Critical Response
Educational Leadership in Minnesota in the Wake of COVID-19 and the Murder of George Floyd: A Feminist Mixed-Methods Multiple Case Study
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Marci Levy Maguire
This mixed-methods multiple case study through a feminist research lens examined Minnesota K-12 school district leaders’ perceptions of the purposes of education, their roles, and measures used to assess student and system success in the wake of COVID-19 and the murder of George Floyd. The purpose of this study was to examine if and how two of the greatest disruptions to education in Minnesota and American history were likely to lead to lasting changes in: 1) clarifying the purposes of school and K-12 education, 2) aligning measures of accountability and success to those purposes, 3) improving educational equity and social justice in education and society, and 4) reimagining how educational decisions get made and by whom. Research methods included an online survey, semi-structured interviews, and document analysis, with the findings of all methods mixed throughout the analysis. Participants included superintendents, school board chairs, and district assessment coordinators representing diverse geographical regions of Minnesota. Findings illustrated a lack of social justice leadership and democratic decision-making in Minnesota schools, local control systems designed to maintain the status quo, and leader agreement with established purposes of education, but little alignment of leadership action to them. Examining these findings through the lenses of relationships between political economy, ideology, and schooling, critical theory, and feminist theory reveal how Minnesota school district leaders maintain systems that promote dominant ideologies and maintain opportunity and outcome disparities for students and adults, illuminate leverage points for educational reform, and present topics for future research.
Exploring the Perceptions of Lecturers and Final Year Students about the Infusion of Inclusion in Initial Teacher Education Programmes in South Africa
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mirna Nel, Nicky Pylmsn, Tanya Bekker, Christa Beyers, Gregory Alexander
South Africa embraced the move to inclusive education after the political transformation in 1994 by subscribing to the international Education for All (EFA) drive initiated in 1990 at the Jomtien World Conference on Education for All. Education White Paper 6 (EWP6) affirms that teachers play a central role in implementing an inclusive education system Training is emphasized as a key strategy to enable educators to become more inclusive in their teaching practices. The focus of this study is on Initial Teacher Education (ITE) for inclusion in the Foundation (Reception to Grade 3) and Intermediate Phases (Grade 4 to 6) of the Baccalaureus Educationis (B Ed) programme. Methods: The primary research aim was: To explore the perceptions of final year students and their lecturers in ITE programmes regarding the preparation of pre-service teachers for teaching in inclusive and diverse learning environments. A qualitative research approach was employed to gain in-depth and rich data. Purposive sampling was used including final year students and their lecturers. Open questionnaires and group interviews were employed as data generation strategies. An inductive thematic analysis shows that the following themes were identified by the participants as critical to be considered in the development and implementation of ITE programmes: Understanding inclusive education, which is also linked to knowledge; the disconnect between theory and practice, the lack of knowledge and practical experience regarding inclusive teaching strategies and how inclusion is addressed in the B Ed curriculum.
College Level Blogging: Overcoming Budgetlessness, Disenfranchisement and Stagnation
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jorge Morejon Benitez
A great deal of what makes college more difficult for educators is the lack of resources, students’ apathy and a sense of powerlessness. Being creative in the face of the mentioned challenges can make a significant difference in terms of engaging students and moving forward. Blogging has been the medium through which I have been able to overcome lack of support. As an adjunct, I knew I was not going to have a budget at my disposal to bring to class the kinds of materials needed to teach arts. It was crucial I focused on those things I did have to impact my students in a positive way. Blogging allowed me to post my lesson plans, my videos and links, publish the work my students completed in class and keep our communication open to react to each other’s creation. It allowed me to document and archive my work as well as my students’ artistic production. Finally, it made possible for us to showcase the processes we experienced in class by inviting others to check our blog-link and see what we had. This study reflects on the use of blogging as an innovative pedagogical tool that provides faculty members and students with a viable way to cope with departmental budgetlessness, student disenfranchisement and professorial stagnation. I use my own students’ reflections, a survey and secondary sources to dialogue with other researchers about the validity of blogging as an alternative teaching strategy that transcends physical borders, cultures and classes.
