bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Analyzing Teachers’ Professional Interactions in a School as Social Capital: A Social Network Approach
Authors: Penuel William , Riel Margaret , Krause Ann , Frank Kenneth 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Researchers have proposed a number of lenses for analyzing teacher professional communities in recent years. These lenses have been useful in describing key dynamics of professional communities; however, none provides a compelling approach to how to integrate data from the school as a whole with case study data on individual interactions to create a coherent account of the structure and dynamics of teacher professional communities. Objective Our objective was to present and illustrate the application of social capital theory for analyzing the role of formal and informal teacher interactions in helping teachers enact changes to instruction associated with ambitious school reforms. Social capital theory posits that valued resources and expertise are embedded within social networks and that it is through social ties that one gains access to and can make use of resources to effect change. The network perspective directs researchers to focus simultaneously on the overall social structure of a school and on the expertise and resources exchanged through interactions among teachers that take place in meetings, staff rooms, hallways, and classrooms. Setting Our illustrations are contrasting cases of teacher communities in two elementary schools in California. In both school communities, the principals were committed to the idea of fostering greater interaction among colleagues as a strategy to improve literacy instruction. Both schools had similar levels of resources to support their goals through external funding from the state, but the schools had had different levels of success in implementing their reforms at the time of the study. Research Design We used an explanatory case study methodology that relied on social network, survey, and interview methods as sources of evidence for several alternative hypotheses relating to how the distribution of resources and expertise may have contributed to these schools’ different levels of success in implementing their reforms. Conclusions/Recommendations The comparative case analysis of the two schools provided evidence that analyzing the internal structure of the school community was necessary to help account for the distribution of access to resources and expertise in these two schools. Moreover, there was some evidence from survey and network data that the distribution of valued resources and expertise was related to the level of change observed in each school.
Interpersonal Mindfulness Training for Well-Being: A Pilot Study with Psychology Graduate Students
Authors: Cohen Jeanette Sawyer , Miller Lisa J. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Although mindfulness originated in Eastern meditation traditions, notably Buddhism, researchers, clinicians, and, more recently, educators suggest that the cultivation of mindfulness may be beneficial to Westerners uninterested in adopting Buddhist or other Eastern spiritual traditions. Mindfulness is understood as sets of skills that can be developed with practice and taught independently of spiritual origins as a way of being or relating to present-moment experience. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This pilot study adds to this literature on mindfulness training for nascent mental health professionals, who may be at risk for occupational stress and burnout. This study aims to (1) expand on preliminary research supporting the helpfulness of mindfulness interventions for graduate students in psychology and (2) investigate the feasibility and helpfulness of a novel adaptation of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) that emphasizes relational awareness. Population/Participants/Subjects This sample consisted of clinicians-in-training (N = 21) within a graduate department of counseling and clinical psychology at an urban university. All students were in their first or second year of graduate school; 20 participants were enrolled in a psychology master's program, and 1 participant was a doctoral student in clinical psychology. Intervention/Program/Practice The authors investigated a novel 6-week interpersonal mindfulness training (IMT) program modeled after the manualized MBSR intervention, with an added emphasis placed on relational awareness. IMT aims to reduce perceived stress and enhance interpersonal well-being and, as such, may be particularly well-suited for psychotherapy trainees. IMT was integrated into a semester-long graduate course in psychology. Research Design A pre-post design was used to examine outcomes associated with participation in IMT. Findings/Results Results suggest that IMT with psychology graduate students is a feasible intervention that positively affects mindfulness, perceived stress, social connectedness, emotional intelligence, and anxiety. Of special interest are changes in interpersonal well-being that suggest potential benefits for future mental health professionals. Conclusions/Recommendations High attendance rate and positive program evaluations suggest that IMT can be successfully taught within a graduate psychology curriculum. We suggest that mindfulness training may be a useful complement to the standard training of future clinicians.
Synchronicity Awareness Intervention: An Open Trial
Authors: Cho Lydia Y. , Miller Lisa J. , Hrastar Mark G. , Sutton Nina A. , Younes John Paul 
Published: November 2021

Background Awareness of synchronicity may be an opening to more general spiritual awareness. Empirical research analyzing the process of increased synchronicity awareness and investigating shifts in personal spirituality and mental health is limited. Might synchronicity awareness be a porthole for a more general sense of personal spiritual awareness, namely the experience of directly lived daily events as spiritually meaningful? Purpose This study evaluated a six-week synchronicity discussion group, Synchronicity Awareness Intervention (SAI), delivered to emerging educators and human service professionals. Its aim was to increase awareness of synchronistic events and to support spiritual awareness. Participants Final enrollment consisted of 12 females and 1 male, with a mean age of 26.8 years (SD=5.29). Religious denominations were 38.5% Catholic, 30.8% Protestant, 15.4% Hindu, 7.7% Buddhist, and 7.7% Atheist. Research Design The study used a pretest-posttest within subject design. This report focuses on the postintervention qualitative data collected through semi-structured interviews. Findings Data suggested that SAI was associated with increased awareness of synchronicity and suggested beneficial effects of synchronicity awareness on personal spirituality and mental health. Results showed that the program was well received and highly rated by the participants, indicating that it was an acceptable form of a spiritually informed psychother-apeutic discussion group. Conclusions This preliminary study showed promising support for the feasibility, acceptability, level of engagement, and potential helpfulness of an SAI in a group setting. Synchronicity awareness may support spiritual awareness and improve mental health.
Action in a Shared World
Authors: Hinchliffe Geoff 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The background of the article is the continued interest in the ideas of Hannah Arendt. In her book The Human Condition, Arendt draws on sources of ideas drawn from Ancient Greece to deliver a critique of modernity. The main burden of her criticism is that the imperatives of work and labor have virtually supplanted the ideal of action. By action, Arendt terms activity that was creative and risky, set in a public domain. Because the scope of the public has been severely decreased, the scope of action is attenuated also. In particular, Arendt closely identifies action with political action. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The research does not question the general thrust of Arendt's critique, but has three aims: (1) to supplement the concept of action that in certain respects is undertheorized by Arendt, (2) to argue that the domain of the public needs to be extended to the “shared world” that includes, for example, action in professional life and not only politics, and (3) to argue that education, as part of the shared world, should look to extending the capability for action. Research Design The research takes the form of philosophical and historical analysis. In addition to the works of Arendt, the ideas of Michael Oakeshott and H. P. Grice are analyzed to develop further the concept of action. The method of deploying action in a pedagogical setting is then explored through an examination of Sen and Nussbaum's concept of capability. Conclusions/Recommendations The article argues that teachers have a responsibility to develop the capability for action in their children and students. This goes beyond instruction to the creation of conditions in which students can start to take risks and responsibilities for themselves.
Human Conditions for Teaching: The Place of Pedagogy in Arendt's Vita Activa
Authors: Higgins Chris 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context If education centrally involves self-cultivation, and the teacher's own robust selfhood is necessary for inspiring self-cultivation in students, then teacherly self-cultivation is a necessary condition of education. But teaching is seen as a helping profession, where helping others always seems, in practice if not in principle, to preclude helping oneself. Some scholars refer to teaching as a praxis, a form of ethical/political conduct where knowing and doing become fused, where freedom is enacted. But is this simply wishful thinking? Perhaps, as institutionalized, teachers are a cog in a bureaucratic machine, or at best selfless servants of their students in a “noble” calling. This study asks what aspects of teaching, if any, might nurture the teacher's own quest to flourish, without thus becoming a selfish betrayal of the role. What might it mean to speak of teaching as “self-ful”? Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The philosophy of Hannah Arendt is a fruitful context in which to refine and explore this question. Arendt offers a rich typology of practical activities, distinguishing “labor” and “work” from action proper. And she puts action at the center of her theory of education. However, it is the natality and action of students that drives education, and Arendt seems to suggest that teaching itself amounts to only labor or work. The problem is that if the teacher's core project is not actional, she will grow estranged from her own natality, and thus be incapable of recognizing and responding to the natality of her students. How can we theorize teaching as action without violating the spirit of Arendt's compelling accounts of education and of action? Research Design This is a theoretical paper and uses philosophical methods such as concept clarification and development, textual analysis, and thought experiments. Conclusions/Recommendations Arendt's conception of the classroom as mediating space, sheltered from full exposure to the public realm and the demands of action, is a sound one. However, this need not entail that teaching cannot be a form of action. The classroom mediates but does not entirely exclude the public. Meanwhile, action for Arendt itself involves mediation. The classroom is a theatrical space where participants may adopt roles, but politics too is theatrical for Arendt. The curriculum involves representations of aspects of the cultural inheritance, making education akin to an ongoing (cultural) constitutional convention, where making is always remaking, where the polis is again called into existence by its representatives.
Does the SES of the School Matter? An Examination of Socioeconomic Status and Student Achievement Using PISA 2003
Authors: Perry Laura B. , Mcconney Andrew 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context It is well established in the research literature that socioeconomically disadvantaged students and schools do less well on standardized measures of academic achievement compared with their more advantaged peers. Although studies in numerous countries have shown that the socioeconomic profile of a school is strongly correlated with student outcomes, less is understood about how the relationship may vary if both individual student and school socioeconomic status (SES) are disaggregated. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study examines the relationship between school SES and student outcomes in more detail by asking two research questions. First, how does the association vary for students of different socioeconomic backgrounds? In other words, is the association stronger for students from lower SES backgrounds than for students from higher SES backgrounds? Second, how does the association vary across schools with different socioeconomic compositions? In other words, are increases in school socioeconomic composition consistently associated with increases in student academic achievement? Population/Participants/Subjects This study uses data from the Australian 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The sample includes over 320 secondary schools and more than 12,000 students from Australia. Research Design This study is a secondary analysis of data from the Australian 2003 PISA. Descriptive statistics are used to compare the average reading, mathematics, and science achievement of secondary school students from different SES backgrounds in a variety of school SES contexts. Conclusions The two main findings of the study are that increases in the mean SES of a school are associated with consistent increases in students’ academic achievement, and that this relationship is similar for all students regardless of their individual SES. In the Australian case, the socio-economic composition of the school matters greatly in terms of students’ academic performance.
Family, Neighborhood, and School Settings across Seasons: When Do Socioeconomic Context and Racial Composition Matter for the Reading Achievement Growth of Young Children?
Authors: Benson James , Borman Geoffrey D. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Seasonal researchers have developed a theory and hypotheses regarding the importance of neighborhood and school contexts for early childhood learning but have not possessed nationally representative data and precise contextual measures with which to examine their hypotheses. Purpose/Research Questions This empirical study employs a seasonal perspective to assess the degree to which social context and race/ethnic composition—in neighborhoods and schools—affect the reading achievement growth of young children. The authors ask, Were there specific seasons when context and/or composition were particularly salient for reading achievement? Also, did accounting for context and composition challenge established appraisals of the relationship between family factors and achievement? Population Data for a nationally representative sample of students proceeding through kindergarten and first grade came from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K). Neighborhood social and race/ethnic measures came from the 2000 Census. Research Design: This quantitative study employs a three-level model that assesses reading achievement at school entry and during three subsequent seasons. The model represents reading achievement as a time-varying process at level 1, conditional upon family socio/demographic factors at level 2, and dependent on social context and race/ethnic composition at level 3. Findings/Results Neighborhood social context mattered substantially for students’ reading achievement levels at school entry and for their reading achievement growth during the summer. The proportion of neighborhood residents from minority race/ethnic groups was not associated with reading achievement at school entry or during the summer season. During the school year, school social context was associated with reading growth during kindergarten, and school social context and race/ethnic composition were associated with reading growth during first grade. Conclusions/Recommendations The magnitude and frequency of contextual effects found in this national sample have considerable implications for achieving educational equality in the United States. The authors recommend that policy makers attend to the quality of neighborhood and school settings as a means of promoting literacy development for young children.
Social Reproduction of Inequality: The Racial Composition of Feeder Schools to the University of California
Authors: Teranishi Robert T. , Parker Tara L. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Previous research has pointed to the dismal state of secondary education in California and its implications for college access. These studies identified the extent to which disparities in access and outcomes in California are correlated with school demographics and the relative levels of segregation that exist in California's public high schools. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Our research advances understandings of this association within California's most selective sector of public higher education: the University of California. Three research questions guided our study: (1) In what ways, if any, are the racial compositions of high schools different for first-time freshmen (FTF) at different UC campuses? (2) How are the racial compositions of high schools that are the source of underrepresented minorities (URMs) at each UC campus different, if at all, from the racial compositions of high schools that are the source of White FTF? (3) Do the racial compositions of public high schools in California have an independent net effect on the likelihood that a school will send graduates to the University of California and individual UC campuses, controlling for other school characteristics? Research Design To answer our research questions, this quantitative study used descriptive correlations and multiple regressions to examine the high school source of FTF for 8 out of 9 UC campuses for the 2000–2001 academic year. Findings/Results Although the University of California as a whole may appear to be making gains in providing opportunities for students of color, accessibility to individual UC campuses for Black and Latino students varied depending on URM or White high school attendance. At 5 of the 8 campuses in this study, a greater proportion of URM FTF originated from White schools, as opposed to URM schools, where they were most concentrated. Conclusions and Recommendations Educational policies and practices in the UC system that hold some campuses accountable for goals of equity yet allow other campuses to exclude whole groups of students based primarily on the high school they attended are neither effective nor equitable. Researchers, policy makers, and educational leaders should examine the ways in which admissions policies may inherently privilege one group (those from White schools) and disadvantage other groups (those from URM schools). This problem needs to be addressed by both policy makers and practitioners in higher education and the K–12 system.
Teachers Providing Social and Emotional Support: A Study of Advisor Role Enactment in Small High Schools
Authors: Phillippo Kate 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context This study investigates the teacher's role in the student advisory process, which to date has generated limited research literature. Teachers who serve as student advisors assume a role that extends beyond the more traditional instructional role, and includes implied or explicit expectations to provide student advisees with academic and nonacademic support. Part of this nonacademic support role involves providing social and emotional support to students. This study particularly focuses on the advisor role and advisory programs in small high schools, which places a premium on strong student-teacher relationships, rendering advisory programs a central structure. Organizational theory that distinguishes role complexity from organizational complexity further frames the study, which explores the complex teacher-advisor role in an organizational setting that has intentionally decreased the number of differentiated professional roles. Research Question How do teachers in small high schools enact their advisor roles, specifically their roles relative to the social and emotional support of students? Participants Teachers assigned the role of advisor in three small public high schools. Research Design This is a qualitative study with a theoretical framework based on Giddens’ structuration theory. Conclusions Advisors were found to possess identifiable characteristics that impacted how they enacted their roles, and ultimately, provided support and guidance to their students. These characteristics concerned advisors’ background knowledge, relevant experience, skills and guiding principles about advising. Teacher education, either in preservice or professional development settings, contributed minimally to the personal resources and schemas, or guiding principles, that teachers used as they enacted the advisor role. Advisors with lower levels of personal resources, and less developed role schemas, tended to struggle more with the role, while advisors bringing more of these assets to their work experienced greater comfort and effectiveness with it. Implications are discussed for the small schools movement, teachers’ potential to provide social and emotional support to their students, and role complexity within organizations.
Open Access, Education Research, and Discovery
Authors: Furlough Mike 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The open access movement has successfully drawn attention to economic and political aspects of scholarly communication through a significant body of commentary that debates the merits of open access and the potential damage it may do to scholarly publishing. Researchers within the field of education research, notably John Willinsky, have discussed the value and potential benefits of open access to fulfill the research mission and to improve the visibility of the field. There are now thousands of open access publications or content aggregators online. Researchers have adopted open access to varying degrees, but not as rapidly as proponents have hoped, while readers using traditional discovery services are less likely to encounter open access materials in their research than they are traditionally published scholarship. Purpose This article examines the opportunities that are available for researchers to adopt open access distribution and the factors that may impede their adoption. I synthesize recent studies of researchers’ attitudes toward, and understanding of, open access and examine the extent to which influential education research journals permit it. I focus on one of the primary methods of adopting open access—archiving versions of articles in open repository services—and demonstrate how that model can contribute to decontextualizing of research findings during discovery. Research Design This article is based primarily on a literature review and analysis, but also builds on an investigation of publisher policies through publicly accessible Web sites. Conclusions and Recommendations First, the success of the movement, and the ease with which data can be readily shared by anyone with net access, has contributed to an increasing expectation of “openness” and will change how research is conducted, shared, and authorized. Second, more research is needed on the attitudes and behavior of researchers in specific fields, especially education researchers, to understand how open access can support their needs as authors. Third, that understanding should be deployed to design services that can help close gaps in the research process. Openness should be adopted as a value in these services, not an end in itself.