Education Commons^™

Selling Graduation: Higher Education And The Loaning Of Liberation, Annie Pocklington, Elizabeth J. Flanagan, Christopher Bodenheimer Knaus

Essays in Education

While the costs to attend college continue to rise exponentially, a bachelor’s degree is held up as required for economic stability within the U.S. and across the globe. With drastic disparities in earning potentials after graduation reduced by racism, sexism, classism, heterosexism, ableism, and related structural disparities, the value of a degree continues to be questioned, especially for historically marginalized communities. As the loan industrial complex continues to profit off of students, President Biden has offered $10,000 in student loan relief for some borrowers, though this action has been blocked by federal courts and is currently on hold. Whether Biden’s …

Multicultural Teacher Education: Toward A Culturally Responsible Pedagogy, Hui-Min Chou

Essays in Education

While the student population in the United States becomes culturally diverse, it is imperative to provide an empowering and equitable education for all students in the United States. Within the context of teacher preparation, one of the highest priorities is to help prospective teachers acquire the attitudes knowledge, skills, and dispositions to work effectively with culturally diverse students. Schools, colleges, and departments of education must assume the responsibility of preparing all teachers, regardless of race, to teach in culturally diverse classrooms. While most teacher education programs acknowledge the importance of an increasing diversity among school pupils, reviews of the literature …

Acknowledging The “I” In Multicultural Education, Osman Ozturgut

Essays in Education

Banks (2001) claims for students to become successful in a diverse world, they need to have the ability to communicate and negotiate among diverse cultures. Some argue that when the cultural diversity and global tolerance are promoted within multicultural education, traditional elitism and its shortcomings would be overcome (Schugurensky, 2002). Others argue that multicultural education hinders the assimilation efforts and creating a divisive society (Bernstein, 1994).

There are many views on the benefits or shortcomings of multiculturalization of education. The question is not whether a multicultural education should be adopted but it is rather what we understand from multicultural education …

Tension And Conflict In Assessment, Viola Wong Yuk-Yue

Essays in Education

The paper aims at bringing out some of the intricacies and delicate issues related to language assessment in a discussion that places language learning in an educational context. The paper will include a study that has been carried out on the learning of English as a second language and the means of assessing English language proficiency among a group of first-year university Chinese students. Data were collected through interviews. The study highlights relationships among the espoused aims of the institution, the philosophy of the teaching and the aspiration of students as well as the resultant interactive forces that have given …

Making Social Studies Meaningful For Ell Students: Content And Pedagogy In Mainstream Secondary School Classrooms, Michelle Yvonne Szpara, Iftikhar Ahmad

Essays in Education

Content-area instruction for English language learners (ELL) represents a growing area of instructional need in high schools across the United States. This article focuses on the challenges and successes in developing an effective instructional environment for teaching secondary-level social studies curriculum to a sheltered population of ELLs. In the present study, grant funding was provided for a schooluniversity partnership to support content-area teachers’ efforts to increase ELL students’ comprehension skills. The authors of this paper propose a multi-tiered approach to meeting the needs of English language learners in the mainstream social studies classroom – providing social and cultural supports during …

An Anglo-American Rethinks Native American Education: Can We Avoid Yesterday’S Tragedies?, Mitchell J. Moore

Essays in Education

“It’s ironic that Indian people are not allowed to be experts in themselves—it’s usually someone else ‘defining’ the Indian” (Pewewardy, 1992, p.5). Tragically, this is an accurate representation of much of the history of Native American education. Major changes have taken place in the last thirty years to correct this tragedy and to return the education of Native Americans to Native Americans. Progress, however has been slow; years of cultural, geographic and educational genocide by Europeans and Non-Indigenous governments have been difficult to overcome. To understand the historical underpinnings of the modern Native American education movement, three general eras of …

The Social Integration Of Latino Newcomer Students In Midwestern Elementary Schools: Teacher And Administrator Perceptions, Catherine Lasso, Nelson Soto

Essays in Education

Midwestern communities have experienced rapid influxes of Latino immigrants in recent years. Public schools in areas that were previously white and monolingual are now challenged to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. There is a substantial body of research on the academic needs of Hispanic immigrants, especially in terms of English language instruction. However, little is known about how these newcomer children are adjusting socially at school. The purpose of this study is to explore teacher and administrator perceptions of Latino student social integration, which is conceptualized as how these children interact with their U.S. born peers …

Cultural Schizophrenia: An Examination Of Societal Practices And Their Academic Consequences, Hakim Shahid

Essays in Education

Socio-economic exclusion, unequal schooling, and social reproduction are code words describing facets of racism that subsist in education. As a doctoral student in higher education, I have come to realize that the astonishing depth of the achievement gap that exists in many schools across this nation may be for reasons other than academic ability. In fact, many ill-conceived ideological practices of dominant society have become manifested in the educational psyche of minority students in America. This paper examines the psychological phenomenon that exists in both dominant mainstream and oppressed minority groups that is the life force for this type of …

Being Black In U.S. Urban Schools: No Assumptions, Lavada Taylor Brandon, Mary J. Didelot

Essays in Education

To be an African-American student attending a school dominated by working class, urban, minority learners means failure. Working class African-American students are not experiencing education, they are colliding with education. These collisions will continue as long as they are facilitated by the assumptive dominant theories regarding African- American students’ educational experiences. One strategy to constructively disrupt these assumptive theoretical notions buried within current theory is to look to a working class, urban African-American student’s qualitative longitudinal formation of identity as she progresses from student to teacher within the learning process as categorized by Bateson (1972). The understanding gleaned from this …

Making It Real: Alana Teacher Education Preparation, Communication And Diversity Suppositions, Keith Orlando Hilton, Harriett Arnold

Essays in Education

This article clarifies brisk salient education and communication perspectives on the need for and role of ALANA (African, Latino, Asian and Native American) teachers and teacher education students in the nation. From the co-authors’ perspectives as African American professors of prospective ALANA K-12 teachers, the notion of “Making it Real: ALANA Teacher Education Preparation, Communication and Diversity Suppositions” is an aerial design that continues to be drafted. This design must be multicultural, multiethnic, multimedia and multi-disciplined in order to be fecund. The creation of a video by ALANA university teacher education students also demonstrated that diversity is invaluable and central …