bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Rural Youth Perspectives on Why Kids Disconnect
Authors: Pozzoboni Kristen M. 
Published: November 2021

In the United States, policy makers refer to young people, between the ages of 16 and 24, who are disconnected from school or work as “opportunity youth.” Although researchers have documented demographic characteristics of this population, few empirical studies examine features of context that explain how youth become disconnected from education and employment. In this chapter, I present the voices of young people as they examine the phenomenon of “disconnection” in their rural community. I draw on qualitative data to describe how features of policy, practice, and place make it difficult for youth to experience feelings of belonging, develop valued social networks, and establish identities as productive community members. The chapter includes recommendations for sustaining youth engagement and interrupting pathways to disconnection. In a small town, everybody knows everybody. If I make a mistake, and do something bad, everybody knows, everybody judges me. Why would I want to be involved in a place where I feel so judged? — Youth participant
Back to the Woodshop: Black Education, Imperial Pedagogy, and Post-Racial Mythology under the Reign of Obama
Authors: Curry Tommy J. 
Published: November 2021

For centuries, European thinkers, and their contemporary white followers, have run rampant in the halls of academia prematurely championing the success of liberalism to speak to the experience of those historical groups of people excluded from modernity, while simultaneously celebrating the universal embrace by the supple bosom of whites’ anthropologically specific ideas of reason and humanity. This philosophical impetus has solidified the political regime of integration as not only the most desirable but also the most realizable condition of Black (co)existence in America. The education of Black Americans has been collapsed into a single ideological goal, namely, how to mold these Blacks into more functional and productive members of American society under the idea of equality established by Brown v. Board of Education. Unfortunately, however, such a commitment elevates the ethical appeals made by Brown, which focused on higher ideals of reason and humanity found in liberal political thought and the eventual transcendence of racial identity, to moral code. This ideology, instead of attending to what Blacks should learn or the knowledge Blacks need to have in order to thrive as Blacks in America, forces Blacks to abide by the social motives that aim to create good Negro citizens. When responding to the great debate over Negro education and Negro labor in the United States, Du Bois remarked: My thoughts, the thoughts of Washington, Trotter, Oswald Garrison Villard were the expression of social forces more than of our own minds. These forces or ideologies embraced more than reasoned acts. They included physical, biological and psychological habits, conventions and enactments. Opposed to these came natural reaction; the physical recoil of the victims, the unconscious and irrational urges, as well as reasoned complaints and acts. The total result was the history of our day. That history may be epitomize in one word—Empire; the domination of white Europe over [B]lack Africa and yellow Asia, through political power built on the economic control of labor, income and idea. The echo of this industrial imperialism in America was the expulsion of [B]lack men from American democracy, their subjection to caste control and wage slavery. (W. E. B. Du Bois— A Soliloquy on Viewing My Life from the Last Decade of its First Century: The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois—1968)
A Rigorous Dialectic: Writing and Thinking in History
Authors: Schneider Jack , Zakai Sivan 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context As prior research has established, historical thinking is shaped by disciplinary-specific reading and writing. Yet while our understanding of historical reading is relatively strong, our understanding of historical writing—and particularly, the core processes at work in historical writing—is less robust. Purpose This research project seeks to advance our collective understanding of historical writing by categorizing the core processes at work in the development of expertise. Participants The study examined the work of doctoral students beginning to write their dissertations. As graduate students pursuing Ph.D.s from top research universities, they were experienced in the role of history; but as writers of history, they were novices learning to construct historical scholarship. Research Design A qualitative study drawing upon survey and interview data, this project traces the historical writing process of a group of writers working on sustained historical writing projects across a year of their development. Findings Among the many skills of historical writers, four particular authorial dispositions stand out as critical. Historical writers, we find, are adept at finding patterns; they are adept at telling engaging and plausible stories; they are adept at modifying their positions; and they are adept at faithfully translating the “foreignness” of the past for a wider audience. Conclusions We recommend that K—12 and college educators establish clear goals with regard to what they want students to be able to do, and that they include among those goals the signature competencies of historical writers.
Structuring Opportunity after Entry: Who Has Access to High Quality Instruction during College?
Authors: Roksa Josipa 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context When inequality of opportunity is discussed in higher education, it typically pertains to access to college. Ample research has examined sociodemographic inequalities in transition to higher education and enrollment in particular types of institutions. Although providing valuable insights, social stratification research does not dedicate the same attention to students’ experiences during college and, more specifically, to inequalities in instructional quality. Research Questions Conceptualizing opportunity in terms of instructional quality, I address two specific questions: First, do students from all sociodemographic groups report similar levels of instructional quality ? And second, do students report changes in instructional quality during their time in college ? Research Design This study relies on data from three cohorts of students who entered college in the fall of 2006, 2007, and 2008 and were followed through the end of their senior year in the Wabash National Study (WNS) of Liberal Arts Education. In addition to students’ background characteristics, WNS includes detailed information regarding students’ college experiences, including instruction. Results The results reveal a substantial amount of variability in students’ reports of instructional quality. Notably, this variation is not systematically related to students’ sociodemographic characteristics, net of controls. However, the results also reveal a considerable amount of path dependency, with approximately half of the students reporting the same level of instructional quality at the beginning and end of college. Academic achievement is related to students’ reports of instructional quality in the first year, after which academic inertia carries students toward the end. Academic motivation, on the other hand, facilitates mobility to higher levels of instructional quality over time and is particularly beneficial for students who begin college reporting a low level of instructional quality. Conclusion Reported patterns offer insights into social stratification and path dependence of students’ experiences during college. Moreover, patterns of stability and change in students’ reports of instructional quality have implications for studies of college impact. The article concludes with reflections on different conceptualizations of instructional quality and recommendations for future research.
Trading Stories: Middle-Class White Women Teachers and the Creation of Collective Narratives about Students and Families in a Diverse Elementary School
Authors: Yoon Irene H. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Collaboration is increasingly part of teachers’ professional learning and continuous improvement of teaching practice. However, there is little exploration of how teachers’ racial, gender, and social class identities influence their collaboration with colleagues and, in turn, their teaching and professional learning. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study examines shared meanings that are constructed through storytelling by middle-class White women teachers who work in a racially and socioeconomically diverse elementary school I call Fields Elementary. I ask: What narrative tropes do middle-class White women teachers draw upon to create common understanding about what it means to teach at their school? In what ways does a normative middle-class White culture, specifically related to White womanhood, achieve ideological projects through teachers’ participation in collective storytelling in professional communities? The article proposes conceptual connections across whiteness, intersectionality, professional learning, and collective storytelling, and provides an empirical example of how the integration of perspectives illuminates this type of complex interaction. Research Design Utilizing ethnographic methods of data collection, I spent 5 months at Fields Elementary, dividing my time between two focal teachers, both middle-class White women. I followed these teachers across settings and responsibilities. The data in this critical discourse analysis are drawn from this larger study and come from a conversation in one teacher community (the second-grade team). On completion of preliminary data analysis, focal teachers reflected on findings to enrich interpretations. Findings/Results Findings indicate that this teacher community co-constructed narratives reproducing social locations as middle-class White women. Their professional knowledge reflected ambiguity in their efficacy to teach for equitable outcomes. In addition, their professional knowledge was tied to their identities as mothers; narratives reflected middle-class White social distance from students and families, which included asserting teachers’ moral superiority in parenting. Conclusions/Recommendations This study provides a model for conceptualizing collective storytelling and professional learning among teachers from an intersectionality perspective on whiteness. Empirical findings suggest that institutional constraints of teaching may require interventions at multiple levels: teachers’ and leaders’ learning how to facilitate professional conversations; home visits intended for “funds of knowledge” professional learning opportunities; hiring and placement of diverse faculty and school leaders to extend construction of professional knowledge; and policy changes. These considerations have implications for teachers’ professionalization and for schooling experiences that dehumanize students of color and students living in poverty.
White Gazes of Black Detroit: Milliken v. Bradley I, Postcolonial Theory, and Persistent Inequalities
Authors: Khalifa Muhammad , Douglas Ty-Ron M. O. , Chambers Terah Venzant 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context This article employs critical policy analysis as it examines the historical underpinnings of racialized policy discrimination in Detroit. It considers histories, discourses, and oppressive structures as it seeks to understand how policies have been and currently are implemented by Whites in predominantly Black urban areas. Focus of Study As we seek to understand how policy is constructed in relationship to predominantly Black communities, we argue that White actions toward Detroit are based on deep-rooted and historical biases, stereotypes, and fears of Blacks. Research Design We used critical policy analysis around the famed Milliken v. Bradley (1974) Supreme Court case to explore 20th century White American behaviors and policy regarding Black urban spaces, specifically in Detroit. Data Collection and Analysis We pull from political, educational, and legal literature surrounding Milliken I and critically examine prior research and policies related to the case. Conclusions/Recommendations Our analysis suggests that Milliken had a long-term deleterious impact on Black students (and families) in the city of Detroit, including the resegregation of separate and inequitable schools and the (re)entrenchment of White fears and stereotypes about Black Detroiters.
Free Women's Contributions to Working-Class Women's Sexual Education during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and Beyond
Authors: Giner Elisenda , Ruiz Laura , Serrano Ma ÁNgeles , Valls Rosa 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Women's sexuality, and the ways they experience it, has been a major topic in feminist theories and movements throughout history. For the more than 20,000 working-class women who participated in the Free Women movement in Spain (the libertarian women's movement, which started in 1936), women's sexuality was also a key topic in both their process of empowerment and their claims and activities. Purpose The objective of this article is twofold. First, it explores the ways in which the Free Women movement helped improve the personal lives of women in that period. Second, this article analyzes how the libertarian women's movement contributed to the sexual education and encouraged other women to have sexual and affective relationships free of violence. Research Design The article is constructed based on the life stories of two women who participated in the Free Women's movement. Our analysis also draws from an in-depth review of literature on the libertarian movement and sexual education as well as of historical documents about the libertarian movement of that time. Findings/Results Our data reveal that thousands of women experienced personal transformations through their involvement in the libertarian movement, a social revolution that affected the entire society. Reflections on free love, the eradication of prostitution, and the promotion of “conscious motherhood” were leading ideas in both the educational activities that Free Women organized for working-class women and in the activists’ own personal lives. These women's ideas on sexuality contributed to the creation of a society with more egalitarian and free relationships based on mutual support, solidarity, and collective and community-based action. This article shows how the Free Women were historically independent agents whose multiple achievements and transformations have been largely ignored. Conclusions/Recommendations The article concludes by discussing how the main features of the Free Women's libertarian women's movement are present in the preventive socialization of gender violence that is currently being developed in some educational projects in Spain. In particular, the Free Women's contributions help students construct relationships free of violence.
“We Learn through Our Struggles”: Nuancing Notions of Urban Black Male Academic Preparation for Postsecondary Success
Authors: Warren Chezare A. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Scholars agree that students’ academic preparation for college begins as early as middle school. This preparation includes both instructional and social supports. The present study draws much-needed attention to how Black males articulate the role and function of their Chicago high school for helping them negotiate the challenges of urban living to both earn admittance to, and graduate from, a four-year college or university. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Not enough is known about the specific supports most useful for improving urban Black males’ academic preparation to earn a baccalaureate degree from a four-year college or university. A single-sex public high school in Chicago (Nabur) rose to national prominence in 2010 for helping each of its 100% Black male graduates earn admission to college. This study investigates how members of this school's inaugural graduating class on track to graduate from college within 6 years of initial enrollment describe their high school academic experiences, and the impact of these experiences for shaping their college persistence. Exploring the contours of academic preparation through Black male students’ perspectives can be instructive for improving urban school reform efforts aimed at better preparing them for multiple postsecondary options. Population/Participants/Subjects Eighteen Black males—members of Nabur's inaugural graduating class who began at Nabur High School in 2006 and graduated in 2010—were participants in the study. Each of the young men, with the exception of one, attended Nabur all four years of their high school career. The young men self selected participation in the study. Each participant was on track to graduate from college within six years of their initial enrollment at the time of data collection. Research Design The young men participated in one in-depth one-on-one interview. Instructional and social supports—dimensions of academic preparation explored in this study—help to frame analysis and presentation of the findings. Findings/Results Students described teacher availability and academic expectations (instructional supports), as well as community building, social networking, and personal affirmation (social supports) as important aspects of their academic preparation for postsecondary success. Practitioners’ beliefs about Black males’ resilience as a framework for design and implementation of instructional and social supports emerges as most significant to their academic preparation for college. Conclusions/Recommendations Implications and recommendations for repurposing “struggle” as a site of resilience in efforts to better meet the unique needs of urban Black males in preparation for college are discussed.
Mapping Me: Mapping Identity among Academically High-Performing Black Males
Authors: Flennaugh Terry K. 
Published: November 2021

Background Scholars have argued that far too little research has examined the complex processes that many Black males undertake in constructing identities that function in schools. Some have highlighted the perpetuation of a false dichotomy in which challenges, particularly for Black males, have focused on either individual or institutional culpability. Further, scholarship on Black males that has focused largely on deficits has neglected to include student voice to acknowledge the strategies employed by academically successful Black male students in the face of staggering challenges. The present study investigates academic identity formation with two high-performing Black male students attending an urban high school in Los Angeles, California. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Not enough is known about the sense-making process young, academically successful Black males go through in constructing identities that function in school settings. This study explores the complexity of academic self-concept between two academically high-performing Black male high school students through the conceptual and methodological tool of identity mapping. The study explores the following questions: What are the factors that two academically high-performing Black male students identify as being important to their academic self-concept? In what ways, if any, do identity maps provide descriptive information about the construction and performance of academic self-concept among these Black male students? Research Design Drawing from Multiple Worlds Theory and the work of Cooper, Jackson, Azmitia, Lopez, and Dunbar, and Beach, Lundell, and Jung, this study utilized identity maps to visually represent participants’ understanding of multiple aspects of their self-concept through overlapping or disconnected spheres (i.e., multiple worlds). Identity maps were then used as tools for interviews to better understand the academically high-performing Black males’ academic self-concept. Findings/Results Findings suggest that these two academically high-performing Black male students conceptualize their academic identities as socially situated in a myriad of unique ways. Identity maps became an effective tool for both capturing the sense-making process students us to describe highly contextual and complex notions of an academic self and highlighting tensions embedded in the way students identified with schooling. Conclusions/Recommendations Implications and recommendations for educational researchers and practitioners to make concerted efforts to better understand Black males’ identity formation in school settings are discussed.
Reconciling Data from Different Sources: Practical Realities of Using Mixed Methods to Identify Effective High School Practices
Authors: Smith Thomas M. , Cannata Marisa , Haynes Katherine Taylor 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Mixed methods research conveys multiple advantages to the study of complex phenomena and large organizations or systems. The benefits are derived from drawing on the strengths of qualitative methods to answer questions about how and why a phenomenon occurs and those of quantitative methods to examine how often a phenomenon occurs and establish generalizable, empirical associations between variables and outcomes. Though the literature offers many strategies, designing mixed methods research can be challenging in large scale projects when trying to balance reliability, validity, and generalizability. By supporting the findings with multiple forms of evidence mixed methods designs lend greater validity than mono-method ones. However to draw on the comparative advantages of these two paradigms, researchers must grapple with the challenges of working with more than one method. Focus of Study This paper discusses the benefits and challenges of collecting and interpreting mixed methods data in a large scale research and development project. Drawing on existing frameworks, we refect on our strategies of mixed methods design, data collection, and analysis. We discuss the quandaries faced by researchers when discrepant findings emerge. Research Design The data come from a large, mixed methods case study focused on the practices that explain why some high schools in large urban districts are particularly effective at serving low income students, minority students, and English language learners. Undertaken in several phases, the work included sequential and concurrent designs. Incorporating a sequential explanatory design element, we first used quantitative data to identify schools in the district that were more and less effective at improving student achievement in English/language arts, mathematics, and science. We then used a combination of interviews, focus groups, surveys, classroom observations, and district administrative data—in a concurrent design—to try to understand what differentiated between the most and least effective schools in the district. Conclusions Based on our analyses, we provide examples of when mixed methods data converge, when they diverge but are complementary, and when they diverge and introduce a methodological quandary for researchers who must confront seemingly discrepant findings. In so doing, we discuss the tradeoffs encountered between the study design and the implications as we confronted them during analysis and suggest ways to balance the methodological demands of complex research studies. Seemingly discrepant findings, while challenging to reconcile, when considered for their potential complementarity, actually lead to a more complete understanding of the phenomena under study.