J. Conner, M. Goldstein, Jayanth Mammen, José Hernández, Kate Phillippo, D. Pope, S. Davidson
Purpose: As research increasingly links positive student-teacher relationships (STRs) to positive student outcomes, instruments to measure STRs have proliferated. Yet most neglect student agency and sociocultural variation in the operationalization of STRs. This study explores the specific actions teachers and students take to build positive STRs from the vantage point of a diverse group of US middle and high school students. Research Methods: Drawing on the principles of critical collaborative research, our intergenerational team of scholars engaged 84 youth participants (ages 12–18) in qualitative data generation and analysis, using novel youth-voice elicitation techniques known as the fishbone and diamond card sort. Findings: Findings highlight specific actions that a diverse group of youth believe students and teachers take to create positive STRs and foreground the importance of teacher power, student responsibility, safe classrooms, and reciprocity in STR construction. Implications: By pinpointing specific actions that teachers can take to build positive STRs, this work raises implications for teacher education and professional development, especially as schools struggle to regain ground with students in the wake of COVID-19 disruptions. In addition, the study demonstrates how engaging youth as partners in qualitative research can help improve the conduct and products of empirical research in education, offering a model for the field of youth validation processes.
{"title":"What Students and Teachers Do to Build Positive Reciprocal Relationships: A Study Co-Led by Youth and Adult Researchers","authors":"J. Conner, M. Goldstein, Jayanth Mammen, José Hernández, Kate Phillippo, D. Pope, S. Davidson","doi":"10.1086/725585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/725585","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: As research increasingly links positive student-teacher relationships (STRs) to positive student outcomes, instruments to measure STRs have proliferated. Yet most neglect student agency and sociocultural variation in the operationalization of STRs. This study explores the specific actions teachers and students take to build positive STRs from the vantage point of a diverse group of US middle and high school students. Research Methods: Drawing on the principles of critical collaborative research, our intergenerational team of scholars engaged 84 youth participants (ages 12–18) in qualitative data generation and analysis, using novel youth-voice elicitation techniques known as the fishbone and diamond card sort. Findings: Findings highlight specific actions that a diverse group of youth believe students and teachers take to create positive STRs and foreground the importance of teacher power, student responsibility, safe classrooms, and reciprocity in STR construction. Implications: By pinpointing specific actions that teachers can take to build positive STRs, this work raises implications for teacher education and professional development, especially as schools struggle to regain ground with students in the wake of COVID-19 disruptions. In addition, the study demonstrates how engaging youth as partners in qualitative research can help improve the conduct and products of empirical research in education, offering a model for the field of youth validation processes.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"129 1","pages":"449 - 479"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42203332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Purpose: This study draws on genre theory to analyze the linguistic and discursive presentation of the self in successful US college application essays. Research Methods: We used qualitative discourse analysis informed by the systemic functional linguistic concepts of field, tenor, and mode to analyze 20 sample application essays identified as exemplary by college admissions staff from 4 US colleges, along with essay-writing advice obtained from websites of 12 US universities. Our analysis aimed to specify (1) the characteristics of the self that are represented in successful essays and (2) how the writers linguistically and discursively construct these characteristics. Findings: Successful essays portrayed a unique and authentic self through distinctive, patterned features that spanned the three categories of field, tenor, and mode. Features related to “field” included extended metaphors representing insights gained from learning and experience, language representing niche interests, verbs suggesting learning or change, and appraisal language positioning the writer as charitable and optimistic; features related to “tenor” did not include direct address or questions but rather implicit persuasion through descriptive representation of the writer’s character; and features related to “mode” included micronarratives, extended metaphors that supported cohesion, and syntactic structures that facilitated contrast of the writer’s self before and after a significant moment of learning. Implications: As colleges move away from requiring standardized tests for admission, the importance of college application essays has increased. Our findings contribute to efforts to make successful performance of this high-stakes genre more attainable, particularly for first-generation and underrepresented students applying to college.
{"title":"“What Makes You, You”: The Discursive Construction of the Self in US College Application Essays","authors":"S. Beck, Amanda Godley","doi":"10.1086/725586","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/725586","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: This study draws on genre theory to analyze the linguistic and discursive presentation of the self in successful US college application essays. Research Methods: We used qualitative discourse analysis informed by the systemic functional linguistic concepts of field, tenor, and mode to analyze 20 sample application essays identified as exemplary by college admissions staff from 4 US colleges, along with essay-writing advice obtained from websites of 12 US universities. Our analysis aimed to specify (1) the characteristics of the self that are represented in successful essays and (2) how the writers linguistically and discursively construct these characteristics. Findings: Successful essays portrayed a unique and authentic self through distinctive, patterned features that spanned the three categories of field, tenor, and mode. Features related to “field” included extended metaphors representing insights gained from learning and experience, language representing niche interests, verbs suggesting learning or change, and appraisal language positioning the writer as charitable and optimistic; features related to “tenor” did not include direct address or questions but rather implicit persuasion through descriptive representation of the writer’s character; and features related to “mode” included micronarratives, extended metaphors that supported cohesion, and syntactic structures that facilitated contrast of the writer’s self before and after a significant moment of learning. Implications: As colleges move away from requiring standardized tests for admission, the importance of college application essays has increased. Our findings contribute to efforts to make successful performance of this high-stakes genre more attainable, particularly for first-generation and underrepresented students applying to college.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"129 1","pages":"539 - 564"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43929584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrew M. Brantlinger, Ashley A. Grant, Laurel Cooley
Purpose: Many US school districts currently face teacher-retention issues, raising questions about which new teachers might remain long term in district schools. Positing that a teacher’s local ties matter, this quantitative analysis was designed to compare the long-term retention of community-based teachers to community outsiders in the school district that recruited them and subsidized their initial training. Research Methods/Approach: To understand the extent to which individual preparation approaches might distribute different retention benefits to different teacher subgroups, the study examined teacher preparation as an interactive system. Drawing on administrative data from New York City Public Schools and project survey data, the study used logistic regression to model the 3-, 5-, and 8-year retention of 617 secondary mathematics teachers who entered teaching through a high-profile alternative teacher-certification program. Findings: Community insiders—defined in this study as the graduates of New York City high schools—had markedly and significantly estimated higher odds of district retention than that of community outsiders at all three points in time. Black community insiders who entered teaching with prior career experience were shown to have particularly high odds of retention in the district. Implications: The results indicate that the recruitment and development of community-based teachers, and particularly those who are Black career changers, promise to improve retention in district schools. They also support the thesis that retention and other program-level outcomes are the product of interactions between certain types of teachers working in particular (e.g., highly racially segregated) schools and the initial training they receive in teacher-certification programs.
{"title":"How Long Do Community Insiders and Outsiders Stay? Mathematics Teacher Preparation and Retention in an Urban School District","authors":"Andrew M. Brantlinger, Ashley A. Grant, Laurel Cooley","doi":"10.1086/725587","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/725587","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: Many US school districts currently face teacher-retention issues, raising questions about which new teachers might remain long term in district schools. Positing that a teacher’s local ties matter, this quantitative analysis was designed to compare the long-term retention of community-based teachers to community outsiders in the school district that recruited them and subsidized their initial training. Research Methods/Approach: To understand the extent to which individual preparation approaches might distribute different retention benefits to different teacher subgroups, the study examined teacher preparation as an interactive system. Drawing on administrative data from New York City Public Schools and project survey data, the study used logistic regression to model the 3-, 5-, and 8-year retention of 617 secondary mathematics teachers who entered teaching through a high-profile alternative teacher-certification program. Findings: Community insiders—defined in this study as the graduates of New York City high schools—had markedly and significantly estimated higher odds of district retention than that of community outsiders at all three points in time. Black community insiders who entered teaching with prior career experience were shown to have particularly high odds of retention in the district. Implications: The results indicate that the recruitment and development of community-based teachers, and particularly those who are Black career changers, promise to improve retention in district schools. They also support the thesis that retention and other program-level outcomes are the product of interactions between certain types of teachers working in particular (e.g., highly racially segregated) schools and the initial training they receive in teacher-certification programs.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"129 1","pages":"481 - 512"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42686136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Key Question: Which Mechanisms Encased in Race or Class Drive Segregation’s Effects?","authors":"B. Fuller","doi":"10.1086/724409","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724409","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"129 1","pages":"447 - 447"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46065826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the February 2022 issue of the American Journal of Education, an otherwise informative article by Bruce Fuller et al. contains a fairly serious error in a reference to a 2018 paper that I coauthored in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. The Fuller article is “Variation in the Local Segregation of Latino Children—Role of Place, Poverty, and Culture.” Following presentation of data showing growing trends in Latino segregation from White and middle-class peers, the authors go on to discuss the policy implications. The passage with the error is on page 271: “Trends in economic segregation, independent of children’s racial membership, show worsening conditions as well. The probability that poor children interact with nonpoor peers declined over the period. A portion of the downward trend stems from increasing concentration of poor children in certain districts, which undoubtedly affects many Latino children. Even if scholars emphasizing cultural assets are correct, and rising shares of Latino children in some districts are not worrisome, the intensifying isolation of poor Latino students from middle-class peers remains troubling. This form of segregation reinforces stark achievement gaps (Armor et al. 2018; Reardon et al. 2019)” (Fuller et al. 2022, 271). By tying achievement gaps to school and residential segregation, the authors can suggest remedies for these achievement gaps, arguing that their data “show that little progress for Latino children can occur without renewed integration efforts between school districts” (Fuller et al. 2022, 272). From these passages, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the work of both Armor et al. and Reardon et al. offer evidence that racial and socioeconomic
{"title":"Does School Segregation Cause Achievement Gaps? Rejoinder to Fuller et al. (2022)","authors":"D. Armor","doi":"10.1086/724408","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724408","url":null,"abstract":"In the February 2022 issue of the American Journal of Education, an otherwise informative article by Bruce Fuller et al. contains a fairly serious error in a reference to a 2018 paper that I coauthored in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. The Fuller article is “Variation in the Local Segregation of Latino Children—Role of Place, Poverty, and Culture.” Following presentation of data showing growing trends in Latino segregation from White and middle-class peers, the authors go on to discuss the policy implications. The passage with the error is on page 271: “Trends in economic segregation, independent of children’s racial membership, show worsening conditions as well. The probability that poor children interact with nonpoor peers declined over the period. A portion of the downward trend stems from increasing concentration of poor children in certain districts, which undoubtedly affects many Latino children. Even if scholars emphasizing cultural assets are correct, and rising shares of Latino children in some districts are not worrisome, the intensifying isolation of poor Latino students from middle-class peers remains troubling. This form of segregation reinforces stark achievement gaps (Armor et al. 2018; Reardon et al. 2019)” (Fuller et al. 2022, 271). By tying achievement gaps to school and residential segregation, the authors can suggest remedies for these achievement gaps, arguing that their data “show that little progress for Latino children can occur without renewed integration efforts between school districts” (Fuller et al. 2022, 272). From these passages, it is not unreasonable to conclude that the work of both Armor et al. and Reardon et al. offer evidence that racial and socioeconomic","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"129 1","pages":"445 - 446"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45116049","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Purpose: In this study, we examine the policy discourse in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case before the US Supreme Court, a case with implications for education. The case drew a wide range of interested groups who weighed in on the policy as amici curiae, “friends of the court,” offering perspectives about the implications of the case and constructing an overall narrative of DACA within policy discourse. Research Methods/Approach: The theoretical framework guiding the study combines Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Undocumented Critical Theory (UndocuCrit). Using this lens, we identified the discourse regarding issues of race and immigration status in the collective story of the DACA policy as told by amici curiae, including multiple educational stakeholders. Through an iterative process, we employed theory- and data-driven coding to qualitatively analyze the 44 briefs amici curiae submitted to the Court. To bolster the trustworthiness of the findings, we engaged in memoing and extensive team discussions. Findings: Our findings revealed the limitations of the story of DACA. Specifically, we identified a color-evasive narrative that failed to account for the complexities of the lives of recipients, emphasized the benefits they brought to the country and others (e.g., monetary), and decentered the recipients’ needs and experiences. Implications: Given the significant presence of educational stakeholders, we discuss the implications of a color-evasive narrative that fails to account for recipients’ complex lives, emphasizes the benefits to others, and decenters recipients. We note the importance of counternarratives to disrupt majoritarian stories that marginalize undocumented immigrants.
{"title":"The Story of DACA as Told by Friends of the Court: The Role of Interest Convergence, Color-Evasiveness, and Exceptionality in Policy Discourse","authors":"Raquel Muñiz, Marian Lewis, T. Tumer, E. Kane","doi":"10.1086/724305","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724305","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: In this study, we examine the policy discourse in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) case before the US Supreme Court, a case with implications for education. The case drew a wide range of interested groups who weighed in on the policy as amici curiae, “friends of the court,” offering perspectives about the implications of the case and constructing an overall narrative of DACA within policy discourse. Research Methods/Approach: The theoretical framework guiding the study combines Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Undocumented Critical Theory (UndocuCrit). Using this lens, we identified the discourse regarding issues of race and immigration status in the collective story of the DACA policy as told by amici curiae, including multiple educational stakeholders. Through an iterative process, we employed theory- and data-driven coding to qualitatively analyze the 44 briefs amici curiae submitted to the Court. To bolster the trustworthiness of the findings, we engaged in memoing and extensive team discussions. Findings: Our findings revealed the limitations of the story of DACA. Specifically, we identified a color-evasive narrative that failed to account for the complexities of the lives of recipients, emphasized the benefits they brought to the country and others (e.g., monetary), and decentered the recipients’ needs and experiences. Implications: Given the significant presence of educational stakeholders, we discuss the implications of a color-evasive narrative that fails to account for recipients’ complex lives, emphasizes the benefits to others, and decenters recipients. We note the importance of counternarratives to disrupt majoritarian stories that marginalize undocumented immigrants.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"129 1","pages":"297 - 324"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44667621","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Purpose: Much scholarly hand-wringing has concerned the academic engagement of Black and Latino boys. At the center of these conversations are questions of culture. Cultural disconnects between home and school are profound for students from marginalized communities, particularly so for young men. Prudence Carter asserts that young men in urban settings are more reluctant than their female peers to become “cultural straddlers”—students who adeptly navigate the cultural distance between school and urban communities. However, many Black and Latino boys succeed in school. This article will interrogate why some young men acquiesce to the cultural expectations of schooling, whereas others do not. Research Methods/Approach: Leveraging relational ethnographic methods, this article details the relationships, experiences, and masculine identities of two groups of young men—the Alpha Gentlemen fraternity and the Serpents of Steel Robotics team. Findings: This article argues that whether cultures of masculine play and toughness fit in academic settings depends on how masculinity is molded in relational contexts. Although dominant ideologies of masculinity—including play and competition—were significant in both groups, how the young men played and competed within their relational networks shaped identities that were more or less capable of straddling the cultures of home and school. Implications: The findings here elaborate Carter’s framing of boys’ cultural straddling, with implications for enhancing academic engagement among young Black and Latino men.
{"title":"“Chill Dudes” and “Academic-Type Students”: Relational Masculinity and Straddling Culture at an Urban High School","authors":"Suneal Kolluri","doi":"10.1086/724361","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724361","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: Much scholarly hand-wringing has concerned the academic engagement of Black and Latino boys. At the center of these conversations are questions of culture. Cultural disconnects between home and school are profound for students from marginalized communities, particularly so for young men. Prudence Carter asserts that young men in urban settings are more reluctant than their female peers to become “cultural straddlers”—students who adeptly navigate the cultural distance between school and urban communities. However, many Black and Latino boys succeed in school. This article will interrogate why some young men acquiesce to the cultural expectations of schooling, whereas others do not. Research Methods/Approach: Leveraging relational ethnographic methods, this article details the relationships, experiences, and masculine identities of two groups of young men—the Alpha Gentlemen fraternity and the Serpents of Steel Robotics team. Findings: This article argues that whether cultures of masculine play and toughness fit in academic settings depends on how masculinity is molded in relational contexts. Although dominant ideologies of masculinity—including play and competition—were significant in both groups, how the young men played and competed within their relational networks shaped identities that were more or less capable of straddling the cultures of home and school. Implications: The findings here elaborate Carter’s framing of boys’ cultural straddling, with implications for enhancing academic engagement among young Black and Latino men.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"129 1","pages":"355 - 381"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44079708","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Purpose: This study’s purpose is to provide statewide evidence on the mobility patterns of instructional coaches (ICs) and teacher peer observers (TPOs). Research Methods/Approach: Using 5 years of administrative and survey data from Tennessee, we conduct descriptive and regression analyses to document the mobility of classroom teachers, ICs, and TPOs from one year to the next. These outcomes identify if a teacher, IC, or TPO remains in the same school, moves to a new school, becomes a school administrator, or leaves teaching. In a series of ancillary investigations, we examine if mobility patterns depend on their gender and racial/ethnic identities. Findings: ICs and TPOs are no more likely to remain in teaching than full-time classroom teachers. ICs move schools at higher rates than classroom teachers, and ICs and TPOs become school administrators at much higher rates than classroom teachers. Importantly, these transitions into school administration are not equally distributed by race and gender, with ICs of color and male TPOs becoming administrators at the highest rates. Implications: Our findings imply that policy makers may be able to use ICs and TPOs to shape the principal pipeline, including strengthening the instructional expertise and increasing the racial diversity of the administrator corps.
{"title":"The Labor Market Trajectories of Tennessee Instructional Coaches and Teacher Peer Observers","authors":"Christopher Redding, Seth B. Hunter","doi":"10.1086/724380","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724380","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: This study’s purpose is to provide statewide evidence on the mobility patterns of instructional coaches (ICs) and teacher peer observers (TPOs). Research Methods/Approach: Using 5 years of administrative and survey data from Tennessee, we conduct descriptive and regression analyses to document the mobility of classroom teachers, ICs, and TPOs from one year to the next. These outcomes identify if a teacher, IC, or TPO remains in the same school, moves to a new school, becomes a school administrator, or leaves teaching. In a series of ancillary investigations, we examine if mobility patterns depend on their gender and racial/ethnic identities. Findings: ICs and TPOs are no more likely to remain in teaching than full-time classroom teachers. ICs move schools at higher rates than classroom teachers, and ICs and TPOs become school administrators at much higher rates than classroom teachers. Importantly, these transitions into school administration are not equally distributed by race and gender, with ICs of color and male TPOs becoming administrators at the highest rates. Implications: Our findings imply that policy makers may be able to use ICs and TPOs to shape the principal pipeline, including strengthening the instructional expertise and increasing the racial diversity of the administrator corps.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"129 1","pages":"413 - 443"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-03-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46757894","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Purpose: System reforms ask educators within and across organizational levels to interlace their individual practices into a collective practice so they can enact a different, more equitable schooling system for students. System reforms require educators to coordinate their work with their colleagues in ways they are not trained, incentivized, or supported to do, within systems that do not support collective practice. Yet educators’ daily practices are the microprocesses that determine whether they accomplish the macro goal of coordinating a system and thus equitable opportunities for students. Research Methods: This embedded longitudinal case study examines changes in educators’ mental maps around coordinating their daily practices as they implemented a new system reform, multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). The observations, interviews, and artifacts document educators’ implementation efforts in two elementary schools in the same district for 2 years. Findings: The findings illuminate how the implementation process can be inequitable, affording only some educators with opportunities to develop mental maps about collective practice. Professional learning opportunities that developed mental maps about collective practice possessed six design elements. These opportunities (1) focused on the system reform, (2) were embedded in daily practice, (3) required joint deliberations, (4) required system-wide membership, (5) were ongoing, and (6) occurred on-site. Implications: This article helps policy makers, leaders, and other reformers improve the learning opportunities they provide to educators responsible for coordinating children’s learning opportunities. The article also highlights ways that implementation can be more equitable for educators.
{"title":"Accomplishing System Reforms by Minding the Details: Developing Understandings for Collective Practice","authors":"Lok-Sze Wong","doi":"10.1086/724362","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1086/724362","url":null,"abstract":"Purpose: System reforms ask educators within and across organizational levels to interlace their individual practices into a collective practice so they can enact a different, more equitable schooling system for students. System reforms require educators to coordinate their work with their colleagues in ways they are not trained, incentivized, or supported to do, within systems that do not support collective practice. Yet educators’ daily practices are the microprocesses that determine whether they accomplish the macro goal of coordinating a system and thus equitable opportunities for students. Research Methods: This embedded longitudinal case study examines changes in educators’ mental maps around coordinating their daily practices as they implemented a new system reform, multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS). The observations, interviews, and artifacts document educators’ implementation efforts in two elementary schools in the same district for 2 years. Findings: The findings illuminate how the implementation process can be inequitable, affording only some educators with opportunities to develop mental maps about collective practice. Professional learning opportunities that developed mental maps about collective practice possessed six design elements. These opportunities (1) focused on the system reform, (2) were embedded in daily practice, (3) required joint deliberations, (4) required system-wide membership, (5) were ongoing, and (6) occurred on-site. Implications: This article helps policy makers, leaders, and other reformers improve the learning opportunities they provide to educators responsible for coordinating children’s learning opportunities. The article also highlights ways that implementation can be more equitable for educators.","PeriodicalId":47629,"journal":{"name":"American Journal of Education","volume":"129 1","pages":"383 - 412"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2023-03-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45607224","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"教育学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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