bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
How International Field Experiences Promote Cross-Cultural Awareness in Preservice Teachers through Experiential Learning: Findings from a Six-Year Collective Case Study
Authors: Malewski Eric , Sharma Suniti , Phillion Joann 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The article examines how international field experiences promote cross-cultural awareness in U.S. American preservice teachers through experiential learning. The findings presented here are based on a 6-year study of a short-term study abroad program in Honduras that included an international field experience component and took place from 2003 to 2008. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of the Study This article examines questions that contribute to the field of teacher education and the effort to prepare future teachers for culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms as early as the preservice level. Several questions guide this study: How do international field experiences prepare preservice teachers to teach in diverse settings? How does experiential learning in an international context complicate preservice teachers’ cultural knowledge? What are the pedagogical implications of increased cultural awareness among preservice teachers for classroom practice? How do international field experiences open preservice teachers to future opportunities to explore and work in culturally diverse communities? Participants and Setting The current study presents a study of 49 preservice teachers from a Midwestern university enrolled in a short-term study abroad program to Honduras as part of an international field experience. During this field experience, students were placed in a local elementary or a secondary school, were enrolled in two required courses, visited rural and urban schools, and visited archeological sites. Research Design The qualitative collective case study employed data that included questionnaires, interviews, focus interviews, course assignments, discussions, journal reflections, and researchers’ observations and field notes. Analysis sought to triangulate findings from the multiple data sources for accuracy and reliability when reporting the findings. Conclusions/Recommendations Findings from the study demonstrated that experiential learning in an international setting is key to developing preservice teachers’ cross-cultural awareness. Application of cross-cultural concepts during field experiences provided preservice teachers with theoretical understandings and practical applications for teaching culturally diverse students. Recommendations include international field placements for providing a unique and critical site for promoting cross-cultural awareness through experiential learning; more cross-cultural opportunities for preservice teachers that provoke questioning of conventional teaching and school knowledge; and international field experiences in diverse classrooms that promote preservice teachers’ understanding of themselves and how to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students.
Two Dimensions of an Inquiry Stance toward Student-Learning Data
Authors: Nelson Tamara Holmlund , Slavit David , Deuel Angie 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Schools and districts are increasingly emphasizing evidence-based decision making as a means for improving teaching and learning. In response, professional development efforts have shifted toward situated, sustained activities that involve groups of teachers in reflective inquiry about student-learning data, instructional practices, and curricular goals. Although strong evidence exists regarding the benefits of looking at student work, there is little research that investigates how teachers might work together to attain these benefits. Classroom teachers often lack the necessary skills and supports to enact data-based inquiry in a manner that informs and influences classroom practices. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study In response to a need for specific frameworks to support teachers’ collaborative interactions around student-learning data, we have developed a conceptual framework for describing and characterizing key influences on teachers’ actions and interactions. The purpose of this article is to fully describe the two dimensions that constitute the framework, illustrate them with examples from multiple cases, and discuss potential implications of the framework on research and practice. Population/Participants/Subjects This framework was developed from multiyear case analyses of seven professional learning communities (PLCs). The teachers in these PLCs were secondary science and mathematics teachers who were supported by a 3-year professional development project. Research Design We began to derive this conceptual framework using constant comparison in the development of semiannual case studies. Preliminary results and hypotheses on the specific ways in which teacher groups were interacting as they worked with student-learning data led to the need to better conceptualize what was occurring. Building on others’ work related to stance, we used grounded theory methods to construct and refine this framework. Findings/Results A detailed framework and examples are provided regarding collaborative teacher inquiry groups’ inquiry stance along two dimensions: (1) their epistemological stance toward student-learning data, and (2) the nature of their dialogue when using these data in their inquiry process. The first dimension is delineated by four descriptive categories ranging from an improving to a proving stance; the second dimension ranges from sustained negotiation to no negotiation. Conclusions/Recommendations This analysis of inquiry stance in a collaborative group is valuable in providing a detailed tool for empirical analyses of collaborative teacher development in the context of working with student-learning data. Additionally, it provides practical support for facilitators and school leaders by characterizing fundamental and often hidden influences on PLC processes and outcomes.
Is Arizona's Approach to Educating Its ELs Superior to Other Forms of Instruction?
Authors: Martinez-Wenzl Mary , Pérez Karla C. , Gandara Patricia 
Published: November 2021

Background In the Horne v Flores Supreme Court decision of June 25, 2009, the Court wrote that one basis for finding Arizona in compliance with federal law regarding the education of its English learners was that the state had adopted a “significantly more effective” than bilingual education instructional model for EL students—Structured English Immersion (SEI). Purpose This paper reviews the extant research on SEI, its definitions, origins, and its effectiveness, particularly in contrast to other instructional strategies. This paper asks, Does the research bear out the Court's conclusion? What is the evidence that Arizona's program of SEI is really superior to other approaches, including bilingual or dual language education? How are Arizona's EL students faring under this “significantly more effective” instructional program? Research Design Data on the relative effectiveness of SEI are drawn from a comprehensive review of the literature. Analysis of public documents, particularly records from the Arizona English Language Learners Task Force, which was charged with selecting a research-based instructional program for English learners. Drawing from a recent ethnographic study and student achievement data, we examine the impact of structured English immersion programs on English learners in Arizona thus far, beginning with achievement outcomes. Conclusions/Recommendations There is no research basis for the Court's statement the SEI is “significantly more effective”; at best SEI is no better or no worse than other instructional strategies, particularly bilingual instruction, when they are both well implemented. However, SEI as implemented in Arizona carries serious negative consequences for EL students stemming from the excessive amount of time dedicated to a sole focus on English instruction, the de-emphasis on grade level academic curriculum, the discrete skills approach it employs, and the segregation of EL students from mainstream peers. Moreover, the paper argues that there are, in fact, strategies that can ameliorate these problems as well as provide an additive, rather than a subtractive, educational experience for English learner and mainstream students alike.
“No Unfavorable Comments from Any Quarter”: Teaching Black History to White Students in the American South, 1928–1943
Authors: Woyshner Christine 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The history curriculum is often used to help reach the goal of racial tolerance and understanding by teaching about the nation's diversity. Many educators believe that teaching about diverse peoples in schools will bring about greater equity in society. This historical study looks at the segregated American South from 1928 to 1943 and an effort by a mixed-race voluntary organization to teach Black history in White schools. Focus of Study This study examines the efforts of the Commission on Interracial Cooperation (CIC), beginning in 1928, to promote the teaching of Black history in southern segregated schools in an effort to bring about greater racial tolerance and awareness. The CIC circulated a booklet, which was a short history of African Americans titled “America's Tenth Man,” and invited schools to submit essays on Black history for cash prizes. The contests ran from 1928 until 1943, when the CIC was renamed the Southern Regional Council, which reflected a change in the organization's emphasis on regional planning. Research Design This is a historical examination of teaching Black history in segregated schools. The author relies on primary sources—including teachers’ reports, correspondence, and students’ projects—and secondary studies in the history of education and the curriculum. Conclusions By challenging historians’ views of the CIC—that the organization was largely ineffectual and that its Tenth Man contests did not result in any measureable improvement in race relations in the South—the author raises questions about the implementation of Black history curricula in order to influence students’ behavior and attitudes about race. Likewise, the author shows how White teachers were outspoken activists for Black history in schools. The study concludes that the teaching of Black history to White students was not uniform and was ideologically diverse.
The Inception of the Meaning and Significance of Endowment in American Higher Education, 1890–1930
Authors: Kimball Bruce A. , Johnson Benjamin A. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Endowments of institutions of higher education in the United States have attracted widespread attention in recent decades due to their meteoric rise in value and their precipitous decline during the recent recession. But there has been little research on the beginnings of the significant interest in and importance of endowments. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study examines how the importance of endowment, the emphasis upon increasing it, the competition for it, and even its current meaning originated between 1890 and 1930. The research focused on the emerging meaning and significance of endowment in higher education in the United States, demonstrated by the eight universities that acquired the largest endowments during the period between 1890 and 1930. Research Design This study presents a historical analysis relying on published documents and archival records from the period between 1890 and 1930. Conclusions/Recommendations While colleges have long had permanent invested funds, endowment first acquired its meaning and significance in U.S. higher education between 1890 and 1930 as universities realized that their autonomy, stability, and comparative advantage over competitors depended heavily on the amount of their financial capital. The universities that first made this realization began to focus on increasing their endowment and thereby established an upper tier of wealthy universities that maintained this elite status through the ensuing century. Consequently, the inception of endowment between 1890 and 1930 had far-reaching influence on the stratification of higher education in the United States.
Getting at Student Understanding - the Key to Teachers’ Use of Test Data
Authors: Supovitz Jonathan 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Much has been written about the efficacy of formative assessment. However, relatively little of that research focuses on the design qualities of the assessment instruments themselves that might provide useful information to teachers. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article decomposes the formative assessment process and reviews the empirical literature on the feedback from an assessment event to the teacher to investigate two research questions. First, what are the design elements of assessments that can enhance their embedded information to help teachers understand how students are thinking about a particular content area? Second, what do teachers need to know to be able to take advantage of more sophisticated assessment designs? Research Design The article reviews the literature on test design qualities, focusing on empirical studies that have examined how the qualities of tests inform teachers about student understanding. Overall, 117 articles were synthesized to extract three qualities of test design that enable or constrain their potential to provide insight to teachers about student thinking. Findings/Results The literature review identified three crucial test qualities that improve their potential value to teachers. First, tests can convey information about students’ developmental path toward a learning goal. Second, tests can provide information about students’ thought processes. Third, tests can be designed to reveal information about students’ misconceptions within a content area. Conclusions/Recommendations The article concludes with a conceptual framework to guide future research on ways to maximize the potential feedback that teachers can receive from assessments. The framework, and hence suggestions for future research, focuses on conducting research on the hypothesized relationships between the qualities of a test itself, the analyses that teachers conduct from the resulting data of student answers, teachers’ instructional responses, and the effect of this process on student learning.
Utopian Visions: Emancipatory Possibilities
Authors: Benedict Cathy 
Published: November 2021

Abstract utopians dream of far away El Dorado, the land of milk and honey, Oz, fairy tale kingdoms… (Kellner & O'Hara, 1976, p. 29) I began to think, how do we systematically cultivate the ability to do what Bloch called dreaming forward, and what value does it have, to be compelled to imagine a different world? What are its characteristics? This is not the same as a political exercise in which we are always bound by someone else's profane choices, and we just select among them the least bad options. What do we want? Do we just want that when you go to the doctor, you don't have to pay? Is that it? Is that gonna do it? (Gilroy, in Shelby & Gilroy, 2008, p. 133)
Hillary: The Movie, the History Channel, and the Challenge of the Documentary for Democratic Education
Authors: Stoddard Jeremy 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context In Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission (2009), the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for corporations to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence citizens’ decisions about candidates and issues that will appear on election ballots. More important, however, for democratic educators, the ruling was grounded in an assumption that citizens can easily recognize “political speech” when it appears in media such as Hillary: The Movie, the film at issue in the case. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article examines implications of this ruling for democratic education. In particular, this article focuses on the nature of the documentary form in society, including how it is used toward political purposes and how teachers, students, and the public view it as an objective source of information in and out of the classroom. Research Design This study is designed as an analytic essay that addresses a critical issue within democratic and media education and draws from a broad base of empirical, theoretical, and conceptual work to examine issues exacerbated by the Citizens United ruling. Conclusions/Recommendations This article concludes that critical media education should be a core tenet of democratic education, especially as we move into the 21st century, and outlines areas to address in curriculum, pedagogy, and policy.
Dear Mr. Kozol…. Four African American Women Scholars and the Re-Authoring of Savage Inequalities
Authors: Farmer-Hinton Raquel L. , Lewis Joi D. , Patton Lori D. , Rivers Ishwanzya D. 
Published: November 2021

Background In 1991, Savage Inequalities quickly became the most riveting assessment of the inequalities in U.S. public schools. When Kozol visited East St. Louis for his book, the authors of this paper lived and attended schools there. As Kozol's readers in their respective graduate and undergraduate classes, the authors found it difficult to merge his outsider views with their insider experiences because their backgrounds included many unnamed human and structural resources, valuable beyond a dominant and patriarchal framework. Objective The objective of this paper is to resituate Jonathan Kozol's Savage Inequalities by critiquing Kozol's caricaturization of East St. Louis and its schools as places where students and community members lack communal agency and resources. Through the lens of each form of capital from Yosso's (2005) Community Cultural Wealth Model, the authors show how their stories reflected access to various forms of capital as K-12 students in East St. Louis. Research Design The methodological framework for this study is narrative inquiry. The authors storied their East St. Louis experiences by generating a narrative protocol and using the protocol to share their backgrounds, historical and contemporary understandings of East St. Louis, and each author's educational and professional trajectories. Once the narratives were completed, the authors shared and analyzed the narrative texts to identify patterns and emergent themes. Findings The narratives revealed how families, teachers, community centers, churches, and extracurricular programs were sources of familial, aspirational, resistant, navigational, and social capital. The narratives also provided clarity on the power and dignity of “unnamed” family and community structures, even though these forms of capital are rarely explored in the dominant literature. Conclusion The narratives complicate Kozol's interpretation and prompt readers to look at East St. Louis (and other urban communities) with a more paradoxical frame. This study is important for future educators who read Savage Inequalities and misunderstand urban students and families as subjects who need to be saved. Educators and potential educators require a much more complicated view of urban school districts and school children since scholarship can often provide a one-sided picture of inadequacy and despair. The authors contend that although East St. Louis indeed faces critical challenges fueled by racism and classism, the authors re-storied Kozol's narrative to expose the very rich source of community cultural capital that exists in East St. Louis and other urban centers very much like it.
In Fits and Starts: Learning to Create a Neighborhood Educational Opportunity Zone
Authors: Scanlan Martin , Miller Peter 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Disparities in educational opportunity and academic achievement are closely connected to social class characteristics that lie beyond the schoolhouse doors. Comprehensive approaches to urban school reform are ecological, seeing schools nested in broader communities. The research presented here examines one such approach in a neighborhood educational opportunity zone: a geographically defined area where a traditionally marginalized children and families are clustered and resources are intensely focused to respond to their concomitant needs. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study contributes to a richer understanding of these zones by examining the genesis of one. Guided by sociocultural learning theory, our central question is: How do communities of practice influence the learning among the adults in a neighborhood educational opportunity zone? Research Design This qualitative case study examined a neighborhood educational opportunity zone in an urban area of the Midwestern United States. Our theoretical framework focused on communities of practice: groups who share a common purpose and learn from one another about how to pursue this purpose. We examined the three constituent dimensions of communities of practice: a domain, a shared practice relating to this domain, and a community engaged in this practice. Data Collection and Analysis Data were generated from archival documents (brochures, organizational publications), interviews, and field notes from site visits. Data were analyzed by applying the three components of communities of practice: domain, community, and practice. From the interviews, we mapped relational networks to establish parameters of the community. We coded the array of data for indications of a commonly defined domain and shared practices within this domain. Our analysis was an iterative process unpacking whether and how the central participants of the neighborhood educational opportunity zone learned to collectively pursue this common domain. Findings/Results As this neighborhood educational opportunity zone formed, a cohesive community emerged whose members largely agree on a common set of concerns, but have a less cohesive understanding of shared practices with which to address these concerns. Conclusions/Recommendations The learning among adults within a neighborhood educational opportunity zone is a messy, convoluted, inconsistent process. These zones, by definition, are crafting not only new communities of practice, but new constellations among these. Scholars and practitioners alike will develop richer appreciation of these zones by attending to the complex learning processes occurring within and across these constellations.