ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Democratic Educational Leadership as Decency
Author: Sernak, Kathleen S.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Caring,Altruism,Democracy,Instructional Leadership,Democratic Values,Individual Characteristics,Leadership Responsibility,Administrator Role,Citizenship Education,Social Values,Political Issues,Persuasive Discourse,Interpersonal Communication

The primary priority for an educational leader in a democracy is decency. The author understands decency as showing compassion, respect, love, and caring for one another. That may sound soft and fuzzy, but she believes it is one of the harder things to do as a leader. It is fundamental to everything written about democracy--the need for dialogue; valuing difference; interfacing the civic, social, and political; and participating in order to effect action. The author argues that educational leaders must view themselves as part of and not apart from society; as leaders not only of schools, but of the social and civic worlds; as thinkers, and not compliant followers. It is necessary to learn the art of argumentation and not to fear difference in thought. Educational leaders need to learn how to dialogue, including disagreement, with respect and compassion: decency.
Jaded Optimism and Other Critical Elements for 21st Century Educational Leaders
Author: Theoharis, George
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Democracy,Instructional Leadership,Administrator Role,School Effectiveness,Equal Education,Excellence in Education,Psychological Patterns,Access to Education,Inclusion,Advocacy,Principals

The job of school leaders is becoming increasing complex within a context of greater pressure and demands. Thus, effective schools in a democratic society require a great deal from educational leadership. With a focus on creating and maintaining schools that foster equitable and excellent education for each and every child, The author discusses five critical elements for leadership preparation. He calls these elements: (1) jaded optimism; (2) joy-filled schools; (3) equity-oriented instructional leadership; (4) access and inclusion; and (5) public advocacy.
How Democratic Practitioners Can Address School Bullying: An Imperative for Educational Leaders
Author: Pryor, Caroline R.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Bullying,Elementary Secondary Education,Democracy,Community Involvement,Peer Groups,Victims,Parent Participation,Parent School Relationship,Teacher Attitudes,Teaching Methods,Knowledge Base for Teaching,Perspective Taking

There are various ideas about the root causes of bullying, such as the bully's prior victimization or perception of a student's position in a perceived popular peer group. Remediation suggestions include using various types of literature to help students gain interpersonal perspective from the lives of others. Some research notes that parental and community involvement in school problems can help change a culture of school bullying. Less discussed in the literature about bullying are calls to provide K-12 teachers "a deep structure" of the principles foundational to the ways in which people communicate cultural expectations for participation in American democratic society. Studies of teacher beliefs indicate that knowledge of democratic ideals is a strong predictor of teacher integration of these ideals into their classroom practices. In this brief essay the author posits that administrators as educational leaders are central to communicating the importance of teachers understanding the principles of a democratic society, and teaching the ideals of liberty, justice, and equal opportunity.
Preparing Educational Leaders to Serve a Democratic Society
Author: Waite, Duncan
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Democracy,Instructional Leadership,Administrator Education,Administrator Role,Leadership Responsibility,Administrator Qualifications,Leadership Qualities,Democratic Values,Social Responsibility

What qualifies an educational leader to lead a school (or schools) in and for a democratic society is more than simply a set of skills. One must also consider dispositions, attitudes, and traits that, if they cannot be taught, might yet be identified and nurtured in budding and practicing leaders. One of the most important objectives of an educational leader's education is the leader's ability to undertake a critical social contextual analysis tied to a liberatory, emancipatory, or at minimum a social and personal developmental educational philosophy. Without a critical social analysis, the author argues that students, teachers, administrators, other educational leaders, concerned citizens, and policy makers are likely to simply accept and work to maintain the status quo. Having the skills that permit a critical social analysis enables the leader--be she/he an administrator, student, teacher, or parent--the capability to lay bare the particulars of a certain situation, context, or milieu, and recognize just who is privileged and who is not.
Leading Public Schools in an Oligarchial Age
Author: Lugg, Catherine A.
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Needs,Educational Policy,Instructional Leadership,Leadership Styles,Educational Administration,Political Influences,Political Attitudes,Politics of Education,Social Justice,Professional Autonomy,Administrative Principles,Public Schools

Contemporary educational leaders should realize that America's political system of governance is not particularly democratic in the sense that the people rule. While popular elections occur in the U.S., participation rates by citizens are notoriously low, particularly at the local level. In very practical terms, the U.S. is less of a democratic republic than an international confederation of corporate oligarchs, with the thinnest democratic window treatments. For educational leaders seeking to lead public schools, they must understand the profoundly anti-democratic structures that shape their work environments. In the U.S., the needs of business and industry take political precedence over the needs of children. Furthermore, when the needs of children are raised in the political sphere they are framed in terms of &quot;economic competitiveness.&quot; These political framings displace children's welfare concerns with those of corporations. Additionally, the real educational needs of students for personal autonomy, intellectual curiosity, and political self-determination have been subsumed in favor &quot;academic achievement&quot; as measured by corporate-designed standardized test. So less reflective administrators insist that teachers prepare for public school students the state assessment by insisting that teachers teach to the test--a de-skilling exercise for teachers and a mind-numbing experience for students. These leaders do so because the professional consequences of school failure are increasingly stark. In this article, the author calls on educational leaders to engage in political subversion.
Ethical Challenges of Educational Leadership in the Countries of the CIS
Author: Zagoumennov, Iouri
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Administration,Foreign Countries,Ethics,Instructional Leadership,Democratic Values,Leadership Training,Administrative Policy,Administrative Principles,Administrator Education,Performance Factors,Performance Technology

There is no school administrators' pre-service training in the CIS (Former USSR) countries. As for the in-service training, it has been traditionally focused on educational management. As a result, schools in the CIS countries are run as well-oiled machines but there is a big question mark over whether these machines are running in the right directions. Doing things right implies certain beliefs by school administrators about what is &quot;good and bad&quot; in education. However while in their everyday lives educational decision makers are confronted by ethical dilemmas, there is little or no attention at all to these issues in the system of their training. There is an assumption that it is an impossible goal to influence and change their values and attitudes. After some 30 years of continuous attempts to challenge this assumption one should admit that it is indeed a very difficult goal to achieve. Through research, this author has identified seven ethical dilemmas faced by school administrators in the region. Responding to these ethical dilemmas is still the key challenge of democratic educational leadership in the CIS countries.
A School Leadership Faculty Struggles for Democracy: Leadership Education Priorities for a Democratic Society
Author: Bogotch, Ira
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Democracy,State Standards,Instructional Leadership,Democratic Values,Leadership Styles,Transformational Leadership,Change Strategies,Educational Change,Curriculum Development,Educational Practices,Administrator Education,Leadership Training,Performance Factors,Educational Needs

For the past 3 years, the educational leadership faculty at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) has been engaged in program reform and curricular innovation. The reform process was initiated by centralized external authorities--a combination of international rankings, national accreditation bodies, national leadership standards, and state standards, all culminating in a required state certification examination. In the academic world, this conflagration adds up to a managerialist reform movement, which more or less describes the current state of school leadership in the U.S. Who finds this state of affairs to be strange? Through the lens of history as well as culture, one could hardly have imagined today's school leadership state of affairs. Before one thinks of declaring democracy to be dead, paraphrasing the April 8, 1996 cover of &quot;Time Magazine,&quot; the author takes a closer look, first at what happened at the school leadership program faculty level, and then, afterwards, at the level of his classroom teaching. This essay begins with a straightforward assumption: Unless educators are willing to practice democracy, even under difficult circumstances, they cannot have a legitimate platform for teaching or advocating democratic practices.
Conflicts and Challenges of Educators', Students' and Families' Education Goals
Author: Ghiaciuc, Susan
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Educational Objectives,Ethnography,Educational Change,Student Attitudes,African Americans,Hispanic Americans,Parent Teacher Cooperation,Cultural Background,Teaching Methods,Equal Education,Educational Opportunities,Cultural Differences,Disadvantaged,Barriers

The authors explore the ways current curricula continue to frustrate parental and student goals in the classroom, focusing on three separate ethnographic studies of subjects from African American, Appalachian, and Latino backgrounds. The researchers determine that, despite the idiographic nature of their individual studies, many marginalized populations demonstrate overlapping concerns that continue to rest outside the primary foci of educational reform. Results indicate the need for a critical examination of curricular goals and relationship building between educators and families. Revised institutional-level aims should include building on parents' and students' funds of knowledge in an effort create more equitable classroom environments. Locating and dismantling perceived barriers to educational dialogue and opportunity are imperative if our goal is to include diverse cultural viewpoints in the educational process.
Creating Community through Mentoring
Author: Erickson, Deborah E.
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Doctoral Programs,Active Learning,Graduate Students,Peer Relationship,Mentors,Social Support Groups,Leadership,Focus Groups,Community Development,Theory Practice Relationship

This research studies a doctoral program that includes a cohort component. Candidates engage in active learning and in the skill of mentoring. Research on peer mentoring has shown to support graduate students as they progress in their study (Luna & Cullen, 1998). Analysis of the data found themes relating to mentoring and community: candidates identify the act of mentoring with leadership development; candidates see mentoring as a form of social as well as emotional/psychological support; candidates build community within own cohort but not necessarily across cohort lines.
White Girls Constructing Abstract and Embodied Racial Identities in an Urban Elementary School
Author: Zacher, Jessica
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Race,Females,Human Geography,Racial Identification,Grade 5,Whites,Urban Schools,Elementary School Students,Socioeconomic Background,Self Concept,Ethnography,Peer Groups,Student Diversity

In this paper I examine the ways that three fifth-grade girls from different socioeconomic backgrounds formed and reformed their racial identities in a diverse urban public school. Although the girls were labeled as "White" by their parents and the school district, none identified as "White." Drawing on data from an ethnographic study of children's identification strategies, I look at the conjunction of race, socioeconomic class, and human geography to analyze their identity work. I find that at this particular site, Whiteness is both an abstract category and a personal, embodied identity for the girls and their peers. (Contains 6 footnotes.)
Why's Everyone White? Moving toward Critical Pedagogy in an Elementary Classroom
Author: Kersten, Jodene M.
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: United States History,Critical Theory,Grade 4,Chinese Americans,Elementary School Students,Hispanic American Students,Urban Schools,Social Studies,Racial Bias,Minority Groups,Textbook Content,Critical Thinking,Access to Information,Internet,Educational Change,Teaching Methods

This paper discusses challenges initiated by first and second generation Latino and Chinese American fourth graders in an urban elementary school, toward the perspective of California history in the mandated Social Studies curriculum. The required text highlighted significant moments in California and United States history with limited, if any, acknowledgement of the many contributions and hardships of non-European people. Through authentic dialogue (Freire, 1970) generated from the readings of counter-narratives of history (Loewen, 1995; Zinn, 1995) students recognized the exclusion of marginalized groups and questioned the validity of the text. They developed a critical perspective and constantly sought alternative sources of information from their communities, the Internet, and other texts. The classroom became a site for discussion that problematized dominant historical narratives and eventually led to the teacher's pedagogical transformation. (Contains 1 footnote.)
The Role of Money, Race, and Politics in the Accountability Challenge
Author: May, Judy Jackson
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Income,Federal Legislation,Academic Achievement,Economic Factors,Role,Race,Politics,Accountability,Socioeconomic Status,Reading Achievement,Grade 4,Elementary School Students,Correlation,School Districts

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 propelled high stakes testing to an unprecedented level of significance. Decisions based on the results of such mandated assessments is flawed in that the tests are not an accurate measure of actual knowledge and neglect to address environmental, socio-cultural, and economic factors influencing student performance. This researcher does not claim to tell a new story, but it seems one that bears repeating. The results of this quantitative investigation further illustrate that variables such as median income and per pupil revenue have an undeniable impact on the academic success of students.
Beyond Methods: Embedding a Critical Perspective of Education in a Reading Methods Course
Author: Rozansky-Lloyd, Carol
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,White Students,Middle Class,Preservice Teacher Education,Reading Instruction,Methods Courses,Literacy,Politics of Education,Practicums,Teacher Influence,Urban Schools,Elementary Schools,Critical Theory,Teacher Education Curriculum,Equal Education,Cultural Capital,Reflective Teaching,Access to Education

Preservice elementary teachers enrolled in a reading methods course learn how literacy instruction is a political act that can affect children's opportunities. Through discussions and readings, they learn how the ways in which they teach reading to children make a difference in their subsequent access to knowledge. Through a practicum experience in an urban elementary school with mainly African American and low SES children, these predominantly middle class White students apply their knowledge of reading practices and their developing dispositions toward educational equity. Their oral accounts and written work demonstrate developing understandings of equity. (Contains 1 table.)
Quality (and/or?) Control: Perils and Promises of Standards-Based School Reform in Urban Contexts
Author: Seidel, Kent
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: School Restructuring,Student Interests,Mastery Learning,Educational Change,Accountability,Standards,Teaching Methods,Urban Schools,Creativity,Critical Thinking,Educational Improvement,Academic Achievement,Student Needs,Educational Quality

This article looks at the perils and promises of standards-based instruction in urban environments. We begin with an outline of the rise of the current standards movement. Then turn to the con position which contends; states, schools and districts do not always implement standards-based ideals effectively, especially in urban settings where resources and educators prepared to teach well with standards are scarce. Standards can lead to standardization of curriculum and instruction, sacrificing student interest, real-world connections, and creativity and critical thinking. The pro position reports that research and evaluation has shown that standards can support better communication between schools and parents, and provide a framework for accountability and school improvement that focuses on academic achievement, leading to curriculum, instruction, and assessment with the potential for a system of mastery learning based on learners' needs.
No One Curriculum Is Enough: Effective California Teachers Tailor Literacy Instruction to Student Needs Despite Federal, State, and Local Mandates to Follow Scripts
Author: Joseph, Rebecca
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Needs,Urban Teaching,Literacy Education,At Risk Students,College School Cooperation,Teacher Attitudes,Teaching Skills,Second Language Learning,English (Second Language),Qualitative Research,Teacher Effectiveness,Creativity,Educational Legislation,Grade 1,Elementary School Teachers,Teaching Methods

This study examines six teachers' responses inside and outside of their classrooms to increasingly mixed messages about how they should develop the literacy of California's youngest and most at-risk students. While they must develop highly developed knowledge and skills to teach literacy in linguistically diverse classrooms, they must also adhere rigidly to the substance and pace of scripted literacy curricula. This qualitative study sought to fill an impact research gap by investigating how six first grade urban teachers, identified as &quot;effective&quot; by district personnel, university professors, and peers, did respond. Despite a tightly monitored policy context, these teachers responded in deeply meaningful ways rather than blindly implementing the curricula. These findings suggest the importance of honoring teacher creativity, thirst for knowledge, and practical experiences. (Contains 1 table.)
Now Is the Time to Advocate for CTE
Author: Baxter, Jamie
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Advocacy,Vocational Education,Educational Finance,Economic Impact,Change Strategies,Performance Factors,Activism,Financial Support,Financial Problems,Politics of Education

This year has been a very frustrating year for career and technical education (CTE) advocates across the country. They have experienced significant funding reductions for the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act (Perkins), not to mention the cuts in state and local CTE funding. The Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) outlines the importance of advocacy during these pressing economic times, when education funding continues to steadily decline. The article outlines the dos and don'ts of effective advocacy and how educators can make a difference.
Inclusion in an Era of Accountability: A Framework for Differentiating Instruction in Urban Standards-Based Classrooms
Author: Voltz, Deborah L.
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Urban Teaching,Educational Change,Individualized Instruction,Standards,Urban Areas,Inclusion,Teacher Attitudes,School Districts,Faculty Development,Accountability,Teacher Effectiveness,Educational Objectives,Concept Mapping,Intervention,Elementary School Teachers,Teacher Characteristics

In our current climate of standards-based reform, efforts abound to have all students reach the same goals. At the same time, other educational reforms, such as inclusion, are creating increasingly diverse populations of students in general education classrooms. Consequently, teachers often view inclusion and standards-based reform as incompatible ideas. These tensions can be exacerbated in urban districts, where educators often find the need to make greater gains with fewer resources. This paper describes a professional development sequence found useful in helping urban teachers reconcile two divergent educational initiatives--standards-based reform and inclusion. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)
Routing the Pipeline: The Structural Dilemmas of Urban Education
Author: Chapman, Thandeka K.
Date: 2006-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Partnerships in Education,State Universities,College School Cooperation,High Schools,Transitional Programs,College Preparation,Academic Discourse,Writing Workshops,Program Evaluation,Literacy,Urban Schools,Multicultural Education,College Bound Students,Student Experience,Minority Group Students,Student Attitudes

Using a collaborative program evaluation of a bridge program at a state flagship university, the authors argue that contradictions in student perceptions of their literacy learning are endemic to the effects of the structure of urban schooling. Overcrowding and underfunding of particular schools, in contrast with successful academic magnet schools, result in an uneven playing field as college-bound students of color enter competitive programs. The authors argue that programs designed to enrich college-bound students' experiences cannot work in isolation: better university/public school partnerships need to be pursued in order to ensure that students from urban settings do not arrive at elite universities lacking skills in academic writing. (Contains 2 footnotes.)
The Community Must Work for CTE
Author: Green, Kimberly
Date: 2011-09-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Vocational Education,Labor Force Development,Consciousness Raising,Consortia,Advocacy,Change Strategies,Community Involvement,Best Practices,Educational Objectives

Funding threats have long loomed over career and technical education (CTE). However, congressional advocates have faithfully preserved investments in CTE--until fiscal year 2011. Global competition and a weak economy are game changers in terms of how policymakers perceive the value of CTE and education overall. And the CTE community must convince policymakers that CTE has been able to evolve to meet the new demands of the economy. The National Association of State Directors of Career and Technical Education Consortium recently launched the national "CTE: Learning that works for America" campaign to increase awareness of and support for CTE.