Unravelling Child Language Brokering For Health: Understanding The Complexities Behind Children’s Interpreting For Health Care

The U.S. healthcare system struggles to provide adequate language assistance to medical practitioners and patients. As a result, health providers and patients rely on ad hoc interpreters, including children, to communicate. Bilingual children who regularly interpret for others, whom we refer to as child language brokers, are important linguistic and cultural conduits for their communities and bridge language differences in vital contexts, such as health and medical settings. In this paper, we explore the experiences of 17 adolescent language brokers and consider the settings, tasks, and people they engage with when language brokering for health. Findings illustrate that child language brokering is a real and important component for immigrant family health, that child language brokering for health is not a uniform experience, and that language brokering for health can sometimes have severe ramifications

Administrator And Teacher Experiences Implementing Restorative Practices: A Phenomenological Study

Exclusionary disciplinary practices negatively and disproportionately impact Black students academically, socially, and emotionally and have been attributed to the school-to-prison pipeline. This research was conducted to determine the impact of restorative justice practices on exclusionary discipline by evaluating the lived experiences of school leaders and teachers. The findings of this research determined that restorative justice practices can effectively interrupt the over-suspension and expulsion of Black students if implemented as a practice as opposed to a program. Additionally, the following barriers to implementation were identified through this study:  time, mindset, lack of resources, and professional development and involvement of all stakeholders. Critical race theory and labeling theory were the theoretical lenses through which this research was conducted. Sixteen school leaders and teachers were interviewed using Zoom. Interviews were transcribed and coded to identify themes. Through this research, some of the barriers to implementing restorative justice practices were identified based on the lived experiences of school leaders and teachers. Additionally, this study identified how restorative justice practices can impact exclusionary disciplinary practices. From the results emerged the following themes and subthemes: sense of community; school avoidance; negative impact on learning and growth; restorative circles as prevention and healing; developing communication and building relationships; shift in school culture; training and resources; times; mindset and stakeholder involvement. Based on the results of this study, three recommendations were made for future research. A qualitative study can be done comparing and contrasting the lived experiences of Black girls at schools that implement restorative justice practices and schools that do not. Another suggestion for future research would entail a qualitative study that requires engaging in a restorative circle as a participant observer. The third recommendation would be a mixed methods study evaluating the effectiveness of the Restore and Heal Wheel on various elements of school culture

Kicking It In California!

Physical education classrooms reflect a range of learners, movers, and abilities. Incoming physical educators report lacking confidence and knowledge in their ability to create inclusive lesson plans. Many undergraduate and liberal studies students are required to take one adaptative physical education pedagogy course; thus, incoming educators tend to lack an array of instructional tools to ensure all students are participating in activities and engaging with peers. The goal of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is for teachers to use a range of strategies by removing barriers to learning and giving students opportunities to experience physical education to the best of their ability. Physical educators have the foundational tools; they just need to envision using those tools differently. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how, by combining the physical education and UDL frameworks, educators can implement an inclusive lesson with a skills rubric and a summative assessment

Foreword: The Ubiquity Of Wars And The “Good Danger” Of Praxis

For a long time, great thinkers like Noam Chomsky and Paulo Freire, among many others, have always been viewed as “dangerous” and even more so in recent days and years.  Both are illustrious thinkers and actors who are considered radicals in their own ways, given their defiance against the “banking system” of education; while both men simultaneously pinpoint the “paradoxes of democracy” that hamper creativity and independent thinking of students, educators, administrators, and leaders.  Chomsky and Freire have dedicated their work that cultivates the power of language as a means for educational emancipation, intellectual freedom, and social empowerment within overarching universal principles of humanity, justice, and equity. For them, language is the currency for understanding the world realities and the essence of what it means to be human free from bias or prejudice.  As such, education should be grounded in emancipation rather than oppression, enlightenment rather than ignorance, and empathy rather than apathy. More importantly, education should be praxis-based in which learners and educators are not brainwashed but constantly brain-triggered to freely dialogue, interact, think, reflect, analyze, apply, and take action to become skillful rather than full of skills

Perceptions Of Formal And Nonformal Leaders On Cultural Proficiency In Educational Practice And Organizational Change

When it comes to equity and access through culturally proficient practices, what schools intend to do versus what they actually do can be incongruous by defaulting to traditional accountability metrics over change and innovation. Utilizing the Conceptual Framework for Culturally Proficient Practices, the purpose of this study was to investigate formal and nonformal educational leaders' perceptions regarding the barriers and next steps of Cultural Proficiency implementation following a 10-day Cultural Proficiency training. Findings indicated variations based on individual identity, position in the school system, and external socio-political factors that influence how individuals perceive the implementation, advancement, and/or limitations of Cultural Proficiency work

Book Review

As student populations continue to diversify at an exponential rate, issues of cultural dissonance between students and their teachers become increasingly problematic in American schools. Despite the growing diversity of student populations, teacher demographics have remained stagnant (Milner et al., 2019)

Foreword: Under Attack And Counter Voices For Social Justice

As the voices of ignorance continue to attack democracy and social justice, we will continue to serve as a platform to counter those perspectives through the Center for Leadership, Equity and Research (CLEAR). Activism, anti-racism, and advocacy for the oppressed will continue to be the mission. We embrace Critical Race Methodology and Praxis that remain the driving epistemologies for the stories, research genres, authentic narratives, and counterstories of those who have been largely marginalized, racialized, and underrepresented

Character Education Initiatives And Preparation For School Administrators: A Review Of Literature

Over the past 25 years, substantive scholarly literature has been published that focuses on ethical decision-making by school administrators. In addition, learning activities integrated in principal preparation programs (PPPs) that relate to professional ethics and character education provides aspiring school administrators with functional tools and strategies to address challenging workplace issues, including matters that relate to inequity, racism and oppression. This literature review provides a current understanding of K-12 character education and ethics as it relates to school administrator professional preparation and practice. Using well-defined criteria, 31 peer-reviewed research articles published during the past 25 years were included in this review. After a thorough comparative analysis was completed, four overarching themes emerged that relate concepts of ethics and school leadership: (a) principal preparation program practices that focus on professional ethics, (b) implementation of character education interventions in schools, (c) non-commensurate school administrator attention to student achievement, and (d) school administrator attitudes on ethics and the development of character

Lessons On Servingness From Mentoring Program Leaders At A Hispanic Serving Institution

Servingness is a multidimensional framework detailing how Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) – which enroll at least 25% Latinx students – can shift from merely enrolling to meaningfully serving students holistically. Critically examining how institutional structures facilitate or inhibit servingness is essential for improving institutional efforts focused on student success. Adding to a dearth of literature linking servingness and mentoring, we investigated mentoring program leaders’ visions for servingness, along with the strengths and challenges they experience towards serving and mentoring minoritized students. Secondary analysis of interviews with 11 leaders demonstrated that visions of servingness were rooted in promoting student-centered and equity-forward policies. Strengths included building belonging for minoritized students and implementing high-impact mentoring practices. Importantly, six structural challenges to servingness were identified, such as precarious or limited funding. These often unexplored viewpoints – from leaders on-the-ground – provide vital perspectives and actionable lessons to shift institutional structures in ways that better fulfill a public mission of servingness

Foreword: The Need for Shifts In Mindsets And Leadership Roles In PK-20 Schools And Communities: Challenges And Opportunities

Let us frame the preface to this edition from a few lenses that might help in drawing practical implications for each contribution by the authors. First, the current cycles of ignorance and vicious war against schools and the academy should not be ignored especially by those who have continued to mislead through hypnotizing rhetoric that might lead people to believe that equity and social justice are on the top of their agendas. Second, the contemporary realities around us provide ample testimony that the much-needed change has been hampered by complicity, silence, and often resistance to change by those who enact passive roles in social and educational institutions. Third, narrowing the leadership gap is a fundamental prerequisite for combating racism and achieving equity and social justice in schools and beyond. More importantly, the paradigm shifts should be measured against informed and courageous actions, rather than words, that contribute to the meaningful and desired change of the status quo and its beneficiaries