This study evaluated the efficacy of an inquiry-based poverty curriculum unit on students' beliefs about causes of poverty, economic mobility, and helping behaviors. Participants were 89 kindergarten, first-and second-grade students (mean age = 6.81 years, SD = .93) across two intervention and two control classrooms. Students in intervention classrooms participated in a 5-to 7-week curriculum unit focused on poverty. Preintervention results showed no differences in outcomes by condition. Postintervention results indicated that, compared to the control condition, students in the intervention were more likely to say that poverty is malleable over time and less likely to suggest giving money to poor families as a way to help. There were no differences, however, by condition in the types of causal attributions that students provided (i.e., individualistic, fatalistic, and structural). Implications for theory and educational practice regarding teaching about economic inequality and mobility are discussed.
Children’s peer social worlds as part of language and literacy learning are often “hidden” from researchers and teachers alike. This article reports on collaborative research between a researcher and veteran kindergarten teacher into these hidden worlds. We draw upon ethnographic documentation (videos, interviews, field notes) and video microanalysis with two aims for our inquiry. For one, we are interested in the teacher’s perspective on children’s peer reading behaviors and what children are learning as part of these practices. Secondly, we reflect on how using video to look closely into hidden classroom life contributes to teacher learning. The result is a detailed analysis from the teacher’s perspective of how children acquire both the character and skills for learning to read when reading with a peer. Findings contribute to literatures on the sociolinguistic features of children’s peer reading and teacher development in literacy education.
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