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Full-Text Articles in Education

Treescapes, Alexandra Délano Alonso, Marco Saavedra Nov 2023

Treescapes, Alexandra Délano Alonso, Marco Saavedra

Occasional Paper Series

We’ve each been looking to the trees for a long time. One of us painting, the other writing, with, by the trees. In the middle of the city and its noise, finding the branches. Standing, inquiring, returning. Why the trees, how we belong to each other, is a question worth asking again and again. These paintings and poems are part of an ongoing conversation, of many layers, of many trees, of what we lose and find under their canopies, in blooms, in dirt & seasons. What walking among the trees has taught us is that every art is an invitation …


Singing In Dark Times: Improvisational Singing With Children Amidst Ecological Crisis, Stephanie Schuurman-Olson Nov 2023

Singing In Dark Times: Improvisational Singing With Children Amidst Ecological Crisis, Stephanie Schuurman-Olson

Occasional Paper Series

Through this research-creation project -- which is represented by a process-driven ten-minute video -- the author asks what ways of knowing emerge when children and adults, more-than-human, and inhuman engage in improvised singing together in an urban park? This project recognizes our current "dark times" within ecological collapse and operates from a space that hopes to build relationality with sonic ecologies through listening-and-singing experiences, while centering the voices of children and other singers within the ecologies we sing in-and-with.


Painting Our Treescapes: A Visual, Gretel Olson, Ingrid Olson, Stephanie Schuurman-Olson Nov 2023

Painting Our Treescapes: A Visual, Gretel Olson, Ingrid Olson, Stephanie Schuurman-Olson

Occasional Paper Series

Two children (ages 6 and 9) represent an afternoon spent in their urban, wintery treescape through visual art, photo documentation, and written narrative. The first piece, "My Imaginary Forest", considers the seasons, animals, and issues of artistic representation of nature. The second piece describes the relationship between a favourite tree and a child, and considers others -- both present and future -- who also occupy "Our Knotty Tree". All of the words, visual art, and photo selection are those of the children.


Children As Design Visionaries, Learners, And Socio-Political Wayfinders: Mapping The Layers, Hierarchies, And Rhythms Of A School Community, Natalie R. Davis, Roni Barsoum Nov 2022

Children As Design Visionaries, Learners, And Socio-Political Wayfinders: Mapping The Layers, Hierarchies, And Rhythms Of A School Community, Natalie R. Davis, Roni Barsoum

Occasional Paper Series

Despite the seemingly intractable problems of public schooling, we (as researchers and dreamers) remain encouraged by the persistent efforts to reconfigure and reimagine the sociopolitical landscape of schools. We begin this essay by recognizing the work of individuals bravely and imperfectly expanding notions of what schools could and should be. We stand in solidarity with the innovators sowing, designing, and reaching toward more just social futures, dreaming of schools for children that are not so distant from the paradise Butler (2001) describes (Figure 1). This liberatory dreamwork coincides with long histories of communal ingenuity (Vossoughi et al., 2016), resistance against …


Black Feminist Love: An Open Letter To My Children, Katie Harlan Eller Oct 2021

Black Feminist Love: An Open Letter To My Children, Katie Harlan Eller

Occasional Paper Series

In an open letter to my young twins, I reflect on an open letter from the past and consider the context of this one: the historic moment of living through a pandemic anticipating a presidential election in 2020. In this reflection, I document the circumstances of our family’s life and turn toward what we are learning. My children have taught me to recognize my need for and commitment to Black feminist conceptions of love. I share a story and imagine letting go of conditional, enwhitened love that fears discomfort. Black feminist conceptions of love cannot coexist with fear and must …


Whose Story Is It? Thinking Through Early Childhood With Young Children’S Photographs, Tran Nguyen Templeton Apr 2021

Whose Story Is It? Thinking Through Early Childhood With Young Children’S Photographs, Tran Nguyen Templeton

Occasional Paper Series

Child-centered practices and pedagogies of listening to children are part and parcel of progressive early childhood education. As critical early childhood teachers and researchers, we demonstrate that we value the voices and narratives of children by placing them at the center of our classroom and research agendas. Simultaneously, however, young children’s social position can put them at the mercy of adults’ (teachers’ and researchers’) whims, and their stories may easily be consumed in the name of provocative classroom displays or academic articles. This work explores the potential for visual participatory research, guided by critical childhood studies, to grasp the stories …


Choosing Advocacy Apr 2019

Choosing Advocacy

Occasional Paper Series

Two articles comprise this publication. In "Beyond the Story-Book Ending: Literature for Young Children About Parental Estrangement and Loss," Megan Matt analyzes over 30 books for young children on the topics of abandonment, estrangement, divorce, and foster care. She observes that this loss might appear as an event within the story or as a fear articulated by a young child. She states that, as an educator, she hopes that she can make the children realize that their own stories are "real" and legitimate, no matter what messages they might encounter or fail to encounter in the media. In "Walking the …


Perhaps A Black Girl Rolls Her Eyes Because It's One Way She Attempts To Shift Calcified Pain Throughout Her Body, Fahima Ife Dec 2017

Perhaps A Black Girl Rolls Her Eyes Because It's One Way She Attempts To Shift Calcified Pain Throughout Her Body, Fahima Ife

Occasional Paper Series

This essay describes a unique undergraduate survey of African American literature—titled "Black Girl Magic Across Time & Space"—designed to celebrate rather than punish expressive Black girlhood and womanhood.


What We Bring With Us And What We Leave Behind: Six Months In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Virginia Casper, Donna Futterman, Evan Casper-Futterman Nov 2017

What We Bring With Us And What We Leave Behind: Six Months In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Virginia Casper, Donna Futterman, Evan Casper-Futterman

Occasional Paper Series

The authors, a family, reflect on their experiences living, volunteering, and going to school in South Africa for six months. They sought to live in a society in which white people were not the majority and to experience the transformation of the new South Africa, not as tourists, but as participants.


Forever Undone [Poem], Kate Abell Nov 2017

Forever Undone [Poem], Kate Abell

Occasional Paper Series

Kate Abell shares a poem following September 11. It is a personal expression of never forgetting the images and events of September 11.


The Nyc Board Of Education Mandates Pledging Allegiance [Poem], Kate Abell Nov 2017

The Nyc Board Of Education Mandates Pledging Allegiance [Poem], Kate Abell

Occasional Paper Series

Kate Abell shares a poem following September 11. It is a criticism of the requirement of pledging allegiance to the flag in school.


Living In Question, Cynthia Rothschild Nov 2017

Living In Question, Cynthia Rothschild

Occasional Paper Series

September 11 and the following months found Rothschild's students asking: "Why is there suffering?" "What has real value for me and for my society?" and, most resoundingly, "Is there a God?" She had few answers. The value that came to the forefront in her post-September 11 teaching was the value of living in question.


Monday, September 17 And Urn [Poems], Rella Stuart-Hunt Nov 2017

Monday, September 17 And Urn [Poems], Rella Stuart-Hunt

Occasional Paper Series

Stuart-Hunt recounts the difference in play styles of a four-year-old girl before and after losing her mother in the September 11 attack. This is followed by a poem she has written titled "Urn".


Safe, Patricia Lent Nov 2017

Safe, Patricia Lent

Occasional Paper Series

The first four sections of this essay chronicle her attempts to make sense of September 11 in the succeeding weeks and months. The final section—”Corn, Beans, and Squash”—was written to and for her students at the end of the school year.


Lessons From The Field: Culturally Competent Support For Family, Friend And Neighbor Caregivers In Seattle, Mergitu Argo, Hueiling Chan, Christina Malecka Oct 2017

Lessons From The Field: Culturally Competent Support For Family, Friend And Neighbor Caregivers In Seattle, Mergitu Argo, Hueiling Chan, Christina Malecka

Occasional Paper Series

Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA) and Chinese Information and Service Center (CISC) both have many years of experience working with Seattle/King County's immigrant communities. ReWA and CISC participate in an initiative to support family, friend and neighbor caregivers and promote the value of kith and kin care. They have learned valuable lessons about culturally respectful, empowering, and meaningful support and communication with caregivers. This paper highlights the nine most important factors they have found for creating a culturally inclusive support program for family, friend and neighbor caregivers.


Missing Persons’ Report! Where Are The Transgender Characters In Children’S Picture Books?, Ashley Lauren Sullivan, Laurie Lynne Urraro May 2017

Missing Persons’ Report! Where Are The Transgender Characters In Children’S Picture Books?, Ashley Lauren Sullivan, Laurie Lynne Urraro

Occasional Paper Series

When ruminating on the factors that impact early childhood education, one invariably reflects on the topic of how curriculum represents (or fails to represent) issues of gender, specifically with regard to how gender is portrayed within the selection of classroom picture books. In such ruminations, many questions emerge regarding the specific role reading curriculum plays as it relates to gender.


From Refugees To Voting Rights, Books To Inspire A Just, Inclusive Society, Bank Street College Of Education Feb 2017

From Refugees To Voting Rights, Books To Inspire A Just, Inclusive Society, Bank Street College Of Education

The Center for Children's Literature

This list - which includes contributions from the Bank Street Children's Book Committee, the Bank Street College Library, and School Library Journal - is intended to be a starting place (not a comprehensive list) to help educators and librarians create a supportive space to explore these issues and help promote an inclusive, democratic, and just society. Sections include: Immigrants/Immigration, Refugees, Islam, Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Questioning, Transgender/Binary, Intersex, Sexual Harassment/Sexual Assault, Disability, Women in Leadership, English/Spanish Bilingual, Voting Rights, Democratic Process, Children's Rights, History, Bullying, Racism/Injustice Nonfiction, Climate Change, Protest and Activism, Racism in Fiction.


Walking The Walk: Linking Teaching And Advocacy, Danielle Morrison Dec 2016

Walking The Walk: Linking Teaching And Advocacy, Danielle Morrison

Occasional Paper Series

Discusses the author's journey from being a teacher to being a teacher for change.


Beyond The Story-Book Ending: Literature For Young Children About Parental Estrangement And Loss, Megan Mason Matt Dec 2016

Beyond The Story-Book Ending: Literature For Young Children About Parental Estrangement And Loss, Megan Mason Matt

Occasional Paper Series

Analyzes over thirty books for young children on the topics of abandonment, estrangement, divorce and foster care.


Facilitating Student Documentary Projects Toward 21-Century Literacy And Civic Engagement, Steven Goodman Aug 2016

Facilitating Student Documentary Projects Toward 21-Century Literacy And Civic Engagement, Steven Goodman

Occasional Paper Series

The author describes how he uses video making as a way to engage students in high-needs schools. Goodman believes video making projects can help counter the ways minority students are made invisible by school curriculum and the culture of testing. More importantly, creating video documentaries allows students to use multiple literacies and does not exclude those who struggle with the written word.


Toward A More Loving Framework For Literacy Education, Clio Stearns Jul 2016

Toward A More Loving Framework For Literacy Education, Clio Stearns

Occasional Paper Series

In this provocative and moving essay, Clio Stearns, a Bank Street educated teacher, toggles back and forth between moments with her young daughter who daily grows more attached to books and moments with her fifth grade students who remain disconnected from her carefully chosen texts. Refracted through a psychoanalytic lens and a deeply caring heart, Stearns’ description of her classroom practices offers a canny account of all that she must give up in order to see through and past her students’ resistance. In a surprising turn of events she learns to join with her students as they become curious …


Changing Through Laughter With “Laughter For A Change”, Laurel J. Felt, Ed Greenberg Jul 2016

Changing Through Laughter With “Laughter For A Change”, Laurel J. Felt, Ed Greenberg

Occasional Paper Series

This paper describes systematic observation, research, and analysis of Laughter for a Change (L4C)’s 2011–2012 after-school improv workshop, revealing the program’s multiple impacts. Our data suggest that improvising creates a “safe space,” a supportive context in which participants feel empowered to take risks and play freely.


Becoming-Belieber: Girls' Passionate Encounters With Bieber Culture, Kortney Sherbine Jul 2016

Becoming-Belieber: Girls' Passionate Encounters With Bieber Culture, Kortney Sherbine

Occasional Paper Series

In this article, I draw on French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s (1987) notion of becoming to consider the ways in which these encounters with people, materials, and technologies are productive, creating space for Beliebers to come into relationship with one another and with popular culture in ways that are new and that I never could have anticipated during my more carefully organized and school-curriculum-driven interactions with girls during my six years as an elementary school teacher. Through my current research into young girls’ after-school fanaticism, I have been able to come to know girls differently than I knew …


The Affective Flows Of Art-Making, Bronwyn Davies Jun 2016

The Affective Flows Of Art-Making, Bronwyn Davies

Occasional Paper Series

Invites readers to consider the transient and surprising things that occur for both adult and child within the rhythmic flows of art making.


Playing In Literary Landscapes: Considering Children's Need For Fantasy Literature In The Place-Based Classroom, Sarah Fischer Jun 2016

Playing In Literary Landscapes: Considering Children's Need For Fantasy Literature In The Place-Based Classroom, Sarah Fischer

Occasional Paper Series

Are the philosophies and pedagogical practices of literature-based classrooms congruent with place-based classrooms? In this paper, the author argues that not only is imaginative literature compatible with place-based philosophies, but it can become a powerful centerpiece of a curriculum aimed at educating for a sense of place and inspiring life-long readers.


Reflection & Technology In Theory & Practice: Teen Engagement In Art Museums, Chelsea E. Kelly Jun 2016

Reflection & Technology In Theory & Practice: Teen Engagement In Art Museums, Chelsea E. Kelly

Occasional Paper Series

This case study shows how the Milwaukee Art Museum’s after-school teen program fosters student engagement through a hybrid practice grounded in constructivist pedagogy. This article presents the museum’s Satellite High School Program in theory and in practice, including its evaluation methods and its impact on students and the museum. In the spirit of the program itself, which celebrates student voices, participants’ own videos, quotes, and experiences will frame my reflections from an educator’s point of view.


Outside Classroom: Unstructured Outdoor Play In Early Childhood Education, Valerie Lockhart Jun 2016

Outside Classroom: Unstructured Outdoor Play In Early Childhood Education, Valerie Lockhart

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This independent study examines the benefits of unstructured outdoor play in early childhood education through the lens of an original children's book and correlative research.


The Museum Of Small Things: Original Poems And Rationale, Domonique Williams May 2016

The Museum Of Small Things: Original Poems And Rationale, Domonique Williams

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This independent study consists of an original children's collection of poems and an accompanying rationale. In addition to the poems, this study includes an examination of child development theories, the benefits of inquiry based teaching and learning, and makes a case for the value of family, museum, and school relationships.


Using Wordless Picture Books With The Language Experience Approach: A Method For Teaching Pre-Emergent And At-Risk Readers, Rachel Luczkowski May 2016

Using Wordless Picture Books With The Language Experience Approach: A Method For Teaching Pre-Emergent And At-Risk Readers, Rachel Luczkowski

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Proposes using wordless picture books in conjunction with Roach Van Allen's Language Experience Approach as a method for teaching pre-emergent and at-risk readers. The original work that comprises the bulk of this study is a wordless picture book of Aesop's fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper. The author describes the developmental and artistic considerations taken during the creation of the book as well as potential classroom applications for its use.


Teening The Museum : An Adaptable Teen Program For Art And History Museums, Julia Doak Fields May 2016

Teening The Museum : An Adaptable Teen Program For Art And History Museums, Julia Doak Fields

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The teen program delineated in this document was inspired by artist Fred Wilson's exhibit at the Maryland Historical Society. This program is designed to be used by art or history museums with object collections, with a static group of teenagers. It also includes information about why and how to execute this program, plus some specific lesson plans as well as reading materials and suggestions for evaluation.