Conflict, militarization, and their after-effects: Key challenges for TESOL

© 2014 TESOL International Association. Skyrocketing military spending, ongoing military conflicts, and human displacement worldwide have significant consequences for the teaching and learning of English. TESOL increasingly requires a robust research base that can provide informed, critical guidance in preparing English language teachers for work in and near conflict zones, for teaching refugees and asylum seekers, and, more broadly, for teaching English in highly militarized times. This investigation, which takes the form of a transdisciplinary, translocal literature review, consolidates and extends TESOL's peace-conflict studies through a close examination of two areas that are connected but rarely considered in tandem: TESOL's multiple involvements and entanglements in armed and militarized conflicts and their aftermath, and the challenges of teaching English in a conflict zone or for students who have escaped or been exiled from one. Implications for pedagogy and further research are suggested. The argument is, in short, that the dialectical relationship between TESOL and conflict is in urgent need of collegial scrutiny, that teachers need to be equipped to facilitate critical and creative engagement with English not apart from broader sociopolitical realities but in relation to these, and that the implications of conflict for language learning are relevant across the wider TESOL community, given world developments

Getting Started: Growing a Service-Learning Curriculum

The Michigan K- 12 Service-Learning Center is a part of the School of Education at the University of Michigan. Supported in part by the Michigan Department of Education with funds from the Corporation for National Community Service and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Center is dedicated to the promotion of service-learning as an effective strategy for educating young people from diverse communities. The Center provides assistance, consultation and clearinghouse services to school districts, community organizations and universities in the state of Michigan and surrounding states in the Great Lakes region. The focus of the Center is to assist in infusing service-learning into K-12 schools. As educators we are challenged by reports that we are not adequately preparing our children for their future in the 21st century. Reform efforts urge us to thoughtfully look at not only what we teach but how we teach it. Service-learning is a way to refocus school on central issues in American education; how to help make schools become decent, democratic learning communities, authentically connected to and supporting the larger communities in which schools are located. Community service and volunteerism have rich histories in American public and private schools. Service clubs, and co-curricular service activities enjoy wide acceptance and have provided benefits to students and their communities alike. Service-learning incorporates into the classroom the important lessons learned through young people interacting with their communities in empowering ways. It is through the act of community service that the academic and pro-social lessons are learned in ways that are meaningful and relevant to students lives. The integration of community service into the academic curriculum has profound implications for school reform and therefore deserves our most thoughtful planning. We offer you this tool to help facilitate a process for growing a service-learning curriculum. Our intention is that it will be used by classroom teachers as a workbook, entering and exiting as is needed. As Connelly and Clandinin state in Teachers as Curriculum Planners, Curriculum development and curriculum planning are fundamentally questions of teacher thinking and teacher doing. We invite you to draw on your personal and professional knowledge of what you know to be good education as you nurture and grow your service-learning curriculum

Assessing California's Multiple Pathways Field

The multiple pathways approach to high school education combines rigorous academic learning and career skills to give students the intellectual and real-world experience to succeed in college, career and life. Growing evidence shows that the multiple pathways approach holds promise for increasing academic engagement and achievement, reducing high school dropout rates and boosting students' future earning power. The James Irvine Foundation engaged the Bridgespan Group to assess the state of the multiple pathways field in California and to make recommendations to strengthen it. Assessing California's Multiple Pathways Field: Preparing Youth for Success in College and Career offers findings and recommendations based on a newly developed framework that assesses the multiple pathways field based on five characteristics of strong fields

Student-Centered Learning: Dozier-Libbey Medical High School

This case study is one of four written by SCOPE about student-centered practices in schools. The case studies address the following questions:1. What are the effects of student-centered learning approaches on student engagement, achievement of knowledge and skills, and attainment (high school graduation, college admission, and college continuation and success), in particular for underserved students?2. What specific practices, approaches, and contextual factors result in these outcomes?The cases focus on the structures, practices, and conditions in the four schools that enable students to experience positive outcomes and consider the ways in which these factors are interrelated and work to reinforce each other

Community Context: Influence and Implications for School Leadership Preparation

Effective K-12 leaders remain a central concern for schools and communities of all types. The purpose of this research is to examine critically the literature on issues facing leaders in rural and urban settings and present a synthesis of cross-cutting themes. The authors reviewed the theoretical and empirical literature on K-12 leadership issues in rural settings and in urban settings published between 2013-2018 in ten journals. An examination of the similarities and differences facing leaders in these settings in the United States and a discussion of the implications for leadership preparation programs is provided. Future research directions to guide the study of K-12 leadership are also discussed

Getting in Sync: Revamping Licensure and Preparation for Teachers in Pre-K, Kindergarten and the Early Grades

Outlines the challenges in teacher preparation and licensure, with a focus on pre-K through third grade; promising practices such as increased classroom experience and selectivity; and suggestions for improving teacher preparation programs and policies

Navigating the Turbulent Waters of School Reform Guided by Complexity Theory

The goal of this research study has been to develop, implement, and evaluate a school reform design experiment at a continuation high school with low-income, low-performing underrepresented minority students. The complexity sciences served as a theoretical framework for this design experiment. Treating an innovative college preparatory program as a nested complex adaptive system within a larger complex adaptive system, the school, we used features of complex adaptive systems (equilibrium, emergence, self-organization, and feedback loops) as a framework to design a strategy for school reform. The goal was to create an environment for change by pulling the school far from equilibrium using a strategy we call “purposeful perturbations” to disrupt the stable state of the school in a purposeful way. Over the four years of the study, several tipping points were reached, and we developed agent-based simulation models that capture important dynamic properties of the reform at these points. The study draws upon complexity theory in multiple ways that have supported improved education for low-achieving students

Caring for New Teachers Once They Leave Campus

This essay explores one teacher educator’s motivation and ideas about how to advocate for induction support for new teachers beyond the teacher preparation program. During the undergraduate preparation process, teacher candidates are given multiple opportunities to receive support from mentor teachers and college supervisors. This support system functions through formal observations, on-going communication, and feedback concerning progression throughout the clinical practice experience. While induction programs abound across the country, students who leave small, faith-based universities often disperse to a variety of settings and support levels. The school based support offered during the first year of teaching can be insufficient or inadequate during this time of transition. When support is lacking, new teachers may experience feelings of insecurity, frustration, and a sense of being overwhelmed. Grounded in educational and spiritual literature, the essay examines some current practices for supporting new teachers and discusses ideas for helping educators prepare their teacher candidates for the intensity of a first year

Work-Based Learning in California: Opportunities and Models for Expansion

Work-based learning is an educational strategy that links academic instruction with the world of work. By itself, it is a powerful tool for motivating students and enhancing learning. But it holds particular promise in the context of multiple pathways, an approach to high school reform in California that seeks to prepare more young people for success both in college and the workplace. This report by WestEd takes a broad look at work-based learning in California: how it is practiced, what it looks like when done well and how it could be expanded to engage more students

Urban-Focused and Community-Based Teacher Preparation

Existing challenges in many urban schools have led to an increased emphasis on urban-focused teacher preparation. While this work can be demanding and complex, many Christian teacher education programs desire to engage in this work as part of their efforts to prepare their teacher candidates to teach all students and to promote more equitable educational opportunities in urban communities. In this article, the author reviews the literature on effective urban teacher preparation and then discusses the potential for collaboration with local schools and communities to support this work in Christian teacher education programs. The author argues that authentic engagement with urban schools and communities is necessary to provide teacher candidates with the understandings, frameworks, and experiences needed to flourish in their work and to develop meaningful relationships with students, families, and community members