Education Commons^™

The Glen Project: A Transformational Ecology Model Of School-Based Universal Mental Health Development, Cheryl Bowen (Mcelvain)

Teacher Education

This 10-month mixed methods case study utilized a sample of 27 teachers, the school administrator, and 281 low-income, Latinx children and their parents living in northern California to test the hypothesis that a school-based universally designed mental health program (The Glen Project) can strengthen students’ developmental asset attainment and positively impact the school environment within the first year of program implementation. The study utilized triangulated data to ascertain the effects of two program levels, (a) mental health and (b) school support services. All services were site-based and meant to target a wide variety of students and their families. Findings from …

Mathematics Anxiety: Identity Work In A Gifted Prospective Elementary Teacher’S Mathematics-Related Personal Narratives, Kathleen Jablon Stoehr

Teacher Education

Previous studies have focused on negative physiological sensations and psychological emotions of mathematics anxiety experienced in real time. Similarly, prior research has noted that prospective elementary teachers (PSTs) may experience such feelings of distress while learning to teach mathematics in their teacher-preparation programs. Mathematics teacher educators have sought to reduce elementary PSTs’ mathematics anxiety by improving their mathematical content knowledge and discipline-specific pedagogical knowledge. But why might mathematics anxiety persist even after elementary PSTs have successfully completed such teacher-preparation coursework? Our case study of a female elementary PST, identified as gifted, illustrates how mathematics anxiety, when reinforced by personal narratives …

The Power Of Mothers And Teachers Engaging In A Mathematics Bilingual Collaboration, Kathleen Jablon Stoehr, Fany Salazar, Marta Civil

Teacher Education

Background:

Making mathematics connections between home and school can have a positive impact on students’ mathematics learning. This is particularly important for students whose experiences and perspectives are underrepresented in school curricula. Although there is evidence for how crucial it is to make connections between mathematics instruction and children’s lived experiences, doing so is often a challenging task for teachers.

Purpose:

This study examines what teachers in two different settings—a dual language school and a Structured English Immersion school—learned from engaging in a mathematics collaboration with Latina mothers. We share the teachers’ perceptions of their students’ and families’ mathematics’ strengths …

Spanish English Literacy: Critical Pedagogy, Positive Coping And Transformative Self-Identity, Sara Soledad Garcia

Teacher Education

This chapter reports on a study that focuses on a special agent of change: the classroom teacher and their bilingual skills in preparation for the challenge of teaching in Spanish and English. The new generation of practicing bilingual educators and those presently preparing to teach, have lived in a context that, although restricted by language policies for schooling, have developed coping mechanisms and maintain skills in both languages, Spanish as a native language and English as the language of schooling. A goal for this study is to support a change for a more humanistic approach for the education of linguistic …

Exploring Professional Development Models For Dei Pedagogies, Melanie Sellar

Staff publications, research, and presentations

While our institution has provided many workshops to kick-start DEI awareness, we are exploring different professional development (PD) models for the library. There are many possible ways to structure our professional learning, from reading groups, caucus or affinity groups, communities of practices, and professional learning communities. This lightning presentation reviews and analyzes different PD models for supporting information literacy instructors’ growth in DEI pedagogies and will share the path that SCU Library has chosen for our work.

Elementary Prospective Teachers’ Visions Of Moving Beyond Mathematics Anxiety, Kathleen Jablon Stoehr, Amy M. Olson

Teacher Education

Previous studies of prospective elementary mathematics teachers’ mathematics anxiety have documented that many prospective teachers often worry about managing their repeated experiences of anxiety while developing their pedagogical and content knowledge to teach mathematics. The literature further indicates the importance of developing learning opportunities for prospective teachers to confront their past experiences while they (re)learn and learn to teach mathematics during methods courses. This study is situated within one such learning opportunity and seeks to analyze potential mathematics anxiety coping strategies generated by forty-eight prospective elementary teachers enrolled in a mathematical methods course. Written responses generated by the prospective teachers …

Educational Progress‐Time And The Proliferation Of Dual Enrollment, Brice Nordquist, Amy J. Lueck

English

In this commentary, we use the occasion of the proliferation of dual enrollment to examine the discursive construction of difference between high school and college literacies, and its effects on teachers and students. This discursive divide has real, material consequences. It informs (and constrains) literacy practices and pedagogies, becomes a barrier to access (particularly when operationalized in testing procedures), contributes to dropout and attrition, exacerbates unequal power and resources in communities, and justifies hierarchical relations between high school and college faculty and staff. By deconstructing the definitions of high school and college and the metaphors of containment they rely on, …

Addressing Exclusion In Organizations: Social Desire Paths And Undocumented Students Attending College, Laura Nichols

Sociology

With data from a national study of a network of 28 private, non-profit colleges in the United States, I show how the individual actions of high school and college staff became collective “social desire paths” to introduce new organizational practices to enroll students who were undocumented. In interviews with staff, four factors emerged as important in enrolling students: (1) the way social desire paths started as ad hoc processes and then were entrenched through the collective and similar responses of staff; (2) identification of financial, administrative, structural, and cultural barriers to inclusion that formed the basis for the development of …

A Review Of Spiritual Development And Transformation Among College Students From Jesuit Higher Education, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The college experience can be a critically important and enriching time for personal as well as academic growth and development. For many students, college is their first foray into a more independent world and lifestyle no longer under the careful, and sometimes critical, eyes of their parents, families, and schoolteachers. When students go far away from home to attend college, they need to find ways to live independently, manage their many needs, and attend to the rigors of academic life in higher education. Additionally, the college years offer a unique and important period for spiritual growth, development, and transformation. The …

Grappling With ‘Bigger Questions’ Of Teaching: Engaging In Critical Reflection Through Participation In Cogenerative Dialogues, John L. Beltramo

Teacher Education

This investigation explores the critical reflection of two urban high school science teachers as they participate in cogenerative dialogues--weekly discussions with focus groups of students that are held outside of instructional hours and that center on identifying and addressing problem areas of classroom teaching and learning. The study finds that, over their semester-long participation in the dialogues, the teachers often grappled with what they termed the "big questions" of teaching--tensions centering on the extent of scaffolding versus the demands of rigor, district-mandated curriculum versus student-centered inquiry, and the competing purposes of collaborative student work. Addressing such tensions within cogenerative dialogues …

Exploring The Changing Teaching Practices And Needs Of Business Faculty At Santa Clara University, Nicole Branch, Anthony Raymond, Melanie Sellar

Staff publications, research, and presentations

This report will present the findings and recommendations of a study designed to explore Santa Clara University (SCU) business faculty’s current and emerging undergraduate teaching practices. The study was led locally by researchers in the SCU Library, with parallel studies conducted at fourteen other institutions of higher education in the United States during the 2018-19 academic year. These studies were coordinated at the national level by Ithaka S&R, a not-for-profit research and consulting service that helps academic and cultural communities serve the public good and navigate economic, technological, and demographic change. Ithaka will publish a capstone report of major themes …

Conversations Between Preservice Teachers And Latina Mothers: An Avenue To Transformative Mathematics Teaching, Kathleen Jablon Stoehr, Marta Civil

Teacher Education

Mathematics education researchers agree that students’ mathematical learning can be positively impacted by making connections to their out of school experiences through a funds of knowledge lens. This is especially important for diverse students whose experiences are often underrepresented in school curricula. Making these connections can be challenging for teachers whose experiences often differ from their students. We examine how conversations between preservice teachers and Latina mothers influenced the teachers’ creation of a mathematics lesson that connected to students’ out of school experiences. Findings suggest the importance of offering preservice teachers opportunities to learn from parents about their children’s out …

Beginning At The End: Reimagining The Dissertation Committee, Reimagining Careers, Amy J. Lueck, Beth Boehm

English

In this article, we forward a perspective on interdisciplinarity and diversity that reconsiders the notion of expertise in order to unstick discussions of graduate education reform that have been at an impasse for some fortyfive years. As research problems have become increasingly complex so has demand for scholars who specialize narrowly within a discipline and who understand the importance of contributions from other disciplines. In light of this, we reimagine the dissertation committee as a group of diverse participants from within and beyond the academy who contribute their knowledge and skills to train the next generation of scholars and researchers …

“I Don’T Get It. I Need Help”: Emergent Bilinguals Seeking And Receiving Help From Peers In Language Arts, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica

Teacher Education

This study examines how emergent bilinguals seek help in language arts and how peers respond to their requests for help. Using 6 months of naturally occurring student talk in a U.S. fourth grade classroom, this article shows that (a) emergent bilinguals more frequently use general requests than specific requests to obtain help, (b) only 41% of emergent bilingual requests for help succeeded in eliciting helpful peer responses, and (c) there is no significant difference between specific and general requests for help and help received. Findings suggest the need for policies and practices that foster the educational environments necessary for peer …

‘You Guys Are Bilingual Aren’T You?’ Latinx Educational Leadership Pathways In The New Latinx Diaspora, Katherine Rodela, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Alison Cochrun

Teacher Education

Existing research suggests that Latinx educational leaders in the U.S. positively impact Latinx student outcomes and home–school relationships. Yet, much of this research has been conducted in traditional U.S. Latinx immigrant destinations. We know little about the Latinx leadership experiences in regions where Latinx communities are smaller, yet growing quickly such as the New Latinx Diaspora. Using Latina/o Critical Race Theory, this study analyzed in-depth interviews with five Latinx administrators in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Participants’ counter-stories revealed three key findings: their bilingualism was an asset and liability in their early careers, they demonstrated deep persistence in the face of …

From Numbers To Narratives: Preservice Teachers Experiences’ With Mathematics Anxiety And Mathematics Teaching Anxiety, Amy M. Olson, Kathleen Jablon Stoehr

Teacher Education

This paper presents qualitative and quantitative approaches to exploring teachers’ experiences of mathematics anxiety (for learning and doing mathematics) and mathematics teaching anxiety (for instructing others in mathematics), the relationship between these types of anxiety and test/evaluation anxiety, and the impacts of anxiety on experiences in teacher education. Findings indicate that mathematics anxiety and mathematics teaching anxiety may be similar (i.e., that preservice teachers perceive a logical continuity and cumulative effect of their experiences of mathematics anxiety as learners in K–12 classrooms that impacts their work as teachers in future K–12 classrooms). Further, anxiety is not limited to occurring in …

A Study Of Early Career Teachers’ Understandings Andpractices Related To Language During Mathematics Instruction, Erin E. Turner, Amy Roth Mcduffie, Amanda T. Sugimoto, Julia Aguirre, Tonya Gau Bartell, Corey Drake, Mary Foote, Kathleen Jablon Stoehr, Angela Witters

Teacher Education

The role of language in mathematics teaching and learning is increasingly highlighted by standards and reform movements in the US. However, little is known about teachers’, and especially early career teachers’ (ECTs) practices and understandings related to language in mathematics instruction. This multiple case study explored the language-related understandings and practices of six ECTs in diverse elementary classrooms. Using iterative cycles of analysis, we found that all ECTs regularly attended to students’ mathematical vocabulary use and development. Yet, there was variability in ECTs’ focus on how to teach mathematical vocabulary, expectations for students’ precise use of mathematical terminology, and the …

Frameworks For Collaboration: Articulating Information Literacy, And Rhetoric And Writing Goals In The Archives, Amy J. Lueck, Nadia Nasr

Staff publications, research, and presentations

Rhetoric and composition scholars have recently called our attention to the value of archival research in the undergraduate classroom, leading to rich collaborations with archivists and librarians at many institutions. As we engaged our own pedagogical collaboration as a university archivist and English faculty member, we realized that, though we might use slightly different language to articulate them or cite different sources in support of them, many of our learning goals overlapped. As we explored these goals together, we realized that they evidenced a correspondence in our disciplines that we had not explored—one that is reflected in our fields’ recent …

Experiencing Poverty In An Online Simulation: Effects On Players’ Beliefs, Attitudes And Behaviors About Poverty, Pedro Hernandez-Ramos, Christine M. Bachen, Chad Raphael, John Ifcher, Michael Broghammer

Teacher Education

Digital simulations are increasingly used to educate about the causes and effects of poverty, and inspire action to alleviate it. Drawing on research about attributions of poverty, subjective well-being, and relative income, this experimental study assesses the effects of an online poverty simulation (entitled Spent) on participants’ beliefs, attitudes, and actions. Results show that, compared with a control group, Spent players donated marginally more money to a charity serving the poor and expressed higher support for policies benefitting the poor, but were less likely to take immediate political action by signing an online petition to support a higher minimum wage. …

Final Report On The Sanger-Firebaugh Long-Term English Learner Project, Karen Thompson, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica

Teacher Education

The Long-Term English Learner Project is a partnership between Sanger and Firebaugh-Las Deltas Unified School Districts that aims to create large-scale systems change to improve outcomes for middle and high school Long-Term English Learners (LTELs). Karen Thompson and Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica have completed the third and final year of a three-year external documentation funded by the Central Valley Foundation (CVF). The LTEL Project began in 2014- 15 and was originally planned to last three years. CVF approved a one-year extension for the Project and external documentation, lasting through 2017-18.

The Long-Term English Learner Project builds on the previous District Partnership Project …

Instructional Supports: Facilitating Or Constraining Emergent Bilinguals’ Production Of Oral Explanations?, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica

Teacher Education

This qualitative study examined how specific instructional supports intended to scaffold emergent bilinguals’ oral production of explanations facilitated or constrained students’ attempts to explain. Findings demonstrate that explanations were very rarely produced, and when they were produced, the explanations were not particularly informative. Furthermore, the teachers’ attempts to support emergent bilingual talk via sentence starters, guiding questions, and rephrasing questions inadvertently undermined the students’ attempts to explain.

“Higher” School: Nineteenth-Century High Schools And The Secondary-College Divide, Amy J. Lueck

English

This article traces the emergence of nineteenth-century U.S. high schools in the landscape of higher education, attending to the gendered, raced, and classed distinctions at play in this development. Exploring differences in the conceptualization and status of high schools in Louisville, Kentucky, for white male, white female, and mixed-gender African American students, this article reminds us of how these institutional types have been situated, socially inflected, and structured in relation to broader political and power structures that transcend explicit pedagogical considerations. As a result, I argue for the recognition of high schools as historically significant sites in the history of …

Undocumented: The Stress Of Status, Terry-Ann Jones, Laura Nichols

Sociology

From 2010 to 2012 researchers from Fairfield University, Loyola University Chicago, and Santa Clara University talked to students who were undocumented and attending Jesuit colleges. The project culminated in a book, Undocumented and in College: Students and Institutions in a Climate of National Hostility (Fordham University Press, 2017).

Advancing A Transactional Ecology Model Of School-Based Positive Youth Development Programs For Children, Cheryl Bowen (Mcelvain)

Teacher Education

Knowing that children thrive in a multi-systems approach to mental health development, a growing number of schools often promote their vision through mission statements that include school-based youth development programs claiming to improve social and academic outcomes for all students (Greenberg et al., 2003). However, there is scant empirical evidence investigating effective school-based “wraparound” mental health services for low income, Latino children and their families (Cabrera, 2013; Gándara, 2017). This quasi-experimental, mixed methods case study utilizes a sample of 415 low-income children and their parents living in northern California to test the hypothesis that school-based youth development programs can potentially …

Developing Mutual Accountability Between Teachers And Students Through Participation In Cogenerative Dialogues, John L. Beltramo

Teacher Education

In this study, I explore cogenerative dialogues as potentially supportive spaces for the development of mutual accountability and reciprocal learning between teachers and students, even within contexts dominated by high-stakes accountability and its associated challenges. In cogenerative dialogues, teachers gather with small groups of their students outside of instructional time to discuss classroom teaching and environment and to construct plans by which to improve student learning and wellbeing. Through a design-based case study, I worked with two science teachers, Lorena and Ellen, from urban high schools to establish and enact weekly cogenerative dialogues with their students over a period of …

Sentence Stems That Support Reading Comprehension, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Allison Briceño

Teacher Education

Sentence stems are widely used by teachers, but what do we know about developing sentence stems and using them effectively? Sentence stems are intended to facilitate students’ participation in academic conversations and writing and support students to develop the language expected in school, but sometimes the stems do not provide the support intended. The authors explain how to develop supportive sentence stems.

From English Learner To Spanish Learner: Raciolinguistic Beliefs That Influence Heritage Spanish Speaking Teacher Candidates, Allison Briceño, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica, Eduardo Muñoz-Muñoz

Teacher Education

This qualitative study explored Spanish-speaking teacher credential students’ beliefs about academic language that might promote or inhibit their decision to become bilingual teachers. Data includes interviews with 11 bilingual teacher candidates who were heritage Spanish speakers. Findings show that most were only aware of English-only educational contexts and did not know that bilingual teaching and the bilingual authorization pathway were options. Their schooling experience fostered English hegemony; even their Spanish classes were pervaded by linguistic purism and elitism. Schools taught them that their registers of Spanish, which they learned at home, were insufficient, inappropriate or incorrect. Consequently, they questioned their …

From Test Scores To Language Use: Emergent Bilinguals Using English To Accomplish Academic Tasks, Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica

Teacher Education

Prominent discourses about emergent bilinguals’ academic abilities tend to focus on performance as measured by test scores and perpetuate the message that emergent bilinguals trail far behind their peers. When we remove the constraints of formal testing situations, what can emergent bilinguals do in English as they engage in naturally occurring classroom interactions about content? Using six months of naturally occurring emergent bilingual talk, this article shows that (1) emergent bilinguals produced a wide range of academic speech acts in English while engaged in English language arts tasks, (2) these speech acts were aligned with state academic expectations, and (3) …

High School Girls”: Women’S Higher Education At The Louisville Female High School, Amy J. Lueck

English

Nineteenth-century women gained access to significant higher education opportunities under the auspices of the urban, public high school (as well as at seminaries, academies, normal schools, and other variously named institutions) even when they did not matriculate into colleges proper. Women made great strides in all forms of higher education in the last half of the nineteenth century, but particularly in high schools and academies; while remaining underrepresented in colleges until 1978, women constituted a majority of graduates from high schools as early as 1870. This trend held true both nationally and in the local context of Louisville, where women …

A Survey Of Ethics Training In Undergraduate Psychology Programs At Jesuit Universities, Thomas G. Plante, Selena Pistoresi

Psychology

Training in ethics is fundamental in higher education among both faith-based and secular colleges and universities, regardless of one’s academic major or field of study. Catholic colleges and universities have included moral philosophy, theology, and applied ethics in their undergraduate curricula for generations. The purpose of this investigation was to determine what, if anything, Jesuit college psychology departments are doing to educate psychology majors regarding ethical issues. A survey method was used to assess the psychology departments of all 28 Jesuits colleges and universities in the United States. A total of 21 of the 28 schools responded and completed the …