Urban Education Research Articles

Exploring the Rationality of Chinese Migrant Education from the Perspective of Educational Equity

The theory of educational equity has become a hot topic of discussion in the education industry since its inception. As a focus of current education theory research and practical discussions in China, this paper will discuss whether migrant students, as a special subject, have received their idealized urban education in the process of population migration from rural to urban areas. In summarizing the current research showing the difficulties faced by immigrant students, the literature review method will be the main research method of this paper. By reviewing relevant articles on Chinese migration education, it is found that there are still many problems in this field, including difficulties in dealing with entrance threshold, balancing household registration policies, neglecting the cultural confidence among migrant students, and conflicts with agricultural development. With the aim of integrating the issues of migration education mentioned in existing literature, this paper hoping to provide a better way to understand the improvement of migration education.

Abandonment in the Classroom: Urban Education, Internalized Racism, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline

This qualitative study used BlackCrit theory to elucidate how white supremacist thinking plays out in Black teachers’ perceptions of and practices with students with chronic disciplinary patterns. Black teachers’ perceptions of Black students are critical to understand because Black students experience disciplinary actions, classroom push-outs, and special education referrals at a disproportionate rate. Internalized racism and racial battle fatigue are consequences of racism experienced by Black educators. Their daily experiences with racism impact how they interact with and view their Black students.

Multidisciplinary argument for the decriminalization of drugs

AbstractThis manuscript offers an overview of 11 disciplinary perspectives on the failed and destructive War on Drugs and the salutary prospects from decriminalizing drug use, including History, African American studies, Journalism, Sociology, Political Science, Cost Accounting, Urban Education, Counseling, Psychology, Nursing, and Public Health. This offers a roadmap for counselor social and political advocacy with drug policy and highlights community collaboration opportunities.

Anti-racist research practice partnerships as critical education: dismantling the master’s house with their own tools?

ABSTRACT This paper reflects upon “Justice Now Coalition” (JNC), an anti-racist research practice partnership (RPP). The Coalition drew from the Black Emancipatory Action Research (BEAR) Framework as well as Black feminist, Afro-futurist, and critical race epistemologies to answer two research questions: 1) How can an urban education RPP that includes academic, community, and youth partners engage in a collaborative inquiry process that helps to dismantle the STPP/Nexus; and 2) How does engagement in the collaborative inquiry process influence research projects, group dynamics, and community members? We present a self-reflective, ethnographic case study of an anti-racist RPP that we led. We find that the collaborative inquiry teams’ primary way to dismantle the STPP/Nexus is to center Black children. They approached their work not from a policy change perspective, but in the co-creation of a space where Black youth speak, are heard, and take the agency to reimagine and reconstruct their school environment. Data also show the leadership of Black women who collaborated with partners with the intentionality of demonstrating love and critical care for Black communities. This work extends the vision of RPPs to be explicitly anti-racist and decolonizing by engaging in an Afro-futurist space in the present.

Of cebras and citizens: Kinesthetic politics in Bolivia’s transport cities

AbstractUrban planners and foreign donors have long agonized over how politics, movement, and transportation infrastructure collide in the conjoined cities of El Alto and La Paz, Bolivia. As displaced tin and silver miners migrated to El Alto in droves during the 1980s and 1990s, they banked on that transportation sector to remake their lives, investing their severance packages in the lumbering “Micro” buses and minibuses that now choke both cities’ streets. La Paz’s patchwork of neighborhoods reflects its own history—and present—of racialized class mobility. This article examines the governance politics of municipal efforts to reform pedestrian and driver behavior in cities—mundane habits of movement that are freighted with political significance. In these urban education campaigns, the ways that residents move through transportation infrastructure comprises an important dimension of what it means to be a good citizen. As youth dressed as Cebras (zebras) playfully instruct residents on responsible urban behavior, they expose the somatic and especially kinesthetic dimensions of urban governance and belonging in the city. This article argues for greater attention to the forms of bodily attunement promoted by urban education campaigns and mobilized by city residents during daily encounters with transportation infrastructure.

Getting closer to the achievement gap in urban education, promoting first-year reading success

The goal of this research was to evaluate the efficacy of Reading RACES (RR), a computer software that offers a repeated reading intervention with culturally relevant texts. This research definitely looked at how RR affected first-grade students in an urban setting's oral reading fluency (ORF) and comprehension gains, as well as whether such improvements would transfer to unfamiliar, generic texts. Five African American first-graders at risk of failing to master reading skills were chosen to take part in this research. The usage of RR and student increases in ORF and understanding were shown to be functionally related, according to the results. The ORF and understanding of rehearsed passages improved moderately too significantly for all research participants. The findings also demonstrated that even a month after the intervention, reading abilities persisted and were generalized to fresh texts. These results increase the body of prior evidence that supports RR.

Healing Schools: A Framework for Joining Trauma-Informed Care, Restorative Justice, and Multicultural Education for Whole School Reform

Trauma-informed Care (TIC), Restorative Justice (RJ), and Multicultural Education (MCE) are three approaches to school reform widely being discussed and promoted within schools. The authors of this paper, representing the fields of psychology, social work, and education, present an integrated framework that acknowledges the commonalities these three models share, as well as the ways that they complement one another by focusing our attention on different aspects of urban education. We argue that the concept of healing offers a powerful heuristic for systemic school reform — a guide for rethinking how we address pedagogical, disciplinary, curricular, and policy decisions. We are calling for the creation of “healing schools,” arguing that, 1) Schools can play a valuable role in promoting healing and well-being among the students and families with whom they engage and 2) Many of our urban schools themselves need healing because they have become systems of toxic environments for adults and youth alike. To address the need for healing in schools, we present a framework promoting four key values: relationships, safety, belonging, and agency. These values are embedded within an ecological perspective, exploring how they manifest at the internal, student, school, and community/society levels.

Mothering, Habitus and Habitat: The Role of Mothering as Moral Geography for the Inequality Impasse in Urban Education

AbstractFollowing Bourdieu, residential location as habitat may provide spatial profit when it matches with a habitus – but how? How can we conceptualize situations of mismatch between habitat and habitus, and what may they mean for urban inequalities? This article explores this topic through the lens of mothering practices in elementary schools. Qualitative interviews in two neighbourhoods in Berlin, Germany, suggest how moral geographies at intersections of class and race/ethnicity structure parents' opportunities to organize resources for children in their specific spatial contexts. It argues that mothering practices can help us see not just that, but how habitus and habitat are related. Empirically, it suggests that the moral geographies in which these schools are embedded reinforce the exclusionary consequences of their institutional practices. I theorize that the moral geographies of neighbourhoods as sites of mothering practices vis‐à‐vis the class‐based state logics in institutions may contribute to an urban impasse of educational inequality.

Inspiring, Supporting, and Propelling Urban Educators: Understanding the Effectiveness of a University-Based Induction Support Program

This research focuses on understanding the effectiveness of a university-based induction support program (ISP) instituted to support the graduates of an urban university who completed their preparation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We framed the evaluation of our ISP as participatory action research (PAR) and chose a critical theoretical perspective of adult learning and development as our theoretical lens because of the close alignment with this perspective to our college’s conceptual framework on social justice and equity. Primary data sources consisted of individual interviews with 15 key informants identified by the ISP research team. Data analyses occurred through a recursive and generative process moving between open coding using Nvivo and reflection on the literature related to critical adult learning theory and research on effective induction and coaching models. Findings included (a) the ISP as a liberating space to engage with other educators, (b) the ISP’s role as a university-based program for urban educators, (c) the ISP program’s impact on stakeholders’ professional identity, and (d) the ISP and the concept of criticality. The study also underscored the advantages of using PAR designs for program evaluation and/or accreditation inquiries focusing on continuous improvement.

Planting the Seeds of Culturally Responsive, Equity-Centered, and Trauma-Informed Attitudes Among Urban Educators

This qualitative study explored the influence of implementing a virtual culturally responsive and equity-centered trauma-informed professional development series with seven urban educators in the U.S. The study's findings suggest that a culturally responsive, equity-centered trauma-informed professional development series can enrich educators’ knowledge and awareness regarding racial trauma. Furthermore, the series has the potential to improve interpersonal interactions between teachers and students and increase student engagement. Lastly, the professional development series can help prepare educators to become confident and assertive social change agents advocating for racial equity in schools. Implications are provided for practice, research, and policy.

Disentangling the Reproductive From the Liberatory in Urban School Contexts: Trauma-Informed Practice for Racially Just Systemic Teaching

The writing in this issue is inspired and springs from what hooks and Duncan-Andrade have called critical hope. A transgressive hope invoked by critical scholars and practitioners for centuries. Hope that strives, at every turn, to break systems of oppression that produce and reproduce trauma. Hope for the ways in which we can leverage trauma-informed practice (TIP) as a practice of liberation. In this special issue, authors illuminate how TIP can advance collective goals of urban education as liberation, speaking to multiple facets of urban education, as advanced by Milner and Lomotey, with particular attention to youth voice, multidisciplinary perspectives, policy, teaching and teacher education, and families and communities.

“Showing the Good and Bad Together”: A Participatory Exploration of Strengths and School-Based Trauma with Black Elementary Youth

Current conceptualizations of trauma-informed practice in urban education spaces fail to center the strengths of Black youth, nor do they interrogate the role of schools in causing trauma. In partnership with an elementary-aged participatory Student Advisory Board, this article explores the both/and of strengths and school-based trauma for these Black youth. Through narrative analysis coupled with student art and poetry, findings highlight the normative nature of Black brilliance (Gholson et al., 2012). Situating strengths and school-based trauma together promotes a more comprehensive view of trauma, especially as it relates to liberatory trauma-informed educational practice in urban contexts.

Framing neoliberalism: A content analysis of Ley de Reforma Educativa de Puerto Rico

The American educational policy agenda has been fraught with neoliberal laws that center educational improvement and innovation (Barros, 2012). Neoliberalism operates on the premise that market competition will spur excellence in educational opportunities and decrease the education debt in marginalized communities (Fejes & Salling Olesen, 2016). Moreover, in the case of urban education systemic reforms, researchers need to endeavor how marginalized communities relay their concerns or endorsements in the media. News articles are one appropriate unit of analysis for investigating this problem. In this paper, I examine how an education reform law in Puerto Rico, Ley de Reforma Educativa de Puerto Rico (LREPR), was reported on in the four most popular newspapers on the Island. Conducting content analysis of newspaper articles produced findings that contribute to the policy literature by describing three central frames found in the media coverage of LREPR: (a) rhetoric on the “Free Selection of Schools” school voucher program, (b) the effects of mass school closures on municipalities, and (c) rhetoric on Alianza Schools—Puerto Rico’s Charter Schools Initiative. I close with how the frames depart from the Republican-leaning political affiliation of the newspapers and present a collective resistance to the neoliberal education reform policy.

Lessons From an Urban Teacher Residency Partnership

Facing teacher shortages, urban teacher frustration, and a lack of BIPOC representation in the teacher workforce, two urban institutions, a school district, and a university partnered to design, develop and implement a year-long clinical teacher residency program. Throughout the pilot and one subsequent year, data was collected through observation and open-ended questionnaires as three resident-mentor pairs engaged with students in two of the district’s elementary schools. The Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) development model (Mishra & Koehler, 2006) and Moir’s (1990) Phases of First-Year Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Teaching were used to inform program design and examine the success of program implementation. While the program did not meet the goal of increasing BIPOC representation, teachers skilled in urban education successfully entered the workforce. Valuable lessons were learned about designing residency programs that foster a sense of belonging and optimize mentor and resident development. The authors conclude clinical teacher residency shows promise as an avenue for providing novice and experienced teachers responsive support as they engage with the complex process of teacher development.

Comparing high school students’ online self-regulation and engagement in English language learning

Online self-regulation and engagement are key factors that facilitate student language learning in the physical absence of teachers. Few investigations have explored the potential impact of demographic variables such as urbanicity or ethnicity on online self-regulated learning. Such studies, however, can play a significant role in ensuring equity in education. We compared online self-regulation and engagement among three groups of secondary students from a metropolitan city and a rural area with mixed ethnicities. The ANOVA results indicated that there were significant differences between rural and urban groups, as well as between rural ethnic and urban non-ethnic groups. Partial least squares path analyses revealed commonalities and differences in the predictive relations. The rural-urban divide appears to be an important determinant of students’ online self-regulated learning. Cross-ethnic differences were also found regarding the relations between online self-regulation and engagement. This study deepens our understanding of secondary English learners from different socio-cultural- and economic backgrounds who are receiving online instruction. It calls for more efforts to close the digital divide between rural and urban education.

Acoustic Design for Urban Educational Buildings by Using Noise Tools, IBANA Calc and Ecotect

Classroom is an integral part of learning activities in educational buildings. Learning in the classroom can be effective and focused if it has a good acoustic design. Unfortunately, most educational buildings are spread out in urban areas, which have a high noise level. This research aims to find the best acoustic design for educational buildings in urban areas. By using Noise Tools, IBANA Calc and Ecotect as simulation method, the research discusses the handling of acoustic design for educational buildings in urban areas through 3 (three) things. (1) Providing a barrier with a height of 2.5 m can reduce noise in the outdoor area of the building from 47.5 to 60.9 dB; (2) The use of block concreates materials, glass laminated and metal panels on the facade of the building, reducing noise to a level of 27dB; (3) The use of framed plaster board and suspended ceiling materials, providing an acoustic response with an estimated decay at all frequencies under 3 seconds.

St. Louis at the Crossroads of Race, Empire, and Place in Urban Education Reform in the United States

St. Louis at the Crossroads of Race, Empire, and Place in Urban Education Reform in the United States

Shuttering Schools in the Gateway City: School District Viability and Black Community Relations After Mass K-12 School Closures in St. Louis, MO

ABSTRACT Since 1990, over 40% of schools have closed in the St. Louis Public Schools District (SLPSD) because of steep enrollment decline. Tracing educational trends over 30 years, I examine when, where, and why K-12 public schools closed in St. Louis in order to highlight the social conditions and policy decisions that contract contemporary urban education. I ask: What key social factors influence K-12 school closure patterns in St. Louis, Missouri? This mixed methods study summarizes analyses of data from the U.S. Department of Education, the St. Louis Public Schools District, and local news coverage to describe trends, determinants, and consequences of K-12 public school closures in St. Louis, Missouri (1990–2020). Findings demonstrated that closures in the city district were concentrated in majority-Black neighborhoods, with limited evidence of benefits to youth and communities. Findings also indicated that attempts to create educational change through the desegregation transfers program, charter school expansion, and administrative restructuring all triggered waves of closures. Drawing from community relations perspectives, I interpret mass closures as racialized policy practices that strain Black community relations and contract city districts. I argue that recurrent closures undermine youth and community development and disengage Black communities in ways that threaten district viability. Conclusions weigh whether the closure practices in the district have caused irreparable damage to Black community relations or if new policy objectives can foster long-term growth.

Negotiating Antiblackness as Non-Black Latino Men Teachers: Relational Race Politics in the Discourse on Men of Color Teachers

This article examines the ways non-Black Latino men teachers understand their relationality to (anti)blackness in urban education. While the dominant discourse surrounding men of color teachers presumes an innate allyship among all men and boys of color, the Latino men in this study describe being positioned as multicultural punishers for Black boys and needing to confront their own internalized antiblackness. This led them to challenge liberal multiculturalist beliefs in their schools, which upheld anti-Black racism. Overall, this study brings a relational-race approach to the topic of men of color teachers to help honor difference and deepen visions of racial justice.

Urban education reform in wicked times: The limits and possibilities of building civic capacity in Detroit

After decades of market-based education reforms, the landscape of urban school districts across the country have been transformed. Yet, this is neither a sign of the effectiveness of such reforms nor a widespread consensus over the contents and form of urban schooling. Education reform remains a wicked problem, particularly along racial lines, making it nearly impossible to build broad-based coalitions around the actual improvement of teaching and learning. Thus, this article seeks to address this matter as a political problem. I do so by examining a case study in Detroit, a one-year period (2015-2016) in which two education regimes emerge to fight for their version of public schooling in the final legislation for a new school district. Using Page’s (2016) strategic framework for building civic capacity, I compare the regimes’ leadership strategies and find different levels of engagement with building civic capacity. However, higher levels of engagement did not necessarily yield the desired policy outcome. I conclude by discussing the limits of building civic capacity when local control itself has been gutted by decades of market-based reform and how future strategic frameworks need to consider changes in the urban political economy as barriers to building civic capacity.