Social Justice Teaching Through the Sympathetic Touch of Caring and High Expectations for Students of Color

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leticia Rojas ◽  
Daniel D. Liou
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Educational Opportunities ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
High Expectations ◽  
Segregated Schools ◽  
Perceptions Of Fairness ◽  
Education School ◽  
Social Justice Teaching

This 1-year qualitative study examined the ways in which nine social justice–oriented teachers in racially segregated schools defined and fostered sympathy with low-income students of color. These teachers reportedly defined sympathy on the basis of caring and high expectations, which challenged traditional notions of sympathy as a teacher cue for low ability and lowered expectations for learning. Building upon W. E. B. Du Bois’s concept of sympathetic touch, the findings of this study revealed that the teachers fostered sympathy through perceptions of fairness in educational opportunities, education as a method to challenge class oppression, the use of curriculum to communicate caring, and high expectations to promote students’ histories, self-respect, and preparation for a more just future. The results of these findings have implications for how society currently views teacher effectiveness, and future discussions regarding teacher education, school accountability, and teacher evaluation.

scholarly journals “College for All? These Kids Can’t Dig Ditches”: Confronting the Leadership Challenges for Justice-Based Reform in Underperforming Schools

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-111
Author(s):  
Randall F. Clemens
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Change Agent ◽  
Public High School ◽  
Underperforming Schools ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
Leadership Challenges ◽  
Urban Public High School

The case explores the challenges of school leaders to facilitate social justice–based reforms for low-income students of color who attend underperforming schools. In particular, it examines the 1st-year experiences of Principal Yolanda Lopez at Kennedy High School, an underperforming and underresourced urban public high school. Lopez is tasked with improving college access and readiness among all students. As the year progresses—and pressures mount from various stakeholders—she questions the viability of sustained reform and her own role as a change agent within a complex and often unjust system.

Feminist Response to Campus Sexual Assault in the Republican Era

2019 ◽  
pp. 171-201
Author(s):  
Donna Coker
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Assault ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Campus Climate ◽  
Help Seeking ◽  
Campus Culture ◽  
Public Health Approach ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
Campus Sexual Assault

Feminists working to prevent and respond to campus sexual assault should encourage universities to adopt an intersectional public health approach that incorporates Restorative Justice. An intersectional framework responds to the ways that the general campus climate for students of color, LGBTQ students, foreign nationals, immigrants, and low-income students shapes experiences of sexual assault and help-seeking. An intersectional framework also addresses the risk that implicit bias will infect school investigations and hearings. Feminists should also encourage schools to reject “Crime Logic” thinking and the related belief that campus assaulters are irredeemable “predators.” The predator narrative is based in misapplied research and is contradicted by the results of more sophisticated longitudinal studies. Finally, feminists should encourage schools to adopt Restorative Justice (RJ) alternatives. An RJ approach supports victim healing and autonomy, encourages the student who caused harm to take responsibility for repairing the harm, and enables larger changes in campus culture.

Hope in the Lives of Low-Income Students of Color: A Qualitative Study of Experiences in a Work-Based Learning Program

2020 ◽  
pp. 089484532093743
Author(s):  
Mary Beth Medvide ◽  
Maureen E. Kenny
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Hope Theory ◽  
Youth Of Color ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
Learning Program ◽  
Catholic High School ◽  
Phenomenological Methodology ◽  
Collective Belief

This study explored the experiences of low-income students of color who participated in a work-based learning (WBL) program while attending a Catholic high school. Historically, research on student outcomes in WBL programs has been mixed, and few studies have provided insights into how low-income youth of color can benefit. This study utilized a phenomenological methodology to capture hope among these youth and to delineate these students’ lived experiences within their relational, organizational, and sociocultural contexts. The results showed participants’ goal setting and motivation were fostered by a sense of connection to others at school and a collective belief that success was possible for all students despite whatever challenges they faced. The participants also discussed hopes for the future within the context of workplace support, religious faith, and past hopelessness. The results provide avenues to design WBL programs that consider students’ supports and barriers and further contextualize hope theory.

Financial Aid: A Broken Bridge to College Access?

2007 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRIDGET TERRY LONG ◽  
ERIN RILEY
Keyword(s):  
Financial Aid ◽  
College Access ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Unmet Need ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
Financial Aid Policy ◽  
The Past ◽  
Aid Policy

In this article, Bridget Terry Long and Erin Riley argue that in recent years, U.S. financial aid policy has shifted its emphasis from expanding college access for lowincome students toward defraying the costs for middle- and upper-income families. They explain how loans, merit-based aid, and education tax breaks are increasingly replacing need-based aid and discuss how the declining role of grants may disproportionately disadvantage students already underrepresented in higher education. They document the rise in students' unmet financial needs over the past decade, showing that low-income students and students of color are especially likely to face substantial unmet need even after taking into account all available grants and loans, as well as family contributions. In response to these trends, the authors call for a greater emphasis on need-based aid, especially grants, to reduce the role of cost as a barrier to college access.

scholarly journals Student Engagement for Equity and Social Justice: Creating Space for Student Voice

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brenda McMahon ◽  
Geoff Munns ◽  
John Smyth ◽  
David Zyngier
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Student Voice ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Visible Minority ◽  
Marginalized Students ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
Cognitive Levels ◽  
Teaching Learning

This paper describes three student engagement initiatives that have been successfully implemented in Australia and Canada, where social justice educators are struggling with issues resulting from reforms that marginalize visible minority and low-income students. The projects envision student engagement in critical democratic ways. Using different strategies, they are informed by approaches that: respect students, educators and teaching/learning processes; connect on emotional as well as cognitive levels; and shift away from narrow notions of schooling to broader visions of education for marginalized students. Transferable to other locations, these programmes provide insights into what is possible when student engagement is enacted in equitable, socially just, and transformative environments.

scholarly journals University-Partnered New School Designs: Fertile Ground for Research–Practice Partnerships

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 143-146 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Hunter Quartz ◽  
Rhona S. Weinstein ◽  
Gail Kaufman ◽  
Harold Levine ◽  
Hugh Mehan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Students Of Color ◽  
Urban School Districts ◽  
School Design ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Low Income Students ◽  
New School ◽  
Policy Context ◽  
Fertile Ground

This commentary suggests that new school design is a fertile policy context for advancing research–practice partnerships. The authors represent four public universities that have created new school designs in partnership with urban school districts. Unlike the laboratory schools of previous generations, these university-partnered public schools were intentionally designed to disrupt persistent patterns of inequity and prepare low-income students of color to flourish in college. The authors argue that these schools provide a promising context for marrying research and practice to bring about fundamental change in schools, with potential for spread of innovation to districts and universities.

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