Education Commons^™

Stories Read And Told In An Antiracist Teaching Book Club, Jennifer Ervin, Madison Gannon

Journal of Educational Controversy

This manuscript explores the stories both read and told by graduate students and preservice teachers in an antiracist teaching book club. Thinking with critical and engaged pedagogy, the researchers use narrative inquiry to explore how the book club supported White female preservice teachers’ understandings of antiracist pedagogy in English language arts classrooms. The themes that the authors explore through these narratives include the ways that both teacher and student identities are at the forefront of enacting antiracist pedagogy, how teachers receive and seek support for implementing antiracist pedagogy, and what pedagogical decisions are needed when intentionally planning to engage with …

A Case For Unforgiveness As A Legitimate Moral Response To Historical Wrongs, Hollman Lozano

Journal of Educational Controversy

Abstract:

The emergence of forgiveness as the preferred mechanism through which historical wrongs are addressed within reconciliation discourses has meant that for the people who cannot forgive or will not forgive, there are no alternatives other than insisting on forgiveness until it hopefully one day arrives. As such, the point of unforgiveness is to constitute an agentic space where the people who cannot forgive can articulate their stance in ways that not only allow them to articulate their resistance to the injunction to forgive, but also constitute alternative spaces whereby they can articulate their stance in inclusive ways. If we …

Allusive, Elusive, Or Illusive? An Examination Of Apologies For The Atlantic Slave Trade And Their Pedagogical Utility, Esther J. Kim, Anthony Brown, Heath Robinson, Justin Krueger

Journal of Educational Controversy

This critical essay explores the topic of slavery within the context of public apologies.

Drawing from both the historical lens of cultural memory (Le Goff, 1977/1992) and the critical race theory construct of interest convergence (Bell, 1987), the authors offer critical examination of the following questions: (1) Where do collective apologies fit in the narrative of slavery in the US? (2) What affordances might they offer to the social studies at the intersection of curriculum, instruction and the historical memory of enslavement? (3) What do apologies for slavery in the present potentially reveal about contemporary social and political relations as …

Anti-Affirmative Action And Historical Whitewashing: To Never Apologize While Committing New Racial Sins, Hoang V. Tran

Journal of Educational Controversy

Apologies, official or otherwise, for historical wrongs are important steps in the road towards reconciliation. More difficult are historical wrongs that have yet to be fully acknowledged. The reemergence of affirmative action in the public consciousness via the Supreme Court represents a striking example of the ways in which our collective consciousness has yet to fully account for our past educational sins: segregation and income inequality. This essay explores the multiple consequences to our historical memory when the anti-affirmative action narrative continues to dominate the public discourse on racism in education. I offer a renewed focus on ‘fenced out’ as …

The Complexity Of Collaboration: Personal Stories From A School And College Partnership, Lorraine Kasprisin

Journal of Educational Controversy

The controversy for this issue focuses on the complexity of collaboration when schools and universities that come out of two different cultures meet and work intimately to solve common problems. What makes this issue different from our other issues in this journal is the complete focus on one collaborative school/university partnership that offers readers an opportunity to hear the authentic voices of all the stakeholders as they collectively tell their stories. All the papers, video interviews, classroom videos, and forums published in this issue focus on this one experiment conducted between a school in a rural community in Washington State …

The Revolution Will Be Live: Examining Educational (In)Justice Through The Lens Of Black Lives Matter, Amy Jo Samuels, Gregory L. Samuels, Brandon Haas

Journal of Educational Controversy

The article explores current sociopolitical implications of race through the lens of Black Lives Matter. In highlighting critical incidents in the movement and connecting to related events of historical significance, we establish parallels to emphasize the persistence of bias, race-based oppression, and injustice. The article focuses on established power structures and explores inequity, oppression, and sociopolitical contradictions by examining institutionalized racism. We emphasize how deficit perceptions, racist ideologies, and silence on racism are dangerous and must be challenged to foster action, advocacy, and change.

Emergent Student Practices: Unintended Consequences In A Dialogic, Collaborative Classroom, Anne E. Crampton

Journal of Educational Controversy

It’s a commonplace to decry the folly of “best practices” in education. They make many practitioners and researchers twitch, fearing that the good-- or even just decent--practice will soon be setting the tempo in the steady march toward standardization. The argument against best practices, then, is the argument against one-size-fits-all pedagogy. Instructional practices must come with a necessary humility, based on situating students within the picture, with particular attention to with histories of institutional and societal othering and marginalization. Good practices cannot be delivered or imposed, and therefore, if successful, they become suggestions or starting points carried out with greater …

Introduction To The Special Issue Of The Journal Of Educational Controversy, John G. Richardson

Journal of Educational Controversy

This issue addresses the uneasy relation between 'best practices' in educational research and the consequences that often follow from efforts to implement practices deemed best. This relation is often complicated by the social phenomenon long recognized as "unintended consequences". It is proposed that controversies in education, as well as practices advanced as best, are shaped as the consequences -subsequently revealed as the very product of the good intentions that underlie prevailing theory and methods.