scholarly journals Engaging Equity Pedagogies in Computer Science Learning Environments

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Tia C. Madkins ◽  
Nicol R. Howard ◽  
Natalie Freed
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Computer Science ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theoretical Frameworks ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Relevant Pedagogy

In this position paper, we advocate for the use of equity-focused teaching and learning as an essential practice within computer science classrooms. We provide an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of various equity pedagogies (Banks & Banks, 1995), such as culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995, 2006) and share how they have been utilized in CS classrooms. First, we provide a brief history of CS education and issues of equity within public schools in the United States. In sharing our definition of equity, along with our rationale for how and why these strategies can be taken up in computer science (CS) learning environments, we demonstrate how researchers and educators can shift the focus from access and achievement to social justice. After explaining the differences between the relevant theoretical frameworks, we provide practical examples from research of how both practitioners and researchers might use and/or examine equity-focused teaching practices. Resources for further learning are also included.

One-to-One Technology in the K-12 Classroom

Education ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea H. Parrish
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dynamic Learning ◽  
Computing Device ◽  
Access To Technology ◽  
One To One ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

In Toward a New Learning Ecology: Teaching and Learning in 1:1 Environments (cited under General Overviews), one-to-one learning environments are described as classrooms in which every student has access to a personal computing device (such as a laptop or a tablet) and continuous access to the Internet. This model for student computing was first discussed in educational research beginning in the 1980s, most notably in the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) project, a research collaborative among public schools, universities, and research teams funded by Apple and outlined in The Evolution of Teachers’ Instructional Beliefs and Practices in High-Access-to-Technology Classroom: First-fourth Year Findings (cited under Origins of One-to-One Technology: Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow [ACOT]). The original premise, based on the work of computer scientist and mathematician Seymour Papert, is rooted in the idea that ubiquitous access to technology can create more dynamic learning environments. In recent years, the proliferation of mobile technology has caused a renewed interest in one-to-one computing, as the improved portability and functionality of technology tools coupled with advances in wireless Internet capability makes one-to-one computing attainable for many schools and districts. Despite the continued debate about the impact of technology on learning, the U.S. Department of Education elevated the concept of a one-to-one technology ratio from unique innovation to moral imperative in its document, Reimagining the Role of Technology in Education: 2017 National Education Technology Plan Update (cited under Resources). Even before this, the prevalence of one-to-one computing initiatives increased, both in the United States is discussed in The New Digital Learning Playbook: Understanding the Spectrum of Students’ Activities and Aspirations (cited under General Overviews) and around the world in Large-Scale 1:1 Computing Initiatives: An Open Access Database (cited under International Perspectives on One-to-One Technology). The growth of these initiatives has been accompanied by an increase in peer-reviewed research and evaluation reports that document the impact of one-to-one technology on teaching and learning. A topic that was once dominated by white papers and evaluation reports now boasts a growing body of peer-reviewed studies, research syntheses, and government reports. The references cited in this article provide a cross-section of these various forms of literature that depict the use of one-to-one technology in K-12 classrooms, including implementation resources for districts and key empirical findings.

Mahjong

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annelise Heinz
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
American Culture ◽  
The United States ◽  
Jewish American ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Women's Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Heritage ◽  
Cultural Origins ◽  
Definition Of

Mahjong: A Chinese Game and the Making of Modern American Culture illustrates how the spaces between tiles and the moments between games have fostered distinct social cultures in the United States. When this mass-produced game crossed the Pacific it created waves of popularity over the twentieth century. Mahjong narrates the history of this game to show how it has created a variety of meanings, among them American modernity, Chinese American heritage, and Jewish American women’s culture. As it traveled from China to the United States and caught on with Hollywood starlets, high society, middle-class housewives, and immigrants alike, mahjong became a quintessentially American pastime. This book also reveals the ways in which women leveraged a game for a variety of economic and cultural purposes, including entrepreneurship, self-expression, philanthropy, and ethnic community building. One result was the forging of friendships within mahjong groups that lasted decades. This study unfolds in two parts. The first half is focused on mahjong’s history as related to consumerism, with a close examination of its economic and cultural origins. The second half explores how mahjong interwove with the experiences of racial inclusion and exclusion in the evolving definition of what it means to be American. Mahjong players, promoters, entrepreneurs, and critics tell a broad story of American modernity. The apparent contradictions of the game—as both American and foreign, modern and supposedly ancient, domestic and disruptive of domesticity—reveal the tensions that lie at the heart of modern American culture.

scholarly journals Transgressions Towards Difference: A Tertiary Arts Educator’s Reflection on Teaching in Norway

2021 ◽  
pp. 357-376
Author(s):  
Rose Martin
Keyword(s):  
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ◽  
Teaching Practices ◽  
Arts Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Learning Context ◽  
Person Perspective ◽  
Pedagogical Choices ◽  
First Person Perspective ◽  
Diversity In Education ◽  
Relevant Pedagogy

This chapter explores the idea of transgressions within tertiary arts education, focusing on how transgressions might lead us toward understanding notions of difference, and contributing to understandings of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP), inclusion, and diversity in education. These ideas are explored from my first-person perspective as a tertiary arts educator and researcher, with the research taking a qualitative auto-narrative approach. Through unpacking my auto-narratives this chapter identifies how transgressions within teaching might add to the teaching and learning context, and I ask: How might we, as educators, see these transgressions as opportunities, and as ways to encourage difference in our teaching and learning? Through critiquing my own pedagogical choices and practices, I reveal that when seeking to embark on an inclusive and dialogical approach towards education, transgressions can be made, and through these transgressions there are opportunities to develop teaching practices in arts education.

Green Schools: Strengthening Our Economy by Investing in Our Children

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 255-257
Author(s):  
John M. Weekes
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Teacher Turnover ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Design ◽  
Percent Reduction ◽  
Green Schools ◽  
History Of ◽  
American Schools ◽  
Student Absenteeism

An architect looks at the history of school design and construction in the United States, which by 2008 had approximately 97,000 public schools holding 54.3 million students and five million teachers. About 73 percent of the schools were built prior to 1969. A study has shown that Green Schools can produce a 30–50 percent reduction in energy use, 35 percent reduction in carbon dioxide, a 40 percent reduction in water use, and cut 70 percent in solid waste. Further, student absenteeism and teacher turnover were reduced and productivity increased three percent. If all American schools were Green, the country would save nearly $1 trillion in the next 10 years.

Curriculum as Colonizer: (Asian) American Education in the Current U.S. Context

2010 ◽  
Vol 112 (12) ◽  
pp. 3102-3138
Author(s):  
A. Lin Goodwin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
No Child Left Behind ◽  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ◽  
Model Minority ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Education ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Relevant Pedagogy

Background/Context The United States is currently undergoing a period of unprecedented immigration, with the majority of new arrivals coming from Asia and Latin America, not Europe. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (APIs) represent the fastest growing racial group in the United States, and schools are again being asked to socialize newcomer students, many of whom are APIs. Yet, even as the United States becomes more racially diverse, the national mindset regarding immigrants and immigration ranges from ambivalent to increasingly (and currently) hostile, and is often contradictory. “American” typically is imagined as “White,” and perceptions of APIs and people of color as “other” remain cemented in our collective psyche. It is this sociohistorical-political context that frames the education and socialization of Asian American citizens, immigrants, and their children. Objective/Focus As APIs are absorbed into the fabric of society, how will they define themselves? How will they be defined? This article begins by deconstructing the social category Asian and Pacific Islander in order to reveal the immense diversity contained under this label. The discussion illuminates both the horizontal diversity of APIs—differences between ethnic groups, and vertical diversity—differences within ethnic groups, to underscore the insufficiency of the API label. Against the diverse backdrop that APIs truly (re)present, (Asian) American education framed by three curricular contexts in the United States—the major reforms of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, culturally relevant pedagogy, and the “model minority” mythology—is theorized using postcolonial theory as an analytic lens. The article concludes with thoughts on how APIs can resist domination and what might be sites of resistance in schools or society. Research Design This is an analytic essay that examines both historical and contemporary educational and policy contexts. Conclusions/Recommendations Curriculum, defined not simply as subject matter content and instructional procedures, but as a tool of acculturation and a depository of (U.S.) national and cultural values, has the power to emancipate or colonize. Each of the three curricular contexts in the United States—the major reforms of the No Child Left Behind Act, culturally relevant pedagogy, and the “model minority” mythology—exemplify the role Curriculum plays in defining, silencing, and/or marginalizing APIs. Imagined sites of resistance against Curriculum as colonizer include this very page, where one voice deliberately pushes back against the obfuscation of fixed realities layered onto people of Asian descent in the United States, the reexamination and revision(ing) of teacher preparation curricula, and the larger policy arena.

They Schools: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy under Siege

2017 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camika Royal ◽  
Simone Gibson
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Cultural Competence ◽  
School Reform ◽  
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ◽  
School Environment ◽  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Caste System ◽  
Academic Excellence ◽  
Sociopolitical Consciousness ◽  
Relevant Pedagogy

Background/Context Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) represents educators who work toward academic excellence, cultural competence, and sociopolitical awareness. Although some profess to embrace CRP, many educators neglect sociopolitical consciousness. Socio-politically unconscious and/or racially dysconscious educators cannot engage their students in sociopolitical consciousness. For a multitude of reasons, including neoliberal school reform, educators may reduce CRP to cultural celebration, trivialization, essentializing, substituting cultural for political analysis, or other compromised pedagogies. Purpose In this article, we argue that neoliberal school reform models employing hyperaccountability and hyperstandardization, replete with their demands on educators of conformity and silence, obfuscate teachers as thinkers, disempowering the efforts of culturally relevant educators and making high test scores the sole focus of schooling. We also argue that CRP is even more needed now, especially its focuses on cultural competence and sociopolitical consciousness, given the recent highly publicized murders of Black youth (e.g., Freddie Gray, Jordan Davis, Trayvon Martin, and Renisha McBride). Setting and Population This article explores CRP in Philadelphia's public schools before and after the state takeover in 2001 and the proliferation of hyperstandardization, hyperaccountability, and neoliberal school reform. Research Design: This article is conceptual. It uses the historical narratives of Black educators to support the conceptual argument. Conclusion Though it is a professional gamble, it is possible to be a culturally relevant educator within the hyperstandardized, hyperaccountable neoliberal school environment. Such educators must be highly skilled masters of their craft, strategic, and subversive, adhering to all tenets of CRP and mandated curricula. This tension could affect educators’ professional standing, income, and job security. However, neglecting emancipatory pedagogies under the joint siege of hyperaccountability, hyperstandardization, and neoliberal school reform reifies the American racial, cultural, and socioeconomic caste system, and it does so through our schools. Unless educators risk subversively employing CRP, students from historically marginalized communities will continue to appear as standardized failures.

The Integration of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and Project-Based Learning in a Blended Environment

2015 ◽  
pp. 359-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Kelvin Bullock
Keyword(s):  
Learning Environment ◽  
Blended Learning ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Culturally Relevant Pedagogy ◽  
Culturally Relevant ◽  
Project Based Learning ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Authentic Instruction ◽  
Teacher Interviews ◽  
Relevant Pedagogy

The use of blended learning environments is rapidly expanding in education. This chapter examines a teacher's enactment of the New Tech Network educational model, which utilizes a blended learning environment, and the teaching strategies she used to engage students and gauge student achievement. Detailed teacher interviews, classroom observations, and analyses of student assignments were the sources of data for the study. The findings centered on the integration of culturally relevant pedagogy and authentic instruction within this learning environment and the implications of this integration. Recommendations for future research include a more expansive study of the use of blended learning in social studies and different means of integrating culturally relevant pedagogy and authentic instruction into blended learning.

Games and Simulations

2011 ◽  
pp. 1398-1415 ◽  
Author(s):  
Göknur Kaplan Akilli
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Design ◽  
Learning Environments ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Design Development ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Games And Simulations ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Shed Light

Computer games and simulations are considered powerful tools for learning with an untapped potential for formal educational use. However, the lack of available well-designed research studies about their integration into teaching and learning leaves unanswered questions, despite their more than thirty years’ existence in the instructional design movement. Beginning with these issues, this chapter aims to shed light on the definition of games and simulations, their educational use, and some of their effects on learning. Criticisms and new trends in the field of instructional design/development in relation to educational use of games and simulations are briefly reviewed. The chapter intends to provide a brief theoretical framework and a fresh starting point for practitioners in the field who are interested in educational use of games and simulations and their integration into learning environments.

Origins and History of The Satanic Temple

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-60
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Laycock
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Corporal Punishment ◽  
Political Action ◽  
Military Veterans ◽  
The United States ◽  
After School ◽  
National Council ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
History Of

This chapter provides a historical overview of The Satanic Temple from its foundation as a political action held in Tallahassee, Florida, in 2013 to the formation of a National Council with a physical headquarters and a system of chapters throughout the United States and abroad. The chapter describes the formation of the religion’s creed (The Seven Tenets), its campaign to prevent corporal punishment in public schools, its campaign to implement an After School Satan Club (ASSC) in schools throughout the United States, and its attempt to install a Satanic monument to honor military veterans at a park in Belle Plaine, Minnesota.

Parody—Nature and Definition

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-37
Author(s):  
Sabine Jacques
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Arts ◽  
History Of ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter provides an overview of the nature and definition of parody in the context of copyright law. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has introduced two requirements that must be satisfied before a work may be considered a ‘parody’: firstly, it must ‘evoke an existing work while being noticeably different from it’, and secondly, it must ‘constitute an expression of humour or mockery’. The chapter first traces the origin and history of parody in the arts, including music, before discussing the relationship of parody with concepts such as satire, caricature, and pastiche. It then examines why a parody exception has been considered necessary in copyright law. The chapter goes on to analyse the legal evolution of parody in France, Australia, Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom, showing that the existing international human rights framework may influence the definition of parody in intellectual property law.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document