Education Commons^™

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Pedaling Poverty Through Pennies, Dimes, And Disaster, Nicholas D. Hartlep

NERA Conference Proceedings 2012

This paper synthesizes and categorizes important social justice scholarship into a useable taxonomy that social justice workers can use in their personal and professional spheres of influence. The present paper discusses the idea that although social justice activities and/or projects may originate with noteworthy missions and motivations, unless their creators are vigilant, service projects have the potential to deteriorate into myth-making initiatives that reinforce the problems that they originally intended to ameliorate.

An International Professional Development Collaboration In Literacy Education, Miriam Pepper-Sanello, Adrienne Andi Sosin

NERA Conference Proceedings 2009

An International Professional Development Collaboration in Literacy Education is a report of an international professional development project in Guatemala designed to improve literacy instructional practices and thereby raise student achievement in reading and writing. The opportunity for coaching Guatemalan teachers in teaching literacy strategies and skills provides data for this participatory action research study. This research is intended to contribute to cross-cultural understanding by graduate and undergraduate students in literacy, improved pedagogical techniques, international outreach in developing countries, and student academic success worldwide.

Examining The Challenges Of Teaching For Social Justice In Sarajevo, Brian Kirby Lanahan, Peter Mcdermott

NERA Conference Proceedings 2009

Social justice is a critical principle of democracy. Societies seeking to become democratic must infuse social justice issues into their schools. In this qualitative study the researchers examined the extent to which social justice is being taught in Sarajevo’s educational system. With only a few exceptions, the findings indicate that education in Sarajevo has not reformed since the 92-95 conflict. Instead, Sarajevo’s curriculum has become more fragmented and less multicultural, and its schools are not preparing children to think democratically and work for social justice. Unless educational reforms accelerate, there is a real danger that the country may return to …

Professional Development Initiatives That Bridge, Develop And Support Learning Environments For Culturally And Linguistically Diverse School Communities In The Us And Guatemala, Miriam Pepper-Sanello, Adrienne Andi Sosin, Michelle Zucaro, Cynthia Rainbow

NERA Conference Proceedings 2008

This paper describes action research initiated by members of the Alpha Upsilon Alpha Literacy Honor Society of the International Reading Association at Adelphi University. In an ongoing service project sponsored by the Nassau Reading Council (NRC) and sanctioned by the Minister of Education in Guatemala, the participants are teacher educators and teacher-researchers studying their own professional learning as they provide literacy pedagogical techniques for colleagues in the US, as well as observing the effects of the NRC professional development initiative in literacy for Guatemalan teachers. Educational insights will resonate in improved literacy practices in the US and Guatemala.