Education Commons^™

Teaching For Social Justice In Middle Grades Mathematics: Lessons From A Field Instructor/Preservice Teacher Partnership, Kelsey L. Benson, Ashley Conlon

Middle Grades Review

This paper discusses the implementation of social justice lessons in middle grades mathematics by a preservice teacher enrolled in a social justice-oriented teacher education program during her practicum placements in 7^th and 8^th grade classrooms in a rural county in the southeastern United States. We begin with an overview of relevant literature on the importance of teaching for social justice in mathematics, particularly with/for young adolescents. Next we describe the social justice Math lessons Ashley designed and taught. We conclude with implications for both teachers and teacher education programs undertaking justice-oriented work in divisive and hostile political contexts.

Integrating School Makerspaces Into The English Language Arts Curriculum, Lou Lahana

Middle Grades Review

School Makerspaces have shown great potential to foster powerful learning outcomes for students, including the enhancement of creative problem-solving abilities, the nurturing of “soft skills” such as grit and leadership, as well as deep STEAM knowledge development. Within the school context, however, little attention has been given to how Makerspaces can promote social activism. Students hold passionate views on issues, such as homelessness, e-cigarette smoking, domestic violence, plastic pollution, and street harassment. How can Makerspaces provide an environment that promotes personal learning and self-expression so that these passions take form as social activism?

This practitioner perspective details the implementation of …

Student Agency Through Negotiated Practice, Meg O’Donnell

Middle Grades Review

Using the James Beane’s democratic approach, this article describes how a middle grades team support students to choose topics within broad themes and learning pathways that suit their interests, skills, and needs as individuals. Using a series of instructional structures, the facilitators encourage students to engage in research, thoughtful discussions, courageous conversations, and carefully constructed writing processes, while also emphasizing curiosity, critical thinking, relationship development, and social activism. Within a standards-based learning environment the author walks the reader through a process which allows students to generate questions they want to investigate. Once students have generated their common questions, they review …

Using A Social Justice Lens To Connect The Past With The Present In A Personalized Learning Environment, Kyle Chadburn, Andrea Gratton

Middle Grades Review

This practitioner perspective describes how middle grades units are developed and revised in response to student needs to engage students in social justice work while maintaining a safe and respectful classroom culture. In order for students to understand the world around them, they need to develop context by studying the past. There is no better way to enable students to do this in a personalized learning environment than to explore both the past and present through the lens of social justice. Broad, thematic units, such as “Revolution,” “Race in America,” or “Societal Monsters” allow teachers to ensure that students are …

Channeling John Dewey: What Would Vermont's Philosopher Of Democracy Have To Say About Personalized Learning?, Kathleen R. Kesson Dr.

Middle Grades Review

In John Dewey’s educational framework, the process and product are inseparable; achieving democratic ends cannot result from undemocratic means. For him, the full humanization of people depended not upon externally imposed curriculum and management systems, but rather on responding to the intrinsic needs, interests, and powers of the individual to be educated. The trend in many states on personalized learning, flexible pathways, and proficiency-based assessment, provides a foundation for transforming the conventional system of education, with its standardization, testing, and grading towards Dewey’s vision of a more socially just, inclusive, and (small d) democratic system.

So, what might Dewey have …

Personalized Learning For Social Justice: From Theory To Practice, James F. Nagle, Penny Bishop

Middle Grades Review

No abstract provided.

Fostering Brave Spaces For Discussions About Race, Grace I. Gilmour

Middle Grades Review

The persistence of the ideology of white supremacy requires a deep understanding of race and racism in order to dismantle inequitable systems in the United States. White students in particular do not have the knowledge or tools to understand our racialized society. Education is a powerful means to either interrupt or perpetuate systems of oppression. Not only is it the responsibility of schools to interrupt, but young adolescents are developmentally ready to engage in nuanced and potentially difficult conversations about social identity and justice. Teachers need to work with their students to thoughtfully build brave classroom communities to sustain these …

Neutrality And Narratives: Situating Middle Grades Preservice Teachers In Broader Educational Discourses, Rachel Ranschaert

Middle Grades Review

This paper forwards discourse analysis as a productive way to consider the ways in which the possibilities available for middle grades preservice teachers in justice-oriented teacher education programs are complicated by larger discourses relating to teacher neutrality and teacher education as a transformational narrative. To illustrate this, written journals from twelve preservice teachers in a justice-oriented teacher education program are analyzed and discussed.

Get In The Cypher And In The Groove, A Call To Action, What’S The Move, Apida For Black Power, Community Organizing, The Future Is Ours, Kirsty Nicole Bocado

The Vermont Connection

Through activism, community organizing, and investigation, I learn the Philippines' true hxstory, disrupting anti-Blackness brought into the country from colonization and researching Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) and Black unity. In college, I was in a freestyle street dancing crew and while immersed in Hip-Hop culture, I taught the elements of Hip-Hop, honoring OGs and pioneers and raising awareness about cultural appropriation. Hip-Hop culture is Black culture and roots of many cultures are from Black people. In high school, I was a musician of four instruments, playing and practizing Jazz music in Jazz band. The Jazz genre and many …

Fighting Back Against Anti-Asian Xenophobia: Addressing Global Issues In A Distance Learning Classroom, Dara Nix-Stevenson, Laura Shelton, Jennifer Smith

Middle Grades Review

This practitioner essay will outline a project designed by a team of three critical educators at The Experiential School of Greensboro (TESG), a new grassroots charter school in Greensboro, North Carolina. In this essay, we will describe the social context of TESG, discuss how we built towards addressing complicated topics related to systemic racism, and outline the ways we addressed anti-Asian racism and xenophobia in a remote learning context during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Start With The Self: Modelling Constructive Self-Statements And Growing With Others, Benedicto B. Llave

The Vermont Connection

I explore in this paper the importance of starting with the self

to model constructive self-statements and create both individual

and collective healing. My intended audience within this paper

is student affairs professionals of color who exist in predominantly

white institutions (PWIs) of higher education. I ground this paper

in my lived experiences as a queer and 1st generation student

affairs graduate student of color at a PWI. Within my writing, I

detail practices that help me manifest constructive self-statements,

to share with other student affairs professionals of color to practice

healing self-statements for themselves. Lastly, I conclude with

the …

Both/And: Self-Authoring A Feminist Christian Identity, Molly M. Williams

The Vermont Connection

This article is my attempt to make sense of the conflicting, confusing, tumultuous journey of making peace with my religion and my commitment to social justice, particularly feminism. I frame my journey using Baxter Magolda’s (2001) model of self-authorship, connecting the development of my religious and gender identities to the learning, questioning, and eventual personalization of external messages. I weave Baxter Magolda’s model, my narrative, and existing scholarship together to present a framework by which self-authorship can be applied to understand the needs of a young woman experiencing spiritual struggle within Christianity. I then consider the limitations of such a …

Crossing Selma's Bridge: Integrating Visual Discovery Strategy And Young Adult Literature To Promote Dialogue And Understanding, Steven T. Bickmore, Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil, Paul Binford

Middle Grades Review

Urban communities, separated by race and class, experience a disproportionate number of gun deaths, police shootings, crime, violent and nonviolent protests, as well as disparities in housing, education, and employment. These discussions are visual and textual, appearing in both traditional and social media outlets. How do adolescents read and make sense of these images? We discuss integrating a Social Studies practice, Visual Discovery Strategy, with Young Adult Literature to provide students with the skills to both critique images from the events in their lives and produce responses through both traditional and digital methods.

Implementing Middle School Youth-Adult Partnerships: A Study Of Two Programs Focused On Social Change, Catharine Biddle, Dana Mitra

Middle Grades Review

Youth-adult partnerships position youth and adults in roles of equal leadership of initiatives in their schools and communities, supporting a dynamic that runs counter to traditional patterns of youth-adult interaction. This article describes the piloting of two youth-adult partnership programs aimed at supporting the development of such relationships with different core foci at the middle grades level – one on community health and the other on school pedagogical change. In comparing the challenges and opportunities of implementing these programs in the middle grades environment, we find that while youth participants perceived positive developmental outcomes as a result of their participation, …