Ilana Rosenbluh - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Peer Reviewed Publications by Ilana Rosenbluh

Research paper thumbnail of Work like a girl: Redressing gender inequity in academia through systemic solutions

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 2021

Historically, the professional structure of higher education has provided restricted employment, ... more Historically, the professional structure of higher education has provided restricted employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women. This is exacerbated where there is an intersection between gender and race, culture, religion, or age. Women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership positions across a range of disciplines, and this lack of representation of women within the professional structure of higher education itself acts as a barrier for more women reaching senior levels within institutions. More women are needed in higher positions to increase representation and visibility, and to encourage and mentor others to then aspire to follow a similar path. This critical review examines gender equity across the major career benchmarks of the academy in light of the impact of the personal contexts of women, systemic processes, and cultural barriers that hinder career progression. Research-based systemic solutions that work towards improved gender equity for women are discussed. The findings from this critical review highlight the need for global systemic change in higher education to create ethical equities in the employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women.

Papers by Ilana Rosenbluh

Research paper thumbnail of Acting Upon Student Voice-Based Teaching Assessment Initiatives: An Account of Participatory Action Research for Teacher Professional Learning

Journal of Teacher Education

Numerous nations implement Student Perception Surveys (SPS) in their schools to assess teaching f... more Numerous nations implement Student Perception Surveys (SPS) in their schools to assess teaching for student learning improvement. However, research suggests no significant change in teachers’ practices following such student voice-based assessment initiatives, noting their struggle to act upon it. Utilizing the pyramid of student voice as a key framework, we investigate how a Participatory Action Research (PAR)-based professional development (PD) shapes a group of Australian secondary teachers’ interaction with SPS and professional learning. Analyses of the teachers’ interviews, research projects, and reflective notes about their use of SPS illustrate how the PAR-based PD informed their practice, specifically: (i) transforming ‘survey fatigue’ to increased student voice; (ii) contemplating personal, professional, and political entanglements; and (iii) (re)building teacher agency—employing SPS as collective learning tools of professional empowerment rather than accountability measure...

Research paper thumbnail of With or without you? Exploring student perception survey assessment data as a teacher-student (un)shared process

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring preservice teachers’ professional vision: Modes of isolation, ethical noticing, and anticipation in research communities of practice

Teaching and Teacher Education

Research-based teacher education programs are designed to develop preservice teachers' mu... more Research-based teacher education programs are designed to develop preservice teachers' multifaceted attitudes to teaching, including their professional vision or the perceptual processes and ability to notice and interpret education fundamentals in a classroom. Nonetheless, such programs' influence on preservice teachers' professional vision remains unclear. Utilising Australian preservice teachers' interviews, research projects and surveys in a research-based teacher education program built upon principles of Communities of Practice (CoPs), this study illuminates modes of isolation, ethical noticing, and anticipation in shaping their professional vision. The latter captures an emerging capacity to (re)structure schooling fundamentals as research/practice amalgamations rather than merely practice-driven constructs.

Research paper thumbnail of Unpacking the ethics of care and safe learning environments in Indonesian vocational higher education settings: a contested space of power and (teaching) effectiveness

Pedagogy, Culture & Society

Research paper thumbnail of Belonging as a Core Construct at the Heart of the Inclusion Debate, Discourse, and Practice

Sustainable development goals series, Nov 11, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Inclusion Begins at Home: Gender Equity as an Imperative First Step Towards a Truly Inclusive Academy

Sustainable development goals series, Nov 11, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of How do teachers enact assessment policies as they navigate critical ethical incidents in digital spaces?

British Journal of Sociology of Education

Research paper thumbnail of Between student voice-based assessment and teacher-student relationships: teachers’ responses to ‘techniques of power’ in schools

British Journal of Sociology of Education

Research paper thumbnail of Motility, viscosity and field: A portrayal of migrant teachers' professional mobility and ethical conflicts in American and Australian faith‐based schools

British Educational Research Journal

International migration is attaining new records, diversifying nations' cultural–social lands... more International migration is attaining new records, diversifying nations' cultural–social landscapes. The number of international migrants is estimated to be about 272 million globally, with nearly two‐thirds being labour migrants, surpassing historic projections. Concomitantly, migrant teachers are becoming more prevalent in educational markets; spaces that may serve as institutional vehicles promoting social cohesion and tolerance. Acknowledging that such spaces have an increasing share of faith‐based schools—settings that foreground particular groups' cultural and social values—this critical analysis seeks to identify how migrant teachers' aspirations are shaped and ethically negotiated in seemingly exclusive educational sites. Drawing upon migrant teacher interviews from American and Australian faith‐based schools, and utilising concepts of motility and institutional viscosity, this paper captures the schools' ‘viscous’ conditions and complex facilitation through w...

Research paper thumbnail of Who's afraid of the students' voice?: About teacher assessment, evaluation and considering students' role in school improvement

Research paper thumbnail of Teacher effectiveness in Asian higher education contexts: a systematic review

Teaching in Higher Education, 2021

Teacher effectiveness has been a matter for extensive research and public debate, anchored around... more Teacher effectiveness has been a matter for extensive research and public debate, anchored around the need to capture its essence. While the complexity of teacher effectiveness in higher education ...

Research paper thumbnail of גישותיהן ותפיסותיהן של מנחות ייעוץ חינוכי ומנחות עבודה סוציאלית באקדמיה בסוגיות רב-תרבותיות

Research paper thumbnail of Student and teacher feedback to improve practices in australian secondary schools

Research paper thumbnail of Inflated expectations: how should teachers assign grades?

Educators and policy makers confront challenging questions of ethics, justice, and equity on a re... more Educators and policy makers confront challenging questions of ethics, justice, and equity on a regular basis. Should teachers retain a struggling student if it means she will most certainly drop out? Should an assignment plan favor middle-class families if it means strengthening the school system for all? These everyday dilemmas are both utterly ordinary and immensely challenging, yet there are few opportunities and resources to help educators think through the ethical issues at stake. Drawing on research and methods developed in the Justice in Schools project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, "Dilemmas of Educational Ethics" introduces a new interdisciplinary approach to achieving practical wisdom in education, one that honors the complexities inherent in educational decision making and encourages open discussion of the values and principles we should collectively be trying to realize in educational policy and practice. At the heart of the book are six richly described, realistic accounts of ethical dilemmas that have arisen in education in recent years, paired with responses written by noted philosophers, empirical researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. The editors illustrate how readers can use and adapt these cases and commentaries in schools and other settings in order to reach a difficult decision, deepen their own understanding, or to build teams around shared values. Chapter 4 focuses on Inflated Expectations: How Should Teachers Assign Grades? (Meira Levinson and Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh). Responses: Putting School Mission First (Rebecca E. Yacono); Three Ways to Grade (Rob Reich); Grade Inflation as a Tragedy of the Commons (Jennifer Hochschild); Inflated Expectations in a World of Hypercredentialing (Peter Demerath); Grades Miss the Mark (Deepa Sriya Vasudevan); and Protect Teacher Integrity (Doris A. Santoro).]

Research paper thumbnail of A case study of generalizing from a case study

Academic exchange quarterly, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Statement of Transparency

Research paper thumbnail of The impact of student perception surveys on teachers’ practice: Teacher resistance and struggle in student voice-based assessment initiatives of effective teaching

Teaching and Teacher Education, 2021

Abstract Student perception surveys (SPS) play an increasing assessment role envisioned to improv... more Abstract Student perception surveys (SPS) play an increasing assessment role envisioned to improve teaching. Yet, it is unclear what their impact is on teachers' practice. Data collected from Australian teacher interviews, student focus groups and SPS based on validated frameworks of effective teaching revealed no significant change in teachers' practice; illustrating student skepticism in the power of their voice, and teacher resistance and struggle to act upon SPS. Contributing to the literature on effective teaching, teacher resistance and student voice, the study's implications call for teacher education that treats SPS as diagnostic tools that empower teachers in their search for autonomy.

Research paper thumbnail of Secular teachers in Jewish religious schools: passing, resistance, and freedom of religion

Oxford Review of Education, 2020

ABSTRACT This study explored the perceptions of 25 secular teachers employed in American, Austral... more ABSTRACT This study explored the perceptions of 25 secular teachers employed in American, Australian, and Israeli Jewish religious schools regarding disparities between their secular identity and their school’s religious habitus. It also examined the ways these teachers cope with such disparities. Findings suggest that teachers’ challenges were anchored in their freedom of religion and conscience, educational credo, and framed organisational position. However, the teachers acknowledged student benefits such as students’ exposure to diversity and support offered to those experiencing religious and identity conflict. Identified patterns of teachers’ coping strategies included opposition, adaptation, and fence-sitting. We drew upon the literature on passing and everyday forms of resistance in schools having rigid public transcripts to explain these strategies’ moral and emotional costs. The study’s implications apply to other religious schools and educational settings characterised by rigid public transcripts of discipline and accountability policies that may conflict with teachers’ identity and educational credo.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Try walking in my shoes’: teachers’ interpretation of student perception surveys and the role of self-efficacy beliefs, perspective taking and inclusivity in teacher evaluation

Cambridge Journal of Education, 2020

ABSTRACT For decades, policymakers deliberated whether student perception surveys (SPS) should be... more ABSTRACT For decades, policymakers deliberated whether student perception surveys (SPS) should be a component of teacher evaluation programmes in schools. However, much research has focused on SPS’ reliability and validity, and little is known about teachers’ interpretation of SPS or what preparation should be instituted before administering such surveys. Guided by a qualitative descriptive/interpretive approach, this paper draws upon 20 teacher interviews from different public schools in 14 US states. Teachers’ understanding of SPS appeared to provide insight into their self-efficacy beliefs in accountability-driven systems. Taking the perspective of principals illustrated teachers’ valuing SPS mostly as formative assessment. SPS also stood as isolated voice-based forms of evaluation, offering limited understanding of the educational processes when disconnected from an inclusive 360-degree feedback culture, grounded in principles of reciprocity and even-handedness. The paper holds promise for policymakers, implementers and educators seeking to buttress support for the use of voice initiatives in schools.

Research paper thumbnail of Work like a girl: Redressing gender inequity in academia through systemic solutions

Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, 2021

Historically, the professional structure of higher education has provided restricted employment, ... more Historically, the professional structure of higher education has provided restricted employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women. This is exacerbated where there is an intersection between gender and race, culture, religion, or age. Women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership positions across a range of disciplines, and this lack of representation of women within the professional structure of higher education itself acts as a barrier for more women reaching senior levels within institutions. More women are needed in higher positions to increase representation and visibility, and to encourage and mentor others to then aspire to follow a similar path. This critical review examines gender equity across the major career benchmarks of the academy in light of the impact of the personal contexts of women, systemic processes, and cultural barriers that hinder career progression. Research-based systemic solutions that work towards improved gender equity for women are discussed. The findings from this critical review highlight the need for global systemic change in higher education to create ethical equities in the employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women.

Research paper thumbnail of Acting Upon Student Voice-Based Teaching Assessment Initiatives: An Account of Participatory Action Research for Teacher Professional Learning

Journal of Teacher Education

Numerous nations implement Student Perception Surveys (SPS) in their schools to assess teaching f... more Numerous nations implement Student Perception Surveys (SPS) in their schools to assess teaching for student learning improvement. However, research suggests no significant change in teachers’ practices following such student voice-based assessment initiatives, noting their struggle to act upon it. Utilizing the pyramid of student voice as a key framework, we investigate how a Participatory Action Research (PAR)-based professional development (PD) shapes a group of Australian secondary teachers’ interaction with SPS and professional learning. Analyses of the teachers’ interviews, research projects, and reflective notes about their use of SPS illustrate how the PAR-based PD informed their practice, specifically: (i) transforming ‘survey fatigue’ to increased student voice; (ii) contemplating personal, professional, and political entanglements; and (iii) (re)building teacher agency—employing SPS as collective learning tools of professional empowerment rather than accountability measure...

Research paper thumbnail of With or without you? Exploring student perception survey assessment data as a teacher-student (un)shared process

Research paper thumbnail of Exploring preservice teachers’ professional vision: Modes of isolation, ethical noticing, and anticipation in research communities of practice

Teaching and Teacher Education

Research-based teacher education programs are designed to develop preservice teachers' mu... more Research-based teacher education programs are designed to develop preservice teachers' multifaceted attitudes to teaching, including their professional vision or the perceptual processes and ability to notice and interpret education fundamentals in a classroom. Nonetheless, such programs' influence on preservice teachers' professional vision remains unclear. Utilising Australian preservice teachers' interviews, research projects and surveys in a research-based teacher education program built upon principles of Communities of Practice (CoPs), this study illuminates modes of isolation, ethical noticing, and anticipation in shaping their professional vision. The latter captures an emerging capacity to (re)structure schooling fundamentals as research/practice amalgamations rather than merely practice-driven constructs.

Research paper thumbnail of Unpacking the ethics of care and safe learning environments in Indonesian vocational higher education settings: a contested space of power and (teaching) effectiveness

Pedagogy, Culture & Society

Research paper thumbnail of Belonging as a Core Construct at the Heart of the Inclusion Debate, Discourse, and Practice

Sustainable development goals series, Nov 11, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of Inclusion Begins at Home: Gender Equity as an Imperative First Step Towards a Truly Inclusive Academy

Sustainable development goals series, Nov 11, 2022

Research paper thumbnail of How do teachers enact assessment policies as they navigate critical ethical incidents in digital spaces?

British Journal of Sociology of Education

Research paper thumbnail of Between student voice-based assessment and teacher-student relationships: teachers’ responses to ‘techniques of power’ in schools

British Journal of Sociology of Education

Research paper thumbnail of Motility, viscosity and field: A portrayal of migrant teachers' professional mobility and ethical conflicts in American and Australian faith‐based schools

British Educational Research Journal

International migration is attaining new records, diversifying nations' cultural–social lands... more International migration is attaining new records, diversifying nations' cultural–social landscapes. The number of international migrants is estimated to be about 272 million globally, with nearly two‐thirds being labour migrants, surpassing historic projections. Concomitantly, migrant teachers are becoming more prevalent in educational markets; spaces that may serve as institutional vehicles promoting social cohesion and tolerance. Acknowledging that such spaces have an increasing share of faith‐based schools—settings that foreground particular groups' cultural and social values—this critical analysis seeks to identify how migrant teachers' aspirations are shaped and ethically negotiated in seemingly exclusive educational sites. Drawing upon migrant teacher interviews from American and Australian faith‐based schools, and utilising concepts of motility and institutional viscosity, this paper captures the schools' ‘viscous’ conditions and complex facilitation through w...

Research paper thumbnail of Who's afraid of the students' voice?: About teacher assessment, evaluation and considering students' role in school improvement

Research paper thumbnail of Teacher effectiveness in Asian higher education contexts: a systematic review

Teaching in Higher Education, 2021

Teacher effectiveness has been a matter for extensive research and public debate, anchored around... more Teacher effectiveness has been a matter for extensive research and public debate, anchored around the need to capture its essence. While the complexity of teacher effectiveness in higher education ...

Research paper thumbnail of גישותיהן ותפיסותיהן של מנחות ייעוץ חינוכי ומנחות עבודה סוציאלית באקדמיה בסוגיות רב-תרבותיות

Research paper thumbnail of Student and teacher feedback to improve practices in australian secondary schools

Research paper thumbnail of Inflated expectations: how should teachers assign grades?

Educators and policy makers confront challenging questions of ethics, justice, and equity on a re... more Educators and policy makers confront challenging questions of ethics, justice, and equity on a regular basis. Should teachers retain a struggling student if it means she will most certainly drop out? Should an assignment plan favor middle-class families if it means strengthening the school system for all? These everyday dilemmas are both utterly ordinary and immensely challenging, yet there are few opportunities and resources to help educators think through the ethical issues at stake. Drawing on research and methods developed in the Justice in Schools project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, "Dilemmas of Educational Ethics" introduces a new interdisciplinary approach to achieving practical wisdom in education, one that honors the complexities inherent in educational decision making and encourages open discussion of the values and principles we should collectively be trying to realize in educational policy and practice. At the heart of the book are six richly described, realistic accounts of ethical dilemmas that have arisen in education in recent years, paired with responses written by noted philosophers, empirical researchers, policy makers, and practitioners. The editors illustrate how readers can use and adapt these cases and commentaries in schools and other settings in order to reach a difficult decision, deepen their own understanding, or to build teams around shared values. Chapter 4 focuses on Inflated Expectations: How Should Teachers Assign Grades? (Meira Levinson and Ilana Finefter-Rosenbluh). Responses: Putting School Mission First (Rebecca E. Yacono); Three Ways to Grade (Rob Reich); Grade Inflation as a Tragedy of the Commons (Jennifer Hochschild); Inflated Expectations in a World of Hypercredentialing (Peter Demerath); Grades Miss the Mark (Deepa Sriya Vasudevan); and Protect Teacher Integrity (Doris A. Santoro).]

Research paper thumbnail of A case study of generalizing from a case study

Academic exchange quarterly, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of Statement of Transparency

Research paper thumbnail of The impact of student perception surveys on teachers’ practice: Teacher resistance and struggle in student voice-based assessment initiatives of effective teaching

Teaching and Teacher Education, 2021

Abstract Student perception surveys (SPS) play an increasing assessment role envisioned to improv... more Abstract Student perception surveys (SPS) play an increasing assessment role envisioned to improve teaching. Yet, it is unclear what their impact is on teachers' practice. Data collected from Australian teacher interviews, student focus groups and SPS based on validated frameworks of effective teaching revealed no significant change in teachers' practice; illustrating student skepticism in the power of their voice, and teacher resistance and struggle to act upon SPS. Contributing to the literature on effective teaching, teacher resistance and student voice, the study's implications call for teacher education that treats SPS as diagnostic tools that empower teachers in their search for autonomy.

Research paper thumbnail of Secular teachers in Jewish religious schools: passing, resistance, and freedom of religion

Oxford Review of Education, 2020

ABSTRACT This study explored the perceptions of 25 secular teachers employed in American, Austral... more ABSTRACT This study explored the perceptions of 25 secular teachers employed in American, Australian, and Israeli Jewish religious schools regarding disparities between their secular identity and their school’s religious habitus. It also examined the ways these teachers cope with such disparities. Findings suggest that teachers’ challenges were anchored in their freedom of religion and conscience, educational credo, and framed organisational position. However, the teachers acknowledged student benefits such as students’ exposure to diversity and support offered to those experiencing religious and identity conflict. Identified patterns of teachers’ coping strategies included opposition, adaptation, and fence-sitting. We drew upon the literature on passing and everyday forms of resistance in schools having rigid public transcripts to explain these strategies’ moral and emotional costs. The study’s implications apply to other religious schools and educational settings characterised by rigid public transcripts of discipline and accountability policies that may conflict with teachers’ identity and educational credo.

Research paper thumbnail of ‘Try walking in my shoes’: teachers’ interpretation of student perception surveys and the role of self-efficacy beliefs, perspective taking and inclusivity in teacher evaluation

Cambridge Journal of Education, 2020

ABSTRACT For decades, policymakers deliberated whether student perception surveys (SPS) should be... more ABSTRACT For decades, policymakers deliberated whether student perception surveys (SPS) should be a component of teacher evaluation programmes in schools. However, much research has focused on SPS’ reliability and validity, and little is known about teachers’ interpretation of SPS or what preparation should be instituted before administering such surveys. Guided by a qualitative descriptive/interpretive approach, this paper draws upon 20 teacher interviews from different public schools in 14 US states. Teachers’ understanding of SPS appeared to provide insight into their self-efficacy beliefs in accountability-driven systems. Taking the perspective of principals illustrated teachers’ valuing SPS mostly as formative assessment. SPS also stood as isolated voice-based forms of evaluation, offering limited understanding of the educational processes when disconnected from an inclusive 360-degree feedback culture, grounded in principles of reciprocity and even-handedness. The paper holds promise for policymakers, implementers and educators seeking to buttress support for the use of voice initiatives in schools.

Research paper thumbnail of What Is Wrong With Grade Inflation (if Anything)?

Open Topic Articles, 2020

Grade inflation is a global phenomenon that has garnered widespread condemnation among educators,... more Grade inflation is a global phenomenon that has garnered widespread condemnation among educators, researchers, and the public. Yet, few have deliberated over the ethics of grading, let alone the ethics of grade inflation. The purpose of this paper is to map out and examine the ethics of grade inflation. By way of beginning, we clarify why grade inflation is a problem of practical ethics embedded in contemporary social practice. Then, we illuminate three different aspects of grade inflation—longitudinal, compressed, and comparative—and explore the ethical dilemmas that each one raises. We demonstrate how these three aspects may be seen as corresponding to three different victims of grade inflation—individuals, institutions, and society—and hence also to three potential agents of harm—teachers, schools, and educational systems. Next, we reflect upon various compelling reasons that these agents inflate grades, whether from an ethic of care, fiduciary responsibility, or simple self-pr...