Education Commons^™

A Distributed Leadership Perspective For Critical Consciousness In Middle Grades, Kenneth M. Bond, Daniel P. Tulino

Middle Grades Review

In middle-grades settings, students are cultivating critical consciousness to apply general knowledge of equity to their local context(s) (Nojan, 2020). As educators work to foster environments that allow middle-grade students to cultivate critical consciousness, expectations have shifted in the area of leading for equity. We have outlined a leadership framework we believe will advance the collective critical consciousness with examples for middle-grade contexts. Our focus is working toward equitable outcomes through one’s sociopolitical development and creating ways to further the collective critical consciousness of the entire school community through a distributed leadership perspective. Through this lens, our hope is to …

White Student Affairs Practitioner's Role In Actualizing An Antiracist Environment, Patrick Lovelace

The Vermont Connection

This article is meant to serve as a resource for white student affairs practitioners to continue to consider their role in engaging in anti-racism work by learning about both theoretical and practical tools. Through the lens of Critical Race Theory, this piece examines the way racism is used as a tool by those with power to marginalize and harm Black individuals and communities people specifically through a higher education and student affairs context. Using existing research and practice that requires the self-examination of whiteness by white people, this piece will hopefully engage practitioners in considering ways to leverage whiteness as …

Ya'll Don't Hate White Supremacy Enough For Me: How Performative Dei Prevents Anti-Racism And Accountability In Higher Education, Dr Frederick V. Engram Jr, Katie Mayer

The Vermont Connection

Many institutions of higher learning and more specifically predominately white institutions (PWIs) have created divisions, teams, and administrative roles aimed at transforming problematic and racism-centered institutions. However, the teams and leaders almost never have true autonomy or institutional support in creating an environment not centered in whiteness or white feelings but one centered in disruption of the status quo and truly anti-racist. As scholars and practitioners, we find ourselves being requested to tailor our talks or teaching in a way that is digestible for white people. Meanwhile, students of color are being berated at athletic events, in their classes, and …

Partnership Between Iraqi Families With Refugee Backgrounds And School Professionals, Ashraf Alamatouri

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Research shows that partnerships between families and school professionals can be an important factor in student educational outcomes and that such partnerships exist less for families with refugee backgrounds than for native-born Americans. There are gaps in the literature around linguistic factors and advocacy styles that could influence the relationship between families with refugee backgrounds and school professionals, especially for Arabic speakers. The purpose of this study was to deeply analyze one Iraqi family’s interactions with school professionals in the U.S. to answer the following research question: What linguistic factors and advocacy behaviors facilitate and impede the formation of a …

Organizational Supports Of Rape Culture In Higher Education, Mary Beth Seller

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Rape culture has roots in our gendered history of the United States which manifests itself on college campuses as well. Attending college has been found to be the riskiest time for women in terms of sexual assault, as up to 1 in 4 women may experience some type of sexual assault or attempt during their collegiate years. This study explored how one college campus, the University of Vermont (UVM), has organizational policies, procedures and values that are perceived to support rape culture on campus.

Guided by critical feminist theory as its epistemological foundation, this qualitative study uses an applied thematic …

The Middle School Concept Implementation Gap: A Leadership Lens, Julia G. Rheaume

Middle Grades Review

Middle school scholars periodically lament the lack of holistic implementation of the middle school concept (Alverson et al. 2021; Dickinson & Butler, 2001; Lounsbury 2013; Schaefer et al. 2016;). The results of a case study conducted in Alberta, Canada (Rheaume, 2018) are compared to a recent examination of the current status of middle schools in America (Alverson et al., 2021) to illustrate common implementation gaps and challenges. Consideration of the role of middle level leadership in supporting the implementation of the middle school concept is followed by a proposed expansion of the developmentally responsive middle level leadership (DRMLL) model (Brown …

Social Justice And The Us Food System: A Critical Course On The Human Dimensions Of Food, Ali Brooks

Food Systems Master's Project Reports

Our world is made up of overlapping political, environmental, and economic spheres that engender social injustice and inequality. Though separate societal issues can seem divergent and unconnected, they are all linked together by one universal necessity: food. Because everyone eats, everyone is connected to—and dependent on—food and the systems that govern it. However, the impacts of our industrial food system are not felt equally among people who hold different positions of power within it.

Today’s industrial food complex operates on the capitalist principle of profit accumulation through exploitation, commodification, and extraction. This set of relations is not defined by scale …

Yes, We Can Rule The World- Advancing Our Black Male Mentoring Programs, Trevor D. Mccray

The Vermont Connection

This article will address the lived experience of a Black male higher education practitioner who served as an advisor over a Black male mentorship program. While the summer of 2020 brought awareness to the life of individuals who identify as Black and Brown, with the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, there have been numerous attempts to right some wrong in America. This practitioner will share his experience, expertise, and perspective on the performative anti-racist measures, anti-Black rhetoric, and lackluster efforts of universities and colleges investing into people of color mentoring initiatives. As a result, higher education administrators have …

Afro-Brazilian Cosmology As Praxis For Student Affairs, Catarina E. Campbell

The Vermont Connection

In this article, one will find a friendly introduction to several orixás, the archetypal forces of nature in Yoruban and Afro-Brazilian cosmology, in order to explore the applicability of their teachings within the realm of student affairs. With each orixá comes a teaching story, series of reflection questions, and a tangible pedagogical practice. When employed with reverence to their origin and context, these tools can catalyze self-development, sense of purpose, and breadth of perspective for both for our students and ourselves.

Foreword, Lee Burdette Williams

The Vermont Connection

No abstract provided.

Extending The Research On 1:1 Technology Integration In Middle Schools: A Call For Using Institutional Theory In Educational Technology Research, Alexandra J. Lamb, Jennie M. Weiner

Middle Grades Review

In this essay, we argue institutional lenses are a vital but largely missing part of understanding how 1:1 technology programs can effect change in teaching and learning in middle schools. Indeed, while current research highlights the positive effects technology integration efforts, and 1:1 programs in particular, have on student learning and engagement, much has focused on the knowledge, skills, and beliefs of individuals or groups of actors. There is less research considering how the institutional context may impact teacher and administrator behavior regarding these and other technology-focused efforts thus limiting our ability to fully support schools and teachers in these …

The Middle Grades Principal: A Research Agenda, Dana L. Bickmore

Middle Grades Review

Advocates for middle grades education suggest that principals are critical to the implementation of curriculum, instruction, assessment, and organizational structures that meet young adolescent needs. Yet, there is little evidence associating principal practices outlined by middle grades proponents to outcomes or how principals learn the knowledge and practices middle grades advocates propose. This essay explores the limited research connecting middle grades principal leadership with school and student outcomes, how middle school principals learn the practices outlined by proponents of middle grades education, and proposes a research agenda and questions about middle grades principal learning.

Changing Workplace Culture And Building Community With Student Outreach, Aaron Nichols, Anne R. Dixon, Angus Robertson

UVM Libraries Conference Day

This presentation discusses how the Bailey/Howe Library created a student-run outreach program to help create a major cultural change in its student workforce. The presentation discusses the problems Bailey/Howe faced with the student workforce, the planning for changes to be made in the student workforce, and how an outreach program run by student employees created a greater sense of community in the workplace.

Family Process Influences On The Resilient Responses Of Youth, Monika Ingeborg Baege

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

The concept of resiliency, or how young people thrive in the face of adversity, brings a positive focus to youth development research and has emerged as an important topic in the youth development field. Adversity, or risk factors, may be internally or externally generated, and may acute or chronic. Researchers often point to the balance of between risk factors and protective factors as the determining influences on a child's resiliency. If protective factors in the layers of a child's world (such as self, family, school, and community) outweigh the risk factors, then a child will be resilient. However, questions remain …