Discrimination in grading: A scoping review of studies on teachers’ discrimination in school

Studies on teachers’ grading suggest that school grades depend not only on students’ performance but also on teachers’ bias toward specific social categories. Numerous studies tested the existence of discrimination in grading using different strategies and focusing on multiple students’ characteristics. This study aims to summarise those studies by identifying (1) the methodologies used, (2) the characteristics on which discrimination is based and (3) the empirical results. We conducted a scoping review where studies were selected blindly by the two authors. The initial search was conducted on ERIC, Education Database and PsycInfo and 37 studies were finally identified. A comparison among the included studies suggests that the main strategies used are experiments and regression analysis on the difference between blind and non-blind scores, while gender, race/ethnicity and migration background are the most frequently tested characteristics. Finally, on average studies confirmed the presence of discrimination in grading still with some exceptions and, sometimes, under specific conditions. To conclude, it is challenging to test teachers’ discrimination through grading and to date the methodologies used have some limitations. However, on average, empirical evidence suggests that school grades are affected by teachers’ bias.     

Cognitive style and gender differences in children’s mathematics achievement

Males are often found to outperform females in tests of mathematics achievement and it has been proposed that this may in part be explained by differences in cognitive style. This study investigated the relation between Wholistic-Analytic and Verbal-Imagery cognitive style, gender and mathematics achievement in a sample of 190 Australian primary school students aged between 8–11?years (M?=?9.77, SD?=?1.05). It was hypothesised that males would outperform females in mathematics achievement tests, and that gender would interact with cognitive style on mathematics performance. A significant gender/cognitive style interaction was found. Boys with an Analytic/Imagery style achieved significantly higher results than the girls with an Analytic/Imagery style, supporting the contention that certain cognitive styles affect boys and girls mathematics performance differently. Implications of results and strategies for improving mathematics achievement among girls are discussed.     

Beyond Financial Resources: The Role of Parents’ Education in Predicting Children’s Educational Persistence in Mexico

Despite significant educational expansion, Mexico’s educational attainment rates are relatively low. Though primary school enrollment is at nearly 100%, less than half of young adults ages 18-29 have finished upper secondary school (USE). This article examines how family-level factors, particularly parental education and household wealth, are associated with the likelihood of children dropping out of USE early in Mexico – a shift away from the well-established focus on primary education. Using region fixed effects logistic regressions, I examine the role of both mother’s and father’s education in predicting children’s educational persistence – and how this varies for boys and girls. Data is derived from a nationally representative sample of USE-aged youth in Mexico (n = 8,235). Results indicate that increases in parental education decrease the likelihood of children dropping out in upper secondary school, even when controlling for financial resources and other family- and household-level characteristics. Notably, these results vary across boys and girls.     

Learning mathematics in mainstream secondary schools: experiences of students with Down’s syndrome

The key questions are: is it true that persons with Down’s syndrome can study mathematics only at a very elementary level? Might it be possible that their difficulties are mainly restricted to some fields, such as numeracy and mental computation, but do not encompass the entire domain of mathematics? Is the use of a calculator recommended? Is non-elementary mathematics accessible at most for the brightest students with Down’s syndrome? Our experience with about 30 students with Down’s syndrome, attending Italian mainstream secondary schools, is that these students can solve mathematical problems, using simple algebraic equations, though they may have very poor numeracy skills and need to use the calculator even with the simplest computations. Moreover, a familiarity with more advanced topics, as algebraic computation and analytic geometry, can help to raise their self-esteem and improve their numeracy too. Surprisingly, these students can learn and apply mathematical procedures in a variety of other different contexts. For instance, Francesca, an Italian student attending a secondary mainstream school, with a mild impairment in numeracy and relatively good linguistic skills, started with algebra and then learned to solve problems in the areas of nutritional science and of business administration. In the same way, Martina, a student in a mainstream secondary school with severe linguistic and numerical impairments, learned to work with Cartesian coordinates and formulas in analytic geometry. She began connecting points on a Cartesian plane, given their coordinates, and colouring in the shapes, such as flowers and animals, that they define. Applying the two points distance formula and verifying the result, she learned to measure the distance of two points with a ruler and to understand the concept of ‘millimetres’. The role of the inclusion in mainstream Italian schools of every disabled student, regardless the severity of the disability, has been crucial for these results.     

Educational psychologists’ practice: obtaining and representing young people’s views

ABSTRACT

Many studies have focused on the importance of the participation of children and young people (CYP) in their education, although fewer papers discuss the practical aspects of seeking their views and fewer again on representing them. A mixed method approach was used to collect information regarding educational psychologists’ (EPs’) practice in obtaining and representing CYP’s views. A questionnaire (n = 73) was used to gather data from local authority educational psychology services (EPSs) across Wales and eight participants who completed the questionnaire took part in an interview to explore their views in more depth. Using thematic analysis, the major themes constructed included “accessing a true representation of CYP’s views”, “gaining CYP’s views empowers them” and “child-centred practice”. The implications of the present study for the role of educational psychologists are discussed, together with future directions for research and the limitations of the present study.     

Self-Deception in the Classroom: Educational manifestations of Sartre’s concept of bad faith

This article explores an important section of Jean-Paul Sartre’s famous early work, Being and Nothingness. In that section Sartre proposes that part of the human condition is to actively engage in a particular kind of self-deception he calls bad faith. Bad faith is recognized by the obvious inconsistency between the purported self-knowledge of an individual and ways of acting and being in the world that are demonstrably in defiance of that stated position. This article begins by exploring examples of this self-deception in education along with a short query into the role pain avoidance might play in the development of this particular skill. The article then goes on to offer a series of manifestations of bad faith that Sartre identified along with possible examples of how each example, perhaps ‘excuse’, of bad faith might appear in education.     

Use and exchange value in mathematics education: contemporary CHAT meets Bourdieu’s sociology

Empirical work has shown how mathematics education exhibits certain tensions between its value as being practically useful to production and consumption on the one hand and in offering access to scarce resources on the other hand. These tensions can be ultimately traced to the contradictions in the way mathematical knowledge enhances the use value and exchange value of labour power, respectively. To understand this as a social psychological phenomenon, I look to two well-known theoretical perspectives on education, first that of the Marxist psychology of Vygotsky and activity theory (and contemporary cultural–historical activity theory) which I find tends to marginalise ‘exchange value’. Second, I look to Bourdieu’s sociology of education that tends to marginalise the use value. I then bring together these two perspectives in a joint theory of education as both development and re-production of labour power, in which use and exchange value both have their place (in commodity production). This helps explain where mathematics education might be critical.     

‘Structure’ in Educational Theory

This essay explores the contingency of music's value, and the significant ways that contingency qualifies (or should qualify) our understandings of the utility of instructional method. More specifically, it raises the possibility that the altruistic pursuit of methodological purity may serve ends dramatically different than those espoused by practitioners. Music making, music study, and music learning may be liberating, empowering, and educational; but they may also serve precisely opposite ends. More simply put, neither music nor its study is unconditionally or inherently good. The essay explores various ways nihilism may be manifest in musical/instructional practices, and advances alternatives grounded in agency, action, and the acceptance of resistance and responsibility.     

Educational reform hyperwaves: Reconceptualizing Cuban’s theories of change

The present work builds on Cuban’s (Educ Res 19(1):3–13, 1990) seminal work on reform waves. The research explores reform waves in Israeli educational policies since 2000s. The historical case study analysis focuses on conservative and liberal–progressive reforms in education, and reveals that these reforms took place as reoccurring alternating cycles, connected with political and institutional pressures that promote reform waves. The paper argues, however, that it is necessary to further develop Cuban’s theory because it does not provide an explanation for the temporal frequency of reform waves. The paper suggests betwixt and between situations as factors pushing reform waves into hyperdrive. The paper ends with a discussion of the implications of reform hyperwaves.     

Young people’s perceptions of the mathematics involved in everyday activities

This paper describes a study exploring young people’s perceptions of the mathematics involved in five everyday activities. It is based on individual interviews with pupils in Years 7 and 10 in four English secondary schools. Results suggest that young people are more aware of the mathematics embedded in everyday activities than previously thought. There was no evidence to support existing theories that young people have particular difficulties identifying mathematics within practical activities or those traditionally performed by women. However, participants did seem to restrict the label mathematics to activities involving a problem with a single or limited solution, and to activities which require a formal rather than experimental or intuitive approach. Some participants also seemed to relate their discussion of mathematics only to the aspect of each activity which takes most time and attention.     

What Jim Crow’s Teachers Could Do: Educational Capital and Teachers’ Work in Under-resourced Schools

This article explains how Jim Crow’s teachers—former teachers of legally segregated schools for blacks—prepared and motivated disadvantaged students in spite of funding and resource deprivation. According to the author, black teachers fashioned situated pedagogies for the acquisition of educational capital that could be used in exchange for jobs, rights, and social power. Findings reveal three strategies of opportunity which provide some clues to how urban teachers today can educate poor children of color in under-resourced schools, such as generating materials and supplies, situating curriculum and instruction, and mobilizing human resources. The analysis draws upon 44 oral history interviews with former teachers in the coastal plains of North Carolina, as well as secondary historical sources.     

Promoting equity in mathematics teacher preparation: a framework for advancing teacher learning of children’s multiple mathematics knowledge bases

Research repeatedly documents that teachers are underprepared to teach mathematics effectively in diverse classrooms. A critical aspect of learning to be an effective mathematics teacher for diverse learners is developing knowledge, dispositions, and practices that support building on children’s mathematical thinking, as well as their cultural, linguistic, and community-based knowledge. This article presents a conjectured learning trajectory for prospective teachers’ (PSTs’) development related to integrating children’s multiple mathematical knowledge bases (i.e., the understandings and experiences that have the potential to shape and support children’s mathematics learning—including children’s mathematical thinking, and children’s cultural, home, and community-based knowledge), in mathematics instruction. Data were collected from 200 PSTs enrolled in mathematics methods courses at six United States universities. Data sources included beginning and end-of-semester surveys, interviews, and PSTs’ written work. Our conjectured learning trajectory can serve as a tool for mathematics teacher educators and researchers as they focus on PSTs’ development of equitable mathematics instruction.     

Book Review: A review of the book by Liping Ma (2020) Knowing and teaching elementary mathematics: teachers’ understanding of fundamental mathematics in China and the United States (3rd ed.)

Educational Studies in Mathematics -