Moderator: Matthew Downing

Presenter: Kari Kono, kgoin@pdx.edu   

Title: Radical (re)positioning of students as co-creators of curriculum; an exploration of undergraduate student-faculty partnerships in online learning environments. 

DiP Stage: Data Collection 

Description: The undergraduate curriculum is not representative of all students. Course materials such as images, textbooks, and content often reinforce societal power relations and hierarchies that tend to center on white, male, hetero, middle-class, able-bodied identities. Student identities are not equally represented in curricula, which can cause a lack of responsiveness to diverse student voices and ultimately affect student involvement, engagement, and participation in class. When students' varied cultural and linguistic identities are not represented in the curriculum, those students are less likely to actively participate, persist, and continue their education. Emerging scholarship indicates that student/faculty co-construction of course syllabi, materials, and/or classroom experiences is a promising practice for increasing representation and responsiveness. Although evidence indicates that co-construction may address representation and responsiveness in physical classroom settings, we do not know how the process of co-construction unfolds in asynchronous online courses. Initial pilot data suggests that co-creation in online and digital environments need different approaches than those employed in face-to-face classrooms. Specifically, remote and online learning spaces are inherently impersonal and students and faculty rely on the power of personalization to build connections in the online learning environment. This study uses a participatory action research methodology, to empower faculty to enact change in their curriculum design. Co-researchers explore student-faculty partnerships through co-construction within the context of asynchronous online learning and contribute to a gap in the literature regarding student-faculty co-construction of online curricula. 

Connection to CPED Framework: Last month was the 25th anniversary of the passing of my mom. I was going through her archive of items my dad saved for me and I came across her report card from the 1950s when she was about five or six years old. What stood out to me was how similar the feedback in school she received then was to the same kind of format and structure on my progress as a student from when I was around that same age. As an interdisciplinary practitioner, scholar, and artist, I believe that education is the tool for the future we use to co-create and build more equitable futures, where our skills as educators, scientists, designers, and problem solvers, combine to create opportunities for social justice. In pursuing my EdD in a CPED program, I am seeking to ground scholarship and inclusive pedagogy as tools to connect people to their communities, language, and culture in pursuit of social justice. My study takes place at a large, urban public university, with a student population that is largely non-traditional and first-generation. I am a co-researcher with five other faculty co-researchers, using a participatory action (PAR) methodology - a community-centered and equitable methodological approach to research that seeks to share power with participants as co-researchers. CPED advocates research framed around equity in pursuit of social justice, and a PAR methodology puts this into practice. Power is distributed as we share research responsibilities as a group. As co-researchers, our goal is to not only practice equity within our scholarship, but in our curriculum design as well. Our study builds a co-creative curriculum with students in asynchronous undergraduate online learning courses. A community agenda 100 years from now will also be built co-creatively with each other to determine our collective futures. In reaching our goal to take action and promote equity within our curricula, we will build educational opportunities for our future children to have educational opportunities where they get to decide and contribute to their learning, opportunities that are culturally sustaining, equitable, and co-created. 

Presenter: Ruby Turalaba, turalba@sfsu.edu 

Title: Nagugutom Sila/They're Hungry: Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Pedagogy for Filipina/x/o Students 

DiP Stage: Data Collection 

Description: Hegemonic educational practices have roots in Western imperialism and U.S. colonial rule effectually marginalizing and invisibilizing Filipina/x/o students, and contributing to academic inequities and poor mental health. To address these harms, Filipinx families have organized and advocated for culturally and linguistically responsive programs as early as the 1970's at a school site located in a recently designated Filipino cultural district. The unique school history and neighborhood demographics make this an opportune focal point for my case study that seeks to understand the social, cultural, and intellectual experiences of Filipina/x/o students learning their language, history, and culture. My research also aims to answer: a) What does language, history, and culture mean for students, their families, and teachers? b) How can students' experiences with learning language, history, and culture in school be improved? What are areas of growth? c) What can educational leaders learn from the community leadership of students, families, and teachers? My qualitative case study will utilize a mixed-methods approach grounded in critical race methodology that combines personal identity maps and kuwentuhan or counter-storytelling from students, families, and teachers. Findings from this research can address research gaps on Filipina/x/o students in primary school settings. Study implications can inform leadership policies and practices that sustain students' cultural and linguistic wealth in humanizing ways. In addition, multicultural education rooted in an ethnic studies framework challenges majoritarian and assimilationist narratives traditionally taught in schools, and holds the power to build solidarity across BIPOC communities, as well as coalitions and alliances for racial justice. 

Connection to CPED Framework: Community responsive education holds the power to support our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) students by affirming their histories, languages, and culture. My presentation relates to this year's theme by centering culturally and linguistically responsive programs that address the needs of Filipina/x/o immigrant and multilingual students. Filipina/x/o students in K-12 are underrepresented in the educational research, and their academic outcomes are often aggregated within the larger Asian American Pacific Islander racial group holding them to model minority stereotypes. This is an issue of equity and social justice. The few studies that are available on Filipina/x/o middle school students demonstrate that they rank lower in math and English standards compared to their Asian and White counterparts, and report higher rates of suicidality. While my presentation focuses primarily on Filipina/x/o students, the conversation will contribute to educational leaders' discourse on policies and practices that build on students' cultural, linguistic, and community wealth that may be transferable to other BIPOC communities. 

Presenter: Elizabeth Golini, egolini18@students.huntersoe.org

Title: Understanding Parent Perceptions of IEP Meetings and Building Skills to Empower Parents 

DiP Stage: Preparing to Defend Proposal

Description: While parent and family perception of the IEP meeting and process has been explored, there is a gap in this research related specifically to family perceptions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Goldman & Burke, 2019). Parents of children with disabilities have suggested that the IEP process is difficult and leaves them feeling uneasy, defensive, or angry (MacLeod et al., 2017). Families also have identified that they want to advocate for their child at the IEP meeting (Besnoy et al., 2015) as advocating for their children can be empowering for the parents (Hess et al., 2006). Research on advocacy and parent participation suggested the need for further work on parent training (Trainor, 2010) and Duquette et al. (2011) recommended that further research should be conducted on educational advocacy by families. Due to the gaps in the research, the importance of the IEP meeting, and demonstrated need for advocacy skill development in families, research should be undertaken to focus on developing new skills for parents to use at the IEP meeting. This current study seeks to understand and explore the experience of these families at the IEP meeting as well as examine their perceptions of the IEP meeting process for their child. The study will also teach parents a new advocacy skill such as question asking or challenging deficit-minded statements through a coaching procedure to see if the new skill results in shifts in positioning or perspective of the IEP meeting. 

Connection to CPED Framework: The upcoming CPED convening is focused on creating a "community-responsive agenda." Working with families and learning more about the perspectives and perceptions of their child's education meets this theme. In order for the field to be responsive to the community, we need to understand the viewpoints of all stakeholders. I would argue that families are incredibly important stakeholders. This project will provide information about the needs of families who have children with disabilities. This information is essential in planning and creating an agenda for the next 100 years of education. Additionally, the CPED principles target solving problems of practice and understanding the need for equity in education. The project fits within this umbrella. The IEP meeting process has been studied for years as a problem of practice. Family engagement is known to be meaningful to build equitable partnerships between schools and families. This project seems to further empower parents to engage with their child's educational team. The findings can also be applied to the field to help practitioners increase parent involvement and participation in the IEP meeting process. 

Presenter: Leland Wilson, Lwilson0905@lions.piedmont.edu

Title: Education and Democracy: A Phenomenological Perspective of Contemporary Social Studies Curriculum in a Post-Truth Era 

DiP Stage: Preparing to Defend Proposal 

Description: The term post-truth refers to a condition in which facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal beliefs. The internet, along with social media platforms, have created opportunities for various forms of fake news to proliferate at unprecedented rates. Consequently, many elements of democracy and its institutions are being undermined and threatened. There are serious questions as to whether the curve of fake news has gotten ahead of our ability to educate students to think critically and to navigate the modern media landscape. The aim of this research was to study the fake news phenomenon through the lens of secondary social studies educators in Georgia. The methodology consisted of three semi-structured interviews with five participants. The findings of this study help to contextualize the problem of fake news relative to the existing secondary social studies curricular framework, the elements that are essential for recognizing and refuting fake news, and include ideas for potential curricular reforms that could help mitigate the negative effects of fake news. 

Connection to CPED Framework: I believe that the fake news phenomenon is one of the greatest threats to American democracy and its institutions in the modern era. I also believe that which poses an existential threat to democracy becomes, in some measure, the responsibility of the educational complex to address. Therefore, I believe it is incumbent upon education stakeholders to closely examine the phenomenon of fake news, how it affects our socio-political landscape, and begin seriously considering what curricular reforms might be appropriate and necessary to help cultivate a citizenry capable of recognizing and refuting fake news. The social and political climate of the next 100 years may well rest on the collective willingness and ability of education stakeholders to address this issue.