Girls' education has been a focus of international development policy for several decades. The discursive framing of international organizations' policy initiatives relating to girls' education, however, limits the potential for discussing complex gender issues that affect the possibilities for gender equity. Because discourse shapes our understanding of reality, the emphases and omissions of policy language can affect our understanding of complex issues such as the challenges of girls' education in international development. Using feminist critical policy discourse analysis, this study analyzes 300 policy documents, published between 1995 and 2008, that represent the 'public face' of 14 organizations active in the field of international development education. We examine three types of discursive arguments given in the documents for educating girls: justice arguments, utility arguments, and empowerment arguments. We show that the robustness of 'gender', and related concepts such as equity and equality as theoretical constructs, are limited, which is a factor constraining what can be understood as important in gender equity in education. Policy remains focused on girls and not gender (or boys), and on easily measurable indicators (counting boys and girls in school). This policy discourse does little to recognize that gender as a social process reproduces -or has the potential to challenge -social inequities.
A growing concern for STEM teachers is the responsibility of having students who do not speak English proficiently in their content area classrooms. This paper gives a background of how STEM literacy and English language learner (ELL) literacy can be used productively together as well as strategies for STEM teachers to help all students learn. Strategies for ELL literacy are good strategies for all students. We discuss specific strategies that STEM teachers can use that benefit all students in developing academic language and conceptual understanding in STEM content using a hands-on STEM experiment, "Why do I need to wear a bicycle helmet?" that incorporates Newton's first, second, and third laws of motion."How am I expected to teach the same content to every student when some kids in the class don't even understand English? I'm a content area teacher, not a language teacher." We hear this many times from STEM teachers.
The purpose of this study was to examine to what extent a U.S. newcomer school for adolescent English language learners lacked adequate mental health services for immigrant students. School counseling professionals at this school sought data to advocate for additional mental health professionals without asking inappropriately invasive questions about family legal immigration status. Leveraging the expertise of school administrators, refugee resettlement experts, and university researchers yielded a creative method for collecting student demographic information without violating student privacy. Looking specifically at refugee students from high-conflict backgrounds (the “refugees likely to have experienced distress” or “RED” variable) allowed researchers to pinpoint psychosocial acculturation differences in comparison with other immigrant students. A survey of students revealed differences in reported attitudes toward school and perceptions of discrimination among refugees from high-conflict backgrounds compared to other immigrants and refugees from lower-conflict backgrounds. Findings also supported the notion that immigrant students were likely to have experienced trauma prior to enrolling in this school. Results of this engaged scholarship allowed the resident school counselor to advocate effectively for a full-time mental health counselor position for newly arrived secondary students.
STEM teacher educators are aware that we teach far more than content-specific methodology. Educators need to guide STEM teachers in the knowledge and skills to support emergent multilingual students (English language learners, or ELLs) by simultaneously developing their STEM content learning and scaffolding their language acquisition (Hoffman & Zollman, 2016; Suh, Hoffman, & Zollman, 2020). Research identifies the family unit having a profound effect upon student learning and educational choices. Educators, educational researchers, and policymakers alike recognize the importance of family involvement in education (Grant & Ray, 2019). Although previous family engagement initiatives have focused on teaching families from a school-based perspective (Bush & Cook, 2016), we advocate for a STEM family engagement model which honors and grows out of families’ existing funds of knowledge. This article lays out an argument for STEM teacher educators explicitly addressing multilingual family engagement as a key part of STEM education. We explain purposes, pitfalls, and practical steps STEM teacher educators can utilize that have a positive impact on diverse students’ STEM learning. We also encourage STEM educators to address “STEM mindset” in addition to STEM literacy skills and interdisciplinary STEM content knowledge.
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