Browsing by Subject "Social Justice"

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Beyond Accessibility and Behavioral Outcomes: Re-conceptualizing Equity in Transportation through the Capabilities Approach
(2020-09) Wang, Jueyu
In the past decades, transportation equity has attracted increasing attention from transportation researchers and policymakers. Nonetheless, there is a lack of theoretical understanding of transportation equity. The dissertation engages the Capability Approach of Sen and Nussbaum as a theory of justice and well-being to conceptualize transportation equity as the process of the production of the equality of mobility capabilities, the substantial freedom people have to travel. Specifically, I propose an equity evaluative framework of five evaluation domains, including 1) Access to basic resources, services, and activities sites; 2) The freedom of physical movement around places; 3) Opportunities for active travel (walking and bicycling); 4) Opportunities to conduct safe and psychologically satisfied trips; 5) Access to political engagement activities. The dissertation also applies the CA framework to two different empirical contexts. One assesses the inequalities of mobility outcomes and capabilities of traveling within low-car ownership households. The results reveal that low-car ownership people of different socio-economic groups achieve different mobility outcomes under the different levels of mobility capabilities. The analysis suggests the joint evaluation of mobility capability and outcomes in informing transportation inequity and disadvantage. The second examines the inequalities of travel mood among different socio-demographic groups and how mobility capabilities, measured as modal options and access destination opportunities, interact with travel mood. The results reveal the significant impacts of mobility capabilities on travel mood and the moderation effects of mobility capabilities on the relationship between mode and mood. The findings highlight the importance of explicit consideration of mobility capabilities– in policy debates and planning initiatives. The concluding chapter contextualizes these findings within the transportation literature and proposes several take-away for policy and future research directions.
Constructions of equitable notions of quality in Early Childhood Care and Development from two communities in the Philippines: local practices of bayanihan and dagyaw.
(2010-06) Williams, Rhiannon Delyth
As attention and investment in early-childhood care and development (ECCD) has increased in the majority world, aid organizations, governments, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have emphasized creating quality early-childhood environments for children, their families, and the broader community. More specifically, the aim is to support children's health, education, and well-being while building capacity among multiple local actors within communities. Critiques of expert-driven constructions of ECCD community quality in the majority world center around the fact that these notions often reflect little of the social, economic, or historical experiences of the communities in which they are implemented, and also do little to preserve the "inherent assets, such as mother tongue and positive cultural practices" (Ball, 2005, p.4) of these locales (Ball & Pence, 2006; Cleghorn & Prochner, 2010; Penn, 2005). Furthermore, these interventions rarely engage in authentic dialogue with the very individuals they are hoping to engage in social and economic improvement (Dahlberg, Moss, & Pence, 1999; Cleghorn and Prochner, 2010). Therefore, this dissertation presents research findings and an analysis of local constructions of quality in two Filipino communities. This dissertation resides within a critical constructivist paradigm and uses a theoretical framework based on anthropology and social-justice literature to best understand specific locally constructed knowledge and processes regarding childhood and quality ECCD. Aligning with the study's constructivist paradigm, a qualitative methodology, including focus groups and interviews with a collaborative, ethnographic focus, was chosen. The main tool used in the focus groups was called StoryTech, which considers the indirect and contextual nature of the concept of quality, allowing a critical, in-depth look at what multiple stakeholders view and believe quality looks like in their own ECCD contexts. Stakeholder groups that were invited to participate in the research were day-care parents, teachers, community members, and barangay officials. This method required stakeholder groups to discuss visions of their quality ECCD community. Data were analyzed and interpreted across each stakeholder group using an anthropological and social-justice perspective. Individuals within each stakeholder group were asked to envision what a quality ECCD community would look like in five years, 2012, and several themes emerge in the analysis of these ideal visions. From the findings within the community dimension many stakeholders see a collaborative notion of quality that embodies local practices of bayanihan or dagyaw. Underlying these local practices are values of collaboration, embracing others, listening, seeking out discourses to connect bridges across the ECCD sector, and finding innovative solutions to problems. Similarly, from the findings in the daycare classroom and professional development dimensions stakeholders' ideal visions incorporate supporting and facilitating the development of a good professional citizen. Overall this study demonstrated that conceptions of quality ECCD are to some extent locally determined. In conclusion, while in this dissertation I am not suggesting ways in which cultural projects such as ECCD democratic communities can evolve, flourish, and sustain themselves (these areas need further research), I present and discuss locally constructed visions of processes and practices that have emerged from the research and the literature on inclusive practices, which support an ideal quality ECCD community.
Contradictions and Opportunities: Learning from the Cultural Knowledges of Youth with Histories of Domestic Violence
(2016-03) Pyscher, Tracey
As a society, we do not openly discuss domestic violence and yet its reality is front and center for children and youth whose lives are deeply shaped by it. At best, the school landscape is bleak for many, if not all, HDV youth (i.e. youth with histories of domestic violence and youth currently living with domestic violence). We know little to nothing about how HDV youth navigate school from their perspectives—how they engage with and resist educational discourses and practices and thus take up subject positions. What we do know from popular, psychological literature is that HDV youth are often objectified as troubled and deficient and this shapes their identities and experiences in school. In this study, I discuss the challenges HDV youth face when they navigate normative and hegemonic interactions in school. I also analyze the resistive identities and performances HDV youth take up in response to interactions perceived as violating. The study is situated in a public, urban middle school and outlines how HDV youth make sense of their daily interactions with school peers and staff. The study is told through the subjective voices of three female middle school HDV youth—Jen, Mac, and Shanna. Their stories along with the voices of their caregivers offer a counter-narrative to the dominant discourses often shaping the representations of HDV youth. Data analysis is grounded in the theoretical conceptions of critical sociocultural theory (Lewis, Enciso, & Moje, 2007), resistive ambivalence (Pyscher, 2015; Pyscher & Lozenski, 2014), and Scott’s (1990) conceptualization of hidden and public transcripts. I seek to better understand and theorize the intersections of actions, identities, practices, and discourses that HDV youth use in educational interactions. The methodological foundation of this study is fourfold: critical discourse studies (Gee, 2014), critical ethnography (Emerson, Fretz, & Shaw, 1995), geosemiotics (Scollon & Scollon, 2003), and mediated discourse analysis (Jones & Norris, 2005). Implications include the possibility of creating more liberating educational practices for youth with histories of domestic violence and marginalized youth in general. I conclude by suggesting that we consider creating more transgressive and humane school cultures that embody carnival-like practices.
Cultivating Spaces of Possibility: Student Teaching Triads as Agentic Homeplace
(2023-07) Cornwell, Charlene
Today’s elementary teacher candidates (TCs) are entering a world of public education decimated by decades of neoliberal education reforms (Kumashiro, 2010; Lipman, 2012) exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic (Giroux, 2021) and the current white-supremacist, heteropatriarchal backlash (Pendharkar, 2022). For justice-oriented TCs, finding agency in these political contexts while teaching within the ambiguous space of “someone else’s” classroom presents a particular challenge (Britzman, 2003; Zeichner, 2009). Their stories sit alongside those of justice-oriented cooperating teachers (CTs) and university supervisors, both of whom mentor TCs while navigating constraints and deepening their own teaching practices. However, most teacher education programs and research fall short as regards to preparing new teachers to enter classrooms with a grounding in justice-oriented pedagogies (Cochran-Smith, 2010; Milner, 2013; Sleeter, 2013). This is especially problematic as most teachers entering the field are white middle-class cisgender women deeply socialized in the neoliberal context of education. Therefore, TCs are typically left asking, “But how do I actually teach social justice?” Through this dissertation study, I address this critical issue by investigating two main research questions: In what ways are white teacher candidates, cooperating teachers, and university supervisors navigating constraints and negotiating relationships with each other in order to center justice-oriented pedagogies in their elementary classrooms? In what ways do the stories of these experiences foster social transformation as well as complicity with neoliberalism? To answer these questions, I use narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) to explore the stories of five white teachers making up two student teaching triads (each consisting of a TC, a CT, and their shared university supervisor) as they taught in a public elementary school during the 2022–2023 academic year. Their stories of upheaval, uncertainty, solidarity, and resistance center the triads’ approaches to building relationships of care with each other, their colleagues, and their students. I interpret their stories using a theoretical lens of critical and intersectional feminism, specifically focusing on bell hooks’ (1990/2015) conceptualization of homeplace. I theorize that the triads’ relationships of collective care form an agentic homeplace; this homeplace fosters triad members’ agency to resist neoliberal constraints and center justice-oriented pedagogies within their school. Thus, I offer a critical perspective of the agentic role triad relationships play in cultivating possibilities for justice-oriented white teachers to work in solidarity with marginalized communities to collectively challenge neoliberalism and transform public schools.
The Fight for the Right to Teach: Mapping the Terrain of the Diversity Gap" in Teacher Education"
(2016-06) Dyke, Erin
Recently, there has been a resurgence in research and policy surrounding U.S. education’s demographic imperative, or the “browning” of K12 students and the “whitening” of teachers. Teacher education has largely responded to this “diversity gap” with research that supports white teacher candidates’ racial identity formation and cultural competence. Policy and reform efforts from within and beyond teacher education tend to frame solutions for the “diversity gap” as inclusion and representation (recruiting more teacher candidates of color) and/or to create more robust and critical university-based teacher education programs (against the upswing in fast-track labor market approaches to preparation). There are fewer examples that critically reflect on and explore how teacher education, as an institution, excludes and marginalizes people of color. Using a critical bricolage methodological approach that includes institutional ethnography, participatory activist research, and feminist memory work, I study the diversity gap from multiple positional perspectives within and beyond the institution. First, I draw from a year-long collective memory work study with a teacher candidate of color during the course of her program. Framed within an analysis of the ways in which neoliberal logics guide the structure and practice of institutions of teacher education, I consider the ways in which alliances and ethical practices of subversive study across institutional hierarchies can contribute to challenging the institutional reproduction of whiteness in teaching. Next, I explore the specific needs and desires for indigenous immersion teacher preparation that can support Ojibwe language revitalization from two years of ethnographic research with Grassroots Indigenous Multimedia, a non-profit organization that develops Ojibwe language texts and curriculum. I challenge the institution’s selective inertia with respect to indigenous-led efforts toward educational self-determination and illuminate tensions between “diversity gap” solutions that argue for inclusion and access without mention of decolonization. Finally, I shift to the landscape of urban education in the Twin Cities and the work of the Social Justice Education Movement, a directly democratic education union of which I am a co-founding member. While we have undertaken a variety of issues and work in social justice education, I focus in on our short-lived campaign to demand the districts support more staff and teachers of color. Racialized tensions articulated through our organizing forced us to rethink our initial demands for inclusion and broaden and challenge our collective understandings of what kind of education we were fighting for. Our collective, movement-embedded study of who engages un/misrecognized and institutionally devalued educative work further illuminates the need to re-think the category “teacher” and processes of state certification/legibility. Taken together, these three angles, or what I term “positional perspectives” enable me to argue for a paradigmatic shift in the ways in which critical teacher educators articulate the problems with and solutions for the “diversity gap” in teaching. I conclude with a series of questions and provocations to consider how teacher educators can de-link from their investments in the profession and its management of knowledge authority, and contribute more effectively to movements for decolonial futures.
Infusing Social Justice and DEI Practices into Teacher Candidate Literacy Instruction
(2022-06) Robinson, Lindsay
In response to factors in the landscape of the American education system (i.e. growing diversity of the K-12 student population, lack of diversity in the K-12 teacher workforce, current events highlighting racial and socioeconomic inequities, and a growing understanding of the opportunity gap), university teacher educators (TEs) have worked to integrate social justice (SJ) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) into teacher candidate (TC) preparation with the goal of preparing TCs who can teach culturally, linguistically, and racially diverse children. Research indicates that these concepts are not typically infused by teacher educators in coursework through entire programs. Instead, ideas are often siloed into introductory courses, and if SJ and DEI concepts are taken up across coursework, it is often sporadic and inconsistent across the program curriculum. Thus, current teacher preparation programs often limit or undermine the confidence of TCs to teach in socially just ways because TCs are not prepared with cohesive, well designed programmatic curriculum that makes clear connections between SJ theory and enactment. Using case study methodology, this study addressed a gap in the literature by investigating how a revised curriculum in a literacy course that follows introductory elementary education coursework, built upon, and increased the understanding and confidence of TCs to teach literacy in a socially just way. Results from this study indicate that SJ pedagogies must be modeled and explicitly discussed by TEs in the context of discipline-specific instruction. As a result, TCs grow in their literacy knowledge, pedagogies, and confidence to employ SJ concepts when they are given opportunities to design, test out, reflect upon, and receive feedback on scaffolded literacy assessments and lessons for K-6 learners. Study findings can be used to strengthen teacher education programs with a social justice emphasis, particularly in the field of literacy education, by indicating a roadmap of how to infuse social justice programmatically and disciplinarily. This includes, but is not limited to, providing TEs with a clear scope and sequence of what SJ concepts can be addressed throughout the program and how. Results from this study also note the need for agreement among TEs on the definition and application of SJ, and opportunities for TCs to enact SJ pedagogies in authentic practicum experiences. This study also points to how TEs can make intentional changes to their instruction that shift TCs’ understanding and self-efficacy; findings also point to the need for intentional collaboration and curriculum planning by TEs to continuously weave and connect SJ concepts throughout the program. All of these efforts help TCs have a more nuanced and practical understanding of SJ. Finally, explicit connections between SJ theory and enactment in a particular discipline needs to occur in order for TCs to feel confident in teaching each disciplinary subject in a socially just manner.
Investigating the Online Presence of Immigration Organizations: Understanding the Role of Social Justice and Technical Communication
(2021-05) Veeramoothoo, Saveena
This dissertation investigates how immigration organizations in the US use their online presence to disseminate information. Immigration organizations are typically non-profit organizations whose mission involves helping migrants (whether with legal services, or any number of other services). This dissertation contributes to the conversations on social justice in technical and professional communication (TPC) by focusing on an often overlooked area in TPC research: migration and migrants in the US. This project contributes to the intersection of TPC and migration by investigating how immigration organizations use certain key online spaces and the information they share there. To begin, I first identified a network of national immigration organizations through hyperlinks. This network allowed me to identify two key organizations to further study, namely Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). I then studied the website of each organization, focusing on their content and targeted audiences. Finally, I studied their Twitter accounts, focusing on content, targeted audiences and tweets’ metadata (including frequency of tweets, replies and retweets). Combining the results from the website analysis and Twitter analysis, I discuss the implications of the study, including voice, power and privilege, and audience engagement. Finally, I discuss the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the study and its implications for immigration organizations’ dissemination of information in online spaces.
Page, Stage, Engage: Spoken Word as a Tool for Creating More Critical , Engaging, Social Justice Education Programs
(2016-05) Tran Myhre, Kyle
Spoken word and slam poetry - as both practice and culture - share with critical pedagogy an emphasis on asking questions, cultivating dialogue and counter-narratives, critical thinking, valuing personal experience and narratives, making the invisible visible (especially with regards to power), relationship-building through honest and authentic engagement, and collectively creating the community in which we want to live. I am interested in how all of these concepts function within social justice education spaces: first-year orientation and "welcome week" programs, corporate diversity trainings, bystander intervention presentations, online "thinkpieces" and video blogs, and beyond. More specifically, this project explores how spoken word can be a creative intervention to help make social justice education programs not just more engaging , but more critical.
A Qualitative Study of African American Elders’ Housing in Relation to their Well-being
(2017-05) Smoot, Amanda
The primary focus of this exploratory study was to determine how the interaction of human characteristics and the physical and social environment characteristics of home affect well-being among African American elders. An Ecological Model of Aging was used to investigate this issue and included components of the physical and social environments and demographics of the sample. Physical environment characteristics investigated included housing type, housing tenure, and neighborhood. Social environment characteristics investigated included sense of community, place attachment, and safety. Typically, these characteristics are defined by the perspective of the dominant group of people who are studied. Minority groups’ perspectives are not often represented in research literature, given ancillary attention, or interpreted/misinterpreted by well-informed and well-intentioned individuals who may lack race consciousness or understanding of institutional racism. To resolve this issue, a qualitative research study was completed using data collected from 17 African American adults aged 65 years and older who live in non-institutionalized, community-based housing in Twin Cities area of Minnesota. Physical environment findings indicate housing type and tenure have a strong influence on African American elders’ overall well-being. Social environment findings suggest participants’ sense of place and where they live deeply impact their identity and satisfaction. It was also determined that there is interaction between the physical and social environments, which supports the Ecological Model of Aging. The socioeconomic status and security of a safe, decent, and affordable home, in a supportive and amenity-rich community, were also found to influence participants’ well-being. Ancillary to the study’s findings, this research also demonstrates the importance of race-centered research, suggesting racism be appropriately included as a form of environmental press in the Ecological Model of Aging theoretical framework. This study’s findings further suggest that to reduce disparities, researchers and policy decision makers must understand aspirations, needs, and challenges of African Americans and recognize the critical role of the homeplace in buffering the negative effects of racism, and, for those who are African American and poor, to buffer the negative effects of racism and poverty.
The reward of virtue: an essay on the relationship between character and well-being.
(2011-07) Stoner, Ian M
Most work in neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics begins by supposing that the virtues are the traits of character that make us good people. Secondary questions, then, include whether, why, and in what ways the virtues are good for the people who have them. This essay is an argument that the neo-Aristotelian approach is upside down. If, instead, we begin by asking what collection of character traits are good for us---that is, what collection of traits are most likely to promote our own well-being---we find a collection of traits a lot like the traditional slate of virtues. This suggests an egoistic theory of the virtues: the virtues just are those traits of character that reliably promote the well-being of their possessor. In addition to making the positive case for character egoism, I defend it from some anticipated objections. Most importantly, I argue that character egoism doesn't inherit the problems of ethical egoism. I conclude by offering self-regarding accounts of two virtues traditionally thought to be irreducibly other-regarding: honesty and justice.
The Social Justice Leadership Retreat: A Phenomenological Case Study of Students’ Construction of Race and its Influence on Beliefs, Behavior, and Actions
(2016-04) Bettendorf, Anthony
This study examines students’ participation in an intensive intercultural experience, the Social Justice Leadership Retreat. The study utilizes the Intercultural Maturity Model, leadership and democracy outcomes as a framework for the research. Specifically, the study investigates how this experience impacts the ways students make meaning of racial issues, the students’ beliefs about their capacity for leadership and democratic action, and behavior as it relates to social justice action. Results suggest that students attending this experience developed more complex cognitive skills, cultivated belief and motivation in their ability to take action, and engaged in social justice action as a result of attending the retreat.
Socioecological Education: Faculty Knowledge, Beliefs, Values, and Practice in Post-Secondary Outdoor Education
(2017-06) Frank, Danny
Recent literature in Outdoor Education has promoted a more comprehensive and integrated approach to curriculum and pedagogy in the field, incorporating social and ecological justice, and accounting for the inextricable links between individuals, society, and ecology (Furman, & Gruenewald, 2004; Warren, Roberts, Breunig, & Alvaraz, 2014; Wattchow & Brown, 2011; Wattchow, et al., 2014). Socioecological education provides a meaningful pathway to achieving the aforementioned aims. This exploratory study utilized a survey methodology to examine the current state of post-secondary Outdoor Education faculty’s perceived knowledge, espoused beliefs, reported priorities, and reported practice related to socioecological education (North, 2006; Wattchow, et al., 2014; Young, 2011). Results indicate significant correlations between perceived knowledge, reported priorities, and reported practice of socioecological education principles, and affirm the need for further development of social justice oriented curriculum and pedagogy in the field. Findings point to potential pathways for the advancement of socially and ecologically grounded integrated practice in Outdoor Education.
Unpacking Oppressions Related to Integrated STEM Lesson Implementations: Perspectives From In-Service Secondary Science Teachers From Thailand
(2023-07) Keratithamkul, Khomson
In the collectivistic Thai society, oppressions are considered societal taboos that teachers rarely talk about in schools despite many oppressive events that happened in the past few decades (e.g., the 1976 student massacre and other political unrests). Science education in Thailand heavily emphasizes technical knowledge and rote memorization – often ignoring cultural, political, and social issues. Thus, this study aimed to provide a better understanding of how in-service secondary science teachers in Thailand could simultaneously address these aforementioned issues through integrated STEM lessons from the lens of anti-oppressive education. Through a qualitative multiple case study design, this study explores the experiences of three in-service secondary science teachers from government schools in Thailand pertaining to integrated STEM education, oppressions, and oppressions related to integrated STEM lesson implementations. Findings demonstrated that all three teachers conceptualized integrated STEM education as an interdisciplinary pedagogical approach to help and motivate their students to learn science all while addressing the required basic science curriculum. Contextualized by authentic and relevant real-world problems, this approach was seen as a means for students to develop essential 21st century skills and their STEM identities. Moreover, findings also illustrated how these teachers’ perceptions of oppressions were tied to the Thai cultural norms pertaining to age- and SES-based hierarchy, all of which involved unequal distribution of power and occurred as interpersonal and institutional oppressions. Their conceptions and treatment of oppressions related to integrated STEM lesson implementations were also examined and shared along with the study’s associated implications. This study provides a foundation for anti-oppressive integrated STEM education and advocates for its adoption in secondary science classrooms.

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