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How To Be An Antiracist Educator
Get PDFEvery educator should be antiracist. Racism, both overt and inadvertent, in the classroom leads to students entering the school to prison pipeline, the widening of the opportunity gap, and lack of support for English language learners. This capstone project works to answer the research question: How can educators be antiracist and incorporate antiracist practices into teaching elementary students? Antiracist strategies in the classroom include developing strong and positive relationships with all students, using culturally relevant pedagogy in the classroom, and providing ESL students with language support. This project also provides educators with the opportunity to engage in a series of five professional developments to begin the lifelong journey of antiracist work to better serve Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) in the classroom
Earning and Learning: Undergraduate Student Employment and The Importance of Relevant Work
Get PDFCurrent trends in undergraduate education show that more students than ever are working part-time jobs during college, and their academics are likely suffering as a result, as a greater number of hours worked correlates with a decrease in grade point average. This is especially problematic as it creates a socioeconomic inequity in academic standing, with students with less financial security or support from parents having to sacrifice their performance and their time in order to supplement their income or even to afford tuition. Relevant, meaningful job placement mitigates some of this effect if students can identify connections between their part-time employment and their career and academic goals, and colleges have started to enact strategies to encourage these connections through targeted, relevant work placements and coursework that intentionally draws from on-the-job experiences. So far, very little research exists into the employer’s role in establishing these connections or other efforts they can make to promote the student employee’s academic and career growth, even though the employer is often part of the university. This study explores the question: How can employers be more involved with their part-time undergraduate student employees’ academic and career goals, to help them make the most of their work-study experience? This question was addressed in the context of the author’s position at MiTech, Miami University’s walk-up laptop and technology support store, which employs around a dozen students under the author’s supervision. The research led to the development of a guidebook to facilitate the student employees’ training, treating their first semester of employment as a learning experience, a curriculum tailored to their career plans and academic studies. The goal of this effort is to maximize the benefit of the hours spent at work and mitigate the effects of the hours lost from potential study time. This effort shows that employers can play an important role in their student employees’ academic and career success and can serve as an example for other employers who hire student employees
Developing Culturally Responsive Curriculum for High School Hmong and Karen ELA Students
Get PDFResearch consistently finds that for minority students, it is important that they see themselves reflected in the classroom curriculum; educators must celebrate and incorporate the unique perspectives and backgrounds that minority students bring to class rather than focusing solely on any perceived deficits (Gay, 2018; Hammond, 2014; Ladson-Billings, 2001, 2014, 2018; Muhammad & Mosley, 2021). Additionally, those who come from “Asian” families tend to be lumped together whenever demographic information is collected or used to inform policy. As a result, there are a lot of curriculum guides for Asian students that do not focus on Hmong or even Karen students, who are newer immigrants to the United States. The unit designed for this project uses a culturally responsive teaching approach that seeks to teach to and through the multicultural differences among students at a large charter school in Minnesota, focusing on as many aspects of culture and identity as defined by Gay (2018) and Muhammad & Mosley (2021) as possible. The majority of students are Hmong or Karen, with a smaller number of black, white, hispanic, or multi-racial students. The unit was designed using the Understanding by Design Framework (Wiggins & McTighe, 2011) by using “backwards design” and can be implemented over the course of one quarter, or approximately two-three months, and consists of five major parts: An introduction to biography, autobiography, and memoir, a selection of chapters from Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, literature circles on selected chapters from autobiographical graphic novels, autobiographical music, and a final personal narrative writing project. In the end, this project is intended to provide a diverse group of students from primarily Asian immigrant backgrounds an opportunity to explore how people navigate “truth” in autobiographical narratives. They will see how authors, musicians, and others use elements of fiction in order to get at emotional truths that might be harder to portray using only “factual” representations of a memory or event. Students will use the skills they learned through analyzing different forms of autobiography and memoir to create their own personal narrative projects exploring their own identities
Antiracist Praxis in the Adult English Classroom
Get PDFThe research question for this capstone was: How can educators of adult English learners utilize antiracist praxis like translanguaging to more deeply value learners’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds and experiences? As the field of teaching English to adults grows, educators need to be aware of the colonial history of English learning that is harmful to learners (Motha, 2014). Through colonizing ideologies of monolingualism and standardization, adult learners of English constantly get messages of inferiority towards their linguistic and cultural identities. As educators, it is our responsibility to combat these racist practices in our classroom and community with antiracist praxis. Kendi (2019) argues that to be antiracist is to intentionally work towards racial equality or the breaking down of a racial hierarchy. For praxis, reflection must be combined with action because one cannot exist without the other for real change to occur (Freire, 1970). Therefore, educators require real time and commitment to the process of praxis when applying antiracist practices to their classrooms. This capstone’s literature review examines these ideas and ends by mixing the nontraditional translanguaging teacher roles from García (2017) and Culturally Responsive Teaching from Hammond (2015) to provide educators with tools to honor learners\u27 linguistic and cultural identities as antiracist praxis. The project delves into how a study circle is an effective form of professional development for a learning community of about 8-12 educators to access this antiracist praxis research over 3-5 sessions because it is continual, reflective, and collaborative (Vinogradov, 2012). The final product will be a facilitator’s guide so any adult English educator can take the guide and bring this important work to their school with their colleagues
Teamwork in the Classroom: Peer Interaction in Latinx Transnational Athletes
Get PDFThe reasons adult learners enter into language programs are as varied as the countries, cultures, and backgrounds that the learners themselves come from. This project was designed with a very unique population of learners in mind: Latinx transnational professional baseball players who also come from lower or interrupted education backgrounds. Due to the simultaneous value of peer interaction in language classrooms but the lack of research related to both transnationational athletes learning English as well as Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults (LESLLA) populations, the current project explores the following research question: How can explicit strategy instruction aimed at increasing the effectiveness of peer interaction be implemented into curriculum for LESLLA populations, specifically Latinx transnational athletes learning English in an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) program? The curriculum is grounded in Wiggins and McTighe’s (2011) Understanding by Design (UbD) framework as well as Marshall’s (1998) Mutually Adaptive Learning Paradigm (MALP) in order to encourage the transfer of the communication strategies taught to authentic communicative situations outside of the classroom by providing sufficient scaffolding, familiarity, and relevancy in each lesson. Via a five-stage explicit instruction period over 10 weeks and 20 lessons, communication strategies from three categories—Asking for Clarification, Asking for Help, and Checking Comprehension—are introduced, modeled, practiced, and reflected on by students during six subunits, each designed around a specific communicative situation in professional baseball. The final curriculum is to be implemented in a Major League Baseball team’s language program and aims to increase the effectiveness of peer interactive activities in the classroom while also encouraging the transfer of this strategic competence via authentic performative assessments and activities
The Joy Of Reading: Increasing Intrinsic Motivation Through Choice Texts And Reading Conferences In Middle School
Get PDFResearch has proven that middle school is the time in which students abandon recreational reading for the rest of their lives if they do not find the process to be engaging. In order to hook readers and urge them to continue this pursuit, teachers need to give students access to high interest books and the time to read without any high stakes assessment attached to it. The curriculum designed for this project uses the influences of Allen, McClure, and Serravallo to implement a series of reading conferences in conjunction with independent silent reading time and mini-lessons in the middle school classroom. This system allows for students to set goals for themselves around books that they read for enjoyment. By aligning this time for reading and providing students with autonomy in how much the lessons are structured, this allows for an increase in motivation. The curriculum is suggested for middle school grades, but can be adapted to other grades so that any classroom teacher can create an environment for students to read. The goal of this project is to get high interest books in the hands of students and provide them with time to read for enjoyment. By giving students this opportunity in the classroom, the hope is for an increase in intrinsic motivation which will then carry over into developing lifelong readers
Digital Device Use in Urban Elementary Physical Education Classrooms: Viewpoints
Get PDFElementary physical education teachers and the use of digital devices in their classrooms are evolving. From simple step counters to Apple Watches to track the movement and skills of students, the digital tools available for physical education teachers are more prominent than ever before. This case study looked at how urban elementary physical education teachers use digital devices in their classroom, pre-covid-19, and during covid 19. In an upper-Midwestern setting, this research used a qualitative case study to find examples of digital device usage by urban elementary physical educators from one school district. Data collection methods included an online survey, a questionnaire, and semi-structured interviews. Participants were selected from the online survey and those chosen were based on criteria of geographic location in the district, the number of years teaching in the district, and interest in being a part of the case study. Areas of future research include other geographic locations in the state to cross-analyze how different elementary physical education teachers in rural, urban, and suburban school districts use digital devices
Analyzing Perspectives With Relevant Grade-level Texts To Improve Engagement In A Rural Fifth-grade Classroom
Get PDFThe purpose of this research was to improve engagement in a rural classroom by analyzing perspectives in relevant texts using a literature circle format. The literature reviewed in this study was centered on adolescent literacy, engagement, critical literacy, relevant texts, and literature circles.The study was conducted over an eight-week period with a small group of fifth-grade students; they selected their own text and read it together while utilizing a traditional literature circle format. The unique literature circle roles were designed to promote analysis of perspectives, critical literacy practices, and basic comprehension strategies. This mixed-methods case study utilized primary data from Likert-scale surveys and student interviews and secondary data from the researcher’s observations and reflections. The study analyzed student choice, relevant content, critical literacy, and collaborative discussions to measure engagement. The results suggest that students’ engagement improved when texts were relevant and connections were easily made between the text and the students’ lives. Additionally, the focus on silenced voices increased participants’ awareness and understanding of perspectives in grade-level texts
How Do Teachers Make Decisions Around Union Membership And Engagement In My Middle School Setting?
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to gather middle school teachers’ beliefs, perceptions, opinions, and experiences around teachers union membership and engagement. The topic became a focus within union circles in advance of the 2018 United States Supreme Court Ruling, Janus vs. AFSCME Council 31, which halted the collection of agency fees, or fees paying for the cost of union representation during collective bargaining, among public employees. This study draws on the work of several other researchers studying educators’ varying beliefs and experiences around teachers unions, including Popiel (2013), Chapman (2013), Pogodzinski & Jones (2014), and Swenson Chipman (2014). It also draws on the work of Educators for Excellence, which put out the 2018 Educators for Excellence Survey gathering k-12 teachers’ beliefs and plans regarding union membership and engagement. In phase one of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study, 32 licensed middle school teachers responded to an electronic survey. The survey gathered educators’ thoughts and experiences regarding teachers union membership and engagement as well as their demographic information. In phase two, four educators, who were selected from among the initial 32 survey respondents, participated in semi-structured interviews about their union membership and engagement, exploring survey questions in greater depth. Results showed that higher educator age/years of experience were associated with higher knowledge of union services/benefits, higher levels of union membership, lower levels of membership variability, higher levels of favorability toward teachers unions, and lower numbers of educators who believe racial equity should be a priority for union reform. Contrary to previous studies, higher educator age/years of experience were not associated with higher levels of union engagement. In addition, educators who identified as Black or Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) showed lower knowledge of union services/benefits, lower levels of union membership, higher levels of membership variability, and lower levels of union favorability, than their colleagues who identified as Caucasian. BIPOC participants also showed higher levels of union engagement, and reported different barriers to union engagement and priorities for union reform
Creating An Equity Based Genetics Unit Using Culturally Relevant Pedagogy And The Next Generation Science Standards
Get PDFResearch has shown that BIPOC (Black, Indigineous, People of Color) students often feel disconnected from science learning. Teacher bias, the way “achievement” is viewed, a lack of role models, and the traditional way in which science is taught has contributed to a lack of engagement among BIPOC students and thus a disproportionate amount of these students not entering into STEM fields as careers. Changing this narrative will involve reframing the way that science is taught and the way in which curriculum is created, and increasing interest in the sciences needs to start with creating a more equitable science curriculum for all students. The curriculum designed for this project focuses on using Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings theoretical model of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and the Next Generation Science Standards to create a genetics unit that promotes cultural competence and critical consciousness and allows students to see connections to science with themselves and their communities. The project involved creating a storyline based curriculum that engages students in meaningful discussions about the history and influence that race has had on scientific history and science today. The curriculum will be used in a Biology classroom and the lessons are designed to be adaptable so as to allow for student voice and choice to influence the direction in which the storyline goes. The goal of this project is to create a more equitable science curriculum in order to help students develop into a generation of students who are critically thinking, science-minded, anti-racist agents of change