The Construction of Educational Community based on the Technology of Internet plus Satellite Live Broadcasting

In the current climate of pursuing educational equity, the construction of educational community is a worthwhile experiment in achieving equitable development of urban and rural education. Establishing a multi-channel cooperation mechanism between urban and rural schools and giving full play to the existing high-quality educational resources are feasible and efficient ways to reach quality and equity education. Based on the technology of Internet plus satellite live broadcasting and its own resource advantages, Zhengzhou No.1 High School constructed an educational community across time and space, which effectively promotes balanced development of education in the region and has enhanced the overall educational level there

In the Battle for Reality: Social Documentaries in the U.S.

Provides an overview of documentaries that address social justice and democracy issues, and includes case studies of successful strategic uses of social documentaries

Building Communities of Trust

Drawing upon a combination of ethnographic research and media and communication theory, Building Communities of Trust: Creative Work for Social Change offers pathways to building trust in a range of situations and communities. Ann Feldman presents rich examples from her own life and social-impact journey with nonprofit, Artistic Circles, along with supplemental case studies from interviews with 20 to 30-year-olds, to address how to create vibrant, trust-based societies and to determine what works and what doesn’t while advancing towards creating social impact. These case studies and shared experiences from real life media projects across 30 years, reveal behind-the-scenes stories of challenges, conflicts, and resolutions in global impact efforts ranging from women’s empowerment to water access. The book explains how the success – or failure – of social-impact initiatives depends on power struggles, funding, interpersonal misunderstandings, identity crises, fears, and stereotypes. The book’s goal is to help aspiring changemakers develop strategies for sustainable social-change projects. It serves as a guide for undergraduates, graduate students, and high-school upperclassmen in environmental studies, business, sociology, gender and sexuality, cross-cultural studies, music, religion, and communications and media. For more on Artistic Circles and Ann E Feldman’s work, please visit https://www.buildingcommunitiesoftrust.org/ The Open Access version of this book has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/oa-mono/10.4324/9781003296423/building-communities-trust-ann-feldma

The negotiation of sociocultural identities of elementary-school teachers in South Korea through teaching with multicultural background students

This ethnographic narrative study explored the agent negotiation process of teachers with regards to their sociocultural identities. This study drew from two theoretical frameworks: social practice theory of identity for analysis of its negotiation process and critical multiculturalism as a yardstick to discuss teachers’ sociocultural identities and practices. More specifically, this research examined the sociocultural identities of teachers in South Korea in the context of rapid multicultural change in South Korean society. The following question guided this research inquiry: How do elementary-school teachers in South Korea negotiate their own sociocultural identities through their teaching with multicultural background students? Participants included four elementary school teachers in South Korea during summer 2013: two homeroom South Korean female teachers, one single subject South Korean male teacher, and one bilingual Korean-Chinese female teacher. Data collected in the study came from four (4) interviews, four-six (4-6) classroom observations, and document analysis. This study analyzed the context of multiculturalism and larger societal discourses found in South Korea, each participant-teachers’ sociocultural identities, and the process of teachers’ negotiation of their identities accompanied by their teaching practices. The results offered three main findings about the attribution of sociocultural identity: (1) the influence of sociocultural factors and relations on teachers’ sociocultural identities, (2) the teachers’ role as an agent in the negotiation process and their possibilities to transform their identities by confirming new sociocultural understandings, (3) teaching practices as a tool reflecting as well as enhancing teachers’ sociocultural identities. Based on the findings of dynamic interplay between social context and individual actions, several implications were drawn out in terms of appropriate conditions and methods for teachers’ critical sociocultural identity (trans)formation, a new perspective on the meaning of teaching practice, transformation of educational contexts, and future research, which are necessary for critical multicultural education that pursues social justice and equity.Curriculum and Instructio

These Rights Go Beyond Borders and Pieces of Paper : Urban High School Teachers and Newcomer Immigrant Youth Engaging in Human Rights Education

This qualitative study explored the ways that two ninth and tenth grade teachers and their newcomer immigrant students engaged in HRE using elements of critical pedagogy at an urban pubic high school. Research data included eight months of classroom observations and interviews with two teachers and nineteen of their students across four of their classrooms. In this study, the complexity of engaging in HRE with newcomer students was brought to light as two teachers enacted their vision of critical pedagogy, human rights content and learning goals, as well as English language instruction. The findings in this study conveyed that engaging in HRE was relevant to students\u27 lives and provided meaningful opportunities to learn English while developing skills to articulate their struggles with racism, discrimination, gender issues, and immigration through the language of human rights. This study also highlighted the complications of HRE in practice with vulnerable youth

An Exploration of Experiences of Low Socioeconomic Chinese Students Who Achieved High Scores on the National College Entrance Exam

Although the economy has been developing at a fast pace for the last few decades, there is still a relatively high low SES population within the Chinese society, which constitutes a contextual barrier to educational equity in Chinese education. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has been administering assistance policies in education to promote education equity, such as the milestone policy introduced by the Compulsory Education Law that requires all school-age children to attend grades one through nine for free. This policy has brought immense prosperity to the majority of citizens. However, Chinese education still faces a large array of challenges pertaining to the imbalanced development, funding shortages, lack of qualified educators, household registration system, family mobility, and so forth. These challenges compromise low SES students’ educational attainment and performance on high-stake tests, such as the National College Entrance Exam (NCEE). Considering the high value of the NCEE, understanding what factors affect low SES students’ performance on this test has a practical value to educational practices. School leaders and policy makers need to be informed and aware of these factors in order to more effectively support low SES students in the Chinese education system. Nonetheless, the influences of SES on test scores, especially the Chinese NCEE, remain largely unexplored in existing literature. The author aimed to use the findings of the study to inform Chinese policy makers, building-level leaders, and educators as to how to better support students from low SES families and eventually improve social justice and education equity in China. Regardless of the adverse situation, quite a number of low SES Chinese students still seized college education opportunities by excelling on the NCEE due to their extraordinary diligence and work ethics. In this context, the successful examples of low SES students on the NCEE is worthy of research to reveal what factors influenced their success on the NCEE. The research used individual interview to collect qualitative data and tried to explore the experiences of the low SES Students with high achievements. There were 18 participants joined this study. The findings from this study open a path, possible methods, and advice on how to replicate the participants in this study successful experience on a larger scale and to extend those benefits to a larger number of low SES students, their families, and their communities. Based on the findings, key factors for the success of the participants were already present during their pre-high school trajectories and before they have received any significant financial and educational benefits through the Hongzhi program. Therefore, the author focused on developing, strengthening, and multiplying those factors, rather than on the aspect of allocating financial resources, which nevertheless would be necessary to implement those proposals. Those financial resources, obviously, lay beyond the scope and purposes of the study. In other words, the author wanted to make ample use of already existing resources that may have not been used so far or are misunderstood, underused, and underestimated. Finally, the recommendations based on the findings of this study promote the development of a community approach to strengthening education by including schools, educators, families, and students whose combined efforts could benefit each of the stakeholders in a synergistic cycle. The author envisions that the process of helping low SES students to succeed in their education paths could in turn help to develop further the fabric of the local low SES communities. Thus, the process would help in transforming schools into community centers where everybody can take part in the multifaceted teaching process, in learning and in receiving the benefits of educational achievement, each giving and receiving according to their different roles, assets, and contributions, to the overall benefit of Chinese society

Amplifying Marginal Voices of the Global Movement for Deeper Learning: A Case Study of a Rural K-12 Mission School in Cambodia

Several paradigms have been developed to define what constitutes deeper learning, how to foster it, and what desired outcomes or competencies can result from it. Much of the literature, however, has been based on studies in economically developed Western countries. There has been little, if any, that is based on developing country settings where culture and context can account for differences in the manner of promoting deeper learning. This qualitative case study explored the experiences of learners in the Mudita Mission School (MMS; pseudonym), a K-12 school in a rural part of northern Cambodia, and investigated how deeper learning was enacted, valued, and fostered there. It also examined challenges and opportunities for promoting deeper learning faced by the school. This study sought to contribute to the global movements for deeper learning by highlighting voices from marginalized communities, thus expanding the conceptual frameworks which have been exclusive of experiences of students and educators in impoverished country contexts. This study also sought to contribute to the literature that informs Cambodian educational reform. Study findings suggest that fostering eco-humanistic value-systems and respect for Khmer culture scaffold arcs of deeper learning in the MMS, and that several innovative pedagogical practices uncommon to many rural schools in Cambodia were transforming the educational experiences of students there. Based on the findings, the author proposes a theory of Epistemologies of Deeper Learning to complement frameworks in the literature

SOCIAL JUSTICE IN ACTION: LEARNING THROUGH FOREIGN VOLUNTEERS IN CHINESE SCHOOLS

Volunteering abroad has been growing in popularity over the past decade as a way for people of all ages to do something unique during their travels. While earlier research has looked at various elements and arrangements of international volunteering, this is the first study that specifically looks at young, foreign volunteers serving in Chinese schools. Profiling five volunteers from the United States and Europe, this paper aimed to understand the connections that are made between foreign volunteers and Chinese hosts and how these connections impact cross-cultural learning and social justice. Volunteer respondents indicated that their volunteering experience has modified their views on China and education, has taught them about the complex volunteer-recipient relationship, and will impact their future career or volunteer contributions. Analyzing the motivations, experiences, and reflections of these volunteers provides a model for international volunteering as a means toward social justice. The findings from this study are useful for understanding the multifaceted and evolving field of international volunteering in any context. To improve on the service learning experience for volunteers and their hosts, volunteers and their sending organizations should make particular effort to clarify volunteer-host communication, educate for mindfulness of the service setting, and emphasize a learning rather than a helping or fixing attitude

Capillarity: A Theory Of Mlearning And Its Application In Emerging Markets

The theory of capillarity is an organic metaphor invoked to explore the role of network communications as a vehicle for education in a healthy society. Capillarity is offered as a theory in two parts: a mechanism for distribution and a method for engagement. Capillarity seeks to build an architecture that reflects radical humanism\u27s emphasis on access and inclusion as a vehicle for classical humanism\u27s emphasis on the individual expansion of potential and consciousness. The technical instrument whereby this program of humanist education may be deployed is mLearnin