Showing papers in "Educational studies in 2022"

Examining Teacher Identity Construction in Action Research: The Mediating Role of Experience

Abstract: While research on teacher identities has received a surge of attention in the past decades, there is a need for further exploring how teachers’ professional profiles contributes to their engagement in action research. To this end, the current action research-oriented study explored two novice and two experienced language teachers’ identities across the four main stages of action research, namely Plan, Act, Observe, and Reflect. For this purpose, we collected data via semi-structured interviews, reflective journals, and classroom observations. Data analyses indicated that the teachers’ identity construction was largely featured by similarities than differences, as Plan (similar predicaments, different confidence); Act (struggling differently, exulting similarly); Observe (similar emotions, similar recognition); and Reflect (similar trajectories, different reflectivity). In addition, the study argues that while experience influences teacher-researchers’ initial AR steps, novice and experienced teachers undergo similar trajectories in constructing their identities over the course of implementing their plans.

(Re)Considering “precarious privilege” within international schooling: expatriate teachers’ perceptions in China of being marginalised and undervalued

Abstract: The number of schools delivering a curriculum in English outside an English-speaking nation is growing both in scale and importance, reaching 12,000 by 2021. Such schools are traditionally staffed by expatriate teachers and mainly from Britain and North America. In recent years, a newer arena of commercially driven “non-traditional” international schools serving mainly local parents has emerged. We report on the reality of being an expatriate teacher in a remote part of China where they are numerically a minority grouping within the school. Through interviews with four teachers, we will begin to further investigate and (re)consider the notion of “precarious privilege”. The expatriate teachers felt they enjoy status for their “whiteness” or “ethnic capital” yet perceived themselves to be professionally marginalised and undervalued. A challenging thesis emerges that this minority grouping potentially represents a pragmatic opportunity for the “non-traditional” school to assert its legitimacy, as an “international” or “internationalised” institution.

Effects of educational robotics on the creativity and problem-solving skills of K-12 students: a meta-analysis

Abstract: With the increasing use of robotics in education, this study examined the influence of educational robotics on K-12 students’ creativity and problem-solving skills by using Meta-analysis on 20 typical studies published from 2011 to 2021. Subsequent results exhibited five major points: 1) The overall effect of educational robotics was at 0.821; 2) Educational robotics had significantly improved students’ creativity more than their problem-solving skills; 3) Educational robotics had the best effect on kindergarten children, but only had less effect on middle school students; 4) Educational robotics had a more significant learning effect on girls than boys; and 5) Different course periods of educational robotic teaching all had a positive effect on learning, but would notably decrease as the course period extends. Hence, educational practitioners and researchers should completely utilise its advantages to effectively improve students’ creativity and problem-solving skills, and provide guidance for the development and application of educational robotics.

Stressed-Out of STEM: Examining Mentoring Experiences of Women, People of Color, and International Postdocs

Abstract: This narrative study examined the mentor-mentee relationship from the positioning of 31 minoritized STEM postdocs at a research-intensive institution. Seeking to enhance the current body of literature on mentoring and minoritized STEM postdocs to encourage institutions to adopt culturally responsive practices and cultivate sustainable research environments, the researchers conducted individual, in-depth interviews with women, people of color, and international postdocs who spanned 17 different STEM departments at a large, research-intensive university in the southeast United States. Using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis, findings revealed four themes: (1.1) Postdocs’ observations of faculty roles, responsibilities, and leadership styles influenced their decisions to pursue or depart a career path to academia; (1.2) postdocs cited poor communication from mentors and misaligned position expectations versus realities as major challenges; (1.3) postdocs described few productive exchanges and felt many exchanges directly benefited mentors; and (1.4) postdocs observed and experienced mentors’ mistreatment of minoritized postdocs (i.e., women, people of color, and individuals with international status).

The relationship between perfectionism and test anxiety of junior high school students: the mediating role of self-efficacy and trait anxiety

Abstract: Test anxiety contributed to lower student performance, limited students' learning opportunities, predisposed to negative emotional experiences, and affected physical and mental health. Perfectionism as one of the crucial factors influencing test anxiety has been widely confirmed in the context of individualistic cultural values. This study explores the effects of perfectionism on test anxiety among junior high school students in collectivist cultural values (e.g., China) and the role of self-efficacy and trait anxiety in this context. The results of the study indicated that adaptive perfectionism positively predicted test anxiety, and maladaptive perfectionism was not related to test-taking in a group of middle school students in a Chinese cultural context. If adaptive perfectionism caused an increasein self-efficacy, it weakened trait anxiety and reduced test anxiety, whereas when adaptive perfectionism failedto cause an increase in self-efficacy, it led to higher trait anxiety and test anxiety.

Decolonial Discourses and Practices: Geopolitical Contexts, Intellectual Genealogies, and Situated Pedagogies

Abstract: Abstract Although decolonial thought from Latin America and the Caribbean is a multifaceted field of research and sociopolitical praxis, it is often interpreted monolithically. To refuse this tendency, we argue that it is imperative to trace decolonial theory’s intellectual genealogies and engage in transgressive decolonial hermeneutics to re-interpret texts (theories) according to their living socio-historical and geopolitical contexts. Following Stuart Hall’s lead, we first sketch out the geopolitical and sociocultural exigencies that allow for theoretical movements to unfold, paying more attention to the geopolitical implications of thinking “from” Latin America and the Caribbean. Second, we address the ethical imperative of thinking “with” as we seriously engage in inter-epistemic dialogues to advance an ecology of decolonial knowledges and pedagogical practices born in struggle. Ultimately, this article situates decolonial discourses and practices according to the conditions that enable their praxis-oriented intellectual expression.

Plateaus, Puzzles, and PhDs: Un/Making Knowledge Differently through Digital Storytelling

Abstract: Abstract Digital storytelling as part of study creates an opening for reworking ideas. It marks an instance of recognition to access alternative ways of knowing, thinking, and doing. Guided by radical black studies and decolonizing methodologies, the authors draw on insights from digital storytelling to extend current understandings of educational research, theory, and practice. The connections across five digital stories are highlighted through a retrospective analysis of educational journeys to and beyond doctoral study. The digital stories are presented in a series of plateaus to (1) challenge the constraints of academic writing and (2) signal methodological openings in collective restorying. To that end, the authors unravel processes of becoming, trouble the pedagogical encounters in their work, and push for otherwise possibilities to make room for the not-yet.

Text-Picture-Material in science education: A comparison of Omani and German teachers’ attitudes, motivational orientations and self-regulatory skills

Abstract: Texts and instructional pictures are widely used for facilitating students’ understanding of complex content, especially in science subjects. International large-scale assessments repeatedly reveal differences in students’ science achievement between countries. Since text-picture material (TPM) plays an essential role in science education, it is reasonable to investigate TPM-related distinguishing characteristics. In general, teachers need professional competences such as attitudes, motivational orientations, and self-regulatory skills for supporting student learning. It is plausible to assume that this also applies for teaching and learning with TPM. This article reports on comparisons of (a) Omani and German science teachers (country comparison), and (b) German science and language teachers (domain comparison). In a cross-sectional design, data was collected from 450 secondary school teachers. Structural equation models revealed country-specific and domain-specific differences in teachers’ TPM-competences. This study contributes to the body of research on teacher professionalism in different cultural settings, providing implications for teacher education.

Exploring Middle School Students’ Attitudes and Satisfaction About Home-Based Online Education During the COVID-19 Epidemic and the Influential Variables

Abstract: Abstract Background Students’ attitudes and satisfaction are important predictors of educational quality, especially under such special situation as large scale home-based online education during the COVID-19 epidemic. Objectives This study investigated middle school students’ attitudes and satisfaction about home-based online education during COVID-19 epidemic and potential influential variables. Methods Survey data were collected from 788 middle school students in two typical Chinese public schools. Multinomial logistic regression analysis and ordinal logistic regression analysis were used to identify influential variables. Findings We found that more than half of surveyed students felt that home-based online learning was either the same as (35.9%) or better than (18%) traditional face-to-face learning, while 46.1% felt that it was worse than traditional face-to-face learning. More than six tenth of surveyed students felt satisfied or very satisfied with their home-based online education, while less than one third kept neutral attitudes and very few felt unsatisfied or very unsatisfied. Importantly, the study found some influential variables impacting students’ attitudes and satisfaction about home-based online education and they included individual variables (gender, time spent in doing homework, level of learning engagement), organizational variables (school type), and relational variables (time spent on communication and relationship with family members).

Toxic leadership behaviours of school principals: a qualitative study

Abstract: This study investigates the toxic leadership behaviours of school principals. It used a qualitative research model. Data were acquired based on interviews with 55 teachers from six school districts spanning diverse educational levels in Kuwait. The coding and data analysis process revealed that 45% (n = 25) of the participants considered their principals to be toxic leaders. In addition, the results confirmed that toxic leadership practices fall into four main groups: human relations skills, authoritarian leadership, management skills, and professional ethics. From these four groups, nine themes emerged as the most prominent toxic leadership practices.

Understanding Rural School Teachers’ Professional Agency and Its Relationship to Social Structure

Abstract: Abstract Research on the role of teacher agency has been growing significantly during the last decade. Agentic teachers act purposefully and constructively to direct their professional development and contribute to the quality of education, especially in rural areas. Professional development is mutually constituted between teachers and socio-cultural conditions (e.g., circumstances, physical artifacts, power relations, and school cultures) that constrain or enable their agency. This study explored teacher professional agency, and its relationship to teacher perceived social structure, using two newly developed scales: (1) the Teacher Professional Agency (TPA) and (2) the Teacher-Perceived Social Structure (TPSS). A total number of 592 teachers working at rural schools in western China completed the questionnaire. The findings revealed that the two scales were valid and reliable instruments for measuring teacher professional agency, and teacher perceived social structure. Findings show a modestly-moderately correlation between teachers’ professional identity and their perceived social identity. Collegial relationships, followed by school climate and social identity, have the strongest impact on teachers’ professional agency.

What Is Social Justice Research for Asian Americans? Critical Reflections on Cross-Racial and Cross-Ethnic Coalition Building in Community-Based Educational Spaces

Abstract: Abstract As anti-Black ideologies continue to prevail in Asian American communities, this autoethnography explores how two Southeast Asian American (SEAA) scholar-activists and community organizers contended with anti-Blackness, racism, and social justice research in their cross-racial and cross-ethnic solidarity community-organizing and educational curriculum. Utilizing an autoethnographic approach, the authors, both educational anthropologists, engage in critical analysis of their personal experiences as scholar-activists to examine the cultural experiences of being ethnic insiders and researchers. Pheng, a second-generation queer Khmer American scholar, examines the tensions in building cross-racial and cross-ethnic solidarity in Refugee Youth Organizing Training (RYOT), a multi-ethnic community-based SEAA youth leadership program in Philadelphia, PA. She argues that transformative dialogue in support of coalition building requires SEAA youth to first grapple with their historic and contemporary trauma as the descendants of SEAA refugees in the United States. Xiong, a first-generation HMoob American, details the successes and challenges of building cross-racial solidarity as a community-engaged researcher and activist within Solidarity Holds Our Unity Together (SHOUT), a Black and SEAA nonprofit organization in Dane County, WI. She points out that cross-racial and ethnic coalition building requires maintaining long-term relationships between all communities. Pheng and Xiong situate their experiences working with each organization within the context of the Minnesota Uprising and the COVID-19 global pandemic. Noting that both critical and polarizing conversations emerged within Asian American communities post-George Floyd’s death, the authors argue that their position as scholar-activists played a central role in facilitating educational workshops and dialogues to bridge SEAA organizations and the academic community. Specifically, this paper reveals how researchers can produce anti-racist scholarship alongside their community and cultivate reciprocal relationships that benefit minoritized communities. This autoethnography offers insights on the practices of socially-just and community-engaged scholarship in addressing anti-racism and coalition building in community-based educational spaces.

Educational inequality in Indonesia: are intergovernmental fiscal transfers effective in reducing the gap?

Abstract: The study investigates the effectiveness of intergovernmental fiscal transfers for reducing educational inequality in Indonesia. Using panel data of 34 provinces of Indonesia from 2011 to 2019, this study examines how intergovernmental fiscal transfers, namely, the General Allocation Fund (DAU), Special Allocation Fund (DAK), and School Operational Assistance Fund (BOS), can influence the education Gini ratios, representing the distribution of educational equity. Applying the generalised method of moments estimation, the study shows that the DAU and DAK increase educational inequality owing to ineffective formulation and utilisation. Fortunately, the BOS can effectively reduce educational inequality since it is used to finance school operations and provide free education for citizens. The study suggests the need to improve local government spending on education towards more non-routine expenditure to increase the quantity and quality of education. Several improvements are required in teacher and school management and budget planning, followed by regular monitoring and evaluation.

Decolonizing Mathematics Curriculum and Pedagogy: Indigenous Knowledge Has Always Been Mathematics Education

Abstract: Abstract This article illustrates the shared work of Indigenous scholars and community members rooted in Indigenous knowledge toward the goal of decolonizing mathematics education. Furthermore, this study highlights IndigiLogix: Mathematics|Culture|Environment (M|C|E) programming, which is a mathematics precollege program created to advance college access and community empowerment for Indigenous students. IndigiLogix programming seeks to decolonize mathematics education through 4 curricular examples rooted in Indigenous place-based education, with the components of belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity (BMIG), and Indigenous mathematics knowledge. In partnership with public schools’ Indian Education Departments and Indigenous community Elders and community members, this model was employed in a precollege mathematics program for Indigenous youth.

An examination of learners’ homework engagement, academic achievement, and perceptions

Abstract: Completing homework is a highly common task shared by nearly all primary- and secondary-level learners throughout their compulsory education globally. This mixed-methods study examined whether the estimated amount of homework completed (HW) in primary and secondary education is related to learners’ academic achievement (AA), and what learners’ perceptions of the value of homework are. 434 tertiary-level students completed a survey and 24 of them also attended follow-up individual interviews. The findings revealed no statistically significant relationships between HW and AA. Although HW was associated with school banding, we found no relationship between HW and AA when grouping the participants by banding and gender. Two themes emerged from the interviews, namely the presence/absence of the perceived value of homework and positive/negative emotions associated with homework. The findings pose some challenges to beliefs (or ‘conventional wisdom’) such as homework having an unquestionably positive impact on learning, and the more homework the better.

Trauma-Informed Yoga: Investigating an Intervention for Mitigating Adverse Childhood Experiences in Rural Contexts

Abstract: Abstract In a state ravaged by suicide and a mental health crisis, this study sought to mitigate impacts of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and depressive and anxiety symptomology in high school students in a rural Montana community. Through a seven-week, twice weekly intervention of trauma-informed yoga, participants experienced statistically significant reductions in anxiety (GAD-7) and increases in Strengths and Difficulties (SDQ-11) overall scores and some subscales; noteworthy improvements were also present in depressive symptomatology (PHQ-A), salivary cortisol levels, and sleep duration. Importantly, participant qualitative feedback indicated significant benefits in focus, relaxation, and overall well-being. Further research is needed to imply generalizability and should include a larger, more diverse sample as well as utilization of control groups and an examination of academic and behavioral impacts at the school level.

Rebuilding Solidarity Through Advocacy Leadership: Principals Building Coalitions to Fight Exclusion and Displacement in Gentrifying Communities

Abstract: Abstract Background School leader decision making can be complicated by the enrollment of affluent, and often white families in educational spaces that have served low-income, Black, and Brown families post-Brown. Principals’ behaviors influence whose power is coalesced and wielded to make school-wide curricular, budgetary, and personnel decisions. Methods This collaborative study used interviews as the primary method to capture two elementary, two middle, and two high school principals’ attempts to build coalitions with low-income families of color in their schools. Data was drawn from two separate studies analyzing school gentrification in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Using micropolitical theories and drawing on studies promoting a more community-centric approach to school leadership, the data was coded and organized into broad themes. These themes relate to coalition-building’s power in resisting the exclusion and marginalization of families most impacted by inequity in gentrifying schools and their neighborhoods. Findings Findings reveal that principals implemented strategies ranging from engaging in deliberate partnerships with Black and Brown families, implementing anti-racist curricula, and other means of centering Black and Brown communities. Implications Although principals can buffer long-standing families from gentrification’s deleterious consequences, there is a need for principals to unite with families and other school principals for a broader and more targeted and formalized dissent and policy strategy to ensure low-income Black and Brown families drive decision-making in schools and their districts.

Pre-service teachers’ teaching motivation and perceptions of teacher morality in China

Abstract: The study examines two types of pre-service teachers’ teaching motivation and perceptions of teacher morality in China through the following three research questions: (1) What are pre-service teachers’ teaching motivations and perceptions of teacher morality? (2) What is the relationship between pre-service teachers’ perceptions of teaching motivation and teacher morality? (3) What are the differences between the two groups of pre-service teachers, and what factors influence their perceptions? Data are drawn from questionnaires on teacher morality in China and the FIT-Choice Scale, completed by 300 pre-service teachers, and semi-structured interviews with 25 pre-service teachers. The analyses of the findings reveal that pre-service teachers showed a high degree of teaching motivation and generally agreed with the Chinese state’s teacher morality requirements. This study suggests a “moral-motivation-reciprocity” framework for understanding pre-service teachers’ teaching motivation and perceptions of teacher morality in China.

The Difference a Female Teacher Makes: Analysis of Girls’ School Achievement in Nepal

Abstract: Educational outcomes of female students are limited by persistent gender inequalities and the lack of non-patriarchal support structures in schools in Nepal. Role model theory suggests that female teachers provide a range of benefits for female students. We explored if the same-sex teacher as students has nexus with students’ performance in standardized exit examinations among 549 eighth-grade Nepali students to understand the contributions of female teachers on the academic performance of female students. The Mann-Whitney U-test compared eighth-grade male and female students’ test scores based on teachers’ sexual backgrounds. Overall, results showed that students taught by female teachers achieved significantly higher scores in science and the Nepali language than those taught by male teachers, indicating a clear advantage of female teachers. Findings imply that efforts to increase female teachers and invest in their professional development are essential to boost the academic success of girls and to achieve a more equitable education system in Nepal.

Onto-Epistemic Paradigm of the Countryside and Social Theory: What Do Popular Movements of Latin America and the Caribbean Teach Us?

Abstract: Abstract The historical process of consolidation of a Latin American and Caribbean critical social theory is framed, to a great extent, in interpreting our socio-historical formation, identifying the axes that structure the great regional and national problems, with the intention of constructing analytical categories destined to contribute to social transformation. The emergence of popular education and participatory action research strengthened this process, shedding light on education's political dimensions and liberatory implications. Popular movements incorporate the philosophical foundations of social theory and Latin American and Caribbean pedagogical thought into their political struggles and in the formation of a historical subject. Likewise, they advance a social theory rooted in an onto-epistemic paradigm for and by the countryside, which includes a set of knowledges, ways of knowing, and being born in struggle. The objective of this article is to analyze this process and highlight what the popular movements of the region have taught us in terms of a social conceptualization and interpretation that must also be recognized as part of a Social Theory of the Oppressed complemented by a pedagogy of the oppressed.

The Enemy Said We Will Not Make it Home: Critical Race Theory, Educational Foundations and the Fight Against Precarity

Abstract: Abstract The following article is an edited transcript of the R. Freeman Butts lecture of the American Educational Studies Association that took place on November 5, 2021, in Portland, Oregon. In the address, Stovall provides an assessment of the recent attacks on Critical Race Theory and the work needed to resist the current attacks.

The relationship between emotional intelligence and the learning motivation of students with specific learning disorders moderated by the inclusion ability of special education teachers in Arab minority in Israel

Abstract: ABSTRACT This study examined the relationship between special education teachers'emotional intelligence and the learning motivation of students with specific learning disorders, moderated by the teachers' inclusion ability in regular education in Arab minority in Israel. The research setup is quantitative-correlative. The sample included 406 special education teachers (128 male and 278 female) in elementary and middle schools. The participants were asked to answer the following self-report questionnaires: sociodemographic background data, emotional intelligence, learning motivation, and a school inclusion index. The findings indicated significant positive relationships between emotional intelligence, school inclusion ability and learning motivation among the students from the teachers' viewpoint. In addition, the school inclusion variable was a moderator between the teachers' emotional intelligence and the learning motivation of the students with specific learning disabilities. Also, differences were found in the teachers' emotional intelligence and school inclusion ability on the demographic variables: age, gender, role and teaching experience. The necessary conclusion indicated that intelligent use of emotion and inclusion ability predict the learning motivation among students with specific learning disorders.

Counter-Pedagogies of Cruelty across Abya Yala: A Move with Otherwise Present-Futurities

Abstract: Abstract This paper is a call for “counter-pedagogies of cruelty” and memory as counteractions to colonial technologies of violence, erasure, loss, and linear spatio-temporalities and notions of “progress.” In this paper, the authors move across geographic locations in Abya Yala to expose and unpack overlapping and often unnamed colonialities, violences, and racialized border logics. Centering a series of moments from our work and engagements in the nation-states of Chile, Guatemala, and the United States, we bring Segato’s concept of “pedagogies of cruelty” together with settler colonialism, decolonial feminisms, and decolonial geographies as central frameworks to illuminate ongoing colonial structures, violence, and resistance social movements across Abya Yala. We explore the ways “pedagogies of cruelty” are embodied, contested, and made visible when we move across borders and center the knowledges and demands of those most impacted. These frameworks also push us to think and move with and to an “otherwise” no longer beholden to modern/colonial frameworks. We center the “otherwise” as a future already present and past, that challenges neoliberal colonial temporalities and attends to the ways borders and the gratuitous nature of modern/colonial violences permeate schools and classrooms and the urgency of these disruptions.

Problematising conceptions of “effective” home-school partnerships in secondary education

Abstract: This conceptual study seeks to understand parent and teacher perceptions of “effective” home-school partnerships across three secondary schools in England, before problematising these normative understandings. Currently there is little research into home-school partnerships at a secondary level in the UK, and the policy environment is anaemic. To aid the possible direction of future research, six themes are reported from in depth case studies with three schools chosen due to a reputation of good practice. These findings create four principles of perceived effective home-school partnerships: relationships, community, pastoral support, and supporting learning at home. We then problematise these principles and suggest key areas for future research and practice, particularly around the ethics of the relationship with parents, and constructing parents as “co-educators”.

(Un)Natural Saviors and Motivators: Analyzing the Pathological Scripting of Black Male Teachers in Hollywood Films

Abstract: Abstract This article explores how Black male teachers in Hollywood films continue to be encoded with meanings derived from deficit social science discourse generated through a white-controlled epistemic order. Drawing from the framework of critical public pedagogy and utilizing the critical visual cultural tradition, we contend that the representation of Black male teachers on film is rooted in longstanding conceptual narratives of Black men and boys. Findings indicate that cinematic films both develop their scripts around and contextualize the necessity of Black male teachers within deficit sociological tropes of absent Black fathers and their endangered sons.