Education Commons^™

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, …

Entitled Or Engaged?, Kate Collins

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

Recent student activism on campus, particularly around safe spaces, trigger warnings, and microaggressions, has led to rising criticism lobbied against millennials as a generation unwilling to engage opposing beliefs or challenging discourse. Yet, taking into consideration all that young adults navigate to pursue higher education, their dissident presence on campus does more to reveal how they actively participate in the world, including their education.

The Politics Of Quality Teacher Discourses: Implications For Pre-Service Teachers In High Poverty Schools, Laura Scholes, Jo Lampert, Bruce Burnett, Barbara M. Comber, Lutz Hoff, Angela Ferguson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Improving the quality of education for young people growing up in high poverty and culturally diverse communities is an escalating problem in affluent nations with increasing gaps between the wealthy and the poor. Improving the quality of teachers and improving the quality of teaching are amongst the prominent solutions offered to redress the differences between student academic performances related to socio-economic family circumstances. This article examines the different discourses of ‘quality’ in relation to the preparation of pre-service teachers to work in high poverty schools such as graduates of the National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schoolspre-service teacher education program. Key …

Thinking With/Through The Contradictions Of Social Justice In Teacher Education: Self-Reflection On Netds Experience, Keita Takayama, Tiffany Jones, Rose Amazan

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Improving teacher quality has become the hallmark of Australian education reform with a plethora of measures introduced in teacher education to improve future teachers’ instructional competencies. This policy focus has also changed the discussion of strategies for addressing disadvantages in schools; improving teacher quality, as opposed to addressing structural inequalities in the system and larger society, has become the “solution.” This paper looks at the National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schools (NETDS), which aims to channel high performing teacher education students to disadvantaged schools. Using the taxonomy of conservative, liberal and critical approaches to education reform, the …

English Classrooms And Curricular Justice For The Recognition Of Lgbt Individuals: What Can Teachers Do?, Jane Pearce, Wendy Cumming-Potvin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Discrimination against LGBT[1] individuals remains widespread across Australia. Since schools continue to promote regimes of heterosexuality and cis-normativity, teachers have a crucial role in creating contexts in which LGBT young people feel accepted and safe. Drawing on North’s (2006) work on social justice and Connell’s (2012) discussion of curricular justice, this article explores opportunities and constraints experienced by a group of English secondary teachers attempting to practise in socially just ways. Results indicate that through the English curriculum, it is possible for teachers to find moments to achieve social justice for LGBT individuals.

[1] In reference to lesbian, gay, …

Viewing Film From A Communication Perspective: Film As Public Relations, Product Placement, And Rhetorical Advocacy In The College Classroom, Robin Patric Clair, Rebekah L. Fox, Jennifer L. Bezek

Communication and Theater Association of Minnesota Journal

Academics approach film from multiple perspectives, including critical, literary, rhetorical, and managerial approaches. Furthermore, and outside of film studies courses, films are frequently used as a pedagogical tool. Their relevance in society as well as their valuable use in the classroom makes them an important and pragmatic medium deserving further attention. The ability of film to be used in a socio-political way may sustain, challenge or change the status quo, which supports studying film as well as teaching students about the power of film. The purpose of this article is to share the development of a course which points out …

Becoming A Social Justice Educator: Emerging From The Pits Of Whiteness Into The Light Of Love. A Response To "Respect The Differences? Challenging The Common Guidelines In Social Justice Education, Kay F. Fujiyoshi

Democracy and Education

This paper addresses the limitations of social justice in institutional spaces and in rhetoric. I write in the form of a quest narrative to describe the lessons I learned from a brief sojourn in a temporary position in an urban teacher education program with a social justice focus and at a nonprofit organization with other social justice workers. My quest entails a retelling of encounters with Whiteness, the challenges of engaging social justice as a process that pushes beyond conversation, and the lessons I took away from my own sense-making of the contradictions in social justice work.

Prophetic Imagination: Confronting The New Jim Crow & Income Inequality In America, Cornel West

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

On October 11, 2014, Cornel West delivered the keynote address to nearly 600 students at the regional Leadership & Social Justice Conference, hosted at Saint Mary’s College of California. The conference occurred two days before West was arrested in Ferguson, Missouri, during a demonstration to protest the killing of young Black men by White police officers, as in the case of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson. Speaking of the students, West said, "I would like to see these precious young people commit themselves to lives of integrity, honesty and decency, where they are vigilant against all forms of evil—White supremacists, …

White Privilege And Social Studies Pre-Service Teachers, Kristal Curry

Catalyst: A Social Justice Forum

This article explores the dynamic of the Silenced Dialogue within a graduate-level, teacher preparation diversity course by analyzing student-created reflections about Peggy McIntosh’s article regarding White privilege. The paper compares themes that emerged in White vs. Black student reflections, male vs. female student reflections, and those of students preparing to teach social studies compared to those preparing to teach in other disciplines available in the program. Social studies candidates had complex responses to race. They seemed to feel comfortable with the topic, but were also world-weary and likely to dismiss current racism as being less than it used to be, …

Moving Toward Equitable, Accessible, And Relevant Mathematics For All. A Book Review Of Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice By The Numbers, Lauren Provost

Democracy and Education

A book review of Rethinking Mathematics: Teaching Social Justice by the Numbers, edited by Eric Gutstein and Bob Peterson.

Locating Child Protection In Preservice Teacher Education, Kerryann Walsh, Louise Laskey, Elspeth Mcinnes, Ann Farrell, Ben Mathews, Freda Briggs

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

A recent report delivered by the Australian Centre for Child Protection has highlighted the need for empirical evidence of effective pedagogies for supporting teaching and learning of child protection content in Australian teacher education programs (Arnold & Maio-Taddeo, 2007). This paper advances this call by presenting case study accounts of different approaches to teaching child protection content in University-based teacher education programs across three Australian States. These different cases provide a basis for understanding existing strategies as an important precursor to improving practice. Although preschool, primary and secondary schools have been involved in efforts to protect children from abuse and …