From our journals: Unaccompanied immigrant children, the climate crisis and collaboration between families and schools
By: Ruth M. López, University of Houston and Natalia Giraldo-Santiago, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Published in: Education Policy Analysis Archives, March 28, 2023
Beginning in 2014, increasing numbers of unaccompanied immigrant children, or UIC, arrived and were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border. These children were fleeing violence, poverty, environmental disasters, as well as state-sanctioned violence and political instability influenced by interventions and support from the U.S. government spanning several decades. This article examined the factors that shape the educational experiences of UIC in the U.S. during and after detention. A review of the literature between 2000–22 was conducted, including peer-reviewed articles, commentaries, legal documents and news articles. The literature raises concerns about the quality, effectiveness and availability of academic resources for these children. This review demonstrates the need for additional research and policy changes aimed at improving the educational conditions of UIC in shelters and communities after reunification, and it offers recommendations to school districts, policymakers and researchers on how to best address the academic and non-academic needs of formerly apprehended UIC in the U.S.
Review of Teaching in the Anthropocene: Education in the face of the environmental crisis
By: Carrie Karsgaard, Ann Nielsen, Diraba Anayatova and Iveta Silova, Arizona State University
Published in: Education Review, March 22, 2023
According to the reviewers, while this volume does not take an explicitly decolonial stance, it nevertheless undermines the coloniality of education and the coloniality of environmental discourse and decision-making through chapters that critique education’s grounding in colonial modernity. More importantly, they say, the volume offers concrete alternatives for just education, including strategies for mobilizing teachers to participate in social change. Crucially addressing the marginalization of rural and migrant youth in environmental education, “Teaching in the Anthropocene,” the reviewers note, could be strengthened by further addressing the position of Black and other students of color in relation to the Anthropocene, particularly within Canada’s colonial context. From creative content and structure to innovative pedagogies and processes, the reviewers state that they appreciate the book’s contributions to creating alternative grounds to the exploitative, individualist and colonial-capitalist foundations of education. “Towards this end, we found “Teaching in the Anthropocene” to be a hopeful text for education otherwise.”
TeleNGAGE: Enhancing Collaboration Between Families and Schools
By: Katherine Curry, Ed Harris, Jentre Olsen, Rachel Kim and Dominic Egure, Oklahoma State University
Published in: Current Issues in Education, Feb. 8, 2023
Findings in the literature strongly support the importance of family engagement in education. However, effective partnerships between families and schools are rare, especially in ethnically diverse communities where families may lack efficacy or face structural challenges for engagement. Additionally, educator perspectives toward engagement are often framed by White, middle-class paradigms. To facilitate engagement between families and schools, a new ECHO® line, TeleNGAGE, was developed at Oklahoma State University, Educational Leadership program. ECHO®, traditionally used in the field of medicine, has utility for professional development for educators because it offers a platform for case-based learning where real problems are addressed in real-time. Additionally, didactic presentations provide professional development for collaborative learning. Through the lens of Communities of Practice (CoP), this qualitative case study explores how relationships between families and schools changed as a result of participation in TeleNGAGE. Findings suggest that a CoP has emerged through TeleNGAGE and has resulted in changes in perspectives across families and educational leaders about “what it means to be engaged,” enhanced family efficacy for engagement and changes in engagement practice as family voice has expanded through sharing of concerns and perspectives.
About our journals
MLFTC sponsors three innovative, open-access journals on education scholarship. EPAA is a peer-reviewed, international, multilingual and multidisciplinary journal designed for researchers, practitioners, policymakers and development analysts concerned with education policies. Education Review publishes reviews of books on education topics and Acquired Wisdom essays by esteemed educational researchers, and CIE is a peer-reviewed journal led by MLFTC graduate students.
Contact Stephanie McBride-Schreiner to learn more about our journals.