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Students Opportunities (student + opportunity)

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Education75%

Selected Abstracts

Learning from Difference: Considerations for Schools as Communities

CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 3 2000
Carolyn M. Shields
In today's highly complex and heterogeneous public schools, the current notion of schools as homogeneous communities with shared beliefs, norms, and alues is inadequate. Drawing on Barth's (1990) question of how to use ifference as a resource, I take up ideas from feminism, multiculturalism, and inclusive education to consider the development of community in schools. I argue that despite the valuable contributions of these theoretical perspectives, each lso includes the potential for increased fragmentation and polarization. As we consider how to use differences as a foundation for community, it is important ot to reify any particular perspective, thus marginalizing others and erecting new barriers. Explicitly embracing the need to identify and respect difference, being open to new ideas without taking an exclusionary position, and committing to ongoing participation in dialogical processes may help schools to develop as more authentic communities of difference. Among the dominant issues identified in today's climate of turbulent educational reform are concerns about how to restructure schools to ensure equality of student opportunity and excellence of instruction (Elmore, 1990; Lieberman, 1992; Murphy, 1991). Many proposals include modifying present leadership and governance structures, overcoming the hegemony of existing power bases, developing mechanisms for accountability, enhancing professionalism, and co-ordinating community resources. One of the suggestions frequently made to address these issues is to change from a focus on schools as organizations to a recognition of schools as communities (Barth, 1990; Fullan, 1993; Lupart & Webber, 1996; Senge, 1990). However, despite the widespread use of the metaphor of community as an alternative to the generally accepted concept of schools as rational or functional organizations, there seems to be little clarity about the concept of community, what it might look like, how it might be implemented, or what policies might sustain it. Indeed, theories about schools as communities have often drawn from Tönnies (1887/1971) concept of gemeinschaft,a concept which perhaps evokes a more homogeneous and romanticized view of the past than one which could be helpful for improving education in today's dynamic, complex, and heterogeneous context (Beck & Kratzer, 1994; Sergiovanni, 1994a). More recently, several writers (Fine et al., 1997; Furman, 1998; Shields & Seltzer, 1997) have advanced the notion of communities of otherness or difference. These authors have suggested that rather than thinking of schools as communities that exist because of a common affiliation to an established school ethos or tradition, it might be more helpful to explore an alternative concept. A school community founded on difference would be one in which the common centre would not be taken as a given but would be co-constructed from the negotiation of disparate beliefs and values as participants learn to respect, and to listen to, each other. In this concept, bonds among members are not assumed, but forged, and boundaries are not imposed but negotiated. Over the past eight years, as I have visited and worked with a large number of schools trying earnestly to address the needs of their diverse student bodies, I have become increasingly aware of the limitations of the concept of community used in the gemeinschaft sense with its emphasis on shared values, norms, and beliefs, and have begun to reflect on the question framed by Barth (1990): ,How can we make conscious, deliberate use of differences in social class, gender, age, ability, race, and interest as resources for learning?' (p. 514). In this article, I consider how learning from three of these areas of difference: gender, race, and ability, may help us to a better understanding of educational community. This article begins with some illustrations and examples from practice, moves to consider how some theoretical perspectives may illuminate them, and concludes with reflections on how the implications of the combined reflections on practice and theory might actually help to reconceptualize and to improve practice. While it draws heavily on questions and impressions which have arisen out of much of my fieldwork, it is not intended to be an empirical paper, but a conceptual one,one which promotes reflection and discussion on the concept of schools as communities of difference. The examples of life in schools taken from longitudinal research studies in which I have been involved demonstrate several common ways in which difference is dealt with in today's schools and some of the problems inherent in these approaches. Some ideas drawn from alternative perspectives then begin to address Barth's question of how to make deliberate use of diversity as a way of thinking about community. Taken together, I hope that these ideas will be helpful in creating what I have elsewhere called ,schools as communities of difference' (Shields & Seltzer, 1997). [source]

Wide Awake to the World: The Arts and Urban Schools,Conflicts and Contributions of an After-School Program

CURRICULUM INQUIRY, Issue 1 2001
Therese Quinn
While the benefits of arts involvement are increasingly clear, policies and practices consistent with this recognition are not proceeding apace. Nearly half the schools in the United States have no full-time arts teachers and emphases on "standards" have led to the elimination of the arts in many urban schools. This case study of a multi-year after-school arts program in urban public schools explores challenges and tensions that emerged during the program's implementation. Focusing on understanding the place and purpose of an arts program in a specific community, we employed a grounded theory approach and used multiple data-gathering methods, ranging from observations and interviews to surveys. We found that in serving hundreds of students, employing dozens of staff, and aiming to meet several complex goals, this arts program faced technical challenges that undermined its effectiveness. The arts program also suffered from unaddressed conflicts regarding norms and values. Artists attempted to provide students opportunities for creative exploration, while school staff emphasized control, order, and academic goals. We discuss these tensions and the ways they undermined the arts program. [source]

An Educational Strategy for Teaching Standardized Nursing Languages

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF NURSING TERMINOLOGIES AND CLASSIFICATION, Issue 1 2010
Arlene T. Farren RN, CTN-A
PURPOSE., The aim of this paper is to describe an educational strategy for teaching standardized nursing languages (SNL) used in both the classroom and clinical components of a psychiatric,mental health nursing course at the associate degree level. DATA SOURCES., Data included a review of the relevant literature, teaching experiences, and faculty and student experiences. DATA SYNTHESIS., Enhancing associate degree student nurses' competency regarding diagnosis and interventions is essential to influence positive health outcomes. Use of diagnostic, outcome, and intervention classifications for learning nursing care promotes critical thinking, individualization of nursing care, and students' fluency with SNL. One possible teaching strategy to assist students to learn and use SNL was implemented through the use of a faculty-developed Student Nurse Documentation Packet. CONCLUSIONS., The educational strategy provided students opportunities to enhance their experience with the SNL to plan and document care of individuals experiencing psychiatric,mental health problems. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING., The educational strategy used in this program was judged to be successful. Research is needed to provide empirical evidence of the efficacy of this pedagogical strategy for increasing knowledge and enhancing students' competency. [source]

Connecting school and community with science learning: Real world problems and school,community partnerships as contextual scaffolds,

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING, Issue 8 2001
Lisa M. Bouillion
A challenge facing many schools, especially those in urban settings that serve culturally and linguistically diverse populations, is a disconnection between schools and students' home communities, which can have both cognitive and affective implications for students. In this article we explore a form of "connected science," in which real-world problems and school-community partnerships are used as contextual scaffolds for bridging students' community-based knowledge and school-based knowledge, as a way to provide all students opportunities for meaningful and intellectually challenging science learning. The potential of these scaffolds for connected science is examined through a case study in which a team of fifth-grade teachers used the student-identified problem of pollution along a nearby river as an interdisciplinary anchor for teaching science, math, language arts, and civics. Our analysis makes visible how diverse forms of knowledge were able to support project activities, examines the consequences for student learning, and identifies the features of real-world problems and school,community partnerships that created these bridging opportunities. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 38: 878,898, 2001 [source]