Education Coalition Research Articles

Critical Participatory Action Research as Leadership Praxis: Sociopolitical Crises as Ordinary Moments for Expansive Educational Leadership

Philadelphia offers an ideal case study for understanding how community and education leaders negotiate the contemporary sociopolitical context and various crises to advance educational equity and justice. This paper focuses on our critical participation action research and organizing within an education coalition to offer an example of community-engaged research that strives for education equity and justice through leadership development. Our goal is to expand conceptualizations of educational leadership to include diverse stakeholders connected to school communities as experts. Toward that end, we examine and amplify the expertise of informal education leaders (e.g., families and communities) involved in struggles for education justice with attention to their response to the twin crises of COVID-19 and uprisings against anti-Black racism and police violence. Our work centers those directly impacted by systems and structures of oppression as experts on relationship building and community engagement. Findings offer insights and strategies to educational leaders for fostering family and community engagement and collaboration in times of crises and conflict.

The Undergraduate to Graduate Medical Education Transition as a Systems Problem: A Root Cause Analysis.

The transition from undergraduate medical education (UME) to graduate medical education (GME) constitutes a complex system with important implications for learner progression and patient safety. The transition is currently dysfunctional, requiring students and residency programs to spend significant time, money, and energy on the process. Applications and interviews continue to increase despite stable match rates. Although many in the medical community acknowledge the problems with the UME-GME transition and learners have called for prompt action to address these concerns, the underlying causes are complex and have defied easy fixes. This article describes the work of the Coalition for Physician Accountability's Undergraduate Medical Education to Graduate Medical Education Review Committee (UGRC) to apply a quality improvement approach and systems thinking to explore the underlying causes of dysfunction in the UME-GME transition. The UGRC performed a root cause analysis using the 5 whys and an Ishikawa (or fishbone) diagram to deeply explore problems in the UME-GME transition. The root causes of problems identified include culture, costs and limited resources, bias, systems, lack of standards, and lack of alignment. Using the principles of systems thinking (components, connections, and purpose), the UGRC considered interactions among the root causes and developed recommendations to improve the UME-GME transition. Several of the UGRC's recommendations stemming from this work are explained. Sustained monitoring will be necessary to ensure interventions move the process forward to better serve applicants, programs, and the public good.

Approccio progettuale nel sostegno sociale e psicologico dei figli dei militari

The article defines the essence of the concept of "social and psychological support of children of military personnel" as a set of measures and support aimed at ensuring the psychological and social well-being of children whose parents are involved in military service or participate in military operations. It is noted that the main components of socio-psychological support for children of military personnel are: psychological support - providing professional psychological assistance to children to manage stress, anxiety and other emotional challenges related to the military service of their father or mother; social integration – assistance in the integration of children in the school environment and community, provision of opportunities for participation in social events; education and training - ensuring access to quality education, even in cases of permanent changes of residence due to relocation; medical support – provision of medical assistance and psychotherapeutic support for children and their families; promotion of physical and mental development of children through special programs and activities; providing support and counseling to parents on effective ways of interacting with children in the conditions of military service; creation of conditions for stability and safety in the lives of children of military personnel. It is justified that the project approach in the socio-psychological support of children of military personnel should be considered as a systematic method of work aimed at the development of specific projects aimed at improving the socio-psychological condition of children. The domestic experience was studied, which shows that from 2022, the project approach in providing socio-psychological assistance to the families of military personnel is actively spreading in Ukraine, in particular, the project «Psychosocial support service for families of military personnel» of the Public Movement «Women's Power of Ukraine» is being implemented; volunteer project «How are you, brother?»; it is planned to implement a number of projects of relevant Ministries and departments within the framework of the implementation of the All-Ukrainian mental health program. The study and generalization of the best foreign experience of socio-psychological support for children of military personnel shows that the most effective work is carried out in such countries as the USA, Great Britain, and Israel. In the USA, a project is being implemented specifically for the socio-psychological support of military families - Families OverComing Under Stress (Project FOCUS). The non-profit organization Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) implements ongoing projects for children of military personnel in the USA. In the UK there are organizations that implement projects to support military families, including psychological and social support, such as the Royal British Legion, SSAFA, Army Families Federation, RAF Families Federation, Naval Families Federation. Israel has a system of social services that provides psychological and social support for children of military personnel and their families, and counseling centers provide counseling, psychotherapy, and support services in important life situations.

The Role of Business–Higher Education Coalitions in Making the Case for Higher Education

The Role of Business–Higher Education Coalitions in Making the Case for Higher Education

The coalition model for professional development

ABSTRACT The Coalition Model for Professional Development (CMfPD) was created to develop capacity in a network of adult and continuing education (A&CE) staff from eight district school boards in the eastern Ontario region in Canada. The CMfPD had three main components: 1) a collaborative structure, 2) continuous learning and 3) a culture of care. Interviews were conducted with twenty-two network members to explore their experiences with the CMfPD. Qualitative analysis of interview data revealed positive professional development (PD) experiences associated with model components. In addition, network members reported professional growth as a result of the CMfPD, with respect to increasing their capacity, promoting collaboration with their colleagues and preparing them to enact change in the field of A&CE. The importance of this PD model is discussed in relation to how its components helped mobilise the collective work of a newly formed education coalition dedicated to system-wide change.

The Praxis of Realizing Election Imperatives in Trump’s America

American democracy and higher education were not developed under—nor are they guided by—the principle of equality for all. However, the sociopolitical history of the United States does not negate the responsibility to equality and equity that educators, university administrators, and policymakers have today. As a means of advancing the praxis of civic engagement within higher education vis-à-vis the Election Imperatives call to action, this ethnographic action research study set out to (a) establish a nonpartisan higher education coalition in the state of Tennessee and (b) institutionalize student political learning and engagement at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee's premier research university. Tennessee is a voting-restrictive state with poor educational outcomes for historically marginalized populations, and this current reality reflects longstanding civil rights violations and educational inequities that are especially prevalent in the American South. Given the sociopolitical context in which this work developed, the action research study informs best student political learning and engagement policies and practices for voting-restrictive and hyper-partisan states.

COMLEX-USA and USMLE for Osteopathic Medical Students: Should We Duplicate, Divide, or Unify?

COMLEX-USA and USMLE for Osteopathic Medical Students: Should We Duplicate, Divide, or Unify?

For District V director: Joseph A. Heppert

Wakarusa Valley Section. Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas. Academic record: San José State University, BS, chemistry, 1978; University of Wisconsin, PhD, chemistry 1982; Indiana University, postdoctoral fellow, 1985. Honors: ACS Fellow 2012; University of Kansas Leading Light Award, 2012; Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, 2002; University of Kansas Center for Teaching Excellence Graduate Teaching Award, 1998; Keeler Intra-University Professor, 1998. Professional positions (for past 10 years): Texas Tech University, vice president for research 2017–; University of Kansas, associate vice chancellor for research, 2009–17; chemistry chair, 2005–09; professor 2001–17; University of Kansas Center for Science Education, director, 2001–09. Service in ACS national offices: Board of Trustees for the Group Insurance Plans, 2020–22; Committee on Budget and Finance, 2013–21, chair, 2017–19, vice chair, 2014–16, committee associate, 2011–12; Committee on Education, 2002–10, chair, 2004–06, committee associate, 2000–01; ACS Chemistry Teacher Education Coalition National Advisory Board, 2011–14; Governance Review Team A, 2007; ACS Program Review Advisory

What are we saving? Tracing governing knowledge and truth discourse in global COVID-19 policy responses.

As the world went suddenly into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sending individuals to their homes and shutting businesses and institutions, the closing of schools posed big problems. The majority of the world’s children were out of school, leading to the longest sustained period of school closures in history. We saw educators turning towards responses not aimed at collegial and community-engaged strategies for education in an emergency but at online learning cast as education/business as usual. This study explores the logic driving this global response through analyses of the documents released by three key global education actors: (1) the OECD and its paper A Framework to Guide Education Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020; (2) UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition #LearningNeverStops; and (3) the World Bank’s Guidance Note on Education Systems’ Response to COVID-19; and Guidance Note: Remote Learning and COVID-19. The authors of this article draw on Carol Bacchi’s approach to poststructural policy analysis to make visible the key concepts and binaries used within policy texts and to understand the “technologies of saving” that were invoked in each policy response, locating the education programmes, activities and actors within knowledge practices in educational reform. This article explores the World Bank, OECD and UNESCO responses using an analysis of knowledge harmonisation and difference among these institutions as well as their location as key norm-setters and governing actors in the field of education. The authors argue that all three responses privilege private-sector providers of digital technology. The consequence of these responses is that technologies of saving have centred on privatised, corporate edu-business and edu-tech aimed at online education delivery, bringing significant risks for the erasure of local knowledges. The authors’ study suggests that local policymakers, including community-based and national actors, must be invited into the discussion to envision other possibilities and to name the potential destructiveness embedded in the international organisations’ actions.

Filantrocapitalismo digital en educación: Covid-19, UNESCO, Google, Facebook y Microsoft

El propósito de este artículo es analizar nuevas formas de filantrocapitalismo digital en la política educativa a raíz de la pandemia Covid-19. El filantrocapitalismo digital es una hibridación conceptual que unifica principios del capitalismo digital con nuevas formas de gobernanza filantrocapitalista. Este artículo, después de la sección de introducción, está organizado en 6 secciones. La primera sección se centra en ampliar los análisis relacionados con las nociones de capitalismo digital y filantrocapitalismo para presentar la noción de filantrocapitalismo digital en educación que se consolida como nuevas formas de gobernanza global en la crisis capitalista presente del Covid-19. La segunda sección aborda la metodología de investigación utilizada para examinar los nuevos ensamblajes globales del filantrocapitalismo digital en la política educativa global. El proceso metodológico se basa en la etnografía en red adaptada al análisis de las redes políticas en la política educativa. La tercera sección, como un estudio de caso de ensamblajes globales, analiza la red política de la Coalición Global para la Educación de la UNESCO. La coalición mundial para la educación lanzada por la UNESCO es una alianza de gobernanza global (socios multilaterales, sector privado, fundaciones filantrópicas, redes y asociaciones) para proporcionar una educación disruptiva causada por la pandemia Covid-19. La quinta sección tiene en cuenta los discursos y narrativas sobre el filantrocapitalismo digital de Google, Facebook y Microsoft en la red política global de la UNESCO. La última sección examina la lógica discursiva sobre Big Data en el filantrocapitalismo digital en educación.

Asian Americans, Admissions, and College Choice: An Empirical Test of Claims of Harm Used in Federal Investigations

The Coalition of Asian American Associations (CAAA) and Asian American Coalition for Education (AACE), two small but vocal groups of Asian Americans, have argued against affirmative action practices. One of their more prominent claims is that Asian American applicants who are not accepted and do not attend their first-choice colleges face a multitude of negative consequences, a claim that has become the impetus for the current U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation into the college admissions process at a number of universities. This study empirically tests the claims made by CAAA and AACE with particular attention to the differences in Asian American student outcomes, relative to their college admissions and choice decisions. Our findings indicate a limited, if any, statistical difference between Asian American groups that attend differing choice institutions.

Understanding Factors That Support Well-Functioning Community Coalitions

Coalitions are central to Extension's community-based programs. To assess characteristics that support well-functioning coalitions and to support coalitions in which Extension stakeholders participate, we used the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory to assess 10 Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education coalitions on the basis of research-tested collaboration success factors. Overall, the 103 coalition members who responded reported strengths related to communication and shared purpose and weaknesses in the areas of resources and process and structure for achieving the coalitions' aims. Our project represents a low-burden method for assessing Extension coalitions to understand the characteristics that are likely to support the achievement of collective goals.

“Kids Know What They Are Doing”: Peer-Led Sex Education in New York City

The reasons for peer education's ascendance as a core pedagogy in sex education are as much historical as they are reasonable or ethical. This article traces the history of peer-led sex education from the 1970s to the 1990s against the backdrop of New York City's financial ruin, social unrest, and a public health crisis. Starting with an analysis of the Student Coalition for Relevant Sex Education's Peer Information Project, founded in 1974, it investigates the application of new pedagogical techniques, the interplay between pedagogy and bureaucracy, and the transformation of school culture. Peer education thrived when educators and activists agreed that young people were more likely to accept advice from other young people, a reasonable contention that was nonetheless underassessed. Yet peer education's least intriguing attribute proved to be its most important characteristic: it could be quickly and inexpensively enacted. When HIV/AIDS began to decimate New York City's adolescent population, and the Board of Education proved slow and contradictory in its actions, the city turned to peer education, henceforth coupling the concepts of sex education and peer education.

Best Practices to Advance Health Literacy in a Wisconsin Adult Literacy Coalition.

Background:Wisconsin Literacy Incorporated is a statewide adult and family literacy coalition representing 75 community-based literacy organizations. This coalition focuses its work in four areas: (1) building capacity of its member agencies, (2) advocating for literacy, (3) preparing adults in worker readiness and career pathways, and (4) improving how health information is communicated through its division, Wisconsin Health Literacy (WHL).Brief Description of Activity:This article outlines how an adult basic education coalition successfully developed a statewide health literacy coalition that later transformed into a division of Wisconsin Literacy through a three-phase approach that included: (1) raising awareness and educating health care and literacy providers about health literacy, (2) implementing health literacy interventions through various grant funding, and (3) disseminating and sharing findings from such health literacy interventions to a broad audience.Implementation:Beginning its awareness work in 2003 with help from a physician champion, WHL implemented best practices within each of the three areas of approach. After being implemented, the initial volunteer-based health literacy coalition was transformed into a division of Wisconsin Literacy Incorporated.Results:The division now includes a full-time director, its own website, funding for community interventions, and a business plan for fee-for-service efforts with health care providers, public health agencies, and other stakeholders. Key relationships with Wisconsin health care organizations provided WHL venues to present about health literacy throughout the state and beyond. Wisconsin Literacy Incorporated helped secure a solid infrastructure by hosting two planning retreats and implementing both strategic and business plans for the newly formed division. Offering fee-for-service health literacy training to health care providers brought in new revenue to sustain the division and obtain buy-in from health care agencies on the importance of health literate organizations. Finally, participating in key partner coalitions and Communities of Practice allowed WHL to share experiences and best practices with a national audience.Lessons Learned:The importance of intentionally raising awareness in strategic health care settings across the state fostered many partnerships. Investing in a strategic planning retreat and a business plan guided the division's success. Delivering educational workshops in community-based literacy organizations and trusted settings where adults regularly go to learn was key to successful implementation. [HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice. 2019;3(Suppl.):S8–S14.]Plain Language Summary:Wisconsin Literacy Incorporated is an adult basic education coalition that built a health literacy division over several years. Using best practices such as raising awareness, implementing pilot projects, and broadly sharing its experience, the Wisconsin Health Literacy division advanced the understanding and commitment to health literacy in and beyond Wisconsin.

Hurricane Preparation: A Q&A Guide to Water and Food Safety and Quality

This document was prepared in response to the questions posted by County Extension FCS faculty in Florida. Consumers in Florida counties frequently asked these questions during the 2004 hurricane season. Answers for each question have been prepared by using resources from UF/IFAS, federal agencies and other reputable sources including Talking About Disaster: Guide for Standard Messages (National Disaster Education Coalition, NDEC, 2004). This is an initial compilation of questions and answers which does not cover every single item related to emergency or hurricane situations. We welcome additional questions from those who use this document. They will be included, along with answers, in the next version of this publication. This document is FCS8789, one of a series of the Family, Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date July 6, 2005.

Seeding long-term, sustainable change in teacher preparation programs: the case of PhysTEC

BackgroundThe continuation of teacher preparation activities after a 3-year Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) grant is used as a case study to examine multi-faceted aspects of sustainable change in higher education. Since teacher preparation is outside typical physics departmental activities, success is highly dependent on finding a department and institution who values this cause. Throughout the history of providing grants, PhysTEC has identified ten components of successful sites that they consider during the selection process. In this paper, we retrospectively analyze characteristics of six comprehensive PhysTEC sites, to see how department histories, values, and activities affect long-term sustainability as sites moved from grant funding to matched institutional funding and beyond.ResultsThe most important components required to sustain these programs were (1) institutional commitment—both financial support as well as intellectual and cultural support for potential teachers—(2) champion, a respected change agent at the university who ensures program success through advocacy and support, and (3) activities that enhance not only the production of teachers but also the undergraduate education activities of the department. Of the six PhysTEC sites, three sites were able to institutionalize the majority of PhysTEC activities into departmental routine. These three sites have departmental leadership and administrators who valued and invested in physics teacher preparation. At these sites, PhysTEC symbiotically supported typical departmental activities including increasing majors, improving courses, and involving undergraduates to support teaching. Two sites were sustaining activities at the time of study but attitudes toward teaching as a profession were mixed so continued sustainability is precarious and reliant on external funding. One site discontinued the majority of PhysTEC activities because of a lack of alignment with a different physics teacher initiative on campus.ConclusionsBecause physics teacher preparation is not often prioritized as a part of undergraduate departmental activities, success emerges when departmental and institutional value systems align with this goal. PhysTEC funding is not enough to create this culture; it must exist prior to funding. Sustaining PhysTEC activities is easier when they are seen as enhancing the undergraduate experience as a whole. The PhysTEC grant helped bring physics teacher preparation to the forefront, and a well-respected champion in a leadership position can help set this tone and advance departmental activities accordingly. This study has implications for sustaining reforms of typically undervalued activities in higher education or secondary teacher preparation programs in any discipline.

Health and Outdoor Settings: A Summary of the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors Pre-Symposium Workshop, 2018

Health and Outdoor Settings: A Summary of the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors Pre-Symposium Workshop, 2018

A STEM Exploration with Gears

Larry, Moe, and Curly were comedians in the 1930s. Individually, they were competent comedians; as a team, they became The Three Stooges. This team is still recognized today for its slapstick comedy. Science, engineering, and mathematics are fields that many students see as separate entities. But if these fields are combined with technology, they become STEM. In its core policy recommendations, the STEM Education Coalition states:

Sustaining Physics Teacher Education Coalition programs in physics teacher education

Thriving physics teacher preparation programs require a local champion and institutional commitment.

International Perspectives in Outdoor Education Research

International Perspectives in Outdoor Education Research Patrick T. Maher, Guest Editor To begin, let me introduce the starting point for this issue of Research in Outdoor Education (ROE); the 7th International Outdoor Education Research Conference (IOERC). The 7th IOERC was hosted from July 4–8, 2016 at Cape Breton University (CBU), on Unama’ki (Cape Breton Island) in Nova Scotia, Canada. This IOERC showcased the breadth of international perspectives in outdoor education research, as more than 150 researchers from 17 countries lived and learned together. The IOERC series, with 7 conferences down and the next one being organized for November 2018 in Australia, aims to build on the social, cultural and critical dimensions of research and theorizing in diverse outdoor traditions. This includes the fields of education (both learning and teaching), recreation, place studies, sustainability/environmental studies and therapeutic applications of nature and adventure. Thus, it serves as a natural fit with the Coalition for Education in the Outdoors, the network served by the publication of ROE. The focus of the IOERC series is squarely on outdoor education research with a particular emphasis on sociological and critical perspectives. The IOERC has never had keynote speakers, so as not to prioritize any one person’s research over another, nor has it ever engaged as a tradeshow or fundraising mechanism for an association. It has no constitution, no ongoing constituency, and no financing is provided. It relies on an academic institution to be the host and previous IOERC conferences were hosted by Buckinghamshire-Chilterns University (UK) in 2002, La Trobe University (Australia) in 2004, the University of Central Lancashire (UK) [End Page vii] in 2006, La Trobe University again in 2009, the University of Southern Denmark/University of Copenhagen (Denmark) in 2011, and the University of Otago (New Zealand) in 2013. With a change in hemisphere for each conference the IOERC typically takes place every 2–2.5 years. The 7th IOERC at CBU, was the first time the conference had been hosted outside of Europe or Australasia. The discussion about the need for an IOERC began in 2001 when a group of outdoor education researchers gathered at the Iron Bark Centre in Victoria, Australia. Their original vision “was built on a perceived need to see the outdoors develop as a significant discipline which engage[s] with and is informed by social, educational, cultural and other theoretical frameworks” (Humberstone, 2009, no page numbers). Essentially, the vision was to “foster the development of its critical dimension”, because outdoor education had tended to float about in “splendid isolation, perhaps similar to leisure studies around 20 years ago” (Humberstone, 2009, no page numbers). One might ask why a critical and reflective forum is necessary for outdoor education research. The answer is complex and connected to how scholars and their institutions perceive the “discipline.” Even characterizing outdoor education as a discipline is contested. Some suggest outdoor education is a field of study; others argue it is simply practice and programming. A full discussion of this tension is available in Dyment and Potter (2015) and Potter and Dyment (2016). The theme of the 1st IOERC conference was, “Whose Journeys: Where and Why?: The ‘Outdoors’ and ‘Adventure’ as Social and Cultural Phenomena: Critical Exploration of Relations Between Individuals, ‘Others’ and the Environment.” The introduction to the 1st IOERC conference proceedings states: The outdoor sector provides, makes available or engages with outdoor adventure experiences for a variety of purposes including, education, youth and social work, management development, therapy, leisure and recreation. In most cases, but not all, these experiences occur in ‘natural’ environments. Consequently, diverse outdoor traditions have emerged not only in relation with specific geographical landscapes, but also as a consequence of particular cultural, social and political contexts. Furthermore, ‘old’ romanticised ideals of outdoor leisure are becoming reconstructed though the demands of ‘mass-market’ consumers for ‘authentic’ adventure. Arguably, much outdoor experience, particularly that [End Page viii] concerned with forms of outdoor learning, is rarely subjected to critical analyses where it may be located within broader theoretical frameworks and diverse schools of thought. (Humberstone, Brown, & Richards, 2003, p. 7) With the 1st IOERC providing a forum for critical discussion on adventure and the outdoors, delegates saw a useful...