Education Commons^™

Dissonance As An Educational Tool For Coping With Students’ Racist Attitudes, Adar Cohen

Journal of Educational Controversy

Teachers in multicultural societies that are beset by severe rifts and political polarization encounter students who express racist and extreme attitudes. According to the students’ dichotomous views, anyone who is different from them poses a threat, and teachers find it difficult to overcome this challenge solely with moralistic utterances. Anger, shock, and punishment do not help change the students’ opinions; they often have the opposite effect. This article proposes, instead, that teachers use dissonance as a tool for helping students rid themselves of their dichotomous views and become accustomed to complex thinking about society. On the basis of an educational …

“Teaching In A War Zone”: A Collective Reflection On Learning From A Diversity Course In Contentious Times, Elena Aydarova, Jacob Kelley, Kristen Daugherty

Journal of Educational Controversy

Diversity courses in teacher education often become sites of conflict and contestation. Numerous proposals have been put forward on how to address these conflicts and contestations through pedagogical interventions and teaching innovations. However, such proposals rarely take into account the impact of broader sociopolitical forces on classroom interactions and learning. In this collective reflection, we document our experiences of navigating a diversity course in highly contentious times when anti-critical race theory campaigns resulted in widespread bans on the teaching of “divisive concepts.” We explore critical incidents and challenging situations to capture the erosion of civility and engagement with evidence. In …

Using A Place-Based Approach In Preparing Community Teachers For High-Need Schools, Joanne Carney, Marilyn Chu, Susan Donnelly, Marsha Riddle Buly, David Carroll

Journal of Educational Controversy

This case study describes actions and outcomes of a school-university partnership to better prepare teachers for high-need schools with large numbers of English Learners. Using a place-based approach to preparing community teachers, preservice and inservice teachers and teacher educators collaboratively learned how to work with families and community members to address student needs and developed core practices attuned to the socio-cultural context. The partnership also established a pathway to teaching for bilingual/bicultural students from the community. Data are derived from semi-structured interviews, focus groups, intern and teacher surveys, journal reflections, and a statewide teacher employment database.

Three Cases: Bridging The University-School-Community Divide Through Collaborative Learning And Innovative Uses Of Educational Technology, Joanne M. Carney, Paula Dagnon, Martha Thornburgh, Lori Sadzewicz, Chloe Unruh

Journal of Educational Controversy

The following three articles are presented together because each is a case study exploring a common theme: How the cultural and systemic differences between school and university might be bridged in partnership, as educators work together with community members to educate and promote the wellbeing of children. The cases show how personal relationships, collaborative learning, and innovative uses of technology can be fostered by “hanging out and joining in.”

Each of the cases has three levels of significance, which is in keeping with the nested contexts of partnership work: 1) teaching and learning with elementary students and their families, 2) …

The Intersection Of White Supremacy And The Education Industrial Complex: An Analysis Of #Blacklivesmatter And The Criminalization Of People With Disabilities, Brittany A. Aronson, Mildred Boveda

Journal of Educational Controversy

In this article, in answering the question do Black Lives Matter in the U.S. education industrial complex, we begin with a description of how the education industrial serves white supremacy. In our discussion of anti-blackness and racial bias, we also acknowledge the racialization of disabilities and the historical intersections between racial oppression and the marginalization of people with disabilities. More specifically, we examine the discourse and reticence about markers of differences (e.g., race, gender, ability status, race, and class) and interrogate how social categorizations are manipulated and co-opted to repurpose differences in ways that serve the education industrial complex and …