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Full-Text Articles in Education

Intentional Teaching: Building Resiliency And Trauma-Sensitive Cultures In Schools, Christian Scannell Jan 2021

Intentional Teaching: Building Resiliency And Trauma-Sensitive Cultures In Schools, Christian Scannell

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

In a time where many students and their families are grappling with uncertainties and educators are faced with uniquely complex challenges in the delivery of effective instruction, the ability to create educational communities that respond to the needs of all learners is crucial. There is increasing emergence of technology and pedagogy that have facilitated connections to the classroom never seen before. Yet, educators and school communities need to respond to this time of uncertainty with the lens of trauma sensitive instruction, the creation of meaningful teacher-student relationships, and building the resilience necessary for students to thrive in the ever-shifting landscape …


Teaching And Learning For This Moment: How A Trauma Informed Lens Can Guide Our Praxis, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Christian Scannell Jan 2020

Teaching And Learning For This Moment: How A Trauma Informed Lens Can Guide Our Praxis, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Christian Scannell

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

In this time of COVID-19, continued and relentless violence against BIPOC, organized resistance by many young people, and violent institutionalized attempts to suppress resistance, demonstrations and social change movements, what should educators be thinking about as we return to our college classrooms? In this short piece, we share our thinking and experience about our students’ psycho-social needs and our belief that faculty must be focused both on students’ and faculty’s socio-political context and students’ and faculty’s emotional wellbeing as we think about teaching and learning for this moment.


The Language Of The Academy: An English Language Learner In A Doctoral Program, Cinzia Pica-Smith Jan 2019

The Language Of The Academy: An English Language Learner In A Doctoral Program, Cinzia Pica-Smith

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

No abstract provided.


Is Diversity Enough? Exploring Intergroup Friendships In Italian Multiethnic Schools, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Rina Manuela Contini, Bob Ives Jan 2018

Is Diversity Enough? Exploring Intergroup Friendships In Italian Multiethnic Schools, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Rina Manuela Contini, Bob Ives

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

Italian schools are increasingly diverse spaces in which children of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, and cultural-linguistic practices interact daily. Thus, these spaces provide fertile ground for a continuum of relational experiences from positive intergroup relationships and friendships to tensions and experiences of discrimination and marginalization. Research has demonstrated that diverse spaces can be ideal for positive intergroup contact, intergroup dialogue and the formation of intergroup friendship, which have been associated with prejudice reduction and a decrease in intergroup anxiety. Employing a theoretical framework based on intergroup contact theory (Allport, 1954) and research on intergroup friendships, (Pettigrew & …


Strategies And Initiatives In Acculturation: Voices From Ghana, Susan Boafo-Arthur, Dzifa A. Attah, Ama Boafo-Arthur, Thomas D. Akoensi Jan 2017

Strategies And Initiatives In Acculturation: Voices From Ghana, Susan Boafo-Arthur, Dzifa A. Attah, Ama Boafo-Arthur, Thomas D. Akoensi

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

Culture shock and acculturation are salient aspects of any international study trip. Over the years, many institutions have devised several strategies to help international students transition to life in the host country. However, most of these strategies are insensitive to diverse cultural or country specifics. Drawing from Social Learning Theory, this paper provides narratives from four former students from the West African country of Ghana and how they navigated the process of acculturation in their respective host nations. The narratives discuss their feelings during the study abroad trip, some of the challenges they faced, and personal as well as institutional …


Problematizing The Conceptual Framework Of Interculturalism And Its Pedagogical Extension Of Intercultural Education: Theoretical Perspectives And Their Implications, Rina Manuela Contini, Cinzia Pica-Smith Jan 2017

Problematizing The Conceptual Framework Of Interculturalism And Its Pedagogical Extension Of Intercultural Education: Theoretical Perspectives And Their Implications, Rina Manuela Contini, Cinzia Pica-Smith

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

A new intercultural framework for education is being developed as a pedagogical response to increasingly multi-ethnic societies in Europe. This framework has been gaining ground during the last decade within EU Institutions (Commission of the European Communities, European Commission, Council of Ministers, OECD, OSCE) and the Council of Europe Documents and replacing multiculturalism as the guiding framework. This shift has generated an ardent debate between multiculturalists and interculturalists. Indeed, there is much criticism of the interculturalist framework. This article positions itself within this current debate and offers a critical analysis of the conceptual mapping of interculturalism within which there are …


A Cross-Cultural Study Of Italian And U.S. Children's Perceptions Of Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In Two Urban Schools, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Davide Antognazza, Joshua J. Marland, Alberto Crescentini Jan 2017

A Cross-Cultural Study Of Italian And U.S. Children's Perceptions Of Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In Two Urban Schools, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Davide Antognazza, Joshua J. Marland, Alberto Crescentini

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

This cross-cultural and cross-sectional study investigated Italian and US children’s perceptions of interethnic and interracial friendships, also known as intergroup friendships. A total sample of 226 children attending two urban, elementary schools in a middle-sized Northeastern US city and a middle-sized northern Italian city, were interviewed employing the questionnaire. Results indicate that Italian and US children’s perceptions of intra-racial and interracial friendships differed with students of color in the US rating intragroup friendships more positively than intergroup ones. In addition, students of color in Italy and white students in the US rated intergroup and intragroup friendships similarly.


Supporting Interethnic And Interracial Friendships Among Youth To Reduce Prejudice And Racism In Schools: The Role Of The School Counselor, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Timothy A. Poynton Jan 2014

Supporting Interethnic And Interracial Friendships Among Youth To Reduce Prejudice And Racism In Schools: The Role Of The School Counselor, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Timothy A. Poynton

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

Supporting interethnic and interracial friendships in schools among children and adolescents is an important part of a progressive educational agenda informed in equity, social justice frameworks, and critical multicultural education that leads to a reduction in racial prejudice. Positive intergroup contact is a necessary condition in prejudice reduction and the development of positive racial attitudes among ethnically and racially diverse groups of children and adolescents. School counseling initiatives focused on promoting interethnic and interracial friendships can have significant individual and systemic consequences such as: improving social, emotional, and cultural competence among youth; prejudice reduction; and the creation of equitable educational …


"At Risk Means A Minority Kid:" Deconstructing Deficit Discourses In The Study Of Risk In Education And Human Services, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Carmen Veloria Jan 2012

"At Risk Means A Minority Kid:" Deconstructing Deficit Discourses In The Study Of Risk In Education And Human Services, Cinzia Pica-Smith, Carmen Veloria

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

Unexamined use of ubiquitous terms such as “at risk” in education and human service courses can lead to reifying raced, classed, and gendered deficit perspectives of youth and youth work. This paper examines the social construction of the term “at risk,” following students in four education and human services undergraduate and graduate courses and the work of two counselor and teacher educators as they engaged their students in the process of deconstructing and interrogating this term. Findings reveal that students enter the classroom with raced and classed assumptions of who is at risk. Students demonstrate a deficit orientation that contextualizes …


Children Speak About Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In The Classroom: Lessons For Teachers, Cinzia Pica-Smith Jan 2009

Children Speak About Interethnic And Interracial Friendships In The Classroom: Lessons For Teachers, Cinzia Pica-Smith

Human Services and Rehabilitation Studies Department Faculty Works

In this article, the author discusses her research on children's perspectives of interracial and interethnic friendships in a multiethnic school and highlights children's voices on these intergroup friendships. Schools are important spaces in which social and cultural competencies necessary to the formation of intergroup friendships may be supported (Zirkel, 2008). Schools provide settings in which children learn about themselves and other children, adults, and the society in which they live. Steinitz & Solomon (1989) describe schools as "sites of identity," places where "young people draw conclusions about what sort of people they are, what society has in store for them, …