Education Commons^™

Critical Collaborative Inquiries In Social Studies: Fostering Inclusion, Engagement And Literacy, Sara Lewis-Bernstein Young Ed.D.

Journal of Practitioner Research

Collaborative inquiry groups are a well-advocated tool to support comprehension and collaboration, but how do critical collaborative inquiries support students with different levels of engagement and academic performances in social studies to develop critical literacies? This article responds to the research question through case studies of two high school students who engaged in a critical collaborative inquiry project. One student was a senior labeled with disabilities, who struggled with academic literacies, graduated at the bottom of her class, and said that she hates school. The other student was a junior who thrived in school, mastered a range of academic literacies, …

Critical Social Justice Theory In Action: A Practitioner Inquiry Into The Service-Learning Capstone Experience, Julie A. Jaynes

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Service-learning pedagogy can be found in K-12 schools and higher education classrooms across the country. Those programs and courses exist on a complex spectrum from charity to social justice; research presented here documents my efforts as a service-learning teacher to better align the program’s senior capstone class to the teachings from critical social justice theory. I used a practitioner inquiry approach to address the problem of an epistemology in the research process that recreated systems of oppression by excluding the knowledge and voices of the minoritized groups who are impacted by the issues being researched. My inquiry centers my students’ …

A Qualitative Case Study Of Teachers’ Perceptions And Practices In Social Justice Education And The Perceived Implications For K‒2nd Grade Children, Tina M. Lageson

CUP Ed.D. Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored the perceptions and practices of three teachers who teach social justice concepts in kindergarten and 2nd-grade classrooms in an urban school district in the Northwest region of the United States. The research sought to answer the following central questions: (a) What do teachers perceive about how instruction on social justice concepts impact early grade learners in classroom settings? (b) What do teachers perceive about how this instruction influences learner perceptions regarding their role in society? Through a three-phase data collection approach that included teacher and parent interviews, teacher observations with observation debrief, and student artifact …

Centering Diversity & Inclusion Resources And Dialogues In Self-Reflection Practices, Oscar Fernandez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this presentation, attendance members learn how cross-cultural communication is one way to self-reflect on diversity and inclusion matters

Entitled Or Engaged?, Kate Collins

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

Recent student activism on campus, particularly around safe spaces, trigger warnings, and microaggressions, has led to rising criticism lobbied against millennials as a generation unwilling to engage opposing beliefs or challenging discourse. Yet, taking into consideration all that young adults navigate to pursue higher education, their dissident presence on campus does more to reveal how they actively participate in the world, including their education.

Eportolios And Self-Reflection: Equity, Race, And Social Justice, Oscar Fernandez

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this presentation, attendance members learn how ePortfolios--and eWorkbooks--help students recognize their sense of belonging on a college campus. By asking a series of equity-minded, student-centered questions, the CEWE eWorkbook is a toolkit for assessing whether or not resources on campus are diverse and equitable for a variety of learners.

The Sharing Campus Equity Walkthrough Evaluation (CEWE) eWorkbook is available online: https://pebblepad.com/spa/#/public/GctzZ7RbZczmzs3q4q4jp3zRWy?historyId=Rsz4bQlCTk

Intersections: A Theology And Social Justice Curriculum For Christian High Schools, Rachel Lanae Hollingsworth

Honors Projects

Despite much writing on the intersection of race and ethnicity and theology, there are few suitable resources for high school teachers at Protestant Christian schools, so this project seeks to fill that gap by providing a curriculum written for conservative, Christian high schools. The curriculum emphasizes the study of scripture and theological witness in conjunction with relevant literature and media to challenge students to consider a more holistic understanding of the role of identity, inclusion, justice, and reconciliation in their faith. This will be facilitated by asking thought-provoking questions, thinking through issues of faith, providing a foundation for theological exploration, …

Uncovering Meaning In Montessori Teachers’ Lived Experiences Of Cosmic Education As A Tool For Social Justice, John Allen Branch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This inquiry focused on the lived experiences of Montessori teachers in implementing Montessori’s Cosmic Education as a tool for social justice in their classrooms in order to more fully understand Cosmic Education’s meaning, purpose, and practice. The researcher also sought to understand how Cosmic Education could be an effective pedagogy of place, providing historical and social contexts in which students may develop and grow. The study used a post-intentional phenomenological design (Vagle, 2014), and was based on a series of interviews with five Montessori teachers from different classroom age levels. The data were analyzed using poetic inquiry through the form …

Drama For Social Justice: Embodying Identity And Emotion In Elt, Riah Werner

MA TESOL Collection

In this thesis, the author makes the case that drama is a powerful tool for language acquisition because it develops and engages embodiment, emotion and identity, important aspects of learning and communication that are often neglected in traditional language classrooms. The thesis establishes a theoretical foundation for the use of drama in the social justice-oriented language classroom, reviews research on drama for language learning and describes common drama techniques. The author connects the theories of embodied cognition and multiliteracies to an intersectional model of identity and argues that drama helps students re-examine the way society positions them based on their …

The Politics Of Quality Teacher Discourses: Implications For Pre-Service Teachers In High Poverty Schools, Laura Scholes, Jo Lampert, Bruce Burnett, Barbara M. Comber, Lutz Hoff, Angela Ferguson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Improving the quality of education for young people growing up in high poverty and culturally diverse communities is an escalating problem in affluent nations with increasing gaps between the wealthy and the poor. Improving the quality of teachers and improving the quality of teaching are amongst the prominent solutions offered to redress the differences between student academic performances related to socio-economic family circumstances. This article examines the different discourses of ‘quality’ in relation to the preparation of pre-service teachers to work in high poverty schools such as graduates of the National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schoolspre-service teacher education program. Key …

Thinking With/Through The Contradictions Of Social Justice In Teacher Education: Self-Reflection On Netds Experience, Keita Takayama, Tiffany Jones, Rose Amazan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Improving teacher quality has become the hallmark of Australian education reform with a plethora of measures introduced in teacher education to improve future teachers’ instructional competencies. This policy focus has also changed the discussion of strategies for addressing disadvantages in schools; improving teacher quality, as opposed to addressing structural inequalities in the system and larger society, has become the “solution.” This paper looks at the National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schools (NETDS), which aims to channel high performing teacher education students to disadvantaged schools. Using the taxonomy of conservative, liberal and critical approaches to education reform, the …

English Classrooms And Curricular Justice For The Recognition Of Lgbt Individuals: What Can Teachers Do?, Jane Pearce, Wendy Cumming-Potvin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Discrimination against LGBT[1] individuals remains widespread across Australia. Since schools continue to promote regimes of heterosexuality and cis-normativity, teachers have a crucial role in creating contexts in which LGBT young people feel accepted and safe. Drawing on North’s (2006) work on social justice and Connell’s (2012) discussion of curricular justice, this article explores opportunities and constraints experienced by a group of English secondary teachers attempting to practise in socially just ways. Results indicate that through the English curriculum, it is possible for teachers to find moments to achieve social justice for LGBT individuals.

[1] In reference to lesbian, gay, …