Session Participants:
Literacy Support for Below-Grade-Level Readers in a High-Poverty, Urban School District: Developing and Sustaining Programs
*Martha A. Adler (University of Michigan - Dearborn)
Exploring and Understanding Non-Researching Hip-Hop–Based Language Arts Educators in Urban Public High Schools
*H. Bernard Hall (Temple University)
Lessons Learned From Struggling Reading Students About Culturally Responsive Pedagogy: An Action Research Study
*Diedre Faith Houchen (University of Florida)
Teachers Who Engage Students in Poverty
*Geoff Munns (University of Western Sydney)
Teaching Is One-Tenth of the Job: Teaching in an Urban High School During Recessionary Times
*Robert Weldon Simmons (Loyola University Maryland), Robert D. Carpenter (Eastern Michigan University)
The Impact of C.R.E.A.T.E. on Urban Student Success in Mathematics
*Kadhir Rajagopal (Sacramento State University)
Viewing U.S. Urban Education From a Prototype Perspective (Contrasted With Rural Education's Prototypic Features)
*Rodney K. Goodyear (University of Redlands), Terence J.G. Tracey (Arizona State University), Charles D. Claiborn (Arizona State University), James W. Lichtenberg (The University of Kansas), Bruce E. Wampold (University of Wisconsin), Matthew Gutierrez (University of Redlands)
Session Participants:
Chair: Mary K. Gove (Cleveland State University)
Exploring Diversity: Lessons Learned From an Education Faculty Self-Study Group in an Urban College of Education
*Grace H.C. Huang (Cleveland State University)
Supporting Culturally Responsive Practices for Nurturing Expanded Critical Literacy
*Kristine Lynn Still (Cleveland State University), *Mary K. Gove (Cleveland State University)
Reconceptualizing Home Visits: Prospective Teachers Learning From Home and Community Engagements
*Dinah Volk (Cleveland State University)
Fieldwork: A Space of Commitment and Quandary
*Anne M. Galletta (Cleveland State University)
Abstract:
A faculty diversity self-study group, developed in one urban college of education located in a large Midwestern city, served as the seed for the four projects described in this proposed session. These collective projects, each of which focused on issues of diversity, include: discussions from the faculty diversity self-study group, professional development workshops conducted with in-service teachers promoting critical literacy skills, teacher candidate experiences in a home visit assignment designed to deepen understanding of culturally responsive teaching, and student responses to urban field experiences related to policy and programmatic issues. The essential characteristic of this session is that it employs a critical perspective framework as the vehicle for illuminating deep analyses of the above mentioned projects.
Session Summary
The objectives of the session are to 1) share findings from four projects in relation to urban education and diversity in one urban college of education; 2) analyze these projects through a critical perspective; 3) offer and discuss implications for urban teaching and learning.
Overview:
A faculty initiated diversity self-study group served as the springboard for the four projects highlighted in this proposed session. Since the inception of the self-study group, additional sub groups with common interests formed including a group with an academic focus of which the session presenters are all members. This session shares deep and thoughtful analyses of projects grounded in multiple contexts, however, all within a larger context of one urban college of education. Grounded in critical pedagogy, the four projects in this proposed session will be further examined through critical perspective and ideology(Craig, 2009; Milner, 2007). The use of a critical literacy framework will provide the tool for illuminating our expanded analyses. This framework includes; disrupting the commonplace, interrogating multiple viewpoints, focusing on sociopolitical issues, and taking action to promote social justice (Lewison, Flint, & Van Sluys, 2002; Van Sluys, Lewison, & Flint, 2006).
Our preliminary analyses pinpoint a need to delve further into a mission to prepare prospective teachers in urban contexts. Additionally, these analyses suggest the need for safe learning spaces where students, faculty, and staff can critically reflect and interrogate practice. We also uncovered people who we call "trailblazers," who worked to transform the sometimes resistant attitudes of their colleagues about urban teaching into energizing and healthy urban teaching interactions.
Significance:
For an effective and in-depth transformation, examining experiences and practices in multiple contexts in one institution is critical. The literature advocating programmatic transformation of urban teacher education (Cochran-Smith, 2004; Lazar, 2004, 2007; Nieto, 2004; Villegas & Lucas, 2002; Weiner, 2006) identifies necessary components, including coursework on culturally responsive teaching grounded in sociopolitical contexts, power, and privilege; exemplary urban placements; collaboration with families and among students, instructors, and mentors generating understandings of what works and community funds of knowledge; opportunities to position oneself as advocate and learner; support in a self-reflective process; unlearning deficit views while constructing more transformational practice (Compton-Lilly, 2007; Delpit, 1995; National SEED Project, 2007, Steinberg & Kincheloe, 2004). This proposed session presents our ongoing and multifaceted work in their natural contexts. In addition, it further suggests the depth of change needed in one urban institution.
The structure of the session will begin with an overview of each project followed by a joint analysis using the lenses provided by the four dimensions of the critical literacy framework described above (Lewison, Flint, & Van Sluys, 2002; Van Sluys, Lewison, & Flint, 2006). Following the analysis, an external faculty colleague will offer commentary and session attendees will offer discussion and insights to the dialogue.
Session Participants:
Exceptions to the Rule: Science Successful Urban Settings and the Influence of School Leadership
*John Settlage (University of Connecticut)
Science Achievement of English Language Learners in Urban Elementary Schools: Multiyear Intervention Across Multiple Grades
*Okhee Lee (University of Miami), Randall D. Penfield (University of Miami)
The Roller Coaster of Urban Science Education Reform: Ascending the First Big Hill
*Ann E. Rivet (Teachers College, Columbia University), Alissa Berg (Teachers College, Columbia University), Phillip Stewart (Teachers College, Columbia University)
The T-SHELL Project: Teaching Science to Hispanic English Language Learners
*Cory A. Buxton (University of Georgia), *Martha A. Allexsaht-Snider (University of Georgia), *Regina Suriel (University of Georgia)
Snow Snakes and Science Agency: Empowering American Indian Students Through a Culturally-Based Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Curriculum
*Brant G. Miller (University of Minnesota), Gillian Roehrig (University of Minnesota)
Chair: Xiufeng Liu (University at Buffalo - SUNY)
Session Participants:
An Evaluation Study of an Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) Program in an Urban City: Examining the Transfer of Knowledge and Leadership Practices
*Hye Lim Choi (Hanyang University)
Session Participants:
"Have You Ever Sat With Us Black People in the Cafeteria?": Learning Through Conflict in Hip-Hop Pedagogies
*Bronwen E. Low (McGill University)
Interrogating Authentic Black Masculinity in Hip-Hop Lit
*Marc Lamont Hill (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Hip-Hop and Urban Science Education: The Cypher and the Battle
*Christopher Emdin (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Critical Race Praxis: Exploring the Intersections of Hip-Hop Culture, Critical Race Theory, and the Orientations of Black Male Teachers
*Thurman L. Bridges (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Discussant: Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Chair: Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Abstract:
These papers extend the research on hip-hop's implications for education through qualitative studies of curriculum development projects in urban classrooms as well as interviews with Black male teachers who are members of the hip-hop generation. Papers #1 and #2 are particularly interested in the pedagogic significance of the tensions and conflict around race and gendered identity that can arise in hip-hop curriculum. Paper #3 documents the implementation of a hip-hop-based science curriculum, one of the places in school in which African-American and other racialized minority youth can be most alienated, that drew on the Battle and Cypher. Paper #4 complements the focus on curriculum by examining the implications of hip-hop for the recruitment and retention of Black male teachers.
Session Summary:
Hip-hop culture is the single most influential force shaping contemporary urban youth culture in North America. Academic attention to hip-hop and education has come later than in some other fields but is now burgeoning, based on an understanding of the centrality of student identities to learning and the need to bridge out-of-school interests, skills, and cultural capital with the stuff of school curriculum (Morrell & Duncan-Andrade 2002; Petchauer 2009; Stovall 2006). While the literature on the implications of hip-hop for youth-directed pedagogies is growing, there is still comparatively little research based in ethnographic studies of actual classroom curricula. For instance, there have been no book-length studies of actual classrooms until recent publications by three of the panelists (2009; 2010; forthcoming). As well, much of the literature has worked in an advocacy mode: In the push to legitimize knowledge and literacy practices that mainstream schooling has either ignored or disparaged, scholars have paid little attention to the tensions between hip-hop and school. Also under-theorized are the implications of hip-hop for teacher identity and practice, as members of the hip-hop generation move into the teaching profession and bring with them world-views profoundly shaped by their cultural investments in hip-hop.
The four papers in the session move the conversation forward about the significance of hip-hop culture to education in a number of ways. The first three papers draw upon ethnographic studies of hip-hop curriculum development projects in different urban high-school classrooms, two in language arts courses and one in science education. Papers #1 and #2 are particularly interested in the pedagogic significance of the tensions and conflict that can arise in classrooms that foreground students' investments in hip-hop culture. Paper #3 turns to the science classroom, one of the places in school in which African-American and other racialized minority youth can be most alienated, and documents the implementation of a hip-hop-based science curriculum. The author moves beyond a focus on rap music to explores the pedagogic significance of some of the fundamental communicative structures central to hip-hop cultural production. While all of the papers take up questions of identity in relation to hip-hop, paper #4 concentrates in particular on the influence of hip-hop culture on the identities, world views, and pedagogies of Black male teachers. This paper adds missing and vital perspectives to the literature on teacher beliefs, and complements the focus on curriculum of the three other studies through its attention to the implications of hip-hop for the recruitment and retention of Black male teachers.
The papers, taken as a whole, make a case for the vital importance of hip-hop culture to contemporary urban schooling, and for the complexity of this relationship. Given this complexity, they draw upon an interdisciplinary range of theoretical perspectives, including critical race theory, culturally relevant pedagogy, gender theory, theories of civic participation, and psychoanalysis in their analysis. The individual paper presentations will be followed by a discussant and group discussion.
Session Participants:
Urban-Focused Teacher Preparation *John R. Walcott (Michigan State University)
Understanding Profiles of Preservice Teachers With Different Levels of Commitment to Teaching in Urban Schools
*Antonette M. Aragon (Colorado State University), *Steven Andrew Culpepper (University of Colorado - Denver), *Mark Andrew Perkins (Colorado State University)
Power Dynamics and Social Capital: A Novice White Teacher in an Urban Science Classroom
*Alissa Berg (Teachers College, Columbia University), *Stefania (Stefanie) Macaluso (Teachers College, Columbia University), Christopher Emdin (Teachers College, Columbia University)
How Novice Teachers Serve Students of Culturally Nondominant Groups: Inquiry for Informing Teacher Education
*Althier M. Lazar (Saint Joseph's University)
Getting Beneath the Surface: Experiences and Challenges of First-Year Teachers Working to Become Warm Demanders
*Dorene D. Ross (University of Florida), *Elyse L. Hambacher (University of Florida), *Elizabeth Bondy (University of Florida)
Chair: Barbara L. Bales (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)
Discussant: Sabina Elena Vaught (Tufts University)
Session Participants:
Defining the Effective Teacher in Urban Settings: Preformativity and Performativity
*Todd A. Price (National-Louis University), *Christina Fradelos (Academy for Urban School Leadership)
Close the Door and Let the Magic Happen: Mentoring and Preservice Teachers
*Scott Sullivan (National-Louis University), Michael Whitmore (Academy for Urban School Leadership)
"Moving Vision to Reality": Eight New Urban Teachers' Experience Induction Coaching
*Wendy L. Gardiner (National-Louis University)
Making the Grades in an Urban Teacher Residency Program
*Charles Tocci (National-Louis University)
Developing Self-Regulated Learning in Urban Teachers
*Diane E. Salmon (National-Louis University), Shaunti Knauth (National-Louis University)
Chair: Shani Beth-Halachmy (National-Louis University)
Discussant: Joseph McCrary (WestEd)
Abstract:
This symposium provides a focused view of the longest standing UTR, explicating significant learnings that have strengthened the UTR work. The presentations begin with a framework for understanding and defining effective teaching in an urban setting. Two presentations then focus on the mentoring relationship in the urban residency process during the pre-service and the induction phase. The final presentations focus on student learning, turning to the questions of how data on student learning is understood and used by beginning and experienced urban teachers.
Session Summary:
1. Objectives of the session: The goal of our symposium is to disseminate and engender conversation on the research findings and interventions undertaken to improve upon the work of an Urban Teacher Residency (UTR) program. The presenters include the partnering agencies in the UTR, and the external evaluator for the project.
2. Overview of the presentation: Over the past nine years, a large Midwest public schools system, a college of education and an educational management agency have collaborated to produce one of the country's first and largest urban teacher residency (UTR) programs. The partners in this process have found that the UTR provides a new context for teacher preparation, one in which practice and theory are refracted through the lens of residents' daily experiences in urban classrooms. With the Federal Teacher Quality Partnership Grant program, designed to reform traditional teacher preparation and initiate teacher residency programs, UTR's have a rising profile. However, as a relatively new phenomenon, there is a void in the scholarship on this reform initiative. This symposium provides a focused view of the longest standing UTR, explicating significant learnings that have strengthened the UTR work. The presentations begin with a framework for understanding and defining effective teaching in an urban setting. Two presentations then focus on the mentoring relationship in the urban residency process during the pre-service and the induction phase. The final presentations focus on student learning, turning to the questions of how data on student learning is understood and used by beginning and experienced urban teachers.
3. Scholarly or scientific significance: As has been noted in recent years, schools termed high-need, those with high proportions of students in poverty or of color, tend to have high proportions of teachers who cannot be considered highly qualified: those teachers who are inexperienced, or are not certified or are teaching out of field. Further, turnover among teachers is high in those school settings (Darling-Hammond, 2000; National Partnership for Teaching in At-Risk Schools, 2005). As the issue of the quality of teachers in high need schools has received attention, researchers and educators have stressed the necessity of preparing teacher candidates with the knowledge, skills and dispositions to enact rigorous and robust teaching practices (Darling-Hammond et al, 2005; Oakes, Loef Franke, Hunter Quartz & Rogers, 2002). Reviewing the current state of research on the preparation of teachers for diverse populations, the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education found that most studies were conducted on single events, such as courses or field experiences. As the Panel found across research on teacher preparation, there was a lack of programs of research on the topic (Cochran-Smith, M and Zeichner, K., editors, 2005). This symposium seeks to respond to those findings and contribute to the conversation on the preparation of teachers for high needs, high poverty schools by presenting longitudinal research on a program that fosters the development of teachers from pre-service through the induction period, and supports planning for and implementing rigorous student-centered pedagogies.
4. Structure of the session: After a brief introduction of the symposium (5 minutes), authors of each presentation will have 14 minutes, as will the discussant. We will then ask the audience to choose a paper and to move to an area of the room to discuss with the authors for 15 minutes.
Session Participants:
A Comparison of the Factors That Influence Urban Teachers to Remain
*Sueanne Elizabeth Mckinney (Old Dominion University), Jack E. Robinson (Old Dominion University), Alison Reddy (Old Dominion University)
Alternatively Certified New Teachers' Perceptions of Student Learning and Effective Teaching Practices
*Cheryl A. Fields-Smith (University of Georgia), *Emiel W. Owens (Texas Southern University)
Exposing Colorblindness/Exploring Color Consciousness: Methods for Urban Teacher Educators
*Kerri A. Ullucci (Roger Williams University), *Dan Battey (Rutgers University)
Chair: Tatiana Joseph (University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee)
backSession Participants:
Symposium Panelist Summary: Quality Education Designed for Underserved Students
*Joan T. Wynne (Florida International University)
Chair: Joan T. Wynne (Florida International University)
Symposium Panelist Summary: Constitutional Property Versus Constitutional People
*Robert Moses (Florida International University)
Symposium Panelist Summary: Culturally Responsive Pedagogies, Lessons From Teachers
*Lisa Denise Delpit (Florida International University)
Symposium Panelist Summary: Teachers Who Create Educational Excellence in the Classroom
*Theresa Perry (Simmons College)
Chair: Maria K. Lovett (Florida International University)
Abstract:
Building a case for a new civil rights movement---centered on schools---Bob Moses, Theresa Perry, Lisa Delpit, Ernie Cortez, Joan Wynne, Omo Moses will facilitate a discussion with the audience on what this movement might look like. Moses will argue for a new approach to school reform. He will insist that the crisis in public education for children of color won't be solved by bureaucratic fixes but only by a grassroots, popular movement modeled after the civil rights movement. Others on the panel will offer perspectives about quality education from the classroom, from research, from law, young people, and from organizing.
Objective of the session:
The objective of the session is to continue a national conversation about building an educational and legal movement to demand quality education as a constitutional right (QECR) for all of the nation's children.
Overview of the Presentation:
Moses will set a historical context for such a movement, citing the crucial issues facing the country as it makes this demand. Perry will illuminate stories of successful teachers who demonstrate daily in their classrooms quality instructional practices. Delpit will show the key features of culturally grounded, quality education. Ernesto Cortez will explain the realities of organizing based on the success stories of grassroots change in Texas. Joan Wynne will share the results of an NSF and Urban Educators Corps grant that funded the research of an Algebra Project cohort linked to the practice of quality education in mathematics. After a brief discussion by each panelist, Moses will lead an interactive discussion with the audience.
Scholarly or scientific significance:
The panelists will pursue the question of how scholars come together at public forums like AERA and create a dialogue that moves beyond the end of the conference. What kinds of intellectual conversations need to be generated by scholars in public domains that can merge scholarship, liberatory process, and grassroots organizing within the contexts of social and legal movements toward lasting school reform.
1.The panel presentation offers insights into the motivation for and methods to engage students, teachers, and the public in dialogue about the nation's obligation to deliver quality education as a Constitutional Right.
2.The panelists' discussion contributes to the practice of education by offering strategies for delivering educational excellence in classrooms serving marginalized students.
3.The discussion and hand-outs will contribute to the educational field by connecting the wisdom of grassroots organizing during the Civil Rights Movement of the 60's to the pursuit of lasting urban school reform.
4.The discussion will also advance the understanding of the power of the cohort model for underserved students in low-performing high schools.
5.The discussion of the research study sponsored by the NSF and the Urban Educators Corps will advance the understanding of the efficacy and challenges of a cohort model for accelerated mathematics and language arts programs for underserved populations within a school-based/university-affiliated urban school reform effort.
Structure of the session:
1) Panelists discuss various aspects of the QECR movement.
2) Moses leads dialogue with audience, using open-ended prompts and small group discussion.
3) Audience develops an action plan for scholars, researchers, teachers, students, community agents to engage together concerning Quality Education as a Constitutional Right.
4) Panelists will distribute "hand-outs" on community engagement.
Session Participants:
Communication and Participation in Urban Science Education
*Christopher Emdin (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Emerging Understandings of the Social Justice Dispositions of Science Teachers in an Urban Context
*Imelda L. Nava (University of California - Los Angeles), *Eduardo Lopez (University of California - Los Angeles)
Negotiating Culturally Relevant Science Education in an Urban Small High School
*Ashraf Anis Shady (Queens College - CUNY)
Preservice Teachers' Ideas About Teaching Secondary Science in High-Need Schools
*Juanita Jo Matkins (College of William and Mary), *Jacqueline Theresa McDonnough (Virginia Commonwealth University), Kevin Goff (College of William and Mary), Colleen Riesbeck (College of William and Mary), Kathryn Ottolini (College of William and Mary)
Science Teaching and Learning With English Language Learners in Urban Settings: Engaging Student Researchers in Transformative Practices
*Gillian Ursula Bayne (Lehman College - CUNY)
Chair: Luzelena Perez (University of California - San Diego)
Discussant: Lynda Susan Kennedy (New York Public Library)