Teaching & Learning Template: Plumbing by Learning Type and Style

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Reading Next: A Vision for Action and Research in Middle and High School Literacy

Outlines fifteen key elements that educators can use to develop an effective adolescent literacy intervention program. Focuses on elements of interventions that are most promising for students that struggle with reading and writing after third grade

The First Year of Teaching Classroom Research to Increase Student Learning

Victor and Janisha were two of the focal students in Daniels's research project on her first year of teaching in an urban public school. Together they reflect the two major groups in this high school that has 45% Latino, 35% African American, ..

Youth Media's Impact on Audience and Channels of Distribution

In partnership with the Open Society Institute, the Surdna Foundation supported a research and capacity building initiative focused on youth media's impact on audience. Social Policy Research Associates (http://www.spra.com), based out of the Bay Area, was hired to conduct a literature review of existing media evaluation models, develop a theory of youth media impact on audience, and create a toolkit, which was used to build the evaluation capacity of a regional group of youth media organizations

Developing Critical Social Justice Literacy in an Online Seminar

The purpose of this article is to report on an effort to cultivate a critical social justice perspective and critical social justice praxis among educators enrolled in an online graduate program. Although the entire program was organized around themes of equity, collaboration, and leadership, this study focused on educators’ perspectives of the purposes, pedagogy, and outcomes of one course, Critical Pedagogy. Fourteen of the 19 students enrolled in the online course participated in one of six online focus groups following the conclusion of the course. Using constructivist grounded theory methods, the researchers identified the different ways in which students responded to the course, what they learned, and how they enacted their learning as well as the features of the course that the students believed contributed to their learning and practice. The study provides insight into features of online pedagogy that appear to facilitate transformative learning. It further provides insight into the kinds of content and assignments that may promote critical social justice praxis among educators

Public engagement with carbon and climate change: To what extent is the public 'carbon capable'?

The relevance of climate change for society seems indisputable: scientific evidence points to a significant human contribution in causing climate change, and impacts which will increasingly affect human welfare. In order to meet national and international greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets, there is an urgent need to understand and enable societal engagement inmitigation. Yet recent research indicates that this involvement is currently limited: although awareness of climate change is widespread, understanding and behavioral engagement are far lower. Proposals for mitigative ‘personal carbon budgets’ imply a need for public understanding of the causes and consequences of carbon emissions, as well as the ability to reduce emissions. However, little has been done to consider the situated meanings of carbon and energy in everyday life and decisions. This paper builds on the concept of ‘carbon capability’, a term which captures the contextual meanings associated with carbon and individuals’ abilities and motivations to reduce emissions. We present empirical findings from a UK survey of public engagement with climate change and carbon capability, focusing on both individual and institutional dimensions. These findings highlight the diverse public understandings about ‘carbon’, encompassing technical, social, and moral discourses; and provide further evidence for the environmental value-action gap in relation to adoption of low-carbon lifestyles. Implications of these findings for promoting public engagement with climate change and carbon capability are discussed

Exploring the Academic and Social Challenges of Students with Limited And Interrupted Formal Education (SLIFE) in Ontario

Since 2010, Ontario’s education system has taken in an increasing number of students from refugee families, many of whom have limited literacy and numeracy skills and are classified as students with limited and interrupted formal education (SLIFE). To ensure the success of these students, it is important to identify the most effective ways to address their unique learning needs. However, there is currently limited research on this subpopulation in Ontario. Therefore, in order to understand the academic challenges this subpopulation faces, a comprehensive literature review has been conducted with the purpose of establishing the issues that influence this phenomenon. Findings from the literature explored indicate that these students have unique social and emotional needs that are compounded by language barriers, all of which inhibit their academic success. Moreover, their ways of knowing are seldom recognized in schools. These issues collectively lead to higher dropout rates. In order to effectively support SLIFE, educators must adopt multiliteracy pedagogies and provide mentorship programs and counselling services. It is also recommended that future research explore the different multiliteracies approaches teachers can utilize to determine which are most effective in supporting this population

Adolescent Literacy and the Achievement Gap: What Do We Know and Where Do We Go From Here?

Reviews research and program initiatives focused on improving adolescent academic achievement by targeting literacy. Provides ideas for collaboration and coordination of funding efforts to improve the literacy achievement of under-performing adolescents

Girls’ visual representations of literacy in a rural Ugandan community

This Ugandan‐based study examined how visual modes of communication provide insights into girls’ perceptions of literacy, and open broader dialogues on literacy, women, and development. Twenty‐nine primary school girls used drawing and 15 secondary school girls used photography to depict local literacy practices in relation to their own lives and experiences. The images they captured provide a window on the interface between local and global literacy practices, and the “freedoms” (Sen, 1999) associated with literacy. Drawing and photography move beyond language to make visible the barriers that have historically marginalized and excluded girls from full participation in the development process

Imagined, prescribed and actual text trajectories: the ‘problem’ with case notes in contemporary social work

Drawing on a text-oriented action research ethnography of the writing practices of UK-based social workers, this paper focuses on a key but problematic aspect of everyday, professional textual practice – the production of “case notes.” Using data drawn from interviews, workshops, texts and observation, the paper locates case notes within social work everyday practice and explores the entextualization of three distinct case notes. The heuristic of imagined, prescribed and actual trajectories is used to track specific instances of entextualization and to illustrate why the production of case notes is a particularly complex activity. A key argument is that in the institutional imaginary, and reflected in the institutionally prescribed trajectory, case notes are construed as a comprehensive record of all actions, events and interactions, prior to and providing warrants for all other documentation. However, they are in actual practice produced as parts of clusters of a range of different text types which, together, provide accounts of, and for, actions and decisions. This finding explains why case notes are often viewed as incomplete and raises fundamental questions about how they should be evaluated. The complexity of case notes as an everyday professional practice is underscored in relation to professional voice, addressivity and textual temporality