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With an increasing number of English Language Learners (ELLs), the landscape of public schools in the United States has been rapidly changing. However, ELLs' academic performance is consistently lower than their native English-speaking peers' and many in-service teachers feel ill-prepared to teach ELLs in a culturally and linguistically responsive way. This is especially true for mainstream teachers who teach STEM-related subjects. This study explores how pre-service elementary school teachers perceive culturally and linguistically responsive mathematics and science teaching practices for ELLs. A qualitative research design with interviews and constant comparative analysis was employed. Pre-service teachers' lively voices that unpack their beliefs on the characteristics of culturally and linguistically responsive math and science teaching are illustrated around teachers' scaffolding strategies, ELLs' learning experiences, and environments. Suggestions for teacher educators, education scholars, and practitioners are provided to advance the discourse of how to better prepare teachers to teach mathematics and science to ELLs.

This survey study investigated structural relationships among school culture, self-efficacy, and outcome expectation, and teacher agency development toward the national curriculum reform in South Korea, employing Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). Specifically, focusing on school culture as an environmental factor and teacher self-efficacy and outcome expectation as two different personal determinants, as per Bandura's model, this study aims to examine how these factors influence Korean teachers' agency development towards the national curriculum reform that has enhanced autonomy on them. In all, 605 elementary school teachers' data were analyzed using structural equation modeling analysis with phantom model approach. Findings indicated that the school culture fostered by supportive teacher-principal and teacher-teacher relationships directly influenced individual teachers' agency over either school- or classroom-level curriculum. In addition, teachers' self-efficacy and outcome expectation both directly influenced their agency towards reform for enhanced autonomy and mediated associations between school culture fostered by supportive teacher-student relationships and teacher agency to exercise curricular autonomy within their classrooms. The paper gives implications applying these findings, considers the utility of SCT in the Korean context, and covers limitations and future research ideas.

After receiving a multiyear federal grant, an urban school district and community agency that focused on family literacy implemented a comprehensive school reform initiative called Providence Full Service Community Schools (PFSCS). A host of community partners collaborated to develop the PFSCS model with the broad goal of strategically connecting teachers, families, afterschool programming, and community services, as a method for improving the well-being of students in participating schools and their families. This article compares findings from a baseline and 4-year follow-up study of the PFSCS, documenting changes in stakeholder perceptions about the project. In the follow-up study, respondents noted increased family engagement and improved climate in PFSCS schools, along with more school-community partnerships. Findings also suggested stakeholder perceptions had changed regarding the extent to which the PFSCS was expected to improve academic achievement. Specifically, although some stakeholders were disappointed that a direct link between the PFSCS and improved test scores had not been found, findings also indicated that overall, the community continued to value the work and desired to see the program expand.

Guided by social cognitive theory (SCT), this research investigates the structural relationships among local culture, teacher efficacy, and teachers' exercise of curricular autonomy. A total of 605 Korean elementary school teachers completed survey questionnaires that underwent structural equation modeling analysis with a phantom model approach to identify the motivational factors and their relationships. The results indicate that teachers' degree of internalization of mainstream Korean culture and teacher efficacy influence their implementation of the reform agenda, while teacher efficacy mediates the effect of culture. Theoretical and practical implications for scholars, policy-makers, and practitioners are provided.

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) has gained significant attention across diverse school environments in justice by supporting students from culturally underrepresented groups. However, how teachers develop their agency toward inclusive practices and what influences the agency developed have been undertheorized and underexplored. This study aims to identify factors that support teachers' initial enactment of CRT and what strengthens or weakens the positive agency developed. This study is guided by a grounded theory approach. Sixteen in-service teachers' semi-structured interview transcripts were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Four themes emerged from each of the research questions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed to better support in- and pre-service teachers' growth toward becoming social justice-oriented change agents with CRT practices.

The full-service community school (FSCS) model is one of the most popular and growing types of community school models, which is widely implemented in under-resourced urban schools. FSCSs offer an alternative to traditional public schools in the U.S. and are designed to coordinate community assets within a school. Given increased attention to this approach by both practitioners and policymakers for supporting schools in disadvantaged communities, the purpose of this study was to examine how scholars are describing FSCSs in the literature and offer suggestions for future research. In addition, this study provides a detailed overview of how to use NVivo to conduct qualitative empirical research reviews across disciplines. Findings indicated that scholarly dialogues about FSCSs converge toward (a) the nature of FSCSs; (b) academic performance in these models; and (c) partnerships among schools, communities, and parents. Specific recommendations for future research that will be useful in advancing work on the FSCSs model are included.

Teaching effectiveness is increasingly highlighted as an important quality in teachers, and teacher education programs have used various approaches to improve preservice teachers' teaching effectiveness. However, how preservice teachers develop their beliefs about effective science teaching and how they enact them in their field experiences have rarely been explored. To better support preservice teachers' professional growth, we investigated their beliefs about effective science teaching, by examining their discourses during collaborative oral reflection sessions in their early field experiences. We also highlighted the possibility of collaborative oral reflection as a medium for improving reflective experiences by evaluating the quality of the preservice teachers' reflections. Theoretical and practical suggestions for science teacher education and future studies are provided.

Background/Context: In the field of education, the lens of agency has provided a valuable conceptual alternative to deterministic portrayals of schools as oppressive institutions where teachers and students have little power over the conditions in which they teach and learn. A number of studies have investigated teacher and student agency, but few have explored the relationships between the two, particularly in regard to how teacher and student agency relate in high-need and high-diversity contexts with exemplary student graduation outcomes. Purpose/Focus of the Study: In an effort to address the paucity of research investigating the relationships of teacher and student agency, this analysis draws on seven qualitative case studies of secondary schools achieving a trend of above-predicted (i.e., odds-beating) graduation outcomes. We pursued the overarching research question: What are the relationships between teacher and student agency in odds-beating schools? Setting: The study took place in a purposeful sample of odds-beating secondary schools identified through multiple regression analyses. The sample included schools in rural, suburban, and more urban communities and were distributed across various geographic regions in the state of New York. All schools shared a pattern of above-predicted graduation outcomes, taking into account student demographic factors (percentage of students economically disadvantaged, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and English language learners). All schools met the criteria of being within the normal range for wealth ratio as well. Research Design: This qualitative multiple case study focused on data generated from interviews and focus groups with 302 participants, including teachers, student support specialists, and school and district leaders, as well as field notes gathered during guided school tours, and documents. These data were analyzed using qualitative comparative analysis methods in multiple phases of deductive and inductive coding. Conclusions: Study findings indicate that when teachers are offered opportunities to act as agents, they tend to offer opportunities to their students similarly. This research also suggests that affordances for teachers to assert agency can mitigate the constraining effects of state accountability system compliance-oriented practices. We conclude that teacher and student reciprocal agency merits further study and offers theoretical insights of particular import in high-needs and high-diversity school contexts.

Homeless children usually experience high mobility. Yet, it is not clear if the degree of mobility among homeless children is associated with their academic performance. Furthermore, an emerging body of literature is beginning to examine the impact of specific living arrangements (e.g., living with families or friends) on homeless family and child outcomes. This research aimed to examine the effects of demographic risk factors, as well as mobility and type of living arrangement, on the academic performance of homeless children receiving educational support through the McKinney-Vento Act. Although neither mobility or living arrangement were associated with standardized test achievement, minority status, gender, special learning needs, and absenteeism still presented as risk factors for academic achievement in this sample of children experiencing homelessness. Recommendations for teacher practices and classroom instructions are presented.

Understanding teachers' concerns about integrating new technology to their curricular practices is essential for the improvement of pedagogical practices. Using in-depth interviews, this study aims (1) to explore and describe concerns of teachers who attempted to initiate ebook-integrated curriculum independently in a higher education setting, and (2) to examine how well the Stages of Concerns (SoC) in Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) explains the change processes of the teachers. This study challenges the developmental assumptions underlying the SoC in CBAM and suggests that the theoretical framework must address individuals' idiosyncratic traits as a contextual factor to better explain the change processes of teachers who initiate change in higher education. Additionally, future research directions pertaining to the adoption of innovations by teachers are suggested.

Drawing upon the African concept of "ubuntu," this article examines the epistemic orientations toward individual-society relations that inform democratic citizenship and identity in South Africa. Findings from focus group interviews conducted with 50 Xhosa teachers from all seven primary and intermediate schools in a township outside Cape Town depict the cultural contours of democracy and how the teachers reaffirm and question the dominant Western-oriented democratic narrative. Through "ubuntu," defined as the virtue of being human premised upon respect, the Xhosa teachers interrupt the prevailing rights-and-responsibilities discourse to interpose a conception of democracy based on rights, responsibilities, and respect. Society and schools, in their view, fall short in educating young learners for democratic citizenship in South Africa; their insights offer ways for formal schooling to improve upon its democratic mission.

During South Korea's authoritarian period (1961–87), student activists employed songs to express their anti-government and pro-democratic views. Known as minjung kayo (people's songs), these protest songs can be traced to the modern American folk music embraced by South Korean youth in the 1960s. By the late 1980s, however, minjung kayo carried emphatically anti-American, nationalistic, and socialist tones, echoing the minjung ideals that strove to achieve authentic 'Koreanness'. This article unravels the complexities underlying the process of minjung kayo 's development into an emblem of the pro-democratic movement, which entailed a shift away from its initial reflective and poetic style inspired by American folk music (exemplified in the songs of Kim Min-ki) and a move towards the militant style influenced by the Marxist composer Hanns Eisler. It argues that minjung kayo embodied the complex relationship South Korean activists held with their colonial past and autocratic present, as well as visions of their democratic future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the one hand, Kim thoroughly considers the various connotations of "hegemony" and "mimicry" observed in Korean popular culture. Kim attributes Korean popular culture's global success to the "playful, mimicked subjectivities" that have rendered Korean culture "commercially viable" and, ultimately, hegemonic (83). Hegemony represents both the old American status and the new Korean global standing, as well as the gradations of racial hierarchy; mimicry ranges from pirating and "creative" counterfeits to parodying and enacting human and nonhuman gestures. [Extracted from the article]