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Articles 1 - 14 of 14

Full-Text Articles in Education

Prekindergarten Policy And Politics: Discursive (Inter)Play On Readying The Ideal Learner, Angela Passero, Carrie Gentner, Vonzell Agosto Jan 2015

Prekindergarten Policy And Politics: Discursive (Inter)Play On Readying The Ideal Learner, Angela Passero, Carrie Gentner, Vonzell Agosto

Vonzell Agosto

This study uses assemblage policy as the theoretical framework and is situated amid concerns about neoliberal influences on policy negotiations concerning prekindergarten/ers. Key, exemplary, and authoritative policy texts are analyzed using a form of CDA called critical rhetorical analysis. Analysis of key and exemplary texts illuminate terms around which the attempt to persuade was strong: high quality, age appropriate progress, readiness, and literacy. Authoritative texts and early childhood education literature provide insight into related political negotiations. Findings suggest contradictory interplay between policy documents including creation of the term age appropriate progress, conveyance of a narrow band of meaning and associated …


Scripted Curriculum: What Movies Teach About Black, Dis/Abled Males, Vonzell Agosto Jan 2014

Scripted Curriculum: What Movies Teach About Black, Dis/Abled Males, Vonzell Agosto

Vonzell Agosto

This article examines the complexity of portrayals of Black (dis/abled) males that are scripted through dis/ability tropes and master-narratives of race and gender. Trends in these portrayals are juxtaposed with literature on how Black, (dis/abled) male students are treated in schools and society.


The Hidden Curriculum: Candidate Diversity In Educational Leadership Preparation., Zorka Karanxha, Vonzell Agosto, Aarti A. Bellara Jan 2014

The Hidden Curriculum: Candidate Diversity In Educational Leadership Preparation., Zorka Karanxha, Vonzell Agosto, Aarti A. Bellara

Vonzell Agosto

The authors describe a process of self-assessment attuned to equity and justice in the policies and practices that affect student diversity, namely, those associated with the selection of candidates. The disproportionate rate of rejection for applicants from underrepresented groups and the unsystematic process of applicant selection operated as hidden curriculum affecting the opportunities for the program to enhance meaningful relationships among diverse groups of students. The authors describe institutional and sociopolitical conditions, and individual actions reflecting a faculty’s will to policy. Faculty efforts supported and challenged systemic change to increase racial and ethnic diversity among aspiring educational administrators.


Critical (Race) Media Literacy In The Curriculum Of Faculty Development: The Retreat To Teachable Moments, Vonzell Agosto, Zorka Karanxha, Deirdre Cobb-Roberts Jan 2014

Critical (Race) Media Literacy In The Curriculum Of Faculty Development: The Retreat To Teachable Moments, Vonzell Agosto, Zorka Karanxha, Deirdre Cobb-Roberts

Vonzell Agosto

This chapter illustrates a case study of a diversity committee and its co-chairs’ attempt to infuse critical theories of race and media literacy into the curriculum of professional development for faculty and graduate students. An aim of the co-chairs was to provide faculty and graduate assistants opportunities to engage in dialogue around critical incidents involving Blackface in connection to racial oppression in the development of critical media literacy as a theoretical and pedagogical tool.


School Consolidation And The Politics Of School Closure Across Communities, Zorka Karanxha, Vonzell Agosto, William R. Black, Claudius B. Effiom Jan 2013

School Consolidation And The Politics Of School Closure Across Communities, Zorka Karanxha, Vonzell Agosto, William R. Black, Claudius B. Effiom

Vonzell Agosto

This case involves dilemmas for educational leaders who may face the process of school consolidation brought on by decreased funding and demands for accountability. We highlight the challenges and opportunities to collaborate within and across diverse communities and schools with varying expressions of cultural, political, ethical, and organizational power and interests. The teaching notes coincide with aspects of the case that involve principal responsibilities, equity concerns, and negotiations amid the demands of multiple constituencies. Theoretical frameworks highlighting asset-based approaches, leadership for social justice, and micropolitics are emphasized.


Public Acts Of Self-Deliberation: Preparation For Discursive Democracy In Education, Vonzell Agosto Jan 2013

Public Acts Of Self-Deliberation: Preparation For Discursive Democracy In Education, Vonzell Agosto

Vonzell Agosto

This conceptual essay forwards self-deliberation as an act to be included in the preparation of educators and administrators. Self-deliberation is defined as a public act of deliberation that can be instigated pedagogically to prepare students for difficult dialogues on enduring issues in education. Self-deliberation provides another pedagogical method for preparing aspiring educators to participate in deliberative or discursive democracy. Narrative vignettes are used to illustrate the acts of self-deliberation performed by aspiring teachers of color as they consider controversial issues such as affirmative action, racial segregation, and culturally relevant education.


Missing And Shrinking Voices: A Critical Analysis Of Florida's Textbook Adoption Policy, Randria Williams Usf, Vonzell Agosto Usf Jan 2012

Missing And Shrinking Voices: A Critical Analysis Of Florida's Textbook Adoption Policy, Randria Williams Usf, Vonzell Agosto Usf

Vonzell Agosto

Critical analysis of the Florida textbook adoption policy and its recent changes. A critical multicultural and critical race theory lens is taken in the analysis of documents for how the representation of ethnic and racial minority groups is reduced and might be enlarged through alternative policy making processes.


Teacher Leaders: Women (Of African Descent) Enacting Social Justice, Vonzell Agosto, Zorka Karanxha Jan 2012

Teacher Leaders: Women (Of African Descent) Enacting Social Justice, Vonzell Agosto, Zorka Karanxha

Vonzell Agosto

This chapter is concerned with how educational leadership preparation programs promote a sense of agency among women of African descent (who identify racially as Black) to serve as teacher leaders for social justice.


Resistance Meets Spirituality: "I Prayed On It", Vonzell Agosto, Zorka Karanxha Jan 2011

Resistance Meets Spirituality: "I Prayed On It", Vonzell Agosto, Zorka Karanxha

Vonzell Agosto

In this article we describe the lived experiences of a Black female educational leader who has studied and worked in the academy and in the field of K-12 education. This partial life history, excavated through the tenets of Critical Race Theory (CRT), illuminates the social construction of race and the pervasiveness and permanence of racism. We determined through a series of interviews that the participant’s resilient resistance is guided by critical spirituality so that circumstances and people who challenge her also confront this source of power. Her lived experience, from student to faculty member, conveys the challenges and opportunities she …


Underrepresented Women In Higher Education: An Overview, Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Vonzell Agosto Jan 2011

Underrepresented Women In Higher Education: An Overview, Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Vonzell Agosto

Vonzell Agosto

This themed issue explicates the experiences of underrepresented women in higher education institutions and the externally imposed isolation and devaluing of their daily work. These articles are drawn from the experiences of Black and other non-White female faculty and are designed to provide a view of academe that is often neglected in academic literature.


Journey Of Elam: Her Pedagogy As A Public Intellectual, Zorka Karanxha, Vonzell Agosto, Donna Elam Jan 2011

Journey Of Elam: Her Pedagogy As A Public Intellectual, Zorka Karanxha, Vonzell Agosto, Donna Elam

Vonzell Agosto

We explore pedagogical moments reflecting the social justice inspired servant-leadership of Dr. Elam in her journey as a public intellectual. Using auto/biographical methods we examine critical moments in her work across contexts: conducting diversity workshops, providing professional development for principals and teachers, and leading district and regional interventions in response to court orders to racially desegregate. We focus her leadership through the lens of critical pedagogy. In the journey of Elam we find an expression of critical social justice leadership that is inspired and empowered by the values of public service, spirituality, and humanitarianism. This auto/biography contributes to our knowledge …


Problematic Conceptualizations: Allies In Teacher Education For Social Justice, Vonzell Agosto Jan 2010

Problematic Conceptualizations: Allies In Teacher Education For Social Justice, Vonzell Agosto

Vonzell Agosto

This review of the literature on the concept ally and ally identity development was inspired by a qualitative study exploring the identities and social justice values of prospective teachers of color. Although the participants in the original study never used the term ally, their narratives inspired me to characterize them as allies in the struggle for social justice education. However, a review of the literature on allies, as analyzed through critical race theory and critical discourse analysis, revealed emerging conceptualizations of ally as incongruent with minority identities as they position people of color at the periphery of this social justice …


Who Are Latino/A Prospective Teachers And What Do They Bring To U.S. Schools?, Mary L. Gomez, Terri L. Rodriguez, Vonzell Agosto Jan 2008

Who Are Latino/A Prospective Teachers And What Do They Bring To U.S. Schools?, Mary L. Gomez, Terri L. Rodriguez, Vonzell Agosto

Vonzell Agosto

In this article, the authors draw on life-history methods to investigate the family, school, university, and teacher education experiences of three Latino teacher candidates in a large, midwestern, research-oriented university in the United States. They show how in university social experiences and in teacher education classes and field experiences, these young men often felt misinterpreted in interactions with white females in particular. Also evident is their strong desire to make personal connections with youth and families they teach. The authors offer suggestions for how teacher educators can be more responsive to prospective male elementary teachers and teacher candidates of color.


What Are We Trippin' On?: Transgressing The Fault Lines In Research On The Preparation Of Multicultural Educators., Carl A. Grant, Vonzell Agosto Jan 2006

What Are We Trippin' On?: Transgressing The Fault Lines In Research On The Preparation Of Multicultural Educators., Carl A. Grant, Vonzell Agosto

Vonzell Agosto

How do we prepare multicultural educators? The purpose of the chapter is to discuss some of the research in multicultural teacher education that speaks to, and in doing so, participates in the life of this enduring problem. In what direction might other rationales and lines of inquiry lead the research in multicultural teacher education.