Under-resourced Schools Research Articles

You make me feel like dancing: the effects of dance exposure on children’s cultural interests and social-emotional development

Stratification by race and socioeconomic status generates disparities in cultural exposure and consumption. Though public education can serve as a mechanism for addressing social inequalities, schools with high concentrations of low-income and minority students often lack the resources to provide enriching cultural experiences. Efforts to make cultural exposure and consumption more equitable remain stymied by school and neighborhood stratification, as well as by lingering questions about the value of cultural consumption for students. Employing a randomized research design, we analyze the effects of elementary students in under-resourced school participating in a collaborative dance program provided by a major ballet company. We find that participation increases students’ enthusiasm for dance and sense of self-efficacy. Students with prior lower levels of arts and culture exposure demonstrate the largest gains in self-efficacy and experience an increase in their sense of school connectedness. Male students, who were less enthusiastic about dance prior to the program, show the largest increase in dance enthusiasm. These findings demonstrate that targeted efforts by schools and arts organizations can play a meaningful role in students’ cultural capital acquisition, which in turn leads to higher student self-efficacy and sense of belonging, particularly for students with lower levels of arts and cultural learning experience.

Inclusive Education and Social Inequality: An Anthropological Study of Social Mobility and Access to Education

This research investigates the multifaceted relationship between inclusive education and social inequality, focusing on the potential of inclusive educational practices in Europe, with a specific case study in Bulgaria, to promote social mobility for marginalized populations. Grounded in an anthropological framework, the study seeks to understand how structural and cultural barriers impede access to equitable education for marginalized groups, with particular attention to Roma students, one of the most disadvantaged communities in Europe. By examining the educational landscape in Bulgaria, this research delves into the lived experiences of educators, psychologists, and occupational therapists working to implement inclusive education within a system often fraught with discrimination, limited resources, and institutional challenges. The qualitative research, conducted in Sofia from February to April 2024, draws on interviews, participant observation, and focus groups to capture the nuanced challenges and successes of those involved in delivering inclusive education. Findings reveal that despite national policies aimed at promoting inclusion, significant barriers persist, particularly for Roma students, who continue to face segregation, prejudice, and limited educational opportunities. Educators frequently report difficulties in accommodating the diverse needs of students within under-resourced schools, while psychological and cultural biases further hinder effective inclusion. Moreover, the study identifies a critical gap between policy and practice, where inclusive education policies are often poorly implemented due to a lack of cultural competence and institutional support. This gap has direct implications for the social mobility of marginalized students, as education remains a key determinant of their future opportunities. The findings underscore the urgent need for culturally responsive teaching strategies and support systems that are tailored to the unique socio-economic and cultural contexts of marginalized communities. These strategies must go beyond superficial inclusion to actively dismantle the entrenched inequalities that exist within educational institutions. This study emphasizes the pivotal role of inclusive education in addressing social inequality and promoting social mobility. However, it also highlights the significant work that remains to be done to ensure that inclusive education is truly accessible and effective for all, particularly for marginalized groups like the Roma. By proposing a series of culturally sensitive and contextually informed recommendations, the research advocates for a more holistic approach to inclusive education that can better support the academic and social advancement of marginalized students, ultimately fostering greater equity in educational outcomes and social mobility.

Sociological barriers to equitable digital learning: A data-driven approach

This review paper examines the sociological barriers to equitable digital learning through a data-driven approach. By analyzing key sociological factors such as socioeconomic status, race, gender, and geographic location, the study identifies significant disparities in access to and outcomes of digital learning. Theoretical frameworks, including social and cultural capital and the digital divide, are used to contextualize these barriers. The paper synthesizes existing research, revealing how low-income, minority, and rural students face compounded challenges that hinder their educational progress in digital environments. Key findings highlight the urgent need for targeted policy interventions to bridge these gaps. Recommendations include increased funding for under-resourced schools, subsidized internet access, digital literacy training, and improved rural broadband infrastructure. Future research should focus on the intersectionality of these barriers and the long-term impact of digital learning disparities. The study underscores the importance of equitable digital learning in fostering an inclusive educational environment that prepares all students for the digital age.

Guidelines for Increasing Access to Mindfulness-Based Interventions in Under-Resourced Schools

AbstractMindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in schools have become increasingly popular, as these practices can be integrated into classrooms by teachers, adapted to fit the individual needs of students or groups of students, and implemented as a schoolwide commitment to improve well-being. Research shows that MBIs are broadly effective for improving a variety of social, emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes for diverse students. However, implementation of MBIs in under-resourced schools presents a unique set of challenges for school staff. This paper addresses this issue constructively by providing guidelines for increasing access to MBIs in under-resourced schools. First, we provide a brief overview of common ecological barriers—and potential solutions—to implementing MBIs in under-resourced schools at the individual-level, team-level, school-level, and macro-level. This overview is followed by recommendations for de-implementing outdated interventions and implementing MBIs instead. Finally, we complete our guidelines by describing the Adapting Strategies to Promote Implementation Reach and Equity (ASPIRE) framework and how this heuristic can be applied to guide culturally sensitive and equity-focused adaptations to MBIs in under-resourced schools.

Communities of practice and the elevation of urban elementary teacher discourse about critical pedagogy of place

Children who live in under-resourced communities and attend under-resourced schools deserve access to high-quality teachers and educational opportunities to support their success and well-being. This study emerged from a professional development (PD) for urban teachers working in such schools, to expand educational opportunities for elementary students through outdoor science teaching. Engaging frameworks of communities of practice (CoP) and critical pedagogy of place (CPP), this critical ethnographic study investigates how urban elementary teachers engage in discourse about critical issues of place. Additionally, the investigation seeks to understand how a CoP supports such discourse. The primary data for this study were multiple sets of researcher field notes collected from participant teachers during virtual spring and in-person summer PD. Over the course of the PD, participants shifted from viewing their outdoor teaching spaces with a deficit perspective to an asset-focused one. As they visited one another’s teaching sites, the CoP the teachers were a part of created opportunity for discourse about social justice linked to issues of place within their particular school neighborhoods. The ability of urban elementary teachers to connect social justice to issues of place and to the teaching of science has implications for countering the injustice that characterizes many urban communities in the USA and elsewhere.

Exploring the potential of digital storytelling in a widening participation context

ABSTRACT Background Digital storytelling combines traditional storytelling with digital technologies. Although recognised as a powerful creative method across many domains, its application in the context of widening participation remains underexplored. Purpose This study from Australia sought to investigate teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and limitations of using digital storytelling in a widening participation programme. Methods Five partner schools engaged in a programme that involved creating a digital narrative about students’ post-school futures. A total of 36 teachers delivering the 10-week programme to students of 13–14 years of age participated in focus groups, with 12 completing post-delivery surveys. Data were analysed qualitatively. Findings The analysis suggested that, according to the teacher participants, digital narrative can be an effective tool for maximising student engagement in widening participation activities. However, emphasis was placed on the impact of the digital divide, which disproportionately affects students from low socioeconomic backgrounds in under-resourced school environments. Conclusions The study highlights the potential of using digital storytelling in a widening participation context. It also underscores how support for developing teacher and student digital literacies, as well as reliable access to technology and infrastructure, needs to be in place if the digital narrative is to be strongly embedded into future widening participation outreach activities.

The Effectiveness of Flipped Classroom Pedagogy in Promoting learning engagement in Organic Chemistry in Grade-12 Students in the Context of South Africa and Covid-19

ABSTRACT Technology-mediated flipped classroom pedagogy has been increasingly adopted at the university level owing to its potential efficacy in improving student engagement and performance while reducing dropout rates. However, at the high-school level, particularly in under-resourced schools, traditional face-to-face teaching which does not promote active learning persists. There is a paucity of research on the effectiveness of the flipped classroom in promoting engagement at these high schools. Research shows that organic chemistry, rated as difficult and associated with ineffective teaching, results in diminished learning engagement. Consequently, a mixed-methods study focusing on Grade-12 students studying organic chemistry was conducted during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. The Grade-12 participants were randomly placed into two groups – experimental and control – and were taught using flipped classrooms and traditional face-to-face teaching method, respectively. Data were collected using surveys (quantitative) and semi-structured interviews (qualitative). Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential (t-tests) analyses. Qualitative data were subjected to thematic, content and comparative analyses. Both analyses drew from the engagement theory and found that flipped classroom was effective in fostering learning engagement. The study contributes to the engagement theory by closing the highlighted gap while highlighting interesting factors at play at the high-school level.

Understanding School Leadership’s Influence on Teacher Retention in High-Poverty Settings: An Exploratory Study in the U.S.

Research has identified principal leadership as one of the most salient school-level predictors of teacher retention. However, the survey-based quantitative nature and specific survey questions used in this research make it difficult to discern which leadership behaviors or approaches contribute most to teacher retention. As a result, school leaders and those responsible for preparing and/or employing them lack clear, research-based information about specific practices that could be effectively utilized, particularly in high-poverty schools. This qualitative case study, set in a high-poverty U. S. elementary school with high retention rates, utilized Simon and Johnson’s (2015) framework of how principal behaviors that increase teacher retention in the quantitative research are exhibited in under-resourced schools. The study generates qualitative understandings of how a principal’s actions contributed to retention by reaffirming a mission to serve high-poverty students, recognizing teachers for their work, developing and fostering within-faculty relationships, strengthening relationships with families, and providing disciplinary support. In doing so, the study also provides support for an existing framework for leading for retention and insights into how these actions may influence or be seen in survey responses used in survey-based research.

THE FAR-REACHING EFFECTS OF POVERTY ON CHILDREN: IMPACTS ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

This article explores the profound impact of poverty on children's health, education, and future opportunities. Children living in poverty face disparities in health outcomes, including higher rates of chronic conditions and mental health disorders. Educational barriers such as attending under-resourced schools and facing external challenges impede academic success and limit future prospects. The long-term consequences of poverty on children's future opportunities underscore the need for comprehensive strategies to address systemic inequities. By investing in early childhood education, healthcare, and social support programs, society can mitigate the effects of poverty on vulnerable children and create a more equitable future for all.

Exploring Relations between Teachers’ Language- and Code-Based Writing Supports to Early Literacy and Vocabulary Learning in Children with Language Vulnerabilities

Early writing is a critical factor in children’s literacy development and academic success. This study observed and analyzed videos from twenty-eight teachers working in prekindergarten, kindergarten, and first-grade classrooms in under-resourced schools. The coding process focused on categorizing the type (language- and code-based) and demand (low- and high-demand) of strategies that teachers used to support children’s development of the foundational skills for early writing. We use the Not So Simple View of Writing as a framework to outline which writing-related skills (specifically, vocabulary and literacy) are important to explore. Multilevel models explored unique links between teachers’ (N = 28) supports for various early writing-related component skills, as well as children’s (N = 324) vocabulary and early literacy outcomes. The findings demonstrated that, regardless of grade level, teachers tended to emphasize code-based skills over language-based ones as children composed. Multilevel models showed that the vocabulary and literacy skills of children improved in classrooms where teachers provided higher levels of both high-demand language- and code-based writing support. The findings indicate that teachers’ support for children’s translation and transcription processes during composing may result in reciprocal and mutually beneficial effects on the foundational component skills of writing.

Does instructional leadership drive educational improvement in South Africa? Evidence from Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analysis

ABSTRACT Quality school leadership and management are important determinants of teaching and learning quality. According to South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP), principals should provide administrative and curriculum leadership to schools. This study investigated the improvement between 2015 and 2019 Grade 9 mathematics scores in South Africa, and explored the extent to which the difference could be related to instructional leadership. Using the Oaxaca-Blinder (OB) decomposition technique, the performance gap is decomposed into a part that is associated with changes in the number of educational inputs, such as student, teacher, and school/principal characteristics, and a part that is associated with changes in the efficiency of the educational inputs. The findings suggest that instructional leadership variables are positively associated with increased mathematics scores but the return to student achievement was lower in 2019 than 2015. The findings also revealed that instructional leadership led to less improvements among under-resourced schools in 2019.

Community perceptions of contributors and solutions related to neighborhood violent crime: A qualitative interview study.

The current study is part of a community engaged planning phase and aimed to identify perceptions related to the prevalence of violent crime, crime contributors, the relationship between the community and law enforcement, and potential interventions and solutions. In March 2021, semistructured interviews were conducted with individuals from five groups who resided or worked in Bessemer, Alabama: (1) Law Enforcement, (2) Residents, (3) Civic Leaders, (4) Community Leaders, and (5) Victims of Crime. Interviews lasted approximately 60 min and were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed according to the guidelines of thematic analysis using NVivo 12. Emerging themes were examined in accordance with the CDC Social-Ecological Model: A Framework for Prevention. Participants (N = 18) were 50.0% female and 77.8% African American with an age range of 25-59 (mean = 43.4 years). Themes that emerged related to crime were: (1) impact, (2) contributors, and (3) solutions. Results indicate that impacts of violent crime at the individual level focused on fear, which led to widespread mental health issues. Relationship level impacts included a lack of trust of law enforcement and neighbors, and community level impacts were decreased neighborhood social cohesion as well as decreased safety. At the societal level, the poor reputation of the city was consistently highlighted. For contributors of crime, being a youth under age 30, drugs, and money were discussed as factors at the individual level. At the relationship level, participants mentioned poor parenting and gangs as crime contributing factors to violent crime. Furthermore, contributing issues related to underresourced schools as well as a poor relationship with law enforcement were brought up at the community level. Similarly, poverty was the overarching contributing issue at the societal level. Solutions that emerged included: education and training in life skills, focusing on young people, family/parenting, conflict resolution programs, programs within schools, improved relationships with law enforcement, and inclusive economic opportunities. Intervention plans are discussed that can merge these stakeholder findings with other data sources.

Examining College Students’ Attitudes Toward Poverty During the Adult Role of the Community Action Poverty Simulation

Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) and Extension professionals need to understand the lived experience of poverty because it affects every aspect of an individual’s life. Poverty is related to inadequate nutrition and food insecurity, lack of access to health care, insufficient child care, unsafe neighborhoods, lack of affordable housing, under-resourced schools, and a lower quality of life. Attitudes toward poverty vary widely among Americans and can be categorized as either internal/individual attributions (e.g., laziness, welfare dependency, etc.) or systemic/structural attributions (e.g., unemployment, inflation, etc.). Individuals holding internal attributions toward poverty are more likely to have negative feelings toward impoverished individuals. As such, efforts to educate FCS college students, Extension agents, and all Americans on the day-to-day reality of those in poverty are important. Extension-sponsored Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) programs are effective in changing participants’ attitudes toward poverty. This research used Reflexive Thematic Analysis to analyze 56 reflection papers written by college students enrolled in a family resource management course. Three themes emerged from the research: (a) empathy, (b) a turn from internal attributions, and (c) systematic attributions. This research has implications for Extension and FCS professionals offering CAPS programming in higher education settings.

Teacher’s Pedagogical Strategies in Under-Resourced Rural Schools in South Africa

The persistent and severe under-resourcing of rural public schools is one of the challenges that the South African educational system is faced with. Extensive research has conclusively demonstrated that adequate resources are one of the essential elements that augment quality teaching. However, rural schools are faced with disparities due to a lack of resources that negatively shape teaching and learning. This study explored teachers’ pedagogical strategies in rural schools with limited resources and how they teach to ensure that teaching and learning occur under such dire circumstances. The study was based on an interpretive paradigm, using a qualitative approach with a case study research design. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 14 teachers in two schools purposively selected as participants. The study’s findings showed that teachers in under-resourced rural schools use various pedagogical strategies such as background-based knowledge teaching and cooperative learning to ensure effective classroom instruction and learning. The study concluded that the various pedagogical strategies of teachers in rural under-resourced schools assist in mitigating the challenges of under-resourcing. Thus, approaches directly focused on supporting rural schoolteachers such as customised teacher professional development and establishing a sustainable funding model for rural school developments should be established to improve instruction and learning standards in rural schools. Keywords: Pedagogical Strategies, Rural Schools, Under-Resourced Schools

Teacher Perspectives on Effective Restorative Practice Implementation: Identifying Programmatic Elements that Promote Positive Relational Development in Schools

This study highlights effective components of restorative practice programming from the perspective of teachers involved in piloting a restorative practices initiative. Data were collected through 10 qualitative interviews at the study site - an under-resourced, urban school. Findings capture teacher perceptions of how two elements of the program design that are very often missing from restorative practice implementation made distinct contributions to an overall positive impact: (1) a full-time restorative practices coordinator; one that focuses exclusively on restorative practice implementation and does not also hold another role at the school; and (2) a student leadership program that trains and empowers students in restorative practices and relational climate building. Drawing on Relational-Cultural Theory, the discussion emphasizes that strengthening relational bonds has potential to enhance school climates for marginalized youth, which is critical to improving outcomes in under-resourced schools.

Why Do Students Attend STEM Clubs, What Do They Get Out of It, and Where Are They Heading?

This research investigated what motivated and sustained the involvement of 376 students in culturally relevant, afterschool STEM clubs at four rural, under-resourced schools. A longitudinal, convergent parallel mixed methods research design was used to investigate participants’ participation in and perceptions of the clubs, their motivations to attend, and their future goals, over three years. Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) served as a guiding theoretical and analytical framework. Overall, students who attended the clubs were African American (55%), female (56%), and 6th graders (42%), attended approximately half of the clubs (43%), and agreed with quality measures on the STEM Club Survey (M = 4.0/5). Students interviewed (n = 131) were most likely (99%) to describe what they enjoyed (intrinsic value), what was useful to them (utility value; 55%), personally important (42%; attainment value), or related to their personal or collective identity (40%). Most participants (78%) planned to attend a 4-year university and expressed interest in at least one STEM career (77%); highest attendees (48%) expressed the most interest. Our study reveals that a culturally relevant, afterschool STEM club can motivate underserved students to participate, learn, feel a sense of belonging as a club member, and positively influence their college and career pathways.

Factors inhibiting effective quality learning and teaching: a case of five schools in the EC Province of South Africa

This article analyses factors that inhibit the quality of learning and teaching in one of the provinces of South Africa. The interpretive approach was used together with face-to-face interviews to collect data from five secondary schools. Two participants were interviewed in each school in the OR Tambo Coastal District in the Eastern Cape. Findings revealed that owing to large numbers of learners in the classroom, teachers’ workload is increased. Consequently, it is difficult for teachers to give feedback and provide learners with individual attention. Many under-resourced schools, such as rural schools, still face unacceptably high learner-teacher ratios and large classes in their schools. Teachers had problems in establishing discipline in their classrooms and dealing with the increasing noise level which made it difficult for learners to hear the teacher. It is recommended that School Governing Bodies should hire SGB-paid teachers. The Department of Basic Education should assist the schools with more classrooms. The Department of Education should also provide schools with resources such textbooks, big screens, overhead projectors and microphones in order for teachers to be effective.

Stratified legal consciousness of music teachers in the age of neoliberal reform

School improvement and its associated policies aim at providing a quality education, a burdensome weight which rests largely on the shoulders of teachers. To achieve such ends, policy texts have been reformed with neoliberal underpinnings, which allow private organizations to enter a space that previously operated through public institutions. In this study, I examined the lived experiences of music educators as they navigated the policy landscape of a nonprofit private organization called Teaching Music in Under-Resourced Schools (TMUS, a pseudonym). I used legal consciousness as a theoretical framework, a lens suggests that flourishing in personhood is limited to one’s ability to navigate new laws and policy structures, to analyze data. Using this framework, I found that participants worked in spaces not between public and private, but instead within both public and private. Participants who displayed a high level of legal savviness enacted policy more fluidly, while those that demonstrated legal evasiveness struggled to make decisions. Findings suggest that participants demonstrated a “stratified participation” in policy enactment, seeing policies as dynamic intersections of expectations and practical contexts. A key implication of this inquiry is that private organizations, when seen as an addition to the public space as opposed to as an alternative, can provide teachers more avenues of meaningful practice if they are conscious of the multiple sets of policies available to them.

“A Growing Relationship”: Cultivating Organizational Readiness to Influence Implementation of Policy, Systems, and Environmental (PSE) Change Programming in SNAP-Ed Funded School-Community Partnerships

ObjectiveProvide a nuanced understanding of how Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) implementers decide what programming a school is ready to implement and the organizational factors that facilitate the initial implementation of programming in schools. DesignCase studies conducted at schools during 2018–19. SettingNineteen School District of Philadelphia schools receiving nutrition programming funded by SNAP-Ed. ParticipantsInterviews were conducted with 119 school staff and SNAP-Ed implementers. A total of 138 hours of observations of SNAP-Ed programming were completed. Phenomenon of InterestHow do SNAP-Ed implementers decide what PSE programming a school is ready to implement? What organizational factors can be developed to facilitate the initial implementation of PSE programming in schools? AnalysisInterview transcripts and observation notes were coded deductively and inductively on the basis of theories of organizational readiness for programming implementation. ResultsSupplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education implementers focused on schools’ existing capacity when determining readiness for programming. Conclusions and ImplicationsFindings suggest that if SNAP-Ed implementers only focus on a school's existing capacity when assessing its readiness for programming, the school might not receive the programming it needs. Findings suggest SNAP-Ed implementers could develop a school's readiness for programming by concentrating efforts on cultivating relationships, program-specific capacity, and motivation at schools. Findings have equity implications for partnerships in underresourced schools that may have limited existing capacity and consequentially could be denied vital programming.

Gratitude and Adolescents’ Mental Health and Well-Being: Effects and Gender Differences for a Positive Social Media Intervention in High Schools

Gratitude interventions can provide cost-effective support for mental health to under-resourced schools. This study aims to better understand the effects of a promising intervention Bono et al. evaluated in 2020. Using a quasi-experimental design (where classes were assigned to a thanking app, gratitude curriculum, app + curriculum, or control condition), that evaluation found that the full (combined) intervention impacted students’ self-reported trait gratitude, anxiety, and subjective well-being (SWB) over six weeks, compared against only the control condition. However, here, we evaluated the individual intervention components’ effectiveness on students (N = 326) using multilevel modeling. As hypothesized, the full intervention impacted students’ gratitude, anxiety, and SWB, compared to the control condition, but impacted SWB more than the app-only condition, suggesting that teaching gratitude science makes thanking more meaningful. Then, we examined if stress mediated these effects. Perceived stress partially mediated the relationships of gratitude with depression and SWB and fully mediated the relationship of gratitude with anxiety. Additionally, changes in perceived stress and SWB differed by gender. Finally, we qualitatively analyzed thanks exchanges during the intervention using informal content analysis and found themes of psychological safety—a critical feature neglected in other interventions. We conclude with recommendations for optimizing school gratitude interventions.