Struggle For Education Research Articles

Accessibility on the Move: Investigating how Students with Disabilities at the University of Manitoba Experience the Body, Self, and Physical Activity

The "ivory tower" is gradually beginning to open its doors to students with disabilities. Although scholarship on the learning experiences of students with disabilities at university is burgeoning, there is an absence of qualitative craftsmanship that has investigated the physical activity experiences of these students, most particularly in the Canadian context. Using Pierre Bourdieu's theoretical framework as a lens to consider both the bodily and social effects of disablement, I adopted a thematic analytic approach to describe the activity experiences of 12 disabled students at the University of Manitoba (UofM) in Winnipeg, Canada. The students described threatened body-self relationships. They also regarded on campus physical activity as a site of both pleasure and pain. Finally, the students explained what inclusive physical activity means within the context of higher education. By describing the movement experiences and desires of disabled university students at the UofM, this study contributes toward the ongoing struggle for inclusive higher education.

Book Review: San Miguel, Chicana/o Struggles for Education: Activism in the Community by Martiza De La Trinidad

Book Review: San Miguel, Chicana/o Struggles for Education: Activism in the Community by Martiza De La Trinidad

Resident teachers and feedback: time to raise the bar.

Resident teachers and feedback: time to raise the bar.

Chicana/o Struggles for Education: Activism in the Community by Guadalupe San Miguel (review)

Chicana/o Struggles for Education: Activism in the Community by Guadalupe San Miguel (review)

Feminism and the Politics of Travel After the Enlightenment

Feminism and the Politics of Travel After the Enlightenment

Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr. Chicana/o Struggles for Education: Activism in the Community.

Guadalupe San Miguel, Jr. Chicana/o Struggles for Education: Activism in the Community.

Chicana/o Struggles for Education: Activism in the Community

Chicana/o Struggles for Education: Activism in the Community

Poverty, inequality and mathematics performance: the case of South Africa’s post-apartheid context

South Africa’s recent history of apartheid, its resultant high levels of poverty and extreme social and economic distance between rich and poor continue to play-out in education in complex ways. The country provides a somewhat different context for exploring the relationship between SES and education than other countries. The apartheid era only ended in 1994, after which education became the vehicle for transforming society and a political rhetoric of equity and quality education for all was prioritized. Thus education focused on redressing inequalities; and major curriculum change, with on-going revisions, was attempted. In this sense engagement with SES and education became foregrounded in policy, political discourse and research literature. Yet for all the political will and rhetoric little has been achieved and indicators are that inequality has worsened in mathematics education, where it is particularly pronounced. This paper proposes that continued research confirming poverty–underachievement links, which suggest an inevitability of positive correlations, is unhelpful. Instead we should explore issues of disempowerment and agency, constraints and possibilities, and the complex interplay of factors that create these widely established national statistics while simultaneously defying them in particular local contexts. Such research could shift the focus from a discourse of deficit and helplessness towards a discourse of possibilities in the struggle for equity and quality education for all.

‘Let me in, I have the right to be here’: Black youth struggle for equal education and full citizenship after the Brown decision, 1954–1969

Abstract An area often neglected in the historiography of public education in the United States is the contributions made by black youth in the fight for equal education. During the 1950s and 1960s, when the struggle for equal education reached its apex, black youth were an essential part of the struggle. This article centeres the activism of black youth by illuminating how they actively fought for educational equality after the Brown decision and how their activism was linked to a larger struggle for full citizenship. Moreover, I examine the multiple forms of direct action black students utilized to promote citizenship education. By elevating their usage of walk-ins, walkouts and sit-ins, I argue that black youth advocated for more than just access into a building previously denied to them. Their activism was deeply rooted in the tenets of citizenship education. Using empirical data from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) files, A. Philip Randolph papers, Bayard Rustin papers and historical black and national newspapers, this article shows how equal education was inextricably linked to citizenship education and both would have to be accomplished before educational equality could be obtained. While the Brown decision legally reshaped public schools in the United States, it was the advocacy of black youth – particularly those living in the South, along with civil rights and teacher organizations that declared second-class education unacceptable. This work adds to scholarly works on citizenship education by illuminating the various ways black youth used civic participation as a tool to achieve educational equality. I conclude by suggesting that teachers and students can benefit from this historical work because it portrays the different ways students can participate in educational reform while simultaneously giving teachers ideas of how to support and empower their students for civic engagement.

From the Struggle for Education to the Transformation of Society

We are three voices at a public university in northern Chile. This essay is about how social science take into account or ignore the current political tension produced by social movements against neoliberalism . We have three stories (student activist, student federation leader, and scholar in motion) that reveal the current state of public education in Chile, which has been determined by marketplace logic and neoliberalism. We discuss the relationship between the global crisis of capitalism and the fundamental role of education as an arena of critical thinking for the training of students and scholars committed to democracy and social justice. We believe that the current historical movement policy opens a possibility of achieving real democracy by confronting the commodification of life and fundamental rights.

Silencing the Subaltern: Nation-State/Colonial Governmentality and Bilingual Education in the United States

This article introduces the concept of nation-state/colonial governmentality as a framework for analyzing the ways current language ideologies marginalize the language practices of subaltern populations. Specifically, the article focuses on the innate limitations of re-appropriating nation-state/colonial governmentality in an attempt to advocate for the subaltern. It offers the case of bilingual education in the United States to demonstrate this point. It argues that although the struggle for bilingual education in the United States re-appropriated nation-state/colonial governmentality in ways that advocated for language-minoritized populations, this re-appropriation was eventually reincorporated into hegemonic language ideologies that continue to reproduce colonial relations of power that erase the fluid language practices of language-minoritized students. The article ends with some recommendations for moving toward a language ideology that allows subaltern voices to be heard outside of colonial relations of power.

The struggle for comprehensive education in the Netherlands: the representation of secondary school innovation in Dutch newspaper articles in the 1970s

This article focuses on how Dutch newspapers represented the debate in the Netherlands in the 1970s on comprehensive education and thus influenced the Dutch Middle School experiment. Wiborg’s identification of key factors of success in Scandinavia was used as a point of reference. The article shows that these key factors did not exist in the Netherlands because of the polarisation of liberals and social democrats. Furthermore, the article shows how newspapers played different roles, varying from disseminators of new ideas to sparking debate and from communicators of political views to a barometer, consequently influencing the political strategies chosen.

When the Sisters Said Farewell: The Transition of Leadership in Catholic Elementary Schools by Michael P. Caruso (review)

Reviewed by: When the Sisters Said Farewell: The Transition of Leadership in Catholic Elementary Schools by Michael P. Caruso Roseanne McDougall SHCJ When the Sisters Said Farewell: The Transition of Leadership in Catholic Elementary Schools. By Michael P. Caruso S.J. Lanham, MD: R&L Education, 2012. 170170 pp. $24.95. As a short study, this delightful, substantive book traces the nineteenth-century roots of Catholic education in the United States and demonstrates how both the influx of nearly eight million Catholic immigrants and the Nativist movement directed against them created the momentum for the establishment of Catholic schools, particularly in cities such as New York, Philadelphia, and other urban centers. While the main points of this book correspond to major historical developments, the author illustrates these points with carefully researched individual case stories. For example, the reasons for controversy over Catholics' required reading of the King James version of the Bible in Philadelphia in the 1840s are explained. In turn, the cases are described in such clarity combined with simplicity that one gets the sense of almost having been there. Through Caruso's narration, the reader learns why the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884 both mandated the establishment of a Catholic school in every parish where feasible and also strongly urged parents to send their children to these schools. Having established the historical context for the Catholic parochial school system, the book then focuses on (1) the search for a most precious resource, qualified teaching and administrative personnel (the sisters), (2) the implications of Vatican II for those same personnel and thereby for the schools, and (3) the consequent transition to lay teaching and administrative personnel, with the hope of maintaining the schools as vibrant centers of Catholic life into the future. While the focus of the book is on the schools, the author comments early on that "The sisters reached out not only to Catholics but to all people of goodwill; for many Americans they were the face of Catholicism in the United States." Drawing upon correspondence between the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Sisters of St. Louis in Ireland, Caruso delineates the sometimes intricate process of negotiation which led to the mutual decision that a given religious congregation of sisters would teach in a particular parish. Thus, the book sheds light on relatively little-known internal aspects of the staffing of the schools. Further, while many would have assumed that the sisters were academically prepared to teach, Caruso delineates the struggle for professional teacher education, and highlights the mentoring process whereby a more experienced sister was assigned to provide direction in teaching for younger sisters. He points to the ingenuity of the sisters who, in addition to completing degrees, spent additional time in collaborating through the mentoring process. In what may be a seminal insight, Caruso also describes some strong similarities between the setting of the novitiate where the sisters received their religious training on the one hand, and the school where the sisters provided education to children on the other. Hence, the discipline and habits (no pun intended) in which the sisters were themselves formed had implications for the sometimes memorable style they later exercised in the classroom and school. The concluding chapters of the book offer the author's insights towards the legacy of the schools, including possible roles the sisters might continue to play. The book is well-researched and contains two appendices, one of letters and another with titles of pertinent documents. It will have genuine appeal for anyone associated with Catholic elementary schools in the United States due to the rich variety of perspectives it offers. Roseanne McDougall SHCJ La Salle University Copyright © 2013 American Catholic Historical Society

Teacher Unions in Political Transitions: The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) and the Dying Days of Apartheid, 1990–1993

The negotiation to end apartheid – which was initiated in secret in the 1980s – solidified in the 1990s when FW de Klerk unbanned the African National Congress (ANC), South African Communist Party (SACP), Pan African Congress (PAC) and other political and social movements, as well as struggle icons, prominent among whom was Mandela. The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) emerged within the euphoria surrounding Mandela’s release and the negotiations to end apartheid. SADTU combined its educational struggles with the political struggle to end apartheid rule. Drawing on documentary (mainly archival), newspaper reports and oral evidence, this article examines SADTU’s struggles for recognition, its resistance against education restructuring, and its defiance campaign against inspection from 1990–1993. I suggest that SADTU’s contentions during the period were rooted in the political struggle to end apartheid rule since it regarded the apartheid education departments as illegitimate structures needing to be dismantled. In addition, the socio-economic undercurrents that characterized the transition were carried into education restructuring and thus pushed SADTU into militancy.

For the public good: Urban youth advocacy and the fight for public education

Abstract This article examines a grassroots movement for public education that has recently emerged to challenge corporate-style education reformers. These reformers became well-established in the early 21st century promoting the business strategies of capitalism such as school choice, competition, privatization, and closure. To understand how and why local communities are fighting for public education while embracing a much older, traditional notion of the common good, this article takes Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a case study, situating the struggle for public education in historical and political contexts. It also places the corporate-reform and grassroots movements in a social and economic framework, and it pays special attention to the urban youth who stand at the center of much of the policy debate on public education, considering the ways in which young people themselves express political agency through activism.

Performing the Political Self: a study of identity making and self representation in the autobiographies of India's first generation of parliamentary women

Although India boasts a number of prominent women politicians, there remains little critical scholarship on the agency and contribution of Indian women in politics post independence. Responding to this gap, this article explores how identity and agency is articulated in the autobiographies of three influential women who were part of India's first generation of women in post independence politics: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (1903–1988), Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900–1990) and Renuka Ray (1904–1997). Using the framework of intersubjectivity—the notion of the construction of the self through a wider network of social relations and identities—this article analyses how these women performed the political self in their autobiographies by positioning their lives within a larger matrilineal lineage in their narratives. Situating themselves as the inheritors of their mothers' and grandmothers' struggle for social reform and education, who in their own lives take this legacy forward by their entry into political activism and statecraft, they emerge as pioneers in their public careers. Through their encouragement and criticism of their daughters' and granddaughters' generation, they both distinguish their specific generational contribution, but also put forward a challenge to this new generation to return to the Gandhian values and developmental strategies that shaped their political world view.

The Struggle for Critical Teacher Education: How Accreditation Practices Privilege Efficiency Over Criticality and Compliance over Negotiation

In this article, the author uses a case study approach to explore and analyze a conflict within the Professional Education Unit (PEU) at her university. While the controversy seemed to focus on differing epistemologies concerning critical and traditional pedagogy for teacher preparation, the intensity of the clash suggested there were additional forces at work. The author argues that in this particular case, the undertow of a technical rational perspective, generated by an educational accrediting agency, privileged efficiency over criticality and compliance over negotiation. In addition, she suggests that the power structures embedded in the processes of accreditation interfered with unity supported by a common conceptual framework. The article concludes with recommendations on how an institution might use the educational ideals within their conceptual framework, required for accreditation, to liberate its authors from constrained communication that is bounded by a technical discourse.

Tiger Moms and Liberal Elephants: Private, Supplemental Education among Korean-Americans

This article discusses the transnational industry of private, supplemental education (PSE) among ethnic Koreans, especially in Southern California. PSE offers a unique vantage point to examine the educational struggles and values of students, parents and teachers. A “Tiger Mom” educational culture reflects the extreme competition for elite, educational credentials, which can foster academic cheating and racial prejudices among Korean-Americans. In response, a growing number of educators, parents and students espouse more traditional, liberal-humanistic values of developing individual interests and talents and of mutual respect among diverse persons. This “Liberal Elephant” culture receives significant support from some members of actively proselytizing, Christian churches.

THE VIRTUAL PROFESSOR: A NEW MODEL IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Traditional colleges and universities face a unique challenge of increasing the scope of educational operations to accommodate the growing demand for online education. While online enrollments in higher education have grown at a rapid pace, faculty resources have remained stagnant at many institutions due to budget constraints and a sluggish economy. Many administrators in higher education struggle to find a balance between meeting course demands and maintaining quality of instruction while adhering to financial constraints. This paper proposes a model to manage costs by supplementing traditional faculty with virtual faculty who would operate primarily in an online environment and work for a fraction of their market costs. The concept of the virtual professor is facilitated by modern technology that allows remote participation in all aspects of academic responsibility ranging from campus meetings to student advising. This model is of particular significance to universities that are located in geographical areas where it may be difficult to attract and retain qualified faculty.

El debate entre la educación republicana y la neoliberal en Chile

Este artículo forma parte de un proyecto de investigación sobre la concepción neoliberal de la educación comparándola con la republicana y la de Dewey. El movimiento estudiantil chileno combina masivas manifestaciones contra el actual sistema educativo con una propuesta de un nuevo proyecto, concitando el apoyo mayoritario de la ciudadanía. Los conservadores defienden el sistema actual, basado en la concepción neoliberal de Hayek y Friedman, instaurada durante la dictadura de Pinochet y perfeccionada en el período postautoritario. Los dirigentes estudiantiles y los sectores críticos luchan por una educación pública gratuita y de calidad, y por el fin del lucro en la educación privada. Esta postura articula el republicanismo de la historia nacional con el de las tradiciones europeas libertarias.