(2021). Colonisation in Aotearoa/New Zealand: Navigating Two Cultures of Psychological Being, Education and Wellness in Educational Psychology. Educational & Child Psychology, v38 n4 p48-62 Dec. This paper offers a first person account of an indigenous person navigating the education system to become an educational psychologist. The writing is unashamedly personal, includes cultural references, words from the first language of our country, feelings and reflections. The second author has contextualised these observations in the literary style required of a professional journal, making the structural racism and the need for decolonisation in Aotearoa/New Zealand more explicit. Up until 1968 psychologists in this country were a branch of the British Psychological Society. As such this writing is an echo from the reaches of the former empire. As psychologists, these global connections are a source of mutual shame but also one of solidarity with those who challenge colonisation. The re-posting of an account by a UK-based black trainee educational psychologist, led to a discussion about the training programmes in our country. This created the space for the authors to write this… [Direct]
(2021). Collaborative Action for Equity and Opportunity: A Practical Guide for School and Community Leaders. Harvard Education Press "Collaborative Action for Equity and Opportunity" provides a how-to guide for education, government, and community leaders interested in creating cross-sector systems of support for students. These collaborations strive to close achievement and opportunity gaps and to help children overcome problems stemming from poverty, racism, and other societal ills. Based on a framework developed at Harvard's By All Means Initiative, Paul Reville and Lynne Sacks walk readers through the process of jump-starting a successful collaboration between school, government, and community leaders. The authors describe how to form a local Children's Cabinet to lead the effort, identify goals and strategies, and ensure the long-term sustainability of the collaboration. In addition to a clear sequential set of implementation steps, Reville and Sacks provide field-tested tools, examples of communities that have undertaken this work, and specific strategies and guidance gleaned from their… [Direct]
(2023). Incorporating Investigations of Environmental Racism into Middle School Science. Science Education, v107 n6 p1628-1654 Nov. To promote a justice-oriented approach to science education, we formed a research-practice partnership between middle school science teachers, their students, curriculum designers, learning scientists, and experts in social justice to co-design and test an environmental justice unit for middle school instruction. We examine teacher perspectives on the challenges and possibilities of integrating social justice into their standards-aligned science teaching as they participate in co-design and teach the unit. The unit supports students to investigate racially disparate rates of asthma in their community by examining pollution maps and historical redlining maps. We analyze interviews and co-design artifacts from two teachers who participated in the co-design and taught the unit in their classrooms. Our findings point to the benefits of a shared pedagogical framework and an initial unit featuring local historical content to structure co-design. Findings also reveal that teachers can share… [Direct]
(2023). The Lived Experience of Indigenous Counselors-in-Training: An Exploration of Barriers in Their Graduate Counseling Program. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Adams State University. Understanding the lived experience of Indigenous counselors-in-training provides insight into the barriers experienced in their graduate counseling programs. Hermeneutic phenomenology and Indigenous Research Methodology were used to explore the experience of five Indigenous counselors-in-training. The study involved two individual interviews and a Talking Circle group interview. The thematic data analysis identified five main themes: "Emotional and Mental Barriers," "Personal Barriers," "Cultural Barriers," "Racism Barriers," and "Institutional Barriers." The main themes and subthemes were organized into main themes and Coyote Codes. Coyote Codes are outliers or experiences that do not meet the criteria of the phenomena. The criteria were that all participants had experienced barriers in their graduate counseling programs. These Coyote Codes are still an important part of Indigenous research and are included in a separate section of… [Direct]
(2011). Intimate Technology: A Tool for Teaching Anti-Racism in Social Work Education. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, v20 n1 p39-56. In this article, the authors introduce a new conceptual tool, intimate technology, to mobilize social work students' commitment to anti-racism. Intimate technology is marked by its emotional intensity and accessibility, and its effect of de-centering knowledge and authority. This teaching strategy integrates the modality of intimate technology via selected YouTube videos and the content of anti-racism and racism, illustrated through a lesson plan based on Hurricane Katrina. A qualitative analysis of students' responses revealed that intimate technology enabled the students to relate to a variety of peoples' responses to, and experiences of, racism, through images, personal stories, and music. (Contains 1 table.)… [Direct]
(2018). High Impact of [Whiteness] on Trans* Students in Postsecondary Education. Equity & Excellence in Education, v51 n2 p132-145. This article asserts whiteness as an ideology that reaches beyond race/racism to shape and reproduce other interlocking oppressive systems. In higher education, this notion of whiteness permeates commonly celebrated "high impact practices" (HIPs) to undermine the success of trans* students in US postsecondary education. Through an intersectional approach, we illustrate how HIPs lead to jeopardizing trans* students' success in higher education and advance a different approach that we have coined "trickle up high impact practices" (TUHIPs). TUHIPs prioritize the needs of those students who are most vulnerable and incorporate an acknowledgement of the oppressive contexts within which students with multiple minoritized identities must navigate higher education. We discuss the implications of this approach and offer five recommendations to move higher education institutions toward policies, practices, and systems that support the college success of trans* students…. [Direct]
(2018). The Perception of Progress: Conceptualizing Institutional Response to Student Protests and Activism. Thought & Action, v34 n1 p81-95 Sum. Student resistance across the nation has surged since 2014, as students protest, demonstrate, and sit-in and die-in against racism on their campuses, and around the broader and parallel issues of students feeling unacknowledged, silenced, and oppressed by their colleges and universities. These protests are not merely symbolic demonstrations of collective unhappiness, but are larger critiques about national issues, such as racism, by students demanding institutional action and accountability. The similarity of student demands from decade to decade suggests something is not working…we need to not only reconsider how we frame the issue, but how we "conceptualize" it. Instead of examining the impact of student resistance and activism on institutional accountability, what of the reverse direction–how institutional responses and (lack of) accountability sustain the very campus racial climates that concern and suffocate students. This change in perspective leads to the… [Direct]
(2022). Teaching Anti-Fascism: A Critical Multicultural Pedagogy for Civic Engagement. Multicultural Education Series. Teachers College Press This timely book examines how fascist ideology has taken hold among certain segments of American society and how this can be addressed in curriculum and instruction. Vavrus presents middle, secondary, and college educators and their students with a conceptual framework for enacting a critical multicultural pedagogy by analyzing discriminatory discourse and recommending civic anti-fascist steps people can take right now. For teacher education programs and policymakers, anti-fascist civic assessment rubrics are provided. To help clarify contemporary debates over what can be taught in public schools, an advance organizer highlights contested and misunderstood terminology. Featuring historical and contemporary patterns of fascist politics, this accessible text is organized in four parts: (1) "Good Trouble," (2) Unpacking Ideological Orientations, (3) Indicators of Colonial Proto-Fascism and U.S. Fascist Politics, and (4) An Anti-Fascist "Reading the World." Readers… [Direct]
(2019). Student Belonging: Critical Relationships and Responsibilities. International Journal of Inclusive Education, v23 n9 p985-1001. In this paper, we consider New Zealand's education system to understand what can happen when we focus only on excellence and students reaching their potential, without simultaneously investing in their sense of belonging and wellbeing. National statistics suggest we are alienating and shortchanging an increasing number of students and, for disproportionate numbers of Indigenous students, these statistics are part of a world trend. The literature, and the students themselves, highlight the need to overturn the underlying racism that persistently disadvantages clearly identifiable groups of students over others. Until we do, using equity and excellence as the most powerful drivers for reform, will continue to promote conditions where our students' sense of belonging and wellbeing are undermined throughout their education and we will risk, failing to address the ensuing negative statistics. We conclude with a response that we have learned from working with these same students…. [Direct]
(2024). Realities of Comfort and Discomfort in the Heritage Language Classroom: Looking to Transformative Positive Psychology for Juggling a Double-Edged Sword. Modern Language Journal, v108 nS1 p147-167. As emotions research in the field of second language acquisition continues to evolve, it is equally important to explore the impact of social–emotional variables that are specifically relevant to heritage language (HL) contexts. Anchoring on foundations in critical heritage language education (HLE), this study examines the discomforts of the HL classroom from a diverse heritage speaker (HS) perspective. Additionally, comforts that support the HL classroom as a safe space for emotional security and well-being for HSs across HLs are explored. Examining the HL classroom from the perspective of HL practices and knowledge systems, this study ultimately aims to: (a) outline the emotional complexity of HL pedagogical spaces, and (b) provide concrete and meaningful recommendations for supporting HS well-being and HL development from a transformative positive psychology lens. Data for the current qualitative study were provided through two separate methodologies. First, 64 HSs of Spanish… [Direct]
(2024). Belongingness in Underrepresented in Medicine Doctor of Physical Students. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Northeastern University. Microaggressions and thwarted belongingness can negatively affect one's well-being and academic achievement. This study explored the impact of microaggression and belongingness for Underrepresented in Medicine (URiM) Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students during graduate-level education. Participants in Cycle 1 consisted of students enrolled in a DPT program who self-identified as URiM. Findings from Cycle 1 guided action steps to address participants' need for increased social engagement and support ways to improve academic success. The resulting action steps were designed and implemented with collaboration from currently enrolled students and faculty at the program. Action steps included an academic resource packet that was electronically delivered to students before starting the program and structuring a peer mentorship program. Cycle 2 evaluated the effects of the action steps through semi-structured interviews with self-identified URiM DPT students following their first term… [Direct]
(2022). The Deep Roots of Inequity: Coloniality, Racial Capitalism, Educational Leadership, and Reform. Educational Administration Quarterly, v58 n5 p693-717 Dec. Purpose: This article is a critical analysis of educational leadership and administration's historically privileged Eurocentric epistemologies, research methodologies, and intellectual norms, shaping the field through conceptions of "coloniality." The purpose of this article is toward decolonizing educational leadership. Problem: Dominant, Eurocentric knowledge systems are epistemically imposing. Racialized and ethnic critiques of Eurocentric epistemologies and educational leadership norms are relatively new in dominant knowledge production institutions such as University Council of Educational Administration and peer-review journals such as "Education Administration Quarterly." Questions: Why are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) epistemologies a critical issue in educational leadership, research, practice, and leadership preparation? In what ways have educational leadership research, practice, and training represented BIPOC epistemologies?… [Direct]
(2021). The Equity & Social Justice Education 50: Critical Questions for Improving Opportunities and Outcomes for Black Students. ASCD How do you ensure that no student is invisible in your classroom? How do you make the distinction between equity as the vehicle versus equity as the goal for each of your students? What measures do you take to ensure that you are growing as a culturally relevant practitioner? Can your students, particularly your Black students, articulate, beyond emotional reactions, the injustices that surround them? The foregoing are not trick questions. Rather, they are those that best-selling author Baruti K. Kafele poses and on which he suggests you deeply reflect as a teacher of Black students. "The Equity & Social Justice Education 50" will help you understand the importance of having an equity mindset when teaching students generally and when teaching Black students in particular. It defines social justice education and sheds light on the issues and challenges that Black people face, as well as the successes they've achieved, providing you with a pathway to infusing social… [Direct]
(2024). Beyond the 9 to 5: Exploring the Interplay between Maternal Nonstandard Employment, Academic Involvement, and School Suspension. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Boston College. Students in the United States missed more than 11 million school days in the academic year 2017-2018 due to out-of-school suspensions. Research has shown that suspension has adverse short- and long-term consequences, such as lower academic achievement and lower graduation rates. With school suspension affecting approximately one-third of students across their K-12 experience, policymakers, researchers, and professionals have outlined school suspension as a major problem. Maternal involvement has been identified as a significant factor in student achievement, motivation, and aiming toward higher education, but little is known of the influence it may have on reducing exclusionary discipline–particularly for mothers with nonstandard employment. Exclusionary discipline is discipline practices that isolates students from the classroom environment. Guided by disability critical race theory, role conflict theory, and ecological systems theory, this dissertation utilized the "Future of… [Direct]
(2021). Behind the Diversity Numbers: Achieving Racial Equity on Campus. Harvard Education Press "Behind the Diversity Numbers" uncovers how frequently used approaches to examine and understand race-related issues on college campuses can reinforce racism and inequality, rather than combat them. The book argues that educational leaders must look beyond quantitative metrics in order to develop institutional policies and practices that promote racial equality. Utilizing nearly thirty years of data and research, W. Carson Byrd shows that limiting conversations about racial inequality to numeric representation and outcomes fails to take into account that inequality is also an experience. Quantitative-heavy approaches can turn students into numbers, devaluing their lived experiences of marginalization on campus. Byrd repositions these experiences to better understand how to design effective analytic and policy strategies to promote racial equity and justice in higher education. "Behind the Diversity Numbers" focuses on how racial stratification and inequality can… [Direct]