Isolated teachers in stand-alone American schools are expected to engage diverse students in the ... more Isolated teachers in stand-alone American schools are expected to engage diverse students in the quest to facilitate their academic learning and achievement. This strategy assumes that all students will come to school ready and able to learn, and educators in stand-alone schools can meet the needs of all students. Student disengagement gets short shrift in this framework, and so does teacher disengagement. A growing body of research emphasizes needs for nuanced engagement frameworks, better data systems, customized interventions facilitated by intervention registries, and bridge building between schools and community health, mental health, and social service agencies. Here, engagement and disengagement challenges are reframed as opportunities for collective action, including interprofessional teams, community agency–school partnerships, cross-sector collective impact formations, cradle-to-career system building, and community development initiatives. Together these collective action...
Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth
This multiple case study examines practices of educators in high schools called “odds-beaters”. T... more This multiple case study examines practices of educators in high schools called “odds-beaters”. These schools are exemplary in that they consistently achieve better-than-predicted graduation outcomes among economically disadvantaged, African-American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, and English language learners. Findings from this study revealed that these schools are characterized in part by educators’ priorities for an interdisciplinary specialization known as positive youth development (PYD). These priorities are expressed in how educators talk about young people; their use of PYD practices as a school improvement resource; and their strategies for facilitating students’ engagement, agency, and identity development. The PYD practices evidenced in these schools offer insights for others and serve as a source for those struggling to improve college and career readiness among their diverse students.
This mixed-method multiple case study investigated nine elementary schools. Six “odds-beating sch... more This mixed-method multiple case study investigated nine elementary schools. Six “odds-beating schools,” which serve relatively high numbers of economically disadvantaged children, achieved higher than predicted performance on state assessments when compared with three typically performing schools. The overarching research question guiding this study was: What forces, factors, and actors account for odds-beating schools’ better outcomes? The trust–communication connection provided one answer. Relational trust in odds-beating schools is an intraorganizational phenomenon, and it is accompanied by interorganizational trust (reciprocal trust). These two kinds of trust are accompanied by intraschool and district office–school communication mechanisms. Trust and communications are mutually constitutive as innovations are implemented. This connection is also an implementation outcome. When today's innovation implementation initiatives reinforce this trust–communication connection, it be...
The impact of teacher education programs is determined in part by characteristics of the teaching... more The impact of teacher education programs is determined in part by characteristics of the teaching recruits. Nevertheless, research on recruits remains the exception rather than the rule, and most prior studies have neither been informed by nor contributed to occupational socialization theory. The exploratory research reported here is informed by such theory and is designed to contribute to it. Questionnaires were completed by 55 undergraduates upon entry into several undergraduate majors. In addition to conventional data about each recruit’s biography and physical activity background, teacher education recruits were compared with recruits in other majors. Attention was given to several career concepts (e.g., career map, career contingency, internal career) and differences between early and late deciders. One important finding, which differed from previous work, was that some teacher education recruits viewed learning as the primary purpose of school physical education programs. This...
Occupational socialization, together with selected works in cultural studies, offers analysts of ... more Occupational socialization, together with selected works in cultural studies, offers analysts of the physical education curriculum a unique scholarly perspective. Presentation of this perspective proceeds by means of 11 primary assumptions about curriculum work and workers. Such a perspective helps to explain the absence of other theoretical perspectives in physical education, as well as the prevalence of competing technical models which are dominant, emergent, and residual. This perspective also calls attention to the relationship among teachers, teacher educators, curricula, and social structure.
Conceptual and methodological limitations are evident in the previous research on physical educat... more Conceptual and methodological limitations are evident in the previous research on physical education teacher education (PETE) professors. The developing literature on professors in all fields, career theory, and occupational socialization theory may be blended to build a conceptual framework for future research. This framework illuminates influences on and questions about PETE professors’ work lives, role orientations, productivity, and affiliations. It also invites autobiographical, developmental, longitudinal, and action-oriented research perspectives. Several benefits may be derived from research on PETE professors, including improved career-guidance and faculty-development systems.
Sport pedagogy research is yielding an increasing amount of information. However, there is a diff... more Sport pedagogy research is yielding an increasing amount of information. However, there is a difference between mere information and research based knowledge, which may guide and improve practice. If more useful knowledge is to result from research, then several related adjustments in sport pedagogy’s knowledge system are required. Such adjustments begin with researchers’ reasons for doing research and include adjustments in today’s approaches to organizing, communicating, and applying research findings. Additionally, increases in the production and use of knowledge may be facilitated by political activity that is aimed at gaining more consensus among physical education professionals and, in turn, more uniformity among programs and teaching practices.
The U.S. has a children’s crisis. A crisis also looms for physical education. Physical education ... more The U.S. has a children’s crisis. A crisis also looms for physical education. Physical education is becoming a plowed out, decimated, and disappearing field because of its design flaws, selectivity, and silences. The children’s crisis provides opportunities for physical education to rejuvenate, reconstitute, and transform itself. New visions, missions, and conceptions of competent practice can be developed in response to the multiple, interdependent needs of poor and vulnerable children, youth, families, and their local neighborhood communities. Opportunities are emerging to develop new change theories and design models in conjunction with emergent complex change initiatives in school communities. Different kinds of change theories are identified. Possibilities for new design models are sketched. Together, these change theories and design models provide new directions for research and practice. They signal a change in paradigms.
I offer a critique of Richard Tinning’s analysis of dominant discourses, problem setting, and tea... more I offer a critique of Richard Tinning’s analysis of dominant discourses, problem setting, and teacher education pedagogies. I begin by capsulizing his argument. Then I amend his definition of discourse. Next, I take issue with the way he connects discourses to the process of problem setting. After suggesting new avenues for research on problem setting, I disagree with Tinning’s problem setting, raising questions about his categorizations, assumptions, and silences. Finally, I agree with Tinning’s call for alternative pedagogies. After indicating that he has not provided all of the information and assistance we require, I conclude by requesting a practice-centered orientation in future papers.
As unprecedented child and family migration patterns continue, neighborhoods, hamlets, towns, cit... more As unprecedented child and family migration patterns continue, neighborhoods, hamlets, towns, cities, states/provinces, and entire nations are impacted. These impacts are especially profound when migrants' first language is not the host nation's dominant one; when they relocate in communities already challenged by poverty, social exclusion, and social isolation; and when educator-controlled, standardized, stand-alone schools continue to focus exclusively on teacher-directed, academic learning during the school day. Under these circumstances, standardized schools struggle to achieve desirable results, making it clear that relations between schools and their host locales are consequential for everyone. Using the United States as a case example, this introductory analysis provides an appreciative framework for the new designs presented in this Special Issue of Education Sciences.
Isolated teachers in stand-alone American schools are expected to engage diverse students in the ... more Isolated teachers in stand-alone American schools are expected to engage diverse students in the quest to facilitate their academic learning and achievement. This strategy assumes that all students will come to school ready and able to learn, and educators in stand-alone schools can meet the needs of all students. Student disengagement gets short shrift in this framework, and so does teacher disengagement. A growing body of research emphasizes needs for nuanced engagement frameworks, better data systems, customized interventions facilitated by intervention registries, and bridge building between schools and community health, mental health, and social service agencies. Here, engagement and disengagement challenges are reframed as opportunities for collective action, including interprofessional teams, community agency–school partnerships, cross-sector collective impact formations, cradle-to-career system building, and community development initiatives. Together these collective action...
Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth
This multiple case study examines practices of educators in high schools called “odds-beaters”. T... more This multiple case study examines practices of educators in high schools called “odds-beaters”. These schools are exemplary in that they consistently achieve better-than-predicted graduation outcomes among economically disadvantaged, African-American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, and English language learners. Findings from this study revealed that these schools are characterized in part by educators’ priorities for an interdisciplinary specialization known as positive youth development (PYD). These priorities are expressed in how educators talk about young people; their use of PYD practices as a school improvement resource; and their strategies for facilitating students’ engagement, agency, and identity development. The PYD practices evidenced in these schools offer insights for others and serve as a source for those struggling to improve college and career readiness among their diverse students.
This mixed-method multiple case study investigated nine elementary schools. Six “odds-beating sch... more This mixed-method multiple case study investigated nine elementary schools. Six “odds-beating schools,” which serve relatively high numbers of economically disadvantaged children, achieved higher than predicted performance on state assessments when compared with three typically performing schools. The overarching research question guiding this study was: What forces, factors, and actors account for odds-beating schools’ better outcomes? The trust–communication connection provided one answer. Relational trust in odds-beating schools is an intraorganizational phenomenon, and it is accompanied by interorganizational trust (reciprocal trust). These two kinds of trust are accompanied by intraschool and district office–school communication mechanisms. Trust and communications are mutually constitutive as innovations are implemented. This connection is also an implementation outcome. When today's innovation implementation initiatives reinforce this trust–communication connection, it be...
The impact of teacher education programs is determined in part by characteristics of the teaching... more The impact of teacher education programs is determined in part by characteristics of the teaching recruits. Nevertheless, research on recruits remains the exception rather than the rule, and most prior studies have neither been informed by nor contributed to occupational socialization theory. The exploratory research reported here is informed by such theory and is designed to contribute to it. Questionnaires were completed by 55 undergraduates upon entry into several undergraduate majors. In addition to conventional data about each recruit’s biography and physical activity background, teacher education recruits were compared with recruits in other majors. Attention was given to several career concepts (e.g., career map, career contingency, internal career) and differences between early and late deciders. One important finding, which differed from previous work, was that some teacher education recruits viewed learning as the primary purpose of school physical education programs. This...
Occupational socialization, together with selected works in cultural studies, offers analysts of ... more Occupational socialization, together with selected works in cultural studies, offers analysts of the physical education curriculum a unique scholarly perspective. Presentation of this perspective proceeds by means of 11 primary assumptions about curriculum work and workers. Such a perspective helps to explain the absence of other theoretical perspectives in physical education, as well as the prevalence of competing technical models which are dominant, emergent, and residual. This perspective also calls attention to the relationship among teachers, teacher educators, curricula, and social structure.
Conceptual and methodological limitations are evident in the previous research on physical educat... more Conceptual and methodological limitations are evident in the previous research on physical education teacher education (PETE) professors. The developing literature on professors in all fields, career theory, and occupational socialization theory may be blended to build a conceptual framework for future research. This framework illuminates influences on and questions about PETE professors’ work lives, role orientations, productivity, and affiliations. It also invites autobiographical, developmental, longitudinal, and action-oriented research perspectives. Several benefits may be derived from research on PETE professors, including improved career-guidance and faculty-development systems.
Sport pedagogy research is yielding an increasing amount of information. However, there is a diff... more Sport pedagogy research is yielding an increasing amount of information. However, there is a difference between mere information and research based knowledge, which may guide and improve practice. If more useful knowledge is to result from research, then several related adjustments in sport pedagogy’s knowledge system are required. Such adjustments begin with researchers’ reasons for doing research and include adjustments in today’s approaches to organizing, communicating, and applying research findings. Additionally, increases in the production and use of knowledge may be facilitated by political activity that is aimed at gaining more consensus among physical education professionals and, in turn, more uniformity among programs and teaching practices.
The U.S. has a children’s crisis. A crisis also looms for physical education. Physical education ... more The U.S. has a children’s crisis. A crisis also looms for physical education. Physical education is becoming a plowed out, decimated, and disappearing field because of its design flaws, selectivity, and silences. The children’s crisis provides opportunities for physical education to rejuvenate, reconstitute, and transform itself. New visions, missions, and conceptions of competent practice can be developed in response to the multiple, interdependent needs of poor and vulnerable children, youth, families, and their local neighborhood communities. Opportunities are emerging to develop new change theories and design models in conjunction with emergent complex change initiatives in school communities. Different kinds of change theories are identified. Possibilities for new design models are sketched. Together, these change theories and design models provide new directions for research and practice. They signal a change in paradigms.
I offer a critique of Richard Tinning’s analysis of dominant discourses, problem setting, and tea... more I offer a critique of Richard Tinning’s analysis of dominant discourses, problem setting, and teacher education pedagogies. I begin by capsulizing his argument. Then I amend his definition of discourse. Next, I take issue with the way he connects discourses to the process of problem setting. After suggesting new avenues for research on problem setting, I disagree with Tinning’s problem setting, raising questions about his categorizations, assumptions, and silences. Finally, I agree with Tinning’s call for alternative pedagogies. After indicating that he has not provided all of the information and assistance we require, I conclude by requesting a practice-centered orientation in future papers.
As unprecedented child and family migration patterns continue, neighborhoods, hamlets, towns, cit... more As unprecedented child and family migration patterns continue, neighborhoods, hamlets, towns, cities, states/provinces, and entire nations are impacted. These impacts are especially profound when migrants' first language is not the host nation's dominant one; when they relocate in communities already challenged by poverty, social exclusion, and social isolation; and when educator-controlled, standardized, stand-alone schools continue to focus exclusively on teacher-directed, academic learning during the school day. Under these circumstances, standardized schools struggle to achieve desirable results, making it clear that relations between schools and their host locales are consequential for everyone. Using the United States as a case example, this introductory analysis provides an appreciative framework for the new designs presented in this Special Issue of Education Sciences.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative... more This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY
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