Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality.

Reproducing Sports Stars: How Students Become Elite Athletes

Article

Apr 2019

Kirsten Hextrum

Background/Context School-sponsored sports programs are seen in both the public and policy spheres as meritocratic mobility institutions. In the U.S. context, athletic participation can yield access to college via sports performance. Meritocratic mobility would be achieved as individuals use their athletic ability and effort to enter universities and in turn improve their social standing. Yet few existing studies empirically examine the extent to which interscholastic athletic participation yields mobility. As a result, little is known about how individuals access colleges via athletics. Purpose/Objective This study's purpose was to understand how individuals began a path to college via sports. In doing so, it asks: what larger social forces influence how youth become top-level college athletes? It draws upon social reproduction theory—how publicly funded educational entities ensure the maintenance rather than the reduction of class inequality—to determine whether youth sports participation facilitates mobility. Research Design This qualitative study examined the athletic and academic trajectories of 47 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I student-athletes from one university classified as Research-1, Tier-1, and as a member of a power-five athletic conference. Data include semistructured life history interviews, an original database, and institutional reports. Population Participants were recruited from four teams to investigate the athletic selection process: men's and women's track & field and rowing. The teams offered multiple comparisons in macro- and micro-social processes. Rowing draws from White and elite communities, because it requires tremendous resources to participate. Conversely, track & field requires fewer resources and draws more participants from marginalized communities. Findings Research reveals a sports-track-to-college pipeline and a correspondence between White middle-class communities and greater access to elite universities via athletics. Access to the sports-track-to-college pipeline is co-constructed through interactions at the individual, familial, and institutional levels. Five reproductive mechanisms are discussed—community access, bureaucracies, social access, knowledge, and enacted knowledge—all of which emerged as greater determiners for college athletic recruiting than individual athletic merit. Conclusions Recommendations offer policy and programmatic changes at the high school, college, and NCAA levels that make athletic recruiting more transparent and systematic to lessen the reproductive effects.

Does the Organization of Instruction Differ in Charter Schools? Ability Grouping and Students’ Mathematics Gains

Article

Nov 2016

Background Although we have learned a good deal from lottery-based and quasi-experimental studies of charter schools, much of what goes on inside of charter schools remains a “black box” to be unpacked. Grounding our work in neoclassical market theory and institutional theory, we examine differences in the social organization of schools and classrooms to enrich our understanding of school choice, school organizational and instructional conditions, and student learning. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Our study examines differences in students’ mathematics achievement gains between charter and traditional public schools, focusing on the distribution and organization of students into ability groups. In short, we ask: (1) How does the distribution of ability grouping differ between charter and traditional public schools? And (2) What are the relationships between ability group placement and students’ mathematics achievement gains in charter and traditional public schools? Research Design With a matched sample of charter and traditional public schools in six states (Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio), we use regression analyses to estimate the relationship between student achievement gains and school sector. We analyze how ability grouping mediates this main effect, controlling for various student, classroom, and school characteristics. Findings We find significant differences in the distribution of students across ability groups, with a more even distribution in charter compared to traditional public schools, which appear to have more selective placements for high groups. Consistent with prior research on tracking, we also find low-grouped students to be at a significant disadvantage when compared with high- and mixed-group peers in both sectors. Conclusions Although we find some significant differences between ability group placement and student achievement gains in mathematics, these relationships do not differ as much by sector as market theory (with its emphasis on innovation and autonomy) would predict. Consistent with institutional theory, both sectors still group students by ability and have similar relationships between gains and grouping.

EXPÉRIENCE SCOLAIRE ET REPRÉSENTATIONS DE SOI CHEZ DES COLLÉGIEN(NE)S À HAUT POTENTIEL INTELLECTUEL DANS DES CONTEXTES DE SCOLARISATION DIFFÉRENCIÉS

Thesis

Full-text available

Jul 2008

A. Courtinat-Camps

La situation des élèves à haut potentiel intellectuel (E.H.P.I.) suscite depuis quelques années un vif intérêt qui va de pair avec un certain esprit polémique. Bien que très médiatisée, cette question reste encore relativement peu explorée sur le plan scientifique en France. Malgré le fait d’être identifié sur la base d’un Q.I. supérieur à la moyenne (≥130), certains élèves rencontrent des difficultés d’adaptation scolaire et psychosociale. Une des hypothèses actuellement privilégiée pour expliquer ce « phénomène» souligne l’inadaptation du contexte socio-pédagogique aux caractéristiques cognitives et socio-affectives et aux modes d’apprendre particuliers de ces élèves. Au rang des mesures pédagogiques spécifiques alors proposées figure la scolarisation en classes homogènes (où les E.H.P.I. sont scolarisés entre eux). Notre recherche se propose d’appréhender, dans le contexte scolaire français, les effets du mode de scolarisation d’élèves à haut potentiel intellectuel en classes homogènes (versus classes hétérogènes) sur leur expérience scolaire et leurs représentations de soi et du haut potentiel. Un protocole de recherche a été mis en place auprès d'un échantillon de 255 collégien(ne)s à haut potentiel intellectuel (48 filles - 207 garçons), âgés de 9 à 15 ans (M = 12,5 ; ET = 1,51), scolarisés dans des classes hétérogènes (classes où ils sont scolarisés avec des élèves tout-venant ; n=51) ou dans des classes homogènes (n=204). Six instruments de conception et de visées différenciées ont été utilisés : un questionnaire relatif à l’expérience scolaire, le bilan de savoir (Charlot, Bautier & Rochex, 1992), la technique Genèse des Perceptions de Soi (L’Ecuyer, 1990), l’Échelle Toulousaine d’Estime de Soi (Sordes-Ader, Lévêque, Oubrayrie & Safont-Mottay, 1998), une grille d’hétéro-évaluation des compétences et des conduites scolaires et une question ouverte sur les représentations du haut potentiel. Nos résultats révèlent que les E.H.P.I. scolarisés en classe homogène présentent des niveaux d’estime de soi scolaire et sociale plus faibles que leurs homologues scolarisés en classe hétérogène. Par contre, les effets sur l’expérience scolaire sont plus contrastés. Ils permettent également de souligner l’hétérogénéité des formes du rapport au savoir et à l’apprendre de ces adolescents. Les stratégies de représentation de soi apparaissent fortement modulées par l’âge et les contextes familiaux. Enfin, les représentations du haut potentiel s’organisent autour de la question de la différence soit relativisée soit revendiquée.

Compliance and Control: The Hidden Curriculum of Social-Emotional Learning

Article

Jan 2021

In this paper, we seek to critically address the enactment and impact of social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum and implementation in early childhood and elementary (PK-5th) classrooms. Specifically, we argue that SEL, as frequently operationalized, is a dehumanizing process that seeks to assimilate non-dominant children into dominant ways of being while concurrently seeking to enforce compliance and normalize children to oppressive structures. SEL is often seen as a "nice" form of classroom management , perfect for a field dominated by "nice" white women who see their work as apolitical and neutral rather than political and rooted in the maintenance of white supremacy (Galman et al., 2010). As such, it makes sense that PK-5 contexts, deeply rooted in a "Just be Kind" sense of morality as opposed to one rooted in justice and student empowerment (Turner, 2019), turn to SEL programs as "fixers" of student behavior. But SEL programs are often anything but "nice. " Despite presenting as humanizing and kind, the focus on compliance makes it inherently dehumanizing.

Sorting Machines: Digital Technology and Categorical Inequality in Education

Article

Jan 2022

Existing scholarship suggests that schools do the work of social stratification by functioning as “sorting machines,” or institutions that determine which populations of students are provided educational resources needed to help them get ahead. We build on this theory of social reproduction by extending it to better understand how digital technology use is implicated in this process of unequal resource allocation in schools. We contend that educational resources, like digital technologies, are also sorted by schools. Drawing on scholarship from both education research and science and technology studies, we show how educational institutions have long played a role in constructing the value of technologies to different ends, by constructing hierarchies of technological activity, like “vocational” and “academic” computer use, even when strikingly similar. We then apply this lens to three areas of inquiry in education research: the use of digital technologies for instruction, school use of student data, and college admissions. Each illustrates how education scholars can view technologies as part of school sorting processes and with implications for inequality within and beyond the classroom.

Researching the Neighborhood and Schooling Experiences of Black Male High School “Students who Play Sports” in Atlanta and Chicago

Article

Aug 2020

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.

Researching Race in Mathematics Education

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2009

Danny Bernard Martin

Background Within mathematics education research, policy, and practice, race remains undertheorized in relation to mathematics learning and participation. Although race is characterized in the sociological and critical theory literatures as socially and politically constructed with structural expressions, most studies of differential outcomes in mathematics education begin and end their analyses of race with static racial categories and group labels used for the sole purpose of disaggregating data. This inadequate framing is, itself, reflective of a racialization process that continues to legitimize the social devaluing and stigmatization of many students of color. I draw from my own research with African American adults and adolescents, as well as recent research on the mathematical experiences of African American students conducted by other scholars. I also draw from the sociological and critical theory literatures to examine the ways that race and racism are conceptualized in the larger social context and in ways that are informative for mathematics education researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. Purpose To review and critically analyze how the construct of race has been conceptualized in mathematics education research, policy, and practice. Research Design Narrative synthesis. Conclusion Future research and policy efforts in mathematics education should examine racialized inequalities by considering the socially constructed nature of race.

The Campus as Crucible: A Critical Race Analysis of Campus Climate in the Experiences of American Muslim Undergraduates

Article

May 2019

Arshad Imtiaz Ali

Background/Context Muslim communities in the United States have increasingly been the target of the state security apparatus, virulent public discourse, and increasing cultural xenophobia. Since 2001, individuals perceived to be from Muslim backgrounds have experienced dramatically increasing numbers of racially motivated attacks. What is often called “Islamophobia,” or anti-Muslim discrimination or racism, has continued to rise in the past decade. Muslim communities face an acute political and cultural attack in which their actions and words are increasingly scrutinized and questioned. College campuses have been particular sites of contestation. This article explores how Muslim undergraduates understand their campus experiences. Purpose/Objective/Focus of Study I examine how Muslim students expressed feelings of isolation and alienation on their campus community in a context of state surveillance programs targeting Muslim students and communities. In particular, I explore student narratives of being conscious of peer suspicion. Further, I investigate how self-consciousness of their outsider status created an environment where Muslim students feel they must continually attempt to make their peers comfortable with their presence while also challenging dominant stereotypes of Muslims. This study gives voice to Muslim undergraduate students as they negotiate prejudices, scrutiny, and discrimination on college campuses. Setting Data was collected in southern California because there is a critical mass of community, concentration of students, and number of political advocacy and service providers for the diverse Muslim communities in the region. Focusing on this age group allows for an examination of this specific generation's understandings of race, identity, and citizenship, because they came of age amidst a rise in discrimination and racism against those associated with Islam and Muslims. Data Collection and Analysis Data was collected through semi-structured life history interviews and ethnographic observations of Muslim undergraduates in Southern California. The interviews spanned between three and five hours each and were conducted over multiple meetings with each participant. Drawing from a critical feminist framework, interviews were conducted not simply to garner data, but rather to allow students the opportunity explore their own experiences, analyze their histories, and engage in social analysis. The research utilized a multi-level coding scheme in order to understand individual meaning-making processes. Findings/Results This study reveals that Muslim students often feel politically and culturally targeted and isolated on their campuses and do not feel that their peers and teachers engage with them as full members of the campus community. Conclusions This study contributes to the growing body of literature that demonstrates the multiracial demographic of students who choose the term Muslim as a primary form of identity. This study reveals that Muslim students often felt politically and culturally targeted and isolated on their campuses and did not feel that their peers and teachers engaged with them as full members of the campus community. Colleges and universities must take proactive steps to engage Muslim students in dialogue about their concerns, fears, and questions about issues of freedoms and protections on campus.

The Prevalence of Developmental Instruction in Public and Catholic Schools

Article

Sep 2010

Sean Kelly

Background/Context Prior research has investigated differences in course-taking patterns and achievement growth in public and Catholic schools, but the nature of instruction in Catholic schools is currently understudied. One important dimension of instruction that impacts student engagement is the prevalence of developmental or student-centered instruction. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The overall goal of the present study was to investigate whether student and teacher reports of developmental instruction differ in public and Catholic schools. In addition, is a teacher's approach to instruction shaped by the social context of the school, as measured by the teacher's perception of her students? Finally, can differences in the social context of schools explain reported differences in the prevalence of developmental instruction in public and Catholic schools? Population, Participants/Subjects Data for this analysis came from the Chicago School Study, a large longitudinal study of public and Catholic schools in the Chicago area. Research Design The prevalence of developmental instruction in public and Catholic schools was analyzed using three student-reported measures of developmental instruction and one teacher-reported measure. Multilevel regression models were used to investigate the relationship between four potential predictors of developmental instruction—teachers’ perceptions of challenging instruction, teachers’ expectations of students’ future educational attainment, teachers’ knowledge of their students’ cultural backgrounds, and principals’ endorsement of developmental instruction—and teacher reports of developmental instruction. Conclusions Catholic school teachers and students were less likely to report the use of developmental instruction than public school teachers and students. This finding was particularly striking given Catholic school teachers’ high expectations for their students’ future educational attainments, a factor that was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting developmental methods in the classroom.

How Strong Is the Link between High School Streaming and University Major Choices?

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2021

The purposes of this study are to explore learning pathways when students transit from high school to higher education among Cambodian students and examine the probable causes behind their decision to switch academic majors. The study found that about half of surveyed students switched their academic majors. Virtually all the switchers are science-track female students. Personal interests and labour markets seem to be reasons behind the students’ major switch decisions, while performance in Mathematics in high school play a much less important role.

Dialogic Approaches to TESOL: Where the Ginkgo Tree Grows

Book

Jan 2022

Shelley Wong

Kvalitativna istraživanja kroz discipline i kontekste: osmišljavanje sličnosti i razlika ZBORNIK RADOVA

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Jan 2022

America’s Middle Schools: Examining Context, Organizational Structures, and Instructional Practices

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

The education of the young adolescent has consistently posed a challenge to the educational community. While the general belief is this age group (10 to 15 year-old children) would benefit from a specialized educational approach. Historically, both the junior high school model of the early 1900s and the more current middle school concept have struggled to be fully implemented and embraced by the educational community. With almost a decade passing since the last national survey focused on middle grades schools (McEwin & Greene, 2010, 2011), researchers seek to reassess the context, organizational structures, and instructional practices of middle schools in the United States. Over 1,600 responses from principals and teachers to the national survey indicate the status of middle schools is largely unchanged since the McEwin and Greene study. Specific recommendations for moving forward are shared.

Personalized Learning in Education

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2022

Yasar Akyuz

Personalized learning has been from the time past as learning which focuses on aptitudes, interests, and needs of a learner. Owing to its importance in the teaching and learning world, it has availed manifold popularity. Ten years ago, many nations such as the United Kingdom, USA, New Zealand as well as Australia have integrated this mode of training. It is seen and promoted as the major learning technique for preparing the youths towards the 21 st-century prerequisites as well as the expectations of the society from them [ [1]]. According to some scholars, it is very understandable in the aspect of vocational learning [ [2]]. Personalized learning customizes learning as per a specific student's needs, skills, strengths as well as interests in these techniques. Each scholar is given an erudition scheme which is as per his/her best process of learning as well as knowledge. However, personalized learning cannot replace other strategies like a 504 plan, IEP or an intervention program. This article tends to deal with all aspects of personalized learning which comprises a brief introduction of the subject matter of personalized learning, and some of the reviews of the literature on personalized learning. The write up will also focus on why personalized learning really matters, what is obtainable and what is not in the field of personalized learning. The write up will also deal with the best guides to personalized learning, especially educational elements. Some examples of what personalized learning is like, as well as some personalized learning strategies with samples, will be looked into. Finally, the article will run through the summary of the subject matter of personalized learning and its importance in the educational field.

Understanding and Addressing Gender‐Based Inequities in STEM: Research Synthesis and Recommendations for U.S. K‐12 Education

Article

Jan 2022

We draw from ecological systems and social psychological theories to elucidate macrosystem- and microsystem-level variables that promote and maintain gender inequities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Because gender-STEM stereotypes undermine girls’ (and women's), but boosts boys’ (and men's), STEM interest and success, we review how they operate in STEM learning environments to differentially socialize girls and boys and undermine gender integroup relations. We propose seven practice recommendations to improve STEM K-12 education: (1) design relational classrooms, (2) teach the history of gender inequality and bias, (3) foster collaborative and cooperative classrooms, (4) promote active learning and growth mindset strategies, (5) reframing STEM as inclusive, (6) create near-peer mentorship programs, and (7) re-imagine evaluation metrics. To support these practice recommendations, three policy recommendations are posited: (1) increase teacher autonomy, training, and representation, (2) re-evaluate standardized testing, and (3) reallocate and increase government funding for public schools.

Deep Punishment and Internal Colony: A Critical Analysis of In-School Suspension Rooms Inside Two Racially “Integrated” Middle Schools

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2022
Urban Rev

In this article, we examine an overlooked issue in research on school discipline: in-school suspension. Using data collected through observational methods, we present a detailed description and analysis of two in-school suspension rooms. These rooms operated in prominent, racially diverse middle schools in a large urban district. Applying critical theories of race and social exclusion, we reveal the ways that in-school suspension rooms constituted deep, exclusionary discipline and cast wide discipline nets that disproportionately impacted Black students and Latino students for minor reasons and provided few educational opportunities. Due to the racialized nature of in-school suspension in otherwise “integrated” schools, the rooms themselves became segregated internal racial colonies with implications for the racial distribution of education as a social, political, and economic good.

Broadband Access, District Policy, and Student Opportunities for Remote Learning During COVID-19 School Closures

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

We conceptualize students’ opportunities to learn remotely during the initial school closures associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. We then examine variation in remote instruction using an original statewide survey of teachers in Tennessee, deployed just a few weeks into the closures. Using three-level logistic regression models, we explore potential predictors of regular remote instruction, including prepandemic measures of broadband access, the demographic composition of schools, and measures of district policy responses created from districts’ public COVID-19 plans. We find that teachers in schools serving more economically disadvantaged students and in rural districts are less likely to report regular remote instruction, especially via providing digital resources and holding virtual classes or tutoring. Fewer opportunities for Tennessee’s rural students appear driven in part by lower community access to high-speed broadband, but district policies to distribute technology may partially mitigate this gap in access.

Sobrecarga cognitiva en el aula preescolar: ¿Puede una lista de cotejo elevar la calidad del lenguaje dirigido a niños y niñas de nivel medio mayor? (pp. 106-137)

Research

Full-text available

Jan 2016

Este estudio entrega evidencia de la eficacia de una intervención de bajo costo orientada a mejorar el lenguaje, dirigida a niños y niñas del nivel medio mayor. Las demandas atencionales de la sala preescolar pueden impedir al personal educativo recordar las interacciones lingüísticas clave para el desarrollo del lenguaje de los niños y niñas, y monitorear la frecuencia con la que ofrecen a ellos estas experiencias de forma individual. La intervención consistió en un dispositivo que (a) recuerda las experiencias lingüísticas clave para el desarrollo del lenguaje, y (b) ayuda a monitorear la estimulación ofrecida a nivel individual. El dispositivo es una lista de cotejo (una matriz con 6 eventos de lenguaje, cruzados con los nombres de los niños y niñas de la sala), y la intervención consistió en solicitar el llenado regular de la lista dos veces por semana y entregar retroalimentación periódica de la estimulación recibida por cada niño y niña. La eficacia de la intervención fue evaluada en 19 salas de medio mayor de jardines infantiles gratuitos de cuatro comunas de la Región Metropolitana (10 de intervención y 9 de control). Una muestra aleatoria de niños y niñas por sala (n=225) fue evaluada en su lenguaje antes y después de la intervención. El lenguaje dirigido a la muestra en la sala fue grabado en cuatro momentos del año y se evaluó la frecuencia de eventos clave de lenguaje y otros parámetros. La comparación del lenguaje de los niños y niñas al final de la intervención muestra una diferencia marginalmente significativa a favor del grupo de intervención considerando el vocabulario receptivo, luego de controlar por el vocabulario receptivo de entrada, edad y características de la educadora a cargo de la sala. El análisis de las grabaciones en sala mostró diferencias en la cantidad de cuentos leídos y palabras enseñadas a favor del grupo de intervención. La información cualitativa de implementación sugiere que la lista influyó en el recuerdo de las experiencias clave de lenguaje, pero no contribuyó a monitorear la estimulación recibida por niños y niñas de manera individual. Las listas llenadas muestran que las oportunidades para que los niños y niñas escuchen ciertas formas de lenguaje fueron marcadas más frecuentemente que las oportunidades para que usen el lenguaje. Se discuten posibles razones para esta diferencia. En síntesis, los resultados sugieren que el dispositivo podría aumentar la frecuencia de lectura de cuentos y enseñanza de palabras, pero la atribución causal a la intervención se ve debilitada por el pequeño tamaño muestral y al hecho de que el personal educativo conocía al grupo asignado.

Sobrecarga cognitiva en el aula preescolar: ¿Puede una lista de cotejo elevar la calidad del lenguaje dirigido a niños y niñas de nivel medio mayor? En: Revista Estudios de Política Educativa (MINEDUC, 2016). (pp. 106-137)

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2014

Integration Versus Meritocracy? Competing Educational Goals During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Alongside the immediate challenges of operating schools during the COVID-19 pandemic, over the past year, parents, students, and policymakers around the country have also debated equity and access to some of the country’s most elite and segregated public schools. This qualitative case study examines how New York City activists conceptualized educational equity during the pandemic. Conceptually framed by Labaree’s (1997) typology of the three competing purposes of education—democratic equality, social efficiency, and social mobility—we document different lessons learned from the pandemic by integration activists, who emphasized school integration for democratic equality; and meritocratic activists, who prioritized retaining the existing stratified system mainly to foster social mobility and social efficiency. Our findings highlight the challenge of sustaining a vision oriented around the public good amid powerful framings emphasizing the individual purposes of education.

The Colour of Schooling: Whiteness and the Mainstreaming of Racism

Chapter

Dec 2021

David Gillborn

This chapter applies Critical Race Theory (CRT) to an analysis of racism in contemporary education. I explore the ‘business-as-usual’ forms of racism that saturate the everyday world of schools; and show how so-called colour-blindness closes down critical discussion and denies the significance of racism. Finally, the chapter reflects on the nature of White supremacy in contemporary European societies.

Using Migrant Pupils’ Experiences in Teacher Training

Chapter

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Beatrix Bukus

At the heart of teachers’ professionalism is their competence in reflecting about their own pedagogical practices and the discourses these practices are embedded in. Teachers’ understanding of the complexities of their pupils’ migration experience and its impact on their educational participation is an important theme for reflective processes. This chapter presents results of my study on pupils involved in multiple and multidirectional migration during their schooling years. Their experiences are discussed with regard to their potential to challenge current pedagogical practices and discourses related to migrant pupils.

Reducing Prejudice Through Promoting Cross-Group Friendships

Article

Dec 2021

Around the globe, individuals are affected by exclusion, discrimination, and prejudice targeting individuals from racial, ethnic, and immigrant backgrounds as well as crimes based on gender, nationality, and culture (United Nations General Assembly, 2016). Unfortunately, children are often the targeted victims (Costello & Dillard, 2019). What is not widely understood is that the intergroup biases underlying systemic racism start long before adulthood with children displaying notable signs of intergroup bias, sometimes before entering grade school. Intergroup bias refers to the tendency to evaluate members of one’s own group more favorably than someone not identified with one’s group and is typically associated with prejudicial attitudes. Children are both the victims and the perpetrators of bias. In this review, we provide evidence of how biases emerge in childhood, along with an analysis of the significant role of intergroup friendships on enhancing children’s well-being and reducing prejudice in childhood. The review focuses predominantly on the context of race, with the inclusion of several other categories, such as nationality and religion. Fostering positive cross-group friendships in childhood helps to address the negative long-term consequences of racism, discrimination, and prejudice that emerges in childhood and continues through to adulthood.

Abordant la desigualtat educativa: el rol de la pedagogia, el currículum i les creences docents

Chapter

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Aina Tarabini

Teachers’ Use of Within-Class Ability Groups in the Primary Classroom: A Mixed Methods Study of Social Comparison

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Jane Webb-Williams

It is common practice within primary classrooms for teachers to spilt children into different ability groups so that children of similar level are taught together. Whilst this practice is used across the globe, research is mixed on the benefits of such grouping strategy. This paper presents data collected from mixed methods research which investigated teachers use of grouping strategies and social comparison, the act of comparing oneself with others. It focuses on when, why and with whom children from different ability groups compare themselves and the impact this has on their self-perceptions. Drawing upon data from children aged between 10 and 11 years from 12 primary schools, social comparison was found to play a significant role in daily classroom life for some children. The study identified different strands of the social comparison process including acknowledgment, topic, target, and direction, and it revealed positive and negative effects of social comparison. A difference by ability group was identified. Children within the low ability group were particularly vulnerable to the negative effects of social comparison and found to engage in more frequent and intentional social comparisons which were heavily relied upon for self-evaluation and performance evaluation. The paper discusses the educational implications of social comparison regarding pupil ability grouping strategies, motivation, engagement, and academic performance. Implications for teacher education and professional development is discussed.

The Soul of Learning: Rituals of awakening, magnetic pedagogy, and living justice

Book

Nov 2021

On My Way: A Sociological Study on the Contextual Determinants of Higher Education Enrollment and Success

Thesis

Full-text available

Jan 2021

Isis Vandelannote

Nested Contexts of Reception and K-12 Schools: Addressing Immigration Status

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021

Scholarship on the intersection between immigration, legal status, and education has grown over the past decade. Given that schools are intended to be purveyors of democratic values, schools represent an ideal context to examine how immi- gration and legal status are considered in a community that aims to support the academic and social success of all students This study investigates how members of an urban, K–12 school community in California addressed immigration issues over nearly a decade-long period. The study details three ways in which the school addressed immigration status issues across time. They include college-going supports, addressing newcomer/unaccompanied students’ needs, and delivery of legal services. The study’s implications highlight how K–12 schools can address immigration issues in intentional, ethical, and supportive ways.

The Duplicity of Equality: An Analysis of Academic Placement in a Racially Diverse School and a Black Community

Article

Mar 2019

Richard Lofton

Background/Context For more than four decades, researchers have shown that African American students are overrepresented in lower-track classes, while their White peers tend to be in advanced courses. In the past twenty years, school districts have implemented detracking reforms that stressed self-selection policies as an alternative to separate academic paths, yet quantitative data still show that most African American students are not attending upper-level or advanced classes in racially diverse schools. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of study This study explores how African American parents come to terms with academic placement, and the mechanisms that impact their child's educational experiences in a racially diverse school while coming from a segregated high-poverty African-American community. Setting Research took place in a racially diverse suburban school and city. The suburban city is a microcosm of the United States, not only because of the racial and economic diversity of its school district, but also because its story encapsulates the plight of many African Americans in relation to the Great Migration, segregation, disinvested neighborhoods, and systemic inequalities. Population/participants/Subjects Participants included 26 African American parents, many of whom attended the same school district and experienced their own lower-track placement. Research Design Ethnographic methods, which include interviews and observations, were used to explore the research questions. African American parents were individually interviewed about their own educational experiences, children's academic placement, family background, interactions with the school system, community issues, and perceptions of the middle school and city. Findings/Results African American students and their parents were a product of intergenera-tional tracking. Parents and their children had experienced lower-track courses. In addition, the exposure of African American students and parents to systemic inequalities in their home and community heavily influenced their academic placement and overall educational experiences. Moreover, tracking in this school was not necessarily about abilities and skills but also about separating African American students and creating a formal semblance of equality that actually reinforced systemic inequalities, a reality captured in the phrase “duplicity of equality.”

Reframing School Culture through Project-Based Assessment Tasks: Cultivating Transformative Agency and Humanizing Practices in NYC Public Schools

Article

Apr 2021

Background/Context In the last two decades, high-stakes testing policies have proliferated exponentially, radically altering the broader educational landscape in the United States. Although these policies continue to dominate educational reform agendas, researchers argue that they have not improved educational outcomes for youth and have exacerbated inequities in schooling across racial, economic, geographic, and linguistic lines. Alternative project-based assessments, like ones used by the New York Performance Standards Consortium (Consortium) are one type of practice to have shown promise in aiding in the creation of humanizing and transformative educational spaces. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article examines how teachers and students make meaning of their experiences transitioning away from high-stakes standardized tests to project-based assessment tasks (PBATs) and specifically considers the role that PBATs might play in shaping school culture. Drawing from three years of data collection at 10 New York City public high schools new to the Consortium, we discern how students and teachers negotiate this shift, paying attention to the ways in which PBATs fostered transformative and humanizing pedagogies and practices. We raise the following questions: How can schools that use project-based assessment reinvigorate school culture to address enduring inequities that persist in schools? How might PBATs reframe schools to be more humanizing and transformative spaces? Research Design We used multiple methods to understand how project-based assessment shapes school culture and curriculum in these transitioning schools, and drew from qualitative and quantitative traditions. The research involved: (1) a historical inquiry into the role of the Consortium in school reform; (2) a broad investigation of the 10 schools transitioning into the Consortium (including three rounds of annual surveys with teachers and administrators); (3) three in-depth focal case studies of transitioning schools (including observations, interviews with teachers, and surveys with students); and (4) surveys with experienced teachers new to established Consortium schools. Conclusions PBATs are a useful tool to engage students and teachers more actively as participatory actors in the school environment, particularly when overall school structures collectively support its integration. Although there were inevitable challenges in the process of transition, our data suggest that the school actors mediated some of these tensions and ultimately felt that PBATs helped create more dignified spaces for youth. By anchoring the assessment process in the concept of transformative agency, we consider how the transition to PBATs might reinvigorate school culture, redress harmful systemic injustices, and serve as a necessary part of school reform and education policy.

“The Child is Not Broken”: Leadership and Restorative Justice at an Urban Charter High School

Article

Aug 2020

Sarah Bruhn

Background/Context There has been growing attention to the disproportionate and harmful effects of school exclusion, including suspension and expulsion, on boys of color. Restorative justice may be one possibility for addressing these disparities. Yet the research on restorative justice in schools is nascent, and in particular, little is known about the role of school leaders in enacting restorative practices as a means to creating more equitable schools. Focus of Study By highlighting the work of school leaders, this study contributes to our collective understanding of how restorative justice can function as a meaningful alternative to school exclusion. The study explores how two leaders exercise leadership, build legitimacy, and develop relationships with teachers and students. It examines how these leaders make sense of their efforts to transform the school from a place reliant on traditional punitive mechanisms as a form of control to a restorative school culture. Setting The study took place at a charter school with campuses in two neighboring cities in the Northeast United States. Research Design This study uses portraiture, a methodology that emphasizes participants’ phenomenological perspectives and illuminates the complexity of goodness and success, making it well-aligned with the topic of this research. I gathered data through in-depth interviews with and observation of the two leaders at the center of the study, as well as interviews and observations of students and teachers. Conclusions Ultimately, the leaders exhibited restraint, persistence, and respect, qualities that served as the basis for meaningful relationships with students and teachers. In turn, these relationships were an important component of how the school sought to reduce suspension rates and narrow racial gaps in exclusionary punishments.

The Pushes and Pulls of New Localism: School-Level Instructional Arrangements, Instructional Resources, and Family-Community Partnerships

Article

Apr 2009

Institutional Ambiguity and De Facto Tracking in STEM

Article

Aug 2020

Background/Context Many schools no longer track classes to increase access to courses at all levels, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. However, informal processes can “de facto” track students, placing them at the same level across subjects. Research shows that de facto tracking is prevalent in STEM, especially between mathematics and science course placements. Less is known about the relationship between mathematics and engineering—the focus of this study. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Mathematics placement is likely to shape participation in engineering given its position under the STEM umbrella. Yet, de facto tracking does not occur all the time. This may depend on the categorization of courses as “academic” or “vocational,” but there is little research about this aspect of course-to-student matching. Therefore, we investigate an unexpected case of equitable participation where mathematics placement does not de facto track students in engineering. We ask: How do institutional and organizational factors shape the absence of de facto tracking? Research Design We used qualitative data drawn from a two-year mixed-methods study in a public high school district with one large comprehensive high school. The school is in the lower third of per pupil spending in the state of Massachusetts, yet has significant engineering-related course offerings. Located near Boston, it serves an economically and racially diverse student body of ∼1,800 students. For this article, we analyzed 998 hours of observations during and after school, in engineering-related elective courses and extracurricular activities, and interviews with 29 students, 31 teachers, six guidance counselors, two district administrators, and the principal. Findings/Results We find competing vocational and academic logics equally frame engineering, which we call “institutional ambiguity.” This dual framing is present at the institutional level and is supported at the school level by three organizational factors: 1) courses and activities that occur in both vocational and academic spaces, 2) teachers who link vocational and academic fields, and 3) an organizational commitment to support the integration of vocational activities. Conclusions/Recommendations Overall, this article contributes to educational and organizational research by identifying the institutional factors and organizational processes that shape the categorization of courses and student-to-course matching. Our research reveals the conditions under which schools and the actors within them have greater agency, where ambiguity in the broader environment allows for contestation and renegotiation of status hierarchies. We argue that by leveraging ambiguity, schools may avoid contributing to inequity in STEM.

“The Tail Wagging the Dog”: High-Stakes Testing as a Mediating Context in Secondary Literacy-Related

Article

Nov 2020

Background/Context High-stakes testing (HST) weaves through the fabric of school life, stretching beyond the test day. Results have consequences for a school's reputation and autonomy, as well as teachers’ evaluations and students’ graduation and morale. Prior research demonstrates the constraining and inequitable effects assessments can have on students’ learning. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Recently, scholars have called for more research on students’ and teachers’ perspectives on HST. Responding to this call, we conducted a yearlong study in a high school designated as “persistently struggling” by the state. We examined adolescents’ and educators’ perceptions, reactions, and resistance to HST. We traced participants’ interactions with and about testing over the course of a school year as they prepared for, discussed, and eventually participated in test day. Research Design We conducted a yearlong qualitative study in which participants were 15 focal 11th graders and 9 teachers. We conducted 425 hours of observations and 52 interviews, as well as collected assessment data and classroom artifacts. For this article, we used quantitative survey data as a secondary source and analyzed the responses of 425 11th graders. Conclusions/Recommendations Analysis showed that HST served as a dominant context for literacy-related teaching across disciplines. Participants negotiated tension between their beliefs about education and their efforts to boost test scores. Teachers reported that assessments and their accompanying prescriptive curriculum hindered literacy and content area teaching and learning. Students, although they had diverse opinions about HST's usefulness, reported it created emotional distress, which compromised test performance. Testing contributed to a high-pressure environment in which literacy and content instruction were made reductive. Participants’ perspectives, and ways in which they resisted, provide insights into HST effects, as well as suggest promising, alternative routes toward equitable assessment that supports meaningful learning.

Changing Patterns of Engagement in the Transition to High School

Article

Apr 2014

The authors examine changes in the level and dispersion of student engagement across the transition to high school. Changes in the total dispersion in engagement among all students, as well as divergence in engagement between students of differing gender, race, socioeconomic background, and initial levels of achievement are reported.

Communally-Bonded Schools and the New Localism: Implications for African American Schooling and a Democratic Future

Article

Apr 2009

Jerome E. Morris

The Makerspace Movement: Sites of Possibilities for Equitable Opportunities to Engage Underrepresented Youth in STEM

Article

Jun 2017

Background/Context Large gaps in achievement and interest in science and engineering (STEM) persist for youth growing up in poverty, and in particular for African American and Latino youth. Within the informal education community, the recently evolving “maker movement” has sparked interest for its potential role in breaking down longstanding barriers to learning and attainment in STEM, with advocates arguing for its “democratizing effects.” What remains unclear is how minoritized newcomers to a makerspace can access and engage in makerspaces in robust and equitably consequential ways. Purpose This paper describes how and why youth engage in making in an after-school, youth-focused, community-based makerspace program “Making 4 Change.” Four in-depth stories of engagement are shared. Using a mobilities of learning framework, we discuss how youth appropriated and repurposed the process of making, and unpack how the program attempted to value and negotiate youths’ ways of making from an equity-oriented perspective. Research Design Utilizing a two-year critical ethnography, involving 36 youth over two years in two making settings, we assumed roles of both program teachers and researchers. Data collected included field notes, session videos, weekly youth conversation groups, youth created artifacts, and interviews. Analysis was iterative, involving movement between a grounded approach to making sense of our data, and a mobilities of learning framework. Findings Three forms of engagement—critical, connected and collective—supported youths’ sustained and mutual engagement in the makerspace. Across the three, it was essential to balance purposeful playfulness with just-in-time STEM modules, invite a broadening range of identities youth could draw on and perform, and to more critically address the affordances and constraints inherent in a community makerspace. Conclusions From the insights gained, we suggest that framing youths’ experiences through the lens of equitably consequential learning and becoming challenges the field to consider how making—as a practice—is always linked to individual and social histories that unfold across space and time. Who can make and who cannot, whose knowledge matters and whose does not, are all a part of making itself. But such understandings are not without tensions, for the work that youth do, which can invoke nontraditional tools and practices towards nontraditional ends, can be fraught with complexities that youth and adults alike are unprepared to handle. “There are a lot of people who get frostbite in the winter when people are outside. Ours is way cheaper than a regular sweatshirt and way warmer. It will keep you warm and snug. It will have a heater in it, and lights for glamour and fashion.” Emily “Our idea could help change things. People make fun of you. Why are you wearing that? You are ugly. There are stains on your clothes… I was like I am going to give you something beautiful but with casual in it so that you don't expose yourself. Like a jacket that goes all of the way down.” Jennifer

Managing Race and Race-ing Management: Teachers’ Stories of Race and Classroom Conflict

Article

Nov 2017

Sherry Deckman

Background/Context Research exploring suspension and expulsion practices suggests that teachers may play a key role in perpetuating racial disproportionality in school discipline by interpreting student behavior through racialized and racist lenses and by viewing the behavior of students of color as an affront to their authority, resulting in more frequent punishing of Black and Latino students. The problem may be compounded for novice teachers, who are likely to teach in high-poverty, high-”minority” schools where discipline is a pronounced concern for educators. Research Questions/Focus of Study To illuminate the role of race in novice teacher interpretations of classroom management, this research explored the following questions: (a) How do novice in-service teachers narrate classroom management and disciplinary moments from their practice? (b) What do their narratives of these moments reveal about how they might negotiate racial difference in the classroom? Research Design This study employs narrative analysis of classroom management stories (N = 51) shared by novice teachers participating in a 10-week hybrid online/in-person professional development course focused on race, class, and gender equity in urban schools. Specifically, this article analyzes how race is discussed in these narratives. Findings Teachers in this study tended to share stories either about “managing race”—narratives about deescalating racial tension or reproaching transgressors of racial colorblindness—or “race-ing management”—stories that read race into incidents in such a way as to reveal latent racial dynamics. These patterns aligned with teachers’ self-identified racial backgrounds, with teachers who expressed a more tenuous racial identity or who described themselves as White tending to focus on managing race, and those who expressed a strong minority racial identity tending to focus on race-ing management. Recommendations To address issues of racial proportionality and justice in student discipline and to retain an experienced teacher workforce in under-resourced schools, I offer two key recommendations. First, we must innovatively support novice teachers in reversing insidious trends by offering structured opportunities for critical reflection on management through the lens of identity. In this way, novice teachers can analyze the implicit beliefs at work in their understandings. Furthermore, school leaders and other professional development facilitators must make clear to novice teachers that their competence is not being questioned when we ask them to engage in critical reflection. I discuss specific ways to approach this and offer recommendations for future research.

“I Didn't Have a Lesson”: Politics and Pedagogy in a Diversifying Middle School

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2020

Alexandra Freidus

Background/Context Despite its emphasis on pluralism, empirical research on asset-based pedagogies has typically focused on culturally, linguistically, or racially homogeneous groups of students. The rise of interest in culturally relevant pedagogy in the 1990s coincided with the resegregation of many school districts. As a result, few scholars have considered what it might look like to decenter whiteness in classrooms that include a significant number of white students. Purpose I strive to understand the tensions between a diversifying school's efforts to create an antiracist school community and a classroom pedagogy that frequently marginalized the experiences, knowledge, and questions of students of color. I use the school's response to the 2016 presidential election as a window into the challenges involved in developing asset-based pedagogies in racially and culturally diverse classrooms. By exploring the texture of teaching and learning in a school that endeavors to sustain its racially and culturally diverse students, I complicate widely held but often underexamined, assumptions about the benefits of diversity in the classroom. Setting Data collection took place in a politically active, racially and socioeconomically diversifying middle school in New York City. The school, which had previously served almost exclusively low-income children of color, now included a growing number of children from white and professional families. Research Design Data collection took place over the course of the 2016–2017 academic year. The unit of analysis was one focal cohort of sixth-graders. Data included participant observation in sixth-grade classrooms and other school spaces, interviews with school staff, interviews with students, and document analysis. Findings The school's response to the presidential election illustrated not only teachers’ dedication to developing students’ cultural competence and critical consciousness, but also their struggles with tying these goals to students’ academic learning. Many teachers made instructional moves that—often inadvertently—centered whiteness in the classroom. Tensions between teachers’ political, relational, and academic goals and practices led to multiple missed opportunities for both students and staff. Conclusions In almost every interaction outside of the classroom, educators centered their advocacy for and relationships with their students of color. At the same time, their instructional choices pushed these students’ experiences and concerns to the margins of academic spaces. I explore implications for school leadership, teacher professional development, and teacher preparation, as well as future research.

Culturally Competent and Racially Conscious Professional Development for School Leaders: A Review of the Literature

Article

Nov 2018

Daniel Spikes

Scholars have argued that leaders should be more culturally competent in light of the changing demographics and dynamics of schools. While professional development has historically been used as a mechanism to develop the skillset of in-service educators, little is known about the aspects of this in-service training that lead to the type of transformation needed to meet the needs of all students. Therefore, this chapter will review and synthesize the relevant literature on professional development, cultural competency, and transformative learning to highlight critical components of culturally competent professional development. The findings from this chapter will enable school district and building leaders seeking to promote racial equity within their schools to provide meaningful learning opportunities for their staff.

District Decision-Makers’ Considerations of Equity and Equality Related to Students’ Opportunities to Learn Algebra

Article

Sep 2018

Background/Context In this article we explore equity issues related to school district decision-making about students’ opportunities to learn algebra. We chose algebra because of the important role it plays in the U.S. as a gatekeeper to future academic success. Current research has not yet explored issues of equity in district-level decision-making. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We examine the extent to which district decision-makers for mathematics attend to aspects of equity when they make decisions about resources related to the teaching and learning of algebra. The research questions guiding this study were: How do district decision-makers for mathematics report considering issues of equity when making decisions about students’ opportunities to learn Algebra I? How do district characteristics, particularly students’ racial and ethnic diversity, affect the extent of equity considerations by mathematics decision-makers? Research Design We surveyed a national probability sample of 993 district decision-makers for mathematics about criteria that they consider when they select and distribute resources and structure learning opportunities in algebra for students and teachers in their districts. These survey items were our attempt to identify district-level practices in relationship to an equity framework. In this study, we examine national patterns in criteria for decision-making about algebra resources and examine the relation of these criteria to district features using a structural equation model. Findings Our findings suggest that fewer decision-makers considered equity-related criteria in their decision-making about algebra, while many tended to endorse equality-related items addressing considerations for all students, such as giving all students the same resources or attending to preparation for standardized testing. The vast majority of decision-makers reported considering real life contexts for algebra when making decisions about professional development (PD) and curriculum, while fewer considered the students’ culture or culturally relevant teaching. Decision-makers in only about half of the districts reported considering structural aspects, such as tracking. Modeling of the survey responses indicates that decision-makers in the most racially or ethnically and linguistically diverse districts have the greatest tendency to consider equity criteria in structuring students’ opportunities to learn algebra. Conclusions/Recommendations The extent to which district decision-makers for mathematics attend to aspects of equity is noteworthy because their decisions inform the selection and distribution of educational resources for learning algebra across districts. These findings raise important concerns with respect to how district decision-making mobilizes and shapes the resources available to teachers and students. Recommendations include supporting district decision-makers in a) expanding their conceptions of real life contexts to include students’ culture, b) considering different framings of the problem of participation gaps, c) reconsidering ability grouping and understanding the negative consequences of tracking, and d) carefully examining the kinds of stated and unarticulated rules, rewards, and sanctions that get put into place to uncover how inequitable practices get perpetuated.

THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL ON THE REPRODUCTION OF EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES

Article

Full-text available

Dec 2020

Elena Lavrentsova

The paper addresses the problem of educational inequality and the new ways in which it is reproduced within the modern school education system. The sustainable character of educational inequality in Bulgaria is analyzed in the light of its institutional nature, which, despite the European membership of the country, shows a clear tendency towards intensification and reflects the growing social differences between the advantaged and vulnerable groups in Bulgarian society. The intention of the author is aimed at comprehending some current limitations and opportunities for the action of teachers and school institutions, which are conditioned by the peculiarities of the contemporary economic, socio-cultural, and educational situation. Key words: educational inequality, school institution, social selectiveness, socio-economic status.

Class-Average Achievement and Individual Achievement Development: Testing Achievement Composition and Peer Spillover Effects Using Five German Longitudinal Studies

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021

In recent studies, the existence and relevance of achievement composition effects on students’ individual achievement have been called into question due to the methodological challenges arising in multilevel analyses. Our study examined how class-average achievement is related to students’ achievement development across one school year. We used data from Germany, which has a secondary school system with large achievement differences between schools and classrooms due to rigid, explicit between-school tracking practices. We accounted for two methodological challenges, controlling for both selection bias and measurement error. Adopting an approach based on integrative data analysis (IDA), we systematically (re)analyzed five German longitudinal large-scale data sets. This IDA approach allowed us to quantify the extent to which results vary across (a) different longitudinal data sets and (b) different analytical strategies (i.e., ways of accounting for confounding variables and measurement reliability). Overall, we found both general achievement composition effects and narrower peer spillover effects (i.e., effects of student composition above and beyond the effects of tracking) in the German setting, even after controlling for measurement error and selection bias. Our results counter recent suggestions that composition effects on achievement development may be mere phantom effects due to methodological misspecifications. However, estimates of composition effects varied substantially based on the analytical approach. We conclude with considerations regarding how to interpret composition effects in multilevel modeling and which effects are of interest for educational research.

Social justice leadership: Coming to know another possibility through autoethnography

Article

Full-text available

Feb 2022

Jacob D. Skousen

Traditional notions of learning, teaching, schooling, and leading, contribute to the inequity and injustice found in schools. In this study, autoethnography was used as a process and product to explore one leader’s journey opening and leading a new “alternative” school as the school’s principal. These experiences create the backdrop of a larger narrative about public schooling and leadership. The findings, expressed through narrative, demonstrate that schools do not have to beget oppression, and school practices, framed in social justice, can create the needed environment and culture to develop liberatory praxis.

Obedience in the Labour Market and Social Mobility: A Socioeconomic Approach

Article

Jan 2022

Daron Acemoglu

This paper presents an analysis of what types of values, especially in regard to obedience vs. independence, families impart to their children, and how these values interact with social mobility. In the model, obedience is a useful characteristic for employers, especially when wages are low, because independent workers require more incentives (when wages are high, these incentives are automatic). Hence in low-wage environments, low-income families will impart values of obedience to their children to prevent disadvantaging them in the labour market. To the extent that independence is useful for entrepreneurial activities, this then depresses their social mobility. High-income and privileged parents, on the other hand, always impart values of independence, since they expect that their children can enter into higher-income entrepreneurial (or managerial) activities thanks to their family resources and privileges. I also discuss how political activity can be hampered when labour market incentives encourage greater obedience, and how this can generate multiple steady states with different patterns of social hierarchy and mobility.

Talented Children and Adults: Their Development and Education

Book

Full-text available

Sep 2021

Jane Piirto

Explaining differences in one teacher’s instruction across multiple tracked fifth‐grade classes

Article

Dec 2021

In this article, we describe the case of “Keri,” a fifth-grade teacher who had completed an Elementary Mathematics Specialist (EMS) certification program. Drawn from a larger study investigating the knowledge, beliefs, and practices of EMSs, Keri's case was unique in that she was teaching mathematics to four classes in a departmentalized structure, where students were placed into different classes according to perceived mathematics ability. Observations from the larger study revealed that Keri's instructional practices did not align with her reported beliefs and knowledge. To explore this deviation, we conducted a case study where we observed Keri's instruction across multiple classes and used interviews to explore reasons for Keri's instructional decisions in terms of her perceived professional obligations. We found that Keri did employ practices that were aligned with her reported beliefs and knowledge such as pressing students for mathematical justifications, but only in her “higher ability” classes. Interview data suggested that Keri's decisions were driven by a strong obligation to individual students, overriding other obligations. We describe implications of these findings, including the limitations of teacher assessments and surveys as proxies for teaching quality, and discuss recommendations for approaches to teacher development that account for teachers’ perceived obligations.

Race-Relations Theories and the Racial Dynamics of Basketball Performance

Preprint

Full-text available

Dec 2021

Pat Rubio Goldsmith

Does the local, racial context influence racial differences in culture? I answer this question by testing predictions from group threat theory and the cultural division of labor about which high schools have greater black-white differences in basketball performance. Data are from the National Education Longitudinal Study are analyzed with multilevel ordered probit models. After controlling for predictors of sports performance in students’ families, schools, and neighborhoods, we find evidence for both theories. Black-white differences in basketball performance is greater in schools that are about 50% black, as group threat predicts, and in schools with more hierarchical segregation within them, as the cultural division of labor predicts. We also find that racial conflict within the schools mediates the effect of group threat. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

Questioning Autism’s Racializing Assemblages

Article

Jan 2021

Benjamin Kearl

How Feeling Supports Students’ Interpretive Discussions About Literature

Article

Full-text available

Nov 2021

Research indicates that feeling is fundamental to the multilayered experience of literary interpretation. However, despite great strides in U.S. high school classrooms, discussions about literature are still often characterized by known-answer discourses that exclude feeling. This article builds on small-scale studies of affective evaluation, an interpretive approach in which readers attend to and reflect on their feeling-based responses to texts. Those studies, focused on individual students, showed that when responding to texts with feeling, students were more likely to build multilayered interpretations as opposed to summary or one-dimensional thematic interpretations. The current study explores affective evaluation in the more complex arena of class discussion, where known-answer discourses are particularly entrenched. We compared the same teachers and students using affective evaluation in one discussion, but not the other. Discussions using affective evaluation were correlated with increased multidimensional interpretation, adding to evidence that feeling enriches students’ literary sense-making and disrupts known-answer discourses.

Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality.

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