Anti-racist, anti-gay: a white Evangelical English teacher’s negotiations of her faith and critical inquiry

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-123
Author(s):  
Christopher Alan Olshefski
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
English Education ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Critical Inquiry ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
English Classroom

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how the religious beliefs and experiences of a white Evangelical English teacher, Amy, shaped her enactment of critical inquiry pedagogy in her English classroom. Design/methodology/approach This study drew on three in-depth interviews focused on a white Evangelical English teacher’s negotiation of her faith and understanding of critical inquiry issues in her teaching. Findings The teacher embraced anti-racist pedagogy by aligning definitions of structural racism with her understanding of the inherent sinfulness of humankind. She did so at the risk of her standing within her Evangelical community that largely rejected anti-racism. On the other hand, the teacher struggled with embracing LGBTQ+ advocacy, believing that affirmation of LGBTQ+ identities ran counter to her beliefs in “the gospel.” Her theological beliefs created complications for her when students brought the issue up in her class. Practical implications This study illustrates the way an English teacher incorporated anti-racism into both her teaching and religious identity, demonstrating that for some, the main concepts promoted in teacher education programs are held against a theological standard. It suggests that more work must be made by English teacher educators to provide space for religious pre-service teachers to find religious justification for engaging in LGBTQ+ advocacy. Originality/value One of the goals of English education is to encourage students to read texts and the world critically. However, the critical inquiry may be seen by Evangelical teachers and students as value-laden, too political and hostile to religious faith. This study examines the tensions that arise for an English teacher who is a white Evangelical. It contributes to possible strategies for the field to address these tensions.

Rhetorically speaking: on white preservice teachers’ failure to imagine an anti-racist English education

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
S.R. Toliver ◽  
Heidi Hadley
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
English Education ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Content Type

Purpose This paper aims to identify how white preservice teachers’ inability to imagine an equitable space for Black and Brown children contributes to the ubiquity of whiteness in English education. Further, the authors contend that the preservice teachers’ responses mirror how the larger field of English education fails to imagine Black and Brown life. Design/methodology/approach Using abolitionist teaching as a guide, the authors use reflexive thematic analysis to examine the rhetorical moves their preservice teachers made to defer responsibility for anti-racist teaching. Findings The findings show preservice teachers’ rhetorical moves across three themes: failure to imagine Black and Brown humanity, failure to imagine a connection between theory and practice, and failure to imagine curriculum and schooling beyond whiteness. Originality/value By highlighting how preservice teachers fail to imagine spaces for Black and Brown youth, this study offers another pathway through which teacher educators, teachers and English education programs can assist their faculty and students in activating their imaginations in the pursuit of anti-racist, abolitionist teaching.

Reimagining Prevent Duty in schools: how teachers can support students in their liberation from racialised narratives of radicalisation

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil A. Hart
Keyword(s):  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
London School ◽  
Best Interest ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Muslim Students ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Muslim Communities ◽  
Good Teaching Practice

PurposeAn accessible resource on the role of teachers in perpetuating inequality through Prevent Duty, with guidance on how to change teaching practice to empower Muslim students.Design/methodology/approachThe paper uses critical race theory (CRT) to interrogate power and Whiteness in the interaction of teachers and students when complying with Prevent Duty and delivering lessons on fundamental British values. This is illustrated through a constructed narrative between three characters in a London school, and offers a Freirean approach to empowering students through Prevent delivery.FindingsA disproportionately White profession is acting in what they perceive to be the best interest of their students, while failing to interrogate their own position of power and not creating opportunities to be guided by Muslim voices. As a consequence Muslim students continue to be oppressed.Practical implicationsTeachers can disrupt Prevent Duty while complying with its legal obligations by interrogating their own position of Whiteness. They can work with students to ensure Muslim voices lead discussion around Prevent and the inequality in society that is being reproduced by Prevent Duty.Social implicationsThere is potential for good teaching practice to overcome the structural racism and continued inequality experienced by diverse Muslim communities.Originality/valueThe paper is an accessible application of CRT to Prevent Duty, a resource for teachers, students and activists. It can help in the recognition of the potential for even well-meaning teachers to act in ways that perpetuate inequalities. It provides a clear set of suggestions for teaching practices that can overcome this.

Making visible the dance

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 387-403
Author(s):  
Julie Rust
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
New Media ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
High School English ◽  
Content Type ◽  
English Classrooms ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
The Status ◽  
Opening Up

Purpose – This paper aims to delve deeply into the sometimes clashing interplays in English classrooms to explore the ways in which new media makes visible long-existing discourses and assumptions about the purpose of schools and the roles of teachers and students. Design/methodology/approach – This piece draws upon discourse analysis and utilizes the frame of strategies versus tactics (de Certeau, 1984) to trace the complex classroom interplays between a high school English teacher, a partnering researcher and a high school junior during the process of a month-long digital photography project. Findings – Data reveal that, at times, both teachers and students made moves to preserve the status quo of the school space (through strategies), and at other times, worked to reshape the space for more relevant purposes (through tactics.) Strategies that emerge from teacher moves include the formalization of requirements and the controlling of bodies; the student strategy described is the perpetuation of stereotypes. Teacher tactics reported include repositioning identities, reframing “the work” and opening up space for inquiry. Student tactics include resistance, shifting to the personal, subverting a given task and self-positioning. The author argues that generative potential exists at the intersection of teacher tactics and student tactics, and calls for furthering the co-construction of classroom spaces. Originality/value – By zooming in on the process, rather than the product, that ensued as the focal student created and defended her photographs representing school as jail, this paper emphasizes the agency that both teachers and students can enact in sometimes limiting classroom spaces.

scholarly journals The creative chain of activities towards educational management transformation

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (7) ◽  
pp. 1718-1732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Lemos ◽  
Fernanda Liberali
Keyword(s):  
Educational System ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Educational Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Guides ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Educational Management Organization ◽  
The City

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore a formative intervention project that was developed for the Municipal Secretariat of Education in São Paulo, Brazil for the broad development of all levels of educational management (teacher educators, coordinators, principals, teachers and students). Thus, the creative chain of activities is a key theoretical framework for promoting critical collaboration in order to cross the boundaries of educational management organization. Design/methodology/approach The authors use data from the Management in Creative Chains Project (Liberali, 2012), as a way to enable the wide development of all levels of educational management. Data comprise formative meetings in which different educational managers system take part in two settings, the regional board with 25 schools and one of the participating schools. The analysis is based on thematic content and argumentative organization, and on critical situations and the potentials they entailed. Findings The study guides to the conclusions of the process of creative chain as a possibility to expand management in the educational system and its community. Research limitations/implications Every time there is a change in the mayors, there are changes in the way of addressing school management in the city. However, after the project, considerations about the needs of the communities became part of the public policy regardless of who is in charge of the city and its educational system. Practical implications This study can be used for transformation in the management and teaching and learning activities and improvement of the school-community relation. Social implications Socially this study can lead to improvement in the quality of life in the community and at school. Originality/value Differently from a top down educational management, which enables a reproductive chain, educational management in a creative chain, considering the community needs, enables subjects to become interdependent to expand and transform the activities in the educational system and hence the communities’ reality.

scholarly journals Lesson study as a vehicle for improving SEND teachers’ teaching skills

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-202
Author(s):  
Mona Holmqvist
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Lesson Study ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Limited Area ◽  
Special Educational Needs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
System Leaders ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Service Training ◽  
Collaborative Professional Development

PurposeCollaborative professional development for inclusive teaching is a limited area of research, although there is an extensive need for special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) teachers. Research findings of how teachers’ professional development can contribute to support the development of powerful learning situations for all students are presented in this special issue. The aim is to contribute to the knowledge of how the use of lesson study can develop teachers’ capabilities to offer high-quality education for students with SEND.Design/methodology/approachThe guest editor presents each of the papers and introduces key themes and concepts.FindingsThe collection of papers is divided into two themes; the first has a focus on lesson study used by teacher educators during SEND in-service training. In this theme, the teachers are the students who are studying different fields of SEND, supported by teacher educators. The second theme studies different forms of lesson studies carried out by researchers and teachers in the collaboration focused aspects of content that are of importance for students in SEND.Research limitations/implicationsThe papers focus on areas of education with a limited research tradition, and as a result, the studies may be seen as starting points for further research. The results so far lack generalisability. Therefore, the researchers have to test the findings further under different conditions and with wider groups of teachers and students.Practical implicationsThe results of the papers can be used to develop both SEND teacher education, and collaborative professional development for in-service SEND teachers. This issue will, therefore, be of interest to school and system leaders.Originality/valueThe papers contribute initial findings from an under-researched area and also combine lesson study with methods and designs not previously explored.

Teaching literature following loss: teachers’ adherence to emotional rules

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mandie Bevels Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Response ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teaching Profession ◽  
Literature Instruction ◽  
Relational Dynamics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reader Responses ◽  
Personal Loss ◽  
Teachers And Students

Purpose This study aims to explore how teachers changed literature instruction in English language arts (ELA) classrooms following personal loss, and identifies factors influencing those changes. The author argues teachers regulated their responses to literature according to emotional rules they perceived to be associated with the teaching profession. Understanding teachers’ responses helps educators, teacher educators and educational researchers consider what conditions and supports may be required for teachers and students to share emotions related to loss in authentic ways in ELA classrooms. Design/methodology/approach To examine changes teachers made in literature instruction following personal loss, the author conducted a thematic analysis of 80 questionnaire responses. Findings The author found teachers changed literature instruction related to three areas: teachers’ relationship to students, teachers’ instruction surrounding texts and teachers’ reader responses. Responses highlighted how teachers adhered to emotional rules, including a perception of teachers as authorities and caretakers of children. Teachers considered literature instruction to require maintaining focus on texts, and avoided emotional response unless it aided textual comprehension. Originality/value Scholars have argued for literature instruction inclusive of both loss experiences and also emotional response, with particular focus on students’ loss experiences. This study focuses on teachers’ experiences and responses to literature following loss, highlighting factors that influence, and at times inhibit, teachers’ authentic sharing of experiences and emotions. The author argues teachers require support to bring loss experiences into literature instruction as they navigate emotional response within the relational dynamics of the classroom.

Evaluating the return on religious capital in the Russian labor market

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 1671-1694
Author(s):  
R.M. Mel'nikov
Keyword(s):  
Labor Market ◽  
Religious Identity ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
Church Attendance ◽  
Satisfaction With Life ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Religious Commitment ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Religious Capital ◽  
The Impact

Subject. The article addresses the impact of religious confession on wages and the likelihood of unemployment in Russia. Objectives. The aim is to test the hypothesis that religious faith and high church attendance are accompanied by an increase in employment earnings. Methods. Using the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey data, I estimate the Mincer's extended equation with variables that characterize the respondent’s religious commitment. To assess the impact of religious identity and the activity rate of attendance at religious services on the likelihood of unemployment and life satisfaction, I use probit models. Results. The estimates demonstrate that the Russian labor market rewards men with moderate and high degree of religious commitment; their wage growth reaches seventeen percent of the level of non-believers with comparable education and work experience. However, faithful Muslim women are employed in the lowest paid areas. Religious faith and regular church attendance have a positive effect on satisfaction with life (significant for Orthodox Christian women). Conclusions. Positive impact of religious capital on income and employment can be attributed to the development of business qualities that are rewarded in the labor market, the mutual support of religious network participants. Therefore, it possible to consider religious capital, along with educational capital and health capital, as a component of human capital and a factor of socio-economic development.

THE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS ENGLISH CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT AT SMP KARTIKA BANJARMASIN SCHOOL YEAR 2014/2015

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-40
Author(s):  
Hidya Maulida
Keyword(s):  
Classroom Management ◽  
Classroom Environment ◽  
Positive Attitude ◽  
English Teacher ◽  
Teaching English ◽  
School Year ◽  
The Mean ◽  
English Classroom ◽  
Student’S Attitude ◽  
Descriptive Method

This research aims to find out the students’ attitude toward English classroom environment especially English teacher, English material and English classroom management. This research used descriptive method to find out the students attitude toward English teacher, English material and English classroom management.The population of this research was the ninth year students of SMP Kartika Banjarmasin which consists of two classes so the totalis 67 students. The instrument of the research was questionnaire by using mean score to find out the mean score of them.The result of the data analysis of the questionnaire indicated that the students have positive attitude toward English teacher (59.80), the students have positive attitude toward English material (59) and the students have positive attitude toward English classroom management (55.92).Based on the result, some suggestions are proposed: (1)Generally, the student's attitude toward English classroom environment is positive but there are still some students have neutral attitude so that its suggested to English teacher at the SMP Kartika Banjarmasin in order to learn more skills and pay attention to the classroom environment’s factor and he should be creative in teaching English so that the students can be motivated in learning English (2) To the students, they should make English as interesting subject so that it can give benefit to the future. 

College Business English teaching in the context of multimedia network

2021 ◽  
pp. 002072092110077
Author(s):  
Yan Liang
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
English Education ◽  
Classroom Teaching ◽  
Business English ◽  
Teaching Mode ◽  
College English ◽  
English Teaching ◽  
Multimedia Network ◽  
English Classroom ◽  
Reform Model

With the advent of the Internet age, network information technology is rapidly entering college English classes, which fundamentally changes the mode of college English teaching. In college English classroom teaching mode, as a brand teaching form, College English multimedia network teaching environment has brought advantages to classroom teaching, but also brought about impacts on teaching concepts, teaching models, teaching methods and other aspects. There are some phenomena that are inconsistent with the reform model at the students, teachers and the environment. The balance of traditional English classroom teaching has been broken, which has affected the smooth progress of college business English classroom teaching mode reform. It is very important to analyze and resolve these imbalances and find ecological methods for optimizing university English education. In this context, the advent of multimedia-assisted education technology has provided better conditions for the implementation of Business English classroom education in universities. Multimedia-powered business English education allows teachers to create a better language learning environment in class more conveniently and quickly, helping students acquire grammar knowledge and achieve their educational objectives.

Mindfulness for teachers: notes toward a discursive cartography

2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-108
Author(s):  
Remy Low
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Teacher Educator ◽  
Entry Point ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Educational Researcher ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Discursive Formation ◽  
Heuristic Device

Purpose For the interested teacher, teacher educator and educational researcher seeking an entry point into how mindfulness relates to teachers’ work, the burgeoning and divergent appeals for the relevance of mindfulness to teachers can be bewildering. The purpose of this paper is to offer teachers, teacher educators and educational researchers a conceptual framework for understanding the different orientations and sources of mindfulness as it has been recommended to teachers. Design/methodology/approach Using Foucault’s (1972) concept of “discursive formations” as a heuristic device, this paper argues that mindfulness as pitched to teachers can be helpfully understood as arising from three distinct orientations. Findings Statements about mindfulness and its relevance to teachers emerge from three distinct discursive formations – traditional, psychological and engaged – that each constitute the “problem” faced by teachers respectively as suffering, stress or alienation. Specific conceptions of mindfulness are then advanced as a solution to these problems by certain authoritative subjects and institutions in ways that are taken as legitimate within each discursive formation. Originality/value Apart from offering a historical and discursive mapping of the different discursive formations from which mindfulness is pitched to teachers, this paper also highlights how each of these orientations impies a normative view of what a teacher should be. Suggestions for further historical research are also offered along the lines of genealogy, epistemology and ontology.

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