Charlotte L. Land, Laura A. Taylor, Haylee Lavender and Barbara McKinnon
This paper aims to consider how students and teachers engaged in political work in their design and enactment of critical literacy workshops in one US elementary school facing…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to consider how students and teachers engaged in political work in their design and enactment of critical literacy workshops in one US elementary school facing pressures of accountability and standardization.
Design/methodology/approach
As a collaborative team of university researchers and classroom teachers, the authors used a qualitative, thematic approach to analyze data collected across a two-year, ethnographic case study.
Findings
Drawing on Janks’ (2012) conceptualization of p/Politics, this analysis identified three ways in which teachers approached their teaching politically: constructing flexible and broad definitions of readers and writers; blurring hierarchies between teachers, students and texts; and viewing literacy as a tool of power. In addition to elaborating on these themes, the findings illustrate how these political teaching practices supported students’ engagement with explicitly Political topics.
Originality/value
The era of Trump and “fake news” calls for people to not only start discussions about important social issues but also be able to engage in these discussions diplomatically and critically – in other words, to not only respond to the world but also to reconstruct it (Luke, 2004) and to imagine it better (Greene, 1995). This study offers a timely examination of ways to reshape reading and writing workshops in more critical ways, helping to prepare students for participation in the civic, career and personal worlds within and beyond school.
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By recognizing high-stakes testing as a key constraint to teacher agency, this paper aims to provide a close analysis of one teacher’s testing narrative to illustrate how emerging…
Abstract
Purpose
By recognizing high-stakes testing as a key constraint to teacher agency, this paper aims to provide a close analysis of one teacher’s testing narrative to illustrate how emerging positioning is relative to high-stakes testing shapes perception of pedagogical agency.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were generated through a series of semi-structured interviews with an early career fourth-grade teacher, Ms Moore, in a school facing pressure to raise test scores. Using theoretical lenses of narrative positioning and a linguistic anthropological centering of constraint and emergence, 67 narratives of accountability were analyzed, with particular focus on how Ms Moore positioned herself relative to other actors involved in high-stakes testing and the consequent rights and duties these positions afforded.
Findings
In narrating the constraints of high-stakes testing, Ms Moore positioned herself relative to three groups involved in high-stakes testing: “purposefully tricky” test creators, “disjointed” administrators and “worried” students. The rights and duties associated with three positions varied with respect to two dimensions – proximity and hierarchy – in turn providing her distinct resources for responding to the pedagogical constraints of high-stakes testing.
Practical implications
Teachers might use positioning analysis as a tool to locate possibilities for agency amidst high-stakes testing, both by exploring the resources afforded by their positioning and by considering how alternative positions might afford different resources.
Originality/value
These findings suggest that high-stakes testing serves as a dynamic and perhaps malleable constraint to teacher agency. Teacher positioning, particularly relative to hierarchy and proximity, provides possible resource for responding to such constraints.
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Melissa Wetzel, James V. Hoffman, Beth Maloch, Saba Khan Vlach, Laura A. Taylor, Natalie Sue Svrcek, Samuel Dejulio, Ashley Martinez and Haylee Lavender
The purpose of this paper is to disrupt traditional, separate roles in preservice teacher (PT) education, moving toward hybrid mentoring spaces, which is practice-based and a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to disrupt traditional, separate roles in preservice teacher (PT) education, moving toward hybrid mentoring spaces, which is practice-based and a collaborative model of supporting PTs into teaching.
Design/methodology/approach
Design-based research was collaboratively enacted by a research team. The authors focused analysis on video-recorded collaborative coaching conferences, as well as shared discussions of those conferences between researchers, cooperating teachers (CTs) and field supervisors (FSs). At each of three iterations of coaching conversations, changes were made to the practice of collaborative coaching, allowing the research/design team to reflect upon practices and deepen the understanding of the development of design principles.
Findings
Three design principles of collaborative coaching grew through this research – a need for shared understanding and valuing of a coaching model amongst participants to guide decision making; a partnership between CTs and FSs in centering the PTs’ reflection on problems of practice, including the need for CTs and FSs to continually reflect on how their shifting roles toward this goal; and a relational framework including transparent communication. The authors extend these principles through two narrative vignettes and a framework that focuses on hybrid spaces for coaching.
Research limitations/implications
The research questions and design did not inquire into the relationship between collaborative coaching and PTs’ teaching practices.
Practical implications
Each narrative serves as a coaching model of how PTs, CTs and FSs, or triads, worked toward resolving practical challenges in coaching to better support PTs. The authors provide practical tools for teacher preparation programs to build collaborative relationships with teachers and schools.
Originality/value
Placing the PT into an active, leadership role in reflection on practice disrupts expert-novice and other binaries that may not serve programs that seek to prepare reflective practitioners. Previous studies have identified tensions when mentoring is not a collective process, but few studies have explored models that disrupt the two activity systems that often operate separately.
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Laura K. Taylor and Celia Bähr
Over 60% of armed conflicts re-occur; the seed of future conflict is sown even as a peace agreement is signed. The cyclical nature of war calls for a focus on youth who can…
Abstract
Purpose
Over 60% of armed conflicts re-occur; the seed of future conflict is sown even as a peace agreement is signed. The cyclical nature of war calls for a focus on youth who can disrupt this pattern over time. Addressing this concern, the developmental peace-building model calls for a dynamic, multi-level and longitudinal approach. Using an innovative statistical approach, this study aims to investigate the associations among four youth peace-building dimensions and quality peace.
Design/methodology/approach
Multi-level time-series network analysis of a data set containing 193 countries and spanning the years between 2011 and 2020 was performed. This statistical approach allows for complex modelling that can reveal new patterns of how different youth peace-building dimensions (i.e. education, engagement, information, inclusion), identified through rapid evidence assessment, promote quality peace over time. Such a methodology not only assesses between-country differences but also within-country change.
Findings
While the within-country contemporaneous network shows positive links for education, the temporal network shows significant lagged effects for all four dimensions on quality peace. The between-country network indicates significant direct effects of education and information, on average, and indirect effects of inclusion and engagement, on quality peace.
Originality/value
This approach demonstrates a novel application of multi-level time-series network analysis to explore the dynamic development of quality peace, capturing both stability and change. The analysis illustrates how youth peace-building dimensions impact quality peace in the macro-system globally. This investigation of quality peace thus illustrates that the science of peace does not necessitate violent conflict.
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Milgen Sánchez-Villegas, Lizeth Reyes-Ruiz, Laura K. Taylor, Natalia Andrea Pérez-Ruíz and Farid Alejandro Carmona-Alvarado
Colombia presents with one of the largest armed conflicts in the world. Children exposed directly or indirectly to armed conflicts live the emotional footprints left by war. This…
Abstract
Purpose
Colombia presents with one of the largest armed conflicts in the world. Children exposed directly or indirectly to armed conflicts live the emotional footprints left by war. This paper aims to identify mental health problems among children survivors of Colombia’s armed conflict and associated factors.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study with (n = 80) children aged 7 to 11 years (M = 9.8 years; SD = 1.4) was conducted using the Child Behavior Checklist, Family APGAR and MOS social support survey adaptation to children. Linear regression analyses were also performed with emotional and behavioral problems as the outcomes and related factors as the predictors.
Findings
Clinical levels of emotional and behavioral problems were found in 56.3% of children. Internalizing problems (63.7%) were more common than externalizing problems (51.2%). Older children had greater emotional problems at the trend level, and those with higher functioning families had lower emotional problems. Children with higher perceived social support had lower behavior problems at the trend level.
Research limitations/implications
This study includes a sample facing multiple risks and uses a holistic approach to consider family and social resources that may support children who are survivors of the armed conflict in Colombia. These results provide a foundation for future promotion and prevention programs related to children’s mental health problems to support peacebuilding within the framework of the Colombian post-conflict process.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to collect empirical data on the mental health of children survivors of Colombia’s armed conflict focused in the Atlantic Department.
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Laura Rose Taylor and Michael Taylor
Provides some ideas and strategies to help users and technical support staff work together to create environments where communication and collaboration are more effective – and…
Abstract
Provides some ideas and strategies to help users and technical support staff work together to create environments where communication and collaboration are more effective – and enjoyable.
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Laura K. Taylor and Jeffrey R. Hanna
The purpose of this paper is to explore altruism born of suffering (ABS), a theory that explains how the experience of suffering within one’s own life may result in the motivation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore altruism born of suffering (ABS), a theory that explains how the experience of suffering within one’s own life may result in the motivation to help others, even outgroup members.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were 186 emerging adults (63 per cent female, 37 per cent male; 69 per cent Protestant, 41 per cent Catholic; average age =21.3, SD=2.57 years old) in Northern Ireland, a setting of protracted intergroup conflict. Participants were randomly assigned to an in/outgroup condition, read four types of adversity that occurred to same-sex victim(s), and indicated their empathetic response and how much they would like to help the victims.
Findings
Moderated mediation analyses revealed that empathy for the victim partially mediated the impact of perceived harm on desire to help; moreover, recent negative life events strengthened the link between harm and empathy. The path between empathy and helping was stronger in the outgroup compared to the ingroup condition.
Practical implications
These findings support ABS, highlighting empathy as a key factor underlying more constructive intergroup relations in a divided society.
Originality/value
This paper extends previous research on ABS by focusing on a post-accord context. The value of the current analyses demonstrate the important role of fostering empathy to promote outgroup helping in settings of divisive group identities.
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Rachel Hopley, Laura Caulfield and Andrew Jolly
There is evidence that music programmes can have a positive impact on people in contact with the criminal justice system. However, little attention has been paid to the potential…
Abstract
Purpose
There is evidence that music programmes can have a positive impact on people in contact with the criminal justice system. However, little attention has been paid to the potential role of music programmes as people leave prison and re-enter the community. Providing support for former prisoners “through-the-gate” is important to aid resettlement and reduce the risk of reoffending. This paper aims to present research on a programme called Sounding Out: a two-year, London-based programme providing ex-prisoners with longer-term rehabilitative opportunities upon their release to bridge the gap between life inside and outside of prison.
Design/methodology/approach
The study aimed to understand the impact of the Sounding Out programme on ex-prisoners from the perspective of participants, staff and family members. Semi-structured interviews took place with 17 people: ten participants across two Sounding Out projects; six members of staff – three from the Irene Taylor Trust, two musicians and one former prison worker; and one family member of a participant.
Findings
The research provides an understanding of the impact of involvement in a carefully designed programme of music creation, skills development and work placements. Thematic analysis of the data resulted in three key themes: personal impact, focus and direction and interpersonal relationships. The findings are consistent with the body of research that demonstrates the impact of music programmes on prisoners.
Originality/value
The current study adds to the relatively limited body of evidence on the role of music programmes in the reintegration of former prisoners into the community.