Showing papers in "Teachers College Record in 2009"

School Climate: Research, Policy, Practice, and Teacher Education

Abstract: Background/Context: Educators have written about and studied school climate for 100 years. School climate refers to the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on patterns of people’s experiences of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures. However, school climate is more than individual experience: It is a group phenomenon that is larger than any one person’s experience. A sustainable, positive school climate fosters youth development and learning necessary for a productive, contributive, and satisfying life in a democratic society. This climate includes norms, values, and expectations that support

Teaching Practice: A Cross-Professional Perspective

Abstract: Background/Context: This study investigates how people are prepared for professional practice in the clergy, teaching, and clinical psychology. The work is located within research on professional education, and research on the teaching and learning of practice. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The purpose of the study is to develop a framework to describe and analyze the teaching of practice in professional education programs, specifically preparation for relational practices. Setting: The research took place in eight professional education programs located in seminaries, schools of professional psychology, and universities across the country. Population/Participants/Subjects: Our research participants include faculty members, students, and administrators at each of these eight programs. Research Design: This research is a comparative case study of professional education across three different professions—the clergy, clinical psychology, and teaching. Our data include qualitative case studies of eight preparation programs: two teacher education programs, three seminaries, and three clinical psychology programs. Data Collection and Analysis: For each institution, we conducted site visits that included interviews with administrators, faculty, and staff; observations of multiple classes and fieldwork; and focus groups with students who were either at the midpoint or at the end of their programs. Conclusions/Recommendations: We have identified three key concepts for understanding the pedagogies of practice in professional education: representations, decomposition, and approximations of practice. Representations of practice comprise the different ways that practice is represented in professional education and what these various representations make

Analyzing Teachers' Professional Interactions in a School as Social Capital: A Social Network Approach

Abstract: Background/Context: Researchers have proposed a number of lenses for analyzing teacher professional communities in recent years. These lenses have been useful in describing key dynamics of professional communities; however, none provides a compelling approach to how to integrate data from the school as a whole with case study data on individual interactions to create a coherent account of the structure and dynamics of teacher professional communities. Objective: Our objective was to present and illustrate the application of social capital theory for analyzing the role of formal and informal teacher interactions in helping teachers enact changes to instruction associated with ambitious school reforms. Social capital theory posits that valued resources and expertise are embedded within social networks and that it is through social ties that one gains access to and can make use of resources to effect change. The network perspective directs researchers to focus simultaneously on the overall social structure of a school and on the expertise and resources exchanged through interactions among teachers that

Researching Race in Mathematics Education

Abstract: BackgroundWithin mathematics education research, policy, and practice, race remains undertheorized in relation to mathematics learning and participation. Although race is characterized in the socio...

The Significance of Relationships: Academic Engagement and Achievement Among Newcomer Immigrant Youth

Abstract: Background/Context: Newcomer immigrant students are entering schools in the United States in unprecedented numbers. As they enter new school contexts, they face a number of challenges in their adjustment. Previous literature suggested that relationships in school play a particularly crucial role in promoting socially competent behavior in the classroom and in fostering academic engagement and school performance. Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the role of school-based relationships in engagement and achievement in a population of newcomer immigrant students. Research Design: The Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study (LISA) used a mixed-methods approach, combining longitudinal, interdisciplinary, qualitative, and quantitative approaches to document adaptation patterns of 407 recently arrived immigrant youth from Central America, China, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico over the course of five years. Based on data from the last year of the study, we examine how the role of relationships mediates newcomers’ challenges with academic engagement and performance. We identify factors that account for patterns of academic engagement and achievement, including country of origin, gender, maternal education, English language proficiency, and school-based relationships. Findings: Multiple regression analyses suggest that supportive school-based relationships strongly contribute to both the academic engagement and the school performance of the par

Beyond the Bake Sale: A Community-Based Relational Approach to Parent Engagement in Schools

Abstract: Background/ContextParent involvement in education is widely recognized as important, yet it remains weak in many communities. One important reason for this weakness is that urban schools have grown...

Evidence, interpretation, and persuasion: Instructional decision making at the district central office

Abstract: Background/ContextCalls for evidence-based decision making have become increasingly prominent on the educational landscape. School district central offices increasingly experience these demands. Ye...

Culturally Responsive Differentiated Instruction: Narrowing Gaps between Best Pedagogical Practices Benefiting All Learners.

Abstract: Background/Context: Because of its special education association, differentiated instruction (DI) is a topic of concern for many educators working with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) learners, whereby bilingual, multicultural, and culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is considered more appropriate for responding to cultural and linguistic diversity. Furthermore, although the literature base on DI recognizes cultural and linguistic diversity, it offers little in terms of ways to address these differences. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The focus of this contribution is to assist the educational community in recognizing pedagogical differences, while finding common ground, in identifying complementary teaching practices for all students, including culturally diverse students and English language learners (ELLs). CRT and DI provide frameworks with which to discuss a reconciliation of both theory-to-practice approaches with the hope that a common framework will better serve educators and preservice teachers working with diverse students in complex multidimensional classrooms. Setting: This research took place at two CLD elementary schools serving ELLs in North San Diego County, California. Schools were chosen because both are reaching high levels of academic achievement and are closing achievement gaps, dispelling the myth that high levels of poverty and/or CLD student populations lead to lower student achievement. Research Design: The research design employed was a qualitative case study. Data Collection and Analysis: Over 5 years, observations, recorded conversations among teachers, administrators, students, and parents, and supporting documents collected from both schools were initially coded by reading through responses and documents. Using

Preparing Sustainability-Literate Teachers

Abstract: Background/Context: This article explores sustainability as an emerging paradigm for preservice preparation of teachers. Sustainability education, which is rooted in Deweyan ideas about the fundamental social purposes of schooling, attends to the tensions created by the interconnectedness of environmental, economic, and social equity systems. Sustainability education extends but does not replace environmental education or education for sustainable development, although the latter is considered a problematic idea. Purpose/ Focus of Study: Nine themes that occur frequently in the sustainability discourse are explored as the basis for sustainability literacy, a complex construct validated through collection of multiple sources of evidence. Specific strategies for integrating sustainability education into the preservice preparation of teachers are linked to a framework for teacher learning that addresses curricular vision, understandings about teaching, dispositions, and professional practices. Research Design: The article is an analytic essay that examines existing literature in the area of sustainability education and maps this work onto current research pertaining to the preparation of beginning teachers. Conclusions: Sustainability education represents a new paradigm for the preparation of teachers. It can help new teachers develop a curricular vision that addresses the fundamental social purposes of education in the context of an uncertain 21st century. Sustainability education also can stimulate a conversation about the role of teacher education in the creation and solution of global environmental and social justice challenges.

Immigration, Language, and Education: How Does Language Policy Structure Opportunity?

Abstract: guage policy in the United States has shaped educational opportunities and outcomes for the nation’s immigrant students. First, we examine the role of federal policy in shaping these students’ educational opportunities, showing how the changing political landscape in Washington has resulted in inconsistencies in funding and direction for states attempting to serve EL students. Then we focus on how two states with high concentrations of ELs— California and Texas—have responded to the needs of ELs, including the provision of bilingual education, the training and support of properly prepared teachers, and the assessments used to gauge their educational performance. Research Design: The article uses secondary data sources. It draws on secondary data analysis to examine the growth of the immigrant and linguistic minority populations and their educational achievement; it draws on both historical analysis and secondary data analysis to review shifting federal policies; and it draws on demographic, achievement, and reclassification data in analyzing the education of ELs in California and Texas. Findings/Results: We found that the changing political landscape in Washington has

Constrained Professionalism: Dilemmas of Teaching in the Face of Test-Based Accountability:

Abstract: Background/ContextIn response to state-level test-based accountability and the federal No Child Left Behind Act, school administrators increasingly view centralized curriculum and prescribed instru...

Does Research-Based Professional Development Make a Difference? A Longitudinal Investigation of Teacher Learning in Technology Integration

Abstract: Background/Context Although there is a growing body of literature on the characteristics of effective professional development, there is little direct evidence on the extent to which these characteristics influence teacher learning and practice. In particular, few studies exist to date that demonstrate the impact of technology-focused professional development on teacher learning and practice. Even fewer studies have examined teacher learning for more than a year to understand the sustainability and growth of professional development gains. Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the long-term impact of research-based professional development on teacher learning and practice with respect to technology. Analysis is based on data collected from 7 urban teachers 2 years after their participation in a yearlong, technology-focused professional development program. Follow-up data are compared with data collected by the author during the teachers’ participation in professional development to (1) investigate the sustainability and growth of teachers’ learning, (2) identify the conditions that facilitated or hindered teachers’ capacity to further develop their thinking, knowledge, and practice with regard to technology, and (3) map the trajectory of teachers’ learning over a 3-year period. Research Design The study employed a qualitative multiple case study design. Data were collected from multiple sources that included teacher interviews, surveys, classroom observations, and collection of artifacts. Two outcomes were defined as critical measures of long-term learning: sustainability and growth. Findings/Results Results indicated that participation in research-based professional development fostered sustained changes in teachers’ educational technology knowledge, ability to design and implement technology-supported experiences for students, and beliefs toward teaching and learning with technology. In two cases, these changes became the basis for continual learning and led to ongoing professional growth. Further, findings revealed three factors that influenced teacher learning over time: (1) student characteristics, (2) access to resources, and (3) social support and opportunities for collaboration with peers. Conclusions/Recommendations Findings of the study suggest that participation in professional development that is grounded in the currently accepted best practices can impact teacher learning and practice. They also offer insights into the process by which teachers modify their knowledge, practices, and beliefs and the conditions that influence learning over time. Further, they provide new lenses for analyzing teacher learning that suggest looking more closely into the interactive relationship between practices and beliefs, as well as the ways in which classroom experience influences continual learning and change.

Teacher Research and the Problem of Practice

Abstract: What knowledge informs practice? How does this knowledge become ensconced in a practitioner’s repertoire? How can new knowledge change practice? To many academics and scientists, the answer to these questions lies in getting practitioners to pay attention to and use current research. To practitioners, research-informed pressure for changes in practice often seems unrelated to what is needed in day-to-day and minute-by-minute interactions. To educational reformers, these questions are critical because understanding what teachers do, how they do it, and why they do it is central to any effort at reshaping education policy around teacher education, teacher professional development, and school reform. Any effort to bring researchers, practitioners, and policy makers together in order to influence practice is what Shonkoff (2000) described as a “true cross-cultural experience”(p. 182) in that it “requires respect for their differences as well as a commitment to their shared mission” (p. 182). In this special issue of Teachers College Record, we posit teacher action research as a bridge connecting research, practice, and education policy—as an important and practical way to engage teachers as consumers of research, as researchers of their own practice who use research to shape practice, as designers of their own professional development, and as informants to scholars and policy makers regarding critical issues in the field.

Social Stratification in Higher Education

Abstract: Background/ContextOver the past half century, scholars in a variety of fields have contributed to our understanding of the relationship between higher education and social stratification. We review...

Interpersonal mindfulness training for well-being: A pilot study with psychology graduate students.

Abstract: Background/ContextAlthough mindfulness originated in Eastern meditation traditions, notably Buddhism, researchers, clinicians, and, more recently, educators suggest that the cultivation of mindfuln

Baccalaureate success of transfers and rising 4-year college juniors

Abstract: Background/ContextA longstanding debate continues concerning whether community colleges democratize education by expanding enrollment or divert students from attaining a bachelor's degree The exta

Becoming a Thinking Thinker: Metacognition, Self-Reflection, and Classroom Practice

Abstract: Background/ContextMetacognition has been a subject of study for cognitive theorists, behaviorists, educators, and others. The term metacognition has traditionally and simply been defined as “thinki...

The Persistence of Presentism

Abstract: Background/ContextThis study draws on the voluminous research on teachers’ workplace orientations and especially on Dan Lortie's documentation of conservatism, individualism, and presentism among t...

Making Sense of the Links: Professional Development, Teacher Practices, and Student Achievement

Abstract: Background/ContextAlthough there is substantial evidence that high-quality professional development can improve teacher practices, less evidence exists for the effects of teacher professional devel...

Wounded Healing: Forming a Storytelling Community in Hip-Hop Lit

Abstract: Background/ContextOver the past 5 years, there has been a growing body of scholarship that examines the intersections of hip-hop culture and classroom pedagogy. Although recent scholarship has pers...

Special Education Subgroups under NCLB: Issues to Consider.

Abstract: Background/Context: There are few empirical studies exploring the alleged conflict between the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine what impact the No Child Left Behind Act has had on students with disabilities. Research Design: Specifically, using large data sets from three different states, this article examines how the students with disabilities subgroup has fared under the No Child Left Behind Act. Under NCLB, there are four different subgroups: race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, limited English proficiency, and students with disabilities. If any one of these subgroups fails to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) under NCLB, the entire school fails. Findings: This study found that schools fail to make AYP most often because of the students with disabilities subgroup. The failure of the special education subgroup to make AYP occurs mainly because the students with disabilities subgroup is expected to maintain the exact same proficiency levels as their general education peers—a standard that has proved to be problematic because special education students often start out with lower average test scores than general education students. In addition, the students with disabilities subgroup is the only subgroup in which actual limitations on ability to learn might come into play. The existence of these limitations calls into question the wisdom of trying to close the general education‐special education “achievement gap” at the same pace as the race- or class-based achievement gaps. In addition to quantitative methods, this study also used legal research techniques to examine the legal impact that the two laws are having on students with disabilities. Conclusions: The study found that although judicial challenges may be one route to try to change the law, pressure at the state and local levels by educators and parents of students with disabilities working together with the U.S. Department of Education may have an impact as well.

“Small” Stories and Meganarratives: Accountability in Balance

Abstract: Background/ContextMeganarratives, or “grand stories,” are composed of loosely held ideas about standardization, the rhetoric of education for all, the focus on individual success, and the appearanc...

The Right (Write) Start: African American Language and the Discourse of Sounding Right.

Abstract: Background Both academic research and educational policy have focused on the diverse language resources of young schoolchildren. African American Language (AAL) in particular has a rich history of scholarship that both documents its historical evolution and sociolinguistic complexity and reveals the persistent lack of knowledge about AAL in our schools and the continuing negative stereotypes about its speakers. Currently, federal funds for early schooling target the literacy learning of low-income children, who are disproportionately children of color; these programs, though, assume, as a literacy “basic,” a singular correct way of using language. The stage is set, then, for communicative disconnects between teachers and children during literacy instruction. Purpose In early literacy studies, such communicative disconnects between teachers and children have been discussed primarily in relation to reading. Our focus is on teacher-student interactions about children's writing, that is, about their efforts to make a voice visible on paper. Writing is a rich context for studying how AAL figures into early literacy teaching and learning. Teachers urge children to listen to how their words sound in order to compose their message. But what sounds “right” to young children will vary for developmental, situational, and, as emphasized herein, sociocultural reasons. We illustrate how, in the course of teacher-student interaction, young children's major resources for learning to write—their very voices—may become a source of problems. Research Design The article draws on data collected in an ethnographic project on child writing in a test-monitored and basics-focused elementary school in a midsized urban school district. Most of the school's children were from low-income homes of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. One important pedagogical site for teaching basic literacy skills in the observed first grade was teacher-led editing conferences, in which the classroom teacher focused on written conventions, including standardized usage. These conferences (and all afternoon activities) were documented over the course of an academic year primarily through observation accompanied by audiotaping and collection of children's products. This article features the writing experiences of one focal child, Tionna. Recommendations We conclude with a consideration of the goals of language arts programs in contemporary times. Certainly, assisting children in extending their communicative repertoire to include the Language of Wider Communication (LWC) is a worthy curricular goal for the school years. At the same time, we question U.S. monolingualism and monodialectalism in a multilingual world demanding communicative flexibility.

Bridges to Success in High School for Migrant Youth

Abstract: Background/ContextAmong the children of immigrants, one of the populations placed at greatest risk of not finishing high school are the children of migrant farmworkers. Although it is difficult to ...

Is teaching for social justice a "liberal bias"?

Abstract: Background/ContextA charge heard repeatedly, especially in contemporary media by neo-conservatives such as David Horowitz and George Will, maintains that there is a “liberal bias” in North American...

Negotiating the Global and National: Immigrant and Dominant-Culture Adolescents’ Vocabularies of Citizenship in a Transnational World

Abstract: Background/Context: The current national debate over the purposes of civic education is largely tied to outdated notions of citizenship that overlook its changing nature under glob alization. Civic education is based on a legalistic understanding of citizenship that empha sizes patriotism and the structures and functions of government. This study examined adolescents’ civic beliefs and affiliations, drawing on theories of transnational and global citizenship. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The purpose was to examine diverse adolescents’ vocabularies of citizenship, a concept that captures the tensions in their civic beliefs and affiliations. Their vocabularies were explored in terms of two topics at the inter section of national and global affiliations: universal human rights and global citizenship. The central question asked was: How do adolescents from immigrant backgrounds under stand the tensions between national and global civic affiliations, and do they differ from dominant-culture adolescents’ understandings? Setting: The research setting was the Pennsylvania Governor’s School for International Studies, a 5-week summer program for high school students that emphasizes current schol arship and skills in international affairs, cultural studies, and foreign language. Research Design: A mixed-method case study design was employed to collect detailed and

Children of Turkish immigrants in Germany and the Netherlands: the impact of differences in vocational and academic tracking systems

Abstract: Background/Context: Much research is being done on Turkish immigrants and their children in Germany and the Netherlands, but almost always from a national perspective. To compare the situation, for example, regarding educational outcomes across the two countries has proved to be very difficult because of different sets, selection criteria, and time periods for statistical data on immigrant populations. However, those data, which are actually available and comparable to at least some degree, already show how strongly the differences in educational attainment and labor market integration of Turkish immigrants depend on structural and systemic differences in the ways that education is organized in Germany and the Netherlands. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The article analyzes available data on young Turkish immigrants and native-born second generations and their educational success in the two countries with the major Turkish populations in Western Europe. It aims to direct the focus away from group background characteristics, which are actually quite similar, to the influence of institutional arrangements and the way that the educational system facilitates (or not) the educational integration of Turkish youth. Research Design: The article is based on publicly collected and available data on the Turkish populations in Germany and the Netherlands. This mainly refers to the Dutch SPVA surveys and the German micro-census and Integration Survey. Conclusions/Recommendations: The findings show that more than group characteristics, systemic and institutional factors can have a decisive role in promoting or hampering the educational and labor market integration of young immigrants and the native-born second generation. The greater openness of the Dutch school system to provide "long routes" and "second chances" shows its effect in significantly higher shares of Turks in higher education. On the other side, the dual system of vocational training in Germany seems to be better suited for labor market integration, especially because apprenticeships are more practice oriented and do count as work experience for later application procedures. The Dutch system also offers better opportunities for girls than does the German system. Yet, the polarization effect between "high achievement" and "failure" of only partial integration success is greater in the Netherlands, whereas the overall advancement is slower, but also less polarizing, in Germany. In this sense, each country could learn something from its neighbor regarding those aspects of the institutional and systemic setting that apparently fail to do the job well enough.

The Transition to College of English Learner and Undocumented Immigrant Students: Resource and Policy Implications:

Abstract: Background/ContextThe analysis contained in this article was commissioned by the Social Science Research Council's Transitions to College project. Although the historical context and contemporary i...

Understanding Latino Students' Schooling Experiences: The Relevance of Skin Color Among Mexican and Puerto Rican High School Students

Abstract: Background/Context: For the last 40 years, researchers have posited competing theories regarding the relative influence of social class background and racial-group membership on the school experiences, academic performance, behavior, and motivation of ethnic minority students. The general purpose of these competing theories has been to explain why ethnic minority students fail or succeed in schools. Many of these theories consider factors inside the school and the child’s family, culture, racial/ethnic group affiliation, and responses to school. These theories are commonly situated into three categories of thought: cultural deprivation, cultural difference/discontinuity, and cultural ecology. Each theory juxtaposes dimensions of race as a significant variable, but each has omitted the meaning of race/ ethnicity as internally and externally constructed, particularly among Latino groups. Focus of Study: The study focused on discerning (1) how the students defined their own racial/ethnic identification and how they perceived that others defined them; (2) how they discussed the opportunities available for the social group with which they identified and the social group with which they believed others situated them; and (3) how the students’ academic orientation (which reflected their educational and occupational aspirations, participation in cocurricular activities, and accommodation to schooling norms) related to their experiences of racial and ethnic identification and their perceptions of opportunity. Population: Interviews were conducted with 17 high school students. The students ranged from Grade 9 to Grade 12. In addition, students identified as Mexican or Puerto Rican. Research Design: Qualitative interviews were conducted at three data points with