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This book does not shy away from the complexity of the factors that influence educational engagement for poor students, but it does take seriously the notion that teachers can make a difference for those students.
Education and poverty exist in a highly contested relationship even in the developed world. On the one hand, educational outcomes seem solidly attached to socio-economic status, and on the other, education is often cited as a way out of poverty. Success at de-coupling poverty from educational outcomes varies across the developed world. The issues connecting education and poverty are complex, but the question of the successful engagement of students from poor backgrounds involves a complex mix of public policy on poverty, public policy on education, and teacher action. This book focuses on a number of exemplary teachers who demonstrate a set of common pedagogical qualities, assisting them to work productively with persistent classroom challenges in low SES classrooms. Exemplary Teachers of Students in Poverty shares successful classroom practice from schools serving diverse and disadvantaged communities, and stresses that opportunities in school can influence educational engagement and encourage students to achieve. The text locates itself in international debates about education and poverty, and reports on the Teachers for a Fair Go project - an Australian research project into the work of a number of teachers who were successful at engaging students from poor backgrounds. Included in the book: teaching in low SES communities what exemplary teachers of students in low SES communities do specific pedagogical approaches in literacy, ICT, creativity and culturally responsive practices students’ voices professional qualities of these teachers Exemplary Teachers of Students in Poverty will greatly benefit researchers, teacher educators and trainee teachers, allowing them to gain a much deeper understanding of the issues, constraints and perspectives in teaching contexts across low SES communities.
In Engaging Schooling, the authors use case studies to engagingly demonstrate how schools can use pedagogical change to enable students from low SES backgrounds to benefit academically and socially from their schooling. The book, which builds on Exemplary Teachers of Students in Poverty from the same research team, deals with key issues around the reshaping of schooling and teaching, focusing on structures for mentoring and research practice among teachers. It significantly advances international literature that highlights the role of pedagogy for engagement in the educational success of students from low SES backgrounds. Moving beyond the individual classroom to focus on whole-school change, the book provides a clearer picture of processes which schools might undergo to engage students in low SES contexts, including teacher research, mentoring practices, instructional leadership and classroom discourses. The book will be of interest to all students, teachers and professional researchers in the field of teacher education.
Contemporary Issues of Equity in Education argues that equity and social justice must be brought back to the centre of discussions about education. It traces international, system-wide and local effects of policies that increase marketization and competition between students, schools and systems, whilst erasing wider considerations of the socio-cultural contexts that shape educational experiences and outcomes. Leading researchers interrogate the design of educational systems for social justice, fairness and inclusion at multiple levels from classrooms and schools through to universities and initial teacher education. Chapters trace the ways in which gender, ethnicity, class, and refugee experiences intersect with indices of socio-economic disadvantage in ways that directly impact on young people’s learning and on the pedagogical work of teachers. The book demonstrates collaborative and inclusive approaches for researching schooling in disadvantaged communities. It offers strategies and practices for reimagining schools and universities in ways that enable young people in high poverty and culturally and linguistically diverse communities to effectively engage with education.
Differences in performance between students of poverty and more advantaged students are reflective of an opportunity gap, as opposed to a gap in student ability. This book argues that significant attention must be given to eliminating the barriers that produce educational inequities in student achievement. Walker-Dalhouse and Risko focus on disparities in literacy achievement that might be attributed to color-blind practices, deficit mindsets, low expectations, or context-neutral practices. Situating literacy learning within a comprehensive view of literacy development, they provide a set of instructional practices that will best support students living in poverty. Specifically, vignettes from kindergarten through middle school classrooms are used to demonstrate practices that address critical areas of the reading process; are responsive to students’ racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, and linguistic histories and assets; attend to students’ strengths and needs; and go beyond the impact of short-term testing to support optimal and sustainable learning. Educators and school leaders can use this resource to transform schools into nurturing and vibrant communities that are committed to change, equity, and diversity. Book Features: Provides recommendations and detailed guidance for enacting literacy instruction that will close opportunity gaps for students living in poverty.Includes vignettes from leading literacy educators and researchers that demonstrate high-quality literacy instruction implemented in K–8 classrooms.Presents instruction that is responsive to differences and honors the languages, literacies, and cultural resources that students bring to their learning.Offers specific recommendations and practices that can guide advocacy for change. “The authors correct the deficit misperceptions by showing how students experiencing poverty are the targets, not the causes, of educational disparities. . . . What a different world schools would be if we each embraced these lessons.” —From the Afterword by Paul C. Gorski, founder, Equity Literacy Institute
This influential book describes the knowledge and skills teachers and school administrators need to recognize and combat bias and inequity that undermine educational engagement for students experiencing poverty. Featuring important revisions based on newly available research and lessons from the authors professional development work, this Second Edition includes: a new chapter outlining the dangers of grit and deficit perspectives as responses to educational disparities; three updated chapters of research-informed, on-the-ground strategies for teaching and leading with equity literacy; and expanded lists of resources and readings to support transformative equity work in high-poverty and mixed-class schools. Written with an engaging, conversational style that makes complex concepts accessible, this book will help readers learn how to recognize and respond to even the subtlest inequities in their classrooms, schools, and districts.
This book explores the reflective potentialities offered by analyses of teachers’ professional learning narratives. The book has a specific focus on narratives on professional learning and professional identities emerging from different contexts and gives a deeper understanding of successful teachers’ narratives globally. Diverging from universally standardized constructions of idealized teacher identity and professional learning, the book provides analyses of a diversified set of cases with detailed descriptions of each teacher’s idiographic and professional context to gain a deeper understanding of situated professional identities. With contributions from a range of international backgrounds, it shows teachers of various age groups, subject areas and curricula contribute their narratives to help readers reflect on different trajectories toward becoming a teacher. These narratives provide insight into and a deeper understanding of the conditions and complex processes that being a "successful" teacher involves within these case studies, providing a useful contribution to the field of teacher education. Professional Learning and Identities in Teaching: International Narratives of Successful Teachers will be of great interest to researchers, academics, and post-graduate students of teacher education and international and comparative education.
This book explores and analyses Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL) pedagogic practices and learning experiences within a cohort of low socio-economic status students within an Australian primary classroom. It demonstrates that, in spite of policy and educational discourses underpinning ‘Asian literacies’, Chinese teaching and learning is a fragile undertaking in Australian schooling. The politicisation of CFL education, especially in the post COVID-19 era, has exacerbated public stereotypes concerning racism and multiculturalism in Australia today. Drawing upon Bernstein’s theorisation and engagement framework, Wen Xu sketches out CFL education as a democratic space where power and control relations can be deliberately operated to reinforce engaging learning experiences. She suggests that pedagogic interventions in the name of social justice have the potential to make consequential differences in disadvantaged students’ life trajectories, and CFL education can be envisioned as an avenue towards socioeconomic mobility instead of being criticised as a platform opposing to liberal ideas. In turn, she provides insights into teaching younger age CFL learners in the global context, in terms of the structuring of pedagogy and curriculum. Wen Xu’s research will be of interest to students and scholars in sociology of education, student engagement, pedagogy and curriculum, CFL education and languages education, as well as pre-service teachers and practitioners who teach Chinese as a Foreign Language.
This book explores a range of challenges teachers face in dealing with situations of disadvantage, and explores different ways of thinking about these situations. Starting with a variety of incidents written by teachers in schools in disadvantaged settings, the book provides a range of ways of thinking about these - some more psychological, others more sociological - and chapters develop conversations between teachers and academics. These 'conversations' will help teachers reflect more deeply on the contexts in which they work, on what disadvantage means, and how disadvantage manifests in practice. It will also help teachers reflect upon the nature of their work; what it means to be a good and effective teacher; and the particular skills, approaches, relationships and competencies that may need to be developed in differing settings of educational disadvantage. The book explores the tensions between different ways of thinking about education and disadvantage; it will make compelling reading for students and teachers of education, education policy makers, and practising schoolteachers.
This volume explores how educational policy is changing as a result of neoliberal restructuring and how these issues affect educators’ practice. Evidence-based chapters present a sharp analysis of neoliberal education policy while also offering suggestions and recommendations for future action to bring about change consistent with more robust understandings of democracy. Covering issues relating to historical context, philosophical assumptions, policy implementation, accountability, teacher professionalism and standardization, Confronting Educational Policy in Neoliberal Times critically engages the ways micro- and macro- neoliberal politics shapes the purposes and implementation of schooling.
