Teachers College Record The Voice of Scholarship in Education

Puckett, Cassidy; Gravel, Brian E.

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200811pmid: N/A

Abstract Background/Context Many schools no longer track classes to increase access to courses at all levels, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. However, informal processes can “de facto” track students, placing them at the same level across subjects. Research shows that de facto tracking is prevalent in STEM, especially between mathematics and science course placements. Less is known about the relationship between mathematics and engineering—the focus of this study. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Mathematics placement is likely to shape participation in engineering given its position under the STEM umbrella. Yet, de facto tracking does not occur all the time. This may depend on the categorization of courses as “academic” or “vocational,” but there is little research about this aspect of course-to-student matching. Therefore, we investigate an unexpected case of equitable participation where mathematics placement does not de facto track students in engineering. We ask: How do institutional and organizational factors shape the absence of de facto tracking? Research Design We used qualitative data drawn from a two-year mixed-methods study in a public high school district with one large comprehensive high school. The school is in the lower third of per pupil spending in the state of Massachusetts, yet has significant engineering-related course offerings. Located near Boston, it serves an economically and racially diverse student body of ∼1,800 students. For this article, we analyzed 998 hours of observations during and after school, in engineering-related elective courses and extracurricular activities, and interviews with 29 students, 31 teachers, six guidance counselors, two district administrators, and the principal. Findings/Results We find competing vocational and academic logics equally frame engineering, which we call “institutional ambiguity.” This dual framing is present at the institutional level and is supported at the school level by three organizational factors: 1) courses and activities that occur in both vocational and academic spaces, 2) teachers who link vocational and academic fields, and 3) an organizational commitment to support the integration of vocational activities. Conclusions/Recommendations Overall, this article contributes to educational and organizational research by identifying the institutional factors and organizational processes that shape the categorization of courses and student-to-course matching. Our research reveals the conditions under which schools and the actors within them have greater agency, where ambiguity in the broader environment allows for contestation and renegotiation of status hierarchies. We argue that by leveraging ambiguity, schools may avoid contributing to inequity in STEM.

Fernández, Érica; Rodela, Katherine C.

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200804pmid: N/A

Abstract Background/Context Given our current anti-immigrant context, it is pertinent that we understand how (un)documented parents who are members of a parent-organized and parent-initiated group come to develop a collectivist Latinx identity within oppressive and marginalizing structures and policies. Purpose/Objectives This study analyzes the processes and actions of a Latinx parent group that led to the establishment of a collectivist identity and the activation of a collective conscientizacao/critical consciousness amid an anti-immigrant climate. Research Design Based on a 2.5-year critical ethnography, we analyzed data that included in-depth interviews, participant observations, photographs, and documents. In doing so, we were able to center the experiences of a parent organizing group in an elementary school in the Midwest during a period of heightened immigrant surveillance and anti-immigrant legislation. Findings/Results Our research suggests that critical consciousness was activated among this group in three stages: (1) Stage 1 describes the actions/strategies FUV took to develop a collective critical consciousness; (2) Stage 2 details the ways in which FUV members activated (i.e., enacted) their collective critical consciousness; and (3) Stage 3 discusses FUV's ongoing efforts to nurture a collective critical consciousness. Conclusions/Recommendations This study combats oppressive, marginalizing, and prevailing academic and public parental involvement discourse, thus having direct implications for how school officials center and support (un)documented Latinx parents and families in schools.

Desai, Shiv R.

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200806pmid: N/A

Abstract Background Black youth are five times more likely, Latinx twice as likely, and Native American youth three times as likely to be incarcerated as their White peers. One of the dire consequences of the prison-industrial complex is that countless youth of color have been disenfranchised and cast out of society. Purpose The purpose of this study is to document the features of a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) project conducted by Leaders Organizing 2 Unite & Decriminalize (LOUD) youth members, which is made up of allies, formerly incarcerated youth, and youth on probation, to provide a model that could be adaptable in similar other contexts. Setting This study takes place in the American Southwest in a state where marijuana is only medically legalized. Participants I worked primarily with five Latina women and three Latino men, one African American man, and one Diné woman. The ages of the LOUD members ranged from 15 to 20 years old and from a high school freshman to a first-year college student. Research Design As a co-facilitator for LOUD, I investigated how this YPAR project provided youth with the opportunity to shape and challenge current juvenile justice policies that detrimentally impacted youth for three years. YPAR endorses a collective process between the researcher and youth, allowing both parties to contribute meaningfully to all areas of research. Data Collection and Analysis Data were analyzed from three sets of semistructured interviews and 40 field notes taken over three years. I used a conventional content analysis approach to analyze both individual interview and weekly meeting transcriptions. Line-by-line coding was conducted through the use of Dedoose qualitative software. Results Through their YPAR investigation of the juvenile justice system, LOUD members were able to identify several key issues that affected system-involved youth such as being dehumanized, the mental, emotional, and spiritual toll, access to their lawyers, and unfair burdens placed on their families. LOUD members found their voice, became empowered to recommend changes in juvenile justice policies, and became social justice advocates for incarcerated youth through this process. Conclusions This project demonstrates how vulnerable marginalized youth became empowered by conducting and analyzing research, developing important recommendations, and being able to share their stories to change the juvenile justice system. We could choose to be a nation that extends care, compassion, and concern to those who are locked up and locked out or headed for prison before they are old enough to vote. We could seek for them the same opportunities we seek for our own children; we could treat them like one of “us.” We could do that. Or we can choose to be a nation that shames and blames its most vulnerable, affixes badges of dishonor upon them at young ages, and then relegates them to a permanent second-class status for life. That is the path we have chosen, and it leads to a familiar place. (Alexander, 2010, p. 206)

Santiago, Maribel

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200808pmid: N/A

Abstract Background/Context To adapt to increasingly diverse classrooms, some school districts are trying to offer additional curriculum that represents the diversity of their students. California, where half of school-age children are Latinx, is at the forefront of including Latinx histories in its curriculum. The state's 2017 California History-Social Science Framework claims to prioritize “engaging and relevant” history curriculum. Yet, as this article reveals, curricular inclusion does not always lead to complex representations of Latinx histories. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This article focuses on Mendez v. Westminster School District of Orange County (1946), a Mexican American school desegregation case, as an example of how Latinx experiences were diluted to appeal to a larger audience, gain traction, and justify their addition to the California framework. Research Design This article includes analysis of five forms of data: historiography of the case, primary documents regarding the court trial and appeal, primary documents related to Mendez becoming part of the California framework, educational resources, and interviews with people who advocated for Mendez to be taught in K–12 classrooms. Findings Although Mendez was included in the California History-Social Science Framework, the version that was embraced was more about Brown v. Board of Education than Mendez or Latinx school segregation. To appeal to a larger audience, the Mendez story had to attach itself to an already celebrated and well-known event. This gave rise to the “Mexican American Brown” interpretation that stretches the historical truth, exaggerating the connection between Brown and Mendez. Educational and curricular resources facilitated this process in three ways: (1) claiming that Mendez was the legal precursor to Brown; (2) fabricating Earl Warren's participation in Mendez; and (3) exaggerating the role that Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP had in Mendez. Historical actors were then used to corroborate the Mexican American Brown story. This article ends with analysis of what is lost when Mendez is represented in the California framework as the Mexican American Brown. Conclusions Mendez v. Westminster's addition to the California framework signifies that it is an event worth learning. Yet, it is Mendez's relationship to Brown that made it worthy. This leads to an “illusion of inclusion,” which gives the impression that Mexican Americans are being incorporated into the curriculum but actually fails to represent their unique experiences. Historical events that validate the stories of Latinx communities are still very much missing from curricular materials.

Warshaw, Jarrett B.; Ciarimboli, Erin B.

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200814pmid: N/A

Abstract Background Popular commentary portrays private liberal arts colleges (LACs) as ensnared within a “death spiral” due to unprecedented enrollment and financial challenges. But, in contrast to ominous predictions, recent evidence suggests strong levels of innovative activity and resilience in the sector, as reflected in the creation and adoption of methods, approaches, and configurations new to these campuses. In periods of rapid change and transition, LAC stakeholders are likely to seek research on how different change-centered strategies enhance or constrain the faculty role and the relationship between shared governance and innovation. Purpose This study focuses on how faculty engage with administrative leaders and professional staff in academic innovation and decision making in LACs. It applies competing theoretical perspectives—the structural-bureaucratic and cultural lenses of analysis—to determine which one best captures the changes taking place on these campuses and to assay broader outcomes associated with using one approach over another. Participants The 43 research participants in this study encompassed faculty members (49%), senior-level administrators (21%), trustees (7%), and professional staff (23%). Research Design This study employed an embedded case study design that was replicated across three LACs, whose innovative activity was on par with national averages in the sector. Data Collection and Analysis Site visits were conducted at each LAC, during which individual interviews were conducted, documentary materials were collected, and field notes were recorded. The analysis included an application of process, values, and pattern coding to examine the relative fit of the structural-bureaucratic and cultural accounts. Findings/Results The results indicated that the faculty role largely concentrated on contributing content and operationalizing details of academic innovation. Although emerging forms of shared governance were carefully designed, they had tenuous connections to the overall innovative capacity of faculty and their campuses. Conclusions/Recommendations The value of the cultural lens of analysis lies in its ability to account for the ways in which interactions and communication among faculty and stakeholders enhances or constrains academic innovation. A cultural perspective also illuminates three broader patterns from the cases to explain (1) the increasing fragmentation between administrators and faculty and within the professoriate, (2) the compartmentalization of academic work vis-à-vis the “unbundling” of faculty roles, and (3) the failure of purely structural recourses to produce innovative change. Because innovation in LACs matters for strategic differentiation and for the contributions of private higher education to the postsecondary system, broader implications for research and policy are discussed.

Adeyemo, Adeoye O.; Morris, Jerome E.

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200812pmid: N/A

Abstract Background/Context The corpus of scholarship on Black male students who play sports focuses on students at the collegiate level, thus ignoring the regional, neighborhood, and K–12 educational backgrounds and experiences of these young people before some matriculate into a college or university. This omission suggests the need for more robust investigations that (a) focus on Black males during K–12 schooling, (b) place Black male students’ experiences within the larger geographic (e.g., regions, neighborhoods and schools) and social and historical contexts in which they live and go to school, and thereby, (c) seek to understand how these contexts shape students’ experiences and beliefs about race and the role of academics and athletics in their lives and future. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study We investigated two research questions: (1) For Black male students who play high school sports, how do the social contexts shape their experiences and their beliefs about race and the role of academics and athletics in their lives and future? (2) And, what are the consequences of Black male students’ experiences and beliefs for their academic and athletic outcomes? This investigation across geographically and economically contrasting cities, neighborhoods, and schools in the U.S. South (metro Atlanta, Georgia) and Midwest (Chicago, Illinois) offers empirical, theoretical, and practice-related evidence about young Black males’ experiences and beliefs about race, academics, and athletics, while providing a window into the complex social and cultural worlds in which they live, go to school, and play sports. Research Design This article emanates from research studies that employed ethnographic research methods such as interviews and observations, while embedding the researchers within the communities where Black people resided. The research design used a cross-case analysis to investigate participants’ experiences and beliefs. The constant comparative method allowed for the synthesizing of data collected from two different research sites. Description of Main Findings Key findings revealed the importance for researchers to consider place and its implication in the experiences of Black male students who play sports, particularly their perceptions of the role of academics, athletics, and race in their lives. Conclusions/Recommendations This article moves the scholarly understanding of the study of Black male “students who play sports” forward by illuminating the centrality of places, whether a particular country, region, city, neighborhood, or school—in shaping participants’ experiences and beliefs. We offer insights for research, theory, and practice.

Dahn, Maggie; Deliema, David; Enyedy, Noel

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200802pmid: N/A

Abstract Background/Context Computer science has been making its way into K–12 education for some time now. As computer science education has moved into learning spaces, research has focused on teaching computer science skills and principles but has not sufficiently explored the emotional aspects of students’ experiences. This topic warrants further study because learning to code is a complex emotional experience marked by intense periods of success and failure. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study The purpose of our study is to understand how reflecting on and making art might support students’ emotional experience of learning to code. We focus our efforts on students’ experiences with debugging, the process of figuring out how to fix broken code. Our research questions are: How did students reflect on their experiences and emotions in the context of art making about debugging? How did students describe the potential for making art to shape their coding practice? Setting The setting is a two-week computer programming workshop at a non-profit organization focused on computer science education. Population/Participants/Subjects Participants are 5th through 10th grade students attending Title I schools or with demonstrated financial need. Intervention/Program/Practice Students participated in a visual arts class for an hour each day of the two-week workshop, in addition to three coding classes. Research Design Design-based research anchored our study. Data sources included students’ written artist statements, artifact-based interviews about artwork, and in-process conversations with the researcher-teacher leading the art class. We used a storytelling framework to make sense of how elements of our curriculum and instructional design supported student reflections on obstacles in coding, how they talked about debugging events over time, and the range of emotions they expressed feeling. Findings/Results Findings suggest that making and reflecting on art can support students in offering descriptive accounts of learning to code and debug. Students’ stories highlighted the range of ways they experienced failure in coding, the causes of those moments of failure, the flow of events through failure (what was disrupted, how the experience changed over time, and whether it was resolved), and the emotions (about emotions) that framed failure. Moreover, students described the ways that art making shaped their coding practice, including transforming how they understood themselves, set goals, relaxed after a stressful coding class, approached problem solving, and set expectations. Conclusions/Recommendations Our results have implications for the redesign of our intervention and more broadly for the design of learning environments and computer science pedagogy.

Dean, Christopher G. Pupik; Schein, Maggie; Kang, Sheena; Kidd, David; Webb, Mel; Doyle, Annie Walton; Allen, Danielle

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200807pmid: N/A

Abstract Background/Context In recent years, the humanities have frequently been described as “under attack” or “in crisis” in both popular media and academic writing. In this climate, it is particularly critical to develop a stronger understanding of the value of the humanities. While there are many theoretical arguments about their value, the base of empirical research that is focused on understanding how the humanities make a contribution to human development is not as robust as the theoretical arguments. Developing the base of empirical research requires the development of assessment tools that are grounded in humanistic practice and the implicit learning theories employed by humanists. Objective This study seeks to uncover and describe the implicit learning theories employed by a sample of humanist practitioners who applied for and received funding from the public humanities organization Illinois Humanities (IH) between 1981 and 2012. Research Design This project used qualitative analysis to study 89 grant proposals that were submitted to and funded by IH between 1981 and 2012. This archive was analyzed in a three-stage process. Through qualitative thematic analysis, we identified and coded elements of the archive that provided data about humanistic craft practice. We used the results of this analysis to conduct a secondary analysis of the elements of craft logic and to identify implicit learning theories. Findings/Results Our findings revealed that the humanists who received grants from IH engaged the craft logic of the humanities in ways that could be grouped into themes and tended to apply one of seven implicit learning theories to their work. Three implicit learning theories were shared by ten or more grants across the sample: cultivating understanding through analysis, cultivating understanding through imaginative engagement, and cultivating appreciation. Conclusions/Recommendations We propose that the analytic approach we describe here helps make the logic underlying humanistic practice explicit and thereby lays the foundation for the development of systematic assessment strategies authentic to programs that deploy common humanistic methods and goals. This can provide humanists and humanities organizations with a better and more explicit understanding of how their own practices work as drivers of human development and to construct an analytic framework for empirically assessing the impact of the humanities on participants and students in humanities programs.

Bruhn, Sarah

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200801pmid: N/A

Abstract Background/Context There has been growing attention to the disproportionate and harmful effects of school exclusion, including suspension and expulsion, on boys of color. Restorative justice may be one possibility for addressing these disparities. Yet the research on restorative justice in schools is nascent, and in particular, little is known about the role of school leaders in enacting restorative practices as a means to creating more equitable schools. Focus of Study By highlighting the work of school leaders, this study contributes to our collective understanding of how restorative justice can function as a meaningful alternative to school exclusion. The study explores how two leaders exercise leadership, build legitimacy, and develop relationships with teachers and students. It examines how these leaders make sense of their efforts to transform the school from a place reliant on traditional punitive mechanisms as a form of control to a restorative school culture. Setting The study took place at a charter school with campuses in two neighboring cities in the Northeast United States. Research Design This study uses portraiture, a methodology that emphasizes participants’ phenomenological perspectives and illuminates the complexity of goodness and success, making it well-aligned with the topic of this research. I gathered data through in-depth interviews with and observation of the two leaders at the center of the study, as well as interviews and observations of students and teachers. Conclusions Ultimately, the leaders exhibited restraint, persistence, and respect, qualities that served as the basis for meaningful relationships with students and teachers. In turn, these relationships were an important component of how the school sought to reduce suspension rates and narrow racial gaps in exclusionary punishments.

Gallo, Sarah; Ortiz, Andrea

doi: 10.1177/016146812012200810pmid: N/A

Abstract Background/Context This article builds on U.S.-based research on undocumented status and schooling to examine how an elementary school teacher in Mexico successfully integrates transnational students’ experiences related to unauthorized (im)migration into the classroom. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Drawing on a politicized funds of knowledge framework, we focus on an exceptional fifth-grade teacher's curricular, pedagogical, and relational decisions to provide concrete examples of how educators on both sides of the border can carefully integrate students’ politicized experiences into their classrooms. Setting This research took place in a semirural fifth-grade classroom in Central Mexico during the 2016–2017 academic year, when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States. Population/Participants/Subjects This article focuses on the routine educational practices within a single fifth-grade classroom in a highly transnational Central Mexican town. Participants included a binational student who had recently relocated to Mexico because of U.S.-based immigration policies, her peers from transnational families with ties to the United States, and their fifth-grade teacher. Research Design This school-based ethnographic study involved weekly participant observation and video recording of routine activities in Profe Julio's fifth-grade classroom during the 2016–2017 academic year. Observations were triangulated with additional data sources such as interviews (with educators, binational students, and binational caregivers) and artifacts (such as homework assignments and student writing). Findings/Results Through a close examination of a fifth-grade classroom in Mexico, we illustrate how the teacher brought students’ (im)migration experiences into school by leveraging openings in the curriculum, developing interpersonal relationships of care, and engaging in a range of pedagogical moves. Conclusions/Recommendations We discuss how this teacher's educational practices could be carefully tailored to U.S. classrooms within the current anti-immigrant context. These practices include building relationships of care, looking for openings in the curriculum, providing academic distance, prioritizing teachers as learners, and working with school leadership for guidance on navigating politicized topics under the current U.S. administration.