectives. Participants In this study, we collected narrative accounts from two different cohorts of teacher candidates in Year 1 (2015–16) and Year 3 (2017–18) to better understand their perspectives (total N = 37). The participants were interviewed at the end of their student teaching semester after they had completed their portfolio. Research Design We collected narrative accounts from two different cohorts of teacher candidates in Year 1 (2015–16) and Year 3 (2017–18) to better understand their experiences with the edTPA (total N = 37). We gave participants a choice of whether to do individual or focus group narratives. Participants were interviewed at the end of their student teaching semester after they had completed their portfolio. Findings As teacher educators, we aimed to support our candidates’ development into critically engaged educators. However, we found that the regulatory powers in the policies and procedures of the edTPA had a negative effect on our candidates’ experiences with it. We also did not give them the tools they needed to sufficiently analyze this particular assessment, despite having discussed testing policies in the schools and their negative implications for teachers and students. Further, we found a normalization of the edTPA between Year 1 and Year 3 of implementing this assessment that suggested a trend toward normalization over time—from energetic critique in Year 1 to acceptance and a just-get-it-done attitude in Year 3. Conclusions We conclude with implications for teacher educators, including a call for more critical engagement with this and other disciplinary technologies that our candidates may be subject to. As teacher educators, we advocate for a more explicit critical analysis with candidates to help them more deeply understand the history, context, and implications of corporatized, standardized assessments in teacher education, in particular the edTPA, and testing in the schools.
Adapting and Using Early Warning Indicators in Different Contexts
Authors: Pierson Ashley , Frazelle Sarah , Mazzeo Christopher 
Published: November 2021

Background Research shows that educators can identify half of future high school dropouts as early as Grade 6—and three quarters or more of future dropouts by Grade 9—by monitoring readily available data on attendance, behavior, and course performance. These data have come to be known as the ABCs of dropout prevention, and the measures are some of the more commonly used early warning indicators. Purpose Developing and deploying an early warning indicator system (EWIS) is a complex endeavor for school districts, especially smaller districts without access to a large internal research team or experience implementing similar data-oriented initiatives at scale. In this chapter, we describe four key considerations that school districts and others should take account of when designing an EWIS: building broad consensus on the purpose of the system, planning around system design and data availability, validating indicators and setting thresholds, and implementing and monitoring the system. Research Design This article is based on a review of the relevant literature on designing EWISs and our experiences. We have partnered with multiple districts and states in recent years and advised these organizations on early warning indicator selection, as well as system development. References to the literature are noted where applicable. The omission of references indicates that that portion of the text is based on our experiences working directly with districts and states. Conclusions/Recommendations Developing early warning indicators—and an EWIS—is a complex technical and human undertaking, akin to implementing a large districtwide initiative at scale. Districts of any size are well served by thinking carefully about the process and going slowly, if needed, to ensure they get the details right. Planning the system and building consensus for implementation, choosing indicators that are right for the district context, and validating and setting the right thresholds for those indicators are essential for building widespread leadership, staff, and community support for the EWIS, as well as developing the conditions for effective implementation and use.
African American Head Start Teachers’ Approaches to Police Play in the Era of Black Lives Matter
Authors: Henward Allison Sterling , Lyu Sung-Ryung , Jackson Quiana M. 
Published: November 2021

Background: Scholars in the fields of early childhood education (ECE) and multicultural education have argued that preschools are key sites in which children learn about race and racism. However, there is little research on how teachers negotiate conflicting tensions and enact antiracist approaches within Head Start (HS) classrooms that use comprehensive and commercialized curriculums. Study Purpose: This article is about the challenges early childhood educators face when young children (ages 3–5) bring painful and uncomfortable issues of race, racism, and incarceration to preschool. This study is part of the research project Negotiating Head Start Curriculum (NHSC), a comparative study of policy implementation in four cultural communities in the United States. Here we focus on educators’ response to the “Jail Scene,” a pivotal scene taped in an HS classroom serving African American children. Research Design: The method used in the NHSC project is a multivocal ethnographic research method combined with a comparative case study design. We selected classrooms in each community that implemented both Creative Curriculum® and Teaching Strategies Gold®, led by experienced teachers in Chicanx and Latinx, Samoan, and white Appalachian communities. We made videotapes of similar activities across all sites. We then used these videos as cues for focus group interviews with educators (teachers, directors, and instructional personnel). We applied constant comparative, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Voloshinovian literary analysis to 41 interview transcripts of 132 educators’ talks. Findings: Analysis of transcripts indicates Black teachers are more likely to recognize racism, including the effects of incarceration and arrest on children’s talk and play, in ways unavailable to teachers from outside their community. Despite extant research suggesting early childhood teachers of color are no more likely to engage with young children about racism than white teachers, our study found that Black teachers offer nuanced, careful, and responsive approaches to antiracist pedagogy. They respond in sensitive, child-led, playful ways, inserting counternarratives within the confines of scripted curricula. Conclusions: ECE teachers’ disparity of interpretation has particular importance as ECE moves to professionalize the field. If elementary school patterns are any indication, the field should expect a sharp increase in the percentage of white, middle-class teachers instructing children of color. Unintentionally, these teachers may fail to recognize the play and talk to contain challenges born out of racism and inequality. We suggest policymakers, curriculum designers, and the broader field of ECE must carefully consider the approaches of teachers of color and take these approaches seriously.
Leveraging Women’s Leadership Talent to Promote a Social Justice Agenda in Ethiopian Schools
Authors: Tekleselassie Abebayehu Aemero , Roach Virginia 
Published: November 2021

Background: Research that identifies and celebrates the positive attributes of women educational leaders advancing a social justice agenda in traditionally male-dominated, Sub-Saharan African (SSA) societies is sparse. Studying female educational leadership in SSA conceptually brings to the fore issues associated with the intersectionality of gender, leadership, pervasive abject poverty, and cultural mores from a critical theory lens that runs counter to the White, western, male conceptions of leadership underlying much of the existing literature in the field. Purpose: With a focus on Ethiopia, we sought to understand the way in which women educational leaders, as traditionally oppressed groups in a patriarchal society, utilize their past marginalization as they advance a social justice agenda to promote educational opportunities for traditionally underserved students, particularly females. Research Design: Using transformative leadership as our theoretical lens and semi-structured interviews as our methodology, we conducted a grounded phenomenological study of eight Ethiopian women who were in educational leadership positions ranging from assistant principal to regional supervisors. We recruited the women leaders through direct contact, reputational nomination, and leadership positions they held. Findings/Results: Our findings paint a portrait of these female leaders as tenacious and determined, with a strong sense of self-agency and moral courage, whose identities are born out of their humble beginning and multi-focal understanding of issues from being female, from poor communities, submersed in male-dominated culture. These identities drove the participants to work towards emancipatory policies to acknowledge and intervene in “power differences” that directly influence school performance for girls and women in Ethiopia. Conclusions/Recommendations: Increasing workforce diversity with respect to gender, recasting leadership preparation programs as equity-oriented institutions, and addressing key public policies to support women in leadership positions are foundational recommendations that can lead to gender equity in education in Ethiopia.
Monolingual Language Ideologies and the Idealized Speaker: The “New Bilingualism” Meets the “Old” Educational Inequities
Authors: Chang-Bacon Chris K. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context After decades of restrictive U.S. language policies geared toward English-only education, recent years have seen a proliferation of dual-language programs, Seal of Biliteracy awards, and bilingual education programming more broadly. The demand for such programming ostensibly suggests growing consensus around the benefits of linguistic diversity—dubbed “The New Bilingualism” by The Atlantic in 2016. However, recent research suggests that the pivot to this New Bilingualism is largely taking place in contexts of privilege, disproportionately benefiting English-dominant, middle- and upper-class communities as compared with multilingual communities where demand for bilingual programming is not “new” at all. Focus of Study This piece explores how recent, well-intentioned expansions in bilingual education programming may actually reinforce historical inequities. Putting forth a framework of idealized language ideologies, the article documents how bilingualism has historically been encouraged for some and denied to others in U.S. education and policy contexts. Research Design Through historical analysis, this article documents how language ideologies overlap with racism and nationalism in educational and policy contexts across key periods of U.S. history and into the present day. Conclusions/Recommendations A framework of idealized language ideologies foregrounds (1) idealized language practices, (2) idealized speakers, and (3) institutional interests, highlighting how these dynamics function to maintain educational and broader social inequities. Applying such a lens makes it possible to simultaneously acknowledge positive expansions of bilingual programming, while also questioning the framing of such programming as “new” or as a panacea for educational inequality. In a time of rapid expansion for bilingual educational programming, this piece demonstrates that even bilingualism can be normatively framed as an idealized language ideology to reinforce problematic language hierarchies. Thus, it is imperative that teachers, teacher educators, and policy makers reckon with these historical dynamics to ensure that educational models designed to ameliorate linguistic inequities do not end up reproducing them instead.
Before the AD: How Departments Generate Hiring Priorities that Support or Avert Faculty Diversity
Authors: White-Lewis Damani K. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Although academic departments have more tools to advance faculty diversity than ever before, many still downplay their own responsibility throughout the hiring process. This results in a cycle of apathy that activates once searches are already under way, and structural change is out of reach. Yet few studies empirically outline what structural change entails so that departments can play a more active role in improving search processes before hiring begins. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study materializes the underlying mechanics of academic hiring by describing the process of departmental hiring priorities, and identifies how adjusting them can create the optimal conditions for supporting faculty diversity. Population/Participants/Subjects Participants were 23 academic personnel spanning four academic departments, including deans, department chairs, equity administrators, and faculty search committee members. Research Design This qualitative study uses a blend of multiple case study and grounded theory designs. The multiple case study method guided the site, case, participant selection, and data collection procedures. Grounded theory was employed primarily in the data coding and analysis phases. Data Collection and Analysis Data were collected from an institutional site fictitiously named Northfield University, a research-intensive four-year university located in the western region of the United States. Four departments were selected as case studies based on convenience sampling from four broader divisions: social sciences, life sciences, humanities, and physical sciences. Twenty-three participants spanning multiple positions and departments participated in a total of 31 semistructured interviews. These data were initially coded and analyzed using the constant comparative method and then further analyzed using cross-case analysis. Findings/Results Findings reveal the primary determinants of departmental hiring priorities that bred subfield conservatism, or the hesitancy to expand the department in new and different hiring directions based on resource constraint and subfield reproduction. This was a realistic yet troubling organizational response that inhibited opportunities for diversity before searches even began. Results also document the steps that departments took to thwart subfield conservatism in order to more aptly attract and elevate racially minoritized candidates. Conclusions/Recommendations This study highlights the untapped potential that hiring priorities hold for advancing faculty diversity. Department chairs and deans are uniquely positioned to implement initiatives that rearrange the structural conditions of faculty hiring that empower faculty to create equity-oriented positions beyond traditional departmental boundaries.