Education Studies

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/17938

Browse

Now showing 1 - 20 of 57

Open Access
Anti-Racist Teacher Well-Being and/as Curricular Praxis
(University of Oregon, 2024-12-19) Cartee, MaryJohn; Mazzei, Lisa
This dissertation explores the well-being of public K-12 teachers in the United States who explicitly identify as anti-racist and/or anti-colonial teachers. Well-being has traditionally been conceptualized as attached to single human individuals in most Western academic scholarship. However, drawing on insights from the posthumanisms, community psychology, Critical Race Theory, and Indigenous studies, this dissertation argues that these teachers’ well-being is not only influenced by the larger institutional, political, and environmental contexts in which they live and teach; it is co-constituted with them on the level of ontology. In order to explore these teachers’ well-being, this study draws on immersive cartography (Rousell, 2021), a posthuman methodology that centers affect (Gregg & Siegworth, 2010), process, and emergence. While methods were also borrowed from traditional, qualitative, humanistic methodologies (i.e. interviews and focus groups), process, relationality, and emergence were centered. Four interviews and one focus group were selected for the dissertation based on affective resonances. Together, these interviews and an instance from a focus group map a terrain of anti-racist, anti-colonial teacher well-ill-being which co-constitutes with multiple temporalities from teachers’ pasts, collective histories, and multiple environments. Many teachers had deep personal connections of many types to various forms of oppression, and these histories informed their willingness to question societal common sense—including their own. Furthermore, the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) teachers in the study found themselves resisting or circumventing the white, feminized position of “footsoldier of colonialism” (Leonardo & Boas, 2021) in the teaching profession by doing work outside the classroom, or by leaving the traditional classroom for other work in the broader field of education. Implications of this work include a need to address the dividual—as opposed to individual—character of ongoing anti-racist, anti-colonial teacher education, particularly its hidden curriculum. The dividual substrate of the hidden curriculum of ongoing teacher education is aggregate, continuous, and pre-personal, and includes racist affects, gendered embodiment, and collective histories. Changing this dividual substrate is perhaps more challenging than changing individuals; nonetheless, anti-racist, anti-colonial teachers discussed being sustained in community with students and with other teachers similarly oriented.
Embargo
English Learner Education: Examining Policy Decisions and Their Impact on Student Outcomes
(University of Oregon, 2024-12-06) Vazquez Cano, Manuel; Umansky, Ilana
This three-article dissertation examined how policy choices in three key policy areas – initial enrollment, service provision, and reclassification – impact English learner (EL)-classified students. The first article examined the national landscape of state statutes, regulations, and state education agencies' (SEA) guidance that support districts in implementing procedures to award credit to secondary newcomer students for prior learning experiences. The findings reveal a lack of education statutes and regulations, and limited implementation guidance from SEAs to support newcomer credit transfer. The second article zooms into Portland Public Schools in Oregon and examines the causal effect of the district’s dual language immersion (DLI) program. The study found significant positive effects of the DLI program, demonstrating a notable increase in credit accrual, high school graduation rates, and attainment of the Seal of Biliteracy among participating students. The third article investigates the causal impact of reclassification from EL services in 5th and 8th grade on high school graduation and the mediating role of course access. The study does not identify significant effects of reclassification and does not find evidence supporting the hypothesis that early access to English Language Arts and Algebra 1 mediates the potential impact of reclassification. Findings from this dissertation contribute novel evidence to EL education policy and highlight how policy decisions at different entry points can potentially shape student outcomes.
Open Access
More Than Binary, More Than Normative, More Than Quantities: Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Students in Postsecondary Computer Science Education
(University of Oregon, 2024-08-07) Skorodinsky, Makseem; Goode, Joanna
Transgender and gender nonconforming (TGNC) students are underrepresented in CS education and have been found to leave the field at higher rates than their counterparts. While there is a great deal of Computer Science (CS) education research focused on other underrepresented groups, it rarely includes those who are TGNC. Overall, there is a dearth of research in CS education which acknowledges and investigates lived gender outside of the binary. Employing voices of non-binary and transgender students in computing, this project employs surveys, interviews, and a focus group to gain a deeper understanding of the experience of gender diverse people in CS education. The study finds that TGNC students enjoy the field of computing, feel confident about their skills and abilities, and foresee being successful in their coursework. At the same time, they do not feel that they belong and they worry about their future in CS employment. A high percentage of study respondents do not feel able to express their gender authentically and do not feel supported by faculty and staff in their departments. Students with multiple marginalized identities report compounded and unique challenges. Participants recommend that the CS education community integrate TGNC-related topics in curriculum, increase representation of TGNC people, and invest in the development of TGNC centered/aware mentorships. Based on the findings, a new paradigm, TransForm CS, is put forth, which centers TGNC students in each of its core pillars: curriculum, pedagogy, policy, and CS education research.
Open Access
Principal Succession Planning: Findings from a Qualitative Study
(University of Oregon, 2024-08-07) LeRoy, Sara; Terrazas Arellanes, Fatima
This was a case study of the principal succession planning practices of a large school district in Oregon. For the study, the researcher interviewed nine principals and nine central office administrators and surveyed 17, K-12 assistant principals within the studied school district. The findings from this study reveal many strengths and weaknesses within the studied district’s current principal succession planning practices and is followed by considerations for this school district that might be applied to other school districts. The considerations include creating clarity around the desired qualities and skills of an effective principal, creating more teacher leader pathways to principalships, aligning current practices for the district’s aspiring administrators to their partner university’s administrator licensure program, and intentionally supporting assistant principals and principals through mentoring and focused professional development.
Open Access
Exploratory Data Analysis with Clustered Data: Simulation and Application with Oregon’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System using Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Model Trees
(University of Oregon, 2024-08-07) Loan, Christopher; Zvoch, Keith
Simulations were conducted to establish best practice in hyperparameter optimization and accounting for clustering in Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Model Trees (GLMM trees). Using data-driven best practices, the relationship between a 9th Grade On-Track to Graduate (9G-OTG) indicator and observed high school graduation within four years was explored. Data originated from two cohorts of the Oregon State Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) and were joined with external datasets. Restricted to complete cases, the data were comprised of more than 58,000 observations, each with more than 1500 variables measured at student, school, district, and zip code levels. GLMM trees explored heterogeneity in a cross-classified multilevel logistic regression which regressed observed graduation on 9G-OTG, accounting for variance in school- and zip-code-level random intercepts. Subgroups were identified for whom the probability of graduating among on- and-off track students were systematically heterogeneous, relative to the supraordinate group. Results suggest that for most students, 9G-OTG is a potent early warning indicator of graduation, but systematic variation in the indicator’s effectiveness was found along all levels except district. Subgroups were defined by combinations of alternative schools, absences, transferring schools, being enrolled in more than one instructional program, neighborhood unemployment, and sex. Implications and recommendations to measurement, practice, and evaluation are discussed.
Open Access
The Perceptions of Staff and Families on the Role of a School Resource Officer in Schools and What Steps Administrators Can Take to Support
(University of Oregon, 2024-08-07) Kelly, Juliana; McClure, Heather
Title: The Perceptions of Staff and Families on the Role of a School Resource Officer in Schools and What Steps Administrators Can Take to Support In a world full of divided opinions and experiences with law enforcement, school districts are struggling to decide whether to employ a School Resource Officer (SRO). There is history of the integration of police in schools in response to a growing need for safety in schools related, in part, to the rise of school shootings. The tension surrounding whether or not to hire an SRO has become more apparent since the death of George Floyd, which occurred in 2020, at a time when schools were shut down due to the pandemic. A School Resource Officer is typically a uniformed member of law enforcement, paid for by the school district and the police department. There is minimal research conducted about the role, purpose, and impact of an SRO, as well as minimal guidance on undersanding the context and needs of a school district and their local community, when making a decision around this role. A mixed methods study involving 303 survey participants and 25 interview participants of diverse roles, races, and ethnicities was conducted. Survey findings identified that there is value in the role of SRO, but a need for more clarity and communication around the specific duties and presentation (e.g., what they wear and whether they are armed), with significant differences in support for SROs identified by gender and primary role (e.g., parent vs school staff). Semi-structured interviews extended survey findings by revealing that depending on the community, there may be a need to build trust and relationship in this role prior to consideration of hiring, or potentially with a current hire. It was clear throughout the study that finding the right candidate for the role is vital to the success of an SRO. Mixed methods results had implications for guidance for school districts’ decision making around whether and how best to integrate School Resource Officers into school communities.
Open Access
“ADULTS SEE EVERYTHING AS DANGEROUS EXCEPT THEMSELVES”: A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF SAFETY, POLICING, AND PROTECTION IN SCHOOLS
(University of Oregon, 2024-08-07) Springer, Shareen; Sabzalian, Leilani
This study explores ideologies, discourses, and representations of school safety and policing within the United States educational system, motivated by the imperative to understand the transmission and impact of these ideologies on the broader societal constructs of safety, punishment, and mass incarceration. Drawing from the frameworks of corpus-assisted discourse studies (CADS) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), three central research questions guide the investigation: 1) How do different educational community members (students, policy makers, and community) define school safety (safety for whom, safety from what)?; 2) How do different educational community members (students, policy makers, and community) discursively produce police as safe or unsafe in schools?; 3) What do discourses of school safety and policing show us about the ways students are positioned as dangerous (and by whom), which students are positioned as dangerous, and who must be protected and from what within schools? Analyzing multiple datasets, including school board meetings, online public comments, and conversations with students, the study uncovers both commonalities and tensions within educational communities regarding representations of policing, schools, and students. It identifies shared discursive strategies alongside ideological tensions, highlighting the perpetuation, privileging, and challenging of certain beliefs about policing and about young people that move across contexts and social histories. A significant finding of the research is the central role of adultism in maintaining the interconnectedness between the school and prison systems, thereby perpetuating mass incarceration. This revelation prompts the introduction of YouthCrit as a framework to explicitly address adultism as a unique form of oppression intertwined with other institutional subjugations, and to disrupt carceral logics rooted in colonialism and heteropaternalism. Ultimately, this study advocates for a deeper understanding of the school-prison nexus and emphasizes the importance of challenging deficit representations of students. It calls upon scholars, educators, and practitioners to center the voices and agency of young people in research, interventions, and social movements for community safety.
Open Access
“I just want to build a future”: Future Time Perspectives and Case Studies of Refugee Adolescent Girls
(University of Oregon, 2024-08-07) DeRosia, Nicholette; Husman, Jenefer
Refugee girls are underserved in U.S. schools and under-studied in educational and psychological research. Using a feminist intersectional lens and a case study approach, this project sought to illuminate how three high school age refugee girls expressed their intersectional identities and their Future Time Perspectives (FTP; Lewin, 1948) when describing their case studies. It also examined how their intersectional identities showed up in those expressions, and if/how those identities aligned with their learning environment. The study focused on the mismatch between individualistic and collectivist identities interwoven into the other identities of the three girls focused on in this study. FTP should include Collective Time Extension, or an understanding of extending thinking of time into the past and the future, as not just individual, but also inclusive of collective identity. Furthermore, the study interrogated the associated idea of Socioemotional Selectivity Theory (SST), which posits that as life’s perceived time gets shorter that priorities shift from achievement (academic, professional success) goals, to emotional (building relationships, spending time with loved ones) goals (Carstensen & Lang, 1996; 2002; Lang, 2017; Rohr, 2017). Rather than be on one side of a binary of identities that mismatched with the context they were in, they displayed complex capacities to hold and navigate many identities and understandings at once. The girls in this study leveraged their emotional goals and collective identities; to form and make sense of achievement goals in the individualistic systems they were a part of. Keywords: Refugee, Future Time Perspective, Intersectionality, Collective Time Extension
Open Access
The Impact of Clinician-Directed Engagement Practices on Cognitive Performance & Perceptions of Alliance among Individuals with Acquired Brain Injuries
(University of Oregon, 2024-01-10) Rothbart, Aaron; Sohlberg, McKay
While clinical engagement is widely considered to be essential to the rehabilitation process, little empirical evidence exists examining the influence of engagement-enhancing practices on clinical performance. This dissertation study sought to evaluate the impact of a set of clinician-driven engagement practices, targeting key affective states, that practitioners can feasibly embed into rehabilitation sessions whose primary purpose was to improve cognitive- linguistic performance. A concurrent multiple-baseline design was implemented to determine changes in cognitive performance on a series of common neurorehabilitative tasks following exposure to identified practices across four participants who previously sustained acquired brain injuries. Examination into perceptions of therapeutic alliance, motivation, and self-efficacy were analyzed to determine perceptual shifts following exposure to engagement practices. The results suggest that promoting clinical engagement using a series of clinician-driven engagement practices enhanced participant performance. Improved performance was noted across all tasks, for each participant. While a single participant demonstrated a positive shift in perceived alliance, motivation, and self-efficacy, the remaining participants provided mixed responses. This study provides preliminary evidence that rehabilitation professionals can systematically implement specific engagement-enhancing techniques and strategies that result in improved clinical outcomes.
Open Access
Understanding Parent Motivation to Oppose Detracking Middle School Mathematics: Mental Contrasting Triggers White Exemptionism
(University of Oregon, 2024-01-09) Ahearn, Madeline; Husman, Jenefer
Tracking is the practice of sorting students into courses based on their perceived ability. Middle school mathematics programs commonly track students into leveled courses with differential access to curriculum, instructional practices and future courses. With 40 years of research to draw on, every professional organization of mathematics educators advocates ceasing the practice of tracking. This is in large part due to the racialized and classed outcomes tracking reproduces. Nevertheless, tracking persists in middle school mathematics courses. Research demonstrates that parent opposition to detracking partially explains the persistence of the practice, but this research has not been specific to tracking mathematics courses in particular, nor has it critically examined race within this context. Therefore, my research asked what motivates parents to oppose detracking mathematics courses and, how are elements of Whiteness expressed through their opposition. Via a nested case study, I investigated these questions through in-depth interviews with parents at one middle school and contextualized those with administrator interviews across four school districts. By extending Oettingen’s (2000) concept of mental contrasting with Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) Ecological Systems Theory I found that some of the parents in my study held multiple goals for their students' mathematical experience. Despite the expectation of administrators and the consensus from reviewed literature, the majority of parents in my study did not hold the goal of a procedural mathematics experience for their child. However, I found three goals influenced by mesosystem and macrosystem factors that did contrast with detracking producing the motivation to oppose. Additionally, I found that some parents use Bonilla-Silva’s (2003/2022) colorblind frames to rationalize racial disparities in access to high-tracked mathematics. Extending this theory, I develop the frame White exemptionism and define it as the colorblind move to acknowledge the benefit of equity-initiatives for oppressed and marginalized people only to claim exemption from participating, thereby perpetuating inequity. From my findings, I infer three productive moves for administrators aimed at helping them move their detracking projects forward in the face of parent opposition as well as recommendations for future research regarding my extensions of both mental contrasting and colorblind racism.
Open Access
Serving Whom? Examining the Community Cultural Wealth and Microaggressions of Latine Students at an Emerging HSI
(University of Oregon, 2024-01-09) Bermúdez Bonilla, Bobbie; Lucero, Audrey
In the past decade, Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs), institutions that enroll at least 25 percent of undergraduate Latine students, have gained in popularity. With an increasing Latine population and enrollment in higher education, the federal government recognizes HSIs as major contributors to the academic persistence and graduation of Latine students. HSIs have access to federal funds to ensure success in supporting underrepresented students. Many colleges and universities, including the University of Oregon, have begun the transition from predominantly white institutions to Hispanic serving institutions. A university in this transitional period, characterized by a Latine student enrollment between 15 and 24.9%, is called an emerging HSI. There is no established protocol for emerging HSIs to successfully transition into federally recognized HSIs, which presents a persistent challenge. Similarly, the definition of what it means to serve Latino students can vary significantly from institution to institution. This dissertation assesses how an emerging HSI can better support its Latine students during this transitional period. The project focuses specifically on the lived experiences of Latine students at the University of Oregon. As UOregon begins its transition, the institution must consider the lived experiences and testimonies of Latine students to better understand where they are excelling and what areas require improvement. The design of this case study includes select interviews and surveys with 65 Latine, mostly female-identifying undergraduates. This research contributes to a greater theoretical understanding of servingness for emerging HSIs, focusing on theories of community cultural wealth and microaggressions. Latine students enter emerging HSIs with a particular cultural capital, which institutions must not only acknowledge but also promote. This project’s findings suggest that the majority of Latine students at this specific emerging HSI sense a lack of belonging and require more than just words to feel genuinely supported by their universities. This study also indicates that an emerging HSI’s identity must be based on student feedback if an institution is to genuinely embody the Latine-serving mission. Moreover, this study highlights the drawbacks of interest convergence and challenges the notion that HSI status is solely based on student enrollment.
Open Access
New Teacher Induction:Oregon’s Successes and Gaps
(University of Oregon, 2024-01-09) Sweeney, Jennifer; Alonzo, Julie
Teachers in K-12 education begin their careers underprepared for the complexity and demands of teaching. The current practice of a short span of student teaching and entering classrooms as the sole educator sets teachers up for overwhelm and frustration, which can negatively affect student achievement. New teacher induction programs can support novice teachers in all areas of effective teaching via a variety of supports. This dissertation provides the results of an online survey, conducted in March and April of 2023, to which 197 teachers and 54 instructional leaders working in Southern Oregon public school districts responded. The survey gathered information about the types and frequency of new teachers supports found in public Southern Oregon school districts. Additionally, data from one-on-one interviews with 10 early-career Southern Oregon public school teachers in Spring 2023 were analyzed to further explore how the new teacher supports offered impacted teachers’ first one to three years teaching. The results of this descriptive study will help principals understand the ways in which they can support new teachers.
Open Access
MIIMAWÍT: OUR WAYS, OUR LANGUAGE, OUR CHILDREN, OUR LAND
(University of Oregon, 2022-10-26) Sutterlict, Gregory; Jacob, Michelle
Shix̱ páchway, ink nash waníksha Twálatin My name is Twálatin (Gregory) Sutterlict and I am Yakama and Chehalis. I am a language activist. I started this by speaking in Ichishkíin (the Yakama language) and, unfortunately, this language is endangered. This dissertation is focused on Ichishkíin language revitalization and preservation and gaining an understanding of how to start a Yakama School, Miimáwit Immersion School. This school will hold Yakama ways of life as its core and will teach using Ichishkíin only. The plan is, as you read, you will learn a little about the Yakama Nation, the Yakama people, and the situation that the Ichishkíin language is in and why. We look at literature that discusses some of the issues that have caused language endangerment such as: boarding schools, erasure, marginalization, etc. We also look at literature that discusses how Indigenous people are striving for language revitalization, tribal sovereignty, and self-determination through education and immersion schools. We take an in-depth look at some of these Immersion schools to see how they were started, what type of school they are, what material is taught, how much of their traditional ways of life are taught, how much, if any, English is taught, and what the people think about their school. I conducted a survey collaboratively through which we learn what parents/caretakers of Yakama children have to say about their children’s education. I analyze responses through the lens of nine Yakama virtues identified by one of our treasured elders (Wilkins, 2008). I also collaborated to collect narratives through community conversations with 1) a Yakama elder, 2) parent/caretakers of Yakama children, and 3) a representative from an Indigenous Immersion to learn more about how we might shape an immersion school of our own. Four themes surfaced to guide my presentation of these conversations: Ichishkíin Language Revitalization, Yakama Self-Determination, Spirituality and Prayer, and Love. These themes and voices provide a foundation for us to start building towards Miimawít Immersion School.
Open Access
K’AAW NATASH WA CHƗ́MYANASHMA SHAPÁTTAWAX̱SHA KU SÁPSIKW’ASHA MYÁNASHMA ’WE ARE THE PARENTS RAISING AND TEACHING CHILDREN’: RAISING YAKAMA BABIES AND LANGUAGE TOGETHER
(University of Oregon, 2022-10-26) Anderson, Regan; Jacob, Michelle
This project listens to parents of Yakama children who provide insight into the ways families are driving efforts of Ichishkíin language revitalization and cultivating movement toward creating a new generation of first-language speakers of Ichishkíin. As a non-Native researcher, I worked collaboratively with my Yakama partner to gather data through a shared survey and community conversations drawing from relationships and connections established through the years. My work builds on research in the fields of Language Revitalization and Education Studies, engaging Indigenous methodologies and Yakama specific frameworks to guide my process and analysis. The survey was open to all parents and caretakers of Yakama children and conversations focused on parents of Yakama babies and toddlers. These interactions shared insights around how Ichishkíin language is used daily in the lives of families as well as what types of supports are wanted to help to increase language use. Parents were generous in sharing their daily practices, challenges, and hopes for the future and this project illustrates the ways Yakama values and language continue to be shared intergenerationally. This project provides a snapshot of the work parents and families are doing on a daily basis to cultivate their language and culture with guidance for future projects, programming, research, and policy.
Open Access
Teaching with Translanguaging as a Critical Literacy Pedagogy in Elementary Dual-Language Immersion Education
(University of Oregon, 2022-10-04) Donley, Kevin; Lucero, Audrey
Translanguaging is a theory and pedagogy of language that understands multilingualism to be an inherently fluid, flexible, and dynamic practice (García, 2009). As a pedagogy, a translanguaging stance aims to empower multilingual learners to draw on the entirety of their communicative repertoires to disrupt and transform classroom language borders and what counts as academic language (Otheguy, García & Reid, 2015). In elementary dual-language immersion (DLI) contexts, where bilingualism, biliteracy, and biculturalism are developed in two languages of instruction, the purpose of translanguaging pedagogy should be both biliteracy development and social transformation. Therefore, this study explores how teachers engage translanguaging for biliteracy and social transformation in elementary DLI contexts. There are two purposes that frame this research: to gain a global understanding of the purposes and tensions of a strong translanguaging stance, and to highlight local examples of how elementary DLI teachers think, plan, and teach with translanguaging as a critical literacy pedagogy. It is guided by the following research questions: a) What are the purposes and tensions of a strong translanguaging stance for elementary DLI teachers? b) How do elementary DLI teachers negotiate these tensions to design critical translanguaging literacy lessons? c) How do elementary DLI teachers critically and creatively shift their translanguaging pedagogy while teaching such lessons? Methodologically, this study is framed and operationalized via García, Johnson, and Seltzer’s (2017) translanguaging pedagogy framework of Stance/Design/Shifts. It draws on semi-structured interviews with elementary DLI teachers to explore the global purposes and tensions of a strong translanguaging stance. It further draws on multiple case studies, including interviews, lesson plans, and classroom observations, to analyze local examples of teachers’ stances, designs, and shifts in practice. It concludes that, globally, teachers engage translanguaging pedagogy for the purposes of teaching for more than biliteracy/biculturalism, teaching as a co-learner, and teaching to disrupt raciolinguistic ideologies while navigating tensions related to resisting English hegemony, negotiating weak and strong translanguaging, and valuing teacher expertise. It further offers evidence of how teachers locally engage these purposes and tensions to teach with translanguaging as a critical literacy pedagogy.
Open Access
Teaching with Indigenous Commonsense: Indigenizing Teacher Practice
(University of Oregon, 2022-10-04) Snyder, James; Rosiek, Jerry
DISSERTATION ABSTRACT James Snyder Doctor of Philosophy Department of Education Studies June 2022 Title: Teaching with Indigenous Commonsense: Indigenizing Teacher Practice Teaching topics on Indigenous people and culture can be challenging for educators in K-12 classrooms for a multitude of reasons. This dissertation examines the epistemological complexities that teaching Indigenous identity, cultural teachings, and futurities are met with in mainstream classrooms. In the early chapters, I spend time describing what I mean by using the phrase Indigenous commonsense. The core of this idea is that teaching and learning only occurs in relation to others, otherwise it has no context, and without context it has no meaning or significance. Learning in a good way requires ensuring the health of those relationships (Merculieff & Roderick, 2013; Wilson, 2008). However, even the most well-intentioned educators who do provide Indigenous standpoints in their teaching (authors, invited guest, contemporary perspectives) seldom account for how the processes through which Western epistemology filter and constrain how Indigenous people and teachings can be “known” by learners. In this study I was compelled to provide an analysis’ for how challenging teaching Indigenous topics are when attempting to be answerable to the goal of unsettling the influences of colonialism. To do this, I offered stories of classroom experiences shared by Indigenous educators. In chapter IV I looked at what some basic inclusion of Indigenous perspectives would mean in a middle school English Language Arts curriculum. This chapter analyzes the ways in which curriculum can be answerable to interrupting the multiple colonial epistemic maneuvers that attempt to confine Indigenous people’s identities and cultural memories. In chapter V I examined the process for how, in many cases, Indigenous epistemologies come to be “known” through Western epistemological reading habits. This research was prompted by an interview with an Indigenous educator who shared the story of their experience of reading Indigenous philosophical texts in a graduate course with majority non-Native students. The primary purpose of this analysis was to invite educators to contemplate, through the acts of remembering or forgetting, who’s or what futurity their chosen curriculum and teaching method is manifesting.
Open Access
Curriculum as Agent: Analyzing the Case of Curricular Racism
(University of Oregon, 2022-10-04) Pratt, Alexander; Rosiek, Gerald
As teachers engage with what is taught, rather than a sense of the distribution of inert knowledge, there can be a feeling that the “what” is moving and adapting with them. This is especially true when teachers are working with topics like anti-Black racism. The what being taught, or the curriculum-as-a-whole has been analyzed by cutting it apart into many different aspects including the planned, the assessed, the learned, the hidden, the null, and the enacted. This dissertation focuses on the enacted curricula specifically as it is co-produced in the class and highlights how the teacher is not the only aspect of that class with the agency to shift the enacted curriculum. These conclusions are based on four case studies of enacted antiracist curricula. The enactments of these curricula were undertaken by elementary, middle, and high school teachers in three different cities and were re-storied in a series of interviews with the author. This dissertation concludes that anti-Black racism is always already influencing the curriculum as it is conceived, planned, enacted, and re-storied, though it is particularly influential in the liminal spaces.
Open Access
What will be Required of Us? Teacher Activists Theorizing Justice on Stolen Land
(University of Oregon, 2022-02-18) Chappell, Deanna; Jacob, Michelle
This work is about about how we can heal from settler colonialism. Education is often thought of as the answer to social problems (as Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”). In the context of the US nation-state such liberatory claims are undermined by the weaponization of schooling for purposes of assimilation of peoples and elimination of cultures. Within their classrooms, in the halls of government, and in the streets, teacher activists are fighting against oppressive and violent schooling practices and for students, for democracy, and for the very future of all of us on Turtle Island. Teacher activist identity formation is not well understood, nor is the role of activist collectives in the nurturing of new activists, so this study asks teacher activists to reflect on the ways they became activists and how they have tried to spark new teachers to become activists. A small group of non-Native activists formed a Teacher Inquiry Group (TIG) to consider these questions and also to wrestle with the concept of decolonization of teacher activism, and the possibilities of working with Native education activists to envision a future in which education contributes to self-determination for individuals and for all peoples. The results of our work together point not to one definitive answer; there is no “how to” pamphlet for decolonizing teacher activist work. Instead, we unveil additional questions that might need to be addressed before we can begin to envision a more just and sustainable future for all.
Open Access
Fostering a Research Practice Partnership to Understand the Community Needs for Addressing Suicide Prevention among Youth in Klamath County
(University of Oregon, 2022-02-18) Thomas, John; Seeley, John
Suicide is the second leading cause of death amongst youth in the United States, and the issue is worsening each year. The issue is particularly prevalent within American Indian communities, where numerous risk factors for suicide are more commonplace than in other groups. To prevent these tragedies from occurring, it is crucial that young people are able to access effective mental healthcare support, and that the educators and community members who regularly work with the youth are able to identify the warning signs for suicide and make the appropriate referrals. All too often, the youth suicide prevention strategies that are in place are not fit for this purpose. The research in this dissertation takes place in Klamath County, an area of Oregon with a relatively large American Indian population, and a suicide rate which is more than triple the nationwide average. A research-practice partnership (RPP) was initiated so that experts from the practice and the academic communities could collaborate to better understand the context around youth suicide prevention in the county, and together formulate an action plan for improving the accessibility and effectiveness of youth mental health services in the area. In total, three pieces of research conducted within the RPP are presented in this dissertation. The first study (the Klamath County Community Needs Assessment) sought to survey professionals’ perceptions of the most urgent youth suicide prevention needs and barriers, their preferences regarding youth suicide prevention training, and their awareness of current youth suicide prevention resources in the county. An online survey was sent to local healthcare, education, and community practitioners, and was completed by 186 respondents in total. The results revealed that there was a particularly strong perceived need for more youth mental health services, and greater access to existing services. The second study (the Klamath County Youth Survey) aimed to survey the youth of Klamath County themselves, to better understand their own views around mental health support and youth suicide prevention. An online survey was sent out at one elementary school and one high school and was completed by 156 children in total. The results showed that the youth tended to have slightly negative views of the mental health services available at their school. Many students were unaware that their school offered mental health support, and others were aware of the support but were afraid to access it due to general anxiety or worries about their family finding out. Finally, the third study was more reflective, and aimed to explore the extent to which the RPP was conducted in accordance with best-practice guidelines. To do this, a content analysis was performed on the meeting minutes and agendas of the RPP, using a recognized framework for RPPs in education as the coding scheme. The content analysis confirmed that the RPP had met the majority of the criteria for effectiveness, although more could have been done to embed a culture of research and evidence use within the practice community. Overall, using the approach of the RPP enabled a reflexive and iterative approach to be taken to address the problem of youth suicide in Klamath County, harnessing the expertise of both practitioners and researchers. The studies have taken into account the perspectives of the intended beneficiaries of the project (i.e., Klamath County youth) as well as the professionals responsible for making referrals to or delivering mental health services in the county, and used this to identify numerous opportunities for improving existing services. The results from the studies have directly informed the creation of an action plan aimed at reducing youth suicidal ideation and behavior in Klamath County.
Open Access
I speak for my parents: Complicated feelings, thoughts, and experiences of Latina/o youth who language broker for their parents
(University of Oregon, 2021-09-13) Dorantes, Angel; Lucero, Audrey
Many Latina/o adolescents language broker for their parents often about a myriad of personal, family, and household issues that vary in degrees of complexity, confidentiality, and urgency. This qualitative and descriptive study analyzes the feelings, perceptions, and language brokering and acculturation experiences of six Latina/o high school students. Data collection included two semi-structured interviews, two direct observations of language brokering activities, and two surveys, a language brokering instrument (Buriel et al., 1998) and the Revised Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans II (Cuellar, Arnold, & Maldonado, 1995). To explore language brokering and acculturation experiences, the study utilizes sociocultural theory and multidimensionality acculturation as theoretical frameworks. The data suggests six themes: 1) normalized language brokering experiences, 2) learning to resolve increasingly complex language brokering scenarios, 3) mixed feelings and perceptions regarding benefits and concerns associated with language brokering, 4) complex family relationships and strong familismo orientation in the context of language brokering, 5) coping with high-stakes language brokering contexts, and 6) connections between acculturation and language brokering. These themes provide current and relevant insights for P-16 educators, medical, mental health, and social services professionals, business and community leaders, policymakers, and Latina/o communities in understanding relevant themes for these Latina/o language brokers, their parents, and family unit. Keywords: Language brokering, Latina/o high school students, immigrants, acculturation, sociocultural theory