Curriculum and Social Inquiry Commons^™

Between Care And Competence: Rethinking Alternative Provision., Helen V. Mulligan

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This opinion piece argues that Alternative Provision (AP) in England is failing to meet the needs of vulnerable young people due to inconsistent staffing, inadequate specialist training, and the normalisation of low educational expectations. Although some AP settings demonstrate high aspirations and committed practice, the sector as a whole remains marked by variability and a lack of coherent pedagogical structure. Drawing on research into educational inequality, emotional labour, ethics of care, and professional identity, the paper contends that systemic reform is urgently required. Recommended actions include mandatory specialist training for AP staff, national standards for curriculum and pedagogy, stronger accountability …

The Effects Of Using Hip-Hop Song Lyrics During Instruction For Students With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Jonte C. Taylor, Millie Rodriguez

Journal of the Arts and Special Education

Hip-hop pedagogy has emerged as a culturally responsive instructional framework designed to increase student engagement, identity affirmation, and academic achievement by incorporating elements of hip-hop culture into classroom instruction. Despite growing interest in hip-hop-based education, limited empirical research has examined its effectiveness for students with disabilities, particularly students identified with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). This study investigated the effects of using hip-hop song lyrics during English language arts instruction to teach literary devices to three secondary students with EBD using a single-case multiple-baseline-across-participants probe design. Three comparison students receiving traditional textbook-based instruction were also included. Dependent variables included instructional …

Access Intimacy In The Feminist Classroom: Co-Creating Course Policies, Expectations, And Access Measures As Feminist Disability Praxis, Krystal Cleary

Feminist Pedagogy

In this essay, I outline an activity to foster access intimacy (Mingus, 2011) in the feminist classroom through students’ co-creation of course policies, expectations, and additional access measures. This activity transforms the classroom into a praxis laboratory wherein students analyze the normative structures that shape their hyperlocal classroom context and practice building environments characterized by interdependent solidarity rather than atomized competition. As feminist disability praxis, this activity centers the knowledge of disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent scholars and students; in doing so, it customizes the classroom to a diversity of learners and builds adaptability for responding to unforeseen challenges into …

Rainbow Promises, Uneven Promises: Framing Lgbtqia+ Educational Policy And Possibility In Education, Gerardo Lorenzo-Saucedo

Dissertations

Despite the expansion of LGBTQIA+ inclusive policies in K-12 education, disparities in students’ experiences with safety and belonging persist. This qualitative case study examines how such policies are interpreted and enacted within a high school and district in Southern California, and how these processes shape LGBTQIA+ students’ experiences.

Guided by ecological systems theory, queer theory, and multiple streams theory, this study conceptualizes policy implementation as a dynamic and socially constructed process influenced by power, ideology, and institutional context. Data were collected through interviews, document and artifact analysis, and observations, with analysis that used a multi-phased coding procedure.

Findings revealed that …

Reclamando Corazón Y Voz: Latinas Speak Their Truth Through Plática As Resistance In California Community College Learning Disabilities Assessments, Maricela Becerra

Dissertations

Although California Community Colleges (CCCs) offer learning disability (LD) assessments to determine eligibility for academic accommodations, for Latina students navigating converging forces of race, gender, language, citizenship, and ableism, these assessments often surface unspoken histories of harm. This study advanced Chicana feminista DisCrit (CFDC), extending disability critical race theory through Chicana spirituality and cultural intuition to examine possibilities when an educadora situates assessments in a plática grounded in consideración—respectful, relational, and unhurried care.

Rooted in Chicana feminist pláticas methodology and authored from the positionality of a disabled Latina scholar–practitioner, this qualitative decolonial dissertation explored how Latina students reflected on …

Who Gets To Be Taken Seriously? Three Atypical Scholars Navigate Doctoral Education At The Intersections Of Race, Neurodivergence, And Veteran Identity, Sr. Richard De La Garza

Dissertations

As a first-generation, neurodivergent, Mexican American/Chicano veteran, I entered the University of San Diego's doctoral program having had experiences that most institutional intake processes would label as risk factors. The Findings chapter of this dissertation begins by describing those experiences—not as a confession, but as the foundation for a systematic inquiry into how doctoral legitimacy is produced, withheld, and defended. The description of my life experiences is followed by a discussion of the doctoral journeys of two other study participants who also were atypical doctoral candidates.

The central argument being advanced is this: What higher education calls "fit," "rigor," and …

The Impact Of The Science Of Reading Initiative On Reading Test Scores Among Rural Elementary Students In Arkansas, Julie A. Ferguson

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

This study examines changes in reading achievement among rural elementary students in Arkansas following the statewide implementation of the Science of Reading initiative. Beginning in 2019, Arkansas required educators in kindergarten through sixth grade to receive training in evidence‑based literacy practices emphasizing phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Despite these efforts, rural districts continue to face challenges related to staffing, access to professional development, and instructional resources, raising questions about whether statewide reforms have produced measurable improvements in reading outcomes.

Using a quantitative, longitudinal, quasi‑experimental design, this study analyzes ACT Aspire reading assessment data collected from rural Arkansas schools …

Utilizing Cte Programs To Bridge The Expectations Gap Between Academia And Entrance Into The Global Workforce, Jose M. Gaspar

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine whether completing high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) coursework, completing foreign language coursework, or participating in community college CTE programs predicted higher levels of postsecondary degree attainment. The study was designed to better understand how academic and technical pathways function within the P–20 system and how these pathways shape student perceptions and long-term educational outcomes. Participants in the study included individuals who had completed some level of postsecondary education and provided information on their high school and community college coursework experiences. Findings indicated that students who participated in both academic and …

“We Talked About Straight People Sex”: The Health Education Experiences Of Queer And Trans Youth In Utah, Sonny Partola

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This article explores how Utah’s health education curriculum shapes the experiences of queer and trans youth. Drawing on critical ethnography conducted at an urban public high school, the study foregrounds the voices of six queer and trans students. Findings reveal that abstinence-focused and heteronormative curricula render these youth invisible, exclude critical information on queer, trans, and intersex health, and compromise students’ well-being. Participants described feelings of discomfort, irrelevance, and pressure to act as informal educators for peers. Their accounts highlight the urgent need for queerly responsive health education that affirms diverse identities, normalizes inclusion, and provides accurate, relevant information. Such …

Critical Hope As A Discipline: Resisting Neoliberal Education And Teaching Toward Futurity, David H. Kahl Jr.

Feminist Pedagogy

The university was founded on the principles of critical thought and the critical examination of ideas. However, this vision has gradually eroded over time due to the permeation of neoliberal thought into the university’s walls. Since the last 1970s, hyper-capitalist ideologies have disrupted efforts to develop students into engaged citizens of the world who speak out against gendered, racial, sexual, economic and other forms of marginalization by propagating post-truth messages. Specifically, neoliberal entities produce messages that teach students that their role in life is not to build community and communal bonds among people. Rather, neoliberal entities produce post-truth messages that …

Table Of Contents - Jaepl - Volume 30, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Front Matter - Jaepl - Volume 30, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Full Issue Of The Journal Of The Assembly For Expanded Perspectives On Learning Volume 30, Wendy Ryden, Jonathan M. Marine

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Writing Without Peter: Reflections On Peter Elbow And His Legacy: Peter Elbow The Philosopher, Irene Papoulis

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

On the occasion of Peter Elbow’s passing, we read many tributes and praises commemorating him and the foundational contributions he made to the multi-faceted field of writing studies. But as we know, even as Peter’s ideas were lauded and embraced, they were also questioned by many, including other renowned members of our profession.

“Narrative Medicine Saved My Life”: Writing Is A Verb As Well As A Noun, Marian M. Maccurdy, Sarah Robinson

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Dedicated to Professor Peter Elbow 4/14/1935 – 2/6/2025

I, Marian, began my career as a graduate student in medieval literature who had a teaching assistantship to fund her degree. As a graduate student I lived in a world that saw writing as a noun, something done and finished, not as a verb, a process that shows us a world that is as ever-changing as we are. But as a writing teacher I found myself sliding into the world that writers inhabit, and

The Giving And The Receiving: Spiritual Traditions And Teaching, Aepl Summer Conference 2025, Estes Park, Co., Bhushan Aryal, Beverly Brannon, Geri Deluca, Nate Mickelson, Laurence Musgrove, Kristin B. Rajan, Adrian Matt Zytkoskee

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Editor’s note: This past year, AEPL held its first full, in-person conference since the pandemic at our beloved Estes Park location in the Rockies. To commemorate the return of this staple event for our organization, here’s a snapshot of one of the workshops, led by immediate past AEPL Chair, Geraldine DeLuca, “Writing Our Spiritual Autobiographies,” in which DeLuca asked attendees to consider, where and how did we begin, spiritually? What sustains us now? Deluca provided three prompts by Wallace Stevens, Karen Armstrong, and Audre Lorde to aid attendees in their reflection and writing processes. These prompts appear at the end …

Review: Williams, Bronwyn T. Literacies In Times Of Disruption: Living And Learning During A Pandemic., Ashna Singh

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This review is structured around three central concepts that Williams develops throughout this book: affect, assemblages, and the connection between memory and identity. In Literacies in Times of Disruption: Living and Learning During a Pandemic, Williams focuses on the narratives of over thirty university students at the University of Louisville to examine how their literacy practices and emerging identities were influenced by physical, emotional, and structural crises.

Bringing Mindfulness Into First-Year Composition, Matt Lemas

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

I first stumbled upon the relationship between mindfulness and writing sometime after college. I had been meditating for a few years—not perfectly, but enough to notice the way it softened the inner critic and procrastinator that usually accompanied me to the page.

James Moffett’S Basic Principles, Jonathan M. Marine, Stephen Lafer

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The tricky part about trying to distill James Moffett’s basic principles is that there are so many of them. In literature, the “major” poets are separated form the “minor” for a number of reasons, but one critical criteria is development; major poets have to develop across the span of their careers, either writing in new forms, or about and with new ideas or themes. Suffice to say, Moffett developed a great deal across his career, from a focus on pedagogy to a focus on spirituality and mindfulness along with increasing consideration of educational assessment and policy. Of course, I’m overgeneralizing …

Book Reviews Introduction: Is It Just Me?, Curtis Porter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Each of the reviews in this issue of JAEPL focus on a book that was published long before this particular crisis. The books span very different academic fields and very different research methodologies. Yet each reviewer gives a glimpse of how the research behind each book emerged from lived challenges and illustrates how that research sheds light on the daily work and daily struggle that we collectively face.

Contributors: Jaepl - Volume 30, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Contributors: JAEPL - Volume 30

Review: Cope, Emily M. Evangelical Writing In A Secular Imaginary: The Academic Writing Of Christian Undergraduates At A Public University., Kelly M. Sauskojus

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Emily Murphy Cope’s Evangelical Writing in a Secular Imaginary: The Academic Writing of Christian Undergraduates at a Public University (2024) empirically considers how evangelical students negotiate their identities in their academic writing.

Back Matter - Jaepl - Volume 30, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Back Matter - JAEPL - Volume 30

Mindful Administration: Toward A Theory Of Academic Leadership We Can Live With, Sue Doe, Janelle Adsit

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This article names barriers to faculty leadership and identifies specific ways that faculty can harness tools and resources needed to lead well. Through mindful and relational leadership practices, faculty can ensure that the values that academic communities espouse are made manifest.

Review: Poetter, Thomas S. Curriculum Fragments: A Currere Journey Through Life Processes., Joseph Wiederhold

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Poetter’s book Curriculum Fragments—and the stories shared within— have changed the way I think about education. Redefined it. Recentered it on what matters most—the human experience, the life processes at the center of Poetter’s book: losing, knowing, forgiving, relating, hoping, growing, loving. Each of Poetter’s fragments—reflective narratives written following the Currere methodology (Pinar)—caused me to reevaluate my practice.

Content And Consequences: Impact Of Representation In Stem Higher Education Instructional Content On Marginalized Students, Nichole Ventura

Doctorate in Education

This qualitative study examined representation of historically marginalized students in STEM instructional content at the higher education level and its impact on their learning experiences. Despite growing diversity initiatives in STEM enrollment, curricular materials often fail to reflect the identities of underrepresented students. Using critical theory and interpretivist approaches, this research investigated how representation—or its absence—shapes students' sense of belonging, academic identity formation, and persistence. Through semi-structured interviews with undergraduate students from historically marginalized backgrounds, and purposeful sampling, this study captured the lived experiences of students engaging with STEM instructional materials. Interview protocols explored how students perceive their representation in …

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In Teaching And Learning In High School Social Studies Curricula In Georgia: A Case Study, Sharon Ann Mcmeans-Lukiri

Dissertations

Despite increasing diversity within Georgia’s high school student population, it remains unclear to what extent social studies teachers incorporate Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) in the planning and implementation of their instruction. Recent research indicates that many educators continue to struggle with developing effective instructional practices that meet the learning needs of students from vulnerable communities (Liasidou & Symeou, 2018). Students from these communities often experience lower academic achievement (Ladson-Billings, 2009), and when the curriculum fails to reflect or respond to their cultural backgrounds, they are more likely to disengage from school (Ladson-Billings, 2009). This gap between students’ cultural needs and …

Breaking Barriers For Student Success: Leading In Challenging Times, Lisa Marie Dewey

Dissertations

This study explores how Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) directors in one Midwestern state understand and lead equity initiatives in K–12 public education. The purpose of the study was to examine how DEI leaders make sense of their roles and the challenges of sustaining equity work within complex and often politicized systems. Using a basic qualitative methodology, the research examined how personal identity, sociopolitical context, and organizational structures shape DEI leadership. Critical Race Theory (CRT) framed the study, centering race, power, and systemic inequity in participants’ experiences.

Seven DEI directors participated in semi-structured interviews. Three key themes emerged. First, participants’ …

Diversity In Aquatics:4th Special Issue, Tiffany M. Quash Ph.D., Angela K. Beale-Tawfeeq, Steven N. Waller Ph.D.

International Journal of Aquatic Research and Education

The theme of this special issue is “Building a Community of Champions.” The purpose of this theme is to highlight and promote a civic engagement perspective that engages, advocates, and supports communities of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in addressing the national, regional, and local evolving health-related issue of drowning. Aquatic Settings have been a pivotal focal point of social justice, water safety, and public health, not only in the past but also in our present day (Beale-Tawfeeq, Quash, et al, 2023 and Waller and Bemiller, 2023). Diversity In Aquatics (DIA) strives to positively impact the field of aquatics …

Khaled Hosseini’S Judgment In The Kite Runner Towards Pashtun And Hazara Identities, Bilal Waziri, Dawod Mangal, Kamaldeen Kamal

Journal of Research Initiatives

This book review offers a compelling examination of Khaled Hosseini's portrayal of Pashtun and Hazara identities in his acclaimed novel, *The Kite Runner*. Through a literary-ethnographic lens, the research delves into how narrative techniques can construct, amplify, or distort ethnic representations, particularly within the tumultuous backdrop of Afghanistan. The novel is scrutinized for its stark depiction of Pashtuns as oppressors and Hazaras as perennial victims, which risks perpetuating a simplistic and problematic singular narrative. Employing a library-based qualitative approach, this paper thoughtfully interprets textual evidence within the rich sociocultural and historical landscape of Afghanistan. The findings reveal that while the …