Education Commons^™

Agency, Identity, And Writing: Perspectives From First-Generation Students Of Color In Their First Year Of College, Jie Park

Education

This paper highlights the perspectives of first-generation students of color in their first year of college, and the ways in which they exercised agency in their writing. Framed by definitions of agency as mediated action that creates meaning, the paper reports on qualitative data collected from a summer writing program for first-generation students and students of color, and from writing samples and follow-up interviews with six students who participated in the summer program. Findings suggest that students in their first year of college leveraged their social and discoursal identities to offer new ways of understanding an issue. They also wrote …

Learning From The Knowledge Builders: Student Perspectives On The Challenges Of Classroom Knowledge Building Communities, Katerine Bielaczyc

Education

How do students make sense of the change process from more traditional learning environments to a Knowledge Building Community classroom (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006)? What challenges do they identify in their own participation and the development of the collective as a knowledge building community? This research followed a team of middle school students and teachers over the course of two years. Student interviews focused on the community s knowledge work in Knowledge Forum and their development as knowledge builders. Students identified structures that both supported and challenged student socialization into knowledge building communities. The research also examines how students experiences …

Infrastructuring For Knowledge Building: Advancing A Framework For Sustained Innovation, Shiri Kashi, Yotam Hod, Alwyn Vwen Yen Lee, Guangji Yuan, Etan Cohene, Katerine Bielaczyc, Bodong Chen, Jianwei Zhang

Education

Despite the wide implementations and extensive research base that has developed on knowledge building communities, continued efforts are required to address the challenges of implementing innovations in diverse contexts as well as sustaining them over time. In this paper, we draw on the idea of infrastructuring as an emergent, multilevel approach that can shed new light on ways to do this. After defining the notion of infrastructuring and showing its unique potential to sustain knowledge building, we examine three cases of infrastructuring within the context of efforts to grow knowledge building innovations in existing educational ecologies. This paper offers some …

Tracks Magazine (Issue #1: Bridge), Sophie Gill, The Tracks Magazine Team

Education

Tracks magazine is an art and literary magazine based in Worcester, MA. It was established in 2022 during the senior capstone sequence within the Community, Youth, & Education Studies department at Clark University. Tracks was created with the desire to provide another outlet for artists in the area to share and connect with others with the wider goal to explore the potential of art to enact social change and build community.

This project is for the entire main south neighborhood. This magazine is structured differently than most. Instead of having a small group of people create and determine the entirety …

Curriculum By Design: Innovation And The Liberal Arts Core [Appendix], Mary Crane, David Quigley, Andy Boynton

Education

No abstract provided.

Discussion Questions For Teaching While Black, Pamela Lewis

Education

These discussion questions accompany Teaching While Black: A New Voice on Race and Education in New York City.

Tapping Into Potential With Expectations: Making Employment And Post-Secondary Education The New Norm For Individuals With Disabilities, University Of Maine Center For Community Inclusion And Disability Studies

Education

In her keynote address from the University of Maine World Usability Day Conference on November 8, 2018, Dr. Kelly Nye-Lengerman discusses how large numbers of people with disabilities can’t access the typical trajectory for economic wellbeing. “What is it about our educational settings or employment settings that are not making these spaces available or accessible to people with disabilities?”

Summer Camp As A Force For 21st Century Learning: Exploring Divergent Thinking And Activity Selection In A Residential Camp Setting, Myles Lynch, Jonathan A. Plucker, C Boyd Hegarty, Nate Trauntvein

Education

This study investigated change in divergent thinking (DT), an indicator of creative potential, at two gender-specific residential summer camps. Additionally, this study examined whether the change in DT varied by gender and by the type of activities campers self-select. Quantitative methods, using a quasi-experimental design was used in order to understand differences in camper scores. A total of 189 youth, 100 girls, 89 boys, between the ages of 9 and 14 years participated in the current study. Participants were administered a modified version of Guilford's (1967) alternate uses task, a measure of DT, in which respondents were asked questions such …

Resisting Punitive School Discipline: Perspectives And Practices Of Exemplary Urban Elementary Teachers, Elyse Hambacher

Education

Drawing on the literature related to classroom management, and culturally relevant critical teacher care, and effective teaching for students of color, this paper uses interview and observation data to explore the perspectives and practices of two exemplary fifth-grade teachers who refuse to rely on punitive discipline with their students of color. Findings revealed that the teachers did not view students’ behavior as challenging-- they viewed behavior simply as one of the many areas they believed it was their responsibility to teach. Their instructional practices focused on coaching students to reach their potential and liberating them from barriers that limit their …

When Ivory Towers Were Black: A Story About Race In America's Cities And Universities [Table Of Contents & Introduction], Sharon Egretta Sutton

Education

When Ivory Towers Were Black lies at the potent intersection of race, urban development, and higher education. It tells the story of how an unparalleled cohort of ethnic minority students earned degrees from a world-class university. The story takes place in New York City at Columbia University’s School of Architecture and spans a decade of institutional evolution that mirrored the emergence and denouement of the Black Power Movement. Chronicling a surprisingly little-known era in U.S. educational, architectural, and urban history, the book traces an evolutionary arc that begins with an unsettling effort to end Columbia’s exercise of authoritarian power on …

Targeted Intervention For Retention: The Power Of Reading For Evidence And Argument In Student Success, Pamela Petty

Education

The intent of this project is to engage approximately 500 freshmen per semester in rigorous learning experiences focused on strengthening students’ reading comprehension by using evidence and synthesis of information to make sound, text-supported arguments both orally ­­­­and in writing. LTCY 199 Reading for Ev­­idence and Argument has served students underprepared in reading for the last six years. Starting in spring 2016 LTCY 199 will be expanded and required of students who score 15-19 on the reading portion of the ACT. Data that support the effectiveness of the course indicate that students who successfully complete the course are retained after …

Movin' On In Montana: Year Three: Summer 2017 Replication Guide Addendum, Kaitlyn Page Ahlers, Martin E. Blair, Bronwyn Troutman, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Education

Movin’ On in Montana is a four-day, three-night on-campus experience for high school students with disabilities sponsored by the University of Montana, specifically the Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities, Disability Services for Students, and Vocational Rehabilitation. Summer 2017 was the third consecutive Movin’ On program, and the purpose continues to be to introduce high school students with disabilities to the college experience. The goal is to help students recognize that college (e.g., university or technical college) is a possibility if they choose to pursue postsecondary education and to provide students with disabilities with critical information regarding resources and supports to …

Creating Communities Of Culturally Relevant Critical Teacher Care, Elyse Hambacher, Elizabeth Bondy

Education

This article draws on the literature on effective African American teachers of African American students to investigate the enactments of culturally relevant critical teacher care (CRCTC) in two fifth-grade teachers’ (one White and one Black) classrooms in a large, urban school district. Using interview and observation data, the findings illustrate the teachers’ knowledge of potential constraints upon their students’ futures. This knowledge catalyzed their enactment of a particular kind of care designed to prepare their students with the dispositions, knowledge, and skills to construct what Carl Grant has called “flourishing lives.” The teachers’ practices illustrate classroom spaces ripe for high …

Scaffolding Critical Consciousness In A Justice Oriented Introductory Education Course, Elyse Hambacher

Education

No abstract provided.

Let Care Shine Through, Elizabeth Bondy, Elyse Hambacher

Education

Care is in the eyes of the receiver; it doesn't exist unless those being cared for experience it. The authors describe culturally relevant critical teacher care, an approach that considers the effects of students' cultural and socioeconomic conditions and that helps teachers find ways to show care to every learner—especially those from oppressed groups. Bondy and Hambacher describe three principles of this care for students (having political clarity, embodying critical hope, and sticking to asset-based thinking). They describe four helpful practices that they observed in a long-term study of two effective 5th grade teachers. These teachers embodied a culturally relevant …

Zero Tolerance, Threats Of Harm, And The Imaginary Gun: Good Intentions Run Amuck, Todd A. Demitchell, Elyse Hambacher

Education

No abstract provided.

Elementary Preservice Teachers As Warm Demanders In An African American School, Elyse Hambacher, Melanie M. Acosta, Elizabeth Bondy, Dorene D. Ross

Education

The literature related to warm demanding describes teachers who balance care and authority to create a learning environment that supports a culture of achievement for African American students. Embedded in this stance is sociopolitical consciousness that explicitly links teachers’ care and authority with a larger social justice agenda. Drawing on interviews and online course assignments, we describe two preservice teachers’ conceptions and enactments of warm demanding in full-time elementary school internships in an African American elementary school. Findings reveal that although the preservice teachers communicated similar commitments to warm demanding, they enacted the stance differently, suggesting that while warm demanders …

Movin' On In Montana: Year Two: Summer 2016 Replication Guide, Kaitlyn Page Ahlers, Bronwyn Troutman, Martin E. Blair, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Education

Movin’ On in Montana was a four-day, three-night on-campus experience for high school students with disabilities sponsored by the University of Montana, specifically the Rural Institute for Inclusive Communities, Disability Services for Students, and Vocational Rehabilitation. The purpose of Movin’ On in Montana was to introduce high school students with disabilities to the college experience with the intent of helping students recognize that college (e.g., university or technical college) is a possibility if they choose to pursue postsecondary education. Further, Movin’ On in Montana provided students with disabilities with critical information regarding resources and supports to increase their likelihood of …

Culturally Responsive Classroom Management: Going Beyond Behavioral Learning, Elyse Hambacher

Education

No abstract provided.

Autism In Rural Areas: Lessons In Montana, Martin E. Blair, Ann N. Garfinkle, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Education

The poster highlights Montana's approach to planning for and providing autism-focused services in rural/frontier areas. We describe issues related to cultural diversity, geographic separation and challenges related to insufficient workforce.

School Climate Transformation: Using A Pbis Model In Indian Country, Martin E. Blair, University Of Montana Rural Institute

Education

In 2015, the Montana Office of Public Instruction received federal funding to implement a School Climate Transformation grant in schools on or near tribal lands. We describe the process of and highlight issues related to developing and implementing a PBIS model in a culturally sensitive manner.

Literacy Work In The Reign Of Human Capital [Table Of Contents], Evan Watkins

Education

In recent years, a number of books in the field of literacy research have addressed the experiences of literacy users or the multiple processes of learning literacy skills in a rapidly changing technological environment. In contrast to these studies, this book addresses the subjects of literacy. In other words, it is about how literacy workers are subjected to the relations between new forms of labor and the concept of human capital as a dominant economic structure in the United States. It is about how literacies become forms of value producing labor in everyday life both within and beyond the workplace …

Developing Critical Social Justice Literacy In An Online Seminar, Elizabeth Bondy, Elyse Hambacher, Amy S. Murphy, Rachel Wolkenhauer, Desirae Eva Krell

Education

The purpose of this article is to report on an effort to cultivate a critical social justice perspective and critical social justice praxis among educators enrolled in an online graduate program. Although the entire program was organized around themes of equity, collaboration, and leadership, this study focused on educators’ perspectives of the purposes, pedagogy, and outcomes of one course, Critical Pedagogy. Fourteen of the 19 students enrolled in the online course participated in one of six online focus groups following the conclusion of the course. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, the researchers identified the different ways in which students responded …

Breaking The Mold: Thinking Beyond Deficits, Elyse Hambacher, Winston Charles Thompson

Education

In an attempt to understand widespread school failure among children of color and children from low-income backgrounds, dominant discourse points to pervasive deficit ideologies that blame a student’s family structure, cultural and linguistic background, and community (Dudley-Marling, 2007; Valencia, 2010; Weiner, 2006). By accepting such a simplistic explanation of blaming the child for a lack of success without examining systemic inequities, deficit thinkers ignore real and complex issues of structural inequity. We agree with Pearl (1997) who argues that deficit thinking ignores “external forces— [i.e.], the complex makeup of macro- and micro-level mechanisms that help structure schools as inequitable and …

Authenticity In Constructivist Inquiry: Assessing An Elusive Construct, Patrick Shannon, Elyse Hambacher

Education

Methodological rigor in constructivist inquiry is established through an assessment of trustworthiness and authenticity. Trustworthiness parallels the positivistic concepts of internal and external validity, focusing on an assessment of the inquiry process. Authenticity, however, is unique to constructivist inquiry and has no parallel in the positivistic paradigm. Authenticity involves an assessment of the meaningfulness and usefulness of interactive inquiry processes and social change that results from these processes. However, the techniques for ascertaining authenticity are in the early stages of development. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to describe a process for assessing authenticity in a constructivist inquiry. A …

Akin House Curriculum Development And Living History Programming, Amanda Brown, Charlotte Fitts-Sprauge, Andrew Gray, Maya Himmelsbach, Abbey Hood, Meghan Richards, Brianna Riposa, Arnold Robinson

Education

This unit plan is comprised of a variety of inquiry-based lessons that explore the culture and way of life of the Native Americans who occupied New England. After studying the Akin house documents, materials, and narratives, I chose to focus my unit on the land and the people who came before the Akin family so that students will learn the long-view of our rich New England history.

Becoming Warm Demanders: Perspectives And Practices Of First-Year Teachers, Elizabeth Bondy, Dorene D. Ross, Elyse Hambacher, Melanie M. Acosta

Education

In the literature on culturally responsive pedagogy warm demanders are teachers who embrace values and enact practices that are central to their students’ success. Few scholars have examined the experience of novice teachers who attempt to enact this stance. In this study of two first-year, female, European American teachers who attempted to be warm demanders for their predominantly African American elementary school students, the authors answer the question, “How do the teachers think about and enact warm demanding?” The teachers’ contrasting experiences have implications for administrators and teacher educators.

A Review Of Healing The Heart Of Democracy: The Courage To Create A Politics Worthy Of The Human Spirit, Bruce L. Mallory

Education

A review of the book Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit, by Parker J. Palmer (Jossey-Bass, 2011).

An Analysis Of Disability-Related Provisions In The 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (Heoa): What Universities And Policy Makers Should Know, Alan Kurtz

Education

The purpose of this October 2011 policy brief is to provide state agencies, postsecondary institutions, and policy makers with an overview of changes in the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) affecting the access to education of postsecondary students with disabilities and the way teacher education programs at Institutions of Higher Learning (IHEs) prepare general and special educators to teach students with disabilities. Specifically, this analysis reviews disability-related terminology new to this revision of the HEOA, access to instructional materials for students with print disabilities, changes in access to financial aid for students with intellectual disabilities, model demonstration projects both …

Learning Ideas - Special Education Tips For Foster Parents Who Are Surrogate Parents, University Of Maine Center For Community Inclusion And Disability Studies

Education

Surrogate parents are appointed to represent children with disabilities whenever the birth parents or guardian of a child with a disability cannot be identified, located, or when the child is in the custody of the state. They have all the rights of birth parents for educational matters, e.g. permission for evaluation and placement, release information and request for educational hearing. The primary responsibility of surrogate parents is to ensure that children with disabilities are provided with a free, appropriate public education. (Adapted from http://www.maine.gov/doe/special ed/programs/surrogate/index.html)