Education Commons^™

Unshackling Our Youth Through Love And Mutual Recognition: Notes From An Undergraduate Class On School Discipline Inspired By Ta-Nehisi Coates And Bell Hooks, Gene Fellner, Mark Comesañas, Tahjuan Ferrell

Publications and Research

This research essay challenges educators to embrace mutual recognition when interacting with students. Our data are the words of the young people who participated with us in one particular undergraduate class on school discipline at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, in the United States in the fall of 2022. Tahjuan, who had been our student in the 7th grade in 2011, co-taught the class with us. In writing this essay and in teaching the class, we were inspired by a short passage fromTa-Nehisi Coates about the shackling young people of color endure and another, by bell hooks, that proposes …

Neoliberal Hegemonic Masculinity And Mcmindfulness: The Need For Buddhist Values And Principles In Mindful Masculinity Programs, David Forbes

Publications and Research

This paper explores how certain Buddhist-inspired principles such as impermanence of self and compassion for all (metta) and the practice of mindfulness can contribute to challenging ways in which young men adopt troublesome aspects of systemic patriarchy. It (1) briefly examines the problem of systemic patriarchy in its most dominant forms, neoliberal hegemonic masculinity and right-wing racist authoritarian masculinity; (2) critically discusses examples of mindfulness education and counseling programs for young men that have been severed from their Buddhist origins (McMindfulness) that attempt to challenge young men around patriarchal beliefs and thoughts but end up reproducing neoliberal hegemonic masculinity; (3) …

Do Students’ Questions During Chemistry Lectures Predict Perceived Comprehension And Exam Performance?, Bradley W. Bergey, Jennifer G. Cromley, Avi Kaplan, James D. Bloxton Ii

Publications and Research

Question generation is theorized to support comprehension, self-regulation, and achievement, yet the empirical based for whether and how student-generated questions are associated with comprehension monitoring and whether they predict future performance remain open questions. To address these, we investigated the questions undergraduate students in an introductory chemistry course recorded in question logs across an 8-lecture unit and their relations with post-lecture self-appraisals of comprehension and exam performance. Results indicated that students who generated more questions during lectures, who were able to resolve fewer of their questions, and who generated questions indicating large exam-relevant knowledge gaps reported lower levels of comprehension …

Safety And Belonging In Immigrant-Serving Districts: Domains Of Educator Practice In A Charged Political Landscape, Rebecca Lowenhaupt, Dafney Blanca Dabach, Ariana Mangual Figueroa

Publications and Research

Drawing from a context of reception framework, this article asks the following questions: How do educators describe issues of safety and belonging in the context of a charged immigration policy climate? What practices have educators developed to support immigrant-origin youth? And, what are the relationships between educators’ perceptions of safety and belonging and educator practices? We analyze educators’ survey responses administered across six school districts in different contexts across the United States, including the Northeast, Midwest, South, and West. We synthesize four domains of educator practice: signaling affirmation, building shared knowledge and capacity, finding and mobilizing resources, and creating space …

Relationships Between Sports, Physical Activity Participation, And Phys-Ed Gpa: Results And Analyses From A National Sample Of Asian American Students, Howard Z. Zeng, Raymond E. Weston, Juan Battle

Publications and Research

Relationships among sports, physical activity (PA) participation, and educational outcomes have been studied in various venues, however, used a longitudinal method with a national sample of Asian-American High-School Students (AAHSS) was barely covered. This study employed the latest National High-School Longitudinal Study data (Participants, N = 950); hierarchical regression modeling and intersectionality theory examined, analyzed, and evaluated the relationships among sports, PA participation, and the outcomes on the physical education grade point average (Phys-Ed GPA). Moreover, the demographics factors impact on the participants' Phys-Ed GPA was also analyzed and evaluated. The primary results included: 1) the female students who participate …

Covid-19 And Racial Justice In Urban Education: Nyc Parents Speak Out, Kelly Brady, Mieasia Edwards, Whitney Hollins, José Luis Jiménez, Wendy Luttrell, William Orellana, David Rosas, Nga Than

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic and global calls for racial justice surfaced tremendous inequities and revitalized the debate about schooling and its purpose. NYC Parents Speak Out is a public engagement project, based on an interactive survey and interviews that records and reflects NYC family educational experiences during the unprecedented school year of 2020-2021. Our research collective, comprised of researchers, parents, advocates, teachers, and school leaders from the Urban Education Ph.D. Program at The Graduate Center (CUNY) identified three key recommendations based on research findings: to improve communication through family and community engagement; give greater attention to social-emotional and mental health; and …

Interdisciplinary Thinking: Financial Literacy Crosses Disciplinary Boundaries, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

Financial literacy is ideally suited to be integrated into mathematics courses and taught in an interdisciplinary manner. Students learn best and are motivated when tackling real-world meaningful questions. This article shares how elementary mathematics was applied to better understand the debate about raising the minimum wage and the United States National Debt. To serve as a guide for other teachers who wish to incorporate financial literacy into their mathematics courses and take an interdisciplinary approach, this article suggests readings, data sets, and pedagogical practices. Students were engaged and enthusiastic to work on problems that challenged their thinking about financial issues.

An Investigation Of How Environmental Science Textbooks Link Human Environmental Impact To Ecology And Daily Life, Yael Wyner, Rob Desalle

Publications and Research

Making direct connections between humanity and the environment is of ever-increasing importance in the context of today’s environmental crisis. We used qualitative content analysis of precollege- and college-level introductory environmental science textbook case studies to study how they portray humanity’s link to the environment. We assessed case studies for how specific and data rich they are and for how they link together daily life, human impact, and ecological interactions. We found that, for many textbooks, case study stories were vaguely drawn and included few data. We also found that, for all textbooks, case studies almost always described human impacts without …

National Summer Transportation Institute: Increasing Career Awareness In Civil Engineering For Underserved High School Students, Melanie L. Villatoro, Janet Liou-Mark

Publications and Research

Our nation needs to increase the number of students pursuing degrees in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and those leading to transportation-related careers. In order to meet the demand for qualified graduates in transportation, it is necessary to diversify the pool of students entering college with an interest in these fields. The National Summer Transportation Institute (NSTI) is an educational initiative developed by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and Department of Transportation (DOT). The NSTI at City Tech was designed to increase awareness of transportation-related careers among New York City high school students. The structure of …

Exploring Innovative Ways To Incorporate The Association Of College And Research Libraries Framework In Graduate Science Teacher Education Eportfolio Projects, Alison Lehner-Quam, Wesley Pitts

Publications and Research

This article investigates ways in which student voice informed design research into information literacy instruction in a year-long graduate science education ePortfolio culminating project. Library and science education faculty partnered in a two-year project to create communities of secondary science education students, in two cohorts, who used the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education to support their own research and reflections into information literacy. The overarching goal was to improve the course design to help science teachers develop their professional competencies in information literacy to conduct research to support their practice. Examination of students’ responses to research experiences …

And Still They Rise: Lessons From Students In New York City's Alternative Transfer High Schools, Mica Baum-Tuccillo, Varnica Arora, Alison Holstein, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

And Still They Rise is the first systematic analysis of alternative transfer schools in New York City – alternative educational spaces that keep their doors open to a range of students who seek an education despite past academic struggles. The report blends a qualitative and quantitative review of 842 students’ responses to a participatory survey that asked about goals, desires, obstacles, and what they found at transfer schools. In this report we present the stories and the statistics across schools, elevating silenced stories that lay behind the misnomer “at risk." We review data that shows how deeply students appreciate their …

Engaging The Framework For Information Literacy For Higher Education As A Lens For Assessment In Eportfolio Social Pedagogy Ecosystem For Science Teacher Education, Wesley Pitts, Alison Lehner-Quam

Publications and Research

This article highlights a case study that assesses how graduate-level, in-service science teachers engage in an ePortfolio social pedagogy ecosystem to document their growth in knowledge practices and dispositions in information literacy. The ePortfolio social pedagogy ecosystem and this study are situated within the context of the Catalyst Framework. The three modes of interrelated social learning activities include: (1) authoring the written ePortfolio in an online ePortfolio digital media platform, (2) presenting the ePortfolio in the webinar platform, and (3) presenting the ePortfolio in- person in a physical setting. We used case study methodology to systematically investigate how each participant …

The Demon Of Hope: Race, Disability And The White Researcher’S Complicity With Injustice, Gene Fellner

Publications and Research

My ethical stance demands that my research mutually benefit all research

participants and that it should serve to reverse systemic policies of anti-blackness that

permeate the educational system in the United States. Through publications and similar

academic activities, however, my research advances my own career, but it is doubtful

that it significantly advances the trajectories of the students with whom I work. Indeed, it

could be argued that this imbalance in benefits advances the very system of white

dominance that I claim to contest. In this arts-based, auto-ethnographic study, I

document how, through the creation of pastel drawings and digital …

You Get Tenure, What Do I Get?: Using Art To Interrogate A Researcher’S Dilemma, Gene Fellner

Publications and Research

White researcher-advocates whose explorations are situated in schools serving

predominantly African American students hope that their research will improve the

academic possibilities for those students and reverse systemic injustice. While racial

oppression continues as a central thread in the fabric of American educational institutions,

white scholars continue to benefit from their research. Through arts-based

methods, I explore this issue as it relates to my own research identity and question

whether, despite my goals, I am complicit with hegemonic practices that oppress

communities of colour within educational contexts.

Poor Queer Studies: Class, Race, And The Field, Matt Brim

Publications and Research

This study asks, What are the material conditions under which queer studies is done in the academy? It finds a longstanding association of queer studies with the well-resourced, selective colleges and flagship campuses that are the drivers of class and race stratification in higher education in the U.S. That is, the field of queer studies, as a recognizable academic formation, has been structured by the material and intellectual resources of precisely those institutions that most steadfastly refuse to adequately serve poor and minority students, including poor and minority queer students. In response, “poor queer studies” calls for a critical reorientation …

Textual Revolution: Reading And Writing About Terrorism And Counter-Terrorism In High School Humanities Classes, Jacqueline Darvin

Publications and Research

This article provides a rationale for why high school humanities classes need to discuss the sensitive topics surrounding terrorism and counter-terrorism. It provides lesson plan ideas on the topics of lone wolf killings, domestic terrorism, the language of terror, related current events and larger social issues, and counter-terrorism. These lessons have the potential to reimagine secondary English and Social Studies classrooms to further focus on human development, relationships, and social justice

Libraries And College Readiness: The Bronx Community College Library High School Collaborative, Carl R. Andrews, Dickens Saint Hilaire

Publications and Research

In today’s information-rich global economy, City University of New York (CUNY) graduates need strong critical thinking skills. Over three quarters of the students who enroll across CUNY’s 24 campuses are drawn from schools in the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) (Strang, 2014). The NYCDOE, the largest public school system in the United States, serving over 1 million students (Strang, 2014). Unfortunately, many of the students who matriculate to CUNY’s college and universities are underprepared for college-level work. This is especially the case with students who attend high schools throughout the Bronx, one of New York City’s five boroughs. …

Managing Race And Race-Ing Management: Teachers’ Stories Of Race And Classroom Conflict, Sherry L. Deckman

Publications and Research

Little is known about how novice teachers construct and interpret classroom management moments—instances when they perceive their ability to maintain order and promote sanctioned behavior is tested—in a way that contributes to or challenges racial bias. Using data from a hybrid, online/in-person professional development course for beginning teachers, I find two patterns of connecting race and classroom management. Teachers in this study tended to share stories either about “managing race”—narratives about deescalating racial tension or reproaching transgressors of racial colorblindness—or “race-ing management”—stories that read race into incidents in such a way as to reveal latent racial dynamics. Further, these patterns …

From Deficit To Diversity: How Teachers Of Recently-Arrived Emergent Bilinguals Negotiate Ideological And Pedagogical Change, Laura Ascenzi-Moreno

Publications and Research

Although the number and diversity of emergent bilingual students is rising, this population is viewed as homogeneous rather than vibrant and eclectic. This case study explores how two secondary English as a New Language (ENL) teachers uncover the diversity of their recently-arrived emergent bilingual population through implementing translanguaging pedagogy, a strength-based vision of student language development. The findings indicate that teachers’ shifts in how they conceive of their students are intertwined with meaningful pedagogical changes.

What’S Brewing? A Statistics Education Discovery Project, Marla A. Sole, Sharon L. Weinberg

Publications and Research

We believe that students learn best, are actively engaged, and are genuinely interested when working on real-world problems. This can be done by giving students the opportunity to work collaboratively on projects that investigate authentic, familiar problems. This article shares one such project that was used in an introductory statistics course. We describe the steps taken to investigate why customers are charged more for iced coffee than hot coffee, which included collecting data and using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Interspersed throughout the article, we describe strategies that can help teachers implement the project and scaffold material to assist students …

Multiple Problem-Solving Strategies Provide Insight Into Students’ Understanding Of Open-Ended Linear Programming Problems, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

Open-ended questions that can be solved using different strategies help students learn and integrate content, and provide teachers with greater insights into students’ unique capabilities and levels of understanding. This article provides a problem that was modified to allow for multiple approaches. Students tended to employ high-powered, complex, familiar solution strategies rather than simpler, more intuitive strategies, which suggests that students might need more experience working with informal solution methods. During the semester, by incorporating open-ended questions, I gained valuable feedback, was able to better model real-world problems, challenge students with different abilities, and strengthen students’ problem solving skills.

In Search Of A Grand Narrative: The Turbulent History Of Teaching, Judith R. Kafka

Publications and Research

For this review of research on the history of teaching, I use the instructional triangle as an organizing tool and frame of analysis to explore what we know about who taught, who was taught, and what was taught across space and time.

In the first section of this chapter I review historical research on who taught in American classrooms. One overwhelming theme throughout this literature is that policy makers, school leaders, and the general public have historically cared a great deal about who a teacher was, often basing their preferences on the belief that a teacher’s social characteristics would shape …

Opening Up The Dialogue Across Disciplines: Making Room For Inquiry And Creativity From Pre-Kindergarten Through University, Amanda Nicole Gulla, Limor Pinhasi-Vittorio, Alison Lehner-Quam

Publications and Research

Professional development with teachers, whether they are in pre-K-12 schools or in higher education, creates opportunities for discussions among teachers and teacher educators about how to find spaces for creativity and the imagination within the struc- ture of the Common Core State Standards, a set of national standards adopted on a state- by-state basis in the U.S. Two education faculty members and an education librarian from a large city university held workshops, bringing together university faculty in arts and humanities, science, mathematics and education, and pre-K-12 teachers to explore the potential for inquiry and creativity in the Common Core State …

K-12 Moocs Must Address Equity, Norman Eng

Publications and Research

Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, the new wave of distance education offered by elite institutions like Harvard and MIT, are moving into high schools, and—contrary to what many think—that could be a problem.

A Primer For Mathematical Modeling, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

With the implementation of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommendations and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, modeling has moved to the forefront of K-12 education. Modeling activities not only reinforce purposeful problem-solving skills, they also connect the mathematics students learn in school with the mathematics they will use outside of school. Instructors have found mathematical modeling difficult to teach. To successfully incorporate modeling activities I believe that curricular changes should be accompanied by professional development for curriculum developers, classroom teachers, and higher education professionals. This article serves as an introduction to modeling by …

The Mathematics Portfolio: An Alternative Tool To Evaluate Students’ Progress, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

This article describes the need for more thorough and varied forms of assessment to evaluate students’ level of understanding in mathematics. Portfolios are one type of assessment tool that, when added to a teacher’s repertoire can improve students’ comprehension and retention and enable students to monitor their own progress and to take more responsibility for their own learning. Portfolio assignments can also help students and teachers to detect and remedy weaknesses and misunderstandings and can increase students’ self-confidence in mathematics. This article discusses what a portfolio is, gives an example of a unit portfolio used in an undergraduate Finite Mathematics …

Critical Bifocality And Circuits Of Privilege: Expanding Critical Ethnographic Theory And Design, Lois Weis, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

Almost 10 years ago, in Working Method (2004), we argued for a critical theory of method for educational studies, which would analyze lives in the context of history, structure, and institutions, across the power lines of privilege and marginalization.

Teacher Collaboration: Implications For New Mathematics Teachers, Laura M. Gellert, Lidia Gonzalez

Publications and Research

One increasingly popular way of supporting new teachers is through the use of mentoring. New teachers are often paired with mentors as one of a number of supports meant to aid new teachers as they begin their career. The various types of mentoring range from school based mentors assigned by the school to specialty mentors, such as math coaches. Examples of other types of supports that are thought of as separate from formal mentoring are lesson studies, professional development schools, professional development workshops supported by local universities, teacher networks and sponsored professional development. Given the popularity of policies promoting support …

Teaching Mathematics For Social Justice: Reflections On A Community Of Practice For Urban High School Mathematics Teacher, Lidia Gonzalez

Publications and Research

In this article, the author reports on a study that explored, in part, the developing identities of seven New York City public high school mathematics teachers as teachers of mathematics and agents of change. Meeting regularly as a community of practice, the teachers and author/researcher discussed issues of teaching mathematics for social justice; explored activities and lessons around social justice; and created a unit of study that attempted to meet high school level mathematics standards, while addressing a social justice issue affecting the lives of urban students. The author reports on the mathematics teachers, growing awareness of and concerns about …

¡Oye!: Língua E Negócio Entre O Brasil E A Espanha, Laura Villa, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

Neste estudo sobre a promoção internacional do espanhol, centramos a análise no acordo ¡Oye! Espanhol para professores, assinado em setembro de 2006 entre o Banco Santander espanhol e a Secretaria de Educação do Estado de São Paulo, cuja finalidade era a formação de 45.000 professores de espanhol para atuarem no ensino médio brasileiro. O acordo, que envolveu também o Instituto Cervantes espanhol, recebeu uma forte oposição por parte da comunidade educacional, que se mobilizou para sustar sua implementação. Neste trabalho, apresentamos e analisamos diferentes ações e discursos face ao acordo por parte dos agentes envolvidos no debate, ao mesmo …