Sharon M. Ravitch

Narratives of Learning to Teach Taking on Professional Identities

This article examines the writing of new teachers in two different pathways into teaching—a university-based teacher education program and an alternative certification program. The teachers were members of a Narrative Writing Group formed by the authors to study how teachers construct a professional identity, to further understand the role of narrative and inquiry in teacher learning, and to add to conversations about the design of teacher preparation programs. An analysis of the teachers’ narratives reveals that their professional identities were shaped by their membership in a range of knowledge communities, including the Narrative Writing Group and also their schools, network of friends, and the preparation programs. The narratives of professional identity development were shaped in relationship to other people, including mentor teachers and students. Knowledge and perspectives from this writing provide critical understandings about the importance of addressing teaching as professional practice that have the potential to shape the current conversation about teacher preparation.

Developing a pedagogy of opportunity for students and their teachers Navigations and negotiations in insider action research

This article examines an action research study of a collaboratively constructed professional development program for teachers in an urban elementary school. Through the use of qualitative and quantitative methods, Wirth, a teacher and Literacy Leader for over 25 years within the research setting, studied the structure and process of this initiative and explored the issues that emerged from her work as an insider action researcher. The article examines this research process in order to explore the systemic, institutional, personal, and professional implications of engaging in school-based, practitioner-driven research that works within an action research paradigm. Key themes discussed are: 1) the contextual, relational, and systemic issues of insider action research in terms of negotiating roles as a colleague, researcher, and school leader; 2) navigating the practical and ideological spaces between facilitating change and not imposing beliefs and values; and 3) reflexivity and methodological adaptations around issues of power and authority.

Defying Normative Male Identities: The Transgressive Possibilities of Jewish Boyhood

This qualitative study discovers teenage boys whose connections to Judaism and Jewish life offered them resilience and contextual opportunities for identity development. Those who have active, positive Jewish identities describe adaptations that are more independent of adolescent peer norms and freer, in terms of masculine pressures, than less Jewishly identified boys. Finding countercultural vitality in these boys’ masculine identities, reflecting their rootedness in community support, contributes to the understanding of male development on a number of levels. For the Jewish community, the study findings underscore how critically important culturally based connections can be for boys. In a world dominated by restrictive ideals for being male, a boy’s ability to consider alternatives is likely to depend on his relationships and access to other ecological resources. And for those hoping for a better world for boys, and for everyone else, these teens’ commitments convey the essential fact, that just as children cocreate childhood, boys can help to reinvent boyhood.

Learning Together: Dialogue, Collaboration, and Reciprocal Transformation in a Nicaraguan Educational Program

This case study focuses on Semillas Digitales (Digital Seeds), a comprehensive, multiyear-applied development program in Nicaragua that fosters educational improvement and innovation in coffee farm schools through an action research approach. Informed by the concept of co-constructed collaboration, the authors, who represent multiple stakeholder groups within Semillas, reflect on the Program with a focus on an ethic of shared responsibility, open and critical dialogue, multilateral exchange, and authentic, process- and outcome-focused teamwork; they share what developing and operationalizing educational possibility within and across relational and sociopolitical contexts means and entails. The chapter explores the processes and challenges of co-constructing capacity in assets-based ways and how the design and implementation of Semillas seek to resist the expert-learner binary and impositional stance that often undergird the field of development..

Parenthood and Motivation to Change in Homeless Older Adolescents

ABSTRACT Parenthood among adolescents who are homeless is poorly studied. Understanding how these adolescents perceive parenthood is important for providing effective health care, public policy, and social services. Fifteen fathers and 16 mothers, ages 18 to 22, from a shelter in Philadelphia participated in semistructured interviews. Coding and analysis involved standard qualitative methodologies. Participants identified parenthood as an important turning point that produced motivation to change behaviors and life circumstances but noted multiple barriers to actualizing change including stigma, shame, and old patterns of behavior. Further research is needed to confirm these findings and to determine ways to support these youth in actualizing change.

A Systems Approach to Understanding Occupational Therapy Service Negotiations in a Preschool Setting

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to use a systems approach to examine informal communications, meaning those occurring outside of scheduled meetings, among stakeholders in a preschool early intervention program. This investigation expands the discussion of how occupational therapy treatment decisions are made in educational settings by using a systems model to map and understand informal interactions and connections. Eighteen participants shared their experiences, roles, and perspectives regarding the occupational therapy service decision-making process through surveys, interviews, and field notes. Participants were parents, administrators, occupational therapists, teachers, and other related service providers, with three or four members in each participant group. Data was analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics, concept mapping, and coding for themes revealed in detailed interviews and field notes. While the small sample size and single practice setting do not permit generalization of findings, the data suggest that informal communications affecting therapy decisions occurred but were unevenly distributed among stakeholders. Findings suggest the value of utilizing a systems approach to better understand informal interactions that exist apart from scheduled school meetings. Increased awareness of where imbalances exist among team communications can potentially improve practice.