Critical Hope as Vehicle for Equity: Examining Teachers’ Paradigm and Pedagogy

This current study framed the concept of “critical hope” and examined how systemic oppression in society continuously perpetrates the “hope gap” in low-income students. We defined critical hope, in this study, as the optimistic way of viewing and acting on the world from a critically historically conscious, socially and culturally situated perspective with a personal belief that inevitable change will inspire a sense of community, advocacy, liberation, and justice (Strikwerda, 2019). This rich definition incorporates the elements of hope deduced from existing related foundational and empirical research literature (Freire, 1970; Freire, 1994; Freire, 1997, bell hooks, 2004; Edwards et al., 2007; Giroux, 2011; Noddings, 2017; Stitzlein, 2018; Massey, Vaughn, & Herbert, 2021). This study revealed the manifestations of critical hope in teachers’ paradigm that influence their pedagogy and classroom practices. Evidence of hope in teachers’ interviews has been identified in: (1) teachers’ vocabulary expressions and written directions that connect, connote, or imply valuing and trusting optimistic aspirations to succeed, (2) teachers’ written tasks and assignments that prompt critical thinking and aspirations to be caring, and (3) teachers’ lesson plans that may elicit a sense of community and humanizing practices. A qualitative methodological approach using narrative inquiry was selected to explore, identify, and understand the concept of hope as an equity solution by reconstructing, analyzing, and understanding the lived experiences of 10 teachers in the realm of practice with hope as the forum (Conle, 2001; Connelly & Clandinin, 1990). By using hand-coding and NVivo as the mode of coding the narratives of teachers during the interviews, nine themes reflecting hope emerged: 1) building trust, high expectations and caring relationships; 2) goal oriented, willingness to act, and perseverance; 3) critical reflection, advocacy, citizenry, and empowerment; 4) valuing optimism; 5) confronting hopelessness; 6) personal commitment to ethical responsibility and accountability; 7) humanizing self-identity and sense of community; 8) consciousness of economic, social, cultural, and historical life barriers; and 9) inspiring motivation and engagement. Recommendations based on the findings of the current study are presented

Embracing Asset-based School Leadership Dispositions In Advancing True Equity And Academic Achievement For Students Living In Poverty

The dispositions of school leaders play an integral role in dismantling inequities that hinder the academic achievement of students, particularly students living in poverty. Recent studies bring to light the importance of an asset-based understanding of what children bring to the classroom and how to draw on these assets in creating opportunities for student success. A paradigm shift is taking place whereby school leaders must lead with equity as a foundational thought when assisting teachers in recognizing, valuing, and honoring the assets that students bring to the classroom. This paper attempts to discuss critical issues pertaining to educational equity by using related literature on the topics of poverty and transformative leadership as well as data collected from 15 participants consisting of administrators, teachers, parents, community members, and students who were interviewed in the study employing qualitative narrative inquiry. Additionally, it makes recommendations relative to the dispositions school leaders must employ, embrace, foster, and practice in addressing the social, cultural, and emotional needs of students to elicit and enhance effective engagement in school

ELECTRON: An Architectural Framework for Securing the Smart Electrical Grid with Federated Detection, Dynamic Risk Assessment and Self-Healing

The electrical grid has significantly evolved over the years, thus creating a smart paradigm, which is well known as the smart electrical grid. However, this evolution creates critical cybersecurity risks due to the vulnerable nature of the industrial systems and the involvement of new technologies. Therefore, in this paper, the ELECTRON architecture is presented as an integrated platform to detect, mitigate and prevent potential cyberthreats timely. ELECTRON combines both cybersecurity and energy defence mechanisms in a collaborative way. The key aspects of ELECTRON are (a) dynamic risk assessment, (b) asset certification, (c) federated intrusion detection and correlation, (d) Software Defined Networking (SDN) mitigation, (e) proactive islanding and (f) cybersecurity training and certification

Maintaining a Socially Just Classroom: Ethical Decision-Making for Student Engagement as Positive Outcome

This chapter presents an ethical decision-making for student engagement from a social justice perspective. It discusses what social justice means by presenting some principles gathered from existing related research literature supported by teacher voices that are gathered from written survey. Student engagement and the factors that influence it are discussed highlighting them from a socially and culturally situated perspective. Motivational and sociocultural factors such as funds of knowledge, race, social capital, and cultural capital are presented to demonstrate why mere access is not enough as an ethical and equitable way of engaging student to achieve positive outcomes. Access must be activated by providing students ample opportunities to experience a sense of belonging, teacher trust that they are competent learners, recognition of their identities and interests, and meaningful engagements.https://inspire.redlands.edu/oh_chapters/1075/thumbnail.jp

Strategies of Engagement: Parent and School Connections

School, parent involvement, and at-risk students do not always make a winning combination. However, for the students at Mountain View High School, things were different. Strategies used by the Mountain View Parent Advisory Group helped to transform education for students of color who participated in their program. This chapter follows a study at a high school located in an upper/upper middle-class neighborhood where barriers to academic growth were considered addressed. However, there was a pocket of students of color who were not being successful academically. Strategies used by a parent group to help re-engage at-risk students, raise their GPAs, and redirect their future towards success are highlighted. Understanding that these strategies can be initiated by any group of parents or teachers provides promise for at-risk students, parents, and schools.https://inspire.redlands.edu/oh_chapters/1087/thumbnail.jp