bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Cultural and Home Language Influences on Children's Responses to Science Assessments
Authors: Luykx Aurolyn , Lee Okhee , Mahotiere Margarette , Lester Benjamin , Hart Juliet , Deaktor Rachael 
Published: February 2022

Background A critical issue in academic assessment is the effect of children's language and culture on their measured performance. Research on this topic has rarely focused on science education, because science is commonly (though erroneously) assumed to be “culture free.” Students’ scientific understandings are influenced by the cultural values, experiences, and epistemologies of their home communities. Efforts to minimize cultural bias include designing tests to be “culturally neutral” and, conversely, tailoring assessments to specific cultural groups; both approaches are theoretically and practically problematic. Several studies have focused on testing accommodations for English language learners (ELLs), but accommodations raise validity and feasibility issues and are limited by “English-only” policies. This article stresses the linkages between language and culture, drawing on contemporary literacy theory and research on scientific communities as well as groups traditionally marginalized from science. Objective To examine how children's prior linguistic and cultural knowledge mediates their engagement with school science, as reflected in their responses on science assessments. Participants Over 1,500 students from six elementary schools serving diverse populations. Research Design Project-developed assessments included items requiring students to explain scientific phenomena. Scoring revealed that students misinterpreted some items, and scorers had difficulty understanding some students’ responses. Project personnel then undertook qualitative discourse analysis of responses on all tests. Findings Analysis revealed phonological/orthographic and semantic interference from students’ home languages; responses reflecting students’ cultural beliefs and practices; and “languacultural” features related to genre, authorial voice, pragmatic framing, and textual organization. Conclusions/Recommendations Science tests inevitably contain tacit cultural and linguistic knowledge that is not equally accessible to all students. Using “real-life scenarios” in assessment items may confuse students whose lives do not reflect mainstream norms. Furthermore, English-medium assessments are unlikely to accurately measure ELLs’ science knowledge. Teachers can learn to recognize factors that impede ELLs from grasping or expressing science concepts clearly. They should also ensure that all students understand the discursive and textual conventions inherent in assessment instruments. Linguistic and cultural factors shape science knowledge not only of students but of teachers, scientists, and test developers. Uncovering the factors shaping students’ academic performance requires fine-grained qualitative analysis and collaboration across disciplinary boundaries.
Enclothing Identity: A Hmong Girl's Journey into the Politics of Identification in Thailand
Authors: Johnson Tracy Pilar 
Published: February 2022

Background/Context It may appear a simple question for a 12 year old girl to ask: “what should I wear today for school?” But simplicity is deceptive when the possibilities are many and each carries with it a specific and dangerous weight. In this paper I start with a Hmong girl in Ban Rongrian, Thailand, as she faces forms of identifications commonly used for herself and her parents: “the dangerous communist insurgent,” “the good Thai student,” and “the colorful and peaceful ethnic minority.” Interestingly, these identifications are not only made public through speech, but through styles of dress as well. Purpose Building on the concerns raised by Michel de Certeu and his problematics of enunciation, as well as Judith Butler's attempts to understand agency and subjecthood within the constraining possibilities provided by language, I examine how Hmong students tell themselves and others who they are, not only through their speech acts, but also through the practice of dressing. Research Design In particular, by analyzing two case studies compiled during a two and a half year period of ethnographic research, I demonstrate the ways in which some young Hmong girls struggle to understand the social relations that obtain between the Hmong and the Thai and the ways they creatively appropriate different styles of dress and speech in an attempt to play with the identifications that structure their lives. Conclusions I conclude by showing how it is through these practices that Hmong girls enact a present and give us a sense of how they imagine futures for themselves in which they have greater control over the representational systems that seek to identify them.
Hidden Education among African Americans during Slavery
Authors: Gundaker Grey 
Published: February 2022

Background/Context Historical studies examine aspects of African American education in and out of school in detail (Woodson 1915, 1933, Bullock 1970, Anderson 1988, Morris 1982, Rachal 1986, Rose 1964, Webber 1978, Williams 2005). Scholars of African American literacy have noted ways that education intersects other arenas such as religion and expressive culture (Cornelius 1991, Gundaker 1998). Objective Most of the papers in this volume focus on contemporary ethnographic research that explores processes of “education” outside of schooling which are hidden by the dominance of “schooling” and “learning” as paradigms for what education “is.” Population However, African Americans under enslavement often had to hide educational practices, especially those relating to literacy, under threat of violence. Thus the stakes of education were high indeed with much to teach about the “hidden processes of deliberate change” (Varenne, this volume) that are the subject of this special issue. Research Design This paper examines three interrelated kinds of activity from a historical anthropological perspective: 1) invisible or seemingly extraneous aspects of schooling and efforts to orchestrate school-like activities; 2) hidden and not so hidden literacy acquisition; and 3) expressive practices with educational dimensions for participants that remained largely invisible to outsiders. Conclusions “Hidden education” in the Quarter involved a double language that addressed both the world as it “is” and the world as it could or should be; the world that outsiders control and the one that insiders are continually educating each other to make. Thus, it seems the enslaved have contributed a more complex theory of education than that which informs much of today's schooling. Similarly, they have left a legacy of valuable educative skills that schools today often undervalue.
Putting the Squeeze on Social Studies: Managing Teaching Dilemmas in Subject Areas Excluded from State Testing
Authors: Wills John S. 
Published: February 2022

Background/Context Recent research indicates that social studies is being “squeezed” from the elementary curriculum as instructional time is shifted to language arts and mathematics in response to state testing and the federal No Child Left Behind Act, especially in schools serving poor students and students of color. However, less is known about the specific curricular and instructional choices teachers make as they confront reduced instructional time for social studies, and the enacted curriculum resulting from these choices. Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyze what happens to the enacted curriculum in social studies in elementary schools where instructional time for social studies was reduced in response to state testing in language arts and mathematics. Setting This research was conducted at a rural elementary school in Southern California serving poor Latino, African-American, and White students, a low performing yet improving school as measured by state testing in language arts and mathematics. Research Design A ten-month qualitative case study of social studies curriculum and instruction was conducted in one fourth-grade and two fifth-grade classrooms at one elementary school. Data Collection and Analysis Data collection consisted of observation and videotaping of classroom lessons and activities in social studies during the 2002-2003 school year in three teachers’ classrooms, consisting of a total of 125 videotaped observations. Interviews with teachers, students, and the principal, and the collection and analysis of student work and curricular materials supplemented this data. For this article, data analysis was based on the coding of field notes, analysis of transcripts of lessons and activities, and teacher interviews, to understand the curricular and instructional choices teachers made in social studies and the effect of these choices on the enacted curriculum. Findings/Results Reduced instructional time in social studies has resulted in a reduction of the scope of the curriculum, the curtailment or elimination of opportunities to promote students’ higher order thinking, and an increased emphasis at times on the simple reproduction of content knowledge. Conclusions/Recommendations The institution of a system of accountability meant to improve teaching and learning for all students is instead undermining the quality of students’ education in social studies, especially at low performing elementary schools serving poor students and students of color. As instructional time is shifted to language arts and mathematics the scope of the social studies curriculum and opportunities for thoughtfulness that would deepen students’ understanding of history are being squeezed from the enacted curriculum.
Who Makes the Transition to College? Why We Should Care, What We Know, and What We Need to Do
Authors: Louie Vivian 
Published: February 2022

Background/Context In the last several decades, a college education, in particular the bachelor's degree, has become the key to higher earnings, and overall, to a middle-class lifestyle in the United States. In an increasingly globalized economy, privileging information and communication technologies, it is more than likely that this emphasis on higher education in the American labor market will continue in the future. While we know much about the increasing link between a college education and social mobility, writ large, we know considerably less about who actually makes the transition to college, how this occurs, and why. Despite the strides made, large numbers of individuals are not making the transition to college. Among those who are, there are important differences in the kinds of postsecondary institutions they are attending, and in completion rates, with attendant implications for social mobility. Purpose This article has two purposes: (1) to synthesize the key facets of our knowledge base of how to expand the college pipeline and relatedly, to outline particular areas that have been under-examined across the disciplines; (2) to provide future directions that will allow us to better address this important inquiry along substantive and methodological lines. Research Design This article draws on disciplinary papers commissioned by the Social Science Research Council's Transitions to College Committee. The discussion of preparation is framed around the contributions from the fields of anthropology, and political science; access vis-à-vis history, sociology, and demography; paying for college vis-à-vis economics; and completion vis-à-vis the field of higher education. Conclusions/Recommendations The article calls for an overall integrative model, e.g., K-16 and interdisciplinary, improved coverage in large-scale datasets, and a more refined mixed methods approach to attend to notable gaps in our understandings of the transition to college. Across disciplines, a key substantive gap is variation along the lines of race, ethnicity, immigrant status, gender, and age across domains, which needs to be illuminated.
Converging Reform “Theories” in Urban Middle Schools: District-Guided Instructional Improvement in Small Schools of Choice
Authors: Gallucci Chrysan , Knapp Michael , Markholt Anneke , Ort Suzanne 
Published: February 2022

Purpose This paper explores an instructive case in which two potentially opposed reform theories converge on schools, in order to understand how productively or unproductively the two theories coexist. We attempt to answer the following questions: Can these two reform theories coexist, or do they get in each other's way? In what ways, if any, do the two complement each other? Separately, or together, how do they affect instructional practice and the school-level conditions that support teaching and learning? Finally, can policies and leadership, in this case reflecting two such different reform theories, provide mutually supporting conditions for teaching and learning in urban schools? Setting The theories are analyzed as they occurred over the 1990s and into this century in three middle schools in one New York City Community School District. Research Design The study utilized a qualitative multiple case study design. Three middle schools within one district were sampled using criteria related to student population, school structure, and configuration of resources such as time and staff. Data were collected over three years during three site visits per year and included extensive interviews, observations, and analysis of pertinent documents. Conclusions/Recommendations We argue that the reform theories primarily complemented one another in this case. In the schools, differences in steps taken by school leaders and staff to realize the first reform theory enabled schools to respond productively to, rather than resist, district initiatives based on the second theory. The sophistication of the district's vision for teaching and learning (both for students and adults), combined with a flexible approach to implementing the second reform theory, reduced the likelihood of conflicting reform messages.
Part One: Understanding Media Literacy
Authors: Mcbrien J. Lynn 
Published: February 2022

Most psychological theories were cast long before the advent of enormous advances in the technology of communication. As a result, they give insufficient attention to the increasingly powerful role that the symbolic environment plays in present-day human lives. Indeed, in many aspects of living, televised vicarious influence has dethroned the primacy of direct experience. Whether it be thought patterns, values, attitudes, or styles of behavior, life increasingly models the media. We cannot hand ourselves over to the television ready to accept whatever comes. The more we sit in front of it… the more we risk being confused about the real nature of the facts. We cannot leave behind our critical conscience.
Teaching for Democracy in an Age of Corporatocracy
Authors: Sleeter Christine E. 
Published: February 2022

Background/Context A challenge for teachers who support teaching for and about democracy is doing so while being pressed into directives rooted in corporatocracy, a political manifestation of neoliberalism. The accountability movement today, particularly No Child Left Behind, is rooted in much more firmly in corporatocracy than democracy. Democratically minded teachers face two tasks: negotiating increasingly undemocratic systems in order to find space for democratic teaching, and critically examining what democracy is, including gaps between its ideals and actual practice. Purpose This article explores the extent to which teachers can enact democratic practice in their classrooms in the current accountability context, and limits that context places on them. Setting and Participants Participants included two strong classroom teachers in California, both of whom were teaching English language learners from low-income backgrounds, in schools that did not meet Adequate Yearly Progress targets for 2003-2004. Research Design and Data Collection A case-study design was used for this study. Data included six hours of observation in each teacher's classroom, an hour-long interview with each teacher, papers they had completed while they were students in my graduate courses, and their masters theses. Conclusions While the teachers were able to use standards strategically to enact a limited form of democratic teaching, both, particularly the teacher who had more experience with democratic teaching, felt thwarted by accountability pressures. I argue that, while democratically minded teachers can navigate accountability pressures up to a point, No Child Left Behind, rooted in corporatocracy, limits teachers’ ability to enact democratic teaching, particularly in schools not meeting test score targets.
Creating Mathematical Futures through an Equitable Teaching Approach: The Case of Railside School
Authors: Boaler JO , Staples Megan 
Published: February 2022

Background/Context School tracking practices have been documented repeatedly as having negative effects on students’ identity development and attainment, particularly for those students placed in lower tracks. Despite this documentation, tracking persists as a normative practice in American high schools, perhaps in part because we have few models of how departments and teachers can successfully organize instruction in heterogeneous, high school mathematics classes. This paper offers one such model through a qualitative and quantitative analysis. Focus of Study In an effort to better the field's understanding of equitable and successful teaching, we conducted a longitudinal study of three high schools. At one school, Railside, students demonstrated greater gains in achievement than students at the other two schools and higher overall achievement on a number of measures. Furthermore, achievement gaps among various ethnic groups at Railside that were present on incoming assessments disappeared in nearly all cases by the end of the second year. This paper provides an analysis of Railside's success and identifies factors that contributed to this success. Participants Participants included approximately 700 students as they progressed through three California high schools. Railside was an urban high school with an ethnically, linguistically, and economically diverse student body. Greendale was situated in a coastal community with a more homogeneous, primarily White student body. Hilltop was a rural high school with primarily White and Latino/a students. Research Design This longitudinal, multiple case study employed mixed methods. Three schools were chosen to offer a range of curricular programs and varied student populations. Student achievement and attitudinal data were evaluated using statistical techniques, whereas teacher and student practices were documented using qualitative analytic techniques such as coding. Findings/Results One of the findings of the study was the success of Railside school, where the mathematics department taught heterogeneous classes using a reform-oriented approach. Compared with the other two schools in the study, Railside students learned more, enjoyed mathematics more and progressed to higher mathematics levels. This paper presents large-scale evidence of these important achievements and provides detailed analyses of the ways that the Railside teachers brought them about, with a focus on the teaching and learning interactions within the classrooms.
Tracking in the Era of High-Stakes State Accountability Reform: Case Studies of Classroom Instruction in North Carolina
Authors: Watanabe Maika 
Published: February 2022

Background/Context Considerable controversy surrounds the issue of whether high-stakes statewide accountability programs have led to more equitable educational opportunities for all students. Some researchers suggest that these programs have focused attention on improving the achievement of students of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Critics of accountability programs, however, raise concerns that high-stakes standardized tests have lowered the quality of instruction in inner-city schools, where students of color from lower socioeconomic backgrounds have traditionally not tested well, as these students do more out-of-context math and reading drill in preparation for the exams. A central question remains: What is the nature of curriculum and instruction for different groups of students in the new school reform context of high-stakes, statewide accountability programs, and what are the implications for equity? Purpose of the Study This account of classroom instruction delves into the instructional opportunities afforded students across different academic tracks under North Carolina's accountability program. The author focuses on the nature of classroom instruction for students in the “regular” classes, which are disproportionately populated by students of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds, with that of their peers in “academically gifted” classes and considers the implications for equity in this new policy context. While previous tracking literature suggests that teacher expectations of students, material available to students and skills emphasized in instruction differ across tracks, the research community has conducted little empirical research to support or refute claims on differential learning opportunities for different groups of students in the new context of high-stakes statewide accountability programs. Research Design This research used an ethnographic case study approach with theoretical sampling to select participants. Data Collection/Analysis This research was based on the following data: 1) 68 hours of classroom observations in two focal language arts teachers’ classrooms, 2) six interviews with each of the two focal teachers, 3) student work from two focal teachers’ classrooms and 4) interviews with eleven other teachers teaching at other schools. Conclusions/Recommendations The analysis reveals five key differences in instruction across tracks that favored students in the “academically gifted” classes. The article discusses the extent to which the high-stakes accountability policies influenced teachers to make bifurcated curricular decisions for their students across tracks. The author argues that despite calls to close the achievement gap through high-stakes accountability programs, the gap will persist unless policymakers and educators consider ways in which school organization can perpetuate or equalize instructional opportunities for students.