Education Commons^™

Is Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Enough? Toward Culturally “Real”-Evant Curriculum. A Response To "Democratic Foundations For Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy", James A. Gambrell

Democracy & Education

In this response to Lingley's (2016) article "Democratic Foundations of Spiritually Responsive Pedagogy," the author invites the framework of (a)spiritually responsive curriculum to include a more direct engagement with a culturally relevant curriculum as well. The author agrees with Lingley's postulation that (a)spirituality is deeply embedded within the worldview of many students in K–12 classrooms, whether educators include this important aspect of their epistemology or not. Similar to the problems that come when we ignore identities of race, gender, (a)sexuality, (dis)ability, and social class, ignoring these important characteristics of students’ lived experiences is detrimental to learning outcomes and reinforces dominating …

A Call For More Literature And Deeper Data. A Response To "The Cultural Contours Of Democracy: Indigenous Epistemologies Informing South African Citizenship", Moeketsi Letseka

Democracy & Education

This review provides a critical appraisal of Kubow and Min's paper. It teases out their conception of liberalism and argues that the classical notion of liberalism as a political theory that advocates individual liberty based on assumptions of the unencumbered autonomous individual has lost currency. This is because over the years liberalism has mutated into a multiplicity of new forms, and there is no single view that can be said to define what it means to be a liberal. The paper raises methodological questions with respect to the use of focus group interviews. It implores researchers to first ask themselves …

Ypar, Critical Whiteness, And Generative Possibilities. A Response To “Sam And Cristina: A Dialogue Between A High School Teacher And Student About The Commoditization Of People Of Color”, Chris Corces-Zimmerman, Jamie Utt, Nolan L. Cabrera

Democracy & Education

In this response to the article by Tanner and Corrie, the authors provide three critiques of the methodology and theoretical framing of the study with the hopes of informing future scholarship and practice. Specifically, the three critiques addressed in this paper include the integration of CWS frameworks and YPAR methodology, the application and description of CWS and YPAR frameworks, and the role of power in the relationship between educator and student that served as the central medium for the study.

The Critique Of Deliberative Discussion. A Response To “Education For Deliberative Democracy: A Typology Of Classroom Discussions", David I. Backer

Democracy & Education

My response to Samuelsson’s (2016) recent essay offers a different paradigm with which to think about education, deliberative discussion and democracy. I call this paradigm the critique of deliberative discussion. Following Ruitenberg’s application of Mouffe’s critiques of deliberative democracy to education, the critique of deliberative discussion focuses on what Jameson called the “political unconscious” of deliberative discussions like those presented by Samuelsson. There is literature that critique traditionally moderate-liberal notions of deliberative discussion, which Samuelsson defines his typology: reason, willingness to listen, and consensus. While others, like Ruitenberg, have developed this critique of deliberative-democratic citizenship education, the critique of deliberative …

From Deliberative Democracy To Communicative Democracy In The Classroom. A Response To “Education For Deliberative Democracy”, Lisa Weasel

Democracy & Education

This response to Samuelsson’s typology for assessing deliberative democracy in classroom discussions views his analysis through an equity lens. It offers Young’s model of communicative democracy as a resource and argues that incorporating that model's emphasis on greeting, rhetoric, and storytelling into the typology can help to promote more equitable deliberative communication in the classroom. It offers specific tools, based on the author’s development of deliberative pedagogy in a biology classroom, that teachers can use across disciplines and educational settings to help promote more equitable deliberative communication in classroom discussions.

Researching Holistic Democracy In Schools. A Reponse To "Examination Of The New Tech Model As A Holistic Democracy", Philip A. Woods

Democracy & Education

Bradley-Levine reported in her article how she created an opportunity to explore research data with the aim of examining the degree to which New Tech schools were democratic in the sense conceptualized by the notion of holistic democracy. My response is in three parts. The first sets out my understanding of the significance of the model of holistic democracy and the purpose of the framework. The second is a review of Bradley-Levine’s findings, with reflections that occurred to me as I worked through these. The third comprises my conclusions. The framework has been applied, in my judgement, in a diligent …

Race, Residential Segregation, And The Death Of Democracy: Education And Myth Of Postracialism, Lori Latrice Martin, Kenneth J. Varner

Democracy & Education

Since the 1930s, federal housing policies and individual practices increased the spatial separation of whites and blacks. Practices such as redlining, restrictive covenants, and discrimination in the rental and sale of housing not only led to residential segregation by race but also continue to shape Whiteness and frame narratives about what constitutes Blackness. Despite the judicial and legislative victories of the civil rights movement, including the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas decision, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, residential segregation persists and in …

Examination Of The New Tech Model As A Holistic Democracy, Jill Bradley-Levine 4355986, Gina Mosier

Democracy & Education

Using the Degrees of Democracy Framework (Woods & Woods, 2012), we examined eight New Tech (NT) high schools to determine the extent to which they demonstrated characteristics of holistic democracy. We collected qualitative data, including observations and interviews during the fourth year of implementation. Findings indicated that the eight NT schools demonstrated many features of holistic democracy with a few exceptions. This study has implications for researchers and school communities interested in measuring holistic democracy in other schools and within school models.

Empowering Young People Through Conflict And Conciliation: Attending To The Political And Agonism In Democratic Education, Jane C. Lo

Democracy & Education

Deliberative models of democratic education encourage the discussion of controversial issues in the classroom (e.g., Hess, 2009); however, they tend to curtail conflicts for the sake of consensus. Agonism, on the other hand, can help support the deliberative model by attending to antagonism in productive ways (Ruitenberg, 2009). In this paper, I present how agonistic deliberation (the infusion of agonism into deliberation) can work as an account of the political that may help empower young people. The paper presents two classic democratic classroom practices—structured academic controversy (SAC) and debate—together as examples of how agonistic deliberation can help students engage politically. …

Teaching For Toleration In Pluralist Liberal Democracies, Betto A.F. Van Waarden

Democracy & Education

This article determines which education enables the perpetuation of diverse ways of life and the liberal democracy that accommodates this diversity. Liberals like John Rawls, Stephen Macedo, and William Galston have disagreed about the scope of civic education. Based on an analysis of toleration—the primary means for maintaining a pluralist liberal democracy—I argue that schools should teach democratic participatory skills and a minimal exposure to diversity to enable citizens to participate in the democratic process of defining which cultural and religious practices the state should tolerate or prohibit through its laws. To make this argument, I contend, in contrast to …

Gracefully Unexpected, Deeply Present And Positively Disruptive: Love And Queerness In Classroom Community., Benjamin Lee Hicks

Occasional Paper Series

During the winter of 2011, I was moving through some of the more overtly physical phases of gender transition. At the time, I was also a grade 6 teacher in a public elementary school. My presence as a visibly transitioning person in that environment was never intended to be a coming out; it was a choosing in… and there is a difference. I was “out” because I was visibly different, and I was visible because that difference was not expected. I - as a teacher of young children who identifies as a non-binary person, as genderqueer, as trans, and …

“White People Are Gay, But So Are Some Of My Kids”: Examining The Intersections Of Race, Sexuality, And Gender, Stephanie A. Shelton

Occasional Paper Series

A significant body of research examines the roles and characteristics of teachers who identify as allies to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students. Literature notes LGBTQ students’ vulnerability but often excludes students’ racial identities as relevant to LGBTQ identities. Drawing on queer theory and a longitudinal study, this paper examines through individual and focus group interviews the ways that a novice English Education teacher shifted from a bifurcated understanding of race as separate from LGBTQ topics to a position that fully embraced the importance of race as a factor in both serving LGBTQ students and teaching LGBTQ-positive topics.

“It’S Non-Existent”: Haunting In Trans Youth Narratives About Naming, Julia Sinclair-Palm

Occasional Paper Series

Often, choosing a name is one of the first ways trans people begin to assume a different gender from the one they were assigned at birth. Stories about the process of choosing a name reveal how trans youth negotiate their relationship with their old name and their emerging sense of identity. Working with Avery Gordon’s Ghostly Matters (2008), I explore the ghostly ways birth names remain in the lives of trans youth. Gordon’s concept of ghosts presents an opportunity to think about how trans youth experience their birth name and the complex ways trans youth negotiate their identity at school.

Teaching Trans*: Transparent As A Strategy In English Language Arts Classrooms, Joseph D. Sweet, David Lee Carlson

Occasional Paper Series

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how to incorporate a popular television series about being trans*gender into the secondary English Language Arts curriculum. The authors conduct a series of two-hour interviews with the creative and writing teams of the popular television show, Transparent, and examine how to incorporate this material in the English Language Arts classroom along with their combined 16 years of teaching experience. The paper discusses how to incorporate fuse writing assignments and literature activities with adolescents in order to educate young adults about the experiences of being trans*gender as well transform teaching practices as they …

An Embodied Education: Questioning Hospitality To The Queer, Clio Stearns

Occasional Paper Series

This is an essay about hospitality and the ways we must question frameworks telling us to welcome the queer in educational contexts. I will show how educational scholarship as well as programming for schools, teachers and students have emphasized the interconnected concepts of hospitality and welcome as a way of keeping queer bodies legislatively, physically and psychically safe. While acknowledging the importance of hospitality as a starting point, I examine its limits with the hope of showing how it might foreclose curiosity. I argue that one fundamental problem with hospitality and welcome toward the queer is the way these phenomena …

Missing Persons’ Report! Where Are The Transgender Characters In Children’S Picture Books?, Ashley Lauren Sullivan, Laurie Lynne Urraro

Occasional Paper Series

When ruminating on the factors that impact early childhood education, one invariably reflects on the topic of how curriculum represents (or fails to represent) issues of gender, specifically with regard to how gender is portrayed within the selection of classroom picture books. In such ruminations, many questions emerge regarding the specific role reading curriculum plays as it relates to gender.

Changing The Shape Of The Landscape: Sexual Diversity Frameworks And The Promise Of Queer Literacy Pedagogy In The Elementary Classroom, Cammie Kim Lin

Occasional Paper Series

Analyzing LGBTQ-inclusive children’s literature and teaching practices in the elementary classroom, the author outlines a vision for a queer literacy pedagogy. The article begins with a description of four different sexual diversity frameworks: homophobia/heterosexism, tolerance/visibility, social justice, and queer. It includes an exploration of children’s literature and teaching practices that exemplify each framework, making explicit the connections between theory and practice. It then expands on the theories, principles, and practices composing queer literacy pedagogy. The article will be of particular interest to teacher educators and elementary classroom teachers, though the frameworks are equally applicable to all levels and settings.

The Sky's The Limit: An Interdisciplinary Curriculum On Sustainable Architecture Within Urban Communities, Sierra Van Ryck Degroot

Graduate Student Independent Studies

As trees continue to fall and buildings rise in our expanding internationally-linked cities, the future of technology, design and the health of the environment rests on instilling the importance of sustainable practices in future generations. In this interdisciplinary curriculum unit designed for grades 3-5 in the New York City metropolitan area, students are studying and then developing their own models of multi-purpose skyscrapers, utilizing sustainable technologies to reduce environmental impact.

Rwu Architecture Community Claims Nearly Half Of New England Design Awards, Public Affairs, Roger Williams University

Featured News Story

Roger Williams’s architecture community scored the most awards of any single group from the American Institute of Architects.

An Unconventional Once Upon A Time: A Need For A Children's Book Describing The Challenges Of A Deployed Spouse, Rachel Adams

Graduate Student Independent Studies

There are many texts that focus on a child’s experiences and difficulties when a parent is away in the army or at war. Currently, there are no books that provide the perspective of a parent or spouse's struggles in dealing with their loved one who is away, and taking care of what is left at home. This independent study had a purpose of not only providing another resource for children to cope, but to allow for them to gain perspective of someone else’s experience as well. The story written speaks not from a child’s perspective, but from one of an …

Writing In Journals As A Tool For Expressing Ourselves: A 6-8 Week Long Writing Curriculum For A 3rd/4th Grade, Self-Contained, Special Education Classroom., Christine Carosotto

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The following writing curriculum is intended for students aged 8-12 years old in a 12:1, self-contained special education classroom setting. Through journal writing instruction, this curriculum aims to provide support to students struggling with foundational writing skills. These skills include: topic selection, stamina, organization, awareness of audience and sentence clarity. This unit’s theoretical foundation is grounded by the core components of a Writers Workshop model, the belief in developing social and oral language skills as a pre-writing tool and the importance of providing writing opportunities that incorporate choice in both topic and response format in order to increase motivation and …

A Best Practice Guide For Teaching Artists: The Planning And Implementation Of Arts-Integrated Partnerships With Classroom Teachers, Lauren Patricia Ehrhart

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This Integrative Master's Project is a guide for Teaching Artists to use when planning and implementing arts-integrated partnerships with classroom teachers. This paper discusses the process of creating five original resources based on best practices of experienced arts-integration professionals. The resources are the product of ten interviews with experienced teaching artists and administrators of cultural organizations, who employ teaching artists in interdisciplinary school partnerships. These resources are in the form of worksheets, spreadsheets and charts and aim to help guide-teaching artists in the creation of successful collaborations with classroom teachers.

Cultivating An Inclusive Mindset In Your Jewish Community: Turning Good Intentions Into Tangible Outcomes, Tali Cohen Carrus

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This curriculum provides training and resources to Jewish day schools, synagogues, summer camps, and other organizations seeking to better embrace all members of their community and foster full and meaningful integration and participation. Focused primarily on youth with developmental and learning disabilities, though with definite implications for other populations, this curriculum provides a first-step for a community seeking to become more inclusive. Beginning with developing a commitment to inclusion and a common mindset among the staff that will be charged with implementing the programming, the curriculum strives to ensure collaboration from every stakeholder and community member. The second section is …

Voicing Diversity: Creating Space To Listen In The Healthcare System, Margaret Foster

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Throughout the United States over 20 million people do not speak English as their primary language. As part of legislation and The Joint Commission, health care organizations are required to provide interpreter and translation services to individuals with limited English proficiency (LEP). Through the provision of language services health care professionals can provide quality care that is patient centered and culturally sensitive to the needs of families. As communities continue to be transformed and become multicultural so too the healthcare system needs to transform, growing resources that empower and educate patients helping them navigate the healthcare system.

Cook To Learn: A Food-Focused Curriculum For Grades 3-5, Ryan R. Cherecwich

Graduate Student Independent Studies

In this Integrated Master's project, I argue that a new curriculum is needed to address the following: (a) plant-based foods and from-scratch food preparation practices are strongly connected to positive outcomes for children, (b) diets high in processed foods can lead to negative health outcomes (c) students aged 8-10 are particularly well suited to learn more about food, (d) studying food offers many opportunities for interdisciplinary learning across many subjects (literacy, math, science and social studies) and (d) food-focused learning connects particularly well to common learning objectives for students in grades 3-5, yet (e) there is currently a dearth of …

Art Power!: Exploring The Black Arts Movement, Imani Parkinson

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Art Power! is a curriculum guide designed for educators of early adolescents who are interested in integrating art history, cultural institutions, and art making into their curricula. The guide seeks to highlight two New York City based institutions: The Schomburg Research Center in Black Culture and The Studio Museum in Harlem. In addition, the intended audience is for middle school students in New York City. It is believed this audience would benefit from learning about the history of African American culture related to New York City’s neighborhoods and the exposure to cultural institutions who value this narrative. Art Power! includes …

Children’S Rights: Why The United States Should Ratify The United Nations Convention On The Rights Of The Child, Alexandra Gardiner

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This thesis examines children’s rights in America and specifically addresses why the United States has yet to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, otherwise known as the UNCRC. After presenting the history of children’s rights in America, this project examines the controversy over conflicting interpretations of children’s rights as defined by the UNCRC and the subsequent issues that have impeded its ratification in the United States. This thesis argues for the United States to ratify the UNCRC so that more changes can be made to protect the best interests of children in America.

"See, Two Yellows Make A Rectangle!": Constructing Meaningful, Emergent Learning Moments In A Structured Special Education Program, Lucy Bayer

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This paper explores the relationship between emergent, child-driven learning and the structured curricula of a special education program. Relying on current research and theory as driving forces, the author designed and implemented a series of math lessons with a small group of kindergarten students in a self-contained, special-education setting. The paper begins in narrative form, detailing the author’s journey to her current line of inquiry. Empirical research and educational theory about both emergent, child-driven learning and math instruction are then summarized. The following two chapters chronicle the author’s work with her students. These chapters are presented as both narrative documentation …

Play As A Social Justice Issue In Early Childhood Education, Britt Kroll

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Play is a vital part of the early childhood experience to develop in cognitive and social-emotional realms. Schools are taking away an important tool for children to process new information and build skills needed for lifelong problem-solving by allowing less time for play in early childhood classrooms. This research combines data gathered to show the unique benefits of play in both cognitive and social-emotional areas, as well as qualitative data collected in a play-based and a non-play-based classroom.

The research defends the importance of play-based learning in early childhood and equips teachers with rationale to use play as a tool …

"Brace Yourself": Motor Disabilities In Children's Literature, Jillian Bober

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This thesis presents the writing and sharing of an original work “Brace Yourself” with a group of second grade children including clinical and legal background as well as review of selected children’s literature with similar themes. The study incorporates samples of student responses to the story and discussion of curricular themes related to inclusion and school values.