Education Commons^™

Small Schools And The Issue Of Race, Linda C. Powell

Occasional Paper Series

Bank Street College of Education, in conjunction with the Consortium on Chicago School Research did a study of small schools in Chicago. This paper examines one element of the findings in depth - the interaction of race and school size. Powell argues that small schools are by their very nature an anti-racist intervention.

Walking The Tightrope Of Visibility, Leigh Patel

Occasional Paper Series

This essay cautions projects of visibility that are twinned with intersectional analyses. Arguing for a deliberate rupture in schooling’s categorical logics and a historical analysis of the cultural force of individual identity, I caution that the individual identity tendencies of modernity hold some risks for the substantial and long-standing imperatives of intersectional analysis. I ground this argument in Audre Lorde’s work and how it is often sampled insufficiently.

Black Girls Are More Than Magic, Gloria J. Ladson-Billings

Occasional Paper Series

Despite the current interest in "Black Girl Magic" this essay argues that what Black women have accomplished and endured is more than mere magic. Instead, they reflect a dogged determinism to work toward liberation of all people. That determination has been in the forefront of human liberation for centuries.

Untying The Knot, Charisse Jones

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Where Our Girls At? The Misrecognition Of Black And Brown Girls In Schools, Amanda E. Lewis, Deana G. Lewis

Occasional Paper Series

Black and brown girls remain too often at the margins not only in society at large and in our schools but also in our research and writing about schools. Herein we argue for careful consideration of the specific ways that their raced and gendered identities render these girls vulnerable and put them in jeopardy so that educators and scholars do not become complicit in their marginalization. We focus on dynamics of invisibility and hypervisibility. While these dynamics may seem to be diametrically opposite, both involve the process of what scholar Nancy Fraser (2000) calls “misrecognition” (p. 113).

Under Surveillance: Interrogating Linguistic Policing In Black Girlhood, Pamela Jones

Occasional Paper Series

Abstract

The youngest of Black girls are scrutinized for their language choices and surveilled on the basis of their ability to shift out of their vernacular and into Standard English (SE). In this essay, I revisit my own Black girlhood (Brown, 2013) to interrogate how those in schooled contexts compelled me to deny the “skin that (I) speak” (Delpit, 2002, p. xvii). Using intersectionality as my theoretical frame (Collins, 2000), I arrive at new understandings about resisting multiple oppressions and consider possible interventions at the school level.

Keywords: Black girlhood, intersectionality, African-American Language (AAL), identity, code-meshing.

Perhaps A Black Girl Rolls Her Eyes Because It's One Way She Attempts To Shift Calcified Pain Throughout Her Body, Fahima Ife

Occasional Paper Series

This essay describes a unique undergraduate survey of African American literature—titled "Black Girl Magic Across Time & Space"—designed to celebrate rather than punish expressive Black girlhood and womanhood.

Not Only A Pipeline: Schools As Carceral Sites, Connie Wun

Occasional Paper Series

Conversations surrounding school discipline have largely focused on the ways that schools and their punitive policies have funneled students into the criminal justice system through the school to prison pipeline. Recently, there has been an increase in scholarship from scholars who argue that schools are not only funneling students into prisons, but that schools and prisons operate as a nexus – the two working symbiotically to discipline and punish students of color, predominantly Black male students (Meiners, 2010; Sojoyner, 2013). Drawing from these analyses, I argue that schools are characterized by multi-layered disciplinary landscapes that operate as carceral sites onto …

Introduction: Reading And Writing The T/Terror Narratives Of Black And Brown Girls And Women: Storying Lived Experiences To Inform And Advance Early Childhood Through Higher Education, Jeannine Staples, Uma M. Jayakumar

Occasional Paper Series

Staples and Jayakumar introduce this issue of the Occasional Paper Series that speaks to the #SayHerName social justice initiative. The movement aims to expose the experiences of Black and Brown girls and women who are subject to police violence in society and various violences in schools. In response to this movement, this issue includes stories of Black and Brown women from early childhood education through higher education.

From Preparation To Practice: Designing A Continuum To Strengthen And Sustain Teaching, Sharon Feiman-Nemser

Occasional Paper Series

This paper was written to stimulate discussion and debate about what a professional learning continuum from initial preparation through the early years of teaching could be like. Drawing on a broad base of literature, the author proposes a framework for thinking about a curriculum for teachers over time. The paper also considers the fit (or misfit) between conventional approaches to teacher preparation, induction, and professional development and the challenges of learning to teach in reform-minded ways and offers examples of promising programs and practices at each of these stages.

Teaching Students How To Make Their Dreams Come True: An Autoethnography Of Developing And Teaching The Dream Research Methods Course, E. James Baesler

The Qualitative Report

How to make students’ dreams come true is the central focus of this autoethnography that chronicles the story of the transformation of a traditional undergraduate communication research methods course into a new and creative dream research methods course. Pedagogical and institutional issues in teaching the traditional methods course join personal influences in my life story to birth the new dream research methods course. The content and format of the new course are described chronologically using personal stories, student perspectives, advice to teachers, and reflection questions. I encourage teachers, by experimenting with the ideas in the dream research methods course, to …

An Alumnus Learns And Serves: Vincentian Mission In Education, Brian Crimmins

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

My Dad would talk about the mission of St. John’s University—and how going to St. John’s was about more than just getting an education. It was also about a commitment to service. Funny thing was—at first, like many of my peers, I looked at St. John’s and saw an opportunity to celebrate the great tradition of college basketball while also getting an education. I didn’t realize at first that what my parents were saying and doing as I grew up—namely the importance of the Vincentian mission—would ring true in my life in such a profound and lasting manner, day in …

Charism That Lives: Translating The Message Of St. Vincent De Paul For Today’S Teacher Education, Donald Mcclure, Judith F. Mangione

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

One way that St. Vincent’s mission of compassion has expanded in modern times is through the work of Catholic Vincentian universities such as St. John’s University in Queens, New York. Consistent with Vincentian charism, the university’s mission statement proclaims, “Wherever possible, we devote our intellectual and physical resources to search out the causes of poverty and social injustice and to encourage solutions that are adaptable, effective, and concrete.” By working with and supporting preservice teachers, we can meet St. Vincent’s call to serve those in need. First, we provide a short biography of St. Vincent de Paul’s life, selecting parts …

Fire Within: The Spirituality That Sparked The Works Of St. Vincent De Paul, Robert P. Maloney

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Few saints have been as active as Vincent de Paul (1581-1660). Even if we highlight only his principal accomplishments, the list is stunning. His spirituality was the driving force that enflamed his everyday activity. For Vincent de Paul, a single focus inspired everything: the person of Jesus. “Jesus Christ is the Rule of the Mission,”5 (Vincent DePaul, n.d.,12:110) he told his followers. Jesus was to be the center of their life and activities. Vincent organized and formed others for the service of the poor. With remarkable creativity, confronting the needs at hand, he founded the Confraternities of Charity, the Congregation …

Journal Of Vincentian Social Action, November 2017, John T. Maher

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

This special edition of the Journal of Vincentian Social Action is a welcome addition to this unique, ground-breaking journal. It comes at a special time for the Congregation of the Mission, the community of priests and brothers who founded St. John’s University 147 years ago. Commonly called “Vincentians,” this religious community animates the mission of St. Vincent de Paul to benefit all members of this outstanding community of scholars, students, and staff. Vincent’s vision and mission came from a profound spiritual experience that guided his life and work; and the Vincentian charism is a living, organic reality in today’s world. …

Table Of Contents

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

No abstract provided.

Editors

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

No abstract provided.

Cover Page

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

No abstract provided.

Kids Make Sense... And They Vote: The Importance Of Child Study In Learning To Teach Responsively, Frederick Erickson

Occasional Paper Series

A lecture that discusses the "developmental-interaction" perspective and practice that has become the hallmark of Bank Street. Erickson builds upon the relations of mutual influence among students, teachers, and learning environments, and taking account of the relations between local practice within the small-scale "here and now" interactional ecosystems of immediate learning environments and the workings of culture, language, and society across more distal connections in social space and time.

A Problem Of Play For Democratic Education? Abstraction, Realism, And Exploration In Learning Games. A Response To "The Challenges Of Gaming For Democratic Education: The Case Of Icivics", Benjamin Devane

Democracy and Education

In this review article, I argue that games are complementary, not self-supporting, learning tools for democratic education because they can: (a) offer simplified, but often not simple, outlines (later called “models”) of complex social systems that generate further inquiry; (b) provide practice spaces for exploring systems that do not have the often serious consequences of taking direct and immediate social, civic, and legal action; and (c) use rules to allow players to explore this aforementioned outline or model by making decisions and seeing an outcome. To make these arguments, I perform a close reading of three examples of participatory …

Intention, Questions, And Creative Expression: An Antidiscriminatory Diversity Statement, Hannah S. Bright

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Supporting education that reflects diversity involves maintaining awareness of one’s personal positionality, creating safe and inclusive learning communities, and using creativity and choice to empower and honor student voice and individual development. When working in educational settings, teachers may involve students in selecting relevant materials, and follow their lead in creating critical dialogue about salient factors of identity.

Examining Justice In Social Studies Research, J. Spencer Clark, Steven P. Camicia

Pedagogy & (Im)Possibilities across Education Research (PIPER)

Our article is an extension of a project involving a content analysis of two social studies journals, Theory and Research in Social Education (TRSE) and The Social Studies. We performed an analysis on all articles in these journals from 2006-2016. Our findings from the analysis indicated a narrow frame of perspectives related to epistemologies and methodologies, and an increasing interest in examining a range of researcher and participant positionalities. We interpreted the range of perspectives in social studies journals in light of the possible impact upon democratic education and social justice through Sen’s (2009) framework for theorizing justice. We illustrate …

The Myth Of Entitlement: Students’ Perceptions Of The Relationship Between Grading Practices And Learning At An Elite University, Clara S. Lewis, Breanna Della Williams, Minkee Kim Sohn, Tamara L. Chin Loy

The Qualitative Report

While the existence of grade inflation in the American system of higher education is well documented, the argument that student entitlement drives this dynamic remains unproven. Drawing on an abductive analysis of twenty-nine in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted by undergraduate co-authors, this study addresses these questions: (1) How do undergraduates on one elite campus understand the meaning and function of the grades they have received in college and (2) Do these students think that grading practices impact their undergraduate learning experience, and if so, how? Our results show that entitlement is not a fixed generational attitude so much as a conditional …

Critical Collaborative Inquiries In Social Studies: Fostering Inclusion, Engagement And Literacy, Sara Lewis-Bernstein Young Ed.D.

Journal of Practitioner Research

Collaborative inquiry groups are a well-advocated tool to support comprehension and collaboration, but how do critical collaborative inquiries support students with different levels of engagement and academic performances in social studies to develop critical literacies? This article responds to the research question through case studies of two high school students who engaged in a critical collaborative inquiry project. One student was a senior labeled with disabilities, who struggled with academic literacies, graduated at the bottom of her class, and said that she hates school. The other student was a junior who thrived in school, mastered a range of academic literacies, …

"Noise Level Zero" And Other Tales From The Bronx, John Wolfe

Occasional Paper Series

Wolfe reflects on his journey of teaching in various settings, teaching him what public education should and should not be. He compares his experiences at two public schools in the Bronx with very different approaches to public education.

Steady Work, Tom Roderick

Occasional Paper Series

Roderick's remarks made on the occasion of receiving an honorary doctorate from Bank Street College of Education in 1999. He speaks about his steady work in conflict resolution programs, because there is always a need for conflict resolution in a world where conflict is natural but violence is taught.

Introduction: Steady Work And "Noise Level Zero", Frank Pignatelli

Occasional Paper Series

Pignatelli introduces two narratives by Tom Roderick and John Wolfe that test our belief in public education as a special space where American society holds fast to its promise to vanquish inequity, to assure equal opportunity, and to nurture a kinder, more just citizenry.

It Should Not Be Left To Chance: Ensuring A Good Education For All Our Children, Ellen Condliffe Lagemann

Occasional Paper Series

This essay suggests that progressive education is equivalent to good education. Condliffe Lagemann poses the question: What do we need to do to ensure that good education becomes more universally available than it is today? The answer lies in developing a new science of education, one that better integrates research, practice, and policy, and does a better job of educating the public about education.

Introduction: It Should Not Be Left To Chance, Jonathan G. Silin

Occasional Paper Series

Silin introduces an essay from the annual Barbara Biber lecture, speaking to the importance of progressive education, and the flaws regarding the standardization of learning.

Introduction: Letters From Abroad, Linda Levine

Occasional Paper Series

An introduction to a series of essays by educators who reflect on their choices to live and work in other parts of the world. They offer a provocative range of personal and professional explanations for seeking out the strange and unknown.