Browsing by Subject "urban education"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Advancing Equity-Based School Leadership: The Importance of Family–School Relationships
    (Springer, 2020) Flores, Osly J.; Kyere, Eric; School of Social Work
    This narrative inquiry study presents the stories of five urban public school principals who continually enact and engage in praxis around school/family engagement as their social justice and equitable practices. The findings focus on how participants conceived and engaged in parent interaction: (1) the power of relationships, (2) resistance toward deficit thinking of parents and/or families, and (3) connecting their work with families to equity. An equity-based parent engagement model was developed on how the school leaders employ the power of relationships to engage parents, what participant interpreted their trusting relationship with parents reciprocated to them, and why they prioritize positive relationships with racially and ethnically diverse and economically disadvantage families. Overall, the findings extend emerging empirical research on the role of school leadership in effective parent engagement practice from an equity standpoint.
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    Connecting With Students Through a Critical, Participatory Curriculum: An Exploration Into a High School History Teacher’s Construction of Teacher–Student Relationships
    (SAGE Publications, 2018-08-23) Zaccor, Karla M.; School of Education
    Standardized testing is a top priority in schools, with conversations around teaching and learning reduced to raising student test scores. Often any other conversations about how schools should serve students are eliminated or pushed to the periphery. The central questions raised here are the following: how are student–teacher relationships constructed in the classroom and how important are those relationships to those students and teachers? My focal teacher enacted a curriculum that was critical and relevant to students’ lives. He considered the curriculum as his primary way of building relationships with students.
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    Creating Racially Safe Learning Environments: An Investigation of the Pedagogical Beliefs and Practices of Two African American Teachers in Racially Hostile Urban Elementary Schools
    (2020-09) Bangert, Sara Elizabeth; Jackson, Tambra O.; Lewison, Mitzi; Taylor, Kara; Zaccor, Karla M.
    Many Americans espouse “post-racial” conceptions of race and its role in children’s access to equitable learning opportunities; however, recent studies have illuminated the need to examine the ways in which “new” forms of institutionalized and interpersonal racism continue to hinder the schooling experiences of students in urban schools. Despite that students in urban schools are predominantly African American (27%) and Latinx (41%), the teaching force remains predominantly white (71%). Within these schools, white teachers’ lack of cultural competence and racial literacy marginalize students’ opportunities for social, emotional, and academic development and, thereby, foster racially hostile learning environments. However, cases of teachers in urban schools who create and sustain learning environments in which their students thrive socially, emotionally, and academically exist and need to be studied. This case study investigated the pedagogical beliefs and practices enacted by two highly regarded African American educators who created racially safe learning environments in two racially hostile urban elementary students. Ethnographic data was collected over a five-month period. Using constant comparative analysis within and across both cases, several significant findings emerged. Findings revealed how “new racism” manifested in the discourses, policies, and practices at both schools and, thus, illuminated the ways in which race marginalized not only the schooling experiences of African American and Latinx students, but their African American educators as well. Findings examined how each teachers’ pedagogical enactments aligned with the ideologies, beliefs, and practices associated with African American pedagogy and revealed how they fostered cultures of community, love, and achievement within their classrooms. Findings suggest that their culturally specific pedagogical beliefs and practices have the potential to create racially safe learning environments within, otherwise, racially hostile schools. Although African American pedagogical excellence is often relegated to discussions of practices needed to reach African American students, this study expands the knowledge base needed to center AAPE in discussions of best practices for teachers in urban schools. This study adds critical insights to discussions of race and its role in the schooling experiences and opportunities to learn in racially hostile urban schools.
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    A Gardening Metaphor: A Framework for Closing Racial Achievement Gaps in American Public Education System
    (Sage, 2018) Taylor, Jerome; Kyere, Eric; King, Ѐpryl; School of Social Work
    The overarching purpose of this article is to introduce A Gardening Metaphor (AGM) as an evolving framework for accelerating the closure of racial achievement gaps in America. Toward this end, we provide: (a) an examination of the racial disparities in education that are disproportionately experienced by Black children; (b) a rationale for why racial achievement gaps must be closed; (c) an introduction to components of AGM; and (d) discussion of AGM gap closing potential through case study with implication for research and practice.
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    The Impact of Hip-Hop Instruction on Students in Urban Settings
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2013-04-05) Dowdell, Tayana; Mutegi, Jomo
    Recent years have seen an increased focus on urban education. With this increased interest there has been a movement towards identifying classroom instructional practices that are aimed at appealing to more diverse student populations. Hip-Hop pedagogy is offered as an instructional approach that has the potential to reach diverse populations of students in urban settings. However, despite the argument that hip-hop based classroom instruction resonates well with urban youth, there is relatively little scholarship that empirically verifies the relationship between hip-hop instructions to student learning. Given the proliferation of negative images portrayed of African Americans and negative messages advocated in this genre, we seek to explore the impact of Hip-Hop pedagogy on students learning. Specifically, we will explore the impact of hip-hop instruction on three aspects of student learning: engagement, concept mastery and identity formation. The purpose of this study is to add to the knowledge base an understanding of the impact of hip-hop instruction on students learning, particularly those in urban settings. The study was executed using an experimental design model, and a quantitative data analysis approach is being conducted on the data collected. Implications from findings could impact classroom practices for K-12 educators working with students in urban settings.
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    Introduction to Special Issue—Engaged Leadership for Urban Education: Explorations of Equity and Difference in Urban Communities
    (Sage, 2017-03) Willey, Craig; Sosa, Teresa; Scheurich, James Joseph; School of Education