In this article, Lilia Bartolome argues that the current focus on finding the right "methods" to improve the academic achievement of students who have historically been oppressed hides the less visible but more important reasons for their performance: the asymmetrical power relations of society that are reproduced in the schools, and the deficit view of minority students that school personnel uncritically, and often unknowingly, hold. Bartolome argues instead for a humanizing pedagogy that respects and uses the reality, history, and perspectives of students as an integral part of educational practice. Discussing two approaches in particular that show promise when implemented within a humanizing pedagogical framework — culturally responsive education and strategic teaching — Bartolome emphasizes the need for teachers' evolving political awareness of their relationship with students as knowers and active participants in their own learning.

Beyond the Methods Fetish: Toward a Humanizing Pedagogy

Hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine relationships between students’ sense of school community, poverty level, and student attitudes, motives, beliefs, and behavior among a diverse sample of 24 elementary schools. Major findings were that: (a) within schools, individual students’ sense of school community was significantly associated with almost all of the student outcome measures, (b) Between schools, school-level community and poverty were both significantly related to many of the student outcomes (the former positively, the latter negatively), (c) Most of the relationships between school community and student measures held for schools at different poverty levels, (d) Several significant interactions between school community and poverty level indicated that some of the strongest positive effects of school community occurred among schools with the most disadvantaged student populations.

Schools as Communities, Poverty Levels of Student Populations, and Students’ Attitudes, Motives, and Performance: A Multilevel Analysis

Concerns over recruiting and retaining minority students in gifted education programs have persisted for several decades, and, although many educators, policymakers, and researchers have deliberated about the underrepresentation of minority students in gifted education, few articles, reports, or studies exist on this topic. This article seeks to fill this void, describing factors that inhibit the recruitment and retention of minority students in gifted education programs. These factors include screening and identification issues (e.g., definitions and instrumentation); educational issues (e.g., quality of students' education); and personnel issues (e.g., lack of teacher training in gifted and urban education, low teacher referral). Also discussed are retention issues, namely, factors that may affect the decision of minority students to remain in gifted education programs. Finally, recommendations for recruiting and retaining minority students are offered.

The Underrepresentation of Minority Students in Gifted Education Problems and Promises in Recruitment and Retention

The purpose of this paper is to present an argument for developing science teacher education programs that examine teachers' beliefs about multicultural issues and their impact on science teaching and learning. In the paper, we (a) delineate a rationale for the study of teacher beliefs about issues of culture and its impact on science teaching and learning; (b) assert three major categories of teacher beliefs to examine for designing teacher education programs that aim to meet the challenges of increasingly culturally diverse classrooms; and (c) discuss implications for science teacher education programs and research. Research has shown that knowing teachers' beliefs and designing instruction and experiences to explicitly confront those beliefs facilitate refinement of and/or transformation of beliefs and practices (Bryan & Abell, J Res Sci Teaching, 36, 121–140, 1999; Harrington & Hathaway, J Teacher Education, 46, 275–284, 1995; Hollingsworth, Am Educational Res J, 26(2), 160–189, 1989; Olmedo, J Teaching Teacher Education, 13, 245–258, 1997; Tobin & LaMaster, J Res Sci Teaching, 32, 225–242, 1995). Furthermore, prior to student teaching, preservice teachers need to be at least culturally sensitive teachers (Gillette, In Teacher Thinking in Cultural Contexts, F. A. Rios (Ed.); Albany, NY: State University of New York Press; 1996, pp. 104–128). Science educators need to continue to identify those beliefs and practices that undergird desirable and equitable science instruction. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed86:821–839, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/sce.10043

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/sce.10043

Teacher beliefs and cultural models: A challenge for science teacher preparation programs

Grounded in positioning theory, this study examined regular classroom teachers’ views of their roles with regard to English language learners (ELLs) and the relationship between their teaching approaches and the students’ reactions and positioning of themselves in the classroom. Findings suggest that the teachers’ views of their roles varied based on their positioning of themselves as teachers for all students, as teachers for regular education students, or as teachers for a single subject. The teachers’ different approaches were related to the ELLs’ different levels of participation and their positioning of themselves as powerful or powerless students. The study breaks important ground in our understanding of the complex interactional classroom dynamics that influence the teaching and learning of ELLs.

Uninvited Guests: The Influence of Teachers’ Roles and Pedagogies on the Positioning of English Language Learners in the Regular Classroom

Research has consistently documented that teacher expectations influence student outcomes. These expectations are communicated via specific classroom behaviors and practices that differ substantially for high- vs. low-expectation students. Expectations, to a large extent, are a part of a personal belief system influenced by prior experience with diverse students, teachers' role definition, knowledge of appropriate strategies and techniques, and support services available. In urban schools where there are large proportions of academically at-risk students, these factors interact to determine whether or not students receive instruction necessary to improve their low achievement levels.

Linda F. Winfield

Papers

Teacher beliefs toward academically at risk students in inner urban schools