Taking Back Teaching: The Professionalization Work of Teacher Activist Organizations

We contribute to the teacher activism literature an understanding of how activist organizations support professionalization processes. We examine how teachers’ involvement in a local activist organization counteracts the de-professionalizing reforms of the standards and accountability movement and fosters the professionalization of teaching. Our findings suggest that the structures of the activist organization provide opportunities for teachers to create and maintain collective knowledge for curricula and practice, sustain their professional commitments to social justice, and build confidence that promotes voice in educational decision-making. We discuss implications for teacher professionalization and identify the need for future studies on the role of teacher activist organizations on teachers, teaching, and the profession.

Application of the Data-Driven Educational Decision-Making System to Curriculum Optimization of Higher Education

Advancement in information technology has given a tremendous change in the education system. The traditional classroom education system is slowly getting transferred to the modernized system. In this conversion, the students choose to select the courses to learn in their higher education. The selection will aid the student in learning advanced technologies through theoretical and practical methods. In this research work, a data-driven educational decision-making system with the support of a course curriculum is analyzed with student’s response after the course. The educational decision-making is implemented with the help of the mobile learning technology designed and maintained by the colleges and universities. For performing the analysis, the student response dataset is given as input to the fuzzy logic system to perform the analysis. The research shows that mobile learning technology with the fuzzy logic system has provided better decision-making analysis to curriculum optimization for the student and teachers.

The Bind of Unilateral Power Dynamics and Youth Voice in School Politics

Research has shown the value of including youth, especially minoritized students, in school- and district-level educational decision-making. However, power dynamics, as related to adultism, along with other inequities, are barriers to youth’s political influence. We elucidate these barriers by exploring the possible relationship between adult-adult power dynamics, on one hand, and levels of student voice in schools, on the other. Interviews with teachers and administrators about youth voice initiatives indicated that bounded rationality illuminates how limiting access to knowledge, a form of power, can impact educator decision-making. In addition, bounded rationality bolsters unilateral power structures and therefore curtails youth voice. However, we also found that building relational power between teachers and students and maneuvering beyond bounded rationality increases opportunities for youth voice.

Teachers’ Roles in Evidence-based Educational Reform in China

The evidence-based educational reform was initiated in the field of medicine and now has become a cutting-edge reform wave in the world. As a new pattern of educational reform, it aims to optimize educational decision-making and practice and promote the improvement of education quality, using scientific research evidence. Contrary to experience-based traditional education practice, evidence-based education emphasizes scientific support and data collection, transforms the individual experience into replicable regional experience, and provides scientific basis for implementation of educational policies, strategies and programs.

Bordered Trajectories: The Impact of Institutional Bordering Practices on Young Refugees’ (Re-)Engagement with Post-15 Education in Greece

Greece has been a site of various crises in recent years: firstly, the financial crash of 2008; secondly, the ongoing ‘refugee crisis’, which peaked in 2015; and thirdly, the current COVID-19 pandemic. This paper addresses the first of these crises, and particularly how state responses to increased migration flows shape young refugees’ (aged 15–25) (re-)engagement with post-15 learning opportunities upon arrival in the country. It is based on semi-structured interviews with young refugees living in Thessaloniki, conducted as part of an ethnographic doctoral project on educational decision-making. The findings reveal that three key institutional bordering practices in Greece—namely the bordering of space (via encampment), time (via enforced waiting), and public services (via administrative barriers)—played central roles in young refugees’ (re-)engagement with post-15 education; often causing their dreams to be diverted or downgraded. However, with determination and the support of willing gatekeepers, refugee youth found ways to (re)construct adapted learning trajectories despite, and in response to, these arrival challenges.

Parent engagement in reclassification for English learner students with disabilities

Laws governing special education services and EL services specify different roles forparents in educational decision-making. Little research exists on home-schoolcommunication for families of English learner students with disabilities (ELSWDs), whoare navigating both sets of services. We conducted six case studies of ELSWDs toexamine parents and educators’ communication about educational services and,specifically, how parents were engaged in decisions about whether students should bereclassified and exit EL services. Findings suggest that educators conveyedinformation to parents using a one-way transmission approach (Nichols & Read, 2002).Parents often had incomplete or inaccurate information about their children’s services,had questions and concerns that they did not voice to educators, and sought out non-school sources to inform their decision-making.

Educational psychology counsellors’ views about children’s participation in educational decision-making: A thematic analysis

The attention to children’s participation has increased dramatically during the last decade. Compared to the literature in the educational field, the literature on children’s participation in the social and health fields seems to be developing rapidly. The aim of this article is to address the importance of educational psychology service (eps) counsellors regarding special educational needs (sen) students’ rights to participate in educational decision-making. This article presents an in-depth study of seven Norwegian eps counsellors’ views about children’s participation in educational decision-making. Procedures for a qualitative inductive thematic analysis were followed to reveal four key themes, namely: parents as key persons; children’s presence on teams as an intervention; the importance of children’s age for participation; and the gap between expert assessments and individual education plans (iep s). The results, which are discussed in relation to Lundy’s (2007) model of participation and other relevant literature, show that there should be more knowledge and interventions to ensure children’s participation in educational decision-making in both research and practice. The results also indicate that structures and procedures in special education need to be considered and further developed from a participation perspective.