IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks :: Browsing by Author "Medina, Monica"

Browsing by Author "Medina, Monica"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 15

Bought But Not Sold Out: A Critical Autoethnography of a Public School Board Member in the Neoliberal Turn
(2022-05) Cosby, Gayle S.; Scheurich, Jim; Medina, Monica; Rogan, Patricia; Etienne, Leslie K.
Neoliberalism is a pro-capitalist ideology that cycles money and power to the elite class by deregulating or privatizing the public sphere and is fueled by economic exploitation and oppression. This dissertation examines the neoliberal construct at work in the privatization of Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) from an ethnographic lens using the vantage point of an elected IPS board member. The literature surrounding the privatization of public schools offers stories from all over the U.S., however the conditions surrounding the privatization of public education systems are similar irrespective of geographical location. Common themes across the country include the de-professionalization of teachers, the circulation of the narrative myth of failing public schools and charter schools as a positive alternative, and overarching patterns of continued school segregation, gentrification of inner cities, and racial migratory patterns of residents affecting school enrollment. Theoretical framing employed in this study includes Punctuated Equilibrium at the macro level; sociopolitics and logics of action at the meso level, and critical theory and politics of resistance at the micro level of analysis. The analysis of data was conducted thematically and data sources encompass a self-authored blog as well as personal communications and reflections, news articles, and board documents. Results of this study illustrate that IPS as an organization underwent a fulcrum point of change, or ‘Punctuated Equilibrium’ in which it ceased to be an exclusively public institution and began to establish partnerships with private charter school companies with inherent profit motives, via the ‘Innovation School Network’. There were many political players involved in orchestrating this change, and those interest groups and their logics of action are detailed. Implications of this study include identifying the future spread of school privatization and possibilities for disrupting the furthering of this neoliberal agenda.
Building on a legacy – taking a community schools project to scale
(Partnership Press, Children's Aid Society, New York City, 2016) Grim, Jim; Medina, Monica
School community partnerships provide a bedrock of stability and continuity in the midst of a tsunami of educational change on the Near Westside of Indianapolis. Central to the firmly imbedded partnerships is George Washington Community High School (GWCHS) — as well as Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center and IUPUI (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis), two key collaboration facilitators for decades.
Co-Constructing Identity: A Qualitative Study of the Interplay of Identities in Instructional Coaching Conversations
(2023-10) Bhathena, Catherine Dontie; Teemant, Annela; Lester, Jessica; Mutegi, Jomo; Medina, Monica; Wiley, Craig
Research on coaching has been increasing over the last few decades, particularly for literacy and math. What is limited in coaching research is investigations of the process that leads to teacher and student impacts. Additionally, while some research has investigated what makes an effective coach, little has focused on the specific roles of discourse and identity in changing instructional practices. In this comparative case study, I will analyze the identity discourses of teachers and an instructional coach, myself, to investigate the interplay between coach and teacher identity and how identities and instructional practice are intertwined. The overarching research question guiding this study is How do the teachers and I, the coach, co-construct our identities in coaching conversations focused on changing instructional practices to benefit multicultural/multilingual learners? Findings in this study include that 1) teacher identity is inseparable from teacher learning, 2) coach identity is inseparable from coach learning, and 3) the interplay of coach and teacher identities impacts coaching conversations. My findings here support the need for more theorizing and research on the interplay of coach and teacher identities. My findings also indicate the need for intentional coach professional development focused on coach identity development and understanding of how teacher identity is intertwined with coach identity and the effectiveness of coaching as professional development.
Community Engagement Through Partnerships: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Full-Service Community School Implementation
(Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, Special Edition Prospectus, 2020) Medina, Monica; Cosby, Gayle; Grim, Jim
Improving performance in an environment often tested by intermingled social problems, including poverty, racial isolation, cultural clashes between teachers and students, and school funding disparities requires authentic, committed family, school, and community partnerships. Using Bryk’s (2010) model for effective and improving schools, our study describes challenges and achievements experienced over a decade of implementing the full-service community school (FSCS) reform in two neighborhoods in Indianapolis, Indiana. We also share lessons about funding, collaborative structures and processes, and organizational responses to change. The study has broad implications for both FSCSs and urban schools with comparable demographics that are working to build effective partnerships to address social problems in lasting ways
Community Engagement Through Partnerships: Lessons Learned from a Decade of Full-service Community School Implementation
(Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 2019-05-14) Medina, Monica; Cosby, Gayle; Grim, Jim
Improving performance in an environment often tested by intermingled social problems, including poverty, racial isolation, cultural clashes between teachers and students, and school funding disparities requires authentic, committed family, school, and community partnerships. Using Bryk’s (2010) model for effective and improving schools, our study describes challenges and achievements experienced over a decade of implementing the full-service community school (FSCS) reform in two neighborhoods in Indianapolis, Indiana. We also share lessons about funding, collaborative structures and processes, and organizational responses to change. The study has broad implications for both FSCSs and urban schools with comparable demographics that are working to build effective partnerships to address social problems in lasting ways.
Community Schools as a Vehicle for Social Justice and Equity
(University of Tennessee-Knoxville, IGI Global, 2020) Medina, Monica; Murtadha, Khaula; Grim, Jim
A deficit narrative of academic success in low-performing schools is articulated in cultural norms set by those who fail to understand how poverty and racial inequality manifests through daily interactions, beliefs, and biases. Work to address race and poverty are emotional, complicated, and challenging because the concepts are avoided, minimized, or disputed by a dominant narrative and privileged cultures that oppress students of color. This chapter is not about a study of race or poverty nor does it seek to forward understanding of how race and class intersect. Instead, it focuses on the ways a university has promoted social justice and equity in the development of community schools. This work encompasses: the influence of change through advocacy and policy, issues of school culture and climate, and shared leadership. It recognizes emerging perceptions impacting health, violence, and food security that cause socio/emotional issues not considered when critically addressing issues of race and poverty. Therefore, community schools are a vehicle for social justice and equity.
Controversy and counternarrative in the social studies
(2017-05-12) Shaver, Erik James; Rogan, Patricia; Medina, Monica; Keller, Deb; Engebretson, Kathryn; Pike, Gary
This qualitative study sought to explore reasons why social studies teachers chose to teach controversial issues and counternarratives in their classroom in an era where doing so is dangerous for teachers and their job security, and how they go about doing so in their classrooms. The theoretical framework of this study encompassed the notion that the five selected teachers embodied and practiced elements of Foucauldian parrhēsía, which is teaching the truth despite the risk of doing so, despite not having explicit knowledge of this particular philosophy, and utilized counternarratives and controversial issues as a means of challenging dominant social norms to bring about a more just and equitable society. The existing literature suggests that their pre-service teacher education provided little influence on their decisions, despite the positive historical, personal, and democratic outcomes from teaching a curriculum exploring controversial issues and counternarratives. Five teachers were recommended for this study due to their reputations for teaching controversial issues and counternarratives in their social studies classrooms. After interviewing and observing these teachers, a number of interesting findings came to light, including a list of best practices for how to teach controversial issues in the classroom, reasons why the teachers taught controversial issues in the classroom, structures of support and barriers for teaching a critical social studies curriculum, and differences between those who believed they taught controversial issues in their classroom but did not, and those who actually did.
A Decade of Lessons: Community Engagement Perspectives from a University-Assisted School Community
(Center for Service and Learning, IUPUI, 2011) Grim, Jim; Medina, Monica; Officer, Starla
In 2000, the Indianapolis Near-Westside welcomed the reopening of George Washington High School as George Washington Community School. The school had closed in 1995. This document draws on the decade of lessons and is designed to serve as a resource for groups harnessing the power of their own school communities.
An Exploratory Study Comparing a Low Income Black Dominant Urban School to a Low Income White Dominant Urban School in Terms of School Quality
(2020-02) Shipp, Cassandra M.; Scheurich, Jim; Scribner, Samantha; Thompson, Chalmer; Medina, Monica
Urban Schools are often judge on the perceived shortcomings of students’ academic skills and family social economic status. This image is judged more negatively when students are mainly Black students from low-income homes. One of the main sources of that judgement is the overall letter grade each school receives as part of state accountability systems. When urban schools have a preponderance of low income white students (LIW) with higher letter grades than urban schools with a preponderance of Black students from low income homes (LIB), the typical conclusion is that the LIW schools are “better” than the LIB schools. To see if this is validated in other areas of schooling, I selected four areas that it would be possible to use to “compare” in an exploratory fashion these two types of urban schools. Those four are: 1) teacher quality, 2) AP enrollment and completion data, 3) technology usage, and 4) graduation rates, for all of which data is available and/or can be collected. Thus, I will be exploring whether the school’s letter grade does distort the understanding or perception of quality for these two types of schools. The findings of the study indicated that the LIB urban high school was not equal or better than LIW urban high school. Even though there was growth in the four focus areas and in the state accountability grade for LIB urban high school, the LIW urban high school outperformed the LIB urban high school in all areas. This study also confirmed that the LIB urban high schools continue to have the less effective teachers in the classrooms, which leads to little to no change in educational quality.
Family, School, Community Engagement in Community Schools Research Brief
(Midwest Center for University-Assisted Community Schools, IUPUI, Indiana Partnerships Center, 2011-09) Grim, Jim; Medina, Monica; Short, Angela; Garvey, Jackie; Malone, LaTasha; Daugherty, Lindsey
Discussion of public school reform draws attention to a typically overlooked essential of academic success: family and community engagement. Any serious reform cannot ignore authentic family/school/community engagement as an essential ingredient, according to a seven-year study by researchers at the University of Chicago who looked into some 200 “turnaround” schools efforts and outcomes in the Windy City. In fact, the Chicago study found that only 10 percent of the turnaround schools without solid family and community engagement (or one of four other identified essentials) realized academic improvement (Bryk, Sebring, et. al., 2010)

Browsing by Author "Medina, Monica"

Results Per Page

Sort Options