Education Commons^™

Writing For Intercultural Growth On Study Abroad In Australia, Allison J. Spenader, Joy L. H. Ruis, Catherine Bohn-Gettler

Education Faculty Publications

For students participating in study abroad programs in seemingly familiar environs, ongoing cultural mentoring is critically important. This study looks at intercultural development using both the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and qualitative analysis of reflective writing assignments. U.S. participants in a semester-long faculty-led program in Australia experienced significant intercultural growth as measured by the IDI. Four writing prompts were analyzed in terms of how well they correlated with student IDI Developmental Orientation (DO) scores. Written reflection reveals how students write about intercultural issues at different developmental stages. Some writing prompts were found to facilitate intercultural development, allowing students to ‘write …

Nurturing Joy And Belonging: Practices For Rehumanizing Professional Learning, Katherine Egan Cunningham, Kristin N. Rainville

Education Faculty Publications

In this article the authors describe a professional learning initiative focused on joyful teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the techniques that were used to foster a culture of belonging. The authors utilize an integrative framework for understanding, cultivating, and assessing belongingness to suggest implications for school-university partnerships. Finally, the authors pose questions for school-university partnerships to reflect upon to build an intersectional approach to professional learning in a post-pandemic educational landscape.

It’S All About To Change: Implications Of Reforming Grading & Assessment Within A Public School District, Divonna M. Stebick, Megan L. Pilarcik, Daniel W. Hartman

Education Faculty Publications

Calls to reform grading systems and other assessment practices have been growing for several decades. There is consensus among many educators that grading and assessment practices that have been traditionally accepted as good practice are at best ineffective and at worst have a negative impact on raising achievement. Consequently, there is no single solution or methodology for grading that has emerged as the best practice. A variety of contemporary grading approaches have gained widespread popularity in recent years, typically being referred to as standards-based grading, standards-referenced grading, proficiency-based grading, or competency-based learning. A challenge, however, is that different school districts …

A Refugee Resource Guide 2022, Kerri Ullucci

Education Faculty Publications

Rhode Island has long hosted refugees from around the world. Schools in RI, particularly those in Providence, currently enroll hundreds of refugee youth. After spending a semester conducting research and teaching in a school that serves refugee youth, it became clear that explicit teacher training about this population rarely occurs. This guide seeks to provide resources in which to address this need.

At Roger Williams University, I teach courses in our Education programs about race, class, and culture. My professional research centers on the same topics. While on sabbatical, I created several documents for the principal I worked with, to …

Values In Early Childhood Education (Ece): A Cross-Cultural Comparative Study Of Values For Ece Expressed In Policy Documents, Jolene Pearson, Arve Gunnestad, Sissel Mørreaunet, Sobh Chahboun

Education Faculty Publications

Purpose

This comparative study identifies core values expressed in Early Childhood Education (ECE) official policy documents from a sample of thirteen countries.

Design/Approach/Methods

This study employs document analysis as well as content and thematic analysis. ECE values identified in the policy documents are categorized into three groups: political and society-related values, educational values, and individual and relational values.

Findings

Document analysis reveals the values that are common across countries and those that are more specific to just one or a few countries at most. This study discusses the characteristics of these values from the perspective of globalization. In doing so, …

“I Never Saw As Good A Nature Show Before”: Walt Disney, Environmental Education, And The True-Life Adventures, Charles Dorn

Education Faculty Publications

Alongside Walt Disney’s animated movies, television programming, and theme parks, scholars have examined The Walt Disney Studios’ True-Life Adventures series of live-action nature documentary films for their impact on popular culture. Historians, however, have mostly overlooked the significance of the True-Life Adventures for student learning about the natural world. Amending this historiographical shortcoming, this essay examines Disney’s innovative approach to wildlife filmmaking, describes viewers’ reactions to the True-Life Adventures’ educational qualities, and investigates the Studios’ efforts to use the films to enter the education market. The study breaks new ground by analyzing seldom accessed documents preserved in theWalt Disney Archives …

Looking Behind Virtual Lenses: Field Experience, Modeling, Coaching, Partnerships, Supervision, And Feedback, Tamara Lynn, Shantel Farnan, Jessica A. Rueter, Adam Moore

Education Faculty Publications

Small special education programs (SSEPs) are composed of limited faculty tasked with educating interns dispersed across large geographical areas (Reid, 1994). These needs underscore a call for more flexible educational program options. Moreover, Kebritchi et al. (2017) found professors in higher education institutions sought a variety of instructional methods to critically respond to barriers experienced by SEPPs. The purpose of this article is to highlight virtual methods utilized by SSEPs for field experiences, modeling, coaching, feedback, supervision, and partnerships to leverage faculty expertise effectively and efficiently, to expand recruitment in programs, and to support teacher retention efforts. Using the Council …

Faculty-Led, Short-Term Study Abroad Programs: Stories And Dilemmas Of Practice, Susan L. Pasquarelli

Education Faculty Publications

This first-person narrative unifies one professor’s experiences in applying best-practices to implement faculty-led, short-term study abroad programs in Sicily and Rome. Building on published scholarly work, the article uncovers insights to benefit international faculty while designing and implementing culturally responsive, field-based learning experiences. This narrative focuses on the dilemmas and challenges to realize student learning outcomes given unavoidable quirks of the abroad site and inevitable unexpected issues that arise while shepherding college students from the culturally familiar to the strange.

Neutrality Always Benefits The Oppressor: The Need To Rupture The Normalized Structure Of Teacher Education Programs To Diversify The Workforce, Zuhra Abawi, Ardavan Eizadirad

Education Faculty Publications

As faculties of education have undergone drastic changes to keep teacher education programs afloat while accommodating teacher candidates during a pandemic, much of these altercations are designed, much like the education system itself, to meet the needs of white, privileged students. Although many of the changes from classroom content, pedagogy, and assessment to alternative practicums are commendable in the face of a pandemic, BIPOC and teacher candidates from lower socioeconomic status, who are already underrepresented in the Ontario teacher workforce, are further disadvantaged due to existing inequities and opportunity gaps (Battiste, 2013; Colour of Poverty, 2019; Henry & Tator, 2012) …

Emotional Vulnerability In Researchers Conducting Trauma-Triggering Research, Sarah Woods, Tina-Nadia Gopal Chambers, Ardavan Eizadirad

Education Faculty Publications

Qualitative researchers prioritize rapport-building to ensure safety of research participants and validity of data collected. Although there is extensive literature about prioritizing the safety and emotional well-being of research participants, much less has been written on the topic of researcher vulnerability with lack of consideration for researcher safety within ethics approval applications. The authors present a reflexive account of a research project involving interviews with young people aged 15 to 30 in Toronto, Canada who had firearm related charges. The methodological, ethical issues, and research burnout and vulnerability that arose due to the shared lived experience between the principal researcher …

The Community School Initiative In Toronto: Mitigating Opportunity Gaps In The Jane And Finch Community In The Wake Of Covid-19, Ardavan Eizadirad, Sally Abudiab, Brice Baartman

Education Faculty Publications

COVID-19 significantly impacted the delivery of education with widespread disruptions, particularly disadvantaging racialized and low-income families. Our research project explored how community-based programming can be adapted and mobilized to mitigate opportunity and achievement gaps for Black, Indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC), and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The project as a case study examined an afternoon and weekend supplementary academic program called the Community School Initiative (CSI), offered from September 2020 to May 2021 to members of the Jane and Finch community in Toronto, Canada at a subsidized cost. CSI is a partnership between the non-profit organization Youth Association for …

“I Kind Of Pushed Back”: Efficiency And Urgency In A No-Excuses Writing Curriculum, Katie Nagrotsky

Education Faculty Publications

Drawing on the concept of structuring contexts (Berchini, 2016) this article explores a white teacher’s understanding of teaching writing in a no-excuses charter management organization network. Through a deductive analysis, the author traces how the teacher’s beliefs about language were shaped by the CMO’s emphasis on efficiency, influencing how he acted on and adapted centralized curriculum and assessment practices. Documenting the ways that whiteness works within the writing curriculum and assessment practices despite stated broader organizational commitments to culturally relevant teaching, the author shows how the curriculum appropriated texts written by People of Color while the assessment practices prioritized correctness …

Teacher Candidates’ Pivot To Virtual Literacy Field Experiences: The Interplay Of Culturally Responsive Sustaining Pedagogies And Improvisation, Mary Coakley-Fields, Courtney Kelly, Katherine Egan Cunningham, Kori Krafick

Education Faculty Publications

This qualitative investigation examines how teacher candidates enrolled in literacy courses navigated virtual field work experiences during summer and fall 2020. The study is grounded in theories of improvisation as a pedagogical practice and culturally responsive and sustaining approaches to teaching. Data show that teacher candidates took advantage of the affordances of the environment and adapted their practice to suit the new situation by improvising and growing their virtual teaching skillset for culturally responsive literacy instruction. Findings reveal the importance of teacher candidates developing improvisational culturally responsive and sustaining practices, including learning about students’ interests, cultures, and experiences and applying …

Professional Development Schools And Future Teachers Of America Clubs: A Promising Pipeline, Maureen F. Ruby, Ernesto Davilla

Education Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the opportunity for universities and Professional Development Schools (PDSs) to engage with Future Teachers of America (FTA) clubs and similar groups in secondary schools to ensure the future of the profession. Student leaders and their mentor from an active high school FTA club share their perspectives on the benefits of membership in an active FTA. They aspire to engage in authentic educational experiences through relationships with teacher preparation programs and diverse classroom opportunities. In alignment with the National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) Nine Essentials, collaboration with FTA clubs is a boundary-spanning opportunity for faculty that …