Stephanie Serriere

Putting Reading First: Teaching Social Studies in Elementary Classrooms.

In this case study, the authors describe and analyze social studies education in 13 classrooms across six elementary schools in the Midwest. Reading and reading achievement dominated instructional time and intent across the schools. In the primary grades, social studies was pre-empted by reading, often relegated to an explanatory story note. In upper grades, social studies was focused on the textbook, with emphasis on literacy skills, such as the comprehension of nonfiction accounts. Teachers claimed to integrate social studies with reading, but integration was opportunistic, as happenstance, rather than systematic. This study informs efforts to retain and sustain credible social studies instruction in elementary schools. The authors recommend positions and actions that potentially can increase the quality and quantity of social studies education in elementary schools.

Student Voice in Elementary School Reform Examining Youth Development in Fifth Graders

The present research examines the developmental outcomes of elementary-aged students engaged in student voice efforts. Using a case study of fifth-grade girls, the authors compare their experiences to research examining secondary school. The authors find marked similarities in the growth of agency, belonging, competence—the ABCs of youth development. The authors also notice two additional dimensions—the need to engage in discourse that allows an exchange of diverse ideas while working toward a common goal. The authors also observed the emergence of civic efficacy, or a belief that one can make a difference in their social worlds. The authors also examine the contexts and conditions that support positive youth development in this case—scaffolding youth learning, establishing inquiry as the framework for teaching and learning, and establishing a clear vision of the school as a place that fosters student voice.

Carpet-Time Democracy: Digital Photography and Social Consciousness in the Early Childhood Classroom

Although much energy has been spent designing childrens books and curriculum to bring issues of diversity and acceptance into classrooms, perhaps the most meaningful and relevant curricular materials only require a digital camera and a space for students to talk about photos of their own classroom community, creating an organic and everyday curriculum. From over three years of research in a preschool classroom, the researcher-author tells how she uses digital photography to allow students to examine and reimagine their own social community. She revives the pedagogies of seminal social educators like Vivian Paley and Fannie Shaftel while offering a photo methodology for researchers of children who are interested in better understanding childrens peer culture. As play is perhaps the most important vehicle of social education, carving out a time and space in the school day for a reflective component with digital photography can be an interesting and empowering way for children to examine social dilemmas and confront inequities.

The role of leaders in enabling student voice

This article explores how leadership can help to enable student voice to occur in schools. We find that the relationship between teachers and the school leader is a critical context for enabling voice. Specifically, we find that the following concepts were important for efforts to enable and foster student voice: (1) clear vision of school that is incorporated deeply into practice as ‘the way we do things here’; (2) allowing opt-in strategies for teachers when possible; (3) recognizing that implementation across classrooms and personnel will vary depending on individual contexts, beliefs, and experiences.

The Role of the Elementary Teacher in Fostering Civic Efficacy.

Drawing on a three-year multimethod study of civic engagement within “Dewey Elementary,” this article identifies the contextual supports of civic efficacy. In particular, it works to map the role of the teacher in supporting the civic action and efficacy of six fifth-grade girls who requested changes to the schools existing lunch plan. An analysis presents four supports for the development of civic efficacy: building curriculum from life, asking questions, working in a diverse group, and practicing skills of civic activism. The authors conclusions point to particular social spaces and processes that facilitate civic efficacy, which can lead to better practices and policies for civic education in the younger years.

Figured Worlds of Citizenship Examining Differences Made in “Making a Difference” in an Elementary School Classroom

This article explores how two elementary school students responded to their teacher’s invitation in a civic classroom to make a difference to the world. We consider how the teacher framed the construct of civic efficacy and how the students refracted these ideas in their navigation of a civic education project. Closely analyzing these students’ experiences and responses, we question what differences are made when students are encouraged to think of themselves as citizens who can make a difference. Noting dissonances and ambivalences in the students’ responses, the conceptual resources of “figured worlds” enable an analysis of the interplay of discourses, interactions, sensory experiences, and material artifacts as civic identities are constituted. The two students’ differing responses are analyzed in relation to other figured worlds that students and teachers daily negotiate: of compliant citizenship, productive citizenship, and consumer citizenship. The overlaps, dissonances, and/or divergences in discourses and artifacts from various figured worlds of citizenship render some students more recognizable as civically “engaged” and “efficacious” than others.

Contested Spaces of a "Failing" Elementary School.

Abstract Amid the recent proliferation of teacher-led movements resisting high-stakes testing across the United States, the authors identify how a “failing” elementary school reclaimed local discourse by taking political action against top-down measures. Framed as competing modes of school reform, the authors offer the sociocultural framework of “contested spaces” to build understanding of top-down and bottom-up school reform efforts. The data are organized in three descriptive scenarios: (1) the principal of Dewey Elementary created spaces to reclaim public education as local, (2) teachers created a Facebook group called “Democracy in Action” with a corresponding call and write-in campaign to protest current political measures, and (3) parents pulled their students from taking standardized tests to an extent that merited national news coverage. Drawn from the results of interactive qualitative analysis performed with the participants, the authors examine the contextual supports in which all participants were capable, if not privileged, to act. Conclusions show how school reform might succeed from the bottom up via grassroots contestation in a top-down reform era. The article sets a wider goal of reimagining how schools, school leadership training, teacher education, and pedagogy might reclaim the idea of education as a democratic, public, and intellectual activity to redefine the educational landscape.

Book Review: Civic Education in the Elementary Grades: Promoting Student Engagement in an Era of AccountabilityNew York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2015, 192 pages ISBN 0807756342.

117 expertise and insights of multiple stakeholders can be factored into the design process. In the third section, “Preparing to Intervene,” Mintrop pivots toward a more didactic explanation of the design development methodology. In addition to producing interventions that are considered to be contextually appropriate to address an identified problem, Mintrop considers the success of an intervention to hinge on the research component. In order to determine that an intervention has yielded outcomes, data must be collected. For Mintrop, data ensure that outcomes of interventions are visible, and claims of effectiveness are verifiable. Without such data, interventions may not be rigorous. Without rigor, making determinations about whether an intervention can be credited for change becomes dubious, and thus, may undermine the entire process from problem identification through implementation. Mintrop concludes the text with the section, “Implementing and Iterating Interventions.” It is in this final portion that Mintrop offers leaders a way to understand fidelity in research. This is challenging because, “Implementing interventions as part of a design development study involves a lot of moving pieces . . . equity-relevant problems of practice are not simple, making learning processes unpredictable” (p. 203). Because learning environments are dynamic, designs must remain flexible to disruptions in conditions. Yet flexibility cannot allow an intervention to depart entirely from an original design, lest fidelity be compromised. An equilibrium between maintaining fidelity and retaining flexibility is critical for producing data that can attest to whether change occurred and is attributable to an intervention. Lastly in this section, Mintrop guides readers through extrapolating design principles and explaining the need for multiple iterations of implementation to allow for recalibrating and refining a design. As he describes these processes Mintrop offers suggestions on how leaders can derive an understanding of the effectiveness of their work and whether it can be scaled up and sustained. Design-Based School Improvement is a concise primer for leaders who are confounded by the volume and complexity of persistent problems in education. It systematically provides a template for identifying problems and changing conditions to bring about a solution. The text ostensibly targets leaders concerned with issues of equity. However, Mintrop does not dwell on these issues, their origins, and the structural nature of inequity. Instead, he tacitly broaches these issues suggesting that he presumes his readers are sufficiently versed in much of the background knowledge germane to their particular focus. Mintrop often commends leaders for having convictions and being concerned with social justice. However, he does not write for advocates who seek to study and understand injustice. Rather, his work is a guide for translating passion and conviction into an actionable agenda for change. The theory offered by the author is rendered in a manner that is approachable for practitioners; the vignettes offer concrete examples of the trial-and-error nature of problem solving in complex and evolving environments. Mintrop offers educational leaders a guide to provoking change that is structured without being formulaic. The work speaks to the need for malleability in educational change to ensure that the solutions are particular to the context and take into consideration those who will be immediately affected by the change.