Scaffolded Discourse Within a Comprehensive Literacy Model

Research has shown that successful models of school change have several common features: a balance of teacher autonomy and accountability, high-quality professional development, quality leadership, and the support of an outside partner. One model that has these features is the comprehensive literacy model within the Partnership of Comprehensive Literacy model. This mixed methods study examined the language of scaffolding that occurred in three settings within the model: grade level meetings, coaching and mentoring, and small group instruction. Participants in this study included the literacy coaches, interventionists and first-grade teachers at two schools within the PCL network. Three levels of scaffolding were identified in the three activity settings at both schools: Telling and Teaching, Directing and Demonstrating, and Prompting and Guiding. Quantitative data analysis found that participants in all three activity settings used Directing and Demonstrating prompts significantly more than the other two types of scaffolds, with the exception of the literacy coach at one school who used Directing and Demonstrating significantly less that the other two types of scaffolds. Three themes emerged from the qualitative data: Time, Identification of Student Strengths and Weaknesses, and Situated Identities. The findings suggest that coaches and interventionists use scaffolded language with teachers just as teachers use scaffolded language with students. Analysis of this scaffold use could be beneficial for building collective expertise among school staff

Acting Out Against Gender Discrimination: The Effects of Different Social Identities

Self-categorization theory suggests that when a social identity is salient, group- oriented behavior will ensue. Thus, women should be likely to act out against gender discrimination when their social identity as women is salient. However, self-categorization theory has typically defined a social identity along stereo- types, which may serve instead to maintain the status quo. Two studies therefore examined the effects of two different social identities on taking action against discrimination. Participants were female students (Anglo American (93%), African American (2%), Native American (2%), Hispanic (1%), Asian American (1%) and Other (1%)). Study 1 examined a structural model and Study 2 examined the causal relationships, both hypothesizing that a social identity based on stereotypes would be associated with less collective action than a social identity based on social experiences. The hypothesis was supported, and implications for expanding definitions of social identities were discussed

Promoting ethnic tolerance and patriotism: the role of education system characteristics

International audienceThe literature on political socialization has overlooked the influence of system characteristics of schooling on civic values and youth political identities. This article addresses that gap by investigating the degree to which system differentiation relates to the values of ethnic tolerance and patriotism. We distinguish between pedagogical differentiation and territorial differentiation. While the first concept relates to the contrast between early tracking and comprehensive education, the second term captures the contrast between federal versus unitary states. We find that comprehensive schooling and nonfederal systems are associated with smaller disparities of ethnic tolerance and patriotism across ethnic and social groups. Patriotism is positively linked to ethnic tolerance in nonfederal systems. We suggest that nonexclusionary forms of patriotism can be promoted by public education through some form of national regulation of the curriculum

Teachers as writers: a systematic review

This paper is a critical literature review of empirical work from 1990-2015 on teachers as writers. It interrogates the evidence on teachers’ attitudes to writing, their sense of themselves as writers and the potential impact of teacher writing on pedagogy or student outcomes in writing. The methodology was carried out in four stages. Firstly, educational databases keyword searches located 438 papers. Secondly, initial screening identified 159 for further scrutiny, 43 of which were found to specifically address teachers’ writing identities and practices. Thirdly, these sources were screened further using inclusion/exclusion criteria. Fourthly, the 22 papers judged to satisfy the criteria were subject to in-depth analysis and synthesis. The findings reveal that the evidence base in relation to teachers as writers is not strong, particularly with regard to the impact of teachers’ writing on student outcomes. The review indicates that teachers have narrow conceptions of what counts as writing and being a writer and that multiple tensions exist, relating to low self-confidence, negative writing histories, and the challenge of composing and enacting teacher and writer positions in school. However, initial training and professional development programmes do appear to afford opportunities for reformulation of attitudes and sense of self as writer

Strategies to address gender inequalities in Scottish schools: a review of the literature

This literature review forms the first part of a study of the strategies employed in Scottish schools to address gender inequalities in relation primarily to attainment. In undertaking this task, the intention is to build upon a number of previous investigations into the nature and causes of gender inequalities in schools. Some of these (Riddell, 1996; Osler et al, 2002; Lloyd, 2005) have considered gender and special educational needs; others have discussed gender at particular stages of schooling (Wilkinson et al, 1999; Croxford, 1999; Biggart, 2000); whilst a number of recent projects in the UK and in Scotland (Powney, 1996; Sukhnandan, 1999; Tinklin et al, 2001) have considered gender, attainment and/or achievement across the population and span of compulsory schooling. A recent nationally commissioned report (Younger, Warrington et al, 2005) has specifically investigated the issue of raising the attainment of boys. Together, these studies and others have established that there are gender inequalities both in the forms of participation in schooling and in its outcomes (albeit there is agreement that gender is not the only, nor even the main, source of inequality). Also available from this body of literature are analyses of causes of gender inequalities and debate about the strategies schools might adopt to address these inequalities. These strategies arise, in general, from understandings of the nature and causes of gender difference. There is, therefore, some contention here. A number of commentators argue that some of the strategies adopted by schools pathologise gender differences and hence reinforce particular forms of masculinity at the risk of suppressing, or marginalising, other forms, and at the expense of femininities. Evidence that there are gender inequalities in attainment in Scottish schools has been discussed in detail elsewhere. It will be reviewed briefly here and will be related to broader patterns of inequality, and in particular to social class. For this study, though, with its focus on school strategies, the debate about the causes of gendered outcomes is especially important and it will be treated in some depth and related to social class before the discussion moves on to consider the range of strategies employed in schools, as far as they are represented in the literature. The strategies to be considered encompass approaches to learning, teaching and assessment; aspects of classroom organisation; and school-wide issues such as staff development. All of these will be considered critically in the light of previous discussion of the causes of gender differences and their intersection by other, and arguably more influential, forms of identity

Heterogeneous Effects in Education: The Promise and Challenge of Incorporating Intersectionality into Quantitative Methodological Approaches

To date, the theory of intersectionality has largely guided qualitative efforts in social science and education research. Translating the construct to new methodological approaches is inherently complex and challenging, but offers the possibility of breaking down silos that keep education researchers with similar interests—but different methodological approaches—from sharing knowledge. Quantitative approaches that emphasize the varied impacts of individual identities on educational outcomes move beyond singular dimensions capturing individual characteristics, drawing a parallel to intersectionality. Scholars interested in heterogeneous effects recognize the shortcomings of focusing on the effect of a single social identity. This integrative review explores techniques used in quantitative research to examine heterogeneous effects across individual background, drawing on methodological literature from the social sciences and education. I examine the goals and challenges of the quantitative techniques and explore how they relate to intersectionality. I conclude by discussing what education researchers can learn from other applied fields that are working to develop a crosswalk across the two disparate, but interconnected, literatures.Educational Leadership and Polic

Behavioral Economics and Developmental Science: A New Framework to Support Early Childhood Interventions

Public policies have actively responded to an emergent social and neuroscientific evidence base documenting the benefits of targeting services to children during the earliest period of their development. But problems of low utilization, inconsistent participation, and low retention continue to present themselves as challenges. Although most interventions recognize and address structural and psycho-social barriers to parent’s engagement, few take seriously the decision making roles of parents. Using insights from the behavioral sciences, we revisit assumptions about the presumed behavior of parents in a developmental context. We then describe ways in which this framework informs features of interventions that can be designed to augment the intended impacts of early development, education and care initiatives by improving parent engagement