“I Feel Like I Could Do It Too”: A Paradigm Shift in an Urban Library Internship Program

In the 2007/2008 academic year Simmons College Library put the life experiences of eight Boston high school students at the heart of an already established, IMLS-funded forty-hour library internship. The internship’s long standing goal was to create lifelong library ambassadors and future librarians, by teaching the students information literacy skills, introducing them to how a complex organization (the library) is organized and run, and imparting college and career skills. The learning paradigm conceived of the librarians as reciprocal learning and research partners, positioning the lived experiences and authentic interests of the students as central to the internship. The article describes how, through the cultivation of meaningful and non-traditional student-librarian relationships, librarians partnering with a faculty member from the department of education created an environment where students learned both library skills and lessons about how to more effectively navigate the everyday challenges they face

Preparing adolescents attending progressive and no-excuses urban charter schools to analyze, navigate, and challenge race and class inequality

Background/Context: Sociopolitical development (SPD) refers to the processes by which an individual acquires the knowledge, skills, emotional faculties, and commitment to recognize and resist oppressive social forces. A growing body of scholarship has found that such sociopolitical capabilities are predictive in marginalized adolescents of a number of key outcomes, including resilience, academic achievement, and civic engagement. Many scholars have long argued that schools and educators have a central role to play in fostering the sociopolitical development of marginalized adolescents around issues of race and class inequality. Other scholars have investigated school-based practices for highlighting race and class inequality that include youth participatory-action research, critical literacy, and critical service-learning. Objective of Study: The present study sought to add to the existing scholarship on schools as opportunity structures for sociopolitical development. Specifically, this study considered the role of two different schooling models in fostering adolescents' ability to analyze, navigate, and challenge the social forces and institutions contributing to race and class inequality. Setting: The six high schools participating in the present study were all urban charter public high schools located in five northeastern cities. All six schools served primarily low-income youth of color and articulated explicit goals around fostering students' sociopolitical development. Three of these high schools were guided by progressive pedagogy and principles, and three were guided by no-excuses pedagogy and principles. Research Design: The present study compared the sociopolitical development of adolescents attending progressive and no-excuses charter high schools through a mixed methods research design involving pre-post surveys, qualitative interviews with participating adolescents and teachers, and ethnographic field notes collected during observations at participating schools. Results: On average, adolescents attending progressive high schools demonstrated more significant shifts in their ability to analyze the causes of racial inequality, but adolescents attending no-excuses high schools demonstrated more significant shifts in their sense of efficacy around navigating settings in which race and class inequality are prominent. Neither set of adolescents demonstrated significant shifts in their commitment to challenging the social forces or institutions contributing to race and class inequality. Conclusions: Both progressive and no-excuses schools sought to foster adolescents' commitment to challenging race and class inequality, but focused on different building blocks to do so. Further research is necessary to understand the pedagogy and practices that show promise in catalyzing adolescents' analytic and navigational abilities into a powerful commitment to collective social action-the ultimate goal of sociopolitical development

Promising Practices and Unfinished Business: Fostering Equity and Excellence for Black and Latino Males

Boston Public Schools (BPS) commissioned companion studies as part of its efforts to address achievement gaps for Black and Latino males. The first study revealed the increasing diversity of Black and Latino males and stark opportunity gaps throughout the system that contribute in large part to wide attainment gaps for these students. We hypothesized that in schools doing comparatively better with Black or Latino males than their counterparts, educators would be strategically and comprehensively implementing evidence-based cultural, structural, and instructional practices tailored to meet their the needs and aspirations of these students. Through qualitative case studies of four schools, we identified several cross-cutting themes that provide the district and school leaders with some positive news about effective practices found in all good schools: strong school cultures, professional collaboration, differentiated instruction, and, in the elementary schools, family engagement. While we observed pockets of best practices specific to Black and Latino male education, we also brought to light unfinished business, in that none of the four case study schools had an intentional and comprehensive schoolwide approach to educating Black and Latino males. This lack of intentionality resulted in a paucity of evidence that the school administration and faculty as a whole: (a) know and value students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds; (b) adopt explicit and responsive approaches to race and gender; and (c) develop and implement a comprehensive approach to culturally responsive curriculum and instruction. We posit that lack of knowledge, intentionality, and coherence impedes further progress in educating Black and Latino males, and has implications for educators in schools, for staff members in community partner organizations, and for family members of BPS students

Black high school students’ critical racial awareness, school-based racial socialization, and academic resilience

This research focuses on how Black high school students' perceptions of their school-based racial socialization and their racial identities impact their attitudes and dispositions toward school. The author examined the intersection of racial identity and school culture by examining how Black students describe their context-based racial identity and the racialized aspects of their schools’ cultures. The purpose of this research is to help educators who work with Black students understand how to apply a developmental psychology framework that foregrounds the importance of ecology and phenomenology and can be used to leverage the relationship between strong racial identity and academic resilience. PVEST (Spencer, 1997; 2001) provides a psychological framework for educators to both assess the differential identity formation processes of their students and how they can help students navigate the identity formation process

Black high school students’ critical racial awareness, school-based racial socialization, and academic resilience

This research focuses on how Black high school students' perceptions of their school-based racial socialization and their racial identities impact their attitudes and dispositions toward school. The author examined the intersection of racial identity and school culture by examining how Black students describe their context-based racial identity and the racialized aspects of their schools’ cultures. The purpose of this research is to help educators who work with Black students understand how to apply a developmental psychology framework that foregrounds the importance of ecology and phenomenology and can be used to leverage the relationship between strong racial identity and academic resilience. PVEST (Spencer, 1997; 2001) provides a psychological framework for educators to both assess the differential identity formation processes of their students and how they can help students navigate the identity formation process

Faculty of color teaching Critical Race Theory at a PWI: An autoethnography

In this autoethnographic study, the authors use Critical Race Theory to examine their racialized experiences teaching a course on Critical Race Theory. Data were derived from multiple sources, including reflective interviews, journals, and course evaluations. The three authors present narratives and reflections of salient classroom experiences that relate to their roles within the classroom as facilitators, teachers, and race scholars.</p

New Faculty\u27S Perception of Satisfaction with Their Roles

‘New faculty\u27 initiate a career in higher education without an understanding of the unique challenges related to the three pillars of academia: teaching, scholarship and service. In the present study the Motivation-Hygiene Theory by Herzberg et al. (1959) was applied to understand the impact of challenges, barriers and facilitators on new faculty satisfaction. In this study faculty were not prepared by their academic degree granting institutions for faculty roles. However, teaching centered hiring institutions expected faculty to implement learner centered methodologies in their classrooms. Lack of education in pedagogy made it difficult for faculty to make this transition. Institutions can increase satisfaction among new faculty by implementing faculty development initiatives. Satisfied faculty can inspire students to achieve educational goals; receive better evaluations; and attain promotion or tenure. Balancing the three pillars of academia will be discussed in the framework of New Faculty Satisfaction Assessment Model (NFSA) proposed here