Drop Out and “Disconnected” Young Adults: Examining the Impact of Neighborhood and School Contexts

Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) this study compares if and how neighborhood effects on the likelihood to drop out and be “disconnected” from school and work in young adulthood change when schools are taken into account. As widely documented, I find that neighborhood socioeconomic status is associated with dropping out, but this effect is mediated by schools with high numbers of Latino or Black students. I find neighborhood socioeconomic status is not associated with being disconnected, yet, attending schools with high numbers of Black students is. This research draws attention for the need to account for neighborhood and school effects simultaneously to better understand contextual effects and to more carefully conceptualize how neighborhood and schools work together to produce these outcomes disproportionately impacting racial and ethnic minorities.     

A Re-evaluation of Dee in “Everyday Use”

Dee,in"Everyday Use",is portrayed as a negative character.Nevertheless,some critics suggest to re-interpret her for some reasonable causes.By using close-reading,this article try to re-evaluate Dee so to evalue Alice Walker’s valuable devotion in character depiction.     

The Appreciation of “Everyday Use” from the Perspective of Post-structuralism

"Everyday Use" is well-known story written by Alice Walker, who is a very famous black female writer. This paper will focus on using the decontructionism strategy to dismantle the binary oppositions of the story. The binary oppositions are "Pretty VS. Ugly, Civilized VS. Unenlightened, Hang VS. Use and The Mainstream Culture VS. Non-mainstream Culture". By analyzing, the paper concludes that no culture can be defeated and each culture needs to be passed on. Different cultures should respect each other.     

“Swedishness” as a Norm for Learners of English in Swedish Schools: A Study of National and Local Objectives and Criteria in Compulsory Schools

This paper examines whether the Swedish steering documents for English-language education are ethnically biased, that is, whether Swedish culture and language or “Swedishness” are used as norms when teaching and assessing students. To examine whether such bias exists, the central curricula and syllabi from 1994 and 2000, as well as local steering documents, work plans, and grading criteria for English language studies from 85 Swedish compulsory schools, have been analyzed. The analysis of the steering documents focuses on what they say about grammar, translation, and intercultural understanding. The results of the study suggest that, in many cases, the starting point for schools is still Swedish culture and “Swedishness.” The most noteworthy result of the study is that nearly one third of the schools had objectives and criteria for English language studies that use the Swedish language and Swedish conditions as their reference point. This gives students with Swedish backgrounds better preconditions for attaining the learning goals and receiving better grades in English then those of students with other cultural backgrounds.     

Identity-formation in the Post-colonial Context:An Interpretation of Dee in “Everyday Use”

Alice Walker's short story "Everyday Use" raises a question of great significance in the postcolonial theories: How do individuals attain identity-formation in a postcolonial cultural context? This paper attempts to have an analysis of the question,particularly through interpreting the character Dee because she is a typical colonial subject trapped in a difficult multi-cultural situation.     

Centering Nepantla Literacies from the Borderlands: Leveraging “In-Betweenness” Toward Learning in the Everyday

This article argues that building powerful literacies involves the centering of dispositions and practices that thrive on the boundary—spaces that are not always sanctioned as educational. Leveraging youths’ repertoires is particularly important for educators of nondominant learners who are committed to challenging characterizations of their students as being inept or deficient. To this end, we address how the design of learning opportunities that attend to polylingual repertoires (Gutiérrez, Bien, Selland, & Pierce, 2011)—the use of multiple languages and forms of expression-—can open up opportunities, pathways, for youth to leverage new identities as resources for consequential learning. We advance the idea of organizing learning environments where youth playfully negotiate their nepantla identities that are often in a “state of perpetual transition” (Anzaldúa, 1999, p. 100). We argue that nepantla literacies, or literacies that thrive in the boundary, emerge through negotiations with syncretic (Gutiérrez, 2014) literacies—those that are valued in the academy and across spaces and communities.     

“Whose World is This?”: A Composite Counterstory of Black Male Elementary School Teachers as Hip-Hop Otherfathers

From a critical race theory lens, the author shares data from a yearlong study on Black male elementary school teachers from the Hip-Hop generation. In this article, the author represents the data from said study as a composite counterstory which highlights how Black males are alienated, adultified, and criminalized in American public schools. Furthermore, in this article, the concept of otherfathering is comprehensively defined as it relates to how Black male teachers mentor and support their students.     

Adrian Peterson and the “Wussification of America”: Football and Myths of Masculinity

Twitter has become a unique site for making sense of public discussions about authority and morality in the United States. This article addresses these discussions by analyzing the elements of conservative discourse that claim the health of the nation is in decline because of a diminished emphasis on masculine leadership. There is a long tradition of conservative politicians in the United States warning against “soft” or “weak” figures of authority. Such conversations take place within a range of contexts, including the sport of football. As a means to engage hegemonic masculine authority from a critical perspective, this article investigates Twitter users’ various reactions to Adrian Peterson’s suspension due to his disciplining his child with a “switch.”     

Seeking the Self-consciousness of Black Woman from the Point of View of“Womanism”in Everyday Use

Alice Walker is one of the prominent American writers in American women’ s literature and black literature in 1950s-1960s.The short story Everyday Use was published early in her writing career.She displays the differences in the behav iors and minds of the mother and her two daughters during the process of seeking the self-consciousness of black woman from the point of view of " womanism".This paper attempts to explore the awakening of their heritage and self-consciousness in or der to deepen the understanding and thoughts on the theme of the text.     

“This Group of Difficult Kids”: The Discourse Preservice English Teachers Use to Label Students

This study attempts to understand how achievement gap Discourse might be present in preservice teachers' (PSTs) Discourse about students they found challenging to teach. Using a Discourse analytic approach, the project considers: How do PSTs describe challenging students in their written reflections? Do PSTs draw on students' multiple identities? Findings reveal PSTs are taking up a Discourse prevalent in today's educational environment in which students, particularly ethnically and linguistically diverse students, are discussed in terms of inadequacy. PSTs typically describe students in terms of a single label, rather than as having multiple identities. Implications include that PSTs might enter teaching with a limited view and incomplete understanding of students and that even a teacher-education program aimed at pushing PSTs to question their assumptions about students might be reifying a systemwide Discourse that identifies students based on labels—sometimes deficit-oriented labels—rather than fuller understandings of students.     

Examining the Meaning of Vague Quantifiers in Higher Education: How Often is “Often”?

Research in Higher Education - Researchers, assessment professionals, and faculty in higher education increasingly depend on survey data from students to make pivotal curricular and programmatic...     

Control as Care: How Teachers in “No Excuses” Charter Schools Position Their Students and Themselves

Abstract

This qualitative study focuses on how early career charter school teachers (n?=?20) in schools utilizing a “no excuses” discipline approach describe their interactions with students. Using positioning theory as an analytic tool, we explore how teachers engage the language of no excuses discipline and associated behaviors to position their students as passive beings unaware of “what is best for them” and potential deviants needing oversight. In this way, relationships were largely described as focused on control and compliance. The findings raise questions about how no excuses systems shape teachers’ understandings of care for their students as well as how teacher-student relationships develop.     

“It's That Easy”: Designing Assignments That Blend Old and New Literacies

This article recounts what happened when one of the authors, a pre-service teacher, introduced a digital multimodal composition project in her 9th-grade inclusion English classes to support junior high students as they read the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Rather than regard new literacies as competing with print literacy for attention, the authors argue that teachers serve students best when they design assignments that blend old and new literacies in ways that allow them to coexist and inform one another.     

“Love and Rage” in the Classroom: Planting the Seeds of Community Empowerment

Although no one unified anarchist theory exists, educational approaches can be taken to support the full liberation of the self and the construction of an interconnected community that strives to rid itself of eco-sociocultural oppressions. An anarchist pedagogical approach could be one that is rooted in a love/rage unit of analysis occurring along a spectrum of various types of actions and contributions within a community. Anarchism as a violent destruction of the state is a stereotypical view that has perhaps led to its own early demise as a social movement. Anarchism that embraces adaptation through more inclusive forms of resistance, including a reconstruction for the K–12 classroom context, is one that stands a chance in evolving a society toward love, justice, and empowerment. This article explores those possibilities aiming for accessibility while still honoring core anarchist calls for strong, localized democratic participation and decision-making outside of permanent hierarchies.