Social Justice: A Missing Link in A Literary Review of Successful Strategies Utilized by Principals for Retaining African American Teachers

Perceptions on leadership training to sustain teachers of color vary in approaches, ideologies, and values. However, what evidence is within the literature to depict what effective principals do to retain, in particular, African American teachers? In the present study, the authors have reviewed the literature from 2011-2020 through the lens of Critical Learning Theory. This examination led to an extrapolation of categories that indirectly embed social justice as a tool utilized for retaining African American teachers. Nevertheless, many well-known strategies utilized to promote the retention of present-day African American teachers do not include this motivating call-to-action within the parameters of their approach or training of principals. Social justice is an effective tool for supporting Generation X students who willfully and actively participate in digital and physical campaigns against systematic racial injustice. Therefore, educational leaders should transcend authoritative leadership and systematic racism with social justice as a pivotal strategy for teachers of color.

Conceptualisation of Ubuntugogy as a Decolonial Pedagogy in Africa

The concept of ubuntugogy appears as an ordinary grammatical prowess to some, while it also remains unknown to many. This conceptual paper attempts to conceptualise ubuntugogy, not only as indigenous teaching and learning but also as a decolonial pedagogy with liberating potentials. An assumption exists that today’s pedagogical process in Africa is still laced with subjectivism, and it fails to challenge the Eurocentric hegemony that lies within school systems. The failure to address Eurocentrism explicitly leads to the need for ubuntugogy. Ubuntugogy, therefore, needs to be unpacked for better understanding. That is, this study is not to challenge the hegemony of westernised classrooms and their pedagogical process in Africa but to conceptualise the hidden potential of ubuntugogy to fill out the limited literature of the concept in the world of academics. Hence, the study provides answers to questions such as; what is ubuntugogy? What is the epistemology of ubuntugogy? What are the transformative tendencies of ubuntugogy, and how does ubuntugogy relevant in 21st Century classrooms? The study concluded that the idea of ubuntugogy is to create a learning environment where everyone feels empowered, encouraged and free from the burdens of Eurocentric and Americentric imposition with an open tendency of knowing and being human.

Social worldviews and social attitudes: Examining the psychological correlates for other-concern

Social inequality or inequity is existent in every society. As such, most societies dedicate efforts to ensuring fairness and justice for all its members. The university environment constitutes a miniature society on its own and everyday broader realities of the larger society are equally applicable within the university. The attitude that students hold with regards to social inequality could be a function of their worldviews which act as guiding principles for social conduct. In this study, the worldviews of self-transcendence and just-world beliefs were examined in relation to support for affirmative action and social dominance orientation among students. The study employed a survey approach with data collected through questionnaires from a sample of 331 (62.8% female) undergraduate students in a public university. The authors hypothesized that self-transcendence and just-world beliefs would be positively associated with support for affirmative action and negatively with social dominance orientation. Result of data analysis using structural equation modelling confirmed the hypotheses in this study. However, the relationship between just-world beliefs and social dominance orientation was not significant. Results were discussed for their implications for acceptance of social policies that try to bridge the gap between dominant and marginalised groups. The implication of findings for understanding and managing interaction between groups in an educational setting were emphasised. Recommendations were made regarding how policy makers can use knowledge of worldviews held by student in designing strategies geared towards acceptance of policies targeted at ensuring positive outcomes for members of disadvantaged groups. Suggestions for future research were given.

The construction of the racialized Other in the educational sphere: The stories of students with immigrant backgrounds in Montréal

This paper presents the results of an empirical study of social relations from a critical race theory perspective crossed with the sociology of the life course. The objective of our study was to understand how social relations in Quebec’s educational sphere, specifically in high school, construct fixed categories of racialized students in university. With the aim of discovering the underlying process of racialization of the students of racial backgrounds in educative sphere, the study analyzes the self-reported relational experiences of 10 university students with immigrant backgrounds in Montréal. Based on a narrative inquiry, the analysis of the retrospective life story interviews allowed to explain the complexity of the process of racialization in two categories of “complete racialization” and “incomplete racialization.” In the “completed racialization” category, negotiating domination relationships results in the construction of a racialized Other. In the “incomplete racialization” category, the construction process is in progress. Our study has shown that social relations in high school contribute to the construction of fixed Black and Latinx racialized groups. Interpersonal relationships at school play a role in the racialization of students with immigrant backgrounds, and, although limited in scope, persistence in school may be a reversal strategy for their experiences of racism.

Covid-19 and the entrenchment of a virtual Elite private school: Rethinking education policies in Zimbabwe

By using a critical emancipatory research framework, this theoretical paper discusses the COVID-19-induced commercialisation of the education system in Zimbabwe. It argues that COVID-19 exposed and widened the digital gap between privileged and underprivileged learners, regardless of the learners’ geographical location. The digitalisation of the education space –in adherence to World Health Organization’s COVID-19 guidelines – has resulted in the creation of virtual elite schools. Learners from privileged families found sanctuary in digital learning, whilst underprivileged learners continue to be exposed to the reality of commercialised education. This trend has revealed educational inequalities between privileged and underprivileged learners. The paper answers two major questions: 1. What are the inequalities that were reintroduced by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Zimbabwean education system? and 2. How effective is stakeholders’ response to COVID-19-induced inequalities? The paper argues that COVID-19 has dashed the hopes of free education for all, by creating a digital gap that perpetuates and entrenches inequalities in relation to learners. In light of these findings, the study suggests that education stakeholders invest in digital infrastructure, with special attention being paid to learners’ economic status, as opposed to their geographical location.

Supplemental Instruction as a Tool for Students' Academic Performance in Higher Education

Supplemental instruction (SI), which can be referred to as academic support has been linked to the successful academic performance of university students both locally and internationally. This study explores the successful implementation of SI to encourage students toward academic performance in a South African university. Constructivism theory (CT) was adopted as the theoretical framework for the study while Participatory Research (PR) was the research design. A focused group interview was used to collect data because of its relevance and assumptions of academic support such as supplemental instruction. Two lecturers, two tutors, two tutees, and two SI personnel were selected for the study from a selected university. At the same time, thematic analysis was chosen to analyse the data generated. The findings showed that through the intervention of SI, first-year students' academic performance increased while the dropout rate has also reduced.

Foreign Language Teachers’ Intercultural Competence as a New Aspect of Professional Development

This mixed-method study aims to offer an insight into foreign language teachers’ perceptions on the relationship between intercultural competence and professional development. It is also attempted to explore some methods for evaluating teachers’ intercultural competence through their professional development activities. The research participants are local and international instructors at a private university in Turkey. Data was collected via a web-based questionnaire adapted from Sercu (2006) and a semi-structured interview designed by the researchers. The general findings of the study indicate that learning about a) target culture, b) local culture, and c) international students’ culture contribute to foreign language teachers’ intercultural competence and it is considered as a part of their professional development. However, it is pointed out that pre-service and in-service teacher training programs in Turkey cannot provide sufficient facilities to develop teachers’ intercultural competence. Key words: professional development, intercultural competence, foreign language teaching.

What Does “Education” Mean: Cultural Values in Educational Language

This article will advocate for the use of Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) Theory to research cultural values in Education. It will demonstrate how NSM research can be conducted as it provides explications for the word education. NSM is a research agenda that has identified 65 semantic primes, words that are found in every language of the world and which cannot be defined in terms of any simpler words. If you try to break down a semantic prime like good, you might describe it in terms of words like “positive, pleasing, valued,” all of which turn out to be more complex than good itself. Because primes cannot be decomposed and are universal to every language and every culture, they provide a basis for carrying out cross-linguistic comparisons of meaning and for identifying the cultural perspectives that inform our language and its thought structures. More complicated words, the bulk of any language, are social constructs that are culturally laden, providing deep insights into the way a society thinks.

Broadening Understandings of the Cultural Value of Aloha in a Teacher Educator Program

This study examined how pre-service teachers’ in a mainstream teacher education program expanded their understandings of the Hawaiian cultural value of aloha to reflect the integrity of the translation of aloha as originating in Hawaiian ancestral text. Data were collected from 10 elementary and 11 secondary pre-service teachers’ personal written reflections at the end of each of day of a three-day course. A post-course questionnaire was collected 10 months post-course completion, after pre-service teachers’ student teaching experience. As a result of qualitatively analyzing their written reflections and post-course questionnaire three patterns emerged to reflect the shifts in their understanding of the word aloha: 1) Common Understandings of Aloha; 2) Methods for Activating Aloha; and 3) Sustainable Practices. 16 out of 21 or 76% of the pre-service teachers confirmed that they experienced a shift in their understanding of aloha. The remaining five responded that their understandings of aloha did not “shift,” but rather used the following words to indicate that their understanding of aloha: “expanded,” “strengthened,” “influenced,” “renewed,” and “broadened.” In order for pre-service teachers to be comfortable with the language and meanings associated with a cultural value laden concept like aloha they personally connected with the meaning of the word, expanded understanding through academic learning, and reflected upon new understandings. While tensions and discomfort about using language and cultural concepts from “outside” one’s own ethnic and racial background may still exist, we are encouraged by the idea that pre-service teachers can commit to broadening and embracing understandings of aloha as a meaningful part of their daily classroom practices and lives.

El Instituto: Centering Language, Culture, and Power in Bilingual Teacher Professional Development

Teacher education programs have the obligation to prepare bilingual teachers, new and established, to challenge pervasive deficit and racist ideologies, to cultivate students’ identities/knowledges, and to thwart oppressive ideologies through counter-hegemonic discourses. This paper presents a case study of El Instituto, one Hispanic Serving Institution’s immersive professional development program for Spanish-speaking bilingual teachers in Los Angeles County. Conducted entirely in Spanish, the program aimed to center teachers’ sociocultural realities and community cultural wealth while honoring their linguistic capital, deepening their Spanish-language knowledge, and developing critical consciousness. Findings suggest that utilizing a sociocultural approach to simultaneously study Spanish language and critical pedagogy while centering teachers’ community cultural wealth led to deep insights about intersections of languages and culture within larger power structures that cultivate systemic oppression. However, epistemological shifts about fostering more humanizing and critical professional development for bilingual educators are necessary to achieve these goals.