The Art of Social Justice: Examining Arts Programming as a Context for Critical Consciousness Development Among Youth

Critical consciousness has been linked to a range of positive outcomes, particularly among marginalized youth; yet, evidence on its developmental antecedents remains limited. The current study examines whether arts participation is associated with positive change in critical consciousness, and whether these associations differ by youth’s social group status. The sample consisted of high school youth (N = 2537; 10% Latinx, 7% Multiracial; 4% Black; 5% Asian; 72% White; 2% Other; 53% Female; Mage = 15.69; age range = 10–20). The results showed that youth with higher arts participation demonstrate higher growth in critical reflection and action, adjusting for baseline critical consciousness, other types of extracurricular participation, and demographic characteristics. The association between arts participation and critical action was significantly stronger for youth of color than for white youth, and the association between arts participation and critical reflection was marginally significantly stronger for white youth than for youth of color. These findings suggest that it is crucial to extend opportunities for arts involvement to all students, and to expand the ways in which arts involvement can promote critical consciousness for youth of varying dimensions of oppression and privilege

Children\u27s Agreement on Classroom Social Networks: Cross-Level Predictors in Urban Elementary Schools

Informed by research on interpersonal perception, peer relationships, and classroom climate, this study examines predictors of children\u27s agreement with classmates on their classroom social networks. Social network data, peer nominations of positive behavior, and classroom observations were collected from 418 second-grade to fourth-grade children (99% African American) and 33 teachers and classrooms in low-income, urban schools. Children\u27s perceptions of their classroom social networks varied from minimal overlap to complete congruence with the consensus of their peers. Multilevel modeling with hypothesized predictors indicated that agreement on social relationships was predicted by factors at the level of the individual child (network centrality) and classroom context (grade level, class size, network density, teacher network perception, emotional climate). Findings are discussed in terms of advances in understanding of children\u27s interpersonal perception, as well as implications of network agreement for children\u27s ability to navigate the classroom social and academic learning context

Social-Emotional Learning and Academic Achievement

Social-emotional learning (SEL) programs have demonstrated positive effects on children’s social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes, as well as classroom climate. Some programs also theorize that program impacts on children’s outcomes will be partially explained by improvements in classroom social processes, namely classroom emotional support and organization. Yet there is little empirical evidence for this hypothesis. Using data from the evaluation of the SEL program INSIGHTS , this article tests whether assignment to INSIGHTS improved low-income kindergarten and first grade students’ math and reading achievement by first enhancing classroom emotional support and organization. Multilevel regression analyses, instrumental variables estimation, and inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) were used to conduct quantitative analyses. Across methods, the impact of INSIGHTS on math and reading achievement in first grade was partially explained by gains in both classroom emotional support and organization. The IPTW method revealed that the program impact on reading achievement in first grade was partially explained through an improvement in classroom organization. Implications for research and practice are discussed

Elementary School Teachers’ Self-Assessment of Use of Positive Behavior Support Strategies and Goal Setting Related to Equity-Focused Features

The goal of the Maximize Program is to collaborate with educators to develop resources and procedures to facilitate teachers’ use of equity-focused behavioral supports. In this study, we describe teachers’ responses to the first iteration of the interactive Maximize Technology Platform. Ninety elementary school teachers from three schools were encouraged to use the platform to learn about the foundational concept of equity literacy, complete a self-assessment of practices, and set a goal for improvement. We observed teachers’ platform use, self-reported use of 10 behavior support strategies, goals set for improving equity-focused features of these strategies, and reported progress during the first quarter of the academic year. Over 70% of teachers reported frequent use of four strategies: Classroom Expectations, Praise, Greetings, and Community Circles. Fewer teachers reported using Student Choice, Effective Questioning, and Corrective Feedback. Variations in use between general education and other teachers were observed. Over 60% of teachers set an equity-focused goal. Variability in the types of goals set and rates of reported improvement highlight the complexity of this work. Results offer promise about the use of interactive technology to facilitate professional learning and goal-setting about equity initiatives and offer insights for leveraging interactive technology to facilitate teachers’ implementation of equity-focused practices

Teaching through Interactions: Testing a Developmental Framework of Teacher Effectiveness in over 4,000 Classrooms

Validating frameworks for understanding classroom processes that contribute to student learning and development is important to advance the scientific study of teaching. This article presents one such framework, Teaching through Interactions, which posits that teacher-student interactions are a central driver for student learning and organizes teacher-student interactions into three major domains. Results provide evidence that across 4,341 preschool to elementary classrooms (1) teacher-student classroom interactions comprise distinct emotional, organizational, and instructional domains; (2) the three-domain latent structure is a better fit to observational data than alternative one- and two-domain models of teacher-student classroom interactions; and (3) the three-domain structure is the best-fitting model across multiple data sets

International Family, Adult, and Child Enhancement Services (FACES): a community-based comprehensive services model for refugee children in resettlement

The development of evidence-based mental health interventions for refugees is complicated by the cultural and linguistic diversity of the participants, and the need to balance treatment of past traumatic experiences with ongoing support during the process of acculturation. In an effort to gather "practice-based evidence" from existing mental health services for refugees, a collaborative study of International Family, Adult, and Child Enhancement Services (FACES), a comprehensive, community-based mental health program working with refugee children, was conducted to describe the program participants and service delivery model and to assess whether participants improved over time as a function of services. Results showed that participants improved, but that the improvement was not related to dosage of services. Implications of these findings for refugee mental health services are discussed and suggestions are made for future evaluation research of mental health services with refugees