International Journal of Progressive Education (IJPE)
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The Pedagogy of Oppression%253A A Brief Look at lsquo%253BNo Child Left Behind (Chinese Translation)
No full textThe driving forces behind the recent educational policies of the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001 are neoliberal social and economic policies that favour outsourcing and downsizing methods of production in the name of flexibility and efficiency. Under the neoliberal economic model, schools must perform similarly to corporate entities. Just as the Dow Jones stock indices measure the performance of companies and represent the pulse of Wall Street, so too the Adequate Yearly Progress Report (AYP) measures and ranks the performance of public schools. One of the most pernicious results of the No Child Left Behind Act is that states can now indefinitely close or restructure underperforming schools, those that fail to meet the requirements established by the AYP
Shaking the Trees%253A The Psychology of Collecting in U.S. Newspaper Coverage of the College Admissions Process
No full textA frame analysis was conducted to explore themes in recent coverage by print journalists of the college application process, with special attention paid to the use by reporters of keywords, stock phrases, stereotyped images, sources of information, and sentences that provide reinforcing clusters of facts or judgments (Entman, p. 52) about this experience. The analysis revealed checklist, panic, hunt, and packaging frames as the experience was reduced to prospective students collecting attractive experiences and cobbling them together into a compelling package. Through these frames, journalists and the experts they consult urge students to focus solely on how their experiences will make them more attractive to universities acting clearly as collectors. All of the parties involved in the college admissions process are collectors, at least as described by journalists. Students are persuaded that they must begin their collecting early, as early as junior high school. College recruiters and admissions counselors collect worthy students for their institutions
Heuristics and NCLB Standardized Tests%253A A Convenient Lie
No full textThe No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires public schools in the United States to test students in grades 3-8. The author argues that this mandate has been supported by the public, in part, because of the availability heuristic, a phenomenon which occurs when people assess the probability of an event by the ease with which instances or occurrences can be brought to mind. These mental short cuts, which tend to oversimplify complex issues, are being employed by policy-makers in promoting standardized testing as the panacea for the problems of the public school system. The premises of this campaign include the good intentions to leave no child behind, the promise of improved accountability through high-stakes testing and the purported worthiness of test results. The author claims these premises are specious and examines their harmful potential for diverting resources, distracting educators and alarming children
Educational Policy vs. Culturally Sensitive Programs in Turkish Educational System
No full textThe purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of elementary school teachers about the sensitiveness of principals, teachers, and curriculum on multicultural education. Education provides the transmission and the advancement of its culture while it is developing and enhancing the common values, the integrity and the progress of multicultural society (Sahin, 2006). If the society has multi-ethnic culture, the educational policy should cover all kinds of multi-ethnic cultures to exchange cultural values each other. The findings of this study indicate that Turkish educational system ignores multiculturalism in their schools. Curriculum does not cover cultural differences. Principals and teachers performing their responsibility relatively show respect different cultures even if it is not at the expected level
Preservice Teachers Changes in Attitudes About Issues of Language*
No full textGiven the overwhelming body of research addressing the cultural gap between preservice teachers and the students they will ultimately teach, the research concerned the examination of preservice teachers attitudes toward to issues of language in college classes so as to improve the multicultural aspect of educational courses. We used statistical analyses of survey results filled out by two hundred seventy four preservice teachers as sources of data for addressing students changes of attitudes related to language issues. Statistical analyses of the data indicate the closing gap between students who had lower scores and higher scores on the pre surveys. The implications for multicultural education and, professional development are discussed
Preparing White Student Teachers through a Critical Consultative Interaction Model
No full textDemographic trends suggest that most Latino and Black schoolchildren attending city schools will have White classroom teachers. Consequently, the potential for cultural mismatches may impede meaningful teaching. In response, many teacher educators mull over approaches to prepare student teachers to effectively instruct all schoolchildren, especially Latino and Black youngsters. While many approaches, particularly methods pertinent to multicultural education, have become commonplace throughout teacher education programs, purposeful consultations between student teachers and schoolchildren about teaching and learning, are rare. This paper presents a critical consultative interaction model, comprising the three rs of%253A (a) regarding Black and Latino schoolchildren as resources, (b) raising the right questions of them, and, (c) reflecting on schoolchildrens responses, as an additional approach to prepare student teachers for city classrooms. Implementing this model positions future teachers to obtain pedagogical information from schools primary constituentsmdash%253B schoolchildren. Doing so exemplifies democratic practice in a political yet public place called school
Building a Learning Community through Curriculum
No full textThis paper uses mixed methods to document how a new charter schools curriculum facilitates in the development of a learning community. The study highlights diverse curricular practices that often do not take place in traditional public schools. The schools philosophy and curriculum, which is based in social justice, provides a unique environment where students have the opportunity to better understand the world around them while simultaneously building relationships with their classmates and teachers. Utilizing a methodological combination of observations, informal and formal interviews, document analysis, and a short survey, the paper provides a rich description of the implementation of a charter school%252339%253Bs curriculum steeped in critical pedagogy
Modern day Latino Professors used C.H.I.L.E. to succeed in graduate school%253A Five strategies from the front lines
No full textLatinos with doctorate degrees working in academe were interviewed about their experiences in graduate school. They were asked to elaborate upon what they considered to be their most meaningful experiences that shaped their personal, academic and intellectual lives that influenced their success throughout graduate school. A thematic analysis of the interviews revealed five major findings that can be summed up by the acronym C.H.I.L.E. These crucial events and circumstances were experienced by all the interviewees. They were both positive and negative, and were shaped by a complex interplay of the influence of critical masses and peers, a search for identity and individuality, professional guidance, intellectualism, varied campus culture and time
In the belly of paradox%253A Teaching equity in an [in]equitable space as a graduate Teaching Assistant (TA)
No full textWhile much has been written on teaching equity and social justice issues in the higher education classroom from a faculty perspective, there exists scant literature on these issues from the perspective of graduate Teaching Assistants (TAs). In this paper, a TA of a research intensive university, using a variety of sources of evidence, analyzes his experiences teaching equity studies in the university context. Using an anti-colonial discursive framework he offers answers to the following questions%253A What are the paradoxes, contradictions and challenges of teaching equity and social justice issues as a TA in the university context%253F Some of the issues he raises are the inequitable curricula, engaging with student difference in an inclusive manner, privileging certain bodies in assignments and classroom discussions, and dealing with student diversity without marginalizing equity studies itself. He concludes with a discussion on the implications of the challenges in teaching equity studies in the higher education context
Investigating the Underachievement of University Students in Turkey%253A Exploring Subscales
No full textThis study extends the work of Baslanti and McCoach (2006), which aimed to identify the characteristics of gifted underachievers at the university level and the reasons for their underachievement using the School Attitude Assessment Survey- Revised (SAAS-R). In this study, underachievement refers to a discrepancy between outstanding achievement shown on a standardized test and low performance in school-related tasks compared to students of the same age (Clark, 1997). The present study was conducted with 30 underachievers using a semi-structured interview with 44 questions. The interview questions addressed five factors of underachievement%253A academic self-perceptions, attitudes toward teachers, attitudes toward school, goal valuation, and motivation%252Fself-regulation. Data were analyzed using content analysis and frequencies were obtained for all items. Results from the interviews indicated that the findings paralleled those obtained in the original study