ABSTRACT We examine how teacher leaders (TLs), working in a low-income urban elementary school, s... more ABSTRACT We examine how teacher leaders (TLs), working in a low-income urban elementary school, supported their colleagues to learn how to collect quality formative data and to discuss it in collaborative conversations in order to make their students’ learning visible. The TLs faced challenges reflecting consequences resulting from the district’s high stakes accountability policies restricting teachers’ agency with instructional decision-making and limiting their definitions of data as summative test scores. We document how the TLs worked to reframe teachers’ understanding of data to include evidence of student thinking and supported their colleagues to reclaim teaching as professional versus technical work.
As the Internet is increasingly becoming the defining technology for literacy and learning with t... more As the Internet is increasingly becoming the defining technology for literacy and learning with the majority of the world expected to be online in the next fifteen years (Leu et al, 2011), developing skills, knowledge, and dispositions to engage in the new literacies of the Internet are essential for successful engagement in education, work, and democratic participation (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008; Leu, O'Byrne, Zawilinski, McVerry, & Everett-Cacopardo, 2009). As new forms of communication and information use are continuously emerging with the expansion of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs)--e.g., blogs, video editors, presentation software, bulletin boards, avatars, virtual worlds, social networks, Google docs, and more--individuals will need to keep pace with the successive literacies necessary to effectively engage with these technologies (Coiro, 2003; Kinzer & Leander, 2003; Lankshear & Knobel, 2003; Smolin & Lawless, 2003). I...
bodies must “make your peace with chaos” (p. 71). In conclusion, Ta-Nehisi Coates provides, albei... more bodies must “make your peace with chaos” (p. 71). In conclusion, Ta-Nehisi Coates provides, albeit unstated, educators with a pedagogical tool to better understand urban students and racialized lives they are forced to live by. By discussing themes such as racial realism, White supremacy, and state-sanctioned violence in a literary manner, Coates is challenging hegemonic White supremacy in education. Such a forceful literary style enables more people to learn about how racial dynamics manifest within a given society, including institutions like education, media, and academia. This book is recommended for those who wish to understand the dynamics of race, racism, White supremacy, and Whiteness more thoroughly, and will be difficult for those who are residing within a colorblind framework. Being that the majority of U.S. teaching population is White, middle class, and female, we recommend that White teachers read this book to have a better understanding of a racial counter narrative of a Black boy/man whose background she does not share. These teachers can relate to how their subscription to the Dream (read hegemonic Whiteness ideology) adds to the political, social, and psychological context of the disembodied Black bodies. Although the book lacks an intersectional approach to gender dynamics of race, it still brings into light how race dynamics work in America. As Toni Morrison declares on the back cover of this book, “[I]ts examination of the hazards and hopes of Black male life is as profound as it is revelatory. . .. This is required reading.” To order a copy of Between the World and Me, contact Spiegel & Grau, Penguin Random House’s Customer Service team at customerservice@ penguinrandomhouse.com or Website: https://pen guinrandomhouse.com/
ABSTRACT We examine how teacher leaders (TLs), working in a low-income urban elementary school, s... more ABSTRACT We examine how teacher leaders (TLs), working in a low-income urban elementary school, supported their colleagues to learn how to collect quality formative data and to discuss it in collaborative conversations in order to make their students’ learning visible. The TLs faced challenges reflecting consequences resulting from the district’s high stakes accountability policies restricting teachers’ agency with instructional decision-making and limiting their definitions of data as summative test scores. We document how the TLs worked to reframe teachers’ understanding of data to include evidence of student thinking and supported their colleagues to reclaim teaching as professional versus technical work.
As the Internet is increasingly becoming the defining technology for literacy and learning with t... more As the Internet is increasingly becoming the defining technology for literacy and learning with the majority of the world expected to be online in the next fifteen years (Leu et al, 2011), developing skills, knowledge, and dispositions to engage in the new literacies of the Internet are essential for successful engagement in education, work, and democratic participation (Coiro, Knobel, Lankshear, & Leu, 2008; Leu, O'Byrne, Zawilinski, McVerry, & Everett-Cacopardo, 2009). As new forms of communication and information use are continuously emerging with the expansion of the Internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs)--e.g., blogs, video editors, presentation software, bulletin boards, avatars, virtual worlds, social networks, Google docs, and more--individuals will need to keep pace with the successive literacies necessary to effectively engage with these technologies (Coiro, 2003; Kinzer & Leander, 2003; Lankshear & Knobel, 2003; Smolin & Lawless, 2003). I...
bodies must “make your peace with chaos” (p. 71). In conclusion, Ta-Nehisi Coates provides, albei... more bodies must “make your peace with chaos” (p. 71). In conclusion, Ta-Nehisi Coates provides, albeit unstated, educators with a pedagogical tool to better understand urban students and racialized lives they are forced to live by. By discussing themes such as racial realism, White supremacy, and state-sanctioned violence in a literary manner, Coates is challenging hegemonic White supremacy in education. Such a forceful literary style enables more people to learn about how racial dynamics manifest within a given society, including institutions like education, media, and academia. This book is recommended for those who wish to understand the dynamics of race, racism, White supremacy, and Whiteness more thoroughly, and will be difficult for those who are residing within a colorblind framework. Being that the majority of U.S. teaching population is White, middle class, and female, we recommend that White teachers read this book to have a better understanding of a racial counter narrative of a Black boy/man whose background she does not share. These teachers can relate to how their subscription to the Dream (read hegemonic Whiteness ideology) adds to the political, social, and psychological context of the disembodied Black bodies. Although the book lacks an intersectional approach to gender dynamics of race, it still brings into light how race dynamics work in America. As Toni Morrison declares on the back cover of this book, “[I]ts examination of the hazards and hopes of Black male life is as profound as it is revelatory. . .. This is required reading.” To order a copy of Between the World and Me, contact Spiegel & Grau, Penguin Random House’s Customer Service team at customerservice@ penguinrandomhouse.com or Website: https://pen guinrandomhouse.com/
Diane Ehrensaft, a Clinical Psychologist, Professor, Co- Founder, and Director of mental health a... more Diane Ehrensaft, a Clinical Psychologist, Professor, Co- Founder, and Director of mental health at the Child and Adolescent Gender Center at the University of California–San Francisco, has been a pioneer in describing how to support gender expansive and trans- gender children and youth. In her first book, Gender Born, Gender Made (2011), Ehrensaft introduced the term “the gender creative child” to advocate for a gender affirmative model that respects a wider range of genders than our traditional binary system recognizes. A gender creative child, she describes, weaves together nature, nurture, and culture in an infinite number of combinations to establish a unique gender self that could be a boy, a girl, or a “melange of gender” that may or may not reflect the sex assignment shown on their birth certificate. Long a proponent of a gender affirmative approach, Ehrensaft is a scholar and clinician leading an international call to support children and youth’s gender health. We review her recent book, The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children who Live Outside Gender Boxes, and conclude that one of the most important takeaways is need for educators and adults to truly see children for who they are and to challenge themselves to learn about what it means to support and respect gender creative children. This includes creating environments that do not require children to hide behind a false gender self for fear of being judged and ostracized because they do not neatly conform to traditional gender binary boxes and/or the gender assigned to them at birth. Ehrensaft makes clear that there is a lot of “unlearning” associated with supporting gender diversity in schools and communities, and this begins by first and foremost listening to children and respecting what they tell us about who they know themselves to be.
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