Education Commons^™

Ripple Effects: How Teacher Action Research On Culturally Relevant Education Can Promote Systemic Change, Hillary Parkhouse, Julie Gorlewski, Jesse Senechal, Chu Yi Lu Qiu

Teaching and Learning Publications

Teacher action research has been shown to both promote professional growth in teachers as well as produce gains for students. However, to date, little research has examined how action research might contribute to systemic changes in schools and school districts. This qualitative study of six teachers from various districts, subject areas, and grade levels, illustrates how action research can have simultaneous impacts on teachers, their students, and their schools and districts. The teacher action research projects all focused on culturally relevant education and the pursuit of equity. Impacts included teachers’ deepened understandings of equity and inclusivity; students’ diversity awareness, positive …

Patriotism As Critique: Youth Responses To Teaching About Injustice, Hillary Parkhouse

Teaching and Learning Publications

The view that patriotism is characterized by unquestioning loyalty to one’s country remains common in the United States despite its anti-democratic implications. From this standpoint, classroom discussions of past and present injustices are a threat to patriotism because they raise doubts about national superiority and exceptionality. Through an ethnographic study in two critical, culturally diverse US history classrooms, I investigated students’ attitudes towards their country and the notion of patriotism. As opposed to fomenting disaffection among students, candid discussions of injustices led students to view their teachers and curriculum as more trustworthy than what they had encountered in prior classrooms. …

Multicultural Education Professional Development: A Review Of The Literature, Hillary Parkhouse, Virginia R. Massaro, Chu Yi Lu Qiu

Teaching and Learning Publications

When their teachers are well equipped to foster inclusive and equitable classrooms, students from marginalized communities show higher rates of academic achievement, motivation, self-confidence, and self-efficacy. However, many teachers complete preparation programs feeling underprepared to work in culturally diverse classrooms, making high-quality professional development in this area crucial. We undertook a meta-ethnographic, systematic literature review of 40 studies of multicultural-education-focused professional development programs in order to better understand the forms and features of such programs that contribute to teachers’ self-efficacy and success in working with culturally diverse students. We found a small literature base with too much variation across types …

“Calling Out” In Class: Degrees Of Candidness In Addressing Social Injustices In Racially Homogenous And Heterogeneous U.S. History Classrooms, Hillary Parkhouse, Virginia R. Massaro

Teaching and Learning Publications

Teaching for social justice requires an ability to address sensitive issues such as racism and sexism so that students can gain critical consciousness of these pervasive social realities. However, the empirical literature thus far provides minimal exploration of the factors teachers consider in deciding how to address these issues. This study explores this question through ethnographic case studies of two urban, 11th grade U.S. History classrooms. Differing classroom racial demographics and teacher instructional goals resulted in two distinct pedagogical approaches to social justice teaching. Despite differences in class makeup and teaching approach, students in both classrooms developed intellectual confidence and …

“We're Rags To Riches”: Dual Consciousness Of The American Dream In Two Critical History Classrooms, Hillary Parkhouse, Bryan P. Arnold

Teaching and Learning Publications

Within the United States, wealth disparities are growing and upward social mobility is becoming increasingly difficult to attain. These trends call into question the American Dream ideology that anyone can succeed through hard work. This meritocratic ideal has traditionally been one of the unifying ideologies promoted through the public school curriculum. The topic of economic inequality, on the other hand, is largely absent from most social studies curricula. When teachers do address this issue, they tend to omit discussions of causes or potential policy solutions. Students are thus left with few resources with which to develop positions on policies related …

Uruguay Supporting Globalization And Access Through English Language Education Policy, Valeriana Colon

Teaching and Learning Publications

With a comparatively small population and a little over half the country’s population living in the capitol city (The World Factbook: Uruguay, 2019), connectivity internationally and access nationally are important to Uruguay. According to Uruguay’s Commission on Language Policy, English language legislation emerged from national demand to know English for global trade, technology, and academia (Administración Nacional de Educación Pública [ANEP], 2008). Public dialog often depicts the universalization of English as a highly valued commodity essential for student success (Canale, 2011). An example of this is the historic use of internationally recognized standardized exams as a means to gain international …

Fostering Democratic Patriotism Through Critical Pedagogy, Hillary Parkhouse

Teaching and Learning Publications

When I was a high school US history teacher in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, I sometimes wondered about the relationship between patriotism and critique of one’s nation. Specifically, I questioned just how critical students could be without becoming disaffected toward the United States. I tried to be honest with my students about the nation’s mixed record of democracy—how the country was founded on ideals of equality and yet stole land from Native Americans, kidnapped millions of Africans as part of a massive system of chattel slavery, and denied the vote to women until 1920. But I …

Expanding Approaches To Teaching For Diversity And Social Justice In K-12 Education: Fostering Global Citizenship Across The Content Areas, Ariel Tichnor-Wagner, Hillary Parkhouse, Jocelyn Glazier, Jessie Montana Cain

Teaching and Learning Publications

Educators today must be able to respond to the needs of an increasingly diverse student body and to teach all students the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for civic participation in a globalized, pluralist society. While state departments of education and national teacher organizations have begun to adopt global awareness in their teaching standards and evaluation tools, there is a Fostering global citizenship across content areas2need for educators to understand what globally competent teachers actually do in classrooms across subject areas and grade levels. This qualitative, multiple case study explores the signature pedagogies (Shulman, 2005) of 10 in-service teachers in …

Lessons On Citizenship And Democratic Power Literacy From Undocumented Youth, Hillary Parkhouse

Teaching and Learning Publications

To create a society in which power is more equally accessible, we must teach our youth not only about civics and government, but also how to use political tools in order to effect social change. In this essay, I argue for teaching power literacy in place of traditional citizenship education on the grounds that the former has greater potential for increasing students’ political efficacy and their abilities to apply knowledge of civics to the real-world issues that affect them. To illustrate the concept of power literacy, I draw on a case study of a grassroots, undocumented youth activist organization fighting …

Citizen Journalist To Activist: The Language Behind Black Lives Matter, Valeriana Colon

Teaching and Learning Publications

This study explores the discourse surrounding an event in the social movement, Black Lives Matter_, to gain insights into how digital literacy practices influence and mediate participation in the 21st century civil rights movement for a new generation of activist. This study examines three points of engagement, (1) the experience of the event as it is initially interpreted and shared online, (2) the intermingling of consciousness through social media, and (3) the post social media interpretation and action. Data was collected from Twitter analyzed using discourse analysis.

Esl Student Perceptions Of Online Resources, Valeriana Colon

Teaching and Learning Publications

This study explores how ESL student perceptions guide their use of online resources, with the goal of helping teachers select meaningful resources. Data were collected using a combination of interview responses and computer-recorded online actions. An evaluation of three case studies of advanced adult English language learners were used to gain insights into student perceptions. The results indicated that the ESL students use Google and native language sites when researching online, at times alternating between English and their native language. However, they expressed a sense of shame when using native language sites, as one student stated that he felt he …

Presenting Precious Knowledge: Using Film To Model Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy And Youth Civic Activism For Social Studies Teachers, Hillary Parkhouse

Teaching and Learning Publications

In this paper, I examine the potential for developing preservice social studies teachers’ understanding of transformational resistance, Latin@ civil rights movements, and culturally sustaining pedagogy through a project using the film Precious Knowledge. This documentary depicts high school students in a Mexican American Studies (MAS) program using civil disobedience to protest Arizona’s ban of the program. The teachers prepared for the screening by reading and responding to scholarly articles on Latin@ school engagement and Chican@ student activism. After viewing the film and engaging in small group and whole class discussions, participants reported that they learned about current and past Chican@ …

Understanding Cognition Across Modalities For The Assessment Of Digital Resources, Valeriana Colon

Teaching and Learning Publications

Drawing from the theories of the cognitive process, this paper explores the transmission, retention and transformation of information across oral, written, and digital modes of communication and how these concepts can be used to examine the assessment of digital resource tools. The exploration of interactions across modes of communication is used to gain an understanding of the interaction between the student, digital resource and teacher. Cognitive theory is considered as a basis for the assessment of digital resource tools. Lastly, principles for the assessment of digital resource tools are presented along with how assessment can be incorporated in the educational …

From Local To Global: Making The Leap In Teacher Education, Hillary Parkhouse, Jocelyn Glazier, Ariel Tichnor-Wagner, Jessie Montana Cain

Teaching and Learning Publications

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, teachers must prepare a diverse group of students with new skills and mindsets necessary to engage in this global environment. This requires changes in teacher education, including expansion of instructional lenses from the local to the global. This case study examined how one teacher educator attempted to incorporate global competency into her course on culturally responsive teaching. Using surveys, document analysis, observations, and interviews with both the instructor and her students, the researchers found that some global competencies were developed. Ultimately, however, many areas of global competence were not addressed, due to the course’s …

How Teachers Learn: The Roles Of Formal, Informal, And Independent Learning, W. Monty Jones, Sara Dexter

Teaching and Learning Publications

A qualitative study of math and science teachers at two middle schools identifies how their system for learning to integrate technology into their teaching goes beyond what school leaders typically consider when planning for teachers’ learning. In addition to (a) the district-initiated, or formal, system of professional development (PD) and professional learning communities (PLCs), it includes (b) teacher-initiated, or informal, learning with colleagues as well as (c) teachers’ independent learning activities. Analysis of why and how they form their system highlights how by only supporting the formal PD activities and PLCs, the district not only loses the valuable collective knowledge …

Consulting In Higher Education: Principles For Institutions And Consultants, Jon Wergin

Teaching and Learning Publications

American higher education is characterized by keen competition but also by a high degree of cooperativeness. This apparent paradox is illustrated by the extensive use of consultants. The typical higher education consultant is based on one campus and helps a competing institution become more effective. The net result is the reverse of Gresham's Law: good practice drives out bad, and the total enterprise of higher education benefits.

This handbook is intended to help colleges and universities make wise choices about consultants and derive the maximum benefit from them. It draws extensively from experiences of the Consultation and Advisory Service that …