Perspectives, Strategies, and Propositions for Cultivating Inclusive Educational Environments

2022 ◽  
pp. 144-178
Author(s):  
Ananí M. Vasquez ◽  
Mary Lou
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Educational System ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
Creative Learning

This chapter activates a rethinking of educational system deep structures and proposes perspectives, strategies, and interactive propositional tasks for cultivating inclusive educational environments. Neurotypicality in deep structures has been used to bolster ableism and oppression, impeding the development of inclusion in schools and supporting the ongoing exclusion of intersectional, neurodiverse individuals. Inclusive education could be reimagined using a neurodiversity perspective, promoting strategies for critical analysis of deep structures and strategies for creative learning, and engaging with experimental propositions for practice that invite educators to engage with creative learning concepts. Creative learning, as personal and collaborative meaning-making, also extends beyond student learning to professional learning and educational research. Readers are asked to engage with and beyond the text in critical reflection toward purposeful action.

scholarly journals Animating a Curriculum Framework Through Educator Co-Inquiry: Co-Learning, Co-Researching, and Co-Imagining Possibilities

2019 ◽  
pp. 37-53
Author(s):  
Jane Hewes ◽  
Tricia Lirette ◽  
Lee Makovichuk ◽  
Rebekah McCarron
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Child Care ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Early Learning ◽  
Transmission Modes ◽  
Curriculum Frameworks ◽  
Curriculum Framework

The shift toward a pedagogical foundation for professional practice in early childhood along with the introduction of curriculum frameworks in early learning and child care, calls for approaches to professional learning that move beyond transmission modes of learning towards engaged, localized, participatory models that encourage critical reflection and investigation of pedagogy within specific settings. In this paper, we describe ongoing participatory research that explores educator co-inquiry as an approach to animating a curriculum framework. A story of curriculum meaning making that opened a hopeful space for critical pedagogical reflection and changed practice serves as a basis for deeper reflection.

scholarly journals From the Book ‘Becoming Critical’: A Short Dialogue for Educator

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Suryawahyuni Latief ◽  
Wolter Parlindungan Silalahi ◽  
Yeni Rachmawati
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Philosophy Of Education ◽  
Doctoral Level ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Research In Education ◽  
Basic Philosophy

This paper performs a narrative analysis of the basic philosophy of education book. The book, “becoming critical” was written by Carr and Kemmis (1986). Authors rise up again this old book due to the whole content is essential for educator, students from undergraduate to doctoral level. In simple, the book narrated three basic educational research methodologies among all chapters: technical-theoretical-positivism, practical-interpretative-hermeneutics, and critical-reflection-emancipatory paradigm. Narrative is the central mechanism for meaning making. It is the multiple representations used to reference and make sense of human experience. Dealing with the pros and cons of those paradigms, this paper gives a brief memory to educator in doing research in education. To sum up, this paper illustrated education, knowledge, and action research.

scholarly journals Toward a nuanced understanding of musicians’ professional learning pathways: What does critical reflection contribute?

2021 ◽  
pp. 1321103X2110258
Author(s):  
Guadalupe López-Íñiguez ◽  
Pamela Burnard
Keyword(s):  
Professional Learning ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Professional Lives ◽  
Learner Identity ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Diverse Learning ◽  
Learning Pathways ◽  
Nuanced Understanding ◽  
Constructivist Intervention

Making sense of musicians’ professional learning pathways is of crucial importance to understanding their career progressions, their routes into creative employment, and the relevance of various policies to their professional lives. However, this is a far cry from understanding how critical reflection catalyzes diverse learning routes, especially when considering evidence originating from postgraduate musicians’ own accounts of their journeys into job creation. In this study, we invited five postgraduate classical musicians who were invested in professional learning through performance programs in higher education to contribute these types of personal perspectives. The article explores the value of postgraduate musicians’ own accounts of their journeys and illustrates how a more nuanced understanding of them can be arrived at through the use of visual-based tools, for example, Rivers of Musical Experience and Dixit Cards. This constructivist intervention prompted both group and individual critical reflections, as well as sense-making processes that enabled the participants to become more informed about the (typically overlooked or neglected) critical incidents that differently catalyze professional learning pathways. All of the participants articulated sociocultural influences that were situated along historical, present, and future points of departure and arrival, helping them to create meaning and understanding of themselves and their (at times unsettling) professional learning pathways. From the ensuing thematic analyses, we identified a commonality of themes across life phases with three key influential groups of people (parents, peers, and professionals) that strongly affected their professional learning pathways and learner identity-construction. The results indicate that the relationships between these phases and people are complex. The research illuminates the previously unexplored connection between the meaning-making trajectories that are instantiated through critical reflection, and adds to our understanding of the development of musicians’ professional learning pathways and learner identities.

scholarly journals Reframing Professional Development Through Understanding Authentic Professional Learning

2009 ◽  
Vol 79 (2) ◽  
pp. 702-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Webster-Wright
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
Recent Literature ◽  
Development Programs ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Alternative Conceptualization ◽  
Professional Development Programs ◽  
Evaluating Professional Development

Continuing to learn is universally accepted and expected by professionals and other stakeholders across all professions. However, despite changes in response to research findings about how professionals learn, many professional development practices still focus on delivering content rather than enhancing learning. In exploring reasons for the continuation of didactic practices in professional development, this article critiques the usual conceptualization of professional development through a review of recent literature across professions. An alternative conceptualization is proposed, based on philosophical assumptions congruent with evidence about professional learning from seminal educational research of the past two decades. An argument is presented for a shift in discourse and focus from delivering and evaluating professional development programs to understanding and supporting authentic professional learning.

A Decade of Research on K–12 Teaching and Teacher Learning with Social Media: Insights on the State of the Field

2020 ◽  
Vol 122 (6) ◽  
pp. 1-72
Author(s):  
Christine Greenhow ◽  
Sarah M. Galvin ◽  
Diana L. Brandon ◽  
Emilia Askari
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Educational Research ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
The State ◽  
Classroom Teaching ◽  
Literature Reviews ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
K 12

Background and Context The increasingly widespread use of social media to expand one's social connections is a relatively new but important phenomenon that has implications for teaching, learning, and teachers’ professional knowledge and development in the 21st century. Educational research in this area is expanding, but further investigation is necessary to better determine how to best support teachers in their professional development, collaboration, and classroom teaching. Prior literature reviews have focused extensively on higher education settings or particular platforms or platform types (e.g., Facebook, microblogging). This article provides needed insights into K–12 settings and encompasses work from a variety of social media types. We describe a systematic review of more than a decade of educational research from various countries to present the state of the field in K–12 teachers’ use of social media for teaching and professional learning across various platforms. Research Questions To define social media's potentially beneficial roles in teaching and learning, we must first take an in-depth look at teachers’ current social media practices. Toward this end, we approached our review with the following research question: How are social media perceived and used by K–12 teachers for their teaching or professional learning, and with what impacts on teachers’ practices? Research Design Guided by Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) established standards for rigor and quality in systematic literature reviews, this article reviews empirical research to examine how social media are perceived and used by K–12 teachers with what impacts on teachers’ practices. Findings We find that social media features offer several benefits for helping teachers fulfill their goals for classroom teaching, including enhancing student engagement, community connections, and teacher–student interactions, but these affordances come with challenges that must be navigated. The literature also suggests that social media features provide benefits for teachers’ professional learning within both formal professional development programs and informal learning networks. Conclusions Implications of this literature review for future research and the design of educational practices are discussed in the final section. Among our conclusions are calls for more data triangulation between teachers’ and students’ learning and experiences on social media, more attention to teachers’ observational behaviors on social media, and further exploration of how social media facilitates interplay between teachers’ formal and informal learning.

scholarly journals Achieving Elusive Teacher Change through Challenging Myths about Learning: A Blended Approach

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Anderson ◽  
Jo Boaler ◽  
Jack Dieckmann
Keyword(s):  
Student Learning ◽  
Professional Learning ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Instructional Practice ◽  
Student Beliefs ◽  
The Us ◽  
Math Test ◽  
Math Test Scores ◽  
One Year ◽  
Mathematics Teaching Methods

The idea that success in mathematics is only available to those born as “mathematics people” has been challenged in recent years by neuroscience, showing that mathematics pathways develop in the brain through learning and practice. This paper reports on a blended professional learning model of online and in-person meetings during which 40 teachers in 8 school districts in the US learned about the new brain science, challenging the “math person” myth, as well as effective mathematics teaching methods. We refer to the combination as a Mathematical Mindset Approach. Using mixed methods, we conducted a one-year study to investigate teacher and student learning in a Mathematical Mindset network. We collected data on teacher and student beliefs, teacher instructional practice, and student learning gains on state achievement tests. The results from our quantitative analyses found statistically significant positive improvements in student beliefs, teacher’s instructional practice, and on students’ math test scores. The mindset approach particularly raised the achievement of girls, English learners, and economically disadvantaged students. Based on our qualitative analysis, we propose that the success of the intervention rests upon two central factors: (1) The different forms of PD served to eradicate the learning myths that had held up teachers and learners; and that (2) Teachers had space for identity work as mathematical learners.

scholarly journals Resilience processes in sexually abused adolescent girls: A scoping review of the literature

2017 ◽  
Vol 113 (9/10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sadiyya Haffejee ◽  
Linda Theron
Keyword(s):  
Adolescent Girls ◽  
Scoping Review ◽  
Sexually Abused ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Future Orientation ◽  
Cultural Norms ◽  
Enabling Factors ◽  
Educational Environments ◽  
Supportive Family

Childhood sexual abuse is often associated with a number of deleterious psychological and behavioural outcomes for survivors. However, some research suggests that this impact is variable and that some survivors adapt positively. An ability to adapt positively to adversity, under any circumstances, has been termed resilience. Drawing on a socio-ecological understanding of resilience, the aim of this scoping review was to comprehensively map existing empirical studies on resilience processes in sexually abused adolescent girls and to summarise emerging resilience-enabling factors. We also considered the implications of the findings for practice and research. A total of 11 articles met the criteria for inclusion in the review. Findings from these studies suggest that internal factors (meaning making, optimistic future orientation, agency and mastery) and contextual factors (supportive family, social and educational environments) function interdependently to enable resilience in sexually abused adolescent girls. Practitioners should leverage these complementary and interdependent resilience-enabling mechanisms by encouraging greater involvement of girls in the planning of interventions and by assisting girls in developing meaningful narratives about their abuse experiences. Interventions should also encourage greater involvement from supportive structures, while challenging social and cultural norms that inhibit resilience. Resilience researchers should be cognisant of the paucity of research focusing on resilience processes in sexually abused adolescent girls as well as the absence of innovative, participatory methods of data collection.

scholarly journals Critical Race Theory and Caring as Channels for Transcending Borders between an African American Professor and Her Latina/o Students

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline B. Koonce
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Effective Teaching ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Archival Data ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Reflective Essay

This reflective essay uncovers ways in which critical race theory and caring are key to crossing racial, cultural, and linguistic borders between professors and their students. Many scholars have noted how critical reflection relates to effective teaching, especially when taking into account student learning. Reflecting upon archival data and participant observation, the author describes, through various stories, how she uses critical race theory and caring to connect with her students in spite of their differences. The author also provides examples of how her students reciprocate her care in extravagant ways.

scholarly journals The Power of the In-Between: Intermediality as a Tool for Aesthetic Analysis and Critical Reflection

10.16993/baq ◽  
2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Individual Case ◽  
Media History ◽  
Cultural Objects ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Media Objects ◽  
Theatre Studies ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
The Aesthetic

The Power of the In-Between: Intermediality as a Tool for Aesthetic Analysis and Critical Reflection gathers fourteen individual case studies where intermedial issues—issues concerning that which takes place in between media—are explored in relation to a range of different cultural objects and contexts, different methodological approaches, and different disciplinary perspectives. The cases investigate the intermediality of such manifold objects and phenomena as contemporary installation art, twentieth-century geography books, renaissance sculpture, media theory, and public architecture of the 1970s. They also bring together scholars from the disciplines of art history, comparative literature, theatre studies, musicology, and the history of ideas.Starting out from an inclusive understanding of intermediality as “relations between media conventionally perceived as different,” each author specifies and investigates “intermediality” in their own particular case; that is, each examines how it is inflected by particular objects, methods, and research questions. “Intermediality” thus serves both as a concept employed to cover an inclusive range of cultural objects, cultural contexts, methodological approaches, and so on, and as a concept to be modelled out by the particular cases it is brought to bear on. Rather than merely applying a predefined concept, the objectives are experimental. The authors explore the concept of intermediality as a malleable tool of research.This volume further makes a point of transgressing the divide between media history and semiotically and/or aesthetically oriented intermedial studies. The former concerns the specificity of media technologies and media interrelations in socially, politically, and epistemologically defined space and time, and the latter targets formal considerations of media objects and its various meaning-making elements. These two conventionally separated fields of research are integrated in order to produce a richer understanding of the analytical and historical, as well as the aesthetic and technological, conditions and possibilities of intermedial phenomena.

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