Education Commons^™

Critical Awareness For Literacy Teachers And Educators In Troubling Times, Patriann Smith, S. Joel Warrican

Literacy Practice and Research

The field of literacy remains assailed by a persisting discrepancy between an increasing body of literacy research that honors the diversity in students’ practices juxtaposed against a persistent system of schooling and high-stakes assessment that has not been designed to draw from underrepresented students’ literate assets. This discrepancy has created a situation where teachers often receive well-intentioned instruction from literacy educators about how to address diverse literacy needs, but then, struggle to enact this instruction in the high-stakes testing environment of classrooms and schools where they have little autonomy. We argue in this essay that critical multilingual, critical multicultural and …

Uncommon And Non-Traditional Urban Relationship Strategies: From Relationship Loss To Relationship Recovery, Lasonya L. Moore

Journal of English Learner Education

With increasing student diversity across our nation, there is a growing need to scale up educational innovations related to building holistic relationships. Many students in K-12 public schools enter educational settings with uncommon and nontraditional ways of building and developing longitudinal relationships that allow students to thrive and not just survive. Specifically, teachers/educators feel ill-equipped and ill-trained to adequately support the increasing number of English learners(ELs) and Exceptional education students (specifically Students of Color (SOC) with emotional and behavioral disorders) identified in inclusive classrooms. Thus, there remains an urgent need to share uncommon and non-traditional strategies to develop and build …

The Importance Of Visibility In Curriculum And Teaching Practice, Jasmine Bailey

Art of Teaching Thesis - Written

I am arguing that it is absolutely necessary for all teachers and administration to see the importance of making all children visible and valued and that they should include this idea into their curriculum plans and teaching practices. Despite the focus on representation, visibility in the curriculum is still lacking. I will detail how visibility is affected by the differences in how children learn, children who have experienced trauma and power dynamics and oppression.

This thesis will aim to express and display the value that all children should be made visible in the classroom. This includes all backgrounds and ethnicities …

Lesson Study: A Proposed Intervention For Professional Development Of Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Instruction In A Multicultural Classroom, Michael L. Hixon

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

This paper responds to the proposed implementation of lesson study as a professional development intervention for multicultural instruction in the United States. It includes an investigation of the literature in relation to the use of higher-order thinking skills, Banks’s four approaches for integrating multicultural instruction, and lesson study as a proposed professional development intervention in multicultural instruction. The conclusion provides a discussion of insights into K–12 educators’ needs for professional development opportunities to ensure that they provide diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning environments for all of their students. Creating diverse, equitable, and inclusive learning opportunities for students would be meaningful …

Educators’ Roles In Promoting Foster Care Children’S Sense Of Well-Being In Early Childhood Settings, Francoise Erlich Snyder

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative study addressed educators’ roles in promoting a sense of well-being in prekindergarten and kindergarten students in the foster care system in the southwestern United States. Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory framed this exploration of educators’ roles in supporting foster children’s sense of well-being. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit nine educators from three different school settings with a minimum of 3 years of experience working with students in foster care. Data were collected during digitally audio-recorded interviews that explored how two administrators, two curriculum specialists, and five teachers with 3 to 25 years of experience working with students in …

The Exclusive White World Of Preservice Teachers’ Book Selection For The Classroom: Influences And Implications For Practice, Helen Adam, Anne-Maree Hays, Yvonne Urquhart

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on a study of the children’s book preferences of 82 Preservice teachers (PSTs) at one Western Australian University. The study found PSTs preferred older books published during their own childhood or earlier. Further, representation of people of colour was limited to only 8 of 177 titles listed by PSTs. Key influences on their preferences were their personal favourite books and those used by mentor teachers during practicum experience. The outcomes of this study have implications for curriculum development and implementation of Initial Teacher Education courses, and in turn, for equitable outcomes of the future students of PSTs.