Education Commons^™

Full Issue: Volume 3, Issue 1, Edwin Mayorga

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

The third issue of #CritEdPol, Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College.

Down The Rabbit Hole: A Fantastical First Year Of Teaching, Tabitha Dell'angelo, Maria Degenova

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Interviews and observations of first year teachers in the northeastern United States were used to construct a comic. The comic communicates the excitement, fears, and competing demands of a beginning teacher. The dialogue and setting are presented as surrealist to help the reader gain an understanding of the affective realities that the teachers expressed when describing their early teaching experiences. This approach allows for the multiple dimensions of the teachers’ lived experiences to be experienced in ways that a traditional text does not allow. The work takes a critical look at the transition of beginning teachers into their careers and …

Teaching In The Service Of Fugitive Learning, Karen Zaino

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

In educational scholarship, abolition and fugitivity have been used to theorize youth literacy practices (The Fugitive Literacies Collective, 2020), teaching in solidarity with Black and brown communities (Love, 2019), and learning as an act of rebellion within the oppressive structures of schooling (Patel, 2016; 2019). Additionally, recent works in sociology (Shedd, 2015) and anthropology (Shange, 2020; Sojoyners, 2016) have thoughtfully and comprehensively documented the ways in which the disciplinary mechanisms of schools serve to contain, surveil, and expunge Black students. This paper draws on these recent scholarly interventions as a lens through which educators might engage with the students who …

Queering Elementary Education: A Queer Curriculum For 4th Grade, Emma Butensky, Kimberly Williams Brown

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

This project explores the positioning of queer students and queer curriculum in schools with a specific focus on elementary education. Using intersectionality as a guiding framework along with queer theories, educational theories, and feminist theories, this project examines and critiques how queer subjectivities have (not) been included in schools via curriculum for elementary school children. In an effort to better understand how educators have been successfully incorporating queer topics into their classrooms, this study uses qualitative research methods, specifically semi-structured interviews with teachers in New York City. The findings from this study have been used to create a 23-lesson curriculum …

'Don’T Worry, I Got You. You Can Do This': A Student-Centered Approach To Reimagining College Access, Tara Bahl

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

As high school college counselor caseloads increase, they have less time for consistent one-on-one counseling to support students with college planning. Thus, for many students – particularly those in large or under-resourced schools – the process is depersonalized, focused on simply distributing information. Drawing on narrative and ethnographic research, this paper explores a unique program that positions young people as paid college access professionals in their schools. Findings show that these students – Youth College Counselors (YCC) – make college planning a more student-centered, meaningful experience. Strategies YCCs engage with to support peers are examined to shine a light on …

The Erasure Of Black Women, Tamara D. Anderson, Maya Anderson

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

To what do we owe Black women? Everything. To be Black and female in America means that you are ignored, silenced, and sometimes erased. the very fabric of history would be quite different for all of us without the contributions, tears, blood, and love of Black women. As a result of the intersection of patriarchy and white supremacy, Black women are too often left exhausted, overworked, and left out of the historical narrative. This multi-modal creative work is a call to action to end the erasure of Black women with scholarship, visual art, and poetry.

Introduction, Edwin Mayorga, Chanelle E. Wilson

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

In lieu of an abstract, below is an excerpt of the work:

We write in the context of the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and racial injustice, and the wave of tensions tied to the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Economic inequality, antiBlack and antiIndigenous violence, food and housing insecurity, immigrant children in cages, social disconnection and the deterioration of physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being signal the effects of this historical moment. For many Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC), and other marginalized communities, these dual pandemics have only further brought to light that they have been in states of …

“We Don't Care About These Kids”: Chicago, Ethnic Studies, And The Politics Of Caring, Cinthya Rodriguez

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

This article juxtaposes two recent Chicago Public Schools (CPS) policies and expands upon Angela Valenzuela’s (1999) “politics of caring.” Given the unique space of Chicago for modeling neoliberal school reform policies, I analyze both the 2013 massive CPS closings that targeted predominantly Black communities and the subsequent institutionalization of African American and Latina/o Studies through CPS committees and curriculum. These CPS school closings and ethnic studies policies, I argue, mark a foundational relationship of racial and colonial power between students and communities of color and the settler city-state. Drawing upon community testimonies, news and popular media, and critical caring and …

“Some Teachers Just Simply Care”: Respect In Urban Student-Teacher Relationships, Alexandra F. Singer, Shannon Audley

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Teachers are ethically obligated to care for their students. One overlooked means of demonstrating care is through respect. However, because respectful behaviors are culturally dependent, exploring experiences of respect from students of color is needed to provide insight into student-teacher relationships. To understand students’ experiences of respect from teachers in the school setting, we interviewed 12 adolescents and emerging adults of color (M age = 17, SD age = 1.81) who attended Urban schools, about their experiences of respect from their teachers. We deductively and inductively coded the interviews separately for definitions of respect and experiences of respect from teachers …

The Case For Care: Multiyear Teachers Are The Future Of Mobilizing Care In Education, Daisy Culkins

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Care is essential to the healthy development of children. If care is not provided within the child’s home, the second most influential sphere within a child’s life where care can be enacted is the school. Community psychology and motivational psychology shed light into how teachers can use care to understand the child as a part of their community and use this understanding to enhance the child’s ability to learn. Education researchers have studied caring teachers to define what care looks like in practice: getting to know students personally, listening to the wants and needs of the child, their parents and …

Insider Perspective: Attitude And Motivational Orientation Among Heritage Learners Of Japanese At Colleges In The Philadelphia-Area, Miki Gilmore

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

This study investigates the attitudes and motivational orientations of heritage learners of Japanese. Twenty-seven students enrolled in Japanese classes in colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area participated in this study. Participants fell into two categories: heritage learners (N=6) and foreign language learners (N=21). Data was collected through an online questionnaire consisting of both quantitative and qualitative sections. Descriptive statistics were used to determine participants’ attitudes toward Japanese language, people, and culture and primary motivational orientations toward learning Japanese. The Fisher’s exact test was used to determine the effect of heritage status on attitude and motivational orientation. Results show both …

Discipline Policies In Urban Educational Contexts: Approaches, Barriers, And Restorative Justice, Elizabeth Balch-Crystal

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Beginning in the late twentieth century, a surge in school violence associated with racism and urban poverty has sparked increased use of punitive approaches to school discipline, and these high-stakes approaches have become normalized in school districts nationwide. “Discipline” at the classroom and school level, understood as the procedures and interactions between students and teacher surrounding behaviors deemed inappropriate, have historically been grouped into two domains: punitive discipline and restorative justice. Punitive justice methods increased their domination in urban classrooms throughout the 90’s and early 2000’s but in the last decade or so, a new wave of conflict-resolution-based discipline has …

African American English And Urban Literature: Creating Culturally Caring Classrooms, Erin E. Campbell, Joseph J. Nicol

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Language and literacy are a means of delivering care through consideration of students’ home culture; however, a cultural mismatch between the predominantly white, female educator population and the diverse urban student population is reflected in language and literacy instruction. Urban curricula often fail to incorporate culturally relevant literature, in part due to a dearth of texts that reflect student experiences. Dialectal differences between African American English (AAE) and Mainstream American English (MAE) and a history of racism have attached a reformatory stigma to AAE and its speakers. The authors assert that language and literacy instruction that validates children’s lived experience …

Full Issue: Spring 2016, Edwin Mayorga

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

No abstract provided.

Back Matter, Edwin Mayorga

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgments, Edwin Mayorga

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

No abstract provided.

Ten Years: Policy In 3-D, Sabrina Stevens , '07

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Ten years ago, I enrolled in Swarthmore’s Education Policy seminar, then taught by Eva Travers. I was a year away from completing a Special Major in Educational Studies and Psychology, and deeply invested in looking at how school contexts worked—and didn’t work—for students, especially low-income students of color.

Not What, But Who: Controlled Choice In Gifted Education Programs In The United States, Robert T. Zipp ,' 18

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Gifted education’s most pressing problem, according to its critics, is a lack of racial, cultural, and socioeconomic diversity. This lack of diversity can be attributed to the fractured nature of gifted education’s historical development, and the also fractured development of its very independent and numerous stakeholders. By the 20th century, these factors caused an overreaching regulatory structure to be practically infeasible. This policy proposal attempts to push back against historical precedent and begin a process of implementing overarching guidelines for gifted education programs in the United States based on a Controlled Choice model of admissions for gifted and talented pro-grams …

More Than Numbers: Recruitment And Retention Of Teachers Of Color In U.S. Public Schools, Esteban Cabrera-Duran , '18

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Recent scholarship has demonstrated the improved educational outcome of students of color when their teachers are of a similar background (Villegas & Irvine, 2010). In addition to this work, there is research that shows that teachers of color leave the profession due to the lack of agency and voice in decision making and racially hostile climate for teachers of color (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011; Kohli, 2016). This article presents a case for recruiting teachers of color and the development and support for programs that would lower teacher turnover rates. In addition, I present possible and endorse existing programs to recruit …

Helping Students Read To Achieve: The Past, Present, And Future Of Educational Policies On Dyslexia, Elias Blinkoff , '17

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

Developmental dyslexia is among the most common neurobehavioral disorders in children, affecting approximately 8.5 million students across the United States (Bipartisan Congressional Dyslexia Caucus, 2015). Despite its prevalence as a language disorder characterized by impaired reading ability, researchers have struggled to define dyslexia, contributing to variability across state-level educational policies on dyslexia and preventing students with the disorder from being identified, and ultimately receiving appropriate intervention services. Although federal policies have indicated greater recognition of dyslexia over time, continued use of the term “specialized learning disability (SLD)” in those policies as an umbrella term for students with dyslexia and other …

Implementing Ethnic Studies In California Public Schools, Tania Uruchima , '16

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

This paper explores the fight for ethnic studies in California public schools from two angles: the legislative push for the state to take action, and grassroots organizing by community organizers, students, teachers, parents, and others. Considering the success of grassroots organizing in implementing ethnic studies programming on a district-by-district basis, in contrast with the stalling of legislative action, I propose a policy move that mobilizes the state to actively support local organizing within individual districts. California educational law mandates the deliberate engagement of targeted stakeholders in local school decision-making. Therefore, the state should fund and facilitate the regular convening of …

Editor's Introduction, Edwin Mayorga

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

No abstract provided.

About #Critedpol, Edwin Mayorga

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

No abstract provided.

Contents, Edwin Mayorga

#CritEdPol: Journal of Critical Education Policy Studies at Swarthmore College

No abstract provided.