bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Interruptions: Thinking-in-Action in Teacher Education
Authors: Furman Cara , Larsen Shannon 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context This paper is a part of the special issue “Reimagining Research and Practice at the Crossroads of Philosophy, Teaching, and Teacher Education.” We center what follows on a practice used in undergraduate methods courses that we have termed Interruptions. Interruptions are a form of inter-class visitation in which faculty plan together, visit one another's classes, and publicly interrupt the teaching of the other with a variety of both pre-planned and spontaneous questions relating to the day's lesson. Research Design We weave together a conceptual analysis and qualitative research, drawing from a larger qualitative study conducted in one early childhood and one elementary undergraduate math methods course in Spring 2016. For the study, we co-planned eight lessons together (four in each course), and observed one another teach each of those lessons, while taking notes and purposely interrupting instruction. We collected survey data from students at the end of each classroom observation and interviewed two students from each class at the end of the term. We also kept reflective journals of our work. In this paper we deploy a narrative format to document teacher inquiry drawing upon our reflective journals and classroom observation to describe the development, enactment, and our response to Interruptions. Outcomes Our use of Interruptions pushed us to examine our own philosophical beliefs and how they were, or were not, enacted in our teaching practice. We highlight that the connections that emerged between philosophy and teacher education provided us with the necessary time to care for our ethical selves both in and out of the classroom. Specifically, we share how this exercise allowed us each to become more deliberately reflective about the work that we do and why and how we do it. Conclusions/Recommendations In addition to giving us time to slow down our teaching in order to think carefully about our choices while in the midst of teaching, we found that we also considered instructional implications long after the Interruptions were complete. Interruptions helped us think more deliberately about the ethical choices we made as educators and in the service of our students. Interruptions proved to have deep and long-lasting effects on our practice as teacher educators. Other practitioners who ground themselves in both philosophy and methods may benefit from similarly systematic approaches for examining their own practice with an eye towards improvements in teaching and understanding of the self.
Short-Cycle School Improvement Planning as a Lever to Launch School Turnaround: A Descriptive Analysis of Plans
Authors: Vangronigen Bryan A. , Meyers Coby V. 
Published: November 2021

Background School improvement planning is a common school leadership practice built on assumptions that schools increase organizational performance if rational yearly plans are developed and then enacted with fidelity. A quality school improvement plan (SIP) should position subsequent critical leadership and instructional moves in a more holistic change initiative. Although multiple studies suggest that positive relationships exist between SIP quality and student achievement outcomes, all studies of SIPs have focused on the traditional, yearlong approach to school improvement planning. An alternative approach operates on shorter cycles of approximately one semester, a model that could be beneficial for low-performing schools engaged in turnaround efforts in which altering goals and strategies might need to occur more frequently to be situationally responsive. Purpose In this study, we analyze short-cycle SIPs from three cohorts of low-performing schools participating in a university-based program focused on improving systems leadership to rapidly increase school performance and student achievement. We determine overall SIP quality and whether it changes over time. Furthermore, we analyze plan quality by planning domain (e.g., vision, action steps) over time. To our knowledge, this is the first study that analyzes short-cycle SIPs specifically. Research Design We employ a conventional content analysis approach to examine 389 short-cycle SIPs submitted by 136 schools across three cohorts of school principals attempting to lead school turnaround. To analyze the short-cycle SIPs, we developed a rubric that includes 12 planning domains and is based on previous analyses of SIPs since 2001. Our descriptive analyses of short-cycle SIPs show easily identifiable patterns. Conclusions Overall plan quality is weak. Although most planning domains and overall plan quality scores improve over time, their increases are mostly nominal. Results suggest that principals attempting to lead turnaround efforts do not often set compelling turnaround visions or engage in deep root cause analysis to identify meaningful focus areas. Although we believe there is great potential in short-cycle SIPs, results further suggest that principals must be strategic in what they prioritize, especially in low-performing schools facing myriad challenges. Last, service providers, school districts, and state education agencies would be wise to recognize that principals will typically develop SIPs that are directly responsive to templates and/or policies.
Does Neighborhood Gentrification Create School Desegregation?
Authors: Mordechay Kfir , Ayscue Jennifer B. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Race and class inequality have long governed patterns of residential and school segregation across America. However, as neighborhoods across the country that have historically been home to residents of color experience an influx of White and middle-class residents, new questions arise as to whether these demographic shifts in neighborhoods correspond to school-level demographic changes. Purpose: This study examines Washington, DC's, most gentrifying areas, and the impact on racial diversity in local public schools. Research Design This quantitative study draws on data from the decennial census, the American Community Survey, and the National Center for Educational Statistics. Findings/ Results: This study finds evidence that school enrollment patterns in Washington, DC's, most rapidly gentrifying areas have seen a reduction in racial segregation, more so in traditional public schools than in charters. Although this trend is promising, a high level of racial segregation remains, and progress is still needed to ensure that newly integrated neighborhoods also mean desegregated schools. Conclusions/Recommendations Given barriers to school desegregation efforts, gentrification is offering a unique opportunity to create racially and economically diverse schools. However, managing the process of gentrification such that it supports school desegregation requires coordinated and targeted policies that underscore the fundamental relationships among housing, communities, and schools.
“Airplanes Not Walls”: Broaching Unauthorized (Im)migration and Schooling in Mexico
Authors: Gallo Sarah , Ortiz Andrea 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context This article builds on U.S.-based research on undocumented status and schooling to examine how an elementary school teacher in Mexico successfully integrates transnational students’ experiences related to unauthorized (im)migration into the classroom. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Drawing on a politicized funds of knowledge framework, we focus on an exceptional fifth-grade teacher's curricular, pedagogical, and relational decisions to provide concrete examples of how educators on both sides of the border can carefully integrate students’ politicized experiences into their classrooms. Setting This research took place in a semirural fifth-grade classroom in Central Mexico during the 2016–2017 academic year, when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Population/Participants/Subjects This article focuses on the routine educational practices within a single fifth-grade classroom in a highly transnational Central Mexican town. Participants included a binational student who had recently relocated to Mexico because of U.S.-based immigration policies, her peers from transnational families with ties to the United States, and their fifth-grade teacher. Research Design This school-based ethnographic study involved weekly participant observation and video recording of routine activities in Profe Julio's fifth-grade classroom during the 2016–2017 academic year. Observations were triangulated with additional data sources such as interviews (with educators, binational students, and binational caregivers) and artifacts (such as homework assignments and student writing). Findings/Results Through a close examination of a fifth-grade classroom in Mexico, we illustrate how the teacher brought students’ (im)migration experiences into school by leveraging openings in the curriculum, developing interpersonal relationships of care, and engaging in a range of pedagogical moves. Conclusions/Recommendations We discuss how this teacher's educational practices could be carefully tailored to U.S. classrooms within the current anti-immigrant context. These practices include building relationships of care, looking for openings in the curriculum, providing academic distance, prioritizing teachers as learners, and working with school leadership for guidance on navigating politicized topics under the current U.S. administration.
Researching the Neighborhood and Schooling Experiences of Black Male High School “Students who Play Sports” in Atlanta and Chicago
Authors: Adeyemo Adeoye O. , Morris Jerome E. 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context The corpus of scholarship on Black male students who play sports focuses on students at the collegiate level, thus ignoring the regional, neighborhood, and K–12 educational backgrounds and experiences of these young people before some matriculate into a college or university. This omission suggests the need for more robust investigations that (a) focus on Black males during K–12 schooling, (b) place Black male students’ experiences within the larger geographic (e.g., regions, neighborhoods and schools) and social and historical contexts in which they live and go to school, and thereby, (c) seek to understand how these contexts shape students’ experiences and beliefs about race and the role of academics and athletics in their lives and future. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We investigated two research questions: (1) For Black male students who play high school sports, how do the social contexts shape their experiences and their beliefs about race and the role of academics and athletics in their lives and future? (2) And, what are the consequences of Black male students’ experiences and beliefs for their academic and athletic outcomes? This investigation across geographically and economically contrasting cities, neighborhoods, and schools in the U.S. South (metro Atlanta, Georgia) and Midwest (Chicago, Illinois) offers empirical, theoretical, and practice-related evidence about young Black males’ experiences and beliefs about race, academics, and athletics, while providing a window into the complex social and cultural worlds in which they live, go to school, and play sports. Research Design This article emanates from research studies that employed ethnographic research methods such as interviews and observations, while embedding the researchers within the communities where Black people resided. The research design used a cross-case analysis to investigate participants’ experiences and beliefs. The constant comparative method allowed for the synthesizing of data collected from two different research sites. Description of Main Findings Key findings revealed the importance for researchers to consider place and its implication in the experiences of Black male students who play sports, particularly their perceptions of the role of academics, athletics, and race in their lives. Conclusions/Recommendations This article moves the scholarly understanding of the study of Black male “students who play sports” forward by illuminating the centrality of places, whether a particular country, region, city, neighborhood, or school—in shaping participants’ experiences and beliefs. We offer insights for research, theory, and practice.
Equity Advocates Using Equity-Mindedness to Interrupt Faculty Hiring's Racial Structure
Authors: Liera Román 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Education scholars have recommended steps for college and university leaders to take toward creating a more racially diverse professoriate. However, the majority of the scholarship is neither empirical nor focused on faculty actively negotiating barriers during search committee meetings to create equitable practices. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The study examined faculty within search committees who received formal training to interrogate exclusionary hiring procedures and create race-conscious and equitable hiring practices. My goals were to understand the strategies and efforts to advance racial equity of faculty trained on equity-mindedness to negotiate and use practices to change exclusionary hiring procedures. Thus, I answer the following research questions: (1) How do professors enact their agency to create equitable hiring practices during faculty search committee meetings? (2) What challenges do professors encounter when using equity-minded practices during faculty search committees? How do professors overcome such challenges? Setting The study site was a religiously affiliated private liberal arts university with a predominantly White student and faculty population. Senior administrators invested resources in a ten-month intervention to train 17 faculty to advance racial equity in faculty hiring. Population/Participants/Subjects Study participants consisted of 10 faculty members whose university leadership designated them as advocates of racial equity on search committees. Research Design Data for this critical narrative analysis were collected through eight interviews with faculty equity advocates, observations of two faculty search committees, and documents of hiring materials such as hiring criteria, interview questions, and evaluation rubrics. Findings/Results Ultimately, faculty enacted their agency to deactivate exclusionary practices and inscribe new rules for search committees to follow. The findings illustrate that faculty agency for racial equity is an effort to establish positional power, to use equity-minded practices, and to informally strategize to overcome resistance as members of faculty search committees. Conclusions/Recommendations I conclude that faculty advance racial equity by manipulating and subverting practices (e.g., recruitment strategies, evaluation criteria), rules (e.g., conversations about race), and roles (e.g., legitimate roles as committee members, who have the knowledge to integrate equity-mindedness) that historically excluded racially minoritized professors from the hiring process. Study findings suggest for senior administrators to train faculty search committee members on taking active steps to create an equity-minded evaluation system, including the appointment of people who are explicitly trained to advocate for equity in the evaluation process.
Capacity-Building for District Reform: The Role of Instructional-Coach Teams
Authors: Galey-Horn Sarah 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context This study contributes to our growing understanding of coaches’ role in district reform by introducing instructional-coach teams as a potentially important concept for understanding coaching activities that support systemic reform. Prior research shows that instructional coaches leverage their position between the district office and schools to coordinate policy implementation. This study builds on that analysis by adding a group dimension to instructional coaching at the district level. No other study to date has focused on the collective behaviors of coaches that facilitate reform efforts. Purpose/Objective/RQ/Focus of Study The purpose of this study is to examine the practices of effective instructional-coach teams and conceptualize the role of coach teams in district reform. Research Design I used cross-case analysis that relied on social-network, questionnaire, interview, and observational methods as sources of evidence to analyze how instructional coaches work together to build capacities for district reform. I identified two successful district-level coach teams with an explicit mandate to support reform efforts that were, however, operating in very different district contexts. The focus of this analysis was to identify and compare the circumstances that present in both cases and help explain why these districts have effective coach teams. Findings My findings describe how coach teams develop institutional capacities that enable districts to respond to policy demands. I find that differences in curriculum policy, district reform context, and professional collaboration are associated with differences in the teams’ relational structures. I link these differences to common process gains resulting from the collective working of coach teams. I found three important process gains: intranet systems, collaborative problem-solving, and collective expertise. Although both teams produced all three, they implemented process gains in very different ways. Conclusions/Recommendations This comparative study demonstrates the conceptual utility of instructional-coach teams for understanding the link between coaching and systemic district reform. More theory and research are needed to better understand the behaviors of teams of educators, and particularly instructional coaches, engaged in collective work to support district reform.
Accelerating to Success: The Impact of Florida's Developmental Education Reform on Credit Accumulation
Authors: Mokher Christine G. , Park-Gaghan Toby J. , Hu Shouping 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context Underprepared students at community colleges are often assigned to a sequence of developmental education courses that can substantially delay, or even halt, their progress to degree completion. In 2014, Florida implemented a comprehensive reform under Senate Bill (SB) 1720 that allowed the majority of incoming students to enroll directly into college-level courses, while remaining developmental education courses were offered in new instructional modalities that were designed to be completed more quickly than traditional semester-long courses. Colleges provided extensive advising and academic support services intended to help students succeed while progressing at a more accelerated pace. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study In this study, we examined the impact of Florida's developmental education reform on early momentum. More specifically, we defined early momentum as student success in early outcomes (such as the number of credits attempted and earned), which may set students on a promising long-term trajectory on subsequent postsecondary outcomes. Population/Participants/Subjects Our sample included all first-time-in-college students enrolled in all 28 public state colleges. We included three cohorts of students before the reform and up to three cohorts of students after the reform. Each cohort consisted of approximately 70,000 students. Research Design We used an interrupted time series design to compare student outcomes three years before the reform with those up to three years after the reform. Our outcome variables, measured one and three years following initial college enrollment, represented continuous indicators for the number of college-level credits attempted and the number of college-level credits earned. We also examined whether the data revealed heterogeneity in the reform's impacts by race/ethnicity, family income status, and level of high school academic preparation. Findings/Results We found small positive effects on all outcomes, indicating that the reform accelerated student success in both the short term and longer term. The impacts of the reform were even greater for Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, low-income, and underprepared students (particularly in the first year), thus reducing existing achievement gaps. Conclusions/Recommendations Florida's SB 1720 consisted of a complementary set of reform efforts that may together have a larger impact than any single component alone. The results suggest that initial momentum gains in the first year may have set some students on a more successful long-term trajectory, particularly those most likely to be assigned to developmental education before the reform. Colleges should continue to provide comprehensive student support services to help students succeed while progressing at a more accelerated pace.
Effects of a Longitudinal School Development Program on Primary Teachers’ Attitudes toward Inquiry Teaching and Their Inquiry Teaching Practices
Authors: Post Tim , Van Der Molen Juliette H. Walma 
Published: November 2021

Background/Context International education policy documents increasingly promote the implementation of inquiry-based pedagogy in primary education. However, helping whole primary school teams to acquire the competencies that meet these new education standards is complex and requires extensive teacher professionalization programs. Unfortunately, such programs are still relatively scarce. Little is currently known about what it takes to help primary schools integrate inquiry-focused pedagogy into their school curriculum and which teacher and school factors might foster or hinder teachers’ professional development in this regard. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study To help fill this void in the literature, the present article describes the effects of a two-year school improvement program in which the complete school staffs of six Dutch primary schools were trained to integrate inquiry-focused pedagogy into daily school practice. We measured (changes in) teachers’ and school principals’ performance before, immediately after, and one year after the treatment to gain insight into what professionalization features and what school and teacher factors may enhance the sustained implementation of inquiry-focused pedagogy in primary schools. Research Design A delayed treatment pretest-posttest control group design was used to investigate the effects of the program on teachers’ attitudes toward inquiry teaching and their inquiry teaching behavior. In addition, differences in these program effects were explored based on differences in school leadership between the schools. Therefore, program effects were examined at the treatment level and at the individual school level by means of attitude questionnaires and interviews. Conclusions/Recommendations Results indicate that the program significantly improved teachers’ attitudes and inquiry teaching behavior of the first treatment group and that teachers’ improved practices persisted to one year after training. However, school leadership remained largely moderate throughout the program and appeared to explain little variation in teachers’ inquiry teaching development among the participating schools. In addition, results reveal positive but limited effects of the same program on the attitude and behavior development of the delayed treatment group. Findings indicate that a combination of extensive attitude-focused and didactical training provides primary school teams the (minimal) preparatory training to adopt inquiry-based pedagogy. More longitudinal quantitative and qualitative research is needed to evaluate the impact and explore the processes of implementation, while considering the complexity of schools as organizations and refraining from overly prescriptive approaches to encouraging and assessing teachers’ inquiry-pedagogy.