Teaching & Learning; End of year reflection • Mark Alter Professor at NYU Steinhardt School of Education 2 articles (original) (raw)
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2018
As educators, we envision a world in which students graduate from high school not only prepared for college and career, but also accepting their responsibility to take an active role in their communities and contribute to civic life. We envision a world of principled, compassionate civility, where students learn through guided practice in real-life situations how to engage in open dialogue and to treat one another with dignity and mutual respect. We envision a world in which school is where children learn how to be the best possible versions of themselves and to pursue the positive difference they can make in the world. We see the integration of social, emotional, and academic development as the pathway to achieving these ends.
2017
School Community Journal publishes a mix of: (1) research (original, review, and interpretation), (2) essay and discussion, (3) reports from the field, including descriptions of programs, and (4) book reviews. The journal seeks manuscripts from scholars, administrators, teachers, school board members, parents, and others interested in the school as a community. Editorial Policy and Procedure School Community Journal is committed to scholarly inquiry, discussion, and reportage of topics related to the community of the school. Manuscripts are considered in the four categories listed above. Note: The journal generally follows the format of the APA Publication Manual, 6 th Edition; we prefer direct links whenever possible to online sources in the reference list. Please make sure electronic links cited are accurate and active. Use italics rather than underlining. Do not use tabs to format paragraphs or tables; please use the Insert Table function for tables and the First Line Indent function for paragraphs. Color for tables or figures is acceptable.
SFU: EDUC W100 Selected Questions and Issues in Education 2016
Course Objectives and Educational Goals This course provides an entry for students to inquire into the nature of education in a pluralist and democratic society. We will not only explore the BIG ISSUES in education but also our own relationship to education, as learners, community members, and (for some) prospective educators. The course is designed to provide students with opportunities to engage in collaborative and self-reflective practices exploring a variety of issues in Education. Through readings, films, discussions, group project, and writing assignments students will critically reflect on the nature and purpose of education and on emerging trends in educational practice. EDUC 100 is also a " W " course (writing-intensive) and, as such, students will learn to identify, analyze, and utilize the typical ways of writing in the discipline.
The Students We Share and the Teachers We Need
The Students We Share, 2021
This chapter introduces the book, "The Students We Share," which focuses on teaching as a critical mechanism for social change because 1) it is the most influential school factor associated with student success in the United States and in Mexico; and 2) the quality of teaching in PK-12 classrooms for students we share in both countries is woefully inadequate to meet the particular needs of these students. Highlighting the need to improve teaching is not meant to disparage U.S. and Mexican educators who work tirelessly day in and day out on behalf of the 9 million students we share. They work with limited resources and report a lack of preparation to respond to the needs, transnational experiences, and assets of students we share. Ours is a call for us all—researchers, administrators, teachers, policy makers, parents, and community members alike—to better understand the challenges and to seek more potent and durable solutions to enhance teacher preparation and teaching qualities to meet the pressing learning and developmental needs, as well as to take advantage of the assets, of the growing numbers of students we share between these two countries. Contributors to this book summarize scholarship and provide specific and thoughtful recommendations. Our suggestions address what teachers need to know about transnational students, promising ways of forging a variety of binational education partnerships; specific policy and program improvements within each country; revisions to educator preparation, curricula, and standards; and the need for ongoing research investments in educator preparation. Our intended audience for this book is teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, policy makers, migration and education scholars, and others who study transborder issues.
ʻAʻohe pau ka ʻike i ka hālau hoʻokahi. ʻŌlelo Noʻeau #203 Translation: "All knowledge is not taught in the same school." [One can learn from many sources.] (Pukui, 1983) The University of Hawaiʻi is the only public higher education provider in Hawaiʻi. Starting in 1907 with Western academic ideologies, the Native Hawaiian (NH) ʻike and ʻōlelo were not a priority despite being the indigenous culture and language. More recently, the University has committed to becoming a Native Hawaiian place of learning and a foremost indigenous serving institution with the excerpt "...Woven through all it does is an appreciation of and commitment to indigenous Hawaiian people, culture, values and wisdom" in its Mission Statement. The First Imperative in the Strategic Plan 2023-2029 is to "Fulfill kuleana to Native Hawaiians and Hawaiʻi." The University is in the right place to act more on its commitment to being a Native Hawaiian place of learning and a foremost indigenous-serving institution. Long overdue is the priority of the University of Hawaiʻi to implement more Native Hawaiian language and culture at all levels in every department and/or unit. This Problem of Practice is an improvement study that explored the perception and diverse voices of employees at the University of Hawaiʻi at the staff, faculty, and administrative levels regarding the Native Hawaiian imperatives. Inquiries into individuals' earliest experiences with NH culture and language indirectly informs whether or not they consider the NH imperatives to be a priority at the University. This research project is a needs analysis to inform HOʻOULU ʻIKE 8 the best approaches and practices to increase participation in professional development opportunities. The study organizational goals support understanding the biases and barriers to promoting Native Hawaiian culture and language representation. Data collection was comprised of the author's auto-ethnography, "talk story" interviews, and institutional data. Qualitative interviews were approached with the local Hawaiʻi context of "talk story," a cultural form of communication rich in moʻolelo (story) telling of personal experiences. Results of the qualitative talk story data supported by the quantitative data resulted in four themes that informed the recommended actions to improve the imperatives. Recommendations are threefold: (1) Informed context in all areas of the University, (2) Budget and resources, and (3) Opportunities for ʻāina and place-based learning. Immediate actions to address the recommendations were two-tiered; the first tier focused on scaling up opportunities, leadership development, and shared campus resources. The second tier has five actions: Sustain the initiatives, NH community engagement, a vice president position, Native Hawaiian campus environments, and increased dialogue with indigenous relatives. HOʻOULU ʻIKE 9 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Introduction of the Problem of Practice In Western universities across the world, there is a lack of representation of Natives' or first people's culture and language at all levels of the institutions. And even Natives who overcome these barriers and make it to an institution of higher education still face obstacles and may have a more difficult time than their white counterparts. There are often cultural distances and language barriers between Native students and non-Native students and faculty. Because of our histories of loss of language, distance from traditional practices, and distrust of outside communities, we may feel alienated in academic settings. Each of these gaps diminishes the safety of Native identities in higher education institutions. (Rush, 2021, para. 5) This experience is true across disciplines and fields. One example is from the field of academic medical training. Forrest et al. (2022) concluded that there are "2 distinct stages in medical training with a significantly lower representation of American Indian and Alaska Native compared with White individuals." In regards to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math fields, Gewin's article (2021) in Nature states that "Despite long-standing calls to increase diversity on university campuses, Indigenous researchers remain poorly represented in academia, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields." Brayboy, et al., (2015) concluded that "racism and having work questioned by colleagues HOʻOULU ʻIKE 10 remains a challenge for students at predominantly White institutions" (p.154). As cited in the same article, it goes on to describe that even though there is rhetoric in post-high school education preaching diversity, many of its leaders lack an understanding of Native Indigenous people's rich traditions, origins, complex histories, and sociocultural trauma impacts: Without this knowledge, postsecondary leaders cannot call for changes to initiatives, programs, services, attitudes, or offerings that would improve student outcomes. Education scholars hypothesize the resulting paradox of welcoming diversity but being ill-informed and underprepared to serve students, made evident by low matriculation, retention, and graduation rates may exacerbate existing sentiment among Indigenous communities that higher education is irrelevant, hostile, and unwelcoming to Native peoples (p. 155). This highlights the need for capacity at all higher education levels to understand the Native people's history, culture, language, socio-political situations, and place-based belonging and identities. The title of this study is Hoʻoulu ʻike. Hoʻoulu ʻike translates as increasing the Native Hawaiian (NH) culture and language of the University of Hawaiʻi System. There is a need for the University of Hawaiʻi (UH) to increase its initiatives to act on the indigenous serving mandate in its Mission and Purpose statement: As the only provider of public higher education in Hawaiʻi, the university embraces its unique responsibilities to the indigenous people of Hawaiʻi and to Hawaiʻi's indigenous language and culture. To fulfill this responsibility, the university ensures active support for the participation of Native Hawaiians at the university and supports vigorous HOʻOULU ʻIKE 11 programs of study and support for the Hawaiian language, history, and culture. (Regent's Policy 4.201) The University's priority is to be a Native Hawaiian place of learning and to support its commitment to be a foremost indigenous-serving institution. Now is the time to reverse the social, cultural, and political implications of the historical assimilation of the natives and increase their valuable contributions to our place today. Outsiders assume Hawaiian culture and language to take precedence in Hawaiʻi. However, that is not the reality. The historical context needs to be presented to understand the reason for this situation. The Native Hawaiian people faced cultural and language genocide shortly after the European discovery of the islands in January 1778. "Captain Cook first arrived in the island archipelago in 1778; thus, that year marks a time prior to which it is assumed that no one other than Hawaiians was present in these Islands" (Kauanui, 2005, p. 21). To understand the current political situation of Native Hawaiians, Kauanui (2005) is a great start to learning about the historical overview and the precarious situation of the Native Hawaiians and the controversial proposal for US Federal Recognition. In 1820, the first Calvinist missionaries from New England arrived to convert the Native Hawaiians. They succeeded, and by 1840, the Hawaiian Kingdom was declared a Christian nation according to its first constitution. Shortly after, the missionaries decided to stay in Hawaiʻi and encouraged private land with the process of the Māhele land division, which converted the land from stewardship held in trust by the high chiefs to private land tenure. This was the start of land acquisition that would enable the foreign business interest, many of whom were descendants of the missionaries, to start sugar plantations, various businesses to support sugar, and, eventually, the pineapple industry. Meanwhile, the Hawaiian Kingdom was a barrier; therefore, an effort to control the native people was underway. HOʻOULU ʻIKE 12 Displacing the Native Hawaiian language and culture would disenfranchise the Native Hawaiians, who were the majority of the citizens in the kingdom. It eventually led to the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the oligarchy of businessmen (supported by the U.S. Military) on January 17, 1893. It led to the annexation of Hawaiʻi to the United States without any legal treaty in August 1898. A hundred years later, the United Nations report issued the findings of a nine-year treaty study and called the annexation of Hawai'i into legal question (Kauanui, 2005, p. 20). "Hawaii's annexation by the United States could be declared invalid, according to a United Nations report" (UN Report: Annexation Could Be Declared Invalid, n.d.). To learn more about the Native Hawaiian resistance to American colonialism, based on "little-read" Hawaiian language sources, refer to Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism (Silva, 2004). As Ka'iulani Lovell testified on the Island of Kauaʻi for the Department of Interior public meeting regarding whether the federal government should reestablish a government-to-government relationship with the native hawaiian community, "We don't need to be recognized by you. We know who we are" (Dept. of the Interior, July 1, 2014) The Native Hawaiian language and culture are still far from parity in its homeland. Native Hawaiians are not at par with other ethnicities regarding administration, faculty, and staff at the University of Hawaiʻi (HPOKA, 2012). Aside from Native representation, there is a demonstrated need to have all administrators, faculty, and staff introduced to the Native Hawaiian cultural understanding of their home and workplace. The...