Bringing equity to underserved communities through STEM education: implications for leadership development

ABSTRACT

STEM Education is sweeping the United States, prompted primarily by the recent adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards. The surge in interest in STEM Education is beneficial for local schools and communities, and promises to positively impact students, teachers, school leaders, community members, and the future workforce. Unfortunately, inequitable hegemonic structures and practices limit urban students’ access to knowledge, resources, and a comprehensive and fair educational experience. This article explores the STEM activities in place at the Center for Innovation in STEM Education (CISE), at a local university in greater Los Angeles. From a historical context, CISE data show that an approach to STEM education that focuses on serving underrepresented populations by creating a pipeline, can serve as an example for K-12 schools, universities, and educational leaders seeking equitable practices in the field of STEM education. We identify implications for leadership development for school leaders, teacher leaders, and districts.     

Outcomes for engineering students delivering a STEM education and outreach programme

University science outreach programmes are used to encourage more school students to select science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects in further education and pursue science-related careers. The benefits of science outreach programmes are often espoused from the perspective of programme participants. Little attention, however, is given to what university students delivering the programmes gain from the experience. This paper seeks to illustrate the benefits of engineering students delivering STEM outreach programmes in schools. It reports on a qualitative case study of the experiences of two STEM Education and Outreach team members from a regional university in Australia. Content analysis of interview data highlighted not only the participants’ motivations and perceived benefits of being involved in the STEM programme but also revealed the skills and attributes honed throughout the experience. Involvement in the STEM outreach programme resulted in the development of social and personal responsibility generic graduate attribute skills, evidenced through their motivations to be involved, the demonstration of understanding of teaching and learning, and application of science communication skills. This study demonstrates that designing and delivering STEM outreach programmes assists in the development of skills that will be beneficial when pursuing careers in engineering in the future.     

The rights to educational self-determination under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

ABSTRACT

The United States Senate's unwillingness to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) notwithstanding, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) contains significant safeguards protecting the rights of students with disabilities, acknowledging their participation rights in decisions about their futures. In the first of just two examples, as students ‘age out’ of special education, they participate in developing individualised transition plans guiding their movements to post-school activities. Second, the IDEA transfers parental access rights to students, granting them sole control over their educational records on turning 18 unless they are adjudicated incompetent under state law.

Against this background, this paper opens by considering the U.S. Senate's reluctance to ratify the CRC. The paper next reviews the history of rights in the U.S. before examining how the IDEA affords students with disabilities considerable opportunities to participate in planning their futures both through transition planning and taking control over their educational records. The article ends by reflecting on how the IDEA comports with the CRC in protecting the rights of students with disabilities to self-determination.     

职业教育阻断贫困代际传递的政策设计与评估研究

乡村振兴战略提出要坚持精准扶贫,而精准扶贫工作的难点是农村普遍存在着贫困代际传递。职业教育是阻断贫困代际传递的关键举措,要完善职业教育政策的顶层设计与评估工作,旨在通过人力资本投入的提高、教育环境的改善、教育行为的改进等,提升社会中个人自身素质、生存能力,并提高社会流动的可能性,实现个人在社会中的向上流动和社会层次的跃升。文章提出教育政策应具有个体主义、结构主义和关系主义三种取向,并提出要阻断贫困代际传递,需要从人力资本投入、社会关系重建等方面提高贫困群体的学习意愿、教育质量和就业质量,增强主流社会对于贫困群体的认同。     

技术认知、风险感知对黄土高原农户水土保持耕作技术采用意愿的影响及代际差异

黄土高原农户对水土保持耕作技术的认知和对水土流失风险的感知是水土保持耕作技术采用意愿的关键影响因素,探究二者对技术采用意愿的作用有利于促进农户技术采用率的提高、控制水土流失、减少入黄泥沙量、改善生态环境。本文利用黄土高原1237户农户的调查数据,基于代际差异的视角,采用逐步回归法和分组回归法,分析了农户技术认知和风险感知对其水土保持耕作技术采用意愿的影响及代际差异。结果表明：①技术认知对水土保持耕作技术的采用意愿有显著的正向影响,技术认知对等高耕作、沟垄种植、少免耕、深松耕、秸秆还田、残茬覆盖和地膜覆盖技术采用意愿的作用强度均是新生代农户大于老一代农户。②风险感知对新生代和老一代农户等高耕作和沟垄种植技术采用意愿均有显著的正向影响,其影响强度存在代际差异;对新生代农户少免耕技术采用意愿有显著的正向影响,对老一代农户深松耕、秸秆还田、残茬覆盖和地膜覆盖技术采用意愿有显著的正向影响。③风险感知在技术认知和采用意愿之间发挥正向调节作用,在等高耕作、沟垄种植、残茬覆盖和地膜覆盖技术采用意愿中,风险感知对于老一代农户的调节作用强于新一代;在少免耕、深松耕和秸秆还田技术采用意愿中,风险感知对于新一代农户的调节作用强于老一代。户主年龄、受教育程度、家庭劳动力数量等控制变量对新生代和老一代农户水土保持耕作技术采用意愿的影响有显著差异。建议农业技术和政策推广视新老农户区别对待,提供有针对性的补贴,并通过鼓励土地流转为技术采用提供便利。     

Agents of aspiration: the (often unintended) benefits to university students working in outreach programmes

Background: Universities in many countries increasingly deliver outreach programmes to raise aspirations and encourage participation in higher education. At the University of Canberra in Australia, these programmes target schools that have been identified as having a large number of students from rural/regional, financially disadvantaged and/or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds – groups that continue to be underrepresented in higher education. Involved in the delivery of these programmes are current university students – at the University of Canberra termed ‘Aspiration Agents’ – many of whom come from similar backgrounds to the students with whom they work. Although not the focus of the outreach programmes, the Aspiration Agents themselves also derive benefits from the experience.

Purpose: This research aimed to explore the reasons why students choose to become Aspiration Agents, and the perceived benefits of the mentoring/ambassador role.

Sample, Design and Methods: The data collection comprised two small-scale exploratory questionnaire studies (N = 12; N = 20). Qualitative methods were used to investigate participants’ self-reported motivations for, and experiences of being Aspiration Agents.

Findings: Findings suggest that students perceived benefits in personal, student-related and future professional domains. Dominating all these areas, however, was the recurring theme that the students were both motivated to, and derived satisfaction from, helping others. These findings are discussed in terms of the specific role of the Aspiration Agent and how this form of employment can positively, rather than negatively, impact on the student’s own university experience.     

The faculty perspective on holistic and systems thinking in American and Australian mechanical engineering programmes

This research effort examined current mechanical engineering educational programmes in America and Australia to determine the degree of holistic, systems thinking of each programme. Faculty from ten American universities and ten Australian universities participated in online surveys and interviews. Resulting data analysis and interpretation suggest that holistic, systems thinking is present in both American and Australian engineering educational programmes, although it is more prevalent in Australian programmes. Specific examples of educational opportunities (courses, projects, extracurricular activities, research experiences) that integrate complex systems study are described in the full paper. This study is currently limited a small sample size within two countries, but it would be very useful to expand the study to a larger population and to include European sites to gain a fuller picture of the state of holistic, systems thinking in higher education.     

中外合作办学之高等教育中的英语语言教育

在中外合作办学之高等教育中,语言学习课程起着非常重要的作用,因为学生的外语水平直接影响到他们在中国国内的外方特色专业课程的学习、他们在国外的专业课程的学习和帮助他们较快地适应国外的生活.文章将结合作者在合作项目中的英语教学实践,从教材选用、教学方法、教师的配置等三个方面探讨如何办好中外合作办学之高等教育中的英语语言教育.     

Leadership development programs: investing in school principals

Considering that some university-based principal preparation programmes may not be properly training principals for leadership roles, “grow your own” leadership development programmes have become more popular across the US. This study provides a contribution to previous research in terms of the specific components a district leadership development programme may incorporate into its curriculum in order to positively influence school principals’ effectiveness as school leaders. A purposeful sample of second-, third- and fourth-year campus principals working in a large urban school district in the south-west region of the US who had participated in their district’s leadership development programme were administered the Principal Effectiveness Survey and participated in semi-structured interviews to examine the influence of the programme on the participants’ effectiveness as leaders. Survey results indicated that principals consider training activities related to human capital, executive leadership, school culture and strategic operations as having a “high” influence on their effectiveness as school leaders. In addition, interview data revealed the importance of supervisor support and building relationships with peers as critical to their continued success as leaders.     

教育成就代际传递的机制:资本和沟通的视角

父母传递给子女的不仅是生理特征,各种社会特征如教育成就、社会地位等也存在代际传递的现象。从资本视角看,这种传递不仅是父母通过人力资本、文化资本实现的文化再生产过程,它已经成为一个将经济资本和社会资本转化为升学、教育机会的过程;从沟通视角看,各种资本对教育成就的影响都离不开亲子沟通和家校沟通等具体过程。资本和沟通的视角为帮助弱势群体降低教育成就的代际传递性,促进教育公平带来重要启示。