I'm your new teacher: the impact of teacher mobility on educational opportunities for marginalised students

This article provides an alternative perspective on what it means to 'do school' in a disadvantaged community, particularly in the way that disadvantage is reproduced for marginalised students. It explores the mobility of teachers (temporarily) working in a small secondary school located in an economically depressed regional community in Australia, characterised by high levels of unemployment, high welfare dependency and a significant indigenous population. Like many disadvantaged schools, the school has difficulty attracting and retaining high ability teachers, instead relying on a high turnover of often-reluctant staff who are sent to (or feel compelled to) fill positions unable to be resourced through teacher choice procedures. Drawing on parent, student, and teacher interviews, we ask: how does teacher mobility in this context influence the educational opportunities of students who are 'on the margins' of school success and of the socio-economic structure? Specifically, we explore the ways that teacher mobility can reproduce disadvantage by limiting students’ access to the dominant cultural capital. We argue that educational policies and politics that reward teacher mobility for moving out of these communities, work to disadvantage students. What is needed is a transformation in policies governing staff placements to establish alternatives that redefine the reward system for teachers in ways that permit these students to succeed

The Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Anxiety, Stress, and Resilience in Economically Challenged Single Mothers

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of economically challenged single mothers during Covid 19. Mitigating the severe anxiety and stress risks linked with COVID-19 has been a goal of public health incentives. Less effort has been spent on studying the psychological issues connected to the worldwide epidemic, particularly among economically challenged communities. The aims of the study were to explore the impact of anxiety and stress of the COVID 19 pandemic on economically challenged single mothers, to determine the needs of this group, and to identify prevention and interventions that might support them in the event of another pandemic or traumatic event. The study was conducted with a transcendental phenomenological design in which nine single mothers were interviewed. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) technique was used to analyze the data. Eight themes emerged from data analysis: (a) anxiety related to COVID-19, (b) stress related to COVID-19, (c) coping with stress and anxiety, (d) impact on finances, (e) impact on mental health, (f) influence of pandemic on relationships, (h) influence of the pandemic on responsibilities, and (g) resiliency, which described how participants moved forward, despite adversity. Participants experienced increased responsibilities, radical shifts to their work-home life, reduction of income, and feelings of social isolation, anxiety, and stress. In response to their many challenges, the participants were self-reliant, took the time to evaluate their lives, focused on self, were adaptable, and willing to pioneer changes in career and home life

The Relation among Parental Factors and Achievement of African American Urban Youth

Research has repeatedly suggested that SES is a major factor in diminishing academic achievement of African American urban youth; however, there are other factors also influencing children’s achievement. In an effort to examine how other factors contribute to academic achievement, this study, investigated a subsample of 60 low-resource middle school parents and students (41 boys and 19 girls). Several questions addressed the relation of SES to achievement, support, social support and mother’s well-being, respectively. Additionally, the relations between mother’s well-being, and students’ perceived monitoring by their parents, and negative learning attitudes were examined as were the perception of parental monitoring and academic achievement, negative learning attitudes and achievement. The results revealed a significant relation between perceived social support and mother’s well-being but in a negative direction. Parents reporting lower levels of well-being reported higher levels of social support. The results also revealed that youth who perceived their parents to monitor their activities more had higher levels of achievement. These findings illustrate the importance of the perceptions of adolescents as well as the potential role of parental monitoring on adolescents’ academic achievement. Although several factors were examined, only those factors with significant relationships will be discussed

Information Seeking Practices of Parents: Exploring Skills, Face Threats and Social Networks

Parents are often responsible for finding, selecting, and facilitating their children\u27s out-of-school learning experiences. One might expect that the recent surge in online educational tools and the vast online network of information about informal learning would make this easier for all parents. Instead, the increase in these free, accessible resources is contributing to an inequality of use between children from lower and higher socio-economic status (SES). Through over 60 interviews with a diverse group of parents, we explored parents\u27 ability to find learning opportunities and their role in facilitating educational experiences for their children. We identified differences in the use of online social networks in finding learning opportunities for their children based on SES. Building upon these findings, we conducted a national survey in partnership with ACT, an educational testing services organization, to understand if these differences were generalizable to and consistent among a broader audience

Out-of-School Time Policy Commentary #10: Rethinking the High School Experience: What's After-School Got to Do With it?

With high school reform now a front-burner issue, districts and communities cannot afford to have high school after-school on the back burner. In this commentary, we focus on how and why the high school reform and after-school movements need to be woven together to produce a solid system of learning opportunities and developmental supports designed to help all young people prepare for the future

A Phenomenological Collective Case Study of Mexican American Gifted Dropouts in South Texas

The purpose of this study was to examine the shared experiences of formally identified gifted Mexican American students that decided to drop out of high school in the south Texas region. The researcher utilized a phenomenological collective case study approach that investigated the influences that led gifted learners to drop out of high school via a series of semi-structured interviews that collected and analyzed the shared narrative data (Creswell, 2013; Degand, 2015; Seidman, 2014). Prevailing studies have found that Mexican American gifted learners are more likely to live in economically depressed communities, more likely to suffer from linguistic and cultural barriers, and less likely to graduate from high school as compared to all other ethnicities (Card & Giuliano, 2016; Ortiz, Valerio, & Lopez, 2016; Román, 2015). According to Van Tassel-Baska (2018), gifted Mexican American students are more likely to withdraw from high school and drop out due to socioeconomic, relationship, and negative self-perception factors than their peer groups. School leaders that cultivate intervention and support programs purposely designed for gifted Mexican American students are more likely to have these students graduate high school (Vega & Moore, 2018). The study explored the needs for school district to cultivate advanced, individualized, and transdisciplinary curriculum models and include culturally relevant practices that serve to engage with gifted Mexican American students at risk of dropping out of high school. Further, the research advocated for schools to implement dropout prevention programs that are specifically targeted to the unique plights of gifted Mexican American learners