Eliciting critical literacy narratives of bi/multilingual teacher candidates across U.S. teacher education contexts

This paper examines critical literacy narratives of bi/multilingual preservice teachers across contexts in the United States. It draws upon empirical data from two studies—a narrative inquiry with Latino teacher candidates in the Midwest and a participatory action research project with bilingual preservice teachers in Hawaii—to examine participants’ identities and experience in academia. Preservice teachers in both studies resisted the labeling practice of “minority” and challenged simplistic notions of “bilingual teacher identity.” This cross-examination argues for further ways to explore how teacher preparation programs should create dialogic spaces for making the voices of diverse preservice teachers heard.     

Factor Structure and Reliability of the Parent-Informant Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in a Scottish Preschool Sample

Research Findings: Despite it being a widely accepted measure of social, emotional, and behavioral problems among children and young people, the factor structure underlying the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is contested. Recent research has suggested a need to consider methodological bias in the SDQ, associated with the positive wording of some of the items, as a separate latent construct. Using data from the 2006–2007 Growing Up in Scotland study, we performed confirmatory factor analyses with 1,789 parents’ SDQ reports of their 4-year-old children, estimating and comparing 3 competing factor models: a 5-factor model, 3-factor model, and a 6-factor model incorporating a method factor. Results indicated that the 6-factor solution was the best fitting model. Several items from the original Pro-Social Behaviour and Peer Relationship Problems subscales loaded higher on the method factor than the original, suggesting bias influences across the SDQ domains. Reliability analysis demonstrated poor internal consistency for the individual difficulties subscales but good internal consistency for a Total Difficulties score and moderate internal consistency for the strengths subscale. Practice or Policy: As the SDQ is widely used internationally, further research is required to facilitate interpretation across populations and purposes (i.e., screening, diagnosis, or outcome assessment).     

When Is It Democratically Legitimate to Opt Out of Public Education?

In this essay, Michele Moses and Terri Wilson explore the recent movement to opt out of state tests. They situate this activism within a diverse line of efforts to refuse aspects of public education, asking how to evaluate the democratic legitimacy of different kinds of refusal in public education. Drawing on specific examples of opting out, they point to different ethical principles at stake in conflicts over public education. They pose three sets of questions — emphasizing reasons, positionality, and consequences — to help guide local educational leaders, policymakers, and citizens in negotiating difficult cases of refusal in public education. Moses and Wilson conclude that opting out of tests may, under certain conditions, serve the public purposes of education in a democratic society. Although many opt-out activists justify their actions in terms of individual rights, others are concerned with public goals and ideals, including concerns about the narrowing of curriculum, the erosion of teacher authority, and the widening privatization of public education. Yet communicating across and between different interests in this movement remains a challenge, one that points to the need for spaces of democratic deliberation about the aims of education policy.     

Expert-novice differences in performance skills and problem representations of youth and adults during tennis competition.

Expert and novice tennis players selected from three different age groups (i.e., 10-11 years, 12-13 years, and collegiate adults) were examined for differences in performance skills (i.e., behavioral analyses of video recordings) and problem representations (i.e., verbal report analyses of tape recordings) during matched competition. Factorial analyses of variance on behavioral measures indicated that experts' performances exhibited higher levels of decision and execution than novices, regardless of age. Kruskal-Wallis tests on verbal report measures indicated that experts generated more total, varied, and sophisticated condition and action concepts than novices. Within experts, adults accessed more sophisticated problem representations than youth. Both current event and action plan profiles guided and mediated adult experts' response selections and executions, respectively. Youth experts primarily used action plan profiles to guide their response selections. Novices, regardless of age, accessed weak problem representations.     

Making the hard decisions: Student teachers moving towards ethical judgment

Abstract

In Australia in recent years, as in other countries, there has been media attention to, and public interest in, the ethical and proper behavior of people considered to be leaders in society. Some have been “caught out” for acting unethically—harming children, engaging in corruption, disregarding human rights and dignity. The time is right for educators, researchers and authors to demonstrate leadership in ethics by focusing on morals and ethics more strongly and overtly.

The teaching profession has not escaped scrutiny and criticism of their ethical practice. Members of the early childhood sector of the profession however, have demonstrated proactive leadership in ethics. In Australia, for example, a code of ethics and supporting materials were developed and leaders continue to develop supporting resources. This paper focuses on the professional preparation of the next generation of early childhood teachers. It has two primary purposes. Firstly, I raise questions about current notions of student teacher preparation for ethical practice in complex, changing contexts. Secondly, I propose some ideas aimed at better preparing student teachers for ethical judgment.     

Stories of self,stories of practice: enacting a vision of socially just pedagogy for Latino youth

This narrative inquiry examines how one Latina novice teacher articulates and implements a vision of teaching for social justice within the contexts of her teacher education program and her practice as a bilingual resource teacher. Informed by Latino/a critical race (LatCrit) theory, the analysis traces connections between stories of self and practice, focusing on her development of an innovative middle school literacy course for Spanish speakers. This article highlights the ways in which she recruits her experiences as a member of a marginalized group and brings them to bear on practice in the crafting of a critical pedagogy that takes learners’ interests and concerns as central while encouraging social action. Findings are discussed in light of the following themes: critical questioning and resistance; analysis of systems of oppression and positioning; and encouraging social action and practicing democracy. This study has implications for teacher preparation committed to socially just pedagogies for all children, but especially for Latino/a youth.     

A cross-lag analysis of longitudinal associations between preschool teachers’ instructional support identification skills and observed behavior

The present study examined the pattern of association(s) over time between (a) knowledge of and observational skills in identifying teacher–child interactions, and (b) observed behavior in the domain of instructional interaction for 405 preschool teachers enrolled in a professional development study. Teacher's knowledge/observational skills and observed instructional support behaviors with children were assessed in the fall and spring over a two-year period. During this time, the teachers were also randomized into a college course focused on interactions, then re-randomized into a coaching intervention, also focused on instructional interaction. Cross-lagged analyses suggest that prior observed behavior was the stronger predictor of change in both knowledge/observation skills and in later observed behavior, and that both the course and the coaching interventions contributed to improvements in teachers observed instructional support behavior. Mediational analyses of the course effects indicated longer-term impact on observed instructional behavior were through immediate impacts on those same behaviors, whereas long-term impacts on knowledge were through immediate impacts on both observed instructional behavior and knowledge. The results have implications for the design, delivery, and focus of professional development for early childhood educators.