(2020). An Evolving Vision for Designing Professional Learning: Inspiration from Aotearoa New Zealand. ZERO TO THREE, v40 n3 p12-18 Jan. A study tour of early childhood education (ECE) programs in Aotearoa New Zealand offered a rich opportunity to explore the implementation of "Te Whariki," the national ECE curriculum. This article describes three central aspects of the "Te Whariki" approach that have garnered international admiration as a model for ECE: the high value placed on the child's image, voice, and identity; nurturing a culture of inquiry; and the use of learning stories to document children's explorations. The authors share questions that have emerged in considering how to apply a parallel approach to the work of designing and facilitating professional learning experiences for educators… [Direct]
(2023). Civic Sovereignty: Indigenous Civic Constructs in Public School Spaces. Teachers College Record, v125 n9 p166-197. Context: This study examines how urban American Indian high school students negotiate their civic identities within the settler colonial structures of urban American public schools. Research Question: How do urban American Indian students negotiate civic identities in spaces where civic concepts are taught, such as American history classes in an urban public high school and a Native Youth Council (Native YC)? Research Design: This critical participatory ethnographic study examines the negotiation of civic identity by 11 urban Indigenous students in social studies classes, a Native YC, and a school in Washington State, where the STI curriculum is taught. Safety zone theory and tribal critical race theory were used to understand students' experiences and their stories from observations, participant interviews, and focus groups, which were employed as data. Conclusions/Recommendations: The study found that the social studies classes and Native YC were zones of sovereignty (ZoS),… [Direct]
(2022). Lessons Learned from the Implementation of the Young Deadly Free Peer Education Programme in Remote and Very Remote Australian Aboriginal Communities. Sex Education: Sexuality, Society and Learning, v22 n2 p123-137. Past efforts to address endemic rates of sexually transmissible infections amongst young Aboriginal people living in remote/very remote Australian communities have had limited success. Peer education has been used in youth sexual health promotion but has received limited evaluation and has not been tested in remote Aboriginal settings. The Young Deadly Free youth peer education programme trained Aboriginal young people in 15 remote/very remote communities as peer educators to deliver sexual health education to other young people. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the project team and regional coordinators to understand the barriers and enablers to implementing peer education in remote communities. Programme credibility, the offer of financial gratuities, and the recruitment of peer educators with prior sexual health knowledge and/or group facilitation experience were identified as programme enablers. Implementation challenges included programme rigidity, cultural… [Direct]
(2022). Discomforting Presence in the Classroom — The Affective Technologies of Race, Racism and Whiteness. Whiteness and Education, v7 n1 p58-77. This article sheds light on the elusive presence of race, racism, and Whiteness in Norwegian primary schools. Empirical examples from observations at six schools exemplify how race and racism appear as taboo concepts, but nonetheless play central roles in structuring conversations in the classroom. I argue that applying an affective theoretical lens provides access to perspectives on race, racism and Whiteness often concealed in education for social justice. This shifts the focus from who is racist, to what race, racism and Whiteness do as affective technologies in social encounters. A major implication is that the common focus on knowledge, attitudes and values in anti-racist education is insufficient for education that enhances social justice. I argue that the insights from affect theory might serve well both as analytical and pedagogical tools in approaching anti-racist education, but also face challenges when confronted with the greater imperative of decolonising education…. [Direct]
(2024). Ensuring College Access and Success for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Students. Campaign for College Opportunity The 2020 U.S. census revealed that Asian American and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (NHPI) populations are among the fastest growing in the nation, with 24 million Asian American and 1.6 million NHPI residents. Despite a long history of anti-Asian sentiment and racism in the U.S., Asian American and NHPI students have been harmfully stereotyped as high-achieving, and as easily gaining access to and graduating from elite colleges and universities under the myth of the model minority. This brief focuses on the need for higher education institutions to support Asian American and NHPI students pursuing a college degree, recognize the historic racism encountered by Asian American and NHPI residents in the United States, dispel harmful stereotypes involving these communities, and dismantle the numerous barriers preventing Asian American and NHPI access and success in colleges and universities. This publication offers a variety of culturally responsive approaches for federal and… [PDF]
(2020). Preparing Teachers as Democratic Professionals. Action in Teacher Education, v42 n1 p38-48. This paper discusses the concept of democratic professionalism and argues that it offers a way to frame teacher education so that it can contribute to more productively managing long standing tensions between public schools, minoritized communities, and teacher preparation programs, and to more closely realizing the democratic potential of public education and teacher education. This decolonial approach to teacher education that actively attempts to benefit from the expertise in local minoritized communities seeks to "disrupt" existing power and knowledge hierarchies and create the basis for new alliances between teachers, teacher unions, teacher educators, and community-based social movements in marginalized communities that are seeking an active role in transforming their own communities. The result is a new hybrid structure for teacher education programs that models the emancipatory vision that is often articulated by programs but not practiced…. [Direct]
(2018). Developing an Indigenous Mentoring Program for Faculty Mentoring American Indian and Alaska Native Graduate Students in STEM: A Qualitative Study. Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, v26 n5 p503-523. Researchers have demonstrated that tutoring is an effective 10 instructional model that relies upon the relationships among the tutor, the tutee, and the curriculum and not merely instructional skills or strategies. In our microethnographic case study, we investigated interactional patterns of two tutors who were pre service literacy teachers working 15 individually with Andy, a first grade student, in a university reading center. Through deductive coding of tutoring videos, the researchers found that ingrained tutoring scripts and metaphors for learning adversely impacted the instructional relationships between the tutors and Andy. 20 Scripts and metaphors limited the enacted behaviors of the tutee and the tutors since a pursuit of right answers dominated their work together. This, in turn, resulted in many missed opportunities for Andy to make substantial contributions to the tutoring interactions…. [Direct]
(2023). Innovations in Literacy Professional Learning: Strengthening Equity, Access, and Sustainability. Guilford Press Professional learning (PL) opportunities are essential for PreK-12 literacy educators, but too often these efforts fail to help teachers develop and deeply engage with their work. This forward-looking book describes keys to providing effective, sustainable literacy PL that values teachers over test scores and capitalizes on social networks and communities. The volume presents case studies of transformational initiatives tailored to culturally and linguistically diverse populations of teachers and students, varying school resources, urban or rural settings, and other factors. Issues of access and equity are emphasized throughout the book's discussions of innovative in-person, hybrid, and remote PL models. The companion website features 11 brief videos in which chapter authors provide engaging commentary on their respective topics…. [Direct]
(2021). 'Because, They Are from Here. It Is Their Identity, and It Is Important': Teachers' Understanding of the Role of Translation in Vernacular Language Maintenance in Malekula, Vanuatu. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, v24 n9 p1414-1430. The idea of employing culturally and linguistically appropriate resources to address disparate literacy levels and to maintain the languages and cultures of communities in the Pacific has been presented by academics from different disciplines. In 2012, a National Language Policy was endorsed in Vanuatu, accommodating the endangered vernacular languages of Vanuatu within the formal education system for the first time in the nation's history. To implement the policy, the Ministry of Education and Training developed a plan to create vernacular resources for around half of Vanuatu's 100+ languages. On Malekula, teachers from seven local languages were involved in the implementation plan, translating a pool of regionally sourced literacy materials into their own languages. Teachers' beliefs about the place of the translated reading materials in language maintenance, and their understandings of local literacy and storytelling practices in Malekula, were sought through semi-structured… [Direct]
(2021). Canoe as Teacher. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, v24 n1 p54-74. This article is about the Squamish Ocean Canoe Family and is based on stories shared by the Skwxw√∫7mesh Chiaxten ("Protocol Keeper"), Wes Nahanee, and the President of the Squamish Ocean Canoe Family, Larry (Shucks) Nahanee. The article tells the story of a revival of the Skwxw√∫7mesh ocean-going canoe and traditions, particularly through the annual Tribal Canoe Journeys. Through the stories, reflections, and teachings shared by Wes and Shucks, this paper looks at the "canoe as a teacher" and how Indigenous Pedagogies are attained through Canoe Journeys, particularly in the urban Indigenous context where this canoe resurgence means cultural continuity and healing…. [PDF]
(2021). The Case for Commemoration Controversies in Canadian History Education. Canadian Journal of Education, v44 n2 p434-465. Commemorations are events or actions that honour and memorialize significant events, people, and groups from the past. In recent years there have been numerous contentious debates about commemorations of historical events and people in countries around the world, including Canada. In this article I argue that commemoration controversies should be an essential part of teaching and learning history in K-12 schools because they have the potential to be meaningful and relevant for students, they address civic education competencies central to history and social studies curricula in Canada, and they provide rich opportunities for advancing students' historical consciousness and historical thinking. In the final section of the article I describe how six second-order historical thinking concepts can be used to invite students to think historically about commemorations…. [PDF]
(2023). Native American Youth Finding Self through Digital Story Telling. Literacy, v57 n3 p234-248 Sep. This holistic single-case study aimed to understand the impact of digital story telling (DST) on the identity expressions of Native American youth. The question that guided the study asks, 'How do Native American adolescents in a rural, tribal-run after-school programme for Indigenous youth explore and express who they are through digital story telling?' Five Indigenous youth enrolled in a tribal-run after-school programme participated in the study and completed a digital story telling project that contained multiple components and interviews. Data sources included funds of knowledge maps, shields, story scripts, storyboards, interview transcripts, and digital videos. Thematic analysis was the overarching method used to identify themes. The researchers also conducted constant comparison, content analysis, and/or intertextual transcription to analyse specific data types. Findings indicate the youth enjoyed the DST process, explored and solidified their personal identities, and… [Direct]
(2017). Subterranean Failures of Education in Flourishing Individuals: From the Perspectives of Paradigm and the Simulation Theory. Online Submission, American International Journal of Social Science v6 n2 p25-33 Jun. Even though transformations have been made in Turkey, schools have turned into places where partners are unhappy. Recently, education has moved into a new dimension called the system of objects in consumer society. The consumer society has become devoted to the system of objects, as people are not consuming for need but for want. Model schools and education are couched not within humanitarian paradigms but as promoters of this system of objects, thereby acting to deceive humanity. In this research, simulation theory is used to develop an ontological view of school and educational systems as the simulacra for a radical humanist paradigm. In conclusion, Education systems today tend to anonymize the individual within the nation, enabling the capitalist system to become the reality, thus allowing those in power to shepherd the herd easily…. [PDF]
(2023). Developing STEM Curriculum Units to Engage 4th-8th Grade Navajo Students as Part of In-Class Outreach. Journal of STEM Outreach, v6 n1 Feb. The Native American Astronomy Outreach Program (NAAOP) at Lowell Observatory is an in-class STEM enrichment program that pairs astronomers with 4th-8th grade teachers at Native-serving schools in northern Arizona. The astronomer works with the teacher to present hands-on astronomy activities to their class with the goal of getting students excited about STEM and STEM careers. Over three school years (2018-2021), a special collaboration with teachers at the Navajo Nation's Kayenta Unified School District was used to develop and implement curriculum units for each grade level with potential for a high impact on students. The curriculum used Project Based Learning to better enable students to see themselves as scientists, and it included cultural and local connections related to the science content to encourage students to see science as relevant to themselves. Although impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, student surveys suggest that these curriculum units along with the other components… [PDF]
(2019). Factors Contributing to Educational Outcomes for First Nations Students from Remote Communities: A Systematic Review. Australian Educational Researcher, v46 n2 p319-340 Apr. Education for Australian First Nations students living in remote communities has long been seen as an intractable problem. Ten years of concerted effort under Closing the Gap and related policy initiatives has done little to change outcomes beyond small, incremental improvements. Programmes and strategies promising much have come and gone, and most have died a quiet death. This apparent failure leaves the context of remote education ripe for the picking. If we can demonstrate what works and why, it may provide an answer to the problem. This systematic review aims to uncover what research reveals about what does make a difference to outcomes for students. The review found 45 papers that provide considerable evidence to show what is and is not effective. The review also found several issues that have little or no evidence and which could be the subject of more research…. [Direct]