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Teaching For Social Justice In A Highly Politicized Historical Moment, Lorraine Kasprisin

Journal of Educational Controversy

The theme for the Volume 15 issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy, “Teaching for Social Justice in a Highly Politicized Historical Moment,“ is a continuation of a conversation that began in two earlier issues. In Volume 12, we explored the larger institutional structures that maintain inequalities and racism with the theme, “Black Lives Matter and the Education Industrial Complex.” That was followed with an inquiry in Volume 14 on the role that the past plays in wrongs in the present and the issues it raises in our attempts at seeking reconciliation in “The Ethics of Memory: What Does it …

Troubling The Null Curriculum Through A Multiple-Perspectives Pedagogy: A Critical Dialogue Between Two Equity-Minded Teacher Educators, Rachel Endo, Deb Sheffer

Journal of Educational Controversy

In this article, the authors explore the ways by which they, as equity-minded teacher educators, have introduced predominantly White pre-service teachers to the notion of a multiple-perspectives pedagogy as a vehicle to promote critical thinking and multicultural integration. The conceptual framework charts a new course for theorizing the various ideological challenges that arise when attempting to model a multiple-perspectives pedagogy to critique various aspects of the null curriculum in PK-12 and teacher education as it relates to integrating multicultural perspectives. Through critical reflection and dialogic interviews, the authors discuss how they have negotiated the various challenges and possibilities of implementing …

The Sociohistorically Situated And Structurally Central Nature Of Race: Toward An Analytic Of Research Regarding Race And Racism, Rolf Straubhaar

Journal of Educational Controversy

In a response to Wacquant’s (1997) call for “an analytic of racial domination” (p. 230) to theorize about race and racism, this conceptual article puts forward one such analytic. This analytic is based principally on the continued centrality of race in society, the recognition that racism is always shaped by particular sociohistorical factors, and the importance of documenting racism’s contextual intersectionality with class, gender and other elements of social structure through academic inquiry focused on both discourse and measurable action as data for racial analysis.

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 …

Dissonance As An Educational Tool For Coping With Students’ Racist Attitudes, Adar Cohen

Journal of Educational Controversy

Teachers in multicultural societies that are beset by severe rifts and political polarization encounter students who express racist and extreme attitudes. According to the students’ dichotomous views, anyone who is different from them poses a threat, and teachers find it difficult to overcome this challenge solely with moralistic utterances. Anger, shock, and punishment do not help change the students’ opinions; they often have the opposite effect. This article proposes, instead, that teachers use dissonance as a tool for helping students rid themselves of their dichotomous views and become accustomed to complex thinking about society. On the basis of an educational …

On The Continuity Of Learning, Teaching, Schooling: Mead’S Educational Proposal, From The Perspective Of Decolonization And Land/Place-Based Education, Cary Campbell

Journal of Educational Controversy

In her 1943 article “Our Educational Emphases,” Margaret Mead inquired: What constitutes education in “the broadest sense” of the term, as a continuing human process. More specifically she asked, how and from what basis can we understand the educational processes of long-standing/Indigenous societies as continuous with the forms of education practiced in modern industrialized society? In short, Mead proposes that we recognize the essential continuity of learning, teaching, and schooling across all human societies. In this article, I explore the controversies that Mead’s proposal raises for contemporary, intersecting discourses on decolonization, Indigenous pedagogy, and place- and Land-based education. I argue …

“Teaching In A War Zone”: A Collective Reflection On Learning From A Diversity Course In Contentious Times, Elena Aydarova, Jacob Kelley, Kristen Daugherty

Journal of Educational Controversy

Diversity courses in teacher education often become sites of conflict and contestation. Numerous proposals have been put forward on how to address these conflicts and contestations through pedagogical interventions and teaching innovations. However, such proposals rarely take into account the impact of broader sociopolitical forces on classroom interactions and learning. In this collective reflection, we document our experiences of navigating a diversity course in highly contentious times when anti-critical race theory campaigns resulted in widespread bans on the teaching of “divisive concepts.” We explore critical incidents and challenging situations to capture the erosion of civility and engagement with evidence. In …

A Critically Conscious Analysis Of Institutionalized Racism In Teacher Education: Imagining Anti-Racist Teacher Preparation Spaces, Tatiana Joseph, Jennifer Brownson, Kristine Lize, Elizabeth Drame, Laura Owens

Journal of Educational Controversy

Teacher education scholars serving five different teacher education license programs came together to collectively examine this question: What would it look like if a college of education took on the work of revealing and dismantling structural racism? Using Critical Consciousness theory, we analyzed how structural racism is embedded in teacher education on both a macro systems level and a micro program level. First, we discuss what we know about how institutionalized racism is prevalent within teacher preparation spaces. Then, we take a focused look at some of our programs within our own school of education. More specifically, we explored both …

About The Authors

Journal of Educational Controversy

"About the Authors" page for Volume 15 issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy on the theme, "Teaching for Social Justice in a Highly Politicized Historical Moment."

How Historical Context Matters For Fourth And Fifth Generation Japanese Americans, L. Erika Saito

Journal of Educational Controversy

Japanese Americans have a longstanding history in the U.S.-- comprising of more than five consecutive generations. Yet generational research on this ethnic group is understudied (Meredith, Wenger, Liu, Harada, & Kahn, 2000; Pang, 2007). By connecting the historical experiences of previous generations of Japanese Americans to the present, findings on how history has impacted this population can be applied in other ethnic multi-generational groups in the United States.

An Ethnic Identity & Generational Status Model was developed by the author that was influenced by Jean Phinney (1990), Handlin (1951), Mannheim (1927), and Matsuo (1992) to support the varied roles that …

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 …

Making Sense Of And With “Profound Regret”: Howard County Board Of Education’S Apology For A Racially Segregated Public School System, Rachel Garver, Benjamin Nienass

Journal of Educational Controversy

In November 2012, the Board of Education of Howard County, Maryland approved a proclamation that expressed “profound regret that the Howard County Public School System maintained segregated and unequal public schools both prior, and subsequent to” Brown v. Board of Education. The proclamation describes Howard County’s slow response to comply with the 1954 decision, such that the school system was not officially desegregated until eleven years later in 1965. Through the analysis of stakeholder interviews and board meetings, we explore the various ways and the extent to which the Board of Howard County’s apology was bestowed with meaning. We …

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 …

Review Of Jefferson’S Revolutionary Theory And The Reconstruction Of Educational Purpose By Kerry T. Burch, Tony Decesare

Journal of Educational Controversy

This is a review of Kerry T. Burch's book Jefferson’s Revolutionary Theory and the Reconstruction of Educational Purpose.

Author's Response To Book Review, Kerry Burch

Journal of Educational Controversy

This is an invited response by the author to a review of his book, Jefferson’s Revolutionary Theory and the Reconstruction of Educational Purpose, published in this issue.

The Ethics Of Memory: What Does It Mean To Apologize For Historical Wrongs, Lorraine Kasprisin

Journal of Educational Controversy

The controversy for this issue focuses on the theme, “The Ethics of Memory: What Does it Mean to Apologize for Historical Wrongs.” Although the controversial scenario we posed for this issue stems from current events in the news, we invited authors to examine more deeply the historical and cultural undercurrents that gave rise to them. Our authors responded from a number of different perspectives that encapsulate different times, populations, scholarly disciplines, methodologies and ways of interpreting the question.

About The Authors

Journal of Educational Controversy

"About the Authors" for Volume 14 of the Journal of Educational Controversy

Moving From Toolkits To Relationships: Family Engagement For Systems Change, Marilyn T. Chu, John Korsmo

Journal of Educational Controversy

Abstract

This article presents the development and challenges involved in one school-university partnership over a four-year period, to learn what is needed to support teachers, future teachers and schools to be able to gather, understand, and use family knowledge in long term, mutually meaningful, and co-designed family engagement efforts. Here we explore impact on teacher-candidate, teacher, administrator, and university faculty understanding in one high poverty, majority Latino, rural elementary school in the northwestern USA. The processes and structures involved in family-school co-construction of informal and formal family engagement experiences are detailed in this case study. The account details the inclusion …

Using A Place-Based Approach In Preparing Community Teachers For High-Need Schools, Joanne Carney, Marilyn Chu, Susan Donnelly, Marsha Riddle Buly, David Carroll

Journal of Educational Controversy

This case study describes actions and outcomes of a school-university partnership to better prepare teachers for high-need schools with large numbers of English Learners. Using a place-based approach to preparing community teachers, preservice and inservice teachers and teacher educators collaboratively learned how to work with families and community members to address student needs and developed core practices attuned to the socio-cultural context. The partnership also established a pathway to teaching for bilingual/bicultural students from the community. Data are derived from semi-structured interviews, focus groups, intern and teacher surveys, journal reflections, and a statewide teacher employment database.

Developing A Collaborative Partnership Between A College Of Education And An Elementary School: An Overview Of A Six-Year Grant Funded Project, Susan Donnelly

Journal of Educational Controversy

This introductory article will provide an overview of a state funded project to develop a collaborative partnership between the Western Washington University Elementary Education Department and an elementary school in a district with high levels of poverty and English learners. It will describe the history, the aims and goals, and the major results of the six-year project and provide readers with a context for the other articles that appear in this issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy. In the other articles, the authors, who also participated in the partnership, describe their personal involvement in particular aspects of the multi-faceted …

Three Cases: Bridging The University-School-Community Divide Through Collaborative Learning And Innovative Uses Of Educational Technology, Joanne M. Carney, Paula Dagnon, Martha Thornburgh, Lori Sadzewicz, Chloe Unruh

Journal of Educational Controversy

The following three articles are presented together because each is a case study exploring a common theme: How the cultural and systemic differences between school and university might be bridged in partnership, as educators work together with community members to educate and promote the wellbeing of children. The cases show how personal relationships, collaborative learning, and innovative uses of technology can be fostered by “hanging out and joining in.”

Each of the cases has three levels of significance, which is in keeping with the nested contexts of partnership work: 1) teaching and learning with elementary students and their families, 2) …

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.

A Critical Race Theory Analysis Of Post-Ferguson Critical Incidents Across Ecological Levels Of Academia, Aurora Chang, Sabina Neugebauer, Daniel Birmingham

Journal of Educational Controversy

In this article, we explore our experience walking into the academic school year eager and ready for the challenge of taking up the killing of Michael Brown and the events that followed in Ferguson as a catalyst for important conversations around structural injustice. Through exploration of critical incidents (Hamilton, 2004), we review how our attempts to open dialogue were met with defensiveness and a discourse that relegates the responsibility of engaging in conversations about race and power to educators of color. Echoing Pollock, Bocala, Deckman, and Dickstein-Staub (2015), we found that teachers at all levels may resist the ‘diversity’ aspect …

Exclusionary Discipline In New Jersey: The Relationship Between Black Teachers And Black Students, Randy Rakeem Miller Sr.

Journal of Educational Controversy

There are a host of variables that affect the disciplinary outcomes of African-American students, for example, poverty rates and students with special needs. The variables of interest here are African-American teachers and/or teachers who have identified themselves on record as African-American and gender of those same race teachers. Race and gender impact both how students are instructed and disciplined. It is the intention of this paper to contribute to the empirical scholarship on the impact teacher race has on the education of Black students in New Jersey Public Schools. More specifically, this paper will investigate the relationship between Black public …

Going To College: Why Black Lives Matter Too, Raquel Farmer-Hinton

Journal of Educational Controversy

In this article, I share why centering Blackness is critical in implementing college readiness for all. By utilizing the practices of high school leaders, counselors, and teachers at five predominantly Black college readiness for all high schools, I explore key activities, instructional approaches, and support systems that are integral to Black students' college readiness. I present two themes: mission intentionality and doing whatever it takes. These findings are also coupled with lessons learned from existing scholarship on non-selective college preparatory schools and college readiness issues in urban communities. Lastly, in reflecting upon the qualitative findings from the five high schools …

The Intersection Of White Supremacy And The Education Industrial Complex: An Analysis Of #Blacklivesmatter And The Criminalization Of People With Disabilities, Brittany A. Aronson, Mildred Boveda

Journal of Educational Controversy

In this article, in answering the question do Black Lives Matter in the U.S. education industrial complex, we begin with a description of how the education industrial serves white supremacy. In our discussion of anti-blackness and racial bias, we also acknowledge the racialization of disabilities and the historical intersections between racial oppression and the marginalization of people with disabilities. More specifically, we examine the discourse and reticence about markers of differences (e.g., race, gender, ability status, race, and class) and interrogate how social categorizations are manipulated and co-opted to repurpose differences in ways that serve the education industrial complex and …

Stories Of Social Justice Educators And Raising Children In The Face Of Injustice, James Wright, Amanda U. Potterton

Journal of Educational Controversy

This article examines life stories of the authors, who are parents and social justice scholars and educators from different races and backgrounds. The authors consider the emotional process of personally and collectively coping with and navigating parenting and sharing critical truths with their children in the current social, political, and cultural environment and in light of recent assaults on communities of color. They employ life history methodology to explicitly continue a critical conversation that was started by Matias and Montoya (2015) about Critical Race Parenting, and they encourage other scholars, particularly those who are parents, to think about, and articulate, …

Schools And The No-Prison Phenomenon: Anti-Blackness And Secondary Policing In The Black Lives Matter Era, Lynette Parker

Journal of Educational Controversy

Black boys in schools are often labeled as discipline problems, criminalized and overclassified into special education programs. This article describes the ways in which current practices of labeling and disciplining Black boys have far-reaching impacts on their lives beyond school. It explores the ways Black boys, who are surveilled and criminalized in school, are further victimized when school records are used to characterize them as deviant as a way of justifying violence against them. Drawing upon anti-blackness as a theoretical framework, the author explores the 9-1-1 transcripts in the cases of Trayvon Martin and Tamir Rice to clarify the role …