irene h. yoon - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by irene h. yoon

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2022

Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 2021

As improving low-performing schools has become a critical strategy to achieve educational equity ... more As improving low-performing schools has become a critical strategy to achieve educational equity in China, local educational departments have implemented various school collaboration programs. Drawing on international literature and empirical data from in-depth interviews and policy documents in two Chinese urban districts, this multiple-case qualitative study examines local educational departments’ roles in the school collaboration implementation. Our analysis shows that both local educational departments set clear district-wide expectations of school collaborations. While various strategies were implemented to improve low-performing schools, limited opportunities were provided for school-based educators to contribute to decision-making processes. Both districts relied more on structural changes to create conditions to improve teaching and learning, and lacked long-term investments in building professional capacity and fostering data-use cultures. Finally, local educational departm...

Using insights from the learning sciences, the four papers in this symposium investigate the ways... more Using insights from the learning sciences, the four papers in this symposium investigate the ways teachers’ collegial talk contributes to their learning about equitable instruction. One pair of papers comes from primarily observational studies, investigating how everyday storytelling and facilitation stand to instantiate or challenge teachers’ knowing about their diverse students and their instruction. The other pair of papers comes from designexperiments aiming to transform teacher knowledge. These contribute frameworks for understanding teacher learning through discourse. Together, the collection illuminates relationships between teachers’ collegial talk and projects of instructional change. Learning to Teach Equitably For education to fulfill its democratic function, teachers must effectively engage students from diverse backgrounds and support their learning and development. Such equitable teaching has been pursued by educators for decades and has yielded many well-articulated f...

Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 2016

Background/Context Collaboration is increasingly part of teachers’ professional learning and cont... more Background/Context Collaboration is increasingly part of teachers’ professional learning and continuous improvement of teaching practice. However, there is little exploration of how teachers’ racial, gender, and social class identities influence their collaboration with colleagues and, in turn, their teaching and professional learning. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study This study examines shared meanings that are constructed through storytelling by middle-class White women teachers who work in a racially and socioeconomically diverse elementary school I call Fields Elementary. I ask: What narrative tropes do middle-class White women teachers draw upon to create common understanding about what it means to teach at their school? In what ways does a normative middle-class White culture, specifically related to White womanhood, achieve ideological projects through teachers’ participation in collective storytelling in professional communities? The article proposes concep...

Journal of Educational Administration, 2019

Purpose In empirical research and practitioner guides, turnaround processes tend to be described ... more Purpose In empirical research and practitioner guides, turnaround processes tend to be described in terms of discrete stages and strategies. Though necessary, this characterization belies the twists and turns of turnaround leadership. The purpose of this paper is to expand the assumptions of how turnaround proceeds in linear chronos time with the sensibilities of kairos time or the “right” time for turnaround leadership moves. Design/methodology/approach This study is an exploratory qualitative multi-case study with principals and their key supports (assistant principals, district leaders, teacher leaders) in four public turnaround schools. The grounded theory analysis conceptualizes the experiences of turnaround principals in flexible, complex ways. Findings The findings begin with a metaphor and definition of “shifting gears” at chronos and kairos times that emphasizes how turnaround principals make adaptive, agentic adjustments when moving forward through changing terrain. The se...

Educational Studies, 2019

By typical definitions in the special education world, inclusion would not be recognizable as it ... more By typical definitions in the special education world, inclusion would not be recognizable as it exists at Memorial Elementary. Memorial is responding to a widely documented trend in public schools: over-representation of students of color, particularly Black and Brown students, in high-incidence special education categories, including emotional and behavioral disabilities (EBD). I conceptualize EBD as unacknowledged suppression of hauntings from transgenerational trauma—legacies of institutional racism, poverty, and attempts at dehumanization. My primary hypothesis is that Memorial’s practice and ethic of unconditional belonging has been a transformation afforded by being haunted. I argue that haunted trauma narratives affirm and reconstruct the personhood of students of color with ghosts of trauma. Through narrativizing, students of color and educators rebuild inclusion from difference-as-allowed toward Martin Luther King Jr.’s (2001) “beloved community” (p. 458). That is, Memorial has redesigned school structures, educators’ beliefs and practices, interactions with children and their families, and other aspects of everyday systems to be organized around the intersections of race, trauma, identity, and community. Though dreaming is undeniably difficult, Memorial also illustrates the transformative power of affective forces from ghosts that demand hope, justice, and healing.

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 2019

Abstract In this autoethnography, I inquire into naming the histories and dynamics behind some of... more Abstract In this autoethnography, I inquire into naming the histories and dynamics behind some of the embodied and affective experiences I have had as a Korean American woman of color while studying up/down, across/within, in White-dominant professional spaces such as K-12 schools. This ‘in-between’ status is part of the nature of being Korean American. In this inquiry, I draw on vignettes from my experiences in the field as an ethnographic researcher. These experiences form the heart of the paper in the form of epigraphs and narratives from experiences in multiple studies to capture the reverberations of fleeting moments – hauntings – that have accumulated over time. In doing so, I am joining existing conversations about Korean American women and about researcher reflexivity and positionality, bringing them together across time and space.

Complementary Research Methods for Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, 2018

There is no one right way to “do” critical research on educational leadership. This chapter provi... more There is no one right way to “do” critical research on educational leadership. This chapter provides an overview of what principles make research methodologies “critical,” with special attention to the role of epistemologies and theoretical frameworks in this approach to research. The chapter focuses not on “how to” engage in critical research in educational leadership, but rather on what many scholars think about when affirming and centering dignity and humanity in critical research. In particular, the chapter reviews some trends in how critical research has developed in the field of educational leadership. Finally, the chapter concludes with several recommendations to consider before, during, and after conducting a critical research study, with commentary on the role of the researcher and the participants in the research agenda.

Frontiers in Education, 2019

Berkeley Review of Education, 2019

Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 2016

The following case portrays administrator, faculty, and student responses to a race-related incid... more The following case portrays administrator, faculty, and student responses to a race-related incident that occurred in a predominantly White, wealthy, suburban high school. Reports of the story took off in news outlets and on social media; but the events did not end there. The scenario underscores the challenges involved in school and district leadership during emotionally intense, divisive periods of heightened public scrutiny about racism. Questions and case analyses challenge readers to identify opportunities for social justice leadership in response to racism and in the face of pressure to minimize events and consequences. Teaching notes are also included to assist readers in unpacking how to model social justice leadership in the face of complex and competing stakeholder perspectives.

National Commission on Teaching and America S Future, Aug 1, 2005

Journal of Staff Development, 2009