microsoft word cover i the journal of curriculum studies research (jcsr) vol. 1 no. 1 december 2019 curriculumstudies.org jcsr is a peer-reviewed, international and open access academic journal. jcsr publishes research papers, theoretical works, literature reviews, research reports and book reviews on curriculum studies, teacher education, the social construction of knowledge, curriculum and instructional discourses and the others topics dealing with curriculum and instruction. jcsr provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. all the opinions written in articles are under responsibilities of the authors. the published contents in the articles can not be used without being cited. our publication ethics and publication malpractice statement is mainly based on the code of conduct and best-practice guidelines for journal editors (committee on publication ethics, 2011). ii editor-in-chief bülent tarman, ankara, turkey assitant editor kelsey l. evans-amalu, delta state university, usa editorial board anatoli rapoport, purdue university, usa barbara hong, brigham young university–hawaii, usa belén hernando-lloréns, san diego state university, usa lynn burlbaw, texas a&m university, usa murry nelson, penn state university , usa rory p. tannebaum, merrimack college, usa stephen lafer, university of nevadareno, usa timothy lintner, university of south carolina aiken, usa tricia kress, molloy college, usa william b. russell iii, university of central florida, usa iii contents editorial: 2019 (1) 1 bülent tarman iv students’ representation of “other” religions: unearthing the disconnect between curriculum content knowledge and attitudinal change richardson addai-mununkum 1 the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum: a narrative critical ethnographic case study benedict l. adams 17 second language learning and cultural identity: reconceptualizing the french curriculum in louisiana colleges and universities jerry l. parker 33 theoretical constructs and practical strategies for intercultural communication: informed teaching practices in vietnam tung ngoc vu 43 towards a knowledge-rich curriculum: a case study of english as a foreign language education in a vietnamese context hanh dinh 54 book review. human rights and global diversity: basic ethics in action kristina andrews 71 journal of curriculum studies research curriculumstudies.org open access journal 2019 1(1): iv-v editorial editorial: 2019 (1)1 dear journal of curriculum studies research readers and contributors, we are excited to be with you through the first issue of the journal of curriculum studies research (jcsr). we would like to extend our appreciations to all who contributes by submitting or reviewing manuscripts or have been readers of jcsr. the jcsr is an international, open access, peer-reviewed journal devoted to curriculum studies, teacher education, the social construction of knowledge, curriculum and instructional discourses, the role of curriculum and curricular reform in k-16. the journal welcomes research papers, original theoretical works, research reports, literature reviews and book reviews. in our first issue, you will find 5 research articles and a book review on various topics of education related with curriculum studies research. the jcsr is seeking energetic, qualified, and high-profile researchers to join its editorial board team as associate editors or reviewers. the quality of a journal is reflective of the quality of its editor(s) and editorial board members. in addition to our goal of providing free online access to the new journal, we also feel strongly about the necessity of its being very high in quality. a highly respected editorial board will go a long way toward establishing the initial credibility of the journal, which is particularly crucial in an experimental endeavor such as this, as well as helping to ensure the long-term quality of the final product. in choosing an editorial board, we are looking for researchers who are not just “well-known” but who have made significant research contributions. as someone whose contributions and technical judgement are highly regarded, you would be doing us a service by joining the editorial board. if you are interested in serving on the editorial board of the journal, please let me know or you may suggest your colleagues who may be interested. if so, they can send their cv and letter of interest to this email address: btarman@gmail.com hereby, i would provide some details regarding the editorial board. the primary responsibility of editorial board members will be to review papers, thereby providing a consistent level of quality in the reviewing process. ideally, papers will be reviewed by two members of the editorial board and one outside reviewer. in order to substantially reduce the time to publication in the jcsr as compared to traditional journals, we have established the following policies for reviewing: v 1. reviewers will be responsible for returning their reviews within 30 days after receiving the paper. 2. before reviewers are sent articles, they will be asked whether or not they have time to review the articles. reviewers will be encouraged to accept papers only if they can realistically guarantee a response within three weeks. if a reviewer declines to review an article, this will not be considered anti-social, even if the reviewer has declined on several previous occasions. 3. editorial members will review two papers per year at most. additional roles of editorial board members: • to advise the jcsr policy and scope. • to attract new and established authors and article submissions. • to submit their own works. • to work with the editor-in-chief to ensure ongoing development of the journal. members of the board may also take responsibility for key activities linked to the journal, such as the book review editor or section editor. • each editorial board member shall serve for a three-year term and may be reappointed. once again, i would like to thank everyone and express my special appreciation to the people who contributed to make this issue ready for you. i especially would like to thank all authors and reviewers for their contribution to the jcsr. i hope you will both enjoy and be challenged by the articles in this issue of the jcsr. i also look forward to seeing your contribution to the development of the jcsr in the future. sincerely, bulent tarman, ph.d editor-in-chief, journal of curriculum studies research (jcsr) journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 1 2022 pp. i-iii religion and higher education in the american south: introduction to the special issue r. eric platt*a & lynn m. burlbawb * corresponding author email: replatt@memphis.edu a. department of leadership, university of memphis, tn, united states. b. emeritus professor, texas a&m university, tx, united states. how to cite platt, r. e., & burlbaw, l. m. (2022). religion and higher education in the american south: introduction to the special issue. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(1), i-iii. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.1 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract this is an introduction to the special issue on religion and higher education in the american south. this special issue features five research articles and a book review that provide telling details about the role religion has played and continues to play in southern higher education. keywords special issue; religion; higher education; history of education; american south; united states. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.1 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.12 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ ii jcsr 2022, 4(1): i-iii introduction to the special issue in a 1959 interview, william faulkner explained how his upbringing—raised in the american south and reared in a religious community—influenced his literary career. per faulkner, "the christian legend is a part of any christian's background, especially the background of a […] southern country boy. my life was passed, my childhood, in a very small mississippi town, and that was a part of my background. i grew up with that. i assimilated that, took that in without even knowing it. it's just there. it has nothing to do with how much of it i believe or disbelieve. it's just there" (gwynn and blotner 1959, 86). faulkner's reference to the embedded nature of religion in southern culture is evident, as are related artifacts and phenomena. rural storefront marquees display bible verses, yard signs advertise evangelical revivals, and debates over religion and education reverberate in state capital buildings. churches dot the southern landscape. indeed, when compared to the rest of the united states, the south remains a significantly religious geographic region (norman 2018). this intersection of religion and regionality is vital when reflecting on the development of southern society, its institutions, and organizations. while the south has experienced significant issues related to race, class, gender, ethnicity, and educational attainment, religion has, to some extent, influenced each. similarly, religion has played a role in forming, developing, and maintaining southern higher education. though predominantly protestant, the south possesses strong pockets of catholicism, judaism, and, in the past, alternative faith traditions such as spiritualism. this presence has influenced southern colleges and universities through organizational affiliation or external social influence. while there is scholarship on southern higher education, very little focuses on religion. as a result, this special issue builds on existing scholarship and furthers the exploration of religion, regionality, and southern higher education—both currently and historically. with this in mind, each contributing author has focused their research on these intertwined concepts. mollie carter's quantitative study of spirituality and southern college student selfefficacy supports notions that religious belief may reinforce personal assurance during the collegiate experience—an important consideration given scholarly acknowledgments of selfefficacy and academic matriculation. berlisha morton's narrative of saint kathrine drexel and the founding of the xavier university of louisiana not only examines the relationship between religion and new orleans black intellectualism it also critiques southern historiography. couched in the tenants of southern womanism, morton provides a nuanced account of drexel's faith journey while also showcasing the nature of black female intellectualism set amidst the afro-catholic diaspora. cynthia gage and joseph odenwald both explore case histories of particular southern baptist colleges. gage's research on now-defunct mary sharp college in tennessee sheds light on baptist pedagogical ideals and nineteenth-century southern gender norms while featuring institutional plans to defy convention and create a female-serving academy equal to any college for men. employing analogous historiographic methods, iii jcsr 2022, 4(1): i-iii odenwald explores the early development of baptist-affiliated louisiana college and points out the importance of "town and gown" relationships, overcoming institutional hardships, and navigating academic competition with secular college. similarly, r. eric platt and hannah parris showcase the closure of reconstruction-era brinkley female college during an intense episode of spiritualism and adverse media reporting in west tennessee. platt and paris demonstrate how uncouth journalists exploited local spiritualist interest to turn a profit, which harmed the college's reputation and caused the academy to close. finally, this issue features a review of maria medina's loyola university of new orleans college of law: a history by katilyn hall. hall's review explains how this catholic law school, like other, similar religiously-affiliated institutions, grappled with aspects of institutional adaptation, organizational persistence, and spiritual identity maintenance. altogether, these articles and book review provide telling details about the role religion has played and continues to play in southern higher education. whether featuring contemporary issues of college self-efficacy and spirituality, gendered instructional norms undergirded by denominational ideals, or instances of college adaption and closure, all papers herein punctuate the need for enhanced research on the relationship between church and college. with this in mind, the journal of curriculum studies research presents this window into an otherwise under-explored aspect of southern history. references gwynn, frederick l. and blotner, joseph l., eds. faulkner in the university: class conferences at the university of virginia, 1957-58. charlottesville: university of virginia press, 1959. norman, jim. “the religious regions of the u.s.” gallup. 2018. https://news.gallup.com/poll/232223/religious-regions.aspx. https://news.gallup.com/poll/232223/religious-regions.aspx journal of curriculum studies research curriculumstudies.org open access journal 2019, 1(1): 71-74 book review book review. human rights and global diversity: basic ethics in action* kristina andrews* * florida gulf coast university, college of education (phd student), fort myers, fl, usa. e-mail: tinahannaha@gmail.com article info received: 22.11.2019 revised: 24.11.2019 accepted: 25.11.2019 how to cite andrews, k. (2019). book review. human rights and global diversity: basic ethics in action. journal of curriculum studies research, 1(1), 71-74. * churchill, r. p. (2006). human rights and global diversity: basic ethics in action. new york: routledge. 152 p., isbn:0130408859. book review human rights and global diversity: basic ethics in action (churchill, 2006) would be recommended for teachers and administrators working within ethnically and culturally diverse schools around the world. the author provided a foundation and defense for the implementation and enforcement of universal human rights while respecting plurality and cultural diversity. these rights include: “life, personal liberty, freedom from acute gratuitous pain, and satisfaction of basic needs (adequate food, water, clothing shelter, and medical treatment for survival)” (meyers, 1985, p. 53). in addition to an extensive composition of the argument for universal human rights, churchill presented the counter-arguments to the universality of human rights, as well as the challenges faced by those who recognize and actively support socially just and equitable treatment for all persons in all cultures. the ease of mobility for voluntary movement among nation-states and the forced migration of other individuals from nation-states has created regions around the world that are culturally diverse. as a result, these individuals are subject to becoming a societal member of a nation-state of which they may or may not hold citizenship and/or political, economic, or civil 72 rights. thus, the individuals may experience feelings of isolation and discrimination, as well as to being subjected to economic disadvantage and political policies. these restricting conditions may be a result of not being citizens and full members of the dominant culture and society in which they are immersed. therefore, it is critical for educational stakeholders to, not only become informed on the basic human rights that all individuals are entitled to, but to become active in ensuring that students and their families have access to these rights. furthermore, it is imperative that students acquire an awareness of socially just and equitable practices afforded to them, according to their human rights, of which all persons, including themselves, have a right. churchill’s (2006) book human rights and global diversity: basic ethics in action is divided into three chapters: 1. reasoning about human rights, 2. debating the universality of human rights, and 3. human rights and cross cultural negotiations. in the culminating section of the book he provided the human rights treaties and covenants and human rights nongovernment organizations (ngos). churchill presented the concepts and constructs of human rights, the universality of human rights and an argument for human rights. to strengthen the argument that human rights should be applied universally, he presented the counter-arguments to the universality of human rights and sought to invalidate the counter-arguments. churchill’s overarching claim for human rights was that they are the same for all human beings regardless where they reside. he emphasized the importance of noting that the absence of human rights to any group of individuals, in any area of residence does not invalidate the right of those individuals to be entitled to basic human rights. rather, it is an indication that those individuals are victims of immorality and injustice. he presented the oppositional constructs by the integration of the voices of theorists dworkin, donnelly, gerwith, al-na’im and othman. chapter one, reasoning about human rights, provided a conceptual framework within which churchill analyzed the concepts of human rights. he argued that all components and variations of exceptionalism or particularism are false. he concluded that they are not dependent on cultural, social or political constructs, and while they may be absent in particular regions or amongst members of a culture, it does not negate the entitlement of the members to have access to the rights. therefore, churchill’s logical argument for the universality of human rights inferred that rights are entitlements that may be self-administered or administered to other members of society. to support these self-administrative or designated rights, he examined and explained the difference between moral and legal rights in the first section of the chapter and provided an argument for support of the moral reasons all individuals should be afforded human rights. furthermore, churchill exemplified the notion that humans should not merely be provided with natural rights, but are entitled through the moral obligations of social justice and equality, moral human rights. at the end of chapter one, churchill shared the experiences of a mother and her young daughter who faced deportation to nigeria. the mother had married the daughter’s father and they lived in a nation where they were afforded liberties and freedom as women. being deported back to their homeland would 73 have subjected the daughter to female genital mutilation and would have jeopardized their access to liberties and freedom they were accustomed to as females. churchill composed chapter two, debating the universality of human rights, with a compilation of charges against universalism (drydyk, 1990). ethical relativism is manifested in the argument that human rights are relative to particular societal or group cultures. the incommensurable claim states that rights in one culture do not transfer into another culture without losing their meaning. imperialism charges the concern of western and eurocentric cultures dominating and exploiting weaker and lesser-developed countries. the causal complaint asserts the potential risk of human rights posing threats or causing the decline of values and cultures of traditional societies. when a society affords better human goods and rights than are being promoted by universal human rights, the irrelevancy criticism asserts the new norms are not pertinent. finally, the trade-off argument contends that the implementation of some human rights would be acting contrary to progress of some nation-states. within this composition of arguments, churchill provided adequate voice for theorists in order to ensure the reader has a comprehensive argument against universal human rights application. however, he then discredited each argument in a manner that enables him to further justify his argument for the universality of human rights. chapter three, human rights and cross-cultural negotiations outlined four strategies for promoting human rights: transformational, accommodation, internal validation, and worldview integration. dyrdyk (1990) claimed that human rights and their moral or value implications are interpreted culturally, and while they may not be defined or applicable according to a single global definition or interpretation, they are provided within the parameters of the specific culture. donnelly’s (1989) strategy of accommodation addressed the incompatible constructs between globally recognized human rights and those that are acceptable to specific cultural practices. he marked a distinction between the substance, interpretation, and forms, in which manners, the rights may be implemented. what donnelly notes however, are the fundamental principles and substance of the rights: life, liberty, security of person, legal rights, and protection against human suffering, that should not be compromised. the strategy of internal validation was imbedded in the construct that particular human rights have become validated or interpreted within a particular culture. however, on a global scale, these specific cultural validations and interpretations may not be harmonious to other cultures. these sources of internal validation tend to arise from religious beliefs and customs and often pertain to women. churchill shared the perspectives of muslim theorists al-na’im and othman in order to provide examples of internal validation according to the islamic conception of human rights. boylan’s (2003) proposal of worldview integration aimed at globally collaborative efforts in order to form a single definition and interpretation of human rights. he argued that inconsistencies with its interpretation and implementation would be conflicting with rationality, autonomy, equality, and integrity for implying that all individuals be afforded the same rights regardless of their 74 location or culture. to apply conditions for human rights according to culture, would make the implication that not all humans have the right to gain access to the same human rights. churchill’s composition supported the harmony between human rights morals and social and cultural values, practices, and forms of life worthy of preservation. churchill strongly asserted that human rights are universal. as he presented each argument he understood and recognized that to support or validate the arguments of other theorists, he must falsify that human rights are universal. therefore, there were biases churchill brought in and manipulated throughout the book in order to recognize the counter-arguments for universality while potentially presenting the components with which he could refute the opposing view. this book may be too brief in its presentation to attempt to validate the construct of the universality of human rights. however, the strength of this book lies in bringing to light the complexity of human rights, the challenges the constructs of human rights and diversity have faced in the past and are currently facing, and the notion that human rights are not a right that is granted by any person or group, but that exist because the human being exist. thus, it may be argued that human rights are not disputable. however, due to social, cultural and political factors, disparities lie within how to ensure that all persons are afforded what they, as human beings, are entitled to. references boylan, m. (2003). basic ethics. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall. churchill, r. p. (2006). human rights and global diversity: basic ethics in action. new york, ny: routledge. donnelly, j. (1989). universal human rights in theory and practice. ithaca, ny: cornell university press. drydyk, j. (1990). globalization and human rights. in c. koggel (ed.), moral issues in global perspective (pp. 30-42). peterborough, ontario: broadview. myers, d. t. (1985). inalienable rights: a defense. new york, ny: columbia university press. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 1 2022 pp. 76-78 loyola university new orleans college of law: a history kaitlyn hall* * department of educational leadership and policies, university of south carolina, columbia, south carolina e-mail: kh88@email.sc.edu article info received: january 9, 2022 revised: february 12, 2022 accepted: february 15, 2022 how to cite hall, k. (2022). loyola university new orleans college of law: a history. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(1), 76-78. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.7 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract maria isabel medina brings to life the story of loyola university’s law school, unique in its mission to bring the law profession to members of the working class while maintaining its identity as the only jesuit law school in the u.s. south. founded in 1914, the law school faced various obstacles early in its formative years, including the laborious path to accreditation in the legal profession. loyola university new orleans college of law: a history details the myriad ways that the law school was impacted by state, national, and global circumstances such as the 1918 influenza pandemic, world wars i and ii, the civil rights movement, and the devastation wrought by hurricane katrina. indeed, medina illustrates the arduous journey that the school undertook to voluntarily desegregate at a time when much of louisiana and the u.s. south upheld segregation. likewise, loyola university new orleans college of law: a history provides valuable insight into the challenging climate that women faced at the law school and in the legal profession. in loyola university college of law: a history, medina illuminates the significance of the law school’s role in the field of legal education and new orleans and louisiana history. keywords loyola university college of law: a history (book); maria isabel medina; nonfiction; higher education; religion; louisiana. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.7 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.12 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 77 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 76-78 book review in loyola university new orleans college of law: a history, maria isabel medina brings to life the institutional history of the university’s law school. yet, from its beginnings in 1914, loyola’s law school had unique qualities that other law schools did not: the only law school in the u.s. south that was characterized by a jesuit catholic philosophy and an affirmed commitment to social justice. operating at night, the law school provided access to the legal profession to the working class at a time when it was accessible largely to the wealthy. judges and other legal professionals taught classes at the law school on a volunteer, part-time basis. additionally, loyola’s law school offered legal assistance to the poor and was the first law school in louisiana to desegregate. although father alphonse otis, s.j., loyola university’s president in 1914, emphasized that the law school was non-sectarian, he also proclaimed the role of religion within the school. “god will not be debarred from our professional schools, and religion will be our guiding star… god’s holy commandments will be esteemed and reverenced, and our young men will be taught a code of ethics which will acknowledge god’s rights and supreme dominion over man” (p. 26). in later years, however, loyola university struggled to find a balance between serving the needs of its primarily working, part-time students and maintaining professional standards as the legal profession evolved into an academic discipline. as loyola university sought to elevate its national reputation, including accreditation of its law school, the centrality of religion in the school’s operations became an unyielding obstacle. while curricula decisions were made by the dean of the law school, these decisions were still influenced by the university through the office of the regent, in which jesuit philosophy continued to play a significant role in the operation of the law school. as a result, accreditation bodies such as the american bar association and association of american law schools maintained that part of the law school’s failure to gain membership came from the jesuit influence over the school. membership to both entities was awarded once the law school enacted required changes that ensured that the dean, rather than the regent, exercised active control of the law school. even after being awarded accreditation, however, the institution’s board of trustees still had some control in curricula and faculty decisions of the law school. thus, in illustrating this battle of institutional mission versus professional standards, medina shows the complexity of religion in this non-sectarian law school at a jesuit institution. as with other law schools in louisiana and the u.s. south, loyola university’s college of law was among the first professional programs to desegregate. as louisiana had no mandate regarding desegregation at educational institutions, loyola university endured a hard-fought journey to integration, especially as other law schools at institutions at tulane university and louisiana state university resisted desegregation efforts. while some of the law school’s faculty, students, and alumni supported and were instrumental in desegregation in louisiana history, these efforts were not unanimously supported at the law school. what is unique about loyola university’s journey is the role of religion in the fight for desegregation at the university. while 78 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 76-78 the university’s board of trustees decided to not admit black students for much of the 1940s, faculty members of the university and the law school led a sub-committee under the catholic committee of the south with a focus on “eliminating ‘prejudice, intolerance, segregation, jimcrowism and kindred evils from within the framework of catholic life in new orleans’” (p. 71). yet, the work of this committee did not bear immediate fruit. it would be a few years later when the law school would finally desegregate in 1951, even after reverend louis twomey, s.j., wrote to the society of jesus in rome for guidance as his recommendation for integration had largely been ignored. through this institutional history, composed of primary and secondary sources, medina also provides insight into other events that are often overlooked in the course of history until recent years. for instance, she shows how the law school, the new orleans area in general, were affected by “plague” and illnesses such as yellow fever, smallpox, and cholera. likewise, the role that world war i and the 1918 influenza pandemic played on the decline of student enrollment is briefly mentioned. more on the ways that the pandemic affected the law school,, would be welcome. similarly, the history of loyola university’s college of law also illustrates how it, and the university in general, have weathered hurricanes that have made landfall in the area. after all, new orleans, susceptible to such unpredictable forces of nature, has an extensive hurricane history. therefore, the inclusion of loyola university’s law school operating by candlelight, from a lack of electricity, following the 1915 hurricane of new orleans is refreshing, although brief. additionally, the author illustrates the myriad ways that hurricane katrina affected the operations and community of the college of law in 2005. loyola university college of law is unique in that it is one of few law schools that are geographically situated in areas susceptible to hurricanes. while medina describes in detail the displacement of the law school community, more details on other ways students were affected and the relationship between the law school and the new orleans area in the aftermath of katrina would provide further insight into the full extent that hurricane katrina affected faculty and students, the town and gown relations between the college and city, and any role that religion may have played during and after the storm. however, medina provides a unique context that is missing from other law schools as the relationship between hurricanes and higher education is a perspective limited in the history of legal education. references medina, m. i. (2016). loyola university new orleans college of law: a history. louisiana state university press. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 34-43 borderless curriculum in the post-human era: reflections on the united states of america and south african initial teacher pedagogical practices bekithemba dube*a & elizabeth campbellb * corresponding author email: bekithembadube13@gmail.com a. university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa. b. appalachian state university, boone, north carolina, united states article info received: august 10, 2022 accepted: november 12, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite dube, b., & campbell, e. (2023). borderless curriculum in the posthuman era: reflections on the united states of america and south african initial teacher pedagogical practices. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 34-43. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.4 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract this paper interrogates the opportunities and challenges of a borderless curriculum as the alternative to reimagine a better future premised on initial teacher education. the paper comes against the background that curriculum projects remain nationalised, depriving learners and educators of an opportunity to learn from the best educational practices outside their borders. the paper is located in posthumanism, where a borderless curriculum through technology can be positioned to respond positively to human tragedies such as war, systematic racism, human trafficking and conflict. borderless curriculum involves unlearning in order to learn by harvesting best practices across borders to reimagine a comprehensive initial teacher education that addresses the lived realities of the learners globally. the paper argues that the posthuman era provides a platform for nations to share knowledge in the virtual and blended space to deconstruct prejudices while evoking living and working together across curriculum and spaces to improve initial teacher education. keywords borderless curriculum; teacher education; post-human era; decoloniality; global challenges; south african curriculum; united states of america curriculum. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.4 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.4 35 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 34-43 introduction the need for a borderless curriculum project resulted from one of the authors' sabbatical research projects at appalachian state university in the united states of america (us). during the sabbatical leave, there were cultural, educational and social exchanges between students and staff members. through this interaction, both authors observed that there was a wide knowledge gap in the curriculum practised outside the borders that deprived learners and lecturers of an opportunity to enrich themselves with global education trends. it was clear that the initial teacher education was designed to primarily serve the interest of citizens or people living in a particular state, with little or no emphasis on how initial teachers can be instrumental in contexts outside their state borders, let alone national borders. moreso, it was clear that while universities are expecting to explore knowledge production and dissemination far and wide, it was not happening at a rate which could fully equip initial teachers for the global stage, denoting a minimalistic approach to initial teacher education. this is despite the pressure from the industry and corporate world on the faculty and administration of universities to internationalise their campuses, curricula and classrooms (atalar, 2020, p. 65) to meet the new demands placed by posthumanism. despite the pressure, some countries still train initial teachers for the national context. for example, in the us, student teachers are basically trained to teach in us states’ context only and similarly, in south africa (sa), the approach to initial teacher education is rather exclusively to the sa context. however, in a global context, where migration has become the order of the day, the development of initial teachers should move beyond the borders, local context and methodologies and embrace a pluviosity approach to teacher education so that the teachers can at least teach competitively across the globe (kilinc et al., 2018; moyo et al., 2022; omodan, 2022). posthumanism has made this possible through various technological devices and programmes. consequently, citizens can connect directly with others, regardless of geography, in social networking, commerce, politics, and science (bethlehem, 2014; dube et al., 2022). it is in this context that we engage in a long and difficult—yet necessary and doable— project of demonstrating the need for a borderless curriculum in initial teacher development. we submit that a borderless curriculum approach to initial teacher development is positioned to ignite modes of working together that can also develop solutions to international problems (al-youbi & zahed, 2020) by having a comprehensive approach to issues available to learners across a range of contexts. to achieve this, we argue that shifting our attention to posthuman thinking can give an impetus to train and develop initial teachers to work across borders in different contexts and with different learners. the borderless curriculum within the auspices of a post-human era is the very idea that argues that people can step outside their boundaries, potentially embracing every form of life and every technological structure (valera, 2014, p. 489). it is an approach of knowledge sharing, exchange programmes for students and staff and promoting dual degrees, which enable initial teachers to comprehensively understand both the 36 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 34-43 possibilities and ambivalences associated with teaching and learning within and outside of political borders. we appreciate that various kinds of research have been conducted across borders in various fields by different countries and universities as part of the internationalisation of education. for example, cross-border work involving curricula or syllabi and between states in federal countries such as the us or germany. the idea of that project was intended to better understand how to take advantage of the potential of cross-border content for educational goals in the european union's policy context (pepler et al., 2016). another international project conducted by crosling, edwards and schroder (2008), sought to prepare graduates for employment in ‘the global economy’ where they may work internationally. many universities have adopted a strategy of ‘internationalising the curriculum. while the idea seemed noble, they highlighted that staff resistance occurred in that participation in the programme, which was seen as contravening traditional notions of academic autonomy. another noticeable international collaboration was norway with countries such as uganda, kenya, mozambique, malawi, zambia, tanzania, and sudan. the collaboration sought advantageous positions in trade, commerce, and business (breidlid, 2013). cognisant of the foregoing research, we believe our project, as shown in this paper, is unique and contributes knowledge in the internationalisation of initial teacher education in the following ways: firstly, they focus on a borderless curriculum between a university in south african and the united states of america with reference to initial teacher education. again, it is unique in the sense that we use post-human thinking, where the use of technology can bridge knowledge and cultural and social divide between the two countries in the initial teacher programme. such an approach is, we believe, inevitable given that today’s classrooms have become cosmopolitan centres, “comprised of a mélange of people from differing geographical, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, with significant historical trajectories of movement” (hawkins, 2014, p. 93). we thus argue that embracing post-human thinking in initial teacher education settings should propel us towards recognizing the need for a borderless curriculum using various technological systems available to narrow the knowledge gap of (and about) the other. this could mitigate against threats and associated prejudice related to what does (and does not) happen on one side of the border or the other, thus enhancing initial teacher education’s capacity to address the lived realities of learners across contexts, as new ways of teaching and learning are ignited through post-human framework. the paper is arranged as following, theoretical framework, borderless curriculum opportunities, challenges of the borderless curriculum and reflections on the projects. theoretical framework: post-human theory the paper is couched in post-human theory. we begin this section by arguing, with seltin (2009, p. 43) that post-human does not signify the end of man; rather it signifies the end of certain misguided ways of conceiving human identity and the nature of human relations to the social 37 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 34-43 and natural environments, other species, and technology. post-human research is neofoundationalist in that it aims at re-grounding concepts and practices of subjectivity in a world fraught with contradictory socio-economic developments and major internal fractures (braidotti, 2016, p. 16). therefore, posthumanist thought moves the centre of contemporary philosophical reflections from the question of technological possibilities and of its alleged ethical limits to the question of the limits of man, interwoven in his original essence (valera, 2014, p. 485). we see this theory as a relevant frame within which to couch an argument for borderless curriculum that is premised on understanding the impossibility of offering actual exchange opportunities to all initial teacher education students from sa to usa (or even north carolina) and vice versa. technological advances premised on post-human thinking allow reimagining new teaching methods in preparing initial teachers for global engagement. the issue of technology is central to the post-anthropocentric predicament (braidotti, 2103, p. 89) and should be exploited to build new meaning and possibilities for initial teacher education for both the usa and sa. as argued by braidotti (2016, p. 18), the high degrees of technological mediation and the undoing of the nature-culture divide create a series of paradoxes, such as an electronically linked pan-humanity that is split by convulsive internal fractures (braidotti, 2016, p. 18). in premising a borderless curriculum within posthumanism, the goal is not so much a hyper-technological appliance of the human being but a progressive elimination and fluidisation of the differences (valera, 2014, p. 483). the post-human theory in our context is a move towards a wall-less or building-less classroom where students in the us and sa can be taught the same content and engage the same assignments, and each other, regardless of distance and time. this way of reframing initial teacher education could better prepare teachers for a cosmopolitan environment; a borderless curriculum seeks to ignite these conversations at a small scale with the hope that ideas from it will develop and influence policy making in the us, sa, and other countries that will join the project as it develops. in the following section, we show the available opportunities provided by a borderless curriculum premised on posthumanism in initial teacher development for both the united states of america and south africa. borderless curriculum in the post-human era: opportunities in this section, we discuss some of the opportunities associated with borderless curriculum projects in relation to initial teacher education. the first point discussed is broadening initial teacher education capacity. broadening initial teacher education capacity the interactions with students in the us during the first author’s visit indicated a need for a more comprehensive approach to teacher education that foregrounds educational and curriculum issues outside the borders. the students provided a comprehensive understanding of the us system in terms of assessment, grading, standardised testing, and policies relating to education, especially in the state of north carolina. cognisant of this, we recognize a need to broaden initial education to include elements of comparative education where students cover 38 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 34-43 other components outside their context and a borderless curriculum positions itself as an approach to bridge the knowledge gap. the borderless curriculum approach could allow students to appreciate their strengths and weaknesses as they prepare to engage in the teaching field and, more so, help curriculum planners for initial teacher education to rethink a comparative approach to education rather than exclusively focusing on specific and individual provinces, states, or countries. thus, we submit that a borderless curriculum could provide initial student teachers with an opportunity to know a learner outside their borders and place of comfort. to us, borderless curriculum has an opportunity for “an examination of boundaries of ethnicity, race, culture, and power and urges us to move across psychological, social, and conceptual barriers to better understand our own lives and experiences and those of ‘others’” (reyes & garza, 2005, p. 154). the focal point of a borderless curriculum premised on posthumanism consists not as such in a critical acceptance of the technological promises – like there is for transhumanism – but in an intertwining and hybridisation of human beings with other living beings and machines (valera, 2014, p. 488). the following section gives a second opportunity for a borderless curriculum. allows creation of academic networks to improve initial teacher education for the first author, interacting with staff and students in the us was an eye opener. the interaction revealed a knowledge of teacher education towards skewed entirely toward one’s country of origin, thereby cultivating a minimalistic approach to educational issues. after the sabbatical leave, both authors continued networking to cover the knowledge gap, thus facilitating the idea for a borderless curriculum approach to initial teacher education. through this collaboration, initial teacher education programs in the us and sa could rethink pedagogical practices to include elements outside their respective borders so that learners might have a more comprehensive approach to educational issues. by arguing this, we do not mean that the two universities involved in this research should abandon prior networks; rather, we submit that the networks should go deeper to include shared degrees and programmes. as things are, the synergies available are confined primarily to academics among themselves, with little attention given to students and how such synergies might enhance their teaching careers. thus, a new look into university partnerships could emerge with a focus more centred on students also benefitting, especially in the context of globalisation, which has accelerated the need for interconnecting networks of people, culture, ideas, and practices (friedman & mandelbaum, 2011; smith, 2013) as a way to improve humanity and address the ever-spiralling conflict exacerbated by prejudice, misconception and lack of knowledge of what is happening on the other side of the border. valera (2014, p. 486) is right to argue that posthumanism is thus the idea of a speculative transformation of the human that can be developed through a range of synthetic activities (valera, 2014, p. 486) allows dismantling of traditional hierarchies in education a borderless curriculum in post-human thinking could enable involved countries to dismantle traditional or compartmentalised approaches to education (smith, 2013). both sa and the usa 39 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 34-43 are compelled to appreciate that educating a child does not rest merely on average test scores, but on the gamut of emotional, cultural, and life experiences that help a person’s self-actualising flow (kazanjian, 2016, p. 87). in addition, as proposed by giroux (2005, p. 20) borderless curriculum allows initial teacher-students to understand otherness in its own terms and to craft other borderlands in which diverse cultural resources allow for the fashioning of new identities within existing configurations of power. furthermore, we see a borderless curriculum offering political, social and pedagogical functions for reorienting the historicity and ideology of dominant institutions with the people, cultures, and identities that have been excluded (kazanjian, 2016, p. 88). this is against the background given by giroux (2005) that students often reveal the historical and social limitations of institutions in the dominant curriculum, which directs and frames social relations. promotes utilisation of technology in accordance with posthumanism as envisaged in this paper, a borderless curriculum can be facilitated by the utilisation of technology which lessens the distance between students and teachers in the united states of america and south africa. for the authors, such technology has been instrumental in meeting, project grant writing, and mapping the way forward to enrich initial teacher education through borderless curriculum that broadens the thinking of this project and circumvents distance. technology has addressed many challenges in this project, such as how dual degrees, training and supervision of postgraduates could be handled between two universities. the use of advanced technologies as espoused in posthumanism is critical to fostering continued engagement with colleagues across borders. thus, technology shrinks the distances between two countries while promoting effective engagement between students in the united states and south africa. this lessens the need for (and expense associated with) continual physical exchanges between academic staff and students since most collaboration, teaching and learning can be hosted using online platforms. this will also equip the student teachers to comprehend that the future is technological, and their teaching profession can effectively utilize technology to learn about what happens in other countries in terms of education (wolhuter & jacobs, 2021). enhances internationalisation of higher education in recent years, universities worldwide have responded to calls for internationalisation of education, and this has become one of the key performance areas of academics. the borderless curriculum between the university of the free state and appalachian state university presents an opportunity for the two universities to further cement existing collaboration. thus, having colleagues from both universities involved in the borderless project is an exciting endeavour that reconfigures how teaching and learning could be envisaged. any university seeking relevance in this posthuman era should embrace the need to influence their existence beyond borders; borderless curriculum projects allow nations to enhance internationalisation and evoke collaborations by harnessing various technological tools and pedagogical skills. in its grandest vision, such curriculum has transformational potential, especially if borderless curriculum 40 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 34-43 becomes a tool to offer solutions to humanitarian crises such as wars, xenophobia, and systematic exclusions of people of colour, among many other variables. trajectories of borderless curriculum in the post-human era while there are various opportunities presented by borderless curriculum project to initial teacher education, some challenges need to be navigated and negotiated to champion social change through education. these challenges largely emanate from the context that states and countries have ideologies they preserve through teacher education, which can consequently limit novel strategies that could enhance initial teacher education capacity. this section presents some of the challenges we perceive which require more navigation and negotiations between countries. stereotyped educational policies concerning initial teacher education one of the threats to a borderless curriculum is the nature and design of teacher education in the united states of america and south africa. for example, initial teacher education at appalachian state university is heavily regulated by the state of north carolina, and by national accrediting bodies that regulate both institutions of higher education and the teaching profession. moreover, the politics of education exert pressures in american education that vary significantly from state to state. the state has a hand in virtually everything from text selection, standards and curriculum to teacher salaries and licensures. in the same vein, kazanjian (2016, p. 73) argues that the united states public education in this hyper-connected world emphasizes standardisation and accountability. by doing so, schools driven by national trends and initiatives fail to help students to become global citizens. similarly, in south africa, initial teacher education is governed by the department of higher education within the auspices of minimum requirement for teacher education (mrtec) and universities are required to adhere to the standards set by the department. this is partly because most african countries are sensitive to the power play and the historical and continuing asymmetries in power in international research collaboration (bond, marín, & bedenlier, 2021). the foregoing denotes how nations have been designed for self-preservation through education while at the same time, there is an overwhelming pressure for nations to open up and collaborate with other countries. despite the pressure, there remains very limited space for innovations that might benefit students and enhance teacher education through a borderless curriculum. thus, any proposal based on the opportunities provided by the borderless curriculum tends to suffer stillbirth since the curriculum for initial teacher education is externally funded and influenced by stakeholders, some of whom have no clue about the need of internationalising teacher education. furthermore, as stipulated by postiglione (2016, p. 32-33), we should not “ignore how international cooperation in higher education is shaped to some extent by socio-historical contexts that include cultural traditions, colonial experiences, and postcolonial transformations, all culminating in a set of new pressures affecting the roles and strategies of higher education systems and institutions”. however, cognizance of the borderless 41 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 34-43 curriculum stresses the need for negotiations between government and universities to address historical factors which can affect attempts to ensure learners benefit from the knowledge of what is taught outside their borders. inbound as opposed to reciprocal immigration borderless curriculum project is always threatened by a mass movement of people to the united states of america, leaving countries such as south africa to face brain drain. this is due to the perceived benefits associated with migrating to the united states. this does not mean united states citizens are not moving into south africa; rather, that there are higher numbers of migrants inbound to the united states compared to south africa. the implication is that united states of america will forever have cultural diversity and enjoin the pluralism brought by immigrants to the american context, although that diversity and pluralism is a highly localized phenomenon in the us. however, the goal of borderless curriculum is to expose various strategies that countries have used to develop their economies, making them attractive to young people from different countries. if countries are willing to share and solve economic challenges together, it will limit economic migration, and this could be possible through education. reciprocal immigration among participating universities will allow diversity and ensure ‘fair’ to all participating countries (beaton, postlethwaite, ross, spearritt & wolf, 1999). limited funding to support borderless curriculum funding is one of the major constraints to international university projects (bond, marín & bedenlier, 2021), and borderless curriculum project is no exception. funding is necessary to ensure the project achieves its intended goals of creating comprehensive teacher education that will address the lived realities not only for the student teachers in the united states and south africa but beyond where the project will make inroads. part of the funding includes developing dual degrees, funding students and lecturers exchange programs, curriculum development for modules that cover comparative education between us and sa and finally, funding to equip lectures without phds. while we note this challenge, we appreciate the role of technology in facilitating conversations that promote the borderless curriculum in initial teacher education. to navigate this, posthumanism thinking, especially the use of technology, has the impetus to mitigate the challenges of resources. we are convinced that a borderless curriculum relating to initial teacher education is inevitable, doable, and desirable to a better, more advanced humanity (velera, 2014). conclusion this paper was part of the reflection of the borderless project envisaged by the university of the free state and appalachian state university. the paper is part of a long journey to reconfigure initial teacher education between the two universities so that we might both produce teachers who have knowledge of the other side of their borders and compete globally to address the needs of the modern-day learner. as such, the paper couched in posthumanism showed the opportunities for a borderless curriculum. it went further to present threats that could hinder the borderless curriculum approach to initial teacher education between the two countries. the 42 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 34-43 paper presented here argues that posthuman thinking in the educational setting should propel us towards igniting the need for a borderless curriculum using various technological systems available to narrow the knowledge gap of the (and about) other. this, in turn, could mitigate wars and threats associated with prejudice about what happens and does not happen on the side of the border. we are stronger when we work together, and with all the opportunities out there still to be seized, now is the time for universities to look across borders, cultures and disciplines to create lines of communication and collaboration (hamdullahpur, 2013, p. 29). acknowledgements the study was financially supported by the national research fund of south africa (grant no: 129837). references al-youbi, a. & zahe, a.h.m. 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(2021). covid-19, the global education project and technology: disrupting priorities towards rethinking education. research in social sciences and technology, 6(2), 96-109. https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2021.13 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-018-0280-y https://doi.org/10.46303/jcve.2022.4 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcve.2022.2 https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2021.13 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 130-140 enhancing self-efficacy of beginner teachers in the use of e-portfolio: the role of a mentor teacher mahlape victoria mokonea & wendy setlalentoa*a * corresponding author email: wsetlale@cut.ac.za a. faculty of humanities, central university of technology, free state, south africa article info received: october 20, 2022 accepted: december 28, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite mokone, m. v., & setlalentoa, w. (2023). enhancing self-efficacy of beginner teachers in the use of eportfolio: the role of a mentor teacher. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 130-140. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.10 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract the term “beginning teacher” describes those individuals who have less than one to three post qualification years in a teaching profession and or individuals who are entering the teaching profession directly from university. a need exists for a beginner teacher in their first year of teaching to have a mentor teacher that will assist them to improve their self-efficacy so that they can be able to achieve quality teaching and learning in any learning environment. recent studies have shown that there is growing concern with beginner teachers’ self-efficacy on how to deal with and manage the realities of teaching in modern classrooms. a mentor teacher is a teacher who has a wealth of knowledge, learned from experience and is willing to share. the aim of this study was to investigate how the use of e-portfolio may enhance beginner teacher’s self-efficacy with support from their mentor teachers. the beginner teachers are faced with challenges in their first years of teaching; hence they need mentoring, support to improve their selfefficacy. an e-portfolio might be a means which can assist in monitoring and evaluating the professional activity of the beginner teachers, their achievements and develop them. e-portfolio provides openness and transparency when mentoring the teachers. qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions with fifty-six (56) randomly selected post graduate certificate in education (pgce) students at a university of technology and thematic analysis was employed. findings of this study indicated that beginner teachers needed guidance and support from their mentor teachers for beginner teachers to transform and build their self efficacy positively and improve in their use of e-portfolio. the study recommends that induction support be used as an approach to improve novice teachers’ teaching performance and selfefficacy in the use of e-portfolio. keywords self-efficacy; mentor teacher; beginner teacher; e-portfolio. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.10 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.10 131 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 130-140 introduction beginner teachers’ personal beliefs are driven by their ambitions and behaviours about school. ellis (2017) indicated that e-portfolio has become an increasingly e-portfolios are used by higher education institutions (heis) as a tool to assess student’s learning (pegrum and oakley,2017). these portfolios enable students to showcase their potential to employer’s selfefficacy is a personal judgment of how well or poorly a person can cope with a given self-efficacy situation based on the skills they have and the circumstances they face (bandura ,1986). the approach has two key determinants of behaviour are perceive self-efficacy and outcome expectancies. the approach also refers to how an individual perceived his or her positive and negative consequences of performing the behaviour. a beginner teacher’s transition evolves from a teaching practice as a student teacher into a professional teacher into a teaching profession. when the teachers enter the world of teaching profession, certain changes bring shift into their lives, from the world of knowing about teaching through formal study to knowing how to teach and confront daily challenges and dealing with diverse learners in a multicultural setting. learning is becoming more adaptable, collaborating, and personalized. the educational system should have an open structure and practice-oriented content. some authors have alluded that, e-portfolios are gaining position particularly in teacher education globally (totter and wyss, 2019; boulton, 2014). e-portfolio is a means that covers the evidence from different sources, such as syllabus, student work samples, research reports, self-reflection, pedagogical skills, and creativity teaching and teacher development. an e-portfolio is becoming an important part of evaluating a beginner teacher's professional activity. each of these teachers’ beginner and veteran teachers, have their own way of delivering a subject content. mentoring is a crucial aspect of support for beginner teachers and has become the main form of teacher induction, it is the process of helping a new teacher in the workplace, through mutual support and trust. according to crutcher and naseem (2016) mentoring serves as an effective means in developing teaching efficacy for as well as professional pedagogical skills for future teachers. qadhi, et al 2020 assert that unfavourable feeling of anxiety and isolation as well as lack of self-efficacy in beginner teachers is a result of lack of mentorship and induction. crutcher and naseem (2016) emphasised that, mentor teachers can improve their craft of teaching through self-reflection and reviewing their teaching to effectively assist the student teachers. purpose of the study each year, the beginner teachers are put into a classroom with different dynamics and challenges. at times they are not supported in their classrooms, so that they can familiarise themselves with these challenges. the first year of teaching is considered as one of the most difficult years in teaching, but the most important part. a novice-teacher, after graduating from a university, enters the world of professional teaching with the same responsibilities of more experienced teachers in the school. this study aimed to investigate how the use of e-portfolio may enhance self-efficacy of beginner teachers with the support of their mentor teachers. 132 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 130-140 objectives of the study the following are the objectives of this study: • to establish how the mentor teacher assists beginner teachers to enhance their selfefficacy in the use of e-portfolio. • to determine the role of the mentor teacher in supporting the beginner teacher. research questions this study sought to answer the following research questions: • how does the mentor teacher assist the beginner teachers to enhance their self-efficacy in the use of e-portfolio? • what is the role of the mentor teacher in supporting the beginner teacher? the review of related literature mentor teachers have a significant role in developing the skills and abilities of others by engaging in an effective and positive relationship. mathipa and matlabe (2016) indicated that, motivation is a “key to the mentoring process” (2016). the need for mentor teachers in any school is very imperative because their role is to assist the beginner teachers in building their self-efficacy. sayeski and paulsen, (2012) assert that the beginner teachers often find it difficult to transfer pre-service knowledge to the workplace, needing somebody to answer their questions, feeling inadequately trained, and requiring emotional support and direction for their career. all these challenges are the cause of low efficacy and high turnover for beginner teachers. qadhi, et al (2020) assert that lack of induction and mentorship also leads to lack of self-efficacy and anxiety on the part of novice teachers. belgard (2013) and garrett (2011) identified the following as some of the advantages related to the use of e-portfolios in teacher education programmes: reflective teaching skills, enhancement of lifelong learning, positive attitudes, and an increase in pedagogical and technical content knowledge, beliefs, and values. rhodes (2011, p. 7) define e-portfolios as “the biggest thing in technology innovation on campus. the author also stated that, e-portfolios have a greater potential to modify the higher education at its very core than any other technology application we have known thus far.” joys, gray, and hartnell-young (2008) as well as garrett (2011) refer to the e-portfolio as creation made by the learner (beginner teacher), which comprises an assortment of digital items articulating experiences, achievements, and learning, ideas, evidence, reflections, feedback, etc., which is characteristic of a particular classroom garrett, 2011) the role of the mentor teacher in mentoring the beginner teacher as indicated below, the role of the mentor is considered more diverse and is located within diverse conceptual paradigms. ragins and kram (2007) note that, mentorship is a multifaceted and complex process. mathipa and matlabe (2016) posit that mentor’s relationship with mentee based amongst others on trust, mutual respect and understanding offer extrinsic motivation which ignites the mentee’s interest as well as intrinsic motivation. some scholars indicated that, successful mentors display certain attributes to the mentees (botha & hugo, 2021; janković, et 133 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 130-140 al., 2016; tsotetsi & mile, 2021). such qualities that a mentor need to display include to be sincere friend, discrete adviser, emphatic, a person who gives energy, a guide, mediator, and someone to rely on. a mentor teacher is an inspiring person who is ready to assist the beginner teachers and always a discrete trustful person. mentors can assist beginner teachers in various ways, they need to assist beginner teachers to adapt to the school culture, school climate and on how to deliver a content subject in a multicultural classroom, teaching strategies and communication skills. having a mentor teacher implies that, there is someone who will supervise, support you and your work also guide you in terms of curriculum, and assist on improving your teaching skills. a mentor teacher is required to provide more effective school-based support for beginning teachers, they need to understand the needs and challenges of the beginner teachers they will encounter in their classroom in their first year of teaching. research also revealed that ongoing dialogical opportunities, electronic forums, and collaboration among the student teachers often results in good classroom relationships. (engin 2013; arslam 2014; groom & maunonen-eskelinen 2006; xu 2003). the role of the mentor teacher in supporting the beginner teacher deangelis et al (2013) assert that a comprehensive support and mentoring provided to beginner teachers assists in mitigating a desire to leave teaching after the first year. whereas radford (2017) emphasised that the role of a mentor “need to be reflective practitioners, know how to facilitate adult learning, as well as observe and provide feedback”, some mentors seem not to be clear about the role they are expected to play. hanna (2020) asserted that attrition can be dropped to 28% if there is a consistent mentor who supports, inducts beginner teachers in the same subject area with regularly scheduled collaboration with other teachers on instructional issues the more positive contact time spent per month with mentors the more likelihood that beginner teachers would return the following year to teach in the same school compared to those who did not receive similar support (parker, 2010). mentoring according to ingersoll and strong (2011) is the personal direction provided, usually by experienced persons, to novice teachers in schools. faucette and nugent (2017) state that mentors can assist novice teachers to develop their essential skills and confidence in their abilities. zachary (2012) indicated that the mentoring process need to include the “mentor and mentee to work together to achieve specific, mutually defined goals that focus on developing the mentee’s skills, abilities, knowledge, and thinking, it is in every way a learning partnership”. enhancing self-efficacy of beginner teacher using e-portfolio. literature shows that the use of the e-portfolio stimulates self-efficacy on the part of beginning teachers. bergil and sariçoban, (2017) assert that “students who use e-portfolios tend to present higher levels of self-efficacy and that there is an overlap between student’s self-reported competence in the portfolio and self-efficacy”. e-portfolios are evidence-based approach and making documents as “lived learning experiences” by beginner teachers enrolled in teacher education programmes (quinlan, 2002; wang, 2009). through e-portfolios, beginner teachers 134 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 130-140 can assess their progress regarding academic achievement and personal growth (arslam ;2014). according to van schalkwyk, leibowitz, herman, and farmer (2015) in case study research at eight south african higher education institutions (heis)that e-portfolio is used as an enabling means in teacher education programmes, and as a reflection tool to improve the professional learning of academics as teachers. boulton (2014) indicates that the e-portfolio is an evidencebased strategy presently in use at most teacher education programmes at heis around the world. in these heis, e-portfolio is used as an alternative assessment means for beginner teacher empowerment. method this is an exploratory case study. the theoretical framework that supported this study is the social cognitive theory and adaptive leadership theory. social cognitive theory (sct) stipulates that the environment and people influence each other through behaviour also that an environment provides models for behavior. bandura (1997) enlarged the understanding of social cognitive theory by acknowledging the importance of self-efficacy. the scholar asserts that individuals with self –efficacy have a belief in their ability to succeed in their goals. bandura (1997) further states that learning occurs in a social context with reciprocal interaction of the person, dynamic environment, and behavior. sct, used in education, communication and psychology is directly related to observing social interactions and experiences of others outside media influences of others. this approach enabled the researchers to investigate how the use of e-portfolio could enhance beginner teacher’s self-efficacy as well as the role played by mentor teachers in the process. participants were fifty-six (56) randomly selected pgce students enrolled at a university of technology comprised of 26 males and 30 females, ranging from 26 to 35 years of age. data were collected through focus group discussions and participation was voluntary. a focus group schedule was used to guide the discussions. all participants were informed that confidentiality will be maintained about the collected information and that their names will not be mentioned. the researchers each participant an alphabet instead of a name. findings pre-service teachers shared their thought regarding the support they receive from their mentor teachers, for them to improve their selfefficacy, competency, and professional growth, in university technology. participants reported their understanding about the mentor and mentee relationship. two research questions guided this study, and themes emerged from the data analysis. research question 1: how does a mentor teacher assist the beginner teacher to enhance their selfefficacy in the use of e-portfolio? a mentor is a wise and knowledgeable teacher who guides a beginner teacher / a novice teacher on a journey into a certain profession. but the most important role of a mentor is to build a professional relationship that encourages continuous support a professional identity of their mentees. the research question was answered through the analysis of qualitative data gathered 135 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 130-140 through a focus group interview with the pgce student teachers. themes that emerged from this research question included personal growth, teaching skills and communication skills. professional growth, teaching skills and communication skills the pgce students hold their mentor teachers highly and being valuable. their responses affirm that, the assistance they received from their mentor teachers is very essential to them. student b stated that, “some students indicated that, they have grown personal, because they were able to manage their classrooms better with the support of their mentors”. student e indicated that, “we had no clue on how to compile a lesson plan, until we have this mentor who advised us on how to compile our lesson, to compile a class activity with a memo for our learners.” student g further noted that, “i initially had no clue on what to include in my e-portfolio, i thought that having to include what i did during teaching practice, was the waste of time. it was until my mentor explained to me as to why i need an e-portfolio that it made sense”. mentoring is a complex, process that include two or more people who have different levels of expertise as well as experience, where the mentor gives support to enable the mentee to be more competent in their work. carmin, 1988, as cited in hester and setzer (2013) states that the goal of mentoring process is professional development and career advancement. the participants further noted that, with their mentor teachers assist them on how to handle their students and to communicate with them. therefore, mentor teachers are of important in supporting and assisting the beginner teachers to improve their self-efficacy, skills in managing the classroom and improve their professional development in the use of e-portfolio and in their teaching profession. eyron and gambino (2017) also point out that when implemented correctly, the use of e-portfolio can benefit the students in numerous ways. research question 2: what is the role of the mentor teacher in supporting the beginner teacher? the participants cited the role of a mentor teacher through the following themes from this research questions, they ally their fears, positive reinforcement and they improve their self efficacy. self-efficacy learning to teach is developmental process that a new teacher must go through to be equipped for the teaching profession okeke et al (2016). the students noted that they receive valuable support from their mentor teachers. student a quoted verbatim indicated that “from my first day of their teaching practice, it was so hard for me not knowing what to expect but my mentor teacher was so supportive and inducting me to all the classes i needed to go to and on how to improve our teaching skills”. according to student d: “it was difficult for initially as i did not know what to expect but my mentor was so supportive, from induction to classroom management”. 136 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 130-140 student h indicated that:” the support from my mentor made me improve my confidence while standing in front of the learners, because as a teacher without confidence teaching and learning won’t be productive”. with all the support from the mentor teachers concerned, thus arises also data’s indication that student teachers need support, so that they can improve their competencies in using e-portfolio, to manage the classroom and to possess good communication skills. student a indicated that “the mentor teachers can display the same attitude of assisting and supporting us in our first year of teaching, so that we can be good and gain knowledge in what we do, build a good relationship with their mentee, surely teaching and learning will improve.” the support that the student teachers receive from their mentor teachers gives them the sense of belonging and adapting easy in the culture of the school. their self-efficacy and their fears are allayed and promote positive reinforcement. and most importantly, they assist them with the learning material and preparing their lesson plan for their teaching and learning. human accomplishment and personal well-being are usually promoted through a strong sense of self-efficacy. as a result, a person with high self-efficacy often views challenges as opportunities rather than threats to avoid. challenging and threating situations are perceived and believed by such a person to be controllable. selfefficacy has four sources, and they are social persuasion, performance accomplishments, indirect experience, and physiological and emotional states. discussion this study aimed to investigate the self-efficacy of beginner teachers in the use of e-portfolio and the role of the mentor teachers in supporting the beginner teachers to accomplish their competencies in the teaching profession. the focus was to identify mentor teachers’ contribution in improving the beginner teachers’ self-efficacy. the results of this study revealed that the e-portfolio for beginner teachers demonstrate their knowledge, skills and attitude when compiling specific artefacts for a portfolio. the participants indicated that e-portfolios assists them in terms of developing skills and on how to reflect on their work as also to check whether they have achieved their intended objectives in their teaching and learning. in cases where objectives are not achieved, they indicated that there a need to reflect and bring in new strategies. arslam (2014) asserts that e-portfolios are critical tools in overseeing each student’s academic progress. they also assist to manage progress as well as performance of an education system. the results also indicated that the e-portfolio is an integrated part of personal growth, so that the beginner teachers can be able to achieve objectives, to mention a few, improving and acknowledging measurable standards, developing personal growth plans; as well as developing self-efficacy. professional growth will assist the beginner teacher, in terms of their well-being, knowledge, skills, instructional practices. there are numerous advantages associated with the use of eportfolios in teacher education programmes, such as enhancing 137 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 130-140 lifelong learning, reflective teaching skills and increasing technical and pedagogical content knowledge, beliefs, values, and positive attitudes (belgard, 2013; boulton, 2014 and oakley, pegrum and johnson, 2014). participants were unanimous in how the support, motivation and encouragement from their mentor teachers enabled them to navigate during teaching practice. the mentor teacher’s overall role is to nurture the development of the beginner teacher; to ensure the beginner teacher provides a solid advancement of student learning in the classroom. according to radford (2017) a mentor needs to facilitate learning, reflect, observe and be able to provide feedback. participants indicated that the mentor teachers who were assigned to them at schools during teaching practice assisted them to familiarize themselves within the school context, they also inducted and gave them support in terms of content delivery and classroom management. they also highlighted and shared some experiences they encountered such as handling a disruptive classroom like expert teachers, as well as teaching a diverse classroom. conclusion it is evident that, the beginner teachers need to be mentored to improve their self -efficacy. with the support and guidance of their mentor teachers, the beginner teachers might 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(2012). the mentor’s guide: facilitating effective learning relationships (2nd ed.). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713612449001 https://doi.org/10.2478/rem-2019-0010 https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2021.12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2015.03.002 https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487103255015 https://doi.org/10.1177/0741713612449001 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 159-170 curriculum enablement and posthumanism: pathways for creating and implementing a community development curriculum grey magaizaa & shadreck muchaku*a * corresponding author email: muchakushadreck@gmail.com a. centre for gender and africa studies, university of the free state, south africa article info received: october 23, 2022 accepted: december 19, 2023 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite magaiza, g., & muchaku, s. (2023). curriculum enablement and posthumanism: pathways for creating and implementing a community development curriculum. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 159-170. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.12 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract this article argues that the application of transcendent disciplinarism as a lens for critical inquiry and curriculum enablement is urgent in a posthuman era. the paper asserts that a curriculum must be responsive to societal needs by providing students with a "toolbox" for developing functional and productive societies. the community development degree is pedagogically premised on utilising multiple disciplinary synergies primed for analytically and practically improving the human condition. the article uses critical terms in posthumanism, such as relationality, resilience, and sustainable communities, to evoke a return to the local by analysing the creation and implementation of a responsive community development curriculum. through pedagogical approaches that infuse collaborative and cooperative learning with active learning strategies, we argue that the community development curriculum should be structured to enhance the capabilities of students to assist communities in adapting and transcending to transformation. this paper followed a systematic literature review of journal articles extracted from scopus, web of science, sciencedirect, and ebscohost electronic databases. a final sample of twenty-four articles was reviewed, analysed, and presented using atlas.ti flow chart diagrams. the study's findings revealed that posthumanisminspired transformation normatively conceives the earth as a connected entity and places as entangled and interconnected. the article further interrogates how the posthuman approach can be used to create and implement pathways for curriculum enablement. keywords posthumanism; curriculum enablement; collaboration; relationality. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.12 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.12 160 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 159-170 introduction posthumanism is an essentially contested concept that provides openings to think differently about how humans are conceived, not as non-exceptional but entwined with other beings (erstad et al., 2021; macdonald et al., 2016). however, creating new ideas, as is required in community development, demands new methods of teaching that disrupt traditional ways of thinking, knowledge development and practice (bush & glover, 2016; muraraneza et al., 2017). one could argue that in its new and emergent form, community development is still a nascent discipline that is not easily appropriated by any conceptual stream (wang, 2019). this does not negate the need for scholarly engagement on how curriculum arrangements for community development in a post-humanist societal landscape can be enabled. logically, curriculum development is expected to be responsive to societal challenges and issues of public interest (berge, 2017). as the current and potential future curriculum challenges have emerged from the dynamics of human society, such as technological advancement, as discussed in muraraneza et al. (2017), curriculum design can only come from a clear understanding of this posthuman process. for this reason, we focus this article on curriculum responsiveness to societal needs by providing students with a "toolbox" for the evolution of functional and productive societies in a posthuman era. the article begins by outlining the post-1994 policy dispensation illustrating the south african state's policy intentions and how it sought to align the curriculum to societal needs. with the advent of democracy in 1994, there has been various policy enunciations in south africa seeking to consolidate the higher education sector. one such example is the medium-term strategic framework (2009-2014), trying to redress the quality of education (molapo & pillay, 2018). this necessitated the creation of a new curriculum that empowered previously disadvantaged communities (pak et al., 2020). ever since, as has been confirmed by several researchers, curriculum design has become essential in education, capacitating students and responding to community needs (annala et al., 2021; rahimli, 2012; vashisth et al., 2021). therefore, this article argues that the posthuman approach (pha) in curriculum development has the potential to capacitate students while enhancing intellectual and practical societal contributions. curriculum enablement and community development van rensberg (2014, p. 43) defines enablement as a process that is "collaborative, reciprocal and focused on mutual reinforcing-making positive change possible and promoting agencies for all stakeholders." these essential descriptors of enablement must be embedded in the community development curriculum. the central emphasis of curriculum enablement is to equip students with relevant skills that make them critical thinkers who can provide solutions to challenges of their communities (bush & glover, 2016). enablement is appropriate in higher education as it focuses on the evolution of agency for students and communities. in the context of the community development discipline, enablement entails that qualifying practitioners 161 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 159-170 espouse a core set of skills that ensure individuals, groups and organisations have the means and opportunity to participate in shaping their own lives (forlano, 2017). as an emerging occupation, community development is increasingly responsible for various transformative processes at the community level through coaching, facilitating, guiding, collaborating, and encouraging stakeholders to promote civic responsibility and consciousness. such prerequisites seem to go against the grain of a posthuman society based on a post-anthropocentric society configuration that does not place the human being at the centre (forlano, 2017; makunja, 2016). scholarly perspectives on integrating posthumanism in curriculum development this section uses existing literature to answer three seminal questions: 1. are we in the posthuman phase? 2. how has this posthuman phase influenced curriculum enablement? and what is the perspective on weaving a pha in curriculum design? these questions are critical to any descriptors of a posthuman society as literature has grappled with articulating curriculum enablement in a posthuman context. the term ' post' implies a period after something. in this case, does a posthuman society suggest a new era of human identity and organising? it seems to indicate a paradigm shift in which the current model of human nature has been overtaken by new ontologies, paradigmatic shifts, and ultimately a fresh conceptualisation of society broken from a humanist era (bayley, 2016). but is there a break in terms of human organising to give such a definitive explanation of a posthuman reality? this has severe implications for curriculum enablement, as integrating posthuman realities in curriculum design is fraught with difficulties. recent studies show that the exhaustive use of the posthuman concept as a compelling curriculum design strategy has generated a debate in posthuman scholarship (bayley, 2016). and this is happening when there is little consensus in describing contemporary society as outrightly posthuman (stone-johnson & hayes, 2021). as a result, a mid-point solution to this debate has seen some proponents arguing that curriculum design must be meaningfully adaptive to societal changes (čepić & papak, 2021). therefore, this article also states that there is a need to rethink and introduce new approaches to curriculum development within the posthuman context. in some instances where the pha is used as a central organiser in the curriculum design, humans are not conceived as autonomous from the surrounding world, as construed by the humanist worldview (macdonald et al., 2016). however, despite this global acknowledgement, the biggest challenge is changing human thoughts and institutions (berge, 2017; erstad et al., 2021). thus, transforming a post-anthropocentric description of modern society requires us to move away from a humanist worldview by changing approaches, knowledge production, and dissemination. in south africa, for example, efforts were made to adapt to severe and persistent institutional challenges through the white paper for post-school education and training faculties (rsa dhet, 2013) with little success. the above development is happening against a backdrop where higher learning institutions across south africa recognise that their curricula 162 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 159-170 must adapt to exploit opportunities that drive community development (bush & glover, 2016). at the same time, policymakers and scientists are becoming aware that curriculum enablement can effectively address societal needs (macdonald et al., 2016). therefore, it becomes vital to place communities and the need for transformation at the centre of a mutually reinforcing and entangled knowledge interface. however, little has been done to address this problem. for this reason, this paper argues for pathways in curriculum development that require rethinking how we value humans, other species, the planet, and beyond (zembylas, 2018). it is important to highlight that while curriculum development is essential in the posthuman era, the more significant and more extensive debate on whether we live in a posthuman society is not the focus of this paper. instead, this study expounds on the turn away from humanism, identifies curriculum enablement pathways during this turn, and the critical resources that the responsive community development curriculum demands (bayley, 2016; berge, 2017). therefore, it identifies strategies for evolving a responsive community development curriculum in a supposed post-humanist context. pillars to an effective community curriculum development in more recent years, these developmental imperatives have been driven by the university's desire to be innovative (makunja, 2016), responsive to its community's developmental needs (pak et al., 2020), and embrace the concept of engaged scholarship (vashisth et al., 2021). this study's focus suggests a sustainable framework for a responsive community development curriculum that ensures exit-level outcomes and emphasises a transformative praxis. in a broad discussion on enablement, scholars have identified six enablement pillars that are applicable and critical to an effective community development curriculum in a posthuman era (zembylas, 2018; stone-johnson & hayes, 2021). the table below outlines the six pillars and their application to a community development degree in a posthumanist context. table 1: pillars of enablement in community development pillar description and application in a posthuman society choice, risk, and responsibility a prerequisite for an enabling curriculum as informed consent is paramount for ensuring collaborative relationships participation to enhance ownership and expand the decision-making and collaborative capabilities of communities vision of possibilities dialogical approaches are rooted in hope, optimism, and exploring options for positive transformation. change mutually desirable transformation is an essential outcome justice expansion of agency ensures injustices are disabled through critical engagement power sharing a shared understanding of multiple knowledge sites provides opportunities for enhancing various sources of power 163 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 159-170 while the above pillars can be applied in multiple disciplinary contexts, the application of the six enablement pillars in the posthuman era seems applicable as it emphasises the holistic and collaborative transformative praxis of communities. therefore, it can be argued that embedding the enablement pillars above into the curriculum can effectively shape capacitybuilding capabilities, access facilitation, identify and ascertain nodes for service development, and ultimately be a change agent. the evolution of posthumanism and curriculum design since the mid-1980s, curriculum design has been predominantly a human-centred and usercentred paradigm (forlano, 2017). however, the implication of posthumanism is challenging curriculum developers to focus on complex socio-technical systems in responding to community needs. the quest for changing university curricula by the south african government was based on two main imperatives. first, the scale of change in the world and the demands of the 21st century require students to be exposed to different and higher-level skills and knowledge than those previously offered by the south african curricula (molapo & pillay, 2018). secondly, given the triple challenges of poverty, unemployment, and inequality, the need for a professional cadre of community development practitioners became more critical. therefore, the government is expected to develop a contemporary curriculum that meets internationally set standards. again, south africa has changed. however, it remained the incisive wish of the ministry of education to design a curriculum that does not reproduce the contradictions in society as described in bush and glover (2016) but produces a guide to attaining community development. therefore, the university's curricula required revision to reflect new values and principles. given the above argument, a community development degree thus became essential. the degree is ultimately fit for purpose as it is supported by a conducive policy and legislative environment and is multidisciplinary in its emphasis. in a posthuman context, a community development curriculum becomes essential as it not only puts communities and their needs at the centre but actively seeks to use community-based knowledge to create sustainable well-being in communities. sustainable communities are created by a quest for balance in the multiple realms that constitute society: physical, economic, environmental, spiritual, cultural, social, and psychological. therefore, a community development curriculum needs to emphasise a holistic integration of these realms and how communities collaboratively organise to ensure that transformation occurs in a balanced manner. methodology this study adopted the systematic review of the literature to contribute toward understanding pathways for creating and implementing a curriculum on community development. the above approach considered three steps to search and extract the relevant body of knowledge (brunton, oliver, & thomas, 2020), namely: 1.) literature search and screening; 2.) data extraction and analysis; and 3.) write-up. the search approach was widespread globally, using 164 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 159-170 the following search strings: a.) curriculum enablement, b.) posthumanism, and c.) curriculum development. terms such as "community development curriculum" and "developing countries" were excluded to avoid missing relevant articles. to yield peer-reviewed articles, we performed a comprehensive search on global databases, including google scholar, ebscohost, web of science, scopus, and sciencedirect. we selected the above electronic databases because they advance multidisciplinary studies and offer more active, full-text, peer-reviewed journals for successful research, including many journals indexed in leading citation indexes (guetterman & fetters, 2018). despite extracting many source articles (303), this study adopted this broad search to maximise the likelihood of capturing all relevant publications (creswell et al., 2018). consideration was given to narrowing the search through the publication date and language (english) to extract articles considered valid sources of knowledge with the most recent information. this means articles published before 2012, written in a language other than english, grey literature, books, and thesis chapters were excluded from this study. during our data extraction, 303 articles were initially drawn out from a sample of articles published between 2012 to 2022 (table 2). although this represents a limitation since part of the scientific contributions was excluded, the objective was to eliminate studies that are not related to the study. we removed unreferenced articles and articles that did not cover significant literature on posthumanism and curriculum development. two forms of deduplication were considered to eliminate overlapping journals. the first form involved the removal of identical data sources from five selected databases (creswell et al., 2018). the second form stopped multiple articles published from the same data set (brunton, oliver, & thomas, 2020). bibliographic management software, zotero, was used for automatic duplication, and the remainder list was checked manually as one method of automatic deduplicating was considered inadequate. this screening stage narrowed the sampled articles, producing twenty-four academic papers (table 2). data querying and analysis the entire extraction and screening process of journal articles from each electronic database is shown in table 2. a framework for collecting and evaluating qualitative data on each article was developed, building on friese’s (2014) work. this involved the use of atlas.ti22 auto-coding tool to identify data segments that mentioned main concepts of interest. in this paper, we used atlas.ti thematic-based analysis to analyse literature on articles. according to (wild et al. (2016), atlas.ti is software that allows the researcher to competently capture the main ideas in literature and produce summarised results from systematically reviewed literature. the first step involved uploading the selected articles into the software during analysis. we uploaded a total of twenty-four peer-reviewed articles into atlas.ti software for coding. codes such as "curriculum enablement," "curriculum design," "community development," "societal needs," and "student needs" were initially created using the open code tool. in our 165 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 159-170 second analysis step, we grouped similar codes, merged them into higher-order codes, and continuously compared and revisited our codes. further data querying removed all irrelevant and dead-end codes. in the final step, we conducted selective coding, which allowed us to reconsider our data and codes to develop themes, theoretical concepts, and relationships between themes. table 2: articles extracted, excluded and included from each database results and discussion this section presents and discusses the study's results on pathways for creating and implementing a community development curriculum within the posthuman context. during atlas.ti data querying and coding, it became apparent that the results of this study could be put into two categories: 1) challenges to curriculum enablement and 2) opportunities to curriculum enablement. several critical factors to curriculum design that subsequently thwart enablement were cited by various scholars and are discussed in this section under the following themes. figure 1: challenges and opportunities to curriculum enablement as reviewed from literature studies 166 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 159-170 changing our thoughts and institutions by moving away from a humanist worldview the literature review highlighted that the pha to curriculum design offers tremendous potential for curriculum enablement (bayley, 2016; pak et al., 2020). however, applying a post-humanist method to community development requires a change in thoughts about humans and institutions by conceiving humans, including academics and students, as entwined with other beings (zembylas, 2018; čepić & papak, 2021). similar concerns are reflected by other scholars, such as (erstad et al., 2021), who argue that faculties and departments are structured as discrete entities with their objects and methods of study. on the contrary, berge (2017) submitted that a pha could change how humans value themselves, other species, the planet, and beyond. community development curriculum needs to be embedded in the socio-economic, environmental and development realities of society. by way of explanation, posthuman perspectives offer much more than merely a concern for new possibilities for human existence. again, a closer analysis of the above authors' claim indicates that using the pha in curriculum design remains a significant yet almost consistently challenging task in south africa. students conceived as limited and not yet knowledgeable in the literature reviewed, many studies in education revealed binary structures that consider learners 'limited,' 'not yet knowledgeable,' or 'fully adult.'. according to moss (2016), zembylas (2018) and erstad et al. (2021), this has posed a severe threat to curriculum enablement, thereby making curricula responsiveness an evasive reality. this is supported by makunja (2016), who indicated that from a humanist perspective, students are treated as a ‘tabula rasa’ waiting to be filled with complete knowledge of academics (figure 1). this is arguably the case in south africa, where there have been calls to recalibrate teacher-learner relations, so they are neither hierarchical nor instructor-focused (bush & glover, 2016; zembylas, 2018). the above further represents a need for an essential shift in focus and practice. therefore, re-evaluating curriculum design is vital to transforming institutions' worldviews to yield the desired results. in short, post-humanists' literature on curriculum design strongly suggests that curriculum enablement can be attained when the curriculum promotes the co-creation of knowledge rather than a simple content generation (molapo & pillay, 2018). community development curriculum can be crafted in a participatory manner to capture the realities and knowledge of society than can catalyse transformation. the above claims can be considered progressive because they are interested in advancing further and restoring some education practices that have remained marginal and seek to position phas at the centre of community development. broadly, the curriculum design should focus on 'how' to capacitate students of community development rather than on 'what' they need to make a difference when working with communities on development matters. adaptive challenges as a barrier to curriculum enablement the literature reviewed highlighted that many barriers to curriculum enablement represent adaptive challenges. however, most curriculum design strategies documented in the literature tend to exclusively conceive humans and their environment or earth as disconnected entities 167 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 159-170 (muraraneza et al., 2017). thus, curriculum enablement is entangled in a severe adaptive crisis. all the people's efforts are coming up short because the current interventions are biased towards a narrow view of humans (bayley, 2016; pak et al., 2020) and lack relationality not only between learners and academics but also concerning the environment or structures in which teaching, and learning take place. while these posthuman-centred curriculum design considerations are necessary, we further suggest that the transition requires a blend of posthumanism and humanism strategies to address specific community needs. potential to erode diversity in higher education although the literature review acknowledges the relevancy of the pha, there is little doubt about the approach's applicability. for example, scientists' circles argue that human societies and institutions are traditionally diverse; hence, a critical question is whether the pha to curriculum development is not reductive (erstad et al., 2021). as suggested by posthuman advocates, international observers argue that dismantling the binary systems may diminish diversity in higher education (forlano, 2017; muraraneza et al., 2017; zembylas, 2018). a close analysis of the most rational and probable consequence of dismantling the binary system is eroding diversity among universities. therefore, this article demonstrates how a blended approach to curriculum development can be applied as a pathway for curriculum development. we focus on integrating posthuman design in curriculum design to support the achievement of community needs. towards curriculum enablement in the posthuman era as discussed earlier, while curriculum design is vital, systematically developing it without a clear understanding of context, as in this case, the posthuman context, can potentially generate suboptimal results. since the binary structures continue to dominate current education systems in south africa, the gradual integration of posthuman logic in curriculum design is critical. thus, as suggested by posthuman advocates, curriculum design must move to a more adaptive approach that is not discipline-centric but rather holistic (figure). this article suggests that global, holistic, and global strategies, as postulated by the post-humanists, are necessary to attain curriculum enablement. using the pha in curriculum development will allow academics, scientists, students, and all key stakeholders in community development to think about the world and its beings, spaces, and places as entangled and interconnected. we further argue that integrating the pha in curriculum design can prevent silo thinking (figure 1). such a shift in teaching and learning could inculcate innovative ways and a culture of taking responsibility for humans, the planet, and everything surrounding us. strengths and limitations this literature-based study provides valuable information for curriculum developers committed to responding to community needs and quality of education. as such, this current study serves as the ground for future research. however, it was limited geographically and in scope as far as 168 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 159-170 the focus was confined to south africa, where issues of curriculum change have not been satisfactory. implication for practice. this article adds to the knowledge that shapes curriculum design for community development in south africa and other countries in africa and the third world in general. conclusion like many other fields of study in south africa, approaches to curriculum design in community development are heavily contested and faced with many challenges relating to posthumanism. this paper is rooted in the realisation that posthumanism as an approach to curriculum development is not enough to respond to societal and student needs in community development programs. together, posthuman and human perspectives can be more effective because they pluriversalise the task of curriculum enablement. depending on a singular pathway, posthumanism, to responding to community and student needs, run the risk of becoming complicit in the technologies of power through which a reinvented humanism is appropriated in higher education. we argue that if blending posthumanism into curriculum design can facilitate adaptation, scientists and policymakers in higher education need to learn how to make better use of the approach in curriculum enablement. therefore, this study demonstrated that curriculum enablement depends on how it is framed and how students and communities perceive it during its implementation. therefore, more effort should take place toward curriculum enablement in learning and teaching. this study argues that, while posthumanism consideration is necessary, a blend of humanist and post-humanist approaches offers the community development curriculum a chance for its enablement. the results of this study demonstrated how a community development curriculum could be enabled to promote learning and teaching that is responsive to community needs. references annala, j., lindén, j., mäkinen , m., & henriksson, j. 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(2018). the entanglement of decolonial and posthuman perspectives: tensions and implications for curriculum and pedagogy in higher education. posthuman pedagogies, 14(3), 254–267. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 2 2023 pp. 23-36 read, make, and mend the world: college students developing an antiracist, interdisciplinary curriculum for children diane downer anderson*a, yifan ping, patrick lia, bess levin markela, pempho moyoa, faith nationa, shaadiin kinga, abigail bautistaa, sophia leea, cristopher alvaradoa, luca poxona, tiara tillisa, jane huynha, & cindy lopeza * corresponding author email: danders1@swarthmore.edu a. education department, swarthmore college, swarthmore, pa, united states article info received: february 27, 2023 accepted: may 12, 2023 published: june 18, 2023 how to cite anderson, d. d., ping, y., li, p., markel, b. l., moyo, p., nation, f., king, s., bautista, a., lee, s., alvarado, c., poxon, l., tillis, t., huynh, j., & lopez, c. (2023). read, make, and mend the world: college students developing an antiracist, interdisciplinary curriculum for children. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 23-36. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.24 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract after the plurality of crises experienced in 2020, including but not limited to a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, a national reckoning with racial violence, and political violence, one teacher and twelve college students set out to explore and create actively antiracist, self-nourishing pedagogies for elementary students. using the theoretical approaches of bell hooks, gholdy muhammad, corita kent, and gloria ladson-billings, the class chose to center the approach of making and crafting as the module to challenge and dismantle systems of oppression. this article charts their journey of using bipoc-centered books, highlighting marginalized makers and artists, to craft and test curricula that goes beyond simply telling the artists' stories, but allows elementary students to be active participants in those stories through crafting. the class also explored how crafting can be a tool of expression, liberation, and learning. reflecting on the theoretical underpinnings of their thoughts and the lessons they learned along the way, this article is a reflection on the class's experiences and suggestions for how to read, make, and mend the world. keywords picture books; crafting education; interdisciplinary; anti-racist pedagogy 10.46303/jcsr.2023.24 https://curriculumstudies.org/ mailto:danders1@swarthmore.edu https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.24 24 anderson, d. d. et al. jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 all of us -authors, illustrators, and educators -will continue our commitment to this work so that children can see themselves in books, see their beauty and intelligence, see the strengths they have inherited from a long line of predecessors, see their ability to overcome difficulties, challenges, pain, and find deep joy and laughter in books, in characters they recognize as themselves. ~ eloise greenfield, 2016, education for liberation award from teaching for social change introduction the pandemic hit the world in the spring of 2020 and a reawakening of centuries of racial injustices was once again exposed for all to see, both in the us and our college campus. 2020 was a year riddled with attempts at change that stemmed from systemic issues that were exposed throughout the country. most notably in the united states, we witnessed significant uproar following the death of george floyd in may of 2020. following his death, more attention was drawn to the disparities that many groups of color faced. social media was flooded with guides, books, and other resources for how to try to begin and address these disparities, but a lot of this work was directed towards adult or older populations. although some information was shared for youth, such as stamped: racism, antiracism, and you: a remix of stamped from the beginning (kendi & reynolds, 2020), young people, at the time, were rarely directly addressed. however, publishers have recently published high-quality picturebooks about bipoc, women, lgbtqa+, and immigrant artists and makers; we turned our attention to these books as robust resources. further, the pandemic created serious limits on access to k-12 classrooms and other spaces for research. in response, our professor, diane anderson, re-invented her literacies research seminar into an anti-racist literacies pedagogy seminar. drawing upon previous courses in critical perspectives on children’s literature & young adult literature and literacies & social identities, she built the pedagogies course around an open-ended project called read, make, and mend the world: an antiracist, interdisciplinary curriculum focused on using children’s picture books about black, indigenous, and persons of color (bipoc) artists and other makers. at the core of our work was one assumption and one question: we assumed that we must legitimize the use of books with bipoc, women, immigrants, and lgbtqa+ and not simply put them on the shelves for children to discover. we asked: could we, as one professor and 12 undergraduate students, intentionally create anti-racist elementary, interdisciplinary, literacy curricula, focused on agentive “making and mending”? if so, how might we do that? in this article we employ a rich description to chronicle our seminar experiences as we did this work. we draw upon cochrane-smith and lytle’s concept of inquiry in transformative pedagogical practices (2009) as a valuable contribution to studies of classroom practices, with the goal of more socially-just classrooms. this inquiry, by its very nature, disrupts and challenges the norms of research, context, and authorship. we see this account as a descriptive review of “‘creativity’ or ‘innovation’ in learning situations or organizations and the 25 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 importance of give-and-take in the flow of activities” (heath & street, 2008, p. 51). thus, we organize this report around the collaborative foundations of the course, its values and activities, and a set of questions that emerged from our work. foundations of this seminar who are “we?” we are a diverse seminar of twelve undergraduates at swarthmore college. we are male and female and non-binary. we are black, brown, indigenous, asian, and white. we are straight, questioning, and queer. we are sophomores, juniors, seniors, and tenured faculty. our professor is a white, cis-female professor with 45-plus years in teaching and supervising kindergarten through college. this is the “we” that is embodied in this essay, in addition to the collective we of humankind, the elementary children and teachers that we recall and imagine. we believe that we have much work to do to mend the world. our professor began the course with the following assumptions about the course: • we need to learn about racism and how it works, • we need to learn theories about language and literacies, • and we need a broad range of pedagogical practices from which to draw. we developed questions that map onto the headings in this paper and attempted, through our readings, discussions, seminar papers, and curriculum building, to answer those questions. in the beginning, as we read about racism, we knew that we needed to acknowledge the values that were implicit in our task. we began by mutually building what we called our “underlying values.” anyone in the course could add to or edit this document and, by the end of the term it included: 1. sit with our own assumptions/ biases as educators: acknowledge there are concepts, literature, and practices that make us uncomfortable or that we are not drawn to and we should be able to identify/ investigate those feelings. 2. do not let fear/ nerves get in the way of stating the uncomfortable truths: try to stray away from the palatable versions of history or literature. 3. incorporate the 3 c’scompassion, creativity, and community in our work: be empathetic, engaged, and focused on the needs of marginalized, poc communities through curriculum and in the classroom. 4. understand that learning and navigating identity and uncomfortable issues is a twoway street where we as educators both learn and teach these concepts from/to our students. 5. be intentional about the purpose of our lesson plans: allow space for certain lessons to flourish within the classroom and curriculum. 6. curriculum units should attend to (from muhammad, g., 2020; new london group, 1996): ● identity development—helping youth to make sense of themselves and others ● explicit skill development— developing proficiencies across the academic disciplines, including code-breaking, code-making, and multiple and meta-languages 26 anderson, d. d. et al. jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 ● intellectual development—gaining knowledge and becoming smarter ● criticality—learning and developing the ability to read texts (including print and social contexts) to understand power, equity, and anti-oppression ● transformative practice -using knowledge to remake the world as a more humane and just place for all. 7. be explicit name what we mean and not simply imply. we should stay away from words like “all” or “some.” we need to get away from general multiculturalism and be more conscious about naming the things we really mean within the curriculum and the classroom space. 8. instead of framing our curriculum in a trauma and oppression-focused framework, we need to shift to a more agency and power-focused framework. when we are raising public awareness, we shouldn’t depict people as broken. we need to foreground or highlight inspiring stories. 9. recognize that racism is a very global issue and we should not have a lens that is just centered in the united states. we should be open to the unique aspects of racism in other contexts that we are not trained to identify yet. 10. we should be intentional and reflexive on the author’s positionality and their assumptions. pay attention to not only our positionality but also the positionality of the materials we pull from. for example, ask: who is the audience this book (or other material) for? 11. we are all complicit as institutional racism, homophobia, classism, misogyny, and other non-inclusive, anti-intellectual, and anti-community practices have undergirded our schooling. as we build curricula, let’s periodically examine our work in order to see where we have defaulted to soul-crushing and intellect-damaging norms. 12. we should work to decolonize our minds and be more collective. this is difficult, but we can try, try, try. 13. we must think about the power of “learning from others, learning through dialogue, and embodied learning” (frambaugh-kritzer, at al., 2015, 70) as we develop disciplinary literacies. from these questions and values, the seminar commenced. why now? in this course we humbly, but energetically set out to address inequities through antiracist, interdisciplinary picturebook pedagogies. we saw this as a way to begin to “mend the world” and to define what that means. we felt urged on by the reverberations of continued racial injustice because we saw it as necessary work for which we were all responsible. racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, and ableism kill the spirit, soul, and body of children. all of us, in some way, have experienced or witnessed this spirit killing in our own lives and those for whom we care. now is not the “right time” for antiracist curricula. the existence of a right time implies the existence of a wrong time, and there is certainly no wrong time for liberatory justice. communities of immigrants, black and brown and tan people, women, and indigenous 27 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 people’s sovereign to this american soil have been leaders in the fight for the liberation of the spirit for centuries. we, a professor and students, enthusiastically join and continue liberatory practices through pedagogy building. our work is built on generations of sweat and tears and unpaid biopsychosocial labor. it is built on indigenous knowledge that respects not only people, but also the flora and fauna and land we stand on. the pandemic and its traumatizing effects, especially on children, low-income, and bipoc persons compels us to do this work. the recent increase in media reports of racist attacks, murders by police, and acts of domestic terrorism against black and asian people is a harrowing reminder of the myth of a post-racial world. through our curricula, we hope to nurture the next generation to be stalwart champions of antiracism and unconditional love. we believed that this is our responsibility and a contribution to mending the world. what were our orienting texts and references? the orienting texts for this course placed authors of color and transnational authors at the forefront of our syllabus as a way of decentering the whiteness of the academy and schools. some of the books were children’s picturebooks; others were written by bipoc scholars advocating for culturally relevant pedagogies, including those who center care, agency, love, historical accuracies, and embodied experiences in classroom practices. in conceptualizing an anti-racist literacy pedagogy, it is crucial to center the voices of those who have been historically marginalized and excluded from the process of shaping the world. each text served as a springboard for not only our weekly class discussions, but also confrontations with our own biases in reconceptualizing the curriculum and the classroom in our current projects. in the words of professor diane anderson, “doing anti-racist work never ends. it is always a process of unlearning (through introspection), unraveling (relearning), and simply doing.” although introspection, relearning, and doing might not be central in every text we’ve engaged with, each text functioned to dismantle conventions and oppressive ideologies by naming these structures, theorizing new ways of being, and/or rebuilding frameworks. when paired with the children’s picturebooks and pedagogy books that encouraged embodied making, such as art, writing, and music, we felt ready to commence our pedagogical work. while we did not want to skip past the hard work of introspection, we also did not want to simply prepare ourselves to do socially-just curricula after graduation. we wanted to do it now, in spite of not being able to do this work in actual classrooms. we conceptualized the following three critical themes through our course readings and discussions: • deconstructing the world, in which we locate, name, and take responsibility for oppressive frameworks and ideologies by understanding concepts such as caste (wilkerson, 2020), habitus (bourdieu, 1977), sociocultural literacy analysis (albright, 2008), the theory of the utterance (bakhtin, 1986), and a social and critical view of multiliteracies. (cazden et al, 1996). we worked to understand how literacy ideologies can be oppressive and how we might resist and reimagine the world. 28 anderson, d. d. et al. jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 • reimagining the world, in which we reframe our thinking through other models and ways of thinking, such as indigenous worldviews (four arrows & narvaez, 2022), critical race theories (ladson-billings, 1998), love and care-based classrooms (hooks, 2004), and “plorking” (burgess, 2021), corita kent’s concept of play & work together. our professor believes that the teaching of theories is really teaching what students already know but discovering ways to talk about what we theorize. she talks about theory as “playthings,” tools and building blocks that we can get our hands on and use. theories, in her experience, help teachers to be more reflective and nimbler when the complexities of learners’ surprise teachers, such that they might recreate the world. • recreating the world, in which we build historically relevant literacies pedagogies (muhammad, 2020), use and re-use of available materials; and embody doing and making. we build children’s agency through crafting and mending, as well as knowledge, drawing upon informative children’s picture books about artists and makers. we strove to design critical and antiracist literacies for teachers to work with in classrooms, creating openings for children’s questions. it is in children’s questions where we discover what children are “ready for” in terms of their social, cultural, and historical development and knowledge. why read(ing) and why these picture books? racism is negligence, fragmentation, and disembodiment. racism is an erasure of voices and accomplishments. these books were specifically chosen to remedy those acts of erasure and shed light on untold stories, to begin mending. young children are often removed from conversations regarding anti-racist work for a plethora of reasons, but primarily because these “ideas” scare those that belong to the dominant group. currently, throughout the united states, we are witnessing the removal of critical race theory (crt) from the classrooms, with this pedagogical framework being messaged as a threat to the development of children. instead of seeing crt as a means of highlighting, explaining, and educating scholars on topics of race/racism, parents and some educators see it as a way of promoting anti-white ideologies, which they believe do not belong in the classroom. by removing these conversations on race and racism, our education system continues to perpetuate the racist cycles our country has undergone for centuries, which makes it that much more challenging for any change to truly occur. the children of today are the future. if we want anti-racist work to be at the forefront of policy and change, we must make space for children to be active participants in an evolving anti-racist world. the books we have compiled allow for the presentation of anti-racist work to children. our lessons based on the books present age-appropriate information about artists, makers, and their historical contexts. students will see representations of themselves and people too often left out of the curriculum in schools. activities and questions that are relevant to the contents provide students with openings for antiracist activities as well as 29 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 space for their own questions. through the authors and illustrators in these books, along with the actual stories, these books appeal to students from all backgrounds. these particular books about bipoc artists and makers show the value of creativity and expressiveness that comes through different mediums, ranging from visual arts to creative writing. the artists and makers of these books often worked within racist structures or at the margins of the white, mainstream society. some practiced antiracist activism through their embodied work. these books shine a hopeful light on antiracism and positive change in society. while there were many books to choose from, these rose to the top for us at the time of the seminar. they are stories about artists romare beardon & tyree guyton, illustrator gyo fujikawa, basket artist ruth asawa, and the quiltmakers of gee’s bend. although the day you begin by jacqueline woodson is not about a particular artist it is by an anti-racist writer and we found it to be uplifting and powerful. box #1: harvey, j.w. (2011). my hands sing the blues: romare bearden’s childhood journey (e. zunin, illus.). two lions. mckissack, p. (2016). stitchin’ and pullin’ a gee’s bend quilt (c.a cabrera, illus.). dragonfly press. shapiro, j.h. (2015). magic trash: a story of tyree guyton and his art (v. brantleynewton, illus.). charlesbridge. maclear, k. (2019). it began with a page: how gyo fujikawa drew the way (j. morstad, illus.). harpercollins. d’aqunio, a. (2019). a life made by hand: the story of ruth asawa (a. d’aqunio, illus.). princeton architectural press. why make? practicing embodiment, love, and hope. making, crafting, and creating art is central to our curricula. making is embodied, deeply human, and urgently hopeful. as himley has said, making is a “common human enterprise, fundamental to our participation in the world” (himley, 1991, 9). early on in the semester, reading teaching to transgress by bell hooks, we learned that traditional schools rely on a separation between the minds and bodies of both students and teachers. hooks describe the ways that the physical presence of learners and educators is forcefully divorced from their minds and spirits. this split is even more profound for students of color, whose bodies are policed, regulated, and subjected to scrutiny and violence while too often being left out of the learning process. to be human is to have a body– denying the body its place in learning is a means of dehumanization, so, in our class and curricula, we purposefully engaged the powers of making and doing to center all of ourselves and the students we wrote for. 30 anderson, d. d. et al. jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 crafting and art-making became, for us, essential modes of learning that incorporated more traditional school modes, such as mathematical thinking, the language arts, history, and science. our stance on crafting and making felt like robust affordances of the picture book biographies we were using. as pahl and rowsell, in artifactual literacies, elucidate, affordances refer to the “specific possibilities resident within a mode, whether these are determined by the material or the cultural possibilities of the mode” (pahl & rowsell, 2010, p. 5). in this logic, a food dish prepared by a student, for example as an unconventional practice is just as educationally and semantically meaningful as a standard, 5-paragraph academic essay. in cooking certain ingredients, students may disclose their socio-economic background (e.g., what kinds of protein they use), their culture, and gender dispositions (e.g., how male and female students approach cooking differently). hence, it is an invaluable opportunity to address these otherwise indiscernible intersectionalities of students’ identities through this joyous activity. additionally, making (such as drawing, knitting, and cooking) engages students with their multiple senses, it is embodied, not merely visual, but also olfactory, auditory, and physical. this heightened level and more thorough inclusion of bodily senses echoes what bell hooks promotes, a co-presence of both “body and mind.” all of our selected children’s books involve some form of art-making or creative recycling. these curricular activities, which we also completed ourselves, ranged from sculpting with slime to writing and performing a class play to making paper to collaged paper quilts of sierpinski triangles. as we engaged in making alongside each other, many student pairs reported a new depth of conversation opening up, the kind of conversations we hope that children will have as they make, side by side. learning by heart discusses at length the duality of working and playing and the ways in which, in good learning, these things are inherently interconnected, what corita kent calls plork. we experienced firsthand how making things together—in person when we could, on zoom when we could not—was generative. while we talked about the tendrils of racism that we aim to combat, we also got to know each other more deeply. we laughed, ranted, and created. we learned that an anti-racist, loving pedagogy is one that intentionally connects mind, body, and spirit amidst systems that all too often force the disintegration of these aspects of the human experience. in making, we claimed our right to full, embodied learning, even as college students. sister corita kent, has said, “doing and making are acts of hope, and as that hope grows we stop feeling overwhelmed by the troubles of the world. we remember that we—as individuals and groups—can do something about those troubles” (corita et al., 2008, p. 1)we, too, found ourselves feeling hopeful. how do we mend the world? antiracism is storytelling is seeing is doing is becoming. 31 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 storytelling as a literacy practice or theory is not liberatory or anti-racist by itself; simply recounting a story will not eradicate racism. but what this pedagogy ultimately illuminates is a possibility for us educators to question and challenge some of the ingrained assumptions about literacy/language education so that we can better improve our philosophy and instructions. if racism’s phantom is fragmentation and disembodiment, then storyengaging, storytelling, and making can be the light to unite, to embody—to dispel the shadow of racism for our children. we engaged with this assignment not necessarily by developing a structured outline, but rather by creating tangible works each as imaginative as the children’s books our lessons were based on. repurposing trash, making paper from local flora, and collage-making inspired by our chosen books enabled us to reinforce the importance of anti-racist approaches to educating children about identity, possible selves, and engaging with approaches that are intentionally not standardized. given the open and flexible nature of our assignment, the student-designed curricula were entirely up to the discretion of each group. nonetheless, we worked with several individuals to ground these projects into lessons that could be used directly in the classroom. professor anderson made herself available to hear our ideas in their raw state and ensure that our plans were feasible in scope. additionally, she helped us generate ideas on how we could adapt content from the stories into our lesson plans. we also worked with gene witkowski, one of the teaching assistants in the course, to specifically address these concerns through math activities. a few weeks before finalizing our projects, each group also met with a teacher consultant. these swarthmore, bryn mawr, and brown alumni have worked in the education field as teachers or administrators and volunteered to meet with us to place our projects within the context of a public-school classroom and common core standards. in box 2 you can see some examples of the activities we developed for upper elementary classrooms. 32 anderson, d. d. et al. jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 box # 2 stitchin’ and pullin’ a gee’s bend quilt craft & geometry – make sapierski triangles as a pattern for collage building and quilt making. history – explore a chronicle of gee’s bend quilts and their prominence in the art world. look at gee’s bend quilts online, choose a favorite, and write a review of it, contemplating its name and how it appeals to you. language arts --interview family members to see if they or any of the elders have been crafters or makers, cooks or bakers. write a newspaper article about them. magic trash craft & recycling – using safe materials, such as cleaned containers, paper, and old clothes, make something – the class will then stage an art museum for younger students to see and critique. science & environment – work with school leadership to figure out recycling efforts in the school. based on local practices, count categories of waste and graph them to share with the wider community. history – research and look to see if there is any local art in your community, from neighborhood murals to library installations. it began with a page craft & language arts – make paper using trashed papers, glue, and flower petals; make simple weavings using stems of plants, such as dandelions, grass, etc. language arts – use paper to write thank you notes to teachers and/or family members; use paper to make valentine cards. history – explore the history of various immigrant groups in the us and their contributions to literature, science, art, and mathematics. a life by hand craft – make paper from available paper and natural materials; using found materials and plant stems, such as dandelions, weave small baskets language arts – find a local artist to explore and write a story about their life and art. science – test the structural integrity of natural materials, such as dandelion stems, bindweed, and grass fronds. 33 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 what was challenging/hard? what did we do well and where did we fall short? although there were a lot of successes in this experimental seminar, it was not without challenges and limitations. there is only so much transgression and experimentation that we can do when we are still confined to academic expectations and work within a semester and meeting primarily over zoom. one of the first major problems that we encountered was finalizing a class meeting time, which is normally a four-hour seminar. there were twelve people in total enrolled in the online zoom class, but students lived in many places in the us and had other online courses. the only workable compromise was to split the class into two sessions based on availability and meet once a week as split groups and once a week with our project partners. despite having a more intimate discussion space in smaller groups and some occasional interactions with students from the other sections, being split into two class periods kept the conversations somewhat insulated. some project partnerships did consist of members from both sessions and we were all present during evening classes with guest speakers, but this was the extent of cross-section interactions we had throughout the semester. we did not utilize online discussion forums as consistently as we could have to encourage more dialogue between the different sections; we were naturally limited in hearing different perspectives and ideas from people outside of our respective sections. honestly, like much of the world, by the spring of 2021, we were tired of screen time. another major problem that members have reflected on in the semester is negotiating the amount of freedom we had in shaping our curriculum projects. although this was arguably the biggest project for this seminar, the students were given the freedom to work outside common core standards and current lesson plan formats. this translated into little to no formal guidelines on how to write this curriculum other than models (kent & steward, 2008; muhammad, g., 2020) this is particularly significant because students came into the seminar with varying levels of experience in writing curriculum; some have a lot of experience in writing curricula for programs or as teachers while others have very little experience of writing curriculum outside of the mandatory lesson writing assignment from pedagogy & power: introduction to education, a required course at swarthmore that many take during their first year. during the semester write-up, one student expressed, “as much as i thrive from the freedom of not being expected to meet strict guidelines, it felt like we started almost with a blank slate and that can be very difficult for people who don’t have a lot of experience writing curriculum.” on the other hand, having this freedom also allowed students to properly evaluate existing curricular approaches with a critical lens and adapt practices or strategies that placed our underlying values at the forefront of our respective curriculum designs. however, in negotiating this freedom, it is also important to be cognizant of the intended audience of our curricula: the teacher consultants, who stand in as the prospective teachers who will teach our curricula and envisioned students, who are the target learner audience. during the curriculum presentations in our seminar, one student presenter had expressed that their teacher consultant told them that what they had “wasn’t a curriculum at 34 anderson, d. d. et al. jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 all and they needed to fix a lot of things.” it seems that curricula must be focused upon “common core-based objectives and assessment.” in future iterations of the course, more support could be provided for students who do not have as much experience in designing curricula. students can be directed earlier to common core standards or curricular requirements in their field placements. they can also learn the subversive framing techniques of using common core language to justify more expansive and antiracist curricula. what did we ultimately learn and conclude? as the appalling racial violence in 2021, which continues today, further exposes the systemic inequality rooted in american society, educators are seeking answers to “how can we empower our children to combat racism?” this core question was the foundation for everything in the seminar, from curating the readings to leading the in-class discussions each week, from designing the antiracist lessons to crafting our own artifacts. these diverse learning experiences shed light on the complexity and possibility of anti-racist, anti-oppression pedagogy. we have learned: • anti-racist work in teaching and learning requires purposefulness. it has been too long that the discourse of race evades our everyday pedagogical practice. to see and address that “elephant in the room” is the first step to combat racism in classrooms. we need to have constructive, if difficult, dialogue about racial biases—by heeding and honoring the potentially disheartening, yet true, stories of our marginalized students. we need to get comfortable with the discomfort of racial reality. • “making” is the strongest weapon against bigotry. antiracist pedagogy need not be pedantic and dry; instead, everyday objects and activities carry tremendous power to dismantle the prejudice of racism, as it does for the artists and makers of color represented in the children's books that we focused on. knitting, cooking, drawing, performance arts, music, and storytelling all encourage students to love themselves, to share, and to care for others. we need to incorporate diverse projects, models, and modes of inquiry into the class design—to be creative in conceptualizing antiracist pedagogies. we need to take an asset-based approach to children, and ourselves, to see what we all know and do well, instead of focusing on what we lack. we felt this as we participated in our own making, both crafting and curriculum design, in the course. because we worked hard to be anti-racist in making pedagogy and crafts and engaging one another, we felt that we could bring our fuller selves to our work. • everything is connected. the body is connected to the mind; the theory is connected to the practice; the classroom is connected to the world. disembodiment, detachment, and isolation will not inspire our students to be critical thinkers or courageous fighters. as educators, we need to contextualize, historicize, and synthesize in order to present a more flexible, versatile toolbox by which students can apprehend the world around them, and critique, challenge, and resist injustice. a problematic yet no less exciting 35 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 world awaits, and our students will grow even stronger as they explore these complexities and mend the world themselves. as carini has said, “stories (and memory) pluralize us. stories stretch our narrow, individual frames and minds, making us big and roomy. what was singular, multiplies. through stories (and memory) we step across eras and even eons of time, glimpsing worlds we never knew but which also remain -through stories. stories (and memory) are powerfully educational. stories (and memory) hook us into humanness.” (carini, 2001, 54). it is through carefully chosen books, stories, and activities that we wish to create space whereby all children can reclaim their agency as full humans, as readers, thinkers, and makers. faith ringgold reminds us that “you can’t sit around and wait for somebody to say who you are. you need to write it and paint it and do it.” it is from this authentic doing that we might begin important mending, fostering hope for all of us. acknowledgements tyree guyton of the heidelberg project, professor wanda brooks from temple university, gene witkowski ’22, feven shonga ’25, teacher consultants emily sparks, ruby bantarizza, hilary hamilton, ogechi irondi, kate weiler. this project was supported by a grant from the swarthmore college president’s fund for racial justice. references albright, j., & luke, a. (eds.). (2008). pierre bourdieu and literacy education. routledge. bakhtin, m. m. (1986). speech genres and other late essays. university of texas press. bourdieu, p. (1977). outline of a theory of practice (r. nice, trans.). cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511812507 burgess, m. (2021). make meatballs sing: the life and art of corita kent. enchanted lion books, llc. carini, p. (2001). starting strong: a different look at children, schools, and standards. teachers college press. cazden, cope, b., kalantzis, m., luke, a., luke, c., & nakata, m. (1996). a pedagogy of multiliteracies: designing social futures. harvard educational review, 66(1), 60–92. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u cochrane-smith, m. & lytle, s. (2009). inquiry as stance: practitioner research for the next generation. teachers college press. d’aqunio, a. (2019). a life made by hand: the story of ruth asawa (a. d’aqunio, illus.). princeton architectural press. four arrows, & narvaez, d. (2022). restoring the kinship worldview: indigenous voices introduce 28 precepts for rebalancing life on planet earth. penguin random house. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511812507 https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.66.1.17370n67v22j160u 36 anderson, d. d. et al. jcsr 2023, 5(2): 23-36 frambaugh-kritzer, c., buelow, s., & simpson steele, j. (2015). what are disciplinary literacies in dance and drama in the elementary grades? journal of language & literacy education, 11(1), 65-87. greenfield, e. (2016). education for liberation award from teaching for social change. https://www.teachingforchange.org/eloise-greenfield-award harvey, j.w. (2011). my hands sing the blues: romare bearden’s childhood journey (e. zunin, illus.). two lions. heath, s. b. & street, b. v., with molly mills. (2008). ethnography: approaches to language and literacy research. teachers college press/ncrll. himley, m. (1991). shared territory: understanding children’s writing as works. oxford. hooks, b. (1994). teaching to transgress: education as the practice of freedom. routledge. https://doi.org/10.3366/para.1994.17.3.270 kendi, i. x., & reynolds, j. (2020). stamped: racism, antiracism, and you: a remix of the national book award-winning stamped from the beginning. little, brown books for young readers. kent, c., & steward, j.(2008). learning by heart: teachings to free the creative spirit. allworth. ladson-billings, g. (1998). just what is critical race theory and what's it doing in a nice field like education? international journal of qualitative studies in education, 11(1), 7-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/095183998236863 maclear, k. (2019). it began with a page: how gyo fujikawa drew the way (j. morstad, illus.). harper collins. mckissack, p. (2016). stitchin’ and pullin’ a gee’s bend quilt (c.a cabrera, illus.). dragonfly press. muhammad, g. (2020). cultivating genius: an equity framework for culturally and historically responsive literacy. scholastic. narvaez, d. (2016) reclaiming our indigenous worldview: a more authentic baseline for social/ecological justice work in education. in n. mccrary & w. ross (eds.), working for social justice inside and outside the classroom (pp. 93-112). in series, social justice across contexts in education (s.j. miller & l.d. burns, eds.). peter lang. pahl, k., & rowsell, j. (2010). artifactual literacies: every object tells a story (c. genishi, ed.). teachers college press. shapiro, j.h. (2015). magic trash: a story of tyree guyton and his art (v. brantley-newton, illus.). charlesbridge. wilkerson, i. (2020). caste: the origins of our discontents. penguin books, limited. https://www.teachingforchange.org/eloise-greenfield-award https://doi.org/10.3366/para.1994.17.3.270 https://doi.org/10.1080/095183998236863 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 1-12 analysis of connectivism as a tool for posthuman university classrooms bunmi isaiah omodan* * faculty of education, butterworth campus, walter sisulu university, south africa email: bomodan@wsu.ac.za article info received: july 20, 2022 accepted: november 12, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite omodan, b. i. (2023). analysis of connectivism as a tool for posthuman university classrooms. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 1-12 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.2 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract in the posthuman era, teaching and learning through technologies are becoming increasingly important, most especially in the university system. connectivism, a theory of learning that emphasises the importance of connections between people and information, is one of the most influential educational philosophies driving today’s educational dynamism. in a posthuman world, where technology is constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated, connectivism is argued to provide a framework for understanding how students learn and how can technology be used to facilitate learning. this study argues that connectivism is one of the ways in which classroom stakeholders can be made to prepare for the posthuman era. the study is located within the transformative paradigm to enable the researcher to tailor the argument toward transforming the university classrooms and developing a new way of thinking about society's present social boundaries by pursuing truth within a postmodern framework. in the same vein, conceptual analysis was adopted to make sense of the argument since it helps to interoperate and dismantle complex and ambiguous concepts toward meaning making. the analysis begins by presenting connectivism and its potential assumptions. the assumptions were juxtaposed with the posthuman agenda by arguing the relationship between posthumanism and connectivism and lastly, how it prepares classroom stakeholders for building students’ capacity ahead of the emerging interaction between human (students) and non-human (technologies). the study concludes that connectivism viewpoint is one of the unavoidable philosophies of the future. keywords posthumanism; connectivism; university classrooms; classroom stakeholders. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.2 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.2 2 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 1-12 introduction few would argue that we are living in an age of accelerating change. every day, it seems the world is confronted with new technologies and new ways of doing things. and as the world becomes more complex and interconnected, the pace of change is only likely to increase. in such a rapidly changing world, the need for posthumanism is fast becoming unavoidable and a compulsory devil that we must learn to live with. however, posthumanism as a concept itself sounds ambiguous but easy to summarise as a perspective on how change takes place in the world. and in today’s world, technology and change are complimentarily synonymous. this is in line with the argument that posthumanism is an approach that recognises the fundamental importance of technology in our lives and future (buchanan-oliver, 2015; murray, 2020). it rejects the notion that humans are somehow separate from or above technology; instead, it recognises that human beings are increasingly intimate partners with technology and that the future depends on the ability to work together and alongside the evolving technologies (cecchetto, 2013; dalibert, 2014). based on this, i can advance my argument that posthumanism de-recognised the traditional humanist approaches to dealing with change. for example, humanists often assume that humans can control change by using reason and science (gilabert, 2011; wentzer & mattingly, 2018); but in a world where technologies are evolving at an exponential rate, this may no longer be possible. therefore, the only hope is to embrace change and work with it rather than working against it (johnson & sdunzik, 2023; lubinga et al., 2023; pushpanadham et al., 2023). while posthumanism may sound like a radical way of thinking, in reality, it is simply a recognition of how things are already. as the world continues to change at an ever-increasing pace, universities and their pedagogical space are bound to begin the process toward posthumanism. because in the posthuman era, teaching and learning through technologies are importantly not negotiable as it renders various traditional pedagogies useless (knox, 2016; peters et al., 2022). that is, the traditional methods of teaching and learning are no longer sufficient in a world where technology is changing at an ever-accelerating pace. therefore, universities must adapt their methods to keep up with the times by incorporating more technologies into their curricula (mpu et al., 2022; zembylas, 2018). this will not only ensure that students are prepared for the future but also that they are able to learn in ways that are more engaging and effective (kilinc et al., 2018). this argument is in consonance with the recommendation that universities should make use of technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality to create more immersive and interactive learning experiences (adu et al., 2022; campbell & blair, 2018; kadirire, 2007; sevnarayan, 2022). by making these changes, universities can stay at the forefront of education and ensure that their students are equipped with the skills they need to thrive in the posthuman era. since posthumanism is fast becoming unavoidable, connectivism provides a muchneeded framework for understanding how students learn and how technology can be used to 3 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 1-12 facilitate learning. connectivism emphasises the importance of connections between people and information, and its popularity is due in large part to its dynamism (bell, 2009; goldie, 2016. in other words, connectivism is constantly evolving to meet the needs of a changing world. this makes it an ideal educational philosophy for the 21st century, when posthumanism is rapidly reshaping our understanding of what it means to be human. as we enter this new era, connectivism will continue to play an important role in helping us adapt and thrive. that is, it is an idea that could very well hold the key to unlocking the potential of posthumanism in the educational sphere, hence forms the major contribution to knowledge in this study. that is, the study explores the potential of connectivism theory as an educational partner in the posthuman era. research questions based on the above aims of the study, which is to explore the potential of connectivism theory as an educational partner in posthuman era, the following questions are raised: • what are the assumptions of connectivism theory? • how can assumptions of connectivism theory assist classroom stakeholders in preparing for the posthuman era? methodology the study is located within the transformative paradigm to enable the researcher to tailor the argument toward transforming the university classrooms (rammel & vettori, 2021; underhill & mcdonald, 2010) and developing a new way of thinking about society's present social boundaries by pursuing truth within a postmodern framework (mertens, 2017). in order to engage in this study, the researcher must locate himself within a framework that can provide guidance for both the research process and the dissemination of the argument. the transformative paradigm was chosen as it offers a way to view education as habilitation: the process of becoming something other than what one presently is. further, this paradigm sees universities as playing a role in social transformation, which is a hallmark of posthumanism as an idea by providing opportunities for students to critically engage with ideas and values that shape their lives (van reenen & van der merwe, 2016). within this paradigm, research is seen as a means of pursuing truth that has the potential to challenge existing power relations and contribute to social change (mertens, 2007). this framework enables universities to be seen as sites of critical inquiry, where students can explore the world around them and challenge existing social boundaries. this argument started by presenting connectivism theory from its entomological point of view followed by it assumptions which were deduced from the theoretical presentation of connectivism theory. i proceed to argue the link between each of the assumptions and posthuman practices. this was made easy with the help of conceptual analysis as a method of interpreting concepts. that is, in order to make sense of the theory of connectivism, i adapted conceptual analysis. conceptual analysis is a tool that helps to disambiguate and make meaning 4 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 1-12 of complex concepts (laurence & margolis, 2003). it does this by breaking down the concept into its component parts and then examining how those parts contribute to the whole. in this way, conceptual analysis can help to clarify the relationships between concepts and reveal hidden assumptions (furner, 2004). by applying conceptual analysis to the theory, i was able to make sense of the argument and reconceptualised how connectivism could be applied in practice in preparation for the posthuman era. as a result, i argue that conceptual analysis is a valuable tool for this study. presentation of theory and its assumptions this section discusses the theoretical underpinnings of connectivism, as well as its assumptions, importance, and relevance to posthuman education. this was accomplished by first describing the theory of connectivism and then going through each assumption's practical application toward posthumanism. connectivism theory around 2005, george siemens and stephen downes published articles on connectivism. connectivist ideas were first presented in 2004 by george siemens in an online essay entitled “connectivism: learning as a network creation”. an introduction to connective knowledge was published in 2005 also by stephen downes (western governor university [wgu], 2021). the articles focus on how technology affects the learning process and how the digital era has accelerated access to knowledge. each, however, has a distinct perspective. george siemens focuses on the role of technology in connectivist learning (siemens, 2005), while stephen downes emphasises the importance of networks (downes, 2005). nevertheless, both views are important contributions to the field of education and provide insights into how technology is changing the way we learn. this is confirmation that this concept has been around for a while, but it is only now that scholars seem able to combine information and thoughts in a helpful approach. it acknowledges the role that technology plays in education, and the ongoing connectedness allows people to make choices about learning, the sources of learning and the reasons for learning (utecht, 2019). there are three key aspects to connectivity: first, the idea that we are constantly connected to a network of people and information; second, the way in which technology can be used to connect us with others; and third, the way in which we can use connectivity to learn (aldahdouh et al., 2015; goldie, 2016; tschofen & mackness, 2012). the first aspect is perhaps the most important, as it recognises that we are never alone; there is always someone or something we can connect with. the second aspect is important because it acknowledges that technology is not just a tool for education but a medium through which we can connect with others. the third aspect is important because it recognises that connectivity can be used to learn; we can use it to access new information and ideas and to share our own knowledge and understanding. connectivity is, therefore, an important concept in education and one that we should all be aware of. 5 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 1-12 learning, according to connectivism, is not just the sum of our own internal knowledge construction. rather, what we can obtain via our external networks is also considered to be learning (marais, 2011). two words—nodes and links—have been frequently used in describing how people acquire and link information in a network, thanks to this theory. in connectivism, students are regarded as "nodes" in a network. a node is an item that can be linked to another object, such as a book, webpage, person, or anything else (banihashem & aliabadi, 2017; pettenati & cigognini, 2007; western governor university, 2021). that is, connectivism is based on the idea that we learn when we establish connections between various "nodes" of knowledge and continue to create and maintain them. many theories, on the other hand, regarded students only as information receivers. connectivism, on the other hand, endorses the concept that learning takes place across networks and is informed by connections and connectedness. as a result, one may argue that connectivism places a high value on technology; therefore, creating a connectivist classroom extends digital learning possibilities, which is the foundation for posthuman argument. this is in line with theorists such as downes (2005) and siemens (2005), who argued that connectivism provides a more accurate representation of how learning occurs in the digital age, which could be replicated in posthuman age. hence, it could be seen as a response to changes with argument that knowledge is created through interactions between people and networks of information (siemens, 2005). in order to learn, individuals need to be connected to a network of people and information which places more emphasis on technologies, including the internet of things. assumptions of connectivism theory in the section, the four assumptions of connectivism theory as deduced from the above theoretical concept of connectivism. these assumptions are; that learning and knowing as a process of connections, learning is dependent on humans and appliances, up-to-date knowledge through connections, and connectedness and interactivity. learning and knowing as a process of connections: in connectivist classrooms, learning and knowledge rest in the diversity of opinions via various technological and collaborative tools. that is, learning and knowing occur as a process of connections among individuals with different perspectives. this type of learning environment is often constructed around open-ended questions or problems, with students working collaboratively to find solutions (thota, 2015). connectivist classrooms can be found in many settings, including online courses and traditional brick-and-mortar schools. the key characteristic of this type of classroom is that it values the diversity of students' experiences and ideas. by encouraging students to share their perspectives, connectivist classrooms create a rich learning environment where new insights can emerge not only from them being human but also from their interaction with non-human intelligent appliances. in this way, connectivist classrooms provide an excellent model for 21stcentury learning where posthumanism could be housed. learning is dependent on humans and appliances: in connectivism theory, as deduced above, there are two main arguments deduced from the principle that knowledge is more critical than 6 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 1-12 knowing. the first argument is that humans are more important than appliances in the learning process. the second argument is that knowledge is more critical than knowing. the second argument is based on the idea that humans are fallible and that they rely on appliances to store and process information. connectivism theory stresses the importance of humans in the learning process and argues that knowledge is more critical than knowing. this theory provides a framework for understanding the role of humans and appliances in the learning process and how they interact with each other to create new knowledge. one can then argue that connectivism assumes that handling ever-increasing amounts of information and managing attendant uncertainty by connecting information sources and individuals (goldie, 2016) enables learning to occur by creating relationships between different pieces of information and people. connectedness and interactivity: from the above theoretical presentation, connectedness and interactivity are important aspects of connectivism theory. in particular, the theory emphasises the importance of connections between people and between people and technology. this emphasis on connectedness has led to a focus on sharing information and resources, as well as on providing support for others. in addition, the theory's focus on interactivity has led to a discussion of the role of technology in connectivist learning. cormier (2011) argues that technology plays an important role in connectivist learning, providing a conduit for connections between people and between people and information. similarly, siemens (2010) argues that technology can help facilitate connections between people by providing a platform for sharing information and resources. ultimately, the theory of connectivism suggests that connectedness and interactivity are important factors in facilitating learning. up-to-date knowledge through connections: it is easy to conclude or argue from the above analysis of connectivist theory that connectivist classrooms promote up-to-date knowledge through connections which is one of the aims of connectivist learning process (guder, 2010). connectivist classrooms achieve this by enabling students to connect with experts and other learners in order to learn from them. in addition, connectivist classrooms provide students with access to a variety of resources that they can use to learn about specific topics. this abundance of information helps to ensure that students are able to gain the most up-to-date knowledge available. consequently, it is evident that connectivist classrooms are effective in promoting upto-date knowledge. connectivism and posthumanism in preparation for the future this section discusses the links between connectivism and posthumanism with references to how posthumanism is unfolding or could be unfolded in the 21st-century classrooms. this was discussed under the following sub-headings: learning and knowing as a process of connections and posthumanism, learning is dependent on humans and appliances and posthumanism, connectedness and interactivity and posthumanism, and up-to-date knowledge through connections and posthumanism. 7 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 1-12 learning and knowing as a process of connections and posthumanism in the posthuman classroom, learning and knowing is a process of connection and interrelationships between people, devices, and data. the internet of things facilitates this process by linking students and faculty with each other and with a wealth of resources. as a result, learning is no longer confined to the traditional classroom setting but takes place anywhere and anytime (houlden & veletsianos, 2019). this shift has profound implications for how universities design their curricula and support students. therefore, to understand learning and knowing as a process of connections is to situate oneself within a posthuman understanding of the world. in a posthumanist world, everything is connected humans, non-humans, machines, objects, etc. (hasse, 2022; hasse, 2019; sage, 2016), and these connections are what enable learning and knowing to occur. in university classrooms, this is playing out in the form of the internet of things, where students are using connected devices to access and share information. this has led to a more networked and distributed form of learning, which is more collaborative and individualised. while this shift has been challenging for some, it is ultimately leading to a more inclusive and democratic form of education; hence it supports students in developing the skills they need to navigate the ever-changing landscape of posthuman learning. learning is dependent on human and appliances, and posthumanism based on the above theoretical analysis, one can argue that learning depends on humans and appliances, which means that effective human beings are not alone but in connection to other artificial and non-human assistants, which means posthumanism is taking place in university classrooms. in particular, it is important to underscore that the posthuman classroom is not simply a classroom with technology added in or used as an instructional supplement. rather, technology must be fully integrated into all aspects of teaching and learning for the learner to be successful. when used in this way, technology has the potential to transform the very nature of learning itself, moving it beyond the simple transmission of information to a more active and creative process of constructing knowledge (bond et al., 2018; guraya, 2020). with this in mind, the posthuman classroom has great potential to enhance learning for all students. one of the key advantages of this approach is that it allows students to overcome the limitations of their individual abilities. by working with artificial assistants, they can extend their cognitive capabilities and access new sources of knowledge. in addition, posthuman classrooms promote collaboration and communication between students, as they are often required to work together in order to complete tasks. this type of learning is highly effective and prepares students for the challenges of the 21st century. connectedness and interactivity, and posthumanism learning is a social activity that is fundamentally dependent on the interactivity of students with other students and with gadgets. this means that an effective classroom is one that is highly connected and interactive in nature. posthumanism is a theory that emphasises the interconnectedness of all things and the importance of technology in human life (welch, 2014). this theory has begun to impact university classrooms, which are now more connected and 8 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 1-12 interactive than ever before. as a result, students can now access a wealth of information and resources from anywhere in the world. they can also connect with other students and scholars in order to discuss course material and collaborate on projects. in addition, new technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence are beginning to change the way we learn. these technologies have the potential to create even more connected and interactive learning environments in the future. as posthumanism continues to impact education, it is important to consider its implications for the future of learning. arguably, in a posthuman classroom, students are connected and interactive with each other as well as with the gadgets they use. this means that learning is not just about acquiring information from a teacher or a textbook but about engaging in the process of dialogue and exchange with others. as such, posthuman classrooms provide an ideal environment for developing critical thinking and collaboration skills. in addition, the use of technology in posthuman classrooms allows for a more personalised and individualised learning experience. for example, students can access online resources at their own pace and receive targeted feedback from their instructors. as a result, posthuman classrooms have the potential and already revolutionising higher education classrooms (penprase, 2018). up-to-date knowledge through connections and posthumanism up-to-date knowledge through connections and relevant to posthuman classrooms. based on the above theoretical analysis, connectivism preaches from time to time and updates information towards an effective learning classroom. in a posthuman classroom, knowledge is not simply transmitted from teacher to student; rather, it is created through the interactions between students and teachers, as well as between students and the resources available to them. in order to ensure that students have access to the most up-to-date knowledge, it is essential that they be connected to a network of relevant resources. this can be done using social media, online forums, and other online spaces where students can share their ideas and connect with others who are interested in the same topics. by engaging in these kinds of activities, students will not only be able to access more information, but they will also be able to learn from each other in a more effective way. in a posthuman classroom, knowledge is created through connections, and it is these connections that make learning possible. in the current digital world, it is important for university students to have access to updated and reliable information. after all, they are preparing for their future careers in a rapidly changing world. one way to ensure that they have up-to-date knowledge is through connections with others who are also knowledgeable about the latest trends. conclusion and recommendations the study concludes that connectivism viewpoint is one of the unavoidable philosophies of the future. as such, connectivism provides a valuable framework for ensuring that university students have access to the latest knowledge towards acclimatising themself ahead of the future. connectivism theory stipulates that learning occurs when learners are connected to a diversity of resources and perspectives. in a rapidly evolving world, it is essential for university 9 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 1-12 students to have access to a wealth of knowledge to equip them with the skills they need to succeed in the future. the study found that connectivism provides a powerful lens through which to view the ever-changing landscape of knowledge. in an age where information is constantly becoming outdated, it is important for university students to be able to adapt and learn new things quickly. connectivism theory provides a valuable framework for helping students to do just that. based on the above conclusion, the study recommends that university classrooms should be made to create technologically enabled learning and knowing through connections, learning with the incorporation of appliances, enabling classrooms that enhance up-to-date knowledge through connections, connectedness, and interactivity. this is argued as a dimension in which posthumanism can be made manifest. the posthuman classroom would need to allow for multiple ways of accessing, manipulating, and interacting with information and each other. realtime access to rich resources outside the confines of the classroom would enhance learning beyond current levels. the study sees this as essential in developing richer knowledge construction for all students. references adu, k., badaru, k., duku, n., & adu, e. 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(2018). the entanglement of decolonial and posthuman perspectives: tensions and implications for curriculum and pedagogy in higher education. parallax, 24(3), 254267. https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2018.1496577 https://doi.org/10.46303/repam.2023.2 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f09734082211056695 https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2022.16 https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v13i1.1143 https://doi.org/10.1080/13611261003678853 https://doi.org/10.1080/13534645.2018.1496577 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 1 2022 pp. 31-42 grappling with gender, religion, and higher education in the south: mary sharp college from its founding through the civil war cynthia reifsteck gage* * independent scholar, austin, texas, united states. email: cyntthiareifsteck@gmail.com article info received: january 6, 2022 revised: february 2, 2022 accepted: february 8, 2022 how to cite gage, c. r. (2022). grappling with gender, religion, and higher education in the south: mary sharp college from its founding through the civil war. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(1), 31-42. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.4 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract this article offers a case study of how regional, gender, and religious ideals collided at one tennessee women’s college during the antebellum and civil war eras. mary sharp college, founded by baptists in 185, strongly advocated for women’s education that equaled the contemporary men’s institutions. local factors relating to religion and education contributed to the creation of mary sharp college. tennessee baptists founded the college as a replacement for more informal education of women and made the school the first women’s college in the u.s. to require latin and greek. two key early figures tied to college, the vermont-born graves brothers. james robinson graves, a baptist pastor and editor of the tennessee baptist, provided advertising for the college; zuinglius calvin graves, a baptist educator, gave it direction. j. r. and z. c. graves combined southern identity, gender ideology, and baptist piety to produce a unique form of higher education for women. although the graves brothers saw the home and family as the proper place for southern white women, they still believed in the necessity of a rigorous education. mary sharp built up faith and southern character in women and prepared them for their chief service to society: motherhood. when the civil war came, despite their own northern connections and divided loyalties in tennessee, the graves brothers and their college fully supported the confederacy. despite the college’s supposedly secure location, an occupation by the union army led the school to close in 1863 and remain closed until 1866, when it reopened as a much weaker school but as one firmly committed both to educated female piety and to the “lost cause.” keywords higher education; history of education; mary sharp college; civil war; gender history; women’s college; baptist history; southern history. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.4 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.12 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 32 gage, c. r. jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 introduction zuinglius calvin graves, a baptist originally from the north and founder of the all-women’s mary sharp college, located in winchester, tennessee, declared to its first graduating class in 1855, your place in the great harvest field of life is entirely different from that of the male. the wide world is their field, and its multiplied pursuits present themselves for their choice both on sea and land…. but yours is a far different sphere. ‘home,’ in the beautiful language of another, is emphatically your world; the heart your harvest field, and it is there your ambition must strive for empire…. it is in the quiet retirement of home that the foundation is laid for everything that is valuable in character, solid in principle and pure in morals. to the intelligence, the refinement, and the virtue of our females is committed almost all we hold dear (graves, 1855, p. 71). mary sharp college disseminated these ideas of educating women, southern pride, and pious living. thus, this college offers an intriguing case study of how different baptists interpreted women’s education as well as how those who supported southern women’s education understood the divide in the nation. two key men led to the development of the college, the vermont-born graves brothers. james robinson graves (j.r.), a baptist pastor and editor of the tennessee baptist, a baptist newspaper based out of nashville, provided advertising and funding for the college; zuinglius calvin graves (z.c.), a baptist educator, gave it direction. j. r. and z. c. graves combined southern identity, gender ideology, and baptist piety to produce a unique form of higher education for women. these brothers believed education significant to a southern women’s growth and their future motherhood. with the intersections of higher education and american christianity, identities that could be considered contending from an outsider perspective, emerged at southern institutions. mary sharp taught general evangelical ideas along with demanding academics, seeing itself as a place for young women to grow morally, socially, and logically. to follow the importance of these continuous ideals at mary sharp, i will first examine the foundational principles of the college, beginning in mid-nineteenth century, and the two main leaders credited with the establishment of the institution. the leaders’ religious background and understandings of women’s education reveal the teachings of the college. after exploring the inception of the institution and its religious basis, i will discuss the college during the civil war and the resulting experiences. when reflecting on gender in nineteenth-century america, historians have coined the concepts of separate spheres and the cult of true womanhood (welter, 1966, p. 151–174; lerner 1969, 5–15). the notion of separate spheres evolved due to the fact men often participated in public life through politics or their occupations while women mostly participated in private life through child-rearing and domestic work. this developed due to the transformation of the economy and society during the first half of the nineteenth century. americans of this time regularly believed and referred to the ideas of separate spheres 33 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 themselves, but women frequently negotiated a space between these two, as they hosted guests within their homes, joined women’s organizations, and taught in schools. in the progressive era, more women began physically inserting themselves into the public sphere instead of negotiating spaces in-between. the opportunities that arose—such as social work or leading reforms in organizations—led to this shift. women often started seeking work or political involvement outside the home, assisting in poverty-stricken areas through settlement houses and community service centers (schneider, 1993). the cult of true womanhood, also known as the cult of domesticity, defined the most common values they saw among women, especially during the antebellum through reconstruction eras. these principles included “piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity” (welter, 1966, p. 152). historians observed white american women during the nineteenth century hoping to embody these four characteristics, as women wanted to personify a devout, chaste, obedient, and home-centered nature. however, the firm divisions of separate spheres and the cult of domesticity have been challenged and stretched by historians more recently (rosenberg, 1982; kaplan, 1998) with further exploration of class and race, historians also discovered that the idea of separate spheres applied less easily to those of the working class and different races. despite these differences, historians still see the notions of separate spheres generally prevailing until around the late nineteenth century for white upperand middle-class women. at that time, more and more women sought occupations outside the home—although numerous women still worked in a domestic realm, helping families or children through settlement houses or social work (solomon, 1986, 119–121). academic scholarship on american higher education institutions has explored important ways in which educational focuses have transformed over time. in addition, a few scholars have looked at the variations among student life. scholars such as roger geiger, julie reuben, and barbara solomon, have thoroughly addressed the general trajectory of higher education institutions, but smaller regional colleges remain less studied, especially in the south. one historian has provided a unique framework to view women’s colleges during the nineteenth century. andrea turpin’s a new moral vision analyzes the changing religious perspectives of women’s colleges from the founding of the first colleges for women, 1836, until the early twentieth century. turpin considers student life on major campuses and proposes that many women’s colleges saw women’s relationships with god as more direct leading up to and through the civil war, which turpin labels vertical spirituality. vertical spirituality intended that these women viewed their relationship with god as the most important to create harmony in their lives. thus, women’s education would create evangelical women who could directly spread the word of god. nearing the end of the nineteenth century, colleges transitioned into focusing more on how women interacted kindly with their community to promote harmony in their relationships with god, which turpin describes as horizontal spirituality (turpin, 2016, p. 17– 19). turpin bases the framework in northern women’s and coeducational schools. thus, turpin’s vertical spirituality structure does not apply seamlessly to the philosophies of southern women’s 34 gage, c. r. jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 schools because southern colleges disseminated a mixture of vertical and horizontal spirituality. southern colleges equipped women to become educated mothers and southern ladies (farnham, 1995, p. 2–5). mary sharp promoted and cemented strong ideals of southern pride and ladylike characteristics such as politeness and kindness, while also stressing spreading the word of god to future children and their communities. historians have argued about women’s higher education during the nineteenth century, especially in the antebellum period, concerning whether women’s colleges at this time legitimately taught full collegiate-level academics, particularly in the south. the issue that several historians have taken with this look at women’s higher education is that these historical examinations have only compared the best elite male colleges with women’s colleges. as christie farnham elucidates in the education of the southern belle, even if women’s colleges were only as good as the worst men’s colleges, they still qualified as collegiate institutions (farnham, 1995, p. 27). furthermore, most women’s colleges focused more heavily on modern languages like french, music, and the arts, while men’s colleges required classical languages, like latin and greek, as well as advanced mathematics (farnham, 1995, p. 25). unlike most male or female colleges, mary sharp delivered an education that was intended to be equal to elite men’s institutions, requiring classical languages and higher mathematics (mary sharp college, 1858, p. 86–87; “the mary sharp college”, 1870, p. 2). the president of the school, z. c. graves set out to “make [mary sharp college] equal to and parallel with brown university and other eastern schools” (mary sharp college club, 1926, p. 11). mary sharp’s dedication to providing the best education for women shows their distinction from the vertical spirituality present in the northern institutions at this same time. since mary sharp desired to create southern educated pious ladies who would go on to be mothers, the college fostered both vertical and horizontal spirituality. mary sharp promoted prioritizing the women’s relationship with god directly, but also the social and kind attributes desired in a southern lady. interestingly, historians still debate whether mary sharp provided the level of education equal to men, particularly regarding the level of rigor surrounding classical language and mathematics. through religion and discipline, southern higher education institutions for women spread ideals of domesticity and moral development. this rang true throughout the nineteenth century while students and faculty clung to these principles during the divisiveness and violence of the mid-nineteenth century. the civil war posed too high of a threat to the majority of women’s institutions of higher education in the south. the danger of the union army, the shortage of teachers, and financial deficiencies caused countless southern women’s colleges to shut down. the union army forced mary sharp’s closure in 1863. studying mary sharp college throughout its founding and the civil war leads to an understanding of the experiences and thoughts of these southern women and faculty regarding the war, christianity, women’s education, and the south. despite the adversities the school faced in the war, the students and faculty would retain their religious zeal, southern pride, and acclaim of women’s higher education. 35 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 the founding leading up to the beginnings of mary sharp college in 1851, first known as the tennessee and alabama female institute, several other women’s colleges had been founded, including the renowned wesleyan female college in georgia and mount holyoke in massachusetts (cohen, 2012, p. 94). in the early to mid-nineteenth century, most colleges were connected to certain christian denominations, although the participation of the church differed. in the case of mary sharp college, baptists helped open the school and served on the faculty. before the official opening of the college in 1851, there had been informal schooling of women at the baptist church of winchester [tennessee] (mary sharp college, 1926, p. 26). as more students joined, it was decided a school building was needed. additionally, two baptists church associations, the duck river baptist association [tennessee] and the liberty association of baptists [kentucky] and several baptist trustees agreed to help fund the school (“the tennessee and alabama institute”, p. 1850). prior to its founding, the secretary of the west tennessee baptist convention education committee had written j. r. graves, editor of the tennessee baptist, discussing the building and locale of a new baptist female school (covey, 1850). both z.c. and j.r. graves were devout baptists. these strong ties to the baptist faith show the more vertical spirituality present at mary sharp, due to these two strongly baptist men, who believed in the importance of everyone’s relationship to god. pro-slavery baptists dominated the south, and the baptists at mary sharp were no exception. the citizens of winchester and students of mary sharp overtly favored the south despite the tension in tennessee between pro-confederacy citizens and pro-union (baggett, 2009, p. 21). intriguingly, the founders of tennessee and alabama female institute altered the name to mary sharp college to honor a woman who set her slaves free. mary sharp supported colonization efforts, which sought to transplant free slaves to african countries such as liberia. as stated by a relative of sharp in a letter, mary sharp “freed 80 slaves and paid their way to liberia” and later in life, she bestowed funds to the tennessee and alabama institute, “again evincing her profound belief in freedom—this time, not of the body but of the mind. not of the body of slaves—but of the minds of women” (mary sharp college club, 1926, p. 104–105). at mary sharp and other women’s southern colleges, two ideals were held closely, the freedom of the states and freedom to education. in addition to founding the college and participating in the board of trustees, j. r. graves frequently advertised the school in his newspaper. the tennessee baptist regularly promoted and praised mary sharp by stating compliments such as it is “superior in every respect to any female school we have ever known” and “few can conceive the influence which it will exert upon the cause of science and religion over all the south” (“the tennessee and alabama collegiate institute”, 1851; datton, 1857). j. r. graves’ complimentary view on a not strictly baptist school contradicts his strong landmarkist position. believing baptists had always led true churches, j. r. graves rejected those advocating for restorations. despite the fact that not all the students attended baptist churches, and a few even attended church of christ institutions, j. r. graves 36 gage, c. r. jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 adamantly marketed mary sharp as a deeply baptist school. aside from graves’s opinions of the school, other readers wrote into the paper and shared flattering comments on the college. in a letter to the editor, one man wrote, “i do not believe, sir, there is the equal of this school in the union” (letter to the editor, 1856). the tennessee baptist served as the main publicist of the school because z. c. graves did not want to use money on advertising. he believed that the school’s “merits should speak for themselves” (mccrady, 1980, p. 20). the ideals at mary sharp across the nation, female colleges often provided a preparatory school and college courses focused on liberal arts, including music and art classes; mary sharp was no different (turpin, 2016, p. 40–41). the distinction between mary sharp and other women’s colleges was that it was the first women’s college to require latin and greek for the degree. this curricula choice stood out in the south and the north. z. c. graves supported the idea to create a college equal to men’s because graves believed in the significance of education in tandem with religious moral instruction. z. c. graves believed god had called him to education and thus lived his life dutiful to educating and leading students at different institutions (mary sharp college club, 1926, p. 21). he fully supported the higher education of women, and he would consistently defend his positions on women’s education by referring to religious ideals. for example, during his address to the first graduating class in 1855, he stated, “then, young ladies, understanding what truth is and how it is obtained and seeing that god has made the mind for the apprehension of truth and set before it a world of glorious truths for it to apprehend” (graves, 1855, p. 71). therefore, since god created humans with the ability to find truth within the world, then young women should become educated to know these truths. along with the students, the winchester community admired z. c. graves, supporting his endeavors as the president. he wholly believed in women’s education, but not for necessarily progressive ideals as he defended education as necessary to create southern ladies. many women receiving this education would have been daughters of wealthy plantation owners and farmers. graves wrote in the “blank book” he carried around, how women were bound to help others and therefore exposed to many difficult tribulations. due to these troubles, he believed women experienced, graves stated: thus, this witness deposeth: • that woman has trials greater than man. • she must suffer much more than man. • she is constitutionally unfitted to grapple with them. what parent is so insensible to his daughter’s future happiness that he does not wish while she is with him, cherished by his love, to provide for the trials and troubles before her? (graves, 1926, p. 61). 37 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 graves often spoke with this intensity while advocating for his students. as shown in this excerpt, he taught women because he thought they endured more than men and needed school to aid them in coping. in his same notebook, z. c. graves wrote of the relationship between young women’s purity and education: […] the temptations to which woman is exposed are almost as numerous as their trials, especially during the season of youth, when the heart is most light. […] education prevents indolence, vanity, presumption, folly, and selfishness. it promotes politeness, order, decency, reverence, good will and, in short, whatever is lovely and of good report (graves, 1926, p. 63). the mix of vertical and horizontal spirituality is revealed because graves saw education as preventative against selfishness and vanity. graves also defended women’s education by explaining how education connected to motherhood. he saw mothers as the most important influences on their children. therefore, the more educated a woman was, the better they could raise their children. specifically, graves detailed in his journal book, “it is the mother’s influence chiefly—the combined weight and power of the lessons she has imparted, the precepts she has inculcated and the examples she has placed before the child that has fixed and determined his character, and made him a blessing or curse to society” (graves, 1926, p. 64–65). z. c. graves believed in the ideals of republican motherhood, or in this case, confederate motherhood, which meant that women were responsible for raising sons with civic virtue. graves truly understood education as a vital part of society for young men and women. although graves advocated for the importance of education in men and women, he never mentioned black education. z.c. graves stressed teaching strong faith in god as well as moral formation to create kind personalities in his students. these emphases demonstrate the dual vertical and horizontal spirituality of mary sharp (savage, 1926, p. 39–40). enduring the war from the opening of mary sharp, the students, faculty, and the surrounding city of winchester held passionate southern pride. most writings from or about the graves brothers, even before the war, were centered regionally. for example, in the tennessee baptist, in a letter to the editor, a man stated; “mary sharp is just the very character of female schools that hundreds and thousands of parents want in the south” (letter to the editor, 1856). at the inception of the civil war, winchester and many tennessee baptists already favored the southern cause despite tennessee’s delay in seceding. the tennessee baptist stated in reference to mary sharp, “the sympathies of the president and the faculty of the school, as well as of the citizens of winchester, have been with the south, with the confederate states” (a.c.d., 1861). although the graves brothers came from the north originally, they dedicated themselves to the southern cause. j. r. graves gave his life to preaching, establishing mary sharp, and working towards his view of the baptist faith within the south. in addition to advocating for the 38 gage, c. r. jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 south in his tennessee baptist, j. r. graves also began printing bibles for the south. since bibles were mostly printed in northern cities, graves printed bibles for southerners at the outbreak of the war. the winchester daily bulletin bragged on j. r. graves’s patriotism to the south by asserting, “to him we are indebted for the first set (and finest) of stereotype plates for printing the scriptures ever brought south. he succeeded in getting these south” (“rev. j. r. graves, formerly of nashville”, 1863). z. c. graves also showed his dedication through the south in several ways. according to one student, “when sad news came to the home of the winchester people during the war… dr. graves was always there with an encouraging and comforting thought for the bereaved. a good citizen indeed!” (mary sharp college club, 1926, p. 49). furthermore, z. c. graves sent his son off to fight with the confederacy; he never returned as he died in battle. one student, belle murrell pinson, a student who attended during the war, recalling her time at mary sharp specified, “he proved himself a true citizen of this southland in this great sacrificial act” (mary sharp college club, 1926, p. 49). the mary sharp students themselves showed their fervent support of the south in several ways. in 1861, the summer that tennessee seceded, the students wore cotton dresses to their examinations. these cotton dresses were to show their strong solidarity with the south. following the students’ reading of their essays, the faculty and trustees discussed the implementation of homespun cotton dresses for the girls’ uniforms until the war ended, instead of utilizing materials from the north. one of the trustees. even went so far as to write into the tennessee baptist considering the prospect of the cotton dress uniform (“home spun at the mary sharp”, 1861). to further aid the confederate cause, mary sharp college also opened a normal school department in 1861 to train teachers. specifically, they wanted to help take the place of teachers “who have left for the north to return no more” (“normal school for female teachers”, 1861). they thought it “should encourage a large class to prepare themselves to serve their country in her day of need” (“normal school for female teachers”, 1861). countless teachers during the civil war fled to the north or stayed home, resulting in the closing of numerous institutions in the south. out of the schools that remained opened, many southern women’s colleges created normal departments during the war to generate more teachers for the schools lacking them. a student remembered that, in the spring of 1861, z. c. graves dismissed his class so they could wave goodbye to the men going off to war. later in may, the entire student body collected to hear peter turney, the man who had been president of the board of trustees for mary sharp, speak before he left to fight for the confederacy. the student, franny holman recalled, dr. graves made a ringing speech which was cheered to the echo of the soldiers. then colonel turney, his heart evidently stirred to its inmost depths and his face all aglow with the fire of love for the south, dismounted from his horse… assured dr. graves that his eloquent, burning words, and the half-smiling, half-tearful faces of the girls, would be an inspiration to him and his brave men….as he mounted his horse and rode away, followed 39 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 by his gallant soldiers, some of the girls sobbed quietly, but all felt in their hearts that such men and such a leader could never know defeat (holman, 1926, p. 89–90). holman recollected these events with an enduring passion for the south and love for her school. peter turney’s connection to the school and his beloved presence in town helped recruit several of the first volunteers for the confederate army from tennessee in april of 1861, months before tennessee seceded from the union (smith, 1993, p. 39). leading up to civil war, baptists had already split into northern and southern factions over slavery in 1845. at the time, the southern baptists did not explicitly say the split was over slavery. southern white baptists mostly fell in the middle of the spectrum between resolute proslavery or anti-slavery. many believed that the institution was flawed but christians could redeem it (kidd and hankins, 2015, p. 131). thus, they did believe the bible allowed certain methods of slavery and did not explicitly defend or condemn it (kidd & hankins, 2015, p. 132). with their outspoken support of the confederacy, the graves brothers continued to advocate for the south and slavery. z. c. graves owned several slaves himself and later in the war would write to the governor of tennessee to see if he could keep one of his slaves. in this letter, graves gave details about his situation by stating, “a negro man named marcus combs came to my house yesterday accompanied by some soldiers and demanded a girl belonging to me, aged 13 years” (zuinglius c. graves to andrew johnson 1864). graves concluded his letter by asking the governor if his papers validated his right to keep the enslaved child. his obstinate devotion to the south and slave-owning added to the complete entrenchment of mary sharp in confederate culture. z. c. graves specifically addressed the war and the safety of mary sharp in the 1860– 1861 catalog by stating, “in the very heart of the confederacy, walled in by nature’s fortifications, the rocky ramparts of the mountains on three sides; far removed from the mississippi and also from the atlantic and the great gulf of the south, no place at this present time can be more secure from all fear of all danger, than this very spot” (mary sharp college, 1861, 26). although graves seemed confident in the school’s security, mary sharp would close over the summer of 1863. due to the union army invading tennessee, mary sharp shut its doors and the union general rosecrans’ army seized mary sharp’s building and housed troops (“war news”, 1863). the soldiers “used the college building as a hospital and either destroyed or marred about all that had cost those years of labor and heartaches to build up” (mary sharp college club, 1926, p. 27). z. c. graves and the students went home and remained there until the school reopened in 1866. j. r. graves’s experiences during the war also proved to be unfavorable for him. similarly, to his brother, who had to leave mary sharp in the war, j. r. graves had to flee his place of employment due to the invasion of abolitionists and the union army into nashville. one newspaper printed an article praising both graves brothers for their “patriotism and loyalty” as well as declaring that, “j. r. graves, of this state, is one of the ablest ministers we have… he ably edited the tennessee baptist for a long time, and that paper was among the first…to advocate 40 gage, c. r. jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 the cause of the south and to urge her noble sons to prepare for the bloody conflict…at the battle of shiloh he stood shoulder to shoulder with the patriotic hosts of the south” (“rev. j.r. graves, formerly of nashville”, 1863). the passionate support of the confederacy by z. c. graves, j. r. graves, and winchester itself influenced the students on campus, which led to the students working towards supporting soldiers and the south in any way they could whether that was through advocating for the south in their papers, their opening of a normal school, or them going out and seeing confederate soldiers off. mary sharp’s resolute support of the confederacy shows both vertical and horizontal spirituality. since southerners believed that god fully supported them, the relationship between god and humans was prioritized. however, southern baptists also thought that the relationships between slaves and owners could be improved, resulting in a better connection with god. furthermore, mary sharp’s faculty and students rallied behind their community in the war, showing a strong horizontal spirituality as well. reconstruction and repercussions the civil war devastated the south and many of its colleges. the south struggled to recover financially and culturally, but these white schools clung to their confederate identity and ultimately, propagated the lost cause. at mary sharp, the union army damaged the buildings and they needed repairing. to get the school running again, z. c. graves used his money to pay for repairs and went without a salary for several years after rebuilding. according to an article in the daily union and american, the “ravages of war had been repaired” and mary sharp was “among the schools, which have been revived since the close of the late unhappy war” (“mary sharp college”, 1866). although mary sharp recovered from the war, it never returned to its former popularity. student enrollment remained steady but did not rise to its numbers before the war (mary sharp college club, 1926). despite the struggles of the college during reconstruction and after, students continued to cherish their school and admire z. c. graves for many years to come. previous students would even go on to form the mary sharp club, an alumnae club, and then publish a book with collections of z. c. graves’s writings as well as speeches and students reminiscing on their times at mary sharp (mary sharp college club, 1926). these experiences at mary sharp college show that the school helped develop gender ideals and southern pride among affluent whites. despite the chaos of war, mary sharp college retained its three core principles of domestic ideals, moral development, and southern pride throughout the conflict. they perpetuated the lost cause narrative among the wealthy white southerners until they closed. these ideals show the more complex spirituality present at mary sharp. throughout the beginnings of mary sharp and through the civil war, the culture at mary sharp prioritized finding harmony through relationships with god and their community. researching more southern women’s schools during the antebellum period through the 41 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 31-42 reconstruction era could reveal more information about the cultural ideals surrounding gender, religion, and education. references baggett, j. a. (2009). homegrown yankees: tennessee’s union cavalry in the civil war. baton rouge, la: lsu press. cohen, m. d. (2012). reconstructing the campus higher education and the american civil war, a nation divided: studies in the civil war era. charlottesville, va: university of virginia press. covey, j. (1850, march 7). educational interests of west tennessee. the tennessee baptist (nashville, tn). d., a.c. (1861, may 4). the mary sharp college and the war. the tennessee baptist (nashville, tn). datton, a. o. (1857, october 24). bible society of the mary sharp college at winchester. the tennessee baptist (nashville, tn.) dye, n. s., & frankel, n. (1994). gender, class, race, and reform in the progressive era. reissue edition. lexington, ky: university press of kentucky. farnham, c. a. (1995). the education of the southern belle: higher education and student socialization in the antebellum south. new york city, ny: nyu press. graves, z., (1926). address delivered to the first graduating class of young ladies of the mary sharp college, june 22, 1855. in dr. z.c. graves and the mary sharp college, 1850–1896. nashville, tn: baptist board of publication. graves, z. (1864, 28 january). zuinglius graves to andrew johnson, january 28, 1864 [letter]. in the tennessee civil war sourcebook, compiled by james jones, tennessee state library & archives catalog. graves, z. (1926). the obligations of parents to give their daughters a thorough, systematic, finished education, whenever it is within their power. in dr. z.c. graves and the mary sharp college, 1850–1896. nashville: baptist board of publication. holman, f. 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(1986). in the company of educated women: a history of women and higher education in america. reprint edition. new haven, ct: yale university press. smith, j. a. (1993) battle front and home front: perspectives of some franklin county confederate veterans. franklin county historical review 24(1), 39–42. the tennessee and alabama institute. (1850, october 12). tennessee baptist (nashville, tn). the tennessee and alabama collegiate institute. (1851, june 21) the tennessee baptist (nashville, tn). turpin, a. l. (2016). a new moral vision: gender, religion, and the changing purposes of american higher education, 1837–1917. ithaca, ny: cornell university press. war news. (1863, august 14). the southern aegis, and harford county intelligencer (bel air, md). welter, b. (1966). “the cult of true womanhood: 1820-1860.” american quarterly, 18(2), 151– 174. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 2 2022 pp. 44-58 teachers pedagogical content knowledge in graphical communication concept: a case of four selected township schools busisiwe helen hlatshwayo*a, ndlelehle skosanaa & samuel khozaa *corresponding author email: busisiwehelen@gmail.com a. tshwane university of technology, soshanguve, south africa article info received: july 9, 2022 revised: august 24, 2022 accepted: september 20, 2022 how to cite hlatshwayo, b. h., skosana, n., & khoza, s. (2022). teachers pedagogical content knowledge in graphical communication concept: a case of four selected township schools. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(2), 44-58. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.11 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract this study investigated grade 8 teachers’ challenges in graphical communication by using a qualitative research approach. we planned to sample eight grade 8 teachers for the study. however, due to the covid-19 restrictions, we had eight grade teachers offering technology subjects. the pedagogical content knowledge notion coined by shulman was used to underpin the study as a framework. data were collected through face-to-face interviews with the teachers and classroom observation during graphical communication concept teaching. we analysed interview data using verbatim quotes and used classroom observations descriptively. the study’s findings revealed that teachers are not adequately trained to teach technology subjects. issues such as overcrowded classrooms and poor infrastructure were also challenging. teachers’ instructional strategies were an additional concern as the traditional method is still widely employed in teaching the mentioned concept. our study recommends that models be sought for abstract concepts to be readily learned. schools must secure qualified teachers for the subject for teaching and learning to be effective. technology integration is also advised as a resource that would stimulate learning. keywords graphical communication; engineering graphics and design; pedagogical content knowledge; content knowledge; pedagogical knowledge. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.11 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.11 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 45 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 introduction an inflexible contestation exists on the word “technology” across different countries. in the south african classroom, technology is a subject learned at the primary school level and in some degree courses in selected universities. it allows learners to make informed decisions on engineering careers in high school and ultimately at the university level. however, like in other countries, technology is a resource used to teach. according to makgato et al. (2015), the word technology as a subject means art, skill, craft, or the way, manner, or means by which a thing is gained and expressed. it means that in the subject of technology, most activities are initiated through art, skill, and craft. however, to be successful in the craft part of technology, they need a drawing, which in this instance is defined as graphical communication in one of the best ways in the south african context. technology subject is offered from grades 7 to 9, wherein graphical communication is a concept that continues to challenge learners. such gaps are witnessed in the further education and training (fet) band or high school level, where they (learners) lack basics in engineering graphics and design (egd). technology starts in intermediate phase grade 4, as natural sciences and technology (nstech) and ends in grade 6. then, it is called a technology subject in grades 7 to 9, where learners are exposed to many engineering concepts of stem and practice concepts, like structures, mechanical systems, and control, as well as graphical communication. the stipulation, as it appears in the policy document, curriculum, and assessment policy statement (caps), shows that technology subject in the intermediate phase is offered for three or five hours a week (department of education (doe), 2011), and it includes practical and theory. it indicates that the subject offers flexible hours for teachers to plan and distribute the content evenly in the classroom that would foreground the learners in their early stages of learning. however, in senior phase, it is offered for 2 hours a week, which is dramatically different from how it is provided in the lower levels. technology as a subject did not exist in the fundamental school calendar; it has recently been introduced. it means that most teachers offering it are not yet well conversant with the subject, particularly the technically oriented concepts, like graphical communication. the main aim of graphical communication is to provide learners with the skill to solve problems graphically (doe, 2011). it needs good content knowledge (ck) from a teacher to drive the learner’s activities in graphical communication content. according to reddy et al., cited in gumbo and makgato (2008), technology subject teachers were being blamed for their apparent inability to prepare their learners with the knowledge and skills to keep up with changing technological world. the doe (2000) found that a lack of resources causes difficulties in imparting practical skills in the subject, the teachers not possessing adequate skills and knowledge in the subject as well as poor teaching strategies. moreover, reddy et al., cited in gumbo and makgato (2008), argue that technology could be better taught and learned if teachers understand what should be taught and learned. according to cobern et al. (2014), cited in garcia (2021), a critical aspect of teacher education is gaining pedagogical knowledge of how to teach science for conceptual understanding. it should also be 46 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 the case in the subject of technology because it eases specializations like science, mathematics, and engineering courses for learners. therefore, a teacher must be well trained to master the content to develop good pck. teachers should also thoroughly understand how teaching and learning occur in the technology subject classroom, especially in the practical task, as it aims to prepare learners for career choices. according to doe (2008), most south african teachers do not possess the necessary knowledge and skills to support english language learning and teach literacy skills across the entire technology curriculum. it means that most technology subject teachers might often resort to vernacular use instead of sticking to the english medium. norstrom (2014) studied the view of swedish technology teachers on technological knowledge and noticed that the technology teachers had different opinions on technological knowledge, possibly leading them to prioritize what to teach and how to assess. according to perez and serrano (2012), the high failure rate among learners of graphical communication is a day-to-day issue emanating from the difficulties in teachers’ methods of instruction. these challenges filter down to learners reluctant to continue with egd in upper levels in their school years. furthermore, branoff and dobelis (2012) state that the gap between natural sciences and graphical communication continues to be the cause making learners not grasp this concept (graphical communication). as the subject of technology is practical, so is graphical communication. then, it places the teacher’s role and instructional practices at the center. it also requires that learners have their learning experience with the help of good teaching. mawson (2007) suggests that learners should be allowed to discover their ability to reach their decisions, state and visualize their ideas during the design process and engage in “lateral thought built on the recognition of their own existing knowledge and ability.” lewis (2006) supports it, also contending that children should be permitted to achieve creativity during graphical communication. by doing so, the drawing’s surprise problem/solution spaces will replace the design’s default nature for creativity (dorst & cross, 2001). in simplicity, constructivism embraces the notion of learners’ autonomy or creativity during the learning process (bodner, 1986). according to asik (2010), a learner’s autonomy is a substantial measure of independence from others’ control. this assertion shows that for learners to be able to learn on their own, they need teachings enabling them to achieve that. the subject technology activities are initiated through art, skill, and craft. however, to be successful in the craft part of technology, they need a drawing, which in this instance is defined as graphical communication in one of the best ways. according to south africa’s policy document, caps, identity, design, make and evaluate and communicate (idmec) processes form a backbone of the technology subject and should be used to structure the delivery of all learning aims (doe, 2011). learners should be exposed to a problem, which should eventually give them a need to describe a problem scenario through the first process of investigation. then, it requires learners’ understanding for the sake of drawing as in art and using appropriate symbols instead of jargon language of graphical communication to design needing drawing skills. the idmec process plays 47 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 a vital role in teaching and learning technology subjects and centers around drawing concepts embedded within graphical communication. currently, more than ten-line types exist that are key in drawing and useful in graphical communication to which learners must be exposed. meanwhile, moolman and brink (2010) contend that for one to excel in any drawing tasks, they need to understand line work and line types used in the school curriculum. our study aimed to investigate teacher challenges in a grade 8 technology subject class teaching graphical communication concepts. our study is critical because the graphical communication concept is the main gateway for learners to make informed engineering and technical career choices and select relevant secondary school fields. it also demands the best instructional practices the study zoom into from the teachers. what pushed me as a researcher to embark on the study is the reluctance of the learners to continue with egd in grades 10 to 12. above all, learners cannot display basic design process skills when they conduct technology subject projects. learners given them as problem scenarios cannot excel in the design process skills requiring sketches. such gaps are honed within the graphical communication concept. literature review umugiraneza and bansil (2018) discovered that most teachers use traditional methods when teaching euclidean geometry to explore teachers’ practices in teaching mathematics and euclidean geometry. it can always be the case in most subjects because traditional methods mean teachers are in charge and learners are passive. however, learners would be lost in a practical concept like graphical communication. graphical communication ensures that learners choose a promising career where problem-solving skills would be critical (skosana, 2017). it is where learners are coerced to be hands-on when making drawing activities that they are given. these activities often lead learners to design and make prototypes as part of their final product of the activity needing the teacher’s knowledge. according to könig et al. (2017), the teachers’ professional expertise for successfully mastering tasks typical of their profession is crucial. teachers must have professional knowledge from where they were trained to prepare well for the classroom. additionally, könig et al. (2017) state that general pedagogical knowledge involves “broad principles and strategies of classroom management and organization that appear to transcend subject matter” as well as knowledge about learners and learning, assessment, and educational contexts and purposes. they further say that teachers must exploit this knowledge and weave it into coherent understandings and skills if they are competent to deal with what mcdonald (1992) called the “wild triangle” connecting a learner, subject matter, and the teacher in the classroom. in the classroom context, it is vital to ensure that optimal learning through good pk is enhanced. according to khumalo (2004), 67.45% of technology teachers received in-service training before introducing technology as a subject. however, it has changed because most higher 48 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 education institutions (heis) produce technology teachers. as it may, the school system still has those teachers who have not gone through the current system where technology was learned. it implies that many teachers in the system were not trained to implement the technology subject. then, this fact could pose challenges for learners who might not have gone through the superior teaching technology subject strategies in their classroom. in a study by garroneshufran (2021), they indicate that teachers can only offer explicit instruction in the academic english of an academic discipline if they are trained to do so. this assertion includes any other field in the school setting, and graphical communication is included because shulman (1986) attests that a teacher’s ck is one of the driving forces toward one’s pck in any instruction. according to nakin (2003), a child’s ability to perform a given cognitive task depends on his intellectual development. depending on its nature, a child cannot complete it unless he is biologically mature enough (in cognitive terms) (nakin, 2003). if a child cannot perform a given task, they must be given a more concrete (practical) task to stimulate learning (nakin, 2003). it makes demands on the instruction of the subject, including graphical communication. it implies that graphical communication must be well understood by the learner because through drawing and sketching, learners learn concretely if they know what they draw (khoza, 2017). however, to make all this possible, a teacher should be there presenting one of the best instructional practices of the concept, which is what the study aims to ascertain. research problem graphical communication prepares learners to choose and be competent in elective subjects at the secondary school level. it provides learners with opportunities to decide on which pathways they can choose between civil, mechanical, or electrical technologies. however, currently, we have noted the reluctance among technology teachers during seminars and workshops when trained on graphical communication as being concerned. technology teachers are not keen on attempting graphical communication tasks, the same attitude that most learners show at the secondary level when they do civil, mechanical, or electrical technologies. we worry that if such practices persist, this could rid learners of the opportunities to choose relevant career paths and be competent in egd, serving as one of the compulsory subjects in engineering. the continuing practice by teachers to overlook graphical communication would add to the continuous challenges that the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) subjects experience. therefore, learners fail because of lacking foundation that they should have had at lower levels like the general and education and training (get) band. the challenges that learners showcase at the secondary school level are the gaps experienced in graphical communication in the lower grades, particularly in grade 8 and 9. it then puts the teachers’ instructional practices into the spotlight hence this study’s undertaking. this study used schulman’s (1987) pedagogical content knowledge (pck) theory as an underpinning body to investigate teacher challenges in graphical communication in a grade 8 class. 49 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 research question what are the teachers’ pck in graphical communication concepts in a grade 8 technology class? research sub-questions are; • what are teachers’ instructional practices in graphical communication in grade 8 class? • how do grade 8 teachers assess graphical communication in their classes? theoretical framework lee schulman’s pedagogical content knowledge notion underpinned this study. pedagogical content knowledge (pck), according to shulman (1987), entails how learners’ content, pedagogy, and knowledge are blended into an understanding of how particular topics to be taught are represented and adapted to learners’ characteristics, interests, and abilities. the pck informs how the teacher introduces a specific content to learners in a different context. the content knowledge is about what the teacher possesses regarding how they can teach a specific content using different strategies (shulman, 1987). the pck notion assisted the study in ascertaining how teachers approach graphical communication in their grade 8 class and what challenges they encounter in the teaching process. because most technology subject teachers are not adequately qualified to teach the said subject, where graphical communication is a concept, the pck notions proved useful in exposing grade 8 teachers’ instructional gaps. below is the pck model depicted by shulman (1987): figure 1. the pck model (source: shulman (1987) the above model is informed and shaped by the knowledge bases that teachers must make pedagogical decisions to transmit knowledge to the learners better. shulman (1986 and 1987) understands these to be content knowledge (ck), referring to the amount and organization of knowledge in the teacher’s mind. hence, general pk plays its special reference to the principles and strategies of classroom management and organization as well as pck. the 50 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 teacher should portray this expertise in approaching the content (shulman, 1987). kultsum (2017) says that ck and pk are critically needed in teaching a subject. the pck can thus develop teachers’ belief in teaching a particular topic in a better way. it would then help teachers understand how to explore their content knowledge and deliver it into good instruction. according to könig (2016), pck is the knowledge of ck, pk, and knowledge of learners combined. it illustrates that for one to have a good pck, connecting the other two concepts of shulman’s notion is crucial. on the idea of ck, we observed how the teachers demonstrated their knowledge of graphical communication and asked them through face-to-face interviews on challenges. they experience them in teaching graphical communication as a follow-up question above what we observed in class. the issue of how the teachers utilize various teaching resources and methods was observed under the concept of pk. loughran et al. (2012) argue that a need exists for concrete examples of pck where teachers teach specific topics. it was suitable because we were interested in graphical communication as a concept or subject. in contrast, the combination of how much they know (ck) and how they teach (pk) was used to conclude the strength of their pck. methodology research approach the study employed a qualitative research approach as a means of providing answers to the research questions posed. according to marshall and rossman (2011), the investigative inquiries often make knowledge claims based primarily on constructivist perspectives (i.e., the multiple meanings of individual experiences, meanings socially and historically constructed, with the intent of developing a theory or pattern) or advocacy /participatory perspectives (i.e., political, issue related, collaborative or chance oriented) or both a qualitative approach. therefore, qualitative research seeks to understand and interpret “the meaning of phenomenon from the views of the participants” and how they know the world around them. research design this study utilized a case study research design. according to creswell (2014), research design refers to the plan or proposal in which the research will be conducted. therefore, it involves the intersection of philosophy, strategies of inquiry, and specific methods. according to creswell (2014), a case study is a design and inquiry found in many fields. it primarily evaluates where the researcher develops an in-depth analysis of a case, often a program, event, activity, process, or one or more individuals. therefore, a case in our study was the technical schools in johannesburg central district sharing the same challenges of graphical communication. research paradigm the research paradigm for the study was interpretive. myers (2020) argues that the premise of interpretive researchers is that access to reality (whether given or socially constructed) through social constructions such as language, consciousness, and shared meanings. observation and 51 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 interpretation underpin the interpretive paradigm. therefore, it involves collecting information about events while interpreting to make meaning of that information by drawing inferences or judging the match between the information and some abstract pattern. the researchers were interested in ascertaining the teachers’ pck in graphical communication in their grade 8 classrooms and understanding the phenomenon they encountered while teaching the said concept. population and sampling gorard (2001) defines the population as the group one wishes to study. purposive sampling was used to select ten technology grade 8 teachers from all the schools. the study’s population included four (4) schools in the johannesburg central district, in the gauteng province of south africa, offering technology subjects. currently, ten technology grade 8 teachers and 1015 grade 8 technology learners exist in the said district. however, due to the covid 19 restrictions, we recruited eight of these teachers. sampling refers to the activities involved in selecting a subset of persons or things from a larger population (scott & morrison, 2006). the purpose is to use a relatively small number of cases to make inferences about the population (gorard, 2001). the teachers were selected purposefully among those with more than five years of experience teaching technology grade 8 subjects. data were collected through interviews as well as classroom observations with all eight teachers. interviews were open-ended to allow teachers to elaborate eloquently on challenges they encounter in teaching graphical communications. kvale and brinkmann (2009) describe qualitative interviews as “a construction site of knowledge,” where two or more individuals discuss a “theme of mutual interest.” we have also conducted classroom observations to pursue how teachers taught graphical communication to their grade 8 class. as researchers, we had to adapt the observation schedule using the pck notion as coined by shulman (1987). observation is central to qualitative research (marshall & rossman, 2014) because “observations entail the systematic noting and recording of events, behaviors, and artifacts (objects) in the social setting” (marshall & rossman, 2014). pseudonyms were used to protect the teachers’ identities, and all the covid 19 protocols were adhered to when collecting data. we analyzed face-to-face interviews using verbatim quotes and classroom observations descriptively. findings and discussions classroom observation findings the classroom observation helped the study answer rq1 and rq2. the pck notion was used to adapt items in teaching graphical communication lessons. each teacher was observed once per the teachers’ requests due to the restrictions in place in adhering to covid 19 restrictions. each class ran for 60 minutes, and not all teachers were observed for the entire duration because some let the learners go at the end of the activities. 52 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 content knowledge not all the teachers displayed the relevant ck on graphical communication. ms. ngakane (pseudonym), claiming that she has been converted to teach technology, illustrated gaps in ascertaining learners’ pre-knowledge during the lesson on graphical communication. her class and the other four teachers from different schools taught technology subjects for more than five years. however, they did not accentuate the issue of line-work and line types, which are critical in graphical communication, particularly as the foundation for the grade 8s. nonetheless, ms. mdluli teaching technology for seven years, continued the lesson without engaging learners on prior knowledge. her action is said to play a prominent role in absorbing new concepts in the classroom. according to shulman (1986), prior knowledge works as a gateway to learning because it assists the teachers in gauging and unpacking their curricula saliency in the topic they teach. with ms. mdluli's approach, learners’ gaps in applying line-work were not picked up. her (ms. mdluli) explanation of the concept that she taught of orthographic projection was more theoretical than practical, having much abstract content, which we believed was too difficult for the learners to understand. it was worsened because her class, the same as other classes we visited, was overcrowded. even though both teachers were aware of the practical task learners had to do, they did not accentuate the design process resting solely on line-work. it happens even when line-work is the backbone of any graphical communication activities postulated by moolman & brink (2010). moreover, mr. kgomo came to class and displayed the kind of project learners need at the end of the lesson. he did not take them step-by-step with understanding the idmec process, the cornerstone of making technological projects in the technology subject. his display of ck could lend learners to lack cognitive applications when doing graphical communication-related tasks because, according to nakin (2003), a child’s ability to perform a given cognitive task depends on his intellectual development, sourced from the content they receive in the classroom. it could create a new challenge adding to the findings of doe (2000). the lack of resources, the teachers with inadequate skills and knowledge in the subject, and poor teaching strategies impart difficulties in the practical skills in the subject mr. buthelezi displayed good ck in his lesson; however, he spent much time not aligning his content to what the learners’ practical task should be about. according to shulman (1986), ck refers to the amount and organization of knowledge in the teacher’s mind. nevertheless, not all the teachers displayed that creating challenges to the learners, hence their persistent challenges in graphical communication. pedagogical knowledge pedagogical knowledge (pk) refers to the methods and processes of teaching and includes knowledge in classroom management, assessment, lesson plan development, and student learning (shulman, 1986). the classroom observations depicted that teacher lacked relevant instructional pedagogies separating the lack of appropriate drawing instruments and nonexistent drawing models. therefore, this condition would allow learners to learn concretely and 53 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 poor teaching approaches where pre-knowledge was none. learners were keen to start with the design process of their practical task, but they lacked support from the teachers on how they were supposed to use drawing instruments. mr. kgomo came and displayed the final product of an isometric (three-dimensional) view to the learners without unpacking the idmec process using the overhead projector. this approach could lead learners to quickly rush to the final product without proper understanding and to struggle with the concept of graphical communication at upper levels. the method ms. mdluli used, not ascertaining learners’ prior knowledge, could create a situation where a teacher persists with their lesson without noticing learners’ misconceptions about the topic. this fact could endanger them in the linked concepts to graphical communication. lack of equipment as well left much to be desired. none of the teachers integrated ict except for mr. kgomo, who came close by using the overhead projector, regarded as one old teaching resource. some schools did not even have drawing instruments and models, making learning difficult. the issue of crowded classrooms was also a concern. these observations posed challenges for the teachers because, according to shulman (1987), pk plays a role in one’s principles and strategies of classroom management and organization. this poor pedagogical knowledge added to the learners’ challenges in graphical communication rendering them not unable to solve problems graphically, as alluded to by the policy document (doe, 2011). pedagogical content knowledge pedagogical content knowledge (pck) is a concept dealing with explanations and demonstrations. it executes the ways of representing and formulating the subject, making it comprehensible to others (shulman, 1987). with the current overcrowding in most classes we observed, coupled with poor ck and the lack of pk, it was difficult for teachers to showcase a good pck. as ms. ngakane has no official academic experience with technology subjects, displaying good pck is often difficult because of poor teaching methods (shulman, 1987). könig et al. (2017) attest to it, claiming that pck is the knowledge of content subject matter (ck), pk, and knowledge of learners combined. and the moment one fails to connect the first two concepts, the instructional practices are not balanced, causing continued challenges in graphical communication. with ms. mdluli continuing the lesson without engaging the learners on what they already know, she could link their knowledge to the new concept. her pck was affected because, according to shulman (1986), pck is interrelated to the teacher’s ck and pk. the same applies to mr. kgomo, who used a challenging method in the grade 8 class and demonstrated the final product without taking them step by step toward achieving it. learners could culminate in rushing toward the final product without clearly understanding how to reach there and make mr. kgomo’s pck weak. face-to-face interview findings the interviews were held with technology teachers teaching technology in grade 8 classes. when responding to the first question on challenges faced in teaching graphical communication, 54 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 teachers cited a lack of support from the schools in securing models for abstract concepts in graphical communication. teacher 1 (mr. buthelezipseudonym) said: it is difficult to explain abstract concepts to learners at a lower level like grade 8, and we end up losing them. another teacher, ms. ngakane, said: i have been teaching technology for five years, but i never went to train for it. so, it is difficult for me to teach the drawing part, and i end up skipping it. one teacher from the third school, mr. pule, added: how do you explain isometric drawing on a square grid? it all becomes difficult to do, and that is where we lose these learners. however, ms. mdluli said: i find it annoying to teach while checking who is misbehaving in class. we have many learners, as you have seen in my class, and if i decide to go and check on them, i end up not accomplishing what i go for to the class. it was echoed by mr. kgomo, who added: i have 63 learners in technology grade 8, of which i should teach, mark, and evaluate. how do i do that if i am limited to a chalkboard to teach? it would be great if there were some technological gadgets, i could use together with them so that we can all be on the same page. the above findings prove that teachers do not have a good pk due to issues beyond their control. some have a weak ck; thus, their pck is affected because they seem to have poor teaching strategies. it negates what shulman (1987) says: pck is a special amalgam of content and pedagogy unique to the teachers. according to kultsum (2017), ck and pk are critically needed in teaching a subject, and combined concepts make one have good pck. however, technology teachers lack dismally in that regard hence the continuing learners’ challenges in graphical communication due to their difficulties. when asked how they allow learners to work together in planning and making technology projects, here are their responses: mr. itumeleng said: we do not have time to make learners work as a group because of this rotation of learners due to the covid 19 restrictions. his colleague (ms. ngakane) said: i often get on the wrong side of the law with my head of department due to material wastage when i leave learners working alone. nonetheless, mr. buthelezi said: 55 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 i personally do not give the learners projects because marking the design process is still something i need training on. mr. kgomo said: i do group the learners at some point, but when i get to mark the projects, i do not see any creativity in them because all of them are the same. maybe this could be caused by the fact that i find it tiring to always act like their watchman because managing a huge class in a practical lesson is hard. ms. mdluli added: i hardly allow them to work together because i avoid noise. i rather give them a project and say they should go and do it at home and give them timelines to submit. the expressions above illustrate that teachers lack the pk that could assist them in teaching better. the instructional practice continues to be a problem, thus affecting the progress of the learners. because pk refers to the methods and processes of teaching and includes knowledge in classroom management, assessment, lesson plan development, and student learning (shulman, 1987), teachers seem to struggle in that regard challenging the learners. this generic form of knowledge applies to understanding how students learn general classroom management skills, lesson planning, and student assessment, which learners do not benefit from at this stage. pedagogical knowledge, discussed by rollnick et al. (2008), was affected due to a lack of classroom models or classroom resources. the issue of classroom congestion because of learners’ numbers and lack of teaching resources is a major problem for the teachers’ pck. they are added on as some teachers have been converted to teach technology subjects, and they could be taking time to adjust to it and the concept of graphical communication. conclusion our study investigated teachers’ pck teaching graphical communication in a grade 8 class in the johannesburg central district. the study’s findings provided issues emanating from teachers’ instructional practices culminating in making learners have challenges in subjects like mechanical technology and other technologies in the fet phase. schools do not have enough teaching and learning resources. moreover, teachers are not qualified enough to teach technology subjects wherein graphical communication is a concept. then, it exposes teachers to the ck, worsened by poor pk rendering the teachers’ pck weak. the school must work with doe to assist in retaining qualified teachers to teach technology subjects. graphical communication as a concept must be contemplated with the procurement of drawing models, instruments, and enough time for learners to practice and perform well in the design process. it is a crucial aspect of technology subject. then, as shulman (1986) said, it requires a qualified technology teacher to display a good ck and ensure that teachers can perform the most valuable forms of representation of content, powerful analogies, illustrations, and formulating the 56 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 44-58 subject, making it understandable to others. references asik, a. 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(2017). effective teaching and learning methods for first year engineering graphics and design education students. (doctoral thesis, tshwane university of technology). umugiraneza, o.,& bansilal, s. (2018,) exploring teachers use of technology in teaching and learning mathematics in kwazulunatal schools. pythagoras, 39910, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.4102/pythagoras.v39i1.342 https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.57.1.j463w79r56455411 https://doi.org/10.4102/pythagoras.v39i1.342 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 1 2022 pp. 43-57 louisiana college: factors in the initial survival of a later denominational college joseph learned odenwald* * president of southwestern michigan college, dowagiac, mi, cass county, united states email: jodenwald@swmich.edu article info received: january 11, 2022 revised: february 7, 2022 accepted: february 12, 2022 how to cite odenwald, j. l. (2022). louisiana college: factors in the initial survival of a later denominational college. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(1), 43-57 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.5 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract the following historical case study considers the initial history of louisiana college. it utilizes primary and secondary sources, including dissertations, local histories, news articles, speeches, catalogs, yearbooks, and financial statements. the methods employed were historical, but the framework was that of an educationist. beyond merely telling the story of the initial years of louisiana college, the goal was to understand what contributed to the college’s perpetuity in light of the mortality of similar institutions. as we face a period of a demography unfavorable to our system of colleges and universities, it is imperative that leaders and the broader stakeholders of particular institutions have a grasp of the factors that lead to institutional health and decline. keywords louisiana college; baptists; baptist education; denominational colleges; religious education; higher education history. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.5 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.12 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 44 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 introduction louisiana college, located in pineville, shares a heritage, though it was initiated later than most others, with what scholars call the antebellum, old-time, or denominational colleges. these church-related institutions were largely opened between 1830 and 1860, and were a direct result of the second great awakening (ringenberg 2006). religious zeal, combined with a newfound openness to higher education, led many baptist, methodist, and presbyterian ministers to found the more than 200 such colleges that emerged during the period. john thelin (2019) suggests that higher education was america’s cottage industry between 1785 and 1860. and the reasons were not exclusively religious. towns were eager to land a college, and ministers would offer the highest bidding locale the right to call itself a “college town” (ringenberg 2006). there were economic and cultural benefits to being the home of an institution. the success and failure of these american institutions were usually tied to the size of their host community, its proximity to transportation (in this era, rail), the ability to attract a committed and often long-suffering faculty and staff, whether or not a thriving student life would emerge, the stability of its leadership, and if it could attract local or more broad financial support. in the case of louisiana college, two previous baptist institutions and their failures gave birth to the notion of a more centrally-located college (pineville is located approximately twenty-five miles from the geographic center of the state), and its survival during its first two decades was a direct result of having found favor with the aforementioned. beginnings of baptist higher education in louisiana the historian landrum salley (1985, 65) summarizes well the issues that plagued the two original baptist colleges in louisiana. “these some-what typical 19th century colleges—small, provincial, isolated—could not survive the accelerated pace of the 20th century.” landrum also called them “the spiritual predecessors” of louisiana college, thus it is important to consider them before discussing the first two decades of louisiana college’s history. baptists, led by martin canfield of south carolina, brought the faith with them to remote northern louisiana in the late 1830s: unlike the stereotype of the pioneer in an isolated cabin, some of these new arrivals in north louisiana lost no time in recreating the cultural patterns and community life they had left behind but not rejected. churches and schools appeared soon after the clearing of the fields for cultivation, and within a decade or so after settlement, these hardy souls had built towns that, despite their distance from centers of trade and arteries of commerce, bore many of the marks of a village in virginia or south carolina with 100 years of history behind it (salley 1985, 51). president lyndon baines johnson’s great-grandfather, george w. baines, pastored what became known as the mount lebanon baptist church. the church spawned the north louisiana baptist convention (later louisiana baptist convention) in 1848 and mount lebanon university in 1852 (salley 1985). 45 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 mount lebanon university, located in mount lebanon, was really a preparatory school in its earliest years, offering college courses for the first time in 1856. it later took the name “mount lebanon college.” women were admitted in 1859, but took their courses on another campus (salley 1985). the civil war, as it did so many institutions, affected mt. lebanon university. it closed in 1863, and shortly after the war the buildings burned, leaving the institution without a physical plant. worse, the convention dropped its support in the mid1870s (salley 1985). the college’s enrollment saw a brief rebound in the 1880s, thanks in part to generous lenders. electric lights and steam heat, combined with a broad curriculum it could not ultimately deliver, boosted enrollment to nearly 350 in 1888-1889. but debts forced the selling of the lights and heating system, and during the 1890s the college saw sharp enrollment declines of what was a largely preparatory student body (salley 1985). it closed its college division at the end of the 1905-1906 session. keatchie female college, located in keatchie, funded by the grand cane baptist association, an affiliate of the louisiana baptist convention, opened in 1856 (salley 1985). it was arguably the weaker of the two institutions, never seeing enrollment top 100. it began admitting men in 1887, changing its name to “keatchie male and female college, but a decade later changed its name again to “louisiana female college,” only admitting men who could live at home. throughout the first years of the twentieth century, the college would close for a year and then re-open. this was obviously devastating to the enrollment, and it closed for good in 1912 (salley 1985). in the end, its rural and sparsely populated location and insistence, like mount lebanon, on offering a broad curriculum largely doomed the college. desire for a centrally located baptist college previous historians (may 1956, brister 1968, and greene 1973) have observed that the origins of louisiana college can be traced to a resolution made by edwin o. (e. o.) ware, secretary for the louisiana baptist convention, at a meeting of the convention in 1893: whereas the baptists of the state of louisiana have no school or college in any true sense their own and whereas. it seems evident that the state has begun an era of development unparalleled in the past and whereas. it is always the part of wisdom to prepare for the future though he may not live in that future, therefore be it resolved. that the president of this convention be and is hereby instructed to appoint a special committee of fifteen brethren representing the different parts of the state whose duty it shall be to canvass the educational situation among the baptists of the state and at the next (1894) session of the convention, make [a] report as to the advisability and feasibility of establishing a college which shall have organic connection with this convention (higgins 1971, 24). ware’s resolution, though not successful, led to many special committees and conversations over the next several years as how to proceed with baptist higher education in louisiana (higgins 1971). in 1904, the education commission, comprised of thirteen individuals, 46 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 was appointed by the convention to a secure a location for a new and centrally-located college (higgins 1971). at this time, much of north louisiana was rural, and the concept of a centrallylocated college meant one that could be easily reached by various rail lines. ultimately after a ten-hour session on january 19, 1906, pineville (population 617 in 1900) , a small village, located on the opposite side of the red river, was chosen by a vote of 10-5 over the larger city of alexandria (population 5,648 in 1900), which had offered $30,000 for the establishment of the college (“the state baptist college to be located back of pineville” 1906). the reason for the choice of pineville over alexandria was a desire for substantial acreage. despite e. o. ware and others offering to give of their own land on the alexandria side of the red river, the total did not equal thirty acres needed for the campus. a. albert of pineville donated forty wooded acres for the establishment of the college. the funds raised by the citizens of alexandria were accepted by the commission (“the state baptist college to be located back of pineville 1906). ware, who first planted the seeds for louisiana college in 1893, and who offered of his own land for the location of the college, was appointed financial agent for the commission. with the college having no true administrative structure, ware oversaw most of details that occupy the time of a college president and their administration (“commission of state baptist college met here last night” 1906). this part-time role, perhaps because it became so time consuming, was expanded into a full-time one by mid-summer. a subset of the commission, comprised (depending on the year) of five to eight persons, mostly living near the college, served as the board of directors (higgins 1971). selecting a name and the first faculty the commission considered as many as fourteen names for the new college, among them louisiana baptist college, red river college, the e. o. ware central baptist college, louisiana college, the louisiana central baptist college, and alexandria college (higgins 1971). much debate occurred over the potential inclusion of the word “baptist,” and some were concerned that local names, perhaps like mount lebanon and keatchie, might be deemed too provincial. louisiana college was chosen, though not all were satisfied. future faculty member bruce benton commented, “we had hoped the college would have a different name, but now…we are satisfied” (higgins 1971, 69). after pineville was selected as the site for louisiana college, ware and the board of directors were faced with the next challenges of attracting a faculty, recruiting students, and establishing a physical plant. the faculty were hired before the end of the spring. sealed bids for construction of the dormitory and mess hall were sought in may (“notice, contractors” 1906). ground was broken on june 11, 1906, by j.d. bragg (“ground broken for baptist college” 1906). recruiting of male students was done primarily by faculty members sending letters to the baptist churches in the state, asking for lists of potential students to whom materials about the college could be sent. more than 300 such requests were mailed to the churches (“the louisiana college” 1906). 47 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 the college opens to any male louisiana college officially opened on october 2, 1906, with nineteen students, some of whom who transferred from mount lebanon college , and three faculty members (see photo below). the inaugural faculty included f. e. taylor, previously the president of the ruston industrial institute, a news editor bruce benton, and claybrook cottingham, previously the president of mt. lebanon college. classes began in a single wooden structure the same day the foundation was poured for the first permanent structure (“louisiana baptist college opened for session” 1906). image 1. “louisiana college’s first building,” c. 1906. image courtesy of the richard w. norton library, archives, pineville, louisiana. despite its baptist affiliation, louisiana college was open to “any man seeking a college education.” among its purposes, the earliest catalog available lists moral development, character building, training laymen for business, and educating the clergy (catalog of louisiana college, 1908-1909). the next catalog was more explicit and ambitious in its aim to count lawyers, engineers, farmers, doctors, merchants, judges, and even governors among its alumni. it further specified that the college’s sole purpose was not the training of ministers, “louisiana 48 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 college is owned and controlled by the baptists of the state, but it is not a theological school” (catalog of louisiana college, 1909-1910). the college, not unlike public and other private institutions of the era, whether religious or not, maintained strict behavioral regulations. gambling, cursing, and weapons were not permitted on campus. initially, students residing on campus were not permitted to leave the premises without permission (catalog of louisiana college, 1908-1909). by 1910, this was relaxed and students were allowed to leave campus between three-thirty and five-thirty on weekday afternoons, and, of course, for sunday church services. students residing off campus were required to have their living arrangements pre-approved by the faculty (catalog of louisiana college, 1910-1911). most students made their way to pineville by way of train, and a “college wagon,” drawn by horses, transported luggage to the campus on move-in days. in addition to regulations, the college boasted in its early years of a “deeply religious culture,” as faculty led the students in a daily and mandatory chapel program (catalog of louisiana college, 1908-1909). the earliest students were primarily from the state of louisiana and from parishes in central louisiana; students’ names and home towns were listed in the catalogs. for the second session, two students were from out of state, one from texas and one from mississippi. one international student from brazil appeared on the roll (catalog of louisiana college, 1908-1909). the first two graduates of louisiana college, who had begun their education at mt. lebanon college, thomas justin moore and james lee raley, earned their degrees in 1907 (catalog of louisiana college, 1910-1911). moore would later earn a law degree from harvard, become an attorney in richmond, virginia, and serve as a trustee for the university of richmond. raley would attend brown, and serve on the faculty at mississippi college, mercer university, and for his alma mater (cottingham 1947). early challenges once it opened, louisiana college faced steep competition from other developing colleges in louisiana amid a challenging economy. the boll weevil wreaked havoc on the state’s cotton economy in the earliest years of operation, and enrollment dropped from seventy-five to forty between 1907 and 1908 (salley 1985). this may have led to the appointment of e. o. ware in that year, replacing f.e. taylor who had served as chair of faculty in addition to teaching. for the 1908-1909 session, tuition was set at five dollars per month or twenty dollars per half session. room and board were fifty-nine dollars per half session. ministerial students received a fifty-percent reduction in their tuition. this was likely a strategy to demonstrate to the convention that the college was doing its part in training ministers (higgins 1971). by 1908, the college had expanded its physical plant. the original building, also called “old main” or “ware hall” housed offices, classrooms, and dormitory rooms for about onehundred. a brick “mess hall” housed the kitchen and space for communal meals. the original wooden structure, erected and used during the first session, served as an assembly hall. the 49 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 college largely relied upon a carnegie library in alexandria to serve students and faculty, but a campaign for a library collection was well under way in the third session (higgins 1971). it was not uncommon in the 1910s for louisiana college faculty and staff to receive less than their full salary. the 1910 financial statement reveals that of the college’s $40,028.66 in liabilities, $4,350.66 was owed to current or former faculty, staff, and administration (“statement of louisiana college” 1910). total assets, including the building, endowment, furniture and fixtures, wells and engines, livestock and wagon, the campus, and pledges was just $86,842.75. less total liabilities, louisiana college was valued at less than $50,000.00. one of the college’s major problems in its earliest years and even through the great depression was its reliance upon subscriptions or pledges. often, the annual budget was built upon promissory notes of faithful baptist laity throughout the state. while these were people of good intentions, their own hardships often made meeting their subscriptions or pledges to the college impossible. this led to budgets ending in the red and the liabilities owed to businesses and employees. the earliest curriculum and campus life because we do not have the catalogs from the first two years of the college’s existence we can best conclude that general education courses were offered. the first catalog of record, 19081909, notes that english was required all four years (catalog of louisiana college, 1908-1909). special courses were offered in stenography, bookkeeping, and music. a wide range of courses were offered in the arts and sciences. the following year, the college was organized into nine schools, essentially departments, including latin, greek, mathematics, science, history, philosophy and economics, modern languages, bible, and music (salley 1985). the demand for public school teachers in louisiana and the subsequent impact on enrollment led to a 1910 effort to improve pedagogy courses, so that graduates could receive licensure with only a subject-specific examination. by 1913, this arrangement appeared in the catalog. graduates needed only to pass an exam in the theory and art of teaching (catalog of louisiana college, 1913-1914). a campus life emerged in the earliest years with the development of two literary societies, the cadmians and athenians, providing intellectual and physical competitions. every student was encouraged to be a member of one group or the other. a ministerial association, sometimes referred to as a theological society, provided for bible study opportunities and support for students preparing for a career in the clergy (higgins 1971). leadership turnover and stability ware served a single year as president, and william christopher (w. c.) friley was selected as president in 1909. friley came to the college with a sterling record, having served as the founding president of simmons college in texas and of ruston college, a forerunner of the louisiana industrial institute, located in ruston. he only agreed to serve upon the condition that the college would become co-educational. the admission of women in 1909 increased 50 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 enrollment, but led to criticism that this strategy hurt the enrollment of louisiana female college. the inclusion of women did not dramatically improve the college’s overall enrollment. the co-educational strategy was publicly criticized in the convention’s annual meeting: it is proper to submit in this place that there are members of the board who do not prefer co-education, and their agreement to its adoption was yielded because it was declared to be a necessary measure in view of the peculiar emergencies of our educational situation. it may be further added that of glowing prophecies of enlarged attendance has not tended to increase their confidence in the wisdom of the change (salley 1985, 96). the decision was made after the year 1909-1910 to only admit women who could live off-campus. friley was informed he would not be retained after a year of service. health and his advanced age may have been other factors in friley’s short tenure, serving only a year as president. he was 63 when he arrived in pineville, and died just the year after leaving the presidency (salley 1985). claybrook cottingham, a member of the faculty since the college’s opening, was appointed president in 1910. his tenure began amid a sense of optimism, as the college was poised to build upon its campus life, in addition to its curriculum. a campaign was begun to raise $100,000.00 for buildings and equipment (may 1956). though the early cottingham years were successful and exciting, they were not without obstacles, the first of which was a january 3, 1911 fire that destroyed the college’s main building, ware hall, and the kitchen. the fire, emanating from the building’s furnace, was unable to be extinguished because the fire hydrants were frozen and thus there was no water with which to combat the flames (may 1956). less than five years after beginning its service in a single wooden building, louisiana college was reduced to its original facility. cottingham rallied the students to remain at the college and to continue the semester without interruption, and the citizens of pineville offered more rooms than were needed to house the students. they also established a fund to help students replace their personal items lost in the fire (“a word to the friends” 1911). the loss of ware hall was further complicated by the fact it had been built with a debt of $50,000 but was only insured for $20,000 (“will rebuild college” 1911). the future of the college’s location was in limbo in the spring of 1911. some called for the college to be moved to mount lebanon, given the campus was already developed (higgins 1971). others, including mayor j. p. turregano, wanted the college to relocate in alexandria. e. o. ware led a group who wanted the college to remain in pineville, and when more than one-hundred fifty messengers arrived for a special called meeting of the louisiana baptist convention on april 5, the pineville citizens provided trains to transport them to the campus for a tour and a free lunch. they boasted of the elevation, the acreage, the deep artesian well, proximity to three railroads, and the homes that had been built near the campus for faculty and staff in the early years (“pineville is hustling” 1911). after a marathon meeting that concluded after two o’clock in the morning of 51 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 april 6 that included speeches by president cottingham and e. o. ware, the convention voted to keep the college in pineville by a vote of 129-29 (“college stays at pineville” 1911). image 2. “fire,” january 3, 1911. image courtesy of the richard w. norton library, archives, pineville, louisiana. president cottingham proved himself to be an effective advocate for the college during his first year as president while the college recovered from the fire. in his book on early institutional leaders in louisiana, rodney cline described cottingham this way, “a gifted speaker with an attractive personality…he never missed an opportunity to occupy a church pulpit, or otherwise to address a public assembly,” for the purpose of promoting louisiana college (cline 1969, 52). in the days following the vote of the convention to keep the college in pineville, he offered his own resignation and gave a speech in which he implored the baptists to truly support the college or give up the effort: either they will do in the future as they have done in the past—play at the matter in a half-hearted way, and allow the school to be handicapped in its growth and usefulness 52 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 by lack of funds—not allowed to die, nor yet permitted to have a vigorous life; or they will arise in their strength, show themselves to be larger than their prejudices, and build and equip a school worthy of the strength of louisiana baptists; or they will quit (may 1956, 31). cottingham’s resignation was refused, and he was given some assurances of better future support of the college. he kept up the pressure, asking for more support in 1913 and 1914. in 1916, edgar goldbold, who would succeed cottingham in 1942, was hired as concurring secretary for the education commission and helped raise $40,700 for an additional residence hall in just forty days. cottingham lobbied the general education board of new york for funds in 1919, and in 1920 he began a campaign to raise money for a new administrative building, to be named alexandria hall. the college received $75,000.00 from the board, but the convention covered most of the building’s cost of construction (may 1956). years of steady progress the catalogs of the 1910s maintained that the “college was easily accessible from any portion of the state,” given the campus’ proximity to several railroads and the recent construction of a traffic bridge between alexandria and pineville (catalog of louisiana college, 1913-1914, 29). the wooded 40-acre campus, flush with native pines and oaks and blessed with fresh water, sounded appealing. the inclusion of information that a cemetery and the louisiana hospital for the insane were nearby must have been less effective for recruiting. the men were guaranteed their own bed and their rooms were lighted; the women’s dormitory was noted as having all the modern conveniences (catalog of louisiana college, 1913-1914). the period from the fire in 1911 until the mid-1920s was one of profound progress for louisiana college. for part of it, the college enjoyed the editorial assistance of e. o. ware who purchased the baptist chronicle in 1913 and published it until 1919. he urged support of the college and applauded those who did. with the closure of louisiana baptist female college in 1912, residential women were again admitted. in 1913, a women’s basketball team was added. an enrollment of 200 was achieved in 1914. it would peak at 623 in 1926 (may 1956). a swimming pool, paid for in large part by student fees, was opened in 1919 at the end of the pandemic. a gym was opened in 1922. the endowment surpassed $300,000 by 1925. but these accomplishments were often well short of the original goals cottingham and the baptists set for the institution. the “75 million dollar campaign for southern baptists” intended to raise more than $1,000,000 for louisiana college; it garnered just over $400,000 (may 1956). at times, for example with alexandria hall, the convention had to absorb the debt. the college’s academics enjoyed continual improvement. it received designation as a “standard college” by the state of louisiana in 1916, and in 1923 became only the third institution in the state to be accredited by southern association of colleges and schools, joining louisiana state university and tulane university. the college regularly added programs to adjust to conditions. when world war i began, for example, military training was incorporated into 53 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 the curriculum and the campus was essentially turned over to the war department. at the same time, a new major “domestic science,” later home economics, was added to grow the female population (catalog of louisiana college, 1917-1918). these two strategies resulted in a higher enrollment during the war years despite the loss of most regular male students. the campus life enjoyed continued growth. in january 1910, louisiana college, along with louisiana state normal college, centenary college of louisiana, and the louisiana industrial institute founded the louisiana intercollegiate association. the league sponsored competition in football, basketball, and baseball (“intercollegiate association formed” 1910). the development of the college’s athletic program was critical in its overall enrollment growth. football and baseball teams appeared in 1907, but the 1910-1911 year, by virtue of membership in the louisiana intercollegiate association, marked the true beginning of college athletics for louisiana college. coach simon w. tudor, who had enjoyed a successful playing career at georgetown college (ks), led the football program, beginning in 1910 (“louisiana college football” 1910). college enrollment doubled between 1909 and 1910, even though women were not recruited as residential students (“louisiana football closes” 1910). perhaps the fall of 1910 was when the campus began to have a true college spirit. the college colors of burnt orange and navy blue were selected that term by a committee, composed of professor bruce benton’s wife and others (hoffmeyer 1981). in addition to football, a student paper, the messenger, began circulation. an early edition includes this passage that demonstrates the upstart college’s confidence about its athletic prowess, “we are ready to tackle any of the big colleges, for we will never believe that the orange and blue can be beaten until we are shown” (“athletic notes” 1911, 34). it became the wildcat in 1921, and began to resemble a weekly. this confidence proved to be merited as the 1911 football went undefeated, outscoring its opponents 54-3 (“louisiana college ends” 1911). the following year, the team played lsu’s second team in baton rouge (“off for baton rouge” 1912). and in 1913, the college played the louisiana industrial institute at the louisiana state fair, as a part of a triple header, featuring lsu and the university of arkansas. one-hundred faculty and staff accompanied the football team aboard a train to participate in “college day” (“will go to shreveport 1913). in just its eighth year, louisiana college, by way of intercollegiate athletics, was sharing a stage with larger and more venerable institutions. athletics enjoyed broad support, with track and tennis added in the 1910s. the catalogs appear to have tried to balance the excitement of athletics with the purpose of a college education. louisiana college “believes in rational college athletics,” and “is proud that its boys have done well in their contests with other colleges (catalog of louisiana college, 1917-1918, 31-32). president cottingham was generally supportive of college athletics, and was influential in the college being accepted into the southern intercollegiate athletic association in 1923. he served two terms as vice president for the organization. cottingham often reported of the college’s athletic success in his articles in the baptist chronicle, remarking “no matter what is on, you may look out for louisiana college. she intends to be ahead (higgins, 1971, 117). 54 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 additional student organizations appeared, including those exclusively for women. the 1914 yearbook, the pine knot, listed a suffragette club and a chafing dish club. this is indicative of women who preferred traditional roles, as well as those who were challenging norms and demanding equality. plays were regularly produced by the expression club in the mid-1910s. intercollegiate debate and the glee club appeared by 1917. the athletic teams enjoyed regular coverage, as did the two major literary societies, the athenians and the cadmians. several recurring columns recorded snippets of the campus goings on. “pine needles” reported friendly insults, while “personal and social” provided remarkably detailed information about students’ personal lives, where they went, what they did, and with whom. “religious activities” summarized the spiritual activities on and off campus (“the wildcat” 1923). cottingham’s idea of the christian college claybrook cottingham was an ardent believer in the small denominational college. in a pamphlet the college produced in 1912, he outlined much of his philosophy. he respected the state institutions which were fast developing during his tenure at louisiana college as essential, “the vastness of the work gives us all a place and a mission” (cottingham 1912). he viewed the christian colleges as critical in maintaining the nation’s character, “i do hold, however, that the moral conservation of the race can be accomplished at its best only in the christian school.” the periodical, mailed to the churches around the state, included several warnings about the secular schools and their dangers to christian young people. cottingham cited his involvement with a committee of college professors from around the state, noting that the majority of them drank beer at a shared meal and were thus a potential bad influence for young men under their instruction (cottingham 1912). he told the story he heard of one college student from new orleans who had been considering the christian faith but rejected it because his favorite professor was an atheist. his most extreme warning was that an unidentified state school’s administrator reported that twenty-five percent of his student body was suffering from “genito-illnesses.” cottingham, a former professor of greek and philosophy, offered, “of course, it is known to you that when a man has fallen a victim to such an ill he never again be fully efficient as a citizen or safe as parent.” while cottingham philosophically viewed the state institutions as morally lax and detrimental for society, he practically feared them as formidable competitors for students and funds. in a radio speech, he lamented the tendency of students to attend state schools over the liberal arts colleges in the early twentieth century. similarly, he critiqued american culture’s infatuation with bigness and how benefactors were directing their funds toward the entities that could get them the most attention (cottingham unknown). integral personnel it is important to mention some of the dedicated faculty and staff who were recruited to the college during the early years, many of whom remained through the great depression. their remaining at the college, despite the challenges, ensured continuity. hal monroe weathersby a 55 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 graduate of mississippi college, arrived in 1911, to teach greek and history. he assumed the role of dean of the college in 1914, a task more akin to provost or vice president for academic affairs today, and remained until his retirement in 1956. dean weathersby’s tenure touched that of three presidents, and he served as acting president between president cottingham and president godbold (hoffmeyer 1981). coach henry walden joined the college in 1921, later serving as athletic director until his retirement in 1961. professor william strother came to the college in 1914, and served, mostly as a professor of political science, until his retirement in 1949. o. b. owens, eventually an m.d., taught biology from 1921-1945. edgar goldbold, who of course succeeded cottingham as president, served as professor of biology and as a secretary for the commission (hoffmeyer 1981.) this odd arrangement probably would be frowned upon today for governance reasons, as godbold was a subordinate to cottingham as a biology professor and served the body which employed cottingham in the other. godbold’s wife held many positions, including that of dean of women. in addition to talented students, faculty, and staff, louisiana college was served by generous and long-time education commission members who became its first trustees. e. o. ware cannot be credited enough for his support of louisiana college during its first two decades of existence. from proposing the resolution calling for a new college in 1893, serving as financial agent during the first three sessions, as president in 1909-1910, and advocating for the college remaining in pineville in 1911, he was always “for louisiana college.” w. c. beall, a “quiet lumberman” from pineville served on the education commission from 1906-1920 and as a trustee from 1921-1940 (hoffmeyer 1981). he gave $10,000 in a single gift, made a loan he never collected for another $10,000, and secretly paid for half the cost of godbold hall’s construction (greene 1973). j.a. edward of ruston served from 1906-1937 on the commission and board. j.a. white of alexandria served the longest of any, from 1906-1945 (hoffmeyer 1981). they, and others, often signed personal loans on behalf of the college. why louisiana college survived its first twenty years louisiana college survived its first two decades because it found favor in several factors its “spiritual predecessors” did not. to begin with, louisiana college was not disrupted by the civil war during its first decade. beyond that, its home in pineville was located near the geographic center of the state and in an area that was near several railroads, thus ensuring students beyond the immediate area could reach the campus. with the city of pineville, the college found a generous offer of land and continued support when the 1911 fire devastated the single brick structure. the city of alexandria also proved to be a great resource, as the funds its citizens raised to initially lure the institution to the other side of the river were still given to the college. the college’s early faculty, staff, students, trustees, and supporters proved more than up to the task of sustaining an institution. the college was blessed with faculty who were both qualified and patient with the various setbacks the college experienced, especially between 56 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 1907 and 1912. claybrook cottingham’s appointment as president was pivotal, as he provided three decades of stewardship. the students who took a chance on an upstart college brought to the campus a spirit befitting an older institution. references “athletic notes.” 1911. the messenger. january, 1911. brister, elaine. 1968. once upon a river: a history of pineville, louisiana. baton rouge: claitor’s publishing division. catalog of louisiana college, session 1908-1909 with announcements for session 1908-1909. catalog of louisiana college, session 1908-1909 with announcements for session 1909-1910. catalog of louisiana college, session 1908-1909 with announcements for session 1910-1911. catalog of louisiana college, session 1908-1909 with announcements for session 1913-1914. catalog of louisiana college, session 1908-1909 with announcements for session 1917-1918. cline, rodney. 1969. pioneer leaders and early institutions in louisiana education. baton rouge: claitor’s publishing division. “college stays at pineville.” 1911. alexandria daily town talk. april 6, 1911. cottingham, claybrook. 1911. “a word to the friends of louisiana college. letter to the editor, the alexandria daily town talk. january 7, 1911. cottingham, claybrook. date unknown. speech on radio station kwkh, shreveport, louisiana. cottingham, claybrook. letter to penrose st. amant, november 19, 1947. cottingham, claybrook. 1912. pamphlet. “commission of state baptist college met here last night.” 1906. alexandria daily town talk. march 23, 1906. greene, glenn. 1973. house upon the rock: about southern baptists in louisiana. alexandria: executive board of the louisiana baptist convention. “ground broken for baptist college.” 1906. alexandria daily town talk. june 11, 1906. higgins, george. 1971. “the louisiana baptist convention and christian education: 1893-1956. edd diss., oklahoma state university. hoffmeyer. oscar, jr., 1981. louisiana college 75 years: a pictorial history. pineville: louisiana college. “intercollegiate association formed to foster athletic and intercollegiate contests.” 1910. alexandria daily town talk. january 15, 1910. “louisiana college ends football season-basketball next.” 1911. alexandria daily town talk. november 21, 1911. “louisiana college football is getting down to hard practice now.” 1910. alexandria daily town talk. october 1, 1910. “louisiana baptist college opened for session.” 1906. times-democrat. october 3, 1906. “louisiana football closes season.” 1910. alexandria daily town talk. november 16, 1910. 57 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 43-57 may, lynn. 1956. “claybrook cottingham: a study of his life and work. thd diss., new orleans baptist theological seminary. “notice, contractors.” 1906. alexandria daily town talk. may 5, 1906. “off for baton rouge: louisiana college boys to play l.s.u.” 1912. alexandria daily town talk. november 16, 2012. “pineville is hustling.” 1911. alexandria daily town talk. april 4, 1911. ringenberg, william. 2006. the christian college. 2nd ed. grand rapid: baker academic. salley, landrum. 1985. “an historical survey of the curriculum of louisiana college, 1906-1983. edd diss., vanderbilt university. “statement of louisiana college.” 1910. thelin, john. 2019. a history of american higher education. 3 ed. baltimore: john hopkins university press. “the louisiana college.” 1906. alexandria daily town talk. august 4, 1906. “the state baptist college to be located back of pineville.” 1906. alexandria daily town talk. january 20, 1906. the wildcat. december 19, 1923, 1. “will go to shreveport.” 1913. alexandria daily town talk. november 7, 1913. “will rebuild college.” 1911. alexandria daily town talk. january 7, 1911. microsoft word 2.omodan&addam.15-29 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 2 2022 pp. 15-29 analysis of transformational teaching as a philosophical foundation for effective classrooms bunmi isaiah omodan*a & billey addama * corresponding author e-mail: bomodan@wsu.ac.za a. faculty of education, butterworth campus, walter sisulu university, south africa. article info received: january 24, 2022 revised: march 5, 2022 accepted: april 4, 2022 how to cite omodan, b. i. & addam, b. (2022). analysis of transformational teaching as a philosophical foundation for effective classrooms. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(2), 1529. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.9 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract nowadays, many classrooms are content-based and, therefore, disadvantage students from gaining lifelong skills that could support them in their future endeavours. this study proposed transformational teaching as a veritable strategy for effective classrooms where teaching and learning are taken beyond content delivery. this theory enables teachers/instructors/lecturers to promote expressive change that could lead to life-changing experiences among students. the study answers the following question: how can transformational teaching be presented as a stimulative teaching strategy for effective classrooms. the study is located within the transformative paradigm and designed with concept analysis, where the principles of transformational teaching are conceptualised and analysed using thematic analysis. the study was implemented by exploring the theory, its assumptions, and the connections between the theory and classroom activities. the study argues that when effectively implemented in the classrooms, transformational teaching will enhance students’ lifelong learning experiences and contribute to a productive society. the study further recommends that teachers and students adopt transformational principles/strategies in curriculum facilitation (in the teaching and learning activities). keywords transformational teaching; effective classroom; critical thinking; student collaboration; holistic development. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.9 16 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 15-29 introduction the traditional teaching paradigm is content-based and could be regarded as a practice rooted in a philosophy that encourages students to learn by memorising, listening, and regurgitating correct answers (mccurry & martins, 2010; meguid & collins, 2017). in this paradigm, teachers are expected to lecture or engage in direct instruction where they interact with learners by presenting information (balliu, 2017). this approach is considered unproductive and overbearing (milenković, & dimitrijević, 2019). though many instructional and learning styles have emerged, among which is collaborative, experiential, problem-based and problem-posing teaching and learning, among others (forbes et al., 2001; laal et al., 2014; rosli et al., 2014), there have been arguments that teaching loses its value when pressure is placed on lecture method (covill, 2011). here, the instructional style means a teaching style that regards students as the receiver and not as the co-constructor of knowledge. according to klassen and tze (2014), teaching is efficacious when students' learning is at the core of improving the students’ social, emotional, and academic life. in this context, any teaching and learning process that leads to students’ improvement, proficiency and efficacy could be framed as “transformation.” this is consistent with quillinan et al.'s (2019) definition that transformative teaching addresses different components of the education process such as structure, content, and ecological factors that affect how students learn and subsequently transform their lives outside the four walls of classrooms. one can then argue that teaching and learning is not solely classroom activity but an intertwined process involving students’ social constructions of knowledge, dispositions, and actions for positivism. teaching should be structured to address the immediate students’ needs, such as academic achievement and a lifelong sticker that enables them to contribute meaningfully to society and themselves after their education. our argument is also consistent with the postulation that a transformative classroom is where teachers build students’ understanding of concepts to become independent in their learning as well as promote critical thinking by exploring different perspectives of knowing (slavich & zimbardo, 2012) hence, one of the practical ways to ensure an effective classroom is when teachers encourage student inquiry-based learning by developing research projects, collaborative work and providing opportunities for students to examine issues from several viewpoints (rau et al., 2017). in a similar perspective but with a different focus, jackson et al. (2013) posit transformative classrooms as a teaching and learning environment full of student engagement and interactivity with peers and teachers. based on these perspectives, one could argue that a transformative classroom leads to a constructive education that creates an atmosphere for effective learning where every student feels safe and comfortable participating in the learning without risks, fear of judgement, or consequence. it promotes a welcoming school environment with a friendly face and quality reception for anyone who walks through the door, including students and the general public. this is not far from the argument of southern (2007) that transformative teaching and learning involve establishing student-teacher relationships and a shared knowledge production process to promote students' holistic development. against this, 17 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 15-29 the literature confirms that many classrooms today are laced with a moribund teaching and learning system where students only study to pass and jettison the lifelong actions embedded in knowledge construction and development. the findings of stephen and william (2021) indicated that students face classroom challenges: student anxiety, distrust in prior knowledge, and misconceptions that hinder an ineffective transfer and construction of knowledge. research findings also confirm that classrooms are faced with challenges such as lack of teamwork, lack of knowledge retention, and power dynamics among students (barrett & feng, 2021; marasi, 2019; morrow et al., 2013). apart from the literature, our personal experiences also showed that the outcome of major classroom activities, teaching and learning in primary, secondary and higher education classrooms, is not effective. this argument could be located within the fact that many graduates are not innovative and creative. they lack critical thinking skills, which prevents them from contributing and solving societal and personal problems. it keeps many graduates looking for jobs when they are supposed to think outside the box and become employers of labour, rather than relying on the government to provide jobs for them. this also confirms adeyemo et al.'s (2010) argument that the majority of unemployed graduates are half-baked and not adequately equipped for the job market. inferring from this argument, we believe that classroom processes at all levels of education should be structured in such a way to enhance students’ immediate academic performance and inculcate life-changing skills that could make them self-reliant, participate in the knowledge economy and contribute immensely to societal development. therefore, to ensure an effective and/or productive classroom, the place of transformational teaching is inevitable, which is the major focus of this theoretical paper. accordingly, this article derives its argument from transformational teaching as a teaching philosophy suitable for a productive classroom guided by the following question. research questions based on the above problem, the following research question was raised to guide the study:  what kinds of transformational techniques are applicable to support effective classroom teaching?  how can transformational teaching be implemented to ensure effective classrooms towards students’ wholistic development? methodology this study is lensed and guided by the transformative paradigm to maintain the quest for transformation in classrooms. it is appropriate to lens the study because it is a research world view knowledge and the process of knowledge as social construction shaped by individualism, peoples’ characters, and community applications (frey, 2018). this is consistent with jackson et al. (2018) argument that transformative paradigm is a research framework that focuses on the experiences of marginalised groups, examines power differences that have resulted in marginalisation, and links study findings to action intended to alleviate it. this paradigm is also 18 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 15-29 relevant to guide the study because it aligns with the purpose of education as ukpokodu (2009) presented as an instrument to empower students to view the social world from diverse perspectives, allowing them to challenge and change the status quo as agents of change. this is appropriate since the eventual aim of schooling is to promote critical thinking and informed active citizens. therefore, this paradigm informs our argument and theoretical analysis towards classroom transformation. the principles of the transformative paradigm were used to rationalise the beauties of transformational teaching to ensure effective classrooms that promote lifelong learning among students. in order to make sense of the paradigm, conceptual analysis was adopted as a design for the study. this is needed because the study deals with concepts found within the principle of transformational teaching. conceptual analysis is a method used to determine the precise meaning of concepts, linguistic expressions, formal languages etc. (novaes, 2012), which involves clarifying the conceptual structure and identifying ambiguities in existing theories or claims (kendler & neale, 2010). based on this, we argue that conceptual analysis is a philosophical technique for resolving genuine problems that arise with attempts to analyse concepts. this form of analysis assists us in conceptualising and presenting the assumptions of transformational teaching as a classroom process capable of promoting effective and transformative classrooms. by doing this, we also engaged thematic analysis to enable us to present our argument in themes, and this is consistent with the argument that thematic analysis provides avenues for the researcher to break down texts into themes to ensure clarity of ideas (terry et al., 2017). this was done by presenting the assumptions alongside their implication for effective classroom thematically. below is the presentation of the theory. presentation of theory: transformational teaching transformational teaching as an instructional/educational philosophy was first conceptualised and promulgated by slavich (2005) within the belief that teachers/instructors/lecturers, or whoever is in charge of knowledge construction, development and production, should promote meaningful change in students’ lives. hence, transformational teaching is an instructional/educational process that accommodates a change among the classroom stakeholders such as students and teachers. the idea behind this early version was to supplement individual study and personal growth by utilising group-based activities that involved applying key course concepts while reflecting on the process (slavich & zimbardo, 2012). that is, teachers, in this sense, are powerful, who are meant to team up and ensure collaboration among students and with their teachers/lecturers/instructors towards holistic student development. this is in agreement with an argument that transformational teaching empowers teachers to assume the position to facilitate the acquisition of key course knowledge among students by promoting students’ whole development towards learning (lee & lee, 2018). this is perhaps what informed the definition of slavich and zimbardo (2012, p.8) that “transformational teaching is the expressed or unexpressed goal to increase students’ mastery 19 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 15-29 of key course knowledge while transforming students’ learning-related attitudes, values, beliefs, and skills”. in the same vein, transformational teaching entails demonstrating actions that empower and inspire students, and transcend teachers' own self-interests to provide them with the confidence to achieve higher levels of functioning (morton et al., 2010). this argument confirms the finding that the transformational teaching approach is associated with effective teaching (tahir, 2018). thus, it further justified that an effective classroom could be achieved within the principles of the transformational classroom process. this style focuses not only on the specific subject areas and builds a foundation of learning based on non-cognitive factors but also on the whole person, such as character development, goal setting, and self-motivation (barzegar et al., 2020). transformational teaching includes elements such as behaviours, knowledge base, skills, and the environment, including physical and spiritual components. in implementing transformational teaching, one can argue that students are given a chance to learn from the questions or topics of interest that arise from their experiences in everyday life. in this way, transformational teachers try to engage students by providing different opportunities for learning inside and outside of the classroom (jones, 2009). one can then argue that a transformational teacher makes learning fun by allowing learners more autonomy over self-directed projects of study because it is more student-centred learning rather than teacher-oriented, which allows students to initiate their own inquiries. this hands-on approach results in transformational learning that benefits all learners by boosting motivation, resulting in positive attitudes towards learning (mason, 2018; fazio-griffith & ballard, 2016). to achieve the kind of change transformational teaching aims for, teachers need to be transformational by becoming sensitive, empathetic and respectful as features/characteristics of transformational teaching to their students. this will increase the feelings of exhilaration and productive learning experiences (kyte, 2016). from the above theoretical presentation, one could conclude that transformational teaching involves and focuses more than just on content delivery. instead, it is transformative by making students co-producers of knowledge, become critical in their daily lives, and create a kind of goal setting and reflective thinking. this is possible because transformation in the classroom includes content (subject matter), process (teaching and learning styles) and product (outcomes of teaching and learning). however, we can argue that transformative teaching emphasises the process that includes classroom interaction and the product, which can be used to determine (judge) transformation. therefore, using deductive reasoning of the analysis presented above, one can infer that transformative teaching has assumptions, which are critical thinking skills collaboration among students, epitomising student-teacher academic relations and forecasting the students’ holistic development. all these four cardinal principles could be argued as attributes of an effective or transformative classroom. as addressed below within the theoretical assumption framing, the following section addresses the four assumptions of transformational teaching. 20 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 15-29 the theoretical assumptions this section discusses the four assumptions of transformational teaching: critical thinking skills, collaboration among students, student-teacher relationships, and holistic development of students. critical thinking skills this is one of the dividends that transformational teaching strategy and/or philosophy brings to the classroom. this is because transformational teaching allowed reflective experiences and shared knowledge production processes in the quest for knowledge generation. however, critical thinking means having good judgment about what you accept as fact and what you discard. that is, it is a process that evaluates the facts first before making a judgement or drawing any conclusions. this is very critical in the classroom and a skill that is important for self-development with an open-minded way of considering issues and arriving at conclusions (ordem, 2017). according to von colln-appling and giuliano (2017), critical thinking is very important since it encourages sound decision-making by analysing data, relevant facts, opinions, or viewpoints within a given context. in this viewpoint, duchscher (1999) argued that possession of critical thinking skills helps to see the relevance of information, good judgement of reliability of sources, logical validity of arguments and relevance of conclusion. based on this, we argued that critical thinking skills are about using a good sense of judgement in reasoning to examine claims made through evaluating evidence into account of different lenses or perspectives before coming up with an argument or conclusion. this is one of the central ideas of transformative teaching as presented above. collaboration among students within the domain presentation of transformational teaching, one can argue that it encourages collaboration and cooperativeness of students towards generating new knowledge. not only among students, but it also allows students and teachers to interact or pool themselves for the purpose of an effective classroom. collaboration among students could be defined as sharing ideas and information for learning or instruction purposes (azlina, 2010; razmerita & kirchner, 2014). collaborative activities can take many different forms; it could simply be talking to someone about a specific topic (harris, (1992), can also entail pair work, group work, team learning (kraut et al., 1988; lai, 2011a), problem-solving (pulgar et al., 2020) among others. collaborative activities facilitate engagement among the members of the group while encouraging them to become active participants by exploring new concepts together (salaber, 2014). in the case of the classroom, it allows students to share their knowledge with each other, which enhances learning and unity of purpose (barhoumi, 2015). collaboration in the classroom is one of the cardinal points of transformational teaching philosophy. student-teacher relationships from the theoretical presentation, we also deduced the importance of student-teacher relationships as one of the principles that could be used to implement transformational teaching 21 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 15-29 in classrooms. these student-teacher relationships can be seen as one of the most important factors in student success. if student-teacher relationships have not been established within the school, then teachers will continue to struggle with improving educational outcomes for children they cannot build a strong student-teacher relationship with. however, the studentteacher relationship refers to how well students feel about themselves, the abilities of their teachers and the way they teach (mcgrath & van bergen, 2015). student-teacher relationships are significant to student success because it develops students emotionally, behaviourally, socially and academically (mcgrath & van bergen, 2015; murray & zvoch, 2011). hence, student-teacher relationships were deduced as one of the four cardinal principles of transformative teaching. holistic development of students from the above theoretical presentation, we deduced that transformational teaching could develop students to acquire skills needed in their world of work. it builds students towards making a significant contribution to themselves and the society they find themselves in. this is one of the goals of education in every nation, and it is consistent with the recommendation that education empowers citizens to contribute their quota to nation-building and sustainable development (bantwini & letseka, 2016; howe & covell, 2005). transformational teaching is targeted towards making students useful to themselves and their society. analysis of the assumptions and their implications for effective classroom this section discusses the assumptions related to classroom transformation, which is synonymous with effective classrooms in this study. this is done under the following subheadings: critical thinking skills and effective classrooms, collaboration among students and effective classrooms, student-teacher relationships and effective classrooms, holistic development of students and effective classrooms. critical thinking skills and effective classrooms in today’s classroom, most activities do not explicitly teach students to think critically; they merely provide students with information without an iota of transformation or meeting the expected change in students (allamnakhrah, 2013). this means that even if teachers use materials that require critical thinking skills, it is still up to each student to apply those skills during the learning process. critical thinking can be developed through active learning processes such as discussion and debate, which are still within the purview of transformational teaching (healey, 2012). transformational teaching helps promote critical thinking because students are made to discuss ideas and the reasons for those ideas with themselves or in groups before they can be accepted as a part of the whole (johnson-bailey & alfred, 2006; slavich & zimbardo, 2012). this idea is practically not based on specific content so it can be taught within any subject area. students are more likely to engage in critical thinking if their teachers discuss how what they are being taught relates to larger ideas and real-world applications. fong et al. (2017) and lai (2011b) confirm that critical thinkers usually achieve greatly in class and are more inquisitive 22 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 15-29 in solving problems, with a recommendation that college students should cultivate critical thinking skills. from this, we conveniently argue that transformational teaching promotes critical thinking among students, which subsequently enhances effective or transformative classrooms. collaboration among students and effective classrooms collaboration among students, which could be likened to a collaborative classroom as one of the undersides of transformational teaching, is significant to the effective classroom. evidence has shown that collaboration among students in classrooms positively affects students and enhances their academic engagement (holland & muilenburg, 2011). similarly, cooperative groups (within collaboration) have a beneficial impact on student learning and promote socioemotional abilities useful for effective functioning and integration in today's society (loes, 2022). another study found that teachers rated classrooms with higher student-to-student interaction more positively than those with lower levels of student-to-student interaction (alghasab et al., 2019). classrooms with high levels of student collaboration also had children who reported fewer feelings of isolation and loneliness than did classmates in less interactive classrooms (elmer et al., 2020). furthermore, classrooms with high levels of collaboration were also rated more positively by teachers than classrooms with low levels of student-to-student interaction (fennick & liddy, 2001; veenman et al., 2000). based on this, we can argue that a classroom that encourages students to work collaboratively is essential for all the reasons stated above; however, it also allows children to develop friendships and improve their social skills like following instructions, respecting others’ opinions, taking turns speaking out intelligently without interruption or ridicule, taking leadership roles within the group, encouraging other members in the group, and coping with problems when they arise among the team. with this, it is not an exaggeration to conclude that collaborative teaching is transformational and essential for an effective classroom. student-teacher relationships and effective classrooms as one of the assumptions of transformational teaching, student-teacher relationships are one of the factors of a productive classroom. this is evidenced in the fact that many studies have identified student-teacher relationships as one factor that can affect students' performance and behaviour inside and outside the classroom (sointu et al., 2017). student-teacher relationships are considered to be "a type of interpersonal relationship between the students and their teachers that involves professional caring, trust, respect, and shared responsibilities (davis, 2003). this, as preached by transformational teaching, in an effective classroom, teachers must establish positive relationships with students for improved learning abilities. in addition, several researchers have advocated the influence of school climate, who believe this will help create harmony among educators and pupils. for example, adebiyi et al. (2019) advocate a caring approach that will ensure safety for both teachers and students as one of the major factors contributing to a positive learning experience. 23 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 15-29 according to witherspoon (2011), the quality of the student-teacher relationship is of relative importance to students' school and college success thus, it has long-term effects on their quality of life. student-teacher relationships provide a foundation for academic excellence. both teacher and pupil must establish trust, respect, encouragement, and responsibility to foster an environment that enables academic eminence (al nasseri et al., 2014; williams & williams, 2011). researches also show that effective classroom climates in the form of top-down classroom relationships are associated with higher levels of state self-esteem (walker & hooverdempsey, 2013). additionally, the influence of the quality of student-teacher relationships can also impact student behaviours. for example, teachers who establish more friendly relationships reduce students' anger levels, which results from inappropriate behaviour in schools (decker et al., 2007). based on this, it is not out of place to believe that classroom activities laced within the purview of classroom relationships are transformational. holistic development of students and effective classrooms the above assumptions discovered that transformational teaching develops students holistically and prepares them ahead of academic endeavours. holistic development is an educational philosophy that views the student as a whole person with individual strengths, talents and interests that support students' personal growth in their academic learning (braskamp, 2009). it also encourages students to be actively involved and aware of the world around them (lovat et al., 2010). this kind of educational process values experiences over formal instruction and emphasises social-emotional, physical and spiritual well-being as part of the educational process (awartani et al., 2008). this is inconsistent with castillo et al. (2020) that transformational teaching explores students' experiences in the teaching process to enable them to relate practical life to theoretical life. therefore, holistic classrooms engage students towards developing themselves for the future. we, therefore, argue that students who are developed holistically will possess all the criteria needed to survive in the world of work after their education. we can then say that any process that develops students is transformational and will positively affect the lives and the future of the students, which could also be targeted effective classroom. conclusion and recommendations this exploration has proclaimed the beauty of transformational teaching as a correlate to an effective classroom. the two objectives were fulfilled by presenting the theory and its assumptions alongside their relationships with effective classrooms. this argument was lensed with a transformative paradigm to guide our argument towards transforming classrooms. therefore, we conclude that transformational teaching aims to equip students with the skills they need to be productive members of society. as such, educators must find ways to improve their pedagogical strategies. this can be done by incorporating critical thinking skills into lessons and discussions, fostering collaboration among students. they learn how to work together effectively, building strong relationships with each student. hence, he or she feels cared for and 24 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 15-29 supported during the learning processes, and providing holistic development opportunities for all learners by challenging them intellectually while also catering for their future activities outside of schools. to improve the classroom environment at any level –elementary school through university-level courses –we encourage that educators promote transformational teaching by ensuring that classrooms are made to enhance critical thinking skills, allow collaboration among learners, and ensure some level of flexibility in the form of student-teacher relationships that could foster students’ holistic development. this becomes expedient because they are dimensions of effective classrooms at all levels of education. references adebiyi, d. o., adebiyi, t. f., daramola, a. o., & seyi-oderinde, d. r. 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(ed.d. dissertation, university of redlands). https://www.proquest.com/docview/897947242 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 june 2020 volume: 2 issue: 1 pp. 112-128 the unethical practice of omitting language in state science standards: denying students true democratic freedom annie noel wildes* * university of oklahoma jeannine rainbolt college of education, norman, oklahoma, usa. e-mail: anniewildes@ou.edu article info received: april 17, 2020 revised: may 11, 2020 accepted: may 16, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0) how to cite wildes, a. n. (2020). the unethical practice of omitting language in state science standards: denying students true democratic freedom. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(1), 112-128. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.7 abstract climate change due to global warming is impacting the natural environment and humanity. yet, legislators in states whose economies are in oil production, a major contributor of carbon dioxide emissions through the combustion of fossil fuels, continue to reject the evidence. legislators go as far to say these findings are “hyperbole” and teaching such ideas would influence young students to a one sided argument. legislators, through bills and resolutions rejecting such language in state science academic standards, deny students access to equitable science education opportunities. i submit this denial is unethical. it denies students opportunities to analyze and develop solutions to a problem that jeopardizes their future and generations to come. i use the frameworks of karl marx and antonio gramsci to identify the underlying causes of this problem. understanding the underlying causes of the problem provides educators with a clearer vision of our responsibilities to act in providing equitable science education for our students. keywords science education; global warming; equity. 10.46303/jcsr.02.01.7 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.7 113 a call for climate change education in schools a human ecology is an imperative need. one of our political and economic priorities must be to adopt in every way a manner of life that respects the environment and supports the research in and use of forms of energy that preserve the patrimony of creation and are safe for human beings. (benedict xvi, 2014, p. 73) nature and human life on this earth is in perilous danger of becoming extinct if we continue to deny our impact on the environment and do not accept our responsibility to preserve it for generations to come. according to the fourth national climate assessment, “humanity’s effects on the earth system, through the large-scale combustion of fossil fuels and widespread deforestation and the resulting release of carbon dioxide (co2) into the atmosphere…is unprecedented” (weubbles et al., 2017, p. 23). in the last year, we have witnessed climate change as never before. antarctica experienced its hottest days on record between february 4 and 13, 2020. during that one event, 20% of the seasonal snow accumulation on eagle island melted. this is a typical seasonal snow melt for alaska and greenland, but not for antarctica. scientists report these events are happening more frequently in antarctica (nasa, n.d.). furthermore, antarctica’s glacial melting contributes to 20-25% of global sea-level rise (nasa, 2019). although not occurring uniformly, sea-level rise is a threat to all coastlines around the world. since 1880, the sea-level has risen 8 inches with 3 of these inches since 1993 (global change, n.d.). in the united states, cities such as boston, seattle, miami, and new york are concerned about rising sea levels and are working on solutions such as sea walls to protect the cities (greenblatt, 2017; wallace-wells, 2020). an area experiencing profound effects of global sealevel rise is bangladesh (mcdonnell, 2019). bangladesh has a long history of experiencing floods; however, in recent years, flooding has become a greater issue causing effects on wildlife, geography, and humanity (mcdonnell, 2019). climate change has increased torrential rainstorms and glacier melt that leads to devastating flooding, but a greater problem lies in global sea-level rise. as the sea erodes the coastline, homes and rice fields are being swallowed up. an increased salinity in freshwater renders it unfit for crops, livestock, and humans. these effects have caused an increase of migration to inland cities such as dhak. up to 400,000 low-income immigrants come to dhak each year. without suitable resources to support this increase in population, extreme poverty, health hazards, sex trafficking, and other risks have increased. climate change has become a humanitarian crisis (mcdonnell, 2019). australia is also experiencing the effects of climate change. in recent years, australia has experienced its hottest and driest summers on record. researchers have ascribed climate change as the cause for the devastating australian bushfires in early 2020 (gill, 2020). these 114 fires, that burned for over four months, destroyed a quarter of the forests in australia and effected over a billion of its wildlife. the united states is also experiencing extremes in weather patterns fluctuating from warmer temperatures causing longer drought conditions to heavy rainfall in a shorter span of time (weubbles et al., 2017). narrowing the scope to oklahoma, we find the effects of climate change. in recent years, oklahoma has experienced more days of drought, especially in the north west corner of the state, and heavier precipitation in the east (environmental protection agency, 2016; greenblat, 2017; oklahoma climatological survey, 2020). in march 2020, oklahoma experienced a four degree increase in average daily high temperatures, with a surprising 100-degree day for hollis, oklahoma (oklahoma climatological survey, 2020). for decades, world policy leaders and advocacy groups have called for environmental protection policies and action to minimize the forthcoming effects of global warming and climate change. recognized global leaders, such as catholic popes from the last quarter of the 20th century, have addressed the moral and ethical responsibilities of humans to care for the earth. pope benedict xvi and pope francis have been considered the most radical papal environmental advocates in the 21st century (burton, 2014). in his encyclical letter, laudato si’: on care for our common home (2015), pope francis stated: the climate is a common good, belonging to all and meant for all….humanity is called to recognize the need for changes of lifestyle, production and consumption in order to combat this warming or at least the human causes which produces or aggravate it….climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political, and for the distribution of goods….our lack of response to these tragedies involving our brothers and sisters points to the loss of that sense of responsibility for our fellow men and women upon which all civil society is founded. (pp. 18-20) science is necessary to understand the nature of our environmental problem and to develop solutions to promote change. to this end, both pope benedict xvi and pope francis acknowledge and welcome scientific research. they have spoken with scientists to understand how the effects of the combustion of fossil fuels has led to global warming (benedict xvi, 2014; francis, 2015). pope benedict xvi (2014) most earnestly praised scientific advancements, but urged scientists “should always be informed by the imperatives of fraternity and peace, helping to solve the great problems of humanity” (pp. 123-124). in 2012, the national research council (nrc) restructured science education through the creation of a framework for k-12 science education: practices, crosscutting concepts, and core ideas. the development of a framework sought not only to increase students’ interests in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) careers, but also to provide equitable access of science education for all students (nrc, 2012). the aim of science education is to promote a science literate citizenry: 115 being a critical consumer of information about science and engineering requires the ability to read or view reports of scientific or technological advances or applications (whether found in the press, the internet, or in a town meeting) and to recognize the salient ideas, identify sources of error and methodological flaws (next generation science standards [ngss] lead states, 2013, appendix f, p. 15) the unfortunate truth for american students is that not all students are receiving equitable access to current scientific evidence in their science classes. with certain agendas in place, students are denied opportunities to question and analyze data on how human activities, such as the combustion of fossil fuels, effect climate change. after the nrc (2012) released a framework, national science standards were created. the next generation science standards: for states, by states (2013) were developed to help educators teach science in k-12 grades. currently, 19 states, along with the district of columbia, have adopted the ngss, and 21 states have adapted the ngss. recognizing the emergent need for global warming and climate change education, the ngss includes a sixth-grade middle school performance expectation that explicitly addresses the causes of global warming: ms-ess3-5: “ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures” (ngss lead states, 2013, p. 71). the performance expectation’s clarification statement reads: “examples of factors include human activities (such as fossil fuel combustion, cement production, and agricultural activity)” (ngss lead states, 2013, p. 71). in 2014, the oklahoma state board of education unanimously voted to approve the new oklahoma academic standards for science (oas-s) that were adapted from the ngss. however, when the oas-s appeared before the house administrative rules and government insight committee, there was opposition from house representatives. former republican state representative mark mccoullough questioned the language of “earth and human activity” in earth and space science standards (halter, 2019; mooney, 2014). he stated, “there’s been a lot of recent criticisms in some sectors as to what some consider hyperbole related to climate change” (halter, 2019; mooney, 2014). he was concerned these standards would “inculcate into some pretty young impressionable minds a fairly one-sided view as to that controversial subject” (halter, 2019, para. 11). the committee voted 10-1 to reject the oas-s, but the standards were eventually passed by the oklahoma house and senate. while the oas-s passed, the ngss ms-ess3-5, explicitly addressing global warming, was not adopted in the oas-s for middle school. the adaption of the ngss for wyoming’s science standards in 2016 also faced criticism from legislators. republican state representative matt teeters led the way to reject the ngss. he felt the standards regarding the impact of human activities, such as the combustion of fossil fuels, were “over emphasized, almost activism within the curriculum” (edwards, 2017, para. 6). to this end, teeters sponsored a footnote to the bill that blocked considering any parts of ngss found in the proposed wyoming science standards. wyoming’s state board of education, after 116 holding hearing sessions to understand what wyomingites wanted, revised the science standards to soften climate change language. wyoming did adapt the ngss ms-ess3-5 standard; however, the performance expectation’s clarification statement did not include “factors of human activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels.” the problem with denying equitable science education in climate change these examples of legislators pressing for omitting certain language regarding the impacts of human activities on global warming and climate change poses a moral and ethical dilemma. in a country that values democratic freedoms, the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness, denying our students access to this scientific knowledge limits students’ access to these promises. only true democratic freedom comes from having the knowledge to act when action is needed (greene, 1988). there are four problems that affect our students and educators when equitable science education is denied: (a) limits quality science literacy, (b) limits students’ response and action towards the humanitarian crisis global warming creates, (c) denies students autonomy and providing value to society, and (e) denies educator autonomy as intellectual professionals in their field. first, denying equitable science education as it pertains to global warming and climate change limits quality science literacy for students in these states that helps them become critical consumers of science. without the opportunity to analyze scientific evidence that the combustion of fossil fuels has caused an increase in global temperatures, students are denied a stake in the game to make a positive change. the lack of this science knowledge denies students equal opportunities to compete with students in other states towards the development of solutions to a catastrophic problem. as educators, we have an ethical and moral responsibility to provide our children with equitable educational opportunities to build a better future for themselves. second, the humanitarian crisis in bangladesh is an ethical and moral imperative for us. as educators, we have a responsibility to help students develop their moral and ethical character (siefert & sutton, 2011). for this reason, we need to include the impacts of global warming on the social aspects of humanity. students have a right to be involved in the conversation regarding the social justice ramifications of climate change. in pope francis’s (2015) encyclical letter, he stated, “young people demand change. they wonder how anyone can claim to be building a better future without thinking of the environment crisis and the sufferings of the excluded” (p. 12). third, paulo freire (1998) called for educators to take on “a point of view that favors the ‘autonomy of the student’” (p. 21). limiting this scientific knowledge sends a message to our young students that we do not value them as contributors to society. when former oklahoma state representative mark mccullough concluded young minds would be “inculcated” with a “one-sided argument,” he had, in effect, dehumanized both our educators and our young 117 students. middle school students are just entering an age when they can begin to hypothesize about world issues. they question injustices occurring in our society and want to develop solutions. these young students aspire to be part of the conversation and have their voices heard. when a student’s autonomy is recognized by the teacher, they become engaged in learning (seifert & sutton, 2011). lastly, in addition to denying student autonomy, educators’ autonomy as intellectual professionals in their field was diminished. educators have been prepared with extensive knowledge in child cognitive development, pedagogy, and curriculum design. they are aware of their students’ needs. the community of science educators who developed the ngss did so in a way that reflects the cognitive progress of k-12 students. science educators thought middle school students were ready to take on the challenge of human activities causing global warming and climate change. legislators, with less understanding of instruction and curriculum, exerted their power to limit what teachers could and could not teach by voting against them in committees or adding footnotes to defund the ngss. understanding the underlying causes of the problem there are multiple causes for legislators in these states to omit language in science standards that suggests human activities, such as the combustion of fossil fuels, has led to global warming and climate change. regarding this, it is essential to identify the constructs of these states. a litany of constructs could be at work, but for the purpose of this paper, the economic base, political, and religious affiliations will be examined in the state of oklahoma. if anyone on the streets of america is randomly asked about oklahoma’s economics, politics, and religious affiliations, the likely response would be “oil, conservative republicans, and protestants.” according to economic statistics and surveys, they would be right (chen, 2019; di piero, 2015; pew research center 2014, 2019; stebbins, 2018). each of these constructs needs further evaluation determining how it affects decisions on what can and cannot be taught. more than that, identifying the root causes will provide explanations of why people act in the manner they do and how to stop the perpetuation of these actions that denies equitable science education. economics capitalism runs deep in america. in a 2019 pew research center survey regarding positive or negative views of capitalism and socialism, 65% of americans had positive views of capitalism while only 42% had positive views of socialism. among republicans or republican-leaning independents, 68% had stronger positive views of capitalism and only negative views of socialism. interestingly, among democrats and democrat-leaning independents, 38% presented with both positive and negative views of capitalism and socialism. the major themes of capitalism that emerged were the arguments that capitalism advances american’s economic 118 strength, america was established under capitalism, and capitalism is essential for maintaining individual freedoms (pew research center, 2019). oklahoma’s top five industries in 2015 were energy, information and finance, transportation and distribution, agriculture and biosciences, and aerospace and defense (di piero, 2015). many of these industries can be linked directly to energy because energy is needed for them to function. oklahoma frequently makes the top 10 list of oil producing states in america, having come in at number 6 in 2019 (chen, 2019). up to 20% of jobs in oklahoma are tied to oil and gas (di piero, 2015). the oil and gas industry brings in $24.3 billion (14%) of the gross domestic profit (gdp) for the state. aside from real estate, the largest industries in other states only bring in 6% of their gdp (stebbins, 2018). the billions of dollars pumped into the state is just one aspect of the oil and gas industry’s role influencing legislative decision making. between january 2015 and march 2017, the oil and gas industry contributed $683,000 to political campaigns in oklahoma with most going to republican candidates (brown, 2017). considering the standard concerning the combustion of fossil fuels, it becomes evident why state representative mccullough eluded to these claims as hyperbole (mooney, 2014; halter, 2019). these legislators would be wise to promote the oil and gas industry in oklahoma’s legislative laws, policies, and resolutions. in this case, the house administrative rules and government insight committee’s rejection of the oas-s reflected the relationship between the oil and gas industry, and legislators. the issue is the mode of production, that is the relationship of the economic base and the superstructures it creates. the theory of modes of production was born out of karl marx’s criticism of industrial capitalists (marx, 1887/2010). marx claimed the goal of a capitalist was two-fold. first, the capitalist aims to produce a commodity that could be sold, also known as a use-value. in addition, the capitalist seeks to produce a surplus-value, that is, a profit outside the costs of materials and labor (marx, 1887/2010). as previously discussed, the economic base valued in america and believed to provide the economic strength of america is capitalism. to begin the discussion on the capitalistic mode of production, it is essential to understand the historic relationship between capitalism and the natural environment. europe became a successful colonizing power over other civilizations because europeans increased their production (crosby, 1986/2018). crosby (1986/2018) claimed increasing production could only “be accomplished by exploiting the ecosystems, mineral resources, and human assets of whole continents outside the lands of the society” (p. xviii). this ecological imperialism brought in growth, wealth, and power that continues today with the oil and gas industries. an aspect of marx’s (1887/2010) criticisms of capitalism is how the capitalist views the natural environment (land, wind, water, minerals, and lumber) as belonging to themself for the use in the production of goods. though not directly part of the argument on global warming, the oil and gas industries’ profits are derived from the products produced from the exploitation 119 of natural oil and gas reserves. in turn, the combustion of fossil fuels, the product of these natural resources, produces co2 emissions. in addition to the concerns for the natural environment, marx was critical of the relationship between the capitalist and the worker in the base of production. in capital, marx (1887/2010) stated, “the laborer works for the capitalist instead of for himself” (p. 86). the laborer, therefore, must depend upon the capitalist for work to provide the necessities of food and shelter. both the products produced by the laborer and the laborer become, in a sense, property of the capitalist. this relationship further influences societies’ culture, political power, and institutions. marx’s (1887/2010) criticisms of capitalism, at the time, were of the widening class division created by the industrial revolution taking place in europe. the increase in production was fueling the capitalist’s ambition to create more wealth for themself. laurent (2020) definition of 21st century capitalism reflects marx’s viewpoints: the regime of “salariat” (wage earning via employment contract), the reign of finance, and to borrow from the marxist repertoire, an exploitation of workers by shareholders, this latter feature being the key contemporary driver of both human well-being and environmental degradations. (p. 156) returning to the oil and gas industry in oklahoma, it is clear to see the relationship between the capitalistic mode of production and the superstructure as impacting decisions of its people to omit language in science standards. with the industry providing 20% of jobs in oklahoma, the workforce is dependent upon the industry for its livelihood (di piero, 2015). recognizing that the combustion of fossil fuels as a contributor to global warming could potentially put people out of work if the oil and gas industry folded due to demands of alternative energies. this not only influences the worker’s actions in terms of support for the gas and oil industry, but also of the political power base. if a state dependent upon 14% of the gdp the oil and gas industry contributes to the economy were to allow language in science standards that suggests the combustion of fossil fuels contributes to global warming and climate change, the state would be committing economic suicide. for the preservation of employment and state income, politicians would be wise to control what can and cannot be taught in its public-school system concerning the combustion of fossil fuels. in addition, the oil and gas industry has subliminally sent messages to residents and visitors that oil is big business. upon approaching oklahoma city, one sees the devon energy tower, one of several big oil firms, from miles away. the skyscraper beckons people to visit the top floor to get a bird’s eye view of oklahoma (devon, n.d.). nestled between the interstates that serve as america’s heart of commercial intersection is the chesapeake energy arena, another large oil firm (chesapeake energy, 2019). if a person were to attend an oklahoma city thunder nba game, coincidentally at the chesapeake energy arena, this person would see the love’s travel stops and country stores’ logo prominently displayed on the players’ jerseys (national 120 basketball association, n.d.). in 2019, love’s was #17 on forbes america’s largest private companies, with their major source of income from fuel sales (forbes, 2019). finally, when one visits oklahoma’s state capitol, one would see the world’s only capitol to be surrounded by working oil wells (oklahoma state legislature, n.d.). the oil and gas industry has subverted itself into the culture. without knowledge, society replicates the economic base of capitalism by supporting these seemingly innocuous entertainment and tourist venues. politics and religion while marx focused on the economic base as being the power that drives society, antonio gramsci also recognized other organizational aspects of society as having power over those in lower position (ives, 2004). hegemony, the domination of one power over another, is frequently attributed to gramsci; however, the term was used as far back as ancient times to mean military coercion and power (ives, 2004). for gramsci, according to ives (2004), forms of hegemony take place when the dominating culture manipulates the consent of the people in such a way the people accept it as natural. without a clue, the people have given consent to becoming subjects of this dominant power (ives, 2004). in the case of oklahoma, in addition to the mode of production, political and religious affiliations also hold power over its people. to understand how political affiliation dominates the culture in oklahoma, it is essential to understand oklahoma’s political history. since 1968, oklahoma has voted for a republican presidential candidate and has had a domineering presence in the u. s. senate and house of representatives (gaddie, n.d.). in 2019, republicans accounted for 47% of registered voters in the state (oklahoma state election board, 2019). interestingly, oklahoma did not start out as a republican state. yet, despite oklahoma’s early political dominance of democrats and socialists, the state has always been conservative according to bob blackburn, oklahoma historical society’s executive director (krehbiel, 2016). contrary to our modern-day definition of a “democratic liberal,” early oklahoma democrats were conservative. they held different beliefs than that of the country’s democrats and socialists. having strong agrarian values, oklahoma democrats and socialists were against any government control. furthermore, they were not interested in collectivism, but personal economic opportunity. the oklahoma democrats and socialists held conservative values and as such voted for conservative politicians who would create conservative policies (goble, n.d.). over time, the nation’s democratic party grew less in line with oklahoma political beliefs. as such, the political conservative value won out, and the republican party, fitting the bill, came into dominance. oklahoma continues to be staunchly conservative republican. whatever policies and agendas an incumbent democrat president pushes will not be met with friendly acceptance. case in point, during the committee hearing over the oas-s, mccoullough referred to the standard language, “earth and human activity,” as echoing the president’s recent statements (mooney, 2014). the president at the time was president barack obama who had created the 121 climate action plan (cap) that called for policies to decrease carbon emissions, increase the use of alternative energy vehicles in both government agencies and public transportation, and push down the reliance on fossil fuels to name a few (environmental and energy institute, 2015). this political hegemony has dictated what can and cannot be taught in oklahoma schools. religion and politics are closely intertwined in oklahoma because of its deep southern historical roots. in the early part of oklahoma’s history, when democrats and socialists were dominating, the belief was “one could not call himself a christian…if he was not a socialist, too” (krehbiel, 2016). today, 79% of oklahomans claim themselves as christian (pew research center, 2014). while there seems to be a close split between registered christian republicans (45%) and democrats (40%), it is ideological belief that is striking, with only 19% of christians having a liberal ideology (pew research center, 2014). the reason for this may lie in oklahoma’s dominating religion, evangelical protestant. evangelicals make up 47% of christians in oklahoma compared to only 20% in the entire nation. “evangelicals are thought of as politically conservative, and there appears to be a strong distrust and alienation among evangelicals towards environmentalism and environmental concerns” (wardekker et al., 2009). there is an interesting statistic that encapsulates what gramsci meant when he discussed the nature of hegemony. when oklahoma christians were asked about environmental regulation, 52% agreed stricter environmental laws and regulations were worth the cost compared to 42% of who were against such laws because it would cost too many jobs and hurt the economy (pew research center, 2014). this statistic may suggest the majority, with conflicting views, consents to the dominant culture. ives (2014) suggested one of gramsci’s central aspects of the inability of repressed groups to resist is they essentially “lack language of their own” (p. 78). perhaps environmentally pro oklahoma christians lack their own voice. solutions for educators to be transformative solutions for educators to be transformative “we are all weavers of the grand tapestry of history,” (figueres & rivett-carnac, 2020). for many, the situation seems bleak and hopeless. as a society, we have accepted what the dominant culture in power have told us. we have come to believe our society cannot survive without our dependence on fossil fuels and on capitalism as we know it. we cannot abandon our politics or religious values because it could mean alienation. the task seems hopeless because it seems larger than us. maxine greene (1988) stated it so eloquently, providing inspiration: to become different, of course, is not simply to will oneself to change. there is the question of being able to accomplish what one chooses to do. it is not only a matter of the capacity to choose; it is a matter of the power to act to attain one’s purposes. we shall be concerned with intelligent choosing and yes, humane choosing, as we shall be with the kinds of conditions necessary for empowering persons to act on what they choose. it 122 is clear enough that choice and action both occur within and by means of ongoing transactions with objective conditions and with other human beings….whatever is chosen and act upon must be grounded, at least to a degree, in an awareness of a world lived in common with others, a world that can be to some extend transformed. (p. 4) there are several ways to take small actions to bring about transformation not only in our educational system, but in the communities we live: (a) knowing ourselves as educators, (b) finding our collective voice, (c) using softer language, and (d) connecting with allies in our communities. knowing ourselves as educators it begins with us as educators. how often do we spend the time to engage in active reflection of our profession? we are caught up in the demands of our districts and administrators, ever pushing us to prepare students for the end of year standardized tests. our administrators want to see weekly lesson plans that include minimum graded assessments per week and show we are staying on track with the state mandated curriculum. we are summoned to become sponsors of extracurricular activities and organizations for students. in the struggle to keep our heads above water, there is little time left for self-reflection in our practice. perhaps our first task is to stop and evaluate how we have become part of the problem by not routinely reflecting on our personal values, morals, and ethics that make up our philosophy of education. we became teachers for a reason and began with a passionate belief we could change the world: remembering ourselves and our power can lead to revolution but requires more than recalling a few facts. re-remembering involves putting ourselves back together, recovering identity and integrity, reclaiming the wholeness of our lives. when we forget who we are we do not merely drop some data. we dis-member ourselves, with unhappy consequences for our politics, our work, our hearts. (palmer, 2007, p. 21) paulo freire (1998) was an ardent believer that educators should be engaged in selfreflection to develop a critical consciousness. he spoke of teachers as having the “ethical responsibility in the exercise of our profession” (freire, 1998, p. 22). reflection of ourselves as educators enables us to develop a consciousness about our practice. freire (1998) called for educators to practice “a universal human ethic,” where educators are not afraid to condemn those in power. in the issue of denying students the opportunities to an equitable science education, where do we see ourselves? what are the values, morals, and ethical beliefs that make up our individual educational philosophies? are we living up to our philosophy, or have we consented to a dominate power with differing views than our own? finding our collective voice not only do we need to be continually empowered to choose ourselves, to create our identities within plurality; we need continually to make new promises and to act in our 123 freedom to fulfill them, something we can never do meaningfully alone. (greene, 1998, p. 51) to borrow from henry giroux (1985), to be transformative, we must value ourselves as “intellectual professionals” who are experts in our field. legislators fail to recognize educators as experts who know what is best for their students. legislators do not have the background knowledge to understand child cognitive development, pedagogy, and curriculum the way we do as educators. as a group of intellectual professionals in education, we must take our power back and stand up against those who subvert their views and agendas that conflict with providing democratic educational freedoms. we must recognize this obstacle for what it is. as educators, we must create that space where we meet in the middle to discuss without judgments, to gain perspectives, and question. we must embrace our power as an intellectual profession and push back against those who devalue our profession. using softer language educators who challenge themselves to teach beyond the classroom setting, to move into the world sharing knowledge, learn a diversity of styles to convey information. this is one of the most valuable skills any teacher can acquire. through vigilant practice we learn to use the language that can speak to the heart of the matter in whatever teaching setting we may find ourselves. (hooks, 2003, p. 43) though we may be criticized by some who insist on strong, direct climate change language, we know our students and community. we are members of the same culture dependent upon the oil and gas industry for both state and personal survival. we understand “global warming and climate change” are fighting words. we also know we must remain respectful of our students whose parents work in the oil and gas industry. “classrooms must be safe places, both emotionally and physically, for all students” (mackenzie, 2020, p. 6). the reason wyoming educators were successful in getting an adaptation of the ngss msess3-5 in their standards was because they spent time valuing what wyomingites had to say and wanted (edwards, 2017). committee members said it was not easy because certain “buzz words” can provoke heated emotions. despite this challenge, the committee was committed to preserve rigorous science, which meant presenting evidence of the combustion of fossil fuels contributing to global warming. since wyomingites were concerned with their glaciers melting, educators phrased standards to reflect the positive impact of decreasing carbon emissions meant cooler temperatures which in turn would increase glacier ice (edwards, 2017). in the end, the wyoming standard has a more palatable tone; it was accepted, and surprisingly, climate education is going well (edwards, 2017). local environmentalists in tulsa, oklahoma, a city founded on the oil industry, understand the choice of words when working with government and business leaders. tulsa has experienced more extreme weather conditions, including heavy downpours causing reoccurring 124 flooding. environmentalists know these conditions are a result of climate change but frame the issue in terms of “extreme weather conditions” that pose a threat to the community. as a result, they have a working relationship with the city to provide solutions that protect the community (greenblatt, 2017). connecting with allies in our community we must remember as educators, we do not stop teaching once we leave the classroom. education must extend into our communities. there are many opportunities to engage with our communities. connecting with environmentalists, business leaders, politicians, and organizations with the same mission will provide us with a stronger voice to make a change. although there are differing views among christians towards climate change, christians are concerned about the environment, especially how it affects the poor. christian voices have the power to reach conservative politicians. we can collaborate with them (wardekker et al., 2009). as indicated by the 2014 pew research center survey of oklahoma christians, 52% believe stricter environmental policies are worth the cost. there may be opportunities for us to provide workshops and educational materials on climate change and energy savings to christian organizations who want to know more (wardekker et al., 2009). we must also create a space of dialogue with politicians and business leaders who hold differing ideologies. it is imperative we provide the education they need to understand the crisis we are facing. we need to make strong arguments for why providing opportunities for our students to analyze data and to develop positive solutions keeps them competitive with other american students. conclusion naming and understanding how the economic base, political, and religious constructs of the society determines what can and cannot be taught provides educators with the knowledge to act against the unethical denial of equitable science education. for educators living in states depending upon the oil and gas industry, we must remember our ethical and moral responsibilities for providing equitable educational opportunities for our students. we must find our voices and take back the power we have as an intellectual professional in education. however small of a step we take, it is a small step forward. a final hope for oklahoma change is slowly happening across all educational issues in oklahoma. in 2018, oklahoma teachers took a stand for teacher pay, school funding, and classroom overcrowding by conducting a nine-day walkout. while other teachers across the u.s. also conducted walkouts, mcgreal (2018) said oklahoma was politically impacted the most. the oklahoma teacher walkout put a crack in the oklahoma republican party. teachers ran for office and incumbent 125 republicans, who had voted against a teacher pay raise, either did not run for office again or lost their primaries (mcgreal, 2018). change is also occurring as the oas-s come up for revision and approval in 2020. while oklahoma middle schoolers were denied the opportunity to learn about human activities causing climate change in the 2014 oas-s, the new revisions will include this scientific education (martinez-keel, 2020). as educators, we must embrace these small victories, continue to work towards others, and always hold space for the possibilities. references benedict xvi. 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(2016). wyoming science content and performance standards. https://edu.wyoming.gov/educators/standards/science https://www.ok.gov/elections/documents./20190115%20-%20registration%20by%20county%20(vr2420).pdf https://www.ok.gov/elections/documents./20190115%20-%20registration%20by%20county%20(vr2420).pdf http://sde.ok.gov/sde/sites/ok.gov.sde/files/oas_science_standards_3-2-15.pdf https://www.okhouse.gov/information/capitoltours.aspx https://www.pewforum.org/religious-landscape-study/ https://www.people-press.org/2019/10/07/in-their-own-words-behind-americans-views-of-socialism-and-capitalism/ https://www.people-press.org/2019/10/07/in-their-own-words-behind-americans-views-of-socialism-and-capitalism/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2018/08/27/largest-industry-in-each-state/37585051/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2018/08/27/largest-industry-in-each-state/37585051/ https://www.globalchange.gov/browse/indicators/global-sea-level-rise https://www.globalchange.gov/browse/indicators/global-sea-level-rise https://edu.wyoming.gov/educators/standards/science journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 171-180 early childhood in the era of post-humanism: lending an ear to nature eurika jansen van vuuren* * faculty of education, university of mpumalanga, siyabuswa, south africa email: eurika.jvvuuren@ump.ac.za article info received: october 7, 2022 accepted: december 19, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite van vuuren, e. j. (2023). early childhood in the era of posthumanism: lending an ear to nature. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 171-180. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.13 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract parents, or pre-school educators in early childhood education, focus on assisting children to attain the highest possible pre-numeracy and pre-literacy skills in an attempt to give children a better academic foundation. children are presented with technology, for example, in the form of a tablet, that act as baby-sitters even before they can speak properly, and this has largely deafened them to the sounds of nature. sounds of man and machine are the only ones most children will be exposed to, due to their living in cities with few natural spaces. children are not taken into nature to experience it and get to know the sounds of the bio-network, of which they are an integral part. rural children may have a better chance to get to know, respect and cherish nature, due to their context, but their guides parents and/or communities have sunken into their own disregard for their environment. it is only when children are taught to listen to and appreciate nature that they will be enabled to begin moving back to being ‘mensch’ where the focus, ironically, moves away from the human and focuses instead on creating an equilibrium between humanity and nature, rather than stripping the planet of its natural resources through harmful practices. this empirical research explored the literature to highlight the significance of listening as a mode of developing an appreciation of and caring for nature. attuning children of the post-humanist era to their natural environment through listening will encourage them to understand their function as part of nature, and assist in the restoration of the planet. keywords anthropocene; early childhood; indigenous knowledge; nature; nonhuman; posthumanism; pre-school. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.13 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.13 172 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 171-180 cherish the world a present from god on behalf of all creatures made by the lord care for the earth foundation of life slow progress down, help her survive (farrian, 1981) introduction and background the lyrics from the song “we kill the world” (1981) was an eighties hit song that had the world singing along. however, the important message of these lyrics, passed south africa, and most of the world by. these lyrics are now more relevant than ever before, since it is the post-human who has to “slow progress down” (farrian, 1981) to save our world from the devastating effects of the time of the anthropocene, where the whirlwind of progress caused devastating damage. the lyricist’s calls upon humankind to “cherish” and “care” for the god-given gift of earth and all creatures, has mostly fallen on deaf ears. the effects of the anthropocene must not be taken lightly and should shock humanity into listening mode. the national geographic’s (2020) summary that explains the concept of “anthropocene”, which has become a buzz word in academic writing, and which refers to a specific time in the history of the earth, is useful to clarify the concept. earth’s history is divided into smaller segments, deriving their names from fossils that were found between the different rock layers of the earth. accordingly, modern-day humans are officially found to be living in the time of the holocene which started after the last ice age. the word “anthropocene” is not yet an official name on the geological time scale because it has not yet been adopted by the international union of geological sciences (iugs), who are responsible for naming these time segments (national geographic, 2020). however, there is a strong movement urging for the official acceptance of this time segment, where the actions and activities of humans have started to negatively impact upon the earth. the word “anthropocene” was coined by biologist, stoermer and chemist, crutzen (2000) and derived from two greek words meaning, ‘man’ (anthropo) and ‘new’ (cene). the ‘new’ or modern man, caused the onset of devastation and disrespect for both human and the non-human through irresponsible use and disregard for earth’s natural resources. there are several different theories about the actual start of this time segment. the earliest time given to the start of the anthropocene is stated as a thousand years ago with the start and ‘spread of agriculture’ (anthropocene working group, 2014, p. 1). another theory states that it started after the industrial revolution of the 1800s, where carbon and methane were released into the 173 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 171-180 atmosphere. yet another theory says that the time of the anthropocene started in 1950 when the first atomic bomb was tested, and radio-active smidgens scattered over the planet. the anthropocene working group (2014) supports the date of 1950, which is regarded as the time when accelerated human activity started affecting the planet adversely. when studying the literature, the consequences of disrespectful use of our planet includes: “changes in the water cycle, imbalances and destructions in the marine and terrestrial ecosystems, the increase of extreme meteorological phenomena, the acidification of the oceans or the disappearance of the forests (acciona.org, n.d., p. 1).” the spanish foundation, acciona.org (n.d., p.1), that works towards sustainable developmental goals, provides two main causes for the destruction of the planet, namely: “the model of energy production (coal, oil, gas)’’; and ‘’the resource consumption model (growing population that exceeds the ability of earth.).” the foundation warns that much of the devastation is irreversible, but some of it can still be reversed by the responsible use of natural energy such as sun, water and wind, that is renewable and sustainable. prideaux et al. (2020, p. 675) also mention the impact of consumption on climate change along with the use of unsustainable energy resources and suggest a “flattening of the curve” approach, such as was used to manage the covid-19 pandemic, in order to manage climate change sustainably, rather than implementing a drastic ‘turnaround’ strategy. the author acknowledges all the above-mentioned consequences caused by a disturbed equilibrium between human and nature, but wishes to suggest that these afore-mentioned causes and consequences are far removed from the understanding of young children. children must be well sensitized to nature before they will be able to comprehend the full impact that man has on nature. it is through growing up in a community, and/or home, where children are exposed to nature in a beneficial way and taught its wonders, that they will develop an affinity for all the creatures surrounding them. in the era of the post-human, knowledge of and about the non-human, including the way in which an individual is intertwined with his surroundings, is essential to ensure a sustainable future. with the renewed awareness of the harm the ‘new man’ has done to the world, the human of the anthropocene has become enlightened, and is now the more knowledgeable human of the post-humanist era. the definition provided for post-humanism by herbrechter (2017, p. 1) is aligned to the author’s way of thinking, saying that, “post-humanism basically means we're no longer happy with humanist ways of defining what it means to be human.” the human is still there, albeit with a more informed way of thinking, moving back to the simple and the natural ways of living without excess and with respect for all human and non-human. aikenhead and michell (2011, p. 78) urge us back to the values of indigenous knowledge where humans and non-humans alike are regarded as equal, and reminds us that humans are not the centre of the universe, since a community also consists, “of many non-human persons – the four-legged, winged ones, plants, and even landforms”. this notion is further augmented by zidny (2020, p.147) who adds that, “learning about indigenous knowledge may help students 174 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 171-180 recognizing this intimate connection between humans and nature in the fore-ground of culture from their regional environment or beyond.” to change would thus mean acknowledging the equal importance of nature, animals and even the mountain down the road. more importantly, it means restoring the values of the traditional community to care and respect for one another as well as for the non-human. purpose the purpose of this paper is therefore to explore the ways in which children can be drawn closer to nature so that they can understand the human’s interwovenness with the non-human. the question to be answered is thus: what can be done to sensitize our children to the fact that humans and nature share the same level of importance? the rest of the paper focusses on how change should take place in humans, how the earth has been ‘silenced’, and philosophies of change. this is followed by practical advice on teaching young children to listen, both figuratively and literally. the catalyst to change the thinking of a child, the change must start in the traditional community or home, since a child’s behaviour is shaped and retained through mirroring of the more knowledgeable parent or community. the significance of the community in children’s development and learning is emphasised by nsamenang (2013, p. 15), who states that all domains of knowledge are obtained from the home, society and peer culture through active participation, and include: “social, emotional, practical, cognitive, relational, and other situated intelligences.” this theory can contain a disadvantage if the community values regarding nature are distorted or harmful, since the transfer of harmful knowledge would increase the negative impact being currently experienced. nsamenang (2013) also adds the notion that children learn better through their peers than through adults. this is certainly true, but the initial learning must come from examples of adults, after which children will eventually be empowered to exchange intergenerational knowledge. the challenge in the era of the post-human is that many communities have taken on harmful living practices and values, and the learning that should occur in the traditional community, as explicated by nsamenang (2013), has become a legend from the indigenous past. a fictitious sense of human superiority and disrespect has seen the inconsiderate use of natural resources and an over-use of consumer goods, which have littered and stripped the planet. community examples of respectful living and behaviour towards both human and non-human have been besieged by individuals who litter, destroy, and abuse the natural resources, without a full understanding of the consequences. hsueh et al., (2016) mentions that people’s urge to gain higher social and economic levels has caused both a neglect of social responsibilities as well as a concern for nature, which in turn has caused damage to the environment and increased pollution. our children see this example from their desensitized role models in the community, and then mirror the poor example they are exposed to, since they experience this negative type of behaviour as normal. the catalysts for change must come from our communities where our children grow up, so that future generations will be able to go 175 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 171-180 back to sharing exemplary inter-generational knowledge that is not detrimental to our world. time is at a premium if changes are to be made to children’s actions and thinking, since cooper (2009) states that children develop their limit of understanding flora by the age of nine. it can thus be deduced that the beginning years of a child’s life are the best time to gain knowledge about nature and enhance children’s understanding of their natural environment, before the window of opportunity passes (herbrechter, 2018, p.2). the implication of this notion is that children’s understanding of nature must be developed even before they start formal schooling, to ensure optimum learning and understanding. a silent earth due to the destruction of the anthropocene, the planet’s natural sounds have started declining into a deadly diminuendo, and, if natural sound is disappearing, it can be inferred that ecological health is flagging. vidal (2012, p. 1) mentions the prediction of bernie krause, musician and naturalist, that, “[t]he fragile weave of natural sound is being torn apart by our seemingly boundless need to conquer the environment rather than to find a way to abide in consonance with it." to illustrate his statement, krause has been recording natural sounds for 40 years, and has observed how nature has started going silent. krause’s work includes a recording of two australian reefs – one which is still in a good natural state, and one that has been damaged. the reef that was still in a good condition had vibrant underwater sounds that were made by the creatures living on it, while the damaged reef had what he called the “desolate sound of extinction’’ (vidal, 2012, n.p.). we need to listen before nature goes totally silent since, “[l]istening is one of the most powerful tools for engaging with and understanding our environment’’ (paine, 2017, p. 177). the author therefore advocates that children be taught about nature through immersing them in natural spaces and teaching them to listen to what nature is communicating to them. philosophies of change the need for change is evident, and the question now arises how change should occur. as stated by ruuska et al (2020), to move away from the destruction of the anthropocene, another way of organizing life and another type of politics is needed. politics have always determined who will be in power and how non-human elements will be regarded. due to this mis-placed human supremacy, human-kind has been left with a world that may not be able to sustain life for much longer, since we are well on our way to destroying that which should be an integrated part of our being – the non-human world. further destruction, however, can be halted through education and involvement in nature. one of the ways that can bring about change, is through sensitising children to nature by using their sense of listening. it is possible to assist them to regain their listening skills. one philosophy of bringing about change comes from jeong, sherman and tippins (2021), who propose a repositioning of humans and their interaction with the world – in other words, an instant turn-around strategy. another notion of how to bring about change is through making gradual shifts. bateman et al. (2020), propose that humans see their interwovenness with other 176 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 171-180 humans, animals and plants, but that they remain at the centre of control, with the human responsibility to find solutions to diminish their impact on their environment. the author concurs with bateman’s (2020) idea of a gradual, yet focused shift to undo the destruction of our anthropocene past. although time is of the essence, using a gradual shift as a mode of change can be more realistic, and should be done in a contextually appropriate way. in the current context, technology has been blamed by many for the current damage. however, this technology is firmly entrenched as part and parcel of the world. therefore, denouncing it, and retreating into our metaphorical caves are not the way to return to proper traditional values and safe, indigenous knowledge. instead, technology should be utilized to restore our natural environment, and become part of future living. the author concurs with herbrechter (2018, p. 3) who avers that a post-human world should include, “those others that are normally excluded”, and mentions that machines (technology) amongst others, should be part of developing a, “more ecological relationship with our planet.” moving forward in a technological world in a way that will sustain life is possible through firstly, moving back to the past to reclaim what was positive, in order to understand and re-integrate humans back into nature, before it goes ‘silent.’ listen when nature speaks sound sources our acoustic ecology (paine, 2017, p. 172) can be divided into three main sounding sources: biophony which is, ‘’the music created by organisms like frogs and birds’’; geophony, which is, “the composition of non-biological sounds like wind, rain and thunder”; and anthropony which is “the conglomeration of noise from humans” (nsf, 2012). these sound sources are affected by the environment in which the sound is heard (luc ferrari in caux, 2013). for example, a bird will sound different in a tree from if it is sitting outside on a rock, since the acoustics of the environment, which are influenced by landforms and geophony, will be different. when listening, one hears both acoustics and sound simultaneously, and this relationship between sound and acoustics is referred to by paine as ‘’somaphony’’ (2017, p. 175). it is through recordings of environmental spaces over time that have been submitted to a database, that environmental change can be detected. paine (2017) asserts that these recordings might help researchers track changes faster than currently used scientific methods. intertwined with the ecology a baby’s first audible communication when entering the world is through a primeval cry, announcing his or her presence (viragova & o'curry, 2021). within days, parents master the child’s intuitive language and understand each cry through detecting the changes in sound. this nascent sound language shares several musical elements of the sounds heard in natural spaces, such as dynamics (loud or soft), tempo (speed/urgency), timbre (the tone quality), pitch (high or low), and rhythm (grouping of long and short notes). these are the first steps to intelligent communication. for this reason, it should be a natural process for children to interpret or even just recognise, the sounds they also once used when they were babies, when listening to the 177 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 171-180 non-human. it is important that this form of non-verbal communication is understood in order for children to learn about, and appreciate, nature. children can be raised with an awareness that they are an integrated part of the natural world. when they are attuned to the sounds of their natural surroundings and understand the inter-dependent, inter-twined relationship with nature, children will spontaneously develop an affinity and care for the non-human. biophony, anthrophony, and geophony are often heard simultaneously and form a network, described by paine (2017, p. 171) as, “a mesh of relationships that form an ecology.” the mesh of relationships could consist, for example, of wind sounds, insects, and even a machine interspersed with human speech, integrated into a symphony of sounds. furthermore, sounds communicate the state of nature, since such sounds are affected by phenomena as moisture in the air, density of plants, and the wind. hägerstrand (1976, p. 332) already aired paine’s (2017) ideas about the nature of ecology being, “a dynamic system of interaction, co-dependence, and interdependence where life itself is made and presenced,” as early as 1974. whatever the context individuals happen to exist in, they will be accustomed to the sound of their particular area, and therefore, readily detect changes in this sound should a difference occur. listening although the author focusses on aural listening skills as an individual sense in this article, abbott (2021), augments “listening” to include the whole body when communicating with the nonhuman so that non-judgmental observation can take place using all the senses (somatic listening). nature communicates through producing emotions, energy and even the placement of words and, “vocal or visceral imprints in [a human’s] intuitive field” (abbott, 2021, p. 9). abbott (ibid) uses the example of asking children to remember their favourite natural places, and then asking them to think of the sounds, the smells, the scene, and how easy it is to conjure up these images in their minds. these placements made by nature can be used to instil affinity for the natural world since, if children can be taught to listen to nature, then they would also be able to mentally recall the sounds of their favourite natural spaces and recognise sounds from their environment, which could, again, impact positively upon their well-being. the author’s choice to focus on listening skills was further inspired by a research summary of the field of sound ecology done by buxton et al., (2021, p. 3), who asserts that health can be improved by exposure to non-human sounds, which can reduce high stress levels. water showed the largest positive effect, and bird songs the second largest effect in alleviating stress and increasing a pleasant sense of atmosphere. however, it must be noted that the specific study took place in a studio with non-human sound recordings, and not in genuine, natural surroundings. buxton (2021, p. 4) also encourages walks in nature with a focus on listening since it, “could be used to enhance awareness and appreciation of natural soundscapes.” buxton (ibid) furthermore reports on a study showing that national parks with the highest prevalence of natural sounds attract the most visitors, which supports the researcher’s notion that the more a child is exposed to natural sounds, the higher the levels of 178 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 171-180 appreciation of, and attitude towards nature will be. buxton (2021, p. 5) concludes that being in a natural space, “has multiple benefits, including preserving important connections with nature, [and] strengthening biodiversity conservation.” benefits of regular exposure to nature as a space for learning are also mentioned by blaikie (2020), beasley et al. (2021), chawla (2020), and barabble (2019). these views strengthen the author’s idea that exposure to nature strengthens the connection to it, and promotes the conservation of bio-diversity. conclusion by understanding the destruction of the anthropocene and the aims of post-humanism, individuals can become aware of the causes and consequences, and consider what needs to be done to remedy the situation. there cannot be an instantaneous ‘’turnaround’’, since there are too many factors involved. one of the most promising methods to assist the growth of respectful interaction with, and the care of, nature, is through listening. what remains is to teach children to listen by setting an example and showing enthusiasm, so that they can develop an affinity for nature as well as an understanding. traditional communities and homes must ensure the grounding of respect and care for humans and the non-human before children begin their formal schooling. it is important to reunite children with the language of nature, which has been muted by an imbalance caused by the over-riding noise of technology. nature’s ability to lower stress and enhance well-being are just two of the benefits originating from interaction with the world’s natural surroundings. it is only when children have been taught to listen that they will understand what it means to “lend [an] ear to nature’s cry’’. don't kill the world don't let her down do not destroy basic ground don't kill the world our means of life lend ear to nature's cry (farrian, 1981) references abbott, s. 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(2020). a multi-perspective reflection on how indigenous knowledge and related ideas can improve science education for sustainability. science & education, 29(1), 145-185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-019-00100-x journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 113-129 pre-service science teachers’ preparedness for classroom teaching: exploring aspects of self-efficacy and pedagogical content knowledge for sustainable learning environments motshidisi anna lekhu* * faculty of humanities, central university of technology, free state, south africa email: mlekhu@cut.ac.za article info received: july 31, 2022 accepted: november 30, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite lekhu, m. a. (2023). pre-service science teachers’ preparedness for classroom teaching: exploring aspects of self-efficacy and pedagogical content knowledge for sustainable learning environments. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 113-129. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.9 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract the technological reconfiguration of humanity and advancement requires initial teacher training (ite) programs that create and enhance sustainable learning environments (sles) where teachers are prepared to embrace posthuman pedagogy to teach confidently. this case study aims to examine pre-service science teachers’ level of preparedness and teaching efficacy beliefs to teach in sles. the study findings revealed that teaching science requires content knowledge and an understanding of how to teach the content. furthermore, education programs need to be responsive to the socio-economic demands and produce 21st-century-ready graduates. the participants’ teaching philosophy aims to promote sles where quality teaching will be prioritized. without proper training, support and resources, this aspiration will remain a mirage. maintaining responsive classrooms will thus be a challenge that continues to be an albatross to social change. this study has some implications for ite programs, impacting the school curriculum and educational transformation. keywords confidence; fourth industrial revolution; initial teacher training; posthumanism; science education; social change. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.9 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.9 114 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 introduction in line with the national policy framework for teacher education and development, south africa’s current education reform aims to foster high standards for teaching and learning. the purpose of these standards is to create a fundamental shift in what learners learn and how they are taught. howlet (2018) argued that innovative teaching strategies are necessary to challenge entrenched paradigms and generate fresh knowledge. the post-humanist viewpoint is anticipated to bring this to the educational system (howlet, 2018). compared to other countries such as singapore and finland, south africa continues to perform dismally in standardized tests (the trends in international mathematics and science study [timss], the progress in international reading literacy study [pirls], gef-technology report). this poor performance, according to the integrated strategic planning framework for teacher education and development in south africa, 2011–2020, occurs in both international tests and the south african systematic assessments and matriculation examinations. national assessments still pose serious challenges to the learners’ performance. these challenges emanate from, among others, the implementation of the national curriculum statement (2006), which shifted the assessment practices by introducing school based assessment (sba) which includes a component of formative assessment (dube-xaba & xulu, 2020). assessments are set as per the requirements of the curriculum and assessment policy statement (caps) guidelines to inform the content to be covered and assessed. if south african learners still perform poorly in the examination within their context, it is, therefore, imperative to explore if teachers are adequately trained to master the science concepts and the pedagogy to facilitate knowledge and teach science with confidence. with the technological reconfiguration of humanity and the advancement and demands of the fourth industrial revolution, the problem might persist and pose more threats to the country's development. subsequently, research (omolara, 2008; arends & phurutsi, 2009; chen & usher, 2015) showed that poor performance of learners in science is primarily affected by, among other factors, teachers’ low levels of self-efficacy beliefs. learners’ performance is associated with teachers’ beliefs in their capability to teach the subject. accordingly, initial teacher education (ite) programs should embrace posthuman pedagogies that promote instructional strategies supporting and enhancing future teachers’ views about scientific teaching efficacy beliefs to enable them to teach science with confidence (stevens et al., 2006). it is also crucial to recognize that instructing science does not only require knowledge of the content but also an understanding of how to teach the concepts, that is, student teachers need adequate pedagogical content knowledge (pck) to be effective practitioners and to teach science successfully (shulman, 1986). pck development includes learning about approaches for improved classroom practice and instructional strategies from reflective classroom experience (bartholomew et al., 2011; blayi et al., 2022; rahmadi et al., 2020). the infusion of posthuman pedagogy is of importance in finding new teaching and learning pathways (blaikie et al., 2020). 115 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 the curriculum in higher education will need to be drastically revised in light of the impact of the evolving 4ir technology in economic and environmental terms alone to empower students to understand the technologies in detail and also to considerately scrutinize and foresee the development of networked arrangements of technology, the atmosphere, and socio-political systems (penprase, 2018; tsakeni, 2021). the academic achievement of the country's future generations rests on pre-service teachers, according to amankwah et al. (2017), who are students enrolled in educational training institutes who are pursuing teaching training (amankwah et al., 2017). therefore, ite programs are necessary to “revamp the educational space and establish one that is favorable to learning” (mamiala, 2013, p. 581). this study highlights the importance of preparedness for classroom practice during teacher training in maintaining sustainable learning environments. it proposes that the more prepared a pre-service science teacher is to teach science, the more confident they will be in presenting their lessons, and this will affect learners’ outcomes. these attributes form part of the requirements for preparing effective science teachers to overcome the environmental, societal, and fiscal challenges of the 21st century. these include, amongst others, adapting to climate change (sustainability), education, economy (manufacturing), technology and communication (big data, keeping pace with technology), natural resources (water, energy, and food security), natural hazards, and risk. the main drive behind this study was to explore how the teacher training learning environment prepares teachers for 21st-century classrooms. this study aims to address the following research questions: • what are the pre-service teachers’ perceived personal science teaching efficacy beliefs? • how do pre-service teachers perceive their pedagogical content knowledge toward preparedness for classroom teaching for the fourth industrial revolution? • what are the implications of such perceptions for teacher education toward sustainable learning environments? role of science education toward social change the key purpose of science education is to empower scholars to make radical changes in their community (du ploy et al., 2016). these learners need conducive learning environments within their societies to enhance and promote science learning. thus, the conditions in schools should be improved to ensure that the sustainable learning environments that pre-service teachers were trained in and about during their teacher training programs are sustained at both institutions of higher learning and the grassroots level where the spark for science should be ignited. subsequently, low-income families' lack of control over the goals and procedures of education is related to low levels of literacy and academic performance and the lack of access to opportunities and resources for children with disadvantages. school science can therefore begin to address power imbalances in children by promoting scientific literacy in young people, which leads to individual and community empowerment around health and environmental issues as 116 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 well as the very science-related issues that divide opportunity and quality of life for low-income families (zahur & barton, 2010). as pronounced in the national developmental plan and the sustainable development goals, a policy must be aligned with the country’s developmental goals to navigate the fourth industrial revolution within societies. there must also be configuration and synergy between departmental policies, such as the department of trade and industry for industry 4.0, the department of labor for the future of work, and the department of higher education, where teacher education is housed. setlhako (2018) noted that initial teacher training programs should be tailored to target the abilities and proficiencies needed by teachers in the 21st century and prepare them for 4ir to meet the requirements and demands of future generations. the curriculum should link formal education to the outside-of-the-classroom working environment (bada & jita, 2021; setlhako, 2018). thus, there is a need for posthuman pedagogy, which yan et al. (2020) describe as having four characteristics: posthuman pedagogy in terms of learner, instructional material, technology (nonhuman actors), and ethical behavior. according to yan et al. (2020), posthuman pedagogy informs the rethinking of the connections implicit in pedagogy and the re-imagination of the dynamic activity of learning. this pedagogy should be addressed at ite, which is also the focus of this study. the purpose of teacher preparation programs is to provide training programs that will produce efficient instructors who can face today's challenges, including employability and competency, among others (griffin et al., 2012). the creation and improvement of sustainable learning environments where instructors are equipped to instruct students in and about 4ir with confidence should be accomplished through initial teacher education (ite) programs. therefore, teacher education through these programs is expected to change how society perceives how science and its practices may bring communities together to effect meaningful contributions and prepare for the 4ir. penprase (2018) claimed that extending the capacity of on-campus courses to accommodate the learning of innovative information by students and institutional structures is necessary. a curriculum that emphasizes the interdependence of all living things and their behaviors, anchored in and outside the classroom, and innovative pedagogical techniques, would assist citizens with a global perspective and the capacity to think and act holistically (blaikie et al., 2020). sustainable learning environments (sle) are resource-efficient places, offer high indoor environmental quality, and safeguard the larger environment, according to stallman (2010). ineffective scientific education has been linked to several variables, including a lack of a strong grounding in science topics, a lack of preparation in science material, inadequate facilities and equipment, subpar school management, and teacher attitude (mukhari, 2016). moreover, resources are required to change education to accommodate 4ir demands as rooted in posthuman ideals. in light of the factors mentioned, the issue of resources and sustainability to transform education has emerged and will be discussed in the next section. 117 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 resources needed to transform education to meet 4ir’s needs there is a need for a pedagogy that embraces transition, as evidenced by the growth of posthuman discourses in education (yan et al., 2020). the south african tertiary education environment is still shaped by the social, political, and economic inequities that are pervasive and visible in daily life (waghid & hibbert, 2018). basic education is likewise subject to the status quo. according to the south african school act (sasa) of 2005, schools are classified into five quintiles based on the relative affluence of the areas in which they are located, with quintile 1 being the lowest and quintile 5 being the richest. schools in quintiles 1, 2, and 3 do not charge tuition fees. for reasons outside the purview of this study, some no-fee institutions may not always be supported more than others. a clear majority (90%) of the participants in this study are from lower quintile schools situated geographically in semi-urban and rural areas. however, they still prefer to plow back to their communities while undergoing experiential training or work integrated (wil), as well as after becoming certified as teachers. to the detriment of their training, there is a disjuncture between theory and practice due to the school conditions, and debates are still underway regarding theory and practice in ite (keller-schneider et al., 2020). addressing inequalities between different schools can only be fair and appropriate to distribute equal opportunities and privileges to all, in the interest of social justice, in line with the envisaged posthuman pedagogy. for this study focusing on the teaching space of the science setting, the context of a sustainable learning environment goes beyond physical spaces to encapsulate science teaching and learning. this means a safe learning environment where learners feel supported and respected. the aim of sle is to empower all students to fully discover and use their full potential to contribute to a democratic society (mahlomaholo et al., 2013). thus, the idea of an intelligent learning environment includes sustainability as one of its components. according to blyth (2017), intelligent learning environments are created to assist teaching and learning and those who use them. requirements for a learning environment should include sufficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, inclusiveness, responsiveness, agility, safety, technical capability, data-rich, support, healthy, and comfort (blyth, 2017). the post-humanist approach to education is essential for learning in the twenty-first century, combining classroom, home, and community learning, while promoting the creation of new ways and environments that increase flexibility and provide support (ahmed et al., 2011; strom & martin, 2022). efforts have been made to investigate science teacher pck (bartholomew et al., 2021, vázquez-bernal et al., 2022) and science teaching efficacy beliefs (bandura, 1982, gibson & dembo, 1984; shulman, 1986; liang & greer, 2009; stevens et al., 2006). this study integrates the relationship between these concepts with a special emphasis on preparedness for classroom practice in sustainable learning environments. the study intends to investigate how pre-service teachers' pck in sustainable learning contexts is impacted by their opinions about the efficacy 118 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 of their scientific instruction. the information generated here will eventually be used to develop a strategy to support their confidence in teaching the subject. this aims to produce a breed of better-prepared teachers to teach science and, consequently, can positively affect performance in science. a section included in this study about science teaching efficacy, which, according to ginns and watters (1999), is “a combination of a teacher's thorough scientific knowledge, understanding of the connections between the content knowledge and the teaching and learning process, a strong understanding of pedagogy, and the ability to successfully and practically apply their understanding and skills (ginns & watters, 1999). similarly, preparedness forms a relationship between pck and self-efficacy. when used in the context of teacher preparation, it is defined as "the condition or circumstance of being prepared; ready; and stresses the inclination of being prepared to do something." (gill & dalgarno, 2008). the more prepared science student-teachers are to teach, the more confident they will be in presenting their lessons, which will affect learners’ outcomes. as a result, the purpose of teacher preparation programs is to adapt to changes and expectations by providing training programs designed to train efficient instructors who can cope with today's challenges, including employability and competency (taole, 2013; ono & ferreira, 2010). understanding and encouraging the growth of teaching efficacy may unavoidably be crucial to reducing the current teaching profession attrition rate. therefore, teacher instructors must be cognizant of the critical stages of teacher development where each of the four sources of efficacy—mastery experience, vicarious experience, verbal feedback, and psychological factors or emotional arousal—affects teachers' beliefs about their efficacy (bandura, 1986). in this case, these sources of efficacy play a critical role in shaping one’s belief in their capability to perform a task. according to stevens et al. (2006), these sources are stronger predictors of performance than mental stability. to promote efficacy beliefs, a construct of shulman’s (1986) theory, pedagogical content knowledge is of great importance in teacher education programs. this theory refers to a combination of knowledge of content and pedagogy. moreover, pck also includes understanding what makes learning specific topics easy or difficult (bartholomew et al., 2011). therefore, this study examines science teacher trainees’ preparedness to teach content and their proficiency in strategies on how to teach the subject (pedagogy). theoretical framework this study was guided by shulman’s theories of pck and bandura’s self-efficacy beliefs. the social learning theory forms the basis of the concept of personal self-efficacy (1977,1981). according to the theory, environmental, behavioral, and cognitive forces are in constant interaction to shape human behavior. according to govinden (2022), posthuman thought holds that people are a part of a larger world, with its complexity and multiplicity (govinden, 2022). according to hasse (2019), human learning is socio-culturally based collective epistemology 119 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 from the moment of birth, and that learning also builds on prior learning. the emphasis has shifted from the individual learner to learning within communal phenomena due to this posthuman acknowledgment (hasse, 2019). this expands on bandura's theory of triadic reciprocity. he proposed the idea that, in terms of self-efficacy, beliefs, and behavior are tightly related. he defines self-efficacy beliefs as "rulings about how well a person can perform the actions necessary to cope with potential problems" (bandura, 1982, p. 122). this means that teachers' confidence in their teaching abilities is reflected in their instructional strategies, subject-matter expertise, and positive and negative attitudes. this study aimed to focus on science teacher trainees' perceptions of their efficacy. simply put, this is a teacher's conviction or confidence in teaching science effectively. strong or high teaching self-efficacy may greatly affect a teacher's motivation to teach science, whereas poor teaching self-efficacy may cause a teacher to avoid teaching science (low or weak teaching self-efficacy). figure 1. conceptual design linking the relationship between sources of efficacy and pck figure 1 illustrates the aspects of knowledge evaluated during micro-lessons and teaching practice observations. these, with sources of efficacy, guide the study in how preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs can be explored and enhanced. research methodology this study has an open-ended, exploratory design following a transformative paradigm and utilized quantitative and qualitative data collection methods. according to mabry (2009), a case study approach necessitates a thorough comprehension of the subject and a researcher's interest. as the researcher is a science educator at the research site, the case study is applicable to this study. the researcher’s reflexive interest in the study was to examine student teachers’ confidence and preparedness for classroom practice and investigate whether they are ready to teach in a 21st-century classroom. aspects of teacher competence areas of knowledge facets of knowledge vicarious experiences mastery experience s verbal persuasions psychological factors personal science teaching efficacy content knowledge knowledge of science-specific instructional strategies 120 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 study sample forty-five (19 females and 26 males, aged between 19 and 23 years) third-year undergraduate education students specializing in science education at the university of technology contributed to the study. a convenience sampling technique was used from a population of other specializations, including technology, computer science, languages, and social sciences. data collection and analysis questionnaire the science teaching efficacy belief instrument for pre-service teachers (stebi-b) was used to collect quantitative data in response to research question number 1 (what are the pre-service teachers’ perceived personal science teaching efficacy beliefs?). this data-gathering tool was established by enochs and riggs in 1990 and adapted by bleicher in 2004, and it was tested for validity and reliability. the instrument has a five-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). the median of this scale is 3. a mean that ranges between 3 and 4 will be considered moderate to high, while a mean that ranges higher than 4 will be considered very high or positive perception. personal science teaching efficacy (pste) was considered for this study because it focuses on the self-efficacy dimension, while science teaching outcome expectancy (stoe) scale is concerned with the outcome expectancy dimension dealing with learners’ performance, which can further be explored at a later stage. the data at hand were analyzed descriptively using microsoft excel. observations classroom-based observations were performed through micro-teaching evaluations and schoolbased teaching practice sessions. these observations serve as a representation of the potential learning environments that aspiring teachers would encounter. in contrast to microteaching, which entails a modeled teaching event of a lesson of a duration of five to ten minutes, where candidates teach a brief lesson to their classmates, school-based teaching practice sessions, according to ananthakrishnan (1993), expose student teachers to practice teaching in a real classroom setting. through a series of micro-lesson evaluations covering various abilities, pck was utilized to gauge the student teachers' competence as well as readiness for classroom teaching. these skills include skills of illustrating with examples, skills of stimulus variation, skills of explaining, skills of classroom management, and using teaching aids to provide clarity and proper understanding of what is being taught. this simulated platform was used to determine the possibility of enhancing a sustainable learning environment and how these can inform the expected 21st-century skills that will determine their preparedness to teach with and for the fourth industrial revolution. through these classroom observations, the evaluation sheets were analyzed as part of data collection instruments, and emerging themes were categorized. 121 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 focus group discussions after the administration of stebi-b and classroom observations, group discussions and presentations were held during class to probe the questionnaire findings and the observations further. data were audio recorded. common themes emerging were thematically categorized based on the following subheadings: aspirations, experiences, and challenges. ethical considerations permission and approval to conduct this project were sought from the institution. consent was obtained from the participants, and it was explained that taking part in the study was entirely optional. they were informed of the advantages of taking part in this study. also, the privacy of their replies was protected. findings and discussions questionnaire findings research question 1: what are the pre-service teachers’ perceived personal science teaching efficacy beliefs? the stebi-b full-scale mean was 3.29, and the pste subscale average mean was 4.01, which was perceived as very high. all the negatively worded statements were reversed. as previously stated, this study focused on the pste subscale to concentrate on pre-service teachers’ beliefs in themselves to successfully assume the role of a classroom teacher. the average pste score was 52.10. this means a very high perceived score, as scores of pste are between 13 and 65, whereas scores of stoe are between 10 and 50 (bleicher, 2004). table 1 presents the average mean values per item of pste. item 2 (i'll keep looking for innovative ways to educate science) scored the maximum with a score of 4.7, which is a positive sign indicating the students’ preparedness to learn. in summary, the average mean of 4.01 represents a very high perceived efficacy belief of the future science teachers. this is a clear indication of their readiness for 21st-century classrooms. 122 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 table 1. mean per item and average mean for the pste subscale item statement mean qualitative description 2 i'll keep looking for innovative ways to educate science. 4.70 very high 3 even if i work hard, i will not be able to teach science as i will most other topics. 3.73 high 5 i understand the processes required to successfully communicate science topics. 3.73 high 6 i won't be very good at keeping up with scientific ideas. 3.83 high 8 typically, i will provide ineffective scientific lessons. 4.67 very high 12 i am capable of teaching science well since i fully comprehend the ideas. 3.97 high 17 it will be challenging for me to explain to learners why scientific experiments are successful. 3.97 high 19 i'm not sure if i'm adequately skilled to teach science. 3.97 high 20 if given the option, i will not request the principal to review my science instruction. 4.20 very high 21 i usually don't know how to help a learner grasp a science idea when he is having trouble with it. 3.77 high 22 in my science classes, i often encourage learners to ask questions. 4.63 very high 23 i am unsure of how to get learners interested in science. 4.10 very high average mean 4.01 very high *adopted and adapted from enochs and riggs in 1990 123 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 observations findings research question 2: how do pre-service teachers perceive their pedagogical content knowledge toward preparedness for classroom teaching for the fourth industrial revolution? observations were used to identify student-teachers’ perceived pck and focus group discussions probed their preparedness for classroom teaching for the fourth industrial revolution. data were accumulated through student teachers’ participation in micro-teaching and teaching practice evaluations. in both evaluations, pre-service teachers achieved a passing score such as 50% and above. as the evaluation is a developmental process, participants showed that they were evaluated more than once with constructive feedback to improve their performance. themes that emerged from evaluators’ comments addressing the pck ranged from lesson objectives, chalkboard summaries, the pace of the lesson (i.e., too hurried or too slow), teacher-learner interaction, enthusiasm, and confidence. microteaching, like teaching practice, offers student teachers a smaller-scale chance to put the hypothetical information acquired in the various modules of their programs into practice (mpofu & maphalala, 2018). however, student teachers expressed their concern during the focus group discussion that it is not always possible to do so as the learning environments in schools are not as conducive as the environment at the university, which is more technologically advanced, and where they have access to computers and wi-fi that enable them to simulate experiments when the need arises. from data collected on the personal efficacy belief construct (research question 1) and classroom evaluations (research question 2), the results were triangulated through focus group discussions on whether their perceived confidence translated into preparedness to teach (pck) for the 4ir through the different skills that pre-service teachers were evaluated on. the second form of content knowledge is pedagogical knowledge, which extends beyond a basic understanding of the subject to include the dimension of the subject as it relates to teaching (wee-loon, 2011). focus group discussions findings aspirations, experiences, problems, and concerns were used to characterize the topics that arose from the focus group discussion. these are in response to pre-service teachers’ preparedness for the 21st-century classroom practice and will be outlined in the next section: aspirations as aspiring agents of change, the pre-service teachers’ philosophy of teaching aims to promote learning-centeredness. to enhance their knowledge of science-specific instructional strategies, they want to make a difference by encouraging meaningful learning to create conducive sustainable learning environments in which quality teaching is prioritized. the study findings are consistent with that of a turkish study reporting that using a student-centered approach to instruction improved student teachers' affective and cognitive skills through group work activities and active participation, emphasizing the benefits of longterm learning and learning how to learn (zeki & güneyli, 2014). 124 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 experiences and challenges/concerns the initial teacher education program allows exposure through micro-lessons whereby various skills are assessed. even though micro-lessons simulate classroom teaching and promote roleplay, the experience in the actual classroom is different. falkenberg et al. (2014, p. 340) described the incorporation of theory and practice as "not an issue of implementing theory in practice, but rather a challenge of empowering future teachers to build sound phronesis." no matter how prepared the students feel that they are regarding the different skills, time will always be a constraint as it will become difficult to incorporate the different microlesson skills into one full lesson, which will negatively affect their preparedness for classroom teaching. this is consistent with the findings of a study by zeki and güneyli (2014). they reported that the approach's weak points were the ineffectiveness of various educational activities, the material qualities of the teaching space environment, and the length of time allotted for the activities. with proper re-alignment of the curriculum that responds to the needs of 4ir in the schooling system, the learning-centered approach can lead to improved learning of science and equip learners to thrive in the constantly transforming world. the focus should shift from an assessment-driven curriculum to more focused on promoting quality mastery experiences of basic principles and concepts. another challenge raised by future teachers that might hinder the implementation of a learning-centered approach is that the university modules are not responsive to inclusivity and the promotion of emotional intelligence. moreover, learner behavior and lack of discipline in schools emerged as factors that might affect teachers’ efficacy. this indicates that the schooling routine does not keep learners occupied with cognitively demanding activities, which defeats the purpose of teaching to acquire the skills required for the 21st century. research question 3: what are the implications of such perceptions for teacher education toward sustainable learning environments? implementing a post-humanist approach to education involves re-evaluating pedagogy, knowledge production, and dissemination (blaikie et al., 2020). according to blaikie et al. (2020), this shows that the posthuman perspective has the potential to alter how we regard ourselves, other species, the earth, and everything else. “it implies respecting all entities and their interdependence; it necessitates considering the system as a whole rather than each entity as a perfect independent individual” (blaikie et al., 2020, p 2). in the setting of this study, posthumanism doesn’t regard pre-service teachers as not having the necessary skills but as seeking possibilities for improvement. following the completion of this study, methods used to boost the confidence of future teachers by exploring the sources of efficacy and level of pck need to be embedded into subjectspecific methodology modules. consequently, different pedagogic interventions may be examined in which design-based research methodologies will be employed. design-based research tries to both establish theories regarding definite field learning and the instruments 125 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 that are developed to facilitate such learning, and it is believed that this can help close the gap between theory and practice in education (bakker & van eerde, 2013). this, in turn, will further promote sustainable learning environments required for 21st-century educational settings. when teacher trainees employ the methods they learned throughout their teacher training education programs, evidence supports the belief that novice teachers have a beneficial influence on their learners' learning, according to mcgee and cooper (2010) and bartholomew et al. (2011). the promotion of sustainable learning environments, which are necessary for teaching and learning, will result. the main goal of this study was to provide a setting where participants may investigate options for sustainability in line with posthumanism and share their opinions as change agents. therefore, in order to promote the fourth industrial revolution's transformation goal for sustainable learning environments, new teaching methodologies must be used to increase the effectiveness of trainee teachers' scientific instruction during the initial teacher preparation. this was done after establishing pre-service teachers' pck and teaching efficacy. to guide the structure of teacher education programs, it is crucial to examine and comprehend trainee teachers' perceived efficacy, opinions, and readiness. that way, teacher-educators will be better equipped to train and prepare pre-service teachers for the fourth industrial revolution attributes. this study has some limitations. it examined a set of science pre-service teachers in a particular schooling context only. however, it suggests the need for further research on the teacher’s role in maintaining sustainable learning environments among the disparities within the south african schooling system and its assessment-obsessed curriculum. conclusion programs for teacher education might be affected by this study on how they should respond to the needs for integration of 4ir. in the posthuman era, there are limitless possibilities for a responsive curriculum toward maintaining sles. science teaching efficacy beliefs need to be embedded in subject didactics modules and content subjects. as science is a dynamic subject, attention should be paid to creating and developing sustainable learning environments, and the impact of social change that the different strategies implored in teaching science can have on future generations of south africa and teaching efficacy beliefs will be increased. this confirms that sources of efficacy play a pivotal role in the improving of pre-service science teachers’ preparedness during 21st-century classroom teaching. although we want to reach the same level as other developed countries as a developing country, it is understood from the opinions of pre-service teachers that we still have a long way to go in terms of providing sles. pre-service teachers can be trained to the expected qualifications as only higher education institutions have access to state-of-the-art equipment/facilities. however, these newly qualified teachers will be working in a variety of poverty-stricken environments and cannot cater to all these needs. 126 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 113-129 references ahmed, e., amira, e., and mohammed, g. 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(2014). student teachers’ perceptions about their experiences in a student-centred course. south african journal of education,34(3): 1–11. http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=s025601002014000300016&lng=en&tlng=en. https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2021.15 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 2 2022 pp. 30-43 a reductionist approach in curricular planning for teaching language arts bruce douglas taylor* * graduate student at the educational technology master’s program, university of maryland, global campus, largo, maryland, united states. email: brutay@mac.com article info received: march 8, 2022 revised: april 19, 2022 accepted: may 10, 2022 how to cite taylor, b. d. (2022). a reductionist approach in curricular planning for teaching language arts. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(2), 3043. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.10 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract contemporary education faces multiple challenges that encumber today’s public school teachers, especially those in english language arts (ela). one aspect remaining consistent over the decades is the imbalance between the amount of curricular material teachers are directed to teach and the time school districts allot to do it. it is likely a contributing factor to burnout and attrition in the faculty workforce. this essay presents counterintuitive reasons for proposing the implementation of a “proof of concept” intra-school research project that would demonstrate the potential value of a reductionist approach to the amount of content required in curricular designs. it may have the potential to increase cognitive capability of students along with reducing stress on teachers; not only by curtailing the number of texts for student study, but by incorporating methodologies of how texts are selected, analyzed and taught as well as students’ creation of their own. keywords language arts education; teacher workload; curriculum; curricular planning; reading; writing. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.10 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.10 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 31 jcsr 2022, 4(2):30-43 introduction sufficient retention and recruitment of america’s teaching workforce is in doubt. “for example, just 12 percent of teachers, [a] survey found, are very satisfied with their jobs, with more than four in ten teachers saying they were very or fairly likely to leave the profession in the next two years (kurtz, 2022, introduction, para 3).” correspondingly, hanks et al. (2020) observe, “though not a new phenomenon, teacher shortages in the u.s. are worse than they have been in decades, with some researchers considering them to be at crisis levels” (p. 115). this is reflected in a report published in education week which states that 91% of teachers say they experience job-related stress sometimes, frequently, or always (will, 2021). the primary claim of this paper is that a significant contributor to this dynamic is that there is too much curriculum and not enough time to teach it. in addition, as najarro (2022) points out, “a typical teacher works about 54 hours a week—with just under half of that time devoted to directly teaching students [emphasis added], a new survey finds (introduction, para 1).” accordingly, the status quo bears examination and suggested remedy. this analysis begins with evidence that such an imbalance exists, its deleterious effects, the conditions within which teachers labor; followed by a detailed outline of remediation towards a solution. background a significant gap in the scholarly literature is research that studies the onerous imbalance between extent of curricular content and the amount of time teachers have to “cover” it. over two decades ago, one research team did identify this disparity. they conducted a survey of 350 practicing teachers, asking each one to “estimate the amount of time (rounded to the nearest hour) it would take to ‘adequately address’ the content in a representative sample of benchmarks from the database (marzano & kendall, 1999, p.102).” they concluded that an estimated total of over 9,000 hours might be available for instruction during a student’s career in the united states’ k–12 education system, but that 15,000 hours of instruction were needed to adequately teach all the content required. as one of their colleagues states, “clearly, trying to teach 15,000 hours of content in 9,000 hours of instructional time is a frustrating predicament” (simms, 2016, p. 3). indeed, this is seconded by a recent evaluation found in edreports of two popular reading programs cited by schwartz (2021), “these new evaluation criteria also look for what edreports calls ‘bloat,’ whether all the content in a set of materials can be taught in one year” (p. 14). however, very little has been researched to determine what effect curricular overload might have on teacher stress and so is at the heart of this paper. reducing teacher workload has been shown to result in improved student outcomes (rhys-evan, 2020). so, it would follow that an increase in number of texts or amount of curricular content that ela teachers are compelled to cover in a typical school year would diminish student learning and be a contributing factor to teacher burnout, especially in title i schools. this is exacerbated when schools shift to virtual learning. counterintuitively, i propose that a reductionist approach (i.e. address a complex paradigm in terms of its fundamental 32 jcsr 2022, 4(2):33-43 constituents) to content/texts, along with a detailed explanation as to why, and what would be the possible benefits, that could provide a partial solution. the principles described herein form the basis for a future investigative research effort undertaken internally by a district or even an individual elementary or middle school. context the primary task of a classroom teacher is to have students achieve state learning standards utilizing curriculum materials mandated and provided by the district, but the degree of student learning is separately assessed by the state. often, these materials come with a prescriptive “pacing guide,” “curriculum map,” or some other framework for implementation. in many cases these protocols and associated materials run into hundreds of pages, e.g. engage new york (2014) – an average of 500 pages per grade. the majority of today’s state standards are reflective of the common core promulgated in 2009. these source standards do not specify associated curricular content (deas, 2018; kendall, 2011). amount of time available in a demonstration of what might be called pedagogical mission-creep, many district curriculum creators manifest a mind-set of “more is better.” this has been going on for a very…long…. time. but for currency’s sake, take for example a 5th-grade reading textbook published by houghton mifflin harcourt (journeys) in 2014. it lists over two hundred (!) separate tasks to be accomplished around and including approximately fifty specific texts. taking that into consideration, consider this: 4.5 hours per day of actual teaching time x 180 days in a school year = 810 hours1(take away lunch, recess, fire/lockdown drills, field day, frequent interruptions, test taking along with test prep, and blow off the last two weeks for wrapping up in anticipation for the summer) 14 hours a day a child is usually awake x 365 days in a calendar year = 5110. 810 of 5110 = 15.85% of time available in a calendar year. juxtapose what is included in that textbook with the amount of time available to teach its contents, more or less an hour a day for ela, for a total of 180 hours. is it any wonder that the issue of “work overload” keeps popping up in a survey of the scholarly literature? for example: cassandra m., quoted by mulvanhill (2019), decried, “we get bombarded with paperwork, ridiculous curriculum, and lack of time along with unrealistic expectations (para. 4).” it’s ironic, even poetic, to reflect on this teacher’s name and recall that her mythological namesake’s predictions of disaster went unheeded. research by hakanen et al. (2006) and fernet et al. (2012) found that work overload was a significant contributing factor in teacher burnout and attrition. this is related to a similar 1 this is actually more than the amount of time available cited in marzano & kendall, 1999, p. 102 33 jcsr 2022, 4(2):30-43 problem identified by longenecker and fink (2014) who determined that one cause for high turnover in the related business world is, “the mission-impossible syndrome” (p. 37). in this analogous business model, the mission is made impossible when people are tasked with performance outcomes [read test scores] without the requisite amount of time, staff, information, budget, authority, planning, or access. as a result, they experience high frustration and frequent failure. this is also the reality for many teachers. overload and the dictates that come with it will lead to other negative outcomes, particularly when it comes to teachers’ perception of their own professional autonomy. buckley et al. (2004) observe that, “experienced teachers appear to be more concerned with the discretion and autonomy they have in their schools” (p. 2). related to that is the following, “correlations revealed curriculum autonomy was significantly and negatively related to job stress; moreover, general teaching autonomy was significantly and positively associated with empowerment and professionalism. “(moore, 2012, p. 3) this conundrum applies to administrators as well. a teacher’s written comment cited by stewart and boggs (2016) is germane, “[administrators] are so angry and disempowered and cynical. they never got the training they needed, they don't get the on-going support they need, and the pressures and demands of their daily jobs are overwhelming” (p. 149). part of an administrator’s job is to make sure that teachers are “following the script.” two other scholars continue: professionals are usually distinguished by their specialty knowledge and skills, the unique contributions they make, the freedom afforded them to make decisions based on their best professional judgment, and the opportunity to organize their time and direct their own work. an objective review of the practices of most schools will evidence that the teacher profession often promotes none of these characteristics. (inman & marlow, 2004, p. 611) in other words, if all a teacher is doing is following an authorized script or textbook, they become merely a “deliverer of curriculum” rather than a teacher. this brings to the fore differences between “instruction” and “teaching” outlined in a lecture given by edward pajak, jr., ph.d., professor and chair of the department of teacher development and leadership at john’s hopkins university and includes my notes taken at the time. 34 jcsr 2022, 4(2):33-43 this is not to say that instruction, per se, is not valuable. indeed, military instructors are experts at it! how else are 18 or 19 year-old sailors able to repair the complex engine of an f18 aircraft (planned, objective, impersonal, narrow in scope, precise, etc.)? instruction has its place, but public education today should be more holistic in nature. instruction is more efficient, but not necessarily more effective. teaching, on the other hand, takes more time, but is more flexible and adaptable to student needs. with a reductionist focus that dials back amount of content in favor of an increased emphasis on critical cognitive functions, autonomy and self-efficacy could be enhanced when teachers have the time to engage intellectually with students regarding texts, not just to achieve pre-determined data points dictated by curricular directives. further, grossman and thompson (2004) argue for example, “…while district standards directed one novice to ‘engage students in authentic reading and writing activities,’ they failed to tell her how” (p. 295). teacher dissatisfaction is increased when teachers are overloaded by work and have little freedom to make decisions (haydon et al., 2018). because of these factors, almost half of new teachers leave the profession within five years (sims & jerrim, 2020). one outcome of the present state of affairs is that the percentage of american students in 4th-grade and 8th-grade rated proficient in reading on the recent national assessment of educational progress report card (2019) were only 35% and 34% respectively – slightly more than a third. but these levels have remained consistent since 1992 (fast facts, 2019). this indicates it’s not teachers nor the students as the cause, but perhaps due to a system that has persisted for the past three decades. accomplish more with less a problem faced by teachers is revealed in a survey of the literature articulated by burkhauser and lesaux (2017) who concluded, “none of these studies, however, consider teachers’ use of instruction imperative (do it!) unidirectional (lecture delivery) planned (predetermined outcomes) objective (it’s right or wrong) impersonal (content focused) narrow in scope (no transference) precise (no room for interpretation) morally neutral one size fits all content based (i.e. remember) teaching facilitative (how can i help you?) interactive (what do you think?) spontaneous (serendipitous discovery) subjective (what do i think about that?) personal (student focused) broad in scope (can transfer learning) ambiguous (open to debate or interpretation) morally charged (reflects community values) idiosyncratic depending on context and learner. concept based (i.e. accomplish) 35 jcsr 2022, 4(2):30-43 theory-based curriculum materials or the relationships between these materials, teacher-level characteristics, and accountability policy” (p. 295). while standardized tests are outside the purview of this paper, there does appear to be a disconnect between curricula and summary assessments alluded to in that citation. nevertheless, encouragingly, there is hope: teachers “enact” curriculum materials as they read, evaluate and adapt them; for example, teachers adapt materials by adding or omitting lesson activities, increasing or decreasing teacher control over an activity, or changing the amount of time spent on an activity. (drake & sherin, 2006, p. 163) so, there is precedent! perhaps we can judiciously wield occam’s razor to counterintuitively reduce the number of texts which would enable teachers to focus more on the fundamentals of comprehension when it comes to reading and writing. additionally, if we reduce the amount of content, we reduce the level of burnout due to work overload and enable a deepening of student learning and engagement. this reductionist approach is the intersection of teacher-centered concerns, curriculum imperatives, students’ cultural contexts, and future knowledge vectors. so, … how? methodologies how to begin with, cull the number of texts used by asking this basic question, “why is it important to include this particular text?” i suggest an exercise described on one of the ideo method cards (produced to help people engaging in any process of design, www.ideo.com) entitled the “five whys?” in short, when you want to require a certain text to be taught ask, “why (#1) is this text, in particular, important to teach?” if all you can say is, “it’s in the curriculum,” then ask, “why (#2) is it in the curriculum?” don’t you think students ought to, have a right to, know? but if you can get to why #5, that is usually the reductionist reason and the answer students should be aware of. needless to say, if you can’t go any deeper than “why #2” regarding the selected text, let alone three more times, then why are you teaching it? ergo – don’t. in so doing you reduce overload. isn’t it more productive to go deeper with fewer texts than it is to cover a broader range superficially? besides, you can use the same text to address several state learning standards concurrently. otherwise, you merely skip pedagogy across the surface of knowledge without achieving any significant degree of learning; breadth over depth. it is also possible to connect rigor with simplicity. “rigor” doesn’t always equate to complexity and amount. do more with less, with the least amount of content necessary. a famous football coach, vince lombardi, stressed it was critical to “master the fundamentals” (the very foundation for this reductionist approach). his supposition was that other aspects could be addressed more easily if you consistently practiced the fundamentals. what might those be in the ela domain? 36 jcsr 2022, 4(2):33-43 reading reducing the number of texts affords the teacher time to have students focus on what each text is about (i.e. the subject), bring to their attention the key details (i.e. important information) the author reveals about the subject that, in turn, enables students to infer the main idea or theme intended by the author. if you drill down on these three fundamentals, students can productively engage with any text, including texts students will confront on standardized tests. an expansion of this idea is encapsulated in, “close reading involves the use of evidence-based comprehension strategies embedded in teacher-guided discussions that are planned around repeated readings of a text in order to increase student comprehension (reutzel, 2020).” cognitively, these three reductionist keys unlock meaning from an unfamiliar text. with a reductionist approach to texts, teachers will gain adequate time to probe deeply into texts that remain, either academic or more authentic ones from students’ own experience and background knowledge. this obviates the frustration caused by curricula pacing guides and the like that compel teachers to move on from one truncated text to another. for example, students routinely do not read a complete novel, but only selections from it. as teacher matt smith (2007) said to his students, “we don’t have enough time [emphasis added] together to dedicate to reading the class novel to its entirely as well.” surely the totality of a complete work of narrative art is a more unified, coherent text than carving out a portion of its literary flesh for transitory scrutiny. which brings us to the issue of vocabulary. roessingh (2020) maintains, “vocabulary knowledge is particularly regarded as the strongest predictor of reading comprehension and longitudinal educational success (para. 4).” however, contrary to what is also advocated by this same author, don’t use up valuable instructional time having students try and figure out the definitions of words by “contextual guessing.” back in the day, when children would ask, “what does this word mean?” they were told, “look it up!” well, today’s students have a dictionary in their smartphones – ask siri. in this way, you increase vocabulary acquisition expeditiously, spending the time on more cognitive tasks than deducing a definition. more to the point, the use of a particular word enhances the meaning of its context, as well as the other way around. defining the words as they are initially read also helps students to understand each word in its particular context. in this way, the process illustrates meaning within context rather than from context and is inherent in going deeper with a text. this is the value of using a thesaurus when composing a text, where the delineation of synonyms can more precisely reflect exactly what a young writer intends. which brings us to writing. writing writing is the corollary to reading. an initial reductionist fundamental for writing, especially in the elementary grades, is to have children write as well as they talk. generally, students communicate with speech that can be easily understood. ironically, it appears to me and other educators that many students perceive a difference between the language of speech and that 37 jcsr 2022, 4(2):30-43 of writing, hence there are times when what they write does not make much sense. but, as ellis and bloch (2021) maintain, both spoken and written forms of language are natural and complementary; they reinforce and support each other symbiotically. unfortunately, there are times when assumptions are made that a student’s poor writing reflects poor thinking. not so. often if you take the time to discuss with a student what they mean about something, you can elicit thoughtful and insightful ideas which, for various reasons, didn’t make it to the page. thus, another reductionist fundamental for writing is, “what do you want to say about this? write that down. now, read out loud what you wrote – is that what you meant to say?” ellis and block (2021) cite a key point made by seidenberg et al. (2020), “reading depends on speech. students do not relearn language when they learn to read; they learn to relate the printed code to existing knowledge of spoken language” (p. 167). only when students can write as well as they talk does it make sense to develop their ability to write in more academic registers, become more eloquent and inventive. another reductionist fundamental in the teaching of writing is to ask students, “what do you think?” if i prompt them with, “i don’t want to know what you know, i want to know what you think!” they become, by definition, engaged. this also gives students a sense of their own agency. in order to come up with enough to compose an essay or any other piece of writing, they have to develop ideas; to use their imaginations. we have all read student essays which take up just a page, if that. so the first task is to habituate students to come up with ideas in order to, say, create an original story. a reductionist technique for doing so is to establish two characters, a setting (place and time), along with an emotion expressed by one of them. then ask your student writers, “what happens now and why?” after their response, ask, “what happens next and why?” repeat this question as a call-and-response until you have a short, but viable storyline or scenario. in order to reduce run-on sentences, declare that “and,”, “then,” and “so” can only be used once in a sentence. given the “how,” students have the imagination to fill in with the “what.” freytag’s pyramid doesn’t cut it. let us dwell on that for a moment. routinely, teachers and students are told simply “what” to do, but not “why” it is done. the standard scaffolding model of “i do, we do, you do” is not enough because the copyist simply replicates what’s been shown, rather than “why” it was done. refer back to the earlier example, (grossman & thompson, 2004, p. 295), where a teacher was told “engage the students…authentically.” when issuing such a directive, it is important to define the key term(s) on which it is based, such as “authentically.” a term as important as this should not be open to interpretation, but be made clear. this applies to their students as well. an overall key fundamental is to come up with reductionist “how” and “why” concepts that develop cognitive skills that can apply generally. for instance, there are only a half dozen generative fundamental ela state standards, fourth grade vertically aligned up through the higher grades. the reductionist strategies inherent in them form a solid foundation for teaching ela. embedded in each standard are critical terms (shown here in italics) that students 38 jcsr 2022, 4(2):33-43 must understand the meaning of and be taught the “how” and “why” of learning them. here they are: rl2 ccr anchor standard: determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas. [note: this is the keystone standard; if a student cannot do this, nothing else really matters.] ri1 ccr anchor standard: read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text. ri3 ccr anchor standard: analyze how and why [i.e. motivation] individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of text. ri8 ccr anchor standard: delineate and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the relevance and sufficiency of the evidence. [note: in this period of widespread destructive disinformation, this one is imperative.] w1 ccr anchor standard: write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence. [note: closely related to ri8, for the same reason] w3 ccr anchor standard: write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences. the use of those italicized verbs and nouns, less than two dozen, involve essential cognitive, reductionist processes. ensure students understand their meanings, then use them whenever you have students study chosen texts or compose their writing assignments. students they are the focus for everything, yes? a couple of things to consider. do you think learning stops once a student leaves school property? hardly. this means there is another 80% + 2 of learning outside the classroom we, as educators, compete with. which brings me to another counterintuitive proposal – in order to teach these reductionist fundamentals, start with content students already know and is meaningful to them for the teaching of what robert marzano refers to as “critical concepts.” (simms, 2016) meaning, teach a reductionist process with content(s) from your students’ world first and subsequently apply that skill within an academic locus. after all, isn’t it more important to teach students “how” to think more than “what” to think? if you initially use content that matters to them, they will probably be more invested in learning what you are trying to teach them. recall the dictum, “start with what the student knows.” 2 refer back to that 15.85% of time calculated earlier. 39 jcsr 2022, 4(2):30-43 a precipitate of this is “texting” on social media. as stewart (2014) asserts, “this is the space where most of their out-of-school reading and writing that is not for school purposes takes place” (p. 366). this means students can read and write, but it is not academic writing. so, as a reductionist exercise, show them how to “translate” a texting-text into a form more acceptable academically. this develops a skill schleppegrell (2012) refers to as writing for academic “registers” (p. 411) in other words, different domains require different uses of language. same goes for what stewart (2004) calls “entertainment literacy” (p. 365). forms of entertainment students engage with such as film, music videos, television, video games, etc. are iterations of narrative and can be analyzed as such according to state learning standards. these same modes of narrative can be created by students in what petit (2020) refers to as ds, or digital storytelling (p. 138). as ellis and bloch (2020) emphasize, “the employment of narrative is a powerful form of meaning making [so] children’s attention, imagination and thinking are activated when immersed in formal or informal contexts in stories” (p. 169). when teachers have the time to focus more on reductive, dare i say generative concepts, rather than checking off a proscribed number of texts, they will find that more depth equals more comprehensive understanding. if what ellis and bloch (2021) assert is true—that a focus on personal meaning and understanding provides positive conditions for learning—then integrating content with what students already know, understand, and find relevant is critical (p. 157). teaching should consist of genuine dialogue, not just a delivery or simplistic q and a. in sum, reduction of content enables more effective teaching of concepts, increases opportunities for meaningful interaction, and thus eases the burden on teachers, especially new ones. the future i would be remiss if i did not ponder what all this portends for the future. as stewart (2004) predicts, “therefore, our literacy pedagogy and policy must change to provide them with a more equitable education. we must begin to question what it really means to be literate and educated” (p. 369). in this, stewart is seconded by roessingh (2020) who states, “drawing on students’ linguistic and cultural capital, or funds of knowledge, is a key feature of culturally responsive pedagogy (para. 1).” but there should be concern for much more than that: in such a world, the last thing a teacher needs to give her pupils is more information. they already have too much of it. instead, people need the ability to make sense of information, to tell the difference between what is important and what is unimportant, and above all to combine the many bits of information into a broad picture of the world. (harari, 2018, p. 265) a fourth grader today will be entering either the workplace or college in less than ten years’ time. taking a cue from the past ten years, we can reasonably assume the coming decade will be a similar period of profound and rapid change. what does the future hold for education? 40 jcsr 2022, 4(2):33-43 to prepare, i submit we should dial back on numerous discrete texts in order to leave more room for discussion on topics of intellectualism, ethics and one’s role in the world. why? in the future, children may grow up with ai assistants [that] will be able to teach children virtually any language or train children in any subject, calibrating its style to individual students’ performance and learning styles to bring out their best.” (kissinger et al., 2021, p. 189). even with creative tasks, artificial intelligence (ai) can finish beethoven’s 10th symphony (hall, 2021), an ai named gpt-3 can generate a complete essay based on a topic sentence given it by a human (kissinger, et al. 2021), and create visual works of art (elgammal, 2022). but these marvels of computer capability carry with them malevolent potential on platforms such as social media to enable those who want to engage in extreme anti-social behavior online, a fact that is recognized by any teacher in almost any classroom in this country (cheng et al., 2016). increasingly, it will be in the realm of pedagogic-based socialization where the teacher’s function will be instrumental and vital. the role of the teacher will shift from filling a student’s mind with a plethora of information and towards the more consequential need of developing in students skills and cognitive processes that will help them navigate outcomes resulting from the interaction between human and technology (elayyan, 2021). in keeping with the reductionist approach outlined here, students will have to go beyond “knowing” something to “understanding” the meaning inherent in content presented to them in the classroom or online and subsequently employ what they have learned in positive and constructive ways. conclusion regardless, one determination is inescapable: if the current dynamic persists, so will its consequences because the quo of its status accelerates (hanks, et al. 2020; haydon et al., 2018; kurtz, 2022; najarro, 2022). as laid out in this document, breadth of content is no longer of singular importance in comparison to deepening student understanding regarding fundamental conceptual principles, along with the need to decrease teacher stress and to increase job satisfaction. references buckley, j., schneider, m., shang, y., & national clearinghouse for educational facilities. 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(2017) why my classes don’t finish whole class novels. medium. https://medium.com/@mps2341/why-my-classes-dont-finish-whole-class-novelsdfbc9b00c335 stewart, m. a. (2014). social networking, workplace, and entertainment literacies: the out-ofschool literate lives of newcomer latina/o adolescents. reading research quarterly, 49(4), 365–369. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1002/rrq.80 stewart, t. t., & boggs, g. l. (2016). emerging dialogic structures in education reform: an analysis of urban teachers’ online compositions. dialogic pedagogy, 4. will, m. (2021) the teaching profession in charts. education week. https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/the-teaching-profession-in-2021-incharts/2021/12 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 editorial, pp. i-x creating sustainable learning environments in the era of the posthuman: towards borderless curriculum bekithemba dube*a, sechaba mahlomaholob, wendy setlalentoac & bulent tarmand * corresponding author email: dubeb@ufs.ac.za a. university of the free state, south africa b. university of mpumalanga, south africa c. central university of technology, south africa d. turan university, almaty, kazakhstan how to cite dube, b., mahlomaholo, s., setlalentoa, w., & tarman, b. (2023). creating sustainable learning environments in the era of the posthuman: towards borderless curriculum. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), i-x. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.1 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract this editorial is a culmination of various research on the area of posthuman theorization as applied to the field of education. it also focused on the need for borderless curriculum to circumvent global challenges such as genocide, terrorism among other things. it details the rationale of adopting a post human and borderless curriculum to respond to the ambivalence brought by the corona virus. the special issue gives alternatives which emerged during the pandemic and arms educators and learners with new models of learning that will ensure education system is not disrupted on the even another pandemic emerges. the argument of the special issue is that within the auspices of posthuman and borderless curriculum something else, and new is possible through working and thinking together. keywords posthuman; borderless curriculum; initial teacher education; covid-19; new innovations. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.1 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.1 ii jcsr 2023, 5(1): i-x creating sustainable learning environments in the era of the posthuman: towards borderless curriculum in the history of the world, the past two centuries witnessed unparalleled destruction of the planet by humans that even changed the climatic conditions thereof resulting in global warming, desertification, highest levels of water and atmospheric pollution, unemployment, poverty, hunger, violence, vandalism, wars, crime, rape, xenophobia, gender-based murders, unknown and new deceases, you name it. all these sacrifices at the altar of greed and the human being’s insatiable appetite for consumption of everything, without thinking about the future generation and the sustainability of the planet (tarman, 2020). foregrounded by this, it is critical to examine curriculum across border to ignite educational solutions that challenge systematic trajectories facing humanity across the globe (dube et al., 2022; sevnarayan, 2022). in addition, one would say almost timely, technological advances ushered in the era of the fourth industrial revolution industry 4.0. to date there is even a race to participate in the production and use of artificial intelligence ai which is even a step higher than ‘mere’ digitisation. technologies are enabling humans to continue with their activities, like teaching and learning effectively, even though remotely or in a blended (chong & quek, 2022; kalimullina et al., 2021). industry 4.0 with its attended artificial intelligence has accelerated these processes even further. adaptive learning al as an example of the software in devices that use sensors and algorithms, is enabling students and their lecturers alike to perform academically and otherwise better, far beyond their so-called natural human abilities. for example through al, a student’s learning is personalised, individualised and customised to his or her particular needs, orientations, styles of learning, preferences, etc. al functions like a companion, a buddy who can respond to all the students’ enquiries and questions. it scaffolds and mediates the learning from where a student is to the required levels. it suggests what content to learn and how to learn it with ease. it is there ubiquitously to assist the student. it functions like an extension of the student’s intellect. the human and the machine under such circumstances have merged into a new being with an identity beyond that of a human. this is the subject matter of the posthuman where the identity of being human has become perforated. it has become liquidified and cannot be located in one place only. the student as in the example above is in europe, in africa and the east, everywhere through the capabilities of al. s/he can know and participate in discussions, in learning and any activity from anywhere. time and space no longer have a hold on the human being. s/he cannot be arrested at any one level of academic performance. his/her ability to collaborate with other students, libraries, academics, or whomever are extend beyond imagination. his/her compassion is at its peak because s/he learns at his/her own pace and learns what s/he likes. his/her corporeality though seeming to be located in a defined space, his/her entire being is not. it is this new identity that donna haraway refers to as ‘the cyborg’ (haraway, 2016) in order to use a metaphor close to the science fiction’s bionic man whose identity is in the interface between iii jcsr 2023, 5(1): i-x human and machine, among the human and the non-human, as well as the climaxing of the animal-object-human historical development. the student referred to about above, is brought back to the initial reality of being one with it (reality). s/he just a cog in this huge universal machine. differentials in terms of any marker, real or imagined like gender, race, socioeconomic status, religious, etc. do not matter as all are one. this conception extends even beyond the african notion of the ‘i’ which is assumed to be built, couched and dependent on others (nwoye, 2017). the conventional ‘i am because we are’ is exponentially multiplied and multiple layered to include machine, computers, others, etc. it is in the consideration of the above that this special issue helped unravel the nature learning environments in the context of the era of the posthuman. the notion of sustainability is related to unesco’s 17 sustainable development goals (sdgs) focusing on the economic development of all in an environmentally sustainable manner towards the social inclusion of all (united nation educational, scientific and cultural organisation, unesco, 2017). the idea of learning environments refers to contexts where identities of students and academics as well as other stakeholders in education are created and restructured accordingly across disciplines towards borderless curriculum where various nations learn from one another to improve humanity. in this special issue, bunmi isaiah omodan contributed an article entitled analysis of connectivism as a tool for posthuman university classrooms. he argued that in the posthuman era, teaching and learning through technologies are becoming increasingly important, most especially in the university system. connectivism, a theory of learning that emphasises the importance of connections between people and information, is one of the most influential educational philosophies driving today’s educational dynamism. in a posthuman world, where technology is constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated, connectivism is argued to provide a framework for understanding how students learn and how can technology be used to facilitate learning. this study argues that connectivism is one of the ways in which classroom stakeholders can be made to prepare for the posthuman era. the study is located within the transformative paradigm to enable the researcher to tailor the argument toward transforming the university classrooms towards developing a new way of thinking about society's present social boundaries by pursuing truth within a postmodern framework. in the same vein, conceptual analysis was adopted to make sense of the argument since it helps to interoperate and dismantle complex and ambiguous concepts toward meaning-making. the analysis begins by presenting connectivism and its potential assumptions. the assumptions were juxtaposed with the posthuman agenda by arguing the relationship between posthumanism and connectivism and lastly, how it prepares classroom stakeholders for building students’ capacity ahead of the emerging interaction between human (students) and non-human (technologies). the study concludes that connectivism viewpoint is one of the unavoidable philosophies of the future. iv jcsr 2023, 5(1): i-x siyabonga alfa zwane, and patience mudau made a contribution entitled student teachers’ experiences of open distance e-learning support in a posthuman era-a learner engagement perspective. in this paper they argue that online learning uses information and communication technologies which rely on reliable connectivity. while this is a giant step to widen access in south african education as shown by a number of studies conducted already regarding online learning, less focus has been paid on rural students which are under-resourced. they are presumed to have access and support to online learning and assistive icts that make online learning possible. therefore, the focus for this study was on kwazulu-natal rural student teachers’ experiences of open distance e-learning in a posthuman era. the study focused on students’ experiences regarding online support tools like discussion forum and others as tools for student engagement and support on ‘university lms’ platform. the problem was investigated using a descriptive qualitative case study, which used individual interviews. the study involved fifteen (15) ‘university name’ student teachers from kzn and the findings revealed that, notwithstanding the countless challenges, students were very passionate about the use of online learning in open distance e-learning and they showed a desire to engage more using different types of devices and platforms as they learn through social media and also showed that learning resides in technological appliances they use(posthumanism), hence the study’s conclusion and implications stress that the distance between the student and the institution, student and lecturer and student and other students can be mediated and reduced through proper student support services. contributing to the posthuman discussion, bekithemba dube and elizabeth campbell wrote an article entitled borderless curriculum in the post-human era: reflections on the united states of america and south african initial teacher pedagogical practices. in this article they interrogated the opportunities and challenges of a borderless curriculum as the alternative to reimagine a better future premised on initial teacher education. the paper comes against the background that curriculum projects remain nationalised, depriving learners and educators of an opportunity to learn from the best educational practices outside their borders. the paper is located in posthumanism, where a borderless curriculum through technology can be positioned to respond positively to human tragedies such as war, systematic racism, human trafficking and conflict. borderless curriculum involves unlearning in order to learn by harvesting best practices across borders to reimagine a comprehensive initial teacher education that addresses the lived realities of the learners globally. the paper argues that the posthuman era provides a platform for nations to share knowledge in the virtual and blended space to deconstruct prejudices while evoking living and working together across curriculum and spaces to improve initial teacher education. maria tsakeni wrote an article entitled primary preservice science teachers’ perceptions of practical work in remote learning environments. she makes an argument that science practical work is renowned for providing authentic environments for science learning in ways that reduce the abstractness of concepts. significant resources are used to provide facilities such v jcsr 2023, 5(1): i-x as laboratories to ensure that practical work is implemented in science learning. practical work is important for primary science preservice teachers who in turn will implement the instructional strategy in their future classrooms. the rise in remote learning prompts researchers and instructors to reimagine ways of facilitating practical work in ways that involve human-machine interactions in significant ways. this study used an interpretive paradigm and an explorative single case study design to explore primary preservice science teachers’ perceptions of conducting practical work in remote learning environments. a framework based on the internet of things enabled tools was used to mediate the understanding of the findings of the study. data were collected from twenty-five preservice teachers by means of experiment reports and observation of practical work activities. the findings of the study show that in the absence of proper systems for conducting practical work remotely and limited internet connectivity, the preservice teachers used internet searches to inform them of how to conduct experiments using household materials. the experiment reports comprised experiment demonstrations developed through the use of video-making applications, cloud computing tools, and social media collaborations. the study makes recommendations to expand the preservice teachers’ technological competencies to include the use of virtual laboratories to conduct practical work in remote learning environments. in advancing the special issue, motlalepule ruth mampane contributed an article entitled perceptions of academic resilience by senior phase learners and teachers from low socioeconomic schools. she makes an argument that in low socioeconomic township schools. learners from township schools experience many risk factors that can impede their academic success and careers. a lack of resources is one of the risk factors experienced by the learners. during covid-19, where an online or hybrid learning model was relied on for teaching and learning, most township schools relied instead on the rotational learning model. the study's main aim is to evaluate and understand the learners' perceptions of their academic strengths, future aspirations and motivation and to compare their perceptions with those that emerged from their teachers' blind evaluations. the participants were teachers (n=8) and learners (n=12) from two purposively sampled township secondary schools. data generation instruments included semi-structured interviews for learners and a self-constructed likert-type scale questionnaire for teachers. content analysis was used to analyse the data. the findings suggest that risk factors to academic resilience exist within the family environment and the school environment, and lack of parental support and school security, poor teacher-learner relationship and unemployment were frequently mentioned. however, factors that can enhance academic resilience were also identified within the family, school and community. risks and protective factors affecting learners' immediate threats and needs were identified. access to technology and the need for technological advances were not identified as resources or risks. future research should examine the relationship between resilience, academic resilience, career aspirations, and technology's role in education using qualitative and quantitative research methodologies vi jcsr 2023, 5(1): i-x pulane adelaide molomo contributed an article entitled renewal in educational spaces as a relational aspect: making way for a new culture of reasoning innovation and sustainability. she makes an argument that educational spaces have long been standing on repressive, non-relational and detached conditions that dealt a blow to the geo-political, socioeconomic, and environmental balance. the paper reports on the effectiveness of educational spaces when dominated by an ethical relationship between human and nonhuman elements as a collaborative measure to solve earthly problems. the purpose was to highlight the role of education in producing innovative, honest, and critical thinkers who can apply knowledge to navigate relational intricacies. qualitative data were generated from literature and a purposively sampled respondent group of eight lecturers and twelve students in one of the universities using interviews and focused group discussions. data were categorised and analysed into themes. it was found that a pedagogical encounter which enabled students to engage in activities that deepened their knowledge of how the world works in totality gave them opportunities to understand the balancing effect of relational aspects when solving problems. this study proposes a renewal and a mind shift toward understanding relational interaction brought by scientific and technological advancements that impact human and nonhuman agents. the implication is that the world needs people to become innovators, think holistically and build a synergy between things and humanity. the study proposes that educational spaces should develop consciousness and ethical behaviour to sustain the relationship between human and nonhuman agents, which has implications for innovation and new practices that will sustain the world. margaret malewaneng maja looking at language angle wrote an article entitled teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology in rural primary schools to enhance the teaching of english first additional language argued that teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology in rural primary schools play a substantial role in the intermediate phase (grades 4 to 6) in enhancing the teaching of english first additional language (efal). however, in a country such as south africa, teachers experience barriers such as time constraints, load-shedding, a lack of facilities and a lack of digital skills which challenges the incorporation of technology in language lessons in this posthumanism era. this study explored teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology in efal classes in rural primary schools in limpopo, south africa. there are several studies on how teachers feel about using technology in secondary schools and higher education, but only a few have concentrated on rural primary schools specifically the intermediate phase. therefore, this area deserves further investigation to add to empirical data. an interpretivist paradigm guided this study informed by the technology acceptance model (tam). an exploratory qualitative case study used semi-structured interviews for data gathering. ten intermediate phase efal teachers were selected with the help of purposeful sampling. using thematic analysis, the obtained data were categorized into codes and themes. it was found that teachers are willing to use technology to teach efal as it has revolutionized their teaching and appreciated its productivity in their teaching activities. it is advised that efal teachers receive vii jcsr 2023, 5(1): i-x in-service training on integrating technology into efal teaching. the acquired skills from the training may assist in time management and how to cope working with limited resources. motshidisi anna lekhu in article entitled pre-service science teachers’ preparedness for classroom teaching: exploring aspects of self-efficacy and pedagogical content knowledge for sustainable learning environments made an argument south africa’s current education reform seeks to foster high standards for teaching and learning. such standards are intended to create a fundamental shift in what learners learn and how they are taught. noting the technological reconfiguration of humanity and advancement, schools have an important role in preparing learners for the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) with key skills and values which include creativity, innovation, critical thinking and problem solving. consequently, through initial teacher training (ite) programmes, sustainable learning environments (sles) should be created and enhanced, where teachers are prepared to embrace posthuman pedagogy to teach confidently with and about 4ir. in pursuit of this objective, this case study investigated preservice science teachers’ level of preparedness and their science teaching efficacy beliefs to teach in sles. the findings revealed that teaching science does not only require knowledge of the content, but also an understanding of how to teach the content; that is, pedagogical content knowledge. furthermore, with the emergence of the 4ir, education programmes need to be responsive to the socio-economic needs and produce graduates who will meet the challenges of the 21st century. as aspiring agents of change, the participants’ philosophy of teaching aims to promote learning-centeredness to enhance sles where quality teaching will be prioritised. without proper training, support and resources, this aspiration will remain a mirage. maintaining responsive classrooms will thus be a challenge that continues to be an albatross to social change to the detriment of the entire society. this paper has implications for ite programmes, which impact on the school curriculum and educational transformation. mahlape victoria mokone, and wendy setlalentoa made a contribution entitled enhancing self-efficacy of beginner teachers in the use of e-portfolio: the role of a mentor teacher. they argue that the term beginning teacher is describes as those individuals who have less than 1 to 3 years in a teaching profession and or individuals who are entering the teaching profession directly from university. there seem to be a need for a beginner teacher in their first year of teaching to have a mentor teacher that will assist them to improve their self-efficacy so that they can be able to achieve quality teaching and learning in any learning environment. recent studies have shown that there is growing concern with beginner teachers’ self-efficacy on how to deal and cope with the realities of teaching in the modern classroom. a mentor teacher is someone who has been there, done that and learned from experience and willing to share. the aim of this study was to investigate how the use of e-portfolio may enhance beginner teacher’s self-efficacy with support from their mentor teachers. the beginner teachers are faced with challenges in their first years of teaching; hence they need mentoring, support to improve their self-efficacy. an e-portfolio might be one of the tools that can assist in monitoring and evaluating the professional activity of the beginner teachers, their achievements and develop viii jcsr 2023, 5(1): i-x them. e-portfolio provides openness and transparency when mentoring the teachers. qualitative data were collected through focus group discussions with fifty-six (56) randomly selected post graduate certificate in education (pgce) students at a university of technology and thematic analysis was employed. the findings of this study indicated that beginner teachers need guidance and support from their mentor teachers for them to transform and build their selfefficacy positively and improve in their use of e-portfolio. the study recommends that induction support be used as an approach to improve novice teachers’ selfefficacy and improve their teaching performance in the use of e-portfolio. nevhudoli nyadzani dolphus, vhonani olive netshandama contributed an article entitled what do bachelor of indigenous knowledge systems graduates say about their curriculum? a qualitative tracer study at the university of venda. they noted that the main purpose of any degree, in any institution of higher learning is to produce graduates with competent skills and knowledge to deal with vital challenges that affect the country. a qualitative reflective semistructured interviews were held with 12 graduates to ascertain their experiences with the bachelor of indigenous knowledge system (biks) programme delivery and content during their 4 years stay at the university of venda. responses from graduates indicated that the strength of the biks lies within its multidisciplinary approach. the relevance and the responsiveness of the curriculum were said to be based on the fact that students were encouraged to do research about contemporary issues that relate to iks. it also exposed the graduates to the work environment through integrated learning program, although, there were also sentiments that such exposure is insufficient and at times irrelevant; this limited their exposure to employability values, knowledge, and skills, therefore there is a need for curriculum transformation. the experience of the students provided insights into what could be the focus of the revision of the curriculum to ensure employability and or entrepreneurial acumen amongst graduates. one of the challenges of iks, that the students drew attention to was a lack of the curriculum’s capacity to beneficiate as it was not sufficiently business-oriented in the current focus. work-based learning and other forms of exposure might have to be revamped to ensure that students learn how to position themselves within existing businesses or create thriving businesses within the iks space, so that they can create employment opportunities as well. an article by grey magaiza, and shadreck muchaku entitled curriculum enablement and posthumanism: pathways for creating and implementing a community development curriculum argued that the application of disciplinary transcends as a lens for critical inquiry and curriculum enablement is urgent in a posthuman era. the paper asserts that curriculum must be responsive to societal needs by providing students with a "toolbox" for the evolution of functional and productive societies. the community development degree is pedagogically premised on utilising multiple disciplinary synergies primed for analytically and practically improving the human condition. the article uses critical terms in posthumanism, such as relationality, resilience, and sustainable communities, to evoke a return to the local by analyzing the creation and implementation of a responsive community development curriculum. through pedagogical ix jcsr 2023, 5(1): i-x approaches that infuse collaborative and cooperative learning with active learning strategies, we argue that the community development curriculum is structured to enhance the capabilities of students to assist communities in adapting and transcending to transformation. this paper followed a systematic literature review of journal articles extracted from scopus, web of science, sciencedirect, and webscohost electronic databases. a final sample of 140 pieces was reviewed, analysed, and presented using atlas.ti flow chart diagrams. the study's findings revealed that posthumanism inspired transformation has increasingly led to the erosion of social capital, deindividualization, increased technological mediation, and increased risk and vulnerability. using an analytical lens of curriculum enablement, this present study further interrogates how creating and implementing a community development degree may provide alternative conceptualizations of posthumanism. another article which made contribution to this special issue was authored by eurika jansen van vuuren entitled early childhood in the era of post-humanism: lending an ear to nature contended that children are presented with technology as baby sitters even before they can speak properly and this has deafened them to the sounds of nature. sounds of man and machine are the only sound most children will be exposed to due to living in cities with little natural spaces. children are not taken into nature to experience and get to know the sounds of the bionetwork of which they are an integrated part. rural children have a better chance to get to know, respect and cherish nature, due to their context, but their guides parents and/or communities have sunken into their own disregard of nature. it is only when children are taught to listen to, and appreciate nature, that they will start moving back to being ‘mensch’ where the focus ironically moves away from the human and focusses on creating an equilibrium between human and nature, rather than stripping our planet of its natural resources through abusive practices. this empirical research explored the literature to highlight the significance of listening, as a mode of developing appreciation of, and care for nature. getting children of the post humanist era, attuned to their natural environment through listening, will assist them to understand their function as part of nature, and assist in the turnaround to restoration of our planet. richard nyika and alfred modise motalenyane made a special contribution with a titled a reflection on implementation of posthumanist pedagogy in polytechnics in zimbabwe during covid 19 era. presenting posthumanism argument from zimbabwean space, contended that covid 19 induced lockdown resulted in closure of learning institutions and subsequent intermittent college attendance as a way of preventing the spread of the various. in zimbabwe the ministry of higher and tertiary education, innovation science and technology development instructed tertiary institutions to adopt online learning in addition to face-to-face learning as a way of ensuring that learning continued during covid 19 restrictions. there was a shift from the exclusive humanist education where humans have been believed to the only agentic actors in the teaching learning process to posthumanist education where technology was used as a tool for learning. this study explored the organizational preparedness of tvet institutions to take on x jcsr 2023, 5(1): i-x board posthuman pedagogy when online learning was blended with faced to face learning. this was a qualitative study which used observations and in-depth interviews to collect data on institutional preparedness of two randomly sampled tvet institutions to embrace posthumanist education. ten randomly sampled lecturers were interviewed to elicit their views and experiences of implementing blended learning which was largely ingrained in posthuman pedagogy. observation was made on suitability of technological infrastructure to support blended learning. ten randomly selected students from each institution participated in focus group discussions to elicit organisational preparedness of institutions for blended learning. results showed that the institutions were not ready for blended learning. lecturers and students were not capacited to use online technologies. the infrastructure to drive online learning was inadequate. inadequacy internet infrastructure militated against their understanding and acceptance of online learning. references chong, y. s., & quek, a. h. (2022). navigating the contemporary rites of passage: a typology of stem professional identity transition. research in social sciences and technology, 7(3), 86-100. https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2022.19 dube, b., makura, a., modise, a., & tarman, b. (2022). covid-19 and the quest for reconfiguration of disciplines: unpacking new directions. journal of culture and values in education, 5(1), i-viii. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcve.2002.12 haraway, d. (2006). a cyborg manifesto: science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late 20th century. in: weiss, j., nolan, j., hunsinger, j., trifonas, p. (eds). the international handbook of virtual learning environments (pp. 117–158). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3803-7_4 kalimullina, o., tarman, b. & stepanova, i. (2021). education in the context of digitalization and culture: evolution of the teacher's role, pre-pandemic overview. journal of ethnic and cultural studies, 8(1), 226-238. http://dx.doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/629 nwoye, a. (2017). an africentric theory of human personhood. psychology in society, (54), 4266. https://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2309-8708/2017/n54a4 sevnarayan, k. (2022). a trajectory towards a culture of quality: a phenomenological study of an open distance learning university in south africa and in china. research in social sciences and technology, 7(3), 49-64. https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2022.16tarman, b. (2020). editorial: reflecting in the shade of pandemic. research in social sciences and technology, 5(2), i-iv. https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.05.02.ed united nation educational, scientific and cultural organisation, unesco, (2017). unesco moving forward the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. available at chromeextension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://en.unesco.org/creativity/sites/ creativity/files/247785en.pdf https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2022.19 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcve.2002.12 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-3803-7_4 http://dx.doi.org/10.29333/ejecs/629 https://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2309-8708/2017/n54a4 https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.05.02.ed journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 2 2023 pp. 151-166 teachers' views on the application of educational technologies in the classroom: a case of selected tshwane west secondary schools in gauteng mable kelebogile kgosi*a moses makgatoa & nhlelehle meskien skosanaa * corresponding author email:kelebogile.kgosi@gdeschools.gov.za a. tshwane university of technology, soshanguve, south africa article info received: march 4, 2023 accepted: may 2, 2023 published: june 18, 2023 how to cite kgosi, m. k., makgato, m., & skosana, n. m. (2023). teachers' views on the application of educational technologies in the classroom: a case of selected tshwane west secondary schools in gauteng. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 151-166. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.23 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract the teaching profession is moving toward the use of educational technologies (et) in the form of tablets, laptops, and reliable internet in the classroom to improve the quality of teaching and learning in schools. the use of these tools in the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) is believed to positively impact how teachers deliver the curriculum. teachers’ views on the application of educational technologies in the classroom are examined in this paper. the opinions of the teachers are crucial since they could influence whether or not the technologies are accepted. this study used a qualitative approach through semi-structured interviews with 12 teachers from one district in gauteng province. a purposive sampling method was used to select these teachers on the basis that gauteng is the leading province in ict integration in schools. data were analysed thematically from teachers’ responses. the activity theory framework was used to underpin the study. according to the findings, teachers voiced their dissatisfaction with the use of these technologies and other issues they face, such as poor technical support, a lack of equipment for maintaining educational technologies, inferior educational technology infrastructure, and unreliable internet connectivity. additionally, teachers called on the department of basic education to provide professional development in technology integration and to equip schools with infrastructure as well as wi-fi. keywords educational technology; fourth industrial revolution; information and communication technology; resources. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.23 https://curriculumstudies.org/ mailto:kelebogile.kgosi@gdeschools.gov.za https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.23 152 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 introduction educational institutions throughout the world are being pressured to integrate educational technologies (et) such as tablets and computers and to provide internet access to improve the quality of teaching and learning. according to san-martin et al. (2020), gaining knowledge on what encourages teachers to consciously implement et in the classroom is a solid starting point for moving and modernizing education into the future world. however, teachers’ issues around the adoption of et in the education system have motivated this study. according to san-martin et al. (2020), several elements may influence teachers’ decision-making process when it comes to implementing et in the classroom. to begin with, many teachers believe that they must first master the necessary et skills for them to be able to adopt them. teachers believe that they must not only be able to utilize these technologies, but also be confident in their use to enhance teaching and learning (meskhi et al., 2019). with the rapid change in both the industry and the schooling system, the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) is gradually demanding change in many sectors. in a study by mhlongo et al (2023), the 4ir has necessitated the teaching activities to change to prepare learners for the world of work. strong demands are placed on teachers who continue to drive the learning experience and they are compelled to adopt et in their classrooms. there seem to be varying views among teachers on the adoption of these et skills and this study unearths such views. gauteng province is one of the richest provinces in south africa where most of the economic hubs are situated. this has seen the revamping and refurbishment of its schools into so-called state-of-the-art schools, depending on the areas where they are situated in terms of crime in the province. the department of basic education (dbe) in south africa has embarked on the integration of educational technologies (ets) in all gauteng secondary schools, which are meant to be used by both teachers and learners (department of basic education, 2014). this has seen learners receiving tablets and schools being provided with computers for the establishment of computer rooms for learners and teachers to be able to learn and teach through technology. even though many consider this a good initiative, some are critical and regard this as putting the cart before the horse because many teachers do not seem to be keen nor proficient at utilising these ets (chigona & chigona, 2013). a study by garrone-shufran (2021) indicated that teachers can only offer explicit instruction in the teaching of academic english if they are trained to do so. this applies to any academic discipline that teachers offer. this means that for any teacher to excel in what they do in class, they ought to be experts and manage to adapt to the changing situation that continues to engulf the teaching and learning situation. on the other hand, garcia (2021) says that for teachers to succeed in the learning and teaching experience, they need to apply pedagogical instructions and practices that are beneficial for the learners, because teachers are the main drivers of the teaching experience and as such, they need to ensure that correct instructional practices are employed. these instructional practices need to be in line with the current trends that have taken over the learning experience in the form of new technologies and an education system that is engulfed 153 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 in new devices and innovations. therefore, this study aimed to obtain the teachers’ views on the issues related to the application of et in their classrooms in the tshwane west secondary schools in gauteng province to determine how far the teachers have progressed in implementing et since gauteng province is at the forefront of such innovations. literature revi̇ew teachers continue to believe that there are barriers to using educational technologies in the classroom, such as a lack of time, insufficient computer facilities, a lack of administration support, teachers' limited computer skills, and teachers' perceptions of adequate training (wu, 2019). echoing similar sentiments, in their research in south african secondary schools, moila et al. (2019) contend that pedagogical issues also impede the advancement of educational technology integration in teaching. to this end, it was fundamental for the researchers to review related literature to understand the teachers' views on the application of educational technologies in the classroom at the tshwane west secondary schools in gauteng. in this regard, the subsequent section of this study presents literature in the following categories: et teacher professional development; et resources; infrastructure; and access to the internet. et teacher professional development as new perspectives emerge, the use of et in the delivery of teaching has produced a variety of results. according to luo's (2020) study, teachers consider the use of these tools in carrying out teaching activities as stimulating their excitement, enhancing teacher-learner interaction, and cultivating independent learning ability in secondary school teachers and learners. however, some of the teachers in the tshwane west secondary schools seem to be cynical about this and do not seem to have an interest in adopting and utilizing these ets. maryuningsih et al. (2020) noted that teachers require et skills to be competent in using et in their teaching and learning environments. other authors (cooper et al., 2020) also agree that teachers must be prepared to integrate et into their teaching as well as be prepared to satisfy the needs of their learners. they also stated that teachers who cannot integrate et into education will be unable to provide enough support to their learners because the learners who are currently in our schooling system are regarded as the generation y group who are known as kids that are born with and within technology. this then calls for an education system that is encouraged by instructional practices that are digitally inclined because this generation tends to own one or more devices. proper training is required for most teachers to improve their skills in using et since learners are better positioned to harness the potential of these tools for learning purposes with teachers serving as facilitators during this process (hampel, 2019). it is crucial to improve teachers' capacity to deliver the curriculum through relevant teacher-professional development (tpd) initiatives. access to et knowledge and skills is essential for integrating these tools into teaching and learning in the classroom. teacher professional development is crucial because it enables teachers to acquire the abilities they require for professional understanding in a technological society (moiseienko et al., 2019). additionally, a study by du toit (2015) found 154 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 that inadequate tpd could result in poor or incorrect usage of et and poor educational outcomes. the incorrect use of et-assisted instruction takes time that may be spent on more important learning challenges if teachers are not provided with tpd. since et resources must be used effectively, high-quality tpd with specifically effective teacher preparation and appropriate links to et utilization is essential to produce sound education. different acquisition strategies are required for various types of learning. teachers who want to include et in their curricula should receive relevant support to equip them to do so. this study presents the views of teachers in tshwane west secondary schools on the application of et in their classrooms. the teachers’ views shed some light on how far the government has progressed in its initiative toward a digital society where learners would receive education wherever they are and whenever they want to (department of basic education, 2014). access to et resources the lack of et resources, for example, hardware such as laptops, notebooks, computers, scanners, cameras, and projectors, and a lack of internet access is an often-reported barrier in the literature (fenty & mckendry anderson, 2014). without adequate et resources, there is little opportunity for teachers to integrate these tools into their work practices. however, gauteng as a province was the first to roll out tablets for its learners to utilise, particularly in secondary schools. even though the initiative was met with criticism, it was a good initiative considering the type of learners that we have in our generation. some of the criticism was that the learners received tablets while teachers were not trained on how to use them and that caused a public outcry among citizens doering, et al. (2014). according to carrasco and torrecilla (2012), there are also contrasting views on the significance of teachers and learners having educational facilities at their fingertips that provide them with access to et tools, and tools that are integrated into their teaching and learning practices. however, merely equipping schools with technological resources may not necessarily lead to superior learning or influence the level of learners’ performance (carrasco & torrecilla, 2012). on the other hand, limited access to et equipment was the resource challenge most frequently mentioned by teachers (doering, 2014). faced with budget measures and restrictions in funding, many educational institutions need cost-effective open access to educational resources (davies & west, 2014). however, the maintenance of such devices needs to be put in place to sustain the lifespan of et resources. in some cases, reliance on limited school resources prevents teachers from introducing new ideas and methods into the classroom, especially technology-driven methods (doering, beach & o’brien, 2014). these researchers further highlighted that resources enable teachers to engage with technology integration whilst strengthening their skills. for teachers and their learners, the lack of adequate resources such as modern computers, peripherals, networking, and other resources within an increasingly diverse range of technologies, adversely impacts their intended educational outcomes. 155 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 access to et infrastructure and the internet apart from the lack of teachers’ appropriate skills to use et tools in their practices, poor infrastructure remains a major obstacle in many developing countries, including south africa (howie, muller & paterson, 2016). in addition, de freitas & spangenberg (2019) assert that insufficient internet access and frequent computer problems are to blame for teachers' failure to use et at other schools, therefore technical support is essential. farrell & isaacs (2009) argue that because of prohibitive internet costs in south africa, of the estimated 6 000 schools that have access to digital technologies, only an estimated 2 500 have internet access, but even a lesser number of schools can use the internet because the government has been slow in implementing the e-rate policy. the department of basic education (2003) also indicated that disparities reflected in south african society, particularly vandalism of et infrastructure, also find negative expression in et integration into education. being that as it may, with connectivity and infrastructure challenges that have been alluded to, many educators and learners own devices in the form of a laptop or a smartphone that could be utilized to learn. this would be a yardstick to indicate how teachers view the issue of ets in classrooms regarding more effective facilitation of tasks. a device today can help on numerous levels because of the period we live in. a device can allow one to access sites such as the internet, do banking, allow one to travel, and many more. and as such, one would say that the adoption of et should be embraced by many. this study presents the secondary teachers’ views on the application of ets in the tshwane west classrooms in gauteng province. theoretical framework in exploring the teachers’ views on the use of digital technology in gauteng tshwane west public schools, the activity theory (at) framework was employed. the at is not just a theory employed in teaching and learning, but it is also deemed as the theory that is best suited for qualitative analysis which suits the study. the at sees the integration of technology as a tool that mediates social action. these tools or artefacts include instruments, signs, language, machines, and computers (carroll, 2003; roth & lee, 2007). engestrom (1987) and leont’ev (1981) explain that at is a conceptual framework that is suitable for research, and it involves human behaviour. below is the diagrammatic representation of the at as espoused by engestrom (1987): 156 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 figure 1 the activity theory (engestrom, 1987) the relation between the individual and their environment is considered by the components of the community. the relationship between subject and community is mediated by rules and the relationship between object and community is mediated by the division of labour (hettinga, 1998; carroll, 2003). since the tools which have been incorporated into the social system have been created and transformed by humans during the development of the activity itself, they will carry with them the remnants of the cultural and historical evolution. mediation through tools and technology is therefore not a neutral process, as the tools will influence the interaction between the subject and the object. leont’ev (1981) refers to this phenomenon as ringstruktur, or “ring structure”, a combination of three codes determining the elements-subject, activity, and the object-where the subject is not primary, and where the object completes the circle by influencing the subject. technology-mediated suggests that technology is the method used to connect individuals and transmit information. when technology is used in a class, both the program and the equipment mediate the full set of interactions (bower, 2019). the relevance of the at in this study is that it provided a holistic operational view of the phenomena at hand. it is through the activity theory that an overview perspective into the factors affecting dt integration into the processes of teaching and learning 157 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 in the tshwane west district is understood. the framework helped to clarify the context of the research, the mediators as well as the activities. research question the main research question of this study was phrased as follows: • what are the secondary school teachers’ views on the application of ets in their classrooms? research methodology the study followed the following methods to obtain the views of teachers on the application of ets: research approach a qualitative method was used in this study. this method was preferred based on the type and size of the targeted population and sample. according to hlatshwayo et al. (2022), investigative inquiries often make knowledge claims based primarily on constructivist perspectives (i.e., the multiple meanings of individual experiences, meanings socially and historically constructed, with the intent of developing a theory or pattern) or advocacy /participatory perspectives (i.e., political, issue related, collaborative or chance oriented), both qualitative approaches. a qualitative approach was deemed appropriate since it would enable the researcher to find time to understand the context and participants through interviews/observations, and or documents. by having time to study and understand the phenomenon, the researcher found it easier to make conclusive judgments on the issue under study. research design this study utilised a case study research design. according to creswell (2014), research design refers to the plan or proposal in which the research will be conducted. therefore, it involves the intersection of philosophy, strategies of inquiry, and specific methods. furthermore, a case study research design was selected for this study to explore and gain an in-depth understanding of participants’ perceptions. a case study is an in-depth examination of a single unit to comprehend a broader group of units (gerring, 2004). the schools that took part in the study were known for their economic and historical background where issues like ets were not emphasized. this was done so that we could ascertain how well the schools were doing in the adoption of ets considering the advancements that the schools in gauteng have experienced. these schools had the same background, hence the adoption of the case study design. population maree (2012) describes a population as all the elements that meet certain characteristics for inclusion in a study. the target population for this study was 1 227 teachers from 37 full ict secondary schools in tshwane west district in the gauteng province. these teachers were targeted because the gauteng department of education had made digital technologies such as tablets, laptops, interactive whiteboards, and interactive smart boards available to secondary schools in the province. for this reason, secondary school teachers were expected to use digital 158 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 technology in their classrooms for teaching and learning. participants in the study were secondary school teachers in the tshwane west district of gauteng province. sampling the sample is a subject of the population that is selected from the targeted population to participate in a study (bless et al., 2013). the nonprobability sampling technique was used to select the participants as it allows the researcher to obtain essential data regarding the study. in this regard, convenience sampling was used to select a sample of 12 teachers from four schools. the researcher selected purposive sampling because it is a technique that allows researchers to select a sample from a research population exclusively following the researcher’s judgment (babbie, 2010). purposive sampling is most appropriate when the researcher has a clear idea of the participants’ characteristics (mlitwa, 2011). the sampled schools were chosen because of their historical and economic background. a total of four schools were selected, two schools from a poor rural background while the other two schools were from urban townships. all the sampled schools had access to dts. three teachers from each of the four secondary schools were involved in this study at the tshwane west district, resulting in a total of 12 teachers. teachers were given pseudonyms of t1, t2, etc. to protect and respect their identities. schools were also termed s1, s2, etc. data collection techniques semi-structured interviews were used to explore teachers' views on et use for teaching and learning in the classroom. for this study, 12 participants were interviewed. all participants gave their informed consent, and the institutional review board of the university approved the study as ethical. the transcripts were carefully examined to ensure that they were accurate and complete. to ensure that the final transcripts accurately represented the participants' statements, the researcher repeatedly and attentively listened to the audio recordings. thematic analysis was used to examine the interviews. this strategy supports the argument made by braun and clarke (2006). the researcher went over the interview transcripts several times, created the preliminary codes from the information, and gathered four prospective interview themes. themes based on related data gathered from various schools were used to present and discuss the findings from the semi-structured interviews. the interviews with the teachers were face-to-face and were conducted at the teachers’ convenience and at selected times to suit their availability. the interview items were drafted using the discussed literature and concepts of the at. table 1 below shows the biography of teachers who took part in the study. 159 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 table 1 biographical data of the participants participant gender teaching experience teacher development t1 male 5 yes t2 male 25 no t3 male 15 no t4 female 32 no t5 male 27 yes t6 male 19 no t7 female 9 no t8 male 10 no t9 female 24 no t10 male 9 no t11 female 5 no t12 female 7 no the above table shows that 4 participants were somewhat experienced in the teaching field while the majority had more than 11 years of teaching experience. only two of the teachers received the tpd with 10 teachers who said that they had not received tpd. the participants were dominated by male teachers (7) with only 5 female teachers. findings the study explored the teachers’ views on the use of et for teaching and learning in secondary schools of the tshwane west district in gauteng province. face-to-face interviews with the 12 teachers were conducted using the aforesaid literature review with the items supported by the at framework by engestrom. it should be noted that the collection of data was complicated by the fact that the country was amid the covid-19 pandemic where access to people was limited due to restrictions on movement that were put in place by the country’s lockdown rules. four themes emerged from the teachers’ responses as shown in table 2 below. table 2 themes that emerged from the teachers’ views on the application of ets in classrooms. theme sub-theme access to educational technology teacher professional development lack of professional development access to educational technology resources lack of digital teaching resources availability of educational technology infrastructure poor infrastructure access to the internet lack of connectivity 160 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 the above themes emerged from the face-to-face interviews with secondary school teachers on their views on the adoption of et in their classrooms. when asked about the challenges that they faced when integrating technology while teaching, various responses were given which produced theme 1. in the teachers’ responses, the complaints centred around the lack of tpd which teachers required. theme 1: access to educational technology teacher professional development teachers were requested to indicate if they had received any professional development in the use of educational technology. in this regard, the following are some of the responses from the interviews: t1 said: ‘i was never trained to use the et in the classroom, hence i’m still using the old method’. this was echoed by his other colleague t4 who added: ‘i think teachers need to be trained more because i don’t think they were trained to a standard that is expected of them, more workshops and training needed. to add on that t8 said: ‘not all teachers received training. efforts are not made for us to receive training’. t11 on the other hand said: ‘i’m not familiar with using ets i was not trained that is why i’m still lagging behind’. in the case of access to educational technology teacher professional development, the results revealed that not all teachers received training. the results further showed that the training which was offered was inadequate. based on these findings, a conclusion may be drawn that teachers would not be efficient in the use of technologies available in their schools. theme 2: access to educational technology resources teachers were asked to provide information on their access to educational technology resources. some of the teachers’ views are presented below: t3 said: ‘i’m not familiar with using ets i was not trained that is why i’m still lagging behind’. on the other hand, t4 commented and said: ‘we have all the necessary resources to conduct our practice, but the challenge is resources are not maintained’. their frustrations were supported by t5 who said: ‘what can you do with a broken smartboard…. they are not being replaced and then they expect you to make a miracle. the other challenge that t7 said was: ‘my challenge is the resources are there, but they don’t cater to us as the language e-books are not inserted in the smartboard’. t10 added: ‘we have irrelevant e-books so these technologies don’t assist us’. the findings suggest that teachers had access to educational technology, however, some of the technologies were either broken or lacked the required materials needed in other subjects, and smartboards contained materials that were not useful to teachers. theme 3: availability of educational technology infrastructure the teachers were requested to indicate the availability of educational technology infrastructure. in this regard, the following are some of the responses from the interviews: t1 said: ‘the challenge is when there is no electricity or load shedding, they are not functional at all and sometimes they are stolen, and teaching and learning won’t be effective that day unless you resort to the old method of learning’. on the other hand, t4 said: “the 161 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 challenges are when there is no electricity you can teach effectively”. t6 added: ‘for me, the challenge is that at times i wish to share something with my learners while at home, but i can’t because i’m disadvantaged by lack of proper infrastructure’. t10 said: ‘i can’t say much as you can see most of our et facilities are here but not used as some were broken and some not functional at all’. t12 added: ‘it’s tough here as you can see that the facilities are here, but they are often locked away as proof that no one was interested in using them, we struggle like this because no service is done to these gadgets. the study found that teachers were encountering challenges in terms of educational technology infrastructure. the most common challenges were lack of electricity in schools, nonfunctioning smartboards, damaged and broken technological devices, and crime related to stolen devices. however, it was found that in some instances schools chose to lock away the devices as teachers in some of the schools did not show interest in using them. these challenges led to teachers using the teacher-centred method. the overall response of the teachers was that there was concern about dilapidated infrastructure and the ailing electricity grid in the country which continues to affect teaching and learning activities. theme 4: access to the internet the teachers were requested to explain whether the school had access to the internet. in this regard, the following are some of the responses captured from the interviews with the concerned teachers: t2 said: ‘i think if they can provide proper connectivity like for example when i am teaching, the smartboard must be linked to the learner’s tablets so that learners can access the saved lesson from it. and even if i am not at work teaching and learning can take place. on the other hand, t3 said: ‘when we don’t have wi-fi it becomes a problem and when there is no electricity it means we must go back to the chalkboards. t5 commented: ‘the challenge could be that learners cannot access the internet while at their home, so connectivity is a challenge for them’. still, on that, t7 said: ‘it’s discouraging to be a fully functioning ict school that lacks connectivity all the time’. t9 said: ‘wi-fi connectivity is the main challenge as telkom (network provider) assisted the school with network connectivity, so without it no use of the gadget is possible’. t12 said: ‘internet connectivity impacts negatively our progress as a school, and i believe that something must be done.’ in terms of access to the internet, teachers in the tshwane district complained of a lack of connectivity between teachers’ devices and learners’ tablets. in most instances, teachers resorted to chalkboard teaching due to the lack of internet connectivity. furthermore, learners did not have access to internet connectivity when at home. discussion the results illustrated above were acquired from the teachers answers to the questions,which represented a range of viewpoints. the consensus was that although teachers were eager to use rt in their classes, they were constrained by a number of challenges relating to resource shortages, a lack of training, and poor or nonexistent connectivity in their respective schools. 162 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 according to the study, teachers were not properly trained and did not receive enough training in the area of professional development. the statements mentioned by teachers were in contradiction with what maryuningsih et al., (2020) said, that teachers must have et skills to be competent in using et in their teaching and learning environments. this is also against what cooper et al, (2020) said, that teachers must be prepared to integrate et into their teaching as well as be prepared to satisfy the needs of their learners. if teachers continue to be ill-prepared for issues of ict integration in their classroom, the dream of gauteng province being the number one in technology integration teaching would not be realized. on the other hand, teachers lamented the difficulties they frequently encounter while attempting to access et tools. t4 commented and said: ‘we have all the necessary resources to conduct our practice, but the challenge is resources are not maintained’. their frustrations were echoed by t5 who said: ‘what can you do with a broken smartboard…. they are not being replaced and then they expect you to make a miracle’. the above frustrations could be the reason why et is not implemented as much as it should be. it is said that merely equipping schools with technological resources may not necessarily lead to superior learning or influence the level of learners’ performance (carrasco & torrecilla, 2012). on the other hand, limited access to et equipment was the resource challenge most frequently mentioned by teachers (doering et al., 2014). these then seemed to be the reasons why teachers were not applying et. this was also lamented by t10 who said: ‘i can’t say much as you can see most of our et facilities are here but not used, as some were broken and some not functional at all’. according to cooper et al., (2020), teachers must be ready to meet the requirements of their students as well as to incorporate et into their lessons. they added that teachers who are unable to incorporate et into the classroom will be unable to give their students enough help. the results also revealed a dearth of et resources, which are cited in studies as a hindrance to the efficient use of these technologies for teaching and learning (fenty & anderson, 2014). the level of student performance will suffer because of inadequate et resources (carrasco & torrecilla, 2012). in this instance, the reliance on constrained et resources limits teachers from implementing novel concepts and instructional strategies in the classroom, particularly those that are technology-driven (doering et al., 2014). the findings also revealed that the top barriers to adopting et in the classroom were a shortage of electricity, student misuse of technology, theft, and a lack of wi-fi in some institutions. de freitas and spangenberg (2019) contend that limited internet access and frequent computer malfunctions are to blame for teachers' failure to utilize the digital tools available in schools and that this is why technical support is so important. the need for 21st century skills is evident from a cursory glance on any ‘wnted ads’ online or in newspaper. however, studies have indicated that teachers are still not skilled to teach using et tools in classrooms. the reason being is that they either have never started, or they do not understand the implication behind et tools or they were not trained enough. this study refected these results in that many teachers do not have prior experience in using et 163 jcsr 2023, 5(2):151-166 themselves. some of them stated that they haven’t the experience, therefore they were going into the classroom with limited knowledge of how to teach using et tools. the results further tells us that teachers are not skilled enough at taking on the challenges to teach et skills, however connections need to be made in terms of how they can incorporate these skills into the existing curriculum. they require guidance, resources and understanding of how to use the resources to give them the confidence to be able to teach these skills. conclusion the findings indicated that there was a lack of adequate professional development in the use of education technologies available in schools. the findings further revealed a lack of internet connectivity in schools. according to the study, there was a lack of electrical supply in schools, faulty smartboards, broken and damaged technology, and crime that presented difficulties for teachers. the study also discovered that teachers turned to the chalkboard method of instruction as a result of frustrations with inadequate technological resources. recommendations the study suggests that to be relevant and suit the demands of both teachers and learners as well as the south african environment, educational technology teacher professional development is urgently required. the dbe and all relevant stakeholders should attend to the challenges that hinder effective teaching and learning with et tools. it is within this stance that the study calls for the utilization of the at as a gauge to have ets adopted in secondary schools in gauteng province, particularly tshwane west secondary schools. the six-legged theory by engestrom (1987) needs to apply. this can be done as follows: the division of labour needs to be prioritised by the doe for schools to have technology as a main resource that drives teaching and learning. this would see a community (schools) being established in the form of a hub, where ets are adopted across the schools. the curriculum and assessment policy statement (caps) policy document can be used as a rule that et needs to be adopted by all teachers. this should then be followed 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(2019). the use of mobile devices in language learning: a survey on chinese university learners’ experiences. call-ej, 20(3), 6-20. https://www.callej.org/journal/20-3/wu2019.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-09-2018-0282 https://doi.org/10.30880/ojtp.2019.04.01.004 https://doi.org/10.55056/cte.310 https://doi.org/10.36312/esaintika.v7i1.1026 https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654306298273 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10117-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10117-3 https://www.callej.org/journal/20-3/wu2019.pdf journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 82-94 renewal in educational spaces as a relational aspect: making way for a new culture of reasoning innovation and sustainability pulane adelaide molomo* * faculty of management sciences, central university of technology, bloemfontein, south africa email: pmolomo@cut.ac.za article info received: august 1, 2022 accepted: november 18, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite molomo, p. a. (2023). renewal in educational spaces as a relational aspect: making way for a new culture of reasoning innovation and sustainability. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 82-94. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.7 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract educational spaces have long been situated in repressive, nonrelational and detached conditions that have been damaging to the geopolitical, socio-economic, and environmental balance. the paper reports on the effectiveness of educational spaces when characterised by an ethical relationship between human and nonhuman elements as a collaborative measure to solve earthly problems. the purpose was to highlight the role of education in producing innovative, honest, and critical thinkers who can apply knowledge to navigate relational intricacies. qualitative data was generated from literature and a purposively sampled respondent group of eight lecturers and twelve students in a south african university, using interviews and focus group discussions. data was categorised and analysed into themes. it was found that a pedagogical encounter which enabled students to engage in activities that deepened their knowledge of how the world works in totality gave them opportunities to understand the balancing effect of relational aspects when solving problems. this study proposes a renewal in thinking about other beings and things in educational spaces toward understanding the relational interaction brought by scientific and technological advancements that impact on human and nonhuman agents. the implication is that the world needs people to become innovators, think holistically and build a synergy between things and humanity. the study proposes that educational spaces should develop consciousness and ethical behaviour to sustain the relationship between human and nonhuman agents, which has implications for innovation and new practices that will sustain the world. keywords balance; ethics; innovation; educational spaces; relational aspects; problem-solving. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.7 https://curriculumstudies.org/ mailto:pmolomo@cut.ac.za https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.7 83 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 introduction the lack of a relational composition between humans and other species has brought the world to a crossroads in recognising the value of nonhuman agents (chan, gould & pascual, 2018). the demands of the 21st century, the increasing complexities of science and technological advancement in the world, and the imbalance of the ecosystem are causes for concern. according to haraway (1991:154), 21st century humans live in a web of complex linkages that command connections between the environment, technology, science, religion, capitalism, and ideology. clearly, in the quest for innovation and advancement, humans cannot function without technology and science (gingrich-philbrook, 2010). these intricacies necessitate a renewal of the mind and a balance of relations between human and nonhuman things. similarly, human progress is directed by knowledge, innovation, norms, ethics, and cultural values that can sustain all human and nonhuman species (bronner, 2004). the implication is that technological advancement in the world is moving in a different direction that no longer needs to be viewed through a binary lens but rather as a synergy of multifaceted angles that requires the contribution to life of all living and non-living things to be valued and understood. arguably, the pressing question is about renewal and rethinking the relationship between humans, and the role played by technology and the impact of environmental and cultural factors from a postor non-anthropocentric angle (braidotti, 2013). all components of reality are expected to take equal positions; thus, institutions of learning, notably higher education, have the responsibility to instil ethical standards and knowledge that can navigate the world towards reconstructing a new ethos that will constitute a just world characterised by relations of things. this paper thus seeks to raise consciousness and understanding of the relationship entertained with otherness by highlighting some of the benefits brought by science and technology as constituents of nonhuman elements in advancing human progress and innovation. also, one of the pressing questions is to ponder the meaning of being human against the backdrop of globalisation, technoscience, capitalism and climate change. literature review general explorations and economic practices on a global scale have caused an outcry and discomfort which challenges the results of human actions. according to yusoff (2018), the anthropocene age has traces from the colonial era characterised by elements such as dispossession, colonialism, modernity, heteropatriarchy, imperialism, and racism, which all have destroyed the balance of the ecosystem. to that effect, hayles (1999) criticises liberal humanists as selfish and the source of greed and abuse of power that needs to be dismantled. the argument is about what kind of thinking or ideology has placed human above other species, resulting in a profit-oriented capitalist economy with consequences of disregarding diversity and the well-being of other species (moulier-boutang, 2012). with consequent exploitation and imbalance of the ecosystem (mies & shiva, 1993), the contention is about the recomposition of humanity to militate against imbalances and anxiety caused by human's relations with other 84 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 species (braidotti, 2013). this implies that there is a need to deepen knowledge of nature, critical thinking, and ethical responsibility with regard to shaping the future of a diversified host of species within the ambit of modern standards and morals that might be considered of value for the difficult times we are faced with if we are to solve human-created problems. moving to the future and re-awakening consciousness implies that relational qualities and innovation can be established through disengagement from familiar habits of thought. arguably, such a renewal commands what braidotti (2013) refers to as a qualitative leap toward recognising diversity, balance, and a relational encounter with different species, which suggests that reality is reflective of all cosmos elements viewed through a hybrid lens and not in fragments. different species are part of the universe of a conglomerate of different parts that make up a whole, and the purpose is to live in a joint interaction with each other driven by the ideal of a moral compass guiding the survival of all genera (cajete, 2016; simpson, 2017), given that no system on the planet earth can exist in isolation. as simpson (2017) posited, an ethic of reciprocity reflects the interrelatedness and interdependence of relations between humans and nonhumans. the different roles must be echoed from all angles. comprehension of the cosmos as a shared space that brings together human and nonhuman species implies that the foundational principle accompanying the collaboration and diversity approach reflects moral consciousness in all relations. posthuman relations the growing argument amongst many researchers is that the earth has changed to such an extent that we have entered the present historical era of the anthropocene, which is referred to as a new age of imbalances (morton, 2013). according to lewis and maslin (2015), the anthropocene brings a fresh perspective and critical changes in the relationship between humans and nonhuman agents, dismantling the entrenched binary division by presenting a multi-dimensional approach. since balance and sustainability are crucial, binary approaches can no longer direct the function of species in the posthumanism epoch. knowledge expansion, democratic rights, globalisation, and technological expansion have strengthened contestation about the balance and interrelatedness of systems and earthly components (braidotti, 2002). to braidotti (2016), the possession of knowledge creates an urgent call for a multi-layered and multi-directional approach that dislodges anthropocentrism by critiquing the harm caused by the human species on the planet whilst encouraging more profound knowledge and renewed thinking. likewise, fraser et al. (2006) propose a unifying vitality of all living systems to overthrow anthropocentric superiority, which means that science, technology, and a balance of the ecosystem are needed more than ever for survival. to that effect, braidotti (2013) proposes an alliance between human and nonhuman agents which acknowledges the connection of various types of knowledge without categorising nor positioning them in the order of importance. such a perspective can bring a multi-factorial association of human and nonhuman elements without relegating humans with their distinct intellectual and rational abilities to the periphery. the 85 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 renewal and relational stance of not categorising machines, humans and other components of reality have a further implication on looking at the influence of different parts of the natural system and progress. according to braidotti (2002), posthuman critical theory is a composite assemblage of human, non-organic, machinic and other elements. thus, the relational perspective as a point of departure for innovation, balance and sustainability can become a just path for different agents to thrive, which also means that problems that face the world in terms of imbalances cannot be overcome without technoscience and socio-ecological cohesion. according to marope, chakroun and holmes (2015), development is a holistic process that can be driven through a curriculum that encompasses values of equity, inclusion, and justice. this means that curricula must embed such principles in line with the current technology by being redesigned in a manner that will stimulate students’ power in navigating the learning journey (lee, 2011; risam, 2019). furthermore, technology can be used as a driver and an instrument to bring the world together (adu et al., 2022; binkley et al., 2012). in line with the relational stance, the future path of curricula is to sustain the future by being relevant in the technological era as well as allowing relationality, balance, and lifelong learning to both young and old (unesco, 2015). similarly, cohesion founded on the fundamental rights of all players is necessary for agency to facilitate interconnectedness based on ethical behaviour amongst all players in the web of relations (griffin, 2013). the implication is that relationality and ethical standards are critical elements towards directing all actions of human and nonhuman agents because principles sustain any collaboration. in recognising equality in this hybrid relationality between human and nonhuman agents, buchanan (2013) suggests that an institution for justice in innovation should be instituted based on sound principles to regulate policies around innovation and fairness. admittedly, a harmonious cohesion based on sound principles can lead to a healthy natural balance and a healthy planet. dall'agnol (2020) asserts that mutual respect, cooperation, and a caring spirit between humans and nonhuman artificial agents can create peaceful coexistence. this implies renewal and rethinking the 21st century development journey by assessing the importance of otherness, which should translate to a less individually humancentred, but to a more relational and more system-centred approach. technological advancement the assertion is that technology safeguards a relationship between human beings and other living beings; hence, post-humanists embrace technology as that which saves us from humanism (thompson, 2017). if we want to understand what technology is for humanity, we cannot analyse those different aspects of reality as separate systems. also important to note is how the human species adapts to the unprecedented speed at which technology is changing the trajectory of human development (barfield & williams, 2017). the concern is how people embrace the pace of change, new practices, and new thoughts in educational spaces accompanied by technological and scientific advances that are changing the world. 86 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 even though there are benefits of technological advancement and the innovative forms that characterise the anthropocene reality, some of the inequalities arising from capitalism, racism, and sexism corrode the ideals of connectivity and interrelationship (kings, 2017). innovation and technological advancement rely heavily on the capacity of the human to embrace dynamic change and the readiness to embrace economic, social, and technical change without fear of becoming ineffective. "today synthetic computation expands what is sensed, measured, calculated, communicated, stored and worked on" (bratton, 2016:88). according to silva (2009), curriculum relevance to the 21st century demands emphasis to be placed on what students can do with knowledge in coexistence with other human, nonhuman and things. other views present curricula as dynamic, progressive, and articulate of moving away from past practices towards embracing the future and thus require change to be explored in line with global trends of relationship, inclusivity, and equity (williamson, 2013). renewal and multiplicity foucault's (1970) record of human's genealogy is two-fold: the first phase expresses the unfortunate situation which turned human's actions towards exploitation of other species, and the second phase shows human's return to consciousness and new thoughts. foucault (1970 argues for human's renewal to save the world from extinction by applying critical thinking in accelerating the change process on how the world is perceived. hardt and negri (2000) call for a hybridisation approach in dealing with different species, which means that the binary view under which the world has been operating cannot fit into the complex advances of the 21st century. this requires renewal of the mind, including new ways of doing things. according to fowler (2000), the shift toward a renewal of discourse and connection advocates a hybrid of machine and organism as a form of rethinking that allows scholars to re-examine their understanding of human agency and relationality. this means that human's understanding of the world is shaped by knowledge that stimulates thought; therefore, equipping people with the ability to think differently and innovatively is necessary. according to olsson (2010), knowledge has power and is created from shared meanings, experiences, and social practices to make further meaning to those who understand them. according to dall'agnol (2020), developments in the 21st century should be a community of different things which include technology, nonhuman animals, trans-humans, natural humans, posthumans, etc. to humans, having held the central position in the world, it means more knowledge is required to understand and cope with the complexity and direction the world is navigating. however, hayles (2017) points to the risk brought by new materialism about the goal of inquiry aimed at providing a detailed description associated with access to knowledge to better understand the subject under investigation and gain new thoughts that can contribute to change. new thoughts imply mind-shift and renewal in thinking in understanding all components of reality and the moral outlook of the world is to be aimed at seeing a joint functioning of the whole of nature to sustain the living and non-living organs. 87 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 theoretical framework a theoretical framework is referred as a movement of thought which denotes assumptions, ideas and concepts grounding a research artefact by providing a shared worldview or lens supporting one's thinking about the problem (osanloo and grant 2016). this paper adopts a posthumanist critical theory stance to understand the relational aspects between humans and things and how a shift in perspective and renewal can create ecological justice. critical theory, as a distinctive form of theory moving away from the veil of power and a limited ideology, argues for a more comprehensive means of grasping the social reality to identify problems in the world (thompson, 2017). it further seeks to comprehend norms that constitute the world in totality, including individuals' social life and social processes that constitute an attempt to modify people's actions (thompson, 2017). since the structure of the world is relationally formed, critical theory is critical of all things that lack normative, deeper understanding and relational qualities (feenberg, 2014). lately, critical theory is related to anything that questions inappropriate social practices and human actions (thompson, 2017), hence its association with posthumanism in challenging human individualism. the approach accommodates posthumanism as an ideology founded on anthropogenic roots by distancing itself from placing one species at the centre of all things (esposito, 2008). similarly, posthumanism offers a radical transformation from the modern age and traditional western thinking of treating humans differently from nonhuman beings (rosiek et al., 2020). the association of posthuman and critical theory offers a new type of discourse which moves away from a mere combination of two key structures of thought, namely, posthumanism and post-anthropocentrism, to a new and more complex direction (wolfe, 2010). according to (ranibow, 2003), this direction navigates toward positioning human beings to a species position as anthropos. the implication is that human has been dominating and controlling other species, which has affected the organisation of things. conscious and critical thinking is thus required to move forward and avoid such practices. arguably, human beings are obliged to return to their species genre as anthropos which entails human relationship to nature (esposito, 2008; rabinow, 2003). the development of human relationship with nature thus implies an understanding and an ethical commitment of acknowledging the interconnected way of life among all creation and things (esposito, 2008). according to hegel, in his phenomenology of spirit (1977, originally published in 1807), change about any aspect is influenced by an increased knowledge about the problem because a valid form of knowledge about nature is mindful not only of how things are perceived but about the consciousness of the normative relational aspects. as argued by hegel (1977), balance of the ecosystem and the purpose of nature in totality is represented by a moral duty of respect and deep reflection about other species. this highlights renewal and a deeper understanding of relations and how society views other nonhuman agents. therefore, critical theory seeks to have a better understanding of people’s interaction and perceptions about the 88 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 world and how things are connected to each other by shifting their lens from subjectivity to objectivity (thompson, 2017). according to turner (2004), critical theory helps to look at hidden limitations that deter relations by illuminating the tensions between moral universalism and moral diversity by highlighting the triangle of cognitive science, social theory, and ethics. according to abromeit (2013), methods used in the social sciences may yield better results and bring about change if moral judgement is included as one of the criteria. similarly, as posited by bernstein (2010), encouraging rationality and reasoning in the way things are done can promote ethical behaviour. in this way, critical theory can liberate people against human forms of detachment toward nonhuman things. moreover, recognition of rights of all things in the modern era also puts weight on respect for democratic principles, including ethics, norms, and rationality (honneth, 2011). aim of the study the aim of this study is to explore curriculum changes in accommodating the relational element of different role players in regard to technological advancements. research question • why does the human-nonhuman inclusivity in the curriculum space matter in the context of science and technological advancement? • how meaningful is an ethical relationship between human and nonhuman beings in the 21st century? research objectives • to establish whether the hybridisation approach regarding human-nonhuman relations in educational spaces matters in the context of science and technological advancement. • to assess the importance of a relationship between human and nonhuman beings in the 21st century. research design and methodology research design this study adopted a qualitative method to collect rich data, which was analysed thematically. a literature review preceded an interpretive paradigm influenced by participants' experiences through interviews and six members' two focus group. use was made of semi-structured questions about participants' experiences with the relational value of species (denzin & lincoln 2012; patton 2015). participants' narratives were transcribed and manually coded into themes whilst permission to conduct the interviews was sought. the study's objectives were shared with participants verbally and in a written format. sample and sampling the sampling method determines the trustworthiness and validity of the research findings about the phenomenon under investigation (lincoln. & guba, 1985). the study sample was limited to a purposefully selected group of 12 students who participated in the focus group 89 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 discussions and six lecturers who were purposively selected to represent the population relevant to the research design. methods qualitative data was collected using two focus group (fg) consisting of six members each, and individual interviews to collect rich qualitative data (merriam & tisdell, 2016). both focus group and personal interviews using semi-structured questions to let participants share their views were conducted. data analysis qualitative data was obtained from participants through interviews and focus group discussions which elicited rich qualitative data. such data was recorded, transcribed, categorised into common emergent themes, and analysed thematically (saldana, 2016). results in reporting the findings and results, the following abbreviations are used: l(s) represents lecturers, and fgs represent focus groups theme 1: hybridisation approach and advancement "teaching and learning conducted through virtual platforms showed the value of interdependence between science, technology and human activities" (l1). another participant said: “online technological facilitation of educational, business and other activities adds to the relational dimension of sustaining and preserving the wellbeing of other species in reducing carbon emission done mostly by human traveling activities” (l6). the above responses confirm the assertion made by braidotti (2013) of recognising the diversity and co-existence of different species. in elaborating on the value of nonhuman agents, the participant had this to say, "i rely on technology for my study and collaboration with others. i also google articles, videos, and schedule meetings, and in the blink of an eye, i can reach out to others" (l2). this extract indicates that collaboration and knowledge are key elements that enhance reasoning and contribute to innovation. "with the use of smartphones, gadgets and other less expensive phones including the use of an app, technological advancements in educational spaces were visible which enable virtual teaching and learning platforms" (l3). a caring approach towards attitude change was flagged: "i apply the ethics of care to recognise the relationship between human and nonhuman things and use it to integrate a caring approach towards present[ing] a decolonial teaching and learning pedagogy" (l3). the change brought about by the relationship between different agents is supported by lewis and maslin (2015), who indicate that the anthropocene brings a fresh perspective and key 90 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 changes in the relationship between humans and nonhuman agents by dismantling the entrenched binary and bringing in a multi-dimensional approach. theme 2: knowledge and change in attitude most of the participants indicated that foundational principles of theories taught in higher education space equip students with knowledge which changes their attitude and perception toward nonhuman agents (ls). another participant (l4) said, “human beings need other species to produce food which requires change in attitude about human activities that leaves no space for other species to breathe”. the extract above confirms the assertion made by braidotti (2016) about the possession of knowledge which establishes a platform for a multi-layered and multi-directional approach that dislodges anthropocentrism. another participant (l6) said: "technology has expanded our connectedness. but in doing so, some physical relationships are replaced with virtual connectedness in ways that affect people's perceptions of the world". one of the participants indicated that nature consists of different species that all matters and are part of the creation and thus requires not to be harmed. another participant l5 said: “part of a change in attitude from human beings to other species will be seen when diversity is recognised, and all creation is treated equally”. theme 3: relationship characterised by ethical norms "as an art and design educator, i specialise in fashion design sustainability. in this context, i incorporate the principles of an ethics of care as an ethical framework to revalue commodity fetishism towards fashion sustainability (p4). the extract above highlights ethical principles as conveyed by cajete (2016) and simpson (2017), who assert that we are living in a moral universe in which everything is an agent or part of an agent, and every action of any of the agents needs to have a moral component. in highlighting recognition of ethical norms, one of the participants said, "a relationship that is based on mutual respect [and] equality and acknowledges the difference of others follows ethical standards" (l7). this view is supported by braidotti (2013) who acknowledges an alliance between human and nonhuman agents and the relation between different types of knowledge without categorising or positioning them. theme 4: science and technological advancement trends in technology enable students to use innovative and creative instruments that characterise game theory, like infographics which captivate students and make learning more meaningful (l5-8). 91 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 the contribution of science and technology was highlighted; participants indicated that science and technology enhance development and innovation (fg). one of the participants (l6) expressed some of the constraints brought by the use of digital tools; the participant said: "even though technological advancement opens for live sessions, physical interaction between students and lecturers is not there; a lecturer cannot even probe answers or observe students' gestures." some of the participants said that both human and nonhuman roles are different and compliments each other towards a certain extent; therefore, global trends that facilitates progress and sustainability should be embraced (fg). discussion the findings revealed that in the current epoch, science, technology, human and non-human relations are pertinent. also uncovered is recognition of the rights of all species to value their existence and maintain sustainability which highlight the idea of giving recognition and equal status to all agents. the inclusion and recognition of other species thus requires re-composition of humanity in mitigating imbalances and inequalities of other agents. this is further corroborated by braidotti (2013), and has implications for curriculum transformation in raising awareness and promoting a holistic approach in the education system which embraces inquiry teaching, science, and technology use, to maximise the development of competencies such as critical thinking, problem solving, collaborative skills, ethics, and innovation. furthermore, the dimensions of technology have been shown to be relevant and enjoyed by the current generation, which speaks to curricula to shape and develop global citizens who will be able to function beyond borders, who would solve problems in the world by practising the ethics of care and who would value other agents. the ethics of care contributes to maintaining ethical standards that direct the interaction and roles played by different agents in the education domain. the maintenance of harmony between different agents – which requires conformity to ethical norms which do not categorise or position any agent above others – is also echoed by cajete (2016) and simpson (2017). it emerged from the findings that scientific innovations and the use of technology popularised different educational platforms that fulfilled the needs of 21st century students, including virtual connectivity which sustained curriculum delivery during the time of crisis precipitated by the covid-19 pandemic. what has emerged from the findings is the awareness that curriculum takes place in a context which places a demand on relevancy and recognition of current needs, including connection between different agents. also illuminated by the findings is the idea of collaboration and the complimentary nature of agents, which forms part of the fundamental principles of the relationship between different agencies needed for progress in the 21st century. the idea is also validated by gingrich-philbrook (2010) who holds that innovation and advancement mean that humans cannot function without technology and 92 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 82-94 science. arguably, acquiring knowledge and applying science and technology discovered by others contributes towards innovation, human rationality, critical thinking, problem solving and the ability to use resources sustainably. the findings have indicated that foundational principles of theories taught in higher education space equip students with knowledge which is key in changing people’s attitude and perception toward non-human agents. this contributes towards people moving from subjective practices while using an objective lens to shape their moral judgements. also emerging from the findings is the greater role played by technology than ever before in expanding knowledge, and access to knowledge which is able to deepen research and bring a paradigm shift to practices that disregard the existence of other agents. science and technology had also illuminated different types of knowledge and access in shaping learners towards becoming independent instead of relying on the teacher as the sole and dominant actor in the acquisition of knowledge. even though science and technology are fast-tracking knowledge acquisition, the findings revealed that human interaction cannot be replaced by advances in technology. arguably, the teacher’s role of motivating and guiding students cannot be taken over by technology. however, in the learning journey there is a need for students to corroborate what they have learned in class from other sources on the web by using technology, which implies that the 21st century needs collaboration, and a complementary role of different agents. having to interact and use multiple sources of information and navigate through technology adds to student development, and this develops independent thinking, rationality and logic, which makes them become engaged and able to solve real world problems. conclusion emanating from literature and data analysis is the understanding that the world needs to operate as a relational entanglement of many human and nonhuman agency forms. human beings are brought to a new realisation and consciousness that not only human beings matter on planet earth, but other agents also play a significant role. the inference is that humans need a renewal in thinking to embrace change and adapt to the new realities of the 21st century of cohabitation. the findings have uncovered that the era of individualism has ceased to exist. this leads to the conclusion that all activities of different agents should have a relational dimension which is directed by 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(2018). a billion black anthropocenes or none. university of minnesota press. microsoft word 1.choi&sung.1-14 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 2 2022 pp. 1-14 the challenging and transformative implications of education for sustainable development: a case study in south korea jung hee sung*a & jee eun choia,b * corresponding author e-mail: sungjh@yonsei.ac.kr a. institute of east and west studies, yonsei university, seoul, south korea b. department of public health, yonsei university, seoul, south korea article info received: november 13, 2021 revised: december 26, 2021 accepted: january 9, 2022 how to cite sung, j. h., & choi, j. e. (2022). the challenging and transformative implications of education for sustainable development: a case study in south korea. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(2), 114. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.8 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract sustainable development can be considered one of the biggest global challenges of this era, especially in the domain of education. hence, this paper presents a case study on how the tongyoeng regional center for expertise (tongyoeng rce) has contributed to the practice of education for sustainable development (esd) and to the reformation of curriculum development process in south korea. it establishes a cooperative system between formal education and in/non-formal education within an environment of a conservative and exclusive educational system. while focusing on the substantial achievement of tongyoeng rce that has transformed the south korean education system from a “knowledge and grade-centred” eastern educational regime to a “value and practice centred” one, this study also addresses how the rce has initiated a “learning society,” that is, decentralized and deregulated educational communities that are more flexible in resolving the unprecedented challenges of globalization. this research emphasizes the implications of education for sustainable development as a challenging and transformative curriculum development process in south korea. keywords education for sustainable development; south korea; tongeong regional center of expertise; learning society; curriculum reform 10.46303/jcsr.2022.8 2 sung, j. h., & choi, j. e. introduction education curriculum in south korea was built and reviewed by the government periodically in the past. also, curriculum revision was mainly led by professors and experts from related academia and it was gradually expanded the participation from teachers in the field and citizens. however, curriculum revision still has some difficulties to reflect regional specialities and lack of varieties in the groups that participate the revision process. according to previous research, some important strategies that lead educational reform include facilitating ownership from educational practitioners, activating participation, and integrating top-down and bottom-up initiatives. (ketelaar et al., 2012; murphy, 2013; petko et al., 2015; priestley et al., 2015). especially in south korea, not only students but also parents and education officials are interested in college entrance-oriented subjects, so interest in other subjects is low. in this sense, sustainable development education was limited to receiving attention from students, teachers, and education experts. however, the inclusion of sustainable development education in the 2007-revised national curriculum should enhance the efforts and significance of the tongyeong rce, which led to the cooperation of muti stakeholders including academia, field teachers and ngos. the needs from local schools and society are important in educational curriculum reform process (berends et al., 2002; spillane et al., 2002). since sustainable development (sd), qualitative development and considering the environment, amassed global attention (fedulova, 2019), the need for re-evaluating education for sustainable development (esd) became ever more prominent. interestingly, esd is not simply education for sd, but rather a means to achieve sd. therefore, the role of the regional centres of expertise (rces) should be reviewed. notably, rce was commenced as a project of the united nations decade of education for sustainable development (undesd), and there are 175 rces all across the world. among them, six rces in the korea are actively working, and they are considered exemplary cases. “tongyeong regional center of expertise” (tongyeong rce) was initially validated in south korea. thereafter, the tongyeong education foundation for sustainable development was launched in 2011 to broaden esd. subsequently, the rce tongyeong sejahtera forest was inaugurated in 2015 to facilitate a sustainable community based on learning and sharing. tongyeong rce has contributed to esd in south korea in many ways, and one of its significant achievements is initializing a paradigm shift in south korea. traditionally, experts, including professors and researchers, have developed national curricula. the way esd was adopted in the national curriculum, however, differed from the traditional way. this study aims to examine how esd, a minor issue in korean education, came to be included as one of cross curricula in the national curriculum through the activities of tongyeong rce, a local education network. we also would like to examine the educational meaning of the curriculum revision process in south korea by instituting a cooperative system between formal education and in/non-formal education within a conservative and exclusive educational system. 3 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 1-14 reformation of curriculum development process through implementation process of esd in south korea south korea has adopted national curriculum and this system has been efficient in terms of operating education and contributing economic growth through education. however, there are some criticisms that the development curricula and evaluation of the curricula are mainly conducted by the central government. this can hinder autonomous education in local educations and schools (kim, 2000; park, 2003; jo & jeong, 2016). in this respect, the development of education curricula in south korea is monopolistic and exclusive because of central government-based system. the education curricula should be opened to reflect the educational demands and the change of society and academia thus, it is necessary to operate the education system, participating and cooperating national government, civil societies and other stakeholders to solve nondemocratic and inefficiency education systems made by the monopolistic governmental system (kim, 2017). in tongyeong case, however, shows new approach how curriculum can be developed by participating local school teachers, experts, civil society and other related stakeholders. thus, this research focuses on tongyeong rce case to analysis how the case could contribute the change of building of the curriculum used to be exclusive and central governmental system in south korea by addressing how tongyeong rce has been contributed esd in south korea. sd is not only understood as an environmental issue but is also believed to encompass various values regarding the overall maintenance of sustainable development for any given society. currently, it is understood as a concept whereby mankind must ultimately seek and include liberty, justice, and democracy. in sum, sustainable development can be considered one of the biggest global challenges of this era. based on current conditions such as the prevalence of poverty and inequality, rapid climate change, and the socioeconomic crisis, it can be concluded that the world is at a turning point. hence, the cardinality of sustainable development rises as these challenges become more predominant. sd is possible on the precondition that the attitudes and beliefs of individuals change and that a paradigm shift in production, consumption, culture, and everyday life is achieved. this notion inevitably leads to the issue of education. accordingly, in 2002, the 57th un general assembly adopted the decade of education for sustainable development (desd). unesco played a role in promoting desd and united nations university, which is a unesco affiliated organization, in assisting rce to spread esd around the world (unesco, 2004). unesco drafted the international implement scheme (unesco, 2003) for the establishment and implementation of esd and also created guidelines to supplement its effectiveness. esd aims to integrate the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all aspects of education and learning. thus, the stratagem provides opportunities for all individuals to access the knowledge and information required for a socially, economically and ecologically sustainable future. esd applies to both formal and informal education, enhances critical and creative thinking through a comprehensive interdisciplinary 4 sung, j. h., & choi, j. e. approach, and instils a vision of the future in the upcoming generations. in only 50 years, south korea has succeeded in becoming the 12th largest economy in the world, despite suffering from two historic tragedies: japanese colonialism (1910–1945) and the korean war (1950–1953). as evidence of its recovery, south korea was admitted to the organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd) development assistance committee (dac) in 2010 and has first-hand experience of the transition from being a recipient country to a donor country, and education has played a critical role in this transformation (kook, 2011). nonetheless, the country’s rapid economic growth has brought about an imbalance among the environment, economy, and society. specifically, the pressure to attain economic growth exceeded the environmental capacity; therefore, the environment was worsened. consequently, as of 2005, south korea was ranked 122nd among 146 countries on the environmental sustainability index (esi), and it was also the lowest-ranking country among nations comprising the oecd countries (esty et al., 2005). moreover, 90% of koreans recognized that the gap between rich and poor was substantial and conflicts between regions, social strata, and generations were widespread; hence, the overall level of social integration was insufficient (presidential commission on sustainable development, 2006). changes in education also played a pivotal role in this process. whereas in the past, education had functioned as a means to reduce the social gap after the korean war, the functions and roles of public education have recently decreased with the increase in private education. excessive competition in education focusing on numerical grades not only caused great social strain, but also an economic burden. therefore, koreans have internalized a concern about education, which is evidenced by the political status of the deputy minister. with an emphasis on balancing quantitative growth with equal measures of qualitative improvement, the concept of esd has consistently been advocated, and south korea is well situated for promoting and implementing esd based on its plentiful potential and infrastructure in the field of education and development. esd first appeared in south korea in 2004 when the pcsd considered esd as their core task. then, an effort was urgently needed to increase the awareness of sustainable development. the abstract nature of the term sustainable development had not only unintentionally confused citizens but also frustrated specialist groups, such as opinion leaders or policy decision-makers, in determining what it meant. on june 5, 2005, the world environment day, the mission of esd received a major boost when korea’s president announced the national vision for sustainable development (presidential commission on sustainable development, 2006). this vision laid the foundation for the action plan for esd as a strategy by driving government-level emphasis. accordingly, in august 2007, the government enacted the basic law on sustainable development for the systematic implementation of esd. furthermore, it enacted the environment education promotion act in february 2008 to strengthen esd in the areas of environmental education. although the government had been working to finalize comprehensive esd plans, only an unfinished draft was presented in february 2008, thus putting 5 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 1-14 it on the agenda of the new government. in 2007, under the 7th revision of the national curriculum, esd became an integral part of the curricula and was implemented through afterschool or extra-curricular programs. however, when the lee myoungbak administration was inaugurated in 2008, it morphed into the green growth policy even before the 7th revision of the national curriculum began. in august 2008, the president announced the direction of korean society as one embracing low carbon, green growth (mathews, 2012) through policies creating a sustainable society in response to climate change and relevant environmental problems. there was a specific focus on education to support this plan; nevertheless, due to the frequent changes within the government administration, esd within the context of sd under the international agenda remains to be effectively executed. in 2006, when esd was first introduced at a model school in tongyeong, south korea, there was a shortage of opportunities for teachers to learn about esd. the teacher training program was not officiated and was only practised by a small number of teachers with a personal interest in related issues. specifically, both the endeavour from students, teachers, administrators, and parents and continued research and development related to the curricula and textbooks was needed to promote esd. yet, south korea fell short on many of these aspects, even though it has been part of the school curriculum through an inclusive process since 2007. hence, full implementation has not been possible due to the lack of government support and funding. however, partial implementation was accomplished by a bottom-up approach via the guidelines of rces under unesco’s desd, the korean national commission for unesco (kncu), and non-profit organizations. rce, kncu, and other non-profits have also undertaken this approach and other related efforts toward the initiation of esd in lieu of government institutions. in particular, south korea has encountered various difficulties in the process of implementing esd. first, the comprehensive promotion system of the esd was complicated. the korean national commission on sustainable development (kncsd), the ministry of environment, and the ministry of education were government agencies in charge of promoting related works. however, each organization had certain limitations. although the kncsd acted as the centre with the power to provide comprehensive consultation on esd, the biannual restructuring process adversely affected the stability of the organization, thus hindering stable promotion. moreover, because it provided consultation on general state affairs and a wide variety of agendas, the field of education for sustainable development was consequently regarded as less important. in the case of the ministry of environment, although it was disseminating the contents of esd at the central government level, it also faced limitations due to its focus on environmental education. second, elementary and secondary education in south korea is oriented around college entrance exams. thus, esd was not linked to the ministry of education, resulting in difficulties due to the lack of awareness of sustainable development. after the united nations officially proclaimed desd, national governments around the world 6 sung, j. h., & choi, j. e. established esd national committees, whereby different ministries cooperated to reflect esd concepts in education, economics, and environment. to raise awareness about esd and accomplish desd on a national level, the korean national commission for unesco founded the korean national committee on esd in august 2009. as the korean national commission for unesco’s (kncu) expert committee on esd, it designs, manages, and reforms the national implementation of desd. the korean national committee on esd, in cooperation with the un and unesco networks, attempts to distribute and develop esd in the most efficient way possible while also encouraging governmental and expert participation in relevant activities. south korea’s esd process and the role of the tongyeong rce to spread esd, the united nations university (unu) introduced the concept of rce. until 2021, 179 rces had been certified and were operational. particularly, rce refers to a network for formal, informal, and nonformal educational institutions to create a sustainable future through education (unesco, 2003; unesco, 2004). rces scattered worldwide have become regional centres for a global network dedicated to local sustainability problems and contributing to creating a better society for the present and future generations by improving education and learning processes. in this regard, rce functions as a network that bolsters the collaboration associated with esd among local actors, rather than a formal educational institution. through close cooperation between different institutions, rce performs the role of a mediator in the exchange of knowledge and information, while serving as the major facilitator for the joint development of innovative programs regarding esd. in addition, rce enhances the integration of knowledge and information by linking different sectors that need to cooperate to further the cause of esd. sustainable development has been selected as a national vision in 2006 as per the desd national process strategy was set in south korea (mathews, 2012). until then, the necessity for esd was not recognized among government officers from the ministry of education, public educators, and teachers from elementary and secondary schools. even professors who in charge of the training of schoolteachers did not pursue the concept of esd. consequently, in june 2005, tongyeong recognized the importance of esd through environmental activism via non-governmental organizations (ngos). tongyeong is a historical ocean city located on the south coast of south korea. the city is famous for the heroic deeds of admiral rhee, soon-shin (1545–1598), and is also the hometown of many famous artists. furthermore, the city is renowned for its high-quality natural fishery products and serves as a marine resort town for tourists. despite its fishery based economic growth, tongyeong faces diminishing resources and population drain; thus, creating an urgent need for a new source of development. as a means of addressing such regional problems, tongyeong was certified as an rce in 2005. 7 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 1-14 as part of tongyeong’s implementation of rce, the city inaugurated the educational network, unu rce, in october 2005. while the ministry of education and office of education handled all the educational policies and enactments, the tongyeong rce operated as an executive office with financial support from the city itself. as tongyeong rce applied for certification from unu, the initial organization and education of the public officers were processed by education experts from universities in seoul, and not from local universities. the tongyeong rce organization includes various beneficiaries, as mentioned in the guidelines for the implementation of unesco’s esd, and is organized based on cooperation among formal, informal, and non-formal education institutions. especially, the tongyeong rce has been enhanced by the participation of experts from public institutions, organizations, and college professors associated with the disciplines of environment, the maritime field, history, economics, sociology, and culture. as previously mentioned, one of the characteristics of the introductory phase of esd through the tongyeong rce was the “bottom-up” way practised by the schools, and not the “top-down” way, which was a characteristic of the government. the adoption of esd in the national curriculum in south korea differs from the previous process. the first activity after organizing the tongyeong rce was the execution of esd education in local elementary and secondary schools. as the korean government had adopted the national curriculum, it was impossible to immediately execute esd in the schools. therefore, at the beginning of march 2006, after raising awareness of the necessity for esd education to public officials in charge of formal and informal education, the tongyeong rce launched esd education at two model schools through the tongyeong office of education. afterwards, the rce and supporting universities began to raise awareness of the necessity of esd by targeting teachers from the pilot school. nonetheless, the office of education did not conduct this process. notably, when esd was first implemented in korean schools, it was not initiated by the ministry of education administering korea’s formal education, but by ngos. this system is different from the existing national education curriculum as per the unilateral education system. this case is also exceptional in light of the authoritative school education system instated in south korea; still, this result was made possible by the following two factors. first, because the tongyeong rce was initiated by the un’s desd project in south korea, this nation indicated a more profound interest in un projects in comparison to western countries. as the ubuntu committee of peers appoints an rce, the unesco high-level panel on esd holds direct authority. there was a total of 127 rces in the world as of 2014: 26 in africa and the middle east, 47 in the asia-pacific area, 35 in europe, and 19 in america (hopkins & mckeown, 2005). based on this statistic, there were more participations from the non-western region in comparison to the western region. while the number of rces does not imply comprehensive and enthusiastic participation, developing countries have signified more interest in un projects than developed countries (sung & byun, 2013). this situation can be attributed to the rising aspirations of asian developing countries, including south korea, 8 sung, j. h., & choi, j. e. concerning participation in the global trend. as the only country that has converted from being a beneficiary country to a donor country, south korea believes that education is the strongest impetus; thus, it has been more active in educational growth. second, the success of the tongyeong rce to initiate esd was possible through the financial and administrative support generated from the city government by ngo activists. governmental officials, including the mayor, agreed on the importance of esd and supported the acceleration of the implementation of esd in the region. thus, esd can be easily incorporated in a school system in tongyeong and tongyeong rce can be classified as a government-centric type (park et al., 2014). besides, in 2006, esd was first initiated in one elementary and one middle school in tongyeong, and this project has consistently expanded since then to all school levels, ranging from preschools to colleges (tongyeong education foundation for sustainable development, 2014). three significant facts emerged as a result of the operation of this project. first, the implementation of esd in preschools and elementary schools was accomplished with more ease than in secondary schools. notably, elementary school teachers were more positive about adopting the concept of esd than middle school teachers. high school teachers had negative opinions about implementing esd education based on the achievement-oriented education system in south korea (kim et al., 2012). accordingly, more research is needed on how to graft esd into school education in the achievement-oriented asian education system of china, japan, and south korea. second, teachers were concerned about the implementation of educational themes that were not clarified in the existing national curriculum (inpyoung elementary school, 2006). therefore, the tongyeong rce advised the pcsd, which led to the establishment of the esd implementation plan. it also recommended that the ministry of education include a sustainable development theme into the 7th revised national curriculum. while the process of changing the national curriculum was executed by the top-down approach led by a public organization under the ministry of education, in the case of esd, the process to change the education curriculum was executed by schools from the tongyeong rce. this action is significant because the introductory phase of esd was processed in a bottom-up manner on demand from the schools, and not by the top-down method practised by the existing college professors and the ministry of education. besides, esd through the tongyeong rce enabled schools to experiment, which in turn, initiated a transformation of the education curriculum. third, in the case of teacher training, since the end of 2006, the tongyeong rce has provided esd training to current teachers with the support of the tongyeong office of education. furthermore, the tongyeong rce was appointed to the gyeongsangnamdo office of education and has provided a training program since 2012. the esd teacher training program was developed by professors, regional experts, and ngos, and also monitored an active network through informal, nonformal education. furthermore, it enforced longitudinal linkages and cooperation from preschools to colleges through rce. the municipal government originally 9 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 1-14 managed the rce office, but since 2011, it has been independently managed as a foundation. with the support of the tongyeong office of education, the tongyeong rce is currently engaged in multiple projects in cooperation with 26 public institutions, organizations, and businesses as of 2019. tongyeong rce’s esd cases and educational significance the tongyeong rce contributes to the educational development of the community by acting as a network for incorporating sustainable development concepts into various educational resources in tongyeong. this education endeavour targets every citizen (i.e., students, government officials, housewives, the elderly), and supports them to act as an educator. so far, the main focus of education in south korea has been on formal education. there was also no need for informal and nonformal education and no attempts were made to incorporate them into formal education. the tongyeong rce has allowed educators to recognize that the subject of education goes beyond students. likewise, in 2007, the tongyeong rce program, which has been promoted since 2005, was recognized as a new model for lifelong learning and was selected as a lifelong learning city by the ministry of education and human resources development. accordingly, the tongyeong rce started educational projects for all citizens (tongyeong education foundation for sustainable development, 2014). the following projects indicate how the tongyeong rce is contributing to the community: (a) the “sustainable fishery”, where everyone in the local population can serve as an educator; (b) the “mural painting in dongpirang”, involving the cooperation among civic organizations, citizens, and students, (c) the “empty bowl movement”, where school education is expanded to provide in-house and social education, and (d) the “bae-um masil” project, where the school’s participation in local social education is introduced to interpret these projects/cases from the perspective of esd. the following is a more in-depth description of these four projects. a sustainable fishery the bureau of statistics reported data on the trend in fishery production over the past 30 years from the 1980s to 2010. according to the tongyeong internet news, there has been a shift in the country’s trend from being a collecting fishery to a culturing fishery due to resource depletion and diminishing fishery grounds. likewise, there has been a similar shift in tongyeong. this trend has led to the rising problem of ocean pollution. tongyeong is economically susceptible to this change because of its geological location within many islands and with fishery being the main economic base. to address this environmental change, tongyeong rce actualized a program for students to understand the concepts of sustainable development. old fishermen with lifelong experience began teaching students the traditional method of the fishing industry, which enabled students to learn the difference between this method and more recent ones. specifically, this difference further taught them about sustainable fisheries and development. it is extraordinary that old fishermen are conducting classes for students in south korea, as their social status is considered 10 sung, j. h., & choi, j. e. lower than that of teachers. the phenomenon that fishermen are educating students at school serves as a great example to show how this project has overcome some of korea’s social prejudice. this project was the first case whereby local experienced workers, including fishermen, were taught at school in tongyeong. mural painting in dongpirang dongpirang means eastern cliff in korean and has served as a residential area for low-income citizens. this area was where an urban regeneration project was scheduled; however, when the tongyeong rce decided to launch the dongpirang mural painting project, it changed the town’s future from urban regeneration to conservation. in october 2007, a civic organization called green tongyeong 21 held a contest for mural painting under the slogan of public art. with the help of 18 teams made up of art university students, individuals, and local students, they painted the old walls of donpirang. as donpirang became very popular because of its mural paintings, the city of tongyeong dropped its original plan to demolish it. dongpirang is now a new tourist site in tongyeong. to date, the tongyeong rce and the civic organization (green tongyeong 21) still hold a biannual contest for mural paintings with local residents and schools to create a town where culture and life can coexist. through this project, the value of coexistence was learned. significantly, residents who were about to lose their hometown received help from their local civic organizations, schools, and citizens to change their town into a sustainable living foundation. local sustainable development through education is what education for sustainable development seeks, and it is also noteworthy that this change was made through a process of cooperation among schools, the local society, and civic groups. under korea’s highly competitive and result-oriented school education system, it is also noteworthy that this mural project was not only initiated but also continued with success. what happened in dongpirang is revolutionary when compared to the traditional and exclusive school education system in south korea that lacks cooperation with informal and non-formal education. the empty bowl movement in 2006, the inpyeong elementary school was selected as an esd model school to initiate a program called the “empty bowl movement”. it has expanded beyond students, parents, and local universities to include local restaurants. in 2013, the tongyeong rce promoted this program by targeting restaurants in the traditional seoho market to create a social atmosphere that reduces food wastage to build a sustainable society. it is very meaningful that the school is reaching beyond students, who are the traditional targets of education, to their families and local citizens. this movement was a result of how schoolscould act as a community within a region to spread conclusive sustainable development in the region. 11 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 1-14 the bae-um masil island literacy class since 2009, the “bae-um masil island literacy class” has been held for elderly citizens in the small island areas of tongyeong where there were no educational opportunities. although south korea is renowned for its low illiteracy rate, some elderly did not have reliable access to education. most old people live in rural or isolated areas. therefore, tongyeong rce visits and teaches the elderly to promote lifelong education. since the inception of the program in 2009, 215 elderly had graduated till 2019. in this program, elementary school students also took art classes with older students, which led to many intergenerational communication opportunities. this project represents how such educational opportunities can successfully create ties to the local community. discussion and implications discussion about esd in south korea has been progressing in a way that is quite different from that concerning traditional education. generally, the educational agenda in south korea has been under the auspices of the ministry of education, universities, and government managed research facilities. furthermore, due to korea’s policy of designating the national curriculum, teachers have limited autonomy in contributing to the contents taught within their classrooms. it is structurally extremely difficult for teachers to teach materials not included in the national curriculum. besides, educational experts in universities and research centres exclusively hold authority over the addition of new materials in the national curriculum. furthermore, the topdown structuring of education in south korea obligates schools to carry out such designated curricula. the process of incorporating esd into both school education and the national curriculum, however, has been taking a different path. discussions regarding esd were initiated by the 2004 pcsd and not by the traditional actors, like the ministry of education, universities, and education expert groups. the actual employment of esd was initiated wherein tongyeong city, rather than the ministry of education or regional educational offices, directly supported and conducted research schools. as a result of the efforts of tongyeong rce, sustainable development was included in the 2007 revised national curriculum. eventually, the tongyeong rce led to the establishment and expansion of research and education networks, including the training and development of educational programs and guidelines for teachers (park & sung, 2007). such bottom-up approaches, largely instigated via the demands of schools and inspiring curiosities in students (nasir, 2021), have successfully brought reforms to the national educational system amid the relatively authoritative educational environment of south korea. the tongyeong rce’s programs are significant in several ways. various programs are based on the cooperation of formal, informal, and nonformal education in pursuit of teaching values, behaviours, and societies where methodologies for life can be learned, all of which are necessary for achieving a sustainable future as defined in the undesd implementation plan. further, the centre successfully established cooperative educational frames to counter regional 12 sung, j. h., & choi, j. e. problems by gathering capable educational human resources within that region while overcoming the authoritative school systems and the closed nature of korean educational processes. each tongyeong rce program contributes to achieving cooperation among formal, informal, and nonformal education. for instance, the old fishermen’s sustainable fishery classes serve as an extraordinary case in contrast to the traditional social status of teachers, which is highly recognized in asian countries. the dongpirang mural paintings illustrate how activities led by civic group programs can induce a change in local society. similarly, the empty bowl movement has transformed the local society through initiation by the schools. the bae-um masil island literacy class has given the rural elderly their first opportunities to learn about south korea and its culture. all these cases, therefore, serve as excellent examples that everyone can be an educator and a learner; an example that illustrates that the goals of sustainable development can be met through education. a close examination of the substantial achievement of the tongyeong rce has not only illustrated how the korean education system transitioned from “knowledge and grade centred” eastern educational regime to a “value and practice centred” one, but it also reveals how a “learning society”, comprising decentralized and deregulated educational communities that are more flexible in resolving unprecedented challenges of globalization, can be initiated. this research emphasizes that the implication of esd is a domain of challenge and change in asia. subsequently, the tongyeong rce has focused on 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(2004). united nations decade of education for sustainable development 2005-2014: draft international implementation scheme, unesco. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000139937?17=null&queryid=c62f2a869068-4612-b13e-dfc3787f6971 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 2 2022 pp. 89-100 paideia and israel education ira daniel glassera a. ma, department of educational leadership, school of education and human development, the george washington university, washington dc, united states. email: iraglasser@gmail.com article info received: september 5, 2022 revised: november 13, 2022 accepted: december 2, 2022 how to cite glasser, i. d. (2022). paideia and israel education. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(2), 89-100. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.15 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license (cc by 4.0). abstract educative processes must account for content, learners, teachers, and contexts in order for it have meaning for learners. seen through the lens of the reflective practitioner, this paideia considers models of general education, the relationship between vision and praxis, and their implications on israel education. contained herein are a set of pedagogic practices and aspirations connected to israeli and jewish history, people, and their expansive canon of text allowing for the acquisition of values, content, and skills for all learners – students and teachers alike – to explore what their personal relationship with israel entails. keywords israel education; paideia; educational theory; reflective practice. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.15 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.15 90 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 89-100 introduction the field of israel education has grown tremendously over the past twenty-plus years. foundational to the field of israel education, a subset within jewish education, can be found in lisa grant and ezra kopelwitz’s landmark work in which they call for a paradigm shift of israel education in america (grant & kopelwitz, 2012). bethamie horowitz defines the primary goal of israel education is for learners to “cultivate a [personal] connection to contemporary israel as part of [their] self-understanding as a jew,” further distinguishing the field of israel education from israel studies and advocacy efforts that emerged in the early 2000s (horowitz, 2012, p. 11). horowitz continues to identify six other key elements of israel education, which are further expounded upon by the icenter’s aleph bet of israel education (2015) and chazan’s philosophy of israel education (2016). three of these components the centrality of the learner, their relationship to israel, and connection to jewish identity are essential ingredients that continue to resonate among thought leaders in the field of israel education today: anne lanski describes israel education as "the means for people to develop connections, interactions, and shared language with people, ideas, and israel itself”, david bryfman argues that israel education “serves the greater purpose of identity development”, and gil troy advocates that “jews use zionism, jewish peoplehood, and the israel connection as frameworks to chart their own personal pathways toward finding meaning through community and history” (bryfman et al., 2021). israel curricula of myriad foci exist, including cultural, historical, and political. professional development programs provide israel educators with opportunities to reflect on and refine their craft. furthermore, these curricula and programs provide diaspora jewry with vehicles to foster critical thinking about identity, jewish peoplehood, connection to the land of israel, and the historic/contemporary significance of the state of israel. these developments are a boon and a blessing for israel education, a “core aspect” of american jewish education (zakai, 2022, p. 15). concurrently, the need for vision has played a significant role in shaping the landscape of jewish education. time and again, academics stressed the need for vision while others have ambitiously articulated a vision that has shaped jewish and israel educational arenas. (ackerman, 1969; a time to act, 1990; fox et al., 2003; gringas, 2006; isaacs, 2011; woocher, 2012; woocher & woocher, 2013; zakai, 2014; the aleph bet of israel education, 2015; chazan, 2016; cohen, 2016; chazan et al., 2017; jacobs & chazan, 2018, 2019). curriculum must have, and be connected to, a broader vision. different theories in general education assert the necessity of a core vision that can then be translated and applied to practice. for example, paideia, which claims its roots in ancient greece, provides one such central vision. the notion of paideia saw a renaissance in the 20th century due to the significant works of warner jaeger (1967) and out of the university of chicago under the guise of mortimer adler (1998). another example of core educational vision and its connection to practice can be found in lawrence-lightfoot’s investigation into what makes good (or “good-enough”) schools (1983). 91 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 89-100 just as curriculum needs grounding in vision, both need to account for practical implications and application. the development of curriculum is more than the writing of enduring understandings, essential questions, big ideas, and lesson plans. it is a process that must include consideration for and discussion about subject matter, learners, teachers, and contexts in order for it have meaning for learners and to be successful (schwab, 1969, 1973). pedagogues, learners, and subject matter are dynamic forces within a given educational setting and therefore a curriculum needs to be flexible in order to meet the needs of the given contexts (schwab, 1969, 1973). therefore, it is essential that one considers the ways vision and curriculum interact with teachers, students, and educational settings. this is true for general education and also jewish and israel education. there is a need for a new way to draw upon the best ways of thinking and practice in education. just as a multitude of israel curricula and visions have shaped the landscape of israel education, so too has its politicization. israel education must instead be considered within a broader context; a theory of israel education that is reflective of broader jewish education, which is grounded in good educational theory and practices. the israel education enterprise is missing a “model of approaching israel education that is rooted in the integration of thoughtful vision and creative practice” and centered around “core principles of being human, israel and judaism, and educational practice”, or a paideia (chazan, 2019, p.1). even the framework to create this model needed to be modified to consider and account for lived experience of the educator. this article aims to recenter the conversation about israel education to the learner, which in turn, will lead to better teaching. it came about through deliberations on general education, its implications on israel education, and the dynamic between vision and praxis. it is applicable to a multitude of educational venues (e.g., formal and informal) as well as ages (early childhood through adult education). it frames a set of core principles and ideas about pedagogic practices and aspirations that connect to israeli and jewish history, people, and their expansive canon of text allowing for the acquisition of values, content, and skills for all learners – students and teachers alike – to explore what their personal relationship with israel entails. on the surface, it may appear to be a normative approach to israel education, however it is the recalibration that israel education needs. prior models for israel education, including those proposed by isaacs (2011) and chazan (2019) are limited and need adaptation to reflect the lived experience of educators in the field. further, it answers the calls for a blueprint for israel education by zakai (2014), chazan (2016), bryfman & pitkowsky (2017), and bryfman (2021) and aims to inspire further conversation. above all, it harnesses the work of prior jewish and israel educational visionaries and enriches the conversation by speaking the language of practice from a vantage point that until now has been missing: the reflective practitioner. in schools, for example, the primary learners are the students. however, all the stakeholders – including faculty and staff, parents, and boards – are also learners. each must embrace their role as a component of the learning institution for a school to be successful. how 92 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 89-100 can a school, or any educational organization for that matter, carry out its mission if the content and skills are not embraced and modeled by all stakeholders? there is a distinction between “knowing” and “understanding,” and therefore a distinction between “learning to know” and “learning to understand”. the former is the ingathering of information and the latter is how that information is internalised and connected to the learner. benjamin bloom’s taxonomy for learning (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, evaluation/creation) creates a hierarchy and process on how we build upon “knowledge” (i.e., the who, what, where, when) toward understanding through questioning what information/forces lay behind those facts (i.e., the how and why), applying that knowledge to new scenarios, and then creating something novel with that information. the learning process is multifaceted and comes in a variety of modalities and styles (e.g., auditory, visual, kinaesthetic). similarly, howard gardner’s work on multiple intelligences provides insight into the different intellectual faculties. as with modalities of learning, learners may lean toward one (or a few) style(s) and intelligence(s) over others. teaching is the ability to create a framework and system in which learning can occur. in many respects, teaching is about facilitation and questioning. and, just as there are different modalities for learning and multiple intelligences, there are different teaching styles and pedagogic methods. israel education needs distinctions of its own. broadly speaking when referring to “israel education” one may be referring to the historic connection between the jewish people and eretz yisrael (land of israel) and its relationship with the modern medinat yisrael (the state of israel). that said, israel education that focuses on the contemporary state of israel must not begin in 1948. it would behoove the educator to allow learners to understand where and how medinat yisrael fits within the broader scope of jewish history; that medinat yisrael is the late-19th and 20th century manifestation of what eretz yisrael has meant and continues to mean to the jewish people. one cannot fully appreciate or understand the modern state of israel without having a foundational understanding of the ideas, people, and events that preceded it. similarly, one would not gain a deep understanding of american history, if they began on july 4, 1776 or in 1789 without considering the ideas and events that influenced and caused the writing of the declaration of independence of us constitution, respectively. thus, the following objectives may be necessary to help frame “israel education”: • learners will explore the notion of “homeland” as the connection between eretz yisrael and the jewish people. • learners will learn the progression of zionist and israeli history, including pivotal events and people. • learners will engage with the diversity that comprises the fabric of israeli society including the various jewish and non-jewish groups (e.g., ashkenazim, mizrahim, and sephardim; druze, armenians, eastern orthodox, catholic, christian arab, muslims, palestinians, bedouin, respectively). 93 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 89-100 • learners will become familiar with social complexities by examining how israeli culture illustrates social, political, and historical ideas and issues. • understand that there are (and have historically been) a wide range of relationships between the land, people, and contemporary state of israel. • engage with questions about the relationship of diaspora jewry to the contemporary state of israel • learners will reflect on the ways in which they derive personal meaning and articulate for themselves what their relationship with israel looks like and how they feel about israel. if there is an israel experience as a piece of this education, it would also befit the educator to ground students with foundational knowledge history and culture, upon which will be built by participating in the israel experience. additional objectives for this experience could be for learners to encounter israel as a thriving, hebrew speaking, jewish state, experience israeli culture, society, and history, and appreciate the diversity of israel and its citizenry. ahad ha’am famously said that more than the jews have kept shabbat, shabbat has kept the jewish people. the same can be said of eretz yisrael. regardless of the diaspora community – for example, spain, algeria, germany, iran, afghanistan, australia, the united states, argentina – religious and cultural references to am yisrael and eretz yisrael can found in the treasure trove of liturgy. it is imperative that jews in the 21st century not only continue this chain of tradition, but also understand the uniqueness of the time in which they are living. relationships, ideas, and connections are constantly evolving. by using the aforementioned set of objectives, it is the hope that learners will not only begin to understand the rich history and present that is both as eretz and medina yisrael, and also that its history, present, and future is laden with complexities. considering that education is about deriving personal meaning from what one learns, the hope is that students will be able to articulate for themselves what their relationship with israel looks like, why israel matters, or does not matter, to them. what is of utmost importance, is that students are given opportunities to explore and come to terms for themselves what place israel has in their lives. zakai’s recent work (2021, 2022) demonstrates that a child’s relationship with israel changes as they enter adolescence and gain a more nuanced understanding of the world around them. in that vein, learners should be given an opportunity to reflect on how that relationship has evolved over time. at the end of the day, the goal is for students to not only care about israel, but more importantly to know why they care and develop a dynamic lifelong relationship. core themes and texts israel education and the aspirations stated above are underpinned by a set of core values and themes. first and foremost, among those themes is taking one’s destiny into their own hands. as seen with what started as a relatively small movement, zionists and the early halutzim were ideologically determined to create (or recreate) a modern and self-sufficient jewish state. in 94 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 89-100 order for this change to occur, the thinkers and the doers understood the status quo for jews living in modern european nation-states which were based either on the idea of the emancipated citizen of western europe and/or the ethnolinguistic states of eastern europe. it would be worthwhile to introduce source material that illustrates the connection to the land of israel of non-european jewish communities. the study of israel should be grounded in the following three concepts, which are found within the canon of jewish teachings: that wisdom is found all around us (pirkei avot, (n.d.), 4:1), that all the jewish people are responsible for one another (the babylonian talmud, (n.d.), shevuot 39a), and that we must take individual and collective responsibility and accountability (pirkei avot, (n.d.), 1:14). a necessary component to coalesce these three concepts is the development, evolution, and articulation of personal meaning. as with any subject matter, israel education requires a set of indispensable primary texts and sources. among those sources include, but are not limited to: the zionist idea (1997) by arthur hertzberg, which includes the writings and backgrounds of a number of zionist thinkers and other selected primary source material. in addition, david engel’s zionism (2009) and gil troy’s zionist ideas: then and now (2018) provide concise yet thorough reads of zionist history and present. additional primary source anthologies such as kurtzer & sufrin’s the new jewish canon (2020) include pertinent pieces on the place of israel in modern and contemporary jewish thought; itamar rabinovich & jehuda reinharz’s israel and the middle east (2007) provides essential primary source documents of israeli history and domestic and foreign relations; and paul mendes-flohr & jehuda reinharz’s the jew in the modern world (2010) put zionism and israel in the broader context of modern jewish history and thought. other historic essential texts include leo pinsker’s auto-emancipation, essays by ahad ha’am, works by theodor herzl, and poems and writings by rahel the poetess, haim nahman bialyk, and s.y. agnon. in addition, learners should be encouraged to analyze and reflect on crucial political documents such as the balfour declaration, unga resolution 181 (and other un resolutions including 242, 3379, and 46/86), and the declaration of the establishment of the state of israel. works of prominent writers, poets, and thinkers, as well as works of art including visual art, music, film, and television help learners illuminate israeli social and political zeitgeist as learners explore various time periods of israeli history (e.g., prestate to 1948, early state 1948-1967, from six days to oslo 1967-1995, and the contemporary state 1995-present). pedagogy “good israel education” is rooted in “good education” (bryfman, 2018). therefore, it is worthwhile to turn to the methodologies utilised in general studies classrooms to best understand what is “good pedagogy”. first and foremost, educators must do some form of backwards planning – such as curricular planning found in understanding by design by grant wiggins and jay mctighe (2005). 95 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 89-100 it is worth noting that understanding by design uses learning standards and benchmarks as foundation for clarifying learning objectives, enduring understandings, big ideas, and essential questions. such standards are not uniformly found in the realm of jewish education and may be a worthwhile enterprise developing. for examples of such standards that are used in the jewish educational settings, one can turn to standards and benchmarks for tanakh and rabbinics (william davidson graduate school of jewish education, n.d.), standards for fluency in jewish text & practice (mechon hadar & beit rabban, 2016), or the 18x18 framework (jacobs & chazan, 2019). to begin with, what are the goals and objectives of said courses, units, lessons, programming pertaining to israel education? what are desirable outcomes for learners to be able to do and to know by the end of the program, lesson, unit, course? upon clarifying these objectives, educators need to articulate enduring understandings (eu), big ideas (bi), and/or essential questions (eq) for what they will be teaching. that is, what does learning about israel teach learners that is broader and bigger than israel? once these are clarified then the work to develop lessons, units, etc., that are aligned with the knowledge and skillset, as well as the eu/bi/eq’s. a good pedagogue utilises a number of methods in order to teach. this ranges from large-group to small-group discussion; learning in partnership, examining a variety of source materials (from close reading to gallery walks), giving learners opportunities for simulations or to create skits, or engaging in debates, to name a few. if one were to observe an educational setting over multiple sessions, the observer will hopefully witness a number of pedagogical methods and tools utilised. regardless of teaching “method” a good pedagogue should be able to use a variety of teaching methods and styles with facility and seamlessly. it may be advisable for the israel educational enterprise to take note of the different methodologies utilised in general education. pedagogues as with any subject matter, the professional most appropriate for israel education is one who has a passion for the subject matter, guides students toward creating personal meaning, and fosters authentic and meaningful relationships with learners. this requires the educator to put the learner and their intellectual, cognitive, and emotional growth first. the professional should have a background, either by way of undergraduate degree or interest and experience, to teach israel education. furthermore, israel educators, like good educators, should be reflective practitioners with an eye toward professional growth, including accepting that one can, and should, always be learning. it is understood that this may limit the pool of interested and qualified and candidates. however, with the correct support and structures in place israel can be integrated and taught in other disciplines and by teachers who may not have the content background on israel. a number of professional development programs currently exist that aim to train teachers about the teaching of israel. this could range from an outside mentor or consultant supporting an 96 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 89-100 institution’s or individual’s teaching of israel (such as the icenter’s infuse, the jewish education project and makom’s qushiyot, or shalom hartman institute’s iengage programs). it also requires educational institutions identify and recognise the talent they have laden in their staff and empower these individuals to work with their colleagues about israel. teacher training also includes multi-day workshops, seminars, or institutes focused on the teaching of israel (such as the center for israel education). growth and assessment as mentioned above, education is about deriving personal meaning from newly gained understandings and insights. an israel educational enterprise must strive to do both. on the one hand, israel education is about furthering one’s knowledge about different facets of israel, depending on the specific learning objective. that said, it would be short-sighted to stop there. knowledge must have some sort of personal meaning in order for it to have an impact. a shortterm intention would be to develop a foundation for a peer israel trip experience, on which learners will be emotionally and cognitively transformed, say for example, a capstone or graduation trip. a goal is for learners to leave said israel experience with more questions, seeing themselves as part of a long chain of tradition, and caring about israel in way that they did not before. these germinated seeds will hopefully continue to be nurtured as those learners will see their israel education as valuable and something worthwhile pursuing. in order to accurately and objectively evaluate the success of such a pedagogical program, ongoing formative assessment is necessary. for starters, it is worthwhile establishing learners’ prior knowledge, feelings, and relationship vis a vis am yisrael, eretz yisrael, and medinat yisrael. that is, what do learners enter the learning environment already “knowing” and “feeling”? there are a number pedagogical tools that an educator can use to determine this. it could range from a “k-w-l” chart, qualitative surveys, a short introductory question, such as “what do you know about…?” or an open-ended reflection on what “israel means to the learners”, thereby allowing prior knowledge, feeling, emotions, and relationship to come to the forefront, or even an anticipatory question/hook to bring learners into the learning environment. it would also behoove the educator to articulate the overarching learning objectives at the outset so learner can, on an abstract level, cognitively anticipate what they will encounter. that said, there is no preparation for the learner to fully anticipate what they will engage with, learn, or be challenged by in an israel curriculum, regardless of how clear the learning objectives are stated. similarly, to anticipatory sets and “pre-reflection”, ongoing formative assessments is another tool used by educators to gauge the immediate and shortterm successes of learning objectives. it requires “checking-in” with learners to ensure they are or have met the learning objectives. oftentimes, formative assessments are helpful to gauge if any educational approaches need to be tweaked to ensure learners are meeting, or have met, the learning objectives. formative assessments can be completed in the midst of an educational program, as well as at the end (especially if there is more than one “lesson”). finally, upon 97 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 89-100 completion of the educational program, a summative reflection and survey is necessary. ideally, this should mirror a qualitative survey or questionnaire from the beginning of the program. an additional method for assessment is for the learners to articulate for themselves, in a medium that suits them, what their personal relationship to israel means, or does not mean, and why. the different media would allow for learners to select a vehicle for communicating their beliefs and relationship in an authentic way and allowing for the expression of differentiated learning styles to take place. there is an additional opportunity for learners to express what has surprised and challenged their thinking as well as further questions they would like to explore, regardless of their personal and emotional relationship. thus, learners are tasked with not only reflecting on their personal relationship, but also articulate the ways in which they as individuals have, or have not changed, and laid the foundation for future learning and exploration to take place as a result of their learning. conclusion the growth of israel educational programs and curricula has been a promising advancement for jewish education. an educator or organization can choose from a number of curricula or synthesis components from various curricula to create an israel curriculum that meets their particular goals and objectives. at the same time, jewish educators and academics have laid out educational visions, playing a significant role in shaping the field to meet the needs of an evolving jewish community in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. with all due respect to those who called the need for and articulated a vision for jewish and israel education, they need to consider the perspective and voice of the reflective practitioner, who adapts vision to meet the needs of their learners and considers the given educational context. education is the meeting ground between idea and practice and a dynamic process that involves (but is not limited to) learners, pedagogues, and contexts. it is this confluence that inspired works that shaped the field of general education, including the work of schwab and lawrence-lightfoot. this meeting ground of praxis and theory needs to be applied to israel education. as chazan asserts in a philosophy of israel education, “the more an educational system can establish coordination between vision, educational theory, and practice, the greater the possibilities of impact” on learners – the subject of israel education (2016, p. 10). this paper answers the call for a blueprint to shape the israel educational landscape and proposes a new approach to dealing with vision up until now: a theory to practice that harness and builds upon the work of prior thinkers while speaking the language of practice. when taken together, each of these components comprise a paideia for israel education. most of the aforementioned components, such as pedagogues, pedagogies, growth and assessment, learners and learning are universalist educational aims, beliefs, and practices that would characterize good education, not specifically israel or jewish education. afterall as the previously mentioned truism goes, “good israel education…is good education”. 98 jcsr 2022, 4(2): 89-100 a paideia for israel education brings together the emotional, relational, and cognitive spheres, which zakai (2014) calls for as a necessary next step for israel education scholarship. it creates avenues for learners – and pedagogues alike – to develop and reflect on their own understanding of core values and ideas together with organized knowledge, and intellectual skills, israel curriculum and educational programs offer opportunities for learners to gain these aforementioned skills. from here, curricula and educational programs can be designed to be a place to discover and challenge, and articulate and raise big questions about israel. just as the 18 x 18 framework (jacobs & chazan, 2019) establishes benchmarks for jewish education grounded in knowledge and skills, a next step would be to establish similar benchmarks for israel education that connect the head (organized knowledge), heart (understanding of ideas and values) and hand (skills). israel education allows learners to explore and reflect on big questions about the nature of humanity and being, about one’s identity and judaism, and will ultimately have a profound benefit and impact on all learners and the jewish community. the field of israel education demands no less. acknowledgements i would like to thank dr. barry chazan for providing guidance and support with this project. i am grateful to the icenter for israel education for inviting me to present this work at their pro seminar series. i would like to acknowledge the icenter, the jim joseph foundation, the marcus foundation, and rodeph sholom school, new york, for supporting my pursuit of the master of arts in israel education at the george washington university. references ackerman, w. 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(1969). the practical: a language for curriculum. the school review 78(1), 1-23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1084049 schwab, j. (1973). the practical 3: translation into curriculum. the school review, 81(4), 501-522. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1084423 tanakh standards and benchmarks. (n.d.). william davidson graduate school of jewish education. the jewish theological seminary. http://lhili.jtsa.edu/uploads/1/2/0/9/120971506/standards_and_benchmarks_docume nt.pdf troy, g (ed). (2018) zionist ideas: visions for jewish homeland – then, now, tomorrow. jewish publication society. wiggins, g. & mctighe, j. (2005). understanding by design (expanded 2nd ed.). association for supervision and curriculum development. woocher, j. (2012). reinventing jewish education for the 21st century. journal of jewish education, 78(3), 182-226. https://doi.org/10.1080/15244113.2012.700636 woocher, j. and woocher, m. (2013). “jewish education in a new century: an ecosystem in transition.” in dashefsky, a., & sheskin, i. (eds.), american jewish yearbook 2013: the annual record of the north american jewish communities (vol 113). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01658-0_1 zakai, s. (2014). “my heart is in the east and i am in the west”: enduring questions of israel education in north america. journal of jewish education 80(3), 287-318. https://doi.org/10.1080/15244113.2014.937192 zakai, s. (2021). “it makes me feel many different things”: a child’s relationship to israel over time. journal of jewish education. 87(2), 120-143. https://doi.org/10.1080/15244113.2021.1926375 zakai, s. (2022). my second-favorite country: how american jewish children think about israel. new york university press. https://www.sefaria.org/pirkei_avot http://lhili.jtsa.edu/uploads/1/2/0/9/120971506/standards_and_benchmarks_document.pdf http://lhili.jtsa.edu/uploads/1/2/0/9/120971506/standards_and_benchmarks_document.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/15244113.2014.937192 https://doi.org/10.1080/15244113.2021.1926375 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 2 2023 pp. 206-222 enhancing the academic writing skills of first-year english second language students at a south african university lulama mdodana-zidea & kananga robert mukuna*b * corresponding author email: mukunakr@ufs.ac.za a. department of curriculum and higher education studies, faculty of education, university of the free state, qwaqwa campus, phuthaditjhaba, south africa b. department of education foundations, faculty of education, university of the free state, qwaqwa campus, phuthaditjhaba, south africa article info received: december 24, 2022 accepted: june 23, 2023 published: august 12,2023 how to cite mdodana-zide, l., & mukuna, k. r. (2023). enhancing the academic writing skills of first-year english second language students at a south african university. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 206-222. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.27 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract the transition from high school to university for first-year students is challenging in academia, globally, and locally. students must continually provide quality content at university and possess organisational and coherent language skills in writing essays and assignments. they should meet expectations such as demonstrating their academic writing skills, showing meaningful writing, which includes reasoning, and drawing readers’ attention to the pertinent facts. for a few decades, academic support programmes, including writing centres, have been introduced in south african universities to assist first-year students in academic writing. despite establishing these programmes, poor academic writing persists in many south african universities among first-year students. therefore, this study explored how the academic writing centre, as a collaborative scaffolded approach, could improve the academic writing skills of first-year english second language (esl) students at a south african university. the study adopted a quantitative method through a descriptive research design. a questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection. fifty first-year students who were registered for the senior and further education and training phases at the faculty of education of a south african university were chosen (n=50; males=14, females=36). descriptive results revealed that the academic writing centre could be considered a collaborative scaffolded model to improve the academic writing skills of first-year esl students. the study recommends exploring writing support centres and lecturers further as essential tools that can assist students in socialising the link between entry and the discourse of university subjects’ academic requirements. keywords scaffolded collaborative; academic writing centre; first year english second language students; academic writing skills. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.27 https://curriculumstudies.org/ mailto:mukunakr@ufs.ac.za https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.27 207 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 introduction recently, there have been increased research developments in improving academic writing skills in english second language (esl) among university students locally and globally. scholars highlighted that academic writing skills could be critical for the success of esl students upon entering university (bulqiyah et al., 2021; jabali, 2018; sujito et al., 2019; toba & noor, 2019) and for socialising students into the discourse of university subjects and disciplines (pineteh, 2014). universities, as bernardo-hinesley (2020) reiterates, “whether privately owned or statefunded”, are a common ground where students from “diverse linguistic and cultural, from dissimilar familial or circumstantial experiences that condition their language and cultural practices” meet. at the university, students must continually provide quality content and possess organisational and coherent language skills in writing essays and assignments. this means they should fulfil some expectations by demonstrating their academic writing skills and showing meaningful writing, including reasoning, and drawing the attention of the readers to the pertinent facts (bakry & alsamadani, 2015; ceylan, 2019). it is important to note that firstyear students’ writing skills are not as accomplished as expected. studies have been conducted on the academic writing challenges faced by undergraduate students internationally (ankawi, 2015) and locally in south african universities (hurst, 2015; pineteh, 2014). recommendations have been made to increase the access of previously disadvantaged students to higher education in south africa. for example, academic support programmes and tutorials assist students in being university-prepared (council on higher education, 2014). despite these efforts, poor academic writing skills persist in south african universities and students struggle to obtain the required writing standard necessary for higher education essay assignments. students still experience challenges in writing essay assignments, especially those who have learned esl (ajani & gamede, 2020; bulqiyah et al., 2021). furthermore, the literature attests that their unpreparedness to transition into the university could cause academic writing challenges (lea & street, 2006; van dyk & weideman, 2004). according to lea and street (2006), these challenges could affect them as they come from linguistic minority communities. morales & bardo (2020) contend that teachers teaching these students at the school level tend to come from middle-class, academically literate backgrounds and may not be trained in such skills. some scholars highlight that structural, grammatical, mechanical, and vocabulary difficulties could affect the academic writing skills of students (ariyanti & fitriana, 2017; sabarun, 2019; toba & noor, 2019). academic writing difficulties prevent students from moving forward and being retained in the university. (pineteh, 2014). these could affect the completion delay and graduation rates of south african students, which are among the lowest in the world (letseka & maile, 2008). these could affect their retention to a degree, which hinders the vision of education for sustainable development (bekteshi & xhaferi, 2020; dube et al., 2023; sung & choi, 2022). this vision aims to provide everyone the chance to access the knowledge and data necessary for a social, economic, and environmentally sustainable future, foster critical and 208 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 creative thinking through a thoroughly interdisciplinary approach, and give the next generation a sense of the future. (sung & choi, 2022). academic literacy writing skills and higher education framework it is significant to consider that academic literacy writing is essential to improve academic writing skills in higher education. defazio et al. (2010) conceptualised academic writing as a skill grounded in a person’s cognitive domain in which conception, application, and amalgamation of newly acquired information are involved and in which creative stimulus, problem-solving, reflection, and modification are consequential for the completion of a manuscript. from the perspective of students, hanafi (2020) advocates that academic writing conceptualises university writing for various courses, including assignments, reports, essays, and dissertations, in which they discuss thoughts and findings with logic and evidence. additionally, it encompasses any paper students produce to improve their academic outcomes, including report writing, thesis writing, assignment writing, and even reflective and creative writing in institutions (rahmat, 2022; solikhah et al., 2022). it is vital to consider that advocates of new literacy studies have long contended for a fresh perspective on comprehending student literacy and writing in academic settings. the new perspective contests the deficit model that represents student writing as somewhat reductionist depending on and emphasising language proficiency and transferable talents rather than critical thinking abilities (lea & street, 1998; pineteh, 2014). this practical approach to literacy should consider cultural and contextual elements of writing and reading practices, which are crucial for understanding student learning. (lea & street, 1998; street, 2004). various scholars concur that academic writing is referred to as a literacy practice as it connects the admission of students into disciplinary groups and their adoption of the formal conventions associated with the academy (leibowitz et al., 1997; pineteh, 2014). lea and street (2006, p. 368) advocate that “approaches to student writing literacies should be perceived using three overlapping perspectives or models: (a) a study skills model; (b) an academic socialisation model; and (c) an academic literacies model”. the view of the three models focuses on recognising social and cultural practices as ideological. it, therefore, defines the student writing contexts in higher education as not simply adhering to a set of disciplinary guidelines or conventions (pineteh, 2014). the literature argues that cultural and social practices are pivotal to academic literacy, as it includes utilising distinctive cognitive capacities to negotiate influence, authority, and identity within the landscape of universities (beard et al., 2007; pineteh, 2014; street, 2004). the practices highly depend on the setting, control relations, and social connections that human creatures build (archer, 2010; lillis & turner, 2001; mdodana-zide & mafugu, 2023; pineteh, 2014). in various disciplines within the higher education sector, academic literacy writing is critical in socialising students into the modules offered in each degree (pineteh, 2014). these skills are necessary for students to efficiently complete their studies, create a career and be capable of lifelong learning and entry into the labour market (muller, 2021). this academic 209 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 writing skill is not only for students to meet the requirements at the university level, but is also part of a cycle of developing their skills and knowledge of academic writing which, as garroneshufran (2021) establishes, creates a balance for training preservice teachers as well as the practical strategies for applying that knowledge to teaching. therefore, learning in higher instruction includes adjusting to better approaches to knowing: better approaches to understanding, deciphering, and sorting out information. the reading and writing required by various disciplines determine the “central processes through which students learn new subjects and develop their knowledge about new areas of study” (lea & street, 2006, p. 158). in one of their “academic literacies” approaches, lea and street (1998) advocate that the literacy demands of the curriculum involve various communicative practices, including genres, fields, and disciplines. therefore, the attention of the students should be drawn to the fact that writing for university studies differs from writing in their secondary and middle schools (hanafi, 2020). academic writing at the university level requires the writer to be familiar with (a) content, (b) language skills, and (c) writing skills to write well (rahmat, 2022). as rahmat (2022) further posits, these requirements challenge students, as they are considered vital role players in making writing a difficult skill to acquire. the cycle, therefore, of academic writing skills and knowledge at the university level and impartation to learners in schools who will be joining universities at some point, begins now, with preservice teachers being trained and acquiring the skill (garrone-shufran, 2021). however, cultural differences and social practices play significant roles in the academic writing of students and pose a challenge, especially for esl learners. lea & street (1998) highlight the difficulties that many students encounter in writing and academic discourse when entering higher education, specifying that students from “minority community backgrounds may experience such difficulties to a greater degree than some other students”. due to the complexity of the south african historical background and the transformation policies, students who have learnt english as a second or first additional language, mostly from rural areas, are affected to a greater extent. ajani and gamede (2020) highlight that students from rural secondary schools expressed fear as english is used at university as a primary form of instruction, making it challenging for individuals to understand and communicate their ideas through academic writing. pineteh (2014) conducted a study on student academic challenges, which concluded that students struggle to adapt to institutional literacy practices and disciplinary discourses, such as academic writing when they first join higher education because they have poor literacy abilities. pineteh (2014) further argues that the challenges result from how students were educated, their literacy backgrounds, and the attitudes they brought to the university. as defazio et al. (2010) conclude, regardless of the causes, the fact remains that the majority of students lack the abilities needed to communicate successfully in writing, which will enable them to succeed after graduation. as long lamented by defazio et al. (2010, p. 34), the fundamental point is the major requirement for students at all levels to not only be proficient writers but “also to understand 210 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 the importance of good writing skills … be able to assess the writing of others critically, particularly at the graduate level as well as in professional programs”. consequently, students must use and cognise precise scientific terminology, specific sentence structures, and different types of organisational structures when reading and writing scientific texts (garrone-shufran, 2021). theoretical framework the sociocultural theory was developed by vygotsky (1978), a social constructivist, and one of his most influential and best-known ideas is called the zone of proximal development (zpd). the zpd refers to “the distance between the developmental level determined by independent problem-solving and the level of potential development determined through problem-solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). in essence, zpd positions that the inexperienced person can learn the necessary skills with the assistance of a more experienced individual but may not yet have or be able to do so on their own. (taber, 2020). vygotsky’s belief, among other academics, is the idea that the purpose of education is to give learners experiences that fit their learning profiles and so promote and advance their learning, as much more meaningful learning occurs through the social interactions of the child with a skilled tutor (berk & winsler, 1995; vygotsky, 1978). it is essential to note that the zpd concept could be used interchangeably with the term scaffolding. however, based on lev vygotsky's work, the idea of scaffolding comes from a certain viewpoint on growth and learning. scaffolding is “a process that enables a child or novice to solve a task or achieve a goal beyond his unassisted efforts” (wood et al., 1976, p. 90). for example, similar to how a scaffold is removed from a structure during construction, a teacher or more experienced peer helps the student in their zpd as required and diminishes this help when it gets to be superfluous (balaban, 1995). scaffolding requires “the adult to control those elements of the task that are initially beyond the learner’s capability, thus permitting them to concentrate upon and complete those elements within their range of competence” (wood et al., 1976, p. 90). the theory was used to study the development of the students as consultations were conducted in a scaffolded method to assist them. vygotsky (1978) suggests that there are two parts to the developmental level of a learner: the “actual developmental level” and the “potential developmental level”. in this study, the zpd was helpful, as it is a theory used by the academic writing centre to structure its consultations. the student writes the first draft independently before consulting with the academic writing centre. the academic writing centre links and builds the prior knowledge of the students to determine their zpd. after the diagnosis, the academic writing centre, using the scaffolding approach, develops and assists the student with challenges identified from the first draft through a series of consultations for each student until the student reaches the final draft, ready 211 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 for submission. the theory is a valuable lens for the study as this longitudinal study will progress to 2nd, 3rd, and 4th-year levels with the same students in the same degree. objective of the study the study explored how the academic writing centre, as a collaborative scaffolded approach, could enhance the academic writing skills of first-year english second language (esl) students at a south african university. research methodology research approach and design the study used quantitative research to investigate the academic writing centre as a collaborative scaffolded approach to enhance the academic writing skills of first-year esl senior and further education and training (sen and fet) phase students at a south african university. quantitative research systematically investigates phenomena using statistical, mathematical, or computational methods (mohajan, 2020). creswell (2007) concurs that quantitative research also includes gathering information, typically numerical, utilising investigative techniques to establish compatibility with statistical data collection techniques. the study adopted a descriptive design that allowed the researchers to describe and interpret the status of the settings and conditions of the respondents (mertler, 2014) while in their natural settings. respondents the respondents in this study consisted of fifty first-year students (n=50; males=14, females=36) who were chosen from a south african university. they were registered for the senior and further education and training phases at the education faculty. thus, this study explored how the academic writing centre, as a collaborative scaffolded approach, could enhance the academic writing skills of first-year english second language (esl) students. respondents experienced academic writing challenges and were recommended to consult tutors at the academic writing centre for assistance in their academic writing. their demographical variables were considered in this study. data collection tool the data for this study were collected using an online questionnaire. the questionnaire was developed using google forms, with questions related to the study conducted with the sampled first-year esl students in the senior and fet, who visited the academic writing centre as detailed in the results section (see tables 1 to 6). the questions required students to share their views and any effects from the consultations with the academic writing centre. respondents answered a series of questions by indicating their responses by choosing, marking, writing a number, and checking a box (young, 2015). the questionnaire consisted of six sections. first, the demographic section dealt with the demographic details of respondents (e.g., gender, age, study years, study programs, phases, ethnicity, and home languages). the second section involved how the respondents rated their writing skills/abilities (for example, how would you 212 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 rate your writing skills/ability?). the following section measured the consultation duration per session at the academic writing centre (e.g., approximately how long was your consultation today?). the next section specified how the booking was made, whether they were individual or group consultations with the academic writing centre, followed by a section that gave details of the consultation (e.g., the consultant listened attentively to my concern). the last section measured the academic writing centre as a helpful and collaborative scaffolded approach for students (e.g., understanding the topic, purpose, or subject of my assignment). the internal consistency of this questionnaire was acceptable .70. data collection procedure this study used questionnaires for data collection from fifty first-year esl students from the senior and further education and training (sen and fet) phases in education. the questionnaires were administered through google forms. the google form questionnaire was made accessible to the whole class, and their participation in filling in the google form was voluntary. there was no penalty for students who did not respond to the questionnaire. some students who responded to the questionnaire had not attended the consultations with the writing centre and therefore were not included in the sample. some students did not respond to the questionnaire. the researchers used the five likert scale, where respondents could select a range of possible responses to a specific question or statement. these included strongly agree (sa), agree (a), neutral (n), disagree (d), and strongly disagree (sd). the respondents were informed that participation in the research was voluntary and that the information collected would be confidential and only be used for academic purposes. data analysis the data collected were analysed using descriptive analysis. according to kaliyadan & kulkarni (2019), descriptive analysis breaks a substantial quantity of data into its simplest form. descriptive research extracts and transforms the data sets into meaningful dimensions to uncover patterns and inform improved decision-making (loeb et al., 2017). the primary purpose of descriptive analysis is to offer a precis of the samples and measurements obtained in a study. the researchers analysed the data collected via spss 25, which involved descriptive statistics, including variable types (nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio), frequency, and percentage (kaur et al., 2018). the researchers performed the percentage to determine the demographic results of the respondents. it further assessed their rate of academic writing skills, duration in minutes for consultation per session, booking an individual or group session, details for consultation, and the academic writing centre as a helpful and collaborative scaffolded approach. limitations of the study the study was set and limited to fifty first-year esl bachelor of education (b.ed.) degree students, registered for the senior and further education and training (sen and fet) phases in one south african university. 213 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 results demographic results this section outlines the population statistics of the respondents who took part in the study. table 1 demographic results from respondents variables n % gender male 14 28 female 36 72 age 18-22 45 90 23-27 3 6 28-32 2 4 study years first year 50 100 study program b ed 50 100 phases senior & fet 50 100 ethnicity african 50 100 home languages isizulu 24 48 english 1 2 setswana 3 6 sesotho 11 22 tshivenda 1 2 xitsonga 1 2 isixhosa 9 18 total 50 100 notes: b ed: bachelor of education senior and fet: senior and further education and training table 1 above shows the population statistics of the respondents in the study. the table details the gender, age, study year, the program the students are enrolled in, the phase they are being trained for, and their various ethnicities. table 2 rate of academic writing skills statement rate of academic writing skills total very good average below average n % n % n % n % how would you rate your academic writing skills/ability? 7 14 39 78 4 8 50 10 0 214 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 the results in table 2 showed that thirty-nine (78%) respondents rated their academic writing skills as average after the consultation with the academic writing centre. this indicates that the consultation with the academic writing centre developed and improved the writing skills of the students, therefore benefitting them. table 3 duration in minutes for consultation per session statement duration in minutes for consultation per session total 5-10 10-15 15-20 20-30 30more n % n % n % n % n % n % approximately how long was your consultation today? 1 2 3 6 3 6 5 10 38 76 50 100 the results in table 3 indicated that 38 (76%) respondents spent more than 30 minutes per consultation session at the academic writing centre. this means that most of the students required more time and assistance from the consultants during each consultation session they attended. table 4 booking an individual or group session statement booking total individual group n % n % n % did you book an individual or group session? 46 92 4 8 50 100 the results in table 4 showed that forty-six (92%) of the respondents booked an individual consultation for their academic writing at the academic writing centre, while only four (8%) applied in a group. this means many students preferred and required individual attention and assistance from the academic writing centre consultants instead of being assisted in a group. table 5 details of the consultation statements details of the consultations total sd d n a sa n % n % n % n % n % n % the consultant listened attentively to my concerns 1 2 0 0 4 8 15 30 30 60 50 100 the consultant seemed 1 2 0 0 3 6 13 26 33 66 50 100 215 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 friendly the consultant explained concepts clearly 1 2 0 0 5 10 19 38 25 50 50 100 the advice my consultant gave me was very useful 0 0 2 4 8 18 36 27 54 50 100 i am more confident in my ability to write a strong essay assignment now than i was before the consultation 0 0 2 0 7 14 26 52 16 32 50 100 i think my paper improved because of the consultation 0 0 0 0 9 18 25 50 16 32 50 100 i plan to return for another write site consultation 0 0 1 2 2 4 21 42 26 52 50 100 do you think the involvement of your module lecturer in the project motivated you to approach the write site? 0 0 1 2 3 6 20 40 26 52 50 100 the descriptive results in table 5 showed that thirty-one (60%) of the respondents strongly agreed that consultants at the academic writing centre listened attentively to their concerns, which could develop their academic writing skills. the results in the same table revealed that thirty-three (66%) respondents strongly agreed that consultants were friendly during the consultation, and twenty-five (50%) respondents strongly agreed that consultants explained concepts clearly. the results further indicated that twenty-seven (54%) respondents strongly agreed that the consultants gave students beneficial advice. the results showed that twenty-six (52%) of the respondents agreed that they felt more confident in writing essay assignments than before the consultation. twenty-five (50%) respondents agreed that their essays improved after the consultation at the academic writing centre and twenty-six (52%) strongly agreed that they would return for another consultation at the academic writing centre. the results showed that twenty-six (52%) respondents felt that the lecturer’s involvement could motivate them to approach the academic writing centre. table 6 academic writing centre as a helpful and collaborative scaffolded approach for students statements responses total no % yes % n % understand the topic, purpose, or subject of my essay assignment 10 20 40 80 50 100 216 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 brainstorm ideas on the topic 19 38 31 62 50 100 develop a thesis statement and supporting evidence for the argument(s) in my essay assignments 20 40 30 60 50 100 follow the correct structure for my essay assignments 13 26 37 74 50 100 organise and link my ideas logically 24 48 26 52 50 100 write well-formulated paragraphs 18 36 32 64 50 100 find and correct language mistakes in my sentences 22 44 28 56 50 100 reference my sources effectively and accurately 11 22 39 78 50 100 the study in table 6 revealed that the academic writing centre could be a helpful and collaborative scaffolded approach for students developing academic writing abilities. the results indicated that 40 (80%) respondents understood the topic, purpose, and subject of their essay assignment, and thirty-one (62%) respondents agreed that this approach could help them brainstorm ideas about the topics of their assignments. thirty (60%) respondents reported that this approach allowed them to develop a thesis statement and supporting evidence for the arguments in their essay assignments. thirty-seven (74%) respondents confirmed that this approach followed the correct structure for their essay assignments. only twenty-six (52%) respondents declared that this approach helped them organise and link their ideas logically to essay assignments. thirty-two (64%) respondents mentioned that this approach assisted them in writing well-formulated paragraphs, and twenty-eight (56%) respondents declared that they discovered their writing mistakes in their sentences while writing their essays. thirty-nine (78%) respondents highlighted that this approach assisted them in referencing their sources effectively and accurately in their essay assignments. discussion of findings the findings revealed that the academic writing skills of most respondents were rated average after they consulted with the academic writing centre and mostly spent their time consulting on their writing skills per session. the findings indicated that students needed more assistance in each consultation as they struggled when they entered higher education to deal with institutional literacy practices and disciplinary discourses in their academic writing. these results were consistent with scholars who pointed out that students enter higher education with weak literacy skills and struggle to cope with academic writing, such as institutional literacy practices and disciplinary discourses (pineteh, 2014). these findings corroborated the literature, which highlighted that diverse linguistic and cultural, familial, and circumstantial experiences, which conditioned their language and cultural practices, could be factors that influence their academic writing skills at the university (bernardo-hinesley, 2020). 217 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 the findings revealed that almost all the respondents booked individual consultations for their academic writing sessions at the academic writing centre. this indicates that, as the students are required to use and cognize precise scientific terminology, specific sentence structures, and different types of organizational structures when writing scientific texts (garrone-shufran, 2021), cultural differences and social practices play a significant role in students’ academic writing and pose a challenge, especially for esl students. the biographical details of the participants in the study also revealed that almost all the students are students whose mother tongue of their home language is not english. further attested by garroneshufran (2021) these are also the students who are coming from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and diversified cultural and ethnic groups. students who have learned english as a second or first additional language, mostly from rural areas, are affected to a greater extent. as has been long highlighted by lea and street (1998) that the difficulties that many students encounter in academic writing and discourse when entering higher education, specify that students from minority community backgrounds may be more likely to experience such difficulties to a larger extent than others. morales & bardo (2020) contend that the teachers who are teaching these students at the school level tend to come from middle-class, academically literate backgrounds and may not be trained in such skills. the biographical results from respondents in the study also revealed that all the students are more fluent in their home languages, which is not english, a medium of instruction in south african higher education. scholars supported the finding that students from rural areas, lower socioeconomic backgrounds, and diversified cultural and ethnic groups have learnt english as a second or first additional language and encountered difficulties in academic writing and discourse when entering higher education (fesi & mncube, 2021; morales & bardo, 2020; garrone-shufran, 2021). the findings showed that more than half of the respondents strongly agreed that consultants at the academic writing centre were helpful. this is because tutors listened attentively to their concerns. they were friendly and explained to the students how to structure their work, and these sessions were practical and developed their academic writing skills. they felt more confident, and their writing of essay assignments had improved since the consultations at the academic writing centre. as the students attested in their responses, most strongly agreed that they were willing to return for another consultation at the academic writing centre. defazio et al. (2010) encourage the fundamental point of developing students into good communicators and critical writers. most students accredited the academic writing centre with the skills they gained from the consultations. they aimed to develop students to write and critically analyse their work independently. the findings suggested that half of the respondents acknowledged that the involvement of their lecturer in the process motivated them. this meant that the collaboration and participation of the lecturer with the academic writing centre played an essential role in encouraging the students to book consultations with the academic writing centre, which in turn benefited them. the council on higher education 218 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 (2014) emphasises the importance of ensuring that academic support programmes such as lectures and writing centres are in place for the benefit of students. the findings revealed that the academic writing centre could be considered a collaborative scaffolded approach for students to develop their writing skills at a south african university. such collaborations may be a means of assisting in achieving the vision of education for sustainable development, which, according to sung and choi (2022), provides everyone the chance to access the knowledge and data necessary for a social, economic, and environmentally sustainable future, foster critical and creative thinking through a thoroughly interdisciplinary approach, and give the next generation a sense of the future. most respondents understood the content, coherence, topic, purpose, and subject of their essay assignments. this approach brainstormed ideas and allowed them to develop a thesis statement and supporting evidence for the arguments in their essays. this approach followed the correct structure for their essay assignments and helped them logically organize and link their ideas. it assisted them in writing well-formulated paragraphs, and to discover their writing mistakes in their sentences while writing their essays. consequently, the scaffolding assistance provided by the writing centre assisted the students in using and cognising precise scientific terminology, specific sentence structures, and different types of organisational structures when reading and writing scientific texts (garrone-shufran, 2021). this approach helped them reference their sources effectively and accurately in their essays. the data also indicated that the scaffolding approach of the academic writing centre enabled students as novices to develop and achieve beyond their unassisted efforts (wood et al., 1976). as purported by garrone-shufran (2021), assistance with academic writing skills is not only for students to meet the requirements at the university level but is also part of a cycle of developing their skills and knowledge of academic writing as a preservice teacher to practically apply in teaching in schools. the academic writing centre approach aligns with vygotsky’s (1978) theory that students require to develop from their “actual developmental level” to the “potential developmental level” of performance (vygotsky, 1978) by having an adult handle the parts of the work that are initially out of the learner's scope, leaving space for growth. conclusion in conclusion, data overtly indicated that esl students experience challenges with academic writing at the university level. therefore, favourable environments that allow them to negotiate the meaning and understanding of their assessment, such as writing centres, benefit their development. in addition, the collaborative strategy between the lecturer and the academic writing centre played an important role in negotiating the effectiveness of the consultations of students with the academic writing centre. writing centres and lecturers are essential tools that can assist students in connecting and socialising the link between entry and the discourse of university subjects and disciplines. more studies on collaborative strategies that can be used to enhance academic writing for esl students when entering the university level need to be 219 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 206-222 explored further. the collaboration between the lecturer and the writing centre played a role in giving students a reason to approach the writing centre and receive assistance and encouraged revisits to the centre in the future. the study recommends further exploring writing centres and lecturers as essential tools that can assist students in connecting and socialising the link between entry and the discourse of university subjects. references ajani, o. a., & gamede, b. t. 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(2020). teaching the climate crisis: existential considerations. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(1), 129145. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.8 abstract it is urgent that educators in social studies and science (among other disciplines) consider the ethical imperative of teaching the climate crisis—the future is at stake. this article considers a barrier to teaching this contentious topic effectively: existential threat. through the lens of terror management theory, it becomes clear that climate catastrophe is an understandably fraught topic as it can serve as a reminder of death in two ways. as will be explained in this article, simultaneously such discussions can elicit not only mortality salience from considering the necrocene produced by climate catastrophe, but also existential anxiety arising from worldview threat. this threat can occur when western assumptions are called into question as well as when there is disagreement between those with any worldviews that differ. after summarizing relevant aspects of terror management theory and analyzing the teaching of the climate crisis as an existential affair, specific strategies to help manage this situation (in and out of the classroom) are explored: providing conceptual tools, narrating cascading emotions, carefully using humor to diffuse anxiety, employing language and phrasing that does not overgeneralize divergent groups, and priming ideas of tolerance and even nurturance of difference. keywords education; curriculum studies; climate change; science education; social studies education, terror management theory. 10.46303/jcsr.02.01.8 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.8 130 introduction mass extinctions, ocean acidification, declining air quality, rising tides, more frequent catastrophic storms, and other manifestations of climate catastrophe are direct threats to many entities, including humans. even the best-case scenario at this point is catastrophic (wallacewells, 2019). furthermore, as climate refugees are forced from their land, some of those in power seek to close borders and even kill “what one hates or fears” through the “building of walls and closing of hearts” while others are “offering sanctuary, holding hands with the homeless, feeding the hungry, crossing walls and borders both literal and metaphorical” (seidel, 2016, p. 63). as educators engage with this issue in the sciences and social studies (among other contexts), it is vital that they attend to the exacerbated emotional terrain that, if left unattended, can lead to the closed hearts that seidel (2016) mentioned. an aspect of the emotional component of learning about the climate crisis is linked to existential fear—this crisis reminds us1 that we, as humans, are vulnerable and can trigger a cascade of reactions related to our defenses against feeling that vulnerability. a strange proposition for many people is that conscious and unconscious fears of death affect behavior, and yet hundreds of experiments in social psychology reveal this situation to be the case (pyszczynski, solomon, & greenberg., 2015). ernest becker (1973, 1975) claimed that humans fear death, and such fear is the root of a lot of defensive behavior; for example, humans cling to what makes them feel more immortal (e.g., cultural worldviews—shared, symbolic conceptions of reality that infuse human existence with a sense of meaning and significance). terror management theory (tmt) was developed to test those assumptions (greenberg, pyszczynski, & solomon, 1986). from a tmt perspective, talking about the climate crisis is fraught psychologically because it presents two types of existential threat, a direct reminder of death and an indirect one via worldview threat. as will be further explained later in this article, engagements with the climate crisis remind humans of the inevitability of death; furthermore, people can also experience worldview threat (i.e., when our worldviews’ ability to protect against death anxiety is thwarted) when encountering others with opposing beliefs. as such, educators can engage with strategies derived from tmt research to mitigate, or perhaps thwart, barriers to teaching the climate crisis that arise from implicit and explicit fears of death. but first, it is important to consider the thoughtful work already being done in the field of climate crisis teaching. 1 it is intentional that i use the first person here and in a select few other places in this article. although traditional academic writing tends to avoid this informality, part of the point here is to foster a very real sense of personal implication. furthermore, i cannot pretend that i am a neutral observer of human behavior; instead, i seek to keep my commitments in perspective in the sense of donna haraway’s (1988) situated knowledges (see also lang, 2011). 131 the emotional terrain of teaching the climate crisis educators can feel that teaching the climate crisis is imbued with difficulty. one challenge is that the scope of changes in earth’s climate is beyond what a human can glean from personal experience. this problem is further exacerbated by the fact that “personal experience is far more likely to capture a person’s attention, and its impact dominates the often far more reliable and diagnostic statistical information” and that some fail to “differentiate very strictly between climate (the statistical expectation) and weather (what we get)” (weber, 2010, p. 333). furthermore, familiarity with the risks of climate change “unless accompanied by alarmingly large negative consequences may actually lead to smaller rather than larger perceptions of its riskiness” (weber, 2010, p. 337). because of humans’ predilection for the status quo, many are reluctant to change their ways. what is familiar to us isn’t that bad unless the real consequences are clear, and, yet, humans are psychologically inclined to avoid or defend against such affectively difficult knowledge. as already explicated by scholars like h. james garrett (2017), environmental issues are “wrapped in difficult knowledge that makes critical engagement an overwhelming task” (kissling & bell, 2020, p. 6). difficult knowledge in this context refers to the conceptual frame developed by deborah britzman. in 1998, the term represented how teachers and students mourn historical events (war, slavery, genocide, famines, etc.) or social hatred (bigotry, injustice, etc.) that reveal suffering to be caused by human indifference or even disdain for life (britzman, 1998). more recently, britzman (2013) has considered how educators might symbolize a variety of challenging emotions in a range of contexts: “the pushes, pulls, and emotional boundaries of learning” (p. 101). difficult knowledge is not conceptually difficult, but rather is emotionally charged, and indeed the climate crisis embodies this territory. garrett (2019) wrote about his experience reading david wallace-wells’ (2019) book on climate catastrophe: we are invited to confront a future in which there is no possibility of a continuation of the kind of stability upon which human beings evolved and in which human civilization has operated to this point. reading the book is a confrontation with existential dread and a sobering encounter with the reality that we are likely past the point of no return. (p. 612) in this way, difficult knowledge recognizes how such encounters can provoke a “sense of crisis, burden, discomfort, or trauma” (garrett, 2019, p. 612). given that the climate crisis is a direct reminder of the finite nature of human existence, wrapped in other threatening knowledge, educators might benefit from considering a number of conceptual tools to help them in their teaching. as will be explained below, terror management theory (tmt) is a framework from which educators can develop tools. 132 terror management theory according to tmt, a direct reminder of death affects our actions and opinions (e.g., greenberg, porteus, simon, pyszczynski, & solomon, 1995; mcgregor et al., 1998; solomon, greenberg, & pyszczynski, 2015), whether that be an overt reminder (e.g., writing about death), something more subtle (e.g., being interviewed in front of a funeral parlor), or even a subliminal message (e.g., the word “death” quickly flashed on a computer screen). humans try to devise ways of “transcending the world of flesh and blood… by devising an ‘invisible project’ that would assure [our] immortality” (becker, 1975, p. 63). such quests for permanence and meaning can take a variety of forms (e.g., romantic relationships, see mikulincer, florian, & hirschberger, 2003), but the main sources are cultural worldviews (i.e., constructed symbolic conceptions of reality shared by a group) and the self-esteem derived from being a valued member among others who share the same worldview (schimel, hayes, & sharp, 2018). for over 30 years, there have been more than 500 experiments in divergent countries, revealing various effects of “mortality salience” as well as how “worldview threat” produces the same effects because barriers against impermanence have been thwarted (pyszczynski et al., 2015). mortality salience experiments testing the mortality salience hypothesis have revealed that reminding people of death temporarily increases their need for protective psychological structures, such as cultural worldviews. support for this hypothesis has been obtained in divergent geographical and cultural contexts (e.g., canada, china, germany, india, iran, italy, israel, japan, united states). substantial bodies of evidence have found these effects to be specific to heightened accessibility of death-related thought and different from the effects of thinking of other aversive topics (e.g., uncertainty, social exclusion, intense physical pain, a looming exam). a meta-analysis of empirical studies has shown that the mortality salience hypothesis is a strong one according to the standards of social psychology (burke, martens, & faucher, 2010). one of the first studies testing the mortality salience hypothesis was done with municipal court judges in the city of tucson, arizona. the assumption was that judges value adherence to laws as a key element of their worldview, and so a reminder of death might lead them to punish transgressors more than they might without a reminder of death. in this study, rosenblatt and colleagues (1989) had judges review a case brief for a prostitution charge against a sex worker, and then suggest a bond amount for the accused after writing about their own death (versus a controlled condition in which they did not write about their death). judges who were reminded of their own death reacted more harshly towards the sex workers; they suggested a much higher bond for the accused. judges who were not reminded of death suggested an average bond of only $50 while those who had written about their death set an average bond of $455. heightened mortality salience can affect people in a variety of ways. in addition to hunkering down in their worldviews, as seen in the rosenblatt et al. (1989) study, those in a 133 state of mortality salience might do such things as protect the symbols that represent their most cherished beliefs (e.g., greenberg et al., 1995) or behave more recklessly (taubman-ben ari & findler, 2010). in the political realm, they might become more drawn to charismatic leaders who defend their beliefs (e.g., cohen, solomon, & kaplan, 2017). reminders of death increase prejudice, including religious (greenberg et al., 1990) as well as national and racial (e.g., greenberg, schimel, martens, solomon, & pyszczynski, 2001), and increases aggression against worldview violators (e.g., hirschberger et al., 2016; mcgregor et al., 1998; pyszczynski, abdollahi, solomon, greenberg, cohen, & weise, 2006). reminders of death can produce troubling situations, and when that situation is the climate crisis, such reminders permeate the educational milieu like the very air we breathe. worldview threat worldviews provide literal immortality by explaining how individuals might endure past the death of their physical bodies (e.g., an afterlife, reincarnation, or the recycling of the atoms in the body). worldviews can also help people achieve symbolic immortality by being part of something larger than themselves. furthermore, when people achieve what their culture values, they feel that they are significant (i.e., gain self-esteem) (solomon, greenberg, & pyszczynski, 1991). because worldviews are a buffer against existential fear, worldview threat produces death-thought accessibility (i.e., death is more on your mind, conscious or unconsciously), and thus defensive behavior, including prejudicial behavior (e.g., greenberg et al., 2001; hayes, schimel, arndt, & faucher, 2010; schimel, hayes, williams, & jahrig, 2007). worldview threat occurs because an attack on one’s worldview (including the self-esteem derived from that worldview) triggers a sense (often unconscious) that our particular worldview might be arbitrary or incorrect, and thus for a moment people can lose their shield against their fears of impermanence and react defensively, at times in hurtful ways. in a terrifying demonstration of this process, hayes, schimel, and williams (2008) exposed christian participants to a worldview-threatening article depicting the rise of islam in bethlehem (versus a control condition where they read about the aurora borealis). effects were shown in the experimental condition, as expected (e.g., increased death-thought accessibility and worldview defense), but when half of these participants also read additional information regarding a plane crash that killed more than a hundred muslims, results showed that the perceived deaths of the experimental group eliminated the threat: their death-thought accessibility and worldview defense remained relatively low. in other words, ordinary humans (i.e., not sociopaths) can be reassured by the elimination of an opposing group if that group has provoked worldview threat. tmt research highlights how important it is to become aware of disturbing psychological processes, such as those demonstrated by hayes et al. (2008). the hope, then, is to prevent, 134 alter, or otherwise thwart defensive reactions that are potentially harmful. but before examining such implications, a consideration of the existential elements inherent in the specific context of teaching the climate crisis is needed. the climate crisis and existential threat although anxiety and worry often have negative consequences, they can be a precursor to deliberation and helpful action if people can manage to cope with and regulate their emotions “at an individual level and in social processes” (ojala, 2016, p. 45. see also ojala, 2013). the overarching goal here, then, is to help educators identify, and thus manage, the existential anxieties their students might experience (and their own), and thus increase the chances of having deliberative conversations instead of angry arguments. recognizing the interplay of fears of death and how people relate to each other is helpful as humans seek more harmonious ways of being together on this planet. drawing from tmt, engaging with the climate crisis in classrooms taps into multiple (and compounding) sources of existential anxiety. such discussions can elicit both mortality salience and worldview threat, the latter of which can occur when western culture is called into question as well as when there is disagreement between those with different perspectives. with such a conceptual framework, it is understandable that teaching the climate crisis is so fraught with difficulty. mortality salience and the climate crisis the climate crisis is terrifying by the very nature of its existence. it demands that humans recognize the real threat of death as a result of environmental devastation and related multispecies extinctions. our present time can be conceptualized as a necrocene (mcbrien, 2016), an era of death and destruction of life itself—through climate-related extinction, natural disasters, and human aggression—as well as the eradication of cultures through forced assimilation: this becoming extinction is not simply the biological process of species extinction. it is also the extinguishing of cultures and languages, either through force or assimilation; it is the extermination of peoples, either through labor or deliberate murder; it is the extinction of the earth [sic] in the depletion [of] fossil fuels, rare earth minerals, even the chemical element helium; it is ocean acidification and eutrophication, deforestation and desertification, melting ice sheets and rising sea levels; the great pacific garbage patch and nuclear waste entombment… (pp. 116-117) thus, individuals likely experience anxiety about physical and symbolic (e.g., cultural) deaths as well as the potential annihilation of humans as a species. 135 worldview threat and western culture teaching potentially worldview-threatening curriculum can be troubling and troublesome. boler (2014) aptly identified the angry responses to discussions of issues such as structural oppression as indicators of “someone who is struggling to maintain his or her identity” (p. 27), and, indeed, a tmt analysis of the educational situation of worldview threat supports this interpretation. students and teachers may experience worldview threat from cultural contexts. conversations about the climate crisis can be a reminder that the dominant assumptions in places like canada and the united states about ways of knowing and being in the world are only one of many (e.g., in contrast with worldviews of indigenous groups). even more threatening is the idea that the assumptions that dominate in western societies are perhaps not viable in the long term given the context of climate catastrophe. as kissling and bell (2020) aptly noted, conceptualizations of citizenship and community in social studies (and arguably beyond) desperately need to expand into a “land ethic” (p. 3). building off the thoughtful work of aldo leopold (1949/1966), kissling and bell (2020) have called for a recognition of communities that include entities like soil and water. such a disposition, of course, hearkens to the sort of webbed kinship often articulated as “all my relations,” a phrase and sensibility that permeates a variety of indigenous traditions in north america (king, 1994) and likely elsewhere. humans were not destined to exploit the planet: “ecocidal logics that now govern our world are not inevitable or ‘human nature’, but are the result of a series of decisions that have their origins and reverberations in colonization” (davis & todd, 2017, p. 763). this is a vital point because many humans hope for (and seek) a technological fix for climate catastrophe—carbon capture, and so on—but many of these do not address the underlying problems arising from worldviews (e.g., economies based on perpetual growth, land as containing resources for exploitation), and thus such responses are incomplete at best, and at worst would perpetuate the problem in a different way. the maltreatment of the planet has gone hand-in-hand with numerous ethnoracist assumptions and procedures and detrimental effects of capitalism such as monocrop farming, which is why a growing number of scholars and activists are using the term plantationocene (e.g., ishikawa, 2019). terms such as plantationocene are helpful, in part, because they do not shy away from root causes of the present predicament. such contexts are important because some settler educators avoid teaching about their colonial contexts, and this avoidance extends to a lack of acknowledgement regarding how colonial logics have created the climate crisis (korteweg & root, 2016). a more “ecological worldview” (whether indigenous or not) runs contrary to the more dominant anthropo/euro/centric worldviews that permeate western societies (martusewicz, edmundson, & lupinacci, 2015, p. 11; see also kissling & bell, 2020). many western worldviews, housed in enlightenment thinking, see a particular manifestation of the human—the western, rational, bourgeois “man” (wynter, 2003)—as above other entities. man is interpreted as separate from other animals as well as other entities on the planet, rather than intertwined and 136 interdependent. with such a framing, land becomes a resource for man’s use, and thus the sort of exploitation of land that created the climate crisis to occur. furthermore, manifestations of this worldview can impede action: “individualism, competition, and consumerist agendas make education about necessary collective action challenging” (berger, gerum, & moon, 2015, p. 156. see also levinson, 2012). humans’ lack of control to stop climate catastrophe destabilizes assumptions that humans are exempt from relationality with the rest of the planet. some humans fail to see themselves as interconnected beings on this planet, and thus they can suffer from an “environmental neurosis, rooted in deep-seated annihilation anxiety resulting from our denial of our real dependence on nature and based on the illusion of our own autonomy” (weintrobe, 2012, p. 41; see also välimäki & lehtonen, 2009). perhaps it is no wonder, then, that “[b]ecause of our profound dependence on nature, climate change shakes the security of the human sense of being at a very basic level” (lehtonen & välimäki, 2012, p. 49). from a tmt perspective, it is important to recognize the worldview threat that may be produced from such discussions that can occur within classrooms. worldview threat and diverging perspectives in addition to a broad threat to western worldviews, individual level worldview threat can occur when classmates talking about the climate crisis have different perspectives from each other. political polarization, for example, can exacerbate an already tense situation within and beyond the classroom. differing perspectives in relation to perceptions of the climate crisis can produce worldview threat when these diverging viewpoints collide. differences in worldview entail different perceptions of the risks associated with climate change, such as the extent to which certain industries and technologies are opportunities versus threats (weber, 2010; see also dake, 1991; o’connor, bord, & fisher, 1998, 1999). anyone who challenges someone’s worldview, directly or indirectly, can heighten the experience of existential terror. such a threat may be an explicit disagreement, but even the presence of a divergent perspective (without a direct challenge) can have the effect of lowering our worldview’s ability to shield against the impermanence of death (for a more robust discussion of worldview threat in educational contexts, please see van kessel, den heyer, & schimel, 2019). defensive moves in response to direct (i.e., mortality salience) or indirect (e.g., worldview threat) existential threat, there are a variety of ways humans can react. some are subtle, such as a decrease in reading comprehension (williams, schimel, hayes, & faucher, 2012) or choosing to sit more closely to those assumed to have shared cultural beliefs and farther away from those who do not (ochsmann & mathy, 1994). in social studies, for example, teachers might avoid the topic of climate crisis because they see it as science (e.g., “that is an area i leave for the science 137 teacher on my academic team” as quoted in kissling & bell, 2020, p. 15), while science teachers might see the topic as more in the domain of social studies due to the links to economic and social policy. similar avoidance behavior in terms of (a supposed lack of) expertise can be seen in statements such as, “i don’t know many details about the reasons for the scientific consensus toward climate change, or the benefits and challenges with regard to fracking, so i am less comfortable planning around these topics” (quoted in kissling & bell, 2020, p. 15). but, teachers are not (and cannot be) experts in everything they teach, and too often teachers might use a lack of qualifications to excuse themselves from worldview threatening information and not from other (non-threatening) content; see, for example, dwayne donald’s (2009) work on cultural disqualification arguments regarding teaching indigenous content and methods. other defensive compensatory reactions can be more extreme, and tmt theorists have identified four categories (solomon et al., 2015). the first is derogation—dismissing other views as inferior—and includes insulting the other person/group, such as calling a land defender or an oilfield worker an offensive name (or another sort of ad hominem attack). the second is assimilation—validating your own view by absorbing others—such as virulent attempts to “convert” the other to your view (either as a climate activist or a climate change denier). the third is annihilation—wreaking violence against (or even seeking to eliminate) those with the other worldview, as well as the expression of support for such annihilation (e.g., sexually violent bumper stickers aimed at greta thunberg, see antoneshyn, 2020). the fourth defensive reaction is accommodation—the appropriation of aspects of an opposing worldview to diffuse the perceived threat, such as those who recognize the changes in the global climate but attribute it to “normal” climate cycles instead of a crisis by human means. given these defensive moves, it is not surprising that educators fear teaching about the climate crisis: “concerns were noted across the teachers about hostile responses of students, parents, colleagues, administrators, lawmakers, media members, and the general public” (kissling & bell, 2020, p. 16). pedagogical strategies given that the climate crisis can elicit unhelpful defensive moves as a shield from affectively difficult knowledge, educators need to find ways to help students (and themselves) dwell in this discomfort long enough to think through the problems and take appropriate action. a goal of a tmt-informed approach is to encourage a sort of “pedagogy of discomfort” where both educators and students are called upon to analyze critically their “cherished beliefs and assumptions” and provide “a means of creating ‘space’” instead of rigidly adhering to habit (boler, 2014, pp. 27-28). pedagogical strategies derived from tmt to counteract defensive compensatory reactions include: providing conceptual tools, narrating cascading emotions, carefully using humor to 138 diffuse anxiety, employing language and phrasing that does not overgeneralize divergent groups, and priming the idea of tolerance. providing conceptual tools teaching tmt directly or indirectly helps students to name the emotional terrain educators are asking them to navigate. although this article engages with tmt specifically, educators could, of course, consider other ways that “locate, acknowledge, and express the range of complex emotions,” such as lisa korteweg and emily root’s (2016) “affective education of reconciliation” (p. 185). regardless of the specific vocabulary used, it is important to acknowledge the existential element. these tools are ideally introduced at the beginning of a course. then, these concepts can be reiterated whenever the class is going to be engaging with worldview threatening information such as challenges to western epistemologies, particularly worldviews of local indigenous peoples and land defenders (e.g., korteweg & root, 2016). perhaps tmt as a conceptual tool might help teachers and students (as humans) embrace or at least accept their existential situation. as solomon et al. (2015) noted, humans might manage their existential fear if they “monitor and alter” unhelpful reactions, and thus be “more self-determined in the choices [they] make and the actions [they] take” (p. 225). narrating cascading emotions educators can model their own struggles with difficult emotions with their students (garrett, 2017) in addition to having conversations about defensive reactions. this situation can be educative in itself. teachers can be open with their students, letting them know about their own uncertainties, strong feelings, and frustrations. this sensitivity to students’ as well as their own emotions can allow educators to speak directly to what might emerge organically within the context of a lesson. such ‘in the moment’ emotional modeling creates space for students to feel, express, name, and work through the difficult emotions that are felt, and important relational connections were drawn that allowed for students to have their feelings named, normalized, and validated. the disruption of worldviews may indeed be a requirement in order to wrestle with the difficult emotions that lay underneath the study of the climate crisis. to have appropriate emotional role modeling done through a skilled teacher creates a safer space for this disruption, and the important resulting consequences, to occur. employing humor carefully humor is a tactic to deal with existential anxiety (elgee, 2003). in my own teaching, i often use internet memes (i.e., popular image macros annotated that have traction on social media) for a cheap laugh to diffuse tension. much care is needed when employing humor in the context of mortality salience—one must not be glib about someone else’s death. instead, educators could consider how to use humor around associated issues instead of death itself. in other words, i would not make light of species or populations dying, but i might use humor in other situations 139 (e.g., about a breakdown in communication or a counterintuitive policy). another note of caution is also needed: if one includes humor that derogates someone or their worldview, then the prompt that was intended to diffuse anxiety might inadvertently create more via worldview threat. refraining from overgeneralization following the wisdom of kent den heyer (2018), i try to avoid generalizations about groups, such as replacing “the” with a qualifier (i use “some but not all”). for example, i would never say, "the workers on the oilfields don't care about the environment.” this statement in itself is neither true nor fair. instead i might say “some but not all folks in the oil industry ignore climate catastrophe, while others are taking it seriously, and many of these folks have different ideas about their relationship to land and the environment.” and, conversely, it is not fair to say that “climate activists and land defenders want oilfield workers and their families to starve when no one has work.” instead, “some but not all activists may not care about economic concerns, but many do, and many have plans to protect families from the economic hardships from moving away from oil production.” the key is not to essentialize any group. although perhaps this technique sounds wordy and cumbersome, i have found that students adjust quickly and then the more nuanced phrasing flows naturally. priming the idea of tolerance there is converging evidence that anxiety-induced intolerance can be countered by fostering and rewarding tolerance as an aspect of the cultural worldview. for this to happen, educators need to make tolerance both a value and a highly accessible option (greenberg, simon, pyszczynski, solomon, & chatel, 1992, p. 218; see vail, juhl, arndt, vess, routledge, & rutjens, 2012, for a review of supporting research). this research explains why some people seem to embrace different worldviews and cultures, even though humans all struggle with the same fears of mortality. if tolerance (or better still, acceptance and nurturance) of difference is made psychologically accessible, then people might be able to dialogue about this tough issue. canada, the united states, and many other countries are places that claim to be democracies, and so of course there is going to be disagreement on issues because that is inherent in a democratic system with multiple voices. perhaps educators can manage some of the deep existential roots of defensive and offensive behavior so that genuine conversations can happen. members of democratic societies desperately need thoughtful (and not defensive) dialogue to decide how to tackle the very real problem of climate catastrophe. 140 a concluding thought it is urgent for educators to manage the deep existential roots of the barriers to education and activism about the climate crisis, both their own and those of their students. as kissling and bell (2020) asserted: as we stare down worsening storms, droughts, and wildfires, the field of social studies education has an opportunity for change. first, the field must explicitly acknowledge the ecological crisis, calling out the political-but-not-scientific controversy that often surrounds it, and how the roots of the crisis are cultural and created by human living, particularly in highly-industrialized countries like the united states. 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(2003). unsettling the coloniality of being/power/truth/freedom: toward the human, after man, its overrepresentation—an argument. the new centennial review, 3, 257-337. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41949874 https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2019.1659416 https://www.doi.org/10.1002/wcc.41 http://doi.org/10.4324/9780203094402 https://www.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1849 http://www.jstor.org/stable/41949874 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 63-81 perceptions of academic resilience by senior phase learners and teachers from low socioeconomic schools motlalepule ruth mampane* * faculty of education, department of educational psychology, university of pretoria, pretoria, south africa email: ruth.mampane@up.ac.za article info received: july 31, 2022 accepted: november 14, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite mampane, m. r. (2023). perceptions of academic resilience by senior phase learners and teachers from low socioeconomic schools. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 63-81. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.6 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract this article reports on the perceptions of academic resilience of grade 8 and grade 9 learners and their teachers in low socioeconomic township schools. learners from township schools experience many risk factors that can impede their academic success and careers. a lack of resources is one of the risk factors experienced by the learners. during covid-19, where an online or hybrid learning model was relied on for teaching and learning, most township schools relied on the rotational learning model instead. the study’s main aim is to evaluate and understand the learners’ perceptions of their academic strengths, future aspirations and motivation, and to compare their perceptions with those that emerged from their teachers’ blind evaluations. the participants were teachers (n = 8) and learners (n = 12) from two purposively sampled township secondary schools. data-generation instruments included semi-structured interviews for learners and a self-constructed likert-type-scale questionnaire for teachers. content analysis was used to analyse the data. the findings suggest that risk factors to academic resilience exist within the family and the school environment. lack of parental support and school security, poor teacher-learner relationship and unemployment were frequently mentioned. however, factors that can enhance academic resilience were also identified within the family, school and community. risks and protective factors affecting learners’ immediate threats and needs were identified. access to technology and the need for technological advances were not identified as resources or risks. future research should examine the relationship between resilience, academic resilience, career aspirations and the role of technology in education. keywords academic resilience; relational; family support; future aspirations; secondary school, low socioeconomic schools. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.6 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.6 64 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 introduction learners from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds often find it difficult to succeed academically (sinay, 2018). they experience continual academic and social challenges in their academic, home and community environments (kader & abad, 2017). these challenges may put them at risk of poor academic achievement at school. academic resilience is a rare attribute that characterises learners who overcome multiple academic adversities. martin and marsh (2009, p. 353) define academic resilience as a “student's capacity to overcome acute or chronic adversities that are seen as major assaults on educational processes”. these authors confirm that there are risk factors in the education process. however, academic resilience is accounted for when an individual experiences academic success despite multiple risk factors. similarly, novotny (2011) and perez et al. (2009) define academic resilience as academic success and persistence, despite stressful events. academic resilience is a dynamic process that (by definition) acknowledges the existence of multiple risk factors. schools play a significant role in the academic achievement of learners. according to bayat et al. (2014), the quality of education in schools from a low socioeconomic background is poor. in south africa, these schools are mostly for black and coloured learners. the negative influence of low socioeconomic status on the quality of the education and academic achievement of learners in such contexts is well documented in the literature (adebola, 2021; bayat et al., 2014; crosnoe, 2009; lim et al., 2014; thrupp, 1998). a study by lim et al. (2014, p. 3) concluded that “academic school quality has a considerable differential effect on school completion for those who come from the lowest socioeconomic band” and “the quality and socioeconomic profile of schools matter with respect to academic outcomes” (lim et al., 2014, p. 8). thus, even though the quality of education for learners from low socioeconomic contexts matters a lot and should not be ignored, it is difficult to offer high-quality schooling when faced with limited resources and compounding adversities. to enhance access to education, the government funding model of south african schools is pro-poor, where poor learners receive a larger subsidy than their richer counterparts. hall and giese (2008) confirm that, even though the norms and standards for school fee exemptions and no-fee schools are state measures to redistribute resources and improve access to quality education, they achieve little success. these attempts are not sufficient to equalise resources between low socioeconomic schools and middle to higher socioeconomic schools. the most unequally distributed resources are human resources – mostly affecting teaching capacity – because salaries are not allocated on a pro-poor basis (hall & giese, 2008). the government of south africa introduced its school fee exemptions policy in the south african schools act of 1996, and outlined it in the regulations of 2006. the funding model divided schools into quintiles 1–5 (where 1 is lower and 5 higher). quintile 1–3 schools receive more funding from the government and are referred to as no fee-paying schools (dass & rinquest, 2017) or, in some instances, pay low school fees because they cater for learners from low socioeconomic family backgrounds. this puts more pressure on school resources because parents cannot afford high school fees, which creates more opportunities for high teacher: 65 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 learner ratios and the overcrowding of classrooms. furthermore, quintile 1–3 schools also cater for learners from informal housing settlements as a result of a lack of adequate housing facilities and high rates of unemployment. the school fees waiver for quintile 1–3 schools (and learners within these categories) is seen as financial support to parents and learners from such schools, as well as an incentive to encourage and improve school attendance, and protect parents and learners from the financial burden of school fees. although low socioeconomic schools are situated in low socioeconomic environments, learners from low socioeconomic contexts in south africa are free to attend other public schools (even those schools in quintiles 4–5), with the possibility of a school fee waiver if they qualify in terms of the policy. academic success is key to a successful future and the career aspirations of learners. however, exposure to multiple risk factors – including lack of access to educational resources and the possibility of receiving poor-quality education – exposes the learner to potential academic failure. academic resilience is important to learners from low socioeconomic backgrounds as it can enable them to achieve academic success. learners are considered to be academically resilient if they can maintain high levels of achievement, despite the stressful challenges they encounter in their developmental context (martin & marsh, 2006). gafoor and kottalil (2011) distinguish clearly between the concepts of being academically at-risk and academic resilience. academically at-risk learners are defined as those “facing problems in school-related aspects and manifest poor academic performance”, while academic resilience is shown by learners “who successfully respond to the risk conditions and demonstrate academic success” (gafoor & kattalil, 2011, p. 107). resilience literature shows that a supportive relationship with caring adults is a key resilience protective factor (masten, 2011; theron, 2012) and that resilience is an interactive and reciprocal process. theron and engelbrecht (2012, p. 265) agree that “responsive adults are synonymous with protective resources that buffer risk and enable prosocial development, provided that youth and adults engage in reciprocal, resilience-promoting transactions”. teachers are caring adults within the school system, who can significantly buffer academic risk factors and thus enhance the academic resilience of their learners. this article, therefore, reports on and highlights perceptions of the academic resilience of grade 8 and grade 9 learners and their teachers. sadly, with the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution and posthuman era, many schools in disadvantaged communities lack the resources to implement technology in their teaching and learning (oke & fernandes, 2020; skhephe & mantlana, 2021). the lack of implementation of technology in teaching and learning at the school level might further be affected by poor teacher training and lack of confidence in the use of e-learning, including poor network connectivity (hameed & hashim, 2022; mncube et al., 2019; moloi & mhlanga, 2021; moyo, 2022). teaching methodologies in disadvantaged schools were not adapted to include technological advances or advance the posthuman era. similarly, learners in this study have not 66 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 identified technology as a resource, or protective or risk factor in their academic performance. the disjuncture between the use and significance of technology in teaching and learning (especially smart mobile phones) and social media platforms requires more research as learners seem to have a dichotomous view of their use during class. a study by mncube et al. (2019) indicated that teachers rely more on traditional methods of teaching, reading from textbooks and writing on the board, rather than incorporating hybrid or e-learning methodologies, and thus enhancing posthuman teaching and learning methodologies. similarly, moyo (2022) indicates that posthuman technological advances can be enjoyed more if access to resources is enabled, especially in disadvantaged schools. thus, knowledge of risks and protective factors to learners’ academic success can help indicate how they can access resources that can advance their educational success. literature review on a low socioeconomic background and support low socioeconomic status and single motherhood were found to be important potential risks for developing children (crawford, 2006). single mothers often have the lowest-paying jobs and live in poor households. research indicates that most children from poor households develop behavioural problems that affect them academically and increase the likelihood of school dropout at an early age (crawford, 2006). although learners from low socioeconomic backgrounds tend to perform inadequately at school, literature shows that not all of them are academically unsuccessful (willis & hofmeyr, 2018). learners from low socioeconomic backgrounds have specific educational needs when compared to learners from higher socioeconomic backgrounds (sandoval-hernandez & cortes, 2012). willis and hofmeyr (2018) argue that poverty is a risk factor that jeopardises many learners’ academic and future prospects. youth in high-risk environments are labelled as high risk because of the possibility of developing behavioural problems due to their exposure to multiple risks in their developmental environment (abukari, 2010). socioeconomic status plays a significant role in shaping the academic prospects and future aspirations of adolescents. robinson and diale (2017) believe that socioeconomic status influences adolescents’ career aspirations. according to salgotra and roma (2018), socioeconomic status determines the quality of education a learner will receive and the kind of career for which the family can afford to pay. having high future aspirations can be complemented by improved achievement at school (khattab, 2018). although having a good parent-child relationship can be beneficial for a child’s academic performance, the family’s socioeconomic status also plays a definite role (khattab, 2018). parents will need to provide resources and skills to ensure they meet their child’s high future aspirations (khattab, 2018). a study by gore et al. (2015) indicates that learners from high socioeconomic status backgrounds tend to have higher aspirations than learners of lower socioeconomic status. the study found that even if learners from low socioeconomic backgrounds have high aspirations and gain entry to a university, financial burdens often emerge as a risk factor at university (gore et al., 2015). it is furthermore believed that parents’ educational level can serve as an inspiration 67 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 for young people (abiola, 2014). a study by willis and hofmeyr (2018) confirms that learners’ individual factors, such as their socio-emotional skills and environmental factors (e.g. time-ontask and the availability of texts [school resources]), emerged as strong correlates with academic resilience. therefore, this research must explore the perceptions of academic resilience of senior phase learners from low socioeconomic schools. the senior phase is critical because that is when learners choose the careers they wish to pursue, and need to follow the relevant stream in school (khattab, 2018). research by thompson (2018) indicated that learners from low socioeconomic backgrounds perform poorly compared to those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. this outcome is due to several factors, such as not having an academic-friendly environment at home or parents not being able to provide the resources for things such as schoolbooks for the child to succeed at school (thompson, 2018). another study by abdu-raheem (2015) indicates a correlation between parents’ educational level and the learner’s motivation in high school. family support is crucial for a child to perform well in school. a family can be supportive by assisting the child to complete their homework, motivating a positive attitude towards the teachers and school, and showing great interest in the child’s education (okten, 2016). regarding our understanding of what constitutes academic success or performing well in school, york et al. (2015, p. 5) define academic success as “academic achievement, attainment of learning objectives, acquisition of desired skills and competencies, satisfaction, persistence, and post-college performance”. most schools measure academic success in terms of promotion to the next grade. support is a complex construct. according to suldo et al. (2009), social support is a multidimensional construct that involves four types of support: emotional, instrumental, appraisal and informational. emotional support is defined by trust and love, and includes communications of empathy and care. instrumental support involves tangible assistance and presence such as one’s time, skills, services or even money when the child is in need. appraisal support refers to “providing evaluative feedback on behaviour, for instance, critical assessment (whether positive or negative) of the child’s performance and suggestions for improvement” (suldo et al., 2009, p. 68–69). informational support is characterised by providing guidance, advice or information that can help to solve a problem. within each context of child development (whether family, school, community or social), all forms of support are important. it is therefore not surprising that all four dimensions of support tend to be lumped into one definition of support. methodology a qualitative research methodology was adopted using complementary research methods, namely a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. according to creswell (2014), qualitative researchers view reality through multiple lenses and gather multiple forms of evidence. the study followed an interpretivist paradigm influenced by phenomenology (mack, 68 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 2010). an interpretive paradigm assumes multiple realities with the perception that a single phenomenon could have multiple interpretations. phenomenology, on the other hand, aims to describe research phenomena as they manifest to understand them while focusing on the subjective interpretation of human experiences (chan et al., 2016). the primary method of data collection was semi-structured interviews because they are known to generate rich, in-depth data from a relatively small sample of participants (creswell, 2014). twelve (n = 12) adolescents participated in these semi-structured interviews, while eight teachers (n = 8) completed a self-constructed survey questionnaire. subject teachers for the grade 8 and grade 9 learners from two quintiles 1–3 schools in the mamelodi township of pretoria, south africa, were requested to complete the questionnaire for the 12 learners selected for the interviews. the questionnaire required these teachers to evaluate the academic and social behaviour of the learners blindly, as well as confidentially. due to their being professionals and having knowledge of assessment, the teachers were requested to complete the questionnaire and allocate an average score (as a percentage) based on the overall performance of the learners’ school-related behaviour (mampane, 2010). it was assumed that teachers might lack knowledge of the learners’ coping skills and behaviour in the home and community environment, but that they would have the knowledge to assess the overt (and possibly covert) behaviour of the learners – especially concerning their academic performance. teachers used a likert-type-scale questionnaire (see table 1) to evaluate the academic resilience of learners. this learning behaviour scale, which was in english and consisted of 20 items in the form of a five-point likert-type scale, was developed to address the essential criteria of resilience (mampane, 2010). in most cases, two questions covered one criterion, some were designed in the negative to measure the consistency and dependability of the teachers’ answers to encourage objectivity and discourage adherence to a particular response style (terre blanche et al., 2006, p. 294). table 1 presents an example of one completed questionnaire of the 12 participants. the research question explored the following: what are the perceptions of academic resilience by senior phase learners and teachers from low socioeconomic schools? in the interviews, the learners were asked the question: if you have to give yourself an academic score (as a percentage) based on your overall performance, how would you score yourself? this information was important to measure the learners’ perceived academic performance. learners were interviewed and teachers were asked to respond to the questionnaire. ethical considerations permission to conduct the research was obtained from the provincial department of basic education, and ethical clearance was granted by the university before the initiation of the study. permission, in the form of informed consent and assent from participants, is key in social research, especially to gain clarity and confirm that there was no deception (braun & clarke, 2013; creswell, 2014). informed consent and assent demonstrate respect for the participants in the research. the following principles and ethical considerations were adhered to in the study: 69 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 confidentiality and anonymity, protection from harm, referral to a social worker for emotional support should that be needed, and the right of participants to withdraw at any stage of the research (creswell, 2014). theoretical perspective the 2008 academic resilience model of silas casillas and its four dimensions of academic resilience were used to gain insight into teachers’ and learners’ perceptions of academic resilience (sandoval-hernandez & cortes, 2012). since the original work of silas casillas was published in polish and thus inaccessible to me as a researcher, only secondary works were used to access the theory. the model explores factors that learners from adverse and detrimental developmental contexts employ to experience academic resilience. these factors were incorporated in the data-collection tools used in this study, i.e. the teachers’ questionnaire and the research question put to the learners during the interviews. the academic resilience model also borrows from bronfenbrenner’s systemic theory to group the data into the four dimensions of personal, family, school and community factors. according to sandoval-hernandez and cortes (2012), as well as shah and thomas (2016), the personal dimension, which constitutes self-confidence and effort or motivation, is essential for the process of resilience, and is mostly nourished and supported by the family dimension. similar to the family dimension, within the school dimension of resilience, the learner accesses emotional support from the teacher and peers (shah & thomas, 2016). these authors further confirm that educational resilience works because of the manifested determination of the individual, i.e. the personal dimension. research findings teachers were requested to use the likert-type scale to score learners in terms of their perceived academic behaviour at school. the teachers’ scores on the questionnaire, compared to the learners’ scores on the scales always and very often, were percentage-wise scored higher by teachers (80–70%) for the following questions (variables): 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, and 20 (see table 1). the rating sometimes was used mostly with questions 4, 13 and 17. the ratings rarely and never were selected for items 1, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 16 and 17, often for learners who were scored lower percentages by teachers (60–40%). 70 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 table 1: example of scoring the learning behaviour scale: teachers questions always very often sometim es rarely never 1. the learner is afraid to attempt new things. 1 2 3 4 5 2. the learner chooses positive role models. 5 4 3 2 1 3. the learner performs beyond what is expected, i.e. extends him or herself. 5 4 3 2 1 4. the learner has no adult support. 1 2 3 2 1 5. the learner is able to utilise support provided to him/her. 5 4 3 2 1 6. the learner does the work required independently. 5 4 3 2 1 7. the learner is unable to work well with other learners. 1 2 3 4 5 8. the learner likes to be in control of things. 5 4 3 2 1 9. the learner is not afraid to attempt new things. 5 4 3 2 1 10 the learner uses different strategies to reach a solution. 5 4 3 2 1 11 the learner is not performing to his/her full potential. 1 2 3 4 5 12 the learner gets support from home. 5 4 3 2 1 13 the learner is afraid to explore new opportunities. 1 2 3 4 5 14 the learner likes to succeed. 5 4 3 2 1 15 the learner lacks future aspirations 1 2 3 4 5 16 the learner lacks motivation. 1 2 3 4 5 17 the learner cannot be trusted by his peers. 1 2 3 4 5 18 the learner has a positive influence on others. 5 4 3 2 1 19 the learner shows potential for a bright future. 5 4 3 2 1 20 the learner has some guts. 5 4 3 2 1 71 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 teachers’ questionnaire scores were consistent with the overall percentage they gave learners. they also appeared to use the questionnaire items to motivate the score given (see table 2 for the academic resilience percentage teachers assigned to the learners). table 2 shows that teachers’ scores for academic resilience are dispersed over a range between 84 and 47%. learners 4 and 8 – both in grade 8, aged 13 and 14 years, respectively – were scored at 80% and 84%. these learners also scored themselves higher at 88% and 100%, both indicating that they receive support from family, teachers, friends and other adults in the community. four of the five learners (learners 3, 7, 9, 10 and 12), who were scored at 70+%, scored themselves 80+% (with learner 7 scoring 100%). the only exception was learner 12, who scored himself at 62%. all the learners indicated adult support and family support in their lives, with some also indicating school support. learner 12, who scored himself at 62% on academic performance, conceded to having academic problems. however, it seems the teacher saw the best in the learner because of the 77% given to him. the teachers’ highest ranking was 84% compared to the learners’ 100%, while the lowest ranking was 47%, compared to the learners’ 62%. two learners (learners 2 and 6) received a score of 60+% for academic resilience from teachers. however, since learner 2 saw herself as academically successful and resourceful, with support from family, friends and teachers, she scored herself at 100% for academic resilience. learner 6 scored himself at 62%, which correlates well with the teacher’s score. what was concerning, though, was that learner 6 perceived he had no support in his environment, and rejection was highlighted as one of his risk factors. two learners (1 and 11) received academic resilience scores of 58% and 59% from their teachers, whereas learner 1 scored himself at 88% and learner 11 scored herself at 68%. both learners indicated they had talents and family support. learner 5, who received an academic resilience score of 47% (the lowest score), assigned herself a score of 68%. the learner saw herself as being academically competent with self-confidence and supportive friends. 72 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 table 2: risk and protective factors per interviewed learner and overall percentage score for academic resilience le a rn e r a g e g e n d e r g ra d e risk factors inferred from interview and questionnaire (teacher evaluation) protective factors inferred from interview and questionnaire overall percentag e by teacher overall percentag e by learner 1 1 6 m 9 divorce, parental rejection (father), poverty, overcrowding (grandmother’s place), academic problems (failed grade 8), corporal punishment (school), separation from siblings (sister). talents (soccer and sprinting). family support. 58% 88% 2 1 5 f 9 unemployment, poverty, anxiety in heterosexual interactions, concern over parents, poor study habits and time management. unsafe environment. support (aunt, friend, teachers, and family). resourcefulness. academic success. 67% 100% 3 1 7 m 9 illegitimacy, poor stepparent relations, migration, academic problems, unemployment (aunt and mother), cultural demands (circumcision versus school demands) and need to belong (establish identity). risk-taking behaviour (gambling). support (father, granny, aunt, teachers and family friend). leadership role. 75% 100% 4 1 3 f 8 death (mother), conflict relations (father), poverty (unemployed granny), corporal punishment (school). violent neighbourhood. support (family, friends, teacher). sense of humour, sports (community). awards (sports). 80% 88% 5 1 4 f 9 parental death (mother), death (sibling), poverty, unemployment, pregnancy (sibling), rejection (sibling rejection, peer rejection and family rejection). academic competence, supportive friends, dreams. selfconfidence. 47% 68% 6 1 7 m 8 poverty, single parenting, unemployment, peer rejection (bullies), academic problems, punitive talent, dreams, religion, employment. 62% 65% 73 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 with regard to the presence of risk and protective factors in their environment, learners were able to name a few (see table 3). although learners focused on family, community and school risks, the following risks were mentioned five times or more during the interview: parental neglect, bad parental influence, lack of family support, lack of security at school and parental unemployment. most of the risks mentioned above manifested in the family environment, which is the learner’s immediate environment. unemployment and lack of family support were mentioned 80+%. research has shown that learners with loving, caring and supportive parents tend to achieve higher grades at school (crawford, 2006). when asked about measures (school and home: corporal punishment), conduct problems. 7 1 3 f 8 unemployment, poverty, traumatic experience (sister’s burn accident; violent death of friend: murder). support (teachers, family, peers, friends, church), religion, academic success. 73% 100% 8 1 4 m 8 maths problems, peer rejection and pressure (bullies), drugs. dangerous neighbourhood (bullied), unruly class behaviour (disruption of class). corporal punishment. talents (drama, drawing, soccer, cricket), support (family, friends, teachers). 84% 100% 9 1 4 m 8 corporal punishment (school), family discord (parental conflicts and fights). emotional support (aunt, friends, girlfriend), talents (gardening), corporal punishment. 73% 89% 1 0 1 8 f 9 academic problems, poverty, unemployment, single parenting, alcohol abuse (mother), lack of stable residence, rejection by family, emotional abuse (mother). religious beliefs, support (sister, friends, priest). 75% 89% 1 1 1 5 f 8 death (two aunts), single parent. unemployment, poverty. corporal punishment (school). talents (braids hair for money), support (family, teachers, friends). 59% 68% 1 2 1 7 m 9 death: parents (both) and siblings (two), poverty, academic problems, corporal punishment (school), truancy, peer rejection. family support, talents, academic problems. 77% 62% 74 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 the risk factors to their academic resilience and success, learners mentioned only two risks more than ten times: inability to pass mathematics and poor teacher-learner relationships. these two risks are teacher related. according to hughes et al. (2008, p. 2), students who experience “teacher-student interactions characterised by high levels of warmth and support or low levels of conflict gain more in achievement”. learners accredited their academic success to various factors, including individual factors. the latter illustrate their own initiative in taking control of their lives, taking responsibility for their academic success and being proactive in accessing the resources available. the following factors were mentioned more than five times as being significant to the academic success of learners: being disciplined, seeking further academic information, seeking academic support from friends, seeking teacher support, seeking academic support from home, having self-confidence, working hard and working as a team. the above indicates what is within the learners’ control. however, learners viewed factors significant to their academic success, but outside their control – and within the teacher’s control – as good teacher-learner relations and teachers’ ability to teach well. furthermore, the attributes mentioned have a positive impact on academic achievement and can assist learners in having self-esteem, staying motivated and becoming resilient (crawford, 2006). an individual’s attributes can successfully buffer them against academic failure. table 3: clustered risk and protective factors per research question research question categories and frequency what are the risk factors in your environment? • accident in the family (2) • bad learner-to-learner relationship (6) • bad parental influence (6) • carelessness (1) • death of a parent (4) • divorce (3) • fear of the unknown (2) • fighting between parents (3) • keeping wrong friends • lack of family support (14) • lack of security at school (16) • loss of hope (2) • bullying (3) • parental unemployment (11) • parental neglect (5) • peer pressure (3) • poor accommodation (3) • poverty (3) • security challenges (2) 75 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 research question categories and frequency • taking drugs (4) what are the risks to your academic success? • boredom (2) • class indiscipline (1) • failing exams (3) • failure to give maximum attention to academic work (4) • inability of teachers to teach well (1) • inability to pass maths (11) • inability to pass maths and science subjects (2) • lack of diligence (1) • not asking for assistance in school (2) • not attending classes (5) • peer pressure (2) poor teacher-learner relationship (18) • struggling academically (1) what helps you to succeed academically? • asking questions (1) • being ambitious (1) • being disciplined (7) • creating self-interest in school subjects (2) • having self-determination (4) • discipline from teachers (4) • encouragement from teachers (3) • attending extra classes after school (3) • good teacher-learner relationship (25) • teachers’ ability to teach well (7) • seeking academic support from home (17) • seeking assistance at school and at home (1) • seeking assistance from teacher (1) • seeking further academic information (6) • seeking academic support from friends (8) • seeking teachers’ support (6) • having self-confidence (15) • working hard (28) • working as a team (6) • planning not to fail (1) silences • access and use of technology or technology is not viewed as a resource (protective factor) or a risk factor 76 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 discussions the theoretical framework adopted in this study, silas casillas’s model of academic resilience, as discussed by sandoval-hernandez and cortes (2012), is defined by the four dimensions of academic resilience: personal, family, school and community (environment). the learners in this study identified their risk and protective factors in these four dimensions. in most instances, the risks were externalised, while the protective factors were internalised. learners could directly link the risks to an external system that disempowered them, while the protective factors indicated their abilities and resilience. the most frequently mentioned risk (mentioned 16 times) (see table 3) involved a lack of security at school, showing that lack of safety is a huge concern to learners. according to kutsyuruba et al. (2015, p. 103), “school climate, safety and well-being of students are important antecedents of academic achievement”. learners in this sample had concerns about their safety in school, which could also indicate a lack of safety in their community, as schools are a microcosm of their communities. student achievement is an important outcome in the education system. learners therefore indicated poor teacher-learner relationship (18 times), bad learner-to-learner relationship (six times) and inability to pass mathematics (11 times) as deterrents to their academic success. the three risk factors were directly linked to the school and classroom climate, the quality of teaching and learning, the well-being of learners, and the relationship with teachers and their peers. the instructional programme of mathematical teaching and learning was of great concern to learners and thus detrimental to their academic resilience. this risk was beyond their control and could only be resolved by quality teaching, which is seen as missing. kutsyuruba et al. (2015) believe that maintaining a strong academic focus, good staff performance and morale, and establishing a positive school climate can enhance and improve student achievement. support from the classroom teacher is an important indicator of student success (suldo et al., 2009). furthermore, positive teacher-student relationships showing respect, support and being valued by the teachers are key to student success (suldo et al., 2009). thus, jowkar et al. (2011) define academic resilience as the ability to bounce back from low academic performance and alienation. it gives positive prospects to learners experiencing risk in their learning and school environment. within the family context, learners focused more on their parents. the identified risks were bad parental influence (six times), lack of family support (14 times) and parental unemployment (11 times). all these risks were related to parenting and low socioeconomic family background (unemployment). parents were viewed as the responsible individuals who can harm the learner’s academic success, as learners require strong support from their parents. based on the above findings, it can be concluded that family support gives learners a sense of control over their success or failure in school. a study by rojas (2015), which explored how family and environmental factors can foster academic resilience, found that, although having a supportive family can foster academic resilience, other family risk factors can negatively impact children’s academic resilience. the risk factors mentioned above are examples of how family 77 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 risk can impede the academic success of learners. the link between low socioeconomic family background and poor academic success is also shown by yeung and li (2019), who indicated that children from low socioeconomic status or dysfunctional families tend to have lower academic performance and may drop out of school early. parental support influences how children perform and participate in the classroom (okten, 2016). ruholt et al. (2015) define parental support as being emotionally there for your child and enabling your child to be dependent on you as a parent whenever the child needs to do so. a study by shahzad et al. (2015) revealed that children who are guided and supported by parents do better in school than those who are supported less by their parents. learners are considered academically resilient if they can maintain their high level of achievement, regardless of any stressful challenges they come across that may negatively impact their performance in school (martin & marsh, 2006). regarding what they require to succeed academically, the learners in the current study looked to themselves for answers. the focus was more personal (internal) than external, with a sense of ownership and internal locus of control. with the risk factors mentioned above, the locus of control was external. the question motivated them to find positives in their family, school and environment. in the absence of support, they took the initiative to seek support; thus, they took charge and engaged with their environment to find solutions to their problems. their responses were as follows: being disciplined (seven times), working as a team (six times), working hard (28 times), having self-confidence (15 times), seeking teacher support (six times), seeking academic support from friends (eight times), seeking further academic information (eight times), seeking academic support from home (17 times), teacher’s ability to teach well (seven times), and good teacherlearner relationship (25 times). anghel (2015) defines academic resilience as an indicator of how well learners adjust in school and is a significant predictor of class participation and motivation to study. these protective factors indicate the positive adjustment of learners. it is important to understand that a learner’s academic resilience can be influenced by different factors, such as having supportive parents at home and being present in class and participating (sinay, 2018). conclusion and recommendations the learners in this study perceived academic resilience to be key to their academic success, and identified risks that were detrimental to their academic resilience within their family, school and environmental contexts. in line with the definition of academic resilience of sinay (2018) as the ability to overcome learning difficulties and bounce back, the learners identified individual strengths that can assist them in achieving academic success. the study’s findings showed that it is difficult for learners from disadvantaged family backgrounds to succeed academically. this may be because learners encounter academic and social challenges daily, whether in their academic space, home or community (kader & abad, 2017). although the challenges put them at risk of low achievement at school, academically resilient students were able to adjust regardless of the hardships they might come across (kader & abad, 2017). none of the learners in this study 78 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 63-81 indicated technology as a risk or protective factor. this might be because their schools are not using technology resources for teaching and learning. it is recommended that this study be used as a pilot for a bigger study to involve more learners (quantitatively) and teachers to explore the concepts of academic resilience, academic success and low socioeconomic status. more research is needed in this field, especially in contexts where the quality of teaching and learning is poor. references abdu-raheem, b.o. 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(2015). defining and measuring academic success. practical assessment, research, and evaluation, 20(1), 5. https://doi.org/10.7275/hz5x-tx03 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322862555 https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2021.32 https://doi.org/10.1080/02796015.2009.12087850 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/125f/660906c2df4d420eaf67f1a3d42a4ef28bdf.pdf https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/008124631204200305 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/008124631204200305 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-018-0022-0 https://doi.org/10.1080/0268093980130203 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2019.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-01-02143-7 https://doi.org/10.7275/hz5x-tx03 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 2 2023 pp. 136-150 exploring the effectiveness of practical assessment tasks towards skills development in mechanical technology subject percy thabiso mhlanga*a, samuel dumazi khozaa & ndlelehle skosanaa * corresponding author email: mhlangapt10@gmail.com a. tshwane university of technology, south africa article info received: january 27, 2023 accepted: april 06, 2023 published: june 18, 2023 how to cite mhlanga, p. t., khoza, s. d., & skosana, n. (2023). exploring the effectiveness of practical assessment tasks towards skills development in mechanical technology subject. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 136-150. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.22 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract in a nation like south africa, where the gdp and economic development are among the lowest, the lack of skilled workers has a noticeable impact. skilful workers continue to be imported into the country in fields that are critical to economic development. to have an economic sector that can compete with the current global market conditions and the changing technology, qualified manpower is needed. this study explored the effectiveness of the practical assessment task in mechanical technology in secondary schools around gauteng province. a qualitative research approach was employed whereby a case study research design was used. the study purposively sampled nine teachers from seven different schools located in three districts of gauteng province. the study deployed two data collection instruments where face-to-face semi-structured interviews and workshop observations were administered. the results of this study show that the lack of resources in mechanical technology and the time allocated for the subject is a major challenge that teachers face. these were made worse by a lack of teacher development in the subject. the said challenges have a major impact that delays proper skills development at the secondary school level, thus rendering the pat ineffective in addressing skills development. the recommendation is that the department of education needs to implement a policy where resources would be prioritised and provide lasting and relevant training to the teachers. keywords mechanical technology; practical assessment task; skills development; pedagogical content knowledge 10.46303/jcsr.2023.22 https://curriculumstudies.org/ mailto:mhlangapt10@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.22 137 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 introduction the fundamental objectives of any education system are to prepare learners with the knowledge and skills required for success in life (greenhill, 2010). mechanical technology is a discipline aimed at equipping learners with general mechanical skills, knowledge, and understanding of the properties of metals and their use, to help them with the selection of appropriate materials for projects (amadi et al, 2015). the said subject focuses on concepts and principles in mechanical (motor, mining, shipping, rails, and power generation), environmental, and technological processes. it further embraces skills and the application of scientific principles. however, this subject aims to create and improve the engineering and manufacturing environment to enhance the quality of life and sustainable use of the natural environment. this notion is attained through skills development in schools using the practical assessment task (pat) to assess mechanical technology practical skills. in this assessment, the integration between practical and theoretical applications is put to the test. it should be noted that due to the high rate of unemployment in south africa, skills development is an issue of discussion. as it stands, the current unemployment rate in south africa leaves much to be desired with the youth being the most affected (statistics south africa, 2022). developing more mechanically skilled learners would benefit the country in the most essential sectors that aim at skills development. this place demands on the educational system for a teacher that knows his subject (theory and practice) and a classroom or a workshop that is adequately equipped for the learning and teaching to take place. kilbrink and bjurulf (2013) highlighted that to infuse theory into practice, teaching and learning should occur in different learning areas, namely, both in schools and workplaces. this conveys the connotation that mechanical technology skill development is mainly dependent on the ability to take practical action, intervene in the developing world, and generate new or enhanced products or systems. when learners are given more support to discover how things work, and how to make them function, a better chance is created for their technological capability to prosper. however, as it stands, the pat is not assessing the skills effectively, hence this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the pat. these concerns have grown as far as university and college graduates who obtain the qualifications but still lack the relevant skills to meet the needs of the country, which leaves many of them unemployed. there has been an ongoing trend that seems to indicate that the lack of skills development in south africa is due to the mismatches between educational achievement and job requirements which continue to give rise to under-employment (mncayi & shuping, 2021). according to mncayi and shuping (2021), the focus should change from skills demand to skills supply and ensure that the curriculum ensures that the graduates are adequately skilled to meet the needs of the labour market and the country’s economy. this requires teachers who should work in a conducive environment that should enable them to teach effectively. this study focused on the teacher aspect to explore the effectiveness of pat in mechanical technology. 138 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 the economy of south africa is desperately in need of skills that can only be addressed through strict policies that can shape skills development at the root level (mateus et al., 2014). these policies should be implemented effectively in the classrooms and be aligned with the industry’s demand for synergy between the school and work. as it stands, the shortage of skills in the country, particularly in the youth, raises concern as to what is addressed by our pat in technical schools if skills development remains inadequate. does the curriculum structure provide sufficient room for the learners to develop those critical skills needed by the country? this then led to the exploration of the effectiveness of the pat for mechanical technology in addressing the skills shortage faced by south africa. literature review the findings from the study by abrahams et al. (2013) outlined the necessity of having practical work in engineering education. other studies on practical assessment in engineering education at the secondary level have been conducted by fan and yu (2017) in taiwan and the latest by dintsios et al. (2018) in greece. both studies had different purposes. in taiwan, the focus was to assess the effectiveness of the application of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem), which is commonly related to pat in south africa. both studies showed a positive impact when using the stem-integrated approach in engineering design and remote experiments in implementing practical tasks. another study in england, by toplis (2012), has suggested that practical work is effective with regards to enhancing learners’ learning while focusing on increasing their sense of ownership within their subject and developing a scientifically inquiring mind. furthermore, a study in germany by itzek-greulich et al. (2015) indicated that practical work has a positive effect on learners’ motivation inside or outside the school environment. this means that practical work encourages learners to be responsive to classroom activities and enables them to be self-entrepreneurs when leaving school. however, the challenge we faced in the context in which this study was conducted was that if the pat did not develop the learners’ skills, it could negatively impact the learners. in a study by galloway et al. (2013), they articulated that most learners in higher-class schools suggested that schoolwork dominated their day which in this study should be the pat component as dominating their day. relatively deep learning and engaging in practical work would give learners more interest and they would express willingness to sacrifice their time to successfully complete their work to maintain or increase their achievement status (pope, 2001; taylor et al, 2002). this type of learning is associated with the learner-centred approach. according to dinh (2019), when compared to a learner-centred approach and a societal-based approach, the knowledge-based approach places the most emphasis on the systematic construction of specialized knowledge designed to develop the cognitive and intellectual abilities of a learner. this is needed for skills to be nurtured in learners which the pat, in this instance, should inculcate. furthermore, the teachers need to play an effective role in enhancing learners’ interests and the delivery of knowledge and skills should be of prime importance. 139 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 currently, south africa is in a rather unusual position in economic growth and unemployment due to the lack of skills. according to hippach-schneider et al. (2007), german teachers focus more on the theoretical knowledge of the subject and extended general education in the context of future occupation, while the practical part is handled by skilled workers from enterprises, called trainers. this shows how germany has been effectively implementing pat in their respective technical subjects. in denmark, practical training in the upper secondary system takes place in an enterprise that has been approved by the relevant trade committee (cort, 2008). in south africa, pat remains at the school level, with no collaboration with industries to support the schools in exposing learners to the industrial setup and training that will prepare them for employment. in china, the education system provides good practice for technical subjects which gives the teachers room for implementation and responsibility. a study by wu and ye (2018), clearly articulated how teachers in china achieve the goal of pat. teachers create a conducive atmosphere in workshops to promote the simultaneous development of ability and quality with hands-on experience of modern machines and teaching apparatus combined with theoretical teaching, practical teaching, technological service, and production (wu & ye, 2018). because of its applicability, comprehensiveness, modern quality, and simulation ability, this mode has helped the further development of vocational and technical education and has become an important means to develop a “double quality” teaching staff (wu & ye, 2018). this is not contrary to what is happening in south africa in terms of workshop practice since some teachers create and promote an environment where learners can discover talent but due to challenges that schools are subjected to, it becomes difficult for teachers to promote quality integration of theory and practical work. teachers use a certain method of teaching as a theoryand-practice approach. all these practices underscore the importance of pedagogical content knowledge (pck), which is the underpinning framework in this study. in malaysia, the implementation of pat, which is well-known as practical work assessment, has proven to be very effective in skills development in the country, according to several studies. a study by zainuddin (2019) indicated that upon the completion of primary education, there will be two education streams that will give learners options to choose from in pursuing their secondary level, namely, the academic stream and vocational stream-based education. the malaysian vocational stream provides more specific vocational training for learners with a minimum of academic subjects and issues the malaysian vocational certificate as preparation for the students to become highly skilled workers in industries (zainuddin, 2019). perhaps the aforesaid practices in various countries should serve as a yardstick for the current practices in south africa. the african context does not seem to resonate with the world context when it comes to technical secondary school practical work implementation. this is because several studies in respective countries in africa have revealed similar challenges which are believed to be the root cause of the shortage of skills required by the evolving job market. african countries are well known for their high unemployment rate which contributes largely to poverty faced by most of 140 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 its people (chinyemba et al., 2010). to eradicate the challenges faced by the countries, many african countries opted for the introduction of technology education with a focus on skills development. in the african context, the technology curriculum intends to be responsible for the development of learners’ capabilities in terms of development, understanding, and manipulation of technology. however, the challenges that persist in the practical aspect (pat) of the curriculum could remain unattended hence this study aimed to explore the effectiveness of pat which could be the root cause of skills shortage among the youth. in malawi, teachers mentioned that they only taught theory because the mechanical machines were out of order due to a lack of maintenance and poor resources which hindered the implementation of pat (chikasanda et al., 2010). this poses challenges because pat requires equipment and materials for the learners to do projects that meet the specified standards. according to adebola (2020), the fact that technical school teachers in nigeria appeared to not be performing to the best of their ability in the delivery of their statutory functions, impacted the facilitation of the pat. adebola (2020) further mentions that a number of them show low commitment to duties and display laxity in discharging their responsibilities; some are truants, while some are not regularly present in schools during official hours (adebola, 2020). these actions show teachers’ poor perception of the impact of practical tasks on skills development. on the other hand, mwaokolo (2003) affirms that the level and kind of training received in technology education in workshops is quite different from what is required of learners afterwards. when teachers fail in their responsibilities, especially in subjects such as mechanical technology, learners are affected negatively, and the goal of skills development is therefore affected. this, therefore, raises concern about how teachers respond to pat in a situation where resources are minimal in a country where skills are often spoken of in line with skills development. theoretical framework to explore the effectiveness of pat in skills development, this study employed pedagogical content knowledge (pck). according to shulman (1987), pck is defined as the knowledge that relates content to teachability. shulman (1987) further explains his theory by elaborating on what pck entails, stating that it includes the most valuable forms of representation of ideas, the most powerful analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations, and demonstrations in essence, how the subject is expressed, formulated, and made comprehensible to others. in technical subjects such as mechanical technology, pck plays a vital role as it reflects its significance in the practical component of the subject. therefore, pck was used to ascertain how mechanical technology teachers facilitate the pat to explore its effectiveness towards skills development. the notion of pck covers constructs like content knowledge (ck) and pedagogical knowledge (pk) which provides an effective pck. therefore, the teachers’ ck was observed when administering the pat, and pk was used to see how they teach the practical. these constructs assisted the study in reaching conclusions in exploring the effectiveness of pat 141 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 in mechanical technology from the teachers’ point of view, with the aim of skills development and recommendations in closing any existing gaps. research questions • how effective is pat in developing learners’ skills in mechanical technology? • what are teachers’ challenges in conducting pat in their mechanical technology classes? methodology research approach the nature of the problem that this proposed study aimed to address warranted the use of a qualitative research approach which refers to a systematic inquiry into social phenomena in their natural environment (henning et al., 2004). according to denzin (2000), qualitative research provides a deeper understanding of a complex phenomenon through rich descriptions and explanations from the perspective of the participants. creswell and creswell (2017) agree that qualitative research is concerned with understanding participants’ views, experiences, beliefs, ideals, thoughts, and actions regarding social or human problems. therefore, the qualitative approach was deemed relevant because the researchers had to understand what was happening in the mechanical technology practical class during the administration of pat and the teachers’ responses during face-to-face interviews assisted them in ascertaining this. research design the proposed study used a case study research design. creswell (2014) defines a case study as a design and inquiry found in many fields, especially for evaluation in which the researcher develops an in-depth analysis of a case. this is often a programme, event, activity, process, or one or more individuals. the premise of the researcher was that these schools are of different quintiles, but they have similar problems with the subject under discussion. the study focused on both quintile 2 and 4 schools with highly populated workshops and less populated workshops. the researcher decided to holistically embed the cases of this study to examine the problem since a similar study was supported by yin (2003). this created a more convincing theory for this study since yin (2003) asserts that context is very important in a case study. this design was best suited for this study because it sought an in-depth perception of the effectiveness of the use of pat in addressing the shortages in skills faced in south africa, irrespective of the schools’ quintiles. participants of the study this study purposively sampled 7 schools from the three chosen districts in gauteng province in south africa. from these 7 schools, nine teachers formed part of the study which means one teacher per school but in some schools, it was more than one, because of the different specialisations under mechanical technology. the reason for the selection of the sample was the closer proximity and engagement with the educators teaching the subject in those districts. for the study, it was very important for us to consider experienced educators, new recruits, as 142 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 well as trade skills in the subject, as the key factors for good quality results. the teachers were named teachers a, b, etc. data collection instruments this study used two methods in the collection of data: semi-structured interviews and classroom observation. data collection is defined as the technique for systematically collecting information about objects of the study including people and phenomena, and the setting where data is collected (musharraf et al., 2012). creswell (2014) alluded that the instruments to be used must enable participants to express their views. in this case, participants were allowed or given the leverage to express their views freely without being restricted which led to greater data validity. data collection is perceived as the heart of any research design. the interviews aimed at answering research questions one and two. the observations aimed to find the challenges that teachers encounter in the implementation of pat for proper skills development as well as checking the teachers’ ck and their pk. the interview lasted 20 to 30 minutes while the observations took 30 minutes. data analysis data analysis is the process of systematically searching and arranging interviews, transcripts, field notes, and other materials that have been accumulated to enable the researcher to reach conclusions and describe findings (leedy & ormrod, 2010). this study adopted thematic data analysis for both instruments. maguire and delahunt (2017) define thematic data analysis as the process of identifying patterns or themes within qualitative data immediately after the completion of data collection and transcription. findings and discussion this study was about the effectiveness of mechanical technology pat in skills development in secondary schools. the researchers considered it very important to analyse and identify the demographic information of the participants, namely, the teachers’ teaching experience, age, and highest qualification. this would also support the use of the theoretical framework pck. the researcher considered gender with the idea to attain balanced data. while 55.6% of the participants were male, 44.4% of the participants were females. the table below represents the demographic information of the participants: table 1 participants’ demographic information qualification type frequency percentage (%) gender frequency honours 1 11.1% males 5 bachelor of education 5 55.6% females 4 diploma n6/other 2 1 22.2% 11.1% 143 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 mechanical technology is a well-known field that is dominated by males specifically in south african schools. the researchers felt that it would be interesting to bring the prospect of women into the study as equal to their male counterparts. the gender balancing gave the study an open understanding of the field as non-gender-based and open to everyone. interview data presentation as the study aimed at exploring the effectiveness of pat towards skills development in mechanical technology, the interview sessions we had with the participants revealed several issues, such as a shortage of resources for the execution of the pat and the allocation of time for pat. when the teachers were asked about the challenges that affect the proper implementation of pat in the workshop, they said the following: teacher f: “purchasing resources such as pat material is a problem in my school and another problem, we faced is the allocated time for pat” teacher a: “resources and time frame are a serious challenge to some of us. the other problem is the generation of learners we are teaching these days, they don’t have much interest and it boils from society”. the response from teacher a was supported by teacher b from a different school where he indicated that: teacher b: “lack of resources and poor teacher development is an existing challenge. this is also a huge problem where whenever we get to training, we do not get enough time to practice the said practical before we head to classes”. teacher e: “my challenge is the machines (resources), we don’t have enough, and learners must wait for others to complete their project first in order to get a chance” teacher g: “teacher-learner ratio is very challenging in our school because we don’t have resources, for example, you have two angle grinders and two inverters, but you have +/ 40 learners” teacher h: “we don’t have enough components, meaning resources, so it becomes difficult to compete for a task which leads us to go seek assistance from another neighbouring school with resources” the above responses revealed that most of the teachers do not have enough resources in the workshops, and they indicated that lack of resources was the biggest hindrance to the implementation of pat. these responses produced one theme, namely, the lack of resources. lack of resources most teachers were concerned about the issue of lack of resources which emerged as a key theme in the interviews. it appeared that most schools were faced with a similar challenge of not having enough resources for pat and this seems to be an existing challenge in other countries, especially in african countries as supported by the literature. skills development can only be effective if pat is implemented accordingly and, therefore, becomes a challenge if proper resources are unavailable for the implementation. these were the concerns that 144 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 emerged from the participants. these challenges resonate with most technical schools in the african context, for example, the study conducted in zimbabwean technical education by chinyemba et al. (2010), indicated that numerous challenges were faced by technical teachers in implementing pat at the classroom level and in assessing learners as some teachers cited poor support from the head of schools and inadequate material to implement practices in the workshop. these challenges comprised unsteady, unqualified teachers, inadequate teaching, support materials, equipment, and tools, highlighting examinations and an outdated curriculum (chikasanda et al., 2010). this was supported by a study in malawi where it was mentioned that teachers in other instances had to teach theory only because the mechanical machines were out of order due to a lack of maintenance and poor available resources which hindered the implementation of pat (chikasanda et al., 2010). most teachers were of the view that without resources for practical subjects such as mechanical technology, teachers became frustrated and failed to deliver their best. maintaining tools or materials in working conditions can create a cheerful atmosphere and produce learners with positive attitudes (vengidason et al., 2021). according to the department of basic education (2014) caps document, the resources to offer mechanical technology as a subject are the responsibility of the school. however, that places a strain on some schools offering the subject which do not have enough funding to equip the workshops with the standard operating procedure. the results further reveal that some other schools have resources that are not utilised because they have fewer learners whereas, on the other hand, there are schools that have more learners with fewer machinery. this has raised the argument about the teacher-learner ratio in the workshop which is not properly communicated in the caps document. these vast challenges faced in the south african context are viewed as damaging to education cycles for skills development. according to mshelizah (2012), many problems that affect the teaching and learning in this area were attributed to poor maintenance and utilization of workshop facilities because of inadequate funds, shortage of well-trained personnel such as teachers, inadequate apparatus, machines, and equipment for practicals, etc. other responses to the question asked on challenges encountered by the teachers in the implementation of pat were as follows: teacher b: “pat and theory cannot be done as expected due to the limited time allocated to us, but the primary challenge now is the teacher-learner ratio, and that situation pushes us to just teach to finish and in that case weren’t serving the purpose of the subject” 145 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 teacher c brought in a new slide with time as a challenge in the execution of pat and this was therefore backed up but a few teachers who also felt that time becomes a problem in their day-to-day execution of pat, she was echoed by teacher d. teacher d: “time is a number one problem because we do not have enough of it and some of us are not focused only on mechanical” these responses also produced a theme where a great concern about the time allocated for the practical sessions was raised. time allocated the participants indicated that time was limited for them to complete the pat as well as the syllabus, meaning the theory part of the subject. mechanical technology is given four hours of contact time per week of which two hours are intended for pat and the other two hours for theory (department of basic education, 2014). on the issue of the top-up training that teachers attend to assist them with pat, all the teachers considered the arranged training as irrelevant to what was happening in the classroom. this is how the two of them responded: teacher c: “i find the pieces of training that we often go to not helping. i come back as blank as i was before the training”. teacher d: “these pieces of training are irrelevant trust me” teacher development the interviews also revealed that some teachers needed training in certain areas. a newly appointed mechanical technology teacher comes to the workplace with limited knowledge of practical assessment which indicates a need for further training. a study by della and meyer (2017) indicates that teachers were thoroughly trained to use different machines for mechanical technology such as lathe and milling machines. findings from the present study revealed that the training offered to the teachers was on industrial computer numerical controlled (cnc) machines that are not available in schools. this created a gap or a mismatch in training as teachers were trained on machinery that they do not use to teach learners in the workshop. this response (“lack of resources and poor teacher development is an existing challenge”) from teacher b further outlined that teacher development is also another problem faced by teachers in mechanical technology. this was also mentioned by teacher h who said: “when it comes to an automatic gearbox, i am struggling. i need development”. this problem was further articulated by maeko and makgato (2014) that teachers should be well-trained to conduct practical sessions in the workshop so that learners can develop the required skills. she (teacher b) further suggested that the teachers must be trained on how to execute the pat before they implement it or administer it in schools with their learners. teacher b: “prior to the release of the pat, we must have the training around january before we can start with the administration at schools with our learners because as things stand, we do training around june and by that time we will be wrapping up the year projects”. 146 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 teachers need to be prepared for any challenges they may encounter during the administration. this would ease the pressure on them as they would know all the strategies to execute the projects without getting stuck. this suggestion was not unique as another participant echoed the same sentiments: teacher c: “proper development must be done for the teachers and the teacher preparation or training is usually done very late; the pat must first be done by teachers at the beginning of the year so they can have proper techniques” the above responses show that due to teachers’ challenges in the administration of pat, which range from lack of resources, issues around time allocation, and lack of teacher development, the teachers’ pk is affected. according to shulman (1987), several issues affect and promote the teachers’ pk in the classroom and the availability of resources is one of them. as such, when one’s pk is negatively affected due to the abovementioned factors, the teachers’ pck is limited. this study focused further on teachers’ classroom observation of what happened in the mechanical technology workshops where pat is done. observation data presentation during the workshop observation, the researcher noticed factors such as poor housekeeping and a lack of knowledge of the subject (content knowledge). it was noted that teachers need training in occupational health and safety because learners’ safety in schools is compromised and often ignored. there was poor handling of tools with not enough care or attention paid to them. poor housekeeping emerged in a few schools as the floors were untidy and tools and other equipment were not kept where they should be. poor housekeeping it was observed that most teachers were practising good housekeeping in their workshops with only three schools that presented a challenge in housekeeping. a clean and organised workshop promotes good hygiene and safety and teaches learners to take full responsibility for their workspace. as was echoed by vengidason et al (2021), learners need to be aware of the standards of safety rules of the workshop. it would become a culture in a workshop to practice safety if the rules were emphasised professionally. content knowledge most of the teachers presented a good understanding of the subject content hence they integrated the theory excellently with the practical tasks. this was echoed by shulman (1986) that if the teacher’s ck and pk are demonstrated adequately in the classroom, the teacher’s pck improves, and learning often becomes successful. this includes knowledge about scientific terms, facts, concepts, laws, principles, hypotheses, theories, and ideas as well as established practices and approaches toward developing such knowledge (shulman, 1986). perhaps these issues of lack of resources and inadequate time allocation could be the ones that coerce teachers to administer the same pat over the years. the pat is supposed to enable learners to explore different mechanisms and concepts in the mechanical field which will make it easy for them to fit perfectly in the engineering sphere. 147 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 implications south africa is challenged by the rate of unemployment, low-skilled labour, and a weakening economy day by day. the country needs to start changing its tune and highlight the importance of quality education with more focus on producing skilled learners who will be a direct fit for the labour market or entrepreneurial sphere. an old study by lauda (1988) indicated that technology subjects are designed to respond to societal changes. he further outlines that many corporations rebuke the educational system for failing to provide an appropriate education for today's workforce. this means our education system should be channelled to prepare our learners for the changes in technology as we are currently in the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) but our schools are not prepared. countries like kenya have already welcomed the partnership of private sectors as they have proven to be the investors in contributing to an innovative solution for the education sector and skills development to better meet the demands of the labour market (nyerere, 2018). a recommendation from a study by della and meyer (2017) was that gde should make use of graduate engineers according to the resolution circle model, to deploy engineers to technical high schools for six-month periods for them to assist teachers with the practical component and maintenance of machinery in the workshop. conclusion this study concludes that the lack of resources in schools and the time allocated to pat for mechanical technology impedes the implementation of pat in schools which therefore affects skills development. during other challenges faced by teachers, it is likely that some schools fail to complete the pat as expected. this study explored the effectiveness of pat towards skills development in mechanical technology. the results indicate that skills development is not effective in schools due to challenges faced by the teachers in the implementation of pat to develop learners’ skills. the overruling challenge, which is a lack or shortage of resources, emerged to be the main problem hindering progress in most schools. in the first question, five teachers indicated that the pat was not addressing skills development as it should, while the other four teachers indicated that the pat is adequate to address the issue of skills development although there was room for improvement. these responses left the researchers with the conclusion that the pat was effective but not at the required level to equip the learners with the necessary skills to survive through entrepreneurship. the interviews and observations discussed in this study revealed that practical sessions at schools were not taking place as expected due to the challenges mentioned. from these revelations, one can understand that learners leave school without being equipped with the proper skills, and this affirms the findings by mwaokolo (2003), namely, that the level and kind of training the learners receive in workshops are quite different from what is required of them afterwards. the other issue identified as a problem is that some teachers focus more on theory because of a lack of tools or resources to execute the pat which compromises learners’ effective skills development. this supports the argument by nze and ginestié (2012) that the unavailability of equipment in the workshops impels teachers to replace practical sessions with theory. 148 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 136-150 acknowledgements the researcher would like to acknowledge the 7 schools from the three chosen districts in gauteng and the 9 participants for making this study a success. the researcher would also like to thank the tshwane university of technology tve department for making this study possible and express gratitude and appreciation to the gauteng department of education for its continuous support of this study. references abrahams, i., reiss, m. j., & sharpe, r. m. 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(2019). investigation into the effectiveness of practical work in achieving curriculum objectives for engineering studies in secondary education (doctoral dissertation, university of lincoln). journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 181-192 a reflection on implementation of posthumanist pedagogy in polytechnics in zimbabwe during covid-19 era richard nyikaa & alfred modise motalenyane*bc * corresponding author email: mamodise@cut.ac.za a. phd student, central university of technology, free state province, south africa b. faculty of humanities, central university of technology, free state province, south africa. c. assistant dean, research innovation and engagement, central university of technology, free state province, south africa article info received: july 28, 2022 accepted: november 8, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite nyika, r., & motalenyane, a. m. (2023). a reflection on implementation of posthumanist pedagogy in polytechnics in zimbabwe during covid-19 era. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 181-192. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.14 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract the covid-19-induced lockdown resulted in the closure of learning institutions and subsequent intermittent college attendance as a way of preventing the spread of the virus. in zimbabwe, the ministry of higher and tertiary education, innovation science, and technology development instructed tertiary institutions to adopt online learning in addition to face-to-face learning as a way of ensuring that learning continued during covid-19 restrictions. there was a shift from exclusively humanist education, where humans have been believed to be the only agents in the teaching and learning process, to posthumanist education, where technology was used as a tool for learning. this study explored the organisational preparedness of tvet institutions to take on board posthuman pedagogy when online learning was blended with face-to-face learning. this was a qualitative study that used observations and indepth interviews to collect data on the institutional preparedness of two randomly sampled tvet institutions to embrace posthumanist education. ten randomly sampled lecturers were interviewed to elicit their views and experiences of implementing blended learning, which is largely ingrained in posthuman pedagogy. an observation was made on the suitability of technological infrastructure to support blended learning. ten randomly selected students from each institution participated in focus group discussions to elicit the organisational preparedness of institutions for blended learning. results showed that the institutions were not ready for blended learning. lecturers and students were not equipped or skilled to use online technologies. the infrastructure to drive online learning was inadequate. inadequacies in the internet infrastructure affected their understanding and acceptance of online learning. keywords posthuman; pedagogy; blended learning; online learning; exclusive. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.14 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.14 182 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 181-192 introduction restricted use of face-to-face teaching and learning due to covid-19 resulted in increased use and adoption of online learning in zimbabwean tvet institutions. during the first covid-19 wave, all tertiary institutions were closed to avert the spread of the pandemic. the ministry of higher and tertiary education, innovation science, and technology development instructed institutions to continue offering learning services through online learning platforms. the second wave saw the piecemeal reintroduction of face-to-face instruction and the adoption of blended learning. alternating class attendance arrangements were made to ensure that there was no overcrowding while at the same time ensuring continued learning. as a way of reducing overcrowding and the spread of the virus, half the students were allowed to have face-to-face lectures while the other half used an online learning platform. they would alternate the following week. the process proved that online learning had the potential to be more accommodating, more accessible, and more equitable than face-to-face learning. lecturers were encouraged to use online learning technologies to facilitate learning during the period when there were no face-to-face lectures. the fusion of humans (lecturers and students) and technology saw the birth of blended learning and the introduction of a posthuman curriculum in tertiary education. blended learning was adopted and became the most likely predominant post-covid-19 teaching and learning pedagogy. it was the beginning of the acknowledgement that both humans and nonhumans play an important role in the learning process. students began to learn from more-than-human educators. more than humans, other entities (such as technology) now had an equal share in facilitating learning. the inclusion of technology in facilitating learning debunked the myth that humans are the only key agents of learning and fostered collaboration among teaching approaches (dube et al., 2022; haraway, 2016; madimabe & omodan, 2021). organisational preparedness is very important in ensuring the successful implementation of blended learning (watson, 2006). one of the fundamental organisational prerequisites for blended learning is the availability of technology infrastructure like internet bandwidth and virtual learning environments. lecturers play a crucial role in providing practical approaches that help sustain students’ active participation. they need to be equipped with the requisite knowledge and skills for using online technologies. this study looked at how ready institutions were to start using blended learning, with a focus on how well polytechnics could use digital technologies with the new blended learning. blended learning blended learning is a hybrid method of learning that combines face-to-face and online learning activities (lin, 2007). blended learning is part of the digital revolution, which was adopted by institutions of higher learning as a new mode of delivery that could help improve higher education in the post-pandemic era (badura & adu, 2022; maphalala et al., 2021; selwyn & jandric, 2020). in zimbabwe, it was largely adopted in tertiary institutions to complement faceto-face teaching and learning during the pandemic to ensure that learning continued while at 183 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 181-192 the same time maintaining social distance. the mode of learning saw reduced in-person contact between lecturers and students and an increase in technology-mediated and self-directed learning. the modes of learning are personal, emancipatory, and democratic (yikici et al., 2022). it gave the students the opportunity to learn anytime and anywhere. blended learning would give learners the opportunity to construct their own knowledge, engage in learning by doing, and engage in task-based and problem-based learning (farr et al., 2019). advantages of online learning the advantage of blended learning is that it allows educators to use more approaches and choices. singh (2006) argues that rather than limiting student-lecturer and student-student interaction during face-to-face classes, blended learning allows online interpersonal interactions at various levels. in addition, blended learning increases the level of learning strategies such as peer-to-peer learning and learner-centred learning (graham et al., 2003). the process engages learners in three phases of learning: self-paced learning; face-to-face learning, which focuses on active and application learning; and lastly, online learning. it is convenient and cost-effective. online learning is flexible, and students can schedule their work and other activities. the approach combines the best of both worlds. students and teachers take advantage of the best parts of both in-person and online learning environments. this is called getting the "best of both worlds." according to cook (2016), there are some posthuman curricular imperatives that must be followed. these imperatives play an important role in defining the organisational preparedness of an institution to adopt blended learning. firstly, there should be critical media literacy. this entails having adequate knowledge of the media that are used to enhance teaching and learning. the users of the media should have the ability to learn and use today's media language. training and practise in the interpretation and creation of realms of audio-visual and social networking are very important in this imperative. the second imperative involves the ability to get the information one needs on the internet by mining skills using ict. this skills are important for students to adapt to online learning. the society is getting connected, and mining skills help to influence not only students’ and educators’ academic lives. posthuman pedagogy in blended learning posthuman pedagogy is the practise of ideas that are found in posthuman thinking (mustola, 2019). according to lili et al. (2020), posthuman pedagogy is characterised by the learner, teaching content, technology (nonhuman), and ethics (the democratic and expansive form of education). the pedagogy believes that students are knowledge producers rather than knowledge consumers (murris, 2017). unlike the traditional view of learning, which focused on human-to-human interaction (learner-teacher, learner-learner, and learner-agent), posthuman pedagogy focuses on the learning that takes place through the relationship between the learner and technology. it is a decentring process where the human is removed from a centric position in the learning process. the ubiquity of digital technologies, virtual learning environments, and mobile services has been integrated with face-to-face learning to create blended learning. it has 184 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 181-192 facilitated the dissolution of human borders in teaching and learning (braidotti, 2013). the advent of technology helped redefine learning. both human and nonhuman agents facilitate learning. this type of relationship is key to making hybrid learning a success. it helps to remove human-centred discourse from education and usher in a mixture of human (animal) and machine thinking, and this hybrid is a worthy and necessary replacement for human centrism. the humanist perspective views learners as empty tins waiting to be filled by the knowledge of the educators (murris, 2016; freire, 1970). unlike humanism, posthumanism considers learners and educators to be co-creators of knowledge; the learner does not occupy an inferior role but is engaged in self-directed learning in which he or she is actively involved in the creation of knowledge. self-directed learning enables the learner to autonomously fill educational gaps through discovery and learn with the aid of technology. furthermore, technology enables the learner to engage in heutagogy. the educator and learner’s relationship are recalibrated in such a manner that the two are on a co-created journey of discovery and acquisition of knowledge content (blaikie et al., 2020). according to bateston (1972), the meeting of humans and intelligent machines results in three major things. firstly, the complete fusion of the two marks the birth of posthumanism educators. the use of technology enables educators to teach and to be taught. secondly, the technology makes the educators' jobs obsolete since one can learn anything without direct interaction with a human educator. the educators see the value of their service declining. furthermore, the education system constrains the educator to teach the same old things in the same way. thirdly, the educator and technology co-exist and perform separate and clearly delineated roles; anti-posthuman teachers favour this arrangement since their role remains unchanged by technology. for example, powerpoint allows the computer to replace the chalkboard. the traditional view that knowledge is grounded in human beings, which operates on binaries as a hierarchy that separates the mind from the body and humans from nonhumans is getting challenged (braidotti, 2019). mccormack (2020), argues that humanist knowledge justifies the use and exploitation of some humans, nonhumans, and the environment. they further argue that the world requires a new mode of teaching and learning that disrupts this old way of thinking and replaces it with new knowledge. it was important to step away from the humanist point of view and adopt a new mode of teaching and learning. posthuman pedagogy ensures knowledge-directed learning rather than educatoror learner-centred learning. it requires the construction of new knowledge-learning environments. the technological environment plays a fundamental role in posthuman pedagogy. the environment requires techno-literacy. both educators and learners should have knowledge of the new technology. in a posthuman pedagogy, there is a need to focus on what is to be learnt, how it is to be learnt (taught), and how learning is to be organised. 185 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 181-192 online learning online learning is a flexible learning approach that has gained interest during the covid-19induced lockdown due to its capability to ensure social distancing and continued learning during the pandemic. online learning is touted as providing a flexible, democratic, and desirable approach to learning (blayone et al., 2017). it is a technology-enhanced teaching and learning approach that promotes learning and engagement. learning has been defined as not only situated in the human world but also having a nonhuman dimension. technology is a tool used in posthuman pedagogy. it blurs the line between material and virtual. it is a nonhuman actor added to the teaching and learning process (strom et al., 2018). there are many advantages that can be accrued from using an online learning approach. firstly, it provides a flexible learning environment. secondly, it improves access to learning. thirdly, it is cost-effective, and lastly, it improves pedagogical practices. it also improves learner participation. statement of the problem blended learning has increased exponentially during the covid-19 era. covid-19 restrictions prompted the need to integrate face-to-face learning with online learning to ensure that learning continued. at the peak of the pandemic, there was a total restriction on face-to-face interaction. internet-based instruction was introduced, resulting in reduced face-to-face contact between students and their lecturers. for students and lecturers, this was a departure from the familiar face-to-face teaching and learning to which they were accustomed. adopting to a new teaching and learning approach is a daunting task, particularly if one is asked to do so on short notice (kenny & newcombe, 2011). a nonhuman dimension to teaching and learning (technology) was adopted in order to rescue teaching and learning from the crisis created by the pandemic. this prompted the need for the adoption of posthuman pedagogy in blended learning. this study sought to explore the organisational preparedness of tvet institutions for blended learning, in which posthuman pedagogy was a key factor in teaching and learning. research questions • how prepared were tvet institution for the implementation for posthuman pedagogy? • what challenges did the institutions face in implementing blended learning which was rooted in posthuman pedagogy? methodology this was a qualitative study that used observations and in-depth interviews to collect data on the institutional preparedness of two randomly sampled polytechnics in zimbabwe. an assessment was made of the readiness of the institutions to support online learning. ten randomly sampled male and female lecturers from the engineering department were interviewed to elicit their views and experiences of implementing blended learning. borg and gall (1999) argue that randomisation reduces the chances of research bias. an observation was made on the suitability and adequacy of technological infrastructure to support blended learning. two twenty-minute focus group discussions with six students each were held at each 186 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 181-192 college to explore the students’ experiences and views of how their institutions were prepared to implement blended learning, which was engrained in posthuman pedagogy. vice principals and heads of departments were interviewed to elicit information on the preparedness of the institution for blended learning. the use of multiple methods of collecting data, or triangulation, reflected an attempt to secure an in-depth understanding of the organisational preparedness of the institution to integrate posthumanism in blended learning. denzin and lincoln (2000) argue that it adds rigor, depth, richness, and complexity to inquiry. findings preparedness of the lecturers to use technology as teaching and learning tools the institution conducted workshops to capacitate lecturers on the use of online teaching and learning approaches that could be used. lecturers indicated that once-off training was not enough. furthermore, many lecturers confessed their inability to master the use of ict for online learning. more training sessions were needed. however, many sessions were not feasible during the pandemic. lecturers indicated that knowledge of online learning was limited to the staff and the information and communication lecturers only. most of them were not techno literate and had challenges understanding the complexities of using online teaching modes. gourlay (2011) argues that digitally mediated technologies in higher education have led to new repertoires of engagement. google class, moodle, zoom, google meet and teams were completely new platforms for facilitating learning. the need to use and apply them on the spot caused them a lot of trouble, as shown by the following comments: being told to adopt online teaching approach without thorough training of the use of online technologies is a challenge. for us to be good educators, we need to spend more time on training. we did not have adequate technology and some of us are technophobic. the remarks were indicative of lecturers’ unpreparedness to adopt online learning. learners who were forced to abruptly stop face-to-face learning had no idea how to be part of an online class. they indicated a lack of technological efficacy. oliver (2011) argues that technology engenders hard determinism (causes inevitable social change or drivers of change) and humans have complete autonomy as educators’ drivers of change (soft determinism). with limited knowledge of ict, it would be difficult for lecturers to embrace blended learning. this became a motivating factor against the implementation of blended learning. cancer (2016) asserts that blended learning environments require enthusiastic instructors who are keen on computer skills. lecturers therefore needed to have the requisite computer skills to effectively implement blended learning. furthermore, some interviewed lecturers and students indicated that they did not want to give up social and human contact, which they were accustomed to during face-to-face lectures. in most cases, students indicated that they felt that they could not learn anything in the absence of a lecturer. some lecturers did not want to release the grip of teaching and 187 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 181-192 learning. these lecturers were anthropocentric and believed that no teaching or learning could take place in their absence. they believed that they were the only source of knowledge. one could believe that these were the lecturers who were not familiar with ict and online teaching approaches. kirkwood and price (2014) say that people who do not know how to use ict and online teaching methods may not be able to learn online. preparedness for posthuman pedagogy even if ict was used to enhance blended learning, posthuman thinking was missing in the way lecturers delivered content to students. interviewed lecturers felt that they were the centre of teaching and learning, as indicated by the following remarks: i must make notes and post them on students’ emails or website so that they prepare for examinations. noteworthy from the remarks was the fact that teaching and learning were humancentred. online delivery of content to learners became a substitute for face-to-face teaching and learning. the two should complement each other. students were not given the opportunity to create knowledge through technology-enhanced instruction. they were simply given notes to prepare them for examination. there was a need to create a technology-enhanced community of learning amongst students. disposing of notes online did not promote an online community of learners. most lecturers confessed to having challenges of creating an online community of learners. i did not know how to connect to conduct a class on zoom and the students did not know either. i did know how to present my content. how would i make illustration in the absent of a board? the remarks showed that lecturers have not developed posthuman thinking, and it might take time for them to change human-centred discourse in education. they had limited knowledge of online teaching and learning. there was a need to train the staff on computeraided teaching and learning. observation also showed that in some institutions, basic ict infrastructure like the internet and computers were available, but lecturers were not making the best use of them in enhancing blended learning with ict. students’ readiness for blended learning students felt that they lost the usual human contact during learning and were not adequately prepared for the new mode of learning, as indicated by the following remarks: learning alone makes me feel as if i am not part of the class. more so, i am not able to uses online technologies which are important for online learnings. we had not been taught how to use online teaching method, like google meet, google classroom and zoom. we needed face-to-face instructions on how to use the new online teaching and learning methods, i could not do it alone. 188 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 181-192 noteworthy from the remarks was that posthuman thinking was also missing in the students. rasheed et al. (2020) assert that the introduction of blended learning resulted in the loss of personal teacher-student and student-teacher relationships. both students and teachers felt human contact was the best means of ensuring that learning took place. this could be a result of both lacking requisite technological skills. the fact that the students had no skills or knowledge of how to use online technologies might mean that the tvet institutions were not prepared for online teaching and learning. before covid-19, the teaching and learning mode was largely face-to-face. the advent of the disease caught both students and lecturers unaware. the ability to adapt to online learning was only possible for students and lecturers who were techno-literate. most students, particularly male students, were digital natives, and as a result, they were able to quickly adapt to it. students who were not technologically literate preferred face-to-face instruction. infrastructural preparedness for blended learning blended learning requires intensive use of technology. ict plays an important role in facilitating learning in the absence of the human factor. it empowers learners to have self-directed learning. this implied that the success of blended learning hinged on the availability of technological infrastructure. this included the internet, commuters, and smart phones. interviewed lecturers and students confirmed computers and smartphones were available, but internet infrastructure, which was key in enabling online teaching and learning, was a militating factor against adoption of online teaching and learning. larlima and dangwal (2017) argue that blended learning is an innovative concept and requires the use of ict to support it. institutions were unable to provide internet services for lecturers’ online learning services. students who did not participate in online learning had problems with the internet, as shown by the following comments: i did not have internet connection to enable me to attend google meet lessons as a result, i was excluded from online classes i cannot afford to purchase data bundle to enable me to be connected on the internet and join online lessons internet connectivity was cited as a major militating factor against the adoption of blended learning. keramati et al. (2012) argue that technological infrastructure is a very important variable in e-learning. for viable blended learning to take place, it was important to ensure uninterrupted and constant internet services. the students only benefited when they had face-to-face contact with lecturers. humanist pedagogy remained predominant. thus, tvet institutions should prepare an adequate technological environment to enhance posthuman thinking, teaching, and learning during blended learning. in the absence of an adequate technological environment, teaching and learning remained human-centred, and the success of blended learning was severely affected. discussion and implications 189 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 181-192 the purpose of this study was to explore the organisational preparedness of tvet institutions in zimbabwe for implementing blended learning. we discuss the findings, drawing on the premises of the application of posthuman pedagogy in blended learning. blended learning was supposed to usher in an intra-active pedagogy where the two pedagogies complemented each other. learners are not only restricted to the idea that learning only takes place in a building. posthumanism makes educators and learners understand that teaching and learning take place in and from space and places (unesco, 2020). teaching and learning take place in a more expansive and inclusive setting. the polytechnics were not prepared for learning in and from space. the new setting dismantled the humanist structures that existed before covid-19, when learning institutions were structured around educator–learner binaries (braidotti, 2019). infusing posthuman pedagogy into blended learning requires dislodging the human from assuming the centric position in the teaching and learning situation. it requires the addition of technology (a nonhuman factor) and the creation of a technological environment. this means educators should be prepared to give up the grip they used to have in the teaching and learning situation. they should discard the belief that learners’ minds are empty vessels waiting to be filled with knowledge from the educators (freire, 1970; murris, 2016). educators should understand that the integration of posthumanism in blended learning entails the co-creation of knowledge by the educator and learner. the learner is no longer destined to occupy an inferior position in the teaching and learning process. the introduction of posthumanism should send a message to educators that traditional human-centred learning is phasing out (howlett, 2018). lecturers should be able to not only co-exist with technology but also effectively use it. techno literacy is very important and is a fundamental requirement for the implementation of posthuman pedagogy. observation showed that lecturers had limited techno literacy to enable them to embrace posthuman pedagogy, which is a key factor in blended learning. lecturers need to have adequate knowledge of the use of technologies because they are the key facilitators of posthuman pedagogy. they help to dehumanise learning and empower students to have self-directed learning. findings showed that they were unwilling to lose the command they used to have. lack of techno-literacy was another militating factor. it can be concluded that lecturers were not ready for the inclusion of posthuman pedagogy in blended learning. the adoption of online learning was a reactive measure to rescue the teaching and learning crisis, high demand for education, and restrictions created by covid-19. this engendered a combination of face-to-face teaching and learning (blended learning). technology, a posthuman teaching and learning tool, assumed a central role. results showed that tvet institutions were not adequately prepared to embrace technology-driven posthuman pedagogy. lecturers were not techno literate, internet infrastructure was inadequate, and it was difficult for both students and lecturers to lose the human contact they were used to. the study is of the opinion that tvet institutions should conduct staff development workshops to equip lecturers on the use of ict in online learning so that the lecturers will be able to confidently use them for blended learning. ict is now part of the fabric of our existence, and 190 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 181-192 the environment in which we live is rich in media technology (lewis, 2021). as a result, they should be able to use them efficiently. the study also is of the view that students should have a module on blended learning so that they will be able to embrace it during their learning. the study further indicated that lecturers and students in tvet institutions should be trained in the adoption of blended learning. the institutions should provide adequate technological infrastructure to facilitate posthuman thinking during learning. conclusion the paper highlighted that the coming of covid-19 gave impetus to the adoption of blended learning to ensure that students continued learning. blended learning ushered in the introduction of posthuman pedagogy when technology decentred teaching and learning from lecturer-centred face-to-face learning to technology and self-managed learning. results showed that polytechnics, students, and lecturers were not adequately prepared for posthuman pedagogy. lecturers did not adapt to the new pedagogy because there were not enough technological infrastructure and they had limited knowledge of it. recommendations considering the identified findings, the study makes the following recommendations: • polytechnics in zimbabwe need to improve their internet infrastructure to ensure smooth online teaching and learning. • lecturers and students need to be capacitated on the use of online learning tools to ensure their success of blended learning and the application of posthuman pedagogy. references badaru, k., & adu, e. 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(2022, may). adoption of online education and pedagogy as new codes of life for new future in rural regions. sustainability, 14, 5528. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095528 https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2021.27 https://doi.org/10.46303/ressat.2021.25 microsoft word aimukhambet__et_al journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 2 2023 pp.167-185 the effects of computer aided education in the education of folk cultural products zhanat aimukhambet*a, saulesh aituganovaa, aslan alimbayevb, gulnaz sagynadina & aiymgul seiputanovac *corresponding author email: a_zhanat@mail.ru a. faculty of philology, l. n. gumilyov eurasian national university, astana, kazakhstan b. department of kazakh and russian philology, a. k. kussayinov eurasian humanities institute, astana, kazakhstan c. higher school of humanities, s. amanzholov east kazakhstan university, ust-kamenogorsk, kazakhstan article info received: april 26, 2023 accepted: june 2, 2023 published: june 21, 2023 how to cite aimukhambet, z., aituganova, s., alimbayev, a., sagynadin, g., & seiputanova, a. (2023). the effects of computer aided education in the education of folk cultural products. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 167-185. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.25 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract this research explores the effects of computer-aided education (cae) on the education of folk cultural products. folklore, encompassing tangible and intangible cultural artifacts, holds significant importance in defining the identity and values of a community. cae, utilizing multimedia software and interactive teaching methods, has emerged as a promising approach to enhancing student learning experiences. this study aims to investigate the impact of cae on students' achievement, retention, cultural competency, and classroom participation in the domain of folk culture education. a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was utilized, with an experimental group of 32 1st grade students receiving cae and a control group of 32 1st grade students receiving traditional teaching methods in almaty, kazakhstan. various assessment tools were employed to measure academic achievement, cultural competency, and classroom participation. the results indicate that students in the cae group exhibited significantly higher academic achievement scores, improved retention of knowledge, enhanced cultural competency, and increased classroom participation compared to the control group. these findings provide empirical evidence supporting the effectiveness of cae in fostering effective and engaging education, particularly in the context of preserving and promoting cultural heritage through folk culture education. keywords computer-aided education; folklore education; multimedia software; cultural competency; quasi-experimental design. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.25 168 aimukhambet, z. et al curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 introduction "folklore" emerges as a manifestation of the historical, social, and cultural transformations ushered in by the advent of modernity. it represents a significant facet of cultural existence, entrenched within specific societies while maintaining its vibrant essence. the material and immaterial folk cultural artifacts of a community embody the distinct identity of that community, encapsulating diverse elements that constitute its very essence (çençen & berk, 2014). these cultural expressions encompass a wide array of tangible and intangible heritages, such as music, dance, literature, craftsmanship, culinary arts, and other artistic forms, which encapsulate the unique identity, traditions, and values of a particular community or region (kutlu, 2009; mustafa & saleh, 2017). rooted deeply in a community's history, traditions, and beliefs, folk cultural products serve as a fertile source of inspiration for artistic expression and creativity (sulaiman, 2011). folk culture encompasses both material and immaterial components, comprising tangible and intangible cultural elements. the intangible aspects of a culture encompass its language, religion, customs, traditions, anonymous folk literary works, performances, rituals, and other expressions (artun, 2000; güvenç, 1994). the realm of folklore intersects closely with various disciplines within the social sciences, defying precise demarcation. alan dundes (2003) aptly describes the subjects encapsulated by: […] folk culture, including oral narratives like myths, legends, fairy tales, folk stories, tongue-twisters, proverbs, riddles, idioms, slang, applause, taunts, jokes, insults, exchanges, ridicule, greetings, farewell statements, personal, animal and place names. furthermore, folk poetry productions such as mâni, lullabies, and laments; social practices encompassing birth, marriage, death, holidays, celebrations, festivals, and commemorative days; folk music and instruments, children's games, and sporting activities; performance arts such as meddah, karagöz, middle game, and puppets; folk knowledge pertaining to folk medicine, folk architecture, folk law, folk cuisine, folk calendar, folk botany, folk mathematics, and folk veterinary medicine; and traditional handicrafts like clothing, adornment, and various forms of traditional craftsmanship such as tanning, felting, fence-making, rug-making, copperworking, tinning, leatherworking, and printing, along with their contemporary transformations (dundes, 2003, p.11). folk cultural products hold distinctive significance in different countries, characterized by their unique attributes. in kazakhstan, for instance, the term "folk literature," as a representative folk cultural product, has gained widespread usage and encompasses languagebased materials such as instrumental and tekke poetry, as well as proverbs, epics, fairy tales, stories, jokes, riddles, myths, folk songs, laments, lullabies, and other similar manifestations, including those revolving around giants (tuyakbayev, 2018). folklore texts recounting tales of giants are prevalent in the folklore of turkic peoples, preserving the archaic motif of human appearance on earth (toyshanuly, 2009). although kazakh folk literature is predominantly 169 the effects of computer aided education jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 curriculumstudies.org transmitted and created through oral culture, the emergence of written and electronic media has led to its documentation in these cultural domains, ensuring its continuity for future generations (lazzat et al., 2019). the formation of national identity is a multifaceted process influenced by numerous factors. in kazakhstan, a young and independent nation, bolstering identity relies on fundamental elements such as individuals possessing a comprehensive understanding of their history and the systematic development of the country, an aspect deemed crucial within the state's socio-cultural memory. the modern cultural policy in place is designed to foster unity among the people of kazakhstan by intertwining history and present reality, thereby creating and promoting new values (kulsarieva et al., 2018). folk cultural products serve as a vital component of our collective cultural heritage, offering a multitude of educational, social, and economic benefits. as the field of folklore research continues to emerge, it is imperative to situate it within a broader and more comprehensive framework of study. education, in particular, has recognized the significance of folklore, and integrating it into the learning process has been a topic of interest (aini & winarno, 2022; azam & yatim, 2012). the rapid advancements in information and communication technologies (ict) witnessed in today's world have resulted in increased utilization of ict in the realm of education, among other domains. computers and ict are widely employed to enhance educational opportunities (bilgin et al., 2012). while education is a complex process necessitating meticulous management of human and technical resources, the concepts of teaching and learning have undergone fundamental transformations. computer-aided education (cae) is an instructional methodology that leverages multimedia software in single or multiple-student settings. it capitalizes on the computer as a conducive learning environment, reinforcing the teaching process, motivating students, and merging the principles of self-directed learning with computer technology, enabling students to progress at their own pace (engin et al., 2010). the primary objective of cae is to enhance students' learning capabilities as well as increase the effectiveness and productivity of instructors through advanced computer-based technologies (guney, 2015; toluwa et al., 2021). cae encompasses several essential forms in education, including presentation tools, exercise and repetition tools, interactive teachers, and simulation-based activities. by delivering lessons through computer-assisted applications or animations, the learning experience becomes more engaging and enjoyable for students, resulting in heightened motivation and interest, a deeper understanding of the subject matter, and increased academic success (ok et al., 2020). arslan (2003) highlights that cae facilitates the effective application of teaching principles such as immediate feedback, correction, and reinforcement, enhancing the learning-teaching process. moreover, computers afford students the opportunity to engage in repeated practice tailored to their individual learning needs without the pressure of peer judgment or criticism. 170 aimukhambet, z. et al curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 the integration of cae in education offers numerous advantages, including instant feedback to students, greater flexibility in learning, and the utilization of multimedia resources to enrich teaching methods (i̇mer, 2000; troussas et al., 2019). additionally, cae fosters personalized learning experiences and self-directed study. however, caution must be exercised, as potential drawbacks accompany the use of cae in education (arslan, 2003; demirer, 2006; wu et al., 2020). one concern pertains to the potential reduction in social interaction and collaboration among students, impeding the development of interpersonal skills. furthermore, concerns may arise regarding the quality and reliability of educational content provided through technological means, as well as the possibility of technological malfunctions or technical difficulties disrupting the learning process (lim & aryadoust, 2022; taş et al., 2006). extensive research has been conducted to explore the effects of cae on various aspects of education, including student attitudes, achievement, and retention. several studies have investigated the impact of cae on student achievement in diverse subjects, including the teaching of folk literature. in general, these studies indicate that cae exerts a positive influence on student achievement, as it facilitates personalized and interactive instruction that caters to diverse learning styles and individual needs (durán, 2011; hayal, 2015; malaş, 2011; naba'h et al., 2009; san, 2003; taşkın, 2004; yılmaz, 2005; zobar, 2010). however, when examining the existing literature in both kazakhstan and other turkish regions, it becomes evident that there is a paucity of studies investigating the impact of cae on students' competence in folk cultural products (nurdauletova et al., 2023; ramachandran, 2004). the majority of these studies primarily focus on determining the reciprocal influence of traditional teaching practices and technological tools in teaching the kazakh language and literature (abras & sunshine, 2008; hampel & stickler, 2015; kaleli, 2020). despite the potential benefits of incorporating cae and folk literature into education, there remain significant gaps in the literature that necessitate further investigation. this research aims to contribute to the field by examining the influence of cae on students' success, retention, class participation, and cultural competency in the domain of folk culture education. to achieve this aim, the study seeks answers to the following sub-problems:  to what extent does the integration of cae in folk culture education impact student achievement compared to traditional instruction?  to what extent does the integration of cae in folk culture education affect student retention compared to traditional instruction?  to what extent does the integration of cae in folk culture education influence students' cultural competency compared to traditional instruction?  to what extent does the integration of cae in folk culture education impact students' classroom participation compared to traditional instruction? in conclusion, folklore represents an integral part of a community's cultural existence, encompassing tangible and intangible cultural products that define the identity, traditions, and 171 the effects of computer aided education jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 curriculumstudies.org values of a particular community. folk cultural products play a crucial role in preserving cultural heritage and have garnered increasing attention in the field of education. the integration of cae in education has emerged as a promising approach to enhancing student learning experiences. however, there is a lack of research focusing specifically on the impact of cae in the domain of folk culture education. by exploring these sub-problems, the research intends to shed light on the potential benefits and drawbacks of incorporating cae into the teaching of folk cultural products. moreover, it aims to assess the impact of cae on students' overall engagement, retention of knowledge, cultural understanding, and active participation in the classroom. addressing these research questions will contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of technology in fostering effective and engaging education, particularly in the context of preserving and promoting cultural heritage through folk culture education. method the research was conducted utilizing a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group model, which is a well-established research design for examining the impact of interventions on various outcome variables (ratelle et al., 2019). in this particular study, the primary focus was to investigate the effect of computer-aided education (cae) on students' academic achievement, retention of knowledge, cultural competency, and classroom participation with regards to folk cultural products. the independent variables encompassed the utilization of cae as the experimental condition and traditional teaching methods as the control condition. on the other hand, the dependent variables included students' academic achievement, retention of knowledge, cultural competency, and classroom participation. to measure the impact of cae on academic achievement and cultural competency, pretest and posttest assessments were conducted using achievement tests (at) and cultural competency tests (cct). additionally, the measurement of retention of knowledge was performed by administering another round of achievement tests (at) to both the experimental and control groups. to evaluate students' classroom participation, a classroom participation form (cpf) was employed, enabling the assessment of their active engagement and involvement in the learning process throughout the duration of the courses. table 1 research design groups pre-test experimental variable post-test retention test cae group at x cpf at at cct cct ttg at cpf at at cct cct 172 aimukhambet, z. et al curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 table 1 provides a comprehensive overview of the research design, where the experimental group is denoted as cae and the control group is represented by ttg (traditional teaching group). the pretest and posttest measurements for achievement and cultural competency are indicated by at and cct, respectively. moreover, at is employed again to gauge the retention of knowledge within both groups. finally, the classroom participation form (cpf) is utilized to capture students' classroom participation. by adopting this research design and employing various assessment tools, the study aimed to gain insights into the effectiveness of cae in enhancing students' academic achievement, retention of knowledge, cultural competency, and classroom participation within the realm of folk cultural products. the findings of this investigation have the potential to contribute to the existing body of knowledge on integrating technology in education and shed light on the role of cae in fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation of cultural heritage among students. in the experimental group, the cae method was implemented, utilizing microsoft movie maker for the "folk culture" lesson. the contents (videos, audio files, texts, captions etc.) modifies and created via this application were presented to the students in an auditory and visual way, and directions were provided where necessary. the content and activities were related to students' daily lives, which helped capture their attention. slides were prepared for the lesson, and instructions were given to the students for internet research and computer use. interactive applications, puzzles, educational games, in-class activities, animations and simulations, video presentations, and visually rich content were employed. these operations were carried out by the researcher and completed in about three months. a pilot study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility and suitability of the research design and procedures before the main study. a different sample was used for the pilot study, comprising 47 (girl = 23, boy = 24) high school 1st grade students from a school located in the city center of almaty, kazakhstan. the pilot study involved implementing the computer-assisted lesson software and activities related to the "folk culture" lesson, similar to the main study. feedback from the participants and teachers was collected to make necessary adjustments to the research instruments and procedures. the findings and adjustments from the pilot study provided valuable insights for the main study, ensuring a more refined and well-informed research process. the developed materials were reviewed by three academicians and two teachers, and new arrangements were made in the software according to their opinions. measurement tools were applied for the pre-test aspect before the experimental procedure. the experimental group underwent a 6-week period of cae that was founded on the principles of constructivist learning. the control groups were subjected to traditional teaching techniques, which included lectures, question-and-answer sessions, and group discussions. following the conclusion of the experimental interventions, the researchers utilized measurement instruments to conduct a post-test on both groups. it is important to 173 the effects of computer aided education jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 curriculumstudies.org mention that the tests were conducted online, leveraging digital platforms to ensure ease of administration and data collection. the sample for this research was selected from the population of high school 1st grade students in almaty, kazakhstan, during the 2023 academic year. the sample consisted of 64 high school students, with 31 girls and 33 boys, from a high school located in the city center of almaty. to divide the participants into the experimental and control groups, a classification method was employed. the classification method involved randomly assigning the students to either the control group or the experimental group. out of the total sample, 32 students, comprising 15 girls and 17 boys, were allocated to the control group. similarly, the remaining 32 students, 16 girls and 16 boys, were assigned to the experimental group. this random assignment ensured that the participants were distributed evenly across the two groups, minimizing any potential bias or confounding factors. it allowed for a comparative analysis between the control group, which received traditional teaching methods, and the experimental group, which received computer-assisted lesson software based on constructivist learning. by employing this classification method, the study aimed to evaluate the impact of the cae method on students' learning outcomes and retention in the "folk culture" lesson. folk cultural products achievement test in the context of a lecture on kazakh folk culture, this is a scale designed to assess pupils' knowledge of the first-year high school curriculum. in this study, a question bank comprised of multiple-choice questions pertaining to the topics in the "folk culture" lecture was developed in order to assess the subject knowledge of high school first-year students. various sources, such as a textbook on kazakh folk culture, language, and literature for the first year of high school, question banks related to this topic, and test papers were utilized in the creation of this question bank. multiple-choice questions covering "folk culture" lesson that are in line with the objectives of the course were prepared to determine the questions, and were presented to measurement and evaluation experts and subject teachers for their opinions. a 30 a-question multiple-choice test suitable for the level was developed and reviewed by experts. the test's reliability was studied as a pilot study on 64 high school 2nd grade students from several high schools throughout the 2022-2023 academic year. the test's item difficulty and item discrimination indices were computed. questions with item difficulty indexes ranging from 0.40-0.60 were preferred. items with low item difficulty indices were re-evaluated based on topic instructors' feedback. 5 questions were reevaluated and corrected, 8 questions were removed, and in the final stage, the number of questions was 22. correct answers were coded as 1 and incorrect answers as 0. the item discrimination index of the test ranges from 0.42 to 0.84. the reliability coefficient was calculated as .77 through kr-20 (kuder-richardson) reliability analysis. the highest score a student can receive is "22" and the lowest is "0". 174 aimukhambet, z. et al curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 cpf is used to determine student classroom engagement throughout their courses. researchers developed this observation tool to determine student participation in the lesson. cultural competency scale in order to assess students' competence in kazakh folk culture, researchers created this scale. in this process, some previously developed scales were examined to determine students' proficiency in folk culture. composition works expressing the proficiency of a small group of students in folk culture and the opinions of two academics about kazakh culture were utilized. after the statements were written, they were formatted into a scale, resulting in a 25-item proficiency scale that was available for use. there are a total of two items on the 5-point likert scale, with 12 positive and 10 negative statements. these items were rated as "strongly competent," "partially competent," "undecided," "partially incompetent," and "strongly incompetent." after applying the scale, positive statements received a score of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and negative statements received a score of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, respectively. researchers performed exploratory factor analysis (efa) to determine the construct validity of the developed scale in the pilot application. according to efa, the measurement tool had a one-dimensional structure. this one-dimensional structure explains approximately 53.2% of the variance in competence of students towards kazakh folk culture. in order to determine the discriminant validity of the items in the scale, item-total correlations were examined. the item-total correlation values of the scale range between.287 and.609. as known, an item's corrected correlation coefficient being higher than.20 means that the item serves the purpose of the relevant factor significantly (tavşancıl, 2010). as a result of the cronbach's alpha reliability analysis, the reliability coefficient of the proficiency scale was found to be 0.89. according to these values, it can be said that the scale is reliable and valid (büyüköztürk, 2002; eroğlu, 2008). data analysis for the statistical analysis of the folk cultural products achievement test and cultural competency scale data, the mean, standard deviation, and t-test were utilized. the experimental and control groups' preand post-test achievement and competence averages were compared using a t-test on independent samples. statistical analyses were conducted on a computer using the spss program. the level of significance was set at 0.05. the fcpat was re-administered to the students two weeks later, and the independent samples t-test was used again. cpf is used to determine the classroom participation of students throughout the courses. frequency (f) and percentage data (%) were evaluated in determining students' participation in the lesson. 175 the effects of computer aided education jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 curriculumstudies.org findings table 2 comparison of pre-test achievement scores between experimental and control groups group n mean std. deviation t p preachievement experimental 32 9,10 2,60 -0,20 0,84 control 32 9,23 2,52 table 2 presents the comparison results of pre-test achievement scores in the field of folk culture education between the experimental and control groups. according to the t-test analyses, there was no significant difference found between the mean pre-test achievement scores of the experimental and control groups (p > 0.05). these findings indicate that both groups had similar levels of achievement in folk culture education before the experimental interventions. table 3 comparison of pre-cultural competency scale scores between experimental and control groups test group n mean std. deviation t p pre-cultural competency scale experimental 32 3,31 0,68 -0,92 0,35 control 32 3,45 0,50 table 3 displays the comparison results of pre-cultural competency scale scores in the field of folk culture education between the experimental and control groups. according to the t-test analyses, there was no significant difference found between the mean pre-cultural competency scale scores of the experimental and control groups (p > 0.05). these findings suggest that both groups had comparable levels of pre-cultural competency before the experimental interventions. table 4 comparison of post-test achievement scores between experimental and control groups group n mean std. deviation t p postachievement experimental 32 15,05 2,29 3,76 0,000 control 32 12,84 2,40 table 4 presents the comparison results of post-test achievement scores, administered after a 6-week experimental intervention, between the experimental and control groups. according to the t-test analyses, a significant difference was found between the mean posttest achievement scores of the experimental and control groups (p < 0.05). these findings 176 aimukhambet, z. et al curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 indicate a significant increase in folk culture achievement for the experimental group after the experimental interventions. computer-aided instruction resulted in a significant improvement in students' folk culture achievement compared to traditional instruction. table 5 comparison of retention scores in folk culture education between experimental and control groups group n mean std. deviation t p retention experimental 32 13,16 2,62 0,71 0,47 control 32 11,21 1,82 table 5 displays the comparison results of retention scores in folk culture education, measured through a retention test conducted 2 weeks after the post-test, between the experimental and control groups. according to the t-test analyses, a significant difference was found between the mean retention scores of the experimental and control groups (p < 0.05). these findings indicate that the students in the experimental group achieved significantly higher retention scores after the 2-week period with no intervention. computer-aided instruction resulted in a significant increase in students' learning retention in folk culture education compared to traditional instruction. the graph below illustrates the pre-test, posttest, and retention scores of the experimental and control groups. figure 1 comparison of groups` pre-test-post-test and retention scores 7,00 9,00 11,00 13,00 15,00 17,00 19,00 pretest posttest retention experimental control 177 the effects of computer aided education jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 curriculumstudies.org table 6 comparison of post-cultural competency scale scores between experimental and control groups group n mean std. deviation t p post-cultural competency scale experimental 32 3,98 0,75 3,45 0,001 control 32 3,87 0,54 table 6 presents the comparison results of post-cultural competency scale scores in the field of folk culture education between the experimental and control groups. according to the t-test analyses, no significant difference was found between the mean post-cultural competency scale scores of the experimental and control groups (p >0.05). these findings suggest that, although both groups showed an increase in post-cultural competency, there was no significant difference between them. in conclusion, the results of the study indicate that there was no significant difference in pre-test achievement scores and pre-cultural competency scale scores between the experimental and control groups, suggesting that both groups had similar baseline levels. table 7 comparison of class participation rates of students by week 1.week 2. week 3. week 4. week 5. week 6. week cpf f % f % f % f % f % f % exp. g. 12 54.54 15 55.55 18 58.06 25 62.50 27 60.00 30 68.51 cont. g. 10 45.46 12 44.45 13 41.94 15 37.50 18 40.00 24 31.49 total 22 100 27 100 31 100 40 100 45 100 54 100 the participation of the students in the lesson is shown in table 7 on a weekly basis. according to the table, the participation rates of the experimental group students are higher than those of the control group students. the participation variable was obtained as a result of 6 weeks of observation, and the difference increased to %37 in the last week. however, after the 6-week experimental intervention, the experimental group exhibited a significant improvement in post-test achievement scores and retention scores compared to the control group, indicating the effectiveness of computer-aided instruction in enhancing students' folk culture education. no significant difference was found between the groups in terms of post-cultural competency scale scores, suggesting that both groups experienced similar gains in cultural competency. these findings emphasize the positive impact of computer-aided instruction on students' academic performance and learning retention in the field of folk culture education. 178 aimukhambet, z. et al curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 discussion folk cultural products are distinguished by their unique aesthetics, expressive qualities, and communal values, which contribute to the formation of a collective identity and foster a sense of belonging within a community. preserving the cultural heritage and transmitting values and traditions to future generations are essential functions fulfilled by folk cultural products. the findings of this study indicate the presence of statistically significant disparities between the pre-test and post-test scores, as well as between the post-test and retention test scores, among students in the experimental group. conversely, no statistically significant differences were observed between the pre-test and post-test scores, nor between the posttest and retention test scores, among students in the control group. moreover, a significant disparity emerged between the post-test and retention test scores of students in the experimental and control groups following the experimental intervention in favor of the experimental group. the experimental group exhibited higher retention values compared to the control group. these results align with similar research conducted in the field of kazakh cultural literature (aminatun & oktaviani, 2019; csavdari et al., 2021; dinara, akzhigitova, & zabrodskaja, 2022; guncaga et al., 2022). based on these findings, it can be inferred that the notable difference observed in the experimental group can be attributed to the implementation of computer-assisted teaching methods during the experimental process. the employment of computer-assisted instruction (cae) demonstrated a positive impact on students' academic achievement in the realm of folk cultural products and proved effective in terms of knowledge retention. similar conclusions were reached by yarar (2010) and keser (2012) in their respective studies on the influence of cae on students' academic achievement in the areas of culture and history. moreover, nurdauletova et al. (2023) investigated the effects of cae on student achievement in oral culture, students' attitudes, and topics related to national values in social studies, while tankut (2008) explored the impact of cae on academic achievement in social culture and folklore subjects. consistently, yeşiltaş (2010) emphasized the ability of visual and auditory materials, such as pictures, photographs, graphics, maps, videos, and video slides incorporated within computer software, to create a multimodal learning environment that engages multiple senses and effectively enhances students' academic performance. consequently, cae and educational software have been recognized for their positive influence on students' academic achievement. the implementation of activities in a cae environment has provided a strong stimulus in the classroom, and through versatile processes, students have interactively revisited, deepened, and given meaning to the objectives and behaviors related to topics in folk literature. in a sense, cae applications have facilitated students' autonomy and personalized learning in a free environment, thereby enhancing their lasting acquisition of knowledge. numerous studies have highlighted the significance of computer-assisted instructional activities guided by teachers in daily teaching processes (altowairiki, 2021; bas & 179 the effects of computer aided education jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 curriculumstudies.org kivilcim, 2021; fletcher-flinn & gravatt, 1995; jia, 2019; sünbül, gündüz & yılmaz, 2002; turunen, 2019; zhussupbayev et al., 2023). furthermore, the research findings indicate that the cultural competence levels of students in the experimental group were not significantly higher compared to those of students in the control group. additionally, the participation of students in the experimental group in class activities exhibited a notable increase. in addition to fostering academic success, cae promotes the development of advanced cognitive skills, facilitating a deeper comprehension of subject matter rather than relying on rote memorization (aslan, 2011; durán, 2011; coymak, 2019). güven and sülün (2012) have highlighted several reasons behind the effectiveness of cae in contrast to traditional teaching methods, including the utilization of visual and auditory stimuli, the provision of diverse learning environments through computer-mediated instruction, the enhancement of students' comprehension and retention abilities, and the promotion of high levels of motivation and engagement. by employing cae methods, students can readily articulate and explain fundamental concepts while actively participating in discussions concerning more advanced subject matter (guney, 2015). the preservation and promotion of folk cultural products are crucial for maintaining cultural diversity and safeguarding cultural rights. preserving unique cultural and historical artifacts necessitates the employment of cutting-edge technologies. state-of-the-art technologies should be embraced to comprehensively understand the intrinsic values held by the people of kazakhstan and to effectively impart the principles of art and culture to future generations. therefore, it is essential to explore the impact of computer-assisted instruction on the education and preservation of folk cultural products, as well as its broader social and cultural significance. in the near future, computer-based educational methods and models are poised to replace traditional teaching approaches. consequently, comprehensive evaluation and development of education across all disciplines are imperative. computer-aided techniques and courses constitute essential components of these advancements. the implications of this study for further research in the kazakh environment are manifold. firstly, future investigations could delve deeper into the specific components and features of computer-assisted instruction that contribute to its effectiveness in enhancing academic achievement, cultural competence, and classroom participation in the context of folk cultural products. by identifying the key elements that yield the most significant outcomes, educational practitioners can optimize instructional design and implementation strategies. secondly, the examination of the long-term impact of computer-assisted instruction on students' retention of knowledge and cultural competency warrants attention. longitudinal studies that track students' progress over an extended period would provide valuable insights into the sustained effects of this instructional approach. 180 aimukhambet, z. et al curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2023, 5(2):167-185 furthermore, exploring the potential variations in the effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction across different age groups, socioeconomic backgrounds, and regional contexts would contribute to a more nuanced understanding of its applicability and adaptability in diverse educational settings in kazakhstan. moreover, investigating the role of teacher training and professional development programs in facilitating the integration of computer-assisted instruction in classrooms would be beneficial. understanding the pedagogical strategies and support mechanisms necessary for teachers to effectively utilize technology-enhanced instructional methods can help overcome potential implementation challenges and ensure optimal learning outcomes. lastly, considering the cultural nuances and specificities of the kazakh context, future research could explore the alignment between computer-assisted instruction and the preservation and promotion of kazakh folk cultural products. this could involve investigating the ways in which technology can be leveraged to authentically represent and transmit cultural values, aesthetics, and traditions, while also encouraging active engagement and participation from students. in conclusion, this study highlights the positive effects of computer-assisted instruction on students' academic 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[unpublished master's thesis. sakarya university institute of social sciences], sakarya. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 19-36 contribution of gender on learning readiness among school students of nepal rita dangol 1, milan shrestha*2 * corresponding author: milanshrestha313244@gmail.com 1. tribhuvan university, faculty of humanities and social sciences, kirtipur, nepal 2. kathmandu university, school of education, lalitpur, nepal article info received: february 2, 2020 revised: april 27, 2020 accepted: june 21, 2020 how to cite dangol, r. & shrestha, m. (2021). contribution of gender on learning readiness among school students of nepal. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 19-36. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.2 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract readiness is considered as one of the prerequisites for effective learning process among school students. its absence can hinder the learning of the students and schooling as a whole. the purpose of this study, hence, is to examine the contributions of gender in learning readiness. this study is based on the cross-sectional survey design and it has employed purposive sampling to gather data from 400 students via questionnaire. the collected data were analyzed employing both descriptive and parametric statistical measures, particularly independent sample t-test. at the meantime, the researcher has incorporated the social capital theory for discussing the results. the derived result reveals that all dimensions (student, school, and family) elucidated the high level of learning readiness among students. likewise, gender makes significant contributions in learning readiness and its dimensions due to variation in the influences related to the existing social capitals among students. finally, it is wrapped up that without gender equality, the enhancement of learning readiness is not possible. keywords gender; learning readiness; school readiness; social capital; student readiness. 10.46303/jcsr.2020.2 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 20 dangol, r. & shrestha, m. jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 introduction the high academic achievement among students is the prime goal of the education system. however, it is only possible when the students display readiness to learn both in the school and at home. the learning readiness, here, refers to the high amount of eagerness and preparedness to learn amid students (gandhi, 2010). in the words of gunawardena and duphorne (2000), the learning readiness is reflected as the satisfaction from learning experiences. this gratification from learning is one of the factors associating with principals of learning (horzum et al., 2015). likewise, thorndike (1989) mentions learning readiness as the first primary law of learning (as cited in gandhi, 2010). the illustrations divulge that learning occurs when the students initiate the modification process and form an attitude. thus, learning readiness forms a crucial part of the teaching-learning process. considering the dimensions of learning readiness, the united nations international children’s emergency fund ([unicef], 2012), and the united states department of health and human services ([usdhhs], 2014) recognizes the student readiness, family readiness and school readiness as specific components of learning readiness. among these dimensions, student readiness is related to the person (e.g., physical, mental, and emotional) state of student whereas other dimensions are associated with the student’s relatedness. likewise, the school readiness is related to the teachers, school environment, and class motivation like school factors which is preparedness to students for learning (united nations educational, scientific and cultural organization [unesco], 2007). in addition, family readiness refers to the overall vigilance of parents to their children. it incorporates the tasks like; providing the sound learning environment, sending to the best school, providing all required facilities to develop the finest learning culture among their children (alexander et al., 1994). the assurance of these three elements altogether creates a favorable learning environment among students and it eventually prepares them to learn. the learning readiness becomes an essential task for achieving outstanding results in exams. as it is a precondition for the learning process, its absence can limit the journey of learning. in other words, every effort of students, schools, and parents becomes meaningless in spite of the learning readiness in a student’s learning process. furthermore, the educational achievement of students will decrease without an eagerness to learn. on the contrary, if the learners are physically and mentally ready to learn, their enthusiasm gears up in the study (prakash, 2012), and they may become able to learn. likewise, learning readiness is allied with the gender of students (voyles, 2011). more specifically, gender plays a crucial role to develop the values, beliefs, preferences, and attitudes towards learning in students. this value system regarding gender crafts the favorable environment via school and family, and prepares student readiness for the learning. furthermore, the gender role towards learning readiness is influenced by social capital and it is associated with the social capital theory (bourdieu & wacquant, 1992). the social capital theory 21 contribution of gender on learning readiness jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 poses the capital, field, and habitus (waterfield, 2015) respectively. the capital is a social outlook (bourdieu, 1986) which/that encompasses the knowledge, social bonding, and experiences in relation to facilitating a favorable environment for students learning process. the encouraging environment motivates and creates an eagerness among students to learn. thus, social capital drives students to attend the school, schools to create a supportive environment for learning, and families to send their child in schools as the field knowing locations of social positions. in the field, they are influenced by a cognitive scheme as preparedness to learn (by the student), teach (by the teacher), and send a child in school (by parents) and replicate their character (gaventa, 2003) as habitus. thus, habitus is a disposition or attitude (waterfield, 2015) of students, teachers, and parents which jointly reflected as the learning readiness. it is a truism that learning readiness is a crucial factor in teaching and learning arenas. without learning readiness, the teaching and learning process becomes incomplete. without students’ readiness, no educational goals will achieve success among students. thus, the lack of learning readiness among students can turn into an immense obstruction to promoting quality school education (budiharso & tarman, 2020). keeping it into consideration, a few studies are made on how learning readiness is contributed by gender among students. the accomplished studies concerning the relationship between gender and learning readiness, however, hardly represent the nepal context. this praxis elevates a number of questions like: what is the level of learning readiness among students of different genders? what are the dimensions of learning readiness in the context of nepal? and which factors contribute to learning readiness among girls and boys? among these concerns, this study has focused to address the issue relating to what extent did the learning readiness exists and is influenced by gender in the school setting. aim, research questions, and hypothesis this research aims to assess the level of learning readiness (student readiness, school readiness, and family readiness) and examine the influences gender makes upon it among students. for achieving these aims, this study raises the following research questions: 1. what is the level of learning readiness among school students? 2. did gender contribute to learning readiness in an academic setting? subsequently, the researcher also constructed the hypothesis as: gender did not enhance the learning readiness of school students. theoretical perspectives learning readiness and its dimensions learning readiness has been associated with affirmative social and behavioral competencies in terms of better educational outcomes among students. it refers to the outlook of inspiring learning situations among individuals which is needed to start any learning tasks for getting better benefits within the expected time and invested efforts (chorrojprasert, 2020). it is a 22 dangol, r. & shrestha, m. jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 product of the interface between the student and the sort of environmental and cultural experiences that capitalize on the maturity outcomes for students (unicef, 2012). moreover, learning readiness has three aspects; student readiness, school readiness, and family readiness. student readiness student readiness is the preparation of a child to succeed in a structural learning setting but it is different from readiness to learn (unicef, 2012). it is also termed as children's readiness. children’s readiness is the one basic component and it prepares the foundation for learning readiness among students. the children’s readiness to learn to develop the basic skills and capacities within student which makes them ready and eager to learn. kagan et al. state that children’s readiness incorporates five dimensions as “physical well-being and motor development, social and emotional development, approaches to learning, language development, and cognition and general knowledge” (1993 as cited in mcconachie, 2018, p. 209). in addition, unicef (2012) mention that student readiness contains individual attributes like procrastination, time management, persistence, willingness to learn, academic attributes, self-management, learning skills, organization, health status, and commitment towards learning. concerning to it, student attention, procrastination, time management, persistence, learning skills, health, commitment, emotional regulation, social relationships and social cognition, attitudes towards learning, task persistence, creativity, initiative, curiosity, and problem-solving like attributes play the crucial role for determining student readiness. school’s readiness school readiness denotes the efforts of schools for building the capacity of students to actively engaging in the learning process (chorrojprasert, 2020). it is known as a ready school which means creating a supportive environment for student learning. education experience before school is varied and disparate across the globe which influences the school’s readiness (unesco, 2007). school’s readiness reveals the instructive program which executed in the classroom, instructional medium, education values, teaching style, the structure of school, sufficient time devoted to learning in the classroom, adequate supply of learning materials and teacher competency, etc. thus, school readiness is a prominent part of learning readiness among students. family readiness family readiness means creating supporting parenting and stimulating the home environment for the child's learning process. it includes caregiving, providing an adequate facility to learn, creating a learning environment, motivating behavior for learning, and regularly send the child for attending their classes in school, etc. more specifically, the student was able to get academic success when their parents involved in the partnership with the school concerning their educational process (hoffman et al., 2020). similarly, the parent’s attitudes, perceptions, 23 contribution of gender on learning readiness jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 beliefs, thoughts, and assurance towards their children's education are considered to be key elements for the school’s educational achievement (alexander et al., 1994). the educational status of parents, their beliefs, and expectations towards education is also linked with the learning achievement of children. these characteristics of parents help to develop learning readiness among students. thus, parental role as facilitator (adyanto, 2020) and their engagements in child learning activities is crucial factors of learning readiness. it is also influenced by parental commitment, economic status, educational status, values, beliefs, attitudes, and behavior towards education. social capital theory social capital theory contributes to revealing the social relationship and positions in society (bourdieu & wacquant, 1992). in the line of bourdieu (1986) the social capital theory advocates the societal positioning and strong networks of connections to facilitate the settings of fields (classroom), agents (students), and habits (behavior) respectively. considering this triangular setting of social capital theory, the gender role and its socializations contribute to differencing the capital among students. moreover, social capital across gender makes a variation in their value system, ways of perceptions, and lifestyles. these variations among students regarding their gender socializations replicate different characters, attitudes, personalities, and behavior. furthermore, the replication of social capital across gender roles is equally applicable in the arena of learning behaviors. one of the learning behaviors is referred to as learning readiness which is remarkably associated with the learning achievement among students regarding their gender. overall, this theory is used to discuss the data relating to learning readiness via the gender of the students in school settings. learning readiness across gender the social values, beliefs, attitudes, and practices (social capital) are the prime factors for creating the learning environment among students which prepares them to learn. however, social capital has not remained similar for all students. it differs according to their personal attributes (e.g. gender). the gender is the social-cultural identification of individual and it determines their social role (pokharel, 2013-a; pokharel, 2013-b). these roles are constructed via social capital and it varies in their gender roles like the differences between the social roles of boys and girls. for instance, due to the social capital, the gender role makes a difference in the attitudes and behaviors of students, practices of their school, and family. these distinctions in the attitudes, behaviors, and practices among students, schools, and families make variations in the learning readiness. thus, gender is associated with the learning readiness regards to the social capital of the students, school, and family. conceptual framework from the literature reviewed, the researcher conceptualized that learning readiness is composed of three major groups of variables which are student readiness, school readiness, and 24 dangol, r. & shrestha, m. jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 family readiness (usdhhs, 2014) respectively. in the meantime, learning readiness and its dimensions were defined as dependent variables that were influenced by the independent variables as the gender of school students. in addition, the gender role was determined according to the existing social capital of students (daza, 2016) and it further played a contributory role in determining learning readiness in school settings (figure 1). figure 1. conceptual framework (modified from daza, 2016; unicef, 2012) methodology research design the researcher stances the post-positivist philosophy (cohen et al., 2007; creswell, 2009; creswell, 2012) which beliefs in single reality as determining either or not gender has influenced the learning readiness among students. in the line of post-positivism, this study employed the cross-sectional survey as the research design and its nature is confirmatory. population and sampling this study identified the 400 number of students as the sample size from 394, 651 school students of kathmandu district (ministry of education, science, and technology [moest], 2018) by employing yamane (1967) approaches at 95 % confidence limit. then, the researcher obtained the required number of samples via the following cluster in this study. more specifically, the researcher demarcated kathmandu district according to its political divisions done by the nepal government in 11 municipalities as clusters of this study. after this, the researcher randomly selected one cluster and started to pick school student one by one from the selected cluster until the required numbers of sample size were not fulfilled. instrumentation and pilot testing before developing the questionnaire, this study employed delphi approaches where the researcher conducted a focus group discussion among experts of learning theories, educationalists, and school teachers to determine the indicators and sub-indicators of learning readiness. from this approach, the researcher explored the three dimensions of learning readiness; student, school, and family readiness respectively. then, the questionnaire was constructed with encompassing these three sections consisting of student readiness (18 items), school readiness (9 items), and family readiness (22 items) respectively. these all items slotted in 5 responses arranged from “never” to “always” where never denotes minimum and always is capital social theory indicators of learning readiness student readiness school readiness family readiness gender learning readiness 25 contribution of gender on learning readiness jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 the maximum extent of the scale. then, the researcher employed the questionnaire in pilot testing and derived more than 0.7 cronbach’s alpha (α) values of all indicators; student readiness (.833), school readiness (.711), and family readiness (.875) respectively. it means these three indicators of the scale are highly reliable and ensured high internal consistency (e.g., santos, 1999; bhattarai, 2015) between the items in the scale. data collection procedures the researcher took the oral permission from the school authorities and gathered consent from all respondents to collect the data in this study. after that, the researcher assembled the entire respondent/ students’ in one classroom and collected data taking one hour from each of the schools that were selected. in the process of data collection, the researcher distributed questionnaire to all respondents by orienting them about the purpose of this study. after assuring the respondents that their information would be kept confidential, request was made to fill the questionnaire. accordingly, the students filled the questionnaire and returned it to the researcher within the scheduled period taken by the researcher. data analysis process the collected data were finally analyzed with the help of descriptive and inferential statistics. firstly, the descriptive statistics (percentage, frequency, mean and standard deviation) were adopted for identifying the level of learning readiness. for this purpose, researcher categorized the collected likert responses in three levels and it was obtained through calculating the best’s (1977) criteria (as cited in drupka, 2010; joshi, 2016) as follows; 𝐻𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒−𝐿𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝐿𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑙𝑠 = 5−1 3 = 4 3 = 1. 33 consequently, the researcher obtained the three levels of learning readiness and it was categorized as high (<3.67), moderate (2.34-3.66), and low (1.00-2.33) respectively. these categorizations were based on obtained mean scores with regard to the learning readiness and its dimensions. then, the ttest is employed to examine the influences of gender in learning readiness (student readiness, school readiness, and family readiness). for this purpose, the researcher ensured the assumptions of the parametric test (e.g. normal distribution, scale form of measurement, randomization of selecting a sample, and homogeneity of variances) and its results allowed performing ttest in this study. results gender of school students this study found the boy students (n = 239, % = 59.75) were majority in number than girl students (n = 161, % = 40.25) as respondents of the study. however, these statistics seem conflicting to the census of nepal. according to the census of nepal, girl children are more in 26 dangol, r. & shrestha, m. jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 number than the boys (central bureau of statistics [cbs], 2012) students. but since the number of girls responding to the study was less than that of boys, it signified that many female children are out of the school premises. it means, comparatively more male children get the opportunity to enroll and study in school than female children. learning readiness among school students the learning readiness is calculated from the sum of mean score from these three factors; student readiness, school readiness, and family readiness (tables 1 and 2). table 1: dimension of learning readiness among school students learning readiness mean sd meaning student readiness 3.97 .42 high school readiness 3.95 .44 high family readiness 4.19 .50 high learning readiness 4.03 .35 high table 1 refers to the high score (mean = 4.03, sd = .355) of statistics and it indicated the high level of learning readiness among school students. among the learning readiness, the entire dimensions; student readiness (mean = 3.97, sd = .42), school readiness (mean = 3.95, sd = .44) and family readiness (mean = 4.19, sd = .50) all consists the high mean scores. these high mean scores expressed that the school students consist of a high level of learning readiness as well as its dimensions. this section also elucidated the number and frequencies of respondents belong to entire learning readiness and its dimensions in three levels (table 2 and 3). table 2: frequencies of learning readiness among school students dimensions of learning readiness high moderate n % n % student readiness 316 79.1 84 20.9 school readiness 310 77.6 90 22.4 family readiness 352 88.1 48 11.9 learning readiness 364 91.0 36 9.0 table 2 divulges, the majority number of respondents poses the high levels of continuum as student readiness (n = 316, % = 79.1), school readiness (n = 310, % = 77.6), and family readiness (n = 352, % = 88.1) respectively. likewise, the remaining students were at moderate levels across the dimensions of learning readiness. overall, the nine tenth number of respondents (% = 91.0) consists the high level of learning readiness and it was followed by moderate level (n = 36, % = 9.0) respectively. however, the researcher did not find any respondents having a low level concerning the learning readiness and its entire dimensions. these all descriptive statistics revealed the high eagerness and degrees of concentration among 27 contribution of gender on learning readiness jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 students, availability of supportive and favorable environment to the students in their learning process. testing the assumptions for ttest the researcher ensured four assumptions of the parametric test to employ t-test in this study. for this purpose, the researcher performed skewness and kurtosis for ensuring normal distribution, where all the derived values of learning readiness (zskew = -.660 and zkurt = -.284) and its components (zskew [-.838 to -.578] and zkurt [-.430 to .957]) were lie between +1 to -1 range. these derived values of skewness and kurtosis satisfy the assumptions of normality tests and allow parametric tests in this study (e.g. garson, 2012). similarly, the researcher constructed the five response likert scale and its entire items to measure the learning readiness and its dimensions as the single construct. so it signified the tool is in scale level (boone & boone, 2012) which means it ensured the second assumption of parametric test (berkman & reise, 2012). likewise, the researcher ensured its third assumption by conducting the random sampling process while selecting clusters (e.g. berkman & reise, 2012). finally, the researcher performed leven’s equal variance test of learning readiness and its components across the gender of students. the derived values of learning readiness (.108) and its all components; student readiness (.365), school readiness (.381), and family readiness (.645) is more than p value (= 0.05) respectively. it gives a sense that the obtained values of learning readiness and its constructs ensured the homogeneity of variances (e.g. bhattarai, 2015; subedi, 2018) with gender. thus the ensuring of these four assumptions of the parametric test allowed researchers to employ a t-test to examine the contribution of gender in learning readiness among students. learning readiness across gender the researcher examined the influences of gender on learning readiness using the independent sample t test and it derived the mean score and value of standard deviation to analyze the differences between male and female groups. the independent t test is computed by operating levene’s test of variances and it obtains t and p values. these t and p values contribute to declare either or neither there is a significant difference in learning readiness across gender of students (table 3). table 3 depicts the gender of students and its impact in bringing significant differences in student readiness (t = -2.59, p = .01) and school readiness (t = -2.29, p = .02) respectively. among the student readiness, the female students (mean = 4.12, sd = .38) consist more learning readiness than the boy (mean = 3.86, sd = .42) students. as well as in school readiness, female students (mean =4.10, sd =.41) consist more readiness level than male (mean = 3.85, sd =.44) students respectively. these statistical values expressed that the gender of students makes significant influences in determining student readiness and school readiness among school students. moreover, the levels of student and school readiness among girls are found more than boys. however, there is no significant difference in family readiness across gender. 28 dangol, r. & shrestha, m. jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 table 3: learning readiness among school students’ across their sex gender of student n mean sd t p student readiness male 239 3.86 .42 -2.59 .01 female 161 4.12 .38 school readiness male 239 3.85 .44 -2.29 .02 female 161 4.10 .41 family readiness male 239 4.15 .46 -.63 .52 female 161 4.23 .56 learning readiness male 239 4.19 .57 -1.69 .09 female 161 4.44 .64 *p value sig. (2tailed) overall, the derived statistics show that there are no significant differences (t = -1.69, p = .09) in learning readiness across gender among school students. these statistics refer that the gender of students normally does not significantly influence overall learning readiness but it enhances students as well as school readiness. discussion this study derives the satisfactory level of learning readiness and its dimensions among school students. as the first dimension of learning readiness, the result is derived similarly to winarso (2016) where the author found a high level of student readiness among school children. this high level of student readiness depicts the students’ feeling of pleasure or conduciveness while learning in school. the satisfaction among students is the outcome of their high concentration, involvement, eagerness, aspirations (khattab, 2015), regularity, positive attitudes, enthusiasm, hard labor, and continuity in their study. likewise, social values, relationships, networking, and beliefs as a social capital also strongly influence the learning readiness of the students (koranteng et al., 2018). in addition, social capital poses a strong command of language regarding speaking and writing (clark, 2006) among students. this language capacity (kastnerl et al., 2001) and good health status (shaw et al., 2015) contribute students to obtain higher learning achievement. thus, the promotion of these factors further enhances cognition, attitude, and habits relating to learning. the developed attitudes and habits among students make them more self-conscious and excited in the learning process. furthermore, the excitement in learning helps them to achieve a high level of readiness as data revealed. as the second dimension of learning readiness, school readiness reveals the high motivating and supportive environment for students to learn (unicef, 2012) in schools. the supportive classroom environment promotes learning (hannah, 2013), develops the learning attitudes and habits (cheng, 1994) among students. the shaping of these affirmative attitudes and habits of students towards learning is measured as school readiness. for example, the high rate of student readiness is predicted by evaluating the existing learning environment, fulfilling 29 contribution of gender on learning readiness jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 the student’s expectations, and the relationship of teachers with their co-staffs and students. in addition, school readiness is also the outcome of the social capital carries by the teachers and the school family. the social capital comes through society (tennent et al., 2005) where school exists. thus the school and society are inseparable (dewey, 1900; lafer & tarman, 2019) with each other’s and as a result, the school acts as a mirror of the society (department of education [doe], 2016). in this context, tennent et al. (2005) articulated that every society carries distinct social capital as social values, beliefs, and practices and it further guides the school. considering it, social capital determines the learning environment of the school. for instance, if the school is guided by the child-friendly values, it facilities the supporting environment induces childcentered learning activities and promotes good relationships in school. these all settings prepare a supportive environment for students to learn in school and it is referred to as the school readiness. that’s why, the presence of the rich social capital promotes the school readiness (e.g. putnam, 2017) in this study which supplementary enhances academic achievement among students. as the third dimension of learning readiness, family readiness seems high among the school students. this high level of family readiness is associated with the social capital (bofota, 2013; king, 2017) as the social values, beliefs, and practices of families. these capitals play a crucial role among parents in sending their children to an excellent school, giving sufficient time to their study, playing the supportive and caring role for the children’s educational advancement. it reflects that the parents were highly engaged in their children’s schooling and learning process. considering it, castro et al. (2015) argue that the active family involvement in child learning and schooling shapes the study habits in children. the shaping of study habits enhances learning readiness (ebele & olofu, 1994) among students. thus the social capital promotes family readiness (bofota, 2013) among parents for their children’s excellent learning and educational performance. furthermore, the high degree of student readiness, school readiness, and family readiness collaboratively determine the elevated level of learning readiness among school students in this study. the highest level of learning readiness refers to the positive excitement and mindedness to make learning among students (hayden, 2008) and it arises from the triad efforts of students, school, and parents (unicef, 2012; usdhss, 2014). more specifically, the researcher insights that the learning readiness among school students appear when the school (e.g. unesco, 2007) and family (alexander et al., 1994) create the supportive and favorable environment for their children learning process, and the students are also intrinsically ready to take action of learning (prakash, 2012). the appearance of learning readiness maximizes the learning achievement in students (dangol & shrestha, 2019). and higher learning achievement reflects the presence of high learning readiness (winarso, 2016) among students. from a gender perspective, the existing social capital heavily influences the gender socialization (norris & inglehart, 2003) among the students. gender socialization determines the role of the student towards their learning process (bigler et al., 2013). likewise, the school 30 dangol, r. & shrestha, m. jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 and family are also guided by the societal capital (lindfors et al., 2017) in relation to gender to their children’s learning process. furthermore, this relatedness between social capital and gender is associated with creating a supportive environment and develops the preparedness towards learning among students. thus the gender of students is associated with the learning readiness (voyles, 2011), particularly with the student and school readiness in this study. in the context of nepal, due to the growing literacy rate (e.g. cbs, 2012) and social awareness (e.g. adb, 2010) gender discrimination among students and in school can be felt to have decreased. now, school gives the equal priority to both genders (doe, 2010) in the teaching-learning process. this change in the school premises is acknowledged to have become gender friendly for the female child (e.g. doe, 2010; unesco, 2018). despite this, the female children are still can be found confined in the four walls of home (calder et al., 2019; peck, 2017) than males. however, the girls who participated in teaching learning at school are assumed to spend their almost time in study and more concentrate in the classroom (gnaulati, 2014) and achieve good grades in their exams (smith, 2016). on the contrary, the male children spend the most time playing games at home (burn, 2017) and do not have sufficient time for their study. furthermore, many authors (e.g. burman et al., 2008; eriksson et al., 2012; merritt, 2014; northwestern university, 2008; payne & lynn, 2011) claim that the girls have more vocabulary and language ability than boy students. in addition, the girls have more degree of eagerness towards learning than the boys. all these differences in the learning process regarding gender influence the student and school readiness in this paper. besides, this study is based on the students of the urban areas where the people are more educated (cbs, 2012), thus the gender disparity is also squatted than the other parts of the country. in relation to it, the parents from urban residents give equal preferences to son and daughter regarding sending them to school (edewor, 2006), and providing a favorable and supportive environment for them to learn in comparison to the other parts of nepal. this scenario contributes to derive no significant differences in family readiness across the gender of students. likewise, this study finds no differences between boys and girls in regards to learning readiness. for instance, in urban areas of nepal, there is seen the progressive changes in gender roles (k. c. et al., 2017) due to the gender consciousness, equal preferences, and providing equity by law. these changes enhance the social capital of stakeholders like parents and teachers who are associated with the learning readiness of the students. in the meantime, the transformation in social capital contributed to secure the gender-friendly environment and provided equal preferences to both genders in society, school, and family. that’s why, due to the equal behavior and favorable environment, the researcher derived the similarity on learning readiness across gender of students. this absence of gender disparity on learning readiness promotes soaring educational performances and better achievement among students. 31 contribution of gender on learning readiness jcsr 2021, 3(2):19-36 conclusion the school students performed a high level of learning readiness with elevated student readiness, school readiness, and family readiness respectively. this soaring intensity of learning readiness is due to enriched social values, beliefs, relationships, attitudes, and networking among the student, school, and family. these social capitals develop the students’ more selfconsciousness and excitement towards learning and commence the school and family for creating a supportive environment for learning. similarly, the changes in social capital e.g. gender equity and variations in language ability, attitudes, and eagerness towards learning make the girls better than the boys in terms of student and school readiness. however, the gender role seems futile on family readiness and entire learning readiness among students. this similarity in boys and girls in relation to learning readiness is the result of the diminishing of gender disparity in urban areas where parents and teachers treat all children equally. that’s why ensuring high learning readiness and minimizing gender disparity contribute to achieving high educational performances and achievement among students. references adyanto, p. 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(1967). elementary sampling theory. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice-hall. microsoft word 38-article text-192-1-6-20200519 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 june 2020 volume: 2 issue: 1 pp. i-ii editorial: 2020 (2)1 in february, 2020, the journal of curriculum studies research invited scholars and practitioners to contribute articles for a special issue entitled, “the moral imperative of effective science and social studies teaching.” we hoped to receive a handful of submissions regarding the importance of teaching about political activism in elementary or secondary classrooms; the implications of reduced social studies and science instruction; and classroom examples of thoughtful instruction in either subject, lessons that not only respected the content but placed the learner at the center of the process. we received more than three times as many submissions as we were able to accept—clearly, this was a topic whose time had come. in “civility and shared fate: social studies education as teaching for belonging,” martha ritter sets up the issue with a theoretical basis for this kind of teaching. high quality social studies education is about people, conflict, places, interactions, and relationships. she shares a solid framework for understanding the term “civility,” and reminds us that social studies education requires courage. john h. bickford and devanne r. lawson’s, “examining patterns within challenged or banned primary elementary books” is a logical piece to follow ritter’s, as bickford and lawson have completed a qualitative content analysis of “classic” books for the primary grades. they found particular themes related to the frequency of these challenges, including (but not limited to) sexuality, danger, and racial and religious diversity. continuing to another piece addressing the importance of critical conversations in the elementary grades, laura darolia shares “’he’s on fire for justice!’: using critical conversations to explore sociopolitical topics in elementary classrooms.” darolia dispenses alexis jones guest editor eastern illinois university aljones16@eiu.edu meghan a. kessler guest editor university of illinois at springfield makessl2@uis.edu ii with the myth that children are too innocent for certain types of conversations. sharing a case study of a 2nd grade teacher and her students, darolia describes “social justice read aloud time,” where the students and teacher engaged in thoughtful discussion about these books that went beyond the grade-level content standards. taking the topic of social studies and critical conversations into the secondary classroom, andrea watson-canning shares her story of two teachers who use gender and women’s experiences as regular fodder for classroom discussion in “gendering social studies: teachers’ intended and enacted curriculum and student diffraction.” she found that while her participants—teachers and students alike—respected an approach to social studies teaching that included multiple perspectives, students would at times resist the teachers’ intentions. to further the exploration of critically oriented social studies, cassie j. brownell and anam rashid provide their analysis of third-grade children’s sense-making about the u.s. administration’s proposed border wall with mexico in, “building bridges instead of walls: engaging young children in critical literacy read alouds.” this close analysis of critical literacy read-alouds found the children were capable of complex discussions of the text as well as (im)migration issues. then, brian c. gibbs applies a socially just, critical lens to methodology as well as the research topic in “struggles and testimonios: critical teaching in classrooms of healing.” using testimonio research methods and methodology (beverly, 2003; latina feminist group, 2001; reyes & rodriguez, 2012), gibbs provides an analysis of two chicanx, activist social studies teachers’ use of the classroom as a place for healing and justice. annie noel wildes argues the ethical implications of legislation related to state standards for science in light of global warming and social justice. using frameworks of karl marx and antonio gramsci (dimitriadis & kamberelis, 2006; ives, 2004; marx, 1887/2010), wildes examines the underlying problems with removing language about climate change. finally, cathryn van kessel wraps up the issue with “teaching the climate crisis: existential considerations.” van kessel shares with us how talking about climate change is difficult psychologically because it presents an existential threat, reminding us of the inevitability of death. she shares the important elements of terror management theory, and how teachers can and should use certain strategies to manage teaching barriers regarding this topic. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 44-62 primary preservice science teachers’ perceptions of practical work in remote learning environments maria tsakeni* * department of mathematics, natural sciences and technology education, faculty of education, university of the free state, bloemfontein, south africa email: tsakenim@ufs.ac.za article info received: october 5, 2022 accepted: december 17, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite tsakeni, m. (2023). primary preservice science teachers’ perceptions of practical work in remote learning environments. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 44-62 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.5 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract science practical work is renowned for providing authentic environments for science learning in ways that reduce the abstractness of concepts. significant resources are used to provide facilities such as laboratories to ensure that practical work is implemented in science learning. practical work is important for primary preservice science teachers, who in turn will implement the instructional strategy in their future classrooms. the rise in remote learning has prompted researchers and instructors to reimagine ways of facilitating practical work in ways that involve human-machine interactions in significant ways. this study used an interpretive paradigm and an explorative single-case-study design to explore primary preservice science teachers’ perceptions of conducting practical work in remote learning environments. a framework based on the internet of things(iot) enabled tools was used to mediate the understanding of the study findings. data were collected from 25 preservice teachers by means of experiment reports and observation of practical work activities. the findings of the study showed that in the absence of proper systems for conducting practical work remotely and limited internet connectivity, the participating preservice teachers used internet searches to inform them of how to conduct experiments using household materials. the experiment reports comprised experiment demonstrations developed through the use of filmmaking applications, cloud computing tools, and social media collaborations. the paper makes recommendations to expand preservice teachers’ technological competencies to include the use of virtual laboratories to conduct practical work in remote learning environments. keywords practical work; preservice teachers; primary science; remote learning. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.5 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.5 45 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 introduction technological tools in the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) significantly influence classroom practices, as instructors and curriculum designers reimagine learning facilitation. the internet of things (iot) and web of things (wot) have made available many technological tools that are at instructors’ disposal to create an innovative learning environment. the iot and wot are used to create interactive environments between humans and machines (ramlowat & pattanyak, 2019). the interactions can be in the form human-human, human-machine, and machinemachine. yousef et al. (2022) observed that the emergency remote learning during the covid19 pandemic further accelerated the evolving of learning environments as supported by the 4ir tools. these tools have enhanced the practice of distance learning (dube & ndaba, 2021). this paper explores the implications of the increased use of remote learning for science practical work. the exploration is conducted in the context of reimagining how primary preservice science teachers engage in practical work in remote learning environments. the challenge of facilitating practical work remotely arises in the backdrop of other challenges that inhibit the implementation of the instructional strategy, such as lack of materials and equipment in science classrooms. considering the challenges that inhibit practical work facilitation, tsakeni (2020) proposed that preservice science teachers should learn how to improvise when they are faced with shortages of materials and equipment. reimagining modes of instruction is consistent with the changing learning environments as prompted by the advanced technological tools of the 4ir and accelerated by the covid-19 pandemic. during the covid-19 pandemic, mikeska et al. (2022) explored the use of simulated environments that enabled preservice teachers to practice how to teach in virtual classrooms with avatars in place of learners. the preservice teachers viewed the simulation tool as valuable in mitigating the challenges posed by the covid-19 pandemic (de klerk et al., 2021; dube et al. 2022; makura, 2022; matarirano et al., 2021; moyo et al., 2022; nel et al., 2021). practical work is one of the instructional strategies inherent to science education. for many decades, practical work has been an inseparable component of science teaching and learning (abrahams & millar, 2008; moore et al., 2020). the instructional strategy has several benefits that include helping learners to understand the nature of science and helping learners to develop science process skills, which include conducting investigations. in addition, practical work facilitates the use of other instructional strategies, such as inquiry-based learning, problem-based learning, experiential learning, project-based learning, experimentation, and field work (woodley, 2009). practical work is also used to develop cooperation, teamwork, communication, collaboration, and social skills in learners through instructional strategies that enhance learner-learner interactions. practical work in science can be conducted through a variety of hands-on activities, such as experiments, laboratory work, investigations, field work, and projects (kibirige & maponya, 2021). akuma and callaghan (2019a) indicated that practical work can be computer-based in addition to other hands-on activities. the preceding discussion serves to support why practical work is considered central to science teaching. 46 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 furthermore, science practical work is lauded for providing authentic learning environments where learners can handle materials and manipulate equipment, as compared to teacher-centered instructional strategies that make science concepts too abstract, thereby preventing effective learning. some of the traditional methods of providing authentic environments include making learners work in prepared environments such as laboratories, classrooms, and beyond the classroom environment in which scientific phenomena can be observed and studied (reid & shah, 2007). in these cases, the learners are co-located with the instructors in real time. however, with the surge in distance modes of instruction such as remote learning enabled by the iot and wot, there is a need to understand how these technologies can be used in the context of science practical work. similarly, moore et al. (2020) wondered whether the facilitation of practical work in virtual learning environments can only be conducted by using teacher demonstrations, videos, and textbooks. the authors were quick to highlight that whilst these methods are useful, they should be complemented by more engaging activities such as purposeful discussions. similarly, tsakeni (2021a) showed that limited technological tool affordances lead to restricted ways of designing instructional strategies, which in turn lead to the use of asynchronous online classrooms. related to this puzzle is how primary preservice science teachers perceive the conducting of practical work in remote learning environments. accordingly, in this paper, the research question is: what are primary preservice science teachers’ perceptions of conducting practical work in remote learning environments? literature review computer-based technologies used to facilitate practical work remotely despite the centrality and the benefits of practical work in science education, its implementation in prepared environments such as laboratories and classrooms has always been met with challenges. one of the challenges is that practical work is resource intensive and schools find the cost too high to bear (reid & shah, 2007). therefore, the facilitation of practical work becomes an access issue as some learners are denied this learning experience on the pretext of lack of resources (tsakeni, 2018). in some instances, the use of virtual laboratories which offer a computational representation of reality is considered one of the ways to solve issues of lack of resources in school laboratories (tibola et al., 2019). in addition, the virtual laboratories are lauded for mitigating the safety and environmental issues that are associated with real laboratories (tibola et al., 2019). in the immersive 3d virtual laboratories, learners can conduct experiments and manipulate variables. ketelhut and nelson (2010) showed that learners can learn equally in physical laboratories and in virtual laboratories. the immersive virtual laboratories can be used as a tool to facilitate practical work for learners in remote learning environments. fan et al. (2021) indicated that virtual laboratories are web-based applications that can be easily accessed through devices that are available to learners, such as smartphones. however, in the african context, access to technologies such as computer-based simulation laboratories is still limited. 47 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 akuma and callaghan (2019b) classified the challenges hindering the implementation of practical work in south africa and some other low-income parts of the world into three categories as macrosystem challenges. these are unsupportive curricula, material-related challenges, and non-material-related challenges, such as limited time. in creating remote learning environments using virtual laboratories, teachers must reimagine how to facilitate practical work in ways that reap the intended benefits of the instructional strategy. remote learning environments for practical work can also be created using remote laboratories. remote laboratories consist of software and hardware tools that enable students to control equipment remotely and conduct practical work activities such as experiments (orduña et al., 2015). cooper (2005) deliberated on how students can conduct experiments in remote learning environments by exploring the use of remote laboratories. the deliberation by cooper (2005) points to inhibiting challenges to the adoption and use of remote-controlled laboratories to include pedagogic, access, and usability issues. however, remote laboratories have been tried and used successfully in higher education. some of the trials start with the development of internet-based remote laboratory systems by way of selecting and assembling the tools. tho and yeung (2016) explored the possibility of enabling remote experimentation for students in a science education program in malaysia. an internet-based remote laboratory system was developed that enabled undergraduate students to observe and control laboratory equipment in addition to performing real-time experiments remotely. whilst the participants confirmed that the infrastructure used to facilitate remote experimentation could be useful, they also identified areas of improvement, which the researchers used to enhance the remote laboratory system. the significance of the findings is that the infrastructure to facilitate remote experimentation should be improved regularly to enhance the pedagogical outcomes. researchers seem to find merit in the idea of remote experimentation in schools even at the primary level. da silva et al. (2014) piloted the use of remote experimentation enabled through the use of mobile devices, a learning management system (lms), a remote experimentation application, and physics experiments. one of their notable findings is the importance of tools selection in ways that enable learners to engage in remote experimentation. in selecting the tools, instructors need to understand the interactions that are involved in the facilitation of practical work among humans and machines. kong et al. (2009) showed that remote experimentation involves an interactive human-machine interface and that these technologies can be used with learners in schools. in the study by kong et al. (2009), opensource software was developed that enabled students to learn by observing scientific phenomena in remote-controlled experiments. the emergence of remote learning brought about by the covid-19 pandemic validated the usefulness of remote learning in many contexts, including schools. the findings of the study by jan (2020) prompt instructors to think of ways to design remote learning effectively after highlighting the role of supervision by parents and the need to regulate the learner-machine interaction. as an identified challenge, the parents in the 48 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 study by jan (2020), however, considered the learner-machine interaction in terms of screentime to be excessive. the challenges in adopting remote science laboratories in both higher education and schools mentioned by cooper (2005) decades ago are still being experienced. one of the specific challenges highlighted by sung et al. (2021) in the use of remote laboratories is the limited interaction among the learners and the instructors. accordingly, in the study, sung et al. (2021) developed a remote laboratory system that enabled teachers and learners to interact in real time by synchronizing the student-instructor-machine interactions. in their analysis, sung et al. (2021) observed that the resultant interactions gave learners a form of telepresence that translated into enhanced learning gains. the telepresence may be likened to the social presence component of the online learning framework of community of inquiry referred to by mckerlich et al. (2011), which affords learners a sense of participation. as remote laboratory systems are continually being designed, the identified adoption challenges can be considered in order to improve the systems. using some of the identified challenges in the adoption of remote laboratories, yousef et al. (2022) conceptualized basic design and development criteria for online laboratory work. the conceptualized basic design and development criteria for the online laboratory courseware system deals with content management, assessment, accessibility, usability, and adoption of artificial intelligence techniques. both virtual and remote laboratory work are hands-on activities which can be conducted as learners are clicking on their devices through humanmachine and human-human interactions. use of technologies to prepare preservice teachers as remote learning is increasingly being applied, reisoglu and çebi (2020) observed that preservice teacher preparation needs to include the development of digital competencies in their training. therefore, for preservice teachers to participate meaningfully in remote learning, there is a critical need to develop their digital literacies. in addition to developing problemsolving skills, the digital competencies include creating and sharing subject-related content and communicating and collaborating with others. tsakeni (2021b) showed how preservice teachers used computational thinking with virtual laboratories as a strategy to engage in problem-solving when facilitating inquiry-based practical work for learners. the strategy enabled preservice teachers to identify possible learning challenges that hindered learning during inquiry-based practical work facilitation which were solved through computational thinking. the use of innovative learning facilitation strategies mediated by the use of technologies is also being applied to the preparation of preservice teachers. one of the areas explored is the use of simulated teaching in which preservice teachers use 2d or 3d virtual immersive environments to practice learning facilitation skills. calandra and puvirajah (2014) used multiuser virtual environments with avatars (simulations of learner personas) for preservice teachers to practice learning facilitation skills. the virtual environments, as compared to real classrooms, have the advantage of allowing the learning preservice teacher to make mistakes without 49 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 causing much damage to the development of learners. similarly, dalinger et al. (2020) explored the use of mixed reality simulations as a method to prepare preservice teachers for field experience. simulations can provide authentic learning opportunities in a controlled environment with reduced risk of harm (calandra & puvirajah, 2014; dalinger et al., 2020). developing teachers’ digital competencies enhances their abilities to develop innovative instructional strategies (tømte et al., 2015). the study by tømte et al. (2015) showed that as teachers apply the digital competencies in teaching and learning, in essence, the learners also develop the digital competencies. similarly, one of the take-away points from wilson et al.’s (2020) study is the value in preparing preservice teachers for pedagogical uses of technologies to teach specific topics. this study explored primary preservice teachers’ perceptions of conducting practical work activities in remote learning environments, which is a specific topic in science. this study used some of the lms iot-enabled tools proposed by mershad and wakim (2018) as a conceptual framework to analyze the collected data and guide the understanding of the findings. the lms tools that are enabled by the iot are summarized in table 1. table 1. learning management system iot-enabled tools iot-enabled tools examples of tools lms-enabled experimentation remote laboratories lms virtual reality experiences simulations and virtual trips facilitation of remote lectures synchronous and asynchronous online classrooms data sharing of real-life projects and experiments collaboration, communication, cooperation facilitation of student assessment online tests, submission of assignments, online presentations, and oral assessments student access to classroom applications digital textbooks, videos, discussion boards, wikis, texts improved security by granting secure access the lms is accessed by students who are enrolled in the course classroom monitoring monitoring for participation, attendance, and engaged learning this study used the conceptual framework in table 1 to show that a range of tools can be used to facilitate the learning of science practical work remotely. the framework provides expanded opportunities to design remote learning activities beyond the use of virtual and remote laboratories which are not readily available to all science classrooms. moore et al. (2020) indicated that the facilitation of science practical work can be conducted by teacher demonstrations that are live-streamed or video-recorded, other videos that can be accessed 50 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 online, and textbooks. tsakeni (2022), after conducting a systematic review of literature, suggested five instructional strategies to facilitate practical work remotely in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) disciplines. the five strategies are: (i) practical work in virtual reality environments, (ii) practical work in remote laboratories, (iii) practical work in augmented reality environments, (iv) the use of take-home do-it-yourself (diy) practical work kits, and (v) the use of educational robotics to teach practical work. from table 1, mershad and wakim (2018) seemed to emphasize the role played by lmss in providing a learning environment in which instructors and students can readily and securely access applications and tools, be monitored, participate in assessment, and collaborate with others. methods and context of the study the study was guided by the research question: what are primary preservice science teachers’ perceptions of conducting practical work in remote learning environments? an explorative single-case study based on the interpretive paradigm of one natural sciences content course for primary preservice science teachers at one south african university was used. the natural sciences content course was facilitated remotely in 2021 during the emergence of remote learning brought about by the covid-19 pandemic. one of the objectives of the course was to engage the preservice teachers in practical work activities that are facilitated for grade 4 to 6 learners in schools. the course used student-centered instructional strategies that included the use of groupwork and collaboration to facilitate learning. in interpretive studies, the understanding of the findings is based on how they are constructed from the perspectives of the participants (ponelis, 2015). therefore, the primary preservice science teachers played a significant role as participants to provide data from which their perceptions were gleaned and interpreted. the use of the case study design enabled me to delimit the context of the real-life events that were under study and at the same time providing a holistic understanding of the meaningful characteristics of the participants’ experiences (kohlbacher, 2006). the natural sciences course was facilitated in 2021 by me when remote learning was being implemented, triggered by the events of the covid-19 pandemic. learning was facilitated through the blackboard lms in conditions where internet connection was not reliable for preservice teachers due to electricity loadshedding and other access challenges. the intermittent internet connection resulted in the use of asynchronous online modes of instruction. asynchronous online modes of instruction are a possible way to facilitate remote learning. denoyelles et al. (2014), however, cautioned that immediate feedback and discussion should be incorporated in the asynchronous online classrooms to enhance learning. immediate feedback and discussions in remote learning conditions may be enabled by social media tools. scott et al. (2016) and saadatmand et al. (2017) noted a marked increase in the use of social media in teaching and learning and that it could complement the use of an lms. 51 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 participants of the study the participants were 25 second year primary preservice science teachers purposely selected as they were enrolled in a course in which science practical work was facilitated remotely. the sample included 14 males and 11 females aged between 20 and 23 years who were in the second year of a bachelor of education (bed) program specializing in primary natural sciences and technology and mathematics teaching for grade 4 to 6. the 25 participants were organized into five groups consisting of five participants each. data collection instruments and procedures data were collected by means of document analysis and science practical work observation. to initiate the data collection process, the participants were requested to plan and conduct a practical work activity. they were further requested to demonstrate understanding of the steps of the scientific method by conducting an experiment of their choice from the grade 4 to 6 south african natural sciences curriculum. the steps of the scientific method provided to the participants to use were: (i) formulating the investigative question, (ii) providing a background to the investigation problem, (iii) formulating hypotheses, (iv) making predictions, (v) conducting the experiments, (vi) presenting and analyzing the data, and (vii) drawing conclusions from the data. the participants were specifically tasked to submit the experiment report and to ensure that the researcher would be able to observe how they conducted the practical work activities. the participants were also requested to work in groups of five members and would therefore collaborate to complete the practical work activity. the communication between the researcher and the participants was facilitated through the blackboard lms. the practical work activity instruction was posted as an assessment activity so that a submission box would be available for the participants to post the completed activities, which were an experiment report and media that showed the actions of the participants whilst conducting the experiment. the submissions on the blackboard lms were, however, not taken as assessment activities. the participants were in different places and engaged in remote learning due to the covid-19 pandemic. the participants themselves could choose the technological tools to complete the activity. data analysis data were analyzed through a combination of deductive and inductive qualitative content analysis. the data were deductively sorted based on the research question and the conceptual framework shown in table 1. the data were further analyzed inductively to evaluate the strategies of remote practical work facilitation based on the participants’ perceptions gleaned from the experiment reports and the observed experiments. bingham and witkowsky (2022) explained that deductive qualitative analysis is a process of sorting and organizing data into categories to maintain alignment with the research questions and the conceptual frameworks. inductive qualitative analysis is described by bingham and witkowsky (2022) as the making of meaning out of the data, developing themes, and explaining the findings based on theories and reviewed literature. 52 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 trustworthiness and ethical considerations the trustworthiness of the data, through the measures of dependability and credibility of the findings, was ensured by using multiple participants (five groups consisting of five members each) to generate sufficient data from which the findings were drawn. the study was ethically cleared by the university and the participants’ consent to participate in the study was sought. findings of the study this section provides a description of the experiments conducted by the five groups of participants, followed by the discussion of the findings organized under four themes. figures 1 to 5 show photographs of the experiments captured from the videos. figure 1 shows that group 1 conducted an experiment to investigate the water-holding capacity of different soils. figure 1. group 1 experiment: investigating the water-holding capacity of soils there is evidence that group 1 conducted google searches to select the experiment that they used. in the experiment report, the group included a screenshot (part c) that was taken of the experiment video searched on youtube. group 2 conducted a practical work activity to investigate how air flows between regions of high pressure and regions of low pressure using the egg-in-a-bottle experiment (figure 2). figure 2. group 2 experiment: investigating the flow of air between regions of high and low pressure a b c a b c 53 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 like group 1, there was evidence that group 2 conducted google searches to select a suitable experiment. part b in figure 2 shows a screenshot of the experiment video watched on youtube. group 2 used a filmmaking application to record and edit the video of the experiment they conducted. the filmmaking application was used to edit and combine two videos that were recorded in two different locations. the participant who conducted practical work in part a of figure 2 is not the same one who provided the picture in part c. group 3 conducted an experiment to compare the densities of salty water and freshwater (figure 3). the figure shows one of the participants conducting the experiment using household materials that included salt, drinking glasses and eggs. figure 3. group 3 experiment: comparing the densities of salty and fresh water group 4 conducted an experiment to compare the time it took to bring frozen water and tap water of the same amounts to a boil (figure 4). the purpose of the experiment was to show that more energy is needed for frozen water to reach a boiling point than what is needed for tap water. figure 4. group 4 experiment: comparing the time needed for frozen and tap water to boil group 5 conducted an experiment to show that sugary drinks may have a corroding effect on teeth by observing how eggshells dissolved in some selected drinks (figure 5). all the participants of this group appear in the video, which means that the collaboration was partly facilitated by being co-located. a b c a b 54 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 figure 5. group 5 experiment: showing that sugar may have a corrosive effect on teeth the findings of the study are organized and discussed under four themes that emerged from the inductive qualitative data analysis. these themes are: (i) use of google searches to identify experiments, (ii) use of household materials to conduct experiments, (iii) use of video recording and cloud computing technologies to manage content, and (iv) remote collaboration through social media. use of google searches to identify experiments evidence showed that the participants conducted searches on the internet to select experiments that they could use to complete the activity. the experiments selected were found on youtube. groups 1 and 2 included screenshots of some of the videos that they had selected form youtube. this finding seems to suggest that preservice teachers find youtube videos useful as source of background information for experiments. use of household materials to conduct experiments the participants selected experiments that allowed them to use materials that could be found in their households and locally. these materials included food stuffs such as eggs and soft drinks that were affordable and could be bought easily in local stores. it also included plastic containers that could be collected from the environment and could be found in their households. these participants were able to improvise in cases where the consulted youtube videos suggested materials such as beakers, funnels, and filter paper, as shown in figure 6. part a of figure 6 shows the recommended list of materials, whilst part b shows some of the improvisations. 55 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 figure 6. (a) list of materials for group 1’s experiment and (b) improvised materials similarly, group 2 used drinking glasses, whilst group 4 used an electric stove from the kitchen in place of beakers and laboratory heaters and burners, respectively, as shown is figure 4. use of video recording and cloud computing technologies to manage content after selecting the experiments and gathering the materials that would be used to complete the practical work activities, some participants were tasked to record themselves whilst they were conducting the experiments. the recording of the videos responded to the part of the task that required the experiments to be observed by the researcher. the videos were recorded using filmmaking applications. the filmmaking applications enabled the participants to include other types of media, such as text and timers, in the videos. group 2 used text to highlight the materials used in the experiment (figure 2), whereas group 4 used a timer to compare the time it takes for frozen water and tap water to reach boiling point (figure 4). the participants used cloud computing technologies to save the videos of the experiments and file-sharing applications to submit the videos and the experiment reports on the lms. groups 1, 3, 4, and 5 uploaded the videos on youtube and data-storage applications generating links that enabled easy sharing of the files. remote collaboration through social media the lms was used to facilitate the researcher-machine-content and preservice teachermachine-content interactions and the asynchronous interaction between the researcher and participants. there was no facilitation for the participants to interact with each other on the lms, partly due to the limited internet connection, which led to the use of asynchronous online learning. the limited-internet factor formed part of the study context. the collaboration among the group members was facilitated through the natural sciences course whatsapp group. the group members further formed separate whatsapp groups to communicate and collaborate to complete the task on practical work. a b 56 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 discussion the study explored primary preservice science teachers’ perceptions of conducting practical work in remote learning environments. the remote learning was facilitated by means of asynchronous online learning through the blackboard lms, with limited interaction among the participating preservice teachers and the researcher. mershad and wakim (2018) showed that remote learning can be facilitated through an lms using media and applications such as text, audio, and video. however, denoyelles et al. (2014) highlighted that educational experiences in asynchronous online classrooms can be effective if strategies to enhance communication are incorporated. similarly, sung et al. (2021) indicated that limited interactions in remote laboratory work settings in turn limit the learning opportunities facilitated through collaboration and sense of participation. theories such as community of inquiry highlight the importance of social interactions for effective learning in online classrooms (mckerlich et al., 2011). for this study, the lms was used for data collection by creating a submission box with the task to be completed and giving instructions to the participants through posting an announcement. in the practical work task used for data collection, the researcher requested to observe the participants, who were located in different areas, whilst they were conducting the practical work activities. the findings showed how the participants selected freely available technologies to communicate and to develop content. the first finding was that through the affordances of the iot, the participants conducted google searches to find information on the experiments for the grade 4 to 6 science classrooms. the remote practical work task given to the participants required them to not only consult the grade 4 to 6 learner textbooks for the prescribed and recommended experiments, but they further had to find ways of being observed whilst conducting the practical work activities. ramlowat and pattanyak (2019) asserted that the iot provides interactive learning environments among humans and things. in the case of the internet searches conducted by the participants, the iot enabled them to access the content of the experiments through humanmachine interactions. the second finding was that the remote learning environment placed the participants away from the physical laboratories and classrooms where they could access materials and equipment to conduct the practical work activities. therefore, access to materials and equipment to conduct the experiments was limited during remote learning. akuma and callaghan (2019a) indicated that practical work activities can be computer-based, although the access to the applications are still limited. as the participants had selected the experiments on youtube, they targeted materials that could easily be replaced by household goods. the participants demonstrated improvisation skills by choosing experiments that used easily accessible materials. household materials such as plastic containers, eggs, salt, drinks, soil and water were used. the plastic containers were redesigned and repurposed to be used as beakers and funnels. tsakeni (2020) advocated for teacher preparation programs to equip preservice 57 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 teachers with skills to improvise when the textbook-prescribed materials to conduct practical work are not available. the third finding revolved around how the participants were able to select technologies that enabled the researcher to observe the experiments they conducted. filmmaking and videorecording applications were used to capture the experiments that were conducted. the applications enabled the participants to edit the videos in ways that produced short presentations of 10 to 15 minutes. four of the groups uploaded the videos on youtube and the links to the recorded materials using uniform resource locators (urls), which were included in the experiment reports submitted on blackboard. the use of social media platforms (in this case, youtube) for teaching and learning is increasingly becoming significant because it enables users to communicate and share content (saadatmand et al., 2017; scott et al., 2016). one of the groups used a filmmaking application to make a 10-minute-long video included in the submitted experiment report that was easily played by the researcher without connecting to the internet. there was evidence that the participants used cloud computing for data storage, which enabled them to submit the urls for sharing the media files. the fourth finding emphasized the collaborative nature of the practical work task. except for one group, the participants were not co-located and communicated through the course whatsapp group to form groups of five members as facilitated by the class representative. the participants used the whatsapp platform as a means of communication and to engage in collaboration as they completed the task in remote learning environments. the communication and collaboration among the participants were, however, not facilitated through the lms, which led to social media playing a significant role in their completion of tasks. similarly, denoyelles et al. (2014) recommended that discussions should complement asynchronous instructional modes. remote learning may result in limited interactions, as noticed and confirmed by sung et al. (2021) for remote laboratory work environments. the study findings show how the participants were able to select technologies used to support science practical work in remote learning environments. tømte et al. (2015) underscored the need to develop preservice teachers’ technological competencies that give them the capacity to develop innovative instructional strategies. similarly, wilson et al. (2020) called for the preparation of preservice teachers in technology competencies for topic-specific instructional strategies. in this study, the participants showed competencies to search for content that provided the background knowledge of the experiments to be conducted. reading about the background of the investigative question of an experiment is one of the steps of the scientific method. the use of youtube to develop the background knowledge and to determine how to conduct the experiments was a notable practice in this study. the science textbooks might contain information of prescribed experiments; however, they would not contain information on how to use the technologies to create and share media such as videos of experiments. the participants were able to select the technologies they used to complete the task given to them. this involved conducting experiments, ensuring that they were observed 58 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 whilst conducting the experiments, and managing large media files that were part of the experiment reports to be submitted. although the literature (sung et al., 2021; yousef et al., 2022) has shown that the possibilities of facilitating practical work remotely are expanding due to iot-enabled technologies, such as remote laboratories and virtual reality tools, these largely remain inaccessible in some contexts, such as in the case of this study. although remote learning was facilitated through the blackboard lms, the tools in the lms were not sufficient for the participants to complete the practical work activity tasks. the participants therefore used other iot-enabled technologies that included search engines, youtube, filmmaking applications, cloud computing, and social media platforms to complement the lms affordances. conclusion the emergency remote learning brought about by the covid-19 pandemic has provided opportunities to implement innovative instructional strategies. the findings of this study showed that remote practical work was made possible through the incorporation of iot-enabled tools such as search engines, viewing of youtube videos to develop the knowledge to conduct experiments, and using of cloud computing and social media to enable communication, data sharing, and collaboration. material improvisation and the use of household goods were very crucial in enabling the participants to engage in practical work activities, whereas internet searches and youtube helped them to gain background knowledge on the experiments. the lms could not be used effectively for real-time communication and collaboration due to the intermittent internet connections, which resulted in asynchronous online learning. nonetheless, social media was used to enable real-time collaboration. although the participants were able to conduct internet searches and use technologies to develop content, such as videos when conducting experiments, the use of virtual laboratories, which form part of the iotand wot-enabled technologies, was not evident. the findings of the study point to a recommendation that the technological competencies of primary preservice science teachers should be developed to include the use virtual laboratories to conduct practical work in remote learning environments. acknowledgements the study was financially supported by the thuthuka funding instrument of south africa (nrf ttk180505326403). 59 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 44-62 references abrahams, i., & millar, r. 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(2023). examining media literacy perceptions of preservice social studies teachers in turkey. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 86-117. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.21 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. note this article is based on the author's doctoral thesis titled "examining the perceptions of the preservice social studies teachers about media literacy", and prepared at kütahya dumlupınar university. abstract the most commonly used definition of media literacy is the capacity to access, analyze, evaluate and generate information for specific implications. media literacy helps individuals to critically analyze media forms, question media influences and uses, utilize media intentionally, and produce alternative media. the purpose of this study is to investigate how preservice social studies teachers perceive media literacy. in order to do this, the media literacy perception scale (mlps) was administered, and a descriptive survey approach was used for the research. a total of one thousand social studies education students from seven different regions of turkey were randomly selected for the sample, ranging from students enrolled in the first, second, third, and fourth years at seven different state universities. a proportional stratified sampling technique was employed in the study. the dependent variable in this research is the media literacy perceptions of preservice social studies teachers, and the independent variable is a variety of demographic characteristics. in order to examine and interpret the gathered research data, oneway anova and t-test analyses were performed. based on the findings of the research, the participant students majoring in social studies education often showed high levels of perceptions of media literacy on both the scale and sub-dimensions. according to the research, a number of variables, including the amount of time spent watching tv, the amount of time spent online, and the region of residency, significantly affect students’ media literacy perceptions. the findings suggest that future students of these preservice teachers will benefit from their teachers’ increased media literacy skills. keywords media literacy; media literacy perception; social studies education; preservice teachers. 10.46303/ jcsr.2023.21 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.21 87 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 introduction in today’s world, a media culture has emerged that shapes daily life, political views, social behavior, as well as the personalities of people, and it consumes most leisure time (kellner, 2003). thoman & jolls (2008) claim that in contemporary multimedia culture, we are more likely to receive information about the world around us in the form of striking, spectacular images and sounds rather than mere text on a page. thoman et al. (2008) further assert that the excessive consumption of media and its pervasiveness in today’s society should concern us. people are now regularly exposed to the media in a variety of conscious and unconscious ways, which is especially detrimental for students. without media literacy, it is almost impossible to resist the detrimental impact of the media in today’s environment where we are so heavily influenced by it. media literacy education is a type of education that aims to teach students about the media, its techniques and effects as well as to develop critical thinking skills (quin & mcmahon, 2001). because media literacy education teaches us to look at things differently and analyze everything presented to us rather than simply accepting it as is, it raises awareness and therefore eliminates ignorance on the subject. today, media literacy education is viewed as a process of personality development through the use of mass media tools (fedorov, 2015). media literacy the most widely accepted definition of media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and generate information for specific implications (aufderheide, 1993). according to christ & potter (1998), the four components of a skills-based approach are access, analysis, evaluation, and content creation. each component contributes to the dynamic nonlinear learning process. in the twenty-first century, media literacy has become an essential component of literacy, and literacy has evolved into a tool for developing one’s ability to actively participate in society by decoding a variety of symbols and codes (braun, 2007). media literacy has elevated the concept of literacy to a whole new level, allowing people to distinguish between true and false information. rapid advances in information and communication technologies have also reshaped the meaning of literacy and introduced new skills such as understanding, manipulating, transforming and transporting video, multimedia and web-based media (anderson, 2008; new media consortium, 2005). as a result, media literacy allows media messages to be examined in depth and from all perspectives. gaining skills in information management, understanding the possible effects of media use, and increasing the potential of democratic discourse was the main reason for media literacy education (angell, 2005). as one of the main prerequisites for full and effective citizenship practice today, media literacy education is part of the fundamental rights of citizens in every country around the world, such as freedom of expression and the right to information, and is critical to the achievement and consolidation of democracy (tornero, 2004). the goal of media literacy education is to develop a broad foundation of competence, not only in print media but 88 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 also in other symbolic systems such as audio and video, and thus is frequently referred to as a form of literacy (buckingham, 2013). media literacy education and its current status in turkey the main goals of media literacy education are learning how to manage information, comprehending the potential impact of media use, and enhancing democratic discourse (angell, 2005). media literacy education is essential to achieving and preserving democracy and is a basic component of citizens’ fundamental rights around the world, including the freedom of expression and the right to information, and media literacy is also one of the primary prerequisites for full and effective citizenship practice today (tornero, 2004). media literacy education is an education that aims to provide students with information about the media, its techniques and effects as well as to enable them to have a critical understanding (quin and mcmahon, 2001). the use of cognitive processes in critical thinking is part of media literacy education. in 2004, the radio and television supreme council (also known in short as rtük) proposed for the first time that a media literacy course be taught in primary schools in the violence prevention platform, which was established under the ministry of state, where the leading public institutions, non-governmental organizations, and universities of our country are represented (medya okuryazarlığı derneği, 2013). the supreme council’s proposal was accepted and included in the action plan. the supreme council also sent a letter to the ministry of national education (mone) that year, emphasizing the importance of providing media literacy classes in schools. a declaration on media literacy standards was given with the contributions of rtük and mone during the first international media conference, which was conducted for the first time in turkey by the marmara university faculty of communication, between 23-25 may, 2005. between 2004 and 2006, media literacy programs of various countries were then examined and on 24 november, 2006, an international media panel was held in ankara with the participation of academicians from turkey and other countries. this panel led to the formation of a commission consisting of academicians to examine the cases from the united states and several european nations. a commission comprised of the board of education and discipline, rtük experts, and communication science academicians created the ‘media literacy curriculum and teacher’s guide’. as a result, the ministry of national education (mone) board of education and discipline approved the primary education elective media literacy course curriculum on 31 august, 2006 (medya okuryazarlığı derneği, 2017). as a consequence, the media literacy course began to be taught in five pilot provinces chosen by the ministry of national education in the 2006-2007 academic year, and it began to be taught as an elective course in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades of primary schools in the 2007-2008 academic year. purpose and importance of the research media literacy is a necessary skill for students today and in the future because it allows them to interpret, express, and interact with the media. there is a need to create a media literacy 89 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 strategy because of the media’s increasing influence in our daily lives. this strategy will prepare teachers and students for the influence of the media on their lives both now and in the future. the significance of media literacy education is undeniable for a number of reasons, including the media’s significant influence on economics, politics, and society as a whole, rising media exposure, the aggressive media targeting of young people, and changes in the ways in which people express themselves. media literacy is still an emerging field. studies have shown that media literacy benefits students’ physical health, just as it does every part of their lives (eisner, 2003). media technologies are not neutral or exclusive to the classroom as we are greatly influenced by the messages in the media. however, a number of educators continue to view the media as a neutral tool or instructional resource (buckingham, 2013). the importance of media literacy in the classroom should be emphasized. the media literacy course, which is offered as an elective course in turkey, is primarily taught by social studies teachers. therefore, the current study aims to create a media literacy perception scale, and to investigate the media literacy views of social studies preservice teachers enrolled at several turkish universities. the research is expected to contribute to the field of media literacy education by revealing information regarding the media literacy beliefs of preservice social studies teachers. method research sample this study is a descriptive survey model with the goal of identifying the levels of preservice social studies teachers’ media literacy views and the link between those perceptions and numerous variables. survey models are research methodologies that seek to capture the past or present in its actual state (karasar, 2012). this research method is used to explain how things, institutions, societies, and events are structured, and survey research is a generalized study, which draws conclusions about the population that the sample represents, based on the data collected from the sample (cohen, manion & morrison, 2007). the independent variable of the research is demographic characteristics, while the dependent variable is the media literacy perceptions of preservice social studies teachers. the sample seven distinct state universities from seven different regions were chosen to make up the research universe in order to adequately represent turkey as a whole. in other words, the intention was to represent every region of turkey in the research sample, and various social and socioeconomic traits would be present in the study group. students in the social studies teaching program in the first, second, third, and fourth years participated in the research conducted. the research includes 52% female and 48% male students, with an average age of 21.31 years. each university provided a sample of one thousand students with relatively representative power for the study. the study employed two-stage sampling. 90 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 a proportional stratified sampling technique was employed in the initial phase to draw samples from the population according to the research problem and the subject. a stratified sampling approach was used in the study to choose one state university from each geographical region. stratified sampling is utilized when substrata or subunit groups are present in a given universe because it is crucial to understand the universe through the presence of substrata (yıldırım & şimşek, 2005). the second phase of the study employed the random sampling methodology. data collection instruments the “media literacy perception scale” (mlps) developed by the researcher was administered to examine how prospective social studies teachers perceive media literacy. the first subdimension of the mlps was called “the effect of media on society (effect),” the second “metacognitive media awareness (awareness),” and the third “use of media tools (use).” mlps is a likert-type five-point scale. the cronbach alpha coefficient for the whole scale was found to be .86, .82 for the effect of the media on society, .74 for the metacognitive media awareness dimension, and .73 for the use of media tools in this study. the overall structure and sub-dimensions of the mlps have sufficient and trustworthy internal consistency, according to the results. the “media literacy perception scale” (mlps) with sixteen questions and three dimensions (factors) was developed after validity analyses (efa + cfa) and reliability (cronbach alpha) of the data were conducted and the statements were finalized. table 1 goodness of fit values for first and second level dfa fit indices examined level 1 of dfa (phase i) level 1 of dfa (phase ii) level 2 of dfa acceptable fit χ 2/sd 2,881 2,255 2,255 2 ≤χ 2/sd≤ 3 gfi 0,938 0,957 0,957 .90 ≤gfi ≤ .95 nfi 0,888 0,920 0,920 .90 ≤nfi ≤ .95 cfi 0,923 0,954 0,954 .90 ≤cfi ≤ .95 rmsea 0,056 0,046 0,046 .05≤rmsea≤.08 data analysis skewness and kurtosis values were evaluated as in the scale development process to assess the data set's multivariate normality. the fact that the skewness and kurtosis values are close to zero indicates that the data set is normal. according to the literature, a ratio of the skewness and kurtosis values to their standard deviation values, of between ∓1.5 (tabachnick & fidell, 2007) and ∓2.0 (george & mallery, 2010) indicates that the data set is normally distributed. the 91 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 skewness and kurtosis values in this study were found to be between +0.31 and +1.88. table 2 shows the values needed to satisfy the normality and homogeneity assumptions. table 2 values of normality and homogeneity for mlps and its sub-dimensions dimensions �̅� skewness kurtosis statistic statistic std. error statistic std. error effect (f1) 4.39 -.186 .177 -.890 .455 awareness (f2) 4.08 .219 .177 -.602 .455 use (f3) 4.17 .031 .177 -.764 .455 mlp 4.22 .093 .177 -.547 .455 research ethics all the guidelines outlined in the ‘higher education institutions scientific research and publication ethics directive’ were followed throughout the entire process, including planning and carrying out the research as well as collecting and analyzing data. the acts listed in the second section of the regulation, “actions contrary to scientific research and publication ethics,” have not been carried out. findings table 3 the t-test results between media literacy and student sub-dimension averages by gender dimensions gender n �̅� ss sd t p effect (f1) female 533 4.37 .429 998 .368 .058 male 467 4.42 .417 awareness (f2) female 533 4.04 .379 998 .024 .001 male 467 4.12 .408 use (f3) female 533 4.13 .470 998 .264 .001 male 467 4.23 .454 mlp female 533 4.18 .313 998 .483 .001 male 467 4.25 .304 (p< .05) as can be seen in table 3, in terms of gender differences in general media literacy perceptions and sub-dimensions, there is no statistically significant difference in the mean scores in the effect dimension (t(effect)(998)=.368; p>.05), but statistically significant differences were found in favor of male students in the awareness and use sub-dimensions (t(awareness)(998) )=.024; t(use)(998)=.264; p<.05) and general media literacy perceptions (t(mlp)(998)=.483; p<.05). 92 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 this finding shows that, while students’ general media literacy perceptions and subdimensions of awareness and use differ by gender, they have similar views on the effect subdimension. given that the mlps does not reveal a statistically significant variation in the effect size by gender, it is believed that media literacy is a factor that affects everyone, regardless of gender. the mlps’s general media literacy perceptions, awareness, and use sub-dimensions show a clear gender difference that is significantly in favor of male students. in this regard, it is believed that male students are more engaged with the media, and view events from a different angle than female students. table 4 one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between the media literacy and subdimensions averages of students by the number of siblings dimensions gender n �̅� ss sd t p effect (f1) female 533 4.37 .429 998 .368 .058 male 467 4.42 .417 awareness (f2) female 533 4.04 .379 998 .024 .001 male 467 4.12 .408 use (f3) female 533 4.13 .470 998 .264 .001 male 467 4.23 .454 mlp female 533 4.18 .313 998 .483 .001 male 467 4.25 .304 (p< .05) table 4 shows that there is no statistically significant difference in the mean scores of the groups in the effect and use sub-dimensions in terms of age differences in general media literacy perceptions and sub-dimensions. on the other hand, there is a statistically significant difference found between media literacy perceptions (f(mlp)=3.139) and the mean scores of age groups in the awareness sub-dimension (f(awareness)=4.1104). the levene’s test was then utilized to select the post-hoc test that would ascertain whether groups differed. tukey was chosen as the post-hoc test because the levene test result in the awareness dimension was greater than .05, whereas the games-howell test was chosen as the post-hoc test because the levene test result in the general media literacy perception was less than .05 (field, 2005). the post-hoc test revealed a statistically significant difference between the first and third groups, with the third group outperforming the first in terms of the number of siblings variable in the awareness sub-dimension (tukey) and general media literacy perception (games-howell). the students with 1-2 siblings had higher perceptions on both the scale and the awareness dimension than the students with 3-4 siblings. the students with fewer siblings are thought to benefit more easily from various opportunities than the students with more siblings. 93 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 5 one-way anova results between media literacy and its sub-dimensions mean scores by grade point averages of students dimensions gender n �̅� ss sd t p effect (f1) female 533 4.37 .429 998 .368 .058 male 467 4.42 .417 awareness (f2) female 533 4.04 .379 998 .024 .001 male 467 4.12 .408 use (f3) female 533 4.13 .470 998 .264 .001 male 467 4.23 .454 mlp female 533 4.18 .313 998 .483 .001 male 467 4.25 .304 (p< .05) as can be seen in table 5, there is no statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the groups when the difference in the general perception of media literacy and its subdimensions by the grade point averages of the students is analyzed. this is due to the fact that most of the research participants had not completed a media literacy course. table 6 one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by the educational status of students’ mothers dimensions gender n �̅� ss sd t p effect (f1) female 533 4.37 .429 998 .368 .058 male 467 4.42 .417 awareness (f2) female 533 4.04 .379 998 .024 .001 male 467 4.12 .408 use (f3) female 533 4.13 .470 998 .264 .001 male 467 4.23 .454 mlp female 533 4.18 .313 998 .483 .001 male 467 4.25 .304 (p< .05) table 6 cont. one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by the educational status of students’ mothers anaova levene post-hoc 94 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 dimension n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j (i-j) error p f3 illiterate 194 4.07 .458 4.341 .001 .193 tukey primary school -.102 .039 .094 middle school -.151 .049 .025 high school -.223 .056 .001 ba and above -.252 .092 .068 primary school 503 4.17 .465 illiterate .102 .039 .094 middle school -.049 .041 .846 high school -.121 .049 .138 ba and above -.150 .088 .530 middle school 164 4.22 .480 illiterate .151 .049 .025 primary school .049 .041 .846 high school -.072 .057 .811 ba and above -.101 .093 .887 high school 107 4.29 .448 illiterate .223 .056 .001 primary school .121 .049 .138 middle school .072 .057 .811 ba and above -.029 .097 1.00 bachelor and above 32 4.32 .347 illiterate .252 .092 .068 primary school .150 .088 .530 middle school .101 .093 .887 high school .029 .097 1.00 mlp illiterate 194 4.15 .322 2.492 .030 .449 tukey primary school -.066 .026 .110 middle school -.081 .032 .136 high school -.113 .037 .030 ba and above -.100 .061 .582 primary school 503 4.22 .306 illiterate .066 .026 .110 middle school -.014 .027 .996 high school -.046 .033 .723 ba and above -.033 .059 .993 middle school 164 4.23 .322 illiterate .081 .032 .136 primary school .014 .027 .996 high school -.032 .038 .961 ba and above -.019 .062 1.00 high school 107 4.27 .290 illiterate .113 .037 .030 primary school .046 .033 .723 middle school .032 .038 .961 ba and above .012 .064 1.00 bachelor and above 32 4.25 .291 illiterate .100 .061 .582 primary school .033 .059 .993 middle school .019 .062 1.00 high school .012 .064 1.00 (p< .05) table 6 indicates that no statistically significant differences were detected between the mean scores of the groups in the sub-dimensions of effect and awareness when the difference in general media literacy perception and sub-dimensions was analyzed in terms of the educational status of the mother. however, there were statistically significant differences between the mean scores of educational statuses in the general media literacy perception (f(mlp)=2.492) and the use (f(use)=4.341) sub-dimensions. the levene’s test was then utilized to select the post-hoc test to determine which groups differed. given that the levene test result 95 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 was higher than .05 in terms of use and general perceptions of media literacy, the tukey test was chosen as the post-hoc test (field, 2005). the post-hoc test revealed a statistically significant difference in the sub-dimension of use between the illiterate, middle school, and high school groups, favoring the high school group (tukey). a statistically significant difference in general media literacy perception (tukey) was found between the high school and illiterate groups, again in favor of the high school group. the students’ perceptions of the use sub-dimension increase as mothers’ educational levels increase. it is usually accepted that if educated mothers can use media technologies, so can their children. as regards the sub-dimensions of effect and awareness among the students, the lack of a statistically significant difference according to the mother’s educational level can be attributed to the fact that, regardless of the mother’s educational level, if the mothers themselves do not have the effect and awareness dimensions of media literacy, their children will not either. as can be seen in table 7, a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of the groups was discovered only in the use dimension (f(use)=4.800) when the perception of general media literacy and its sub-dimensions were compared to the father's educational status. the levene’s test was then utilized to select the post-hoc test that would determine which groups differed. since the levene test result was greater than .05 in the dimension of use, the tukey test was selected as the post-hoc test (field, 2005). as a result of the post-hoc test in the sub-dimension of use (tukey), there was a statistically significant difference in favor of the bachelor and above group between the illiterate and the bachelor’s and above group; in favor of the bachelor and above group among primary school and high school and bachelor’s and above groups; in favor of the high school group between high school and primary school groups; and again in favor of the bachelor and above group among bachelor and above, illiterate and primary school groups. 96 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 7 one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by the educational status of students’ fathers anova levene post-hoc dimension (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p f1 illiterate 41 4.35 .470 .610 .692 .384 primary school 399 4.38 .434 middle school 223 4.41 .407 high school 229 4.38 .410 ba and above 108 4.44 .433 f2 illiterate 41 4.00 .404 1.463 .199 .855 primary school 399 4.06 .400 middle school 223 4.08 .402 high school 229 4.13 .380 ba and above 108 4.10 .385 f3 illiterate 410 4.01 .481 4.800 .000 .376 tukey primary school -.097 .076 .795 middle school -.204 .078 .096 high school -.215 .078 .067 ba and above -.275 .085 .017 primary school 399 4.11 .475 illiterate .097 .076 .795 middle school -.107 .039 .060 high school -.118 .038 .025 ba and above -.178 .052 .007 middle school 223 4.22 .457 illiterate .204 .078 .096 primary school .107 .039 .060 high school -.011 .043 1.00 ba and above -.071 .055 .794 high school 229 4.23 .449 illiterate .215 .078 .067 primary school .118 .038 .025 middle school .011 .043 1.00 ba and above -.060 .055 .884 bachelor and above 108 4.29 .434 illiterate .275 .085 .017 primary school .178 .052 .007 middle school .071 .055 .794 high school .060 .055 .884 mlp illiterate 41 4.13 .323 2.525 .058 .541 primary school 399 4.18 .315 middle school 223 4.23 .308 high school 229 4.24 .296 ba and above 108 4.27 .319 (p< .05) as the fathers’ educational levels increase, so do the perceptions of the students in the subdimension of use. it is believed that because educated fathers, like educated mothers, can use media tools, their children can as well. as regards the sub-dimensions of effect and awareness among students, the lack of a statistically significant difference according to the father’s educational level can be attributed to the fact that, regardless of the father’s educational level, 97 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 if the fathers themselves do not have the effect and awareness dimensions of media literacy, their children will not either. table 8 one-way anova results between media literacy and sub-dimensions of mean scores by students’ household incomes dimension household income n 𝐗 ss f p effect (f1) 1500 tl and below 306 4.38 .428 1.419 .236 1500-2500 tl 370 4.39 .419 2500 -3500 tl 193 4.36 .418 3500 tl and above 131 4.46 .436 awareness (f2) 1500 tl and below 306 4.04 .389 2.075 .102 1500-2500 tl 370 4.08 .383 2500 -3500 tl 193 4.13 .417 3500 tl and above 131 4.11 .402 use (f3) 1500 tl and below 306 4.14 .474 1.799 .146 1500-2500 tl 370 4.16 .464 2500 -3500 tl 193 4.21 .472 3500 tl and above 131 4.23 .431 mlp 1500 tl and below 306 4.19 .303 1.962 .118 1500-2500 tl 370 4.21 .310 2500 -3500 tl 193 4.23 .324 3500 tl and above 131 4.26 .307 (p< .05) table 8 shows that the mean scores of the groups do not significantly differ when the difference in the students' perceptions of general media literacy and its sub-dimensions was analyzed according to their household incomes. therefore, it is thought that household income has no effect on students' perceptions of media literacy. 98 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 9 one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its sub-dimension mean scores by the geographical region where students live with their families anova levene post-hoc dimension (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i j) error p f1 marmara 176 4.40 .400 .383 .890 .362 aegean 88 4.42 .404 central anatolia 160 4.40 .434 mediterranean 128 4.38 .409 black sea 141 4.39 .425 eastern anatolia 145 4.40 .433 southeast anatolia 162 4.35 .458 f2 marmara 176 4.13 .397 1.121 .348 .235 aegean 88 4.12 .364 central anatolia 160 4.08 .409 mediterranean 128 4.05 .366 black sea 141 4.04 .383 eastern anatolia 145 4.06 .390 southeast anatolia 162 4.07 .426 f3 marmara 176 4.25 .448 2.711 .013 .302 t u k e y aegean .010 .060 1.00 central anatolia .028 .051 .998 mediterranean .085 .054 .690 black sea .117 .052 .280 eastern anatolia .153 .052 .049 southeast anatolia .137 .050 .093 aegean 88 4.24 .474 marmara -.010 .060 1.00 central anatolia .018 .061 1.00 mediterranean .075 .064 .903 black sea .107 .063 .618 eastern anatolia .143 .063 .250 southeast anatolia .127 .061 .367 central anatolia 160 4.22 .455 marmara -.028 .051 .998 aegean -.018 .061 1.00 mediterranean .057 .055 .943 black sea .089 .053 .643 eastern anatolia .125 .053 .217 southeast anatolia .109 .052 .343 mediterranean 128 4.17 .458 marmara -.085 .054 .690 aegean -.075 .064 .903 central anatolia -.057 .055 .943 black sea .031 .056 .998 eastern anatolia .068 .056 .892 southeast anatolia .052 .055 .965 (p< .05) 99 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 9 cont. one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its sub-dimension mean scores by the geographical region where students live with their families anova levene post-hoc dime nsion (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p t y p e (j) (i j) error p f3 black sea 141 4.13 .461 marmara -.117 .052 .280 aegean -.107 .063 .618 central anatolia -.089 .053 .643 mediterranean -.031 .056 .998 eastern anatolia .036 .055 .994 southeast anatolia .021 .053 1.00 eastern anatolia 145 4.10 .430 marmara -.153 .052 .049 aegean -.143 .063 .250 central anatolia -.125 .053 .217 mediterranean -.068 .056 .892 black sea -.036 .055 .994 southeast anatolia -.016 .053 1.00 southeast anatolia 162 4.11 .511 marmara -.137 .050 .093 aegean -.127 .061 .367 central anatolia -.109 .052 .343 mediterranean -.052 .055 .965 black sea -.021 .053 1.00 eastern anatolia .016 .053 1.00 mlp marmara 176 4.26 .300 1.58 5 .14 8 .328 aegean 88 4.26 .292 central anatolia 160 4.23 .316 mediterranea n 128 4.20 .285 black sea 141 4.19 .298 eastern anatolia 145 4.19 .318 southeast anatolia 162 4.18 .347 (p< .05) 100 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 9 indicates that a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of the groups was discovered only in the use dimension (f(use)=2.711) when the perception of general media literacy and its sub-dimensions were compared to the geographical region where students live with their families. the levene’s test was then utilized to select the post-hoc test that would determine which groups differed. since the levene test result was greater than .05 in the subdimension of effect, the tukey test was selected as the post-hoc test (field, 2005). the post-hoc test revealed a statistically significant difference in the use sub-dimension (tukey) between the students from the marmara region and those from eastern anatolia. the reason for the significant difference in the use sub-dimension of the mlps in favor of the students living in the marmara region might be the fact that the marmara region, as turkey’s most developed region, has more advanced means of using media tools, whereas eastern anatolia is a disadvantaged region. on the other hand, even though a number of regions still have issues using media tools, it is believed that the media literacy and general media literacy perceptions have an impact on life in the sub-dimensions of effect and awareness, regardless of the region of residence. table 10 one-way anova, levene and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its sub-dimensions mean scores by students’ tv watching time anova levene post-hoc dimension (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p f1 never 352 4.44 .429 2.408 .048 .478 tukey 1-2 .086 .031 .046 2-4 .047 .038 .743 4-6 .124 .059 .216 6 + .031 .119 .999 1-2 388 4.35 .409 never -.086 .031 .046 2-4 -.039 .038 .834 4-6 .038 .058 .967 6 + -.055 .119 .990 2-4 186 4.39 .429 never -.047 .038 .743 1-2 .039 .038 .834 4-6 .077 .062 .728 6 + -.016 .121 1.00 4-6 61 4.32 .451 never -.124 .059 .216 1-2 -.038 .058 .967 2-4 -.077 .062 .728 6 + -.093 .129 .951 6 + 13 4.41 .428 never -.031 .119 .999 1-2 .055 .119 .990 2-4 .016 .121 1.00 4-6 .093 .129 .951 (p< .05) 101 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 10 cont. one-way anova, levene and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its sub-dimensions mean scores by students’ tv watching time anova levene post-hoc dimension (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p f2 never 352 4.12 .413 3.126 .014 .027 games & howell 1-2 .050 .030 .450 2-4 .063 .034 .365 4-6 .144 .051 .042 6 + .251 .138 .406 1-2 388 4.07 .391 never -.050 .030 .450 2-4 .013 .033 .995 4-6 .095 .050 .323 6 + .201 .138 .603 2-4 186 4.06 .362 never -.063 .034 .365 1-2 -.013 .033 .995 4-6 .082 .053 .532 6 + .188 .139 .664 4-6 61 3.98 .357 never -.144 .051 .042 1-2 -.095 .050 .323 2-4 -.082 .053 .532 6 + .106 .144 .944 6 + 13 3.87 .491 never -.251 .138 .406 1-2 -.201 .138 .603 2-4 -.188 .139 .664 4-6 -.106 .144 .944 (p< .05) 102 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 10 cont. one-way anova, levene and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its sub-dimensions mean scores by students’ tv watching time anova levene post-hoc dimension (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p f3 never 352 4.21 .485 2.255 .061 .098 1-2 388 4.18 .457 2-4 186 4.14 .443 4-6 61 4.05 .448 6 + 13 4.06 .447 mlp never 352 4.26 .327 3.991 .003 .185 tukey 1-2 .058 .022 .075 2-4 .059 .028 .219 4-6 .142 .042 .008 6 + .144 .087 .467 1-2 388 4.20 .296 never -.058 .022 .075 2-4 .000 .027 1.00 4-6 .083 .042 .286 6 + .085 .087 .865 2-4 186 4.20 .299 never -.059 .028 .219 1-2 -.000 .027 1.00 4-6 .083 .045 .360 6 + .085 .088 .874 4-6 61 4.12 .317 never -.142 .042 .008 1-2 -.083 .042 .286 2-4 -.083 .045 .360 6 + .001 .094 1.00 6 + 13 4.12 .291 never -.144 .087 .467 1-2 -.085 .087 .865 2-4 -.085 .088 .874 4-6 -.001 .094 1.00 (p< .05) table 10 displays that when the differences in the general media literacy perception and sub-dimensions were examined according to the students’ daily tv watching time, statistically significant differences were found between the sub-dimensions of effect (f(use)=2.408) and awareness (f(awareness)=3.126) and the mean scores of the groups in the general media literacy perception (f(mlp)=3.991). the levene’s test was then utilized to select the post-hoc test that would determine which groups differed. tukey was chosen as the post-hoc test because the levene test result was higher than .05 in the use dimension and overall media literacy, whereas the games-howell test was chosen as the post-hoc test since the levene test result was lower than .05 in the awareness dimension (field, 2005). 103 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 the post-hoc exam revealed a statistically significant difference between the groups of students who never watch tv and those who do so for 4-6 hours per day in the awareness dimension (games-howell) and general media literacy perception (tukey), favoring the students who never watch tv. in addition, in the effect (tukey) dimension, a statistically significant difference was found between the students who never watch tv and those who watch tv for 1-2 hours a day, again favoring the students who never watch tv. the results show that the students who never watch tv have higher perceptions of media literacy in the general media literacy perception and awareness sub-dimension compared to the students who watch tv for 4-6 hours, and that the media literacy perceptions of the students who never watch tv are higher than those of the students who watch tv for 1-2 hours in the effect sub-dimension. this may imply that viewing tv directs the students and causes them to accept that the messages they receive are true by preventing them from evaluating the information critically. there is no difference in the students’ perceptions of their media literacy in the use sub-dimension, corresponding to the theory that the use of media tools is shaped by their environment rather than the amount of time they spend watching tv. table 11 one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by students’ daily internet usage time anova levene post-hoc dimension (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p f1 never 6 4.31 .476 1.775 .132 .756 1-2 170 4.33 .421 2-4 358 4.39 .423 4-6 276 4.39 .422 6 + 190 4.45 .427 f2 never 6 4.17 .298 .942 .439 .313 1-2 170 4.05 .384 2-4 358 4.11 .388 4-6 276 4.07 .393 6 + 190 4.07 .419 (p< .05) 104 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 11 cont. one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by students’ daily internet usage time anova levene post-hoc dimension (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p f3 never 6 3.88 .494 4.142 .002 .483 tukey 1-2 -.206 .192 .821 2-4 -.285 .190 .564 4-6 -.326 .191 .428 6 + -.380 .192 .274 1-2 170 4.08 .449 never .206 .192 .821 2-4 -.079 .043 .353 4-6 -.120 .045 .060 6 + -.174 .049 .003 2-4 358 4.16 .461 never .285 .190 .564 1-2 .079 .043 .353 4-6 -.041 .037 .800 6 + -.095 .041 .146 4-6 276 4.20 .457 never .326 .191 .428 1-2 .120 .045 .060 2-4 .041 .037 .800 6 + -.054 .044 .726 6 + 190 4.26 .482 never .380 .192 .274 1-2 .174 .049 .003 2-4 .095 .041 .146 4-6 .054 .044 .726 mlp never 6 4.14 .378 2.284 .059 .659 1-2 170 4.16 .296 2-4 358 4.22 .308 4-6 276 4.22 .303 6 + 190 4.25 .333 (p< .05) as can be seen in table 11, when the difference in the general media literacy perception and the sub-dimensions based on the students’ daily internet usage time was examined, only the use (f(use)=4.142) sub-dimension revealed a statistically significant difference between the mean scores of the groups. the levene’s test was then utilized to select the post-hoc test that would determine which groups differed. since the levene test result was greater than .05 in the use sub-dimension, the tukey test was selected as the post-hoc test (field, 2005). 105 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 the post-hoc test resulted in a statistically significant difference in favor of the students who used the internet for more than six hours per day versus the students who used the internet for one to two hours per day and more than six hours per day in the use sub-dimension (tukey). when the students’ perceptions of media literacy are compared based on the amount of time they spend online each day, it can be seen that the perceptions of the students who use the internet for more than six hours per day are higher than those of the students who only use it for one or two hours per day. therefore, it is hypothesized that this is because students are now using the internet for longer periods of time, which increases their interest in and engagement with media technologies. there was no statistically significant difference in the media literacy perceptions of the students according to the duration of internet use in the general media literacy perception and the sub-dimensions of effect and awareness. it is therefore believed that this is because students do not favor educational websites on the internet, which prevents the internet from having any impact on educating students with regard to the consequences of media literacy and increasing their awareness. 106 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 12 one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by the universities students attended anova levene post-hoc dimen. (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p f1 akdeniz 130 4.57 . 355 21.99 .00 0 .000 gam es & how ell gazi .305 .046 .000 karadeniz technical .299 .044 .000 marmara .405 .051 .000 atatürk 160 4.56 .356 gazi .287 .044 .000 karadeniz technical .282 .041 .000 marmara .388 .049 .000 dicle 130 4.46 .369 gazi .194 .047 .001 karadeniz technical .189 .044 .001 marmara .295 .051 .000 dumlupınar 120 4.46 .430 gazi .188 .052 .006 karadeniz technical .182 .050 .006 marmara .289 .056 .000 gazi 160 4.27 .427 akdeniz -.305 .046 .000 atatürk -.287 .044 .000 dicle -.194 .047 .001 dumlupına r -.188 .052 .006 karadeniz technical 170 4.28 .396 akdeniz -.299 .044 .000 atatürk -.282 .041 .000 dicle -.189 .044 .001 dumlupına r -.182 .050 .006 marmara 130 4.17 .458 akdeniz -.405 .051 .000 atatürk -.388 .049 .000 dicle -.295 .051 .000 dumlupına r -.289 .056 .000 (p< .05) 107 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 12 cont. one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by the universities students attended anova leve ne post-hoc dimen. (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p f2 akden. 130 4.76 .106 29.94 .000 .000 games & howell atatürk .328 .012 .00 dicle .562 .011 .000 dumlu pınar .705 .012 .000 gazi .811 .011 .000 karadeniz technical 1.00 .011 .000 marmara 1.26 .014 .000 atatürk 160 4.43 .095 akdeniz .328 .012 .000 dicle .233 .009 .000 dumlu pınar .377 .010 .000 gazi .483 .010 .000 karadeniz technical .674 .010 .000 marmara .939 .013 .000 dicle 130 4.19 .062 akdeniz .562 .011 .000 atatürk .233 .009 .000 dumlu pınar .143 .009 .000 gazi .250 .008 .000 karadeniz technical .441 .008 .000 marmara .705 .012 .000 (p< .05) 108 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 12 cont. one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by the universities students attended anova leve ne post-hoc dimen. (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p dumlu. 120 4.05 .077 29.94 .000 .000 game s & howe ll akdeniz -.705 .012 .000 atatürk -.377 .010 .000 dicle -.143 .009 .000 gazi .107 .009 .000 karadeniz technical .297 .010 .000 marmara .562 .013 .000 gazi 160 3.94 .079 akdeniz -.811 .011 .000 atatürk -.483 .010 .000 dicle -.250 .008 .000 dumlu pınar -.107 .009 .000 karadeniz technical .191 .009 .000 marmara .455 .012 .000 karadeniz technical 170 3.75 .084 akdeniz -1.00 .011 .000 atatürk -.674 .010 .000 dicle -.441 .008 .000 dumlu pınar -.297 .010 .000 gazi -.191 .009 .000 marmara .264 .012 .000 marmara 130 3.49 .121 akdeniz -1.26 .014 .000 atatürk -.939 .013 .000 dicle -.705 .012 .000 dumlu pınar -.562 .013 .000 gazi -.455 .012 .000 karadeniz technical -.264 .012 .000 (p< .05) 109 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 12 cont. one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by the universities students attended anova le. post-hoc dimen. (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p f3 akdeniz 130 4.61 .390 50.35 .000 .033 games & howell atatürk .246 .049 .000 dicle .417 .049 .000 dumlupınar .444 .052 .000 gazi .522 .046 .000 karadeniz technical .654 .046 .000 marmara .720 .048 .000 atatürk 160 4.36 .444 akdeniz -.246 .049 .000 dicle .172 .049 .010 dumlupınar .198 .053 .004 gazi .277 .047 .000 karadeniz technical .408 .047 .000 marmara .475 .049 .000 dicle 130 4.19 .394 akdeniz -.417 .049 .000 atatürk -.172 .049 .010 karadeniz technical .236 .047 .000 marmara .303 .048 .000 dumlu. 120 4.17 .428 akdeniz -.444 .052 .000 atatürk -.198 .053 .004 karadeniz technical .210 .050 .001 marmara .277 .052 .000 gazi 160 4.09 .396 akdeniz -.522 .046 .000 atatürk -.277 .047 .000 karadeniz technical .132 .044 .050 marmara .198 .046 .000 karadeniz technical 170 3.96 .410 akdeniz -.654 .046 .000 atatürk -.408 .047 .000 dicle -.236 .047 .000 dumlupınar -.210 .050 .001 gazi -.132 .044 .050 marmara 130 3.89 .389 akdeniz -.720 .048 .000 atatürk -.475 .049 .000 dicle -.303 .048 .000 dumlupınar -.277 .052 .000 gazi -.198 .046 .000 (p< .05) 110 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 12 cont. one-way anova, levene, and post-hoc test results between media literacy and its subdimensions mean scores by the universities students attended anova levene post-hoc dimension (i) n 𝐗 ss f p p type (j) (i-j) error p mlp akdeniz 130 4.65 .188 308.87 .000 .167 tukey atatürk .190 .021 .000 dicle .356 .022 .000 dumlu pınar .418 .023 .000 gazi .549 .021 .000 karadeniz technical .651 .021 .000 marmara .806 .022 .000 atatürk 160 4.46 .181 akdeniz -.190 .021 .000 dicle .165 .021 .000 dumlu pınar .228 .022 .000 gazi .358 .020 .000 karadeniz technical .460 .020 .000 marmara .616 .021 .000 dicle 130 4.29 .172 akdeniz -.356 .022 .000 atatürk -.165 .021 .000 gazi .192 .021 .000 karadeniz technical .295 .021 .000 marmara .450 .022 .000 dumlu. 120 4.23 .180 308.87 .000 .167 tukey akdeniz -.418 .023 .000 atatürk -.228 .022 .000 gazi .130 .022 .000 karadeniz technical .232 .022 .000 marmara .388 .023 .000 gazi 160 4.10 .190 akdeniz -.549 .021 .000 atatürk -.358 .020 .000 dicle -.192 .021 .000 dumlupınar -.130 .022 .000 karadeniz technical .102 .020 .000 marmara .257 .021 .000 karadeniz technical 170 3.99 .175 akdeniz -.651 .021 .000 atatürk -.460 .020 .000 dicle -.295 .021 .000 dumlupınar -.232 .022 .000 gazi -.102 .020 .000 marmara .155 .021 .000 marmara 130 3.84 .203 akdeniz -.806 .022 .000 atatürk -.616 .021 .000 dicle -.450 .022 .000 dumlupınar -.388 .023 .000 gazi -.257 .021 .000 karadeniz technical -.155 .021 .000 111 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 table 12 shows statistically significant differences found between the mean scores of the groups in all the sub-dimensions and the general media literacy, taking into account how differently students perceive media literacy and its sub-dimensions depending on the university they attended. the levene’s test was then utilized to select the post-hoc test that would determine which groups differed. since the levene test result was less than .05 in the effect, awareness, and use sub-dimensions, games & howell was then selected as the post-hoc test; and the tukey was selected as the post-hoc test because the levene test result was higher than .05 in the general media literacy and the use sub-dimension (field, 2005). according to the results of the post-hoc tests, the akdeniz university students’ mean scores in the effect, awareness, and use (games & howell) sub-dimensions and the general media literacy (tukey) were found to be statistically significant and higher than those of the students at other universities, while marmara university students’ mean scores differed statistically significantly but were lower. discussion and conclusion the analysis of the data reveals that the social studies teaching students’ perceptions of media literacy were high on both the scale and the sub-dimensions. tatar (2016) found that preservice teachers' levels of media literacy was above average. when the students’ perceptions of media literacy are compared based on gender, both males and females both see media literacy’s impact similarly, despite the males’ perceptions of the general media literacy and the awareness and use sub-dimensions being greater than those of the females. this finding is in contradiction to research by som and kurt (2012) and sarsar and engin (2015). however, in terms of the effect dimension, both male and female perceptions are comparable to those of these studies. aslan and basel (2017) in their study, found that the level of media literacy differed according to the gender variable and that it was higher in female students. saçan and adıbelli (2016) also concluded that the sub-dimension of having information on media literacy levels according to gender was in favor of female students. alınca (2019) found that media literacy characteristics are higher in males, regardless of gender. according to pala and başıbüyük (2020) the digital literacy of male and female students’ scores were close to each other and it was found that there was no significant change. karasu and arıkan (2016), çakmak (2019) banaz (2017) also found that there was no significant difference regarding gender. depending on the number of siblings, students’ perceptions of media literacy vary in terms of awareness and general media literacy perception, but they are similar in terms of the effect and use dimensions. the students with one to two siblings had higher perceptions than those with three to four siblings, both in the scale and awareness dimensions. the digital literacy skill scores of the number of siblings were found to be significant variable. according to pala and başıbüyük (2020) it was found that the scores belonged to the students who did not have siblings have the highest literacy skills. 112 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 there was no difference in the students’ perceptions of media literacy on either a scale or dimensional basis when the perceptions of the students were compared to their academic grade point averages and the monthly household income of their families. the educational status of the students’ mothers was seen to have an impact on their perceptions of the general media literacy and use dimensions. however, it was observed that the students whose mothers are high school graduates had higher perceptions in the use subdimension among students with mothers who were illiterate, and who were secondary or high school graduates. similarly, in terms of general media literacy perception, the perceptions of the students whose mothers are high school graduates were higher perceptions again between those with illiterate mothers and high school graduates. pala and başıbüyük (2020) found that the educational status of the mother has an effect on the digital literacy skill scores of the students. considering how the students perceived general media literacy and its sub-dimensions in terms of the educational status of their fathers, it was found only in the use sub-dimension that the students whose fathers have bachelor degrees or above had higher perceptions than those with illiterate fathers and ba or above graduate. similarly, perceptions of the students whose fathers had bachelor degrees or above were higher among those with fathers who are primary school, high school, and ba or above graduates. similarly, perceptions of the students with high school-graduate fathers were greater than the groups of students whose fathers were primary school graduates and high school graduates. again, perceptions of students whose fathers had bachelor degrees or above were higher than the groups of illiterate fathers and ba or above graduates. pala and başıbüyük (2020) found that the educational status of the father had an effect on the digital literacy skill scores of students bulut özbek (2016) found that the media literacy levels of the parents were moderate. regarding the students’ perceptions of general media literacy and its sub-dimensions in terms of the geographical region where they live with their families, only the use sub-dimension showed statistically significant differences between students from the marmara region and those from eastern anatolia, and the perceptions of the marmara region students were found to be higher. pala and başıbüyük (2020) found with regard to the digital literacy skills of students according to the place of residence; the average of digital literacy skills of the students living in the city center was higher than that of students living in the town and district centers of the city. depending on how much tv they watch each day, the students’ perceptions of media literacy differ in the effect and awareness dimensions, and general media literacy perception, but they are similar in the use dimension. the perceptions of the students who never watched television were higher than those of the students who watched television for four to six hours per day in terms of both the general media literacy perception and the awareness dimension. regarding the effect dimension, students who never watched tv had higher perceptions than those who watched tv for one to two hours per day. in their research on pre-service teachers, karaman and karataş (2009) discovered that the amount of time spent watching tv has an 113 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 impact on the degree of media literacy. however, this study indicates that students who watch tv ten to twenty hours per week have greater media literacy skills than people who watch tv less frequently or more frequently. yılmaz and özkan (2013) also found in their research that, the frequency of watching tv was effective in the media literacy scores of students. in contrast, som and kurt (2012) and çakmak (2019) discovered that the amount of time spent watching tv had no impact on media literacy. considering the students’ perceptions of media literacy in terms of how much time they spent online each day, the only difference was found in the use dimension, whereas the other dimensions and the general perception of media literacy had no differences. based on the use dimension, only students who use the internet for more than six hours per day had higher perceptions than those who use it for one to two hours per day. according to a study conducted by karaman and karataş (2009), an increase in the amount of time spent online has a positive impact on media literacy skills. in line with these findings, walsh (2009) underlines that those students should have access to the internet and other technology both at home and in the classroom in order to implement media literacy effectively. in a study conducted by çakmak (2016), it was found that the media literacy levels of the teachers whose weekly internet usage time was ‘between one two five hours’ were higher than the teachers whose weekly internet usage time was ‘less than 1 hour’ or ‘between six to ten hours’. with regard to the effect, awareness, and use sub-dimensions and general media literacy, the mean scores of the akdeniz university students were found to be statistically significant and higher than those of the students from other universities, while the marmara university students’ mean scores were statistically significantly different but were lower. consequently, there are a number of important implications based on the findings of the current study. for instance, this study implies that college students pursuing social studies education in faculties of education should take a media literacy course. more importantly, in order to train teachers who can teach media literacy, it would be advantageous to establish departments at universities under the same name for teaching media literacy. in addition, given that children of more educated parents have a greater perception of media literacy, it would be beneficial to offer courses to parents and members of all social groups, as well as conferences and training. the use of media tools should also be increased in underdeveloped geographic regions. similarly, the use of media tools, such as computers and the internet, should be made more widespread in small settlements, and more emphasis should be placed on the field of media literacy education. moreover, in order to minimize the damaging impact of the media, tv viewing time should be reduced as much as possible. raising media-literate people should be prioritized in order to combat the harmful effects of tv. 114 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 86-117 in addition, internet use should be prioritized in order to improve how media tools are perceived. furthermore, students’ perceptions of media literacy will improve if they are encouraged to utilize computers and tablets for educational purposes. finally, but not the least, the definition of media literacy as well as the requirements and appropriate goals for a media literacy education program can be determined using the delphi technique, which is a needs assessment technique. limitations of the research the study was limited to seven regions of turkey and pre-service social studies teachers enrolled at the faculties of education at a state university chosen from each region. the sample of the research consisted of a total of one thousand students enrolled in social studies education programs at seven different state universities, one from each region of turkey. the study is limited to evaluating students’ responses to items on the media literacy perception scale based on various variables. support and credits this study is based on a doctoral thesis titled “examination of pre-service social studies teachers’ perceptions of media literacy.” contribution rate of researchers each author of the study made an equal contribution at every step of the research process. conflict statement in our capacity as the authors of the study, we hereby declare that we have no conflicts of interest to disclose. statement of publication ethics the entire procedure, from the planning of this research to its implementation, and from the data collection to the data analysis, meets with all the guidelines outlined in the ‘higher education institutions scientific research and publication ethics directive’. the acts listed in the second section of the regulation, ‘actions contrary to scientific research and publication ethics’, have not been carried out. the study, ‘examining media literacy perceptions of preservice social studies teachers by the seven regions of turkey’, was written in accordance with all applicable scientific, ethical, and citation guidelines. the data was not falsified, and this paper has not been submitted for review to any other scholarly publication. references alınca, s. 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(electronic journal of vocational colleges, 3(1), 1-6. http://acikerisim.klu.edu.tr/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.11857/3850/3850.pdf?seq uence=1&isallowed=y journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 1 2022 pp. 1-17 paths from spiritual support to college self-efficacy in southeastern christian and southeastern public university students mollie dianne kaye carter* * department of psychology, asbury university, wilmore, ky, united states. email: mollie.carter@asbury.edu article info received: november 30, 2021 revised: january 31, 2022 accepted: february 5, 2022 how to cite carter, m. d. k. (2022). paths from spiritual support to college selfefficacy in southeastern christian and southeastern public university students. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(1), 1-17 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.2 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract using a modified portion of lent’s (2004) normative model of life satisfaction, this study assessed the role spiritual models play in southeastern christian university students’ and southeastern public university students’ developing traits of spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, and the associations these traits had with college self-efficacy. additionally, this study proposed perspectivetaking as a moderator of the association between environmental support from spiritual models and spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, such that college students high in perspective-taking would understand and internalize traits of models rather than only imitating the spiritual practices of the model. participants (n = 384) in this one-time survey study were recruited from a public, urban university and a private, christian university. results of the moderated mediation paths show spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope mediated the association between environmental support from spiritual models and college self-efficacy, but perspective-taking did not moderate associations from environmental support from spiritual models to the mediators. these findings supported the modified portion of lent’s (2004) normative model of life satisfaction which states that environmental support, including support given by spiritual models, enhanced the development of healthy traits such as spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope. in turn, the healthy traits were associated with increased college self-efficacy. keywords christian; university; southeastern; spiritual modeling; college selfefficacy; perspective-taking. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.2 2 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 introduction robert lent’s (2004; lent et al. 2007) normative model of life satisfaction suggests environmental support is bi-directionally associated with positive affect and personality traits, which in turn are associated with increased self-efficacy. lent’s model excludes environmental support provided by spiritual models, whose influence may promote growth of spiritual traits. spiritual models may be more readily available to students in southeastern christian universities than southeastern public universities, and it is unknown how support from spiritual models impacts self-efficacy in college. positive affect and the big five personality traits are known antecedents and mediators in the path from environmental support to self-efficacy (lent 2004; lent et al. 2007), but it is unknown if spiritual traits mediate the path from environmental support from spiritual models to college self-efficacy (solberg et al. 1993). four malleable spiritual traits that can be learned through the influence of others are spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope (davidson, feldman, and margalit 2012; kiken et al. 2015; luskin, ginzburg, and thoresen 2005; oman et al. 2007; oman et al. 2009). each of these spiritual traits are correlated with forms of self-efficacy (duffy and lent 2008; keye and pidgeon 2013; macaskill and denovan 2013), pointing toward a path from environmental support from spiritual models to the four spiritual traits, which in turn may be associated with college selfefficacy. the current study the current study sought to determine whether group differences exist in college self-efficacy, spiritual modeling, spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, hope, and perspective-taking between a southeastern christian university and a southeastern public university. further, the current study focused on three groups of variables proposed by lent and colleagues (lent 2004; lent et al. 2007): environmental support from spiritual models, positive traits, and college self-efficacy. a moderated mediation path model was fit to assess the hypotheses that (1) environmental support from spiritual models would be associated with college self-efficacy; (2) the relationship between environmental support from spiritual models and college self-efficacy would be mediated by spirituality, forgiveness, mindfulness, and hope; (3) perspective-taking would moderate the path from environmental support from spiritual models to the mediators, such that the relationship from environmental support from spiritual models to the mediating traits would be stronger among people with good perspective-taking. participants a total of 384 undergraduate college students (christian 90.1%, atheist/agnostic 6.8%, other faith tradition, 2.3%, muslim 0.5%, and buddhist 0.3%) participated in the study from two southeastern universities; one hundred eighty-eight from a public university, and 196 undergraduate students participated from a private, christian university. 3 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 measures environmental support from spiritual models environmental support from spiritual models was measured using the religious/spiritual organization and famous and/or divine persons subscales of the useful exemplar scale of the spiritual modeling inventory of life environments (smile; oman et al. 2009; α = .89). test-retest reliability had been demonstrated for the community and prominent model subscales (r = .74, r = .78, respectively). spirituality spirituality was measured using the self-report form of the assessment of spiritual transcendence and religious practice short form (aspires; piedmont et al. 2008). psychometric properties of the spiritual transcendence and religious index demonstrated good reliability in the current study for the scales of spiritual transcendence α = .71, religious index, α = .84, and total scores, α = .79. mindfulness mindfulness was measured using the cognitive and affective mindfulness scale – revised (cams-r; feldman et al. 2007). good reliability for the scale was demonstrated in the current study α = .77. forgiveness forgiveness was measured using the 18-item heartland forgiveness scale (hfs; thompson et al. 2005) which had been validated for college students (α = .83) with good reliability demonstrated in the current study, α = .77. hope hope was measured with the hope scale (babyak et al. 1993), consisting of 12 items on an 8point likert scale. good reliability for the hope scale was demonstrated in the current study, α = .85. perspective-taking perspective taking was measured with the 7-item perspective-taking subscale of the interpersonal reactivity index (davis 1983). good reliability of the scale was demonstrated in the current study, α = .78 college self-efficacy the college self-efficacy inventory (solberg et al., 1993) was used to measure college selfefficacy. good reliability for the scale was demonstrated for the current study, α = .92. results and analysis descriptive statistics and correlation analyses a series of independent samples t-tests were conducted to assess differences in average scores on each of the independent, mediator, moderator, and dependent variables between the students enrolled at the public university and the students enrolled at the private university 4 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 according to levene’s test for homogeneity of variances, equal variance could not be assumed when comparing environmental support from spiritual models across institutions (f = 20.06, p < .001). an unequal variances t-test indicated significant difference existed in environmental support from spiritual models between the public university (m = 71, sd =14.65) and the private university (m = 74.85, sd = 8.87) groups, t(277.89) = -3.01, p = .003, with a small effect size (ds= .32; cohen, 1988). similarly, equal variances could not be assumed between the groups on spirituality (f = 12.25, p = .001). an unequal variances t-test indicated a significant difference in spirituality scores between the public university (m = 50.29, sd = 10.35) and the private university (m = 55.63, sd = 8.35) groups, t(333.22) = -5.48, p < .001 with a moderate effect size (ds= .57). thus, the sample from the private university reported significantly higher support from spiritual models and spirituality. equal variances were assumed between groups on mindfulness (f = 1.95, p = .16). a pooled t-test indicated no difference in the mindfulness scores between the public university (m = 31.22, sd = 5.99) and the private university (m = 31.28, sd = 5.40) groups t(378) = -.09, p = .93. equal variances were assumed between the groups on forgiveness (f = 2.71, p = .10). a pooled t-test showed no difference in the forgiveness scores between the public university (m = 85.31, sd = 15.97) and the private university (m = 83.50, sd = 8.09) groups, t(377) = 1.16, p = .25. equal variances were assumed for group comparisons for hope scores (f = .12, p = .73). the pooled t-test showed there was no difference in hope scores between the public university (m = 49.41, sd =8.14) and the private university (m = 48.01, sd = 8.09) groups, t(379) = 1.67, p =.10. equal variances were assumed for perspective-taking between the groups (f = 1.49, p = .22). a pooled t-test showed there was a significant difference in perspective-taking scores between the public university (m = 23.09, sd = 5.19) and the private university (m = 19.37, sd = 4.09) groups, t(377) = 7.17, p = .001 with a moderate effect size (ds=.74). participants from the public university reported significantly higher perspective-taking than participants from the private university. equal variances were assumed between the groups for college self-efficacy (f = 1, p = .32). a pooled t-test showed there was a significant difference in college self-efficacy scores between the public university (m = 133.06, sd = 32.24) and the private university (m = 142.93, sd = 30.38) groups, t(370) = -3.04, p = .003 with a small effect size (ds= .32). participants from the private university reported significantly higher college self-efficacy than participants from the public university. table 1 summarizes the descriptive statistics and correlations for each variable. in support of hypothesis one, spiritual modeling (m = 72.81, sd = 12.14) was significantly and positively associated with college self-efficacy (m = 138.47, sd = 31.41, r =.24, p <.01). 5 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 table 1. descriptives and correlations note: ** = p < .01. mediation analyses spirituality as a mediator the direct path from environmental support from spiritual models to college self-efficacy was significant (β = .08, p = .17) (see figure 1). the path from environmental support from spiritual models to spirituality was significant (β = .56, p < .001, r2 = .314, p < .001) and the path from spirituality to college self-efficacy was significant (β = .28, p < .001, r2 = .109, p = .001). see table 2 and figure 1. the model fit was just-identified, χ2 (0) = 0, p < 0.001; rmsea < .001, 90% ci [0.20–0.26]; cfi = 1.00; tli = 1.00. figure 1. mediation path: spirituality. note. *** = p ≤ .001 mindfulness as a mediator the direct path from environmental support from spiritual models to college self-efficacy was significant (β = .16, p = .001), and the bootstrap confidence intervals for the direct effect were significant (β = .16; cis [.05-.24], [.05-.24], [.06-.24], [.05-.24], and [.05-.24]). the indirect path variable m(s.d.) 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. spiritual modeling 2. spirituality 72.81(12.14) 53.17(9.65) .559* * 3. mindfulness 31.24(5.67) .168* * .21** 4. forgiveness 84.28(15.20) .167* * .22** .51** 5. hope 48.66(8.13) .240* * .341* * .516** .405** 6. college self-efficacy 138.47(31.41) .243* * .32** .524** .385** .598** 7. perspective-taking 21.05(5.33) .09** .021 .211** .308** .301** .182* * r2 = .31 environmental support from spiritual models spirituality college self-efficacy .56*** .28*** .08 r2 = .11 6 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 was also significant, with environmental support from spiritual models to mindfulness being significant (β = .16, p < .001, r2 = .026, p = .171). in turn, the path from mindfulness to college self-efficacy displayed significance (β = .50, p < .001, r2 = .299, p < .001). see table 2 and figure 2. the model fit was just-identified, χ2 (0) = 0, p = 1.00; rmsea < .001, 90% ci [0.23–0.29]; cfi = 1.00; tli = 1.00. figure 2. mediation path: mindfulness. note. ** = p ≤ .01, *** = p ≤ .001. forgiveness as a mediator the direct path from environmental support from spiritual models to college self-efficacy was significant (β = .18, p = .001), and the bootstrap confidence intervals for the direct effect were significant (β = .18; 95% cis [.07-.27], [.07-.27], [.07-.27], [.07-.27], and [.07-.27]). the indirect path from environmental support from spiritual models to college self-efficacy was also significant with the path from environmental support from spiritual models to forgiveness being significant (β = .16, p < .001, r2 = .097). in turn, the path from forgiveness to college self-efficacy displayed significance (β = .36, p < .001; r2 = .179, p < .001). see table 2 and figure 3. the model fit was just-identified, χ2 (0) = 0, p = 1.00; rmsea < .001, 90% ci [0.14–0.21]; cfi = 1.00; tli = 1.00. figure 3. mediation path: forgiveness. note. *** = p ≤ .001. r2 = .10 environmental support from spiritual models forgiveness college self-efficacy .16*** .36*** .18*** r2 = .18 environmental support from spiritual models mindfulness college self-efficacy .16*** .50*** .16*** r2 = .03 r2 = .30 7 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 hope as a mediator the direct path from environmental support from spiritual models to college self-efficacy was significant (β = .10, p < .03), and four out of five bootstrap confidence intervals for the direct effect (β = .10; 95% cis [.00-.18], [.00-.18], [.00-.18], [.00-.18], [-.004-.17]) were significant. the indirect path from environmental support from spiritual models to college self-efficacy through the mediator hope was significant, with environmental support from spiritual models to hope being significant (β = .24, p < .001, r2 = .055, p = .009). in turn, the path from hope to college self-efficacy displayed significance (β = .57, p = .001; r2 = .369, p < .001). see table 2 and figure 4. the model fit was just-identified, χ2 (0) = 0, p = 1.00; rmsea < .001, 90% ci [0.24–0.30]; cfi = 1.00; tli = 1.00. figure 4. mediation path: hope. note. * = p ≤ .05, *** = p ≤ .001 moderation analysis perspective-taking did not moderate the path from environmental support from spiritual models to any of the trait variables in the paths from environmental support from spiritual models to college self-efficacy. four separate moderated mediation paths were run, building on the mediation paths in the previous sections. the moderated mediation model with perspective-taking as the moderator and spirituality as the mediator had an inadequate model fit, χ2 (2) = 14.401, p < 0.001; rmsea = .130, 90% ci [0.07–0.20]; cfi = .933; tli = .764, possibly due to the non-significant relationship between perspective-taking and spirituality (β = .08, p = .83). the moderating effect of perspective-taking on the relationship between environmental support of a spiritual model and spirituality was non-significant (β = -.14, p = .75). the moderated mediation model with perspective-taking as the moderator and mindfulness as the mediator had an inadequate model fit χ2 (2) = 19.447, p < 0.001; rmsea = .123, 90% ci [0.07– 0.18]; cfi = .90; tli = .77, possibly due to the non-significant relationships between environmental support from a spiritual model on mindfulness (β = .06, p = .84) and perspectivetaking on mindfulness (β = .01, p = .99). the moderating effect of perspective-taking on the relationship between environmental support from a spiritual model and mindfulness was non environmental support from spiritual models hope college self-efficacy .24*** .57*** .10* r2 = .06 r2 = .37 table 2. direct, indirect and total effects for environmental support from spiritual models and mediators on college self-efficacy note: mi = multiple imputation. est.= effect estimate. se = effect standard error. 95% bci = for 95% bootstrapping confidence interval. * = p < .05, ** = p < .01, *** = p ≤ .001, for normal theory test for effect estimate. mi1 mi2 mi3 mi4 mi5 effect name est. se 95%bci est. se 95%bci est. se 95%bci est. se 95%bci est. se 95%bci spirituality total effect .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** 0.05 (.13, .33) direct effect .08 .06 (-.05, .19) .08 .06 (-.05, .19) .08 .06 (-.04, .19) .08 .06 (-.05, .19) .08 0.06 (-.05, .19) indirect effect .16*** .03 (.10, .22) .16*** .03 (.10, .23) .16*** .03 (.09, .22) .16*** .03 (.09, .22) .16*** 0.03 (.10, .22) mindfulness total effect .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13,.33) direct effect .16*** .05 (.05, .24) .16*** .05 (.05, .24) .16*** .05 (.06, .24) .16*** .05 (.05, .24) .16*** .05 (.05, .24) indirect effect .08** .03 (.02, .14) .08** .03 (.02, .14) .08** .03 (.02, .14) .08** .03 (.02, .14) .08** .03 (.02, .14) forgiveness total effect .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) direct effect .18*** .05 (.07, .27) .18*** .05 (.07, .27) .18*** .05 (.07, .27) .18*** .05 (.07, .27) .18*** .05 (.07, .27) indirect effect .06** .02 (.03, .10) .06** .02 (.03, .10) .06** .02 (.03, .10) .06** .02 (.02, .10) .06** .02 (.03, .10) hope total effect .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) .24*** .05 (.13, .33) direct effect indirect effect .10* .13*** .05 .03 (.00, .18) (.08, .19) .10* .14*** .05 .03 (.00, .18) (.08, .19) .10* .14*** .05 .03 (.00, .18) (.08, .19) .10* .14*** .05 .03 (.00, .18) (.08, .19) .10 .14*** .05 .03 (-.004, .17) (.08, .19) 9 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 significant (β = .24, p = .66). the moderated mediation model with perspective-taking as the moderator and forgiveness as the mediator had an adequate model fit χ2 (2) = 5.323, p = .07; rmsea = .067, 90% ci [0.00–0.14]; cfi = .97; tli = .90. the moderating effect of perspectivetaking on the relationship from environmental support from a spiritual model to forgiveness was non-significant (β = .56, p = .11). the moderated mediation model with perspective-taking as the moderator and hope as the mediator had an overfit model χ2 (2) = .49, p = .78; rmsea = .00, 90% ci [0.00–0.07]; cfi = 1.00; tli = 1.025, possibly due to the non-significant relationship of perspective-taking and hope (β = .62, p = .08). the moderating effect of perspective-taking on the relationship from environmental support from a spiritual model to hope was nonsignificant (β = -.42, p = .32). discussion participants from the southeastern christian university reported more support from spiritual models, higher spirituality, and higher college self-efficacy than participants from the southeastern public university. the group differences are understandable, considering the culture of the religiously affiliated university centers around spiritual practices, which can be learned through response facilitation (schunk 2020). additionally, students from the religious university may encounter more individuals who serve as spiritual models, such as faculty and staff, in addition to clergy. similarly, associations have been found between religious support and religiosity related to various types of self-efficacy, which provides support for the higher group average in college self-efficacy for the private religious university as opposed to the public university (abdel-khalek and lester 2017; duffy and lent 2008). in contrast, the current study showed that participants from the southeastern public university reported significantly higher levels of perspective-taking than participants from the private university. participants from the christian university may be constantly exposed to one type of ideology that is expected to be taken literally; whereas students in the public university are likely to encounter a vast array of spiritual beliefs and practices. experiencing diversity in the university setting may lend itself toward a more symbolic interpretation of spiritual contents rather than a literal one, which has been associated with higher perspective-taking (duriez 2004). according to the model of normative life satisfaction and supporting evidence by lent and colleagues (2007), having social support can result in positive outcomes. the current study sought to determine if maintaining environmental support from spiritual models is beneficial for college self-efficacy, a known contributor to success in college (brady-amoon and fuertes 2010; gore, leuwerke, and turley 2005; gore 2006; zajacova, lynch, and epsenshade 2005). the first contribution of the current study was the correlation found between environmental support from spiritual models and college self-efficacy. in the model by lent and colleagues (2007), positive affect and healthy traits mediated the relationship from social support to positive outcomes. this framework inspired the current study of the impact of environmental support from spiritual models to modifiable traits of spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and 10 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 hope. in the following sections, mediation paths were discussed separately to emphasize the impact of each variable and model impact on college self-efficacy. behavioral mediating trait the indirect path from environmental support from spiritual models to college self-efficacy through the mediator spirituality was supported. among the paths from environmental support from spiritual models to the mediators, environmental support from spiritual models accounted for the most variance in spirituality, at 31 percent of the variance in spirituality explained by environmental support from spiritual models (see figure 3). considering 90.1 percent of participants endorsed christianity as their religion, and some of the behaviors involved in christian spirituality can be learned by response facilitation (schunk 2020) such as attending services, reading sacred texts, and participating in scripture and prayer groups. such overt practices may be more easily demonstrated, learned, and remembered when reporting on a survey, which may also account for the moderate variance in spirituality explained by environmental support from spiritual models as opposed to the small percent variance in the cognitive mediators explained by environmental support form spiritual models. in turn, the path from spiritual modeling to college self-efficacy through spirituality was weak, with only ten percent of the variance in college self-efficacy explained by the path. perhaps the behavioral and transcendent aspects of spirituality have little to do with the mindset of a college student who is completing schoolwork and managing social situations. cognitive mediating traits the path from environmental support from spiritual models to the cognitive mediators, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, were each significant with small effect sizes, indicating that college students may not learn to be mindful, forgiving, and hopeful as readily as they learn the practices associated with spirituality. mindfulness has historical roots in buddhism, and spiritual models in other religions are skeptical of explicitly teaching the construct (symington and symington 2012). although previous findings indicate that college students can develop mindfulness through explicit instruction (shapiro et al. 2008), the current findings suggested that mindfulness may vary only slightly based on environmental support from a spiritual model. regarding forgiveness, the current study found that environmental support from spiritual models may only account for about ten percent of the variance in forgiveness (see figure 5) and six percent of the variance in hope. such small variance may be due to reluctance of spiritual models to self-disclose hurtful situations where forgiveness has been extended to or provided by another person. self-disclosure is important between models and learners, but disclosure may be rightly withheld if it would be harmful to another person within the community (palmberg and scandrette 1977). learners may also limit disclosure of perceived offenses or collegiate challenges to a spiritual model, limiting the model’s awareness that forgiveness and hope need to be taught and modeled to the learner. the extent to which models support mindful, forgiving, and hopeful thinking may depend on how much interaction the college 11 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 student has with the community spiritual model and how much of the challenges of college life are disclosed to the model. within the path, mindfulness accounted for 30 percent of the variance in college selfefficacy, forgiveness accounted for 18 percent of the variance in college self-efficacy, and hope accounted for 36 percent of the variance in college self-efficacy. previous associations between mindfulness and academic self-efficacy in the face of failure support the directionality of mindfulness to academic self-efficacy (hanley et al. 2015; keye and pidgeon 2013), but college students who can view situations non-judgmentally, be present with their thoughts and feelings, and act with awareness may perceive themselves as more socially competent. the current findings indicated that although the effect size is small, forgiveness was associated with total college self-efficacy, perhaps because forgiveness of oneself and situations is helpful for decreasing the impact of prior academic failures, while forgiveness of others may mitigate conflict in the social and roommate aspects of college self-efficacy. the path from hope to college self-efficacy reflected the relationship and directionality established in previous research (feldman, davidson, and margalit 2015; feldman and kubota 2015; feldman et al. 2016; macaskill and denovan 2013). individuals who are high in hope are able to consider alternative paths to reaching goals and may be less likely to have future plans or successes derailed by stress over academic failures. perspective-taking as a moderator in this study, perspective-taking was correlated with small to medium effect sizes for mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, but not with spirituality. spirituality is partially behavioral and partially a subjective view of transcendent reality, neither of which require perspectivetaking to develop. however, mindfulness involves non-judgment, non-reactivity, and acting with awareness, and the perspectives of others may be one important factor for gaining awareness and offering intentional responses in social situations. the current study was the first study known to associate perspective-taking with mindfulness. forgiveness involves cultivating an empathic stance toward an offender and perspective-taking is the cognitive aspect of empathy, making the positive correlation understandable. similarly, hope is developed in relationships with others, who initially share their views of children’s abilities and paths to solving problems. as children grow and encounter new challenges, returning to the perspectives of supportive caregivers can stimulate agency and pathways thinking, supporting a positive correlation between perspective-taking and hope. however, perspective-taking was not found to moderate the paths between environmental support from spiritual models and any of the mediators. moderators are variables that are intended to increase the impact of the explanatory variable on the response variable, or in this case, the mediators. mediation analyses revealed that environmental support from spiritual models only slightly accounted for the variance in mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, perhaps due to the lack of self-disclosure by the model or the learner. if the model isn’t 12 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 sharing personal stories with the college student, the student may not have cause to inquire about the cognitive states of the model, and the student may not have cause to take the model’s perspectives. if college students believe they can learn everything they need to gain from a spiritual model by imitating the model’s behaviors, they may not expend the time and energy needed to disclose and seriously consider the sentiments behind the model’s actions and reported experiences. alternatively, college students may believe they are taking away accurate representations of what spiritual models intend for them to learn, but what is gleaned from the spiritual model might not be interpreted correctly without proper perspective-taking. in these cases, college students may miss opportunities to cultivate mindful living, forgiveness, and hopeful thinking that could increase college self-efficacy. conclusions environmental support from spiritual models may be more readily available at southeastern christian universities. such support plays a role in development of partially behavioral traits such as the aspect of spirituality that involves practice than spiritual support plays in mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope maintenance during college. in turn, models with primarily cognitive mediators of mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope accounted for more of the variance in college self-efficacy than the model with spirituality as a mediator. finally, perspective-taking was not a moderator of any of the models, indicating that if spiritual models are not looked to for developing cognitive traits of mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope, considering models’ perspectives was also not important to the learner. regarding spirituality, important behavioral components can be acquired from spiritual models through response facilitation rather than by taking the perspective of the model, and spirituality is less important for college self-efficacy. overall, the study provides support for part of lent’s et al. (2007) model of normative life satisfaction by supporting the path from social support, in this case spiritual, to positive outcomes, in this case college self-efficacy through healthy trait mediators. implications implications of the study are two-fold. first, identifying traits that lead to college self-efficacy can help university staff, at christian and public universities, promote practices that will lead to achievement and persistence. previous studies indicate that spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope are malleable traits that can be developed through social interactions (davidson, feldman, and margalit 2012; kiken, et al. 2015; luskin, ginzburg, and thoresen 2005; oman et al. 2007), and the current study provided evidence that learning spirituality, mindfulness, forgiveness, and hope from a spiritual model did account for variance in college self-efficacy. next, the current study holds implications regarding spiritual changes that take place in emerging adulthood (arnett 2000). it is known that college students report decreases in religious practices such as attending services, but emerging adults also report increases in religious beliefs and religious importance (lefkowitz 2005). encountering different spiritual 13 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 1-17 worldviews in college, paired with the individualistic, self-focused quality of emerging adulthood, may result in a more personal and diverse set of values and spiritual beliefs (arnett 2000; gutierrez and park 2015; lefkowitz 2005). however, previous research suggests welladjusted college students engage in religious practices or have spiritual beliefs in a transcendent reality that are associated with more positive views of the self than groups of students characterized predominantly by externalized, risky behaviors or internalized, emotional distress (nelson and padilla-walker 2013). additionally, oman and thoresen (2003) contend that spiritual beliefs will be considered valuable if they transfer into success in the secular world. the current findings that traits learned from a spiritual model were beneficial in a collegiate outcome may discourage students from abandoning faith, and encourage an evolving, eclectic, and useful spiritual worldview that contributes to positive development (arnett 2000). students in southeastern public universities report greater perspective-taking, which christian universities can use to guide efforts toward developing perspective-taking among students although it did not influence the path. limitations and future directions convenience sampling was used to gain participants in psychology and educational psychology courses. also, most participants endorsed christianity as their religion. the high percentage of christians at the public university was unexpected, considering that diversity and inclusion is part of the culture of the public university and spiritual diversity was part of the rationale for the large sample from two universities. future 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(2023). relationally enhancing teacher education in early childhood learning environments towards sustainability. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 56-68. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.18 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract teacher education in early childhood learning environments (ecle) is a generally neglected space in teaching and learning, more so when the focus is on relationality and sustainability. ecle refers to the care and education of children between 2-4 years of age. the focus of this paper is on ecle from a post-humanist perspective, which goes in tandem with unesco’s 17 sustainable development goals. emphasis is on inclusive economic development through environmentally sustainable social inclusion for all. relationality has been chosen because of its power to advance the deconstruction of the hitherto taken for granted canons of humanism and enlightenment that promote hierarchies in knowledge and its production. these hierarchies disregard the voices of the vulnerable and the excluded, in terms of social class and other markers like age, but most importantly their erroneously assumed lack of knowledge. to date, the voices of the aspirant teachers in ecle, as well as those of the children and parents, are non-existent when teacher education programmes are designed and implemented. this paper reveals that including the voices of these beneficiary communities enhances the quality of the discourse, theorisation and praxis in the provision of ecle, as well as in the crafting of relevant teacher education programmes. thus, the design and delivery of a programme is better based on the relationalities among humans, animals and plants; and between them and inanimate entities like infrastructure and resources. the relationality among all of these in the crafting of the beyond human is enhanced using advanced digital technologies. a relational approach recognises our entanglement with our entire universe in a manner that does not centre on identity. quality therefore is about the ever-increasing complexity of diffractions of multi-layered and multi-perspective engagements across borders. keywords relationality; post-humanism; early child education care and education; sustainable learning environments; diffraction 10.46303/jcsr.2023.18 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.18 57 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 introduction and background this paper uses the post-humanist notion of relationality to demonstrate how teacher education in early childhood care and education (ecce) can be strengthened towards greater sustainability. the long shadows of apartheid’s banusic education still refuse to recede into the background, even after 28 years of a democratic dispensation in south africa (resane, 2022). ecce, and the entire education of generations of african and black people, bear testimony to the roots of neglect and disregard for the education of people within ecce. this has led to so many deleterious effects that the country and the nation are not able to extricate themselves from the effects of the neglect (harrison, 2020). for example, the now cliché of the huge gap that exists between the poor and the rich is nowhere greater in the world than in south africa (sarkodie & adams, 2020). high rates of poverty and unemployment are recorded among the african and black people in south africa, ranging between 30% to 64% in some localities (knutsson, 2020). inequality in the levels of education, wealth and status is vividly marked between those who got a deliberate push and an early start in life through an effective ecce, versus those who relied solely on fate to get ahead in life. this has been confirmed in various research findings across the globe (moses, 2021). self-respecting nations are engaged in focused efforts to secure the best ecce experiences for their young, ensuring their future with an educated and contributing citizenry (spiteri, 2021). research has also warned that this engagement is the second chance in life for the oppressed people in countries like south africa. such countries missed the boat of ecce the first time around (shaik, 2022). the sorry state of ecce in sa implies that young children between 0 and 4/5 years old have no qualified or trained learning mediators in their lives (buckley et al., 2020). they wander in the wilderness without a guiding compass; with many of them falling by the wayside even before they reach any level of bloom (hussain, 2019). they are lost to their generation, and the entire nation, because they are confronted with huge challenges in life without anybody to interpret and design their learning programmes. indeed, they have no materials to suit their learning styles, or their orientation towards knowledge and its acquisition (shaik, 2022). they are on their own, without leaders and administrators to structure their learning opportunities. almost everything they learn is by chance, rarely deliberate. the role models who they pick up are random persons who themselves are not guided by any moral considerations or any principles of justness and uprightness (hussain, 2019). they have no teachers who are scholars and researchers – persons who would lead them from the front on the complex journey of just being. they are forced to become lifelong ‘by chance’ learners. the probability of them making the same mistakes repeatedly is increased exponentially. everything they learn is by trial and error (diale & sewagegn, 2021). there is nobody who has gone through the journey before them to warn, guide and advise them. they consistently reinvent the wheel, yet they are expected to compete with everybody else for limited opportunities within a short space of time. there is literally nobody to provide them with community, citizenship, and pastoral role modelling in a deliberate and planned manner (tefera, 2018). they are pushed from one pillar to the next by 58 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 their own uninformed choices and preferences, resulting in bad decisions and keeping the wrong company. given all of the above, they do not get constructive feedback on anything that they say and do. they have to rely on their gut feeling, as there is no deliberate and informed feedback (buckley et al., 2020). their learning is not guided, hence the possibilities of being misguided are real. there are no learning areas that are properly designed for them to learn and acquire skill, competence, knowledge, and attitude. everything is just fluid (tefera, 2018). given the advanced requirements of the 21st century and the fourth industrial revolution, among other demands, these children remain without a rudder, without focus – merely wandering in the wilderness of life! the need for collaboration, communication, compassion, critical think and creative living do not touch them. they may know all about these concepts, but their knowledge is not enriched enough to consider what the 21st century demands from us all. it is therefore considered that a trained teacher seems to hold the key to unlock what most of these children tacitly have hence this study (diale & sewagegn, 2021). ecce in south africa is currently not healthy at all. valiant concerted efforts are now being made by the unesco chair at unisa, the etdp seta through comber at the north-west university and the collective efforts of many ngos and cbos across the country to give it another lease of life, but it remains in a state of paralysis (bipath et al., 2021). there is now a growing concern that if ecce does not receive the same attention as higher education, or formal schooling, the future of millions of children remains bleak. the solution to reverse this sorry situation seems to be teacher education, which holds a lot of promise for this sector and for the country (diale & sewagegn, 2021). statistics show that many of the teachers within ecce do not have any requisite teaching qualification (harrison, 2020). in many instances, they are just some conscientious mothers in the community, who out of their own volition feel that they cannot neglect these children. current nomenclature does not recognise such careers as real teachers, instead they are referred to as practitioners (shaik, 2022). their role is not seen as that of providing education or pedagogy per se, but that of providing care and safety to these 0to 5year-old children while the parents are away at work (moses, 2021). they are basically nannies, or just, baby-sitters. the lack of pedagogy, or teaching and learning at ecce centres, is exacerbated by the fact that ecce has been under the control of the department of social development (dsd) which did not emphasise its critical role in society (aina & bipath, 2022). it is only now in 2022 that efforts are being made to emphasise teaching and learning at the ecces starting with their migration to the department of basic education, where they rightfully belong (aina & bipath, 2022). the dbe now provides control, a tailored curriculum, teaching and learning infrastructure, educational resources, and adequate training of practitioners/teachers. the presence of a properly qualified teaching corps is a conditio sine qua non (an indispensable condition) for young children to learn properly at this stage because so much can go wrong if proper nurturing is not provided (ulferts, wolf, & anders, 2019). children at the ecce can find themselves on the wrong side of the law if proper support and care are not 59 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 provided at this very impressionable age. many of the ills in society, especially violent crime, and gender-based violence, can be traced to the deficit in terms of proper ecce provision. for a start dooyeweerd, in his seminal work in the 1980 as inspired by van den bergh’s metabletics, formulated a theory which is still useful today. he saw a human as one being constituted by at least 15 modalities (keene, 2016). according to van den bergh and dooyeweerd, a mode or modality refers to a way of being or of existing in the world. to elaborate this theory, he pointed out that to be is to have a body, a corporeal, physical being that occupies space and has a presence, one that has mass (mahlomaholo & netshandama, 2012). it is that body that has the means for growth and development, known as the biotic and physiological modalities. inherent within them, these modalities have the kinematic mode that enables one to move, over and above growing physiologically (keene, 2016). the next important mode of being is the psychological, which enables one to feel and have emotions based on one’s experience of being in the world. the next level of operation is referred to as the socio-cultural, where one is now able to use language; to have ethics; to appreciate the aesthetics; to know the social; to be able to have capacity for what is right and wrong; to have faith and to have connection with a higher being (chaplin, 2016). the young child goes through all these modes of being. at every turn, the mediation of the able other (the knowledgeable parent; the teacher) is crucial in crafting a mature, moral, and productive citizen of a democracy (ulferts et al., 2019). the point being made is that young children, just like adults, are complex beings. the modalities of the physical and corporeality referred to above connect us to the objects, and the inanimate (delafield-butt et al., 2021). in fact, every object that occupies space and is bound by the temporality of time evinces the same characteristics as our beings. the modalities also connect us to the animate beings, over and above the inanimate ones. the modalities also assign to us our humanity at the physiological, biotic, and kinematic levels. to illustrate, humans share the same aspect of being, with plants (chaplin, 2016). our being as humans is also connected to them as we, just like them, must also eat to stay alive; to grow and to satisfy our physiological needs (kim et al., 2022). just like animals, we also have emotions like happiness, anger, and motivation. even though we operate at the emotional and socio-cultural levels as human beings, we cannot discount animals and other beings operating at this level as well. other cultures, beyond those influenced by rené descartes’s division between the mind and the soul, affirm that as human beings we are not and cannot claim to be the centre of the universe (hatfield, 2017). our inflated egos make us appropriate certain characteristics, like the socio-cultural, exclusively to ourselves. this is misplaced. we are but a cog in the huge machine of being. we experience impact in similar ways as inanimate objects; the animate plants and animals; the non-human beings; the more-than-human and the-beyond-human beings on the planet which we are so fortunate to collectively inhabit (birhane, 2021). just because we cannot understand the language(s) of the animals and of the stars, among others, it does not mean that they are incapable of communication, sociality, aesthetics, ethics, or pistic experience that we enjoy. ignorance and inability to access all forms of knowledge cannot assign to us the 60 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 ‘sacred space’ of the anthropocentric (kim, russell & sharp, 2022). in short, young children that inhabit the ecce centres are connected to the universe just through their being and working with them requires heightened levels of sophistication and complexity (hatfield, 2017). adults have approached infants from a deficit perspective, just because we did not realise and recognise that they are as equally human as we are, and that they too are part of the universe that required multi-layered, multi-pronged, and multi-perspectival approaches. it is clear then that teachers who work with young children must be sufficiently grounded so that they can deliver as expected. this paper attempts to contribute to this discussion by delving into concepts of relationality that seem to be most relevant in this context (birhane, 2021). literature review and theoretical framing western thought on raising children has created doubts about the necessity of having able others to guide the growing child. some theories argue that there were those children with innate and inherited abilities that required very little direction from able others because, as humans, we were born with some of these propensities (armstrong, 2019). there are also debates that language is inherent with being human and that it is not a social construction because the theorists believe that the capacity to know language is a typical human phenomenon (brosch, 2019). a monkey may have a tongue and lips but will not know how to use them to produce a language because this trait is in-born among humans only. notwithstanding this, it was noted that the view of the inherent and inherited abilities was getting more traction in the work of the psychologists of the 20th century starting with pavlov, through to skinner and watson. then it was piaget who emphasised that, as humans, we were growing through some defined and irrefutable stages that were consistent across all the human species at a given age and period. this enabled us to all have particular orientation, cognitively and otherwise (griffin, 2011). concepts like stage theory, age specific classrooms and school readiness became familiar. policies to regulate these became common place, as opposed to the idea of an isolated genius who was growing naturally without much influence from the environment or others became popular (saracho, 2021). however, concepts like accommodation and assimilation made piaget and many of his followers aware that the environment was as equally important as genetic inheritance because it was from the latter that ideas such as cognition came forth. piaget became aware that we are dependent on what we assimilate into our self-system, and that it influences us in particular ways. this shows that there were contradictions even in piaget’s genetic epistemology, where concepts like assimilation and accommodation brought some doubt regarding the isolated genius interpretation (stewart, 2021). vygotsky’s socio-historicism and bronfenbrenner’s eco-systemic theories added further analysis (navarro & tudge, 2022; vassallo, 2015). these theories deepened the rift further and won the debate in favour of determining our identities and our performances based on that which was social and environmental. it was argued that nurture supported what we inherit from nature. 61 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 the current view of one’s identity and performance has been influenced by other cultures, including the african. jean paul sartre’s dictum: i think therefore, i am, was challenged. it was now exposed that there were other more powerful ways of thinking about our identities and ourselves that we are who we are because of the presence and being of others (di-capua, 2018). this is a recognition that even ecce learners expose – that the role of other people is very important in helping us to craft our own mature identities. post-humanist thinking thus comes into the discussion to remind researchers that, in crafting identity and performance, it is not about other humans only, but about everything else (murphy, 2021). the latter includes other human beings, inanimate objects, animate animals, and plants, and more-than-humans. post-humanism comes with its anti-humanist baggage to help especially the marginalised learners to become aware of the humanists and their theory of enlightenment. these theories have been responsible for the misery of hierarchies, marginalization and discrimination among people and other beings (kruger, 2021). research shows that enlightenment and humanism believed in, and strongly advocated for, the idea that white males were paragons of perfection. them as a category represented what everybody else had to aspire to (haraway, 2013). they were closest to the gods in terms of their reasoning abilities, their creativeness, etc. second to them were white females, and at the very bottom of the rank were black females, who were regarded as lazy, savage and lovers of dirt and sloth. post-humanism was deeply concerned with this hierarchy which resulted in the discrimination of a large section of the population (carrington, 2020). in the name of equity, social justice and transformation, post-humanism advocated for the deconstruction of these hierarchies and the recognition that all are equal. all should thus be placed on an equal footing (haraway, 2013). post-humanism recognized that in learning to become any identity, all participants played a significant and equal role in equal measure be they animals, the inanimate and beyond (carrington, 2020). the extended resources that should be readily available to an ecce practitioner and learner will define him or her as an effective teacher or learner. they will also enable him/her to do many activities which would not have been possible if they were not there. for example, animals milling around and sometimes keeping company are important for him/her to reconnect with him/herself and sometimes to heal and recuperate from emotional experiences where necessary (murphy, 2021). the still waters of the nearby meandering river or pool also bring hope to the forlorn they are therapeutic, and their roles cannot be underestimated because they truly heal and change one’s perspective about life and how one faces it (sturm, 2020). post-humanism does not reject the human – it instead deepens that which is human and enriches it further with the respect it brings to other factors that equally construct the human, namely the non-human and the beyond human. this view extends and reconnects with what unesco’s 17 sustainable development goals preach about ensuring the economic development of all in an environmentally sustainable manner – moving thus towards the social inclusion of all (perry, 2021). if ecce is conducted in line with post-humanism, it would ensure that learners respect others and the environment sustainably. this would be recognition that 62 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 all, irrespective of our station in life, are entangled integrated and inter-connected with one another. our needs are the same as everybody else’s and we must protect everybody else for us to grow in freedom and truly become ourselves (blenkinsop, 2020). for example, young children that learn not to litter and not to pollute the environment already contribute towards the sustainability of the planet. they do this not as a favour to the planet, but because they have been made aware that the destiny of the human species is inextricably linked to that of the planet. they do not harm the planet, because they are aware that they would be harming themselves at the same time. their action is an act of self-preservation and self-protection, more than that of altruism (perry, 2021). the above view of post-humanism brings the idea of relationality sharply into focus: i am because we are. the ‘we’ includes not only other human beings, but the entire universe with its inanimate, animate, non-human, more-than-human and beyond-human others. it is an affirmation that we are constructed in relational spaces between and among all these factors. as individual entities, we do not matter as much as the relationalities that create us (nordström, 2022). methodology and design to formalise the above discussion, data gained from empirical work in selected ecce centres is presented. the researchers focused on three ecce centres, where collectively they are trying to give the 2 to 5 years old learners an edge in as far as accounting is concerned. they are doing this by providing support to practitioners/teachers in the best ways of teaching mathematics as the critical element of accounting as a subject and learning area. they used the principles of participatory action research (par) to bring the practitioners, learners, and their parents together. this is what relationality dictates: that all stakeholders who can make a difference need to be included in research that aims to make a difference (doucet et al, 2022). permission was sought from the three governing boards that manage the centres, as well as from the supervisors that lead them on a day-to-day basis, to conduct an interventionist par at one of the three centres. ethical clearance was applied for after the purpose and intention of the study was clarified with all participants namely, to enhance the learners and practitioners’ understanding of mathematics as a basis for learning accounting. all signed the consent forms. the parents of the children also signed the assent forms. all participants were clear about the whole project. parents have proved very supportive. the local education department is providing an oversight role, participating by way of giving their support to the new way of learning where all who participate take full responsibility of what is being learned. the research project has a team of 55 people working on it. there are 10 practitioners/teachers; 35 learners; 5 parents and 5 university academics. all meet quarterly and per annum to receive and interrogate the reports from the people responsible for the actual implementation of the project. through video and audio tape, every activity is recorded. the project has two sections to it, as clarified further. 63 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 the par section focused on every participating person taking ownership of the project. even the children/ learners participate; they play and take full advantage of the project to learn. they were encouraged to share with the practitioners what they had learnt. together, the team worked on an action plan which prioritised the following 5 points: • training practitioners in new methodologies of teaching the four critical concepts of mathematics, namely addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. • training practitioners on the use of manipulatives, as well as the use of examples from an accounting context so that they can interest their learners in new ways of learning from the concrete to the abstract and from the simple to the complex. • including the voice of the learners. there is a lot of repetition from the learners, but they are fully in charge as they also have the responsibility to review each other’s work. • encouraging the learners to sing and play around the numbers and figures used in the calculations. it was hard to introduce very simple accounting concepts at the beginning, but with time this became easier to assimilate into the teaching and learning activities. • encouraging the use of colouring to represent the concepts of subtraction and addition in calculations. generating data formal lessons were prepared and presented by university researchers to the practitioners. for example, one went like this: university teacher ramokgwase (pseudonym for ethical reasons): good morning leaners, i am told that today’s temperature is far lower that the temperature of the whole last week. who can tell me what is the reason for such? (teacher ramokgwase is saying all these with her body firmly located on the floor so that he is the same height as his learners. there is no space between him and the class by way of showing how committed he is to the learners.) learner ramokgopa: the temperature today has come down to 18 degrees celsius learner dinono: my phone shows it as 24 degrees learner dihlabi: okay we can accept it as24 degrees celsius because at least two of our phones agree ramokgwase: don’t think that the two phone agree because the two learners came from the same neighbourhoods, and they had not acclimatized to the current temperature ramokgopa: okay we may differ, but you have managed to count that we come from three different neighbourhoods and also show how the values of the temperature at the school. fluctuates. through a short a short exercise the university teacher was able to help the class to know what the difference between three and one was and how to calculate it. they were also saw how the different climatic conditions differed in terms of temperature 64 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 dipolelo: do i understand properly that during summer the temperature goes up and during winder they go down sir? so if that is the case, why do we consistently experience low temperatures even during summer? there other day, out of nowhere we saw the cloud billowing a giving us one of the coldest cloudburst teachers, what was that? zingithwa: can you not remember that mrs radibapi explained that we were living during the era of the anthropocene, where there were very erratic climatic changes as a result of extreme weather due to pollution. ramokgwase: yes, for every loose paper and pollution you cause to the river and the environment you are likely to get an equally fierce climatic response. nature is like any being. nature is capable of anger and revenge. that is why when we count the cost in accounting, we also include the cost to the environment that might be cause inadvertently. findings the workshop section focused on providing support to the practitioners/ teachers. five workshops were conducted. each teacher was given an opportunity to talk about their own best practices in teaching the four operations mentioned. each teacher was assisted in preparing and presenting ideas on the infusion of accounting specific calculations in the teaching of mathematics to peers and leamers. their practices were benchmarked against best approaches to teaching and learning internationally, specifically from sweden and kenya. teachers learned much from videos of children playing in a structured environment – one where the concepts of sustainability were integrated. they were exposed to how talking about the concepts of subtraction and addition could be done in relation to environmental sustainability. each teacher had to prepare a report analysing the discussions that ensued after every presentation. their reports focused on how to use multiple methods to reach learners between 2-5 years from as many angles as possible. the example above showed the use of discussion method but two other lessons demonstrated teachers using the laboratory to teach conservation and zero pollution. the lessons video-taped herein focused on the accounting calculation of cost. they however did not go in to detail as the learners were still knew to the subject content. the lessons referred to above, exemplified in the one captured herein, showed how cell phones and watches won by teachers and learners in the classroom could be used as manipulatives in order to count. while the workshops focused on the teachers, the parents and other stakeholders were allowed to participate and share their views on what would constitute best practice to enhance the learners’ understanding and comprehension. many wonderful ideas were shared on how to practically involve the learners in the actual show and tell activities. this enabled learners to demonstrate their understanding and gain the support of peers as they took control of their own learning. the learners, under the captaincy of their respective teachers, were divided into teams that competed on getting the correct answers to a set of questions posed to the entire 65 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 team. the learners were allowed to consult with whoever was present to discover the answers themselves. towards the end of the workshop, teachers were addressed by university academics on what the anthropocene was all about, and how the teaching of mathematics could also be used to teach concepts of sustainability in a direct and focused manner. conclusi̇on the research project is still in progress. at this stage, it can be reported that the level of activity has increased considerably at the centre. teaching and learning are more animated because the teachers have gained new knowledge and strategies to enhance their interaction with the learners. most of the teachers have a grade 12/matric certificate, and they are now planning on improving their teaching qualifications because of the excitement that the project has inspired in them. some of the positive outcomes noted is that teachers now plan and research for their teaching. as they do so, they work with their peers and able others from among the stakeholders at the centre. the centre is in the process of formulating a new strategic plan that will guide teaching and learning. this plan promises to institutionalise the notion of sustainability as conceptualised in unesco’s 17 sustainable development goals, with a clear focus on environmental sustainability. it will include the concept of children having to promote actions that prevent pollution of everything within the environment – including rivers, the oceans, the ozone layer, etc. children will be constantly sensitised to what pollution would cost society; the earth; and its impact on economic development and sustainability. teachers have taken the lead in creating projects in mathematics where learners are taught to calculate the costs of pollution. this is not at a sophisticated green accounting level, but learners do the four operations of costs sometimes in monetary terms. at other times, they do them as mere mathematical abstractions. the teachers reinforce these concepts with very interesting activities. for example, children are encouraged to bring photos to class about instances of environmental or any form of pollution that they come across. discussions then ensue on how to calculate the cost of pollution to life and to the environment. teachers have designed new content, and are experimenting with a variety of strategies on how to teach the four operations while concurrently infusing issues of sustainability in accounting as a subject and learning area. weekly meetings have now been established with some local business people who support the centre. these sponsors have been invited to host individual competitions where learners have to compete on calculations based on issues of sustainability. detailed preparations for the competitions take place during the week, with friday lunch time being when the events are held. the centre has clearly become a hive of learning activity. every parent with a child at the centre has taken a keen interest in the competition concept, which has inadvertently pulled all the par stakeholders together. the business community contributes as best as they can with incentives and education media resources specifically for mathematics learning. there are plans by the members of the 66 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 56-68 university research team to secure wifi connectivity for the centre, as well as the provision of electronic items that will enable teachers and learners to collaborate more. all involved in the teaching and learning activities are visibly expanding their compassion and communication skills, as well as enhancing their creativity and critical thinking skills. children, as the learners at the centre, are respected for who they are. 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(2015). using self-regulated learning to reflect on the critical commitments in educational psychology. knowledge cultures, 3(2). journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 13-33 student teachers’ experiences of open distance e-learning support in a posthuman era: a learner engagement perspective siyabonga alfa zwane*a & patience kelebogile mudaua * corresponding author email: alphacya8@gmail.com a. college of education, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa article info received: july 31, 2022 accepted: november 7, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite zwane, s. a., & mudau, p.k (2023). student teachers’ experiences of open distance e-learning support in a posthuman era: a learner engagement perspective. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 13-33. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.3 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract online learning uses information and communication technologies which rely on reliable connectivity. while this is a giant step to widen access in south african education as shown by a number of studies conducted already regarding online learning, less focus has been paid on rural students which are under-resourced. they are presumed to have access and support to online learning and assistive icts that make online learning possible. therefore, the focus for this study was on kwazulu-natal rural student teachers’ experiences of open distance e-learning in a posthuman era. the study focused on students’ experiences regarding online support tools like discussion forum and others as tools for student engagement and support on learning management system platform. the problem was investigated using a descriptive qualitative case study, which used individual interviews. the study involved fifteen a south african open distance learning (odl) student teachers from kzn and the findings revealed that, notwithstanding the countless challenges, students were very passionate about the use of online learning in open distance elearning and they showed a desire to engage more using different types of devices and platforms as they learn through social media and also showed that learning resides in technological appliances they use(posthumanism), hence the study’s conclusion and implications stress that the distance between the student and the institution, student and lecturer and student and other students can be mediated and reduced through proper student support services such as provision of gadgets for internet connection, proper telecommunications infrastructure, ict workshops and training for all students and in posthumanism terms, formal integration of social networks in learning in light of the finding that learning is non-linear and resides in technological devices used to connect students. keywords rural students, information and communication technologies, open distance e-learning, learning management systems, cooperative learning, posthuman era. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.3 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.3 14 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 introduction and background open distance learning (odl) serves to extend access to those who don’t have access to mainstream, tradition campus-based education, such as the poor, the illiterate, women and those living in remote/rural areas (olubor and ogonor, 2008). dube (2020) defines rural areas as isolated places found in the countryside, in mountains and forests. according to dube (2020) rural people lack access to socio-economic conveniences, such as quality education, transport, decent health services, libraries, internet cafes and even electricity. dhanarajan (2001) postulates that odl is the vehicle that transport the lecturer to the student. the author further states that it is characterised by spatial separation between lecturers and students which is mediated by information communication technologies (online learning). nipper (1989) relates to distance learning as it was evolving to “third generation” and further referred to correspondence education as the “second generation” model. in his reference, in these models there is minimal to no student-student and student-lecturer interaction. pelton (1991) postulates that the third generation involves the use of interactive media/technologies (social process) such as computer mediated communication, video conferencing or audio graphics. taylor (1992) further advanced nipper’s ideas with the blend of interactive multimedia (imm) access to world wide web resources, asynchronous and computer conferencing being labelled as “fourth generation” or “online learning”. fast-forward to recent times, kupe (2019) posits that universities in south africa should re-align themselves to the advent of the fourth industrial revolution (4ir) which has ushered in the posthuman era in order to keep up with global trends (lubinga et al., 2023). however, sub-saharan africa has so many challenges and inequalities in education due to the past political injustices it suffered (dube et al. 2022). nyerere (2016) states that despite sub-saharan africa (ssa)’s efforts to embrace odl, it still trails the other countries in completely embracing odl. for instance, prior to the arrival of odl in africa, europe and north america gave access to african students through open distance learning (odl), and in 1946 the odl institution in south africa pioneered correspondence programmes in africa (nyerere, 2012). the institution’s prosperity paved way for other universities in other african countries to adopt odl in their educational programmes (juma, 2003). ngubane-mokiwa (2017) states that south africa is one of those african countries that suffered greatly during the apartheid era. “access” to education was only limited to the elite few while most of black south africans were marginalised. the odl university under study is the largest odl provider on the african continent and one of the largest odl providers in the world and provides access to scores of students on the african continent. nyerere (2016) states that in south africa access and success have been widened through this odl institution by offering an alternative mode of access and success in higher education. this means that through the use online teaching in odl, universities are able to help redress the past imbalances which have entrenched inequalities in our societies where the price of higher education in traditional faceto-face universities, coupled with the strict points-based admission by most tertiary institutions, 15 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 has seen most students left out of the system. dzansi and amedzo (2014), nyerere (2016), ngubane-mokiwa (2017), rakoma (2018), and recently, dube (2020) all postulate that the past political injustices in south africa have entrenched inequalities especially in rural areas where lack of infrastructure has caused digital divide and dearth of basic skills in education that prevent rural students from fully benefiting in odl programmes and online learning. this has further been exacerbated by the advent of corona virus pandemic. even for odl institution as an open distance learning institution, covid-19 has also forced it to conduct online exams across the board, which was not the case before the pandemic. this study focused on the effectiveness of student support through student engagement with their lecturers (lecturer-student) and peers (student-student), and students with the machines like computers, cellphones, ipads, etc., particularly a case study of kwazulu-natal rural students at the odl university under study. the study concentrated specifically on student teacher support in relation to student-lecturer engagement and student-student engagement (co-operative learning) in a posthuman era where engagement is extended to include interactions with machines like computers, cellphones. davidson (1990) defines cooperative learning as a technique that allows students to learn from each other and gain interpersonal skills. the study will explore the experiences of student teachers regarding student-lecturer engagement, student-student engagement on learning management systems platform. kaufman, felder and fuller (1999) argue that in this (cl) teaching technique there could be hitchhikers (student who don’t participate in the group assigned tasks) which may be a problem caused by lack of motivation or a case of a student who is too shy or passive to get involved with the group. in contrast to kaufman et al.’s (1999) observation, ascough (2003) and delmater (2004) hold a different view with regards to cooperative learning online. ascough (2003) and delmater (2004) hold the view that online education fosters and nurtures a space where all often-sidelined individuals could be prioritised, leading to heightened participation of students as well as cooperative learning (cl). the technological advances ushering in the fourth industrial revolution have not come without challenges for marginalized and previously disenfranchised communities like rural areas, hence the study set out to explore rural kwazulu-natal student teachers’ experiences regarding student support in open distance online learning. research question what are the student teachers’ experiences of open distance e-learning support in a posthuman era. research objective the purpose of this study was to explore the student teachers’ experiences of open distance elearning support in a posthuman era. literature review internationally, europe is the pioneer of odl and is leading the other countries in the developments of odl (unesco, 2014). countries like south africa and other african countries 16 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 benchmark themselves against europe. european countries synergise their efforts in the propagation and development of odl. the european association of distance teaching (eaudtu) launched a project called empower in 2015.this project’s aim is to strategise around student support in the odl. europe has its share of challenges regarding odl, they have higher drop-out rate than that of traditional universities. however, unlike african countries, europe’s challenges are not dominated by lack of funding. asia’s economy has different characteristics, it has developed countries like china and pakistan. asia has worked tirelessly to accommodate more students for undergraduate and post-graduate studies through the expansion of tertiary education systems like icts and are continuously improving the quality of education (unesco, 2014) and countries like pakistan who, like south africa, are still bombarded by digital divides. overall, some asian countries like china have proper infrastructure for odl, but still have challenges monitoring the quality of odl. likewise, countries like pakistan experience the same problem, but over and above that have to contend with lack of resources that cause digital divides. the latter phenomenon is exactly like that of south africa. according to nyerere (2016, p.6): sub-saharan africa (ssa) and the rest of african countries has had a long history in embracing distance education, yet it still trails the rest of the world in fully embracing odl. africa, just like europe, has put measures in place to synergise and strengthen odl activities and student. the sadc region’s head of states signed a sadc protocol on education and training in 1997. the protocol recognises odl as a vehicle for extending access and equity in higher education for non-traditional students and trainees while retridal was also established in 2013 to develop and create regional networks across west africa. unlike europe and asia, africa has a challenge of funding and poor infrastructure emanating from a long political history of decolinisation and apartheid which saw the masses being marginalized from taking part in the economy. these conditions have left many regions and rural areas under-resourced (braman 1998; horwitz & currie 2007; van audenhove 1999). this history and lack of infrastructure has had a lot of odl authors questioning the legitimacy of migration to online learning. söderström, from, lovqvist & tornquist (2012) argue that the rationale behind the use of online learning is to broaden access, accommodate those that work full time and the disenfranchised, and to lower the costs of teaching. in contrast to söderström et al.’s view, martin (2007) believes that the use of technology in education would increase costs instead of lowering them, will restrict access and is a tool used by capitalist corporations to generate profit. martin (2007, p.479) holds the view that “there is no categorical proof that this kind of pedagogy positively contributes to the improvement of education and believes that its use is an agenda propelled by those that stand to gain when they supply technologies for universities and other institutions.” this further justified this study as there clearly is a need to investigate online learning in the odl context especially for rural students. 17 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 overall, according to many researchers operating in the odl space, as stated by afzaal and ahmad (2011), research suggests that the overall efficiency and success of online education in odl is reliant upon the interaction (student engagement) which is a vital aspect to a student learning (anderson & garrison, 1995; fresen, 2007; khe et al., 2018; moore, 1993; messias, 2015; northrup, 2001; picciano, 2002; senior et al., 2018; young & norgard, 2006). consequently, volery (2000) suggested that in order to boost students’ interactions, collaborative learning should be encouraged. building on volery’s suggestion, this study was further justified by the contrast in ideas between kaufman (1999) arguing that in collaborative learning/cooperative teaching technique there could be hitchhikers (student who don’t participate in the group assigned tasks) which may be a problem caused by lack of motivation or a case of a student who is too shy or passive to get involved with the group, and ascough (2003) and delmater (2004) who point out that participation is better in online education. it was also further justified by the presumption of culture of use in higher learning where rural students are presumed to possess basic ict skills and knowledge when they take part in online learning in the odl environment (ngubane-mokiwa, 2017).understanding how we can support students looking at their background and needs would ensure that the government, the department of basic education and higher learning don’t just throw away millions into ict gadgets in desperate hope to meet the 4ir demands without really understanding first the challenges we face in ict and education in its current state so that we can respond accordingly (deloite,2018). manda and dhaou (2019) postulates that the 4ir is about disruption, not only for individuals, but for business as well, in a posthuman era the said disruptions may refer to the impact of corona virus and advancement of technology which have also altered the way learning and teaching take place. this then makes the connectivism theory more relevant as it defines learning as non-linear, residing in non-human appliances (4ir-aligned technological devices) and concerned with connecting specialised nodes or information sources (siemens, 2015). in odl students use technology to connect with the university, lecturers and other students. in light of the new definition of learning in the posthuman era and as dictated by the evolution of technology, odl also has to undergo changes in terms of how the university engages with students. under covid-19 it meant odl students could not visit the institution’s support facilities that provide access to internet and computers for their online learning while rural students are nowhere near such facilities as previously disenfranchised communities, therefore this calls for more innovative ways to engage with the students. the next section assists us conceptualise open distance learning in the posthuman era. theoretical framework in the world of 4ir that includes the use of web 2.0 tools (whatsapp, facebook, teams, zoom,etc) education landscape is no longer defined the same way as it was previously. in the advent of 4ir education needs to be defined in terms of posthumanism. snaza, appelbaum, bayne, carlson, morris, rotas, sandlin, wallin, & weaver (2014) describe posthumanism as a rejection of human-centric ontology and epistemology—a philosophy that decries 18 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 anthropocentric positioning of homo sapiens with regard to non-human others. the “crisis,” as braidotti (2016) so elegantly proposed, “is not necessarily negative, but rather the coming into focus of new conditions for relational encounters, understanding and knowledge production” (p. 28)-covid-19, past imbalances, geographical separation are some of the said crises prevalent in the posthuman era. consequently, siemen’s theory was used as it has qualities that seek to understand education in the posthuman era. siemens (2005) defines education as knowledge derived from how students interact on networks, and knowledge exists and is distributed on networks, and therefore, learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse these networks. according to siemens learning is stored and manipulated by technology. it still emphasises interaction just like moore’s theory, but its interpretation of learning is not just limited to the student-teacher, content-student, and student-student interaction, but it also argues that learning resides in non-human appliances (icts), thereby accounting for the disruptions and chaos arising as a result of 4ir in the posthuman era. it is argued in this study that this theory could respond to the current distance learning challenges we have in terms of optimally utilising the icts in a digital world to reduce the transactional distance and using technology expertly to include rural students. connectivism is definitely a posthuman theory, just as in siemens’s theory, posthuman author braidotti (2016, p. 28) proposed that, ‘crisis’ is not necessarily negative, but rather the coming into focus of new conditions for relational encounters, understanding and knowledge production”. how limiting the bounds of our knowledge and being are when only considered from a human perspective how boundless the possibilities of knowledge and existence become when we move beyond a siloed understanding. this theory therefore helped us understand that learning in posthuman era should be conceived as not only initiated by lecturers or human beings, but can also be looked at as residing, assisted and propelled by the technological devices that we use on a daily basis. additionally, the prevalence of web 2.0 tools (whatsapp, facebook, teams, zoom, etc) justifies the notion by mbatha (2014) that students are inclined to socializing and intrinsically focus should also be on the gadgets and softwares that facilitate their socializing and learning. these also help with the metaphorical ‘chaos’ that come with the isolation rural students experience when they can’t reach their lecturers on online leaning management system (lms) platforms like discussion forums and when they can’t keep up with scheduled online learning programmes. they can, in the midst of ‘chaos’ or ‘crisis’ find solace in the fact that they have their gadgets like cellphones which help them connect with other students and mitigate their failure to adhere to scheduled online learning programmes and expectations set by the university and which also become the sole source at that time, therefore, the device in itself becomes a critical learning tool that cannot be divorced from pedagogical and curriculum planning and development (adebola & tsotetsi, 2022; badaru & adu, 2022; hamakali & josua, 2023; madimabe & omodan, 2021; shava, 2022). 19 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 methodology research design this study employed an interpretivist approach, it is descriptive in nature and asks ‘what’ online students’ experiences in the odl context are in posthuman era, it utilised a case study that helped in gaining deeper insight into student support regarding kzn rural online students in the odl context. it aimed at gathering and analysing data about prevailing conditions, practices, processes and causal-effect relationships in the odl environment for rural online students, this is aligned with the notion of saunders, lewis and thornhill (2007). sample and data collection powers et al. (1985) outline population as a set of units in which all the dimensions of interest to the researcher specialist are accounted for. the population in this study comprises of the odl university students in kwazulu-natal rural parts. the participants for the study involved 2020 registered students and 2021 registered college of education students living in rural kwazulunatal. they were chosen because they are registered online on lms platform and have access to discussion forums. the areas of the study focus were selected because they are presumed to have scarce resources, and access of icts and connectivity is a challenge. the selection of a population of 2021 registered students was done to get an insight on experiences for students transitioning from high school (who are presumed to have not been exposed to online learning and ict use) to higher education and those that have had a longer spell at the odl institution (2020 registered students). the latter provided an in-depth understanding of their experiences by virtue of having been in the system longer. this was done for cross-analysis purposes. sampling procedures the researcher determines the area that is more representative of what he wants to study, he looks at the population that has the concentration of the characteristics of what needs to be studied (singleton, straits, straits & mcallister, 1988). for heterogeneity i opted for the purposive sampling technique to recruit participants who are affected by online learning differently even though they are all in rural kzn: college of education student teachers at the odl institution from different rural districts in kwazulu-natal. this was from a rural population pool at their registry. there are 11 districts in kwazulu-natal and sample was done on five of them. for time and resources manageability purposes, only one odl university was selected to constitute the sample. data collection interviews are central in the case study (denscombe, 2014). johnson and christensen (2012, p.202) states that “interviewing qualitatively enables a researcher to penetrate the innermost world of another individual and to gain comprehension of that individual’s vantage point”. to gain insight into the world of rural students the interview type for this study was a focussed, semi-structured interview with open-ended questions. interviews were a once-off for a duration of about 30-45 minutes. the individual interviews were conducted telephonically with an exception of two face-to-face interviews strictly adhering to the covid-19 protocols. the 20 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 environment for all the interviews had a relaxing ambience to allow the participants to be comfortable throughout the interview. analysing of data the interview data was thematically analysed as per braun & clarke’s (2006) six-phase framework. the recorded audio interviews were transcribed and transcripts were analysed and based on the coded transcripts, six themes emanating from the data were identified and recorded. data was coded manually and where pictorial representation of data was required, soft wares like excel were employed. this study looked at the “presumed lack of experience of 2021 online students) and those that were conceived to have had more experience with online learning (2020 students). to deepen understanding of the rural online students’ experiences, the analysis did a cross-case analysis to see the similarities and differences of the phenomenon studied. potentially, this could increase transferability greatly (yin, 2009). finally, the principle of validity in research is the degree to which a researcher can demonstrate the accuracy of the collected data (denscombe, 2014). this was ensured from the onset when sampling was done. the participants were selected according to the phenomenon studied so that they can provide rich, uncompromised information. the case study used interviews which were digitally recorded and stored for reference at a later stage. this was to keep checking if the data analysis is consistent with what was initially recorded. sharing of this information with participants improved trust between the researcher and participants. this is aligned with lincoln and guba’s (1985) notion that to confirm credibility in a qualitative study, the researcher should first seek confirmation from the participant regarding the precision of the data collected. the findings of this study were triangulated through literature sources and verifications with the odl university’s staff and data was also verified with some interviewed participants. this is in line with (creswell, 2014)’s notion that “triangulation may involve the use of a wide range of informants and, viewpoints and experiences can be verified against others”. findings in the interviews conducted the kzn rural student teachers shared their online learning experiences, they narrated their experiences regarding student support and challenges when working online. it is worth noting that about 60% of the participants interviewed were from deep rural areas and were profiled under the following labels: participant’s proximity to the institution’s campuses; device ownership; frequently used devices; and internet and computer access. the data found that in terms of proximity to odl university’s offices/campuses the participants were all at least more than 50km away from the centres/offices, the farthest being 173km away. the findings also revealed that only 60% of the participants had laptops and notably all (15) participants had cell phones. four key themes emanated from the study regarding online student support which highlighted all the challenges, support given and areas of improvement in future. posthumanistically, a machine such as a smartphone is conceived as 21 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 beyond anthropomorphic because of its intimacy with human beings as it facilitates relationships and is an extension of our individual personality (braidotti, 2016). background understanding of computer use, internet and online learning facilities in trying to comprehend the background of rural students’ computer use, how they connect to the institution and their studies (internet connectivity) and access to learning facilities, it was revealed that their ict skills, access to internet and learning facilities were the pre-requisite of their online learning. understanding this aspect served as the point of departure. the initial stages of the interviews revealed that most of the participants (73%) had never been exposed to any ict training programmes nor had they ever used a computer at high school level or prior to joining the university. participant ta 2, interview, 25 november 2021: “……… i didn’t have access to computers at high school level, so the only time i got exposed to the digitized world in terms of smart phones was when i got to campus, so it’s kind of like being thrown into the deep end, the transition from high school to varsity is a big jump for other people, especially for someone who has never been exposed to computers before” additionally, the findings revealed that participants used their cellphones most of the time to connect to the internet and lms platform, very few participants owned and used laptops. in this study it was found that all participants preferred using their phones to connect to the internet for general use and for their studies. the preference stemmed from the mobility and portability of the cellphone and the flexibility it provides when one is not receiving a stronger network signal. in posthuman thinking, this is evidence of the intimacy students have with their smartphones as cited by braidotti (2016) who posits that smartphones are the extension of our individual personality, in this case the mobility and portability of the cellphones enable one to find a signal in areas that are poorly connected or equipped in terms of telecommunications giving a student a fighting chance in the carrying out of online activities. participant ta 3, interview, 25 november 2021: “i use a phone, it is better to connect with a phone, it connects easily to the internet, more mobile than the laptop, and it’s a problem carrying the computer around-high rate of crime”. the extract above suggests that participants struggle with connectivity in general and have to move around to get signal, a cell phone was the most preferred tool based on its mobility and easy connection to the internet. the participants, as indicated in their profiles, are situated far from the institution’s facilities and most of the participants lamented that the cafés were all not within walking distance. the challenges they encountered included lack of ict skills due to no prior ict training, connectivity issues, data costs, load shedding and distant internet cafés and facilities, covid-19 dictates that they write online exams despite all these challenges hampering their online learning. participant ta6 and tb12, interview, 26 november 2021: “our network is too poor, this affects me negatively, especially when i have to write a paper, before writing i have to go to town to write, and when we have load shedding it is even worse.” 22 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 participant ta4, interview, 26 november 2021: “we live in rural areas, there is no network, we don’t have services like electricity and other infrastructure, and it affects the network. data is expensive, i spend about r500 per month on data.” despite the 11 out of 15 participants not having any formal training in high school none of the participants reported a challenge navigating the internet or knowing how to use the internet. it was obvious though that the challenges they encounter have a bearing on their online learning. students’ experiences regarding user-friendliness of university learning management system platform and student engagement in accordance with the col (2015) all odl institutions are required to afford sufficient student support in person and online through their learning management systems. in the case of institution, they use their learning management system which is meant to facilitate student engagement (student-student, group discussions and lecturer-student). the findings revealed the following sub-themes: lms platform navigation, employment of discussion forums, facebook, youtube, whatsapp and telegram and student-lecturer interaction and studentstudent interaction (cooperative learning) on the discussion forum. the two groups of participants which are those that were registered in 2021(group apresumed to be less exposed to ict/online learning) and those registered in 2020 (group bpresumed to have had more ict/online experience) shed the light regarding the use of lms. the findings indicated that that participants in group b (presumed to have more exposure to online) found lms platform to be very user-friendly and they frequented it more than those in group a (presumed to have less online exposure).this cross-examination of data showed that those that have been registered longer and have worked online longer found lms friendlier and frequented it more than those that haven’t been with the university longer. this means that with enough training and the longer the students are registered with the institution the more likely they are to use lms efficiently and frequently thereby enhancing their online learning experience. initially the idea was to explore just the use of discussion forum as a learning tool used to connect the students and facilitate an integral part of online learning which is student engagement. during the interviews it became evident that in other to fully gain a deeper understanding of online learners’ experiences of discussion forum and engagement, the researcher needed to look at the discussion forum in relation to the other discussion platforms like facebook, whatsapp, telegram and youtube, this way, not only would we understand the effectiveness of discussion forum, but we would also understand its limitations in relation to other preferred forms of engagement. as supported by the extract above, other learning sites were used by the participants. the findings revealed that whatsapp is the most used or preferred platform followed by discussion forums, telegram, youtube, facebook and google scholar. this was gauged in terms of frequency of use and preference. this finding is in line with 23 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 ideas of posthumanists such as siemens (2005) in connectivism theory who states that learning in the digital age is the integration of principles explored by chaos, network, and complexity and self-organization theories. learning is a process that occurs within nebulous environments of shifting core elements – not entirely under the control of the individual. learning (defined as actionable knowledge) can reside outside of ourselves (within an organisation or a database), is focused on connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn more are more significant than our existing state of knowing. similarly, the distance online students at the odl institution resorted to other means of learning by connecting to specialized information sets like social media and abandoning their existing knowledge that the institution is the centre of information (abandoning lms platforms like discussion forums) and through their personalized tool in the smartphone developed learning connections through collaborative learning. in the midst of metaphorical ‘chaos’ such as covid-19 restrictions that prevented them from visiting the online support centres like internet laboratories, internet cafés, and libraries or lack of such facilities, and delayed lecturer response on discussion forums, they re-invented themselves into social collaborative beings assisted by their smartphones which became central to their online learning. the following extract sheds lighter on why the participants preferred certain sites in addition to discussion forum to support their learning. participant ta1 and ta8, interview, 24 november 2021: “i have never attended discussion forums, i have heard about them, i have never got clarity regarding them.” participant tb14, interview, 24 november 2021: “sometimes i use youtube if i don’t understand a certain topic. i also attend discussion forums almost daily. lecturers respond once in a while. lecturers take forever to respond. i find discussion forums are not addressing our problems as quickly as they should, as much as working in a group is useful, it is difficult to get the attention of the lecturer.” under the sub-theme: ‘student-lecturer interaction on discussion forum and student student interaction (cooperative learning)’, findings revealed that participants felt that the discussion forum has a potential to be beneficial to their online learning, but all lamented that lecturers take too long to respond to questions posted on the platform. they said while it’s helpful to work with their peers, they still need a lecturer’s constant presence to keep them in line. “i don’t use discussion forums on lms , instead we form whatsapp groups because of data, it is bad, they don’t respond to our questions, by the time they do, after about a month, it is too late.”, lamented participant tb13, interview, 26 november 2021. in another interview participant ta6, interview, 26 november 2021 said: “sometimes i do feel uncomfortable, other students respond negatively to our questions, you would find that you ask a clarity seeking question, but others would deem it stupid and i would appear as if i’m stupid or slow, i tend to then withdraw. “ on the other hand, participant tb15, interview, 26 november 202 said that: 24 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 “discussion forums are very helpful, i got study mates on the discussion forums. on this platform we post our views, and we discuss certain topics. these are very useful. the challenge is sometimes lecturers are slow to respond but discussion forums help, because you can read through the comments and still learn something.” overall, all participants found the lms platform to be user-friendly and indicated that the discussion forum has a potential to assist them greatly, but its challenge was that the lecturers and or tutors were not actively involved in the discussions. discussion the results of this study were summarized under the following themes: the odl rural student teachers’ experiences regarding lecturer-student engagement, the rural student teachers’ experiences regarding student-student engagement (cooperative learning), student teachers’ experiences on learning management system lms and lecturers’ encouragement of interaction and participation in online discussions, and lastly, commendations made for the enhancement of student support at the institution in general, and specifically for rural students. it was notable that students were very enthusiastic about the use of online learning in open distance elearning and they showed a desire to engage more using different types of devices and platforms as they learn through social media and that learning also reside in technological appliances they use(posthumanism), hence the study’s conclusion and implications stress that the distance between the student and the institution, student and lecturer and student and other students can be mediated and reduced through proper student support services such as provision of gadgets for internet connection, proper telecommunications infrastructure, ict workshops and training for all students and in posthumanism terms, formal integration of social networks in learning in light of the finding that learning is non-linear and resides in technological devices used to connect students. the findings align to the notion by mbatha (2014) and ngubane-mokiwa (2017) who state that students who are in need of additional interaction may want to engage more on social media platforms, and that it is high time odl institutions embrace the web 2.0 applications (whatsapp, facebook, telegram, mixit, youtube, etc.).additionally, they also contribute to trying to settle the argument where söderström et al. (2012:2) argue that “the rationale behind the use of online learning is to broaden access, accommodate those that work full time and the disenfranchised, and to lower the costs of teaching”. this puts ict at the centre of odl and the new dispensation. in contrast to söderström et al.’s view, martin (2007) believes that the use of technology in education would increase costs instead of lowering them, will restrict access and is a tool used by capitalist corporations to generate profit. martin (2017,p.479) holds the view that “there is no categorical proof that this kind of pedagogy positively contributes to the improvement of education and believes that its use is an agenda propelled by those that stand to gain when they supply technologies for universities and other institutions”. the findings confirm what söderström et al. (2012) asserted, despite the challenges faced by the 25 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 participants, overall, they still felt online learning is working in a positive development of their learning. experiences of rural student teachers regarding lecturer-student engagement based on the findings from the data collected it was found that the most used learning site or platform is whatsapp ahead of discussion forums which is on the learning management system. all the participants cited limited lecturer engagement on the discussion forum, and they cited that as off-putting, hence they resorted to using other sites like whatsapp, telegram, facebook, etc. for additional interaction. even though the participants in this study cited less lecturer involvement as a reason that put them off from using the platform more, this trend of the emergence of these social media tools in learning was also evident in the study conducted by mbatha (2014) who posits that odl is branded by use of new web 2.0 tools, which enable more lecturer-student interaction, student-learning environment interaction, student-student interaction, and student-institution interaction. other studies done posit that this is different from the previous first, second and third correspondence models where the lecturer was the only constant link between the student and the learning environment (taylor, 1995). this body of literature supports the theory that underpins this study, which is siemens (2005)’s theory, connectivism: a learning theory for digital age that delineates that social network analysis is an added element in comprehending learning models in a digital era. the health of the learning ecology of the organisation is reliant on effective cultivation of information flow given what is presented above, while it is clear that the odl institution under study would have to revamp the discussion forum, but it would also be wise to look at embracing the web 2.0 applications as central to learning given that technology has altered the way we learn. another challenge that was found regarding student-lecturer engagement was that of network, travelling costs to cafés and data costs. participants cited these challenges as limiting and as a stumbling block to continued online engagement. these findings are in line with the study by my broadband (2018) which reported that south african broadband prices were by far the highest than other countries’. healin (2019) also reported that the report released in december 2019 showed that south africans were paying way higher in data than other countries. commissioner tembinkosi bankable said that two of the biggest cellular networks in sa were at least 50% more expensive than other african countries serviced by these companies (ibid.). the recent study done by research ict africa (2020) still found that most south africans still cannot afford to go online despite the mandatory reduction on prices, this is still due to high data costs. this finding was in line with mahlangu’s (2018) study which stated most of his respondents had no access to internet which excludes them from student support systems and electronic communications and that the majority of south africans are poor, living in the rural areas where the internet access is problematic and are generally illiterate as far as the internet is concerned. the high data prices significantly put rural students at a disadvantage given their background. this is against the notion by commonwealth (2015) regarding inclusivity in higher 26 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 education, their policies advocate for equal access to education, not education determined by one’s spatiality and social and economic standing. experiences of rural student teachers regarding student-student engagement (cooperative learning) the findings revealed that the preference in learning sites was informed by the participants’ experiences. the participants preferred whatsapp ahead of the discussion forum. the optimum use of the discussion forum was discouraged by limited lecturer engagement. the participants reported positive learning experiences when engaging with their peers. they engage on all these social media platforms including discussion forum because of the need for additional interaction as indicated in mbatha’s (2014) study who posits that institutions start embracing the social media platforms as central to learning. another study to this effect was done by ngubanemokiwa (2017) who states that research shows that most of students are comfortable with the use of social media tools like facebook, instagram, twitter, mxit, and other synchronous platforms. while the experiences of working with their peers online was positive, there were however, concerns from other participants that they endure hostility from other participants who deem their questions as stupid and unnecessary when they are working online. siemens’ (2005) states that the health of the learning ecology of the organisation is reliant on effective cultivation of information flow. in the case of this study the learning ecology was not cultivated by lecturers as participants stated that lecturers seldom respond to their questions. it is this lack of supervision that makes students to not work in harmony on the discussion forums and other sites. kaufman et al. (1999) argue that in this teaching technique there could be hitchhikers (student who don’t participate in the group assigned tasks) which may be a problem caused by lack of motivation or a case of a student who is too shy or passive to get involved with the group. in contrast to kaufman et al.’s (1999) observation, ascough (2002) and delmater (2004) hold a different view with regards to cooperative learning online. ascough (2002) and delmater (2004) hold the view that online education provides an environment where all and often marginalized voices could be heard, contributing to a higher participation of students as well as cooperative learning (cl).in the case of this study my findings aligned with both kaufman, felder and fuller (1999) and ascough (2002)’s assertions. in terms of posthumanism, this finding proves that education no longer just resides in humans, but we have to explore it as also residing in nonhuman appliances (siemens, 2015). the lack of motivation from lecturers causes a hostile environment for other students who then decide to keep quiet and not engage and they become hitchhikers as kaufman and fuller suggest, and on the other hand the participants did say that they enjoy working online with other peers, they help one another a lot. another challenge the participants cited was that of connectivity. these students are from rural areas and are under-resourced, this is due to the historical imbalances. this history and lack of infrastructure has had a lot of odl authors questioning the legitimacy of migration 27 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 to online learning. while these challenges also reduce peer to peer interaction online, they don’t completely impede it which talks about the frequency of visiting online learning site. these findings are in line with rakoma’s (2018) who found that despite the challenges the rural participants still spent an acceptable amount of time online which was not too far off from the global satisfaction level of 21 hours per week. commendations can be made for the enhancement of learner support in general, and specifically for rural students. based on the participants’ challenges the participants made commendations for the enhancement of their online learning support. there were two types of commendations made, those that could be implemented by and are within the unvesrity control, and those that could be implemented by other stakeholders like government and private sector. these were central and important in gaining deeper understanding of their experiences. those that the odl institution can implement include: the provision of online orientation and ict courses for basic use of the computer and the lms this came after students felt the university was using a blanket approach and assumed the culture of ict use for rural students. the students’ perceptions here are supported by ngubane-mokiwa’s (2017) assertion that the advancement of technology has serious ramifications for rural students doing online learning in the odl context as it (online learning) presumes existence of a culture of use, and reliance on modern electronic technologies. similarly, letseka (2015) highlighted the same challenge that the move from odl to odel assumes existence of an established culture, use of, and reliance on modern electronic technologies. but while south africa has pockets of urban cosmopolitan territories like of big modern cities and sub-urban areas, the larger geographical spread of the country remains rural, communal, consistently poor and excluded from the broader benefits of modern electronic technologies in what is known as the ‘digital divide’. in light of the findings, the odl institution should build more support ict centres in rural areas to support those students in deep rural areas like kzn. mashile and pretorius (2003) posit that the students’ socio-economic standing of and the affordability of assistive technologies and poor infrastructure in their rural dwellings, contributes to the digital divide dominant amongst students, chiefly the rural students. findings of the study also revealed that it was necessary to fortify the discussion forums through enhanced student-lecturer engagement and open itself to the possibilities of using other platforms as well, and rollout discussion forums and other platforms across all modules. this view is supported by an international study done in pakistan’s allama iqbal open university (aiou) by afzaal and ahmad (2011) which found that in distance education conventions, interaction is often reflected as a defining characteristic of quality learning experiences. similarly, in the education literature, researchers' belief in the importance of student-teacher interaction is so prevalent that it is presumed to be a basic need for learning to take place (anderson & garrison, 1995).this is also supported by the theoretical framework of this study. 28 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 another finding revealed that there might be a need for the insitution to integrate or incorporate whatsapp/umoya onto lms platform, this was driven by the participants need for additional interaction as they complained that there was minimal interaction by lecturers on discussion forum. this finding is supported by mbatha (2014) and ngubane-mokiwa (2017) who state that students who are in need of additional interaction may want to engage more on social media platforms, and that it is high time odl institutions embrace the web 2.0 applications (whatsapp, facebook, telegram, mixit, youtube, etc.).this is also in line with the views of posthumanists like snaza (2014). conclusion this study reports student teachers’ experiences of open distance e-learning in a posthuman era-a learner engagement perspective in the rural kwazulu-natal, data found that all the students were embracing online learning and just wanted the institution to recognize their challenges and unique rural circumstances when they plan their support strategies especially during covid-19 which meant migration from venue-based exams to online exams. all the participants could work online independently indicated that they would like to engage more with lecturers, subject content, other students and technologies. recommendations governmental level government should fix the issue of load shedding in south africa. load shedding is not only affecting our economy but education as well. online students rely on the internet connection and electricity powered gadgets for their online studies and exams. when there is load shedding the internet also dwindles and gadgets cannot be powered. government should also improve infrastructure in rural areas. telecommunications infrastructure and electricity need to be improved as lack of network coverage was cited as a barrier to online learning, students engage less online because they lack reliable connectivity which is caused by the fact that rural areas are still vastly under-resourced. institutional level the south african odl university should build more support ict centres in rural areas to support those students in deep rural areas like kzn and these should be well-marketed. the odl university under study should also provide online orientation and ict courses for basic use of the computer and lms platform to novice students. this will deal with the challenge of students not optimally using online support. the training should be hybrid(online and on site) to make sure it is effective as noted that sometimes online learning is disturbed by issues of connectivity in the rural areas. the odl university should fortify the discussion forums through enhanced studentlecturer engagement, and a rollout of discussion forums across all modules. constant engagement between lecturers and students and amongst students will make students more confident and motivated to do their online studies and improve the quality of online learning 29 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 13-33 and cooperative learning. the institution must also integrate or incorporate whatsapp and other social media platforms onto lms platform, ‘the university should embrace these social media platforms (whatsapp, facebook, telegram, youtube, etc.) to fully support online students. this will also assist those students who feel they are isolated in their learning. the insitution should increase the frequency of virtual classes to engage with students more. the odl researchers suggests that online students support should be modelled looking at the traditional universities support or should be similar to that one. student engagement will be increased as in traditional universities if it can be conducted regularly. lastly, the odl university should extend its partnership with network companies and must collaborate with the department for communications and provide data bundles to all the students throughout the year for continued connection while they work online. this will mitigate the challenge of students who cannot afford the data which limits their online learning and engagements. limitations this study was only limited to one faculty, the faculty of education regarding rural kzn students. the study utilised qualitative data with a limited number of 15 participants, which may not be representative sample to 100% guarantee transferability of the entire districts in kzn. the main aim of the study though was not to generalise, it was to gain insight into a selected group of online students’ experiences and understand their challenges in rural scenario. despite the limitations mentioned, the findings can still be employed to better assist and tailor support to the needs of odl university’s kzn rural students and it can also serve as a yardstick study for other researchers who may want to explore other rural communities with similar geographical locations and background. ethical considerations all the participants gave informed concerned and written consent. the ethics research review committee at 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(2009). case study research: design and methods. 4th ed. califonia. sage. https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/103278 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcve.2022.7 https://doi.org/10.1080/02500169908537877 https://doi/ journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 207-221 spirituality and mindfulness practices of early childhood and elementary preservice teachers: a snapshot kelsey l. evans-amalu*1, thomas a. lucey2 & miranda lin2 * corresponding author: themeditationprofessor@gmail.com 1. college of education, georgia southwestern state university, americus, ga, united states. 2. school of teaching and learning, illinois state university, normal, il, united states. article info received: september 15, 2021 revised: october 27, 2021 accepted: november 22, 2021 how to cite evans-amalu, k. l., lucey, t. a. & lin, m. (2021). spirituality and mindfulness practices of early childhood and elementary preservice teachers: a snapshot. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 207-221. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.12 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract this paper describes the results of a research survey that interpreted the patterns of mindfulness and spirituality within a convenience sample of preservice teachers at a midwest teacher education institution. mindfulness and spiritualty represent topics of developing interest in teacher education that serve to increase candidate focus and revision of practice. respondents completed a survey as part of a semester’s project that interpreted the results of a semester-long mindfulness intervention on student mindfulness and spiritual attitudes and practices. the findings determined that participants had senses of mindfulness and self the emphasized themselves, and their external worlds, let weak connection with a higher spiritual entity. significant differences were observed between early childhood and elementary majors. keywords mindfulness; spirituality; early childhood education; elementary education; preservice teachers; teacher education. 10.46303/jcsr.2021.12 https://curriculumstudies.org/ mailto:themeditationprofessor@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.12 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 208 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 introduction preservice teacher education programs aim to prepare graduates to function within a pre-k-12 school system equipped with the necessary pedagogical practices to succeed in the teaching profession (darling-hammond & bransford, 2005). yet, the american public education system has undergone social, political, and cultural shifts (zeichner, 2016) within the past decade, and many teacher preparation programs are struggling to teach and prepare the whole student for the challenging career of teaching. within the 21st century, the role of the teacher requires the need for more selfawareness and deep reflection (mergler & spooner-lane, 2012). although teacher education programs embed the reflection process into their curriculums, it would behoove programs to consider using practices that aid in developing further self-awareness and mitigates professioninduced stress to create greater self-efficacy. research suggests that preservice teachers who clearly understand who they are will be more prepared to interact with personal and professional challenges (caldwell & hayes, 2016). yet, many teacher education/preparation programs often fail to consider the developmental process from the whole child perspective of the individual student (e.g., the teacher candidate) (miller, 2010). in examining the spiritual dimension of student development theory and the axiology of humanism, we find that past foundational beliefs of american education promoted spiritual growth and development of the student (american council on education, 1937, 1949). however, when looking at teacher education and learning standards today, they often disaggregate into various cognitive, emotional, and physical elements without attention to the larger sense of the students’ identities and affect. preparing teachers with a holistic perspective of learning provides for a profound sense of awareness and valuing that invites a richer understanding of social engagement. holistic education attends to all developmental domainsincluding the spiritual dimension, which may support preservice teachers bringing their learning from their spiritual life into the classroom (cady, 2007; miller, 2010; noddings, 2010; zhang & wu, 2016). mindfulness and spirituality are separate constructs that have often been independently used amongst teacher populations to mitigate stress and increase self-awareness and selfefficacy. the current study sought to interpret the perception of the two constructs by preservice teachers. this paper presents the results of a survey that interpreted the levels and patterns of spiritual practices and mindful awareness within convenience of teaching and learning students at a midwest institution for higher learning. literature observes an education focus on preparing children and youth for assimilation into a system of entrepreneurial profit and financialization and profit, at the expense of sacrificing personal identity and holistic wellness (kumar & archarya, 2021; widodo, 2019). spirituality and mindfulness represent underappreciated aspects of teaching and learning that invite further teacher education research (gillespie, 2021; zimmerman, 2018). therefore, it is critical to know what preservice teachers perceive spirituality and their understanding of mindfulness practice. this paper attempts to fill the literature gap by interpreting the attitudes towards spirituality and patterns of mindfulness practice within preservice teachers. literature review theoretical framework the proposed framework, as well as the operational definitions that will be offered for spirituality and religion, are informed by the axiology of humanism in education. humanist 209 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 axiology is the branch of philosophy that examines what is intrinsically “good” or valued by a person (pritchard et al., 2011). examining the perceptions of preservice teachers by applying humanism in education engages varied student learning theoriesthe authors use maslow and mezirow as points of reference in understanding adult learning. both theories offer a holistic viewpoint that explain the variety of needs humanity experiences to foster a deeper andragogical awareness for the teaching of preservice teachers. maslow’s hierarchy of needs is “a theory of human motivation that relates these needs to general behaviour” (wahba & bridwell, 1976, p. 213). similar to other humanists, maslow attempted to construct a psychological value system that would be derived from human nature, which included intrinsic values and the meta needs of self-transcendence (koltko-rivera, 2006). maslow’s hierarchy of needs has influenced transformative learning theory, as seen in mezirow’s discussion (2012) of self-actualization stating that “hungry, homeless, desperate, threatened, sick, or frightened adults are less likely to be able to participate effectively in discourse to help us better understand the meaning of our own experiences” (mezirow, p. 82). further examination of transformative learning through the axiology of humanism invites educators to develop compassion, empathy, and awareness and to become further mindful of bias and worldview (mezirow, 2000). by applying maslow and mezirow’s humanistic lens to selfactualization invites spirituality and mindfulness as an important component for personal learning growth (banez, 2016). mindfulness and spirituality examining the perceptions of spirituality and mindfulness requires an understanding of the constructs. the researchers chose to operationalize spirituality based on underwood‘s (2011) definition of spirituality, as the instrument used for the study pulls from underwood’s work in this study. spirituality can be understood as facets of a human’s life that include more than what we can see, touch, or hear (underwood, 2011). often, there are terminological challenges in defining spirituality, especially when understanding the nuances of spirituality amongst religion, morality, and values. instead, we offer more of a secular understanding of the term, to be more encompassing of students enrolled in teacher education programs. yet, the researchers highlight palmer’s (2003) definition as “the eternal human yearning to be connected with something larger than our own egos” for further context in education. (p. 377) this is important to note as spirituality has often been measured in terms of religiosity. still, when analyzing in a secular setting, spirituality is often defined as a “search for the sacred” (pargament, 1999, p. 12). this study also pays particular attention to the use of mindfulness as a form of contemplative practice to enhance a mindful disposition (e. g,, trait mindfulness). like spirituality, mindfulness has a wide array of definitions depending on the methodology studied (chiesa et. al, 2011), but for this article, mindfulness will be defined as ‘paying attention in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally’’ (kabat-zinn, 1994, p. 4). theoretically, mindfulness is a practice rooted in spirituality (trammel, 2017). however, the practice of mindfulness integrates varied elements that are foundational to many spiritual/religious practices. for example, curious awareness lends itself to high levels of trait mindfulness. in contrast, low trait mindfulness indicates that a person infrequently pays attention and awareness to the present moment and operates more on “auto-pilot” (brown & ryan, 2003). curating self-awareness is integral for mindfulness and is consistent in other spiritual/religious applications of breath, reverence, and solitude to create a deeper relationship to a higher power (lutz, et al., 2015; trammel, 2017). in sum, this may suggest that mindfulness 210 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 is not ascribed to any religious tradition and can also be understood from a more secular point of view in the use of varied populations of practitioners (siegel, 2007). although mindfulness and spirituality are two separate constructs, research has shown that the link between mindfulness and spirituality produces positive well-being results (carmody et al., 2008; shapiro et al., 1998; wachholtz & pargament; 2005). such processes of combining constructs offer possibilities for enhancing professional efficacy and achievement. a significant contributor to this spiritual growth and efficacy is work related to understanding the “inner self”. self-reflection and meditation have been shown to facilitate this attention to the self and contribute to greater awareness and a sense of purpose. mindfulness and spirituality are means to achieve a contemplative path and are considered quite similar in practice. jong (2013) researched the similarities in construct, suggesting that the similarity could mean that components of the two constructs are the overlapping qualities between mindfulness and spirituality. jong also suggested the difference could mean that mindfulness facilitates a calm mind, while spirituality looks for the greater good. in the study of a more secular form of mindfulness, even mbsr has been shown to increase the perception of spirituality in daily life (greeson et al., 2015). according to greeson et al. (2015), mindfulness practices have similar outcomes and benefits to religious and spiritual practices, further overall well-being (walsh & shapiro, 2006). acknowledgment of the contemplative and spiritual dimension in teaching and learning in the post-secondary context can contribute to knowing oneself more holistically. in this study, researchers explore preservice teachers’ mindfulness and spiritual practices. spirituality in teacher education there is little research available in the field of spirituality and teacher education preparation programs. more research is available when accounting for spirituality and post-secondary education, especially with the resurgence of religion and spirituality on college campuses within the past decade (waggoner, 2016). upon reviewing the literature on spirituality in education, research suggests students enrolled in the post-secondary school develop a more profound sense of self during their enrollment in higher education (cady, 2007). within student development of spirituality, certain characteristics of students enrolled in higher education have been studied. first, spirituality was consistently identified as central to greater awareness (kessler, 2000; miller, 2010). other characteristics of spirituality in higher education are the connection to oneself, others, and their higher powerdirectly in reference to creating community (chávez, 2001; kessler, 2000; lantieri, 2001; miller, 2010; oldnall, 1996; palmer, 1998). research also suggests when college students engage in deeper spiritual awareness, greater prosocial behavior also occurs (raposa et al., 2016). in a longitudinal study conducted by the higher education research institute (2006) students reported using spirituality and religious activity to cope with their perceived stress. those students who engaged in spirituality found more meaning in hardship on stress than those who did not engage in spiritual activity practices. to facilitate growth in spirituality, research has indicated that the greatest degree of growth has been measured through self-reflection, contemplation, or meditation. mindfulness in teacher education examples of holistic approaches to teacher education can be found in the cultivation of contemplative practices (jennings & demauro, 2017). contemplative practices foster a deeper awareness of self, others, and spirit, which cultivates the awareness of humanity to a greater wholelike what palmer (2003) discusses in his work on spirituality. contemplative practices (meditation, mindfulness, and other practices that focus on increasing reflection and 211 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 contemplation) allow for greater cognitive and emotional benefits, including decreased stress levels, increased self-worth, and promotion of resilience and well-being (brown & ryan, 2003; kabat-zinn 1994). within contemplative techniques, a variety of customs, habits, or rituals exist that act as a vehicle to spiritual insight (bright & pokorny, 2013). other benefits of the practice are increasing spiritual awareness by creating greater attention around our connectedness with ourselves and others, often facilitated by mindfulness and compassion (bruce et al., 2018). to understand mindfulness practices in the context of american education, a more westernized practice must be identified. in western culture, mindfulness and contemplative practices often remove the ethical and philosophical benefits of the practice. often in the west, traditional eastern practices have been positioned through the lens of emotional or cognitive understanding, which tends to limit the resounding benefits of the practice. when foundational aspects of contemplation are removed, mindfulness may reinforce self-centered values where individuals privilege their personal identity over the care and compassion for others in their community (davis & behmcross, 2020; tan, 2020). in addition, mindfulness has been recognized as a spiritual act perro (marlatt & kristeller, 2000). however, kabat-zinn (1994) and mbsr adapt mindfulness into a contemplative practice without adopting its spiritual origins. for this reason, we perceive spirituality as an integral component of contemplative practices that can continue to create pro-social behaviors for individual and community care. mindfulness and its foundations within buddhist psychology have always included broader aspects of spiritualityinclusive of compassion and gratitude, as key components of mindfulness in buddhist traditions are dedicated to alleviating inward and outward suffering (germer & barnhofer, 2017). offering compassion to oneself is an integral component of mindfulness and is a quality of contemplative practices as a whole and has been highly effective among college students (smeets et al., 2014). research has shown mindfulness and compassion, more specifically self-compassion has been helpful in healing perceived stress (emery, 2020; watson-singleton et al., 2019). interestingly, when the culture was accounted for in mindful compassion practices, more western cultures experienced challenges in offering selfcompassion. it was seen as considerably selfish to offer compassion to oneself first rather than compassion to others (neff et al., 2008; zhang et al., 2018) as traditional mindfulness practices offer awareness of suffering toward both oneself and others and do not exclude offering compassion to oneself. in examining the literature on the use of mindfulness programs for preservice teachers, two mindfulness-based interventions are used frequently in education contexts: mindfulness based stress reduction (mbsr) developed by kabat-zinn (frank et al., 2015; sarah et al., 2016) and cultivating awareness and resilience in education (care) (jennings & demauro, 2017; schussler et al., 2016). research affiliated with these mindfulness interventions suggests that mindfulness offers the cultivation of a calm mind and body, despite external stressors. when looking at the impact of mindfulness on teachers, perrone et al. (2006) found that teachers believed they were more effective when they thought there was spiritual connectedness or higher purpose with the work liperformed in the classroom. participants who endorsed practicing some forms of meditation were also found to have a higher degree of reported spirituality than those who reported not practicing meditation (perrone et al., 2006). upon reviewing the literature, there is a lack of applied research investigating the possibility of implementing or understanding spirituality and mindfulness in teacher education. although there is available research within each independent variable, the combination or intersectionality of spirituality and mindfulness lacks in the field. thus, we as researchers seek https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13674676.2011.644782?src=recsys 212 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 to examine the perception of mindfulness and spirituality amongst preservice teachers, to understand their beliefs and comprehension of the two variables. we hope this inquiry can help us better redesign teacher preparation courses to facilitate these discourses and understand preservice from a more holistic perspective to attend to their needs and reach their potentials. methods this paper conveys the results of a research study at a large public teacher education institution in the midwest of the united states. it interpreted the spirituality practices and mindfulness awareness of a convenience sample of students. the findings are a component of a larger project that analyzed the effect of a classroom intervention on these practices and perceptions. sample the sample consisted of enrollees in two undergraduate courses (a social studies methods course and a multicultural education course) during the spring 2021 semester and who consented to participate. there were 61 total enrollees in the two courses, of whom 53 completed the survey. the survey respondents were predominantly white (46 or 86.8%) females (48 or 90.6%). the majority of the participants reported their academic class status as being seniors (35 or 66.0%), with eight (15.1%) as juniors, nine (17.0%) as sophomores, and one as a freshman. there were 48 students enrolled in the elementary education program and five enrolled in early childhood. instrument the survey contained three sections, the first two of which drew from two separate measures. spirituality practices were measured using items from the daily spiritual experience scale (underwood, 2018) and mindfulness practices using the mindful attention awareness scale (brown & ryan, 2003). the survey also sought information about student demographic information. there were fifteen items drawn from the daily spiritual experience scale (dses). fourteen of the self-reported items were designed to assess the experiences of connection with spirituality in a respondent’s daily life. the questions reflected wonder, gratitude, grace, a sense of connection with the spiritual. it also included measures of awareness of deep inner peace. responses to the likert-style items ranged from 1 (almost always) to 6 (almost never). (underwood, 2018). an additional item asked about respondents’ sense of closeness to god. it was scaled on a 5level basis. the dses scale was designed to capture the diverse experiences of spirituality, which may reflect both secular and religious undertones in multiple contexts. upon review of the instrument, the scale has been used in numerous studies and is most often used to assess the health of religious/spiritual populations. however, this is now being extended to include other areas of interest (underwood, 2011). in the construction of the dses, underwood noted the instrument's reliability across several studies with internal consistency (underwood, 2002). in addition, evidence showed that daily spiritual experience is related to improved quality of life and positive mental health and social well-being (underwood, 2011). the other fifteen items were from the mindful attention awareness scale (maas). the maas, also known as the day-to-day experiences scale, consists of 15 items that focus on mindfulness traits. trait mindfulness differs from state mindfulness in that the measurement questioned more mindfulness of disposition. questions targeted a respondent's awareness of 213 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 moment-to-moment presence.responses to the likert-style items ranged from 1 (almost always) to 6 (almost never). in examining the validity of the maas scale, brown and ryan (2013) depicted good internal consistency and showed a positive correlation with the number of years of meditation practice. maas scores were also significantly higher among meditation practitioners than nonpractitioners (brown & ryan, 2003). in examining the validity of maas, studies in varied contexts suggested the limitations of the instrument include the study of homogenous samples that have been used with the scale. more studies need to be done with a more diverse sample, for the validity of the instrument itself (black et al., 2011). finally, the instrument contained a section that sought information concerning the respondents’ identities and practices. identity items were academic class, major, enrollment status, marital status, employment status, and residency status. practice items consisted of religion, frequency of practice, and frequency of mindfulness practice. analysis for this paper, we conducted descriptive and inferential statistical analysis to interpret selfreported spirituality and mindfulness levels and patterns of differences based on respondent traits. analysis of spirituality items. according to underwood (2011), the dses shows that more frequent daily spiritual experience is often represented by lower mean scores, which may allow for further individual item analysis. however, because of the exploratory nature of this research, we limit our findings to descriptive statistical analysis, recognizing that sample size may not be sufficient for varimax rotational analysis. concerning the analysis of maas items, brown and ryan (2003) constructed a 15-item questionnaire concerning trait mindfulness and examined the mean of the 15 items (collected in a likert scale). when calculated, higher scores reflect higher levels of dispositional mindfulness (brown & ryan, 2003). we performed descriptive analysis for each maas item and for the items mean. we also conducted a series of one-way anovas to test for significant differences in mindfulness-based on respondent traits. however, we did not perform regression analysis due to a lack of a theoretical framework to guide the structure of potential independent variables. results this section describes the patterns of survey responses that relate to spirituality and mindfulness items. it contains two sections, one for each category. the spirituality section describes patterns associated with the 14 items containing the six-level likert scale and then the remaining item concerning five levels. the mindfulness section provides the descriptive statistics for the items collectively, identifying those having the highest and lowest means. inferential analysis describes any significant response differences based on respondent traits. spirituality the means of responses to the 14 spirituality items based on the six-level scale ranged from 3.62 or somewhat frequently for item 1 (i feel god’s/higher power’s presence) to 5.41or very frequently for item 11 (i feel thankful for my blessings). the items that yielded the lowest means concerned the respondents’ sense of solicitation of, or desire for god’s presence. the three items that yielded the highest means and five of the seven providing the highest means 214 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 focused on self-security and relationship to the environment. table 1 presents the items and the associated statistics. table 1. descriptive statistics associated with spirituality items (n = 53) item min. max. mea n sd skew 1. i feel god's/higher power's presence 1.00 6.00 3.62 1.6 7 (0.30) 2. i experience a connection to all living entities 1.00 6.00 4.28 1.2 3 (0.44) 3. when connecting with god/higher power, i feel joy. 1.00 6.00 4.13 1.7 3 (0.70) 4. find strength in religion or spirituality 1.00 6.00 4.00 1.7 0 (0.51) 5. i find comfort in religion or spirituality 1.00 6.00 4.23 1.7 4 (0.71) 6. deep inner peace or harmony 1.00 6.00 4.38 1.2 7 (0.64) 7. i ask for god's/higher power's help in daily activities 1.00 6.00 3.72 1.9 2 (0.26) 8. i feel god's/higher power's love for me directly 1.00 6.00 3.92 1.8 3 (0.40) 9. i feel god's/higher powers love through others 1.00 6.00 4.17 1.7 1 (0.63) 10. i am spiritually touched by the beauty of creation 1.00 6.00 4.66 1.3 9 (0.99) 11. i feel thankful for my blessings 1.00 6.00 5.42 1.0 6 (2.31) 12. i feel a selfless caring for others 4.00 6.00 5.36 0.7 4 (0.69) 13. i accept others, even when they do things that i think are wrong. 3.00 6.00 4.96 0.8 8 (0.28) 14. i desire to be closer to god or to be in union with him 1.00 6.00 4.19 1.7 9 (0.65) those completing the survey also responded to a prompt that asked, “in general, how close do you feel to god?” the item provided five possible responses ranging from 1 (not at all close) to 5 (extremely close). the mean response of 2.92 indicated that respondents felt a sense of being somewhat close. interestingly, twice (10:5), the number of respondents indicated being “not at all close” compared to those responding being “extremely close” to god. mindfulness the means of responses to the 15 mindfulness items based on the six-level scale ranged from 2.96 or somewhat infrequently for item 17 (i break or spill things because of carelessness, not paying attention, or thinking of something else.) to 4.36 or somewhat frequently for item 28 (i find myself preoccupied with the future or the past.). table 2 presents the items and the relevant information. 215 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 the lowest means appear to be associated with items that involve matters of mindful automation. respondents were not likely to be unfocused or engaged in subconscious habits. the higher means appear to be associated with items that concern distraction from the present. respondents are preoccupied with their own thoughts and less focused on the world around them. table 2. descriptive statistics associated with mindfulness items (n = 53) item min. max. mea n sd skew 16. i could be experiencing some emotion and not be aware of it until later. 2.00 6.00 4.19 1.1 3 (0.22) 17. i break or spill things because of carelessness, not paying attention, or thinking of something else. 1.00 6.00 2.96 1.3 4 0.12 18. i find it difficult to stay focused on what's happening in the present. 1.00 6.00 4.02 1.3 8 (0.22) 19. i tend to walk quickly to get where i'm going without paying attention to what i experience along the way. 1.00 6.00 4.11 1.3 5 (0.60) 20. i tend to not notice feelings of physical tension or discomfort until they really grab my attention. 1.00 6.00 3.43 1.4 9 (0.14) 21. i tend to forget a person's name. almost as soon as i've been told it the first time. 1.00 6.00 3.64 1.3 5 (0.24) 22. it seems that i am "running on automatic" without much awareness of what i'm doing. 1.00 6.00 3.96 1.2 9 (0.61) 23. i rush through activities without being attentive to them. 1.00 6.00 3.77 1.3 1 (0.06) 24. i get so focused on the goal i want to achieve that i lose touch with what i am doing. 1.00 6.00 3.79 1.1 7 (0.71) 25. i do jobs automatically, without being aware what i'm doing. 1.00 6.00 3.75 1.3 4 (0.37) 26. i find myself listening to someone with one ear while doing something else at the same time. 1.00 6.00 4.02 1.3 8 (0.26) 27. i drive to places on "autopilot" and then wonder why i went there. 1.00 6.00 3.30 1.7 8 0.22 28. i find myself preoccupied with the future or the past. 1.00 6.00 4.36 1.1 9 (0.74) 29. i find myself doing things without paying attention. 1.00 6.00 3.72 1.4 1 (0.08) 30. i snack without being aware that i'm eating. 1.00 6.00 3.02 1.5 0 (0.11) respondents appear to be preoccupied with their own internal musings; however, their spiritual focus relates to themselves and their material environment. yet, they also tend not to feel close to the presence of god or another higher being, according to the dses results. interpretation of the maas scale reflects similar themes to the respondent’s spirituality. respondents appear distracted with simple day-to-day tasks, including eating and driving. the mindfulness of respondents, appears to have a direct relationship with the spirituality of respondents. 216 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 inferential analysis we ran a series of one-factor analyses of variance (anova) to interpret the presence of any significant differences in mindfulness between respondent traits. significant differences were found based on an area of study. early childhood majors (µ = 4.92) expressed a significantly higher degree of mindfulness than elementary education majors (µ = 3.61). there were not any other findings of significant difference in mindfulness-based on the measured traits or practices. discussion this study sought to interpret the attitudes towards spirituality and patterns of mindfulness practice within preservice teachers. it found that this sample of early childhood and elementary majors experienced a sense of spirituality rooted in self and the visible world and indicated respondents had a mindful sense that was disengaged from the external world. results of this study align with previous research that examined the constructs of spirituality and mindfulness, as the mindfulness of respondents appears to have a direct relationship with the spirituality of respondents (greeson et al., 2015; jong, 2013). respondents overall did not feel close to a presence of god or another higher being and appeared less mindful of day to moment. as previous research has suggested (greeson et al., 2015), a more mindful disposition is indicative of a higher awareness of the spiritual. our data speak to this, as there confirmed a relationship between spirituality and mindfulness exists. our findings support research that indicates students in higher education are spiritual, yet the data indicates in a secular medium. the data depicts respondents appeared distracted with day-to-day happenings; however, their spiritual focus relates to themselves and their material environment. the findings reference a more westernized understanding of mindfulness and spirituality, and recent research has suggested that removing the more spiritual components of a contemplative practice could reinforce self-centered values where individuals privilege their personal identity and their day-to-day existence (davis & behmcross, 2020; tan, 2020) which was seen in participants’ responses of their understanding and awareness of their own self. however, even with a more secular understanding of both mindfulness and spirituality applied, research suggests the endogenous relationship between the aforementioned constructs may facilitate greater transcendence and awareness of the self (landau & jones, 2021). our findings also indicate a potential lack of understanding of what mindfulness means/is (evans, 2019). this could also be due to the lack of understanding of the differences of mindfulnessespecially within variations in state vs. trait mindfulness. the study focuses on the examination of trait mindfulness, or dispositional mindfulness, of preservice teachers. according to the results in the perception of mindfulness, many students reported their state of mindfulness as something that lacked continual receptive attention to what was/is taking place in the present, which may lead to a low indication of trait mindfulness (brown & ryan, 2003). encouraging preservice teachers to build their capacity for state mindfulness may create “mental space” to deeply experience spirituality and trait mindfulness, leading to a greater awareness of internal and external experiences (labelle et al., 2015). with a low to an average perception of trait mindfulness, preservice teachers should pursue further mindfulness training. due to research supporting the direct relationship between the constructs of spirituality and mindfulness, mindfulness programs (inclusive of more secular programming) may be pursued. important to note in this discussion is the variance in response amongst early childhood education and elementary education programs. future studies need 217 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 to confirm these findings using samples that have a more balanced representation of educational programs. regression analysis is not conducted for patterns of influence because no grounded theory is established to communicate these relationships. the authors recommend additional studies using larger samples to interpret patterns of causality. limitations results of this study drew from a convenience sample of teacher education students who completed an attitudinal survey. the employment of more diverse and robust populations using purposeful sampling processes could provide for more nuanced analyses. although both mindfulness and spirituality have widely available research, mindfulness and spirituality are often conflated constructs that must be clearly defined when applied in combination. more research must be analyzed and added to the literature to clearly define the constructs of understanding and further awareness of the emerging themes within the study. in addition to clarifying the constructs -depth, the sample of participants must be reconsidered to cast a wider net on who is included in the study. due to the purposive sample used, the sample size of the groups is homogenous in population. as a result, it may be difficult to quantify a meaningful relationship within the variables. the sampling selection could be improved by obtaining a larger sample size, potentially by using preservice teachers outside of the classes selected for the study. the lack of diversity may fail to provide a clearer picture for a more generalizable population of preservice educators. likewise, most data are self-reported by the selected sample. self-reporting of inner states should be treated cautiously, as prior research reports that perception of inner states may appear disingenuous or lack awareness of self-knowledge (nisbett & wilson, 1977). future research may look at the possibilities of quantifiable measurements. conclusion this study found that preservice teachers lacked a present moment awareness or state mindfulness which showed lower to average levels of perception in trait mindfulness. respondents also reported being spiritually connected to the world but did not necessarily report a high perception of connectedness to a higher power. there appears to be a disconnect between internal and external self-awareness within preservice teachers. when looking at the intersectionality of the students’ perceptions, we may differentiate what connection to meaning-making, awareness, and spirit look like to folks prior to entering the fieldand it may be best suited to examine spirituality outside of religiosity. in jon kabat-zinn’s (1994) words, “perhaps ‘spiritual’ means simply experiencing wholeness and interconnectedness directly, a seeing that individuality and totality are interwoven, that nothing is separate or extraneous, and that everything is spiritual in the deepest sense, as long as we are there for it” (p. 182). continuing to cultivate the deeper meaning of teaching should happen prior to entering the classroom. upon hire, the stressful environment of in-service teaching may diminish overall health and well-being (farley & chamberlain, 2021; newberry & allsop, 2017). yet, due to the evidence presented in previous research, stating that both mindfulness and spirituality may alleviate burnout and increase efficacythe need to include much more profound concepts of meaning-making may be beneficial in teacher preparation programs. some teacher educators, such as parker palmer (2003), have suggested including the spirituality and deeper meaning of teaching in teacher preparation. palmer wrote that spirituality is "the diverse ways we answer the heart's longing to be connected with the largeness of life—a longing that animates love and work, especially the work called teaching" (1998, p. 3). such integration may facilitate other 218 jcsr 2021, 3(2):207-221 aspects of wellness, including but not limited to preparation in school life (nieto, 2003), critical awareness of inequality (marshall, 2009), and desire for inclusion (edwards & perumal, 2017). although the benefits are clear, perceptions and understanding of such constructs within teaching may not be. thus, there is a greater need to put mindfulness-based practices into the curriculum to ascertain the meaning-making of pre-service teachers prior to entering the field. references american council on education. 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(2018). considering the prospect of cultivating mindfulness in teacher education. issues in teacher education, 27(1), 57-72. https://www.itejournal.org/issues/spring-2018/08zimmerman.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/08854726.2020.1793095 https://doi.org/10.1080/15426432.2017.1295822 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rel2010029 https://doi.org/10.1080/2194587x.2016.1195752 https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.61.3.227 https://doi.org/10.21093/di.v19i2.1742 https://www.itejournal.org/issues/spring-2018/08zimmerman.pdf journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 37-56 curriculum development and accreditation standards in the traditional islamic schools in indonesia muhammad nasir * * institut agama islam negeri samarinda (state islamic institute of samarinda), samarinda, indonesia. e-mail: muhammadnasir@iain-samarinda.ac.id article info received: january 4, 2020 revised: april 23, 2020 accepted: june 21, 2020 how to cite nasir, m. (2021). curriculum development and accreditation standards in the traditional islamic schools in indonesia. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 3756. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.3 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract this research aims at describing qualitatively the reality of curriculum, instruction, and academic tradition development in madrasahs (traditional islamic schools) based on the school/madrasah accreditation standards in indonesia. the findings from this research show that madrasahs in indonesia generally have met the standards of curriculum development and the model of education unit level curriculum in terms of mechanism, document completeness and involvement of external parties in its development. the aspects of planning, learning document availability, instructional book, learning load and study group generally have met the standards of national accreditation. the weaknesses lie in the aspects of development, contents, strategy, study resources, media, model, approach and learning method that support the strengthening of students' higher order thinking skills (hots). the creation of academic atmosphere is weak when it comes to 1) conditioning students to become true life-long learners, 2) enhancing students' skill to think creatively, productively, and critically, 3) applying scientific approaches such as study tours, practices in the laboratory, seminars, demonstrations, and exhibitions and 4) strengthening students' skill to act individually, collaboratively, and communicatively. keywords curriculum development; madrasah; traditional islamic schools; accreditation standards; indonesia. 10.46303/jcsr.2020.3 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.3 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ nasir, m. 38 curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 introduction educational system in indonesia comprises two main subsystems —the general school education, which is under the administration of the ministry of education and culture (moec); and the madrasah education under the ministry of religious affairs (mora)— which maintains an oversight over both public and private madrasahs across the country. the law on national education no. 20 year 2003 formally integrates all madrasahs into the national education system, and they are required to follow the national curriculum and education standards set by the government. approximately 18% of all indonesian schools (primary and secondary) are madrasahs, with the majority (90%) being private madrasahs and only 10% being run by the state. in 2013, 87% of about 50 million students in the primary and junior secondary education system were enrolled in moec schools, while the remaining 13% were enrolled in madrasahs (asian development bank, 2015). in the face of the industrial revolution 4.0, madrasah as one of the islamic educational institutions surely faces a serious challenge. supriatna and ratnaningsih states that the challenges of madrasah in the globalized era include the rapid development of technology, particularly the information and communication technology, the existence of dominant culture coming from advanced countries that challenge muslim identities and islamic values, the integration of the world's community, and the changing social expectation towards educational institutions (supriatna and ratnaningsih, 2017). in addition to the external demands, madrasah also faces internal challenges as a basic and secondary educational institution with islamic spirit. in defending the characteristics of madrasah, madrasah graduates are not only demanded to compete in the millennial era and the industrial revolution 4.0 by mastering a number of competencies in the general sciences but the graduates of madrasah should also maintain their identity by strengthening their islamic philosophical, theosophical, and theological subjects. this study covers the fields of mantiq, nahwu, sharaf, al-muhadharah, al-insya (public speaking), tarikh tasyri' usul fiqh, fiqh (principles of jurisprudence), hadits, tafsir, balaghah, ma'ani, badi', bayan (the knowledge of interpretation or instrumental knowledge) (bustamam-ahmad, 2015). in the face of the two aforementioned challenges, madrasah has to present itself as an islamic educational institution that is capable of competing globally and provides quality assurance for the process and results of the study for their graduates. quality in education can be defined as a setting vision, mission, goal and target of the learning quality of madrasah that is beneficial and viable to achieve for students; b) developing the objectives of learning that are valuable and assertive; c) involving the process of meeting the academic standards to achieve the expectation of the society and the demands of government, business, and industry, students' aspirations and needs, and the requirements of professional institutions. in japan, for example, to globally competitive students, the government uses programme for international student assessment (pisa) that aims to assess main competencies. the japanese government has also prioritized the development of human resources that are needed to compete in the 39 curriculum development and accreditation standards curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 international community and pisa has a huge impact on the direction of japanese education (nakayasu, 2016). in order to assure the quality of process and graduates of all schools/madrasahs in indonesia, the indonesian government applied the national standards of education for schools/madrasahs through the government regulation no. 32 year 2013 (peraturan pemerintah ri nomor 32, 2013). this government regulation sets up eight national standards of education that serve as a guideline for all educational units in indonesia in managing education. the standards here are for the competencies of school graduates, standards of contents, standards of process, standards of educators and academic staff, standards for equipments and infrastructures, standards of funding, and standards of assessment. in observing the reality of curriculum development, the process of learning, and reality of academic tradition in madrasahs, the standards of graduate competencies, standards of contents, and standards of process are considered to include three aspects meant. theoretical framework according to the regulation of the minister of education and culture no. 02, 03, and 04 year 2017 on the national accreditation boards for schools/madrasahs, accreditation is an activity to assess the fitness of basic and secondary educational institutions, pre-school educational institutions, and non-formal education based on the criteria set forth to provide quality assurance in education (peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayaan nomor 002, 2017; peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayaan nomor 003, 2017; peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayan nomor 004, 2017). accreditation in education is the process of an association or institution in evaluating the quality of an educational institution formally to evaluate whether an institution meets or exceeds certain requirements and criteria that have been set from the criteria or quality standards of education. this institution sets the standards designed to reflect the quality of healthy educational programs. this institution develops the procedures to decide whether an educational institution and program meet the standard. in addition to setting the criteria, the association or accreditation institution holds the responsibility to visit and evaluate an institution, and provides accreditation to programs and institutions that meet their criteria (budiharso & tarman, 2020; ibrahim, 2014). in evaluating the quality of an educational unit, accreditation is one of the external forms of evaluation conducted by the government through the national accreditation board for schools/madrasahs (ban s/m). the internal evaluation can also be done with certain educational units through other modes of evaluation. one of the modes of evaluation that can be applied is the qualitative evaluation mode called the context, input product and process (cipp) model. this model was developed by stuffleben and friends in a book called educational evaluation and decision making. context evaluation includes teacher, learners, management, work facilities, work environment, regulation, role of school committee, society, and factors that nasir, m. 40 curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 affect the curriculum. input evaluation includes levels of advantage of various things present in the context of curriculum implementation. process evaluation includes the applicability of curriculum implementation that will show the strengths and weaknesses, and product evaluation that includes results of learning by comparing with standards set with implementation reality (hasan, 2008; nasir. 2017). the task of the national accreditation board (ban s/m) in indonesia includes setting the policies and developing the accreditation system in line with the principle of continuous quality improvement nationally, formulating the criteria and instruments of accreditation to be proposed to the minister, setting policies for implementing the accreditation, introducing policies, criteria, and instruments of accreditation, planning the target of accreditation nationally based on the ministry's priority, evaluating the process of accreditation and follow up of the accreditation, monitoring and evaluating the national accreditation board (ban) at the province level, providing recommendation based on the results of the accreditation, issuing the certificates of the results of accreditation to educational units, reporting the results of the accreditation to the minister, building collaboration with relevant shareholders at the national or international level, and run the administration of the national accreditation board (ban). all of these tasks are based on the regulation of the minister of education and culture no. 002/h/ak/2017 on the criteria and instruments of accreditation for general and islamic elementary schools, no. 003/h/ak/2017 on the criteria and instruments of accreditation for general/islamic middle school, and no. 004/h/ak/2017 on the criteria and instruments of accreditation for general and islamic high schools. the 2017 instruments of accreditation is a unit that consists of instruments, technical instructions, supporting data, and scoring system. accreditation is aimed to provide information on the fitness of the educational unit whether or not they have met the requirements set by the national standards for education (snp) through the recognition of the accreditation rank in supporting the quality assurance for accredited educational units and general public. this is important for a number of reasons, namely, a) as a reference to improve the quality of schools and school development plan; b) as a motivator for the educational unit in order to e able to compete comprehensively in improving the quality of education at the regional, national, or even international levels, c) as beneficial feedbacks in improving school performance in implementing the vision and mission, quality target; d) as information for schools as a learning community to gain supports from the government, community and private sectors in terms of professionalism, morality, human resources, and finance. in short, the function of accreditation includes recognition of the worthiness and accountability for public as the end users of the service, whether their demands have been met, and the improvement and development as a basis for all parties to improve and develop the quality of their education (haryati; 2014). the ideal demand of curriculum development for madrasahs is reflected in the content standards of accreditation. ideally, the curriculum of madrasahs has to be developed with the curriculum of educational unit level (ktsp) (muhaimin et al., 2008; nasir, 2015). the model 41 curriculum development and accreditation standards curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 criteria in general include: a) the formation of a madrasah curriculum developer team in charge of developing madrasah curriculum, involving various parties such as teachers of all subjects, counselors, madrasahs committee or educational administrators; b) the implementation of development procedures such as analysis of regulations, students' needs, educational unit, environment, availability of educational resources; c) the execution of curriculum development workshops that involve various related parties; d) the contents of curriculum document include context analysis, fundamentals for the development of curriculum, principles of development, vision, mission, and objectives of educational units, curricular contents or the structure of curriculum, students' study load, teachers' work load, academic calendar, local contents and assessment, syllabus with its various components, and the lesson plan (rpp) with the component standards inside (peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayaan nomor 002, 2017; peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayaan nomor 003, 2017; peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayan nomor 004, 2017). the ideal demand of learning process in madrasahs is reflected in the standards of learning process and curriculum. ideally, teachers have to: a) develop teaching media with their various components; b) apply the principles of proper learning; c) manage classes with a sense of humanity; d) choose a proper learning approach such as thematic approach and/or integrated thematic and/or scientific, student-centered approach and teacher-centered approach (arends, 2007); c) use a learning model that is in line with the characteristics of subjects such as inquiry learning (khalaf and zin, 2018; eggen et al., 1979), project-based learning, cooperative learning, problem-based learning, collaborative learning, contextual teaching and learning, and so on; f) use learning methods that are in line with the characteristics of the materials and condition of students such as lecture, demonstration, discussion, independent study, simulation, brainstorming, case study, seminar, tutorial, deductive, and inductive, and so on (peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayaan nomor 22, 2016). the creation of academic tradition in madrasahs is reflected in the standard of graduates' competencies that demands madrasahs to provide students with facilities for various activities or programs so that students: a) have a sense of spirituality; b) have social attitude; c) have characters that reflect the attitude of a true life-long learner; d) have attitude that reflects mental and physical health; e) have factual, conceptual, procedural, and metacognitive knowledge in accordance with their levels with regards to sciences, technology, society, surrounding community and nature, nation, and country; f) gain learning experience such as local arts and culture; and g) gain learning experience using information about the environment logically, critically, and creatively through the use of learning sources (peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayaan nomor 002, 2017; peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayaan nomor 003, 2017; peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayan nomor 004, 2017). the program of creating academic atmosphere that can be developed by teachers or madrasahs can be activities embedded into subjects or work programs that are separate from the subjects. nasir, m. 42 curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 chart 1: theoretical framework based on the above chart, it can be explained that curriculum development, learning process, and the creation of academic tradition in madrasahs are the main foundations in shaping the quality of graduates without ignoring other factors. when related to the theories of curriculum, all three are included in the anatomy of curriculum or components of curriculum, namely, objective, contents, and learning materials, learning and assessment method or strategies. (sukmadinata, 2008b; miller and seller, 1985; undang-undang ri nomor 20, 2003; print, 1993; hamalik, 2008; taba, 1971). methodology this research uses a qualitative approach that aims to reveal comprehensively and in details the accreditation of madrasahs in east kalimantan in 2017 involving thirty-three madrasahs, that include twelve islamic elementary school (madrasah ibtidaiyah/mi), fifteen islamic middle school (madrasah tsanawiyah/mts), and six islamic high schools (madrasah aliah/ma). the focus of this research is on curriculum development, learning process, and academic tradition in madrasahs in east kalimantan based on the results of accreditation for madrasahs in 2017. the data obtained through documentation and interviews were analyzed qualitatively to find patterns, forms, ideas, and explanations and understanding of particular data elements. the resulting patterns and ideas were then interpreted to produce a conclusion. the analysis on data from research results was conducted in three stages, namely: a) organizing data; b) summarizing data; and c) interpreting data (mcmillan, 2012; creswell, 2011; sugiono, 2008; sukmadinata, 2008a) and was concluded with drawing conclusion. in other words, the research process covers data collection, data categorization, data interpretation, and conclusion drawing (moleong , 2011). 43 curriculum development and accreditation standards curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 findings and discussion the curriculum of an educational unit has conceptually been invented by a number of curriculum experts starting from the mechanism, document contents, and the involvement of related parties. murry print, for example, developed one model known as the eclectic model, which includes three stages of development, namely, curriculum organization, curriculum development, and curriculum implementation. (print, 1993). limbong mentions the stages of curriculum development for an educational unit as consisting of formulating thought model, formulation vision, mission, and objectives, formulating the structure of program contents, selecting and organizing materials, organizing learning activities, selecting resources and learning instruments, and selecting assessment model (limbong et al., 2017). ralph tyler also proposes one model known as the rational model. tyler explains four stages that a developer has to go through in developing curriculum, which departs from four questions, namely: what educational purposes should the school seek to attain? what educational experiences can be provided that are likely to attain these purposes? how can these educational experiences be effectively organized? how can we determine whether the purposes are being attained? (tyler, 1971) besides such model, there are still various curriculum development models that, when analyzed and compared with one another, are fundamentally more or less the same. in general, the core of all existing models is how a curriculum developer can develop the components of a curriculum, which include the objectives, contents, learning, and assessment. the development mechanism and documents of curriculum for madrasahs research results show that madrasahs in east kalimantan have generally developed curriculum with the development model known as the educational unit level curriculum (ktsp) (muhaimin et al., 2008; mulyasa, 2009). philosophically, this model means that the curriculum has to be developed and implemented by an educational unit by involving all components of the madrasah and various related parties by still referring to the national standards that have been set through the government regulation no. 32 year 2013 and a number of regulations from the minister of education and culture as the derivatives. besides the development, contents or documents of curriculum for madrasahs in general meet the national standards for education in indonesia. it is known that; first, majority of the curriculum documents for madrasahs in east kalimantan have been developed by both designing and developing the purposes that emphasize students' spiritual attitude (core competency 1), students' social attitude (core competency 2), students' knowledge (core competency 3) and students' skills (core competency 4). under this condition, it can be ascertained that the curriculum documents for madrasahs in east kalimantan in line with the national standards and concept of islamic education that aims not only to develop intellectual intelligence and students' skills but also to develop social and spiritual intelligence as a whole and integrated. this integration of objectives is also reflected clearly in the objectives nasir, m. 44 curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 of national education as set forth in the law on national education system no. 20 year 2003, which states “the potency development of learners into a believing and pious individual, with a noble character, healthy, knowledgeable, capable, creative, independent, and democratic as well as responsible as a citizen”. this is in line with the domain of objectives as stated by bloom, that is, the cognitive domain that is related with learners' capability and intellectual aptitude to think, a domain affectively related with attitude, capability, and mastery of emotional, feeling, attitude and values practiced by learners; and the psychomotoric domain related to the physical skills and movements of learners (munir; 2008). second, the stages of developing curriculum and the contents of the curriculum documents for madrasahs in general have met the standards for curriculum contents for each educational unit levels (ktsp) because it has included context analysis, basis for the development of curriculum, principles of development, the tasks of elementary and secondary education, formulation of vision, mission, and the objectives of educational unit, structure and contents of curriculum, students' study load, teachers' work load, academic calendar, local contents, life skills, and class progression and assessment. this is seen from the documents of accreditation results that show that 85% of islamic elementary schools (mi), 88.3% of islamic middle school (mts), and 90.4% of islamic high schools (ma) have curriculum documents that are very complete or meet standards. this means that in general madrasahs in east kalimantan have met the content standards for curriculum documents although it still cannot be ascertained whether those documents have been developed independently by educational units or whether they have been duplicated from the documents of other educational units of the same level. third, the curriculum documents for madrasahs with the development model of curriculum of educational unit level (ktsp) has been accompanied with curriculum structure that covers subjects, structured and independent assignment design, study load, selfdevelopment and arts, crafts, and entrepreneurship and local contents. if we map out the contents and documents of this madrasah curriculum, in general the curriculum documents for madrasahs have met the principles of curriculum development theoretically and the flow of education described by diane lapp in their book entitled teaching and learning: philosophical, psychological, curricular applications. in this book, we can find four schools of education, namely a) classical education. this school of education emphasizes on curriculum contents that support how students can master various disciplines through mastery of contents of various subjects both religious and non-religious subjects; b) personalized education. this school emphasizes the contents of curriculum that enable students to develop their potentials, talents, and interests through various self-development activities; c) interactional education. this school emphasizes the contents of curriculum that enable students to understand, review, and complete social problems through social interaction in the form of local contents with various forms; d) technological education. this school emphasizes the contents of curriculum that encourage students to have competency for real life needs (life skill). this last model can also 45 curriculum development and accreditation standards curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 mean that students have to be equipped with technological skills that are compatible with the technological advancement of the time (lapp, 1975) table 1: the completion of development mechanism and documents accreditation-based curriculum for madrasahs no statement of accreditation standards islamic elementary school mi) /% islamic middle school (mts)/% islamic high school (ma)/% 1 curriculum documents that include the competency of students' spiritual attitude (ki1) 81.8 91.7 87.5 2 curriculum documents that include the competency of students' social attitude (ki2) 84.1 90 95.8 3 curriculum documents that include the competency of students' knowledge (ki1) 88.6 83.3 91.6 4 curriculum documents that include the competency of students' skill (ki1) 79.5 83.3 91.7 5 instruments for the education of religion and reason in line with the scope of the learning materials 90.9 6 integrated thematic learning media in line with the competencies and scope of learning materials on each class level. 75 7 curriculum documents are in line with the level of competency and scope of learning materials 88.3 % 79.17 8 curriculum development is in line with the education unit level curriculum (ktsp) by involving various related parties 79.5 83.3 95.8 9 curriculum documents completeness 93.2 95 95.8 10 stages of curriculum development; analysis, composition, decision, and legalization 97.7 90 79 11 curriculum structure, structured and independent tasks, learning load, selfdevelopment and arts, craft, and entrepreneurship. 79.5 86.7 100 fourth, the weakness in the level of completion of the accreditation-based development mechanism and curriculum documents for madrasahs that are seen in table 1 below are; a) islamic elementary school (mi) is still weak in terms of curriculum development by involving related parties (79.5%), completion of curriculum documents for madrasahs that develop structured and independent tasks, self-development and arts, craft, and entrepreneurship comply with the standards (79.5%), completion of integrated thematic learning instruments (75%); b) islamic middle school (mts) shows weakness in the curriculum development that nasir, m. 46 curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 include students' knowledge competency and skill competency (83.3%) and the completion of curriculum development in line with the ktsp model that involve various related parties (83.3%); c) islamic high schools (ma) show weaknesses in the stages of curriculum development in the form of analysis, composition, decision, and legalization (79%) and the completion of curriculum documents in accordance with the level of competency and the scope of the learning materials (79.9). with regards to the learning process in east kalimantan madrasahs, there are 21 indicators of learning process quality for all education unit levels from madrasah ibtidaiyah (mi), madrasah tsanawiyah (mts) to madrasah aliyah (ma). the twenty-one quality standard indicators can be divided into two big components if related to the tasks and responsibilities of learning process quality completion in the madrasah. first, the task and responsibility component of all madrasah teachers and, second, task and responsibility components of madrasah principles. task and responsibilities of teachers in learning process standard completion one of the national standards in education in indonesia is the educator and academic staff standard. among the educator standards in madrasahs is that educator has to have five basic competencies, namely, the pedagogical competence, personality competence, professional competence, and social competence (kumalasari et al., 2017; undang-undang ri nomor 14, 2005). besides the above-mentioned four competencies, religion teachers lso have to have one other competence, namely, the leadership competence. this last competence includes a) the ability of teachers to plan for setting the application of religious teachings and noble characters in the culture of school community as part of the process of learning religion; b) teacher's capability in organizing potentials of school elements systematically to support setting the application of religious teachings in the school community; c) teachers ability to become innovators, motivators, facilitators, guides, and counselors in the effort to set the application of religious teachings in the school community as part of the culture; and d) the ability of teachers to guard, control, and direct efforts to set the application of religious teachings in the culture of the school community and to maintain the harmony between believers of all religions in the fabric of the republic of indonesia (peraturan menteri agama ri nomor 16, 2010; sanjaya, 2008). the role of teachers today has changed and keeps changing from instructor to constructor, facilitator, coach, maintainer, and manager of students' learning environment. teachers are demanded to become facilitators that help the learners make assessment on the quality and validity of sources and new knowledge, act openly and professionally, critically and independently, active cooperators, collaborator, and mediators between learners, differentiate between "learning about" and "learning to become," make structures and supporting system that support the development of students' skills such as interactive learning, collaborative and independent among students, developing a learning environment that support critical thinking, creativity, and scientific learning among students, turning students into learners and life-long 47 curriculum development and accreditation standards curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 innovators (amin, 2016). teachers have to be encouraged to work in an interdisciplinary manner (alvunger, 2018) or not only understanding one discipline. in general, the learning process quality in madrasahs is already very good based on table 2 below, especially with regards to a) completeness of lecturers' syllabus that complies with the standards b) completeness of lesson plan; c) the availability of time allocation and learning load, d) the completion of learning group standards for each grade; e) the completeness of text books for each student; f) the ability of teachers to manage classes; g) the ability of teachers to open and conclude sessions. however, the aspects that constitute the weak points of the learning process of madrasah teachers are also found, especially related to the following matters: first, the majority of madrasah teachers use the expository learning model. this can be seen among islamic high school (ma) teachers (79.17%) and islamic middle school (mts) teachers (80%) who use the learning model that emphasizes student’s discovery and inquiry. this is contrary to the theory of child development. the age range of islamic high school (ma) and islamic middle school (mts) students, which is from 15 to 18, according to the theory of child development, allows children to think critically, solve problems, do independent research and develop knowledge through scientific research (suryabrata, 2007; slavin, 2018; dahar, 1989). therefore, at this level, teachers are no longer supposed to follow the curriculum that centers on transmitting knowledge to students, but they have to also be able to facilitate students to develop their knowledge independently through constructivistic learning model such as discovery learning, project based learning, problem-based learning, and inquity learnng at this point, students' competency is not only limited to the concepts of various subjects, but also various skills that are known as higher order thinking skill (hots). the effort to improve hots among students of higher levels is in line with the discourse of improving the quality of learning process to achieve maximum learning. one of the main characteristics of successful learning is reflected in knowledge, attitude, and skills shaped by habits and improvement of hots among students in a well-structured design (ramdiah et al., 2019; hanafi, 2016; mcneil, 2009). second, madrasah teachers still need to elaborate and combine various learning methods such as teaching methods that involve lectures, demonstration, seminar, tutorial, deduction, brainstorming, discussion, independent learning, simulation, case studies. this can be seen in table 2 that islamic elementary schools (mi) teachers (76.6%), islamic middle schools (mts) teachers (75%), and islamic high school teachers (77.5%) elaborate and combine well various learning methods. if we relate the objectives of learning in madrasahs with four categories, namely, spiritual, social attitude, knowledge and skill, then madrasah teachers have to understand well various learning methods. there are four families of teaching models offered by joyce and weil, namely, the humanistic model family, which aims to strengthen students' spiritual aspect; the information processing model family, which aims to strengthen students' cognitive aspect; the technological model family, which targets students' skills, and; the social nasir, m. 48 curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 model family, which aims to build students' social attitude (joyce and weil, 1996; ramayulis, 2008; daradjat, 2004). third, the use of teaching media by teachers needs to be increased by considering the technological and scientific advancement. the level of satisfaction in islamic elementary school (mi) is 79.5%), islamic middle school (mts) (85%), and islamic high school (ma) (79.2%). in the era of information and technological advancement such as today, madrasah teachers are supposed to be innovative and creative in developing and utilizing various learning media that are in line with the characteristics of students and the basic competence targeted by each subject. the works of teachers or the available media are supposed to be maximized by teachers to improve the interest and learning achievements of learners. unesco revealed that various computer-based technology has been utilized, such as to distribute lesson plans through cdrom's, arrange exchange programs through computer-conferences among schools and teachers, encourage the utilization of web-based materials, and use computer conferences to encourage discussions among learners (nasrullah, 2014; bostock, 2017). fourth, the completeness of text books for students is still considerably low. only 84.1% of islamic elementary schools (mi), 85% of islamic middle schools (mts) and 79.17% of islamic high schools (ma) have textbooks available for each subject for each student. ideally, there should not only be one learning source, i.e. text books, for students, but also other learning sources to widen and deepen students' horizon about various topics of studies. fifth, the learning approach of madrasah teachers still need to be strengthened with student-centered approach in line with the view (arends, 2014) and approach of scientific learning called for by the 2013 curriculum in indonesia. scientific in this manner is divided into three categories, namely: a) scientific activities towards affective competence through the affective process from the activities of accepting, practicing, appreciating, internalizing, and exercising; b) scientific activities towards knowledge through knowing, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating, and c) scientific activities for skill mastery through the activities of observing, questioning, trying, rationalizing, presenting, and creating (peraturan menteri pendidikan dan kebudayan nomor 22, 2016). table 2 below shows that 84.1% of islamic elementary school (mi) teachers, 81.7% of islamic middle school (mts) teachers, and 8035% of islamic high school (ma) teachers have applied combined learning methods that combine the teacher-centered approach and the student-centered approach. with this approach, it can be ascertained that students can develop knowledge to the best of their individual potentials. sixth, madrasah teachers have not maximized the use of authentic assessment in class, workshops, laboratories, or in their internship places through questionnaires, observation, anecdotes, and reflections. this can be seen in the fact that 78.3% of islamic middle schools (mts), 79.2% of islamic high schools (ma), and 81.8% of islamic elementary schools (mi) have maximized the use of authentic assessment. characteristically, students of islamic high school (ma) and islamic middle schools (mts) can well use the assessment desired by the government to improve their critical, creative, innovative, and collaborative thinking abilities continously. 49 curriculum development and accreditation standards curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 the weakness can be seen in the utilization of assessment results to conduct learning improvement through enrichment and remedial. teachers have to see students individually to identify their uniqueness. therefore, humanistic approach with various treatments have to be applied well by madrasah teachers in east kalimantan. remedial and enrichment activities are manifestations of humanistic approach in learning. this is in line with the view and agenda of education for united nations council that education is a fundamental human right and the right that enables a person to achieve more, education is a public right and education is gender equality that is strongly related to education for all (webb et al., 2017). table 2: the completion of teacher's tasks in the learning process in accreditation-based madrasahs no statement of accreditation instruments islamic elementary school (mi)/% islamic middle school (mts)/% islamic high school (ma)/% 1 syllabus standards completion 97.7 90 100 2 lesson plan 88.6 78.3 87.5 3 time allocation and learning load 93.2 96.7 100 4 study batch 88.6 93.3 91.67 5 text book completeness 84.1 85 79.17 6 classroom management 88.6 88.3 87.5 7 opening class 88.6 86.7 91.6 8 selection of learning model 86.4 80 79.17 9 implementation of learning model 76.6 75 77.5 10 utilization of learning media 79.5 85 79.2 11 selection of learning source to use 81.8 90 87.5 12 learning approach selected 84.1 81.7 80.3 13 closing lesson 81.8 % 86.7 87.5 14 utilization of authentic assessment 81.8 78.3 79.2 15 utilization of assessment results 81.8 75 87.5 therefore, teachers have to have skills related to the three domains in achieving the maximum quality of process and learning results in line with the objective, namely, the skills in designing curriculum, mastering pedagogical contents, and the skill in curricular consistency. this shows that teachers are curriculum designers (huizinga et al., 2014). with regards to madrasahs, teachers have to master the materials of islamic studies, master pedagogy, and understands research methodology. task and responsibilities of madrasah principals in the learning process madrasah principals do not only serve as the leader and manager but also serve as the superintendent. the superintendent role of madrasah principals has a significant relation with teachers' competence. this means that: a) teachers will have competence if the madrasah principals as school superintendents are involved actively in overseeing teacher's curriculum nasir, m. 50 curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 design; b) teachers can understand problems and can make wise decisions that influence students' education; c) teachers can do their tasks and perform their main functions and improve students' learning achievements. therefore, principals serve as the observers, superintendents, evaluators, and successors (purwanto, 2017). effective leadership of a madrasah principal can be seen from the aspect of effective implementation of leadership, instructional leadership, maintaining the atmosphere that centers on students, professional development and human resources management, involving parents and partnership with public, managing madrasahs effectively and implementing daily programs, applying effective interpersonal relations (wahyuddin, 2017). madrasah principals have to create the right condition to expand the field of studies, such as equality, environment, sex education, and drugs abuse in their teachings (alvunger, 2018). table 3: the satisfaction of madrasah principals' tasks in the standards of accreditation-based learning process no statement of accreditation instruments islamic elementary school (mi)% islamic middle school (mts) islamic high school (ma) 1 transparent and objective overseeing of learning process 88.6 86.6 87.5 2 conducting supervision of madrasah teachers' learning 88.6 90 79.1 3 monitoring the learning process by madrasah teachers 84.1 85 79.1 4 follow up on the results of supervision on the learning process by madrasah teachers 88.6 76.7 91.6 5 principals compose a report on learning monitoring 77.3 78 83.3 6 realization of the follow up on the supervision results of learning process 79.5 80 79.1 the reality of level of task completion of madrasah principals on the standards of learning process for madrasahs in east kalimantan, seen in table 3 above. in general, the main tasks and functions of madrasah principals as superintendents and to monitor that the learning process by teachers is running well. in particular, the weakness is seen in the performance of supervision on the learning process by islamic high school (ma) teachers (79.1%) and the follow up on the supervision results on the learning process by madrasah principals in islamic middle schools (mts) (76.7%). the weakness is on all levels in the performance of the monitoring of learning process by teachers, the composition of monitoring reports on the learning process and the realization of the monitoring results on the learning process by madrasah principals. 51 curriculum development and accreditation standards curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 the implementation of supervision on the learning teaching and teaching by madrasah teachers to make sure that teachers are more effective in teaching in the classroom and to assure that the quality can be improved from time to time. the instruments for supervising teachers' performance developed by puteri darishah et al. in kubang pasu middle school. kedah malaysia consisting of three aspects, namely: a) teaching and learning supervision instrument in the forms of knowledge, interpersonal skills and technical skills; b) attitude of teachers instrument and c) competency of teaching instrument that includes teaching strategies techniques, and method, communication with students.and the participation of student (darishah et al., 2017). school principal serves as an effective manipulator of teacher activity, he/she has to be smart, high initiative, and with the ability to supervise effectively. experts like ukeje, ogunsanju and nwaogu has identified four techniques of supervision by principals, namely: a) classroom visitation, which is the visit by principals to classrooms to see in person how teachers and students interact; b) workshop techniques, i.e. offering a group of people working together to identify problems and provide solutions to them during discussion and conferences under the supervision of sources and professionals; c) micro-teaching technique that gives the opportunity to superintendents and teachers to identify, define, try, explain, analyze, and retry certain teaching skills; d) research technique, i.e. investigating, which leads to new facts that need the use of research because it is related to factual observation in teaching-learning situation. through research, super intendents can solve problems of education that can ad to professional knowledge and growth as well as those of the teachers bellow them (hamalik, 2008). competence of madrasah graduates in indonesia to achieve graduates that meet the standards set by the national education standards, madrasahs have to have a good program of academic creation in every subject or program or activity independent from subjects. the description of the academic creation for madrasahs in east kalimantan is as described in table 4. table 4 provides the information that islamic high schools (ma) have several weaknesses in the creation of academic atmosphere to achieve the objectives or graduates' competence. efforts to condition learners to become true lifelong learners is very low and far from the national standards for education, which are 63.3% for islamic elementary schools (mi), 76.7% for islamic middle school (mts), and 62.5% for islamic high schools (ma). other weaknesses can also be seen in islamic middle schools (mts) and islamic high school (ma) in terms of the strengthening of students' creative, productive, and critical thinking through scientific approaches, such as study tours, laboratory practices, seminar and demonstration, and exhibition and strengthening of students' skill in acting independently, collaboratively, and communicatively through individual and group assignment, task reporting, presenting assignment results, involvement in committees, and involvement in various academic writing contests are done seriously by 16.66% of all madrasahs. nasir, m. 52 curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 table 4: the satisfaction of academic atmosphere creation for madrasahs based on accreditation. no statement of accreditation instruments islamic elementary school (mi)% islamic middle school (mts)% islamic high school (ma)% 1 strengthening sense of belief and piety to god almighty among students 93.2 98.3 91.7 2 strengthening students' social attitude 86.4 98.3 95.8 3 conditioning students to be true learners 63.6 76.7 62.5 4 activities of students' physical fitness 86.4 95 87.5 5 strengthening students' factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive knowledge 79.5 86.7 83.3 6 strengthening of talents in local arts and culture among students 77.3 7 creation of learning experiences in the forms of information on surrounding environment logically, critically, and creatively 84.1 8 strengthening the ability to think creatively, productively and critically among students 71.7 75 9 strengthening students' skills to act independently, collaboratively, and communicatively 81.7 75 several factors that might affect the weakness above in the creation of academic atmosphere in madrasah in east kalimantan, especially in islamic middle school (mts) and islamic high school (ma) to achieve the objectives or graduates competence, such as, the geographic condition of madrasah that is far from the city, the limited funding, motivation and discipline among teachers and students, the management of madrasah principal and the minimum infrastructures. aside from various factors, the strengthening of teachers' competence and creativity of madrasah principals in managing the ducation unit based on quality (arcaro, 2006) can be one of the ways to reduce such weakness. the success of a madrasah relies heavily on teachers and its leader. madrasah leader is a person granted the authority to bring a madrasah to achieve its desired goal. the acquired trust is surely based on several factors. the behavior of madrasah leaders is one of the main factors that decides the capability of a madrasah to achieve its vision, mission, goals and targets. this describes that the attitude of every madrasah principal as a leader of an educational institution is directed towards helping achieve the objectives of curriculum and education, so the school principal is required to guide, direct, assign, oversee, assess the performance of teachers in schools/madrasahs that 53 curriculum development and accreditation standards curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 he/she leads (purwanto, 2017; mujtahid, 2011; suparlan, 2013). aside from madrasah principals, teachers also have to understand three areas that strongly support the strengthening of academic atmosphere in madrasahs, namely, through a) konwledge of leaner and how they learn and develop within social contexts; b) conception of curriculum content and goal; an understanding of the subject matter and skill to be taught in light of the social purposes of education; c) an understanding on teaching in light of the content and learner to be taught, as informed by assessment and supported by classroom enviroments (darling-hommand, 2012). the ways developed by madrasahs to create an academic atmosphere include, among others, first, developing the model for collaboration among madrasahs, families, and communities. joyce epstein, for example, developed one model of collaboration between families, madrasahs, and communities to strengthen the professionalism of teachers in a socalled initial teacher education (ite) programmes. one of the emphases of this model is on the fact that teachers have to communicate routinely with parents, leaderships and communities or madrasah committee to achieve the goal of madrasahs that have been set (willemse et al., 2018). other factors include teachers' task to develop a learningt hat can develop students' critical thinking ability such as through simple debate in class. this debate can develop the critical, transformative, and philosophical thinking tradition among students (moh yamin, 2010). educators have to be able to create a social atmosphere in the classroom that encourages curiosity among students and can develop students' knowledge independently through the process of assimilation, accommodation, disequilibration, and equilibration. then, teachers have to develop research based learning (rbl) that can change students' mindset, express things that are not known to students, train students to conduct simple research, improve academic achievements, promote learning process, and encourage students to develop knowledge (suntusia et al, 2019). dwi nugroho offers the learning of surrounding environment, school at work, meaningful project, programmed project and center of attention (hadiyanto, 2009). conclusion curriculum development for madrasahs, learning process, and creation of academic atmosphere are main factors in deciding the level of satisfaction of education goals with various categories. the main actor of this process are teachers and madrasah principals. teachers have to understand various theories, policies, and implementation of curriculum and learning to face the advancement of science and technology, the demand and interest of the society and the characteristics of students in the millennial era. a madrasah principal as the authority of an education unit has to understand the concept, main task, and functions particularly those related directly to the quality of graduates such as nasir, m. 54 curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):37-56 curriculum document development, learning and academic tradition of the madrasah through periodical and quality supervision and monitoring of learning process by teachers. references alvunger, daniel. 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(2018). family-school partnerships: a challenge for teacher education, journal of education for teaching, 44(3), 252-257. yamin, moh. (2010). manajemen mutu kurikulum pendidikan: panduan menciptakan manajemen mutu berbasis kurikulum yang progresif dan inspiratif. yogyakarta: diva press. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 95-112 teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology in rural primary schools to enhance the teaching of english first additional language margaret malewaneng maja* * department of curriculum and studies, university of south africa, pretoria, south africa email: majam@unisa.ac.za article info received: august 3, 2022 accepted: november 26, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite maja, m. m. (2023). teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology in rural primary schools to enhance the teaching of english first additional language. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 95-112. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.8 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology in rural primary schools play a substantial role in the intermediate phase (grades 4 to 6) in enhancing the teaching of english first additional language (efal). however, in a country such as south africa, teachers experience barriers such as time constraints, load shedding, a lack of facilities, a lack of digital skills and an internet connection which challenges the incorporation of technology in language lessons in this posthumanism era. this study explored teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology in efal classes in rural primary schools in limpopo, south africa. there are several studies on how teachers feel about using technology in secondary schools and higher education, but only a few have concentrated on rural primary schools specifically the intermediate phase. therefore, this area deserves further investigation to add to empirical data. an interpretivist paradigm guided this study informed by the technology acceptance model (tam). an exploratory qualitative case study used semi-structured interviews for data gathering. ten intermediate phase efal teachers were selected with the help of purposeful sampling. using thematic analysis, the obtained data were categorized into codes and themes. it was found that teachers are willing to use technology to teach efal as it has revolutionized their teaching and appreciated its productivity in their teaching activities. it is advised that efal teachers receive additional in-service training on integrating technology into efal teaching. the acquired skills from the training may assist in time management and how to cope working with limited resources. keywords barriers, digital skills, learners, pedagogical practices, posthumanism, technology 10.46303/jcsr.2023.8 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.8 96 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 introduction teachers’ perceptions play a significant role in integrating technology (generally: computers, videos, hardware, software, and networks) in rural primary schools to enhance the teaching of english as an additional language. ventouris et al. (2021) assert that the integration of technology is centred on teachers’ perceptions of technology’s value as a tool in teaching english first additional language (efal). when using technology in classrooms, it is positioned as a tool that can improve the teaching, learning and assessment process in creative ways (lotherington et al., 2021), which means that the use of technology can enhance teachers’ practice and learners’ learning. however, teachers’ perceptions on how to integrate technology in teaching, specifically in the rural intermediate phase (grades 4 to 6), need to be explored in order to profit from its significant advantages in the teaching of efal. the technology-based teaching and learning environment has the motivation to benefit teachers and learners alike to address the posthumanism era's pedagogies (maphosa et al., 2021). ningsih (2021) asserts that the posthuman era is a reminder of the lack of technology literacy and resources for socially marginalized teachers. this paper argues that understanding the teachers' opinions about the use of technology in the teaching of efal, especially in rural primary schools, may mitigate negativities prevailing amongst the teachers in order to enhance the teaching of a second/additional language. the posthumanism world has taught teachers how to handle the kinds of complexities brought by developments in technology which were limited during the humanism era. posthumanism challenges the anthropocentric ideas that elevate human beings above other species (yan et al., 2020). the critique of humanism proposes that we already live in a posthuman reality due to technological developments in teachers’ practices. theresa (2021) asserts that according to posthumanism, we ought to give up conceiving ourselves as superior to the rest of the world, embrace the interconnectedness and interdependence of everything, and acknowledge that we are an integral component of nature. the central concept of posthumanism is entanglement, which refers to an ensemble of entities and beings that are also entangled with a variety of other ensembles, in the environment it inhabits and the technology it uses (blaikie et al., 2020). the authors affirm that employing the posthumanism approach means that there is a need for re-evaluating teaching practices, the production of knowledge and the dissemination of these concepts. thus, posthumanism is referred to as a posthumanist manifestation in pedagogical practice (rashid et al., 2021). these researchers add that the posthuman viewpoint on pedagogy offers fresh and exciting ways to advance toward a true social transformation of learning based on technology with the idea that humanity can be transformed, transcended, or eliminated either by technological advances or the evolutionary process (rashid et al., 2021). therefore, a posthumanism pedagogy seeks a genuine and believable social transformation amid socio-economic background differences by rejecting anthropocentrism (a time when humans are seen as the most important thing on earth than other entities) and considering the ever-evolving technology (chithra, 2019). 97 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 complications of the twenty-first century have forced modern man to consider posthumanism. for example, in 2020, the covid-19 pandemic confined every human being across the globe to one place which was home. schools were closed and teachers had to devise other pedagogical practices that could reach learners. according to evans-amalu and claravall (2021), the pandemic changed education because teachers were forced to use and learn digital technology and incorporate a variety of digital tools into their teaching practice. therefore, the posthumanism approach was an option. the pandemic left efal teachers with little choice, but to transition to technology integration in their teaching. in south africa, particularly in the province of limpopo, rural primary school teachers were not left behind in this rejection of the anthropocentrism era. the entanglement was a way, to provide borderless teaching in rural communities, as chisango et al. (2020) confirm that since the advent of technological improvements, learning is no longer confined to physical locations and may now occur anywhere at any time. chithra (2019) attests that both the teachers and the learners have evolved into posthumans in every way, thanks to technology and modern living. therefore, this study sought to explore teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology in rural primary schools to enhance the teaching of english first additional language. against the above background, the research set out to answer the following question: what are teachers’ perceptions of integrating technology in rural primary schools, particularly in the intermediate phase to enhance the teaching of english first additional language? this paper is arranged as follows: theoretical framework, methodology, findings, discussion and conclusion. theoretical framework the study is grounded in davis's (1986) technology acceptance model (tam), which is appropriate for the posthumanism era. tam aims at predicting and evaluating people’s willingness to accept technology. the idea focuses on how technology is used, with perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use being the two factors most strongly affecting someone's willingness to utilize technology (liu et al., 2010). in contrast to perceived ease of use, which refers to how much individuals believe a specific technology would be simple to use, the perceived utility of technology is described as a person's perception that utilizing a particular technology will boost productivity (davis, 1986; ertmer, 1999). technology integration and utilization in the classroom are governed by the idea of perceived usefulness and ease (ghavifekr & rosdy, 2015). this approach also highlights obstacles and advocates for technology integration in the teaching of efal. tam strives to offer a framework for monitoring the impact of outside factors on internal attitudes, intentions, and beliefs (davis, 1986; muchran & ahmar, 2018). according to abukhattala (2016), a key factor in the success of implementation is the attitude of teachers, who ultimately decide whether to integrate technologies into efal teaching as well as how to do so. tam, which aims to provide a framework for tracking the impact of environmental factors on internal attitudes, beliefs, and intentions, was deemed relevant as the study focused on efal teachers' perspectives of integrating technology in rural primary schools. when 98 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 analyzing the literature, the theory was employed; for example, teachers thought that implementing specialized technological software for data needs, monitoring, and marking was a way to lessen the burden (roberts, 2016). this article aligns with the teachers’ comments (roberts, 2016) because they are consistent with the study's theory of choice. the theory was suitable since it permitted the author to ground the study in the posthumanism perspective which aligned with the study's findings. literature review the use of technology in teaching efal masruddin (2014) claims that teachers’ move to using technology to teach is a paradigm shift in the organization and routine of the classroom. the potential of new technical tools to change an out-of-date educational system, better educate learners for the information age and expedite national development efforts has been a driving force behind the global use of technology in teaching (katemba, 2020). for instance, teaching can now take place everywhere, with no distance limitation and at any time with technological advancements (chisango et al., 2020; kalimullina et al., 2021; konyana & motalenyane, 2022; rahayu & wirza, 2020; tsakeni, 2022). furthermore, teachers today have access to a variety of educational resources because of technology. alqahtani (2019) asserts that modern sound and visual effects, computerized display devices, and english content that mirrors real-life circumstances are more effective than traditional methods and capture the interest of learners who are then motivated to learn. according to research by rahayu and wirza (2020), 59.4% of efal teachers had a good opinion of the use of technology in their lessons and acknowledged its value for teaching. teachers claimed that technology increased their digital skills and enhanced their use of a variety of methodologies, which led to better educational outcomes. one of the most important advantages of using technology in the teaching of efal, according to teachers, is that it provides a visual as well as a word to improve vocabulary in the target language and the limitation of spelling errors that may occur without becoming aware (harvil, 2018). furthermore, it allows repetition to improve listening and speaking as needed, and the audio system enhances and clarifies the teacher's pronunciation (harvil, 2018). in the united kingdom, ventouris et al. (2021) found that efal teachers held positive views on integrating technology in teaching, by affirming that the practice did not change their role as teachers but improved their quality of teaching. teachers found technology integration in the teaching of efal to be beneficial, especially when done in a balanced way that does not obstruct other learning opportunities; for example, achieving a good balance of digital and non-digital learning activities. chabinga (2021) discovered that some teachers in zambian primary schools thought the zedupads were a powerful linguistic multimodal and semiotic instrument that changed not just the way teachers taught, but also the learners' attitude toward learning. this shift in learners' attitudes resulted in a progressive gain of literacy and competency, as seen by the new vocabulary learned since the introduction of tablets into the classrooms. according to the teachers' comments in roberts' (2016) study, adopting specialized technological software for 99 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 marking, monitoring, and data requirements was a way to lighten the strain. this suggests that government policy that is sensible and well thought out can help to prioritize teachers' workload. rwodzi et al. (2020) found that even though the department of basic education’s policy does not recommend using social media to teach efal, teachers in south africa believed that sharing online resources with learners on social media groups for research produced positive outcomes. chisango et al. (2020) found that teachers showed a good attitude toward technology adoption and were willing to integrate technology into teaching and learning though there were obstacles that challenged the process. buabeng-andoh (2012) confirms that if teachers have a favorable attitude toward integrating technology, they will be able to offer helpful advice on how to embrace and integrate it into efal teaching. technology and learners’ learning technology gives learners rapid access to knowledge, enhancing learning both in and outside of the classroom (solano et al., 2017). most of the teachers indicated that learners today are far more digitally empowered and have a plethora of possibilities for learning in their own time and space and according to their own interests (mollaei & riasati, 2013). through virtual classrooms, a motivated learner can absorb knowledge even without the teacher's direct involvement (chithra, 2019). technology has huge learning potential both in and outside the traditional classroom setting because it facilitates access to a variety of learning resources using different platforms, making it easier for learners to participate in lessons taught by native speakers (bećirović et al., 2021; rahayu & wirza, 2020). according to hazarika (2017), using technology to teach learners fosters their ability to think positively and communicate in the target language because it raises learners’ engagement and motivation as well as their sense of autonomy and exposure to the native culture. it also improves teacher effectiveness and teacher-learner interaction. barriers to technology integration in efal teaching several studies showed contrasting results and findings on the perceptions of teachers regarding the incorporation of technology in efal classes. teachers in the netherlands expressed a lack of knowledge on integrating social media into their lesson plans out of a fear of losing control over easily distracted learners (van den beemt et al., 2020). research conducted by buabeng-andoh (2012), raman and yamat (2014), and muia et al. (2022) found that administrative work like filling out record book forms, creating report cards, and keeping attendance records contributed to teachers' concerns about being overworked. this led to the rejection of incorporating technology tools into the teaching of english lessons because of their concentration on curriculum coverage and assessment. teachers also were concerned about the challenge of integrating technology in their lessons with classes comprised of a large number of learners. chisango et al.’s (2020) research discovered that in rural secondary schools in the eastern cape of south africa, the infrastructure, poor electricity supply, internet connectivity, teachers’ 100 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 lack of necessary ict skills and their attitude were barriers to the successful integration of technology in their efal lessons. in zambia, teachers’ lack of skills on how to utilize the zedupad tablets was a struggle over a period of time before becoming more at ease with their application. the findings of hazarika’s (2017) study demonstrated that barriers to improving efal included teachers' excessive reliance on various technological mediums and a lack of spoken communication among learners. the replacement of the teacher's voice with mechanical and pre-arranged content, technological mediums that lack real-time impact and also a failure to provide crucial feedback, were also seen as barriers to efal enhancement. teachers in lowincome communities said that 40% of their learners can only access internet materials through their parents' smartphones (ventouris et al., 2021) which was perceived as being unfair, as online teaching and learning only benefits a specific portion of learners. situating the gap: teachers’perceptions of integration technology in teaching efal in limpopo although numerous researchers have studied the perceptions of teachers on incorporating technology in schools, little research has been conducted on their perceptions in efal classes particularly in the intermediate phase (learners of ages between 10 and 12) in rural primary schools in the province of limpopo. tshiovhe and monobe (2021) conducted a study on the integration of pedagogical technology into the professional development of accounting teachers in limpopo secondary schools. they concluded that the integration of pedagogical technology should be included when accounting teachers receive professional development and that this should be a continuous development process. the study conducted by lekgothoane (2021) investigated the general levels of digital classroom technologies and teachers’ usage of technology in selected schools in limpopo. the findings of this study identified a low level of digital classroom technology integration, due to inadequacies of digital classroom technologies, lack of internet connectivity, lack of adequate teacher training on digital classroom technology and failure in the implementation of e-education policy. the study concluded that schools that were serviced by the limpopo colab project lacked digital classroom facilities to practice what was learned during training. another study was conducted by thaba-nkadimene and mogatli (2020) on the experiences and reflections of principals and teachers on the use of educational technology in selected rural schools in the mopani district of limpopo. the findings revealed a lack of modern educational technology in schools with subsequent minimal usage levels. based on various studies in the technology field, the author argues that this paper is unique and contributes in a different way to the ongoing discussion in this field. firstly, there are no similar studies conducted on the integration of technology in the teaching of efal in rural primary schools in this posthumanism era, specifically in the intermediate phase in this province. therefore, it fills the gaps and expands the body of knowledge in this field. secondly, it is conducted in a rural area where less attention has been given to efal teachers who have often been overlooked in research. methodology 101 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 this study was carried out in a rural area of limpopo, south africa. there are fourteen primary schools classified under quintile one in this area. quintile one schools, which are non-fee-paying schools, are considered to be the poorest because of both the surrounding community's poverty and specific infrastructural issues (grant, 2013). some of the classes in these schools are overcrowded while others meet the south african primary school-teacher ratio of 40:1 (department of basic education, 2016). the study employed a qualitative interpretivist approach to investigate how teachers felt about incorporating technology in efal classes located in rural primary schools. a qualitative interpretivist investigation identifies and describes what individuals do in their daily lives, as well as the significance of their actions (denzin & lincoln, 2018). additionally, data are frequently acquired in the natural settings of participants using qualitative data-gathering methods. in this paper, an exploratory case study design was employed. yin (2003) affirms that a case study should be conducted to look into the issue when the phenomenon being analyzed does not have a distinct, singular set of outcomes. ten efal teachers were chosen through a purposeful sampling process from five primary schools located in rural areas. purposeful sampling assisted in selecting the participants and the site, which has been found to be beneficial because individuals and sites are chosen for possessing information and characteristics in which the researcher is interested (creswell, 2014). as the author has access to the circuit at the designated primary schools as part of the community engagement project, the data were collected through in-depth face-to-face interviews during the monitoring and support phase. the biographical details of the participants are listed in table 1. table 1: the participants' biographical information school participant s gender ages of participants number of learners in the class teaching experience (in years) a t1 female 39 63 17 a t2 female 49 68 21 b t3 female 30 65 6 b t4 male 49 59 22 c t5 female 42 38 17 c t6 male 51 37 19 d t7 male 55 40 25 d t8 female 37 36 11 e t9 male 37 35 10 e t10 female 59 30 30 102 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 detailed face-to-face interviews were conducted because they allowed the researcher to gain a thorough grasp of an individual or situation. the aim of the inquiry was described to the research participants, and they were asked to consent to have their comments voice recorded. the interviews were conducted with ten participants and with each interview lasting around 30 minutes. during the interviews, the author was able to ask the participants questions, learn more about their views, opinions and ideas on a given topic (strydom & bezuidenhout, 2014). the in-depth interviews were appropriate for the study because the objective was to learn more about teachers' viewpoints on using technology in facilitating efal lessons. to establish trustworthiness, the study involved member checks and extensive engagement in the field. additionally, throughout the study, all procedures and actions that the author took were documented. anney (2014) suggests that the researcher keep a reflective notebook to document all fieldwork-related activities as well as record personal observations regarding the study. data analysis the six stages of thematic data analysis described by braun and clarke (2006) were applied in this study: gaining familiarity with the information, creating preliminary codes, searching for themes, reviewing those themes, explaining and labeling the themes, and report writing. a professional transcribed all the interviews and thereafter, the author read the transcribed information several times. common phrases were categorized based on what the participants said. each sentence was assigned a code, and highlighters were used to show similar or related ideas. following that, the numerous codes were categorized and organized into themes. thereafter, the prospective themes were re-evaluated and grouped together with the overlapping ones, fine-tuned, and every now and then matched to the raw data. the key to each theme was determined and named using the participants' verbatim comments relating to the research question. finally, a written narrative report was generated, based on the findings that emerged from the analyzed interviews. ethical issues participants at the sampled primary schools were all efal intermediate phase (grades 4 to 6) teachers. to preserve the schools’ and participants' identity and confidentiality, pseudonyms were used, and they were referred to, for example, as school a teacher 1: sa-t1, sa-t2, to set10. before the study began, permission was received from the author’s university (ethical clearance number: 2017/09/13/90233522/01/mc), the limpopo province department of education, the circuit office, and the participating schools and teachers. the author followed all research ethics guidelines. findings this study sought to investigate teachers’ perceptions of using technology in the teaching of efal in primary schools located in rural areas. three themes that resulted from the data analysis are as follows: technology has reduced teachers’ overload and revolutionized teaching; learners 103 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 find technology easy to use and barriers to implementation of technology. each theme is briefly presented below. technology has reduced teachers’ overload and revolutionized teaching most of the schools in this circuit report that their teachers have integrated technology in the teaching of efal in their classes. all the participants in the study believed that teaching has been transformed with technology and were positive about the varied benefits of technology when teaching efal, which is comprised of four components: listening and speaking, reading and viewing, writing and presenting and finally, language structures and conventions. their responses were in relation to what they experienced before and after the integration of technology into their teaching practice. sb-t3 reported on the change that technology has made to her teaching: the teaching has been revolutionized, the old is gone and the new makes everything very effective. teaching and learning can happen anywhere and anytime. even when the teacher is absent from school, technology makes it easier for anyone to teach his/her class in his or her absence with the planned lesson. sc-t5’s response was similar to the above: i can say it saves time and shortens the distance for all of us as stakeholders as emails can be sent with attached documents needed in teaching and it can also be accessed by any stakeholder involved in the department of education. sb-t4 shared the same view as above: the advantage of using these devices is that they reduce overloading such as handwritten work, integrate all the subjects, talk less and spelling mistakes which can be a burden to the teacher. the teaching and learning environment becomes conducive to active participation. from all the above responses it can be deduced that the participants perceived the usefulness of technology in their teaching of efal. the indication is that in the posthuman era, teaching has changed for the better since the integration of technology, certain administrative tasks are more easily facilitated, communication is improved and the use of technology in teaching motivates active participation of the learners and thus creating a more engaging environment. learners find technology easy to use the goal of technology integration in efal teaching should be to improve all four language components. sd-t8 explained that technology has helped her use a variety of methods to incorporate different learning styles: technology is easy to use for learners because most of them like music. when they see you bringing the speakers into the classroom, they automatically pay attention. sa-t2 acknowledged that the use of technology encouraged active participation which is vital when learning a language: 104 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 i can assure you that learners will go very far because of this integration. it encourages confidence in speaking and reading. sc-t6 concurred with sa-t2 and explained that technology offers access to a wide range of media: learners can learn easier because they can see pictures. when they see the pictures, they understand the written words and learn easier to their full potential. teaching is easy, and learners’ understanding is easy. the responses above portray that, participants were conscious of the advantages of technology utilization in teaching all four language skills. technology takes into account various learning styles. it brings a virtual learning environment into the physical classroom environment. as learners learn through what they see, what they hear and what makes sense to them, learning is internalized. barriers to the implementation of technology although the teachers were supportive of the use of technology in teaching efal, they also mentioned several challenges and disadvantages of its use. sa-t1 identified challenges that she had experienced in her lesson preparation: we need to acknowledge that technology also has its own disadvantages. like sometimes it needs preparation time for searching material on the internet while we need to finish the curriculum with time constraints. sometimes there is load shedding and you find that the batteries are low. we also struggle with the internet connection as the router is placed in the office and our classrooms are far from the office. if you want to use the internet you have to arrange with the whole school not to connect and move the class next to the office. sd-t7 acknowledged that not all teachers were equipped with the relevant technology skills. he suggested that: we still need more training in digital skills. i still need to understand how to set up a google classroom. more training is needed on this as anything can happen again, and learners have to stay home. for example, the floods we experienced in this part of our country. in terms of challenges that teachers face in the classroom, se-t9 observed the need to monitor learners’ engagement with technology: i have realized that they[learners] need monitoring if you give them those gadgets, they will listen to music, and do what not tasked with, so you need to monitor them. sa-t1 indicates a shortage of equipment, especially with large numbers in classes: some lessons need learners to work on individual computers and a large number of learners makes it difficult as i have to divide the group into two with the lack of these facilities. from the responses above, as sa-t1 has indicated, it is evident that the majority of participants encountered difficulties implementing technology in the teaching of english first an 105 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 additional language. difficulties such as time constraints, load shedding (a controlled method for dividing up the electricity that is available to customers by eskom, the south african electricity supplier), internet connection, training in digital skills, learners monitoring during the use of devices, lack of digital devices and large classes. one participant indicated the floods experienced in the province of kwa-zulu natal in 2021, disrupted schooling and access to the internet, as an example. discussion technology has reduced teachers’ overload and revolutionized teaching the purpose of this study was to investigate how teachers in rural primary schools felt about using technology to improve the teaching of english first additional language. most of the teachers sampled were female which is typical in south african primary schools where female teachers outnumber male teachers (davids & waghid, 2020). sampled participants were very experienced in their efal teaching and have experience teaching in the humanism and the posthuman era. for example, giudici et al. (2020) note that teachers’ roles will change significantly from humanism to a posthuman era as a result of learners' familiarity with technology and the need for technology to be increasingly used in the classroom. teachers will become mentors, mediators, guides, facilitators, learning coordinators, and compilers of learning tools. therefore, it is crucial to investigate how they view the use of technology in the teaching of efal. this study revealed that teachers perceived that technology has revolutionized their teaching. teachers indicated that teaching and learning can happen anywhere and anytime, technology saves time and reduces the distance and overloading such as handwritten work, integrates all the subjects and the lesson is less teacher centred. cook (2016) verified that in the posthumanism era, teachers can be seen writing on a screen-displayed pad rather than on the chalkboard. this depicts them as cyborgs and attests that the teachers are becoming more dependent on technology. the assumption is that teachers view technology integration from different perspectives. learners find technology easy to use the efal teachers’ perceptions were also based on how they perceived the integration as useful to the learners. teachers felt that technology supports the teaching of the four language components of efal. the use of a wide range of technology applications such as speakers in the classroom increases learner engagement, encourages active participation and motivates listening, speaking, viewing and reading as well as tapping into different learning styles. this aligns with parvin and salam (2015) who observed an improved learning environment when audio-visual material was used during the observation of classes in rural government primary schools in bangladesh where learners demonstrated extraordinary alertness, enthusiasm and curiosity. technology allowed the learners easy access and use of the information such as pictures or visual representations, increasing vocabulary and the understanding of the subject matter. to support this, ceder (2019) attests that through the use of a technological device, virtual reality can be accessed, and learning about the difference between virtual and physical 106 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 reality takes place. this permits learner engagement and connection which enhances the learning of the language. this is supported by nkengbeza et al.’s (2022) observation of teachers who expressed that accessing a variety of online teaching resources facilitated the teaching and learning process and accelerated their learning of the language. the participants indicated that the use of technology, assisted in the planning of lessons with access to a wide range of information and the word processing apps assist in eliminating errors such as spelling and grammar mistakes (harvil, 2018). pen and paper are considered less desirable by teachers in the posthuman era. technology usage has become an option for teachers as it saves time and minimizes errors that one might create when using pen and paper. educational resources from the internet can also strengthen the teachers’ planning as new ideas can be learned from other teachers and efal specialists shared on the internet. this implies that the cyborg teachers’ ability to perceive the usefulness and the ease of technology in efal lesson planning and presentation has transformed their everyday tasks. the participants showed a willingness in accepting and using technology and appreciated its productivity in their teaching activities. some reported that their workload had been reduced. therefore, the use of technology facilitated the teaching and learning process. this finding contradicts raman and yamat (2014) who found that teachers hesitantly used technology as they indicated that they were overburdened with administrative duties where different forms have to be completed. the move to technology use where lessons are planned and recorded in an electronic file ensures that when a teacher is absent, substitute teachers can use the planned lesson to teach the class. this suggests that the teaching and learning process is not interrupted but is facilitated by technology. technology applications such as emails save time as documents needed by the other stakeholders can be shared as quickly as possible unlike traveling to the required offices or departments. according to mladenova et al. (2021), teachers and learners can both teach and learn from any location at any time thanks to email's increased flexibility in time management and ease to use and comprehension. therefore, teachers believe that using specific technology increases productivity. this belief corroborates the idea that the purpose of the information system is to improve job performance (davis, 1986) as emails address a wide range of technical support and teaching arrangements issues (jung et al., 2021). barriers to the implementation of technology despite the teachers’ positive attitudes, challenges in the use of technology in the teaching of efal were experienced. considerable time for preparation was needed for searching the material on the internet while the load shedding, where power cuts were regularly experienced, was problematic as electronic devices could not be used or could not be recharged. much time was needed for the completion of the curriculum; therefore, technology integration was sometimes seen as time-consuming. in some classes, there were insufficient computers to accommodate a large number of learners resulting in dividing the class into two groups so that learners could use computers in turns, which required additional time. monitoring of learners 107 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 when using the gadgets was also highlighted as a challenge as learners strayed from the task at hand, using technology for pleasure rather than for learning. the fact that teachers lacked digital literacy posed further difficulties. this indicated the need for more training on how to set up activities that would able them to teach remotely, for instance, google classroom. acquisition and development of technology knowledge and skills would assist in teachers in being prepared to teach online if turbulences such as those experienced during the pandemic, but it would also ensure that teachers could effectively integrate technology into their practice. this is confirmed by participant sd-t7 who indicated the floods experienced in kwa-zulu natal in april 2022 where learners and teachers were unable to attend school due to flooded roads. this shows that it is not only a pandemic such as covid19, that could also distract the normal operation of schools. therefore, posthuman pedagogies are a solution to these turbulent situations that are disruptive to traditional teaching and the learning environment. this idea is supported by marais (2021) who emphasizes that teachers need digital competencies to be able to create their own resources and make use of technology to make smart decisions. the finding is in line with katemba's (2020) assertion that the main issue is the lack of in-depth continuing professional development for teachers who are expected to integrate new technologies into their classes. currently, the difficulties that teachers encounter is that there are disparities across the country – with some provinces being more adequately serviced and resourced with technology. teachers and learners in rural communities have limited access to digital devices and internet network connectivity. this is confirmed by the participant sa-t1 who indicated that ‘we also struggle with the internet connection as the router is placed in the office and our classrooms are far from the office.’ researchers like dube (2020) and bacher-hicks et al. (2021) support the participant’s statement by indicating that online learning appears to favour wealthy communities, widening the gap between rich and poor. for example, the integration of technology into teaching in urban schools is possible due to affordability and internet connection infrastructure in contrast to schools located in rural areas where there is a lack of internet connectivity facilities. the collected data revealed that the routers provided by the department of education are not powerful enough to cover the entire school and allow for the simultaneous use of multiple devices. this challenges teachers’ access to connectivity at their own desirable times in order to present their lessons. the main focus of this study is developing an understanding of the teachers' point of view on the integration of technology in their practice which can provide valuable insight as well as the practical challenges surrounding the use of technology in the teaching of efal as a tool for enhancing learners’ acquisition and development of a second/additional language. in the posthumanism era, teachers' perspectives can be beneficial in the selection and implementation of pedagogical practices that incorporate digital resources. 108 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 95-112 conclusion the aim of this study was to elicit the perceptions of teachers regarding the use of technology in rural primary schools to enhance the teaching of english first additional language. it was found that there is a willingness to adopt technology in the efal classes as it could be seen as revolutionizing their teaching. teachers appreciated technology’s productivity in their teaching activities. however, barriers such as time constraints, load-shedding, lack of facilities and teachers’ lack of digital skills obstructed the successful integration of technology in the lessons. by presenting the intermediate phase teachers' perspectives on incorporating technology in efal classrooms, the study contributes to the body of knowledge. this study has significant limitations that should be addressed in follow-up studies in the area. firstly, the sample's restriction to teachers in the intermediate phase prevents detailed comparisons with the foundation and senior phases of primary schools. secondly, the current study focuses especially on how teachers feel about using technology in the teaching of efal; perceptions in other school subjects may vary. it is suggested that teachers should receive additional in-service training on how to integrate technology into efal classes. the acquired skills from the training may assist in time management and how to cope working with limited resources. acknowledgements the author expresses her sincere gratitude to all the study participants. this study's funding came from the national research foundation (nrf) grant number: 121871, which made it possible for it to be finished. the opinions presented here are not those of nrf. references abukhattala, i. 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(2003). case study research: design and methods (3rd ed.). sage. https://doi.org/10.31703/gesr.2021(vi-i).29 https://johnroberts.me/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/final-final.pdf https://doi.org/10.4102/td.v16i1.702 http://www.tewtjournal.org/ https://www.thecollector.com/posthumanism-philosophy-of-the-21st-century/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcve.2022.11 https://doi.org/10.31920/2633-2930/2021/v2n1a6 https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939x.2019.1695657 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedro.2021.100081 https://repository.isls.org/bitstream/1/6541/1/2313-2316.pdf https://repository.isls.org/bitstream/1/6541/1/2313-2316.pdf journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 2 2023 pp. 37-55 the role of culture in shaping the curriculum of higher education in south africa tsekelo patrick moremoholo* * department of design and studio art, central university of technology, free state, south africa email: tmoremo@cut.ac.za article info received: june 26, 2022 accepted: april 9, 2023 published: june 18, 2023 how to cite moremoholo, t. p. (2023). the role of culture in shaping the curriculum of higher education in south africa. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 37-55. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.17 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract over the past two decades, the south african higher education (he) sector has highlighted the usefulness of a locally relevant curriculum that incorporates culture. there is also some research calling for the integration of culture and an emphasis on the africanized curriculum. however, these related concepts (culture and africanization) have yet to be sufficiently applied in the he curriculum as part of the he transformation drive. the present paper aims to present a review of the literature regarding the role of culture on curriculum transformation and the africanization of academic material in the context of the he sectors in south africa. the primary research method for this study is the review of the selected research findings containing issues related to culture and its role in curriculum transformation. the findings of this review reveal that the concepts of culture, and more specifically the africanization of the localized curriculum (in the he sectors), are not yet adequately understood, even though progress has been made over the last two decades. the inheritance of colonial eurocentric views is believed to be hindering this progress. higher education can in this regard play a significant role in achieving the goal of a locally relevant curriculum. keywords africanization; culture; curriculum transformation; locally relevant curriculum 10.46303/jcsr.2023.17 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.17 38 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 introduction before 1994, south africa’s curriculum was used to exclude some groups (e.g., africans, blacks in general, women and rural students) from accessing higher education (van wyk & higgs, 2011). up to the present time, such inequalities of the past have been addressed through revisions to the curricula and syllabi; many government papers and policies have also been issued, and the restructuring of some processes (ebewo & sirayi 2018) has since been achieved. the white paper on higher education of 15 august 1997 is but one of the wide-ranging documents that provide a picture of south africa’s shift from apartheid to democracy which calls for a renewed perception of higher education in which institutions and their values are viewed afresh. as outlined in the aforementioned white paper, higher education is now regarded as having a significant role in the development of modern democratic societies (department of education, 1997). curriculum transformation in higher education has been one of the essential aspects in addressing the injustices and inequalities of the past apartheid government (gumede & biyase, 2016; msila, 2007; department of education, 1997). some of the issues that feature prominently in the discussions on curriculum transformation include recognizing and acknowledging the value of culture, africanization (considering the concept of an african curriculum) and indigenous african knowledge systems (council on higher education, 2016; higgs, 2016; prinsloo, 2010; ukwuoma, 2016; van wyk & higgs, 2011). these related concepts (culture, africanization, indigenous and african knowledge systems) focus on different cultural groups in south africa and suggest that the curriculum should serve the cultural and educational circumstances in which they exist (higgs, 2016). africanization of the curriculum includes developing academic learning material established in the african context (naidoo, 2016). van der westhuizen et al., (2017) also suggest that education and training as well as practice should be based on the ideas and beliefs of the people of south africa and their interpretation of what is needed to build a more equitable society. a curriculum that is formulated based on culture and indigenous african knowledge, therefore, empowers educators and learners and instills a sense of pride in them (kaya & seleti, 2013; van wyk & higgs, 2011). as south africans, we are often proud of our society’s diversity. however, the significance of our diverse cultures is rarely visible in our curriculum. it seems as if the current attempts to incorporate culturally responsive instruction into the classroom are still driven by colonial and eurocentric views and there is little attention paid to the nature of south african society (ngubane & makua, 2021; kaya & seleti, 2013; lekgotla laga ramoupi, 2012). in addition, the adoption of culture in the classroom appears to be relatively slow and is not given the attention that it deserves, which may impact students’ academic performance, general wellbeing as well as other social aspects such as inequality and unemployment (adonis & silinda, 2021). the adoption of culture in the classroom involves an approach to teaching and learning in which the role of culture in the classroom is recognized and making culture a part of the curriculum. this adoption of culture in the classroom would be helpful to students in shaping 39 the role of culture in shaping the curriculum of higher education jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 their thinking, beliefs, and actions to become responsible citizens in their communities (maluleka, 2020). this paper contributes to the discourse on the role of culture in curriculum transformation and africanization of the curriculum in the south african higher education context and contributes to the knowledge base for students and academics. based on the findings of studies in the context of africanization of the curriculum, this contribution will demonstrate that culture should be considered an integral part of curriculum transformation and in certain circumstances can even fulfil a significant role in shaping the curriculum. problem statement research exists calling for an emphasis on an africanized curriculum (ngubane & makua, 2021; van der westhuizen et al., 2017; louw, 2010; higgs, 2016; kaya & seleti, 2013; lekgotla laga ramoupi, 2012). there are also government policy and reform documents that have been developed to create awareness of the role of culture in the curriculum. these include, for example, the white paper on higher education, the 2013 council on higher education (che) proposal for the reform of south africa’s undergraduate degree programs (council on higher education, 2013), the national plan for higher education (nphe) (department of education, 2001) articulating the vision of the education white paper 3 (1997), and the general governmental policy on transformation. the debate on the africanization of the curriculum in higher education (he) has been ongoing for a considerable time; however, not much has been accomplished to implement the concepts that have emerged from these debates in the curriculum nor in classroom practice. despite calls to the contrary from inter alia the academic community, it seems as if the efforts intended to ensure the integration of african culture in the he curriculum as part of the he transformation initiative are not effectively realized. currently, there is a lack of balance between africanized content and knowledge from elsewhere (see madiope & mendy, 2020). therefore, there is a need for awareness regarding the role of culture and adequate appreciation and support of “africanness” in the curricula which inform the greater part of our education. this paper argues that there is a need for the advancement of the role and integration of african culture in the he curriculum. the question to emphasize the need to integrate culture and the africanization of the curriculum in the he sector is a significant one and at the same time a cause for reflection as this is regarded as an opportunity for educators and students in he to develop and value their cultures and also other cultures in the south african multicultural milieu and likewise in the global context. as such, educators and students in he need to take an active part to nurture and promote the development of the africanization of the curriculum. aim of the paper the aim of this paper is to present a review of the literature relating to the role of culture on curriculum transformation and the africanization of academic material in the context of higher education in south africa in order to contribute to the debate and identify areas where there are significant gaps and challenges. 40 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 research objectives more specifically, this paper will also address these objectives: • to provide an overview of the current state of the role of culture and africanization of the curriculum. • to collate empirical evidence that suggests that culture should be integrated into the curriculum. research question the following primary research question will guide the research: • what is the role of culture and the africanization of the academic material in shaping the curriculum? literature review in this section of the paper a brief review of the literature is presented, with a view on first describing its role in curriculum transformation, followed by a brief overview of the concepts of africanization of the curriculum, african renaissance theory and culturally responsive teaching to reflect on how a selection of the current literature understands these concepts. the review of these concepts provided the necessary background for the central theme of this paper, namely culture and its role in shaping the curriculum. the process of curriculum transformation is then defined in its relation to culture and to discourse. the paper concludes with a presentation of the potential factors that relate to culture. the role of culture in shaping the curriculum in general, culture is used to describe a group of people’s way of life, their traits and characters, their beliefs, and their relationships (idang, 2015). culture is also most common in organizations where certain values and beliefs are shared to increase productivity and to realize the goals of the organization (schraeder, tears & jordan, 2005). in the revised versions of the 1996 white paper on arts, culture and heritage (2013; 2017), culture is defined as “the dynamic totality of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features which characterise a society or social group”. it is included not only as part of the arts but all other modes of life including human rights, cultural values and traditions, heritage as well as beliefs that have been developed over a period of time and which may change based on a particular set of circumstances. during the administration of the apartheid government, the concept of culture was considered a matter specific to and controlled by a particular ethnic group (culture was considered as each separate group’s “own affair”) and as a result, each designated ethnic group had its own education system in what is termed as the “tri-cameral” and homeland systems of governance (white paper on arts, culture and heritage 2013; 2017). the white paper now acknowledges that south africa is a multicultural country with diverse cultural or ethnic groups and therefore is committed to the development of the diverse cultures of people living in this country. in the white paper, drama, dance, language and indigenous art are some of the varied sub-sectors of culture and are viewed as an integral part of education. this confirms that 41 the role of culture in shaping the curriculum of higher education jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 culture is a fundamental function of the curriculum in he and therefore should receive adequate recognition and be integrated into the curriculum to reinforce the needs and expectations of our diverse cultures. according to gay (2002; 2018), there are a variety of different characteristics that constitute culture, which may have direct implications for teaching and learning. these include, for example, ethnic groups’ cultural values, their means of communication and traditions, learning styles and the ways in which they interact. in his book titled sociology: understanding and changing the social world, barkan (2011) provides a more detailed account of what culture entails, focusing on the two basic elements thereof. according to barkan, the one element of culture – referred to as “nonmaterial culture” and also known as symbolic culture – relates to nonphysical ideas that individuals harbor towards their cultural symbols, language, beliefs, values, and artifacts (material objects), while the second element – known as “material culture” – consists of physical resources, such as tools and technology, clothing, eating utensils, and means of transportation. blignaut and koopman (2020) have made a call for transformative education that recognizes inequalities and attempts to create a more just society. this will ultimately help to transmit the cultural traditions of society to the younger generation. various cultures have different views, expectations, and ways of doing certain things based on their shared beliefs, and these cultural differences have a major influence on education. some researchers (bhengu, 2020; offorma, 2016) argue that “the language of education is the language of culture”. this suggests that a curriculum whose content is based on cultural heritage permits students to have a great learning experience (bhengu, 2020). this view is also shared by alismail (2016) as well as demir and yurdakul (2015). these authors are of the view that cultural-based education has an influence on decreasing racial and cultural prejudices. according to offorma (2016), “any society whose education is not founded on its culture is in danger of alienating the products of that system from their culture”. in this paper, the concept of culture is understood in its most general sense – namely as a collection of ideas, beliefs, values, activities, traditions and practices adhered to by various cultural groups in a particular society. these, then, ought to inform the he curriculum. according to adonis and silinda (2021), culture has a role in shaping an institution’s cultural practices, values and behaviors, all of which support the career progression of students and academic staff alike. defining curriculum transformation curriculum transformation, also known as curriculum renewal, change or reform (madiope & mendy, 2020), is often loosely defined. different scholars offer varied viewpoints on what they understand curriculum transformation to mean or to entail. for example, fourie (1999) claims that transformation in higher education does not only constitute the staff and students of a particular institution, or changes in governance structures or course content. rather, in essence, it is a collective activity that can be achieved through the involvement of all stakeholders and 42 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 role-players, in which academic staff requires particular attention (fourie, 1999). fourie’s (1999) definition of transformation is significant as it emphasizes the importance of democratic governance in an institution’s structures and the involvement of both academic staff and students. her point of view seeks to address broader aspects of transformation such as internationalization and social and economic transition. le grange (2006, p. 189) defines a curriculum in higher education based on the types of knowledge contained or not contained in the university educational courses. more recently, du preez, verhoef and simmonds (2016) conducted a meta-analysis of 30 studies to help understand the way in which transformation in higher education was discussed. four main patterns emerged from the findings of these authors, these were: “transformation through curriculum, transformation through structures, transformation through redressing equity and transformation through access.” according to du preez et al. (2016), these four patterns may be regarded as the four main features of transformation in higher education. in a recent presentation, the chairperson of the south african human rights commission, professor bongani christopher majola, warns of the various ways in which transformation is interpreted by some institutions who tend to limit their interpretation to a narrow focus on demographic changes only. majola (2021), however, agrees that there are other institutions that understand that transformation should be acknowledged in a broader sense and should not be confined to race only, as this ignores the broader challenges of historically black universities. “transformation should be addressed holistically, rather than prioritising particular issues, without taking cognisance of their intersectionality of all the different forms of oppression” (majola, 2021). this notion is supported by higgs (2016) in his transformative model that seeks to foster a learning environment where those differences that have historically been ignored or disparaged are accepted and clearly understood. furthermore, luckett (2010) also asserted that curriculum transformation should similarly be understood as a social activity based on cultural and social circumstances that serve as the basis of curriculum knowledge. this paper has adopted the view accepted within the context of south african higher education that: “curriculum transformation is a complete and fundamental change from one kind of education system to another” (legodi, 2001). this change transitions from the previous system of education known to be discriminatory where certain groups were excluded to the democratic one in which all groups are included, recognized and acknowledged along with their cultures. it seems as if the curriculum transformation of higher education institutions (heis) is driven by several factors including the ones mentioned above, as well as others such as students, academics, development in research, regulations, and the community itself (see anderson & rogan, 2011). 43 the role of culture in shaping the curriculum of higher education jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 theoretical framework many concepts have been utilized in the literature to better understand the role of culture in curriculum transformation. the following concepts need to be clarified when discussing the role of culture. the african renaissance theory one of the theories central to educational discourse is the african renaissance theory. this theory is significant to this discussion as it relates to african ways of thinking in relation to the global community and has been known for almost four decades of african post-independence (van wyk & higgs, 2011). the theory itself is based on the perception that much of educational theory and practice in africa relies heavily on either european ideas or is eurocentric (higgs, 2016). this perception has therefore led to a substantial debate among some african scholars arguing that it is borrowed from a unique european setting and context and, as such, is not relevant to africa (cossa, 2009; 2015). this suggests that much of education believed to be african is in fact not african, but rather a reflection of europe in africa (higgs 2008). culturally responsive teaching culturally responsive teaching is described as a teaching practice in which students’ cultures, languages, and life experiences are closely linked with their academic activities. according to gay (2002), these connections create higher interest appeal, are helpful to students to engage with the curriculum rigorously and ultimately promote meaningful learning. a discussion on culturally responsive teaching practices is nonetheless beyond the scope of this paper. however, generally speaking, such practice would include an approach in which students are involved in the construction of their knowledge through exploring the curriculum from multiple perspectives, the existence and nurturing of a learning environment where the student’s personal and cultural strengths are recognized and respected, the use of wide-ranging assessment practices that promote active learning, and an inclusive classroom culture (gay, 2002). the “africanization” of the curriculum in the literature, there seems to be a considerable amount of evidence that supports the use of african indigenous knowledge systems in institutions of learning. for the purpose of this discussion, the term africanism is also used. what, then, would this indigenous knowledge mean for education? the earlier definition provided by makgoba (1997, p. 199) suggests that africanization (i.e. african-oriented content) involves “incorporating, adapting and integrating other cultures into and through african visions to provide the dynamism, evolution and flexibility so essential in the global village”. le roux (2001, p. 35) subsequently defined the africanization of education in south africa as “the centralisation of a unique south african identity and culture”. the more recent definition of africanization of the curriculum as applied to higher education refers to the process in which the subject matter, teaching methods, and content are transformed into the african environment that accommodates a body of indigenous knowledge systems (letsekha, 2013). 44 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 the above definitions do suggest that africanization is significant to the african continent as a whole as it facilitates unity for people from a variety of cultural, ethnic and racial backgrounds (horsthemke, 2017; louw, 2009). the africanization of a higher education institution, in addition, furthermore, entails that educators should also develop their teachings based on what is happening around the world. this is important in today’s digitized world in particular, as the internet has sharply accelerated the globalization of local communities (louw, 2009). some scholars refer to the fact that african education, in general, may still be dominated by european worldviews (i.e. that it remains essentially eurocentric), which tends to undermine indigenous principles and ideas such as ubuntu as simply illegitimate african thinking (ngubane & makua, 2021; kaya & seleti, 2013). as a result, such unfounded thoughts about african indigenous knowledge systems (aiks) have had an immense influence on which students from varied african cultures feel undermined and marginalized in higher education (ndlovu-gatsheni, 2018, p. 8). in fact, ndlovu-gatsheni refers to this as the “rejection of knowledge” that, regrettably, african students bring to higher education. the integration of aiks into higher education is necessary for several reasons: firstly, through aiks, students can learn appropriate community principles and values which provide a structure for sustainable livelihood (kaya & seleti, 2013). furthermore, students are able to bridge those gaps which inevitably exist across generations, thus enabling and preparing them to become better citizens in their communities by acknowledging and respecting not only their own elders and their own cultures, but other cultures as well (kaya & seleti, 2013). in his study, which evaluates the significance of education in post-apartheid south africa, msila (2007) emphasizes the need to take advantage of aiks – or indigenization as referred to by horsthemke (2017) – and incorporate them into mainstream formal education. according to msila, aiks have the potential to address many social needs, such as a sense of belonging based on one’s cultural heritage. when these social needs are fulfilled, we experience a sense of wellbeing. this is also supported by emeagwali (2003) where he rightly points out that the strengths of an african-based system lie largely in how learners are taught and are grounded on indigenous and local knowledge of the african people. according to emeagwali, education and culture share the same language. this may be attained, in other words, when the content and teachings permit students to see themselves and realize their cultural practices in the curriculum. the “post-africanization” of the curriculum although there is considerable literature in support of the africanization of the curriculum, there are also some instances where other researchers have questioned the concept of africanizing the curriculum. one of the questions that still remain, according to botha (2007), is whether such an identity could indeed be identified especially seeing as south africa is rich with multiple and diverse subcultures. furthermore, other problems are related to the lack of a conceptual framework that could have provided a theoretical and methodological guide for the integration 45 the role of culture in shaping the curriculum of higher education jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 process from the african indigenous point of view (kaya, 2013). another issue relates to inadequate support from institutional management due to limited knowledge on the significance of africanization in a modern global community, particularly in science and technology (kaya, 2013). there has also emerged a new concept, post-africanism, considered as an alternative to africanization, and deployed to chart a new direction for an african renaissance. post-africanism was established by denis ekpo, who is regarded as its founder. ekpo views post-africanism as an attempt to challenge most of the negative ideas of africanism, including those discussed in different platforms such as in art, politics, or development (ekpo, 2010). ekpo believes that africa’s recovery to a healthy cultural life demands novel ideas and refreshed conditions aimed at a “more performative african intellectual engagement with africa, modernity and the west” (ekpo, 2010, p. 182). in addition, horsthemke (2017) has also warned against what he termed as “the fallacy of the collective singular”, in which cultures are seen in isolation and different groups often leading to common expressions such as “the african university, european identity” and so on. this, according to horsthemke (2017), is the reason why in some cases there are xenophobic attacks on foreigners. from a distance, it seems as if there is a strong debate among scholars who are sympathetic towards the ideas of africanism and those that perceive this new concept of postafricanism as afrophobic. there are also those who view post-africanism as an instrument for change. it may be helpful, therefore, that as we embrace these ideas of africanism and postafricanism and reflect on cultural changes in africa and in our curriculum, we do not lose sight of any controversies which may sensibly inform them. factors perceived to be related to culture’s role in curriculum transformation with the concepts presented above as background, the next part of the literature presents three of the many factors identified to have a direct relationship to culture and its role to facilitate or hinder curriculum transformation. faculty-student involvement and commitment the literature, ostensibly, raises the concern that students are omitted from the curriculum transformation process even though it is implemented for their benefit (levin, 2000). according to ngussa and makewa (2014), students should be at liberty to participate in curriculum transformation as this will empower and enable them to be more directly involved in and responsible for those matters that concern them. a study by wawrzynski et al. (2012) supports the debate as regards the benefits of student involvement in co-curricular activities in order to advance the scholarship to an international context. other authors argue that for the curriculum to be effective and successful, it should be up-to-date and aim to address the needs and demands of diverse cultures, society as a whole, and the expectations of the population being served. some scholars have stressed the commitment of faculties together with students. in their study on “the role of transformation in learning and education for sustainability”, leal filho et 46 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 al. (2018) highlight the importance of the commitment by faculty and academics for the sustainability of transformation in teaching and learning. according to leal filho et al., their efforts, motivation and innovative ideas, change in content and methods appear to be significant. in general, there is not much research available to examine student engagement in south africa. it is the author’s view that, if culture has an influence on the skills, attitudes, values, and behaviors that students and educators bring to the curriculum as suggested by offorma (2016), then the involvement of both parties is critical in solving the problems of underperformance in teaching and learning. mentoring mentoring is a practice in which the mentor – who in most cases is a more senior and more experienced individual in an organization – provides support to a junior colleague in a lower rank (i.e. the mentee). this support may include a variety of developmental functions such as regular guidance, feedback and general discussion so as to maximize the growth and full potential of the mentee (seekoe, 2014; seekoe & arries, 2011; st-jean & audet, 2012). seekoe (2014) further describes mentoring as an “interactive, reflective, participatory process of relationship building, engagement and development between mentor and mentee”. in this process, the mentor facilitates the process through a series of activities from the development of the mentoring program, responsibilities and roles, and how they are to be accomplished as well as other important aspects of the program (seekoe, 2014; seekoe & arries, 2011). generally, mentoring is perceived as a critical aspect of transformation within academic and professional settings meant to develop and empower individuals (feiman-nemser, 1996). to attest to this, some public organizations offer mentoring-inspired support programs to novice entrepreneurs wishing to launch a business (st-jean & audet, 2012). as such, its prominent role has been widely acknowledged in both academic and professional arenas (berry, 2003). it is nonetheless clear from the information presented in the literature that the effectiveness of the mentoring process is dependent on the personalities of the mentor and mentee, as msila (2012) has rightly suggested. even though mentoring is accepted as an important factor for transformation, it also has some shortcomings and poses some challenges. some of the issues that appear to have a negative impact on mentoring include fraudulent practices, the mentor’s ability to effectively provide guidance to the mentee (which is directly related to the professional’s level of expertise), abusive relationship behaviors such as sexual harassment, cultural diversity and cultural and gender biases (hicks, 2011). to avoid problems such as these, geber and keane (2017) have suggested a transformational mentoring model which embraces the principle of ubuntu. in this framework, a mentor is required to focus on a shared learning experience and be prepared to learn about african ubuntu principles in their interaction with mentees. in addition, bryant-shanklin and brumage (2011) also agree that mentoring can only be effective if the administration processes are clearly defined to support the mentoring efforts. it is quite https://www.researchgate.net/profile/vuyisile-msila?_sg%5b0%5d=_fig4qlzjihgejw3aqt23ao3rtkht4qegq_3lcphxn-pj8agopjd9-hg3fefcofgpk3hxzi.pjwvjmzuwax9iasek5ng6f2iwmiayhgxrwyfe7skmpfwx0qq-okrd_t0njw6knvsadfbzi5ov3vxttl6m9s-fa.-5ndkzo-qn-qfcs5_zxxjz2utmpcvbwxdmch5ruivwnu14zuxtbh5nmvj8vleijqbhfys62lg9_sdklt2devcg&_sg%5b1%5d=mtufzkf671mpbltasuom-1ntfipoernjrxzmvybsrwf5psfgdg7dmck5gk5luqc03f27znq.nak8ilvjln1dmt4wgtbkn2vmis38f160jcuhj6mgzvtznnbqi2mxbj917h4hevsxizc4zpl8pc6yo90mkdlioq 47 the role of culture in shaping the curriculum of higher education jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 interesting, though, to note that very little research has focused on the negative aspects of mentoring. participation in student organizations the objective of this section is not to present an in-depth examination of the formation and structures of student political organizations but simply to provide an overview of students’ leadership role and its influence on matters related to curriculum transformation. mapesela and hay (2005) indicated that during apartheid, students had no voice in their general and social well-being in the learning environment. however, the higher education act of 1997 has since altered this situation to a participatory role in which the student representative council (src) can take part in almost all aspects of academic life and where they can effectively influence students’ academic interests (mthethwa & chikoko, 2020). it is now believed that student leaders, with their different affiliations, have had “a very significant role in instilling their aspirations and interest into a democratic and transformed higher education system” (moreku, 2014). it is in this context that student organizations are therefore included as significant for discussion in this section of the paper. however, some authors (mthethwa & chikoko, 2020) have warned that the participation of student organizations is focused largely on their political aspirations, for example the recent #feesmustfall and #rhodesmustfall campaigns, instead of their academic obligations, which suggests a strong political influence, especially during the src elections. this practice (and the outcomes thereof) does not always add value to students’ academic experiences. it is therefore suggested that this is one of the topics that need further interrogation. drawing from the brief overview presented above, the three key factors that have an influence on culture in enhancing learning in the curriculum transformation process are presented in table 1 below. in this table, the subsectors of culture represent the independent variable while the enhancement of curriculum transformation acts as the dependent variable. when considering the role of culture in curriculum transformation, it is likely that these factors would need to be considered and may not be ignored. it must, however, be stated that this figure is not a decisive representation of all the factors. other related factors could thus be identified for the purpose of stimulating further debate on this subject matter. 48 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 table 1: a summary of key factors that have a direct relationship to culture and its role to shape or hinder the curriculum (barkan, 2011) elements of culture related factors material elements: art and design (including indigenous art), tools and technology, clothing, eating utensils, and means of transportation, drama, dance, heritage • faculty-student involvement and commitment • mentorship • students’ participation non-material elements: the values, beliefs, symbols, and language, politics and developmental issues research design and methods in addressing the research question, the author reviewed secondary data obtained from policy documents, publications by government and related agencies and published annual reports from higher learning institutions depending on their availability. the search was furthermore restricted to peer-reviewed journal articles to ensure the authority and quality of the sources. other information related to relevant institutions has been taken from official websites and online sources. it was decided that a compilation of a variety of relevant research resources was more appropriate than a comprehensive review. in making this review more inclusive, earlier studies (during the years transitioning from the old apartheid rule) were included as well as more recent studies (twenty years after the first democratic elections). all these studies provide analysis and reflect on the role of culture and the africanization of the learning material in relation to the process of curriculum transformation and to identify areas where there are significant gaps and challenges. it is also acknowledged that there is considerable literature that includes institutional reports and white papers; however, it was not possible to access and include all relevant books for a qualitative review. the databases and repositories that supplied the resources include ebscohost, eric, proquest, sciencedirect, google scholar, academia.edu, and research gate. in analyzing and interpreting the literature, a technique referred to as “keywords-incontext” was used (see onwuegbuzie, leech & collins, 2012). using this technique granted the author the flexibility of analyzing the information extracted from the literature review. the author was able consider the concept of culture within the context of higher learning, together with all the factors that relate to it, to understand what the influence of culture is in transforming the curriculum. the following keywords were used to collect useful research articles: culture, africanization, africanism and curriculum transformation, and indigenous 49 the role of culture in shaping the curriculum of higher education jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 knowledge systems (iks). approximately 50 articles were generated using this keyword search technique from the above databases. discussion the central question posed by this paper is: what is the role of culture and the africanization of the academic material in shaping the curriculum? to address this question, a review of the selected existing literature was conducted. various reasons were revealed as to why the integration of culture into the higher education curriculum is necessary. the most prevailing include that culture affords students the opportunity to understand and acknowledge appropriate communal attitudes, values and the general social context for sustainable livelihood (kaya & seleti, 2013). it is also believed that culture has an influence in preparing students to become better citizens in their communities so that they can appreciate and respect the teachings of their elders, their own cultures and the cultures of others (kaya & seleti, 2013). when students see their cultures being recognized at their institution, they feel included and empowered in their academic community and this then creates an increased sense of pride in their cultural heritage (kaya & seleti, 2013). there also seems to be consensus among most scholars that when integrating african culture into a given curriculum, the emphasis should shift away from eurocentric views. however, it is also necessary to find a balance between the african, the non-african as well as modernization in the curriculum as the world we live in is now more globalized (ebewo & sirayi, 2018). it is clear that the concept of culture in the he sector is by no means a unidimensional one. it can be viewed and understood in multiple ways and will differ depending on the particular context in which it operates and is thus wholly dynamic. this review, although limited, has shed some light on the viability of integrating culture into the curriculum which can then be used to enhance practice and direct future research. the review has revealed that there is some research supporting the integration of culture and africanization of the curriculum. however, the calls to this effect have not yet yielded results that can be considered significant. although the available literature review provides that some attention must be placed on culture and the discussion around africanization and transformation in higher education, there generally seems to be insufficient appreciation and respect for locally relevant curricula as a significant role player in curriculum transformation. the following considerations would then be critical for future research in higher education: firstly, it is recommended that some priority be given to culture, modernization and globalization discourse to inform higher education to strengthen the discussion of its role in transformation and to encourage the rethinking thereof. heis should confront this issue with the urgency it deserves. secondly, heis should also embark on aggressive cultural and heritage activities to maximize the effective integration of culture into the curriculum. thirdly, students should also be allowed to participate in the curriculum. finally, despite credible publication databases that supplied the resources used to identify research studies exploring the role of culture on curriculum transformation in higher 50 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 education, this paper’s contribution to the field is still confined within the limits of the available reviewed resources and the methodology employed. further research should also investigate other sources such as books, conference proceedings, journal articles and other publications to validate the findings of this paper. furthermore, case studies and empirical and quantitative research studies are all encouraged and could be used to stimulate our understanding of culture’s role in curriculum transformation. conclusion the concepts of culture and africanizing the curriculum are, undeniably, altogether dynamic and outright intensive. from a distance, it seems as if culture is a sensitive and multifaceted subject matter and not less so with its plethora of related concepts. therefore, it is critical to tread carefully in attempting to approach these concepts so as to interpret them accurately in their role in curriculum transformation. it would therefore be difficult to make conclusive decisions based on a few selected studies alone. however, it is noted that the integration of culture in learning content has a very crucial role in transforming the curriculum. for this reason, it is necessary to develop curricular materials and learning conditions that integrate cultural context and encourage students to engage in the issues of curriculum transformation as a way of communicating and reflecting on these practices. understandably, we must also be thoughtful and critical of how culture is integrated into the curriculum, particularly if it is used to cater to the benefit of the modern institution of higher learning. however, our caution should not lead us into a separate space for africanization and indigenous knowledge in and outside institutions of learning. we must, ultimately, be mindful that our academic practices and politics do not determine the quality of indigenous knowledge systems. limitations and future considerations despite all the efforts in preparing this paper, there are certain limitations that cannot be ignored. given the wide angle and the diversity of topic, some limitations were inevitable given the need to explore as wide as possible to find interesting and relevant information. the data used for this study is mainly secondary data, and which has been obtained from published journal articles, annual reports and other publications; as such, its findings depend on and are limited entirely by the accuracy of such data. it is noted that there exists a considerable literature on this topic in the form of institutional reports and white papers, and it is possible to access only a limited number of sources for a qualitative review such as the one at hand. future papers may, inter alia, consider focusing on the negative aspects of mentoring, the political versus academic aspirations of student organizations, student engagement, and accessing a wide as possible body of primary as well as secondary sources to ever more closely determine and define the practicalities of africanism in our higher education curricula. such research will undoubtedly contribute to ultimately developing a conceptual framework as theoretical and methodological guide in any endeavor to integrate african culture into higher education and higher education studies. 51 the role of culture in shaping the curriculum of higher education jcsr 2023, 5(2): 37-55 references adonis, c. k., & silinda, f. 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(2012). student engagement in south african higher education. journal of college student development, 53(1), 106–123. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 2 2023 pp. 69-85 fictional stories: the learning strategy to mitigate the challenges of reading comprehension for university students tshepang jacob moloi*a & emmanuel tobi adegoriolua * corresponding author email: moloijac@yahoo.com a. faculty of education, north west university, potchefstroom, south africa article info received: february 18, 2022 accepted: september 5, 2022 published: june 18, 2023 how to cite moloi, t. j. & adegoriolu, e. t. (2023). fictional stories: the learning strategy to mitigate the challenges of reading comprehension for university students. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 6985. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.15 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract reading comprehension is the ability to understand a text, decode and infer its meaning according to reader’s level of comprehension. similarly, reading is the ability to deduce, critique and construct the attributes of a text. hence, reading and reading comprehension are intertwined and embedded as a skill to analyse the meaning of the text in general and synthesise the interpretation of your own understanding of a particular text. despite this prerequisite skill, there are challenges that impede reading comprehension, and as a result, the paper intimates these challenges of reading comprehension using critical theory as a conceptual framework. it further employs participatory action research as a technique whereby co-researchers were purposively sampled and interviewed in a free attitudinal interview. equally, the results are analysed using critical discourse analysis, where it is established that lack of collaborative learning, exposure to informational text, students’ prior knowledge and punctuation marks are the core attributes of the challenges of reading comprehension. in brief, the paper contends that the use of fictional stories as a learning strategy can enhance the reading comprehension of first-year students. keywords reading comprehension; reading; collaborative learning; informational text; challenges. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.15 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.15 70 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 background and introduction countries pride themselves with their high rate of literacy and numeracy and the steady growth in which these skills are emerging grants every nation the opportunity to grow economically. therefore, the significance of these skills cannot be negated but rather underemphasized because the population prone to literacy and numeracy has the propensity to solve socio-economic challenges compared to the less literate one. this contention is endorsed by zua (2021) who purported that the most literate nations like finland, norway, sweden and denmark have the greatest and impeccable skills to solve their domestic challenges and affairs. in addition, the highly literate nations can be measured against the degree and extent to which their human development index develops (max, 2014). notwithstanding these benefits, africa, in general, is confronted with the challenges of literacy (unesco, 2019) and south africa is not immune to these devastating ripple effects of illiteracy. as a result, wilfred (2017) depicted oblique margins of reading literacy in the south african context, whereby the reports inferred that, on average; a grade four (4) learner cannot read for meaning. this infers that our learners do not have the requisite skills of reading comprehension and they cannot read for meaning; hence the former is the ability to discern, deduce and interpret the meaning of the text (graves et al., 1998), while the latter is the ability to understand the text and infer its main idea (klapwijk, 2016). now, the primary objective of having these abilities is to demonstrate the levels of literacy among our nation and be able to aptly solve socio-economic challenges as there is a direct proportion between the high levels of literacy and socio-economic factors. this notion is contended by mcgarvey (2007) when argued that the propensity of people who are not educated or literate to be unemployed is higher than those who are educated and literate. hence, literacy and education directly impact our economic trajectory and development. equally, gruenbaum (2012) asserted that the poor state of literacy is largely attributed to insufficient reading skills. this implies that the failure of a nation to address reading skills and abilities shall have a negative ripple effect on its economic development and thus perpetuates the entrenched socio-economic challenges such as poverty, crime and unemployment. lind (2011) conceded that poverty and illiteracy are intertwined and irreversibly dire in our political-economic dimension, and this impact shall delay the attainment of the national development plan forecasted to be completed and achieved in 2030 with sustainable development. in contrast, reading skills cannot be expeditiously attained if reading comprehension challenges are not addressed. hence, this paper aims to identify the challenges of reading comprehension by using fictional stories (fs) as a learning strategy to enhance first-year university students' reading comprehension (rc). 71 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 research questions the paper aims to identify the challenges of reading comprehension by proposing the use of fictional stories as a learning strategy. this aim is achieved under the auspices of the following research question and objective. • how can fictional stories be used to minimise the challenges of reading comprehension? • its objective is to determine the challenges of reading comprehension for first-year students using academic and fictional texts. literature review amid the aim and objective of the paper, this section critically discusses the relevant literature on the use of fs to enhance rc. to begin with, the literature review is the general view of the research title and/or topic and seeks to provide relevant, significant and empirical answers to the research title/or topic (alexiades, 1996). the significance of a literature review is to establish the organisation, the evaluation and the synthesis of the study to provide critical thinking to the reader (antshel et al., 2014; johnson, 2020). moreover, the literature review provides an executive summary of scientific facts that depict the authors' knowledge and understanding of phenomena, constructs and theories (alvin, 2016); hence this section focuses on the aforementioned objective. the use of bics and calp in the context of reading comprehension the dutiful task of informational disseminators (lecturers, facilitators and teachers) is to ascertain that collaborative learning (cl) is not only effectively implemented but is incorporated and intertwined into basic interpersonal communicational skills (bics) and cognitive academic language proficiency (calp) in order to fuel rc skills. cummins (1981, 1991, as cited in taboada and rutherford, 2011), distinguishes between bics as the basic interpersonal communication skills used in our social interaction and calp as the cognitive academic language proficiency, which is a literacy-related skill for academic writing, vocabulary, presenting and speaking. as such, the requisite for merging calp, bics and cl into fs constitute the crucial aspect of accomplishing rc. according to howie et al (2017), universities' solution and accomplishments rely on using calp – the literacy-related skill for academic writing, rc, presenting and speaking. this was endorsed by bailey and heritage (2014) that academic language (calp) is distinct from the social dialect used in universities because calp contains the skills of synchronisation of ideas, syntax, semantics, comprehension, deduction and decoding. secondly, this premise suffices the requisite to implement collaborative learning (cl) to the latter because cl improves students’ communicative skills as they will have to converse in the medium of instruction (molotja & themane, 2018). this implementation improves students’ rc skills since the medium of instruction contains similar principles of fluency and fluency in english, which can increase students' rc 72 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 skills, and serves as a critical vehicle for academic success. furthermore, cl, as conceded by molotja and themane (2018), has the advantages of students exchanging ideas, completing tasks in time, establishing sustainable friendships and sharing knowledge. this infers that mutual understanding is attained as a result of cl and thus, creates significant opportunities for students to acquire rc skills. initially, it was depicted that ineffective implementation of cl can deter rc. the crux of fs features pertinently on cl as one would recall that fs presents diverse fictional content comprising fantasy and generalisation, which will require students to transfer such fantasy and generalisation into rc and real-world knowledge. as a result, a direct correlation is established between cl and fs as the former emotionally and socially challenges students, ultimately enabling them to establish a conceptual framework of ideas and textual meaning (molotja & themane, 2018). in contrast, the latter challenges students cognitively and abstractly to formulate ideas from fiction into rc and real-world knowledge (walker et al., 2015). so, the implications of espousing cl into fs as a learning strategy to enhance rc is that students will be afforded the opportunity to simultaneously (1) learn and have comprehension, (2) establish friendships primarily to exchange ideas and knowledge while learning, and rc takes place cumulatively, (3) to instil conceptualisation presented by fs for them to debate, establish and distinguish fiction from facts and lastly, (4) to have a common understanding on how fictional content influences factual content and thus, ultimately having a holistic universal view of the reading. reading engagement and motivation it was initially alluded that one of the deterrents of rc can be attributed to the lack of reading engagement and motivation that students are anticipated to possess. hence, according to alexiades (1996), an ample output of scholarly research does regard intrinsic motivation as a dominant impact on rc, especially when students read for internal reasons such as to address a certain level of inquisitive, curiosity, interest and for fun. this premise emphasises the necessity to equip our students with reading engagement and motivation, which according to the bulk of research (alvin 2016; antshel et al., 2014; rosenbaum, 2016), can be solicited from the use of fs, as fiction has a solution to provide students with a significant level of motivation, interest, pleasure and engagement. although fictional materials contain enormous fallacy and pretence, students have the potential to distinguish between fantasy and reality (barness & bloom, 2014), which can be attributed to the propensity to acquire and attain reading engagement and motivation because these two concepts cannot be achieved insofar as rc is not achieved. furthermore, reading engagement is defined as the combination of motivation and cognitive processes that occur during the reading process (williams, 2013). by analysis of this definition, there is a blatant suggestion that rc can be achieved and readily available during the reading process. in contrast, readers need to master ninety-eight per cent of the fictional text in order to achieve effective rc (biesta, 2010), meaning that an individual student needs to have a combination of motivation and cognitive processes incessantly sustained if one has 73 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 to master this percentage. however, fictional materials hinder and impact a reader’s interests adversely if that interest is directed on insignificant content material which cannot add insightful value to the students’ knowledge (campbell, 2014). in addition, the use of fictional materials does not necessarily mean that students will definitely have an interest, since these materials differ in terms of the quality of content, degree of complication and logic (bronner & kellner, 1989). however, these submissions do not disregard and dissent the use of fs for enhancing rc since fs can be resourceful in assisting students to be critical viewers and readers insofar as they are concerned. in a nutshell, the use of fs can really enhance rc because the catalyst to this process is reading engagement and motivation that can be found from using fs. students’ achievement it is evident that the majority of students no longer have a keen interest in reading fiction (garro, 2016) and this has an adverse impact on the rc, as there is a distinction between reading for fun and reading for understanding. according to cohen et al. (2011), reading fiction assists students in enhancing their vocabulary, fluency and moral choices. this influence from fiction results from characters’ role, actions, and abilities to make decisions. therefore, this infers that students’ achievements in their academic work will have a positive impact as they gain a range of skills in terms of reading, decision making, problem-solving and expanding their vocabulary. furthermore, students’ achievements are ignited and encouraged by developing ereaders or ebooks to motivate fictional reading (guthrie, 2003). this inculcates the culture of reading for fun and reading with comprehension so far as fiction is concerned. it is also indicative that reading fiction enables students to have a significant vocabulary that will enable them to consider their actions, ponder about the consequences, compare the pros and cons before taking hasty decisions and eliminate or elude sources of problems. fiction reading has the propensity to release people from the complexities and challenges of life and negate the fictional world with fascinating imaginations that trigger fun, interest and emphasis (heuman, 2014). the relaxed and subdued mind can forecast the future, and weigh the dynamics of life without any interferences or distractors; hence fiction reading significantly benefits students’ achievement. however, some challenges prevent people from reading fiction, such as the lack of interest, finding it difficult to read, outdoor activities, social media (twitter, facebook, instagram and whatsapp) and television. despite these obstacles, ereading can change students’ perspectives and mentality as there are many programmes and online applications such as m-reader and cahoot, among other things, which seem to function effectively. therefore, these programmes can greatly benefit students’ achievement as their critical thinking and writing skills could be enhanced. in concise, the solutions mentioned above can significantly bring stability and enhance rc if the implementation of reading fiction can be executed to the latter. this implementation means considering the students’ achievement, ascertaining reading engagement and motivation subsistence and imparting the skills of bics and calp. if these can be done 74 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 accurately, the challenges of rc can be history and the determinants of such history depend on the implementation of these factors. theoretical framework this paper aims to identify the challenges of reading comprehension by proposing the use of fictional stories as a learning strategy. therefore, this aim is achieved by the pertinent use of the theoretical framework, the theoretical framework can be defined as the designed plan or guide that serves as the basis for inquiry of study and its main purpose is to review and interpret the conceptual elements which originate from the existing theory (adom et al, 2018). hence, the designed plan provides the significant direction of the study as to what it entails in terms of its aim, objectives and goals. this designed plan is well compared to howie et al. (2017) as the map the traveller uses to reach their final destinations. as a result, this comparison is well adopted into this paper because the theoretical framework provides the necessary direction in terms of understanding the phenomenon, the significance of the study, the research question and its aims. in addition, as stated by kidd and castano (2013) that theoretical framework provides a significant structure to cement the theories together; this clearly indicates the importance of a theoretical framework as it demarcates the study into the area of interpreting, predicting, criticising and synthesising the existing theories to generate the new knowledge (creswel, 2008). thus, critical theory (ct) is utilised as the conceptual stanza in an attempt to understand, analyse and interpret the social phenomenon that informs our learning in general. in this context, the use of fs as a learning strategy to enhance rc of first-year university students possesses salient features similar to that of the society whereby the inherent status quo of inequality, oppression and lack of liberty and freedom are depicted in the way of narration from these stories. as a result, the institutions of learning such as schools and universities have not escaped the jaws of oppression and inequality; hence, the impediments presented by these factors contribute to the challenges of reading, especially rc. therefore, the notion of emancipation plays a critical role in the context of reading since the primary goal of reading is to be informed, entertained and educated (biesta, 2010). this notion premises the necessity to liberate students from various forms of oppression and powers manifested by the traditional approaches and practices of society. the independence and freedom of students as human capital to function optimally come from cr. this inference endorses the fact that students’ abilities, skills and expertise to interpret, view and conceptualise phenomena are fundamentally embedded in the impetus of emancipation. hence, ct seeks to make sense of the world and insists that thoughts should respond to new challenges and solutions (hannel & bradly, 2009). this inference was endorsed by bronner (2011) when stating that ct responds, in a way to cognitive process, to the problems arising and possibilities around the pre-existing circumstances. furthermore, it asserts vygotsky’s view (1978) that ct’s characteristics do not invariably concern how things 75 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 were but rather seek to conceptualise and comprehend how things might and should be. issues of emancipation play a vital role in equipping students to be independent and critical thinkers on societal phenomena. this view is further propelled by carrington and selva (2010) when they cited that in quality education, students are infused with the competencies and abilities to unlearn and relearn new concepts in the quest for emancipation. indeed, to conclusively test the veracity of quality education, students ought to showcase these abilities without interference from power relations that are at loggerheads with the independence and freedom of students. in brief, it is patent that competencies and reading skills cannot be achieved if intellectual emancipation is not addressed and attained. suffice to appreciate the extent and impact the effective reading skills has on our learning abilities and reading comprehension; hence the challenges which manifest themselves during rc are evident as there is limited scholarly work that has a primary focus on the use of fs to enhance rc (bal & veltkamp, 2013; baldwin, 2015; molotja & themane, 2018; taboada & rutherford, 2011). therefore, this paper's primary aim is to discover how the use of fs can enhance the rc of first-year university students. in addition, it was deemed necessary to undertake this research amid the challenges of rc indicated by a number of studies such as the international reading literacy study report (2016), walker et al. (2015), and klapwijk (2016) that the challenges of rc, if not expediently addressed, shall be perpetuated if there are no sustainable modern solutions to reading comprehension. therefore, this paper has the potential to contribute immensely to providing solutions needed in the current era of education so far as using fs is concerned with improving the rc of first-year university students. methodology the study relied on the principles of the qualitative method espoused by participatory action research as research design. this research design (par from now on) relies on the qualitative method and is the umbrella of interpretive and critical emancipatory inquiry (gilbert et al, 2018) argue that par is a long-term investment: that is, both intervention and research; hence it develops in the research cycle. as a result, par is implemented with the participation of first-year university students during an intervention, usually with their help and with the aim of emancipation for the co-researchers. data generation is conducted with co-researchers who are purposively sampled from the first-year university students at the university of the free state (qwaqwa campus), which is geographically located in the eastern rural part of the free state. a purposive sample of thirty (30) african/black first-year students between the ages of 18-22 years, on a 50/40 pro rata basis of females and males proportion across all faculties, is drawn from the students’ population as students tend to experience the most common challenges of reading comprehension. furthermore, the procedure is that co-researchers must be first-year students doing an english academic literary module. similarly, five (5) module facilitators are sampled as the study seeks to propose fictional stories as a learning strategy to 76 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 improve reading comprehension. therefore, their insights and expertise are deemed necessary given facilitators’ inherent experiences in teaching english as academic literacy. the study aimed to propose the use of fictional stories as a learning strategy; therefore, the reading skills of first-year students are rigorously subjected to tests using the m-reader online system, which is a designed quiz of extensive reading geared to assess the reading comprehension of the students. data generation is critical in research, as data enhance comprehension of the phenomenon towards the theoretical framework (bronner & kellner, 1989). as a result, the choice of purposive sampling is based on the fact that this technique is based on the qualities of informants or co-researchers, and is a non-random technique that does not require underlying theories or a set number of informants. free attitudinal interview (fai) is utilised to generate data wherein co-researchers are divided into fictional and textual fans; each group of fans read either the fictional or comprehension texts and respond to contextual questions. the first fifteen cohorts of co-researchers collected and read the graded books from the university library and after reading, co-researchers had to take a quiz from mreader where contextual questions were structured. in contrast, the other fifteen cohorts of co-researchers were assigned reading comprehension and academic texts (textual fans) to read and respond to contextual questions. thereafter, co-researchers and principal researchers discuss the responses based on each text in conjunction with the fai questions. fai is an instrument of data generation embedded in the principles of equality, mutual respect and social justice, which reciprocates the personality traits of co-researchers in social inquiry (tshelane, 2013). hence the choice of this instrument is that it reinforces the qualities and values of par which are proponents of empowerment, self-liberation and social emancipation. critical discourse analysis (cda) is used to interpret and analyse verbal and tacit words. according to van dijk (2014), cda is the basic study of the methods of the alteration, rebirth, promulgation and defiance of specific descriptions within social and political settings of social power and inequality. it seeks to understand, interpret and explicitly challenge social inequality and herein, the use of cda to analyse the generated data is to reflect explicitly on the effect of poor reading comprehension, which leads to social inequality in a sense that knowledge empowers individuals and produces critical thinkers (mogashoa, 2014). hence cda is utilised to analyse the spoken and written words whereby the co-researchers’ responses are analysed verbatim in order to infer and denote the meanings. in addition, co-researchers’ responses are presented verbatim to decipher and interpret such meanings in the context of reading comprehension to propose fictional stories as a learning strategy. furthermore, the use of pseudonyms is adopted to conceal the identity of co-researchers, and reserve and respect the rights of anonymity. results and discussion it is initially indicated that rc demonstrates the reader’s competencies and abilities to understand the world and its reasons for existence (kozan et al., 2015). as a result, the opportunity to demonstrate these abilities must be presented during the process of reading, 77 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 where students can discern meanings and have abilities to draw inferences. however, the challenge that emerges from the disengagement of the text, which in turn constitutes miscomprehension, is because of insufficient exposure to the text (pennington et al., 2014). therefore, to overcome this challenge, it was crucial to significantly expose co-researchers to the informational text to determine the rc, bearing in mind that the aim is to propose the strategy to enhance rc using fictional text. co-researchers had to be exposed to different informational texts, such as academic and fictional texts (materials/books). furthermore, the exposure aimed to intrigue collaboration, trigger existing knowledge, encourage and maintain reading engagement and sustain the concentration of co-researchers. the reading process occurred in a serene environment where distinctive variables such as social networks (facebook, whatsapp and instagram) are limited to solicit reading comprehension. thus, the following findings promote the use of fictional stories as a learning strategy to enhance the reading comprehension of first year-university students: informational text this is one of the challenges discovered after the co-researchers are subjected to the process of reading both academic and informational text. therefore, the empirical findings attest those fictional texts are more relevant and suitable to attain rc as co-researchers can maintain engagement with the text. it is noted from this excerpt of a verbatim response of one of the co-researcher: mr. moloi: while reading the fictional text, were you able to identify hidden meaning? mr. mbewu: yes, i could identify hidden meaning because of the use of figures of speech. mr. moloi: how will you relate the meaning from the fictional text to reality? in other words, is there any reality check between what you read and what you understood? mr. mbewu: of course, based on the fictional story i read, which was about the issues of governance and government, i could relate that the government is more powerful; hence it finds itself engaging in corrupt activities just to enrich itself. mr. moloi: so do you think, based on the story you read, its events can be transferred into real-life situations? mr. mbewu: definitely, because this fiction has taught me not to trust the government and also to have a full idea of how the government operates. although events were not true, i could easily relate and understand them. mr. moloi: how will you say this goal of identifying hidden meaning was achieved? mr. mbewu: it was achieved because the story was interesting and i enjoyed it from the beginning to the end. according to the excerpt, the analysis of the graded book love of money indicates that the co-researcher elicited the meaning or main idea of the book. the co-researcher can read to the events and apply events in reality by evaluating and comparing socio-political issues that prevail versus the events from the book. it is because fs provides details about the 78 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 setting, characters and main event, which are the fundamental aspects of themes related to the main topic/title. however, informational text requires critical thinking and reasoning, which a reader must have while reading. as a result, an academic text presented no opportunity for co-researchers to reflect, think, stop, connect and ask questions. as it is reflected upon in this excerpt which is written verbatim: mr. lekwala: during the reading of the academic text, were you able to identify hidden meaning? female student: iyoh! it was difficult to understand what the text was talking about until i had to read it more than three times, and i couldn’t finish it because time elapsed when i was reading it for the third time. mr. lekwala: how will you relate the meaning of the academic text to your life? in other words, is there any reality check between what you read and what you understood? female student: ouch! i could say that…mmmm…the ideas from the text's ideas were quite confusing because i couldn’t relate to the main ideas and supporting ones as to which ones can relate to reality. so i am not sure. mr. lekwala: so do you think, based on the academic text you read, that its main ideas couldn’t be analysed and related to the context of reality? female student: i could say, yes and no, sir! yes, because the ideas were quite congested and, as such, difficult to comprehend what is the main idea. and no, in the sense that these were authentic events of an idea, one needed not to think out of the box. mr. lekwala: how will you say this goal of identifying hidden meaning was achieved? female student: jrrrr! it was a challenge to achieve the goal of identifying the hidden meaning because the text was boring and full of rhetorical meanings. even though academic texts are predominately used as a learning strategy, fictional texts manage to present an effective opportunity for the reader to stop, think, ask, connect and reflect. this results in co-researchers' ability to remain engaged, entertained, and captivated throughout the fictional text. in concise, informational texts succeeded in attaining reading comprehension because co-researchers are holistically involved and the strategy described above assisted in challenging the critical thinking and reasoning capacity. this proves that fs is a suitable learning strategy to enhance rc amid the engaged reading attained. collaborative learning co-researchers, as per empirical findings, are able to establish synergy in order to achieve rc. during data generation, in one instance, a female researcher sought to solicit an intervention or assistance of the other fellow co-researcher. however, because of significant restriction, rc was deterred as a result of this particular lack of collaborative learning, as evident from this excerpt: 79 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 mr. lekwala: during the process of reading academic text, were you able to understand some of the words while reading? female student: absolutely not, iyoh! i wanted to ask the next person sitting apart from me, but it was difficult for me because i was not allowed to interact with anyone. mr. lekwala: how will you describe reading in isolation? female student: it is very difficult because silent reading is boring and overwhelming. so it would be better if we had to read in groups and consult each other in terms of pronunciation of words and stuff. therefore, collaborative learning is essential to reading activity to achieve rc purposively. in comparison, fs depicts the sense of synergy where characters collaborate to achieve a specific goal. as a result, students happen to learn these skills from fictional texts and are enticed to adopt and implement them in their daily life roles. once this form of ability manifests itself, assurance is attained that rc was certainly achieved because the reader acquired a certain and peculiar set of skills that are requisite for effective learning. furthermore, collaborative learning enhances communication skills, emotional intelligence and tenacity. these skills and traits manifest across the plots in a fictional story wherein a particular character must communicate unequivocally and without contradictions in an attempt to fulfil a mission. similarly, the character must maintain composure, demeanour and perseverance to realise the set goal. conversely, the prospects of a fictional story reader acquiring these traits and skills are high as the reader’s critical thinking is not only challenging but anticipated to visualise how these tenets can be applied in a particular situation. in brief, fictional stories propel independent thinking in a manner that requires initiatives or situations holistically, that is-intellectually, emotionally and physically have a rapport with the dynamics of the environment with the society. prior learning or existing knowledge when reading, prior knowledge is activated and interest invigorated so that the leverage to sustain the reader through the text is dominantly maintained. however, this was a challenge when using academic text as rc is not optimally achieved because prior learning or knowledge is not triggered by readers. it is discernible from this excerpt: mr. lejoi: were your preconceived ideas changed after reading fictional text? male student: yes, initially, i viewed women’s dignity as drained by abuse while i didn’t consider that values can play an important role...to change a woman’s confidence. mr. lejoi: based on your prior knowledge, between fictional text and academic text, which one is difficult and why? male student: huh….! i thought that fictional texts were difficult to understand because fictional materials are imaginative, but as i read, i realised that imaginative things happen in real life, so reality is based on imagination… you know! mr. lejoi: have your knowledge been tested by fictional things? 80 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 male student: mmme ja! because, for example, i thought crime could be an alternative for surviving but, eish! after reading fictional material, i realised that it is not an alternative. relatively, the fictional text contains the features that potently challenge the reader to apply the existing knowledge to what is being read. this was identified during empirical data generation, where mr lejoi asserted that his preconceived ideas about women were drastically changed after reading fictional text. amid this assertion, the findings conclude that fictional texts activate prior learning or knowledge, which is critical and essential for one to have rc. this prior knowledge is activated when certain events from the fictional text test the existing knowledge about the reader, such as the use of criminal acts as a means of survival. this tested the co-researchers’ prior knowledge, who thought crime was an alternative means of surviving. however, after reading about crime and its effects in fictional text, he learned that crime is not an alternative means of surviving as its consequences are death and prison. in other words, the co-researchers’ preconceived ideas are changed during the reading of the fictional text, indicating that his prior knowledge is activated, linked to the text and changed after reading, thus showing comprehension. in contrast, it is established that prior learning exposes the reader to the learning curve where an assessment of what is known and not known is established based on empirical data, and the concept of transition into reality check mode (rcm) is coined. this rcm is the mode that enables the reader to juxtapose the fact and fiction extracted from fictional materials through critical thinking, which in turn, reflects to the level of comprehension that one has optimally attained. invariably, rc might be blurred once prior learning is not equated to generating the flow of thoughts and reasoning. however, the credence of empirical data attests that fs has the potency to equate the thoughts and critical reasoning into prior learning; thus, it affirms the use of fs as the alternative learning strategy to enhance rc. obstacles to reading social networks and related media are the distractors that impede rc. therefore, findings conjured the concept of reciprocal reading (rr) as the process whereby reading fictional texts is simultaneously intertwined with the thoughts and feelings of the reader. fs produces this to avert the situation whereby the reader incessantly solicits entertainment, interest and attention from social media because there is a significant lack of rc. once there is a lack of rc, it is a vivid sign that interest and attention are not captured in the reading process thereof, which propels one to detour his/her cognitive processes into social networks and related media. moreover, to curb this challenge, fs must be used as the learning strategy for rc, wherein readers’ challenges of concentration bred by lack of attention and interest will be overcome by rr espoused by the potency of fs. insofar as fs is concerned, the lack of attention and interest during the reading process is sealed by the use of fs as they present flexibility, induced entertainment, adaptation and relaxation demonstrated by 81 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 characterisation and conflating of a sequence of events from fictional materials. this surmises that fs is used as the learning strategy for rc which is significantly imperative to overcome the challenges of rc. other challenges the aim is to propose using fs as the learning strategy to enhance rc and as a result, the inquiry conducted managed to generate empirical data that discovered other challenges as some of the barriers to rc. these challenges are among other things but not limited to the use and application of comma (,) and colon (;) in the sentences of the texts. although related studies educate us about the use and application of punctuation marks, there have not been significant studies that focus on how their use and application enhance rc. therefore, this necessitates future studies to focus on how the use of punctuation marks enhances rc. amid these identified challenges by empirical data, it is conceded that even during the reading of fs, the use and application of punctuation marks perpetuated the need for future studies as they constantly kept on appearing as one of the barriers to rc. however, during the reading of fs for the purpose of rc, these challenges were attributed to the lack of exposure of readers to these punctuation marks, which caused them not to be in possession of what the researcher, influenced by empirical data, coined the concept: linguistic dexterity. this linguistic dexterity is defined as the mental touch and understanding of perceived punctuation marks’ use and application in the text during the reading process and is derived when the reader can clearly notice the punctuation mark’s position in the text and relate the meaning of the entire text without deviating from the main idea. therefore, this poses a challenge and invitation to future studies and scholars to focus on how punctuation marks enhance rc, thus constituting the research gap in the body of knowledge. decisively, this concludes that punctuation marks are still a perpetual barrier that seeks further studies in relation to rc. therefore, the use and application of punctuation marks constituted a delay in the acquisition of the term coined by the researcher, such as linguistic dexterity. conclusion one of the major social skills which are required is the sense of collegiality and in relation to proposing the learning strategy of using fs to enhance rc, empirical findings confirmed the assumption of literature review those challenges such as collaborative learning, illogical informational text and prior learning can be overcome by using fs. collaborative learning is very significant in reading because it not only instils a sense of belonging but also derives communication skills that are paramount to learning. in addition, informational text and prior learning are the challenges that are mitigated during the reading of fs, wherein the coresearchers’ prior experiences were ignited by fictional events in relation to certain themes on which the theme was known to be in a particular way. however, after reading the fictional text, the readers (in this instance, the co-researchers) were able to adapt a new sphere of 82 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 69-85 knowledge by synthesising and interpreting the fictional events in the manner that beset reality. in concise, these reasons are the fundamental aspects that qualify the proposed learning strategy as the best alternative strategy that can be used to enhance rc. therefore, this paper, based on its empirical findings, analysis and presentations of results, recommends fs as the learning strategy to enhance rc. this means that scholars, students and stakeholders in academia can use this learning strategy to address the relative challenges that confront rc in various spheres of education. it is because there is a patent indication that fs provides the content that succinctly gives informational text as readers can maintain concentration throughout it. in contrast, they also activate readers’ previous learning experiences, which could be linked to what has been read, rather than changing the existing perception during the reading of fs. moreover, fs mitigate the challenges of collaborative learning as, by their nature, fs enables a conducive environment of reading where collective engagement and discussions are encouraged and optimally used among students. irresistibly, fs defeated the obstacles to reading, such as interruption sourced by social networks and other related media, which were empirically vibrant given the fact that these are the incessant challenges that are endemic and keep on prevailing among readers. hence, fs is structured to maintain and preserve interest, attention and concentration. however, the paper restricted its scope to the challenges of reading comprehension and there is a necessity to examine the methods used in both primary and secondary schools to teach reading skills, particularly in relation to the use of fictional stories such as short and long stories. in addition, further studies are required to determine the use of literary texts such as a poem, to teach reading skills for reading comprehension. although the paper recommends fictional stories as the learning strategy to enhance reading comprehension in first-year university students, it is essential to review some of the literary texts used 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(2013). creative praxis as a form of academic discourse. international journal for the practice and theory of creative writing, 10(3), 250-260, zua, b. (2021). gateway to a world of exploits. international journal of education and literacy studies, 9(1), 96. http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.9n.1p.96 http://dx.doi.org/10.7575/aiac.ijels.v.9n.1p.96 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 1 2023 pp. 141-158 what do bachelor of indigenous knowledge systems graduates say about their curriculum? a qualitative tracer study at the university of venda nyadzani dolphus nevhudoli*a & vhonani olive netshandamaa * corresponding author email: nevhudoli@gmail.com a. department of indigenous knowledge systems and heritage studies, university of venda, limpopo province, south africa article info received: july 31, 2022 accepted: december 16, 2022 published: march 14, 2023 how to cite nevhudoli, n. d., & netshandama, v. o. (2023). what do bachelor of indigenous knowledge systems graduates say about their curriculum? a qualitative tracer study at the university of venda. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(1), 141-158. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.11 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract the main purpose of any degree, in any institution of higher learning is to create graduates with competent knowledge and abilities to deal with vital challenges that affect the country; any deviations to this purpose requires a review and rethinking of the whole system, such as a curriculum transformation. grounded in a critical post humanist paradigm, qualitative reflective semi-structured interviews were held with 12 graduates to ascertain their experiences with the bachelor of indigenous knowledge system (biks) programme delivery and content during their 4 years stay at the university of venda. responses from graduates indicated that biks’s strength depend within its multidisciplinary method. it also exposed the graduates to the work environment through integrated learning program, although, there were also sentiments that such exposure was insufficient and at times irrelevant. the experience of the students provided insights into what could be the focus of the revision of the curriculum to ensure global citizenship competencies, employability and or entrepreneurial acumen amongst graduates. one of the challenges of iks, that the students drew attention to, was a lack of the curriculum’s capacity to beneficiate, as its focus was not sufficiently business oriented. work-based learning and other forms of exposure might have to be revamped to enhance entrepreneurial skills and to ensure that students learn how to create thriving iks inspired businesses to create employment opportunities amongst others. keywords curriculum; bachelor of indigenous knowledge system; tracer studies; graduates, posthuman thinking; humanities critical thinking. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.11 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.11 142 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 introduction in 2014, the indigenous knowledge systems bachelor’s degree (biks) program was introduced in the following universities university of venda and north west university in south africa. (ngubane, 2018). the establishment of this program was meant to develop student with the necessary knowledge, skills, and values of indigenous knowledge systems (iks), which will prepare them to deal with today’s challenges that include the economic crisis. the higher education act 101 focuses on the restructuring and transformation of all programmes in institutions to respond to a new and improved curriculum, however, matters of transformation of the curriculum have been inadequately addressed in response to the call (higher education quality committee, 2001). the south african qualifications authority (south african qualification authority, 2012) is the oversight body of the national qualification framework, in its mandate are stipulated in the national qualification framework act no 67 of 2008 , and is to enhance the quality of education and training, create a single integrated national framework for learning achievements, and facilitate access to, and mobility and progression within, education, training and career paths (south african qualification authority, 2013). universities are expected to play a crucial role in contributing to the development of a country’s economy, hence, the challenge of curriculum transformation is a world-wide issue. however, the posthuman predicament is framed by the political economy of advanced capitalism. posthuman knowledges and their emerging subjects are a welcome reality of the simultaneous way in which the past meets the present in the inclusive process of becoming one with nature. according to braidotti (2019), studies of indigenous knowledge systems, feminists, and queers, are real-life subjects whose knowledge never made it into any of the official cartographies, yet they assisted in enabling the convergence of holistic living, non-humaniser technologically-mediated existences with post humanist perspectives. according to sing (2010), higher education institutions need to develop their course curricula to address these objectives in order to create a highly qualified and competent workforce. similarly, geel (2015), indicates that the employability skills of graduates depend largely on the role of universities in the designing of their curricula. even though there are numerous calls for the curriculum in higher education to be changed, the content of programs seems to receive less consideration when addressing curriculum reform issues. this paper addresses the urgency of tertiary curriculum transformation in teaching and learning, whilst acknowledging the complexities and the exploration of critical posthuman education synchronization in perpetuity. this paper has adopted a posthumanism framework. the contradiction of simultaneous overexposure and human disappearance is only discernible within this framework, and it vanishes if we address it using the distinction discourse made by deleuze and guattari (1994) inside the fundamental concept of the present. the fact that it does not entirely correspond with the present moment is what gives the present its power and what makes it understandable. as a result of all human and non-human creatures in a neo-materialist vital system being nomadic subjects-in-process, in constant motion, and 143 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 immanent to the vitality of self-ordering matter, such synchronization is never perfect. therefore, approaching the present has many effects. on the one hand, it brings about a strong sense of what we are ceasing to be (the end of the actual), and on the other, it brings about a perception of what is still here. the posthuman curriculum offers fresh perspectives on humans as non-exceptional beings who are intertwined with other beings, including instructors and students (blaikie, et al., 2020). blaikie, et al. (2020), mention additionally that rethinking pedagogy, knowledge production, and dissemination are all components of adopting a posthumanist perspective to education. if a different way of viewing the world is necessary, we must "defamiliarize [our] mental patterns by shifting away from a humanist worldview," according to (braidotti, 2019:77). the elements of posthumanism in this paper helped both the lecturer and students to understand the needs of the society and inform curricular imperatives and educational pedagogical practices of teaching and learning. it was also informed by different perspectives from the graduates; their contribution brought evidence for the need of curriculum change, with the intention that such changes will enhance graduate employability, inclusivity, sustainability, and citizenship in the economy of the country. the main reason that the indigenous knowledge system degree was initiated into institutions of higher learning was the realization that. in practice, curricula are located in something, i.e., people’s cultures, heritage, ontologies, and epistemologies. the saqa framework act 68 of 2008 aims to ensure that various elements of higher education are brought together effectively and made more responsive to the country’s needs (saqa, 2012). the intention was to satisfy the demands of the expanding economies, especially combined with bettering gender equality, health, peace, and stability. institutions of higher learning, therefore, were generally expected by the council of higher education (che) to achieve three distinct national goals: educating young people to be contributing members of society, meeting industry demand with a skilled and competitive workforce, and, lastly, maintaining efforts to meet international education standards by raising the quality of human capital, productivity, and economic advancement. the relevant question at this juncture is: how do we determine if the institutional programs/curricula are responding well to societal and national economic challenges, hence, graduates are equipped with relevant skills? a tracer study is essential in answering such a question. schiefelbein (2014) defines tracer studies are research projects in which a sample is used at a given time and then located and re-examined at one or more subsequent points throughout their lives. in south africa, during the previous years, institutions of higher education have noticed a considerable increase in the number of young people without jobs, especially amongst graduates. the current graduate unemployment is a widespread issue worldwide, but now there are concerns about the rapidly growing numbers (brits, et al., 2019). 144 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 there is existing research on the subject, as numerous studies have been done based on longitudinal and tracer surveys of graduates during their transition from higher study to employment. in africa, issues of unemployment amongst graduates, and the unease of not knowing the whereabouts of graduates from universities have become challenges, as curriculum planners are not well informed about the effectiveness of their programs (mamphokhu, et al., 2022). currently, there is a large pool of tertiary unemployed graduates in africa; the main reason is that the continent is producing a large number of inappropriately skilled graduates. to identify project components that are effective and ineffective, the ilo thesaurus (2005) describes a tracer study as an assessment method that links the impact on target groups to specific project or program components. in the meantime, schomburg (2003) notes that graduate survey data is crucial for analysing the connection between higher education and employment. contrarily, tracer studies, according to millington (2001), offer quantitative structural data on employment and career, the kind of work and related competencies, as well as details on the professional direction and experiences of its graduates. as information that can be used to establish a connection between the university's curriculum content and quality of higher education is provided by the collected data, it is also a significant indicator of that quality. tracer studies, therefore, inform universities’ programmes on their relevance and responsiveness to graduates’ needs, especially with career development and employment. kalaw, (2019), indicates that tracer studies gather feedback for educational institutions to check their graduates’ accomplishment and development in their careers and give policy bodies critical data on key issues. the general objective of tracer studies, is to check the medium and the long-term impact of education programs. solid objectives of tracer study include improving the education and training content and study conditions, improving the transition of graduates from education to the labour market, and better matching the supply of skills with employment demands. kalaw (2019), confirms that this type of research is appropriate in determining the effectiveness of programs, as it is essential to find out how effective and adequate the trainings provided by the universities, and encourage posthumanism thinking within such training. although posthuman thinking has its own challenges that would require its own writing, it gives opportunities to understand more complex issues around the institution of higher education. the articulation of posthumanism within the study becomes important. the articulation of posthumanisms in the study this paper derives from critical post humanities according to braidotti (2019), he alluded that posthumanities is a new area of study based on the fusion of posthumanism and postanthropocentrism. critical posthumanism thinking in this study was centred on exploring traditional boundaries between students as human beings and curriculum developer’s exceptionalism. students should be seen as relational, embodied, engaged, affective, and accountable organisms as well as posthuman knowing subjects (braidotti, 2019), towards building a sustainable post humanist curriculum. this paper intends to elevate the voices of the graduates to reflect on their biks programme student-hood, the present as graduates but the 145 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 past as students in the process of becoming accountable citizens who belong to a location that was once marginalized, and whose voices were suppressed. furthermore, it elevates the voices of the graduates in the promotion of a transformative curriculum. post humanism thinking posits that a curriculum will constantly adapt and change to include amongst others, physical and virtual learning. the 4th industrial revolution has curricular imperatives that warrant robust engagement; thus, this study created a platform for critical post-humanistic curriculum conversations. in a post humanist approach, students are seen as intertwined with, connected to, and responsible for oneself, alongside the life and habitats of all humans, non-humans, the environment, the planet, and space, including entities beyond our planet. the inclusion of curriculum within the education system and the development of a curriculum that values the interconnected existence of all beings and their actions, rooted in and beyond classroom, and through innovative pedagogical methods, will truly support globally minded citizens who are able to think and act holistically (blaike et al., 2020). the paper reflected on and aligned itself with the critical posthumanist approach, which challenges education to cross examine and breakup humanist structures upon which many current educations systems rest. as blaike (2020) show concern with a question, “how we ‘do’ education, arguably, relies right at the centre of rising to the challenges of developing thinkingstrategies for participating in the complexities of 21st century living and working (blaike, et al, 2020). he further suggests that a posthuman pedagogy investigate and features the following key elements: re-turning to holistic ancestral and indigenous ways of knowing, reframing relationships between scholars, teachers, and student, considering material physical learning environments in which knowledge is co-created, and support the need to move toward post disciplinary conceptions of knowing, curriculum, and knowledge creation (blaike, et a.l, 2020). furthermore, blaike, et al. (2020), suggest a conception of pedagogy that is holistic, where boundaries are porous, and learners develop capacities to feel, think, and imagine oneself relationally. indeed, relationality is at the centre of pedagogy: it is not only between students and teachers but also in relation to the settings in which teaching, and learning take place. posthumanism and curriculum posthumanism discourse has been sending strong pressure through the humanities and social sciences, however, the theory has yet to make its existence felt in educational studies, despite some memorable attempts for it to gain traction (snaza & weaver, 2015). posthumanism is a philosophical perspective of how change occurs in the world; the theory includes a set of questions facing us, and the way of dealing with those questions (wolfe, 2010). two related notions start from this claim: firstly, the mind-body continuum, i.e. the embodiment of the body and mind, and secondly, the nature-culture continuum, i.e. nature cultural transversal bonding. the article investigated these key conceptual and methodological perspectives and discusses the impact of the critical post humanities for practices in the contemporary research at the institution of higher learning. from posthuman times, the posthuman subjects of knowledge 146 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 represent within them, are producing new fields of transdisciplinary knowledge, which we call the critical post humanities. there is a non-inclusion of posthumanism within curriculum studies and educational studies, in general. posthumanism is a school of thought that allows us not to see students as only requiring to travel a predestined path from not knowing to knowing, and from being deficient to having skills, but, transforms educational thought, practice, and research in related ways. cook (2016), defines posthuman curricula as those that must continually evolve along with the students’ environment, therefore, those that are informed by our present milieu. in addition, in the posthumanism era, curricular imperatives should lie both in the tangible and cyberspace realms, whereas the bachelor of indigenous knowledge system curricula offers intangible and theoretical pedagogy (cook, 2016). posthumanism, therefore, are powerhouse with regard to how resolutely humanist almost all educational philosophy and research is. secondly, it allows us to rethink education and focus on how we are related to machines, and things within the universe. thirdly, building on and incorporating these first two insights, it enables us to begin investigating new post humanist directions in research, curriculum design, and pedagogical practices (snaza, & weaver, 2015). in a similar perspective, one of the values of students’ voices is that it enables their participation in curriculum transformation in order to generate a curriculum in which there is democratic inclusivity, there need to be ways of allowing the whole student body to participate in decision-making at the departmental level in universities and a knowledge of the variety of opinions. for this to emerge, universities should progress from a theoretical critique of knowledge as a symptomatic foreclosure for different definitions of meaning, towards an articulation of what we might call, for lack of a better term, new research. one of the most important perspectives of recent posthuman thinking, is that it gives such space for decolonizing the universities’ curricula. snaza & weaver (2015), indicated that posthuman theory’s questions could be constitute when discussing issues related to the relationships between humans and non-humans. this would include questions, for example, related to curriculum transformation. curriculum studies, like other humanist structures intellectual labour, have long been anthropocentric, which means that human beings have always been at the heart, as the most important species on earth, that accounts for why curricula have endured, to a large extent, unaffected by post-humanists thinking; this indicates that the education system carry on behind current thinking. education specialists have long showed that their curricula have been anthropocentric because they only distress human beings, or that the experiences of human beings are somehow unconnected to or should take precedence over the experiences of nonhuman beings (rowe, 2016). thus, the critical posthumanist curriculum circle is inclusive of a relational community that deleuze and guattari (1987; braidotti 2019) characterize as a mobile, transversal "assemblage" that includes nonhuman actors and technology media. 147 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 post humanist theories supply the opportunity for students to give meaningfully to centrally evolve school curricula. curriculum-making practices in western schools, have generally criticize student’s voices. at best, student’ opinions were to seek only after important decisions had already been made and the curricula had been decided by universities (cook, 2016). mac ghaill (1992), suggests that, although students are regarded as the central to schooling, they are hardly consulted during curriculum-development processes. if students’ input is sought at all during curriculum development, it may be solicited during the trial, or pilot, stages. meanwhile, post humanist theories gives an understanding of the need to develop an environment for sustainable teaching and learning during the humanist era. the main purpose of the posthumanism theory with regard to education or curriculum, is to disarrange dualistic thinking and shift the controlling force, in this case of colonial curricula to a relational perspective’s curriculum located in iks, and people engagement. our argument is that the critical posthuman enables us to critique our own curricula, across several interdisciplinary fields, the emergence of discourses which also brings to an end the categorical distinction between life as bios, the prerogative of anthropos, as distinct from the life of animals and nonhumans (braidotti, 2006). what comes to the fore instead, is a curriculum based on human-nonhuman linkages, new zoontologies (de fontaney, 1998; gray, 2002; wolfe, 2003), and complex media-technological interfaces (bono, et al., 2008). the leading argument is that because post humanist thinking conditions are increasing in teaching and learning methods globally, students’ voices need to be elevated in curriculum transformation processes, which will include those new learning areas, such as of technologies, as it will also mean replacing the means of knowledge production and distribution. kirk &wright (1995), mentions that in the posthuman era, students should have skills that are extracted from their relationship with technology and media. white (1994), indicates that this means a new orientation to the world in which new relations are possible. because of new electronic communication, white (1994), claims, schools should lower their reliance on print, and rethink their conceptions of students’ voices and their authority. given that we are in the post humanist era of thinking, tinning and fitzclarence (1992), maintain that it is important that teachers not only take account of students’ shifting understandings of various activities, such as physical activity, lifestyle and the body, but also adopt curriculum approaches that intensify students’ analytical capacities and foreground individual sensitivity, which is supportive, nurturing and accepting in nature. the study was about what the bachelor of indigenous knowledge systems (biks) graduates say about their curriculum at the university of venda. universities have a strategic role to improve the effectiveness of the curriculum to be responsive and relevant curriculum, relevant to the ethical task of turning the painful experience of unreality into generative relational encounters (braidotti, 2019), and knowledge production and sharing. we admit that it is indeed good practice to review a curriculum every three (3) years to establish its relevance. such a review would be incomplete if it does not include the opinion of the students. the report 148 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 in this paper intended to undertake a biks curriculum review, thereby obtain retrospectivereflective points from the lenses of the graduates. schomburg (2014), indicated that the objectives of a tracer project can be multiple, but frequent ones include, inquiry on students’ study development, transition to work, work entrance requirements, jobs and careers, utilization of enquired skills, current occupations, and attachments to their education in their universities. therefore, the goal of any tracer study is to assess the impact of educational initiatives over the long term. below are the research questions asked in the study: • what are your experiences, opinions, and views regarding the biks degree? • what happens to biks graduates after they complete their studies? where are they, and what are they doing? methodology the study adopted a transformative paradigm as it has centered its framework around the experience of the graduate. a qualitative tracer approach was employed in the study because it emphasizes human experiences, hence, it was deemed a logical approach when conducting a tracer survey from a group of biks students who graduated from the program in 2018. semistructured interviews were employed as a data collection, and purposeful sampling approach as a strategy. face to face type of an interview were conducted at the university of venda. where possible, the interviews were conducted in the students’ respective homes, while for those who did not live within the vicinity of the university of venda, telephonic interviews were conducted. data was generated from 12 biks graduates of the 2014 to 2018 cohort. these graduates from the biks first cohort received their degree in may 2018. out of 12 participants, 7 were male and 5 were female. their ages ranged from 25-30 years. this tracer study was essential to give voices to those students who went through the programme, and thus have lived experiences that allow them legitimacy to voice graduates’ views of their degree’s notions of relevance and responsiveness to their situation. the study revealed the responsiveness and relevance of the biks curriculum in the university of venda, through shared experiences of the graduates. findings the findings are discussed according to the questions posed to the participants: • what are your experiences, opinions and views with regard to biks degree? • what happens to biks graduates after they complete their studies, where are they and what are they doing? experiences of graduates in the biks curriculum teaching and learning experience participants indicated that the teaching and learning experiences were largely theoretical with limited practical exposure. curricula by nature are intended to prepare students to become experts in their chosen fields of practice and exposure to both classroom and field work assists them to learn more, although, practice enhances learning more than theories. they added that 149 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 experience in first-hand practice is extremely useful in teaching and learning, but it cannot replace theories that have being taught in the classrooms. the crucial component of active learning is an emphasis on practical experience rather than merely listening as a way of acquiring knowledge. the global education is changing to such as extent that now students do not focus only on learning skills and gaining knowledge, as practical learning has more value over the theoretical components of the curriculum especially when relating it to employability. herbrechter (2018), indicated that as far as the pedagogical element of technology and becoming human is anxious, there has always been an educational aspect to posthumanism, but it has long remained implied. not many people have been openly thinking about the educational implications of posthumanism. theoretical education is necessary, however posthuman education brings practical components into existence especially in understanding life better; with the current era of fourth industrial revolution knowledge is of minimum value unless it is put into practice. below are some of the sentiments of graduates regarding their learning experience with biks curriculum: my experience with the curriculum is based mostly on theories, there should be a lot of practical that are done outside the classroom in modules, especially, the third and fourth years; such modules should deal with health issues, health faculties should be consulted and other traditional practitioners, as now these modules focused more on theories. (graduate 4) the responses of the graduates are challenging to the coordinators of the program and the university of venda; graduates indicated that so far there is no relation between theories that are taught in class, the practical exposure, and the needs of the students, which limits them from obtaining the most needed practical experience. graduates further indicated that only one stream of african indigenous health care system is offered in the 3rd and 4th year of their studies, whereas the interdisciplinary nature of iks requires them to have a multiplicity of choices and streams from which to choose. they suggested that problem-oriented content would be more beneficial as a way of capacitating problem-solving and designing skills, so that as they work through designing iks-based solution, they will eventually be able to create their own business and so forth. the following were the responses from the graduates with regard to the question asked: there is too much african theory than practical components in the con tent of the curriculum that does not benefits students or graduates locally; the curriculum should also integrate western science, social entrepreneurship issues to be relevant to the society. (graduate 1) graduates suggested the following in response to their dissatisfaction with curriculum relevance, responsiveness to their needs and the expectation of the society: the university of venda's department of indigenous knowledge systems and heritage studies must introduce skills development modules which will enhance problem-solving, teamwork and critical thinking and collaboration, leadership, professionalism, and strong work ethic to establish work 150 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 integrated learning initiatives. along this sentiment, graduates mentioned that before they graduate, they should develop their own skills by initiating their own career development. lastly, it was mentioned that biks lecturers must develop their own academic abilities in the directions mentioned so that they are able to develop students’ employability skill through teaching and learning. these findings promote reaching out beyond the established, incorporate the elements of humanism within the education system, and calls for approaching contemporary 4ir learning from a critical post humanist point of view. the whereabouts of biks graduates after they complete their studies where are they and what are they doing? employment opportunities graduates indicated that the problem of unemployment is very real to them, and that the outmost appropriate and crucial strategies to handle the problem of graduate unemployment and eliminate societal issue are for the universities to create graduates with skills that can increase human productivity. the responses highlighted the fact that the curriculum should looked into developing knowledge and skills that are practical and relevant to their needs. considering posthuman, the bachelor of indigenous knowledge systems will be enhanced as it will be answering questions what the discipline seeks to answer, questions such as how the degree is relevant to the current era, and the curriculum can infuse posthuman elements to enhance the skills and ability of the graduates. the field of posthuman studies examine what it is to be human in an age of quick technological, scientific, cultural, and social evolution. curriculum and employment status will always be related, meaning that a robust curriculum should an aim to address things like technology capabilities, technical education practices, social entrepreneurship education and practical skills. konst (2021), indicates that post humanist theories, as well as transhumanist reflections encourages a constructive but rigorously critical dialogue between the various beyond humanist movements. the posthuman theories will be underlying concepts within the development of the curriculum, and the degree will be enhanced by both the posthumanism and transhumanism theory. by implementing posthuman theories in the bachelor of indigenous knowledge system, the university will be preparing graduates who can survive, since they will apply their skills and knowledge in the workplace. one graduate said the following in responding to the question asked, about their status in terms of employment: right now, i am unemployed, one of the reasons might be, i was exposed to a curriculum that has strengths in terms of providing historical knowledge, however it seems to pose a threat to the graduates who do not know where their employment will come from or rather who will employ me with the knowledge and experience, i have. (graduate 5) the concerns around unemployment, amongst all of them was very visible throughout the responses. one rationale for the study, as mentioned, was to establish the link between graduates’ unemployment and the curriculum because during the interviews, it was evident that 151 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 there was a great correlation between the two. therefore, it was necessary to understand these two phenomena in this study: biks curriculum, and graduates’ unemployment. several studies suggest that south african economy have encountered severe skills shortages, whilst the economy is unable to produce sufficient job opportunities for graduates. below is one of the sentiments of graduates regarding how the issues of unemployment can be addressed to help the economy: biks curriculum can infuse social entrepreneurship development and innovation skills by teaching students how to implement biks innovations within the biks curriculum, teach students how to be creative and innovative because if biks is the way to improve our economy then factors that should be covered must align with the african innovations and entrepreneurship. equip students with necessary education that will revive the biks and economy of the country. (graduate 3) one of the reasons the study wanted to find the whereabouts of the students was to determine how successful the program was, hence, illustrating how well the graduates are well prepared with the important abilities that may be responsive in dealing with the problem of unemployment in both their local community and across the country. institution of higher learning are now under severe pressure from the government’s institution and other external stakeholders to supply measurable outcomes of employability, as there is immense variability about the employability of the graduates and how relevant the curricula are to the articulated learning outcome of the biks program (fulgence, 2015). the conversations about the possible ways in which the university can improve graduate employability emerged during the data generation process through participants’ responses to the interview questions. the responses indicated that, indeed, there is a demand for curriculum transformation to assist in the employability of the graduates; below are two of the graduates’ responses: biks curriculum is a good program. the only problem we are facing is that there seems to be very low job opportunities for iks graduates. (graduate 9) third year students should spend a lot of time in the field rather than in classroom in order to acquire skills and experience for the job market. (graduate 12) it was noticeable through participant’s responses that the notion of graduate employability includes a comprehensive view on the qualities of graduates needed in a society. graduates shared their concerns that career opportunities are not guaranteed for most graduates; one of the reasons is that the content of the biks program itself does not reveal to them skills required for the job market, neither does the curriculum prepare them for social life after their graduation. based on the graduates’ responses it was evident that the biks program lacks relevant knowledge/skills/competencies in the curriculum content. du preez (2019), confirms that graduates must attain a variety of skills that enhance their employability and help them thrive in their desired careers; they also add that universities in the development of such skills will increase the employability of their graduates while simultaneously raising the quality and standards of their degrees. 152 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 the findings also revealed that many graduates were unemployed. of those that are unemployed, some have opted to further their studies and or take up a different degree. graduates who participated in the study indicated the need to acquire additional skills to make it in the job market. below is one response: it is good to also include the 4th industrial revolution concept in order to develop more skills and more jobs for the upcoming youth and graduates. the adaption and infusing of technology in the curriculum will enable and expose the students to a combination of both practical and theoretical parts of what they have been taught in class and meet the demand and supply answers to the 21st century society. (graduate 8) interventions may include infusing short skills programme to diversify the skills set. given the reported high unemployment rate in the country, the questions asked of the adequacy, relevance, and responsiveness of current programme to the needs of society, needs to be reengaged. furthering studies why will the future of institution of higher learning will be indeed of posthumanism in particular? there is no longer time to focus only on early childhood education and primary school for the development pf awareness, skills and critical thinking, as well to make sure that the future generation are more responsible and can make sustainable decision (konst, 2021). in real life, this means that graduates should continue their education and concentrate more on post-humanistic principles. by including these values, we hope to ensure that all graduates develop the attitudes and skills necessary to act in favour of a future that is more sustainable. meanwhile, participants in the study indicated that after completing their degree, many of them come across questions, such as “where next?” and “how?”. similarly, the questions in this tracer study were meant to discover the whereabouts of the graduates, hence, questions, such as “where are they?” and “what are they doing?” were asked. with the country and society, we are living in, with graduates’ employment uncertainty, furthering study was a more practical option for many graduates, and posthumanism education would introduce new approaches of thinking by graduates. participant indicated the following reasons as to why they opted to study further after completing the biks undergraduate degree. an biks degree only is not enough for job market nowadays wherein there is a growing number of unemployment, because we are exposed to low levels of practical and problem-solving content, during my undergraduate study; the exposure is not enough to make you stand out from all those unemployed graduates, hence i decided to further my studies to enhance my chances, life is tough out here. (graduate 7) i am a registered postgraduate student, i mean i am not working there is nothing that i can be doing except studying right now. (graduate 11) according to mavundla (2021), the critical mandate of the universities is to reshape students by increasing attitude, knowledge, skills, and abilities while simultaneously empowering them. pursuing postgraduate studies puts students in a better position to secure 153 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 employment, as their capabilities are increased, thus making them more competent in the delivery of services that they provide. (konst, 2021) universities should encourage graduates to further their studies towards working life needs, expectations, and aligning such studies on the market economy requirements. therefore, the educational system needs developments and a paradigm shift. several studies indicated that there is an importance of post humanistic viewpoint in higher education and what does it mean it practice of teaching and learning. discussion when reflecting on the parameters of the biks curriculum from a critical post humanist perspectives, we can argue that the programme would be enhanced by the embrace of the inclusion of the voices of the ‘missing people’ (braidotti, 2019), in this, the graduates, whose voices hardly made it to curriculum circles, and of the complexities of navigating a space in between of a programme conceptually designed to embrace the previously marginalized voices in the knowledge production and sharing process, with the acknowledgement of the complexities of the connected way in which the disentanglement with cognitive capitalism, would necessarily occur simultaneously with the perpetual synchronization of the man with non-man and all living things and nature. a practical pedagogy is aimed at addressing unemployment, student assistance, the adoption of african pedagogies in conjunction with parallel shifts in language and history politics, and student involvement in knowledge and skill production are only a few of the transformations (ramrathan, 2016). according to ameyaw et al. (2019), a responsive curriculum should address students' evolving requirements by bridging the gap between contextual, constantly changing realities of daily life and the workplace on the one hand, and universal knowledge and ideas on the other. the graduates’ responses indicated that a critical thinking, entrepreneurial and problem solving curriculum content need strengthening, that the curriculum should also focus on creativity, innovation and technology skills, to prepare students to adapt to 4ir requisites, which would add value to their awareness of the convergence between the environmental awareness, suitability and the machine, which place them in better career pathing options and perpetual inquiry about the human, the post human and the critical post human paradigms (braidotti, 2019). an awareness was brought forth that they should not be a resist in understanding both the post humanistic and humanistic thinking as they can add value to the philosophy, practices, and scholarship in universities; both paradigms matter in the development of the curriculum. graduates’ shared experiences with the curriculum ranged from the type of content being offered, to the implications of such content to them as graduates as the irrelevance and nonresponsiveness of the curriculum were mentioned several times. the findings, therefore, calls for a more rigorous curriculum revision to include the areas mentioned by the non-working graduates, such as practical learning, placements, entrepreneurship techniques and inviting 154 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 ‘organic intellectuals’ or what is referred to as ‘grassroot professors’ in teaching and learning environment, together with mentoring of students in and outside the classroom. self-reflexivity focuses more on issues and events in the real world. furthermore, we argue that post humanist curriculum works through relational assemblages (of man, the living and nature), mutual respect, generative cross pollination and epistemic relations which is likely to continue releasing hybrid offspring and new heterogeneous assemblages (deleuze & guattari, 1994). we concur with capitalism (braidotti, 2016), that the driving force behind curriculum transformations should not be the pursuit for disciplinary clarity, or the inspirational force of absolute dissent, but rather the modes of relational curriculum discourses to open up to the practical world. implications of the findings the key argument derived from the findings are of this study are that a curriculum founded in post humanist perspective would be a constant state of transformation, however we found that the speed at which the biks synchronisation is not commensurate with the now in relation to the past and the future and the voices of the ‘missing people’: there is lack of significance of critical thinking and critical inquiry, locatedness, creativity, innovation as a constant throughout the curriculum. graduates’ experiences were largely theoretical rather than practical knowledge, which denies them opportunities to practice critical thinking expected of a post humanist graduate. a post humanist graduate we argue should be well placed to critically review and adapt either as a job seeker or as a creator of job opportunities for less privileged people. the convergence of man, the environment and technology were according to the inputs of the graduates who participated in the study, largely missing. curricula in the institutions of higher learning have an important role both politically and conceptually to forward attitudes, values, and ways of thinking. however, the approaches employed in teaching and learning education are traditionally very human-centric, ignoring post humanistic viewpoints. the implication of a slower pace of transformation imply that it may be irrelevant with times. although we may argue that there may be no immediate extinction or replacement, delays may imply recycling the old to a point of perpetual dysfunctional future people who are less concerned about the implications of what they do in the present regarding life, living and the environment. limitations of the study the study was conducted during covid-19 period and reports qualitative feedback from a limited number the first cohort of graduates of university of venda's indigenous knowledge system bachelor's degree and thus could be argues that maximum variation responses was limited. conclusion this paper provides that basis for necessary conversations and actions about the critical post humanist curriculum review is an academic knowledge production, co-creation and exchange project that should embrace inclusivity and disrupt the popularly held view that the human 155 jcsr 2023, 5(1): 141-158 implicitly endorsed by the academic eurocentrism and ‘methodological nationalism’ (beck, 2007). it positions the biks curriculum as a post humanist curriculum that may not necessarily fit to the discussion and institutional arrangements of the academic disciplines. it puts the human accountability for the present as both actual (field-sites experiential learning and virtual (online tech learning). the authority of curriculum should in this regard shared amongst the people and the technology accordingly. like braidotti (2019), we have argued that transdisciplinary dialogue as ‘studies’ and as the critical post humanities warrant serious scholarly credentials. the critical post humanities can be the epistemological vehicle for a detailed focus on the complex singularities that represent our respective curriculum transformation locations. although there are anxieties on the slowness of curriculum transformation, we argue that the complexities of navigating the spaces in between, the need for robust engagements and the touched on a multifaceted synchronization should be a constant that should not be taken lightly. it is not a crisis but rather a critical post humanist way in which the need for curriculum transformations is in equal considerations with cognitive justice, politico-social justices, and inclusive and robust engagement with the previously marginalizedthis process will inevitably happen simultaneously and with some sense of urgency and agency. the critical post humanist perspective in the study was a useful point of departure for the biks review lens and could be applied in the transformation of the biks programme and other related programmes. the concept offered an insight into possibilities for a problem-solving curriculum that will address students’ and societies’ needs. the data generated from the experiences of graduate participants from the program assisted in addressing the rationales for the study, which were: to discover and address curriculum-relate issues, (which included reasons for graduates’ unemployment status), to transform the curriculum for relevance and responsiveness (with the intention to infuse innovation, critical thinking, and entrepreneurial skills). the study findings may enhance and promote the revision of the biks programme at university of venda. such revision may include the development of the curriculum according to the interest, needs or abilities of the students, updating methods of teaching and content should also be the primary focus, to new knowledge and practices, as well as to develop joint projects with holders of indigenous knowledge acting as field preceptors, informal educators, and mentors. the interdisciplinary nature of the biks programme requires freedoms of thinking and choices and not narrowly structured notions of career pathing that keeps students in colonial boxes. similarly, the programme may be revised to enhance notions of connected degrees, i.e. where internship and or decolonial apprenticeship models are integrated into the curriculum delivery. the findings were specifically related to teaching and learning aspects of biks; however, the paper has laid a foundation for the development of a post-humanist thinking 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(vol. 8). university of minnesota press. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 1 2022 pp. 58-75 a ghostly closure? the strange history of brinkley female college, nineteenth-century spiritualism, and the terminal effects of sensationalist journalism r. eric platt*a & hannah holliman parrisa * corresponding author email: replatt@memphis.edu a. department of leadership, university of memphis, tn, united states. article info received: january 9, 2022 revised: february 5, 2022 accepted: february 11, 2022 how to cite platt, r. e., & parris, h. h. (2022). a ghostly closure? the strange history of brinkley female college, nineteenth-century spiritualism, and the terminal effects of sensationalist journalism. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(1), 58-75 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.6 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract in 1871, brinkley female college in memphis, tennessee, closed due to a ghost story, regional interest in spiritualism, and sensationalist journalism that harmed the short-lived academy. spiritualism—a religio-spiritual movement punctuated by medium-guided communications between the living and deceased—was wellfollowed, though often contested during the nineteenth century. spiritualism grew in popularity in the american south due to mass deaths resulting from epidemics and the american civil war. at the same time, sensationalist print media was widespread, and newspaper firms profited from unchecked accounts of spiritualist seances and supernatural encounters. in the midst of this, higher education had expanded across the state of tennessee. in the early years of memphis-based women’s higher education, newspapers stoked interest in the paranormal by publishing unverified events attributed to a local women’s college. sensationalist, penny-dreadful newspaper accounts influenced public perceptions, caused enrollment decline at brinkley female college, and resulted in institutional closure. as such, this case study recounts an unusual catalytic moment within the context of heightened spiritualistic belief and uncouth journalistic practices. ultimately, this study seeks to detail the influence of regional religious practices and sensational journalism on institutional termination. keywords brinkley female college; spiritualism; southern women's higher education; nineteenth-century sensationalist journalism; college closure; higher education history. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.6 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.12 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 59 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 introduction on march 5, 1871, the daily memphis avalanche printed and circulated the strange tale of the "brinkley female college ghost story." emphasized by titillating language that set an eerie tone, the newspaper account opened with the following question: "do disembodied spirits haunt the scenes where they frequented while in the flesh? it is a mixed question; the theory that they do having as firm believers as it has disbelievers." the article continued, "we know of no one who has seen an article of that description [ghosts]—at least we never knew of one till [sic] now." the column continued with a description of bizarre events, "strange and startling incidents— incidents so strange they will scarcely be credited by the most credulous." the tale detailed students haunted by a ghost in a pale pink dress. it also described the academic building as decrepit and "decidedly unattractive" college building—"once a palatial residence . . .[that] ruined its builder. the article surmised that the greek revival structure "has borne the reputation of being haunted for some time. . . if there be ghosts of the departed [emphasis in original] on earth, it is just such as place as such things would select for a trysting or abiding place" ("an exciting story" 1871). reprinted in newspapers as far-flung as manitowoc, wisconsin ("an exciting story" 1871); philadelphia, pennsylvania ("a ghost at college" 1871); and new orleans, louisiana ("the latest ghost story" 1871"), the article extolled that "south memphis is in a furore [sic] of excitement over occurrences of a supernatural nature recently made public which concern the brinkley female college [emphasis in original] and its inmates" ("the latest ghost story" 1871). in a list of current events across tennessee, the following was written that same year: "brinkley female college, in south memphis is haunted—an apparition has been seen several times" ("state items" 1871). uncouth journalists reprinted the narrative with penny-dreadful details. set amidst the backdrop of spiritualism—a religio-spiritual movement punctuated by medium-guided communications between the living and deceased—the story turned a profit for newspaper firms but heaped infamy on the academy. the tale not only included a female college student plagued by a ghost, but it also recounted related seance activities, ominous spiritual messages, and a mystery surrounding buried money and ownership of the college property. though officials eventually revealed that the ghost story was a hoax, its consequences were palpable and resulted in the termination of one of tennessee's earliest women's academies. the case of brinkley female college (particularly its closure) permits an exciting opportunity to explore media influence on southern reconstruction-era academic survival— particularly in light of a significant faith movement and regional interest in the supernatural. as such, ghost stories pervaded newspapers and captivated readers (sachsman 2017). in the modern era, authors have published accounts of haunted colleges in both public and scholarly venues relying either on popular retellings or unverified documentation (tucker 2007, ogden 2014). however, no academic study has examined the academic organizational repercussions of such events. using newspaper accounts (whether promoting or deriding the college ghost 60 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 story) to detail this unique case of higher education closure, this study seeks to explore the influence of period spiritualism and sensational journalism on institutional termination. to that end, this study also provides an overview of early tennessee women's higher education, nineteenth-century spiritualist beliefs, and the influence of sensationalist print media in order to paint a fuller picture of related social circumstances. establishing women’s higher education in tennessee while women's colleges such as mount holyoke (1837), radcliffe (1879), and bryn mawr (1885) opened in the north, similar institutions opened in the american south. such southern women's academies included wesleyan female college (1837), in macon, georgia, columbia female college (1854) (present-day columbia college) in south carolina; sophie newcomb college (1886) in new orleans; and the mississippi state college for women (1884) (renamed mississippi university for women in 1974) in columbus (solomon 1985, bradshaw and bennett 2021). similarly, women's colleges opened in nineteenth-century tennessee in towns that boarded the western expansion of the state. for example, roughly four years after the southwest territory officially became the state of tennessee (1796), blount college (founded 1794 in knoxville) enrolled its first female students alongside male pupils. in 1807, blount college was renamed east tennessee college and charted as a statesupported institution. owing to enrollment difficulties, the academy closed in 1809 and remained shuttered until its 1820 reopening as an all-male institution. in 1869, the college's title changed to the university of tennessee (montgomery, folmsbee, and greene 1984). responding to knoxville's lack of women's higher education, knoxville female academy opened in 1827 (renamed east tennessee female institute in 1846, closed 1911) (brown 2021, luttrell 1945). as pioneers settled the state westwardly, female colleges opened in newly established cities on the fringes of the southwest territory. examples include fisk female college (18051843), cumberland female college (1850-1892), and mary sharpe college (1851-1896) (brown 2021). these early tennessee women's academies reflected temporal norms of female instruction—domesticity, classic literature, languages, music, and art (farnham 1995). though many closed, the establishment of female higher education continued to follow state expansion. in 1819, andrew jackson, john overton, and james winchester founded the city of memphis on the banks of the mississippi river. however, the urban port city did not play host to a women's college until 1858. that year, the methodist-episcopal church helped organize the state female college. first administered by rev. stephen g. starke and later rev. samuel watson, this academy closed during the civil war but reopened afterward. however, because of period financial difficulties, annual epidemics, and poor church support, the college maintained low enrollments and closed in 1880 (young 1916). ten years after the state female college's establishment, brinkley female college also opened in memphis (1868) to provide additional educational opportunities in the growing southern metropolis. 61 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 image 1. “[abandoned] brinkley female college building,” c. 1972. image courtesy of the university of memphis libraries, special collections department, commercial appeal newspaper morgue, memphis, tennessee. memphis railroad baron robert campbell brinkley founded this new. brinkley was born in north carolina but later relocated to jackson, tennessee. after passing the bar in 1839, he moved to west tennessee as a legal representative for the planters bank of nashville. in memphis, brinkley married into the wealthy overton family and took charge of their finances and landholdings. after the 1845 death of his wife anne, he gave up law to become a real estate broker and city developer. using inherited money, brinkley launched a new memphis-based railroad company, built several downtown buildings, and opened the peabody hotel in 1869 (named for his longtime friend and educational philanthropist george peabody). perhaps owing to peabody's influence and the creation of the peabody education fund in 1867, brinkley decided to engage in an academic endeavor of his own (schaefer 2012, parker 1995). while purchasing property to expand his railroad enterprise, brinkley acquired the home of winston jones davie in 1866. while building his now-famous memphis hotel, brinkley remodeled the davie building and repurposed it as a new women's college. under the direction of rev. j. d. meredith as president, the academy enrolled its first pupils mere months before the hotel mentioned above opened its doors ("brinkley female college" 1869). despite being founded by a wealthy rail and real-estate magnate, the college gleaned its operational budget primarily from tuition dollars and course fees. it appears that the academy opened with little fanfare but soon had a relatively healthy attendance of young women 62 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 heralding from memphis and surrounding communities. soon after its establishment, newspapers regularly published solicitations for the college. these advertisements described instructor acumen, credentials of the acting president, fee structure, and listed courses: reading, arithmetic, philosophy, languages including greek, french, spanish, german, and italian, and music (harp, piano, instrumental, vocal performance) ("brinkley female college" 1869). in 1869, the tennessee legislature issued a charter for the institution. it also recognized the college's governing board, which consisted of several notable memphis residents: r. c. brinkley (founder), j. d. meredith (college president), archibald wright (tennessee supreme court justice), f. a. ramsey (confederate doctor and memphis surgeon), j. j. williams (tennessee senator), j. r. graves (baptist preacher), george gautt (confederate colonel and local lawyer), and r. f. looney (confederate colonel, lawyer, and businessman) ("acts of the state of tennessee" 1870, marks 1893, cunningham 2015, "election returns" 1876, patterson 2012, "court-house notes" 1879, speer repr. 2003). after two years of steady growth, brinkley female college possessed a charter, a governing board comprised of active memphians, and enrolled approximately fifty students in 1870. the institution was well-liked by the community and was yet another of robert brinkley's successful enterprises. that year, advertisements described the institution as "the largest college in memphis, and the cheapest in the world" ("brinkley female college south end of desoto" 1870). though brinkley female college possessed a governing structure and curricula similar to its southern academic peers, it closed after only three years of operation. unlike other shuttered nineteenth-century colleges and universities, brinkley female college closed from a regional interest in spiritualism and attempts by newspaper firms to turn a profit by exploiting unverified reports of spiritualist activities. the rise of spiritualism spiritualism was an offshoot of the eighteenth-century german mesmerism movement, which held that living creatures possessed a natural, invisible internal force, or spirit, that continued to exist after death. not only could this spirit manifest itself to the living, but it could also interact with the physical realm. emanual swedenborg, the swedish scientist and theologian, bolstered spiritualism with his published revelations concerning the rebirth of human spirits. spiritualist leaders relied on swedenborg's publications—notably his 1757 book, de nova hierosolyma et ejus doctrina coelesti (concerning the new jerusalem and its heavenly doctrine). spiritualists used such texts to reinforce the idea that the invisible spirit referenced in mesmerism not only existed beyond the mortal plane but could also communicate with the living (franklin 2012, oberter 2012). in 1848, the spiritualist movement gained intense notoriety. in hydesville, new york, kate and margaret fox reported communicating with the deceased through spirit rappings and knockings. both sisters became well-known mediums. their experiences, though later discredited, encouraged others to practice spiritualism (weisburg 2005). 63 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 meanwhile, in europe, spiritualism intensified. in 1857, french educator and author hippolyte léon denizard rivail published le livre des esprits (the spirits' book). writing under the pseudonym allan kardec, rivail extolled the tenets of spiritualism: god is the supreme intelligence; god is eternal; spirits exist; spirits are "destined to attain perfection by passing through the different degrees of the spirit-hierarchy"; people retain their individuality after death; spirits are privy to memories from past lives; spirits can influence the physical world; and that there are good and evil spirits that either try to help the living or seek the downfall of humankind. moreover, most spirits maintain the supreme maxim of "do good to all, and wrong to no one." (kardec repr. 1893, 15-18). primarily imparted by print media, spiritualism also spread through related publications, including the banner of light, the spiritual clarion, and the spiritualist register, to name a few. in america, as in europe, media enhanced the faith and increased spiritualism's earthly ranks (noakes 2012, nartonis 2010). well-known late-nineteenth-century european and american followers included queen victoria of england, mary todd lincoln, thomas edison, and sir arthur conan doyle, the mind behind the renowned fictional detective and skeptic sherlock holmes (brennan 2013, yuko 2021). reflecting on the history of spiritualism and its global expansion, the novelist doyle wrote, "[m]any of us regard [spiritualism] as the most important [religious movement] in the history of the world since the christ episode" (1926, vii). by 1870, over four million us citizens believed in spiritualism (ellis 1870). spiritualism did more than shape citizens' concepts of death and the afterlife. as ghosts appeared and spoke through mediums, regional and national political movements, racial mores, and gender dynamics were reinforced or, in some cases, derided by the departed as inequalitarian. social inequality, per some spirits, was in opposition to the conventions and hierarchies of the afterlife—i.e., all were equal after death. each spirit worked to perfect its soul and ascend the hierarchy of afterlife perfection (cox 2017, clark 2016). in the united states, followers regarded spiritualism as a religion with a formal belief structure and science that could provide proof of the afterlife (ferguson 2012). confirmation of the supernatural manifested through seances was enough to heighten curiosity, but media reinforced the movement throughout the country. in new york and boston, spiritualism became a regular craze with seance parties hosted by affluent citizens. summoned spirits announced their presence by rapping on tables, moving objects, and writing on tablets (coleman 1861). spiritualism also took hold in southern cities like new orleans and cassadaga, florida. spiritualists in new orleans formed le cercle harmonique (the harmonic circle) in the early 1850s to commune with the dead. in memphis, protestant preachers inculcated portions of spiritualism into their denominational practices to showcase the afterlife rewards for lives welllived (clark 2016, davie 1999). though chastised by his bishop, methodist minister, and second president of the memphis-based state female college, samuel watson, was a follower of spiritualism and published his experiences with and investigations into the metaphysical. watson supported his argument for the existence of spirits by quoting from first peter, chapter 64 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 three, verses eighteen through nineteen. couched in his spiritualistic interpretation, watson explained, "christ . . . being put to death in the flesh . . . preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient.' 'prison' here . . . should be translated 'spirit world'" (1872, 110). reconstruction-era memphians, like many southerners, suffered from the deleterious effects of the civil war, the realities of post-emancipation economics, and yearly episodes of yellow fever. as a result, locals were all too familiar with death, and spiritualism offered connection with lost loved ones (land 2020). though criticized by nineteenthand earlytwentieth-century christian religious leaders, spiritualism maintained a significant us presence until its decline in the 1920s owing to debunkers and splintered spiritualist sub-groups (hess 1993). sensationalist reporting and the spiritualist movement as spiritualism gained notoriety, many memphians followed the movement like several of their southern counterparts. newspaper reporters steadily labeled and described spiritualist content with dramatic language, which increased sales. some editors understood the financial profit of sensationalist journalism, which intended to entertain, arouse, and amuse—not necessarily inform (francke 1985). as historian george juergens explains, "sensational newspapers expanded the meaning of the human-interest story to report what had hitherto been regarded as private, the gossip and scandals about individuals, and discovered a rich source of news in crime and everyday tragedy" (1966, vii-ix). the excitement of seances, ghostly apparitions, and medium possessions played well into sensationalist journalism. tying an exciting ghost story to a local women's college was fodder for memphis newspapers. other reporters and newspaper editors chided their peers for publishing otherworldly accounts filled with grim descriptions of unverified events. newspaper editors quickly learned that exciting, sensationalized stores boosted sales, which increased profit. as a result, newspapers often published sensationalist reviews of seances and spiritualist gatherings without verifying facts (buescher 2004). in the latter half of the 1800s, newspapers in major metropolitan areas competed for top sales. sensationalist journalism added an unethical edge to beat media competitors by attracting the attention of uneducated citizens. as immigrants poured into america, newspapers became a source for literacy learning. various newspapers took advantage of low education levels and published salacious accounts with jargoned headlines and exciting cartoon sketches (juergens 1966). david w. bulla and david b. sachsman further detail, "newspaper coverage in the nineteenth century [was] directly related to changes in the social and cultural fabric of the nation. while the early american press tended to focus on politics, business, and religion, by the midnineteenth century, the urban press began to put more and more emphasis on local news, including crime and corruption, filth and freaks, and gore and guts. one aspect of 65 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 sensationalized coverage was fabrication" (2013, xxii). to that end, local interest pieces that used period fascination with spiritualism and ghost stories enhanced newspaper sales. similarly, southern print media often profited from sensationalized retellings of ghost stories and dimly-lit seances. reporters attended theaters and opera houses that hosted live seances and recounted the events with dramatic details in the days that followed. all the while, spiritualist theatre tickets sold en masse (natale 2011). not all benefited from spiritualism's media fame, however. indeed, charlatans exploited the beliefs of spiritualist followers, advertised themselves as mediums, and profited from the grieving, the curious, and the zealous. despite the rise of spiritualism as a recognized religion following the second great awakening (1795-1835), newspapers published uncouth reports with the same alacrity as those deemed genuine. as a result, spiritualist investigators traveled the country exposing fraudulent mediums. later in life, erik weisz (also known as harry houdini) spent considerable time attending seances to reveal "tricks" employed by unscrupulous individuals (guzzo 2019). researchers have carefully examined the impact of adverse media reporting on religious practices and associated educational institutions. for example, in the american south, catholic churches and colleges were often targets for anti-catholic sentiment in newspapers and other forms of print media. similarly, the society of jesus, otherwise known as the jesuits, experienced intense negative media portrayals resulting from regional anti-catholic/anti-jesuit sentiment (platt 2014, stern 2012). however, scholars have yet to examine the intertwined influence of spiritualism and sensationalist journalism on organizational survival. though print media often contributed to inaccurate social perceptions, nineteenth-century newspapers did not always print sensationalism. in addition to providing regional news, election results, and obituaries, they also solicited businesses, services, and printed advertisements for colleges, schools, and academies. even so, sensationalist journalism was ever-present in southern media and often enhanced political mudslinging, harmed businesses, influenced public opinion on legal cases and immigration issues, and bolstered public interest in ghosts (bulla and sachsman 2013). the college ghost: fiction and truth while memphis newspapers reported a crumbling brinkley female college building with frightened female students, newspaper accounts failed to describe the structure and its origins accurately. the original building owner, winston davie, graduated from yale college in 1845. before residing in memphis, he owned and managed a kentucky cotton and tobacco plantation and served in the kentucky legislature. after losing a congressional election in 1853, davie moved to memphis and became a banker. after that, he built an imposing greek-revival house in 1861 for his family, consisting of his wife sarah ann phillips and two sons. in 1859, sarah passed away. davie remarried in 1861 to addie e. kalfus of louisville, kentucky. together they had one son. with the start of the civil war, davie joined the confederate army as a colonel ("winston jones davie" 1887, mcafee 1886). however, before doing so, he acquired a $30,000.00 mortgage to purchase stock in brinkley's growing railroad firm. though davie 66 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 entered the war a wealthy man, he exited in financial ruin. davie lost his fortune in the wake of confederate currency devaluation and sold his home to brinkley to help settle debts (hulan and giebner 1972). davie moved his family back to kentucky and, in 1869, declared bankruptcy as he could not finalize his memphis liabilities. davie served as kentucky's agricultural commissioner from 1876 to 1879 and later manufactured chemical fertilizers in louisville. davie was often ill in his old age and lived with his son until he passed away in 1887 ("winston jones davie" 1887). davie was described altogether differently in the brinkley female college ghost story. per the phantasmagoric tale, davie squandered his money constructing the memphis mansion. when construction finished, davie's daughter elizabeth died. according to the story, elizabeth was referred to as "lizzie" by family and friends. having lost his daughter and fortune, davie went mad before the civil war and died. genealogical records, however, do not indicate that davie had a daughter by either spouse or suffered any mental illness ("winston jones davie" 1887, "here and there" 1887). similarly, financial records do not support davie losing his money before or at the onset of the war. though false, descriptions of davie's supposed insanity, the death of lizzie, and descriptions of the building's gloomy, ghost-inhabited façade, did much to "set the stage" for newspaper readers ("an exciting story" 1871). after the college opened, memphis resident clara robertson enrolled in the academy. according to newspapers, in the spring of 1870, clara was practicing piano in an upper room of the college building when she witnessed the apparition of a girl in a moldy pink dress. clara, unnerved by the specter, fled the room and confided in her college peers but was chided as delusional. likewise, the academy's faculty dismissed clara's bizarre claims. nevertheless, clara and other students witnessed the ghost in the academy's music room a few days later. frightened, the young women fled, reported this second incident, but, once again, failed to garner support. clara, described in news reports as having a nervous but kind temperament, "has never been in any way connected with things supernatural or to have put trust in spiritualists. her [recent] experience[s] . . ., however, are more wonderful and startling than the mysteries of udolpho or the horrors of kenilworth castle" ("an exciting story" 1871, np). for several days, clara recovered at home. after she arrived back at the college, the ghost appeared for a third time and, "pointing a thinly ghastly looking finger," directed the student to recover valuables that belonged to lizzie's supposed father, colonel davie. the ghost, now referred to as "pink lizzie," told clara that the college building, formerly lizzie's home, was acquired by brinkley through nefarious means. lizzie instructed clara that the building's original deed, jewelry, and several gold coins were buried in a jar under a stump behind the building ("an exciting story" 1871). lizzie, it seemed, "would have miss clara take possession of [the jar and its contents], and use to her advantage." the newspaper extolled that "dismay now prevailed throughout the institution" and that none of the college's students doubted the existence of pink lizzie. after clara told her father, memphis lawyer j. c. robertson, he met with the college's president, 67 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 meredith. both robertson and meredith "agreed that the affairs should undergo a rigid investigation as it was doing no good to the reputation of the college, while little clara was much troubled and disturbed in mind." meredith and his staff gathered the students in order to interview them. clara was sent outside during the interrogation, but the spirit of lizzie visited the student once again. the ghosts urged clara to unearth the jar. lizzie, per clara, insisted that the college's owner held the property illegally and that "as her people were all dead . . . she desired clara to obtain the papers . . . [and] claim and retain the property" ("an exciting story" 1871, np). once again, errors in the ghost story abounded as members of the davie family, including winston davie, were alive and residing in kentucky. though newspapers circulated the ghost story, no documentation showcases a response from the davie family. similarly, there is no evidence to suggest that winston davie himself was ever aware of the spiritual happenstances at his former memphis home. the story continued to spread, and, as a result, enrollment declined. per the story, "several young ladies went home frightened out of their wits, and several others were affected with illness." clara told her father, "she would rather die [emphasis in original] than go there [to the college] again." prior to serving as a memphis attorney, robertson plied his legal trade on the east coast and made the acquaintance of a spiritualist medium known only as mrs. nourse. robertson, now in west tennessee, contacted nourse and brought her to memphis to support the investigation. nourse engaged robertson, his daughter clara, and other memphis citizens in a seance where the spirit of pink lizzie possessed clara ("an exciting story" 1871, np). according to reporters, the seance commenced as follows: all seated themselves about the table, placing their hands on its surface. mr. robertson, always skeptical and doubting the truth of the story, watched with the eye of a hawk to detect fraud of collusion. his doubting mind, with that of several others, who had during their natural existence ridiculed ghosts and spirits, was soon awe and wonder struck at the strange actions that followed. the little girl [clara] . . . swooned, falling back into her chair apparently lifeless, and certainly insensible. her eyes stood wide open, fixed on vacancy. her hands began to move. soon they moved faster, and in a short time their violent action frightened the parent, who caught hold of his child's arm to prevent doing herself harm. those present (some dozen or more) were amazed at the child's behavior and appearance. in due time they became tranquil, as did also the hand of miss clara, though not . . . until all the skin had been barked from the knuckles . . . ("an exciting story" 1871, np) nourse then placed a pencil in clara's palm, and lizzie, through clara, recounted the building's fraudulent ownership as well as the buried valuables. following the seance, robertson hired men to excavate behind the college. the dig attracted widespread interest, and the "brinkley college ghost story" was updated and reprinted ("uproar in a tennessee educational institute" 1871, "alas, poor ghost" 1871). initially considered a "supposed" ghost sighting, the tale now included an interesting twist-buried treasure. this new information, coupled with the 68 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 continued reports of spiritualists and mediums, only intensified the story, and enrollment dwindled. consequences and closure out of concern, parents withdrew their daughters. understandably, lizzie's moldering, pale ghost did not represent the regionally accepted peaceful image of the afterlife, nor did the excavation endear the college to the public. still, the search for buried treasure continued. as the college struggled, meredith printed advertisements promoting the institution. the college president denounced the ghost story as false in hopes of swaying public opinion. in addition, he emphasized that the college was a quality institution. concerning clara, meredith stated, "miss robertson . . . did see sights here, and she can see them anywhere; for she takes her ghosts with her, and i leave medical men to dispose of her case scientifically." ("dear avalanche" 1871). not long after that, robertson produced a dirty glass jar supposedly uncovered at the dig site. clara's father stated that he could see paper documents and metal objects inside the jar. however, as before, clara was visited by pink lizzie, who informed the student not to open the jar for sixty days—the spirit did not give reasons for the delay. robertson then hid the jar in a "safe location" (his latrine outhouse) and advertised the jar's opening as a spectacular event to be held at the greenlaw opera house (robertson 1871). initially, robertson advertised that he would donate half of the ticket revenue to the episcopal church. the bishop disapproved of the spiritualist-related unveiling and declined the money. he then admonished robertson for being a follower of spiritualism. brinkley female college's headmaster opposed the ghost story and decried robertson as a fraud. after robertson published his philanthropic motivations for opening the jar at a paid event, unidentified assailants attacked him at home and stole the glass container. as a result, theatre managers canceled the jar opening spectacle, and interest in spiritualist-related events began to wane. to stoke interest and raise funds, robertson compiled newspaper accounts of the ghost story, interviews with his daughter, and other persons involved with the recent seances. he then his account as a booklet titled the brinkley female college ghost story, the finding of the mysterious jar, its opening and contents: a thrilling narrative, based upon facts. the text recounted the story, included the original news report, and contained interview transcriptions, as well as claims by president meredith and other students that no one had seen a spirit on the property. rebuking meredith, robertson added a notation to the educator's comments. the memphis lawyer stated that meredith's fraud claims were made "before the finding of the glass jar," perhaps to showcase that the college president spoke too soon. the booklet initially sold for five cents but later sold for thirty (robertson 1871). though robertson's account may have generated additional revenue for the lawyer, it further compounded difficulties at brinkley female college. meredith faced growing academic competition while defending the college against the ghost story's negative impact. advertisements listed the still extant state female college alongside institutions such as the 69 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 newly opened memphis female college and the rural lagrange female college. during this same time, regional private high schools opened, which may have attracted younger wards from college preparatory divisions ("state female college" 1870, "memphis female college" 1870, "the fall session of lagrange female college" 1869). after the college's closure in 1871, meredith tried to revive the institution, but the brinkley female college name was too well associated with the notorious ghost story. the following year, meredith petitioned city officials to forgive property taxes on the failed brinkley female college ("petitions" 1872). afterward, meredith opened a new academy under his name, "meredith female college," but its success was short-lived ("meredith female college" 1871). it was recorded in 1873 that meredith left memphis for the nearby rural community of somerville, tennessee, and served as president for the somerville female institute (meredith and venable 1873). image 2. robertson, j. c. 1871. the brinkley female college ghost story, the finding of the mysterious jar, its opening and contents: a thrilling narrative, based upon facts. image courtesy of the indiana university archives and special collections, wright american fiction, bloomington, indiana. despite the relatively short existence of brinkley female college, memphis played host to other forms of late-nineteenth-century higher education such as the memphis medical college (1846), lemoyne college (1862), nelson's business college (1887), christian brothers college (1871)—to name a few. as mentioned, other forms of female higher education opened in memphis. however, most of these gender-segregated institutions closed or merged with 70 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 other colleges prior to or during the twentieth century. in 1922, the female-serving st. agnes college opened (renamed siena college 1930, closed 1972). lasting regional women's higher education expanded with the 1912 founding of west tennessee state normal school (presentday university of memphis) and the mid-twentieth-century admittance of women to other institutions such as christian brothers university and rhodes college (brown 2021, sherman 2010, "our history" 2022, boone and rathbone 2017). though meredith had given up on salvaging brinkley female college, pressure mounted for authorities to investigate the ghost story further. officials questioned clara and her father, and although clara maintained her story, robertson confessed that he fabricated the tale. not long after, robertson and his family relocated to arkansas. the memphis daily appeal promulgated the confession, further discredited the ghost story, and criticized the editors of the daily avalanche for publishing and reselling reprints of the ghost story ("the ghost" 1871, "the great propensity of mankind to be gulled, duped and humbugged" 1871). indeed, when the avalanche's editor backed local political candidates in opposition to those supported by rival newspapers, articles ran that opined, "is some brinkley college ghost still haunting the dreams of the avalanche editor?" ("why the hostility to colonel haynes?" 1872). following the revelation that the ghost story was a hoax, newspapers slowly stopped reporting spiritualist activities. in contrast, others printed exposés of fraudulent mediums as well as columns on the "falseness" of spiritualism ("ledger lines" 1876, "letters from the people" 1877, "to the citizens of memphis" 1881). conclusion although spiritualism declined in the early twentieth century, the tale of pink lizzie and the detrimental effects of sensationalist reporting left their mark not only on the college and its affiliates but also on clara robertson. months after the college's closure, clara began performing on stage as a spiritualist medium, first with her father narrating stage performances and later on her own or with other spiritualist colleagues. clara married a local merchant, john zent, and her social circle expanded. her new acquaintances were amazed by her spiritualist talents and publicly recognized that clara never lost her abilities as a medium. clara performed until the age of 25, when she passed away from consumption in wittsburg, arkansas. zent had his wife buried in the memphis elmwood cemetery. she lies not far from the grave of college founder robert brinkley ("clara robertson zent" 2015, "dr. watson's reply to 'gayoso'" 1877, "the spiritualist" 1871). despite the egress of meredith, robertson, and clara, the results of the brinkley female college ghost story were long-lasting. although he owned the college, it appears that robert brinkley never publicly commented on the ghost story, nor was he mentioned as the college began to flag. similarly, no uncovered documentation describes any response from the college's board members other than president meredith. when brinkley died in 1878, his third son, william junius brinkley, inherited the failed college building. william sold the building to jennie 71 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 58-75 breen of memphis in 1898 (hulan and giebner 1972). the college property changed hands several times in the early twentieth century. for a time, the building served as lodgings for railroad workers before being demolished in the 1970s. today, a recycling center stands on the foundations of the short-lived academy (gill, french, and white 2011). though the building has gone, the ghost story persists in popular publications such as haunted memphis by laura cunningham (2009) and malice in memphis: bluff city mysteries by carolyn mcsparren (2014). the story is also recounted and embellished by memphis tour guides that cater to the macabre. regardless of the ghost story's popularity, this narrative serves as a case example of academic longevity and termination in the face of media sensationalism associated with a religio-spiritual movement that attracted the praise, imagination, and skepticism of scholars, theologians, and the general public. as darryl l. peterkin explains, "institutions of higher learning are not in the least immune from the influence of powerful individuals, momentous social, cultural, and economic forces, or cataclysmic events of any kind" (2010, 17). though scholars may never fully explain the metaphysical "facts" surrounding the college ghost story, enhanced research regarding its influence on academic administration and college closure helps better illustrate the fragility of late-nineteenth-century southern private higher education. if anything, this case study depicts a catalytic moment that, reinforced by period spiritualist beliefs and unethical journalistic practices, ultimately caused the closure of an institution of higher education crafted to serve female residents in an important urban sector of the american south. references acts of the state of tennessee, passed by the first session of the thirty-sixth general assembly for the years 1869-70. 1870. nashville. jones, purvis, & co. printers. "a ghost at college." 1871. the evening [philadelphia] telegraph. march 10, 1871. "alas, poor ghost." 1871. memphis public ledger. march 6, 1871. "an exciting story. brinkley female college haunted and in an uproar of terror and confusion—a speculative apparition on the ownership of the property—singular and startling revelation. daily memphis avalanche. march 5, 1871 "an exciting story. brinkley female college haunted and in an uproar of terror and confusion—a speculative apparition on the ownership of the property—singular and startling revelation." [reprinted] from the avalanche, march 5." the manitowoc tribune. march 30, 1871. boone, allen & jane cady rathbone. 2017. rhodes college: a sense of place. memphis. rhodes college. bradshaw, lauren yarnell & marcia bennett. 2021. 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"8 famous figures who believed in communicating with the dead." history stories. history. october 5, 2021. https://www.history.com/news/spiritualism communication-dead-figures. https://www.history.com/news/spiritualismhttps://www.history.com/news/spiritualism journal of curriculum studies research curriculumstudies.org open access journal 2019, 1(1): 1-16 research paper students’ representation of “other” religions: unearthing the disconnect between curriculum content knowledge and attitudinal change richardson addai-mununkum * * university of education, winneba, ghana. e-mail: raddaimununkum@gmail.com article info received: 08 october 2019 revised: 11 november 2019 accepted: 13 november 2019 how to cite addai-mununkum, r. (2019). students’ representation of “other” religions: unearthing the disconnect between curriculum content knowledge and attitudinal change. journal of curriculum studies research, 1(1), 1-16. abstract with the unfortunate abundance of religious conflicts in the world, it is important that attention is devoted to how students position themselves in relation to religions they do not associate with. on this score, a section of scholarship in social studies education has examined students making meaning of religio-historical and contemporary happenings. yet, questions relating to students’ representation of “other” religions remain underexplored. from the ghanaian context where this study is situated, official curriculum mandates teaching about religion, however, little to no evidence exist to support a claim that students’ attitudes change after learning this curriculum. to explore the disconnect, a qualitative study of six ghanaian elementary schools were conducted for a three-month period. through interviews, observations focus groups and document analysis, students’ representation of “other religions” were examined. research outcome revealed that, students mediate their lessons on religion through the lens of their own experiences and metanarratives of their individual faiths. consequently, they hold two forms of knowledge – authentic official knowledge used for examination purposes and secularized cultural knowledge used in practice. it is concluded that, the vestiges of colonialism and emergent imperialism are deeply implicated in students’ discourses around religion. therefore, the missing link between content knowledge and attitudinal change may be explained by the failure of pedagogy to acknowledge the impact of contextual happenings on the realization of curriculum objectives. a solution to this conundrum will be for educators to connect academic knowledge to the out-of-school socio-cultural experiences of students. keywords curriculum, religious representation, africa, qualitative research, multicultural education 2 addai-mununkum, r. introduction with the unfortunate abundance of religious conflicts in the world, it is important that attention is devoted to how students position themselves in relation to religions they do not associate with. such knowledge is useful in shaping curriculum and pedagogy towards preparing them to live in a diverse world. a growing body of research in social studies education has been focused on students’ understandings of concepts and practices and their implications for teaching and learning (barton & avery, 2015; mauch & tarman, 2016). studying students’ religious knowledge and development in swedish schools, osberk (2019) reports that use of discursive pedagogies increased students understanding of religious concepts and general knowledge. cornbleth (2000) examined us high school students’ images of america and concluded that students held inconsistent and contradictory ideas because the traditional patriotic mythology that students are taught were at odds with their own experiences. barton (2005, 2019) did a comparative analysis of students’ thinking about human rights. working with 116 students from colombia, northern ireland, the republic of ireland, and the united states, and from varied school types, he established that “personal, community and national political factors influence students’ understanding of where human rights issues are most salient” (p. 15). levstik and groth (2005) examined ghanaian students’ conception of citizenship and its connection with national history. they observed that students’ narratives were aligned with social studies curricula which emphasized unity in diversity. students described their understanding of ghanaians as “brave, persistent, and self-reliant people who unite across differences to build a nation” (p. 582). similar observations were made by ho (2010) whose investigation of singapore secondary school students’ conceptions of citizenship revealed that they did not differ from the narratives of the official curriculum and in some instances, students “repeated the same phrasing and perspectives found in the textbooks” (p. 228). other studies have been devoted to understanding categories of difference (race, gender, socio-economic status) and how they affect students’ interpretation of happenings in society (arnot, chege, & wawire, 2012; barton & avery, 2015; flanagan, 2013). in comparative terms however, fewer studies have examined students’ religious understanding and its impact on their interpretation of social endeavors. while some pioneering work has been done in this regard, they have largely centered on students’ religious identity (lopez, huynh, & fuligni, 2011; peek, 2005), influence of school’s religious climate on students’ interpretation of contemporary news items (mosborg, 2002); and students’ interpretation of the holocaust (schweber, 2004; schweber & irwin, 2003; spector, 2007). these works have been excellent at highlighting students making meaning of religio-historical and contemporary happenings, but questions relating to students’ representation of other religions remain underexplored. this gap in research is worrying given that religious misrepresentation, when allowed to flourish, can lead to: the suppression of minority views, resentment towards persons of different faiths, holding of entrenched opinions about one’s religion, and insensitivity to others’ beliefs, even incitement to hatred (american academy of religion, 2010; faour, 2012; hess, 2008; jackson, 1995). this paper is written out of this need and examines students’ construction of religious otherness in curriculum practice of public schools in ghana. the guiding question for the inquiry was: how do christian and muslim students represent indigenous ghanaian religion? although contextually situated in ghana, answer to this question has profound implication for teaching for religious pluralism globally. 3 students’ representation of “other” religions background and theoretical framework religion in the ghanaian context religion is an indispensable part of the life of ghanaians and features prominently in all facets: from mourning to merry making, sowing to reaping. “whether people are battling with disease, poverty, or political misrule, they turn to religious strategies for interpreting and coping with life’s contingencies in ways that the average westerner might not comprehend” (hackett, 2000, p. 104). for this reason, africans (and by extension ghanaians), have been described as notoriously and incurably religious (mbiti, 1969; parrinder, 1970). table 1: religious demographics of ghana ghana statistical service (2010) this notwithstanding, ghana is not a religious state and the diversified nature of its population makes it difficult to describe in religious terms (awuah-nyamekye, 2010). as shown in table 1, three major religions comprising christianity, islam and african indigenous religion (air), with their varied denominations, are recognized in ghana. there are other faiths whose membership is estimated to be 1.8% and are known informally but are yet to be given official recognition. the international religious freedom report (us department of state, 2013) identifies these minoritized religions as including: bahai faith, buddhism, judaism, hinduism, shintoism, eckankar, rastafarianism as well as zetahil, a unique religion that combines elements of christianity and islam. to protect the religious choices of individuals, the constitution of ghana guarantees the “freedom to practice any religion and to manifest such practices” (the constitution, 1992 article 21.1(c)). religion and school ownership/management in ghana owing to the history of missionaries starting formal education in ghana, the state and missions entered into a partnership in 1961 which made all hither to mission schools public, yet maintaining their religious identity and ideologies. while the state funds all such schools, the missions are still involved in their management and are allowed to implement their own forms of religious routines so long as they have parental consent (kudadjie, 1996). the effect of this arrangement is the presence of two types of public schools: “mission-public and public-public” religion percentage of population christianity 71.2% islam 17.6% other religions 1.8% (hinduism, rastafarianism, shintoism, eckankar, buddhism, baha’ism, judaism, zethahil, hare krishna, divine light mission, ninchiren shoshu soka gakkai, sri sathya sai baba sera, sat sang) african indigenous religions 5.2% no religion 4.2% total 100% 4 addai-mununkum, r. schools. mission partner schools are not a homogenous group. as jensz (2012) argues, there is no single category of “mission.” with the denominational diversity of christianity, christian partner schools available include: catholic, methodist, presbyterian, seventh-day adventist, anglican, evangelical presbyterian and african methodist episcopal zion schools. similarly, islamic schools are either a partnership with orthodox muslims or the ahmadiyyah muslim missions. schools which were established and totally managed by the state (public-public schools) are usually identified as local authority (la), municipal authority (ma) or urban council (uc) schools, and are expected to possess a religiously neutral climate. this unique arrangement complicates our understanding of public schools as religiously neutral environments. postcolonial theory and religious representation to guide this work, i draw on postcolonial theory. with its focus on drawing structural imbalances in the relationship between the colonized and colonizer, postcolonial theory explores and speaks to the marginalization of subjects and knowledge, whose status was deliberately diminished to create the subaltern as the other (radcliffe, 2005). postcolonial theory has grown in scope and depth over the years, occasioning diversity of agenda and focus in terms of concepts. to facilitate a succinct exegeses of students’ religious representation i delimit this work to the concept of otherness. otherness is the result of a discursive process by which a dominant in-group (‘us’, ‘the self’) constructs one or many dominated out-groups (‘them’, ‘other’) by stigmatizing a difference real or imagined presented as a negation of identity and thus a motive for potential discrimination. (staszak, 2008, p. 2) in postcolonial literature, otherness is used to stand for difference created out of representation done by the privileged occident to show his distinctness from the subaltern orient the other (said, 1979). in this process of othering, binary categorizations are made: “occident/orient, civilized/barbarian, modern/traditional, rational/irrational (or emotional), advanced/backward, knower/known, power/weakness, mature/immature” (shin, 2009, p. 46). central to the concept of otherness is asymmetrical power relationships where the occident imposes its value on the orient (said, 1979) in “making statements about it, settling it, ruling over it, authorizing views of it, describing it, and teaching it.” (staszak, 2008, p. 3). for instance, said (1979) argues that “when an oriental was referred to, it was in terms of such genetic universals as his ‘primitive’ state, his primary characteristics, his particular spiritual background” (p.121). such representations were not just kept circulating as myths. to the contrary, the occident created a body of theory and practices that legitimized such representations. in the context of religion, a fifteenth century body of dominant literature created taxonomic systems of religious classification christianity, judaism, mohammedanism and idolatry. this categorization demarcated the sanctified domain of western religions from the perdition state of “idolatry” (masuzawa, 2005). postcolonial research draws attention to encounters between people who have been separated from each other, geographically and historically, and “who come into contact in ways that involve conditions of coercion, radical inequality, and conflict”(pratt, 1992 cited in shin, 2009, p. 42). at the very core of postcolonial theory is representation who represents, what is represented and the power dynamics involved in these. in examining students’ attitudes towards air, notice was taken of the complexities inherent in religious connections in school settings and the need to unearth somewhat hidden religious classifications that empower 5 students’ representation of “other” religions groups to (mis)represent others. postcolonial theory is thus useful here in analyzing identities, power and representation as enacted in a complex milieu of religious diversity. methodology this paper is written out of a bigger qualitative study that examined students’ representation of religions. in this paper, the focus is on students’ attitudes towards religions they do not associate with. a phenomenological frame is used describing the perceptions of students emanating from their experiences with african indigenous religion (air). the purpose is “to illuminate the specific, to identify phenomena through how they are perceived by the actors in a situation” (lester, 1999, p. 1). the research was approached from a hermeneutical phenomenological orientation focusing on students “text of life” in relation to air (creswell, 2007). data were generated from several students to establish commonalities, disparities and ambiguities between their ideas of air. all students in this study demonstrated some knowledge of air and were ready to share what they perceived it to be. a total of eighty-four students were involved in this research. participants were selected from six public schools with unique characteristics islamic public school with majority students being muslims (akwei allah), catholic public school with majority christians (st. andrew), seventh-day adventist school with majority muslims (james white), islamic public school with majority christians (naagode) and two public schools, dinpa and adasa, with christian and muslim majority respectively. as varied as the school types were, the research benefitted from a wide array of persons with different backgrounds whose participation generated very valuable data. students from grade 8 were recruited because they were the most senior of all the students in the basic schools. in each of the schools, i visited classrooms and solicited for volunteers. in situations where more students showed interest than were needed, a representational balance in terms of gender and religious affiliations were considered. for every school, the number of students selected ranged from ten to twelve. table 2: student respondents demographic information school akwei allah naagode james white st. andrew dinpa adasa respondents (n) 10 12 11 12 12 10 religious demographics (n) 7 s. muslims 3 christians 7 christians 5 s. muslims 6 christians (4 sdas & 2 pentecostals) 5 s. muslims 8 christians (5 catholics & 3 pentecostals 4 s. muslims 10 christians 2 s. muslims 5 christians 5 s muslims * s. muslims (sunni muslims) to generate data, qualitative methods of focus group discussion (fgd), interviews, ethnographic observations and document analysis were employed. at each of the six schools, participants were engaged in a focus group discussion. the discussion aimed at soliciting their personal views on religious pluralism, their schools’ religious climates, classroom discourse on religion and their opinions about religions they were not affiliated with the other religion. 6 addai-mununkum, r. open-ended questions were asked and students gave their responses as and when they had something to say. following the principles of deliberative pedagogy (hess, 2008), students agreed to ground rules for discussion prior to the start of all deliberation. some of these included respecting other people’s opinion whether one agreed or not, allowing others to show disagreement with one's position, taking turns to make statements and issues about confidentiality. the discussion at each school lasted approximately 45 minutes except at two schools (naagode and dinpa) where there were two separate meetings for the discussions lasting 30 minutes each. as a discussion facilitator, i posed questions and regulated the flow of discussion. at certain times i raised counter arguments when discussion was turning unidirectional and tried to play the “devil’s advocate” for voices that were not represented. individual interviews followed after focus group discussions and involved students who demonstrated strong opinions during the discussion. the interviews were offered to provide an opportunity for them to voice the concerns that they could not share in the group. similarly, students who were less vocal also interviewed as individuals to provide a less intimidating environment for them to express their thoughts. during one such interview, a student confessed to not speaking much because he was not fluent in twi, the language used for the discussion. although they were allowed to could use any language, the student said he did not want to be seen as odd by speaking english so he kept quiet most of the time (ampiah, 2011). general school observations centered on school start procedures, closing routines, religious activities such as prayers, singing of religious songs, as well as students’ interactions with religious objects (hijab, the crucifix, ablution kettle etc.). at the islamic schools, students learned arabic, performed ablution, and visited the mosque every day at one o’clock pm for a 15 minutes prayer. at the christian schools, i observed the singing of hymns and other christian songs during school assemblies; the students also had weekly worship services which were compulsory regardless of students’ religious affiliation. religiously affiliated accoutrements were also noted. data analysis data generated for the study included 320 minutes of video footage of fgds, 410 minutes audio interview recordings, observation notes, and audio recordings of school routines. since some of the interviews were conducted in twi (a ghanaian language), the video and audio recordings were translated and transcribed simultaneously. qualitative analysis software – maxqda was employed to clean up data, organize and analyze. the first step in the process was data winnowing, a processes of focusing in on some of the data and disregarding other parts of it using the criteria of relevance (creswell & creswell, 2018). a first read through of the data gave a general sense of direction of responses received. following madison’s (2005) point of view analysis strategy, a priori codes – otherness, ambivalence, hybridity, mimicry and others informed by the theoretical framework, were assigned to relevant data. an iterative process of combining, realignments, deletion codes continued until themes emerged. codes such as hybridity and mimicry were abandoned later because not enough data were observed to be relevant to these codes. while at it, different data sets were triangulated as a means of ensuring rigor and trustworthiness of the research. for the purposes of this paper, findings related to the theme of otherness is presented. to protect anonymity of respondents, all names used in this report are pseudonyms. 7 students’ representation of “other” religions findings the study revealed that christian and muslim students dissociated with african indigenous religion (air) and in the process of othering, represented it as expired, barbarian, backward and heathen (shin, 2009). the othering of air shaped by christian and islamic metanarratives and air rituals and practices are explored here. christian/islamic metanarratives shaping otherness of air it was observed that students’ representation of air as “other” was influenced by their christian and islamic metanarratives. based on these faith-inspired grand storylines (schweber, 2006), students created a criteria that measured the validity of every religion. acceptable religions to them are those that possess features that are similar to theirs scriptures and formal place of worship, and founder and since air did not possess any of these, some students described it as archaic. while christian and muslim students demonstrated appreciation of islam and christianity respectfully, their representation of air is that of the other. consider the following statements generated from student interview and focus group discussion: … when god came to this earth, he brought only one religion [christianity] …muhammed brought islam and for air, somebody just worships an object until it is engulfed with some spirits. god created the human being and all the objects so why should they worship it. (kofi, a christian student in akwei allah school) allah sent his messenger to come to this world and they have brought the true religion [islam]. allowing them [air worshippers] here would not allow for us to see the true religion. what allah hates most is to have another god. he abhors it. (fgd of islamic students in naagode) god says we should not worship any idol … by pouring libation, traditionalists demonstrate they don't believe in god. idols are man-made objects. (fgd of adventist students at james white school) when god was throwing away lucifer, some of the spirits resided in rocks, trees etc. so if you worship those, you are not worshiping god. (asante, a christian in dinpa school) from these statements, kofi and the other students opined that for a religion to be legitimate it should have a founder. their evaluation of air is based on christian and islamic feature of monotheism, identifiable founder and unflinching devotion to god. students could not fathom anything that does not satisfy these criteria being legitimate. similarly, their attitude to other minority religions follows same representations with one student remarking “they are all like air, they worship idols”. muslim and christian students respected each other’s religion. adwoa of adasa school explained that islam and christianity are like “children of a common mother”, vividly distinguishing “the other” (air) from the “normal” (abrahamic religions). masuzawa (2005) explains that occidental literature that categorized world religions stretched the category “christian” to include jews and muslims whilst “idolaters” was defined to include non-christians. the students’ representations are therefore a manifestation of colonial residues that are still prevalent in the socio-cultural milieu and in the official knowledge. 8 addai-mununkum, r. otherness in rituals and practices students’ description of the otherness of air can again be observed in their perception of air practices. students demonstrated in their response that air is not only diabolic in belief, but it actualizes it through the “bad” things air worshippers do. when questioned why they did not like air, here as some of the responses i elicited: air use blood for their rituals. it is all deception because they take chicken and other animals from people but they don't return them after the rituals. (kwame a christian in akwei allah school) their use of blood, and idols is forbidden in islam. (hamza a muslim in st. andrew school) i just don't like the traditionalists. i think they are scary. i see them in movies and they use skeletons and other stuff. (musa muslim in naagode school) ...because air belongs to the forest and not in classrooms. i see them on tv and all they do is not good. (josephine a christian in james white school) they do bad things like killing innocent people. (fgd of christians in a dinpa school) air is worse, a christian would not say he is going to a pastor to do sakawa1 but air priest do. (fgd of muslims in naagode school) majority of students in this study confessed to never observing air service before, yet, they described them as bloody, using animals for rituals, killing innocent people, and aiding internet scams (sakawa). musa’s remark appeared several times in the discussion when he was questioned how they could describe them in these terms without any close encounter. from their responses it became clearer that students’ descriptions were based on local television shows and movies, mostly sponsored by christians and which seek to portray air in inferior light. in the narratives of local movies like ɔsoro taa w’akyi (heaven backs you), bayifoɔ akwadaa (a child with witchcraft), and evil forest, there is a protagonist whose barrenness, joblessness, poverty, ailments are traced to family member(s) who has engaged an air priest to cause those misfortunes. at the deus ex machina of the plot, a christian pastor reveals this mystery, prayers are said and the powers of the air priests are dismantled resulting in a sudden turn around for the protagonist. thus, students’ experiences with air is mediated through movies which coupled with their religious beliefs make them represent air in this light. this confirms barton and avery’s (2015) assertion that students understanding of societal practices are shaped by everyday messages conveyed through media. during focus group discussions, i occasionally reminded students about their lessons on air and how it contradicted what they were expressing in the discussion. in most cases, students admitted to learning about air but not believing what they learn to be true. according to them, their lessons on air were more about factual knowledge which they memorize to reproduce on tests. as expected, the extreme testing regime in ghana compels schools to teach about air but doubts exist about students making real meaning of the content. statements such as “i would write that in exams but i don’t believe that to be true” goes to confirm the fears of scholars that extreme forms of accountability only results in dictation of facts, memorizations and less learning (pope, 2003; valenzuela, 2004). 1 sakawa is a ghanaian terminology that is used to describe a person who indulges in internet scam. 9 students’ representation of “other” religions by contrast, the deliberative environment created by focus group dialogues provided an avenue for students to express their thoughts, defend their positions and engage with knowledge in ways that were absent in their classrooms (hess, 2008). discussions got more interesting with a group of christian students at st. andrew, as i tried to compare some air acts to practices in christianity. interviewer: don’t you think traditional worshippers are not popular because you have these thoughts about them? student 1: no, it is because their religion is used to cause deaths. when you go to a traditional priest to kill your brother for you, they would do it. interviewer: what about some christian pastors who do that? student 2: for them, they are false prophets, their punishment would be from god interviewer: you also accuse them of idols, how different are theirs from the images i see in this school? student 3: catholic images are similar to the idols of air student 4: no the images of catholics are just mary and jesus. we believe we can talk to mary and she would beg jesus on our behalf. interviewer: ….and how is that different from air worshippers approaching god through ancestors? student 5: the air worshippers use images of fearful objects like lion and wild animals student 3: the catholic church takes a lot from air, they use statues just like them student 4: stop referring to jesus and mary as statues student 3: but they are not real jesus and mary, they are statues in this instance, the denominational diversity of christian students comes into play as they debated the otherness of air. all the participants in the discussion perceived and represented air as idol worship and explained that their dislike for adherents of air is based on the biblical imperative barring christians from associating with them. however, students differed in their perception of what idol worship entails. non-catholics did not see a difference between images of jesus and mary and images used in air but catholic students perceived those as legitimate because the characters are well known and accepted, whereas those of air were wild and scary. even as students unanimously misrepresented air based on ideas from their christian beliefs, there was a disparity in terms of how their denominational influences positioned idol worship. discussion that air is misrepresented has been well researched and documented in literature (beyers, 2010; masuzawa, 2005; meyer, 1998). however, the ways in which students denigrate it in sharp contrast to what they learn in classrooms is most worrying. ghana’s postindependence cultural philosophy has been to correct the wrongs of colonialism and restore pride in a national heritage. schools have therefore been assigned the important role of teaching pupils about ghanaian culture (meyer, 1998). to do this, the basic school curriculum devotes two subjects to the project: (1) ghanaian language and culture and (2) religious and moral education. among other things these subjects aim inculcate in students, religious knowledge that will promote pluralistic engagements so they grow up as responsible adults able to make sound decisions in today's changing world (anti, ntreh, & sey, 2002). of paramount importance here is air which undergirds most cultural practices, yet occupies liminal status in the ghanaian religious sphere. 10 addai-mununkum, r. it is interesting to note that students learn from official knowledge that air incorporates “belief in a transcendent supreme being or god; ancestral spirits who are venerated; lesser deities who are often associated with palpable objects like trees and rocks; as well as charms, amulets and talismans employed for protective purposes” (thomas, 2012, p. 67). from an examination of students’ notes and exercise books, it was observed that students’ writings confirm their knowledge about air. for instance, one class assignment required students to list some beliefs of air. a student, gifty, answered: a. belief in supreme being b. belief in totems c. belief in ancestors d. belief in lesser gods intriguingly, this same student would argue that air adherents do not worship god. in a focus group discussion, i elicited students’ response to their teacher inviting an adherent of air as a resource person. gifty responded: “i will not allow an air adherent in my class because they are not god’s followers. the bible says we should not associate with unbelievers and since traditionalists do not believe in god, i will not allow them to teach me…. i will allow a muslim because they believe in allah which is the same god we worship.” data about gifty and many other students of similar persuasion make clear that students hold two forms of knowledge which are antithetical to each other (coe, 2005). through expressions such as “we write that answer on tests”, students distinguish official knowledge from “real” knowledge. while real knowledge to them is based on experiential learning acquired from, and usable in their socio-cultural environment, the official knowledge (school knowledge as they term it) is learnt from didactic instruction and it is to be reproduced during tests. in exploring the reasons for this disconnect between official knowledge and students’ “real” knowledge, i find answers in the socio-cultural milieu within which curriculum enactment takes place. first, students’ othering of air and its adherents can be seen as an effect of cultural imperialism, an insidious form of colonialism that is more difficult to detect and resist (ashcroft, griffiths, & tiffin, 1998). derogatory terminology used by students to misrepresent air is just a rehash of teachings of missionaries that “ridiculed indigenous beliefs, called customs into question, undermined self-confidence, [and] eroded respect for traditional authorities” (porter, 1997, p. 367). following the lead of comaroff & comaroff (1991), western religions, particularly christianity, should be seen as more than just a religion, but “part of the historical anthropology of colonialism and consciousness, culture and power” (p.11). said (1979) has said that the occident’s representation of the other is not maintained in myths, but the conscious creation of knowledge that is used to legitimize such depictions. this was the case with western religions’ construction of air as existing in pre-historical past – an archaic religion that was practiced by ancestors. in this description, it is contrasted with modern christianity which exists in the present. students’ representation of air as “expired,” “belongs to the forest” and manmade should be conceptualized within this body of knowledge created to support missionary activity, but has since been legitimized in mainstream discourse and passed on to students as official knowledge. perhaps this body of knowledge has been perpetuated and propelled through the ages by new movements in the christian front. the emergence of a new wave of christianity, which 11 students’ representation of “other” religions robbins (2004) refers to as pentcostal-charismatic christianity (pcc) brought with it a new passion and zeal to evangelize “the heathen” through whatever means possible. whereas earlier orthodox christianities (catholics & protestants) condemned connections with air, pccs have done so with more vigor, requiring all their followers to “make a complete break with the past” (meyer, 1998, p. 3). air has been reinterpreted by pentecostal christians to include satan’s blood covenant with fore-fathers who did not worship god but the devil. on account of these dictates, it becomes necessary for persons living in the present to rupture with traditions of the ancestral past embodied in air (meyer, 1998). alongside such teachings about air in their churches, pc christians have launched radio and televangelism programs which seek to bring their message into people’s homes. according to asamoah gyadu (2010) the preaching of interventionist theology, healing, deliverance from bondage, and empowerments of living are the highlights of such media messages. the media has thus become the means by which society is made to appreciate “spiritual underworld of satan and how he works to keep people suffering through ill-health, demon-possession and oppression, failing marriages, collapsing business ventures, [and] extreme poverty” (asamoahgyadu, 2010, p. 136). one thing that is certain is the fact that the name satan as used in such contexts is synonymous with air. meyer (1998) argues that satan is believed to be operating in the guise of indigenous spirits, thus, “through the image of the devil, old spirits and deities are integrated into the discourse as ‘christian’ demons” (p. 322). thus, it makes sense that josephine, a christian student in a catholic school attributed all her descriptions about air to what she saw on tv. besides christian themed movies, students are bombarded daily with radio and tv programs that attribute all misfortunes to satan working through air and its adherents. students’ representation of air adherents as engaged in bad things such as “killing people” “doing sakawa” “deception” “using blood and idols” are just a few of the statements they see and hear from the media about air. indeed this was echoed by a teacher when i asked about students’ representation of air. hamza, a muslim teacher at an islamic school said: well, the fact is ghana in general has sidelined air. it looks as if it is evil and that is how we perceive it so the children might say ‘this person worships idol’. i think it is us christians and muslims who have made it so. we denigrate air but we sneak out to the shrines….i would say it is about parents, teachers and religious leaders. most of the time, we make it look devilish and you have already told the child the devil is bad and so how do you expect them to appreciate devilish religion? this statement makes clear the perceived nexus between air and evil in the prevailing societal discourse. hamza is very frustrated about the misrepresentation of air and blames society in general for perpetuating untruths which make his work as a teacher difficult. hamza might be right about difficulties he is encountering in helping students to unlearn misrepresentations of air. during my fieldwork, i observed that the schools themselves perpetuate the hegemony of christian and islamic religious beliefs. while the official curriculum expects students to appreciate air evidenced in the trilogy of supreme being, gods and ancestors, mission-public schools neutralize this effort by making students sing christian songs, a number of which is a direct attack on air. in one such song the students of dinpa used to march to their classroom titled yɛn nana nom som abosom (our fore-fathers worshipped idols), the christian song derides ancestors for worshipping idols and pledges the commitment of the current generation to worshipping jehovah. given such conflicting information about religion, 12 addai-mununkum, r. most students stick to their family’s religious identity (lopez et al., 2011) making them prone to bias and misrepresentation of air. even more critical is the role of teachers in all these (see achituv, 2013; baurain, 2012; ratsatsi, 2005; sikes & everington, 2003). interviewing over twenty teachers, all of them expressed their commitment to teaching in a fair and nonbiased manner. however, other comments they made renders useless such confessions. for instance, when i questioned sandra, a catholic teacher about why she did not invite indigenous religious adherents to her classroom, she remarked: muslims call god allah, it is the same god of christians. idol worshippers [she immediately changes her characterization of air from traditional worshippers to idol worshippers] we know they go through gods and ancestors to reach god. i personally believe it is not the same god that we worship that they are worshipping. muslims worship our god but idol worshippers worship something different. they rely on some other spirits. sandra here was expressing her personal opinion about religions but her statement does not differ in content from that of her students. this raises suspicion about how she represents air in her classroom. students expectedly come to classrooms with prejudices and bias against religions other than their own. however, it is hoped that teachers will design and enact lessons that would broaden the perspectives of students, eroding their stereotypes and misconceptions of others. if teachers are demonstrating same bias as their students where lies a broader reasoning that would mitigate the impact of myopic consciousness? to the extent that students do not demonstrate any change in their perceptions about the religious other is a demonstration of curriculum failure. the role of schools and teachers as mediators of learning cannot be over-emphasized (mason, 2000). moreover, the ghanaian curriculum which is rigidly academic has overly emphasized the integrity of separate subjects and the neglect of connections between academic experiences and life beyond the school (wraga, 2009). ralph tyler has long argued that: the student is more likely to perceive the similarity between the life situations and the learning situations when two conditions were met: (1) the life situations and learning situations were obviously alike in many respects and (2) the student was given practice in seeking illustrations in his life outside of school for the application of things learned in school. (tyler, 1949 p.18) the absence of this connection between what is learnt in classroom, the schools’ hidden curriculum, teacher ideology and identity, and real life experiences has resulted in students learning to deploy bits of information to pass tests but failing to connect same knowledge to their practical realities (wraga, 2009). the enactment of a more impactful curriculum would have to connect all the dots. conclusion it has been amply proven in literature, the immense contribution of teaching about religion in increasing religious knowledge, reducing prejudice, and promoting religious pluralism (american academy of religion, 2010; national council for the social studies, 1984; willaime, 2007). the inclusion of religion in the curriculum of ghanaian schools is to achieve these goals (ghana education service, 2008). this study has revealed that students still hold misconceptions about air in spite of their lessons on religion. they continue to interpret air practices through their christian and islamic metanarratives calling to question the impact of their lessons on religion. the missing link has been the failure to acknowledge the impact of contextual 13 students’ representation of “other” religions happenings on the realization of curriculum objectives, and to connect academic knowledge to the lived experiences of students. obviously, including religion in the curriculum is only half the problem solved. without conscious efforts at critical pedagogy in the teaching about religion, lessons might end up reinforcing stereotypes and become counter-productive to promoting religious pluralism. curriculum implementers ought to be mindful of this reality and suggest more innovative learning experiences that bridge the gap between classroom instruction and contemporary life outside school. mulya and aditomo’s (2019) report on film making project about religious tolerance in indonesia could be one such way of helping students unlearn their religious biased stereotypes and embracing open-mindedness in learning about other religions. the role of teachers in fostering impactful learning experiences in religious education is crucial more than ever. to do this, teachers ought to make personal commitments to fair representations. bracketing of faith has been suggested as a way to deal with teacher bias (yaokumah, opoku, & annobil, 2010) but it might seem more challenging in view of the pervasive nature of religious thought. in place of faith bracketing, i suggest religious faith disclosure by teachers as a measure of checking their subjectivities. if teachers will disclose their religious faiths at first instance of their class, and seek the support of their students to stay unbiased, the pronouncement in itself will become a reflexive psycho-ideological check on them. at the same time, students will begin to monitor and draw their attention when teachers appear to be acting in a biased manner. just as political ideology disclosure has been found useful to check against teacher political bias (hess & mcavoy, 2008), the time has come for a paradigm shift from objectivist approach of faith bracketing to a more subjectivist way of dealing with teacher bias. this is one sure solution to making religious education realistic pedagogically and more impactful in practice. references achituv, s. 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(2010). religious and moral education for basic school teacher. winneba: institute for educational development and extension. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 1-18 higher education in emergencies: the case of consociational north macedonia francesco bigagli* * phd, independent researcher, italy (former assistant professor, dhofar university, school of applied sciences and languages, salalah, oman). e-mail: frabigagli@gmail.com article info received: january 29, 2020 revised: march 8, 2020 accepted: june 21, 2020 how to cite bigagli, f. (2021). higher education in emergencies: the case of consociational north macedonia. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 1-18. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.1 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract eighteen years after the end of 2001 conflict between ethnic macedonians and ethnic albanians, north macedonia remains a country deeply polarized along ethno-national lines with implications for the maintenance of peace. the peace-building policies introduced by the ohrid framework agreement (ofa) based on a consociational model of power-sharing have accommodated the demands of ethnic albanians, including the right of access to higher education (he) in the mother-tongue which represented one of the root-causes in the escalation of the 2001 conflict. the ofa’s exclusive focus on access and availability through state funding for higher education in the albanian language has however favored a process of ethnicization of the tertiary sector. this paper seeks to investigate the unintended consequences of the ofa-induced ethnic self-ghettoisation within the public higher education system and, by the same token, it critiques the ofa’s lack of mechanisms to reach across the ethnic divide through the lenses of a rights-based approach to education. it ultimately argues that without a strong governmental commitment to deethnicize education by transcending the ofa’s intrinsic limits, power-sharing remains permeable to political manipulation which critically hampers social transformation and increases the probability of inter-ethnic tension, further weakening the peace process. keywords higher education; education and peace-building; education and international development; north macedonia. 10.46303/jcsr.2020.1 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.1 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 2 bigagli, f. curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 introduction for many decades a low priority sector in the context of post-conflict humanitarian relief and development, higher education is gradually drawing attention from policy-makers, practitioners and researchers as a catalyst for economic and social recovery (world bank, 2000; milton & barakat, 2016; millican 2018; milton 2018). as a positional good providing “unparalleled access to the best paid and most rewarding forms of employment” (mccowan, 2012, p. 117), quality higher education can play a pivotal role in increasing economic returns, strenghtening social mobility and status, and can potentially contribute to peacebuilding and social transformation by tackling horizontal inequalities that are often at the heart of interethnic conflicts due to significant disparities in access to the tertiary level; often resulting in elite stratification within distinct communities and exclusion of vulnerable groups from social and public life (buckland, 2005; millican 2018). yet in war-affected and ethnically-divided societies, the role of universities for peacebuilding and conflict transformation largely depends on the appropriateness and long-term strategic vision of policies and programmes to ensure a positive impact on the dynamics of conflict (milton, 2018). as milton (2018) contends, "without a strategic approach to recovery" support to higher education can bring about "more harm than good" (p. 179). through the lenses of a rights-based approach to education, this paper seeks to investigate the unintended consequences of the peace-building policies introduced by the ratification of the ohrid framework agreement in north macedonia almost two decades on from the end of the inter-community conflict between ethnic albanians and ethnic macedonians. based on a consociational model of power-sharing, the ofa accommodated the demands of ethnic albanians, including the right of access to higher education (he) in the mother-tongue which represented one of the root-causes in the escalation of the 2001 conflict (czapliński, 2008). while it prevented an escalation of the conflict into a full scale civil war, it has been argued that the ofa had not only failed to introduce mechanisms geared towards building social cohesion but it had rather contributed to reinforcing ethno-cultural divisions along territorial and linguistic lines, resulting in the deepening of stereotypes, intolerance and lack of trust between the two dominant nations (fontana, 2017; ofa review on social cohesion, 2015; european commission, 2018). in recent years, research has mostly focused on the consequences of educational decentralization at school level in north macedonia. both lyon (2011, 2013) and fontana (2017) have argued that the school system largely reflects the consociational structures and narratives of power along “mutually exclusive communities” reproducing pre-conflict cleavages and tensions (fontana, 2017, p. 280). however, a comprehensive study on the unintended effects of higher education in the mother-tongue in north macedonia has yet to appear. this is particularly pertinent given the prominent role of higher education in conflict causation and the strong focus on equality of access established by the ofa. the main 3 higher education in emergencies curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 research question seeks to explore whether access to higher education in the mother-tongue has effectively functioned as a conduit for peace-building and/or whether a univocal focus on access and availability has perhaps served as a (political) tool to cement divisions and reproduce ethnic nationalism along the yugoslav “separate but equal” policies. current state of an ethnically divided nation on february 13, 2019, the former yugoslav republic of macedonia officially became north macedonia (nm) putting an end to a decades-long dispute with neighboring greece over the name row (the economist, 2019, january 17). while observers contend that the deal will bring stability to a “region that still has pockets of uncertainty” (erlanger, 2019, february 6), its ratification continues to trigger social unrest led by the macedonian nationalist party, vmro; which was removed from power in 2017 after a sustained political crisis resulting from revelations of corruption by the former prime minister (marusic, 2017, may 22). a coalition government comprised of the ethnic albanian dui and the left-wing macedonian party, sdsm, took office in may 2017 (marusic, 2017, may 31). this was in the aftermath of what analysts consider the most severe democratic setback since the 2001 conflict between macedonian forces and the ethnic-albanian national liberation army (nla): on april 27, 2017, 200 nationalists broke into the parliament as a reaction to the election of the first albanian speaker of the assembly and the formation of the new ruling majority, perceived as a threat to the interests of ethnic macedonians (european commission, 2018, p. 7; the new york times, 2017, april 27); that is, the macedonian-speaking orthodox majority in the country that accounts to 64% of its 2.6 million population versus 25% represented by the albanian-speaking muslim community (state statistical office [sso], 2002 census).1 most recently, ethnic tensions flared up during the course of a retrial against 33 ethnic albanians accused to have been involved in a two-day shootout in june 2016 against macedonian security forces. the defendants contend to have been the victims of a political set-up by the vmro (balkan insight, 2019, may 16). after almost two decades from the finalization of the ohrid framework agreement (ofa), which ended the 2001 conflict by introducing a consociational democracy through territorial decentralization and extended rights for the albanian-speaking minority, amid a deteriorating economy and high unemployment, especially amongst youth at 46% (ec, 2018), the political climate continues to be fraught with tensions between ethnic-based parties that find their raison d’être in the politicization of ethnonational cleavages (terry, 2017; fontana, 2017) with implications for the country’s fragile inter-ethnic environment (ec, 2018). a 2008 undp report indicates that 60% of macedonians and 50% of albanians respectively attribute the responsibility for fueling ethnic tension to parties belonging to the opposing community 1turks, roma and serbs represent smaller minorities. 4 bigagli, f. curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 (p. 63). the report also highlights that the two largest communities have different visions and sense of belonging to their country (p. 64).2 civil society representatives have repeatedly warned against deepening polarization. as kosturanova, head of the youth educational forum, maintains: “macedonia is a deeply polarized society, where citizens are being divided based on their ethnicity, language, religion, gender, political views” (the new york times, 2017, june 1). the ethnic polarization encompasses all aspects of life: for instance, just 37% of macedonians have professional relations with people from a different ethnic background. the percentage is slightly higher amongst albanians. social life is also polarized and media outlets are rigidly divided by languages (undp, 2008, pp. 60-61). the degree of ethnic separation is particularly striking amongst youth and, more specifically, in the education sector, including he (ec, 2018; ofa review, 2015). a 2009 unicef study highlights that in consociational north macedonia a “model of parallelism and separation has been followed rather than a model of integration” (2009). the next section gives an overview of the language and education reforms as stipulated in the ofa as these continue to shape the inter-ethnic landscape with implications for the maintenance of peace. education and language reforms in consociational north macedonia from 2005, the responsibility for a number of public services, imprimis basic education, had been entirely assigned to municipalities (lyon, 2013) in accordance with the ofa which stipulated, inter alia, extended linguistic/cultural rights to persons belonging to non-majority communities, with an emphasis on access to education in the mother-tongue given the importance of education for conveying aspects of a group cultural identity (bush & saltarelli, 2000). the ofa not only reiterated the right of access to primary and secondary education in the mother tongue, a provision of the yugoslav “separate but equal” policies which “fixed and crystallized ethno-cultural nations and were deliberately constructed as belonging to particular ethno-cultural nations” (brubaker, 1996, p. 4) but introduced a principle of positive discrimination in the enrolments of minorities in state universities and prescribed publicly funded access to higher education in the albanian language, considered as key conflict drivers (czapliński, 2008; bacevic, 2014). the ofa also established albanian as an official language in addition to macedonian in areas where ethnic albanians make up at least 20% of the population. in january 2019, a new law that extends the use of the albanian language across the country has come into force despite the refusal by the president to sign it and the fierce opposition of the vmro claiming its unconstitutionality (marusic, 2019, january 18). ethnic albanians see this as the last remaining stipulation of the ofa although strong disagreements with the vmro over the interpretation of the normative provision remains (ofa review, 2015). as fontana (2017) argues, the education and language reforms have come to epitomize the new power relationship between ethnic macedonians and the ethnic albanian minority, 2the status of kosovo is seen by ethnic albanians in north macedonia as their political priority. 5 higher education in emergencies curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 who had been mobilizing for greater collective and political rights since the country gained independence from belgrade in 1991 and embarked in a predominantly mono-ethnic project of state nation-building, essentially through the preeminence of the macedonian language (bacevic, 2014). while the introduction of a single official language is traditionally used as a nationbuilding (and nation-maintenance) tool to guarantee national cohesion, reinforce participation in public life and, ultimately, as a precondition to the integration of diverse groups (deen & romans, in ulasiuk, 2018), there is always a risk that language can be employed as a means of domination to preserve the privileges of the majority group in society (horowitz, 1985); resulting into a “nation-destroying process” (walker, 1972) with the formation of antagonistic and profoundly resilient “minority nation-building” stances (kymlicka, 2001, p. 233) that could work counter the exclusive state policies and lead to conflict and/or enduring tensions. this is because language constitutes one of the key “markers” of ethno-national identities and, by extension, not only any perceived threat to a particular language, both within and outside the education system, is construed as a threat to the survival of a group identity (bush & saltarelli, 2000) but language symbolizes the “worth and status of the community that speaks it” (horowitz, p. 219). as horowitz explains, if “the demand for a single official language reflects the desire for a tangible demonstration of preeminence, so linguistic parity is transparent code for equality” (p. 220). and yet, the question is whether improved language access and (educational) decentralization correlate with improved integration and cohesion. this is because a focus on access alone as a quantitative indicator in the measurement of progress does not necessarily translate into a more cohesive society. access to education alone, for instance, does not, per se, fulfill the right to education. the conditions in which education takes place, the quality of education as well as the capacity of educational institutions to prepare graduates for political, economic and social life are equally important categories (tomaševski, 2001; mccowan, 2011). as a result of educational decentralization, unicef (2009) reports a decline by more than 10% of “mixed schools” (under whose roof children are still ethnically split by language or taught in different shifts/buildings) in the 2001-2009 period and an increase in the number of monolingual ones (p. 7). undp (2008) indicates a reluctance to send children to a mixed school amongst 69% of ethnic macedonians and 42% of albanians (p. 61). higher education has also expanded dramatically in consociational north macedonia: in 1994-1995, only 1.95% of graduates were ethnic albanians against 19% in the 2014-2015 period (muhic & memeti, 2016). the expansion, however, has occurred only along ethnocultural and territorial lines with newly founded universities delivering instruction exclusively in albanian or macedonian. arguably, if increased access to mother tongue-based education can help preserve cultural identities and settle ethnic grievances, it can also contribute to cementing boundaries between groups along ethno-national identities in the absence of intercommunal points of contact and shared values (preece, 2005); ultimately leaving little to no margin for “other ways of being and other forms of politics” (finlay, in fontana, 2017, p. 33) 6 bigagli, f. curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 other than identity politics. an osce study (2010) indicates a high level of adversity between albanian and macedonian students with nearly half of their school teachers appearing to have made derogatory remarks against the other community in their classroom. a review report on the implementation of the ofa (ofar, 2015) takes stock of the increasing lack of cohesion, spreading of negative stereotypes, intolerance and mistrust between the two dominant nations. as fontana (2017) contends, the emergence of a “parallel” education system can result in the development of a sense of belonging of one group against another (and even against the state) and education is often used in deeply divided societies as a “gatekeeping” tool by manipulative ethnic mobilisers to nurture exclusive identities and challenge the legitimacy of other groups’ discourses (p. 42). higher education is not free from attacks and manipulations due to its relevant political role. as milton (2018) claims, higher education is not only often perceived as a hotbed of political radicalism (i.e., through student activism, production of critiques against the status quo) but can become a “focal point” of ethnic mobilization (p. 90). the next section provides an account of the role played by he in the escalation of the 2001 conflict and how the he landscape has changed since. the historical context vis-à-vis the current situation is deemed relevant to the scope of this paper. the role of higher education in conflict causation analysts argue that the problem of access to he in the mother-tongue represented one of the main drivers in the process of ethnic mobilization during the ‘90s by ethnic albanians (czapliński, 2008; bacevic, 2014). as czapliński (2008) claims, citing the then osce high commissioner on national minorities (hcnm), max van der stoel, “he believed that the solution to the problem of albanian language he was a prerequisite for achieving progress in other aspects of minority rights and, after it had been addressed, it would be much easier to move on other issues” (p. 218). while mother tongue-based schooling was guaranteed by the constitution, higher education was exclusively delivered in macedonian (bacevic,2014). according to czapliński (2008), the widespread inability to speak the state language and discriminatory practices on the grounds of ethnicity, resulted in great disparities in access to he among ethnic albanians in the ‘90s. this, in turn, hindered access to employment opportunities, representation in decision-making institutions and was perceived as a threat to albanians’ longing to become a constituent nation. as silva (1978) declares, in the context of multicultural societies, ethnic communities tend to measure the level of discrimination and equality on the number of university enrollments (in milton, 2018). while some ethnic albanians would pursue, he in kosovo (czapliński,2008), the banning of albanian at the university of prishtina in the ‘90s, as part of milošević’s strategy to restrain kosovo-albanians’ mobilization for independence, put a stop to this trend (kostovicova, 2005). this paved the way for the creation, in 1994, of the (illegal) albanian-language university of tetovo (ut), on the north macedonian border with kosovo 7 higher education in emergencies curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 and epicenter of the 2001 conflict, perceived by the government of macedonia as a hotbed of ethnic albanian separatism with links to the nla (czapliński, 2008). on the 17th of february, 1995, to prevent the start of classes, macedonian forces opened fire on students killing one (ackerman, 1999). this ignited a spiral of inter-ethnic violence and prompted the direct involvement of the hcnm who sought to resolve the problem of access to he in the albanian language by proposing the establishment of a trilingual (albanian, macedonian and english) higher education provider in the town of tetovo: south east european university (czapliński, p. 88). often referred to as a “peacekeeping university” (eua, 2018, p. 4), south east european university (seeu) was conceived as a key social agent in supporting peace-building and rapprochement efforts (czapliński, 2008; bacevic, 2014). in line with the newly adopted law on he (2000), which consented teaching in minority languages by private providers (czapliński, 2008), the seeu project was accepted by all political camps in june 2000.3 however, the kosovo crisis (1999) acted as a catalyst for renewed violence across macedonia delaying the opening of seeu until september 2001 in the aftermath of the ofa. as a 2004 oecd report indicates, 2303 ethnic albanians enrolled in the first two years at seeu, “thus, virtually at a stroke, the total current participation rate of albanian students in higher education rose to 9%” (p. 20). ironically, while the seeu proposal purported to guarantee access to he in albanian, the ofa “had created the conditions to pursue the old agenda of albanian political parties” (bacevic, 2014, p. 192) precisely by prescribing publicly funded access to higher education in the albanian language. as a result, the university of tetovo, located within a short walk from seeu, was legalized in 2004. a decade later, another public albanian-language institution, mother theresa university (mtu), was established. in recent years, research has mostly focused on the consequences of educational decentralization at school level in nm. both lyon (2011, 2013) and fontana (2017) have argued that the school system largely reflects the consociational structures and narratives of power along “mutually exclusive communities” reproducing pre-conflict cleavages and tensions (fontana, 2017, p. 280). however, a comprehensive study on the unintended effects of he in the mother-tongue in nm has yet to appear. while often “neglected” (milton) as a sector in development, recent research shows that he can not only contribute to economic recovery after conflict but could play a role in peace-building and conflict transformation (millican, 2018; milton, 2018; milton & barakat, 2016). this is particularly the case for nm given the prominent role of he in conflict causation and the strong focus on equality of access established by the ofa. however, the question is whether access to he in the mother-tongue is per se conducive to sustain peace and/or whether a univocal focus on access has perhaps served as a (political) tool to cement divisions and reproduce ethnic nationalism along the yugoslav “separate but equal” policies. 3in line with the he law (2000), seeu was conceived as a private not-for-profit provider. its status changed to private-public in 2008 and currently receives 20% of its funding through the state. 8 bigagli, f. curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 the ethnicization of higher education in line with the ofa, non-majority students have the right to study in their mother-tongue at all levels of education with the state language (macedonian) being introduced at fourth grade. data shows that 64,51% of pupils at primary level study in macedonian, 32,17% in albanian, and the rest in turkish (3,05%) and serbian (ofar, 2015). for a total of 346 primary schools, 247 are mono-lingual and the rest bilingual or trilingual (p. 171). similarly, at secondary level, 66, 89% of children learn in macedonian, 29,26% in albanian, 2,01% in turkish and 0,26% in serbian for a total of 103 schools. although a quarter of schools (primary and secondary) are bilingual or trilingual, only 13% of these have students de facto studying under the same roof (bakiu & dimitrova, 2016). this is because in the so-called ‘mixed schools’ pupils attend classes in detached buildings or different shifts with little to no interaction among different ethnic groups (ibid.). this is particularly relevant in the case of ethnic macedonian and albanian children who study in an ethnically mixed environment but rarely have contact with each other. according to the osce (2010), “one third of children (i.e., 30% macedonian and 35% albanian) claim that they have mutual contact outside of the classroom environment and if they do is mostly not out of personal initiative” (p. 20). in a nutshell macedonian and albanian students study in their mother tongue and almost all roma and serbian students attend classes in macedonian. while the majority of turkish students study in turkish, a large percentage of them follow instruction in macedonian (unicef, 2009). albanian students are therefore the most isolated with respect to other ethnic communities. however, the degree of ethnic separation is mostly pronounced at higher education level. this section addresses the peace-building implications of ethnic self-ghettoisation exclusively within the public he system and challenges the ofa’s exclusive access-oriented policy in this regard. the country has five fully publicly funded universities that provide teaching predominantly in macedonian, except for teacher training faculties where instruction in minority languages is consented (law on he, 2008, art. 103), or albanian; as the law requires taking macedonian as a separate subject in addition to two other courses delivered in the state language within albanian-language institutions (art. 103). a look at graduate rates, disaggregated by ethnicity, from public he institutions, provides an idea of the level of “voluntary self-segregation” (lijphart, in fontana, 2018, p. 33): in 2017, the number of ethnic albanians that graduated from the three largest public macedonian-language institutions, that is, the university of skopje (ukim), bitola and shtip, represented respectively 7,4% (of which 60% studied at the faculties of philology/pedagogy which deliver instruction in albanian), 1,6% and 0,58% compared to 85,19%, 91,7% and 94% of ethnic macedonians against the total number of graduates which includes other smaller minorities (sso, 2019). although there is no data available for the newly established mother theresa university, ethnic macedonians that 9 higher education in emergencies curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 completed their studies at the university of tetovo in 2017 represented 4,3%4 of its total graduates against 82,66% comprised of ethnic albanians. considering the predominantly albanian-inhabited region of tetovo, seeu, a private-public provider, represents a significant exception in terms of ethnic heterogeneity: in 2017, 67,84% of its graduates were ethnic albanians vis-à-vis 14,50% of ethnic macedonians with a remaining 17,66% comprised of turks, roma, serbs and albanian-language students from neighboring countries, mainly albania and kosovo (sso, 2019). clearly, while he for ethnic albanians is both publicly available and accessible, the question is whether graduates from ethnic universities are being prepared for social, political and economic participation and, most importantly, if this leads to improved social cohesion. as noted, despite an exponential increase in the number of enrollments amongst ethnic albanians, signaling a consistent demand for he and political commitment to fulfill it (fontana, 2017), the institutional “ethnicization” of higher education risks reinforcing ethnic identities and further divisions between groups. besides, while evidence shows that an increase in he enrollments amongst minorities can lower the chances of a relapse into conflict, the creation of a “youth bulge” with no employment prospects and/or perceived employment/income inequalities can generate new grievances and lead to inter-ethnic tension (milton, 2018, pp. 94-95). in this regard, the ofar (2015) indicates that ethnic albanians are still under-represented within both “budgetary institutions” and the public sector (pp. 19-20). terry (2017) contends that the “macedonia’s ethnic-political system has resulted in many jobs being restricted to ruling party elites and loyalists, who have predominantly been ethnic macedonians” (p. 73). terry further maintains that the lack of connections with the parties in power constitute a barrier for minorities. albanians also continue to earn less than macedonians with a monthly average of 165 versus 350 euros (pp. 73-74). the necessity to bridge the ethnic divide should therefore be regarded as a national priority. while “structural diversity” does not necessarily translate into the development of meaningful contact with the other (allport, 1979, p. 276; gurin, dey & hurtado, 2002), it is a prerequisite to create opportunities for interaction that could, if well administered by relevant institutions, foster mutual understanding and acceptance (allport,1979, feuer, hornidge & schetter, 2013). in short, “contact is good, and the more of it the better” (hughes, in fontana, 2018, p. 230). kymlicka (1995) argues that multination states must ensure that its citizens respect diversity as much as the “particular ethnic groups and national cultures with whom they currently share the country” in order to guarantee stability (p. 191). the north macedonian education system, however, seems to support existing segmental cleavages by defying the “practices of recognition of difference” (jenson, 1998, p. 16) which educational institutions, including he, should implement through the promotion of a sense of belonging 4this 4% could be represented by muslim macedonians or torbeši, a community in the tetovo region fluent in macedonian, albanian and turkish (dikici, 2008). 10 bigagli, f. curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 based on inclusion and shared beliefs. a commitment to the values of diversity as part of identity formation processes in deeply divided societies is especially relevant at he level, in the years between adolescence and adulthood, that is, when youngsters’ “sense of personal and social identity is formed” on the basis of similarities with and differences from their peers (gurin et al, 2002, pp. 334-335). as gurin et al (2002) maintain, the experience of diversity is particularly influential and thus conducive to the formation of inclusive identities when the social background of higher education substantially differs from students’ community and house environments. in addition, as mccowan (2012) contends, besides its “positional and instrumental benefits” (p. 117), he has the potential to play a role in “developing criticality” (p. 118). that is, in building the capacity for independent thinking which feeds into a better understanding of oneself and the other by challenging “established truths and decode and resist the messages of power-holders and violent ideologues” (schendel, in millican, 2018, p. 50). in this sense, universities could be uniquely positioned to support peace-building processes as traditionally heterogeneous spaces of civic socialization and through their intrinsic role in fostering independent thinking since the subject-specific curriculum would represent, with the exception of specific courses (e.g., peace education), a less viable avenue to promote tolerance (feuer et al, 2013). as milton and barakat (2016) put it, while primary education is essentially formative, “higher education has the possibility to be transformative” (p. 414). however, higher education can also operate counter conflict transformation by strengthening the social roots of conflict through, for instance, the presence of negative ethnic stereotypes in textbooks or the attitude of faculty members geared towards the exclusion or belittlement of minorities. the employment of teacher-centered pedagogies and rote-learning methodologies that stifle students’ initiative and creativity can also undermine peace-building efforts by making students more vulnerable to political manipulation (bush & saltarelli, 2000; milton, 2018). the lack of opportunities to engage with diversity on campus also affects the quality of the educational experience while inhibiting the chances to “mediate the identity bases of conflict” (milton & barakat, 2017, p. 415). in the context of macedonia, as muhic (2017) contends, “universities can be an important channel through which to promote social cohesion (. . .) thus, if education policy is not sensitive to the issue of social cohesion and does not incorporate the perspectives of a variety of communities, it can divide and alienate nonmajority communities” (p. 21). in this regard, recent reports by the european university association address the need to enhance student-centered learning across all macedonian public monolingual institutions and strengthen higher order thinking and life skills to promote students’ critical and communicative abilities (eua: 2017a, p. 17; 2017b, p. 21; 2017c, pp. 2021; 2017d, pp. 17-18). the ethnicization of higher education represents, nevertheless, a dangerous element of the “hidden curriculum” (apple, 2004) by undermining students’ ability to develop a critical perspective on society while strengthening prejudices and encouraging identity politics. as allport (1979) claims, “segregation markedly enhances the visibility of a 11 higher education in emergencies curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 group; it makes it seem larger and more menacing that it is” (p. 269).5 although diversity could be experienced through specific curricular content, evidence suggests that without a direct exchange of ideas with the other, this could even have negative effects on students’ development (gurin et al, 2002). muhic and memeti (2016) claim that while north macedonia's public higher education providers offer courses in multiculturalism, delivered as electives mainly across pedagogical faculties, the lack of cultural competence among faculty is worrisome. as muhic (2017) maintains, whenever faculty incorporate topics about diversity in their subjects, they do so in an “unstructured and non-critical way” which could result in reinforcing existing stereotypes by “trivializing” ethnic cultures (p. 22). significantly, ethnic prejudice seems most prominent amongst students from ethnically homogeneous campuses (muhic & memeti, 2016). the lack of heterogeneity among staff within ethnic universities (muhic, 2007) and the absence of any kind of cooperation with providers from the ‘opposing’ community (ofar, 2015) ultimately characterize north macedonia's public higher education institutions as ethnic cloisters and incubators of “national identity-based projects” (bacevic, p. 192) that could hamper conflict transformation by acting as “perpetrators of conflictual identities” (milton & barakat, 2016, p. 414) rather than promoters of mutual ones based on shared fundamental values (i.e., respect for the rule of law, tolerance, common vision/sense of belonging). the ofa’s “just” vision of multicultural north macedonia: a path to national dis-integration? the issue with the ofa’s “just” vision of the north macedonian society”, to use kymlicka’s terminology (2002, p. 16), based on consociational power-sharing, is simply that it does not encourage integration (bacevic, 2014). with regard to education, for instance, to recall tomaševski, an exclusive focus on availability/access does not fulfill the right of education which must take into account the importance of quality, including the conditions in which education is delivered, and the ability of institutions to adapt to changing social circumstances. critics of the ofa and, by extension, consociationalism, argue that while it contributed to prevent a worsening of the conflict and secure peace, at least in the short term, it has achieved that at the expenses of inter-ethnic cohesion (lyon, 2015) as it basically relies on the “division it is supposed to solve” (mcgarry & o’leary, in fontana, 2018, p. 37). as fontana (2016) contends, if (educational) decentralization can contribute to “conferring legitimacy to a peace process by eroding inequalities and promote social mobility” while ensuring the protection of distinctive identity markers, mother-tongue education can also weaken conflict transformation by “isolating communities” (p. 859) and limit their “access to equal participation in society” (freedland & patrick, 2004, p. 1); especially in the absence of mechanisms to bridge the inter-ethnic gap which the ofa had essentially failed to establish while substantiating and thus strengthening the yugoslav “separate but equal” policies,and 5ethnic divisions have had a profound impact on the collapse of yugoslavia and regional conflicts (hammel, 2010). 12 bigagli, f. curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 where there is a perceived opposition to the state language. in 2007, the ethnic albanian minister of education, introduced english from first grade while deferring the study of macedonian, in which albanians still struggle to express themselves, from first to fourth grade (in fontana, 2017, p. 211). this controversial shift is symptomatic of the degree of political instrumentalization with repercussions on education which remains at risk of political influence (eu, 2018). it could also be argued that since north macedonia's accession into the eu is evaluated on the basis of the implementation of the ofa, there is fertile ground for political manipulation.6 this is because lawmakers may be “contented when they have strictly followed the rules that a limited interpretation of the rights impose on them” (robeyns, 2006, p. 78) fulfilling, perhaps, a hidden political objective aiming at separation rather than integration. robeyns maintains that governments are, in some cases, “part of the problem, rather than part of the solution” (p. 77). in this regard, lyon (2015) warns of the influence of north macedonian municipal officials who contribute to mobilize local ethnic identities around the idea that mixing in educational institutions is not safe in order to secure electoral consensus (p. 107). according to fontana (2017), the failure of the moe’s strategy for integrated education (2010), formulated to address the fragmentation of the education system, was essentially due to a lack of political will on both sides. arguably, if the right of access to he in albanian contributed to ending the 2001 conflict, the presence of ghettoized campuses and lack of instruments to promote rapprochement, undermines the significance of what robeyns (2006) terms “the personal and collective instrumental social roles of education” (p. 74) and, in turn, the possibility of engineering a social change. as tomaševski (2003) explains, “education should prepare learners for parenthood and political participation, it should enhance social cohesion and, more than anything, it should teach the young that all human beings themselves included have rights” (p. 33). this is because a right cannot be fulfilled without the “active, meaningful and critical participation” (coysh, 2014, p. 109) of rights-holders. a “rights-based approach to development” (rbad) relies on mutual responsibilities between those accountable to protect and promote people’s rights (duty-bearers) and rights-holders as key agents in the process of social change. however, if the fulfillment of a right arguably constitutes the goal of a rbad, “the quality, legitimacy and sustainability of the outcome depends on the process used to achieve it” (gready and ensor, 2005, pp. 9-10). a ‘myopic’ interpretation of the ofa’s rightsbased educational policies, exclusively based on access/availability, which has essentially failed in creating an intercultural environment based on shared civic values and intellectual autonomy, could therefore hinder the setting in motion of the process itself precisely as it does not only confines communities to an “imposed locality” (roter & busch, in ulasiuk, 2018, p. 175) but constrains individuals within fixed group identities which limit and/or influence their right to freely express their views or make decisions for themselves with serious 6see art. 8e of the eu charter for regional or minority languages (1992). 13 higher education in emergencies curriculumstudies.org jcsr 2021, 3(2):1-18 implications for the future of democracy. a failure to fully comprehend educational rights, “in conjunction with other rights” (i.e., civil, political, economic; mccowan, 2011, pp. 290-291; tomaševski, 2001), therefore makes education no longer a “key empowerment right” (coomans, 2007, p. 184) or “a good thing” (robeyns, 2006, p. 75). conclusion this paper has attempted to analyze the unintended consequences of higher education in the mother-tongue in consociational north macedonia given the prominent role of the tertiary sector in conflict causation and the strong focus on equality of access established by the ofa. arguably, while the 2001 conflict has certainly served as a catalyst for pre-existing ethnic and cultural divisions which, as baumann (2009) argues, “continue to shape the post-war society” (p.110), the peace-building policies introduced by the ofa clearly fall short in providing any recommendations on how to foster ethnic rapprochement and ensure social cohesion. one might even contend that the ofa has failed in securing a permanent state of ‘peace’ for as long as the presence of “negative, endogenous structures are left over as virulent factors, the danger of society’s return to violence is eminent” (baumann, p.112). in conclusion, without a strong governmental commitment to deethnicizes education by transcending the ofa’s exclusive access-oriented policies, the persistence of a situation of “voluntary apartheid” (baumann, p. 112) makes consociational power-sharing permeable to political manipulation which critically hampers social transformation and increases the probability of inter-ethnic tension, ultimately weakening the peace process. references ackermann, a. 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(2023). the enhancement of pedagogical capital by civil technology teachers when engaged with practical assessment task: a curriculum transformation legacy. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 122. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.16 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license (cc by 4.0). abstract within the south african context, there are perennial curriculum reforms of technical subjects, for example civil technology, which is offered from grade 10 to 12 at secondary school level. amidst these curriculum reforms there is a shortage of technical curriculum advisors to capacitate teachers for the implementation of the revised curricula and a paucity of studies on how to enhance pedagogical capital. this undermines teachers’ efforts in giving learners adequate industrial skills. in this conceptual study, we learn that teachers are now having autonomy to prepare, implement and assess the self-made practical assessment task (pat) without close pedagogical guidance from their stakeholders. as such, this conceptual study brings strategies that will assist teachers in maximising their pedagogical capital to cope with the recent curriculum change. this study found that indeed there are far too many expectations that civil technology teachers must accomplish before their learners can be adequately equipped with hands-on skills. a pedagogical capital framework was proposed to assist curriculum advisors and implementors to engage positively with pat whilst upholding a global quality standard. this study recommends that the proposed framework could be applied to other technical subjects like engineering graphics and design, electrical technology and mechanical technology as they are faced with similar pedagogical challenges. keywords civil technology; practical assessment task; pedagogical capital; teachers; curriculum transformation. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.16 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.16 2 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 introduction the purpose of this conceptual study is to provide guidance and create awareness on how civil technology teachers can enhance their pedagogical capital when engaged with practical assessment tasks. within the south african schooling system there have been multiple revisions of the curriculum especially in technical subjects like civil technology. civil technology is offered from grades 10 to 12 in south african schools and is the subject to which this research contribution pays attention. the revisions to the revised curriculum assessment policy statement (caps) for civil technology has granted teachers of civil technology the freedom to “plan, design and determine the content, skills and knowledge to be addressed; set clear criteria and give good instructions to guide learners; determine which resources will be required for pat and how marks will be distributed” (department of basic education [dbe], 2011, p. 28). put simply this means that the curriculum granted to civil technology gives teachers the space to activate their pedagogical capital when planning, teaching, and developing the rubric for assessment and assessing the pat. however, within the south african civil technology context not much is known about teacher’s practice concerning the planning, teaching, and assessment of pat, or on success and challenges facing teachers in schools regarding, designing and execution of pat. according to bastola (2018) teachers’ pedagogical capital is the concept which embraces teachers’ content knowledge, instructional planning, teaching strategies, professional knowledge, assessment of pat, professionalism, ability to motivate learners, create conducive learning environment and adopt new techniques and approaches as per the need and interest of the learners. tracing back to dbe, we now know that for teachers to exercise their freedom in designing and implementing pat, they need to be abreast with pedagogical capital, hence this study. gumbo (2020) tells us that technology subject teachers in general, have not been adequately trained to teach pat as a strategy for skills transfer, a clear loophole in technology teachers’ pedagogical capital. before going deeper into how teachers can enhance their pedagogical capital and how this concept evolved, it is important to orientate our readers on how civil technology has transformed and what the legacies caused by that curriculum transformation are. in the sections to come, we will also shed light on civil technology teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge as it foregrounds pedagogical capital. purpose of the study the purpose of this study is to provide guidance and create awareness on how civil technology teachers can enhance their pedagogical capital when engaged with pat. civil technology curriculum transformation to reiterate, civil technology is offered in a technical and vocational discipline and has experienced numerous curriculum transformations since its inception to the south african curriculum (mokhothu, 2020). these curriculum reforms have ambitious goals for classroom 3 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 practice. initially, civil technology comprised of building construction, sheet metal work, bricklaying and plastering, woodwork, sewing and plumbing as part of the national education (nated) 550 curriculum (dbe, 2011). it was envisaged by gumbo et al. (2012) that the skills and knowledge acquired in civil technology would produce specialised artisans in response to the critical skills shortages encountered by south africa. in 1998, civil technology was introduced in the further education and training (fet) band (grades 10-12) in schools via curriculum 2005 (c2005) (dbe, 2011). the purpose of civil technology was to produce learners who will, after school completion enrol for apprenticeship and get trade test certificates from the institute for the development of learnerships and learnership assessment (indlela) among others. indlela is a constituted body that assesses such learners and recognises them as artisans of various industries (department of labour, 1998). however, c2005 was engulfed with numerous challenges such as lack of proper content knowledge, weighting of topics, skills and focus (pinnock, 2011) and needed to be revised. the revision of c2005 gave rise to the national curriculum statement (ncs). also, ncs policy was reviewed because it lacked sequencing of concepts, progression of knowledge development, clear teaching methods and knowledge focus (du plessis et al., 2015). it was inevitable to amend ncs on those grounds and this introduced civil technology to curriculum assessment policy statement (caps). according to grussendorff et al. (2014) the caps document (dbe, 2011) became prescriptive on the knowledge articulation, weighting of topics and time to spend on each topic. as a result, this afforded civil technology a chance to combine three specialisations namely, civil services (plumbing), construction and woodwork (carpentry) to integrate theory and practical skills together with the application of scientific principles (pinnock, 2011). caps (released in 2011) promoted specifications in terms of knowledge depth, pace, timeframes and volume of work. this was explicit on how practical assessment tasks (pats) were conceptualised and espoused in fet technology subjects like civil technology. from grades 10-12 all pats were standardised, meaning that all learners doing civil technology in south africa, were given the same practical tasks, irrespective of the school context and resources. the 2011 version of caps regarded the various geopolitical, socio cultural and economic factors as homogenous and proposed a onesizefitsall approach to curriculum implementation. the implication was curriculum implementation occurs uniformly in a vacuum (singh-pillay & alant, 2015). additionally, the 2011 version of caps construed all education settings and all teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge to be equal and equivalent as all pats were uniform. thus, caps (2011) was construed as a specific decontextualized statedriven curriculum that restricts teachers’ autonomy or agency as curriculum developers (singhpillay & samuel, 2017). mtshali (2020) asserts that those standardised pats prescribed by the department of basic education (dbe) hindered and impinged the promotion of creatively and critical thinking skills among teachers. this meant that teachers lacked autonomy and could not serve as local 4 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 curriculum developers to plan, teach and assess pat that were responsive to their local contextual needs and problems. the frustrations civil technology teachers encountered with prescribed pat and their lack of autonomy was emphasised by kola (2016). subsequently in 2014, the civil technology caps document was re-envisaged granting teacher’s autonomy with the pat, particularly in grades 10 and 11. in-line with the provisions by caps (2014), civil technology teachers have been developing their own pats for grades 10 and 11 learners since 2016. literature is replete with discussions around the transfer of hands-on skills in the teaching and learning of civil technology in the eastern cape province (maeko & makgato, 2020); the impact of learning by doing in civil technology classroom (mokhothu, 2020) and critical thinking skills for civil technology practical assessment tasks (mtshali, 2020). these studies point to a narrow margin of issues that civil technology teachers face and amplify issues already known such as lack of financial support, fewer qualified teaching personnel and lack of hands-on practical resources. we argue that these contributions are but the tip of an iceberg and do not illustrate teachers’ ability to enhance their pedagogical capital when engaging with pat. our argument is supported by dempsey (2013) who states that there are far too many issues, such as pat, that have not been fully explored in technical education. similarly, the following section unpacks civil technology teachers’ pck. civil technology teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge tracing from its origins, pedagogical content knowledge (pck) is a specific knowledge awareness required by teachers that involves the transformation of subject matter knowledge in the context of facilitating learners’ understanding (shulman, 1986). it is about effective teacher preparation where the teacher understands teaching and how to enact it for successful transfer of the subject matter (grossman et al., 1989). of course, pck is context driven, that is, teachers need to understand their learners’ learning norms so that they employ appropriate teaching strategies to deliver the subject matter. williams and gumbo (2012) support this claim by stating that because pck differs from class to class and changes over time, teachers need to employ various strategies to suit the learning needs of individuals. also, there is evidence to point that pck is conceptualised and applied differently by scholars. for instance, neumann et al. (2019) assert that the relationship between content knowledge (ck), pedagogical knowledge (pk) and pck is central to a combination of content and pedagogical knowledge. meanwhile, chai et al. (2019) claim that teachers’ design beliefs are significant predictors of teachers’ pck. an interesting observation from greefrath et al. (2022) reveals that whatever modelling, test or other facets designed to enhance pck are redundant as they show no significant change to teachers pck. a fair assumption is that civil technology teachers have their own pck, however this may not yet have been explored. doyle et al. (2019) emphasise that technology subject teachers have different ways of treating knowledge across the subject disciplines. the high dependence 5 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 on tacit knowledge when teaching the subject technology makes pck a unique practice. a contention by gumbo (2020) is that technology’s pck is reliant on the design process, as content and pedagogy. on the other hand, jones and moreland (2004) hint to us on strategies that can be used to enhance technology teachers pck. they include: • “reflecting on classroom practice, • using a planning framework, • negotiating interventions in the classroom, • involvement in workshops, • providing classroom support, • involvement in teacher agreement meetings, • using learner portfolios and, • summative profiling.” (p. 126) in thinking about these strategies and the way in which pat has been taught, one is of the view that, little attention has been given in bringing civil technology teachers pck into existing literature. in the process of discovering civil technology teachers’ pck, jo and bednarz (2014) state that researchers should not neglect the four dimensions of teacher professional development dimensions which include development objective, development method, development content and development history. however, we argue that these dimensions are already incorporated by shulman’s pck from which jo and bednarz (2014) draw their dimensions. shulman (1987) submits the following knowledge basis as essential when exploring teachers pck, which include knowledge of content, pedagogical knowledge, curriculum knowledge, knowledge of learners and their characteristics, knowledge of educational context and knowledge of educational history and philosophy (shulman, 1987). a correlation can be drawn between teachers’ pck and skills development. part of the requirement for civil technology is to have a teacher who demonstrates understanding of the built environment (dbe, 2011). this means that besides knowing how to teach, civil technology’s teachers’ way of teaching should also be guided by the way in which skills are developed and enhanced. for instance, how a teacher teaches civil technology, should reflect habitual activities in the civil engineering industry. the design of activities, the interactions with learners and resources should become the essence of civil technology teachers’ pck. haug and mork (2021) subscribe to the idea that a 21st century classroom should become a mini-industry where unskilled and semi-skilled personnel learn and improve their skills. this study comes at a point where vocational skills are in high demand and teachers are expected to contribute to producing skilled individuals. industries are looking at technical and vocational institutions to produce skilled individuals for them (buthelezi, 2018). also, communities are expecting to benefit from the vocational skills training happening around them (spinuzzi et al., 2019). the current curriculum assessment policy statement allows this to 6 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 happen at the cost of the teacher. accordingly, we argue that such a teacher must demonstrate pedagogical capital. this means that a teacher should know content, how to teach it and link it with industrial and community needs. however, gumbo (2020) argues that technology teachers have not been adequately trained to teach pat as a strategy for skills transfer. clearly, there are loopholes in technology teachers pck and studies pertaining to this have been inconclusive especially in the context of civil technology. it is for this reason that this study aims to provide guidance and create awareness of how civil technology teachers can enhance their pedagogical capital when engaged with pat. to reiterate, teachers should bear in mind that civil technology was designed to be responsive to this fast-changing industrial environment through the pat approach (maeko & makgato, 2020). thus, below we discuss why civil technology teachers should enact pat. also, this topic will assist this study to ascertain what the current discussions and debates on civil technology teachers’ autonomy to design pat are, how they enact it and why they enact it in that way. why should civil technology teachers enact pat? apart from complying with normal progression standards and imparting knowledge and skills, pat gives an opportunity for learners to understand the working environment outside school premises (dbe, 2011). it prepares learners to have basic understanding on why the built environment is operating the way it does and what has been its role in former and future industrial revolutions. careful planning, teaching and assessment should be done by teachers as they feed to industries that are not involved in pat design in schools. ayentimi et al. (2018) postulate that schools, tvet colleges and universities have not made visible efforts to involve industries in designing hands-on practical skills activities for their leaners. consequently, teachers equip learners with skills mismatching those expected by industries (nwosu et al. 2023; yamada & otchia, 2020). there have been debates of whether pat assists learners to transition into sub engineers, artisans etc. according to baum and krulwich (2016) practical activities are set out to ensure learners receive similar training to that of artisans. supporting this claim is fiebrink (2019) who posits that these practical activities assist learners to know how machines operate and how they can fix them should the need arise. it is for this reason why teachers need to plan, teach, and assess the practical assessment task to prepare learners for occupation opportunities. the model of pat continues to be carried through design process in technology subjects. a design process usually consists of systematic steps that architects, designers, engineers, or artisans follow to solve technological problems in an authentic way (dbe, 2011; kola, 2016). however, in a recent approach, teachers do not necessarily need to cover all technological processes, rather to focus on procedural knowledge to perform a specific skill. this requires teachers to carefully plan and indicate the procedures they will follow to complete those simulations. this study wants to explore how these teachers plan for such simulations. 7 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 methodology the purpose of this conceptual research was to provide guidance and create awareness on how civil technology teachers’ can enhance their pedagogical capital when engaged with pat, via a review of related literature. the review was limited to peer reviewed journal articles that focused on practice and pedagogies used by teachers of technical subjects. the following search engines were used to access the relevant articles hotbot, google, bing and various institutional repository libraries. key terms or phrases used to select article, which are available in a public domain, were pedagogy, pedagogical capital, teaching strategies, practical tasks, teacher agency and technical subjects. thus, purposive sampling was used in the selection of articles to be reviewed. a total of 52 articles, book chapters and theses were sampled. these scholarly works were downloaded, numbered and filed in an electronic folder. the articles were subjected to content analysis. the articles were read and re-read before coding could begin to assist teachers in maximising their pedagogical capital to cope with the recent curriculum change. this study found that indeed there are far too many requirements for civil technology teachers to accomplish before their learners can be adequately equipped with hands-on skills, global models to enhance the teaching and learning phenomena of civil technology there have been several theories and models that seek to assist technical teachers to capacitate learners with hands-on skills necessary for employment. the application of these theories has been globally considered relevant in enhancing technical teachers’ pedagogy and helpful in understanding the teaching and learning phenomenon of civil technology. for instance, newson and delatte (2011) presented a case-based teaching model because civil technology is heavily reliant on deductive instruction and that it is one of the most efficient forms of learning of civil concepts. newson et al. further state that the benefits of using this strategy are improved retention of knowledge, improved conceptual reasoning, analytical skills and the development of higher-order skills amongst others. also, durkheim’s (1898) functionalist theory has been widely used to address education of social impact, thus discussed below: functionalist theory the founder of this theory durkheim (1898) suggests that education is a vehicle for social change, where education institutions are perceived as agents for socialisation and whose function are intended to prepare young people for adult economic roles (durkheim, 1898). the relevance of this theory in civil technology is its emphasis on teaching for social change, whereby civil technology sought to equip learners with competitive industrial skills so they may become active socio-economic citizens. durkheim also contends that education is underpinned by three roles, namely socialisation, skills provision and role allocation, thus discussed below: socialisation this is where education helps to maintain society by socialising young people in to key cultural values, such as achievement, individualism, equality of opportunity, social solidarity and 8 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 democracy. through respect of school rules, teachers’ instruction and authority prepares learners to respect societal hierarchy with its rules and laws. skills provision this is where education teaches the skills required by a modern industrial society. these may be general skills that everyone needs such as literacy and numeracy or the specific skills needed for particular occupations. durkheim suggests that the schools’ function is to place people to do work according to their abilities. he further argues that society cannot function well if people were not doing different jobs according to their talents. role allocation this is where education allocates people to the most appropriate jobs for their talents using examination and qualifications. schools classify learners according to their abilities to avoid stifling learners’ interests. identifying learners’ orientation and talents enables them to follow their passion and promoting excellence in areas of their ability. whilst this theory guides how teachers could make learners effective in hands-on activities, it fails to clarify how civil technology teachers can evoke their pedagogical capital to provide learners with equality of opportunities when there is no training equipment. this study argues that this theory is unable to completely explain society hence some areas of society remain mysterious to social norms. as a result, it could also fail to clarify how learners can learn about modern skills when they are not even exposed to industries that embrace modern skills. this theory could also fail to unpack how role allocation could be implemented by teachers without training learners with hands-on skills that are no-longer marketable. to this end, we believe that in a situation like south african technical schools, there needs to be a model that will assist teachers in how they need to improve their teaching and skilling techniques firstly other than blaming unavailability of training equipment and management. this is because mtshali et al. (2018) argue that there are many technical schools that are well equipped and sponsored with skills equipment yet they produce poorlyskilled learners with good marks. kolb’s learning theory it is interesting that maeko (2020) used kolb’s (1984) experiential learning theory (elt) theory to understand teaching and learning through hands-on activities in civil technology. maeko (2020) states that kolb’s elt allows teachers to pay attention to concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation. besides, kolb's (1984) learning styles inventory model and experiential learning theory provides a holistic model of how people learn, grow, and develop. kolb (1984) developed a model for ‘experiential learning’ which could have a profound effect on work in the workplace when correctly applied. kolb believes that learning is recurring and involves both practical and reflection where people do not learn by experience alone, but also by reflecting on what was experienced. he is also of the opinion that learning takes place by learners who are given opportunities to acquire and apply 9 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 knowledge and skills. it also provides fundamental concepts towards the understanding and explanation of human learning behaviour and how they learn through action. kolb learning styles: • diverging (feeling and watching ce/ro): these learners are those who can look at things from different perspectives and are sensitive. they prefer to watch rather than do, tending to gather information and use imagination to solve problems. they are best at viewing concrete situations from several different viewpoints. • assimilating (watching and thinking ac/ro): the assimilating learning preference is for a concise, logical approach. ideas and concepts are more important than people. these people require good clear explanation rather than practical opportunity. they excel at understanding wide-ranging information and organising it in a clear logical format. • converging (doing and thinking ac/ae): people with a converging learning style can solve problems and will use their learning to find solutions to practical issues. they prefer technical tasks and are less concerned with people and interpersonal aspects. • accommodating (doing and feeling ce/ae): the accommodating learning style is 'hands-on' and relies on intuition rather than logic. these people use other people's analysis, and prefer to take a practical, experiential approach. figure 1. kolb’s (1984) learning styles 10 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 in critique of this theory, this study notes that this theory could not effectively assist teachers to enhance pedagogical capital and that it assumes that it does not assist in unpacking elements of reflection (nkwanyane et al., 2022). all technical subject learners should learn through action and so, it will fail to account for situations where some members in groups are not active participants during hands-on practical lessons. given the nature of civil technology pat, it focuses on how learners learn and acquire skills but does not look at whether those skills are contemporary which lead to 4ir skills emancipation. to this end, this theory does not cover issues around industry orientated learning. activity theory even though activity theory was grounded by vygotsky and his students such as leontiev, in the 1920s, engeström (1987) popularised this theory by using the concept of a “collective activity system”, expressing elements such as subject, object, tools, rules, division of labour and community. this model is about “who is doing what, why and how” to understand how a wide range of factors work together to impact an activity. figure 2. activity theoretical approach (engeström, 1987) 11 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 in the above model, engeström (1987; 2001) details the existing relations of elements of the activity triangle. his argument is that community and subject are facilitated by the rules shaping the community and the object is facilitated by the division of labour practice among members of the community. he further explains the activity triangle elements in the following way. subjects for clarification, engeström (1987; 2001) stresses a need to know who are involved in a common goal and carrying out this activity. it is important to understand that whoever is involved in various activities, all bring previous experiences to the activity at hand, so it is important to discuss and know who is more relevant in tasks. object even though it is difficult to explain the concept of object in activity theory research, engeström (1987) believes that it should be perceived as both the purpose of the activity and as a developmental object. object can provide clarity on the need for the object to exist. tools tools are central to carry out an activity which depends on the subject to which the model requires. so, engeström (1987) advises people who are engaged in the activity theory model to ask themselves and understand with which tools they are going to carry out the activity. rules activity systems also have rules, they should rather not be understood as formal alone, but they are also explicit, tacit or unwritten rules that are often called habits, routines and values. the rules shape the interactions of subject and tools with the object. community and labour division according to bronkhorst (2013), “the subject is part of a larger community, which conditions all the other elements of the system. the student, lecturer and workplace supervisor are engaged in an activity of learning and they act together on an object with a common motive for students to qualify as artisans. in this activity, the community constitutes the students, lecturers and workplace supervisors, all of whom have a part to play in executing the activity” (p. 44). this model focuses on understanding everyday practice in the real world. furthermore, it emphasises that learners must learn about the rules in the classroom and must apply them in the workplace. however, this study finds this model insufficient because it lacks consideration about other factors that may influence the relationship between activity and life satisfaction such as personality traits. in this way, it will limit the understanding of pedagogical capital in civil technology pat. it also does not look at how the teacher should impart the skills that must be applied in the workplace. however, this study is of the view that this model is more relevant in studying a group that exists largely in virtual form yet goes beyond electronic expertise. 12 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 problem based learning model another globally acclaimed teaching and learning strategy in civil technology is that of problem based learning (pbl). according to savery (2015), pbl is an instructional method in which learners acquire knowledge through facilitated problem solving. complex problems are presented to learners so they may find multiple applicable solutions. this model is appreciated because of its ability to enhance critical thinking skills in learners. it may be matched with shulman’s pck as he guides teachers on knowledge planning, acquisition and delivery. we must remember that civil technology is one of the technical and vocational subjects that were developed in response to the scarce skills needed by built environment industries (mzini, 2019). it covers the preparation, design, maintenance and organisation of construction projects. such projects are concerned with the construction of buildings, airports, sport stadiums, roads, bridges and harbours (tuncay, 2020). however, due to high costs and insufficient training equipment, anindo et al. (2016) suggest that the dbe tend to focus on residential construction as it can be more cost-effective than other projects. thus, it is assumed that most public technical schools’ curricula focus more on residential building construction than on non-residential building construction. this therefore affects extensity of civil technology pedagogical capita. enhancing pedagogical capital concerning the above discussion, we conceptualise how civil technology teachers should enhance pedagogical capital when engaged with pat. we have earlier argued that pedagogical capital is foregrounded by pck. thus, it is important to take our reader step-by step on the framework we are proposing. as such, we need to start with shulman’s (1986) ideas on pedagogical content knowledge. in terms of capital, we borrow from bourdieu’s (1986) notion of social capital. cohen et al. (2018) maintain that a conceptual framework draws on theories and maps out key concepts that are intertwined with the topic, data generation method and analysis – we are aligned to this view. as stated, that there are two notions from which we draw pedagogical capital concepts. in the next section we explain how teachers should enhance pedagogical capital starting with pck. pedagogical content knowledge framework this study draws on shulman’s (1986) work on pedagogical content knowledge (pck) to explore civil technology teachers’ pedagogical capital when engaged with practical assessment tasks, to gain insights into teachers’ pedagogy. pck support teachers in transforming content knowledge into pedagogically effective forms such as knowing how to interpret content goals, how to listen and respond to learners and their questions, ability to explain clearly and to ask good questions. shulman (1986) observed that teacher education and research into teaching concentrated largely on generic pedagogical knowledge which deserted the subject matter knowledge from which teacher’s instruction is drawn. thus, he introduced subject matter knowledge, curricular 13 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 knowledge and pck as basis for teachers to master content, know how to transfer content and how it links to other contents within the same curriculum. figure 3. shulman’s (1986) pedagogical content knowledge framework upon revision, shulman (1987) expanded these categories to four more categories that constitute the knowledge base of teachers, general pedagogical knowledge, knowledge of learners, knowledge of educational context and knowledge of educational ends, purposes and values. henceforth, shulman (1987) classified seven types of knowledge bases for teachers namely: knowledge of content; general pedagogical knowledge; curriculum knowledge; pedagogical knowledge; knowledge of learners and their characteristics; knowledge of educational contexts; and knowledge of educational history and philosophy. figure 4. shulman’s (1987) pedagogical content knowledge conception content knowledge according to shulman (1987) content knowledge (ck) includes knowledge of concepts, explanations, ideas, proofs, and practical examples along with processes and models for pedagogical content knowledge subject matter knowledge curricular knowledge pck pedagogical content knowledge content knowledge curriculum knowledge pedagogical knowledge knowledge of educational contexts knowledge of the learners and their characteristics knowledge of educational history and philosophy 14 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 developing knowledge. shulman regards content knowledge as the fundamental base that a teacher must possess. therefore, teachers should use ck to understand the content that civil technology holds for the designing of the practical assessment task. this of course cannot be separated from how the teacher present it to learners since ck is conceived as an element of pck. pedagogical knowledge pedagogical knowledge (pk) refers to teachers’ unfathomable knowledge about practices and methods of teaching and learning including how learners learn, classroom management skills, planning of lessons and learner assessment (koehler & mishra, 2009). teachers should use pk to discover knowledge on how they view their autonomy to plan, teach and assess civil technology pat. curriculum knowledge curriculum knowledge refers to the demonstration of an understanding of the curriculum, subject content, pedagogical knowledge, and the developmental needs of learners by providing relevant learning experiences (shulman, 1987). teachers should use professional knowledge to understand their perspectives on their autonomy to plan, teach and assess pat. this will include teacher’s understanding of the way pat topics are arranged and organised; linkage of the pat to the subject theoretical contents; use of appropriate teaching strategy to explain the pat contents and how the teacher links this to lived experiences. pedagogical content knowledge shulman (1987) identified pedagogical content knowledge (pck) as one of the knowledge domains important for teachers. pck is described as knowing what makes learning specific topics simpler or more difficult. it is also the knowledge that includes both subject matter and pedagogical expertise (shulman, 1987). pck is defined as the type of knowledge required of teachers to teach the subject, understand learners' methods of thinking, recognize learner errors and their sources plus express specific themes in several ways (shulman, 1986). pck entails offering learners tasks, using their existing ideas and prior knowledge, and providing suitable instructional support and guidance in the form of explanations, analogies, illustrations, and examples to help them grasp the topic. as a result, pck is to be used to investigate how civil technology teachers enact their pedagogical capital when they engage with pat. knowledge of the learners and their characteristics the knowledge of the learners and their characteristics talks about the teacher's understanding of possible learners' ideas of the issue (shulman, 1987). this is done to develop explanations that would either dispute or confirm preconceived notions. this knowledge includes teachers knowing the importance of acquiring core topic concepts and identifying the need-to-know approaches for assessing learners' comprehension. this study will use this category to learn why they enact their pedagogical capital the way they do. 15 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 knowledge of educational context according to shulman (1987) knowledge of educational context refers to the broadest sense knowledge of all settings where learning takes place. it includes everything from an awareness of instructional situations to class and group social dynamics to broader aspects of school and community culture. this domain emphasizes the use of educational resources to instruction. hence, teachers should use this domain to assess how the civil technology practical assessment task is aligned with the contextual needs of the community. knowledge of educational history and philosophy the knowledge of educational history and philosophy guides teachers to understand their learners’ reasoning and way of doing things. this knowledge informs teachers exactly how they present themselves, and how instructions and resources are carried-out to develop learners (krinn, 2011). to the great advantage of this study, this component should be used to determine how much civil technology teachers and learners know about why autonomy to design pat was given to them. to reiterate, pck is used to explore the curricular saliency that civil technology teachers possess in terms of knowing content and how to teach it. however, the aspects lacking in the pck model is the sociocultural aspects associated with teaching (in this instance technology teachers’ professional needs and reflection on their autonomy to design pat). in other words, shulman’s pck fails to “appreciate the interaction between people’s values and attitudes, technology, society and the environment.” [department of basic education (dbe), 2011:8]. bourdieu’s (1986) concept of social capital, therefore, becomes a valuable inclusion in this study’s conceptual framework. social capital while bourdieu (1986) contends that social relationships are resources that can lead to the development and accumulation of human capital, it is worth noting that social capital is not readily or automatically available to individuals or members of a group. instead, social capital is acquired by individuals or members of a group who make the effort to advance themselves, achieve positions of power and status by developing goodwill (bourdieu, 1986). simply put this means, social capital is an amalgam of the resources, networked relationships (personal and professional), influence, opportunities (or lack thereof), recognition and power that an individual has via social, economic or cultural structures. for bourdieu, social capital is intrinsically connected to cultural capital, economic capital and symbolic capital as depicted in figure 5 below. 16 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 figure 5. components of social capital (bourdieu, 1986) each component of social capital is discussed next. economic capital according to bourdieu (1986) economic capital refers to a measure of how much money a person or family has. it stems from the notion that when a person’s economic capital goes up, more opportunities open for them because they can afford them. cultural capital it is composed of social assets like knowledge acquisition, physical appearance, automaticity, and competence. this capital is dependent on money as it can buy a head start on developing certain skills (bourdieu, 1986). symbolic capital the roots of this capital can be drawn from that of social capital. this is because symbolic capital is a denotation of power of the dominant class, and it is instrumentalized for the legitimization of power (bourdieu, 1986). judging from the above concepts, bourdieu (1986) succeeded in grounding his theoretical contribution into a real-life context. however, the explanations on the forms of capital are based on sociology and would need further contributions to transfer them into education studies. claridge (2018) supports this view by stating that social capital theory can be used beyond the ambits of sociology if the “capital” concept is understood. pedagogical capital model based on the above, this study then used the term “capital” in the context of teachers using their lived experiences, connections, and resources to influence their pedagogy regarding practical assessment tasks. as indicated earlier, this study stems from the dbe’s proclamation that civil technology teachers now have the autonomy to design pat. we regard that as being given “capital” to influence pedagogy pertaining to pat. for this study we espouse the idea of capital as depicted in figure 6 below. social capital cultural capital symbolic capital economic capital https://www.cram.com/subjects/cultural-capital 17 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 figure 6. components of civil technology teachers’ capital we envisage civil technology teachers’ pedagogical capital as teachers’ ability to use their pck for learners’ conceptual understanding and the grasp of hands-on skills as well as the capital (depicted in figure 6) they bring with them into their teaching. teachers’ capital will include their associations or networks in professional learning communities, social cultural experiences of teaching technology, professional development needs and technological awareness that directly influence subject matter knowledge and reasons for pedagogical choices. we have thus created a conceptual framework to explore civil technology teachers’ pedagogical capital when engaged with practical assessment tasks as shown in figure 7 below. figure 7. pedagogical capital model capital teacher professional development teacher socio-cultural experiences professional learning communities technological awareness 18 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 1-22 the abovementioned concepts are fundamental to understanding how civil technology teachers should actualise their autonomy to design and enact practical assessment tasks. gumbo (2020) opines that technology teachers need to be taught how to teach pat. similarly, ward and van der mars (2020) posit that teachers should always be current with the subjects’ specialism and approaches to teaching and learning via teacher professional development. we argue that teacher’s professional development sculpts teachers’ pedagogical capital and impacts how they engage with pat. furthermore, the association, networks and professional learning communities’ teachers learn from and with each other and focus on the implementation of new ideas and practices is an invaluable part of their pedagogical capital. this study uses this concept to understand how civil technology teachers should use their autonomy designing pat that responds to technological problems facing their communities. central to teaching pat in civil technology is the use of resources. makhubele and simelane-mnisi (2020) advise that technology teachers should be aware of educational technologies (technological awareness) that can benefit them during instructional delivery. thus, the concept of technological awareness is important in this study which focuses on how and why civil technology teachers enact their pedagogical capital the way they do when they engaged with pat. vygotsky (1987) emphasised that teachers experiences shape how they teach as this study seeks to explore why civil technology teachers enact their capital the way they do when engaging with pat. it is quintessential for it to be included in the professional capital model. conclusion as indicated earlier, the purpose of this study was to provide guidance and create awareness on how civil technology teachers can enhance their pedagogical capital when engaged with pat. a framework was proposed to assist teachers as per conclusion that civil technology is a skillrich subject, and teachers should understand how to prepare learners with contemporary industrial skills. also, teachers need to stay intact with their pedagogical capabilities and the dbe should play its role in increasing the number of subject advisors. there are shortages in training resources in schools, however, the correct conception of pedagogical capital can maximise teachers’ creative abilities and the art of compromise. with the shortage of subject advisors in schools, this study assists teachers to self-develop and understand where pedagogical improvements need urgent attention. we recommend that mechanical, electrical and engineering graphics and design teachers in schools, tvet colleges and universities buy into this ground-breaking guide. limitations of the study this study was limited to peer 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(2020). perception gaps on employable skills between technical and vocational education and training (tvet) teachers and students: the case of the garment sector in ethiopia. higher education, skills and work-based learning, 11(1), 199-213. https://doi.org/10.1108/heswbl-08-2019-0105 https://doi.org/10.1108/heswbl-08-2019-0105 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 june 2020 volume: 2 issue: 1 pp. 39-54 “he’s on fire for justice!”: using critical conversations to explore sociopolitical topics in elementary classrooms laura darolia* * university of kentucky, lexington, kentucky, usa. e-mail: laura.darolia@uky.edu article info received: april 17, 2020 revised: may 13, 2020 accepted: may 16, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0) how to cite darolia, l. (2020). “he’s on fire for justice!”: using critical conversations to explore sociopolitical topics in elementary classrooms. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(1), 39-54. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.3 abstract despite the dominant discourse that childhood is a time of innocence, elementary students (kindergarten through fifth grade) notice the world around them, witness and experience injustice and deserve to explore “controversial issues” in their classrooms. this article introduces readers to olivia and her second grade students. olivia wanted to create what she called a “social justice classroom” and made intentional curricular moves in order to bring this vision to life. primarily, she implemented “social justice read aloud time” and read and discussed thoughtfully chosen trade books on “controversial issues” every friday afternoon. students were highly engaged in these read alouds and developed understandings and insights well beyond academic content standards. olivia’s approach to teaching aligned with critical literacy, a pedagogical framework that values multiple perspectives, brings sociopolitical topics into the classroom, disrupts the status quo, and moves toward social action and the inquiry design model of social studies education. using this interdisciplinary lens, empirical examples of the purposeful exploration of “controversial issues” in a second grade classroom are discussed. through olivia’s voice, along with the voices of her students, description of the learning that happened in this social justice classroom is offered as evidence that teaching controversial issues in elementary classrooms has repercussions far beyond school walls. implications for both practicing teachers and teacher educators are discussed. keywords education; curriculum studies; social justice; controversial issues. 10.46303/jcsr.02.01.3 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.3 40 introduction we are in the midst of a global pandemic. coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) has grabbed the world by the throat, holding hostage the simple motions of going to a place (e.g., office, campus, restaurant, concert, hotel, school, a family member’s house) to do a thing (e.g., learn, socialize, eat, make a living, enjoy, embrace). we are in the early days of this crisis and, while much remains unknown, it is clear the effects will be devastating to the global economy, the health care industry, local businesses, and tens of thousands of families who will lose their livelihoods and their loved ones. while there is admittedly very little we can control, in times like these, when much of what we know is rattled and fear is ever-present, we do have choices in how we confront the situation, what we bring to it, and what we make of it. if the initial wave of the covid-19 pandemic has revealed anything, it’s that the world is small, we are all connected, and we all have a responsibility to care for each other. this is evident through the imperative to socially distance, to check in on elderly neighbors, to patronize local businesses, and to simply be kind and gracious to all as we navigate this new normal together. beyond altruistic gestures, however, this moment in history provides unequivocal evidence of the inequities that plague our society. for example, covid-19 is impacting minority and low-income communities, including native americans at alarming rates (mineo, 2020). structural inequities that have held black people in working class jobs while denying them adequate healthcare are exacerbating the effects of covid-19 on black communities (ray, 2020). we look around and realize we are all just trying to survive this pandemic, but is clear the systems we have in place grossly disadvantage certain groups. this provides an opportunity to sharpen our collective focus and efforts around equity and justice. when schools open again and elementary students gather in their classrooms, teachers and children will need to process what just happened, how we responded, and how we will all move forward in building a more just society. this creates authentic pedagogical space for critical conversations. critical conversations critical conversations can happen when a classroom environment is built around a culture of meaningful talk. in such settings, students learn to listen to and consider multiple perspectives; they feel comfortable trying out new ideas and even changing their minds (pierce & gilles, 2008) students care about each other, and as a result, they want to hear their friends’ thoughts and then feel confident challenging them. during critical conversations, students grapple with big ideas. they critique the world around them, build on each other’s thinking, and imagine new possibilities (pierce & gilles, 2008). through critical conversations, students are able to question why society is organized in the ways it is and engage others in joining them to make change (pierce & gilles, 2008). ultimately, students make meaning together though discussion. 41 engaging in the meaningful talk of a critical conversation is a crucial skill for children to begin to develop at young ages. while the dominant discourse about childhood is that it is a time of innocence (macnaughton, 2000), elementary students (kindergarten through fifth grade) notice the world around them, witness and experience injustice, and deserve to explore “controversial issues.” these issues can be topics like race and sexuality that elicit strong feelings and ideological stances and often lead to disagreement (kuby, 2013; vasquez, 2015). these kinds of issues are laced with unequal power relations and historical oppression and ignite debate about how we should all live together. if there is ever a time to dig into the idea of how we, on the global, national, state, and local levels should get along, it is once we reunite after a pandemic-driven quarantine. there are many compelling questions to ask, such as:  what does it mean to be a good citizen?  why is it wrong to call covid-19 the chinese virus?  who wins/loses during a pandemic?  what does the covid-19 response say about america? (c3 teachers, 2020, pp. 1-4) these questions can be used to stimulate discussion and help students make sense of this moment in history. these particular conversations are yet to be had, as we are living in unprecedented times, but young children deserve to be engaged in critical conversations around issues that impact them. children and “controversial” issues race and sexuality, power-laden and important sociopolitical topics and often costly aspects of identity, have been explored with young children in elementary schools. despite the fact that teachers tend to be uncomfortable bringing such topics into the classroom (bolgatz, 2006), elementary students live with experiences of both, whether explicitly discussed or not. children as young as three years old are already crafting understandings of race (lee, ramsey, & sweeney, 2008). creating space in the classroom to intentionally talk about race strengthens students’ critical thinking skills and expands their intellectual capacities (bolgatz, 2006). while many teachers choose to adopt the “colorblind stance” in a well-intended effort to prioritize equality, children notice who is different from them, what the differences are, and what those differences mean (boutte, robertson, & powers-costello, 2011). when families also adopt this stance, students are left to create their own assumptions and understandings (darolia, 2019). outside of classroom and family dynamics, society remains divided over how to live together within and among our differences. notably, up until 2019, there had been a steady rise in the number of hate groups in the united states identified by the southern poverty law center, an organization dedicated to monitoring extremist groups and organizing against hate and bigotry. 42 table 1: hate groups in the united states hate groups in the united states monitored by the splc year number of hate groups change over time 2015 892 2016 917 +25 2017 954 +37 2018 1020 +66 2019 940 -80 note: this chart was created with data from the southern poverty law center at https://www.splcenter.org/hate-map 2018 was a particularly poignant year, as the number of monitored hate groups rose by 66. in the same year, the federal bureau of investigation (fbi) noted an increase in violent hate crimes (triesman, 2019). while admittedly imperfect data, due to different reporting practices across states, the take away is that people felt empowered within the political climate to use violence against marginalized communities. according to the fbi report, in 2018 hate crimes against latinx, gay, asian, disabled, transgender, and sikh communities increased, while african americans remained the most frequent targets of racially motivated hate crime. it does not help that president donald trump has voiced little to no opposition to racial hate, notably calling white supremacists at a rally in charleston, south carolina “very fine people” (gray, 2017) and referring to covid-19 as a “chinese virus” (riechmann & tang, 2020). this rhetoric stokes xenophobia within our own country, as evidenced by an increase in attacks on asian americans (tavernise & oppel jr., 2020). students come from families with varying ideologies. they hear messages at home and absorb messages from different forms of media. further, young children witness, experience, and think about injustice (kuby, 2013). without a space to unpack and make sense of inequity, they are left to manufacture their own understandings. children need to learn how to analyze sources, use facts and science to make informed decisions and then logically reason them. they need the space to trouble what they know, to listen to different perspectives and to learn to exercise empathy. one way to start them on this journey is to facilitate critical conversations in elementary school classrooms. critical conversations in elementary classrooms one use of critical conversations in elementary schools is as an avenue for exploring the experiences of marginalized communities. take for example, using lgtbq-inclusive curricula to invite elementary students into conversation. hartman (2018) and van horn (2015) engaged in critical conversations with second graders around gender and sexual identity, using children’s literature as an entry point. as a result, students came to new understandings about who can 43 get married. blackmon, darolia, and oliva (2014) detail how when a first grade class chose to advocate for their male classmate who liked to wear dresses, some parents were proud, while others angrily protested. the school community was rattled, but adults and children bravely engaged in critical conversations about inclusivity. in doing so, many were challenged to consider the often marginalized perspective of a person who does not conform to gender norms. after engaging in this work, the parental complaints quieted and the student continued to proudly wear pink and sparkles. parental resistance to engaging young children in critical conversations about sociopolitical topics like gender identity and sexuality is a tangible fear of many teachers (surette, 2019). hermann-wilmarth and ryan (2019) argue that being confident in the academic reasoning for all curricular decisions and never allowing the resistance of one family to impact the whole class are ways to negotiate parental concerns. students tend to be interested in sociopolitical issues despite parents’ opposition (darolia, 2019). critical conversations can also be spaces for unpacking contentious current events. after the 2016 presidential election in the united states, instead of ignoring the tension in the room, a fifth grade teacher facilitated class discussion around it. based on observations over time in this justice-oriented teacher’s classroom, payne and journell (2019) identified three moves elementary teachers can make to effectively guide students through controversial political discussions: 1) maintaining strong and personally affirming relationships; 2) allowing students’ the freedom to bring up topics, while using structure to guide discussions; and 3) including current events as valid curricular material. in a similar effort to structure critical conversations, boutte and muller (2018) use the dimensions of oppression to gain an understanding of social and political power. in doing so, students can better identify and discuss the themes of 1) conquest; 2) divide and rule; 3) manipulation; and 4) cultural invasion found in purposefully chosen read aloud books (boutte & muller, 2018). what follows is a snapshot of a second grade classroom where students engaged in critical conversations. the teacher, olivia (all names are pseudonyms) declared she wanted to have a “social justice classroom.” wanting to create a pedagogical space guided by equity and justice, she implemented “social justice read aloud time” where she used purposefully chosen children’s literature as entry points to discussion on sociopolitical issues like race and identity. wanting her curricular materials to be both windows into different perspectives and ways of being and mirrors where students see themselves reflected (bishop, 1990), olivia selected high quality picture books to engage her students. olivia understood the moral and ethical imperative of engaging students in critical conversations around issues that matter to them. i describe how the tenets of critical literacy and the inquiry design model from the college, career, and civic life (c3) framework for social studies (swan, lee, & grant, 2015) supported her work. 44 theoretical foundation this work draws on critical frameworks (freire, 1970; vazquez, janks & comber, 2019) that illuminate the social inequities. as olivia and her students discussed read aloud texts centered on social justice, a critical lens provided insight into students’ understandings of power relations and ways to take informed action for the common good. critical literacy critical literacy is a pedagogical framework that considers multiple perspectives, interrupts the status quo, brings sociopolitical topics into the classroom, and moves toward social action (lewison, flint, & van sluys, 2002). critical literacy focuses on how texts of all kinds position readers and demands that we consider our sources of information asking questions such as, what is the author’s purpose? why is it like this? is this fair? whose voice is missing? this lens is influenced by freire, who looked specifically to education as a perpetuator of the status quo. freire (1970/2000) describes the “banking” model of education as teachers treating students as receptacles into which they deposit knowledge. this classroom approach creates wide boundaries between teacher and student. freire (1970/2000) believes that when students are confronted with issues that relate to themselves and their worlds, they will be motivated to respond. as such, students must certainly be taught to decode words and images, but must also learn to interpret the social contexts around them (freire, 1970/2000). bringing a critical perspective to teaching means that pedagogical decisions are made in large part based on the resources, passions, and cognitive dissonance of the students in an effort to expose inequities; to examine the relationship between language and power; to understand that texts of all kinds position readers; and to work toward social justice (vasquez, janks, & comber, 2019). as such, critical literacy is not scripted teaching. literacy can be understood as a critical social practice, which implies that it is defined by power relations that are unequal and ideological (luke & freebody, 1999). people hold a multitude of literate identities that are shaped by life experiences. luke and freebody (1999) outline the range of practices readers use in their four resources model. the practices are: 1) code breaker (decoding), 2) text participant (comprehension), 3) text user (communication), and 4) text analyst. when analyzing texts, readers consider how those texts are designed to position them in particular ways. this fourth practice aligns with critical literacy. janks (2010), in her intersecting model of power, access, diversity, and design (2010) discusses the importance of textual redesign. it is not enough to critique texts of all kinds (i.e., books, advertisements, images, social media), students must take the next step to redesign them to be more equitable. in doing so, they resist the pull of apathy and become active agents of change. 45 inquiry design model these literacy-forward theories work in concert with social studies curricular pathways. the college, career, and civic life (c3) framework for social studies state standards is rooted in the idea that high quality social studies education is centered on inquiry and prepares students to be informed, critical, and productive members of society (ncss, 2013). this resource supports states in enriching their social studies standards and is organized into four dimensions: 1) developing questions and planning inquiries; 2) applying disciplinary tools and concepts; 3) evaluating sources and using evidence; and 4) communicating conclusions and taking informed action. to bring this framework to life in k-12 classrooms, the inquiry design model (idm) is a blueprint teacher can use to create social studies inquiries (swan, lee & grant, 2015). creating compelling and supporting questions, assigning tasks based on analyzing a variety of sources, and ultimately taking informed action based on what is learned align with critical literacy practices (janks, 2010; lewison, flint, & van sluys, 2002; vasquez, 2004). using the idm (swan, lee, & grant, 2015) and critical literacy as the foundation of this study, these pedagogical frameworks illuminate how to enact the moral and ethical imperative of critical conversations. see table 2 for a comparison of critical literacy and the idm. table 2: a comparison of critical literacy and the idm tenets of critical literacy (lewison, flint, & van sluys, 2002) inquiry design model (idm) (swan, lee, & grant, 2015) welcome sociopolitical issues in the classroom  “can i change it; can i take a different position on these things; can i look at the world differently?” (comber & nixon, 1999, p. 340) compelling & supporting questions  intellectually demanding and personally meaningful drivers of inquiry value multiple perspectives  open-ended inquiries  create counter narratives  consider contradictory perspectives sources  provide content  ignite interest  expand knowledge  offer evidence for arguments interrupt the status quo  analyze how people are positioned by texts of all kinds (janks, 2010; vazquez, 2004) summative and formative tasks  engage with content and skills to draft an evidence-based argument taking action to promote social justice  use language to question, critique, and redesign oppressive practices  engage in praxis –reflection and action – to change the world (freire, 1970/2000) taking informed action  knowledge-based civic engagement 46 methodology olivia is in the midst of her third year of teaching in a title 1 school in a midsized, midwestern u.s. college town. as a black woman, she remembers being a child who did not see herself reflected in the curricular materials her elementary school teachers used. she is committed to ensuring all of her students—black, latinx, mixed race, and white from varying socioeconomic backgrounds—can connect to the stories she reads and the content she teaches. olivia and i were grade level teammates for one year. when i stepped out of the elementary school classroom and into academia, she welcomed me into her classroom to support her and learn from her teaching. the data come from a larger case study designed to answer the following research questions: how does a teacher negotiate teaching for social justice within an early childhood classroom? in the midst of this negotiation, what becomes of the teacher’s pedagogy? i sought to understand how olivia moved through or around any challenges that threatened her social justice curricular agenda (i.e., “fitting it in” with the mandated curricula, parent opposition) and also to observe how she brought her social justice classroom to life. my primary form of involvement with olivia and her students was to observe and help her think through social justice oriented lessons. from march to mid-june of 2016, i spent one morning and one afternoon in her classroom observing each week. i was a helpful observer (dyson & genishi, 2005) and offered students assistance when needed, but generally stayed quiet and off to the side. data sources include transcriptions of informal conversations and formal interviews with olivia, video recordings of social justice read alouds, my field notes, and reflective memos. during data analysis, i focused on transcripts of social justice read alouds and conversations and interviews i had with olivia. i coded for moments when talk critiqued social norms. in some instances, this was among students during a read aloud, in others it was olivia recounting discussions in the classroom to me and reflecting on them. i used nvivo coding to maintain fidelity to participants’ words. findings the engagement of students in the content and discussion around social justice issues demonstrates how young children hold onto ideas and questions about equity and apply them to their own worlds through critical conversations. below, you meet sam, willow, andre, and maya, who did just that. while the excerpts unpacked below are not extended exchanges, they demonstrate meaningful talk: moments when students shared their insights about sociopolitical topics and demonstrated the kind of learning elementary-aged children can do when given the space. 47 sam: “he’s on fire for justice!” after reading books about different races, olivia chose texts about segregation, including, separate is never equal (tonatiuh, 2014) and freedom on the menu (weatherford, 2005). these stories introduced the historical context of the civil rights movement to students. sam, a white child, took issue with the legal separation of races. olivia explains: the good thing: if you listen to my sam… he is so opinionated. he’s on fire for justice! the way he says it, ‘who would think that way? i don’t understand who decided black people and white people can’t work together. that’s just the dumbest thing i’ve ever heard!’ and we read freedom on the menu, and at the very end they talked about how black people weren’t allowed to be at the restaurant, but they were cooks. and he said, ‘how stupid is that? they can’t serve black people but they can eat the food that they cook?’ and i’m thinking, ‘well, yeah! it’s just absurd!’ and he’s like, ‘i don’t understand it.’ sam, a white student, experienced strong instances of cognitive dissonance when engaging with texts around race relations. he simply could not make sense of the prejudice and bias that led to the harsh tactics of discrimination. he often raised his hand to vocalize his stance with emphasis and energy. interacting with the characters and plots of these books produced in him a staunch sense of right and wrong, of what was fair and unfair. in this instance, sam is doing the work of both social studies and critical literacy. he’s using a source, the read aloud, to build an argument, using language to critique a social norm by responding to the compelling question, “why is it like this?” sam spends time and effort in his classroom developing his understandings of equity and justice through reading and discussion. in doing so, he is critically thinking and analyzing social situations – why is it okay to eat food black people made, but not serve them? he is also building empathy for people treated unjustly. andre and willow, who we meet next, transfer their learning to life outside of the classroom. andre and willow: “they asked questions every single day” aside from the initial impact of hearing a story, looking at the illustrations, and engaging in discussion, the books about issues of equity olivia read left a lasting impression on two students in particular. they connected the topics in books to their own lives. at the end of the school year, olivia reflected on social justice read aloud time and its impact on these two children: andre and willow kind of stick out. it [the lens of equity] just didn’t stay with the social justice lesson on friday… they asked questions every single day. if they were on the playground or they watched something on tv, they would come in and want to talk more about it with the class. i just thought bringing those topics and issues [identity and race] to second graders was so powerful. i think it will be something they will carry with them and continue to wonder about throughout their educational career. 48 andre and willow internalized plots, characters, and discussions around issues of social justice and developed new lenses through which to view their worlds. ideas around equity were no longer reserved for social justice lessons, these students honed radars to detect instances of privilege and oppression in their daily lives. noticing and deliberately bringing social issues into the classroom for discussion prompted them to lead lives that question and critique the way things are. as olivia said, this was more than a discrete skill, this was a stance, a framework for understanding the world; a way of being that would likely be strengthened and utilized by these students well beyond their second grade year. when olivia described exploring sociopolitical issues with her second graders as “powerful,” she admitted that creating the space for topics, such as race, to interact with her students and their worldviews had effects. for sam, the impact came as a resolute sense of right and wrong; for willow and andre, it was a heightened awareness. during read aloud discussions, these students considered how they understood and responded to their worlds. this is what olivia wanted – for her students to internalize a sense of justice, to begin to create a social justice atmosphere where they initiated discussions about equity based on their own experiences. sam’s desire to strongly question the logic of segregation revealed his developing understanding of race relations. calling practices of segregation “stupid,” he placed judgement upon the sanctioned oppression of black people. his thinking was equity-oriented as he tried to make sense of how races could be separated at restaurants. his expression of cognitive dissonance was not lost on olivia. she referred to sam as “on fire for justice,” and admitted she agreed with his thinking. similarly, olivia’s observation that andre and willow questioned social realties every day was evidence that their understandings were also evolving. both at home and at school, andre and willow noticed instances of inequity and they talked about them. sam, andre, and willow were in the midst of creating the “social justice atmosphere” olivia sought. watching them revise and recreate their understandings of their worlds with a lens toward equity produced in olivia an excitement for social justice read aloud time and strengthened her commitment to keep it going. she reflected: i think they [social justice read alouds] are going really well. as far as just our regular conversations, i think they’re [her students] starting to understand that there’s a culture of justice, and they may not know how to express it well, but, if things are unfair or things are wrong, they can kind of point it out. i think the conversations we have are helping to give them a deeper understanding of the books that we read. i’m enjoying it. i enjoy the things they have to say. as olivia saw glimpses of a “social justice atmosphere” coming to life through critical conversations, she admitted she was having fun. she liked listening to her students’ insights and questions and she enjoyed watching that “culture of justice” emerge. this sense of enjoyment 49 often accompanies meaningful work. there was one more child in her class, for whom social justice read aloud time was especially significant. maya: “…it helps kids identify who they are” while sam, andre, and willow expanded their understandings of the world, for one student in particular, the read alouds and discussions around race had a momentous personal impact. maya is a biracial child. her biological father is black and her mother is white. at the time of this study, maya had never met or seen her biological father and only knew her white step-father as her dad. she had white siblings and her family never explicitly discussed or identified her racial background with her. as a result, maya was confused about her appearance. before attending this school, she was in a more rural part of the state and as the only person of color in her class, was subjected to ridicule. moving to a new school and into olivia’s classroom with white, mixed race, and black students was an initial step for maya coming to understand her racial identity. olivia’s curricular decisions to include read alouds and critical conversations gave maya permission to acknowledge her confusion. happy to be nappy (hooks, 1999) was particularly influential, as a classmate referred back to this read aloud to help build maya’s confidence about her appearance. at the end of the school year, olivia reflected on teaching for social justice and the impact critical conversations had on maya: laura: what do you think they [the students] are leaving with after this year where you did all these kinds of [social justice] lessons? olivia: i think the more impactful ones … [were] conversations about poverty and race. and i think they were able to look at each other differently. the incident that happened with maya and just having her coming to her own consciousness about who she is and what she looks like and the students helping her identify with, ‘your hair is this type of way so it’s a strong possibility that you’re black or biracial.’ they did it so respectfully. laura: you had that conversation? olivia: yeah. and then…jordan [a student] said, ‘you can be proud of your hair just like in our story [happy to be nappy].’ and so they’re kids, they’ll talk about each other, but they know now that certain things are not okay and how to advocate for one another, and so hopefully they don’t forget those things. laura: so did they help maya identify with her race? olivia: i think so. at the end of the school year i think she still had her issues. but i feel like she was a totally different kid from the beginning of the year, just not knowing who she was, now knowing she was biracial. i think it even helped her mom. she was able to go home and have a conversation with her mom about it. her mom felt it was powerful. she felt pretty good at the end of the school year… i think that just goes to show you how 50 important those conversations [about race] are because it helps kids identify who they are. for maya, reading books aloud about race and identity provided an entry point to explore her own. because olivia cultivated an environment of meaningful talk where it was okay to share insights and questions about such things openly and honestly, maya’s classmates were able to help her think through the uncertainty she had about her hair and her skin color. as olivia mentioned, this not only positively impacted maya, but also maya’s family who admittedly struggled with how to address maya’s racial identity with her. the books olivia read provided an entry point to discussion; maya and her mom were able to talk about her racial identity for the first time. discussion olivia used social justice read aloud time to engage in critical conversations about race and identity, asking compelling questions such as, “why is it like this?” olivia purposefully welcomed controversial topics into her classroom and facilitated discussions that led students to challenge the commonplace and make meaning together. students’ learning was personally relevant as they actively developed lenses for equity and came to new realizations about themselves and the world around them. both in-service teachers and teacher educators can learn from olivia and her students. implications for in-service teachers and teacher educators olivia’s experiences, including her childhood memories, influenced her teaching. her personal interest in current events, specifically around race relations, guided her lesson planning. through the read alouds she chose, she welcomed topics like segregation and identity into the classroom, making them worthy of discussion. she asked questions that elicited silenced perspectives and imagined more equitable social spaces. her pedagogy transcended a scripted teacher guide. olivia was resolute that the purpose of school is to provide the space for her students to explore the topics that matter to them, to question how things are, and to consider multiple perspectives. she believed that this, more than following a guide, was truly teaching. teaching is necessarily political. the decisions we make, the topics we choose to prioritize, the books we choose to read position students in particular ways and that must be acknowledged (kelly & brookes, 2009). we teach who we are and that matters. first and foremost, in order to facilitate critical conversations, teachers of any age group must scrutinize their own beliefs and biases and reflect on how they either covertly or overtly appear during instruction and interactions with students and families. like olivia, teachers must also confidently identify their purpose as educators. what kinds of experiences should students have? what academic, social, and emotional priorities should guide the work completed during school year? what role do critical conversations have in an 51 elementary school classroom? this will influence a teacher’s ability to better support the investigation of sociopolitical topics with students. this intensely personal work requires time, commitment, and a willingness to lean into discomfort. meaningful talk creating a classroom environment where talk is meaningful is key. olivia did this by building relationships with students, respecting their identities, and validating students’ experiences, insights, and questions. she also explicitly taught her students how to participate in group discussions. teaching the skills of engagement, how to listen to learn and how to respectfully disagree with or challenge a classmate’s stance are crucial skills for both children and adults to hone. practicing how to enact these moves or observing and debriefing on high quality discussions are ways to introduce students to meaningful talk. further, teachers and students can co-create a list of “talk norms” that everyone signs to solidify their commitments. once this culture of talk is created, the classroom space is better suited for critical conversations. both elementary and teacher preparation spaces should be built around the tenets of critical literacy (lewison, flint, & van sluys, 2002) and the idm (swan, grant, & lee, 2015). engage students in topics that matter to them, including those deemed “controversial.” use current events as valid curricular material and ask compelling questions. provide sources for students to analyze and teach them how to build reasoned arguments. prioritize justice and have students work to take action by redesigning texts in more equitable ways. when teacher educators structure methods classes accordingly, pre-service teachers get to experience what it feels like to learn in this way, potentially leading them to replicate the experience with their future students. we need our students to be justice-oriented combining the tenets of critical literacy (lewison, flint, & van sluys, 2002) with the idm (swan, grant, & lee, 2015) creates opportunities for teachers to use their own expertise to create standards-based, engaging, relevant, and rigorous inquiries. inquiries that will invite students – even in elementary school – to critique, analyze, and question the ways things are. students will scrutinize primary and secondary sources in order to create new understandings, take action and redesign their worlds in ways that prioritize the common good. like sam, who is “on fire for justice” or andre and willow who have new lenses through which they see the world, we need the next generation to be able to consider multiple perspectives, to understand inequity, and to reason logically and strategically to make things better. critical conversations around topics that matter allow them to learn these skills. looking around our world in the spring of 2020, covid-19 is disproportionately ravaging minority communities (hate groups are active, democrats and republicans are sharply divided 52 (newport, 2019), and civil discourse is a rarity. we need a generation of people who can actively work to understand multiple perspectives and then take informed action to redesign the inequity and strife in which we are currently seeped. olivia reminds us that school is the place to do this work. she reflects: […] you have the issues [of equity] outside of the classroom that are never addressed in the classroom and i think the classroom is the most important place to talk about these things because you go home and families have opinions and students don’t get to discuss it. there is no dialogue. no dissecting of what’s happening. it’s just what you see in the news. what do you do with that information? i imagine for some kids it so frustrating to want to talk about these things and not have a space to learn about them. let’s commit to engaging in personal reflection so we can effectively facilitate critical conversations in our educational spaces. when can be together in the same rooms again, let’s not forget what it felt like to be forced apart. we can now narrow our focus on our shared humanity. our collective efforts can combine to create a new normal that prioritizes critical thinking, multiple perspectives, analysis, and informed action. these efforts should include children and they can begin in kindergarten classrooms with critical conversations. references blackmon, l., darolia, l. h., & oliva, j. 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(2005). freedom on the menu: the greensboro sit-ins. new york, ny: penguin group journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 june 2020 volume: 2 issue: 1 pp. 16-38 examining patterns within challenged or banned primary elementary books john holden bickford1 & devanne lawson2 1. corresponding author eastern illinois university, charleston, illinois, us. e-mail: jbickford@eiu.edu 2. carl sandburg elementary school, charleston, illinois, usa. article info received: march 21, 2020 revised: april 30, 2020 accepted: may 16, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0) how to cite bickford, j. h., & lawson, d. r. (2020). examining patterns within challenged or banned primary elementary books. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(1), 1638. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.2 abstract public schools and public libraries often receive challenges— suppression or removal requests—to particular books, which can lead the book being banned. research has examined challenges to books with multicultural themes and individuals, noted that authors of color are disproportionally targeted, and recognized the remarkable number of challenges to books deemed to be classic. this qualitative content analysis research utilized both with inductive and deductive elements—open coding and axial coding—to examine challenged books intended for primary elementary students. the theoretical framework blended critical multiculturalism, gay and lesbian identity, and radical politics in children’s literature. findings included patterns based on era, frequency and location of challenge, demography of challenger, and oft-challenged themes, specifically sexuality (sexual reproduction and diverse sexualities), inappropriate humor, danger, death, racial and religious diversity, mysticism and wizardry, racially or culturally insensitive elements, concerning interpersonal dynamics, and evolution. meaning is extracted for teachers, librarians, administrators, and researchers. keywords education; curriculum studies; children’s literature; banned books; challenged books; lgbtq 10.46303/jcsr.02.01.2 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.2 17 introduction leslea newman’s (1989) heather has two mommies, in which homosexual characters first prominently appeared in american children’s literature,1 sparked affirmation and condemnation. newman’s book was not the first nor the last to be challenged as inappropriate for young children. though the process is determined locally, a challenged book is a formal attempt to remove or restrict access to a book from a library or school. a banned book results from a successful challenge, though repeated challenges do not enhance the outcome. parents, citizen groups, elected officials, and school administrators often raise concerns about teachers’ and librarians’ book selections. school boards, courts, and library committees hold official reviews to determine whether challenged books are retained within the curriculum or offered as a choice within the school or library. challenging and banning books has a chilling effect on teachers and librarians, but impacts all citizens’ constitutional liberties (doyle, 2017; scales, 2016). trade books are a common curricular resource in the elementary grades (mcmurrer, 2008). written at various reading levels, teachers can engage diverse abilities using literature with appealing narratives and interesting characters. scholars recognize problematic elements of gender (e.g., chick & corle, 2012; chick, slekar, & charles, 2010), sexuality and identity (e.g., bickford, 2018a; day, 2000), the historical accuracy and representation of particular people and eras (e.g., bickford, 2018b; connolly, 2013; schmidt, 2013), and within historical fiction (e.g., schwebel, 2011; williams, 2009). the supreme court’s texas v. johnson (1989) decision established precedence opposing censorship of curricula (goldstein, 2000). still, literature can be a battleground in schools and libraries. the office of intellectual freedom (oif) of the american library association (ala) compiles lists of challenged or banned books using news sources, court documents, and other credible contemporaneous records. oif and ala generate censorship reports. robert doyle’s (2017) banned books: defending our freedom to read and pat scales’s (2016) defending frequently challenged young adult books: a handbook for librarians and educators are two assemblages of challenged or banned books organized by year. the ala’s website reports commonly challenged books compiled by year and historically, known challenges by year and decade, by grade range, of books deemed classic by radcliffe publishing (n.d.), and of books with diverse themes and uncommon individuals. the oif and ala websites report unsettling trends. first, there is an increasing frequency of challenges to books simply having multicultural themes and individuals. diverse themes— which oif and ala articulated as people of color and of various sexualities, identities, physical 1 lgbtq characters appeared in jane severance’s (1979) when megan went away and susanne bosche’s (1981) jenny lives with eric and martin (originally, mette bor hos morten og erik), which preceded heather has two mommies. however, both severance’s and bosche’s were published by comparably obscure presses, the latter was not published in english until 1983, and neither appear to have been challenged or banned. 18 and cognitive abilities, religiosities, and localities—generate challenges. second, most challenged or banned books are disproportionally written by authors of color. diverse authors evoke challenges. third, nearly half the books radcliffe characterized as classic have been challenged. celebrated literature is not unscathed. finally, book challenges are suppression attempts, not simply concerned citizens’ worries. even failed challenges generate negative, unwanted attention that may spark teachers’ and librarians’ reluctance. a gap appears both in the research literature and within oif and ala websites. no one has examined patterns within challenged or banned books intended for the youngest readers. early childhood, in which students learn to read while exploring the world, is especially important. primary elementary students (k-2) are impressionable and, with the smallest class sizes, receive the most direct attention (mcmurrer, 2008). internationally and domestically, parents are more involved in their children’s learning in the primary grades than at any other time (cunha et al., 2015; wei et al., 2019). this article examines patterns within challenged or banned books intended for primary elementary readers. methodology the theoretical framework originated from critical multiculturalism, gay and lesbian identity, and radical politics in children’s literature. critical multiculturalism explores power and agency within racial, class, and gender contexts to enhance social, educational, and economic outcomes for all (botelho & rudman, 2009; gopalakrishnan, 2011; halpern, 2018). critical multiculturalism enabled examination of whose stories are told, challenged or banned, and ignored while recognizing the resultant privileging or marginalizing implications. the cass (1979) model of gay and lesbian identity—in which individuals progress from contemplating towards tolerating, accepting, and taking pride in an lgbtq identity—ensured intrapersonal and interpersonal considerations. integration of radical politics in children’s literature prompted consideration of the corollaries to hegemony, particularly the manifest tensions when calls for radical change confront reactionary resistance (mickenberg, 2006). the intersectional theoretical framework was appropriate considering the data pool. qualitative content analysis methods with inductive and deductive elements were employed (krippendorff, 2013). the data pool was established using doyle’s (2017) banned books, a comprehensive resource on banned or challenged books, and reports from oif, ala, and national council for teachers of english. each book’s reading level was methodologically triangulated using multiple data sources.2 all banned or challenged books intended for primary 2 data originated from advantage/tasa (touchstone applied science associates) open standard, lexile, grade level expectations, and developmental reading assessment. these leveled reading systems are each proprietary software reliant upon a distinct algorithm to determine readability and text-complexity measuring, though weighing differently, word and sentence length, the number of words, letters, syllables, and syllable density for teachers to match books appropriate to students’ ability. 19 elementary students were located (n = 59; 100%) and included (see appendix a – children’s literature). open coding and axial coding were used (krippendorff, 2013). during open coding, or inductive analysis, two researchers individually read each book and independently recorded observations. patterns and anomalies that emerged during open coding were discussed and synthesized into testable codes for axial coding. during axial coding, or deductive analysis, both researchers individually reread each book to establish the testable codes’ presence, absence, and frequency. to offer one illustrative example about how the inquiry’s focus shifted during open and axial coding, the general queries within open coding (“what are specific passages that might create controversy?”) were enhanced with specific categories (table 2) for classification purposes. as an adult writer might encode messages young readers fail to fully decode, attention was paid to how content was included. text-based observations enabled an inferential determination of authors’ likely intent and primary elementary readers’ expected interpretation. no divergent interpretations emerged during the second analysis. content analysis tool (table 1) originated from similar content analyses of children’s literature (e.g., bickford, 2018a, 2018b; chick et al., 2010; day, 2000). table 1: content analysis tool 1. what year was the book first challenged or banned? 2. what is the targeted age-range? 3. what are the book’s major themes? 4. what are specific passages that might create controversy? how many passages might elicit challenges? 5. has this book won any awards? 6. how is socioeconomic status represented in the book? 7. are diverse races and ethnicities represented in this book? if so, how? 8. what religions and cultures are portrayed? how are they portrayed? 9. has this book been challenged/banned repeatedly? 10. where has this book been challenged or banned? 11. who challenged the book? 12. are concepts of sexuality or sex education included? if so, are they implicit or explicit? 13. were there any contemporaneous reports available on the reason for the challenge or ban? note: the above queries represent a condensed list from open (1-5) and axial coding (6-15). 20 results each element of the theoretical framework explores socially constructed boundaries. critical multiculturalism recognizes privileged, marginalized, and disregarded voices. the cass (1979) model of gay and lesbian identity ensures an intrapersonal exploration. the radical politics within children’s literature extends the power dynamics of critical multiculturalism towards socioeconomic elements. findings are reported through the optics of these theoretical elements. specific details about all books are included in results for q1-q6 (appendix b1) and results for q7-q12 (appendix b2). most books were written for second graders (n = 50; 85%) with small portions intended for first graders (n = 7; 12%) and kindergarteners (n = 2; 3%). as noted, determining reading levels, though imprecise, was established through a triangulation of diagnostic measures. while each book had at least one request for its removal, nearly half (n = 29; 49%) were award-winning. certain themes clearly evoked consternation even within celebrated books. we employ the term themes, not occurrences or instances, because challenges rarely originated from a single, inappropriate word or sentence. nearly all themes appeared on six or more pages (n = 49; 83%); few had just one or two instances (n = 10; 17%). the themes were identified during open coding and organized into categories prior to, and quantified during, axial coding. themes were not hypothesized prior to the inquiry. table 2: themes that likely elicited challenges total (percentage) sexuality 21(36%) inappropriate humor 10(17%) danger 6(10%) racial and religious diversity 5(8%) mysticism, wizardry 3(5%) death 3(5%) racially or culturally insensitive 1(2%) concerning interpersonal dynamics 1(2%) evolution 1(2%) two or more themes 8(14%) sexuality children’s curiosities about human bodies, reproduction, and sexuality inspire the writing of, and challenges to, literature. sexuality is an umbrella term for informational texts that explain human reproduction to young readers or literature that centers on non-heterosexual, noncisgender individuals whose interests may not align with traditional gender norms. the majority of sexuality-themed challenged or banned texts were explicit and detailed (n = 16/21; 76%); a small portion were implicit or vague (n = 5/21; 24%). sexuality manifested explicitly, like in robi h. harris’s (1994) expository text it’s perfectly normal: a book about changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health and michael willhoite’s (1990) realistic 21 fiction daddy’s roommate. the former answered common questions young learners frequently ask. the latter unambiguously narrated a fictional child’s changing family dynamics when his father moves in with a male partner after his parents’ divorce. sexuality also appeared implicitly, as in justin richardson’s and peter parnell’s (2005) narrative nonfiction and tango makes three about two male new york city penguins—lifelong partners—being given a baby penguin to adopt. children and adult readers would likely ascertain the intent of the explicitly-sexual books, yet young learners may not fully decode all that authors encoded in the implicitly-sexual books. themes of sexual reproduction and non-heterosexuality elicited far more challenges than any other theme. no challenges appeared in books with comparable cisgender heterosexual themes. sexuality concerns appear to originate from an interest in regulating information about human reproduction and a heteronormative worldview in which non-heterosexual characters— or those whose actions and interests do not align to traditional gender roles—are perceived as inappropriate. the reactionary responses apparent within sexuality-based book challenges are attempts to police social boundaries; challengers sought to restrict young learners access to scientifically-accurate information and stories that humanize diverse people. inappropriate humor and danger inappropriate humor, which might be more aptly—though colloquially—termed potty humor, was the second-most common theme for challenged or banned books (n = 10; 17%). inappropriate humor could be seen in the title of william kotzwinkle and glenn murray’s (2001) walter the farting dog. inappropriate humor was also seen in inane, though not profane or crass, humor. harry allard (1981), for instance, describes the puerile antics of a family named the stupids: “after breakfast the two stupid kids had chores to do. buster mowed the rug (p. 8).” no swear words appeared. danger materialized when characters experienced peril, violence, threats of violence, or narrowly escaped death. danger appeared in fairy and folk tales, far-fetched fiction, and realistic fiction. in rudyard kipling’s (1986) folk tale the elephant’s child, an elephant encounters risk while attempting to find explanations for the differing colors, shapes, and sizes of animals’ body parts (“…[a]nd then they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping for a long time” [p. 8]”). in the steven kellog’s (1979) far-fetched fiction pinkerton, behave!, an armed robbery is thwarted when the clumsy, well-intentioned dog joins the commotion. the middle child in judy blume’s (1981) realistic fiction the one in the middle is the green kangaroo worries when told to break-a-leg (learning later it was a figure of speech) and when big brother yells and pushes. some citizens want books with any danger—even without violence or reckless behavior—removed from public libraries and public schools. inappropriate humor challenges manifested from the fatuous and immature; danger challenges emerged from excitement about hazardous situations. though the aforementioned descriptors are synonymous with the targeted age range, numerous challenges appeared from inappropriate humor and danger, which, as with sexuality, originate from hegemonic regulation 22 of what is deemed (in)appropriate for young readers. the history of radically-themed children’s literature is rife with crass humor both for and from society’s socioeconomically marginalized, to which patterns within inappropriate humor and danger closely align (mickenberg, 2006; mickenberg & nel, 2008). racial and religious diversity books with racial and religious diversity themes were often challenged or banned. as with sexuality, the racial and religious diversity book challengers sought to regulate young learners’ access to accurate information about and humanizing stories for diverse others. non-european cultures and non-christian religions were targeted. books with african, central or south american, and non-christian themes were often challenged. muriel feeling’s (1974) jambo means hello: the swahili alphabet articulated the range of african languages, cultures, and religions. a five-year court battle resulted in banning sharon gordon’s (2003) cuba: discovering cultures, which detailed cuba’s racial history (“today, many cubans are descendants of the spanish settlers. others are descendants of black slaves who were brought to cuba from africa in the sixteenth century [p. 14-15]”) and the origins of one of its most popular religions, santeria, which “mixes roman catholicism with the religion of the yoruba people who were brought from africa as slaves” (p. 15). of the challenged books with religious themes, all but one depicted non-christian religions. eric carle’s (1992) draw me a star, though not explicitly christian, was challenged for messages considered comparable to the biblical creation story. no analogous challenges or bans emerged in books featuring european cultures or christianity. challengers appear intent on policing literature incongruent with white, christian normalcy and the social boundaries of acceptable identity. critical multiculturalism and radical politics of children’s literature each intend to impart onto students the ability to enact social change, which begins with recognition and inclusion of diverse others (e.g., botelho & rudman, 2009; gopalakrishnan, 2011; mickenberg, 2006; mickenberg & nel, 2008). mysticism, wizardry, and death mysticism and wizardry appeared when characters engaged the occult or toyed with witchcraft. challenges emerged even when mysticism and wizardry might be considered contextually appropriate, such as halloween. mem fox’s (1988) guess what?, for instance, poses questions to children about a witch (“does she mix rats’ tails, toe nails, and dead lizards’ scales? guess! yes!”, p.19-20). concerns also arose when the prose was less playful or when the narrative and imagery acted in concert to potentially distort christianity. eve merriam’s (1987) halloween abc illustrates the former (“make this spot infernally hot, put your hate in, satan; pass the pitchfork, please, mephistopheles; lucifer, beelzebub, come when we call. the devil, the devil, the devil with it all [p. 4]!”) and the aforementioned carle’s (1992) draw me a star, in which an artist creates intergalactic objects like the christian god’s actions within the book of genesis. 23 death is a difficult topic for everyone, particularly young children. fiction and nonfiction books that featured death were challenged. readers of hansel and gretel, jacob and wilhelm grimm’s (1812) iconic fairy tale, quickly recognize death’s central role. esteemed author roald dahl’s (1978) farcical the enormous crocodile was challenged when the crocodile threatened to, but did not actually, feast upon a child. death also appeared in expository texts. jim henson’s (1993) for every child, a better world articulated for young children worldwide scarcity of food, clean water and air, shelter, medicine, and classroom education; he positions first world readers to recognize their privileges: “every child needs food to eat but sometimes there isn’t enough to go around. every child needs clean water to drink but sometimes you have to go a long way to get it (p. 1-5).” henson’s was the only book that explicitly noted socioeconomic disparities. some citizens wanted children’s literature with mysticism and wizardry or death themes removed from public and school libraries. mysticism and wizardry challenges perhaps materialized over its incongruency with christianity. challengers want death, a part of life, purged from young students’ thoughts. death was the bedrock of henson’s (1993) for every child, a better world, which informed fortunate first-world readers how many contemporaries live, starve, and die. radical politics within children’s literature often confronts reactionary resistance (mickenberg, 2006; mickenberg & nel, 2008). each element of the theoretical framework—critical multiculturalism, the cass (1979) model of gay and lesbian identity, and radical politics within children’s literature—empowers readers to recognize and confront interpersonal tensions, intrapersonal dilemmas, and societal or global stresses, upon which mysticism and wizardry and death are grounded. racially or culturally insensitive racially or culturally insensitive themes relied on archaic and racist stereotypes and were challenged in older texts. helen bannerman’s (1899) award-winning little black sambo employed racist monikers (“[h]is name was little black sambo. and his mother was called black mumbo. and his father was called black jumbo”, p. 1-2), bigoted depictions of africans’ hair and facial features, and trickery that left an african boy naked and isolated (“and poor little black sambo went away crying, because the cruel tigers had taken all his fine clothes”, p. 14). claire huchet bishop’s (1939) the five chinese brothers contained antediluvian prejudices about asian magic (“the first chinese brother could swallow the sea. the second chinese brother had an iron neck.…the fourth chinese brother could not be burned. the fifth chinese brother could hold his breath indefinitely”, p. 2) and stereotypical illustrations along with other concerning themes; it was grouped under two or more themes. challenges to books with racially or culturally insensitive themes sought diverse characters to be featured in culturally-sensitive ways. racially or culturally insensitive challenges, unlike racial and religious diversity, emerged from resistance to racial and cultural distortion, not from resistance to diversity. racially or culturally insensitive challenges are rooted in critical multiculturism. racially or culturally 24 insensitive themes are distinct from previously-noted themes that appear rooted in reactionary responses to authors’ inclusion of diverse voices. anomalous themes and multifaceted books the previously reported themes appeared in multiple books generating clear patterns. other topics, like concerning interpersonal dynamics and evolution, each appeared in a single book. concerning interpersonal dynamics resulted when relational dynamics left one character marginalized. in shel silverstein’s (1964) the giving tree, the single example of concerning interpersonal dynamics, a boy makes increasingly challenging, self-absorbed requests for a tree who gives away nearly all meaningful aspects of herself until she is nothing but a stump. the unbalanced relationship between the tree and the boy sparked the book to be frequently challenged and banned at least once. other themes were anomalous. evolution, the scientific theory explaining species’ emergence and adaptations, was challenged as inappropriate. lisa westberg peters’s (2003) our family tree: an evolution story explains how all species develop (“and that’s the way our family stayed—generation after generation, year after year—for millions of years: tiny and round, floating in the sea [p. 7]”) and are interrelated (“we became animals [p. 9]”). the only primary elementary book on evolution was not challenged for scientific imprecision, but for articulating scientific consensus about evolution in accessible ways for young learners: “objections were raised because the book is about the scientific theory of evolution (doyle, 2017, p. 193).” the challenge sought to regulate the dissemination of science to young learners. concerning interpersonal dynamics and evolution each emerged in a single text. many texts, however, were challenged for multiple themes. challenges based on two or more themes is a compound of the previous nine. patricia quinlan’s (1994) tiger flowers, which explicitly intertwines death, aids and the accompanying stigma, homosexuality, and society’s marginalization, has themes of sexuality and death. joel adores his uncle michael whose life partner is named peter. quinlan’s realistic fiction narrative evokes young readers’ sympathy while explaining the tragedy of death: peter got sick. he had a disease called aids. michael told me that when someone has aids, it’s easy for them to get lots of other illnesses. peter was sick for a very long time and then he died (p. 11). … after peter died, michael got sick and came to live with us. he had aids too. michael said that some of his friends didn’t want to be with him anymore because he had aids. but he told me that i couldn’t catch aids by being near him the way i caught chicken pox from tara (p. 14). bishop’s (1939) aforementioned the five chinese brothers, for instance, was challenged for being racially or culturally insensitive and having elements of danger. relying on the racist misperception that people of asian descent are indistinguishable, the brothers successfully avoid punishment. only a small portion (n = 9; 15%) of the data pool contained multiple themes. 25 the terms themes, as noted above, was used because most challenges did not emerge from concerning singular instance or inappropriate word. marc brown’s (2006) buster’s sugartime details vermont’s geography, weather, and maple syrup production. in a single sentence, brown’s central character, a rabbit, visits a family headed by two women: “buster went to visit his mom’s friends, karen and gillian. they had three children (p. 5).” the parent of a houston elementary child sought to ban the book because this single sentence noted a family with two mothers. other books appear to have been challenged for less. barbara park’s (1994) junie b. jones and some sneaky peeky spying was likely challenged for the sentence, “only i hate that dumb, stupid, bedtime (p. 18).” confirming details are unavailable, but this was the only passage that appeared to have any concerning aspects. unlike brown’s and park’s texts, most themes were ubiquitous and not isolated instances. context of publication date and challenge controversy is contextually contingent, yet commonly challenged themes emerged consistently. sexuality-themed books, for instance, were first challenged in the 1970s and remain the most challenged theme. however, topics of sexual reproduction and diverse sexualities did not become contentious then; children’s books rarely contained sexuality themes beforehand. peter mayle’s “where did i come from?” (1974) and “what’s happening to me?” (1975)— centering on human reproduction and puberty, respectively—had no peer or precedent expository texts. leslea newman’s (1989) heather has two mommies was ground-breaking realistic fiction. dozens of sexuality-themed books followed mayle’s and newman’s, all of which were challenged soon after they were published. their absence on the challenged lists beforehand does not indicate these themes were previously accepted. organizing the data by decade is imperfect, though illustrative. eras, admittedly, do not start and end in ten-year increments. while shifts in social norms and values are not calendrically determined, patterns emerged when exploring dates of publication and first challenge (table 3). while publication logically precedes first challenge, they do not sequentially appear. many books were published long before challenged. jacob and wilhelm grimm’s (1812) hansel and gretel, helen bannerman’s (1899) little black sambo, claire huchet bishop’s (1939) the five chinese brothers, and theodor seuss geisel’s, or dr. seuss’s, hop on pop (1963) were each published more than a half-century before their first challenge (1994, 1956, 1994, and 2014, respectively). these four texts are anomalous for their age and continued controversy. other recently-published books had lengthy gaps between publication date and date of first challenge. muriel feelings’s (1974) jambo means hello: the swahili alphabet and steven kellog’s (1979) pinkerton, behave! were each published decades before their first challenge in, respectively, 1994 and 2000. 26 table 3: dates of publication and first challenge publication first challenge before 1960 3 (5%) 1 (1%) 1960s 2 (3%) 0 (0%) 1970s 9 (15%) 2 (3%) 1980s 12 (20%) 9 (15%) 1990s 13 (22%) 19 (32%) 2000s 15 (25%) 16 (27%) 2010s 5 (8%) 12 (20%) note: date of publication represents date of first publication. other books, particularly those with sexuality themes, were challenged or banned nearly as soon as they were published. harris’s (1994) it’s perfectly normal, suzanne lang’s (2015) families families families, gayle pitman’s (2014) this day in june, and richardson and parnell’s (2005) and tango makes three were each challenged or banned within a year of publication. (each had sexuality themes.) as noted, sexuality was the most regulated theme within primary elementary literature. challenges, clearly, increased in the 1980s and have continued at pace. when contextualized, this pattern is unsurprising considering 1980s american culture wars were particularly fierce regarding education, gender, and sexuality (e.g., apple, 2014; schoen, 2015; symcox, 2002). the aforementioned themes, arguably, are proxy battles in the larger culture war. further, nearly every theme can be traced—directly or indirectly—to challenges emerging from individuals occupying the political, social, or religious right. racially or culturally insensitive was the only theme emergent from critical multiculturalism and the political left. frequency and location of challenges nearly half the books (n = 25; 42%) were challenged more than once. while most of the repeatedly-challenged books generated just a few challenges, many were challenged frequently. recurrent challenges targeted linda de haan and stern nijland’s (2002) king and king (8 times), merriam’s (1987) halloween abc (10 times), newman’s (1989) heather has two mommies (13 times), richardson and parnell’s (2005) and tango makes three (11 challenges in the first four years; 14 challenges in its first decade), harris’s (1994) it’s perfectly normal: a book 27 about changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health (17 times), and willhoite’s (1990) daddy’s roommate (31 separate challenges in its first decade alone). importantly, all but one of the most-challenged primary books contained the sexuality theme. the challenge locations included every state, but centered primarily in schools (n = 45; 77%). more than twice as many were challenged or banned only in public schools (n = 32; 54%) than in public libraries (n = 14; 24%); a notable portion were challenged or banned in both public schools and public libraries (n = 13; 22%). no comprehensive data or evidence exists regarding challenges or bans in private schools. relatedly, it was impossible to determine who challenged each book as not all details were made public. most challengers were unknown (n = 35; 59%). no evidence suggests children or teenagers challenged books’ appropriateness. most challenges emerged from parents of school-age children (n = 20; 34%), but some notable challenges appeared from a school board member (e.g., feelings, 1974) and seventy oklahoma state legislators in a single year (e.g., de haan & nijland, 2002). doyle (2017) noted the prominence of concerned third-party organizations with dubious origins and euphemistic names. called2action, a christian organization, with a mission to promote and defend their perceptions of family values challenged park’s (1994) junie b jones and some sneaky peeky spying; the liberty counsel contested jessica herthel and jazz jennings’s (2014) i am jazz about a young transgender girl’s lived experience. there also appears collusion across state lines among mysterious third-party groups, like virginia-based parents against bad books in schools using identical language as similarly-named texas both challenging—in the same year—harvey fierstein’s (2002) genderbending the sissy duckling. tensions emerge when hegemony is confronted with calls for change. the aforementioned themes largely represent shifts away from white, christian, heterosexual characters and families. theoretical elements of critical multicultural and radical politics predict the reactionary resistance evoked by the radical change represented within some literature. discussion findings are concerning for citizens who value civil liberties and the constitution. there are also implications for teachers, librarians, and even administration who have been forced to resign for supporting a teacher’s academic freedom to select curricula, like de haan and nijland’s (2002) story king and king about two happily married young men. this section considers the patterns’ significance. findings add nuance to patterns within the research literature. as changing representations of children’s literature’s non-white characters is shaped by context (pescosolido, grauerholz, & milkie, 1997), so too are the accompanying challenges. children’s authors increasingly include lesbian, gay, and transgender voices along with characters who stray from traditional gender roles (e.g., bickford, 2018a; cart & jenkins, 2006; day, 2000; 28 kneen, 2015), yet heteronormative opposition manifests. children’s curiosities with sexual reproduction and interests using inappropriate language both appear often within, and evoke efforts to bowdlerize, children’s literature (callister et al., 2012; coyne et al., 2012). while all the challenged books were intended for primary elementary students, none were intended to spark an actual revolution like those in julia mickenberg and philip nel’s (2008) edited collection or whose radical politics mickenberg (2006) scrutinized. though there is an increased presence of female characters and female protagonists in children’s literature (chick & corle, 2012; chick, slekar, & charles, 2010), there appears no increase in gender-based challenges so long as gender is presented as binary and fixed. findings confirm that education is politically contentious; emergent social issues are contested within curricula (apple, 2014; symcox, 2002). each author’s motivation—and each challenger’s worldview—cannot be determined from reading the book and limited contemporaneous evidence documenting the challenge. challenges, however, appear to originate from a heteronormative, white, christian normalcy that rejects diversity. policing social and educational boundaries, challengers target books that emphasize religions that are not christian, characters that are not heterosexual or breach of traditional gender norms, or represent countries and cultures with historical tensions with the united states, such as cuba, afghanistan, and iraq. challenges are reactionary responses to the radical change sparked when children’s literature humanizes oft-marginalized groups. gatekeepers’ focus on children’s literature is unsurprising as books represent a powerful pathway for youngsters to learn about the world, others, and themselves (bishop, 1990). societal acceptance of different religions, races, sexualities, and interests does not precede their appearance in cultural and curricular artifacts. the themes are, thus, unsurprising. findings have important implications for teachers, librarians, administration, parents, and citizens. first, challenges are not convictions. many appear myopic and parochial. each reveals a single person’s or a small group’s concerns. no challenge contains views of those who desperately want to see themselves or diverse others in literature. a challenge, thus, should not be considered condemnation. second, academic freedom is as integral to education as freedomof-the-press is to journalism. teachers should select the themes and texts upon which to focus, librarians should stock shelves to meets the needs of a pluralist democracy, and administrators must carefully listen to citizens’ concerns while recognizing that not all criticisms should compel change. third, teachers, librarians, and administration should recognize themes and literature that may cause consternation. detailed aspects are reported in the appendices b1 and b2. finally, all involved—authors, school personnel, and concerned citizens—want the best for children. recognition, and not suppression, of divergent opinions should abound. while challenges are likely done in earnest, resistance to book banning is similarly sincere. good libraries, it has been said, contain something for everyone and something to offend most everyone (godwin, 1992). andrew carnegie, a philanthropic catalyst for public libraries across 29 america, argued public libraries are a cradle of democracy (nasaw, 2006). teachers, librarians, administration, parents, and citizens must safeguard that cradle. this inquiry has limitations. first, oversights are possible, though two reviewers examined each book. second, primary students’ and researchers’ readings might differ; a child might miss an adult author’s encoded message. while two researchers worked independently, few divergent interpretations emerged. weekly dialogue, which included shared individual analyses, perhaps minimized differing analyses. finally, measures for reading complexity varied greatly and were identifiable in recently-published books. as such, researchers were unable to triangulate intended age of the reader for all books in the sample. there are many potentially fruitful areas for future consideration and further inquiry. scholars might scrutinize for themes within challenges of books intended for middle and high schoolers to juxtapose findings. it would also be enlightening to explore challenges’ context (location, year, etc.) and source(s) (individual, group, etc.). our inquiry was ex post facto and centered on content within the narratives; we did not interrogate the source and context of the challenges using contemporaneous evidence, which suggests that religiously-, politically-, or socially-conservative organizations work between states for similar purposes. as noted, virginia-based parents against bad books in schools and a similarly-named texas group used identical language—and the same year—to challenge harvey fierstein’s (2002) gender-bending the sissy duckling. this virginia-texas connection suggests an inconspicuous, insidious pattern. using historians’ methods to scrutinize extant sources, scholars might discover what content analysis of literature cannot. as reading is fundamental, it is essential that public schools and libraries are filled with engaging texts for all ages, abilities, interests, and backgrounds. books, to paraphrase rudine sims bishop (1990), offer readers glimpses of themselves, others, and other worlds. young learners will—and should—encounter both unimaginable and familiar characters and contexts. in a multicultural and secular society, libraries need diverse books for primary elementary students exploring the world and their place in it. references american library association (2020, march 21). frequently challenged books. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks apple, m. w. (2014). knowledge, power, and education. routledge. bickford, j. (2018a). examining lgbtq-based literature intended for primary and intermediate elementary students. the elementary school journal, 118(3), 409-425. bickford, j. (2018b) abraham lincoln’s historical representation in children’s literature and young adult trade books. social studies research and practice, 13(2), 147-167. bishop, r. s. (1990). mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. perspectives: choosing and using books for the classroom, 1(3), ix–xi. 30 botelho, m.j. & rudman, m.k. (2009). critical multicultural analysis of children’s literature: mirrors, windows, and doors. routledge. callister, m., coyne, s., stern, l., stockdale, l., miller, m., & wells, b. (2012). a content analysis of the prevalence and portrayal of sexual activity in adolescent literature. journal of sex research, 49(5), 477–486. cart, m. & jenkins, c. (2006). the heart has its reasons: young adult literature with gay/lesbian/queer content, 1969-2004. scarecrow press. cass, v. c. (1979). homosexual identity formation: a theoretical model. journal of homosexuality, 4, 219–235. chick, k., & corle, s. (2012). a gender analysis of ncss notable trade books for the intermediate grades. social studies research and practice, 7(2), 1-14. chick, k., slekar, t., & charles, e. (2010). a gender analysis of ncss notable picture book winners: 2006-2008. social studies research and practice, 5(3), 21-31. connolly, p. (2013). slavery in american children’s literature, 1790-2010. university of iowa press. coyne, s., callister, m., stockdale, l., nelson, d., & wells, b. (2012). “a helluva read”: profanity in adolescent literature. mass communication and society, 15, 360–383. cunha, j., rosário, p., macedo, l., rita nunes, a., pinto, r., fuentes, s., & suárez, n. (2015). parents’ conceptions of their homework involvement in elementary school. psicothema, 27(2), 159-165. day, f. a. (2000). lesbian and gay voices: an annotated bibliography and guide to literature for children and young adults. greenwood press. doyle, r. (2017). banned books: defending our freedom to read. american library association. godwin, m.j. (1992). a difficult choice: censorship or credibility. the public image, 4(3), 1-2. goldstein, r. j. (2000). flag burning and free speech: the case of texas v. johnson. university press of kansas. gopalakrishnan, a. (2011). multicultural children’s literature: a critical issues approach. sage. kneen, b. (2015). neither very bi nor particularly sexual: the essence of the bisexual in young adult literature. children’s literature in education, 46, 359–377. krippendorff, k. (2013). content analysis: an introduction to its methodology, third edition. sage. mcmurrer, j. (2008). instructional time in elementary schools: a closer look at changes for specific subjects. center on education policy. mickenberg, j.l. (2006). learning from the left: children’s literature, the cold war, and radical politics in the united states. oxford university press. mickenberg, j.l. & nel, p. (eds.) (2008). tales for little rebels: a collection of radical children’s literature. new york university press. nasaw, d. (2006). andrew carnegie. penguin books. 31 national council for teachers of english (2020, march 21). https://ncte.org office of intellectual freedom (2020, march 21). http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/oif pescosolido, b.a., grauerholz, e., & milkie, m.a. (1997). culture and conflict: the portrayal of blacks in u.s. children's picture books through the midand late-twentieth century. american sociological review, 62(3), 443-464. radcliffe publishing (n.d.). radcliffe’s 100 best novels. https://thegreatestbooks.org/lists/3 scales, p. (2016) defending frequently challenged young adult books: a handbook for librarians and educators. rowman & littlefield. schmidt, g. (2013). making americans: children’s literature from 1930-1960. university of iowa press. schoen, j. (2015). abortion after roe. university of north carolina press. schwebel, s. (2011). child-sized history: fictions of the past in u.s. classrooms. vanderbilt university press. symcox, l. (2002). whose history? the struggle for national standards in american classrooms. teachers college press. wei, j., pomerantz, e.m., fei-yin ng, f., wang, m., & wang, q. (2019). why does parents’ involvement in youth’s learning vary across elementary, middle, and high school? contemporary educational psychology, 56, 262-274. williams, t. (2009). a closer look: the representation of slavery in the dear america series. social studies and the young learner, 21 , 3, 26-29. 32 appendix a – children’s literature cited allan, n. (2004). where willy went. knopf books. allard, h. (1978). the stupids step out. houghton mifflin harcourt. allard, h. (1974). the stupids have a ball. houghton mifflin harcourt. allard, h. (1985). the stupids die. houghton mifflin harcourt. ancona, g. (2000). cuban kids. cavendish children’s books. bannerman, h. (1899). little black sambo. grant richards publication. bishop, c. (illustrated by k. wiese) (1939). the five chinese brothers. coward mccann. blume, j. (1981). the one in the middle is the green kangaroo. atheneum. brannen, s. (2008). uncle bobby’s wedding. new york, ny: g.p. putnam’s sons. briggs, r. (1973). father christmas. coward, mccann & geoghegan. brown, l.k. (1997). what’s the big secret? talking about sex with girls and boys. little, brown, & company. brown, m. (2006). buster’s sugartime. little, brown and company. butler, d. h. (2005). my mom’s having a baby! albert whitman. carle, e. (1992). draw me a star. philomel books. cole, b. (1993). mommy laid an egg: or, where do babies come from? chronicle books. crow, n. (2016). halloween abc. nosy crow publishers. dahl, r. (1978). the enormous crocodile. puffin books. dahl, r. (1981) george’s marvelous medicine. puffin books. de haan, l. & nijland, s. (2002). king and king. tricycle press. feelings, m. (1974) jambo means hello. dial books for young readers. fierstein, h. (2002). the sissy duckling. simon & schuster. fox, m. (1988) guess what? voyager books. geisel, t. (aka dr. seuss) (1963) hop on pop. random house. gordon, s. (2003). cuba: discovering cultures. benchmark books. grimm, j. & grimm, w. (adapted by marshall, j.) 1990, hansel and gretel. puffin books. handford, m. (1987). where’s waldo? candlewick press. harris, r.h. (1994). it’s perfectly normal: a book about changing bodies, growing up, sex, and sexual health. candlewick press. harris, r.h. (2012). who’s in my family? all about our family. candlewick press. henson, j. (1993). for every child, a better world. united nations. herthel, j. & jennings, j. (2014). i am jazz. dial books for young readers. kellog, s. (1979) pinkerton, behave! puffin books. kilodavis, c. (2009). my princess boy. simon & schuster. kipling, r. (1986) the elephant’s child. alfred a. knopf. kotzwinkle, w. & murray, g. (2001). walter the farting dog. frog books. 33 kuskin, k. (1986). dallas titans get ready for bed. harper & row. lang, s. (2015) families families families. random house. mayle, p. (1974). “where did i come from?” the facts of life without any nonsense and with illustrations. lyle stuart. mayle, p. (1975). “what’s happening to me?” the answers to some of the world’s most embarrassing questions. lyle stuart. merriam, e. (1987). halloween abc. alladin. mochizuki, k. (1993). baseball saved us. lee & low books. newman, l. (1989). heather has two mommies. alyson wonderland. park, b. (1992). junie b. jones and the stupid smelly bus. random house. park, b. (1994). junie b. jones and some sneaky peeky spying. random house. parr, t. (2003). the family book. little, brown, and company. peters, l.w. (2003). our family tree: an evolution story. harcourt. pilkey, d. (2002). the adventures of super diaper baby. scholastic. pitman, g. e. (2014). this day in june. magination press. quinlan, p. (1994). tiger flowers. lester publishing. richardson, j. & parnell, p. (2005). and tango makes three. simon & schuster. sachar, l. (1989). wayside school is falling down. harpercollins. sachar, l. (1993) marvin redpost: is he a girl? random house. schwartz, a. (1984). in a dark dark room. harpercollins. schwartz, a. (1992). and the green grass grew all around. harpercollins. sendak, m. (1970). in the night kitchen. harpercollins. silverstein, s. (1964). the giving tree. harpercollins. willhoite, m. (1990). daddy’s roommate. alyson wonderland. winter, j. (2003). the librarian of basra: : a true story from iraq. houghton mifflin harcourt. winter, j. (2009). nasreen’s secret school: a true story from afghanistan. beach lane books. wood, a. (1988). elbert's bad word. harcourt brace jovanovich. 34 appendix b1 – results for q1-q6 author & year q1 q2 q3 q4 q5 q6 allan 2004 2000s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no allard 1974 1990s 2nd inappropriate humor 3+ no no allard 1978 1990s 2nd inappropriate humor 3+ no no allard 1981 1990s 2nd inappropriate humor 3+ no no ancona 2000 2000s 2nd racial/religious diversity 3+ no no bannerman 1899 <1960 2nd racially-insensitive 3+ no no bishop 1939 1990s 2nd 2+ 3+ yes no blume 1981 1980s 2nd danger 3+ no no brannen 2008 2000s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no briggs 1973 1970s 1st inappropriate humor 1-2 yes no brown 2006 2000s 2nd sexuality 1-2 yes no brown&br 1997 2010s 2nd sexuality 3 3+ no no butler 2005 2010s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no carle1992 1990s 1st 2+ 3+ no no cole 1993 1990s 1st sexuality 3+ no no crow 2016 2010s nonreader inappropriate humor 1or2 no no dahl 1978 1980s 2nd death 1or2 no no dahl 1981 1990s 2nd 2+ 3+ no no de haan 2000 2000s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no feelings 1974 1990s 1st racial/religious diversity 3+ yes no fierstein 2002 2000s 2nd sexuality 3+ no no fox 1988 1990s 1st mysticism/wizardry 3+ yes no geisel 1963 2010s 1st danger 3+ no no gordon 2003 2000s 2nd 2+ 3+ no no grimm 1812 1990s 2nd death 3+ no no handford 1987 1980s nonreader inappropriate humor 1-2 yes no harris 1994 1990s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no harris 2012 1990s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no henson 1993 2010s 2nd death 3+ yes explicitly herthel 2014 2010s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no kellog 1979 2000s 1st danger 1-2 yes no kilodavis 2009 2010s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no kipling 1986 1990s 2nd danger 1-2 no no kotzwinkle 2001 2000s 2nd inappropriate humor 3+ no no kuskin 1986 1980s 2nd inappropriate humor 1-2 no no 35 lang 2015 2010s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no mayle 1974 1980s 2nd sexuality 3+ no no mayle 1975 1980s 2nd sexuality 3+ no no merriam 1987 1980s 2nd mysticism/wizardry 3+ yes no mochizuki 1993 2000s 2nd racial/religious diversity 3+ yes no newman 1989 1990s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no park 1992 1990s 2nd danger 1-2 no no park 1994 2000s 2nd danger 1-2 no no parr 2003 2010s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no peters 2003 2000s 2nd evolution 3+ yes no pilkey 2002 2000s 2nd inappropriate humor 3+ no no pitman 2014 2010s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no quinlan 1994 1990s 2nd 2+ 3+ no no richardson 2005 2000s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no sachar 1989 1990s 2nd inappropriate humor 3+ no no sachar 1993 2000s 2nd sexuality 3+ no no schwartz 1984 1980s 2nd mysticism/wizardry 3+ no no schwartz 1992 2000s 2nd 2+ 3+ no no sendeck 1970 1970s 2nd 2+ 3+ yes no silverstein 1964 1980s 2nd interpersonal dynamics 3+ yes no wilhoite 1990 1990s 2nd sexuality 3+ yes no winter 2004 2010s 2nd racial/religious diversity 3+ yes no winter 2009 2010s 2nd racial/religious diversity 3+ yes no wood 1988 1990s 2nd 2+ 3+ no no 36 appendix b2 – results for q7-q12 author & year q7 q8 q9 q10 q11 q12 allan 2004 no no 1x library unknown explicitly allard 1974 no no 2+ both unknown no allard 1978 no no 1x school unknown no allard 1981 no no 1x library unknown no ancona 2000 explicitly no 1x school unknown no bannerman 1899 explicitly no 2+ both unknown no bishop 1939 explicitly no 2+ school parent no blume 1981 no no 1x school unknown no brannen 2008 no no 2+ library parent explicitly briggs 1973 no no 2+ both unknown no brown 2006 vaguely no 1x school parent vaguely brown 1997 no no 1x school parent explicitly butler 2005 no no 2+ library unknown explicitly carle1992 no vaguely christian 2+ school parent vaguely cole 1993 no no 1x library parent explicitly crow 2016 no no 1x library unknown no dahl 1978 explicitly no 1x library unknown no dahl 1981 explicitly vaguely nonchristian 1x school unknown no de haan 2000 no no 2+ both parent explicitly feelings 1974 explicitly no 1x school parent no fierstein 2002 vaguely no 2+ library parent explicitly fox 1988 no vaguely nonchristian 1x library unknown no geisel 1963 no no 1x library unknown no gordon 2003 explicitly vaguely nonchristian 1x school parent no grimm 1812 no vaguely nonchristian 1x school unknown no 37 handford 1987 explicitly no 2+ both parent no harris 1994 explicitly no 2+ both parent explicitly harris 2012 explicitly no 1x school parent explicitly henson 1993 explicitly no 1x school unknown no herthel 2014 no no 1x school 3rdparty no kellog 1979 no no 2+ both unknown no kilodavis 2009 no no 1x library unknown explicitly kipling 1986 no no 1x school unknown no kotzwinkle 2001 no no 1x school unknown no kuskin 1986 no no 1x library unknown no lang 2015 no no 1x school parent no mayle 1974 no no 2+ both unknown explicitly mayle 1975 no no 2+ library unknown explicitly merriam 1987 no vaguely nonchristian 2+ both parent no mochizuki 1993 explicitly no 2+ school unknown no newman 1989 no no 2+ both parent explicitly park 1992 no no 1x school parent no park 1994 no no 1x school parent no parr 2003 no no 1x school unknown explicitly peters 2003 no no 2+ school parent no pilkey 2002 no no 2+ school unknown no pitman 2014 explicitly no 2+ school unknown explicitly quinlan 1994 no no 1x school unknown vaguely richardson 2005 no no 2+ both parent vaguely sachar 1989 no no 1x school unknown no sachar 1993 no no 2+ school unknown vaguely 38 schwartz 1984 no vaguely nonchristian 1x school unknown no schwartz 1992 no vaguely nonchristian 1x school unknown no sendeck 1970 no no 1x both unknown no silverstein 1964 no no 1x library unknown no wilhoite 1990 no no 2+ both 3rdparty explicitly winter 2004 explicitly explicitly nonchristian 2+ school 3rdparty no winter 2009 explicitly explicitly nonchristian 2+ school 3rdparty no wood 1988 no no 1x school unknown no journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 2 2023 pp. 186-205 perceived heads of departments’ infusion of ubuntu values in curriculum and knowledge sharing leadership in under-resourced public schools bongani innocent nkambule* * institute for open and distance learning, college of education, university of south africa, pretoria: south africa. email: nkambbi@unisa.ac.za article info received: february 21, 2023 accepted: may 15, 2023 published: july 21, 2023 how to cite nkambule, b. i. (2023). perceived heads of departments’ infusion of ubuntu values in curriculum and knowledge sharing leadership in under-resourced public schools. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 186-205. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.26 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract the article reports on the findings of a qualitative inquiry involving a sample of nine (9) teachers (three participants per school) drawn from three schools within the locality of three education circuits of emalahleni in mpumalanga province (south africa). the primary objective of the article was informed by the paucity of literature that establishes an intersection between indigenous epistemologies of ubuntu philosophy, instructional leadership and the sharing process of knowledge management within the domain of primary and secondary education. by eliciting teachers’ views about heads of departments’ (hods’) curriculum leadership practices, the article attempts to narrow down the knowledge gap on the topic of instructional (herein referred to as curriculum) leadership— a domain whose preoccupation often slants towards the principal’s role at the exclusion of other key stakeholders within the school ecology. in terms of the findings, democratic (participative), autocratic, transactional, transformational and managerial leadership styles were found to have been used by individual hods alongside instructional leadership style to strengthen their curriculum leadership role. it however, became apparent that both participative and transformational leadership styles sufficiently promoted the ethos of ubuntu in hods’ curriculum leadership role and thus enhanced curriculum delivery processes and knowledge sharing behavior among teachers as well as between hods and teachers. the findings of the article demonstrate how a nonadversarial intersection between indigenous and mainstream leadership practices, might add an impetus to hods’ curriculum delivery and knowledge sharing leadership role in under-resourced schooling contexts. keywords ubuntu; curriculum delivery; teacher collaboration; leadership; schooling system; learner performance. 10.46303/jcsr.2023.26 https://curriculumstudies.org/ mailto:nkambbi@unisa.ac.za https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.26 187 jcsr 2023, 5(2):186-205 introduction all schooling systems across the globe consider learner performance as a pivotal factor. the need for improved learner performance has, as pointed out by hallinger (2005), led to greater emphasis being put on the provision of continuous teacher curriculum support and ongoing interactive teacher learning forums, both of which translate into effective curriculum delivery and reciprocal knowledge sharing behavior. accordingly, mora-ruano et al (2021, p. 1), ascribe school “effectiveness” to operational processes that adequately promote high curriculum delivery standards and knowledge sharing behavior among stakeholders. this implies that effective curriculum delivery and knowledge sharing behavior cannot be achieved in the absence of a deeply entrenched atmosphere of trust, interdependence, mutual respect and reciprocal undertakings between teachers and their leaders. in an african organisational context, this speaks to the need for upholding ubuntu values. mpofu (2002) defines ubuntu as an ancient way of life which aims to unleash the greater good in every person by orienting them towards an ethical approach to engaging one another. maphalala (2017, p. 10239) adds that ubuntu espouses “intrapersonal, interpersonal and environmental” values that ameliorate the effectiveness of a school. in this article, ubuntu is studied in relation to curriculum leadership, which lies within the purview of heads of departments (hods) (cf. arends, 2021; bambi, 2012; bipath & nkabinde, 2018; bush et al., 2010; department of education [doe], 2002; kruger, 2003; mampane, 2018; mashiane-nkabinde, 2020; mbhele, 2015; mpisane, 2015; mulaudzi, 2019; mvimbe, 2019; ndashe, 2016; nkabinde, 2012; nkambule, 2020, 2022, 2023; nkambule, 2018; rajoo, 2012; seobi & woods, 2016; romm & nkambule, 2022; tapala et al., 2020; wilmot, 2017). in terms of their role, hods wear two hats, that is, they teach learners and supervise teachers. alongside these core duties, they are also expected to play an intercessory role of supporting the maintenance of cordial relationships between teachers and learners (nkambule & amsterdam, 2018). in addition, steyn (2013) locates the coordination of knowledge sharing meetings and committees among groups of teachers within the ambit of hods. broadly speaking, hods should (i) support teachers with formulating and fulfilling their professional selfdevelopmental curriculum efficacy goals, and continuously monitor the attainment of these goals; (ii) conduct formal and informal classroom observations at regular intervals; (iii) conduct direct and indirect coaching clinics and discursive forums in a bid to improve instructional matters; and (iv) give constructive performance analysis, alongside recommendations for future developmental growth of individual teachers (mcewan, 2003). carrying out these duties calls for hods to introspect on the extent to which their leadership practices accentuate cordiality, considerateness, reciprocity and respect (doe, 2001, p.16), all of which are traits grounded on ubuntu. while there has been a voluminous flow of literature pertinent to curriculum leadership in south africa (bipath & nkabinde, 2018; bush, 2003; nkabinde, 2012; mashiane-nkabinde, 2020), several studies have documented that this scholarship often slants towards the principal’s role at the exclusion of hods (mestry & pillay, 2013; naicker et al., 2013; rajoo, 2012; 188 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 186-205 tapala et al., 2020) and other stakeholders within the school ecology. consequently, there is a knowledge gap pertinent to the effect of hods’ leadership role on teacher curriculum delivery and knowledge-sharing practices in a south african public schooling context. the norm that [hods in their capacity as] curriculum leaders adopt a parallel leadership style (bush, 2003; kwan, 2020) to mitigate the instructional leadership style’s inability to sufficiently support their role’s infusion of a comprehensive dialogue and distributed sense of responsibility (loock, 2003; hallinger, 2005), exposed a gap around the understandings of the leadership styles that hods applied alongside instructional leadership style to enhance their curriculum leadership role at selected schools. also, in keeping with the postulation that in africa, western leadership models inherently espouse indigenous ethics in them (bush, 2007; msila, 2008), the article sought to investigate how the western-oriented norm of applying parallel leadership styles might not only enhance individual hods’ curriculum leadership role, but also add an ethical grounding upon which ubuntu values can be seen to be equal to the task of insulating the wellbeing and sustenance of teacher curriculum delivery and knowledge sharing behavior, learner performance, and in the bigger scheme of things, school effectiveness. the following questions led to the achievement of the study’s objectives: a) which other leadership styles are perceived to be adopted by individual hods parallel to instructional leadership style as a measure to enhance the effectiveness of their curriculum leadership role? b) what are the experiences of teachers about individual hods’ practice of ubuntu values in their curriculum leadership role? c) how do teachers characterise the level at which hods apply ubuntu values towards managing both the internally and externally directed teachers’ knowledge sharing behavior? d) from these leadership styles, which ones do teachers perceive to incorporate ubuntu values more than others? driven by the above research questions, the article highlighted how in the studied schooling contexts, indigenous epistemologies of ubuntu philosophy intersect with instructional leadership and the sharing process of knowledge management. in terms of the outlook of the article, the subsequent sections tabulate empirical, theoretical and methodological discussions, as well as the presentation of the findings, conclusions and some recommendations that are pertinent to the findings. leadership styles this article discusses the perceived effectiveness of hods’ infusion of ubuntu values in curriculum delivery and knowledge sharing leadership. in non-profit schooling environments, leadership is regarded as a human engineered endeavor to direct employees to perform duties assigned to them in line with policies and best practices (nkambule, 2022). to be able to lead their followers, education leaders [such as hods] apply different leadership styles. hickman (2017, p. 9) defines a leadership style as “the manner and approach of supplying direction, 189 jcsr 2023, 5(2):186-205 implementing plans, and inspiring people”. machumu and kaitila (2014) argue that leadership styles determine the level of teachers’ job satisfaction. this section of the article concisely discusses some leadership styles that are a prominent feature in school management literature. instructional leadership style bambi (2012) posits that while curriculum leadership forms part of the principal’s job description, hods’ insightfulness on curriculum delivery makes them its mainstay. essentially, the nature of their occupation requires them to develop a sense among their followers to adhere to the targeted “goals and expectations, planning, coordinating” of “teaching and learning” (robinson et al., 2008, p. 640) through the application of direct and indirect mentoring and coaching instructional leadership methods. due to its heavy reliance on compliance and rigid line function, enhancing its dynamism often demands that a parallel leadership style is adopted (bush, 2003; hallinger, 2005; kwan, 2020; loock, 2003). participative leadership style bush (2007) points out that participative leaders ascribe to the belief that accessibility, collective effort and equitable sharing of tasks have a positive effect on workforce dynamics and organisational productivity. to eradicate factionalism, participative leaders closely monitor the harmony that exists among their followers (leithwood et al., 1999; maile, 2004; mclennan & thurlow, 2003). buthelezi and ajani (2022) liken the participative leadership style to using a “lekgotla” (i.e., a sotho word for a forum where various participants in diverse indigenous settings, including schools, converge to engage in extensive and participative discussions to generate context-specific solutions) as the basis upon which to mobilise support, resolve issues and seek the followers’ consensus. managerial leadership style even though managerial leadership style is widely applied in south africa’s schooling system (bush, 2007) it is seldomly discussed in empirical research. because managerial leaders embrace the role of trade unions, operational bargaining power and worker consultative forums, sebakwane (1997) contends that the managerial leadership style is a breakaway from autocratic leadership. a managerial leader tends to be task-oriented and prefers to use the old, tried and tested methods of achieving results and enforcing compliance rather than exploring new trends and methods of doing things. transactional leadership style transactional leadership style is grounded on a give and take basis, whereby rewards are given for a job well done and punishment is administered for failure to perform adequately (hickman, 2017). oftentimes, sour employee relations do not take center stage in this leader’s agenda provided they impede on organisational productivity. depending on the character of a leader, they may either take a passive or active approach— commonly known as management by exception—in terms of which an active leader monitors followers’ performance at regular intervals whereas passive a one tends to monitor followers’ performance after completion of a task (stajkovic & sergent, 2019). 190 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 186-205 transformational leadership style transformational leaders encourage collaborative partnerships to achieve better results. although transformational leaders have a lot in common with participative leaders, their approach to leading followers is not so much on genuinely generating followers’ inputs but more on having their buy in by conditioning their mindset towards adopting a particular manifesto (lawrence, 2022). according to bush (2007), transformational leadership augers well for schooling contexts plagued by the absence of effective leadership, low staff morale and dismal learner performance. some perceived barriers to hods’ curriculum leadership role reversing the ripple effects of the apartheid regime on south africa’s socio-economic outlook is an ongoing challenge that has left the country in socio-economic tatters. although the government has done considerably well in reversing some of the many inequalities, factors such as corruption, poor management of state resources, misappropriation of service delivery funds and hostile economic climate, have significantly retarded the pace of such interventions. naturally, what happens in the political sphere draws a host of challenges in schools, moreover the rural and township-based ones. at the heart of these challenges, as pointed out by coleman et al. (2003, p. 65), lies: a) differences in socio-economical dynamics among the majority of the people within the vicinity of the school (e.g., urban, township, rural, suburban); b) consequent differences in studentship (in terms of learners’ psychological resilience and orientation towards learning, achievement and overall appreciation for the value of education); c) differences in physical infrastructure and other amenities (i.e., sports facilities, learning and teaching support material (ltsm), science apparatus, laboratories and so forth); as well as, d) differences in personnel resourcefulness, (around issues of qualifications levels, soft and hard skills, psychological and invariably, inclinations for the job, school and the profession itself). the consequential effect of the above-mentioned factors, as expounded by coleman et al (2003), is replicated in various studies. in relation to south africa, it is generally accepted that most of the challenges faced by hods in under-resourced schools are but not limited to dealing with (a) the insufficiency of professional development opportunities and contending with inadequately trained teachers (bambi, 2012; nkabinde, 2012); (b) heavy teaching and administrative workload (fikani, 2003; mulaudzi, 2019); (c) inadequacy of support in executing pastoral duties (mulaudzi, 2019); (d) often irrelevant professional development training; (e) chronic teacher absenteeism (nkambule, 2020); and, (f) lack of internal support mechanisms, leadership guidance, as well as professionally adept and highly motivated teachers (rajoo, 2012). substantiation of the suitability of ubuntu as a theoretical lens dewey (cited in saltmarsch, 1996) explicates that people generally lack awareness of the extent to which the world’s thriving democracies are thrust on people’s cultural orientations. organisational leadership, as a concept, largely drew from cultural tales and best practices wherein elders in their local constituencies were known as the moral campus and directors of 191 jcsr 2023, 5(2):186-205 proceedings (davis, 2020; hofstede et al., 2010). mandela (1994 cited in mpofu, 2002) endorses this view by pointing out that democracy has always been a prototype of south african indigenous culture. he recounted how he had always known of how even before the colonial era, various indigenous communities converged under trees and held robust discussions that were chaired by elders to ensure that law and order prevailed in their homesteads and broader communities. the study argues that the interconnectedness among communities that mandela refers to, does not only apply to the continent of africa, but across the globe’s geographical terrains where indigenous communities are found. the united nations (un) estimates “the interface between” the world’s indigenous peoples’ ways of life at “more than 370 million in some 90 countries” (un, 2009, p. 1). letseka (2013) adds that ubuntu is an all-encompassing trait that when practiced earnestly can spearhead harmonious undertakings in which multiculturalism, multiracialism and non-sexism are the order of the day. this, however, does not mean that acting within the midpoints of ubuntu completely absolves human fallibility. the key issue to note is that ubuntu is not only an impulsive (re)action, but also a conscious one, which according to davis (2021), makes it not a virtue that always “comes naturally” (p. 2), but that which may sometimes, require one to relentlessly reflect upon the impact that their actions might have on the integrity of social undertakings with others in various life and professional settings. what this means is that, ubuntu is a virtue that ought to be at all times practiced from the ethical point of interrogating “unembeza” [i.e., conscience] and giving “inhlonipho” [i.e., respect] (maphalala, 2017, p. 10239). iwowo (2015) infers that the truism:“umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu” (loosely translated from the zulu language as a person is a person through other people) is by no means a cultural expediency (or whatever its critics may choose to call it) but a heartfelt call for africans (including everyone who regardless of race, creed, religion and ethnicity draws affinity from africa or calls it home) to consciously evaluate the extent to which their role might or might not fracture the integrity of the social interdependence, cordiality, reciprocity and respect that abides in their respective communities. mbigi (2005) argues that ubuntu presents a context-specific solution to africa’s organisational leadership challenges. he further argued that ubuntu in leadership moderated the imposition of leadership practices that bear no relevance to local indigenous organisational contexts. to play their part in awakening the episteme of ubuntu, mbigi (2005) contends that leaders of these organisations must: (a) engrave african social experience (i.e., ubuntu ways of life) in their management and leadership functions; (b) ensure that in organisations where they are deployed, african leadership harmoniously moderates non-indigenous models of leadership; (c) regard cultural diversity not as a threat but a window of opportunity for acquiring intercultural understanding and multidimensional social perspectives; (d) evoke a sense of distributed leadership that is devoid of counter dialogical and authoritative undertakings; (e) always forecast on the potential danger that might arise and have a bearing on the integrity of 192 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 186-205 the organisation; after which (f) act promptly to tackle issues that can potentially destabilise the wellbeing of the organisation. using ubuntu as a theoretical framework made it plausible for the researcher to draw parallels between effective and ineffective practices in how hods applied the values of ubuntu to manage teachers’ curriculum delivery and knowledge sharing behavior at selected schools. furthermore, it enabled the researcher to propose practically relevant and context-specific recommendations from an informed perspective in terms of what it would mean for hods to perform their curriculum and knowledge sharing leadership role effectively. methodology and ethical considerations methodological orientation designed as a multiple case study, this qualitative research article drew inspiration from the social constructivism paradigm. in this paradigm, the presence of the researcher in the participants’ environment meant that he was actively involved in co-constructing a depiction of their lived experiences (lincoln & guba, 2013). this was done by considering the merits of each case in terms of the commonalities and differences that applied in the studied schools; based on which, the researcher was able to come up with an empirically grounded comprehensive summation of the findings across all sites/cases (gomm et al., 2000). for example, across all three schools, the researcher observed that there was indeed some element of underresourcefulness, albeit at varying degrees. the fact that the degree of under-resourcefulness varied meant that some schools were better off than others; such as school a, which is located within the vicinity of a coal mine and frequently benefits from sponsorship towards building renovations. a stark contrast was found in school b, which is situated between an informal settlement and an rdp (free housing) housing scheme, and whose survival is at the mercy of the government subsidy and donations. school c, on the other hand, is relatively smaller when compared to the other two schools and is by far better off in terms of the state of ict infrastructure and learning facilities. based on the variants that each schooling context presented, the onus was upon the researcher to interpret the tone of each context as he interfaced with participants in their natural settings. sample size and sampling procedure according to white (2004), selecting participants who are deemed crucial to the facilitation of data collection implies that purposive sampling has been applied. concerning the size, the inquiry was centered around nine (9) teachers who were drawn from three schools within the radius of three education circuits in emalahleni. the criteria for choosing the schools was influenced by the need to have comprehensive representability wherein it was deemed important for all three educational circuits to be represented in some way (romm & nkambule, 2022). the first school is a combined school (from grade 1-9), the second school is a primary school (grade 1-7), and the third school is a secondary school (grade 8-12). below is a tabulated description of participants who took part in the study. 193 jcsr 2023, 5(2):186-205 table 1 participants description participant age gender area(s) of specialisation field experience #teacher 1 34 female afrikaans first additional language 10 years #teacher 2 33 female life orientation & economic and management sciences 07 years #teacher 3 37 female english home language 15 years #teacher 4 51 male technology & creative arts 24 years #teacher 5 47 female natural sciences & creative arts 23 years #teacher 6 46 male social sciences 18 years #teacher 7 57 male afrikaans second additional language 35 years #teacher 8 29 male mathematics & natural sciences 3 years #teacher 9 52 female creative arts & economic and management sciences 28 years data collection, applied instruments and analysis procedures in keeping with lincoln and guba (2013), data collection was done in the participants’ preferred locations, which mostly took place in their classrooms at schools after they had concluded their teaching duties. interviews entailed a series of semi-structured questions in sessions that ranged between 20 and 45 minutes each. a tape recorder was used to record participants’ verbal utterances whilst a notepad was used to record impressions and (re)actions that emanated from participants’ body language. all the interviews were captured and saved on a laptop as a microsoft word document. no quotations were tempered with and in instances where participants spoke in vernacular (i.e., any of the nine official local indigenous languages), phrases glossed by an equivalent word in the english language were placed in parentheses next to the vernacular word. generally, in the inquiry data were drawn and cross-examined from multiple sources to “identify themes and categories that seemed of interest” (esterberg, 2002, p. 158). content analysis was used to identify, code and categorise data according to themes (mohlokoane, 2004). this contributed to triangulation for the study, which took into account data sourced through interviews and documents. some of the documents perused included teachers’ files, which entailed previous reports issued by hods, templates of curriculum monitoring and evaluation instruments, evidence of the frequency of professional development meetings and other knowledge sharing events among staff. 194 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 186-205 ethical considerations before commencement of the researcher’s engagement with participants, an ethical review was sought, as provisioned by the university’s college of education research ethics committee. this was preceded by seeking permission from the mpumalanga provincial department of education (mpde). once permission was granted, schools were visited whereby principals were asked to coordinate meetings between the researcher and participants, for the researcher to explain the importance of their participation in the study and address questions pertinent to the research processes. it was at that juncture that participants were briefed on the protocols to be taken in actualising the investigation and were also assured that their participation would not put them in harm’s way. in terms of ensuring that all the footprints of the research processes were traceable, an audit trail was compiled by the researcher, which included archives of tape-recorded interviews, a journal containing written records of observable characteristics, and (where permissible) copies of documents that were perused, copies of ethical clearance certificates from the university and mpde and also letters sent to the principals as well as those that the researcher received from them. anonymity was ensured by using alphabets (for schools). teachers were assigned a hashtag sign next to their occupational title, followed by a number signifying their order of participation (e.g., #teacher 1). after the transcription of the interviews, the researcher revisited the schools to conduct member checking so that participants could check on the accuracy with which the researcher documented their narratives. results from the data that were generated through the interviews with teachers in their respective schools, the following themes emerged. leadership styles applied to enhance hods’ instructional leadership role naturally, as was demonstrated in the literature review section, hods back up their practice of instructional leadership style with another leadership style (bush, 2003; kwan, 2020). teachers generally commented about the other leadership styles which they presumed to have been used by their respective hods. in school a, teacher 2 argued: “that we work towards the same goal.” this was supported by teacher 1, who commented: hod trevor is very helpful and never shouts and wants you to understand when you are confused. he is truly a democratic leader. i say this because he is a people person and is never moody that one (#teacher 1, interview). teacher 3 directed her comments to hod leticia. when working under her we know that we can say suggest how we want things to happen anytime we need to. we are all a team, that’s what she usually says (#teacher 3, interview). 195 jcsr 2023, 5(2):186-205 as has already been stated by the participants, hods in this school are more attuned to democratic leadership, also known as participative (hickman, 2017) or distributed (msila, 2008) leadership style. it thrives on ensuring that duties are shared among staff and are facilitated through an inclusive and non-hierarchical approach (nkambule, 2022, 2023). on the contrary, in school b, teachers had mixed feelings. teacher 4 recounted how both hods in the school generally tended to put pressure on them to perform certain tasks within short intervals and yet they still expected their work to be perfect. we are constantly told what to do. the smt sits and discusses things and imposes them on us. when you suggest something, they purge you. they call you a bad influence. that is why we lose good teachers to other schools because people are not happy in this environment (#teacher 4, interview). a similar view was posited by teacher 5, albeit politely: we still have a long way to go. if our smt can stop taking decisions on their own, then they have more cooperation from us (#teacher 5, interview). minimal dialogue between stakeholders implies that decisions are taken unilaterally. as a result, there is a strong sense of despondency among sidelined personnel (root, 2016). these are traits of an autocratic leader (choi, 2007). teacher 6 concluded: here we have politics, but i can tell you, hod cindy does her best to make us work as a team. however, when you don’t submit her work, she writes a bad report about you, but when you do things according to your agreement with her, she will congratulate you and say well done (#teacher 6, interview). in this instance, the hod reacts according to how teachers perform their duties. hickman (2017) classifies this way of leading followers as a transactional leadership style. in any event, depending on the performance of the followers, either a reward or punishment is to be meted out (hickman, 2017). in that sense, failure to perform effectively warrants a punishment, whereas good performance is worth a reward of some sort (bass, 2008). in relation to school c, teacher 9 had the following to say about hod paul: when you say, you fail to submit your work for moderation, he will just come with a smile to remind you that you need to submit. in addition, he will negotiate with you on the next date of submission. although he might not be impressed by bad results, he will still motivate you to try harder next time. and he makes follow-ups with you frequently after your meeting (#teacher 9, interview). as illustrated above, the flair with which followers [i.e., teachers] are motivated to persist in trying hard to achieve organisational goals, exposes this leader’s resonances with transformational leadership style (chi & pan, 2012; mittal & dhar, 2015). summarily, teacher 7 commented: 196 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 186-205 hod marcus is strictly professional and does not really care about other things. you can’t even talk to him about other things except for work. i don’t agree with his character, but the guy works, and no one dares to miss moderation deadlines under him (#teacher 7, interview). while this leader’s work ethic is unquestionable, it is however, worrisome that he does not exude openness, accessibility and humor that is required to put the followers at ease [for them] to regularly share with him issues that might have either negatively or positively affected their performance (bush, 2003). a breakaway from autocratic leadership, this style of leading followers is known as a managerial leadership style and is very popular in south african schools (bush, 2003). ubuntu in hods’ curriculum leadership in light of the view that hods are custodians of curriculum leadership (bipath & nkabinde, 2018; bush, 2003; mashiane-nkabinde, 2020; nkabinde, 2012; nkambule & armsterdam, 2018), interviews were geared towards understanding how teachers characterised the impact that their respective hods had on teachers’ curriculum delivery. teacher 5 expressed that: at times curriculum policies are implemented without an in-depth understanding of what is required, especially when there is a new task that must be done as requested by the district in respect of the newly introduced way of doing it. but our hods still find a way to explain to us how they think we should approach things. i suppose that is how they show ubuntu (#teacher 5, interview). teacher 7 added: experience is what counts in our favor. we discuss things as adults when the need comes for everyone to sit around the table as adults and work things out. otherwise, everything is enough to get by. no extra effort to introduce new things. these hods are average in upholding curriculum delivery standards (#teacher 7, interview). more comprehensively, teacher 9 elaborated: the school has a well-structured approach for curriculum implementation and management. hods try to follow the school approach, which is done in the following ways: lesson planning is monitored though not regularly, learners’ books are controlled by hods, class visits are planned each term but not always done, pre-moderation is done on all formal tasks to ensure that we meet the required standards and is caps aligned. post moderation is also done on all formal tasks to ensure the marking and recording of marks was done correctly (#teacher 9, interview). there is a general perception among teachers that although hods’ leadership role averagely sustains curriculum implementation, they however do not go the extra mile to foster reciprocal understanding and a collective sense of duty among all stakeholders (nkambule, 2020). 197 jcsr 2023, 5(2):186-205 hod’s influence on ubuntu in internally and externally-directed knowledge sharing behavior while teachers 1 and 2 appeared contented by the rate at which hods exhibited ubuntu towards internally and externally directed knowledge sharing transactions, teacher 3 was not entirely convinced by this. this teacher hinted that although knowledge sharing behavior was not at a desirable level, ubuntu was being projected by some hods to facilitate dialogue among themselves and teachers, albeit at different levels of fervency. until recently, we didn’t have fully functional committees. nonetheless, i would say that both hods that i work with are lovely. they are not perfect, but they assist where they can. they show ubuntu by making copies for us because they understand how heavy our workload is. for the most part they are on top of the game through leading by example. never will you find them ill prepared for anything that has to do with their jobs (#teacher 3, interview). teacher 6 anchored her discussion on hods’ non-committal attitude towards cultivating an environment that values knowledge sharing transactions among teachers, particularly junior and senior teachers. she further divulged that while ubuntu values did not relentlessly underpin their knowledge sharing transactions among each other as colleagues, a different picture emerged when it came to how they handled knowledge exchange transactions with external stakeholders. as a result, the ordinary staff does not see the need to collaborate, not unless they are forced to. but my guy!.....when those parents, sgb members, nurses, police and education officials come to our school; i am telling you, you will see us moving up and down to treat them with care (#teacher 6, interview). teacher 7 echoed a similar sentiment, at how hods failed to exhibit the attitude of ubuntu towards teachers in curriculum management. he compared this to the observation he made about the level of hospitality that hods display towards external stakeholders. unfortunately, sir…..we do receive similar treatment like outsiders who come here to do something, maybe as parents or anybody who comes for something. they [referring to hods] take outsiders seriously more than us. i don’t know maybe you must ask other colleagues they will tell you this story i’m telling you (#teacher 7, interview). in closing this point, teacher 5 remarked: we smile and laugh together, in that sense, ubuntu is there sometimes. we have meetings to discuss how to do things. we must sit together and work together. in that way, our job is done and hods monitor, discuss and give feedback on the quality of work. but knowledge sharing is not always coming from collaboration by everyone but the big guns only [referring to hods and the entire smts], which is not right, i guess (#teacher 7, interview). as a consequence of hods’ not applying themselves with vigour to create a climate that embraces extensive knowledge sharing, on a daily basis these schools incur a loss of precious knowledge, specifically tacit knowledge, which requires that social meetings must take place for co-workers to have it shared and transferred (nkambule, 2022). 198 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 186-205 leadership styles that most embody the ethos of ubuntu instructional leadership tends to be too fixated on-line function which often fails to infuse extensive dialogue and flexibility in the assignment of instructional duties at a collegial level (loock, 2003). therefore, to palliate its inherently top-down undertakings, hallinger (2003) points out that it is usually accompanied by another leadership style. according to the narrative of participants, as evidenced in school a, where most participants did not seem to question their level of inclusion and engagement by hods in the decision-making processes around instructional matters. also, in school c, where hod paul used motivation to rally teachers behind a common goal, as evidenced below. he is truly a democratic leader. i say this because he is a people person and is never moody that one (#teacher 1, interview). we work towards the same goal (# interview, teacher 2). we are all a team, that’s what she usually says (#teacher 3, interview). although he might not be impressed by bad results, he will still motivate you to try harder next time. and he checks you frequently after that (#teacher 9, interview). through these narratives, it can be ascertained that both participative (democratic) leadership and transformational leadership styles moderate hods’ incorporation of ubuntu values in their curriculum leadership role. discussion discussion based on the interviews held with participants the article was set on determining the perceptions of teachers about hods’ infusion of ubuntu values in curriculum delivery and knowledge sharing leadership. one of the findings validates the already empirically documented sentiment, that in school setting, hods are likely to adopt another leadership style alongside instructional leadership (e.g., bellibaş et al., 2021; bush, 2003; 2007; hallinger, 2005; loock, 2003; kwan, 2020). in the context of this article, democratic (participative), autocratic, transactional, transformational and managerial were found to have been used by individual hods to strengthen their curriculum leadership role. it however, became apparent that both participative and transformational leadership styles sufficiently promote the ethos of ubuntu in hods’ curriculum leadership role. otherwise, the other leadership style namely, transactional, autocratic and managerial were found to have largely contributed to the erosion of ubuntu values, specifically in internally directed knowledge sharing transactions, where hods were reported to have failed to exude interpersonal undertakings towards teachers. resultantly, this discouraged teachers from engaging one another in knowledge sharing undertakings on a frequent basis. this implies that under the stewardship of these hods, there was daily forfeiture of tacit knowledge, which according to nonaka (1994), is the kind of knowledge that gives credence to innovation, productivity and competitive edge in organisations. to that end, senior teachers, who also happened to be highly experienced, did not sufficiently receive the platform to impart their tacit knowledge to their beginner and mid-career counterparts. 199 jcsr 2023, 5(2):186-205 although the efforts of hods towards curriculum leadership were reportedly informed about latest developments in their jobs, moreover along the lines of curriculum delivery, the majority of teachers (six altogether) remarked that, beyond curriculum undertakings, hods often did not consistently exude the values of ubuntu to cultivate collegial practices. on the contrary, hods appeared to have committedly and consistently forwarded the gestures of ubuntu towards external stakeholders of the school community. teachers themselves unanimously agreed that they also minimally applied ubuntu among themselves whilst towards external stakeholders they applied them fervently. discussion based on document analysis from a wide range of electronically and physically accessible documents at the researcher’s disposal (jansen, 2016), in this investigation, the researcher perused teachers’ files which contained curriculum policy documents, moderation and post-moderation tools, previous reports issued by hod to teachers and minutes of meetings held by teachers. this came to the fore in some of the interviews held with participants, as stated below. the school has a well-structured approach for curriculum implementation and management. hods try to follow the school approach, which is done in the following ways: lesson planning is monitored though not regularly, learners’ books are controlled by hods, class visits are planned each term but not always done, pre-moderation is done on all formal tasks to ensure that we meet the required standards and is caps [i.e., curriculum assessment policy statement] aligned. post moderation is also done on all formal tasks to ensure the marking and recording of marks was done correctly (#teacher 9, interview). as already pointed out by teachers in their respective interviews, the documents that were perused demonstrated that hods monitored and evaluated teachers’ composition of the curriculum content and pedagogical strategies that were used to deliver the curriculum, albeit at varying levels of commitment. worth noting, is the observation made by the researcher during his visits to the selected schools to collect data, that is, although, in these respective schools, there were on display, framed pictures of the batho pele principles— a public service policy which largely draws from ubuntu philosophy to encourage mutual participation and care for others when rendering a service (pietersen, 2014) — not all staff members were mindful of the need to work within these principles. this in essence, echoes the view of teachers who stated that best practices were often not fully taken into cognisance in undertakings between hods and teachers. conclussion and recommendations conclusion this qualitative inquiry was focused on understanding teachers’ perceptions of hods’ ubuntu directed curriculum delivery and knowledge sharing leadership in under-resourced public schools within the vicinity of emalahleni (mpumalanga province). the article demonstrated how a blended approach to school leadership, that is thrust on a non-adversarial intersection 200 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 186-205 between indigenous and mainstream leadership practices, might add an impetus to hods’ curriculum leadership role and moderate the incorporation of a contextually relevant ethical grounding (upon which ubuntu values can be seen to be) equal to the task of insulating the wellbeing and the sustenance of teacher curriculum delivery, teacher knowledge sharing culture, learner performance, and in the bigger scheme of things, school effectiveness. recommendations and implication for future research the article recommends that hods should consciously embed teacher leadership in ubuntu directed undertakings. through acting in concert with this recommendation, it is envisaged that hods’ interface with sub-ordinate staff members will favourably contribute towards: a) supporting a collective knowledge exchange enterprise that values “we” instead of “i” in carrying out a task; b) forging a non-adversarial intersection between 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(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0) how to cite watson-canning, a. (2020). gendering social studies: teachers’ intended and enacted curriculum and student diffraction. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(1), 55-75. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.4 abstract due to intransigence of social studies curriculum-makers to broaden the scope of who and what is studied, women (especially non-white women) are lacking representation. however, some teachers go beyond the textbook to select alternative curriculum lenses. utilizing curricular-instructional gatekeeping, complementary curriculum, and queer theory, this article examines how two secondary teachers who incorporate issues of gender and/or women’s experiences into their social studies curriculum describe their reasoning and intentions, how their expressed aims are manifested within their classrooms, and student reaction to the incorporation of gender and women’s experience in the social studies curriculum. findings indicate participants value multiple perspectives and parity in social studies curriculum and map these ideas onto the explicit curriculum. however, student responses tend to resist teacher intentions and enactment of challenges to normative gender roles. this diffracted curriculum interferes with teacher aims, creating a curricular space where traditional assumptions of the gender binary play out in teacher-student and student-student interactions. these findings indicate a more relational approach to social studies curriculum may be needed to encourage students to engage constructively with nonnormative social ideas. keywords education; curriculum studies; gender; women; social studies education; curricular-instructional gatekeeping; teacher beliefs; student response 10.46303/jcsr.02.01.4 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.4 56 introduction for nearly fifty years, feminist scholars have advocated for the inclusion of women’s experiences and gender in the social studies classroom (e.g., bernard-powers, 1996; crocco, 2008, 2018; engebretson, 2016; grambs, 1976; levstik, 2009; noddings, 1992, 2001, 2015; schafer & bohan, 2009; tetrault, 1986; trecker, 1973). and while the past half-century has seen an increase in the addition of women to the traditional textbook narrative and curriculum standards, this inclusion has been mainly white, emphasizing gendered and racial stereotypes, and stagnating in recent years (bohan, 2017; clark, allard, & mahoney, 2004; clark, ayton, frecette, & keller, 2005; commeyras & alvermann, 1996; gordy, hogan, & pritchard, 2004; hahn, bernard-powers, crocco, & woyshner, 2007; schmeichel, 2014; schmidt, 2012; schrader & wotipka, 2011; williams & bennett, 2016; woyshner & schocker, 2015). most scholarly work about incorporating women and gender in the social studies curriculum analyzes curricular materials or discusses trends in pedagogical methods for preservice teachers (bohan, 2017). practitioner articles are ameliorative, proposing what to teach about women and how to teach it (e.g., bair & ackerman, 2014; bousalis, 2012; charter, 2015; crocco, pervez, and katz, 2009; kim, 2012; kirkwood-tucker, 2011; lapham & hanes, 2013; schmeichel, janis, & mcanulty, 2016; wei, 2011). however, little research explores how teachers teach about women and gender in their social studies courses, how they discuss their intentions, or how students respond to the altered curriculum (bair, 2008; hahn, 1996; levstik, 1998; levstik & groth, 2002; stevens & martell, 2016, 2019; ten dam & rijkschroeff, 1996; ten dam & teekens, 1997). how can we know the work we produce has an ameliorative effect if we do not go into the classroom and examine what happens when those experiences are integrated? this study examines how teachers think about and include women and gender in their classroom as well as the ways in which student responses to this curriculum challenge teacher attempts to produce content with non-normative gender roles. teachers make choices about content and pedagogical methods to use. these decisions define teachers as curricular-instructional gatekeepers (thornton, 1991, 2005). these choices are influenced by teachers’ values and beliefs, leading them to create a complementary curriculum (moroye, 2009). implicitly and explicitly, teachers graft their values and beliefs onto the explicit curriculum. thus, while studies demonstrate social studies teachers rely heavily on the textbook (loewen, 2007; thornton, 1991), teachers can go beyond the textbook to select alternative curriculum lenses. regarding gender, scholars have suggested heterosexuality is implicitly taught as the normative sexual relationship (mayo, 2017; mayo & sheppard, 2012; pascoe, 2012; pascoe & herrera, 2018; schmidt, 2010). this heteronormative discourse is deeply etched into the explicit, implicit, and hidden curricula. students encounter it when they invite their mothers to 57 “tea” and fathers to “daddy-daughter” dances, when high school students select homecoming courts with “kings and queens,” and when female students’ clothing is policed because male desire is inscribed upon their bodies. utilizing the concepts of curricular-instructional gatekeeping and complementary curriculum as well as queer theory, this study explores: 1) the intentions of teachers who choose gender and women’s experiences as a curricular lens; 2) how their intentions are enacted in their classrooms; and 3) how students respond to that curricular enactment. i use educational connoisseurship and criticism1 as conceived by eisner (2017) to structure my analysis and portraiture (lawrence-lightfoot, 2005) to present my data. educational criticism provides an opportunity to move away from traditionally positivist and post-positivist research methods and into more creative and experiential ways of knowing. portraiture allows the researcher a method for creating narrative structures to help make sense of the classroom environments studied. gender parity in the content and the classroom scholars have argued that without the inclusion of gender as a topic for analysis, gender parity will never be achieved (lerner, 2009; sadker, sadker, & zittleman, 2009; sanders, 2002). much of the standards and content within history and other social studies courses reinforce a view of women as nonparticipants in shaping the public sphere (engebretson, 2014; lerner, 2009; scott, 1997). without antecedents participating in political, social, and economic change, female students may not see themselves as full participants in contemporary society and male students may not view women as capable agents of change. sanders (2002) argued to counteract gender biases in the classroom, gender equity content should be systemic and infused throughout teacher education courses. teachers may reflect gender biases, providing male students with more attention and feedback (positive and negative), while praising female students for their behavior but rarely calling upon them to respond to questions (sadker et al., 2009). young women become silent spectators in their education, an experience continuing through college (crawford & macleod, 1990) as male students aggressively commandeer classroom discussion (segall, crocco, halvorsen, and jacobsen, 2018). gender and sexuality a small but growing body of research discusses the construct of gender and the norming of heterosexuality in the school and social studies classroom (crocco, 2001, 2002, 2008; loutzenheiser, 2010; mayo, 2017; mayo & shepard, 2012; regenhardt, 2009; schmidt, 2015). zook (2002) argues gender is not only about women—men should also see they are gendered: 1 henceforth, educational criticism. 58 “we need to teach our students…that both masculinity and femininity are concepts that have been defined, restricted, limited, and challenged from time immemorial” (p. 374). this analytic development arises from the use of queer theory as a lens with which to focus research in social studies education. queer theory emphasizes the iteration of sexuality, and through that, gender. it calls attention to the binary assumptions located within heteronormative practices. the repetition of these practices provide “intelligibility” to gender. as butler (2006) argues, “‘intelligible’ genders are those which in some sense institute and maintain relations of coherence and continuity among sex, gender, sexual practice, and desire” (p. 23). methodology for this study, i combine educational criticism as conceived by eisner (2017) and lawrencelightfoot’s (2005) concept of portraiture. in educational criticism, one describes, interprets, and critiques the event researched and then develops themes to make sense of the experience (eisner, 2002). eisner is clear this work constitutes a creative act by the researcher. he argues “the self is the instrument that engages the situation and makes sense of it” (2017, p. 34). lawrence-lightfoot (2005) maintains “the portraitist emerges as an instrument of inquiry” (p. 11). the researcher must acknowledge her interactive participation in the moments of collection and the construction of meaning as she seeks to define themes. as eisner (2017) reflects, the researcher is situated in a transactive space between “two postulated entities, the objective and the subjective” (p. 52). lawrence-lightfoot (2005) captures this paradox as a “dynamic between documenting and creating the narrative, between receiving and shaping, reflecting and imposing, mirroring and improvising. […] the effort to reach coherence must both flow organically from the data and from the interpretive witness of the portraitist” (p. 10). research design the first part of my process involved interviewing teachers about their beliefs and values about social studies education. for the second part of the study, i observed the teachers in at least two different disciplinary classes for a minimum of two weeks. i utilized eisner’s “ecology of schooling” (1988) during observations, including the 1) intentional: teacher explanations about including gender and/or women’s experiences in their course curriculum; 2) structural: the ways in which teachers viewed how textbooks, standards, and course curriculum help and/or hinder the addition of curriculum; 3) curricular: the content provided by the teacher; 4) pedagogical: the manner in which the teachers disseminated the content; and 5) evaluative: the ways in which the teachers assessed the students’ understanding of the curriculum. data collected included observations of classroom lessons and activities, lesson artifacts including handouts, lecture notes, readings, textbook materials, and audio recordings of interviews of participating teachers. 59 i created two-part portraits (lawrence-lightfoot, 2005) of my participants. the first part incorporated my interviews with my participants and explored their intentions: why they aspired to incorporate women’s experiences and gender into their classroom curriculum and how they defined that incorporation. the second part of each portrait is a “scene” taken from a classroom observation examining how my participants enacted their intentions and how students responded to the enacted curriculum. the scenes are detailed, a critical factor, as eisner (2017) argues, “the text should […] enable readers to get a feel for the place or process and […] for the experience of those who occupy the situation” (p. 89). while multiple events during observations provided data, for brevity, i have selected two scenes to act as synecdoches for the observation experience. my work is situated within a constructivist framework. i concur with eisner (2017) that “[t]here are multiple ways in which the world can be known […]. human knowledge is a constructed form of experience and therefore a reflection of mind as well as nature: knowledge is made, not simply discovered” (p. 7). thus, i do not purport to provide the singular explanation as to why teachers choose to incorporate gender and/or women’s experiences into the social studies curriculum and how students respond; rather, i seek to provide an account for these occurrences and then evaluate the information for its potential to illuminate the process for other teachers and teacher educators. context of the study the research presented here follows two female secondary teachers, one jewish (sonya woodhull2), and one bi-racial, filipina-white (elena anthony) working in central florida. sonya is in her sixth year at cypress glen preparatory high school, a public charter secondary school. according to the common core of data for 2018-2019 (national center for educational statistics, 2019), the total school population was 609 students; 343 were listed as female and 266 were male. twenty-six students were identified as asian, 116 as black, 158 as hispanic, 285 as white, and twenty-one were identified as two or more races. elena is a first-year teacher at lakeview catholic, a coeducational parochial school. according to the private school universe survey for the 2017-2018 school year (national center for educational statistics, 2018), the total school population was 764 students; twenty-two students were identified as asian, seventythree as black, 300 as hispanic, 339 as white, and twenty-six were identified as two or more races. data on sex-gender identification was not available. results my research questions asked how participants described why they wished to incorporate women and gender into their social studies curriculum, what that looked like in their 2 all names and locations are pseudonyms. 60 classrooms, and how students responded to that enactment. findings suggested teachers who incorporate gender and women’s experiences into their curriculum held idealistic and ameliorative views of that incorporation, and their pedagogical methods for incorporation were influenced by their personal experiences as students; however, student responses to the incorporation of gender and women’s experiences attempted to reify the traditional gender roles their teachers challenged, diffracting the intended and enacted curriculum. finally, this diffracted curriculum seemed to be impacted by the different ways discussion manifests in the classroom. idealism in social studies education demonstrating a sense of idealism, both teachers viewed the purpose of social studies education as teaching students to see multiple perspectives and develop empathy for others. sonya woodhull believed the purpose of social studies education was to prepare students for citizenship. for sonya, however, citizenship was more than learning about the structure of government or how to vote. indeed, preparation for citizenship meant understanding that people hold different perspectives, respecting those differences, and learning to compromise for the larger good: “[f]or me, citizenship is about being able to take on multiple perspectives, the ability to engage in dialogue, sometimes make compromises, a willingness to understand another’s point of view. things like that.” she hoped her students developed a “greater complexity when they look at the world.” elena anthony saw social studies education as an opportunity to build tolerance for other cultures. she wanted to encourage her students to step out of what she considered a narrow worldview and to consider other perspectives: [t]hese kids grow up predominantly within the same demographic of, you know, white families, middle to upper class, especially in private school. and i think world history is a really great way to get them out of that singular perspective and help them understand different cultures and why they are what they are today. social studies as ameliorative both teachers also valued gender parity in the classroom. this was seen in their attempts to include more women in their content, as well as in their belief the inclusion would encourage young women to be more socially and politically engaged. when thinking about incorporating women’s experiences and gender into her curriculum, sonya mostly considered integration in compensatory ways, seeking women who have contributed to the field and whom she feels had been ignored. for example, she recognized the psychology curriculum fostered a male-dominant narrative. textbooks are “full of white men as our major theorists […]. so i try to incorporate different positions besides the dominant theorists.” she added: 61 i thought: “why am i just telling stories about these men?” so, i did a little bit of research for myself and also for a project. […] i looked into a slew of, probably about ten famous women in psychology, and not just women today, but women throughout the history of psychology. and i’ve been finding ways to bring up their names more actively in class, and to do the same thing i would do for the male theorists that i’ve been doing: i might put their picture on the board, tell some back story, talk about their greatest contribution to the field. and i’ve tried to do it in a way that is seamless, so it’s no different than the way that i talk about different famous men in the field. a significant argument elena provided for incorporating women into her world history curriculum was for her female students. she believed it is critical for the young women in her class to have strong historical figures with whom they could relate: you get constant mention after mention of men, men, men. so, when you get to byzantine [empire], there’s a small spark of hope for theodora. […] she makes her way to the top. she convinces justinian to stay in the city after a rebellion, puts down the rebellion because of her. and the girls are suddenly like, “yeah, ok!” it’s that representation that i think we don’t really get a whole lot of, and the girls, they don’t really see a whole lot of it; they don’t find any kind of connection they can make until i feel like i can make that. pedagogical experiences as students past experiences with high school and college instructors also played a critical role in how these teachers viewed the purpose of social studies and shaped how they think about constructing their curriculum. as a former psychology major, sonya believed it was important for her students to recognize the motivations behind their actions. she saw this as crucial for understanding others’ perspective: “one big takeaway i love to see is that students explain their own behavior and have an ability to understand why people do the things they do.” a major influence in her thinking about perspective-taking arose from her memories of a college multicultural psychology course where students examined their own identities through the lenses of privilege and oppression: [w]e did a few readings about things ranging from, like, microaggression to cultural experiences. and then, in class, we would come in and all talk…and every week we had to say whether or not this aspect of our identity had been privileged or oppressed. elena preferred her history courses to other social science disciplines because she appreciated its narrative potential. in particular, she mentions a professor who taught economic history to make her point: i realized he told history like it was one giant story, and i had never thought of it like that before. and so […] i went to his lectures and pretended like he was just telling me a story. everything [was] just so much more fascinating. 62 enacting a complementary curriculum and student response the following scenes explore how these idealistic and ameliorative beliefs regarding the purpose of social studies education as well as personal educational experiences played roles in developing each teacher’s complementary curriculum, the conscious and unconscious mapping of values and beliefs onto the explicit curriculum. they also demonstrate how students responded in resistant ways to a curriculum featuring nonnormative gender values. “why have two different places if we’re the same?” sonya’s belief in the importance of teaching multiple perspectives is a critical component of her classroom. she often provided students opportunities to discuss their own experiences with each other. prior to the following scene, she asked the students to share their personal experiences about gender socialization in small groups and then brought the conversation back to the larger class. “whole class recap: first question: messages you received?” a male student kicks off the discussion. “we talked about toys. i had a bunny and blue blanket.” a young woman adds, “girls have to wear dresses.” sonya asks, “was this enforced?” several female students concur. the female students begin discussing their experiences as children. one offers, “i was a tomboy, but my mom would always do my hair and make me wear skirts.” another young woman replies, “my parents stuck me in ballet and my brother in soccer.” “i would sit with my legs spread and my mom would correct me.” sonya adds, “manspreading—a gendered term.” “what about question two? have you ever systematically considered how you developed your gender identity?” a male student offers, “when i was younger, i used to think about the fact that we had two separate locker rooms and bathrooms, and then my mom explained why, and it made sense.” sonya asks the young man to clarify his statement: “explain that and use the most academic language you can. what made sense?” the young man replies, “why have two different places if we’re the same? but she pointed out the differences.” sonya helps the young man explain: “body part differences.” he agrees. “yes.” sonya moves to the next question: “how are your gender identity and expression informed or affected by your experiences growing up?” a female student describes the difference between identity and expression: “identity is: ‘do you feel like a boy or a girl?’ expression is how you show it, like jaden smith wearing skirts.” sonya follows up. “do body parts have anything to do with it?” a male student replies, “sort of. i didn’t have an existential moment, but i have ‘this,’” he refers to his body, “so i’m like this.” sonya questions the student’s assumptions: “but for some people, what they have and what they feel don’t match.” 63 a female student asks: “question: if you’re a boy but if you like girly things, why can’t you just be…” she trails off. another female student asks for clarification. “identity is female anatomy rather than sex?” sonya tries to explain: “gender identity disorder3 is when someone feels they should have been a boy or a girl: their gender identity does not match their sex.” a young man asks, “so if you got male parts but identify as a girl, you’re still a girl?” sonya adjusts the term: “you’d be a transgender female.” another young man jumps in. “ok, i just need clarification. people talk about trans, but i don’t understand.” sonya breaks down the various terms for gender identity. “the term for you if you identify as your born sex is ‘cis.’ ‘trans,’ if you identify as female and have male anatomy.” a female student asks, “so if you identify as female and were born as a female, you are cis-gender?” sonya nods her head. “yes. sometimes allies use these terms too.” a male student says, “i wish more people would do that.” sonya asks, “why do we need this answered?” a young woman replies, “i want to know to use the right term.” and a young man responds, “yes, but also if you’re going to flirt…” sonya follows up. “so, thinking about your own sexual preferences, you’d want to know?” she throws the question out to the larger group. several young women respond. “we grew up boy/girl, but now i need to know just for reference.” “it’s still like everyone’s tiptoeing around because everyone’s not used to it. it’s human curiosity—we want to know.” “i don’t want to use the wrong term.” sonya moves on to the next question on the powerpoint, “what messages do you send others regarding what it means to be a ‘boy’ or a ‘girl?’” this question seems to be tough for students to answer. a young man responds. “if you’re told to man up, you will tell others.” a young woman counters, “i wouldn’t say anything now because you don’t know how people will respond. i don’t want to tell someone to be lady-like or ‘man-up’ because i don’t want to be attacked.” the conversation peters out, and sonya moves on. she clicks to a slide defining gender socialization and students write down the definition. when they are finished, she has them copy down a chart for the upcoming gender socialization lab. students complete the chart with small side conversations: i overhear one young woman in the back make a joke to another student, “‘excuse me ma’am’ [deep voice.] ‘i’m not a ma’am’ [back to her regular voice]. we can’t even call people a boy or a girl anymore.” 3 in 2013, the american psychological association changed the term “gender identity disorder” to “gender dysphoria” thereby placing emphasis on the need to “resolve distress” over an individual’s feeling a mismatch between identity and body. in 2018, the world health organization changed the term to “gender incongruence” and moved it out of the category of mental disorders. (russo, 2017; world health organization, 2018). 64 throughout the above scene, sonya demonstrated her desire to foster dialogue among her students. dialogue, as she mentioned, is a critical component of civic education tied to compromise and the acknowledgment of others’ perspectives. most of her interventions within the activity supported and reinforced student comments; she also prodded them to think deeper by asking follow-up questions. there was only one point in which sonya “led” discussion in a traditional manner—when the students specifically asked for clarification regarding sex, gender identity, and gender expression. much of the female students’ commentary revealed the unsurprising forced parental gendering of their appearance and activities. simultaneously, they revealed their desire to transgress those same gendered norms. male students in the class were more apt to reify the gender binary as biologically determined. and this biologically defined concept of gender is rooted in sexual activity. in their discussion of cisand transgender identity, when sonya queried why a male student would want more people to specifically identify their “non-normative” gender category, another male student responded, “if you’re going to flirt.” the implication was that the heterosexual, cis-gendered male student can only engage in sexual banter and, perhaps, activity with a heterosexual, cis-gendered female. both male and female students seemed to demonstrate discomfort at the disruption of the gender binary. students sought to label identity and expression as knowable categories that can be compared against cisand hetero-, thus reifying heterosexual as the dominant pole of the binary. finally, there was flat-out resistance to the disruption of the gender binary, as one young woman quietly commented to a peer, “we can’t even call people a boy or a girl anymore.” “i bet no one took her serious.” elena was influenced by storytelling as a pedagogical tool through her fond memories of her own teachers. this impacted her thinking about incorporating women into her curriculum: she focused on female figures who made narrativeworthy strides, taking time to emphasize their singular impact in their cultural and historical moments. elena believed this emphasis on the stories of significant women would create a twofold accomplishment: first, it provided young women in her classes with historical figures like them so they might connect to the subject and find political agency; and second, it offered young men in her class an alternative to the traditionally-gendered view of women. in the following scene, elena attempted to frame the joan of arc narrative as one of gender transgression and open a discussion about gender roles, past and present. elena shows a slide with an image of joan of arc and asks, “ahh…who is this beautiful person?” the students in the class call out, “joan of arc!” a male student adds, “she’s a saint!” elena pointedly responds, “she’s a female—who was she?” and a female student replies, “a peasant.” 65 elena launches into her joan of arc story. “she’s thirteen years old, ripe and ready to go…” a male student snickers; elena ignores him and continues with her story: “…minding her own business, and she gets a message from god…” the snickering turns to laughter. elena gives the student a “look.” the boy responds, “you said ‘ripe and ready to go!’ i thought that was funny!” she ignores the young man’s comment and looks around the classroom. another male student redirects the conversation: “i bet no one took her serious. i wouldn’t.” elena asks, “why not? what were women supposed to be doing during this time?” the male students pepper her with responses: “washing dishes, doing cooking.” “housewife things.” elena follows up, “is that how it is today?” a male student in the front replies, “my mom stays at home and takes care of all that.” another boy says, “nowawdays [sic], we have housekeepers.” continuing along that vein, another young man responds: “if she has a rich lawyer for a husband, she doesn’t have to do that kind of thing.” elena brings the conversation back to the topic at hand: “let’s focus again on joan. the things we’re talking about: cooking, cleaning, sewing, are domestic duties—they take place around the home. but she gets a message from god and goes to find the king.” elena is interrupted by a male student, “she dies.” elena responds in a mock-frustrated fashion, “i’m trying to tell a story! let me tell the story!” a female student turns to the interrupter and jokes, “thanks for ruining it.” the male student replies, “we all know— she’s a saint!” elena returns to her story: “joan finds the king.” she kneels as a supplicant in front of a male student’s desk and, as joan, cries out, “‘let me lead an army! i know we’re in trouble, and i can do it!’” she stands and looks over the whole class. “and what does charles say?” a female student responds. “yes—because he’s desperate.” elena turns to a male student who had spoken earlier. “andrew, what did you say about how you would respond to joan?” “i asked if men would take her seriously, because back then, i wouldn’t. women didn’t go to war.” a female student speaks over andrew. “but she was a soldier!” elena follows up. “do we look at her as a woman or a soldier?” the female student responds matter-of-factly. “soldier.” andrew hedges. “both.” elena restarts her story. “joan disguises herself as a man so as not to attract attention…” a male student interrupts. “there are certain things you can’t hide…” elena gives the student a sideways glance and retorts, “armor.” another boy adds, “kinda like mulan.” elena agrees, “yes, kind of like mulan.” 66 in this scene, elena’s thinking about history as a narrative and her desire to generate interest in the subject was demonstrated in her storytelling technique. she wanted to engage her students in the story of history. students quickly identified joan of arc’s challenges to patriarchal gender norms. one male student noted it would be difficult for men to take an adolescent girl seriously in the middle of a war, acknowledging if he were there, “i wouldn’t.” elena utilized the young man’s comment to elicit discussion from the students about gender roles in the past and attempted to contextualize them with the present. the male students commandeered the conversation, listing stereotypical private sphere roles performed by women. when prompted to consider how society had changed, the young men responded that roles had not changed. the young men attempted to sexualize joan of arc as a way to challenge her appropriation of the traditional male role. when confronted with joan’s cross-dressing, a young man definitively stated, “[t]here are certain things you can’t hide.” when elena opens her story by describing joan as thirteen and “ripe and ready to go,” another male student laughed, marking the phrase as an innuendo referring to joan’s sexual availability. after class, elena struggled with the balance between sharing her own opinions versus letting the students share their beliefs and values about women. she was conflicted about her male students’ responses: i really had to hold back, especially with my kid at the front, when he was talking about today, and his mom, and his experiences of moms and females and their responsibilities and what they should be doing. elena’s decision to hold back her opinion about women’s roles seemed to stem from her belief that her role was as a facilitator of discussion and also her desire to better understand her students’ values and beliefs: i don’t want to stand in front of the room and tell them what they should be thinking, what they should be believing because, [and here she sighs in frustration] i don’t know. i think it’s helpful [for me] to get the perspective of different people, especially students of their age, so i can understand what they think, what they’re experiencing today right now, not just in the classroom, but at home, like that kid did. however, she noted the difficulties her female students had fully engaging in discussions. they were mostly silent while the boys controlled the class discussion: but the thing is i, again, did not get a lot response from the girls in that class. so, i did not get their perspective on what they think women are doing today. and i could have probably singled a girl out, but the girls in that class are a little...they don’t want to speak out unless...i don’t know. the boys dominate that class. ultimately, she was surprised (and perhaps disappointed) by the boys’ traditional views on gender. but she still held out hope her emphasis on female figures had the potential to change these boys’ points-of-view when it comes to gender roles: 67 i don’t think the kid up here meant to be aggressive in the way he was talking about it, i think that’s just his view. that’s what he knows, that’s what he’s used to. and so, i think by learning about joan of arc and other important figures in history, regardless of what time period we’re in, i can try to move them out of this notion of society still expect[ing] women to do these things that we’ve seen in the past. a diffracted curriculum how students respond to the enacted curriculum can be considered a “diffracted curriculum.” i turn to haraway’s (1992) notion of diffraction to think about this interaction between student and curriculum: “diffraction is a mapping of interference, not of replication, reflection, or reproduction. a diffraction pattern does not map where differences appear, but rather maps where the effects of difference appear” (p. 300). learning is not a one-way discursive process, and students are not passive vehicles for curricular content (apple, 1990; hall, 1973). dewey, too, acknowledged student agency regarding the learning experience: “it is not the question of how to teach geography…but what geography is for the child” (cited in tanner, 2017, p. 43). when grappling with the question of how to teach about gender in the social studies curriculum, i encountered the question of what gender is for these students. student responses to the enacted curriculum provide an opportunity to examine how their values and beliefs may “interfere” with a teacher’s intended and enacted curriculum, and we may “map” the effects of this diffraction. in this case, “gender” tended toward a heteronormative binary; any attempt at releasing gender from the binary cast the gender role as unintelligible (butler, 2006). regarding norms surrounding gender and sexuality, loutzenheiser (2010) argued resistant responses occur because teachers mistakenly believe if students simply “know enough” or “know right,” they will alter their thinking. however, when students are forced to comply with nonnormative ideas without an honest, relational discussion with teachers, they will dig in their heels and, thus, the potential for an educative, transformational experience is weakened: “[t]he very act of trying to have white and/or straight preservice teachers [or students] […] get it ‘right’ will only engender a resistance that will impede the possibility of even momentary reflection and empathy” (p. 70). diffraction of enacted curriculum. in this study, issues surrounding appropriate social and sexual gender norms were raised as students grappled with challenges to the gender binary. there were times when student responses to curriculum about gender or women’s experiences diffracted the enacted curriculum by reifying the traditional gender binary despite teachers’ intentions to foster the opposite. at times, students resisted material challenging the gender binary. in sonya’s sociology class, a young woman joked after the discussion about transgender identity, “‘excuse me ma’am’ [deep voice.] ‘i’m not a ma’am’ [back to her regular voice]. we can’t even call people a boy or a girl anymore.” using the dichotomy between what male and female voices “should” sound like in a traditionally-gendered world and then criticizing our 68 inability to use binary sex-gender labels, the young woman provided a point of interference with sonya’s enacted curriculum. out of the teacher’s earshot, this interference can be seen as student resistance to nonnormative definitions of gender. students also resisted the idea that women could take on non-traditional gender roles. in elena’s world history class, students were prompted to consider how women’s roles had changed since the medieval period. young men in the class contended gender roles had not changed: “my mom stays home and takes care of all that.” while they noted a service industry existed so economically advantaged women did not have the responsibilities of traditional housework, husbands remained the economic provider: “if she has a rich lawyer for a husband, she doesn’t have to do that kind of thing.” male students diffracted elena’s enacted curriculum of joan of arc as a transgressor of gender roles by referencing their personal understandings of how society operates, reifying the boundary between the public, a masculine space of economic provision, and the private, a feminine space of caretaking (kimmel, 1997). diffraction as entanglement. the diffracted curriculum is also an entanglement of student-to-student responses. this, in turn, has the potential to entangle with teacher reflection on their intentionality. when elena reflected on her joan of arc class discussion, she recognized the silence of her female students: “they don’t want to speak out unless...i don’t know. the boys dominate that class.” the young women diffracted the male students’ “dominating” behavior by not participating, leading to elena’s frustration with her students’ responses and her own lack of action. discussion harnessing discussion as a pedagogical tool gatekeeping and the complementary curriculum explain much of how and why teachers make decisions about what to include (and exclude) in their lessons. in this study, both teachers believed the integration of women’s experiences was important for their students’ education, and thus, emphasized the topic in the subjects they taught. both teachers incorporated discussion as a pedagogical tool to varying degrees of success. it became clear during observations that efficacy with discussion techniques fostered more open conversations about gender, even if resistant diffraction remained. at cypress glen, both the english and social science departments utilized structured discussions, such as socratic seminars throughout the grades. student engagement in sonya’s class discussion was quite high even in less structured discussions. perhaps this is because students developed and internalized the appropriate listening and response skills after several years of experience. research has demonstrated female students participate in class less as they progress through school (sadker, et al., 2009; sanders, 2002) and male students are more aggressive and dominant in classroom discussions (segall, et al., 2018), a finding reinforced by elena’s class discussion about joan of arc. segall, et al. (2018) argue socratic seminars have the potential to 69 invite more female students into participation due to its deliberative, rather than divisive, nature. sonya’s classroom, which, as mentioned, utilized socratic seminars regularly, seemed to have an even split in male-female participation. deploying discussion to respond to the diffracted curriculum as noted earlier, this diffracted curriculum has the potential to impact student experiences of the enacted curriculum. it also seems to affect how teachers view their efficacy. this was observed in elena’s reflection of her experience during her joan of arc class discussion. rather than challenge the male students’ perspectives, elena believed her role was to facilitate discussion by eliciting opinions rather than offering alternatives to what the students presented. however, she acknowledged she did not hear all her students’ perspectives and was frustrated by the ways the students played out gendered behaviors in her classroom. however, experience with discussion-based pedagogy seemed to moderate the impact of the diffracted curriculum. sonya also encountered diffraction when discussing the construct of gender identity. when she asked her students whether or not biological sex (“body parts”) were foundational to gender identity, one of her male students implied they were certainly connected; sonya immediately questioned the young man’s assumptions by offering information challenging the student’s assumption (which elena was hesitant to do). when comparing these two teachers’ experiences with the diffracted curriculum, discussion seems to be a pedagogical space where the diffracted curriculum affects classroom experience. elena expressed the desire for classroom discussions in which students analyzed the role of gender in historical and contemporary societies. however, she was also reticent to engage her students with her own ideas because she worried expressing her opinions may be perceived as “tell[ing] them how to think.” simultaneously, she was unwilling to call upon her female students to participate because she feared they would not engage. when the discussion was steered by male students towards traditional gender roles, she did not try to raise questions about the students’ assumptions. instead, she allowed the young men’s depictions to go unchallenged. engebretson (2018) has noted the difficulty novice teachers encounter when facing the reality of students who do not share similar views, even when they have the passion and tools to teach for equity. elena encountered this difficulty and struggled to define a course of action with which she could be satisfied. as with elena, sonya desired discussion in her classroom. to encourage it, she structured scaffolds to ensure the process. first, students would think independently, then they would discuss in small groups, and finally, the whole class discussed the topic together. when holding discussion, sonya was as much a part of it as the students. she had no issue with throwing out ideas to “stir the pot” and challenge the students’ concepts. sonya made a point and expected her students to take up the debate. in her relationship with her students, sonya demonstrated and modeled her belief in the importance of listening to and valuing other perspectives. one 70 could argue sonya valued this relationship more than the subject matter she taught. rather than expecting her students to “know right” or “know better,” sonya built a “reciprocal learning relationship” where teacher and student were “resisting and embracing the mutual apprenticeship” (loutzenheiser, 2010, p. 70). conclusion i began this article arguing we cannot know if what we, as teacher educators, advocate for in social studies education has any ameliorative impact if we do not go into the classroom and examine what occurs there. this research illuminates student response to the enacted curriculum and how teachers react to it. in this case, this diffracted curriculum manifested most often as a resistance to teacher attempts to challenge traditional gender roles and ultimately reified heteronormativity. this diffracted curriculum had the potential to frustrate teacher expectations of their personal efficacy. there may be other ways to interpret this data. issues of classroom management, teacher experience, and the efficacy of direct instruction compared to student-centered learning were all exposed during my interviews and observations. some scholars may find these (or other) issues more salient than my focus on teacher incorporation of women’s experiences and gender into the social studies curriculum and student response. however, if we, as teacher educators, wish to ameliorate issues of gender, race, ability, and class in the social studies curriculum, we must be mindful of what goes on in the classroom, specifically how students respond to the curriculum offered. students are not passive sieves in which teachers pour content knowledge; 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(2002). integrating men’s history into women’s history: a proposition. the history teacher, 35(3), 373–387. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0277-5395(96)00065-9 https://doi.org/10.1080/00933104.2015.1099487 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2020 volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. i-iii introduction to the special issue the solicitation of manuscripts for the special issue “teacher education to prepare aspiring educators to work with diverse students” began on march 1, 2020. we did not realize when we proposed this special issue how the events of the world would intersect to bring this topic to the forefront of debates about education, especially in north america. the coronavirus pandemic laid bare inequities in american education that had been ignored for decades. students with special education needs, non-native english speaking students, students living in poverty or with limited technological access – all have found remote schooling during the pandemic to be problematic, if not impossible. how can we, as teacher educators, guarantee that aspiring teachers are working toward equitable access to education for all students? additionally, protests against systemic racism have continued across the united states and reached countless other countries for most of 2020. such protests have reflected larger conversations regarding the impact of racism throughout every corner of society including though certainly not limited to school systems. racism, for that matter, and its effects are pervasive in school systems. most teachers, however, coming from the dominant race and culture, do not have a clear understanding of issues around race and how their privilege has played a role in their school success. how do we help them to see this and encourage them to work for justice? for the authors whose articles appear in this issue, these topics were not new. because of this each manuscript provides a unique and practical perspective grounded in a widerange of experiences and deep understanding of many issues within the field of education. we begin the special issue with articles presenting innovative ideas and approaches to teacher education coursework and fieldwork. in “fighting the plague: ‘difficult’ knowledge as sirens’ song in teacher education”, cathryn van kessel and muna saleh explore ways to engage teacher education students in discussions of “difficult knowledge”, those topics which may evoke defensiveness and indifference in students, by approaching these discussions with love, hope, and an appreciation for the humanity in all. brittany aronson, rachel banda, ashley johnson, molly kelly, raquel radina, ganiva reyes, scott sander, and meredith wronowski, in “the social justice teaching collaborative: a collective turn towards critical teacher education”, described the use of a variety of frameworks democratic education, critical pedagogy, critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, critical disability studies, and feminist and intersectionality theory – to create a cohesive view of social justice across three required education courses. in “experience with diversity is not enough: a pedagogical framework for https://curriculumstudies.org/ ii teacher candidates that centers critical race consciousness”, alice lee and amos lee describe how critical race consciousness can be used to redesign and rethink methods courses and clinical fieldwork in teacher education programs. in “contextualizing ‘practice’: helping preservice teachers unpack required practices for licensure”, rachel moody explores a process for guiding preservice teachers to consider the ideological and sociopolitical discourse included in standards for teaching. this process is meant to create awareness of these ideas and bring to the attention of aspiring teachers the need to evaluate the practices that become the “standard”. two articles explore the beliefs of aspiring teachers and how these beliefs may impact their teaching practice. diana wandix-white recounts discussions between a veteran africanamerican teacher and a young, white pre-service teacher in her senior year of an undergraduate degree in education in “care, control, and color: a conversation about disparities in school disciplinary practices”. the two engage with one another around issues of race, discipline, and school, bringing together their lived experiences, questions, and understandings of the intersections of these topics. in “how preservice content teacher background qualities influence their attitude and commitment to supporting english learners”, adam agostinelli and patrick mcquillan sought to determine whether preservice history teachers experiences being immersed in other language and cultures, as well as previous coursework on working with bilingual students, impacted their performance on tasks related to supporting bilingual learners in their future classrooms. their findings suggested that preservice teachers with more experience with and exposure to cultural and linguistic diversity incorporate more teaching of language into their content area lesson plans. the final three articles examine practices and methods that aspiring teachers could utilize to create more socially just and inclusive classroom spaces for all students. in “think outside the book: transformative justice using children’s literature in the classroom”, divya anand and laura hsu present a transformative justice approach to teaching children’s literature. examples of how to utilize a questionnaire for selecting books and facilitating discussions around identity markers such as race, poverty and socioeconomic status, religion, ethnicity and culture, hair diversity, immigrant status, language diversity, disabilities, sex and gender, sexual orientation, and family composition are explored. deoksoon kim and fang jia analyzed the creation of digital stories, an innovative pedagogical tool, created by three middle school bilingual students in “’ever wondered what schizophrenia was?’: three bilingual students’ digital storytelling about mental disorders.” these digital stories are evaluated as both texts and methods for discussing sensitive topics, such as mental health. in “pathways to becoming a culturally responsive teacher: narrative inquiries into a translanguaging read aloud”, stephanie moody and sharon matthews recount the experiences of two undergraduate preservice teachers who each use a spanish-language book in a read aloud to a predominantly spanish-speaking group of children in an after school program for english learners. both iii participants felt more confident in their teaching abilities after engaging in the read-alouds but differed in their reasons for embracing the use of translanguaging with bilingual students. it is our hope that this collection of manuscripts will be helpful for k-12 teachers as well as teacher educators. further, we hope that this work will contribute to the essential and ongoing conversations about how to provide equitable educational experiences for every student. stephanie garrone-shufran guest editor merrimack college, school of education and social policy, north andover, ma, usa e-mail: garroneshufs@merrimack.edu rory p. tannebaum guest editor merrimack college, school of education and social policy, north andover, ma, usa how to cite: garrone-shufran, s, & tannebaum, r. p. (2020). introduction to the special issue. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), i-iii. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.6 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.6 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 5 issue: 2 2023 pp. 118-135 teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation in the rural learning ecology thulasizwe fredrick mkhize* * university of the free state, south africa email: mkhizetf@ufs.ac.za article info received: november 04, 2022 accepted: april 05, 2023 published: june 18, 2023 how to cite mkhize, t. f. (2023). teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation in the rural learning ecology. journal of curriculum studies research, 5(2), 118-135. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.20 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. abstract in south africa, paper-based geographic information system (pbgis) was introduced as a strategy to resolve the hindrances in schools without computers in implementing gis. this study explores the geography teachers’ perceptions of implementing pbgis in a rural learning ecology. in this context, pbgis is defined as teaching and learning of gis utilising topographic and orthographic maps, while rural learning ecology refers to a school in a rural environment consistent with how learners learn in a particular context. the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) constituted the theoretical framework used to understand the geography teachers’ perceptions in this inquiry. qualitative research methods, and semi-structured interviews were used to generate data to answer the research question. two geography teachers from a rural learning ecology were purposively selected to participate in this study. the data generated from the field was then analysed thematically utilising a deductive and inductive approach. the findings showed the following: inadequate teacher training; teachers are unsure about the resources required for pbgis; lack of teaching time; and the complexity of pbgis concepts, and improper pbgis examination setting. this study proposes that the department of basic education (dbe), in association with universities, train teachers and provide resources; support teachers by reviewing the time allocated in the annual teaching plan (atp) for teaching pbgis; engage teachers about ways to simplify pbgis concepts when teaching; and guide teachers on the approaches that must be used when teaching pbgis. keywords paper-based geographic information system (pbgis); geographic information system (gis); rural learning ecology; geography 10.46303/ jcsr.2023.20 https://curriculumstudies.org/ mailto:mkhizetf@ufs.ac.za https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2023.20 119 teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 introduction and background the potential positive impact of geographic information system (gis) on geography instruction has led to a global movement to include it in school curricula (fleischmann & van der westhuizen, 2020). in south africa, gis was listed as a skill to be acquired in the national curriculum statement (ncs) in 2003. however, its actual inclusion in the curriculum was only phased in from 2006. in 2006, the department of basic education (dbe) only introduced gis as part of the grade 10 geography syllabus for the first time and it extended to grades 11 and 12 in 2007 and 2008. however, research conducted about the implementation of gis in schools reveals that geography teachers are faced with the challenges of teaching gis in the classroom (fleischmann & van der westhuizen, 2019; scheepers, 2009). among concerns, researchers note a lack of any theoretical grounding and practical experience in using gis by geography teachers (mkhongi and musakwa, 2020; zietsman, 2002). this is because teachers in south africa lack professional development in teaching gis (fleming, 2015). this paper explores geography teachers’ perceptions of implementing pbgis in a rural learning ecology. conceptualising geographic information system (gis) most definitions of geographic information system (gis) are geared in the context of information technology (it); they refer to microcomputers, hardware, software, databases, database management systems, and digitising. kholoshyn et al. (2021) and the environmental systems research institute (esri, 2008) define gis as a computer-based system comprising a database and a set of tools for collecting (capturing), storing, checking, editing, retrieving, integrating, manipulating, transforming, analysing, and displaying geographically referenced data. oda, herman, and hasan (2020) add that gis is a container of maps in digital form, and a computerised tool for performing geographic data operations that are too tedious, expensive, or inaccurate if performed by hand. it is apparent from these definitions that gis transitions from being viewed as a computerised system to being defined as a general set of hardware and software tools used to analyse and model data, and to solve problems (kerski et al., 2013; klose, 2021). while perhaps suitable at the universities, these definitions are hardly appropriate at the introductory level or for schools where it is currently unavailable (alibrandi & palmer-moloney, 2001; kholoshyn et al., 2021). these definitions are also perhaps too technical for poorly resourced learning ecologies in south africa where gis is taught utilising topographic maps and orthophoto maps. conceptualising a rural learning ecology according to hlalele (2014), about 54% of south african children live in rural households, which is almost 10 million children. in south africa, these children are made vulnerable because service providers and resources in rural areas lag far behind urban areas (hlalele, 2014). the definition of rural learning ecologies acknowledges the context and conditions in which rural learners find themselves and seeks to reinforce learning within, between and across the rural school, home, and community (hlalele, 2014). hence, the rural learning ecology focuses on teaching and learning in rural schools. for this research, a school setting is regarded as a rural learning ecology 120 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 with different components such as learners, teachers, working staff, and parents whose core responsibility is to work together for effective teaching and learning. the rural school is identifiable as a rural learning ecology because individuals survive through interactions and interdependence to adapt to changes that may occur over time. pbgis implementation in schools the pbgis topic targets schools with no computer access. pbgis implementation in south african schools was introduced as an alternative to gis due to the lack of computers (breetzke et al., 2011). therefore, south africa uses topographic and orthophoto maps to teach and learn gis in schools. this means that learners learn about gis and not with the gis tool. therefore, the esri distributor in south africa took the initiative to assist and approach former geography teachers and other key people to guide the development of educational material (breetzke et al., 2011). complete gis materials were developed to address the full spectrum of gis educational needs in the dbe. the new school materials include three separate approaches corresponding to the fundamental steps for learning gis: namely, pbgis, arcexplorer, and arcview. this included fundamental training, covering the basics of gis theory. at the beginning of the year, geography curriculum advisors countrywide were flown or driven to gims's midrand offices to attend a gis training course (breetzke et al., 2011; fleming & evans, 2021). approximately one hundred curriculum advisors attended the three-day training for three weeks. day one saw the facility transformed into a training centre for schools with no gis computer facilities. the geography curriculum advisors were given a simple gis task to complete with the aid of maps (courtesy of the department of land affairs), crayons, and tracing paper (breetzke et al., 2011; fleming, & evans, 2021; kerski et al., 2013; mzuza & van der westhuizen, 2020). the task involved searching for the best location to evacuate residents in the event of a flood. this pbgis proved very important for teaching conceptual issues of gis before moving to the computer. fleischmann and van der westhuizen (2020) point out that the gis training programme held in capetown in 2008 helped teachers learn how to help poorer schools without computers to do gis. this made teachers happy because their schools would not be left behind. a pbgis initiative, managed by esri south africa (pty) ltd., envisages the introduction of gis to resource-poor (without electricity and/or computers) schools in south africa (breetzke et al., 2011; kerski et al., 2013; fleischmann & westhuizen, 2015; fleischmann & van der westhuizen, 2020). theoretical framework the study adopted the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) as a theoretical framework. this model synthesised elements across eight well-known technology acceptance models: the theory of reasoned action (tra), the technology acceptance model (tam), the motivational model (mm), the theory of planned behaviour (tpb), the combined tam and tpb, the model of pc utilisation (mptu), the innovation diffusion theory (idt) and the 121 teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 social cognitive theory (sct) (chiemeke & evwiekpaefe, 2011; liebenberg et al., 2018; venkatesh et al. 2003). combining technology acceptance models to formulate the utaut model was to achieve a unified view of user acceptance (venkatesh et al., 2003). thus, the utaut model is broad, robust, and powerful in information system (is) adoption. the utaut model claims to be a valuable tool to assess the likelihood of acceptance of new technology within an organisation. it also helps to understand factors that drive acceptance of new technology so that appropriate features can be designed to facilitate user acceptance of new technology. the utaut model was chosen to understand a teacher’s perception of implementing pbgis in a rural learning ecology. the utaut model presents four core determinants of intention and four moderators of key relationships. the four determinants of intention and usage are performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions. the four moderating effects are age, gender, experience, and voluntariness of use. however, since the dbe instituted mandatory use of pbgis, i could not include voluntariness of use as one of the moderating effects for this research. therefore, i controlled for voluntariness of use in the utaut model. the following diagram shows venkatesh’s model of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. figure 1 the utaut model (venkatesh et al., 2003, p. 447). factors of utaut facilitating conditions refer to the degree to which an individual believes that an organisational and technical infrastructure exists to support the use of the system (gupta et al., 2008). facilitating conditions as a determinant of intention in the acceptance and use of gis was suitable for this research in understanding whether geography teachers are accepting and 122 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 finding pbgis useful due to the limited access to and availability of hardware and software, and electricity in many south african rural learning ecologies (johansson, 2006). performance expectancy can be seen as the degree to which an individual believes that using a system will help him/her attain gains in job performance and therefore enhance the quality of his/her work (liebenberg et al., 2018; mutlu & der, 2017; venkatesh et al., 2003). performance expectancy is applicable to this study, and i was able to unfold whether geography teachers believe that pbgis will enable them to deliver the curriculum content better to learners based on gis, with good results. effort expectancy is defined as the degree of ease associated with the use of a certain system (liebenberg et al., 2018). effort expectancy is applicable to the study and might be related to learner performance because a teacher teaches to meet lesson outcomes. therefore, the results can be judged through learner performance. so, according to the diagnostic reports, you might find that the teacher expects learners to perform well, yet they do not. social influence is the degree to which an individual perceives that others believe it is important that she should use the new system (mutlu & der, 2017). therefore, the social influence enabled me to reveal whether teachers influence one another in using pbgis. the mediators of the utaut model self-efficacy, anxiety, and attitude towards using technology are the mediators. this means they are not direct determinants of behavioural intention. according to liebenberg et al. (2018) a mediator explains the nature of the relationship between the independent effect and the dependent effect. the independent effects are performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions, while the dependent effects are gender, age, experience, and voluntariness of use (venkatesh, 2003). a mediator implies that the independent effect influences the mediator effect, which influences the dependent effect. the mediators are applicable to this study. this is because i was able to investigate whether performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions as independent effects influence self-efficacy, anxiety, and attitude as mediators in the implementation of pbgis in rural learning ecologies. in turn, i was also able to explore whether the mediators influence gender, age, and experience as dependent effects. self-efficacy is defined by bandura (1995) as a person’s belief in their own ability to succeed in a specific situation or in accomplishing a task. self-efficacy as a mediator towards using technology applies to this study. this is because self-efficacy as a mediator towards using technology enabled me to explore whether geography teachers believe in their abilities to implement pbgis in rural learning ecologies. in turn, i could explore if geography teachers accept the use of pbgis implementation in rural learning by understanding their abilities. this is because self-efficacy can play a major role in how geography teachers approach goals, tasks, and challenges of pbgis in rural learning ecologies. anxiety is a sense of worry, nervousness, or unease about something with an uncertain outcome (oxford english dictionary, 2014). anxiety as a mediator towards using technology is 123 teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 applicable to this study because it enables the researcher to investigate whether geography teachers have a sense of worry and nervousness because of being uncertain about implementing pbgis in rural learning ecologies. in turn, it is then possible to explore whether geography teachers accept pbgis implementation in the rural learning ecologies. the performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions as independent effects may influence a teacher’s sense of worry and nervousness towards implementing pbgis. in turn, anxiety can influence dependent effects such as age, gender, and experience (venkatesh et al., 2003). for example, older, female, and inexperienced geography teachers may have a sense of worry, nervousness, and unease about the use of pbgis in rural learning ecologies or vice versa. attitude towards using technology can be seen as a person’s overall affective reaction to using a system (venkatesh et al., 2003). attitude as a mediator towards using technology is applicable to this study since i explored the geography teachers' reactions towards implementing pbgis in rural learning ecologies. in turn, geography teachers’ perceptions enable the exploration of whether they accept pbgis implementation in rural learning ecologies. performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions as independent effects may influence teachers’ perceptions towards implementing of pbgis in rural learning ecologies. in turn, attitude can influence dependent effects such as age, gender, and experience (venkatesh et al., 2003). moderating effects of the utaut model the moderating effect of age relates to the age of particular users (muhsin & nurkhin, 2016). the moderating effect of age in the context of a general adoption environment is applicable to the study because i was able to investigate whether age influences the acceptance and implementation of pbgis in rural learning ecologies. for this study, i considered age as a moderating effect on the adoption environment of pbgis in south africa. the moderating effect of gender relates to the sexual categories of the technology users, which is either male or female (muhsin & nurkhin, 2016). gender is applicable to the study. hence, gender was considered to reveal whether female teachers receive pbgis in rural learning ecologies differently from male geography teachers. the moderating effect of experience is applicable to the study. this is suitable for the study since geography teachers’ experiences in teaching and learning may play a role in the acceptance and use of pbgis. behavioural intention behavioural intention refers to an individual’s choice to use technologies in the future, whether he or she is currently using it. according to ajzen (1991), intentions are assumed to capture the motivational factors that influence behaviour; they are indications of how hard people are willing to try, and how much effort they are planning to exert, to perform the behaviour. behavioural intention is applicable to this study. i was able to investigate the effort geography teachers exert in the implementation of pbgis, and further explore whether these teachers are willing to try hard to use pbgis. according to venkatesh (2003), the general rule is that the 124 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 stronger the intention is to engage in a behaviour, the more likely its performance should be. thus, if geography teachers are more willing to implement pbgis in rural learning ecologies, their effort may ensure the future use of pbgis in their schools. methodology this study is located within the interpretive paradigm. the main assumption of this paradigm is that reality is socially constructed and that there are as many intangible realities that people construct (bertram & christiansen, 2014; thanh & thanh, 2015). as an interpretive researcher, i explored how teachers perceive and implement pbgis in a rural learning ecology. in this way, different interpretations from participants were obtained because their realities were not the same. thus, i was able to engage in geography teachers’ experiences subjectively to understand their journeys. this study adopted a broad category of qualitative research design. there are several types of qualitative research designs, namely: grounded theory, ethnographic, narrative research, historical, case studies, and phenomenology (allan, 2020; silverman, 2020). i adopted a qualitative research design to explore geography teachers’ perceptions of pbgis implementation in a rural learning ecology. this study adopted a case study research methodology because the case study research methodology systematically captured the reality of the teachers’ lived experiences of implementing pbgis in a rural learning ecology. this study adopts non-probability sampling in which the chance or probability of each unit being selected is not known or confirmed (rahi, 2017). this means that participants in the non-probability sample are not given an equal chance to participate; instead, they are selected based on their accessibility or by the purpose and personal judgement of the researcher. therefore, by utilising non-probability sampling, i was enabled to be purposive and make personal judgements in selecting participants. this study adopted convenience sampling, which defines a non-probability or non-random data generation process from a population that meets certain criteria, such as geographic proximity, ease of access, availability at a given time, or willingness to participate. thus, convenience sampling enabled me to research two schools in which geography is taught as one of the subjects in the further education and training phase (fet). this study adopts a purposive sampling approach since this approach is representative, and non-random, and participants selected have the needed information. i, therefore, selected geography teachers from rural learning ecologies because they are the ones who teach gis in resource-poor classrooms. therefore, it implies that the selected participants would have the needed information. the participants of this research study were two geography teachers from two poorly resourced rural schools who were purposively chosen. both participants were males aged thirty and thirty-two. the participant aged thirty had nine years teaching experience and the other participant aged thirty-two had eight years teaching experience. purposive sampling targets knowledgeable people with in-depth knowledge about certain issues like professional 125 teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 roles, power, expertise, or experience (rahi, 2017). as a researcher, i chose experienced teachers to gain in-depth knowledge regarding teachers’ perceptions about teaching pbgis in a rural school. etikan, musa, and alkassim (2016) add that the purposive sampling technique, also called judgment sampling, is the deliberate choice of a participant due to the qualities the participant possesses. this study adopted a semi-structured interview as the data generation method. the open-ended questions enabled me to ask follow-up why or how questions. the dialogue meandered around the topic on the agenda rather than adhering slavishly to verbatim questions as is often the case in a standardised survey (adams & lawrence, 2018). the semi-structured interviews enabled me to word questions instinctively and develop a conversational style during the interview that focused on the topic. adams and lawrence (2018) point out that about one hour is considered a reasonable maximum length for semi-structured interviews to minimise fatigue for both the interviewer and respondent. for this study, semi-structured interviews that were conducted lasted for about thirty minutes each, one interview per teacher and we only met once for the interview. this minimised the chances of mental tiredness which might have disrupted the data collection process. to generate data in this study, individual semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted to set questions for the interviewee, providing room for ideas development. the semi-structured interview, as stated earlier, often asks open-ended questions and probes the responses (magaldi & berler, 2020). i asked the teachers further questions on pbgis, some of which may have emanated from the discussions that occurred during the interviews. during the interview, participants were audio-recorded to obtain every piece of information discussed the implementation of pbgis in a rural learning ecology. the reason for the audio-recording was explained explicitly to the participants. this study adopted the thematic data analysis approach, which enabled me to see and make sense of the collective or shared meanings and experiences indicated by the data set. the semi-structured interview data were analysed utilising a combination of deductive and inductive thematic analysis approaches. the study adopted clarke and braun’s (2014) thematic analysis is a six-phase process. the six-phase process is as follows: familiarisation, generating initial codes, searching for themes, reviewing potential themes, defining, and naming themes, and producing the report (clarke & braun, 2014; terry, 2016). for the study, all phases were adopted to tell the rich and complex story of how geography teachers perceive and implement pbgis in rural learning ecologies. ethical considerations are important in qualitative research as this approach often intrudes on participant’s lives (flick, 2009). principles of research ethics ask that researchers avoid harming participants involved in the process by respecting and considering their needs and interests (khan, 2014). research permission was requested from the dbe, school principals, and research participants to interview geography teachers in two selected schools within the province of kwazulu-natal. i also went through the ukzn ethics application to avoid harm to 126 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 participants. to avoid revealing the individuals’ identities, the confidentiality of the participants was guaranteed by using pseudonyms for the schools and participants. according to bertram and christiansen (2014), this is called nonmaleficence, where harm is avoided to those involved in the research. i motivated participants to share their past experiences on implementing pbgis in their classrooms but did not specify participants’ names or school names in the data presented. to address the study's credibility, i used deductive and inductive thematic analysis approaches. in using the deductive thematic analysis, the utaut theoretical framework was utilised to identify and interpret patterns of meaning across qualitative data (clarke & braun, 2014). the inductive thematic analysis approach was also used to identify and interpret the themes grounded in the data (braun & clarke, 2014). the conclusions were only drawn for the study participants, and the findings were not generalised to other contexts (bertram & christiansen, 2014). i also used peer debriefing and member checking (maree, 2007), and support was solicited from colleagues to check the interpretation of the data (critical peer checks) (rule & john, 2011). the research participants were also requested to verify the accuracy of what had been reported about them (rule & john, 2011). the interview protocol was helpful and reduced inconsistency and unintended unfairness. creswell (2009) stated that the interview protocol establishes a standard procedure to be followed by both the researcher (interviewer) and participants (interviewees). the subjectivity of the researcher in the research process was acknowledged. subjectivity is based on personal opinions, interpretations, points of view, feelings, and judgement (bertram & christiansen, 2014). the audio-recording device was used during the interview for the validity of data generation since this enabled greater accuracy of transcripts (bertram & christiansen, 2014). findings and discussion inadequate teacher training the lack of proper teacher training for geography teachers seems to be a major impediment to implementing pbgis in rural learning ecologies. the responses of duncan, and mario reveal that they were never taught gis at the secondary school. duncan, and mario admitted to having been exposed to gis at the tertiary level, although it was difficult for them since they were not introduced to it in secondary school. duncan noted that when he matriculated in 2004, the dbe was still preparing for gis implementation in secondary schools. duncan also revealed that although he studied gis at the university, he was introduced to gis under the bachelor of science (bsc) course and it was different from the gis he was expected to teach at the secondary school. duncan (semistructured interview) expounds: “i am a very old man. back then when i was still in school there was no gis. so, i was never taught gis. i only heard about gis when i started working here. i completed my 127 teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 matric in 2004 and the department of education was still pregnant with gis. at tertiary level i only did gis in bsc, but it is very different from this gis.” furthermore, duncan adds that the dbe is not doing enough to train geography teachers to improve gis implementation in schools. duncan (semi-structured interview) explains: “the department of education is doing something in staff developing teachers through workshops, but it is not enough. that is the problem now because they would be taking teachers to workshops where we are taught about gis and how to interact with gis but that is not enough because…problem lies on when we trying to teach the learners. i think for the department their hands are also tight…but they are trying to give us some literature we can study.” in a similar way to duncan, mario also matriculated in 2007. as a result, he was not introduced to gis at the secondary school level. however, mario claims that gis was taught to him in detail at the university level. mario (semi-structured interview) expounds: “i was not taught gis at secondary school. i matriculated in 2007 and gis was not there in matric by this time. i think it arrived in 2008. the time i was exposed to gis it is when i went to university. during my second year at the university…, i did an introduction to gis, and it was taught in detail.” mario further outlined that the dbe coordinated workshops in which gis was taught. however, in recent years, the department complained about a lack of funds. as a result, schools are experiencing challenges in implementing pbgis. mario (semi-structured interview) explains: “previously, the department of education use to give us workshops, but now the department keeps on saying it does not have money to conduct workshops…they must give us workshops so that we can teach our learners gis properly.” from the above extracts, it is apparent that one of the pbgis challenges for geography teachers in rural learning ecologies is the lack of proper teacher training. this finding resonates with the sentiments of mzuza and westhuizen (2019); they point out that the low intake of trainees/ students at the tertiary level results in a limited number of gis-qualified teachers, which in turn results in gis not being taught widely in schools. furthermore, many teachers do not have the necessary gis skills and experience due to a lack of in-service training and rapid technological changes. ayorekire and twinomuhangi (2012) and musakwa (2018) also corroborate this finding and point out that the unavailability of teachers experienced enough to teach gis is a common problem in africa. the training process helps geography teachers in ensuring that they have a team of teachers that is effective at their work. this is supported by mzuza and westhuizen (2019) who attest that geography teachers with excellent gis training are likely to produce quality work in gis implementation. resources required for pbgis implementation this study found that geography teachers are unsure about the resources required to implement pbgis. both participants were hesitant to provide straight answers to this question in their semi-structured interviews. however, it was evident from all the responses that 128 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 topographic and orthophoto maps were perceived as dominant resources required for implementing a pbgis lesson. duncan revealed that the required resources include maps, transparencies, and pencils. he further stated that separate maps should be used to engage learners in classroom activities to help them prepare for the examination. however, duncan lamented that resources are not always provided in the school he teaches because of the lack of funds. duncan (semi-structured interview) made the following comment: “we should have maps because you cannot do anything in paper two without maps to practice. have additional maps where learners can draw and do other tasks when given activities. we also need transparencies, and pencils. at times you find that a teacher is asking for resources in a school only to find out that the school cannot afford to buy them and then as a teacher you end up saying let me just leave it.” like duncan, mario expressed that the necessary resources for pbgis implementation are transparencies and maps. he added that soft pens and overhead projectors are other useful tools for applying pbgis skills during teaching and learning. mario (semi-structured interview) articulates: “there must be some transparencies and maps. a school should own an overhead projector so that data overlaying can be done using transparencies and overhead projectors. soft pens are also required to draw lines, points, and polygon on the transparencies.” mario revealed, however, that in the rural learning ecology he teaches, there is a lack of many pbgis resources, such as overhead projectors and transparencies. he only employs topographic and orthophoto maps when teaching. mario (semi-structured interview) echoes: “my school does not have some of the resources like an overhead projector and transparencies. in my school, we teach learners using the orthophoto and topographic maps. i use orthophoto maps to tell my learners that this refers to a raster data then topographic map refers to a vector data. then i give a reason as to why i am saying so. but it is hard to teach because our school does not have the necessary resources.” from the above excerpts, we have discovered that topographic and orthophoto maps are dominating resources required for implementing pbgis although all participants also mention additional resources. the additional resources mentioned by participants are transparencies, pencils, soft pens, computers, and overhead projectors. this is consistent with antwi et al. (2018), who point out that a classroom should be furnished with some ict facilities such as computers, projectors, and smartboards that are needed daily. furthermore, in the same way as participants, buabeng-andoh and yidana (2015) note that a pbgis task, such as searching for the best location to evacuate residents in the event of a flood, can be completed with the aid of maps, crayons, and tracing paper. the participants also revealed that the dbe only provides maps to be utilised in the grade 12 examination, and after the exam is completed, the teachers take the same maps and utilise them to teach map work in grades 10 to 12. this means there can be a shortage of maps since 129 teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 they only accommodate the total number of learners who write the geography examination without considering that the same maps will be used to teach map work to other learners. therefore, this means that the school must buy additional maps should there be any shortages. according to amosun (2016), the inequality of educational materials and resources, including the shortage of maps, textbooks, computers, and other information technologies in schools, is a major educational problem in south africa. this is a challenge when teachers have to implement pbgis in rural learning ecologies. lack of teaching time the lack of teaching time seems to be another challenge hampering the implementation of pbgis in a rural learning ecology. duncan and mario believe that pbgis is not given enough time in schools. duncan revealed that learners in rural learning ecologies struggle in many ways when taught pbgis due to the lack of resources used in gis and not having english as their mother tongue. duncan (semi-structured interview) articulates: “…gis is a challenge because you will spend more time busy trying to explain to learners. whilst i think those teachers who are in urban area schools maybe they will spend less time just explaining and going through. but i will have to take a whole hour trying to explain what hardware is, what a scanner is, so that why it is more challenging.” similarly, mario expresses a lack of pbgis teaching time and further echoes that geography teachers usually teach pbgis in a rush when examinations are about to be written. as a result, learners are exposed to very limited gis information. this causes learners to be only introduced to a summary of what there is in the actual gis. mario (semi-structured interview) echoes: “gis is not given enough time. we teach gis only when learners are about to write the exam. we teach, rushing through, without teaching properly and allowing more time to learners…the learners are only given an introduction or a summary of what is there in the actual gis…so, it is not given that much time it is supposed to be given. if possible, it is important for the department of education with the department of geography to introduce a gis subject in schools so that learners can be given more time to explore more on gis.” the excerpts above show that sufficient time is key to implementing pbgis in rural learning ecologies. this finding resonates with fleischmann and westhuizen (2015), who point out that time is significant for many reasons in gis, such as the time required for teachers to attend professional development (pd) workshops to learn the necessary gis software; the time required to develop or modify instructional materials supported by gis; as well as the time required in the curriculum of geography subject to effectively teach learners about the technology. tarisayi (2018) explains that time constraints in teaching of gis in south africa stem from the caps allocation of only four hours per week to teaching geography. it can be argued, as a result, that geography is viewed as an elective in the caps curriculum since it has been allocated inadequate time. 130 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 the teaching of gis becomes theoretical without any exposure to gis's technical and practical aspects, which is more time-consuming. furthermore, time constraints also affect staff development as geography teachers lack time to attend gis workshops and training (breetzke et al., 2011). thus, the implementation of pbgis requires more time than that allocated by dbe in the caps curriculum for geography. adequate time ensure teachers and learners accept and implement pbgis in the rural learning ecology. complex pbgis concepts the complexity of pbgis concepts stood out in certain geography teachers’ interviews as one of the obstacles to implementing pbgis in rural learning ecologies. the responses of duncan and mario show that this complexity results from learners who utilise english as their first additional language and not their mother tongue. duncan noted that the pbgis concepts are difficult for the learners to understand. he states that pbgis requires someone with a better understanding of english to grasp the pbgis concepts easily. he further explained that he spends more time describing the pbgis concepts so that his learners understand because they are english secondspeaking learners. duncan (semi-structured interview) expounds: “… the complexity of gis concepts needs learners who have a better understanding of english as a language…you will spend more time busy trying to explain to learners.” similarly, to duncan, mario also viewed pbgis concepts as challenging to his learners. although mario understands that the language barrier causes the complexity of concepts as a challenge, he further revealed that this impediment is made worse by the fact that the learners do not take mathematics and physics, which at times incorporate some of the same concepts used in gis. therefore, it becomes even more difficult for learners because they only hear about these concepts in the geography curriculum. mario (semi-structured interview) expounds: “…if you look at gis even though we are basing our teaching on pbgis, there are a lot of concepts learners have to understand for them to have a broader understanding of gis. my learners are only doing life sciences, agriculture, and maths literacy so they find it very challenging because most gis concepts are taken from what would have been done in mathematics and physics studies.” from the extracts above, we learn that language is another issue impending learners’ understanding because of the complexity of pbgis concepts in rural learning ecologies. drawing from the literature, hlalele (2014) notes that a rural learning ecology consists of learners who speak english as their first additional language because it is not their mother tongue. therefore, pbgis concepts may be complex to such learners. resultantly, learners in rural learning ecologies may not understand and accept pbgis. it is also evident that misunderstanding may be worsened if subjects are not integrated. this is because learners tend to learn about pbgis concepts for the first time in geography subjects. after all, they are not utilised in other subjects that they normally study. 131 teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 improper pbgis examination paper setting duncan and mario lamented that they are not happy with the way gis part is set in paper two. both participants pointed out that the examiners do not provide teachers with proper guidance regard how the part will be assessed. mario added that gis is allocated little marks in papers, and this should also be looked at. on the other hand, duncan further complained about the complexity in the level of questioning, stating that examiners ask more practical questions. i contrast, he perceives questioning as something that is supposed to be textbook-based due to the lack of resources in rural learning ecologies. duncan (semi-structured interview) comments: “… and also, the problem is with the guys in the exam section. when they set questions, they are different from those we teach. they are more practical, whilst they are supposed to be asking questions that are more textbook based because they have the understanding that the level of technology in our schools is not the same.” duncan reveals that the approach examiners use in setting pbgis in examinations often causes learners to obtain lower marks in this section compared with any other section. he further commented that in the past, gis questioning was simpler than it has been recently. therefore, he perceived pbgis as requiring a good understanding of english for learners to answer questions successfully. duncan (semi-structured interview) laments: “hence, you will find that learners in paper two, learners pass question 1, 2, and 3, but when it comes to question 4, which is gis now learners are failing. so, one thing is that when we started gis it was simpler, the level of question was fine. in terms of level one, learners were able to try answering but now even level one is more complex you need learners who have a better understanding of english as a language.” again, duncan advised that guidance provision by examiners is crucial considering that rural learning ecologies are doing the curriculum that includes pbgis. duncan (semi-structured interview) advises: “… when they included gis, they were supposed to provide specified guidelines to say these are the type of questions that i might ask gis is not like geography that had been there for many years. they were supposed to give us the scope that says these are the questions we are going to be asking from taking into account that these learners are disadvantaged in terms of the technology and language.” similarly, mario advised that examiners should seek assistance from esri south africa on structuring gis questions. mario also viewed guidance from examiners to geography teachers as crucial regarding how the gis questions will be structured. mario also revealed that marks allocated for gis questions are not adequate: marion (semi-structured interview) laments: “the questions are not asking learners more. when the map work papers are set, in march, gis only covers 5 marks, 15 marks in june, 15 marks in september, and 15 marks in the final examination. i am also not happy with the structuring of questions because what we teach in class is not normally asked in question papers. they ask very little from 132 jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 what we taught learners in class. maybe if the examiner could ask for guidance from esri south africa on how to structure questions, it could assist.” from the above excerpts, we are learning that these teachers need proper guidance from examiners regarding how pbgis questions will be set. according to the participants, this is because examiners tend to be more practical, whereas geography teachers in rural learning ecologies rely mainly on the textbook in teaching gis. breetzke et al. (2011), eksteen et al. (2012), and mzuza and westhuizen (2019) confirm that one of the problems identified in south africa relates to inadequate practical experience in the use of gis by teachers. also, pbgis is not allocated sufficient marks when tested in question papers. therefore, mario advised that the examiner should approach esri for assistance as they are experts in the field of gis. according to breetzke et al. (2011) and eksteen et al. (2012), pbgis was introduced by esri south africa for resource-poor schools. for this reason, esri south africa would be in a better position to advise examiners on how to structure questions and focus more on gis when setting question papers. recommendations and conclusions this study established that the implementation of pbgis in a rural learning ecology is affected by inadequate teacher training, and resources required for pbgis implementation. this subsequently presents a challenge for geography teachers in implementing of pbgis in a rural learning ecology. the study recommends that the dbe, in association with universities, should provide formal training to teachers and provide them with the necessary resources across all schools to ensure the effective teaching of pbgis. the training may be rendered in the form of prolonged workshops that focus on pbgis implementation in schools. the dbe may also allocate funds for resources required for pbgis implementation. the dbe workshops aiming at supporting teachers with pbgis implementation should include strategies that would enable teachers to simplify the complexity of gis concepts taught to learners in a rural learning ecology. this study also concluded that geography teachers had inadequate teaching time to teach pbgis effectively. the study, therefore, recommends that the dbe provides support to geography teachers by reviewing the time allocated in the annual teaching plan (atp) for teaching pbgis in schools. this study also discovered an issue with complex pbgis concepts, and improper pbgis examination settings. i recommend that through workshops, dbe should engage teachers on ways they can implement to simplify the pbgis concepts to learners for effective teaching and learning of gis. pbgis examiners should also provide workshops for teachers to guide on the approach that must be used when teaching pbgis that will correspond with the way questions are asked in the examination. 133 teachers’ perceptions of paper-based gis implementation jcsr 2023, 5(2): 118-135 references adams, k. a., & lawrence, e. k. 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(2015). the interconnection between interpretivist paradigm and qualitative methods in education. american journal of educational science, 1(2), 24-27. venkatesh, v., morris, m. g., davis, g. b., & davis, f. d. (2003). user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, 425-478. zietsman, h. l. (2002). geographic information science in south africa. south african geographical journal, 84(1), 30-37. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 june 2020 volume: 2 issue: 1 pp. 1-15 civility and shared fate: social studies education as teaching for belonging martha j. ritter* * cabrini university school of education, radnor, pennsylvania, usa. e-mail: martha.j.ritter@cabrini.edu article info received: april 22, 2020 revised: may 13, 2020 accepted: may 16, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0) how to cite ritter, m. (2020). civility and shared fate: social studies education as teaching for belonging. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.1 abstract in response to the violence of our era and the vast movement of people around the globe, the author argues that effective social studies education should include understanding ourselves within communities of shared fate, collectively building strategies of civility. through conceptual analysis, the paper supports arguments that citizenship education should be grounded in communities of fate, rather than a sense of shared identity as a member of a particular country. shared fate is the idea that our lives are intertwined with others in ways we perceive and ways we cannot. civility is elaborated as concrete strategies that support or make possible broad participation in the demos. looking at citizenship through the lens of communities of shared fate changes how we think about belonging and our responsibilities to one another in our shared world. the author provides examples of early career educators’ moral commitment to teaching from a perspective of shared fate and as well as their concerns to link the conceptual work to concrete practices within elementary school classrooms. keywords education; curriculum studies; citizenship education; ethics; social studies education. 10.46303/jcsr.02.01.1 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.1 2 introduction but there is something new and soul destroying about this last and current century. at no other period have we witnessed such a myriad of aggression aimed against people as “not us.” now, as you have seen over the last two years, the central political question was, who or what is an american? toni morrison (2019, p. 20), home if we lose faith in ourselves, we can in those moments forget ourselves and dwell on the future of the larger community, on the blessings of neighbors. your neighbors are those you can see when you look out the window, but today these are not our only neighbors, if we mean by that a common burden, a common joy in an abstract terrain. barry lopez (1990, pp. 59-60), the rediscovery of north america in a 2009 convocation address titled “home,” toni morrison (2019) asks college students: what do we mean when we say “home”? she continues, “it is a virtual question because the destiny of the twenty-first century will be shaped by the possibility or the collapse of a sharable world” (morrison, 2019, p. 16). morrison’s address traces a history of violence and oppression in eloquent prose that makes me pause and reread because so much is challenged in a paragraph. morrison (2019) writes: excluding the height of the slave trade in the nineteenth century, the mass movement of peoples in the latter half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first is greater now than it has ever been. it involves the distribution of workers, intellectuals, refugees, traders, immigrants, and armies all crossing oceans and continents, through custom offices and hidden routes, with multiple narratives spoken in multiple languages of commerce, of military intervention, political persecution, exile, violence, poverty, death, and shame. (pp. 18-19) the flux of people leads us to question who belongs and who is a foreigner. morrison (2019) continues, “the relocation of peoples has ignited and disrupted the idea of home and expanded the focus of identity beyond definitions of citizenship to clarifications of foreignness” (p. 19). we worry about borders and build walls. her speech captures the violence and xenophobia of the current time, as well as our unease with our own sense of belonging, of being at home. current statistics are helpful in understanding the scope of this movement of people. focusing just on those who have refugee status as determined by the united nations, the global population of forcibly displaced people grew substantially from 43.3 million in 2009 to 70.8 million in 2018, reaching a record high (unhrc, 2018). the unhrc report states that in 2018 alone, the global population of people displaced by persecution, violence, conflict, or human rights violations grew by 2.3 million. nearly half of all displaced people are children under the age of 18. in response to this violence and other aggression against those perceived as “not us,” 3 morrison’s questions are mirrored many times over. david miliband (2017) of the international rescue committee feels that one question stands above all others, “what are the duties of the rest of the world toward the innocent victims of war? what are our duties to strangers?” (p. 4). claudia eppert’s (2010) questions are also resonant, “what does it mean to live in global times of terror? what are our responsibilities to children in such times?” (p. 219). does this current movement of people—as well as the history of people fleeing from danger—fit in our school curriculum? according to the national council of social studies, “the primary purpose of social studies is to help young people make informed and reasoned decisions for the public good as citizens of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world” (ncss, 1994, p. 3). understanding social studies to be about how we live together and relate to one another in our shared world is in keeping with this aim. the studies include who we are within particular cultures in the particular places we live, as well as the institutions we create to govern and sustain our diverse communities and nations. social studies also have to do with our lives in relation to each other as members of groups and so include wars, conflicts between groups, struggles for equal rights and freedom. thus, social studies include moral conversations, as well as conversations about history, economics, sociology, geography, anthropology, politics, and civics. the moral dimension of social studies is especially clear when considering the movement of people due to war and conflict. questions of belonging, our responsibilities to others, and human rights are deeply moral questions that involve justice and compassion. the way that we answer these questions has implications for social studies curriculum and pedagogy. i draw on balibar’s (2001, 2016) conception of civility to frame my argument that effective social studies education should include understanding ourselves within communities of shared fate, collectively building what balibar calls practices of civility. in response to what he calls a topography of cruelty in an era of global violence, balibar is concerned with sustaining democracy and protecting the insurrectional element of democracy, which he defines as direct participation by the demos. for balibar (2001), the answer to who belongs and who has the right to participate is a radical one: “whoever lives there” (p. 28). civility is conceived of as a set of initiatives and concrete strategies, which ensure broad participation, and for balibar, this is particularly true at the borders (figuratively and literally). to explore communities of shared fate in the context of social studies, i draw on williams’ (2003, 2009) and ben-porath’s (2011, 2012) conceptions of citizenship education within “communities of shared fate” and zembylas’ (2012, 2017) pedagogies of compassion and shared fate. writing about citizenship education in diverse democratic societies, williams challenges the premise that meaningful citizenship and stable constitutional order must be grounded in a shared identity among citizens and develops an idea of citizenship as membership in a community of shared fate as a viable alternative. ben-porath and zembylas interrogate aspects of williams’ conception in the face of war and violence and add important elements. lastly, i 4 provide examples of early career educators’ moral commitment to teaching about refugees or people fleeing from danger from a perspective of shared fate to link the conceptual work to concrete practices within elementary school classrooms. civility as participation civility is often thought of as synonymous with good manners and politeness or speaking in measured tones—without anger or causing affront. balibar (2001, 2016) offers a more robust conception of civility to address the violence of our time. for balibar (2001), civility is a way of “creating, recreating, and conserving the set of conditions within which politics as collective participation in public affairs is possible or at least not absolutely impossible” (p. 15). balibar hypothesizes that cruelty comprised of forms of extreme violence, intentional or systemic, physical or moral, threatens the very possibility of politics. he names citizenship and segregation, asylum and migration, mass poverty and genocides as crucial “cosmopolitical” issues in a topography of cruelty that threatens our very ability to engage in civic life. thus, for balibar (2001), “democratic citizenship in today’s world cannot be separated from an invention of concrete forms and strategies of civility” (p. 16). the traditional institution of borders “works as an instrument of security controls, social segregation, and unequal access to the means of existence, and sometimes an institutional distribution of survival and death: it becomes a cornerstone of institutional violence” (balibar, 2001, p. 16). balibar’s conception of civility refers to political action or civic practice that is continually reinvented by those involved. he argues boldly for broad inclusion of people involved in decisions that impact their lives. balibar (2001) calls for an expansive view of who belongs and who has a right to participate in the public sphere “where collective political action (or praxis) takes place” (p. 17). balibar’s (2001, 2016) argument is rooted in a recognition of common humanity and fundamental human rights. arendt’s (1973) notion of a “right to have rights” in balibar’s view: refers to the continuous process in which a minimal recognition of the belonging of human beings to the ‘common’ sphere of existence (and therefore also of work, culture, public and private speech, etc.) already involves a totality of rights and makes it possible. (balibar, 2001, p. 18) for balibar (2001), this is the insurrectional element of democracy in that a democratic or republican state, by definition, cannot only consist of statues and rights ascribed from above; it requires the direct participation of the demos (p. 18). civility becomes a set of initiatives which ensures and invites broad participation and thus sustains democratic political order. balibar (2001) asserts: at the moment at which humankind becomes economically and, to some extent, culturally “united,” it is violently divided “bio-politically.” a politics of civility (or a politics of human rights) can be either the imaginary substitute of the destroyed unity, or the set of 5 initiatives that reintroduce everywhere, and particularly on the borderlines themselves, the issue of equality, the horizon of political action. (p. 27) balibar opts for a politics of civility as initiatives for struggles for equality and emancipation. but who is included in these struggles? who belongs? balibar concludes that if all political communities today (from territories to networks) are communities of fate, then they are communities that already include difference and conflict. he supports herman van gunsteren’s (1998) idea that for every individual in every group there must be at least one place in the world where he or she is recognized as a citizen and hence given the chance to enjoy human rights (in balibar, 2001, p. 28). as to where this is, balibar (2001) writes: if communities are communities of fate, the only possible answer is the radical one: anyplace where individuals and groups belong, wherever they “happen” to live, therefore to work, bear children, support relatives, find partners for every sort of “intercourse”. […] given what i have suggested concerning the “topography” of today’s globalized and cruel world, i think we could even say more precisely: the recognition of and institution of citizen’s rights have to be organized beyond the exclusive membership in one community; they should be located, so to speak, on the borders, where so many of our contemporaries actually live. (p. 28) the important question, for van gunsteren and balibar (2001), is “permanent access to rather than simply entitlement to citizenship, and therefore humanity” (p. 28). citizenship, in this view, is an active and collective civil process, rather than a simple legal status. balibar (2001) is not arguing against international law, nor is he arguing for open borders. he believes that broad participation is vital to addressing the violence of our time. he finds hope in van gunsteren’s conception of a community of fate, but just what this is is not clear. van gunsteren (1998) describes a community of fate as defined by the fact that people are sometimes connected to others in ways they cannot avoid (p. 62). it is not something that is chosen, but is rather something that cannot be avoided. for van gunsteren (1998) “the recurrent task of citizens is to transform the ‘given’ encounters between people into accepted relations” (p. 62). williams (2003) will call this transformation a process of a community of shared fate gaining legitimacy. there are common elements in the conceptions and the problems they address. in common with balibar, williams believes citizenship needs to be conceived of in ways that have the potential to extend beyond the borders of a nation state. a second common element is the emphasis on broad participation by people connected to one another in ways they may not be aware of or choose; nonetheless, they are connected and their actions have an impact on the other. balibar’s concept of civility rooted in recognition of human rights has real power to address the violence of our time and open the door for the possibility of a genuine belonging. for balibar, the politics of civility and the politics of emancipation depend on one another. williams’ elaboration of a community of shared fate helps us to think about what skills and knowledge are needed for the development and support of concrete 6 strategies of civility within education. communities of shared fate in regard to citizenship education, williams (2003) notes that much of contemporary democratic theory begins from the supposition that citizens must share a subjective sense of membership in a single political community. it is expected that a distinctive identity will be internalized as an affective bond to the political community and its members. the task of civic education, in this view, is to “inculcate individuals’ loyalty and attachment to one and only one national political community” (williams, 2003, p. 216). williams (2003) argues this kind of loyalty is dangerous to seek because of histories of exclusion and marginalization of women and ethnic minorities, as well as the forced assimilation of indigenous peoples (p. 217). further, williams continues, citizenship conceptualized as a shared identity no longer reflects the life situation of many citizens, if it ever did. williams notes that the current wave of interest in shared national identity as a project of civic education arrives at a time when the boundaries of the nation-state have changed so significantly with globalization. she argues, “the boundaries of attachment never coincided perfectly with those of the nation-state, and it seems highly unlikely that even a strong program of civic education could bring that about in an era of globalization” (williams, 2003, p. 225). like morrison and balibar, williams works to address the history of violence between groups and the violence of our time, including the dark side of globalization. williams (2003) argues that a conception of citizenship as a community of shared fate can be reconcilable with traditional liberal understandings of citizenship focused on the nation state, but flexible and expansive enough to make sense of the new locations and demands of citizenship in the global era (p. 229). from the western tradition of democratic citizenship, williams (2003) holds that two broad functions stand out as crucial: self-rule and self-protection. the function of self-rule is at the heart of balibar’s adamant support of broad participation by the demos. williams (2003) describes self-rule in these terms: to fulfill the human potential for freedom, we must learn to govern ourselves both as individuals and collectives. the role of the citizen consists above all in participating with other citizens in collective self-rule by reasoning and speaking or deliberating together over what they, collectively, ought to do. (p. 227) the central idea in the function of self-protection is that “citizenship consists in the protection of rights in which we have a pre-political interest” (williams, 2003, pp. 227-228). these rights are consistent with human rights—universal or natural rights. williams (2009, 2003) argues that both of these functions are maintained within her conception of citizenship as shared fate, rather than identity. both functions are consistent with balibar’s (2001) call for civility as a way of “conserving the set of conditions within which politics as collective participation in public affairs possible or is not made absolutely impossible” (p. 15). from the description thus far, williams’ conception of citizenship still seems largely bounded within a 7 nation-state, but williams later argues that citizenship conceived of as within a community of shared fate can also encompass citizenships of globalization. in “citizenship as agency within communities of shared fate,” williams (2009) examines what she groups together as “citizenships of globalization” (p. 40): global, cosmopolitan, postnational, transnational, environmental, and diasporic conceptions of citizenship. as a group, williams asserts, all of these notions of citizenship stress relations of interdependence that exceed the boundaries of territorial states and have in common a claim that the actions of some agents—individuals, states, corporations, transnational institutions of governance, or nongovernmental organizations—have an impact on others, even distant others. whether or not the impact was intended does not change the fact of the impact. likewise, whether consequent relationships are voluntary or involuntary, relationships of dependence and interdependence do in fact exist. for williams (2009), “what makes these relationships potential sites of citizenship—possible communities that are capable of possessing a common good—is the possibility that they can be brought under conscious human agency aimed at rendering the relationships mutually advantageous, just, or legitimate” (p. 41). it is through a process of gaining legitimacy or becoming just, that communities of shared fate become citizens or engage in what could be called good citizenship –working toward a common or public good. working toward a common good let me step back to better consider williams’ (2009, 2003) conception of communities of shared fate. for williams, what connects us in a community of shared fate is that our actions have an impact on other identifiable human beings and other human beings’ actions have an impact on us. williams (2003, 2009) notes that the idea of community of shared fate is similar to john dewey’s (1927) idea of a “public,” as are citizenships of globalization. such communities are not in themselves ethical in that we are not bound to each other by a set of common values, but by relations of interdependence, which may or may not be positively valued by its members (williams, 2003). communities of shared fate are not in themselves good or ethical, but may become so through intentional action and deliberation for the common good. williams turns to john rawls (1971) to distinguish better from worse communities of shared fate: “for rawls, a well-ordered society is one in which individuals ‘agree to share one another’s fate’” (williams, 2003, p. 230). but agreement is not in itself enough to gain legitimacy, there must also be a justification: “since communities of shared fate entail relations of reciprocal interdependence and interconnection, the standard of legitimacy also entails a requirement for reciprocal justification” (williams, 2003, p. 230). in this view, legitimacy consists of the ability to justify actions to those who are affected by them according to reasons they can accept, thus: having a sense of ourselves as members of a community of fate entails telling (true) stories about how we came to be connected to particular other human beings, and believing that 8 we are responsible for constructing that connection in a manner that is justifiable to them. (williams, 2003, p. 231) when i think of the violence that leads to people fearing for their safety and fleeing home because of belonging to a particular religion or ethnic group, this bar of reciprocal justification seems impossibly high. but it is important to remember that the legitimacy of communities of shared fate is on a continuum of more or less justified. this requirement does not entail that groups must agree on a single narrative or a single account of the relationship. williams (2009) recognizes the potential of conflict in power and dominance, but does not resolve it. she acknowledges that what relates individuals to one another is a “system of social interdependence, often characterized by inequalities of power in which individual-level actions generate effects beyond the parties immediately concerned” (williams, 2009, p. 41). despite these differences in power, citizenship conceptualized as shared fate requires two forms of political agency: (a) imagining a set of human beings as socially related to one another in the past and the future (and telling a persuasive story so that other parties to relationship can share in that imagination); and (b) claiming that the terms of relationship should be subject to standards of a common good, including the fundamental good of legitimacy as reciprocal justification (williams, 2009). williams does not examine the very limited opportunities that some people may have to claim their agency or the fact that others may not listen and may not care about the relationship meeting the requirements of legitimacy. for everyone to have the will and the imagination to see themselves as socially related to identifiable others and then having the skills and knowledge required to tell (true) persuasive stories and engage in deliberation or dialogue supporting reciprocal justification sounds far-fetched in this era of violence. how can we possibly do this? williams’ conception of communities of shared fate has descriptive power: our lives are connected across national borders in complex ways and our actions do have an impact on others, as the actions of others impact each of us. the idea of citizenship as agency within communities of shared fate is compelling and yet when i think of the “topography of cruelty” (balibar, 2001), i despair that we are so far from dialogue or even caring about people who are “not us” (morrison, 2019). the despair many of us feel can be seen as an indicator of the concern that morrison (2019) expresses when she spoke about “the possibility or the collapse of a sharable world” (p. 19). balibar (2001) expresses a similar concern in his assertion that cruelty threatens our very ability to engage in civic life. and yet we—human beings—do still manage to engage in difficult dialogue and take responsibility for actions in a myriad of ways. the work of truth and reconciliation commissions is a clear example, such as that established in 1996 as apartheid ended in south africa and the national unity government took power. or that conducted in canada between 2010 and 2015 on the experience of first nations, inuit, and metis children forced to attend government-funded, church-run residential schools, the last of 9 which closed in the 1990s.1 but we limit what this story-telling or truth-finding might look like if we look only for formal deliberation. literature, the arts, and protest movements all have many clear examples of the kind of agency that would fit within williams’ conception of citizenship within communities of shared fate. school curriculum sometimes does and should include study of struggles for justice, emancipation, and reconciliation, as well as the development of skills and dispositions for students to claim agency. citizenship education for shared fate williams (2003) proposes that like citizenship education for shared identity, citizenship education for communities of shared fate would include learning basic skills of critical reasoning, of speech and argument, and an awareness of public affairs. citizens need these skills for participation in deliberative activities. students would still need to know about civil and political rights and, in particular, learn about the history of struggle for these rights. in addition to these elements, williams proposes citizenship education for shared fate would include a focus on dialogue across difference. for williams, democratic legitimacy in a diverse society requires that we engage in an exchange of reasons about matters that affect us jointly, and that we do not seek simply to impose our will on others: bringing the requirements of legitimacy together with the fact of sometimes unwelcome diversity means that citizens must learn to engage in democratic discourse through which they can come to understand (even if imperfectly or incompletely) others’ experience from others’ perspectives. (williams, 2003, p. 237) in short, williams (2003) concludes an education for citizenship as shared fate would stress the development of three dimensions of human agency that tend not to be stressed in other accounts of civic education: (a) the capacity of enlarged thought; (b) the imaginative capacity to see oneself as bound up with others through relations of interdependence as well as through shared history and institutions; (c) the capacity to reshape the shared practices and institutions that shape one’s environment through direct participation. (p. 238-239) returning again to balibar’s (2001) argument, i claim these dimensions of agency—these capacities—count as concrete strategies of civility because they have the potential to promote broad participation in our schools and classrooms and engage students in identifying and claiming agency in communities of shared fate. educators and students read literature and biographies that enlarge thought. curriculum sometimes includes histories of different struggles for equality and connects historical struggles to current movements. educators could often be 1 south africa’s truth and reconciliation commission maintains a website at https://www.justice.gov.za/trc/; more on canada’s truth and reconciliation commission can be found at http://www.trc.ca/reconciliation.html 10 more intentional and more cognizant of including multiple perspectives, but there are many clear examples of when and how this is done in social studies teaching.2 these three dimensions of human agency seem to entail broad knowledge of the world and cultural self-awareness, as well as cultural competence in moving between cultures, to be able to more fully understand diverse perspectives. such competence or capacity will support educators and students in asking good questions, listening with an open mind, and engaging in story-telling; this does appear broadly in education literature and practice. williams’ (2003, 2009) outline of citizenship education is compelling and has clear implications for teaching social studies from the integration of literature to engagement with social engagement projects. it feels familiar and empowering; however, it also needs more elaboration regarding fear, indifference, or violent refusal to acknowledge another’s perspective when moving from the fact of interconnectedness to a political and moral community. i turn now to the work of ben-porath (2011, 2012) and zembylas (2012) who suggest some directions in addressing this concern directly related to strategies and practices of civility. ben-porath (2011) proposes the concept of citizenship as shared fate as a way of addressing the problem she describes as belligerent citizenship or wartime citizenship which emerges as a response to perceived threats (which may be real) to national security. ben-porath names the characteristics of belligerent citizenship as follows: a) suppression of deliberation; b) demand for national unity; c) focus on compliance and support of war effort; d) diversity is suppressed for the sake of national survival. belligerent citizenship is in an overpowering form of patriotic unity (benporath, 2011). diversity is minimized and contained. as an alternative or addition to citizenship as shared identity, particularly in its belligerent form, ben-porath (2011) suggests that “working to preserve rather than contain diversity is a public and educational aim that can be met through teaching citizenship as a form of ‘shared fate’ rather than through presenting citizenship solely in terms of identity” (p. 319). ben-porath’s description of war-time or belligerent citizenship helps to understand what citizenship should not be if our goal is to sustain a plural democratic society. in itself, it provides a strong rationale for an alternative. ben-porath (2012) conceptualizes citizenship as shared fate as: […] a relational, process-oriented, dynamic affiliation that arises from cognitive perceptions as well as from the preferences and actions of its members. shared fate citizenship recognizes that reciprocity is at the heart of citizenship in a democracy, therefore, civic learning – commonly seen as composed as knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward the system of governance –should include knowledge of fellow citizens, skills to interact with them on the political and civic level, and attitudes that can facilitate shared civic action. (p. 383) ben-porath asserts that citizenship education based on shared fate acknowledges and 2 one example can be found in the lessons and units at teachingtolerance.org 11 promotes visions of shared histories, struggles, institutions, and commitments. she emphasizes the development of horizontal relationships between groups in a democracy as a balance to the more vertical or hierarchal structure emphasized in many curricula and in wartime or belligerent citizenship. further explicating horizontal relationships, ben-porath (2012) writes: shared fate portrays citizens as developing a view of themselves as members for a community by virtue of their relation to other members, by their way of relating to the nation-state as a project they take in, and by their multiple linkages to the national community and its institutions and practices. (p. 385) a strength of ben-porath’s (2011, 2012) conception of citizenship as shared fate is that some kind of shared identity is still there in an inclusive form. ben-porath argues that it is impractical to completely jettison our sense of shared national identity. further, she believes there is something hopeful and important in this identity, if it is fluid enough, that can inform our conversations as communities of shared fate. key differences between ben-porath’s and williams’ (2003, 2009) conceptions include that ben-porath does not move beyond national boundaries and sees national identity as a part of citizenship. thus the conception does not suggest ways we might respond as citizens or as educators to the stranger or refugee, who may not have citizenship in our nation. ben-porath’s conception does not support the radical and insurrectional element of democracy so important to balibar’s response to the violence of our time as well as williams’ conception does. lastly, the jump from belligerent citizenship to positive horizontal relationships in a diverse community is not clear. what are the structures and strategies that support this change? zembylas (2012) broadly supports the vision of citizenship education that promotes the values of shared fate, but is concerned with the lack of attention to the role of affect and emotion in the conceptions of citizenship education elaborated by williams and ben-porath. he is specifically concerned about the education of political emotions and the kind of affective relationality that is required to enact values such as shared fate. zembylas argues that we need to theorize shared fate in a way that recognizes the requirements for affective relationality. in his view, two issues merit attention: first, whether the notion of citizenship as shared fate entails particular formations of connectedness that are not only rationally based but also affectively grounded; and second, the kind of affective relationality that might be required to ground perceptions of shared fate in the first place, especially in sites of ethnic conflict. (zembylas, 2012, p. 556) in his work in the ethnically divided society of cyprus, zembylas (2013) sees evidence that children and young people have intense emotional challenges as they are encouraged to open up themselves and move toward those they consider the “enemy.” he writes, “the politics of emotions (e.g. fear, hatred, resentment) formulate particular dispositions and values about belonging, identification, and citizenship among students and their teachers (distinctions 12 between ‘us’ and ‘them’), and so it becomes very difficult to encourage new affective relationalities” (zembylas, 2013, p. 561). building new relations and perceptions, zembylas argues, is not impossible because there is often ambivalence in the feelings of resentment or fear, but alternative habits of perceiving don’t come easily. zembylas emphasizes that the goal is not to develop compatible historical narratives between members of conflicting ethnic groups that erase past trauma and grievances; rather, the focus is on creating openings for compassion and perceptions of shared fate. zembylas is interested in the conditions in which citizenship as shared fate can be translated into action to form new relationalities that are grounded in what he refers to as critical pedagogies of compassion and shared fate. these pedagogies should be seen as practices that envision the radicalization of solidarity and affective relationality with those with whom we are in conflict (zembylas, 2012). in zembylas’ view, compassion is important for the development of shared fate because it leads to the recognition that each one of us is vulnerable. thinking about the emotion involved helps to understand how people in a community of shared fate such as williams (2009, 2003) describes might find ways to listen and tell stories to each other and begin to move to more legitimacy when there are relations of fear, resentment, and distrust. it helps us to imagine balibar’s (2016, 2001) community of fate reinventing and innovating strategies of civility and thus, potentially meeting the concrete challenge of access to citizenship. in social studies instruction is makes sense for educators and students to work to distinguish between pity and empathy as we trace varied perspectives in the communities of shared fate identified in history and in our present day, both inside and outside our classroom and school community. moral committments of educators i began with questions about home and belonging in an era of growing violence and displacement. i stated that the moral dimension of social studies is especially clear when considering the movement of people due to war and conflict. questions of belonging, our responsibilities to others, and human rights are deeply moral questions that involve justice and compassion. the way that we answer these questions has implications for social studies curriculum and pedagogy. to discuss implications, i begin by sharing two statements of educators who were asked to consider their views on welcoming the stranger and teaching about immigration with a focus on those with refugee status in particular. these statements relate to the teaching of powerful children’s literature depicting the journeys of families fleeing from danger. jim: my purpose in teaching students about refugees is to transmit to students that there are many children—who share the same dreams, interests, and quirks—who deal with extremely challenging circumstances. i appreciate the actionable language in the national council of social studies themes such as explore, describe, demonstrate, compare and 13 contrast, identify, construct, observe, consider, and examine. these verbs drive home the idea that social studies educators must facilitate windows for critical thinking towards the development of empathetic, nuanced, and thoughtful global citizens. susan: we see the news stories about refugees almost every day. we hear the true but almost unimaginable accounts of families forced to flee their homes, their homelands, their entire lives. while we may wish that our students didn’t have to know about such trauma, the facts are that it’s real and very present — and there are countless children living it. picture books can facilitate dialogue and promote healthy communication on this difficult topic, help to foster empathy and understanding, and even inspire young readers to act to ensure safe and welcoming environments in their own communities. we are always telling a story of the movement of people, a story that that can be told from many different perspectives. i think of faith ringgold’s (2016) book we came to america which begins “we came to america, every color, race, and religion from every corner of the world. some of us were already here before others came. and some of us were brought in chains, losing our freedom and our names.” these educators were designing units with powerful children’s literature depicting refugee journeys. developing empathy and understanding of what others go through are clear goals in these two statements. juxtaposing the refugee journeys with faith ringgold’s book encourages connections and begins to develop what williams’ (2003) called “the imaginative capacity to see oneself as bound up with others through relations of interdependence as well as through shared history and institutions” (p. 238). both statements have an appropriate place for young children to begin to build the capacity to reshape shared practices and institutions. my point is that teaching for communities of shared fate is not unfamiliar. it does involve more intentionality and thought than pulling out a textbook or weekly reader, but more than that it involves courage. these educators’ comments regarding concerns about reading books that include a reference to violence or fear centered on the possibility of giving children nightmares or anxiety that they could have to flee their home and facing opposition from a parent or guardian who wanted borders closed, who did not feel that we needed to consider what obligation or responsibility we had to help those fleeing from danger. these kinds of concerns can be enough for educators to play it safe and close down age-appropriate conversation that could help children to understand the world around them or for other children, to hear their experience mirrored, validated in the classroom. to teach in a responsible way, courage is required. courage is required of all of us. that is what is so powerful in balibar’s conception of civility—the belief in the insurrectional element of democracy. the belief that we can find ways (i.e., a set of initiatives that are reinvented and innovated to ensure broad participation) to make collective participation possible or not completely impossible. for educators, civility as concrete strategies for participation in and beyond our curriculum and classrooms can become a criterion against which to reflect on our practice. williams’ conception of a community of shared fate has 14 descriptive power. we simply are connected with one another and our actions have an impact on others. it may not possible to trace out all of our intersecting communities of fate, but that doesn’t mean we don’t take seriously the questions of agency and legitimacy that williams’ presents. in short, what stories we tell and how we listen matters in sustaining our sharable world. conclusion i’ve drawn on balibar’s (2016, 2001) conception of civility to frame an argument that effective social studies education should include understanding ourselves within communities of shared fate collectively building practices of civility. our curriculum and pedagogy has to find ways to address the violence of our times to sustain what morrison (2019) called a sharable world for children and young people. we need the courage to hope, to reach out to the stranger, to listen and tell true stories, and “to reshape the shared practices and institutions that shape [our] environment through direct participation” (williams, 2003, p. 239). we also need to provide students with opportunities to do the same. references arendt, h. (1973). the origins of totalitarianism. new york, ny: harvest. balibar, e. (2001). outlines of a topography of cruelty: citizenship and civility in the era of global violence. constellations, 8(1), 5-29. balibar, e. (2016). violence and civility: on the limits of political philosophy. (g. goshgarian, trans.). new york, ny: columbia university press. ben-porath, s. (2011). wartime citizenship: an argument for shared fate. ethnicities, 11(3), 313325. ben-porath, s. (2012). citizenship as shared fate: education for membership in a diverse democracy. educational theory, 62(4), 381-395. dewey, j. (1927). the public and its problems. new york, ny: henry holt. eppert, c. (2010). the ‘war within’: ethical and spiritual responsibilities to children in an age of terror and consumerism. international journal of children’s spirituality, 15(3), 219-232. lopez, b. (1990). the rediscovery of north america. louisville, ky: the university press of kentucky. miliband, d. (2017). rescue: refugees and the political crisis of our time. new york: ny: simon and schuster. morrison, t. (2019). the source of self-regard: selected essays, speeches, and meditations. new york, ny: alfred a. knopf. ncss national council of the social studies. (1994). expectations of excellence: curriculum standards for social studies. washington dc: ncss ringgold, f. (2016). we came to america. york, ny: alfred a. knopf. 15 unhrc united nations refugee agency. (2018). report on global trends: forced displacement in 2018. retrieved from https://www.unhcr.org/5d08d7ee7.pdf van gunsteren, h.r. (1998). a theory of citizenship: organizing plurality in contemporary democracies. boulder, co: westview press. williams, m. (2003). citizenship as identity, citizenship as shared fate, and the functions of multicultural education. in k. mcdonough & w. feinberg (eds.), citizenship and education in liberal-democratic societies. oxford, united kingdom: oxford university press. williams, m. (2009). citizenship as agency within communities of shared fate. in s. bernstein & w. coleman (eds.), unsettled legitimacy: political community, power, and authority in a global era. vancouver, canada: british columbia university press. zembylas, m. (2012). citizenship education and human rights in sites of ethnic conflict: toward critical pedagogies of compassion and shared fate. studies in philosophy and education, 31, 553-567. journal of curriculum studies research curriculumstudies.org open access journal 2019, 1(1): 43-53 research paper theoretical constructs and practical strategies for intercultural communication: informed teaching practices in vietnam tung ngoc vu* * university at albany, new york, usa (phd student) e-mail: vungoctung2006@gmail.com article info received: 26 october 2019 accepted: 20 november 2019 how to cite vu, t. n. (2019). theoretical constructs and practical strategies for intercultural communication: informed teaching practices in vietnam. journal of curriculum studies research, 1(1), 43-53. abstract delving into english language education in vietnam, this theory-oriented article aims to generate a new debate on critical cultural awareness (cca) in light of increasing literature on intercultural communication competence (icc), thus offering practical implementations to academic agents. once icc is strongly considered indispensable within communication, cca can strengthen the power of sociocultural and psychological relationships. this study specifies the role of intercultural communication, aiming to develop vietnamese learners to reach beyond abstract linguistic features towards language awareness by engaging in cultural and societal plurality. seemingly, they need use language that advocate the enactment of change, fostering their abilities in their civic life. coupled with that, they are obliged for learning the power of positive attitudes in terms of intercultural engagement, such as sympathy towards and acceptance of differences. critical cultural awareness as a contribution to intercultural communication drives two primary aspects, namely social and psychological dimensions. in addition to dragging learners out of traditionally perceived skills related to native-like competences, the framework application expands potential goals and instructional steps that cover learning based on learner voice reflected upon privilege and power. apparently, it is relevant in response to learning environment driven by social mechanisms which focus on citizenship, expecting that they learn and possess knowledge for certain purposes relating to career goals and social needs. comprehensively, this study will outline the short examination of language education in vietnam as a way to understand existing hindrances to be resolved. it anchored this analysis in a theoretical paradigm: critical cultural awareness, which is then critically embedded to involve social and psychological pedagogies. this enables to shift learners’ desire and willingness that hone their learning skills which influences academic success and communicative adaptability. pedagogical implications are also suggested. keywords intercultural communication, critical cultural awareness, english language teaching, vietnamese learners, culturally responsive pedagogy. 44 vu, t. n. introduction functioning the varieties of roles in a large number of social fields, english is widely shared as the common language that relieves difficulties in the cross-cultural communication. also, bilingual or multilingual speakers of english have surged in quantity over the past decades, even higher than those in inner circle (the first-language english users). estimates have showed that non-native english users are greater than that of natives in terms of population, meaning the rising needs of encouraging “dialogue across the boundaries of languages, countries, and cultures” (mirzaei and forouzandeh, 2013, p. 303). english fosters the social and racial harmony between people of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. however, defining learning tools to justify the plurality of culture and language remains largely neglected in developing countries. amidst significant effects of culture, language education has been unstoppably challenged to inform critically several approaches which can accommodate the vast contacts of culture and language in communities of practice. also, this has failed the consistency of native-like competence at the expense of learners’ fluent and proficient response in sociocultural contexts. the study used a framework developed by byram (2012), named as critical cultural awareness (cca), of which intercultural competence is developed. in the context of higher education as a central focus in this oriented study, educational “businesses” are more entitled to discern their willingness “towards more market-oriented and entrepreneurial models” (nguyen, 2018, pp. 78). in light of the significant body of literature on intercultural communicative competence (liddicoat & scarino, 2013), this study is significant to contribute towards the neglected concepts relating to cca especially. in vietnamese context, the necessity of embedding appropriate methods to develop speakers’ icc skills are progressively questioned. byram (1997) claimed the clusters of knowledge, skills and attitudes are inextricably contributing towards the acquisition and changes of learners’ intercultural competence. therefore, this study is initiated to inspire more scholarly attention in the field, by elaborating on what is hindering english language education in vietnam in light of the country’s international expansion and intercultural integration. from that vantage point, this study is going to interpret the perspectives of byram (2012) into the application of class-based icc instruction. the growing needs of english in vietnam in light of political and cultural changes, vietnam has made multiple attempts relating to foreign language education. the time 1954-1975 was the period when english and french were required foreign languages in the south of vietnam (the capitalist south) and russian and chinese in the north (the communist north). however, right after 1985, russia as the main foreign language for instruction was unprecedented in the nation-wide education as a sign of close collaboration with the soviet union. in 1986, the economic reforms led to various plans to house the communicative needs with foreign investors and customers, resulting in increasing needs of english as a vehicle for communication. in addition, that vietnam was officially a member of asean in 2015 and tpp in 2016 incentivized vietnamese citizens to care more about their language competence to satisfy a wide range of purposes, such as study, employment, immigration and so on. especially in terms of higher education sectors, english started to be included in curriculum as a compulsory subject and was seen as a required component in entrance exams and for he graduation. english has been normally designed to teach both as 45 theoretical constructs and practical strategies for intercultural communication general english for english-majoring and non-english-majoring students in all levels and as english for specific purposes. the nature of language acquisition in vietnam was predominantly developed by grammartranslation method, asking learners to memorize and employ accurately the grammar rules, vocabulary, syntax and morphology. heavily driven by the deep-rooted confucian traditions, current efforts were obviously based on hierarchical knowledge transmission (linear instruction) and out-of-culture languages. the overlooked vietnamese mother tongue in efl classes, albeit its own inevitable benefits in some cases, has lowered students’ access to knowledge of target language and culture. in parallel to them, while required to teach and learn english with ‘nativelike’ quality without any consideration of learners’ cultural background, assuming the dominant communicating needs between natives and non-natives, it is directly linked to withdrawing the students’ curiosity and interest in real-life intercultural contacts. thus, various innovative approaches have been introduced because it was reported that foreign language education in vietnam was inappropriate in terms of direction. before pedagogical implications are presented, the byram’s model will be described and linked to other pertaining areas. it is highlighted that this study is of paramount importance to leave a powerful platform for prospective scholarly attention in order that theories are crucial practices and implementation plans to be rendered in vietnamese classrooms. the use of intercultural communicative competence in vietnam efl classrooms after joining asean, vietnam is home to numerous fdi investments from numerous continental countries. beyond educational purposes, english as a lingua franca was needed to assist locals in effectively communicating in settings where intentions, assumptions, beliefs and goals of people exist variously. therefore, intercultural communication is critically such a target that vietnamese speakers of english can qualify in the multicultural education (government of vietnam, 2008). as referred to teaching settings, moeller and nugent (2014) indicated that icc appears to be practically implemented. in parallel with instructional implementations of icc is advocated by national standards for foreign language learning (nsflep) that “the true content of the foreign language course is not the grammar and the vocabulary of the language, but the cultures expressed through the language” (1999, p. 43). teaching culture involves a series of dynamic processes to save learners from “becoming a fluent fool” (bennett, 1997, p. 16), making them “conscious of their own perspective, of the way in which their thinking is culturally determined, rather than believing that their understanding and perspectives is nature” (byram, 2000, p. 10). in other words, it is to help learners recognize that culture is dynamically changing, not stable. moreover, culture in language classes is necessarily beyond 4fs (cultural facts, festivals, food, fairs) towards human beings’ behavioural and attitudinal aspects (liddicoat and scarino, 2013; dema & moeller, 2012) widely seen as learner identities, that is, who they are in distinctive settings. empirically, this application has led to manifold benefits among both teachers and learners. nguyen, harvey and grant (2016) explore vietnamese teachers’ perceptions regarding teaching culture in language classes. they claimed that teaching is no useful in some reasons (lack of cultural knowledge, lack of teaching techniques, lack of student abilities and commitment) though they attempted to describe and analyze cultures in a certain extent. differently, tran and duong (2018) suggested that intercultural teaching is generating manifold positive impacts among vietnamese efl learners. they introduced a framework, entitled intercultural communication language teaching. in addition to positive effects on 46 vu, t. n. student attitudes, knowledge and awareness were on the rise, implying that learners increasingly engage in learning environment which is more culturally diversified. they further support that intercultural learning can develop learners’ critical thinking on seeing cultures equally. academically, learners can enhance their learning progress in two productive skills. in well a similar vein, truong & tran (2014) researched on how to implement icc teaching and learning. they informed the impacts of using digital artefacts on learners in terms of cultural recognition and intercultural understanding. it is well stated that delving into learning environments if they are authentically embedded with cultural views and learning voices would be a profound interest of vietnamese language learners. more importantly, they are willing to reconsider themselves in addressing existing stereotypes to undertake as many positive viewpoints as possible. byram’s critical cultural awareness educational learning environment has existed fruitfully in a wide range of forms regardless of learner geographical distance, background, and financial and non-financial capacity. it is meant that language learning is no longer beyond reach, through information-seeking processes and under-surface exploration. from the lens of a hermeneutic view of self, culture not only involves surface-level cultural aspects but also reflects on intercultural meanings among people who perceive interpersonally (dema & moeller, 2012). they can talk about their assumptions, show emotions, acquire cognitive competences, possessed understanding, exercised practices, and so on. intrinsically, it is common to manifest cultures in layers comprehensively and logically. as those are articulate through human interactions, the nature of learning language neglecting the cultural understanding presents numerous obstacles, leading to learners being unable to cite worldviews in their intrinsic knowledge” (kramsch, 1993; kumaravadivelu, 2008; tran & vu, 2017). currently, learning goals in vietnamese efl classes are to a certain extent equal to efforts in addressing to overcome stereotypical views inside pedagogical mechanism. there is a positive change among asian students who were found to actively seeking chances to achieve personal growth while accommodating learning challenges in developed nations (ryan, 2011; tran 2013a). this is a consequence of sociocultural impacts directly training asian learners to activate abilities and exercise sufficient agency in order to reflect on knowledge weaknesses towards potential achievements. also, it is a reversed misconception that confucian philosophies are eliminated in a sense that the elimination would contribute to linguistic and cultural awareness optimism. baker (2012) associated with intercultural awareness theory, asserting that “a conscious understanding of the role culturally-based forms, practices and frames of reference can have in intercultural communication” (p. 63). literature on intercultural communication is specifically motivating this theoretical initiative on critical cultural awareness (cca) to transform university-level students’ perceptions on intercultural competence. byram (1997) refers to critical cultural awareness (cca) as “an ability to evaluate critically and on the basis of explicit criteria perspectives, practices and products in one’s own and other cultures and countries” (byram and guilherme, 2000, p. 72). schumann (1978b) supplements with acculturation which is defined as “the social and psychological integration of the learner with the target language group” (p. 29). it means that beyond engaging in cultural manifestations is learners to become critical of communities where engagement takes place. it is comprehended that they are critical in a way to particularize the certain perspectives, which enable them to succeed in meaning-making interactions. however, 47 theoretical constructs and practical strategies for intercultural communication it is not without communication conflicts when social power and hierarchy are encountered on a frequent basis. in such, intense engagement with cca is involved adequately in not dealing with we and they, rather involved continuously in constructing surface-level and interpersonal level knowledge. apparently, accomplishing it requires them an acceptable level of cognition, attitude and behavior (kumaravadivelu, 2008). in terms of involvement in cca, learners need to beware actively of politically civic skills. in fact, they would be able to figure out how to see and understand others’ language and culture in their stand, so it can be called as effective skills to participate in multicultural interaction (bennett, bennett, & allen, 2003; houghton, 2013; kramsch, 1993; kumaravadivelu, 2008; mirzaeil & forouzandeh, 2013). however, how can we teach with how to design that curriculum which showcases? it is rarely developed in asian studies. it is critical that attitudes and knowledge should be initially a central focus. as stated above, in addition to the framework of 3ps (nsflep, 2006): practices, products, perspectives of both target and national cultures, social dimension and psychological dimension are now come into play. social dimension to a certain extent, it is centered on a place of pilgrimage that offers students space to conduct spatial analysis by reflecting over how language is socially and culturally influenced in particular settings. therefore, integrating the learning of english means providing knowledge for identifying and grasping social reality (kramsch, 1993) around learners, especially for knowledge which seems neglected in traditional classes, such as determining learners’ values, learners’ beliefs, learners’ attitudes, learners’ behaviors and learners’ ideas (ozdemir, 2017). in other words, no learners’ particular culture is the key to classroom’s opportunity structure as any culture is believed to be progressing in different ways to evaluate its own level of competence and acceptance. besides that, providing knowledge for learners’ intellectual voices to be heard extends the exploration of how learners approached and handled interpersonal conflicts which influences their personal growth. therefore, it might enable learners to adapt holistically in variously defined cultures. this is similar to empirical findings by le & tran (2013). interesting, that it demonstrates learners’ sense of belonging to a classroom context, or broadly immediately surrounding societies influencing their daily interactions (including family, relative network, schools, neighbors, communities and so on) can promote their self-efficacy towards interests in, trusts in and understanding about the common good. to be specific, learning english in vietnamese efl classrooms is strictly based on the transmission of linguistic forms which neglects intellectual skills, so learners’ engagement in cca could be an active way to help them notice systematically linguistic differences in response to cultural manifestations (lamber, 1967). thus, it is hoped to combine communicative competence with intercultural competence to interact successfully in intercultural settings among learners with others (trofimovich & turuseva, 2015). they can show their identities freely with political skills, such as critical thinking, problem solving and analytical analysis. psychological dimension it is overlapped with social dimensions that psychological dimension attaches importance to learners’ identities, discerning learners’ motivations and willingness to fulfil political skills that helps them act rigorous inquiry and thoughtful reasoning. therefore, their confidence is enhanced in culturally unfamiliar contexts that is socially changing. morgan (2007) confirms that 48 vu, t. n. learners are enhancing political skills, meaning that their identities become clearer and dynamically formed as a way to succeed in future communication. it is explained under the perspectives of sociocultural identity and constructionist theories that identity is not fixed, it is dynamic given timely manner and interaction mechanism which leaners participate in to perceive emotions differently. it is also supported by norton (1997) that identities are mutually struggled which seemingly reflect learners’ roles and positioning. with language instructed in efl classes, they tend to choose identities either inferior or superior to others’ learners or teachers to make them feel comfortable, which promptly enables their exercise of proper agency to decide cognition, attitude and behavior linguistically (garcia, 2010, p. 524). when it comes to psychological properties, it is unnecessarily neglecting the learners’ psychological well-being because it is advantageous to tackle developmental needs of intercultural sensitivity and self-esteem which were absent in traditional classes. efl classrooms now should nurture learners’ collaborative attitudes to work with others to make contributions to others and pleasant views of cultural recognition with empathy and openness, practice of newly conceptual knowledge which would be transforming them into skilled intercultural communicator. it resonates with opinion of hammer, bennett and wiseman (2003) that an increase in intercultural sensitivity helps learners become familiar with their skills to observe and judge their communication partners in a positive way. this would facilitate their strong wills to articulate language use more sufficiently. theoretically, it is true that krashen (1985) explicates the progress of language acquisition when he involves the effective filter as an indispensable part. accompanied by learners’ prior knowledge, surrounding learning experience (e.g. with materials or social environments) is input hypothesis for learners’ knowledge supplements. the effective filters make up learners’ emotional and attitudinal influences to contribute towards their knowledge output. in sum, teachers are recommended to put in mind language users who would allow the simulation of personal values and the continuing formation of identities during their experience of language acquisition. as long as they have a sense of belonging to learning environments or an exercise of agency in terms of learning tasks or activities, they can find positive pathways to civil life. pedagogical discussions the perspectives of byram (2012) are well articulated concerning the aim to develop intercultural development skills among language learners. in addition to linguistic skills, to the forefront of vietnamese learners’ language-related goals is intercultural competence replacing native-level competence. in light of the byram (2012) theory, insights into students’ patterns of learning acts and personal thoughts are unpacked in the conditions in which students are granted to make informed learning, coupled with exercising agency and power. as a consequence, they are not only entitled to employ identities appropriately but also attend to self-initiation and effective participation of others’ initiated interaction where involving cultures qualifies interlocutor’s different roles and positions (harré and van langenhove, 1999; winslade, 2003). i can tell why awareness is a key driver in developing knowledge for intercultural learning. critically, students could appear insufficient to have concerns for and have responsibilities in addressing other issues than theirs, without being made them aware of what issues are occurring and why addressing these issues is important. by doing so, this leads to the development in three areas: cognition, attitude and behavior. in order to justify pedagogical implementations, it is central in byram (2012) that is a range of relevant discussions highlight how learning skills are constructed based on experience socially 49 theoretical constructs and practical strategies for intercultural communication and psychologically, for instance undertaking knowledge for and reflection on multiple purposes. learning with experience would provide knowledge – that knowledge is ultimately for the purpose of intercultural learning or, broadly, intercultural advocacy. in this extent, without experience as a primary agent in curriculum, learning would likely fail to help learners understand the depth and truth of how knowledge is evolving and students thus would employ practically to make certain achievements. reflection is plausible in learning constructs thoroughly when it comes to a number of lucid forms, as an example, through allowing learners to feel empowered to explore the question regarding stereotypical viewpoints that they hold kinesthetically. another form is taking an account of actualizing learners’ self-efficacy and identity formation and of the otherness. they are not disconnected to favor differences, in addition to frequent commonalities. as byram (1997) conceptually defines five clustered saviors along with intercultural communicative competence (icc): attitude, knowledge, skills of interpreting, skills of discovering and critical awareness, the very last one is influentially reliable to inform teaching practices in association with the learning strategies: social and psychological. in the social aspect, engaging in open learning environment can reinforce learners’ understanding of spatial and social relations, widening their network in and outside the traditional classes. explicitly, it is about to necessarily assist them in finding connections and building rapport, thus developing their belongingness. for the university-level english learners in vietnam who are trained to become social agents in workforce, given broad learning space, they can enjoy with interdisciplinary exposure. it can be said that teamwork can beautify their minds as it is an empowering way of developing bravery and confidence to reflect on their voices. it is not important that they take passive or active roles in communities of practice, instead they are given more power and the authority necessarily to exercise agency to employ identities fitting certain circumstances. it is valuable that helping them take small steps can make impacts. these resulting conditions are a great contribution to synthesize how knowledge are differentiated, but mutually connected within relations, and insights across multiple disciplinary fields is needed to solve any social problem. teachers of college-level students with interdisciplinary domains would be more concerned with current learning cultures. however, the majority of observations point out that vietnamese tertiary learners appeared to be largely influenced by confucian-tied values to formative exams and labelled as passive learners, so moving their attentions to be active intercultural agents not only helps them find out possibilities to seek alternatives underpinning effective learning choices, but also builds a co-learning space conducive to motivational and autonomous learning. this opinion is, moreover, depicted to serve solutions to learners’ poor motivation while they found little to no learning motivation and nonsense learning inputs that they do not have chance to make themselves heard of what is important or now. learning cca, inextricably, is to embrace learners’ growing competence in three areas of focus: cognitive, attitudinal and behavioral. firstly, referred to cognitive engagement, intercultural learning should be inherently implemented by learners’ expression freedom in physical and mental conditions. they know what their sense of language entails itself among those whose living cultures shape their voices with regards to perceptions, thoughts, saying and actions. considering learners’ physical and mental conditions and creating conducive environment can make teachers clear of hidden barriers that learners have while coping with learning constraints. as a result, besides attention to required knowledge of language being made, we should regard leaners’ voices as curriculum inclusion. specifically, following 50 vu, t. n. vietnamese students’ familiarity with either individual or collective culture, this is a starting point for teachers to attend to authentic artefacts demonstrating learners’ conventionally intimate living and newly goal-oriented cultural values tasked with new learning behaviors and philosophical learning orientations. thus, learners can engage cognitively to thrive on usual and unusual interactions, deconstruct new knowledge, and falsify ethnocentrisms based on their open interpretation of learning ends. in this regard, it is implicit that flexibility and responsibility should be essentially reaching an acceptance level to help them achieve certain successes. with this sense, we are unnecessarily transforming learners’ preferred and familiar patterns in a complete way shortly, far more fundamental is a number of innovations to help customize learners’ active participation in facing unavoidably prejudiced beliefs in cultural exchange and common lack of understanding regarding their practice of roles following sociocultural positions, hence contributing to evolving attitudinal and behavioral engagement towards valuing other people’s ways to embody life experience as well as clustered identities. as teachers, we should be aptly competent at brining consistently courage and great determination into teaching zones, thus learners are feeling divulging of information and the beauty of culture where interactions happen. conclusion the study elaborated on the importance of intercultural communicative competence by byram (1997) and his extended framework of critical cultural awareness (2012). based on a clear understanding english language education which takes place in vietnam, it is positively seen that the development of social skills alone does not reveal adequately the well-rounded intercultural growth. much attention to shift learners’ attitudinal motivation is radically added as a critical value to help them become confidently involved in civilized world with good intercultural communication and interpersonal skills. collaboration and decision-making skills are also the consequences of integrating intercultural learning in efl classes and out-of-class activities. they are supposed to not only yield developmental skills in cognitive domains, but also promote competence which highlights courageous attitudes and good effects of behavioral intervention that influence their academic outcomes. the higher quality of effects invested by academic stakeholders, the better outcomes gained among students in learning progress. indeed, the rapidly increasing number of research on the field of intercultural communication was recorded in the past decades, in tighter connection to the larger complexity of learning needs of english language education. back and forth, by examining a series of intercultural pedagogy that helps design culturally responsive pedagogies, this corresponding study is impeccable that assumes a hypothesis that bears a positive relationship between the vietnamese college-level learners’ critical cultural awareness and intercultural competence. future empirical studies are needed to validate the impacts of critical cultural awareness on learning outcomes among higher education students. besides that, descriptive studies can be supplementing instructional steps to make these expected goals possible in various settings. 51 theoretical constructs and practical strategies for intercultural communication references baker, w. 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(2013). critical pedagogy: stereotyping as oppression. in s. houghton, y. furumura, m. lebedko, & s. li (eds.), critical cultural awareness: managing stereotypes through intercultural (language) education (pp. 204-220). newcastle upon tyne, u.k.: cambridge scholars publishing. microsoft word evans-amalu and claravall-editorial journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 june 2021 volume: 3 issue: 1 pp. i-iii inclusive online teaching and digital learning: lessons learned in the time of pandemic and beyond when the covid-19 pandemic swept across the world in 2020 and into 2021, the entire system of education faced the most challenging task to provide education to students using virtual instruction. within the united states specifically, the pandemic transformed teaching. teachers were and have continued to be compelled to learn digital technology and integrate varied digital tools into their instruction. as guest editors, eric and i had the opportunity to reflect on the many instructional challenges and valuable lessons learned about virtual teaching and learning in k-12 and higher education. one of the biggest lessons observed was exposure of huge equity gaps between the tech haves and have nots, regarding access to digital devices and reliable wifi. it was from this observation that the call for proposals of this special issue was developed. what does inclusion look like in the era of digital and virtual teaching?  with this in mind, we were tasked to coedit this special issue of jcsr focusing on the theme “inclusive curriculum in the era of digital & virtual learning.” we had the opportunity to review five exemplary articles responding to the theme. we define an inclusive curriculum as the commitment toward attaining social justice and equity in teaching and learning. it is our vision and desire to develop and foster curricula that challenge and dismantle structural and systemic issues (e.g., racism, ableism, sexism, classism, linguicism, ageism, heterosexism, religious bias, and xenophobia) that our global society currently faces. this special issue represents a crucial time to understand the intersection of technology, pedagogy, and education within inclusive teaching. the five articles represent diverse perspectives on the migration toward online/virtual teaching, especially in the time of pandemic. the articles published contain a range of contexts, use differing methodologies, and focus on various experiences from students, pre-service teachers, to communities at large. three broad themes are evident across the articles in this special issue: insight into how and why to use online spaces for anti-racist work, challenges experienced with digital and virtual learning, and meaning making in online spaces. each theme offers unique insight into the interpretation of the call and gives depth to what inclusive digital learning and teaching could and should look like. ii the articles “towards abolition: undoing the colonized curriculum” (by angela maria leslie, vajra watson, rose borunda, kate bosworth and tatianna grant) and “towards socially just literacy teaching in virtual spaces” (by elizabeth isidro and laura teichert) depict the development of creating anti-racist spaces online. as editors we recognize that spaces designed by predominantly white instructors must be actively anti-racist to move away from a digital environment of neutrality, and the submitted works reflect anti-racist teaching and learning efforts in primary, secondary, and higher education. in reviewing these two works, both call for de-colonizing the current curriculum in schools. however, each paper espouses challenges in attempting to build anti-racist curriculum in online spaces. “towards socially just literacy teaching in virtual spaces” examines an online literacy methods course and the pedagogy of teaching literacy virtually. however, what was uncovered by the authors in data collection is that creating socially just teaching strategies and literacy instruction in virtual spaces is a complex process. accordingly, “towards abolition: undoing the colonized curriculum” expands on this complex process by exploring the impact of an online humanist pedagogy on students’ understanding of radicalized power. we appreciate the data analyzed, as it engages inclusive digital spaces through a social justice lens. the three articles "lessons learned from a rural classroom study: transitioning from concrete to virtual manipulatives to teach math fact fluency to students with learning disabilities" (by matthew kabel, jiyung hwang and jiwon hwang), “community making: an expansive view of curriculum” (by jill castek) “digital storytelling as a tool for reflection in virtual reality projects” (by deoksoon kim, merijke coenraad and ho ryong park) offers further insight into the presence of inequity in digital spaces. these articles depicted a variety of challenges that have been made clear, including equitable spaces and mental health support. what was quite notable across all three of the articles is description of teachers’, students’, and pre-service teachers' perception of using technology as a primary tool for pedagogical use. many described the heightened level of anxiety experienced when integrating new tools into the classroom, especially during pandemic when the transition was forced, and students/teachers alike were forced to adapt quickly. although these articles depicted the natural resiliency educators and students have amidst times of uncertainty, the pandemic also exposed large gaps of inequality. creating accessible spaces for online learning has proved challenging due to the digital divide that prevents equitable access to online spaces. "lessons learned from a rural classroom study: transitioning from concrete to virtual manipulatives to teach math fact fluency to students with learning disabilities'' describes the challenges experienced when virtually teaching in the context of a rural classroom. in their research, matthew kabel, jiyung hwang and jiwon hwang attempt to create an inclusive mathematics classroom using virtual manipulatives but discovers that the accessibility, implementation, and resource of virtual learning is lacking in rural communities. iii engaging in inclusive digital teaching and learning has presented its own unique challenges in pandemic, but also opportunities that may bring clarity, and offer meaning to teachers and students. the articles “community making: an expansive view of curriculum” and “digital storytelling as a tool for reflection in virtual reality projects” depicts this reflection and meaning making amidst challenge. meaning-making positions human beings as agents of personal and collective change, as depicted in “community making: an expansive view of curriculum” by jill castek. the author offered a unique perspective on the need for community and critical relationality in times of trialincluding the context of pandemic. by promoting reflection, safety, and inclusionthe authors found that the community under study could more easily transition into online communities of care. like jill castek, in “digital storytelling as a tool for reflection in virtual reality projects” deoksoon kim, merijke coenraad and ho ryong park integrated reflection using digital storytelling for the promotion of identity building and learning. meaning making and reflection provide a depth of hope in virtual learning spacesthat are so needed in the time of covid-19. the articles contained in this special issue offer a wide perspective and definition on inclusive digital curriculum. it is our hope that the insight offered in this collection of manuscripts will help inform k-12 teachers and teacher educators in best practices of digital learning. further, we hope that this work will inspire future research centered in equitable virtual learning. kelsey evans-amalu guest editor georgia southwestern state university, college of education americus, ga, usa email: themeditationprofessor@gmail.com eric b. claravall guest editor california state university, college of education sacramento, ca, usa email: eric.claravall@csus.edu how to cite: evans-amalu, k. & claravall, e. b. (2021). inclusive online teaching and digital learning: lessons learned in the time of pandemic and beyond. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(1), i-iii. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.4 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 june 2020 volume: 2 issue: 1 pp. 76-94 building bridges instead of walls: engaging young children in critical literacy read alouds cassie j. brownell1 & anam rashid2 1. corresponding author, university of toronto department of curriculum, teaching, and learning, toronto, ontario, canada. e-mail: cassie.brownell@utoronto.ca 2. university of toronto scarborough, department of critical development studies, toronto, ontario, canada. article info received: may 3, 2020 revised: may 13, 2020 accepted: may 17, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0) how to cite brownell, c. j. & rashid, a. (2020). building bridges instead of walls: engaging young children in critical literacy read alouds. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(1), 76-94. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.5 abstract situated in the months after the 2016 united states presidential election, this qualitative case study illuminates third-grade children’s sense-making about the gop administration’s proposed border wall with mexico. in light of these present-day politics, close analysis of how young children discuss social issues remains critical, particularly for social studies educators. looking across fifteen book discussions, we zero in on three whole-class conversations about (im)migration beginning with initial read alouds through the final debrief wherein children conversed with a local university anthropologist about the clandestine migration of individuals across the u.s.’s southern border. during initial discussions, children in the midwestern school demonstrated their frustration towards racist laws of the mid-1900s. others responded with empathy or made personal connections to their own family heritage. in the findings, we note a clear progression in how children understood (im)migration issues as evidenced by how their questions and curiosities shifted in later lessons. we highlight how, when children are encouraged to engage with social topics, they can act as critical consumers and position themselves as politically active and engaged citizens. keywords social studies, critical literacy, children’s literature, immigration, early childhood education 10.46303/jcsr.02.01.5 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.5 77 introduction “it’s because this stuff isn’t just trash, it was real people that owned that stuff,” replied katie, a 10-year-old white girl, when asked about the importance of learning about (im)migrants’ stories. for six weeks, katie and her third-grade classmates had been immersed in an integrated humanities unit planned in response to the turbulent 2016 presidential election in the united states. her teacher ms. honey, a 34-year-old white woman, had used daily read alouds in their morning meeting to introduce concepts and spark conversations related to (im)migration. katie and her peers had engaged with numerous children’s literature texts, ranging from stories about refugees’ journeys to the tales of migrant workers fighting for improved working conditions. after weeks of building background knowledge about historical and contemporary (im)migration issues, the children spoke with a local expert, dr. jason de león (2015), a highly regarded anthropologist studying the clandestine migration of individuals across the u.s southern border. with intrigued eyes and attentive ears, the children eagerly attended to the smartboard screen where dr. de león shared with the children objects (im)migrants crossing the border left behind. “what were some of the messages you found?” asked one young learner. “how many backpacks have you found?” asked another. the children peppered dr. de león with questions. as in the previous book discussions, the children displayed concern for (im)migrants, particularly upon hearing about the challenges they faced to enter the united states. however, as evidenced in katie’s response, the children understood people were at the center of (im)migration debates. after weeks of engaging in reading historical fiction and contemporary texts, the children were more knowledgeable about (im)migration and more inclined to critique policies they deemed unjust and inhumane while positioning themselves as politically aware, socially-engaged community members. operating from an understanding that young children are capable of and interested in critical social issues (halvorsen, 2017; hauver, 2019; payne, 2018; payne et al., 2019; vasquez, 2004/2014), in this paper, we share key moments of children’s sense-making about the gop administration’s proposed border wall with mexico. this is a topic that lingers in american politics ahead of the 2020 presidential election, as the trump administration recently announced $3.8 billion from the national guard would be diverted to the wall (choi, 2020). in light of these present-day politics, we argue that close analysis of how children discuss social issues remains critical. in this qualitative case study (dyson & genishi, 2005), we were guided by the following question: how might a series of critical literacy texts and class discussions focused on (im)migration inform young children’s civic participation? in this paper, we first describe relevant studies from early childhood and elementary classrooms wherein children discussed critical topics and, specifically, inquiries wherein children’s literature was used as a vehicle to do so. then, we outline our methods and modes of 78 inquiry before detailing read aloud sessions in the findings. finally, we close with a discussion about how we see this work informing the educational communities now and in the future. literature review and framing as documented in humanities scholarship in early childhood, children are consistently shown as capable of engaging in dialogue about critical social issues like climate change and natural disasters (wargo, 2019; wargo & alverado, 2019) and gun control (ghiso, 2011, 2015). however, in practice, teachers often avoid seemingly “adult” topics, naming them as “too political” (vasquez, tate, & harste, 2013). instead, teachers of young learners often opt to talk broadly about ideas of community issues, perhaps glossing scientific facts (e.g., the rate the earth is warming) and forwarding individualistic solutions (e.g., recycling will save the planet). for many teachers, children’s literature is a starting point for investigating community issues. one common approach to reading and analyzing such texts is through a critical literacies approach. broadly, the term critical literacies refers to the use of the technologies of print and other media of communication to “analyze, critique, and transform the norms, rule systems, and practices governing the social fields of everyday life” (luke, 2004, p. 21). importantly, a critical literacies approach is not a checklist of instructional tasks or analytic strategies one employs as they read. instead, it is a way of being in the world (vasquez, janks, & comber, 2019). as such, critical literacies is not only of and for the english language arts (ela) block, but it is interdisciplinary in nature because the approach foregrounds how all persons can learn to read the word and the world (freire & macedo, 1987). in doing so, individuals and collectives can act for a more just society. in social studies and ela, a critical literacies approach begins with the understanding that no text is neutral; the political nature of any text—from a children’s picture book to a history textbook—can be explored and critiqued (dywer, 2016). further, a critical literacies approach allows children to engage in critical meaning-making and to create analytical repertoires; they can apply to social phenomena such as poverty, unemployment, or workers’ rights (comber, 2015). a critical literacies approach to teaching and learning is an “overtly political orientation” (luke, 2012, p. 5). critical literacy is part and parcel of our understanding of global literacy and ultimately plays an important role in forwarding just civic and social values (callow, 2017). with this understanding that teaching and learning are value-laden tasks (barrett & buchanan-barrow, 2005) and that texts are ideological (street, 1984), in our study we used a diverse array of children’s literature to historically ground children’s understandings about contemporary issues of (im)migration. we used texts in similar ways and for similar purposes to scholars like cipparone (2014) who used the book pancho rabbit and the coyote (tonatiuh, 2013) to engage fourth grade students in conversations about the challenges involved in emigrating from mexico to the u.s. we also read the book my two blankets (blackwood & kobald, 2014) with the same intention that callow (2017) did in their work with primary 79 students—to encourage them to understand and display empathy as well as recognize the plight of refugees. while we intended to engage children in conversations about (im)migration using texts in similar ways to ciapparone (2014) and callow (2017), we found it impossible to discuss this social issue without also introducing topics related to diversity in critical ways. bridging scholarship from across the disciplines in early childhood, our thinking was informed by scholars like husband (2018) who argued that multicultural picture books promote racial awareness and justice among children. in particular, we were informed by husband’s (2018) claim that educators should abandon colorblind approaches to race within their classrooms. teaching children about racism both deals with racial stereotypes and messages and assists children in developing a sensitivity to racial injustices in their everyday lives and within society (apfelbaum et al., 2010; husband, 2018). while scholars have documented how literature can challenge misconceptions and expose stereotypes, so too can picture books perpetuate them. for instance, kleekamp and zapata (2018) noted portrayals of disabilities in children’s literature often included themes of pity and exclusion. grounded in the belief that books influence our understandings, kleekamp and zapata (2018) argued that inclusive children’s literature must feature characters with agency and multidimensional lives who hold diverse identities (in their study, disability labels). building on the work of scholars like bishop (1990), kleekamp and zapata (2018) contend there exists an ethical imperative for children to read texts representing their own lived experiences. in this way, intentionally incorporating diverse picture books affords children the opportunity to gain insight into the lives of characters who experience the world like them, and those that live life differently than them (kleekamp & zapata, 2018; solis, 2004). likewise, correia and bleicher (2008) contend such reflections are part of a teachable skill set; in early learning spaces, children are frequently taught to make such connections by identifying whether the connection was to another text, to themselves, or to the world (keene & zimmerman, 1997). additionally, we suggest exposure to such texts is critical because children live raced, classed, and gendered lives; thus, they deserve the opportunity and space to interrogate such topics (mirra & garcia, 2017). literature review and framing situated within a public elementary school in the midwestern united states, the larger study occurred across the 2016-2017 academic year. the data we draw on here was part of an integrated (e.g., social studies and ela) unit wherein third graders were asked to contemplate contemporary social issues. specifically, they were asked to consider the role of government and community members related to (im)migration policies. in the following sections, we detail the context, participants, and our methods for readers. 80 context and participants community school j (csj) was one of two elementary schools within the wider district that served children in grades 1 through 4. the school was the academic home for roughly 350 children that hailed from the neighborhood. the majority of children attending csj benefitted from the free or reduced lunch program. according to official school reports, the population at csj was predominantly white (52%); 48% of children were identified as children of color (36% african american, 9% asian american, 4% hispanic, 1% other). students at csj were not only racially diverse, but many children arrived at school speaking a number of languages other than english. in this way, the racial and linguistic diversity of the school mirrored national demographics in the united states (taylor, 2014). twenty-two children (7 who self-identified as white, 5 as black or african american, 4 as mixed or bi-racial, 2 as asian american, 1 as asian, 1 as latino, 1 as mexican american, 1 as mexican, and 1 as muslim) were enrolled in ms. honey’s classroom. in table 1, we offer a list of the children who appear in the findings as well as their self-selected pseudonyms and demographics. table 1: children’s self-identified demographics child participant self-identified demographics katie white, monolingual, u.s.-born, 10-year-old girl gem southeast asian, multilingual, refugee, 11-year-old girl faith mixed-race (black/white), monolingual, u.s.-born, 9-year-old girl ari mixed-race (black/brown), monolingual, u.s-born, 9-year-old girl nicki mexican-american, multilingual, u.s.-born, 9-year-old girl sameerah muslim, monolingual, u.s.-born, 8-year-old girl savannah white, monolingual, u.s.-born, 8-year-old girl jada black, monolingual, u.s.-born, 9-year-old girl gabe mexican-american, multilingual, u.s.-born, 9-year-old boy phi vietnamese, multilingual, u.s.-born, 8-year-old boy abe white, monolingual, u.s.-born, 9-year-old boy fidget white, monolingual, u.s.-born, 9-year-old boy elliot white, monolingual, u.s.-born, 8-year-old boy ian white, monolingual, u.s-born, 10-year-old boy 81 prior to this study, cassie had spent three years at csj and was a familiar face within the school (for more see, brownell, 2017a, 2017b, 2018, 2019a, 2019b). as a white, monolingual, u.s.-born cisgender woman in her early 30s, cassie fit readily in with the professional community at csj as her appearance paralleled that of the majority of the faculty. for instance, she and the focal teacher, ms. honey, shared these characteristics. further, as a past early childhood educator, cassie could readily communicate with ms. honey, despite the fact that ms. honey had nearly a decade more teaching experience. although anam, a trilingual, pakistani-canadian and muslim cisgender woman in her early 20’s, was not present during data generation, she worked alongside cassie as an undergraduate research assistant during data analysis during her third year at university. given anam’s role as an intern with an international non-governmental organization using play-based learning to empower vulnerable children around the world, she was well-suited to assist with this project. specifically, anam built upon her experiences analyzing, summarizing and writing project briefs on the positive impacts of play-based learning for children’s life skill development, as well as content from her courses as an international development studies major. with cassie, anam synthesized and analyzed how the children engaged in critical conversations. ms. honey was a seasoned educator with 10+ years of teaching. having started her teaching career in the southwestern united states, she returned to the focal state where she was born and raised to teach at csj three years earlier. during her tenure at csj, ms. honey became recognized as an educational leader and was frequently selected by the administrator to facilitate professional learning. moreover, ms. honey was deemed a “successful” teacher because students in her class consistently performed well on top-down standardized assessments. in return for her leadership and marked success, ms. honey was granted more curricular freedom than some of her peers. additionally, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, ms. honey felt teaching civic issues and governmental procedures was an ethical imperative, not just a curricular goal. given all this and the past experiences ms. honey and cassie had in completing a previous inquiry, they decided to collaboratively plan and implement the focal unit. unit overview cassie and ms. honey created this unit for the purposes of integrating social and political activism in the social studies classroom. the integrated social studies and ela unit served as a way for ms. honey to engage the children in discussion about controversial topics in a thoughtful manner, using children’s literature as the vehicle to do so. the texts covered topics such as refugees, (im)migrants, and, more generally, the process of displacement and migration. the focal teacher, ms. honey, led the read alouds with children during their daily morning meetings; all conversations were recorded and later transcribed. 82 data generation in the larger interpretive study (erickson, 1986), cassie considered children’s diverse communicative practices related to critical social issues. thus, she generated data in a number of different ways for this case study (dyson & genishi, 2005). specifically, she used ethnographic methods such as participant observation, photography, and fieldnotes to generate data (emerson, fretz, & shaw, 2011). children were well-aware of the role of cassie as a researcher and knew about her interest in their thinking about critical issues. frequently, children would approach her to share ideas they thought cassie might be able to use as part of what the children termed her “kid experiments.” this included sharing their compositions or other resources they thought may be interesting to her. cassie also generated daily audioor video-recordings of classroom happenings, activities on the playground, and conversations in the cafeteria. cassie frequently engaged ms. honey and the children in conversation, both as formal interviews and informal discussions. like other talk, these were audioor video-recorded for later transcription and analysis. for the purposes of this paper, we draw on a series of classroom conversations focused on children’s literature related to (im)migration. data analysis working alongside cassie, anam transcribed verbatim the collection of audio recordings cassie generated. this included transcription of the daily read alouds as well as the whole-class conversations that occurred before, during, and after each reading. while transcribing the data, anam paid particular attention to the key themes present in children’s discussions, such as how they articulated their feelings and shared personal connections in response to the stories they were reading. cassie then reviewed the original audio recordings alongside the transcripts and anam’s notes, reading these texts alongside the fieldnotes generated at the time of the study. together, we developed a more detailed coding scheme for examining the texts in a way that accounted for our noticings. we looked for moments when kids made connections between texts, between texts and themselves, and between texts and their world (local world or a global world), a heuristic ms. honey used in her teaching. children were encouraged to make these connections as part of a more thoughtful social studies curriculum. 83 table 2: coding examples from class discussions transcript excerpt type of connection (to text, self, world) assertion picture book used in the lesson katie: it was like in the book about ruby bridges...she was a girl in the school and she was black and people were mean to her. text-to-text children drew from previous class texts to make sense of school segregation and its impact on children of color. separate is never equal: sylvia mendez and her family’s fight for desegregation (tonatiuh, 2014) phi: like my mom...there was a war in vietnam, so she had to leave. text-to-self children formulated personal connections and drew on familial experiences when discussing the forced displacement of refugees. my two blankets (blackwood & kobald, 2014) ari: the wall rips apart families. text to world children became more comfortable to critique and share their opinions on social and political issues, particularly on (im)migration. pancho rabbit and the coyote (tonatiuh, 2013) note. this table was adapted from keene, e. o., & zimmerman, s. (1997). mosaic of thought: the power of comprehension strategy instruction. portland, nh: heinemann. findings in this paper, looking across fifteen book discussions, we zero in on three whole-class conversations about (im)migration. we first describe an early read aloud, then a mid-unit book discussion, and finally, we share about a whole-class debrief of the conversation children had with dr. de león. across these three findings, we showcase how children’s thinking about the topic of (im)migration was enriched within the integrated social studies and ela unit. additionally, we highlight how children shifted from only learning about new historical content 84 from the picture books (e.g., segregation in the u.s. was not just black/white) to eventually critiquing contemporary policies and structures (e.g., the proposed wall is oppressive and therefore wrong) using their learning from the books. beyond black and white: facing the hard history of u.s. segregation in one of the earliest sessions of the six-week unit, ms. honey read aloud tonatiuh’s (2014) separate is never equal: sylvia mendez and her family’s fight for desegregation. as noted in the title, the story details how sylvia mendez, a u.s. citizen of mexican and puerto rican descent, was denied enrollment to a “whites only” school in her home state of california. for the children, this read aloud was one of the first in which they came to understand that the issue of school segregation (and segregation in the wider society) included more than just individuals who were black or white. this was also the first time the children engaged in an explicit conversation about the realities of racism related to mexican (im)migrants. ms. honey opened the lesson by gauging children’s familiarity with the term segregation, a topic they had briefly discussed a few months earlier in relation to black history month. she activated their background knowledge by engaging them in a conversation wherein the children shared that they understood segregation as the separation between black and white individuals. children made mention of particular historical figures like rosa parks and childactivist ruby bridges, with one black child noting she had known about ruby bridges “since second grade.” nearly all children seemed to understand segregation as an issue of “back then.” for instance, another black girl commented she had seen the “white people on one side and black people on the other side” signs during a class trip to a local historical museum a few months prior. while the children’s knowledge about the segregation of black and white communities was, in many ways, robust, it was simultaneously limited; all children were unfamiliar with the segregation of mexican american children. as ms. honey read the story, the children appeared disheartened by the hardships faced by sylvia and her family. with prompting from ms. honey, they made sense of how segregation negatively impacted mexican americans as they heard how sylvia’s father advocated on her behalf. mid-way through the book, ms. honey commented that she noticed something about sylvia’s family and, after a turn-and-talk, asked the children to share what they were noticing. ms. honey: what are we noticing? katie. katie: that the family fought. ms. honey: good, so you’re starting to notice that this is where they [the family] started to fight and speak up. what else? ian: i think that he [sylvia’s father] is a little scared to face them [school officials], but then again he wants everyone to get a good education so they can become what they want to in the future. 85 ms. honey: question. how would you feel if i was your teacher and i didn’t believe it [mexican american children were smart], and i thought that none of you would make it to high school? how would you feel if your teacher didn’t think you could succeed? wouldn't you feel yucky? children: yeah! evident in their comments, the children were starting to make sense of the importance of collective action taken by sylvia’s family to desegregate the school system; a theme that became clearer as the children continued to read about how sylvia’s father would travel across the area looking for other families that were disappointed by the limits on their children’s schooling due to their racial or ethnic identity. as the story continued, the children expressed frustration and disbelief as they listened to how mexican american children were denied attendance to the same school as their white counterparts because they were considered “unworthy” and “dirty” (tonatiuh, 2014). to guide children in critical thinking and to engage their voices and perspectives, ms. honey encouraged the children to converse with their peers using the prompt, “i feel this because…”. after turningand-talking with a peer, the children shared aloud their thoughts in a whole-class discussion, where many expressed anger about the circumstances. savannah: i feel sad because it’s not fair! ms. honey: gabe? gabe: i feel angry because most of my family is mexican. ms. honey: and how, do you think it matters? gabe: no! it’s just who we are! ms. honey: could you imagine if you lived here in earlier times, how your family might have been treated? katie: it’s rude to treat mexicans like that because, what if it was the other way around? nicki: i’m mad because they’re judging people based on their skin color. faith: they were just judging them because of their color and what katie said is true. what if the white people had the mexican school and the mexican people had the white school? they would be saying the same thing. the mexican people would care, but the white people wouldn’t. here, the children’s understandings about the inequities of the situation, as described in the historical fiction text, become clearer. the children articulated a wide range of feelings— sadness, anger, frustration, and a general sense of displeasure and disappointment. for some like gabe, the feelings they harbored were due to text-to-self connections, particularly as they considered how such harmful policies may have impacted their own schooling. 86 in the latter part of the conversations, children spoke one after the other and in response to one another. as katie, nicki, and faith conversed, there was a shift in how they talked as they considered what things might be like if the roles were reversed. underlying their comments is the notion that caretakers of all backgrounds want what is best for their children and that all children deserve a “good” school. with this shared understanding, the children’s eruption into applause upon hearing the result of the mendez court case (a win for sylvia and her family) or in hearing about how proud sylvia was to have made friends from all backgrounds and knowing that this was because her family had fought for her, should not have been a surprise. as ms. honey read aloud the story, the children demonstrated curiosity, concern, and empathy. it was during this read-aloud and the subsequent conversation that we noticed how children first started to make sense of critical topics like segregation, racism, and migrant work by articulating their feelings with the support of prompts from ms. honey. for us, this initial discussion demonstrated how children’s literature can evoke critical conversations amongst children, allowing them to understand the unfair laws of the past and, as we demonstrate in the latter findings sections, reflect on present-day politics. sowing seeds of understanding: explaining the precarity of employment after using the tonatiuh (2014) picture book to situate race as a systemic issue impacting more than just those deemed black or white, ms. honey used the text harvesting hope: the story of cesar chavez (krull & morales, 2003) to discuss connections between race and class in a later week. this piece of historical fiction brought to life for the children the story of cesar chavez— a mexican american labor leader who formed the national farm workers association and fought tirelessly to improve the working conditions of migrant workers in the united states. beginning with chavez’s childhood, the picture book details instances early on when he felt powerlessness because of policies that undervalued chavez’s humanity as a non-white, spanish speaker. later, the book traces his role as a labor leader and the radical shifts he made in this role. unlike most of the other books, ms. honey read aloud the story of chavez over two days. this afforded her time to discuss the book with the children and to emphasize the precarity of migrant work. on the opening day of the read aloud, for example, ms. honey and the children had a long discussion about the impact of drought on farms and, in turn, on the families of those working in the fields. as noted in the following transcript, ms. honey had the time to facilitate a discussion about who a migrant worker was and the challenges they faced in their work. during the two days of conversation, the children appeared more comfortable discussing (im)migration and, similar to the tonatiuh (2014) reading, some children made personal connections to the text. as the children listened to the story, how they made sense of the moral implications of the stories of the real people portrayed in the texts became evident as well. 87 ms. honey: we learned about how the conditions were not great [for migrant workers], do you remember? what were the conditions like on the farm where they worked? what were some of the things that made you go, oh no! matt: that one person in one day would only make thirty cents. ms. honey: right, they weren’t making much money at all. katie? what else? katie: that their beds were all soaking. they were wet and damp. ms. honey: thank you...sameerah? sameerah: that they couldn’t say anything like they don’t want to work anymore because they [farmers/bosses] could murder or hurt them. in grappling with the reality of chavez story, the children appeared more inclined to make personal connections. for example, gem told her classmates she herself was new to the united states, telling her peers, “i’m an immigrant.” in this expression of her identity as a newcomer, gem made a connection from the text to herself. while this sort of connection was one we saw many children make over the 15 read alouds and the related conversations, gem was a unique case insofar as her place in the class shifted from a seemingly quiet classmate to a confident learner with specific expertise on the subject matter of the unit. thus, for children like gem, stories about activists like sylvia mendez and cesar chavez opened new avenues for her to participate in the social studies and ela curriculum. children also appeared willing to share their thoughts about the injustices faced by (im)migrant workers in the post-discussion. they had a seemingly shared opinion on the atrocious work conditions created by white individuals for mexican american workers. additionally, some children began to feel emboldened to state they specifically wanted to share their individual opinions. ms. honey: alright, what an inspiration. because during this time, white people didn’t think to count for people [migrants] as being human. they felt like they could treat poor people in a way that you should not treat people. they thought of them like they were just things...things that could do their work for them because they were poor. what do you think about that? children: yuck!! gabe: i want to share my thoughts on this. ms. honey: alright. i’m happy to hear it, gabe. gabe: alright, i’m happy, but i'm sad because who thinks another person is less than another person? that’s a disgrace! and the reason i’m happy is because they actually made it [referring to march chavez made with labor colleagues]! gabe’s text-to-self connection in earlier course readings and shared identity as a mexican american with labor leader chavez likely informed his willingness to assert these sorts of 88 connections in class. like gem, gabe’s read of the picture books included reading himself into the texts and, in turn, his classroom and world. in this way, the daily read alouds cultivated new avenues for children to feel they belonged, especially for children from marginalized communities that may not typically see themselves represented in literature or popular culture. the inclusion of historical fiction was most definitely a tool for children to make personal connections. however, it was also a vehicle for children to engage in and demonstrate critical thought. while in earlier lessons, children used prompts from ms. honey to critically reflect on the texts, in this lesson gabe used the story of chavez to highlight the innate value of all humans, no matter their identity or background. gabe did so without a sentence starter from his teacher, instead stating he had something to share and then actually sharing it with his classmates. although the children made sense of each story in unique and personalized ways, across the 15 read alouds, we noticed how children like gabe progressed in thinking about (im)migration and how their curiosities began to shift. unpacking critical concepts through real-world experiences in one of the final weeks of the unit, ms. honey read aloud a second picture book by tonatiuh (2013), pancho rabbit and the coyote. while many of the books included in the unit were historical fiction, this text differed from the others in that it was an allegorical tale featuring animal characters. for unfamiliar readers, in this text, tonatiuh (2013) described the journey of the young pancho rabbit who lived south of the rio grande river. after his father did not return to the family home after completing his work as a migrant worker, the worried pancho rabbit packed a bag and headed north. along the way, pancho rabbit met coyote who offered to help him to travel toward his father, but ultimately coyote wished to deceive pancho who was eventually rescued by his father. ms. honey and cassie used this tonatiuh (2013) text to once again emphasize the hardships (im)migrants faced, particularly those that must cross the united states’ most southern border. after reading the full story, ms. honey also read the author’s note. in it, tonatiuh (2013) described the role of “coyotes” (e.g., smugglers) in assisting individuals crossing the border without the documents deemed necessary by the u.s. government. additionally, tonatiuh’s (2013) author’s note provided space for ms. honey to discuss dual-citizenship and deportations with the children. although such topics were discussed in prior readings and, at the time, these issues were frequently appearing in the news. ms. honey: remember we talked about that word? deported? do you remember what that means? what does that mean katie? katie: that they find you’re there when you’re not supposed to be and they send you back. across the course of the unit, children learned new terms such as deportation and came to understand what those terms meant in relation to (im)migration. in our review of the 15 read 89 alouds, we saw a significant growth in the children’s line of questioning as well as their understanding of (im)migration and its related terms. we also noticed instances wherein ms. honey shared more about individuals and communities she knew that were impacted by the (im)migration policies and practices tonatiuh (2013) discussed in his author’s note. specifically, we noted how ms. honey spoke about how her former students in arizona and their families’ lives were influenced by u.s. laws. in speaking from personal experience, ms. honey brought to life the issues tonatiuh (2013) wrote about and those the children had heard in previous weeks, such as in the transcript that follows. katie: i didn’t know that there were such weird laws that were so mean about people just trying to survive. ms. honey: exactly. yes, it was a really scary time. and it wasn’t long ago, i remember it happening and feeling like that it was unfair and i had friends that, who were affected by that wall. and my students were affected by that wall because a lot of their parents were immigrants and they were really worried all the time that they might get deported. if they got caught, if the kids were born in the u.s., they would stay and the parents would be sent back. elliott: but who would they live with? cause they [children] can’t live by themselves. ms. honey: family, sometimes. sometimes they were put in foster care. sometimes it’s just one of their parents that is deported and sent back. we also used the tonatiuh (2013) picture book and ms. honey’s personal connections to prepare the children to learn more about the real people involved in (im)migration policies. specifically, we used tonatiuh’s (2013) story to frame the virtual discussion the children had later in the day with dr. de león. during this conversation, dr. de león (2015) connected the tonatiuh (2013) picture book to the work he engaged in as a researcher. he showed the children the items he found along the arizona-mexico border, including backpacks, children’s toys, and food containers. the children were intrigued and eager to know more about the (im)migrants’ stories and developed thoughtful questions for dr. de león. in addition to the questions detailed in the introduction of this paper, the children were also curious about why dr. de león decided to become an anthropologist. dr. de león explained to them his interest in exploring the objects people left behind during their journey and how these objects could be used to shed light on the stories of individuals passing through. it was evident that by the end of their discussion with dr. de león, the children had come to better understand the multi-faceted dimensions of (im)migration and that, as katie stated, there were real people behind the objects dr. de león found along the u.s./mexico border. 90 the following day, ms. honey and cassie debriefed the virtual conversation with dr. de león with the children. eagerly, the young students shared their new insights about (im)migration: ms. honey: alright, thinking about what we learned yesterday. sameerah? sameerah: he said that every time he goes, he finds a thousand backpacks every year. abe: i learned that people have to leave a lot of stuff behind! fidget: i learned that he doesn’t like the wall. ms. honey: what does he think we should do instead, fidget? fidget: be friendly to people! katie: just by looking at someone’s stuff, you can learn a lot about a person. ms. honey: yeah, just by looking at a person's belongings, you can learn a lot about them. as noted here, the children demonstrated they had made connections between the objects dr. de león found, the stories of people those objects were connected to, and the factors that influenced why individuals crossed borders. the children appeared to enrich their understanding about the negative implications a border wall would have on (im)migrants and their families, but they also discussed the negative impact a wall would have on the environment. for instance, children shared the following: nicki: he also said the wall is not good because it also hurts the animals and the habitat. ms. honey: yeah, good…. savanna: the wall hurts the environment! ari: it rips apart families! as demonstrated in this excerpt, by the close of the unit, a majority of the children came to understand that many of the gop’s proposed (im)migration policies would create harmful or dangerous situations for those seeking refuge in the united states. moreover, the children understood from the various read alouds and related conversations the present-day realities many (im)migrants were challenged by, and they could imagine how proposed practices might inhibit others in the future. discussion through snippets of transcripts from classroom conversation, we noted how children became more comfortable talking about (im)migration and called attention to how the children learned to critique current and historical policies. moreover, we used these excerpts to showcase the role ms. honey had in thoughtfully engaging and facilitating conversations amongst her students as part of her social studies curriculum. while she initially encouraged participation 91 through stems like, “i feel this because…,” children became much more assertive in their commentary over time and eventually began with opening statements such as, “i want to share my thoughts on this” (see gabe’s comments in the second findings section). as children began to think more independently about (im)migration, they responded with empathy or by making personal connections to their own family heritage. the children also made connections between books. at times, this meant they recognized similarities in how individuals or communities advocated for themselves while at other times they noticed the oppressive policies which led to the marginalization of a community was what was similar. in turn, the children made connections between historical injustices and those which persist today. cumulatively, we highlighted how, when children were encouraged to engage with social topics, they acted as critical consumers and positioned themselves as politically active and engaged community members. within the integrated curriculum, ms. honey’s role shifted as well. for instance, while in the earliest lesson there was a great deal of teacher talk and teacher-led conversation, in later lessons she encouraged children to reflect on their own. in this way, ms. honey engaged in teaching practices we would encourage others to take up as she became the facilitator, rather than the leader, of classroom conversations. to reach this level of conversation, ms. honey needed to scaffold the learning of her young students, assisting them with the task of analysis until they were able to do this work on their own. conclusion in this paper, we detailed not only how open children were to talking about these ideas or opening wide the proverbial doors of the united states, but also how the children grappled with the ethical implications of the stories that were presented and how they related them to their own lives. teaching controversial and critical topics, like (im)migration, addressed more than curricular goals within social studies or ela. the sort of critical teaching and learning within this integrated curriculum allowed children to voice their concerns while opening new avenues for them to connect to their personal experiences and perspectives within the social studies classroom. we see the teaching of critical topics like this as an ethical imperative insofar as such learning opportunities position children as critical, engaged, and active community members. this research demonstrates the importance of educators integrating social and political activism in their social studies classrooms for ethical and curricular purposes. 92 references apfelbaum, e. p., pauker, k., sommers, s. r., ambady, n. 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(2019). making as worlding: young children composing change through speculative design. literacy.doi:10.111/lit.12209 wargo, j. m. (2019). sounding the garden, voicing a problem: mobilizing critical literacy through personal digital inquiry with young children. language arts, 96(5), 275-285. children’s literature referenced blackwood, f., & kobald, i. (2014). my two blankets. richmond, au: hardie grant egmont. gregory, r. c., & williams, m. (2005). brothers in hope. new york, ny: lee and low books. krull, k., & morales, y. (2003). harvesting hope: the story of cesar chavez. boston, ma: hmh books. tonatiuh, d. (2013). pancho rabbit and the coyote: a migrant’s tale. new york, ny: abrams books. tonatiuh, d. (2014). separate is never equal: sylvia mendez and her family's fight for desegregation. new york, ny: abrams books. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 june 2020 volume: 2 issue: 1 pp. 95-111 critical teaching in classrooms of healing: struggles and testimonios brian c. gibbs* * the university of north carolina at chapel hill, school of education, chapel hill, north carolina, usa. e-mail: bcgibbs@email.unc.edu article info received: april 24, 2020 revised: may 16, 2020 accepted: may 16, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by-nc-nd 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync-nd/4.0) how to cite gibbs, b. c. (2020). critical teaching in classrooms of healing: struggles and testimonios. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(1), 95-111. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.6 abstract using testimonio methodology, this article describes the testimonio and struggle of two chicanx activist social studies teachers teaching in a large urban high school serving socioeconomically poor latinx students. both teach critically, working to develop their students’ understanding of how their ethnic and community histories contrast with larger historical narratives. both teach the racism, misogyny, and homophobia rampant in american history by connecting it to the present. they also engage a culturally sustaining pedagogy to give students strength from their cultural inheritance. each approached this differently, one developing an ethnic studies course, and the second developing a circulo de hombres, and embedding a youth participation action research. each teacher tackled critical teaching and healing simultaneously from different perspectives yielding a variety of accompanying struggles. keywords ethnic studies; critical pedagogy; social justice teaching; restorative justice. 10.46303/jcsr.02.01.6 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.02.01.6 96 introduction the teachers were young but had stories to tell. they had lived. the stories, the testimonios, were deep and long with histories and struggle, a past. the two teachers were, in essence, their own elders. though inspired by others, those who had gone before, they were making the road while walking (freire & horton, 1990). these teachers were attempting to build and grow classrooms of healing where the difficult truths could be exposed, analyzed and discussed. a space that allowed all participants, students and teachers, though wounded, would continue to build and grow. there were few examples of what they were trying to do, developing students who examined their own and developed a strong moral and ethical stance. the texts, teachers and ideas which guided them were from a long past, were theoretical or were thin descriptions of momentary education that were crushed or ended unexpectedly. the two teachers were heavy with the weight of creation, with resistance, and with semi-successes attempting to implement critical classrooms of healing within the constraints of an increasingly oppressive test-driven system (au, 2008). using testimonio research methods and methodology (beverly, 2003; latina feminist group, 2001; reyes & rodriguez, 2012) this article describes how two chicanx activist social studies teachers teaching in a large urban high school serving underserved latinx students “thread the needle” (gibbs & papoi, 2020) to recognize the wounds students bring with them into the classroom and teach the difficult histories of racial, gendered, class, and lgbtqai violence embedded throughout social studies curriculum (noddings, 2012). seeking to both teach honestly and create spaces for healing of student psyche, these teachers work to develop their students’ understanding of how their ethnic and community histories contrast with larger historical narratives connecting both student histories and the american and world past to the present situation in their neighborhood. the teachers did this by relying on and wrapping their teaching in a culturally sustaining pedagogy (paris, 1996; paris & alim, 2017). each of the teachers engaged students in a critical examination of content (apple, 2014; darder, 1994; duncan-andrade, 2007; freire, 1970, 1998) but do so in different ways. one, ms. cortez1, developed an ethnic studies curriculum intimately connected to her students’ neighborhood (cuauhtin, zavala, sleeter, & au, 2019; mason, 2019; sleeter & zavala, 2020; zavala, 2018). the second, mr. jacobo, developed a circulo de hombres, or a circle of men, in which male students met before school, then as a class, to discuss, analyze, and engage in acts of change outside of school; their engagement was steeped in notions of restorative justice and restorative practices (wadwha, 2016; winn, 2018) and embedded youth participatory action research (y-par) developing students’ ability to engage in community based research (cammarota, 2014; mira, antero & morrell, 2017; tuck & yang, 2013). 1 all teacher names are pseudonyms. 97 research question the question guiding this paper is: how do we teach critically within classrooms of healing? though not a new concept, the notion of a healing classroom can be traced to two general schools of thought. the first grows out of indigenous cultural beliefs and practices, restorative justice and restorative practices (wadwha, 2016; winn, 2018) to focus on the healing of wounds through direct conversation, discussion, and movement towards a collective remedy within a wounded space. the second school of thought emerges from psychological social work studies which examine and advocate for some focus on trauma either through teaching, pedagogy, or resilience (carello & butler, 2015; overstreet & chafouleas, 2016; sondel, baggett, & dunn, 2018; thomas, crosby, & vanderhaar, 2019; venet, 2019; zakszeski, ventresco, & jaffe, 2017). both traditions help us to understand that students are wounded or have experienced trauma by the time they reach the schoolhouse door and both traditions seek to heal or be taught with this knowledge in mind. this paper critiques this concept by arguing that too often this knowledge of wound/trauma or possible trauma is used as reason to not teach through a critical lens and to avoid content focused on race, class, gender, lgbtqai, and violence (gibbs, 2018, 2019a, 2019b, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c). this manuscript argues that teachers can teach through a critical lens while still providing a classroom of healing. the teachers the two teachers involved in this study identify as radically left of center politically and as chicanx critical social studies teachers. both grew up in neighborhoods bordering the one in southern california in which they now teach. each of them has indicated that they identify with and “are” in many ways their students. that is, they grew up in similar low-income circumstances, in spaces surrounded by the violence of poverty, misogyny, gender, lgbtqi, racism, and police. the teachers graduated from the same teacher education program which focused on justice-oriented teaching practices in urban school contexts educating students of color. the teachers have each taught multiple levels of high school social studies and multiple subjects including world and united states history, american government, and economics. each of them has also developed various electives including social-justice education, history through art, and ethnic studies, though each of them has engaged different versions of an ethnic studies pedagogy (tintiangco-cubales, kohli, sacramento, henning, agarwal-rangnath, & sleeter, 2014). each has taught for at least ten years and have standing and respect within both the education community and the community in which their schools stand. 98 guiding principles critical and social justice teaching like many educational concepts, critical and social justice teaching is broad and complicated. critical and social justice teaching assumes that schools are raced, classed, gendered, and sexed (apple, 2004, 2014). further, critical and social justice teaching assumes that there are wide gaps and omissions in state-sanctified curriculum that leaves out people of color, women, and members of the lgbtqai community. to teach critically and for social justice assumes that this is true and actively works against these omissions by introducing overlooked and undervalued knowledge to facilitate students’ ability to recognize and use their own capacity to engage in advocacy for change (gillen, 2014). sleeter (2014) has argued there are four pillars of social justice teaching which include: (a) situating families and communities in the structural analysis offered in classrooms; (b) developing relationships with students, families and communities; (c) holding high academic expectations; and (d) teaching an inclusive curriculum. sleeter posits that students should be engaged in these pillars through a problem posing, discussion, and inquirybased pedagogy that raises and centers student voice. a key part of critical and social justice teaching involves the development of student critical consciousness (duncan-andrade, 2007), what freire (1970) calls conscientization, which then leads to praxis, or reflection, upon knowledge gained and movement towards action. classrooms as spaces of healing while not a new concept, the idea of classrooms as spaces for healing is one made more pressing by recent recognition of the violence that racism, poverty, misogyny, and homophobia children and youth experience on a daily basis in our society. to illustrate, and there are myriad examples, the children in east oakland, california have experienced more gun violence and death than the average soldier in afghanistan (ted, 2011). in response to the assault of daily transgressions, teachers must create spaces for healing by embracing freire’s (1970) notion of a liberating education, an education for freedom, quite literally. to heal means to understand, to know, to take action and to have a burden lifted. healing is steeped in the freirian notions of praxis and concientization which are intended to raise critical consciousness (duncan-andrade, 2007), making students more aware of themselves and the world around them. this awareness is made possible by what is often referred to as restorative justice or more recently, restorative practices (wadwha, 2016; winn, 2018). emerging from maori indigenous beliefs, restorative justice (zehr, 2015) seeks to restore what was damaged or who was wronged. often done in circle, all sides are heard, and all members of the community are encouraged to participate as the community works to create a restorative solution. an event, restorative circles are different from restorative practices which are built into the everyday operations of classroom instruction as part of the ongoing pedagogy. restorative practices seek to prevent events that would necessitate restorative circles. 99 ethnic studies operate with restorative practices in mind (acosta & mir, 2012; cuathtin, zavala, sleeter, & au, 2019; sleeter & zavala, 2020; zavala, 2018). as an insurgent pedagogy, ethnic studies seek to disrupt and interrupt traditional narratives of school that leave out the history, literature, art, and culture of students of color. instead, ethnic studies wrap students in cultural knowledge and engage students in an ethnic studies pedagogy (tintiangco-cubales et al., 2014) which is discussion-based and inquiry-oriented to support students through the emergence of difficult understandings. as its name indicates, ethnic studies keeps the ethnic and racial backgrounds and experiences of students in mind as teachers seek to educate and develop the classroom as a space for healing often through indigenous methods (sleeter & zavala, 2020; zavala, 2018). in the past few years the use of the term trauma has been used to describe what students have experienced before coming to school and in school itself. most often referred to as traumainformed instructional practice (tiip), it is broad term which serves as a catch-all to refer to approaches including making classrooms safe and empowering places (carello & butler, 2015), restorative justice (winn, 2018), developing trauma responsive schools (overstreet & chafouleas, 2016), and focusing teacher attention on growing student resiliency and grit (zakszeski, bentresco, & jaffe, 2017). venet (2019) argues that tiip is simply knowing your students and providing them with support and guidance. gorski (2018) and nathan (2017) have critiqued the notions of grit and resiliency particularly in communities and schools with a majority of children of color. they argue that the term has racialized tones and blames students for their own lack of success rather than acknowledging the impact of systemic poverty and inequality. however, teachers can teach critically with trauma in mind and avoid the use of grit and resilience (gibbs & papoi, 2020). methodology and method testimonio was used as both the method and methodology (beverly, 2003; latina feminist group, 2001; reyes & rodriguez, 2012). testimonio as a genre emerged from liberationist roots in latin america and has been used by chicanx activist, scholars, and authors (reyes & rodriguez, 2012). typically taking the form of first person accounts, oral history, or qualitative vignettes, testimonios are often political and “conscientizied”, and are meant to speak to “right a wrong” or be an “urgent call to action” and are “situated in a liberationist pedagogy” (reyes & rodriguez, 2012, p. 525). though similar to qualitative and other forms of deep or in-depth interviewing, testimonio research differs because it is intentional in seeking to right or speak to a wrong and is purposefully political in content, tone, and use. as life story methodology (linde, 1993; 2009) seeks to situate research within the micro-history of the participant(s) seeking to fully understand them and their experience and perspective over time, and narrative inquiry (clandinin & connelly, 2000) seeks to understand participants and gather data through a series of storytelling events, testimonio (while similar to these methodologies) differentiates itself by 100 being steeped in chicanx tradition, is focused on speaking to and acting to correct injustice, and is always political in nature (reyes & reyes, 2012). unlike life history and narrative inquiry, testimonio is the methodological use of “spoken accounts of oppression” (reyes & rodriguez, 2012, p. 526) to inform others by naming issues and events, with the dual goal of inspiring corrective action and offering the speaker redemption. in this way, testimonio “is an account told in first person by a narrator who is a witness…who seeks empowerment through the use of voice” (reyes & rodriguez, 2012, p. 527). the voicing of the oppression is offered as a push to create action to correct or work to remedy the injustice. the two teachers’ testimonios in this study were drawn from a larger longitudinal qualitative study that examined how self-identifying justice-oriented teachers teach for social justice in school spaces which actively attempt to constrict this teaching (gibbs, 2019b, 2020a). initially the interviews for these two teachers were constructed as semi-structured interviews which quickly unfolded as testimonios as the participants told passionate, richly descriptive stories of their experiences and struggles attempting to develop classroom spaces that were both critical pedagogically and healing in terms of community. each of the teachers has been engaged in testimonio dialogue twice per year, once per academic semester, for the past four years. the testimonios were recorded and transcribed in full by the author. rather than analyzing by coding, the stories within the interviews were identified and surfaced and organized into narrative form. this work was done collaboratively with the participants. the resulting testimonios were transcribed and sent to the participants. because they are working teachers with professional and familial obligations that demand much of their time, i pre-identified story themes and indicated which narratives stood together as testimonios which would be of use to the educational community through publication in academic articles, book chapters, or practitioner publications. participants marked texts, struck some narratives, expanded or clarified others, and agreed to or negotiated the narrative structure. this was typically done through a series of discussions and conversations until a narrative order for each testimonio was agreed upon with each participant. the testimonios presented below are the result of collaborative engagement between the researcher and participants. positionality i was a social studies teacher for 16 years in an urban school context. i emerged from a teacher education program that identified as social justice. during my years as a teacher, i taught through a critical and justice-oriented perspective, because i believe that it is necessary for a robust democracy and for students to wrestle with the horror and difficulties presented honestly in social studies content. as a researcher and teacher educator i work to develop critical justiceoriented teachers who teach using this perspective while simultaneously creating classrooms spaces of healing. i assume that school is not an apolitical or amoral space. i work to educate teachers who intentionally seek to create spaces in which students develop rich moral 101 identities by engaging in complex moral and ethical questions and content. i did not enter into this research without a perspective. i identify as a white, cis-gendered, straight male. the testimonios ms. cortez: “it’s a miracle it came to be.” ms. cortez had long dark hair with long strands of gray on the edges. during our conversation she had a deep undercut, shaved into the back of her hair and one side, causing her hair to fall on her right shoulder. she was speaking about how her ethnic studies course was developed. it’s a miracle it came to be. i graduated from my teacher education program, got hired at patton high school2 and was happy. teaching was a struggle…but i always knew it would be. our program [teacher education] talked about that a lot, that to teach for social justice, to build a critical consciousness in your students was going to be hard, the students would struggle with it because it was new and different to them and the system, the school, the curriculum, the administration were likely going to all be opposed to it. so, i knew i was in for a fight. she laughed after she said that, mirthfully and with a wry smile. ms. cortez spoke about how she at first worked at subversion. she quoted audre lorde (2012) about “using the master’s tools” at first but later working to interrupt and disrupt these tools’ utility. initially, she worked through the established curriculum teaching world and united states history through what she would later identify as an ethnic studies pedagogy (tintiangco-cubales et al., 2014). cortez formed her units around large critical questions that pushed students to analyze the content examining instances of oppressions and possibilities of resistance. she included content typically excluded from the content, particularly moments of racial violence so her students “could understand it all”. the department was dead…i mean like…without a pulse. there were two or three of us that were doing something different or struggling to…we were labeled ‘radicals’ right away. it was teasing at first because the few of us were younger, newer, but it gained a sharp edge over time. they saw us as not doing our jobs, not doing what we were supposed to. they wanted to follow all the guidelines from the district as if they were handed down from the divine…they didn’t want to talk about anything different, unique, critical much less do it in their classrooms. when the ethnic studies class took off and schools and universities asked me to present…that was the end…i mean we couldn’t…it was like there was a jealous anger that we just couldn’t get over. but before that i was pink slipped. when ms. cortez was pink slipped, she landed a teaching position at an art themed magnet school whose students were racially diverse and more affluent than at patton high. the 2 a pseudonym 102 classes were tough. they resisted the critical lens and the students resisted discussion and inquiry, and ironically, cortez indicated engaging in social studies art projects. it was a struggle that she lost with both her students and the school more generally. after two years of discord, at about the time she was considering leaving teaching, she got a call from the new principal at patton. he was looking to start a 9th grade course social studies course. he wanted it focused on the local community and so did i but, i wanted it to be something else too. i told him i’d do it if it could be an ethnic studies course. i don’t think he knew what that meant but he agreed. he regretted it later when he accused me of indoctrinating students, but that’s how the class began. it started as a 9th grade elective, ethnic studies connected intimately to the history, culture, and oppression of the neighborhood. it proved so popular it became a mandatory 9th grade social studies course. but looking back, it’s a miracle it came to be. “i needed to be healed.” i grew up not far from here but when to a different high school. i was a good student, got a’s…did the homework, passed the tests…took all the advanced placement course work and kinda bought the party line i guess. ‘education as the gateway out of the ‘hood.’ i never saw the racialized implications of that till years later. it would be years before i realized i had been colonized…imperialists had planted flags on my brain. it was chicanx studies courses in college that began to unravel me and set me free. things began to make sense to me. how i was raised, what i experienced, how i was treated. how it wasn’t my family’s fault, it was more complicated, the anger, the poverty. it was so freeing and inspiring to learn i came from a long line of warriors, artists, poets, scientists, mathematicians even who were wiped out…we were… but we survived. it was the toughness that i think really got to me, that i was more, i was from a history of survivors. but i was angry for a really long time after that realization…i mean i still am but it’s different now, focused. i needed to be healed. ms. cortez described how her chicanx studies courses raised her critical consciousness, expanded her point of view and understanding, but she said, “i am not angry at them, but it did set me up for years of anger and rage that i wasn’t quite sure what to do with. the teaching helped settle me to a simmer, i felt like i was doing something, doing something good, but i began to realize i was passing on my pain.” she noticed that her students were becoming upset, disconsolate, and angry. “even when we weren’t talking directly about latinx people they were connecting the pain of others to their pain, but they couldn’t really articulate it i don’t think. i would hug them and talk to them…but it wasn’t healing them, it was deepening or creating more wounds i guess.” the summer after her offer to return to patton high school, cortez attended a restorative justice workshop. it was just revelatory…it just opened my eyes to what could be. my first circle just snapped me into focus. i realized that restorative practices were going to be a cornerstone of the 103 ninth grade ethnic studies class. the conversations we had during this training were just so healing. i began to realize that teaching with and through restorative practices could be a way to really look and complicated content but create opportunities to process, think through and talk about how it impacts and affects us as individuals. it’s weird though and hard to sit in circle, it’s uncomfortable in the beginning, awkward and i knew it would be for my students too. “and so, we began.” the course was initially designed to be a cultural geography course focused on the neighborhood in which the students grew up, as directed by the principal. cortez and a few co-collaborators worked on the syllabus but soon began to infuse it with their own perspectives. they all had interest and experience in ethnic studies, critical race and gender studies, and these all began to find its way into the course. as the essential questions and units of instruction were developed, the course began to shift dramatically from a cultural geography class into a full-blown ethnic studies course. “how could my students understand the colonialism and imperialism at play in the shape of the neighborhood, the endemic poverty, without a broader understanding that ethnic studies provides?” cortez was greatly impacted by the restorative justice training she had participated in and worked to embed this within the class through the theory of transformative resistance created by solorzano and delgado-bernal (2001). they identify many forms of self-defeating resistance but offer transformative resistance as a way to resist and fight back against forms of oppression students would be studying and identifying through the curriculum. transformative resistance offered students a tangible way to verbalize and understand systems of oppression alongside a way to engage in change. as cortez explained: it gave students traction, a path, a way to combine knowledge, understanding and resistance. in a course focused on student communities, i wanted to intentionally create a space where students could actively engage in activism and organizing in their communities. and this i think gives students a chance to heal. i knew that to fully engage in restorative practices, it had to not just be about class, but had to be connected to the outside. i can’t just be about making kids feel good inside school, when the outside world is horrid. if the outside world is better, the inside school will be better, they’re connected. a healed classroom cannot exist without work to heal the world. ms. cortez and a small team of teachers connected with student-based activist groups in the community and within the larger city. over the course of the school year these groups visited her class both as guest teachers sharing information, stories, and content and as links to the wider community and city. they provided ways to engage in the knowledge and healing work they learned of and experienced within their classroom setting. activists, scholars, artists of all kinds eventually were invited into the classroom and in turn invited the students out into the community. 104 there is healing in many things i’ve come to believe. an interdisciplinary knowledge, not just the history, but the art, music, food, hope and courage of their (students’) past, has healing. action, forward motion has healing. so many of my students were like me, they couldn’t wait to get out of the ghetto. their neighborhood, the space that made them they had seen as dirty, scary, horrid, unsafe. there was sadness and embarrassment that their family lived here that they had to live here and they could not wait to escape. i want them to heal this wound and see their community with a different lens, one of understanding and one of possibility. the mantra for the course as i taught it over the years was to help students see their community as a site of resistance, trauma, transformation, and a place of infinite possibility. the course wrestles with identity, community, mapping, colonization, racism, colorism, resistance, resilience, liberation, re-imagining, and decolonization amongst other things. and so we began. we just did it and grew and kept growing. mr. jacobo: “i was always looking for me.” mr. jacobo’s defining feature was his smile. wide and white teeth that just took over his entire face. his hair was closely cropped and he moved with a quickness that denotes the ebullience he carries for the work that he does. he was describing where the idea for a circulo de hombres (circle of men) emerged: i guess the reality is that my mother was my first male role model. it’s funny to say out loud but it’s true. and i don’t think it’s unusual at all for young men in my neighborhood to say that. my dad was gone early, he’s like a wisp of smoke to me really, there but not really, and when i reach for him, just gone. i had an older brother but he kind of went the way of my dad, not gone, but left as soon as he could. he was older than me by a lot and just i think didn’t feel connected to me. so, it was my mom that taught me to be a man. i don’t mean in the stereotypical way. she showed me how to love, and be open, and share misery and cry and also to be tough, to work hard and put your shoulder to the wheel, i guess. she was gone a lot, worked a number of jobs over the years, but she was always with me ya’ know? what’s that lincoln quote, “the better angels of our nature” yeah, she was always with me wherever i went. i could hear her: ‘work hard, mijo (my son).’ ‘study hard, mijo.’ ‘do your best, mijo.’ ‘be a good man, mijo.’ there was just a steady hope, a steady belief that i would do well i would become and continue to be someone she would be proud of. she didn’t yell at me ever…well not very much…it wasn’t that i didn’t think she couldn’t, she just generally didn’t. though she gave me this incredible foundation i think i spent my whole life looking for someone to emulate, a male mentor to encourage me, speak to me, call me on stuff, push me, pick me up. when mr. jacobo started teaching, he noticed a certain student set that would be in his class before school, hang out after school, and haunt his room during lunch. it seemed to always 105 be the male students on the margins. on the margins because they just didn’t quite fit in because they cared too much about school, didn’t care at all about school, were into anime or manga. they were, as mr. jacobo said with air quotes, “the nerds and the thugs” because they were seen that way by the larger school community, but he didn’t, he saw them as himself: i was so both parts of that growing up, i was into comic books, video games, quote unquote nerd stuff but i was also surrounded by men who dropped out, struggled with addiction, engaged in violence. i realized as i started teaching, i had always been looking for me, or someone like me. i decided to be that for them [his students]. “why can’t we do this more often?” mr. jacobo taught mostly world and united states history through a critical lens (apple, 2014; darder, 1994; duncan-andrade, 2007; freire, 1970; parkhouse, 2017). he also indicated that ethnic studies courses, particularly courses in chicanx studies, deeply influenced his freirian (1970; 1998) approach to teaching through problem posing, discussion, and inquiry, infusing his history teaching with literature, poetry, and art. he was, in essence, engaging in an ethnic studies pedagogy (tintiangco-cubales et al., 2014) surfacing overlooked ethnic groups, racial violence, and resistance not included in the official curriculum (apple, 2014). over time, restorative justice [rj] just made more sense to include. my pedagogy was dialogic and critical by nature, but it was missing the direct reflective nature of rj and while i had been working on building community in my classes, it never seemed cemented. the boys who always hovered around my classes before and after school and during lunch never seemed to be integrated into class. rj helped this immensely. the ceremony of the circle, the focus on remedying a wrong or at least working towards it was wonderful. it built community without ever saying, ‘hey, we’re building community here.’ the first time i ran a circle in class happened because two students—a male student, one of the boys who hangs out in my classroom, and a female student—exchanged words that quickly became gender specific and racialized. they’re friends but their banter went sideways and resulted in both them, even they’re both latinx getting into racial, poverty based and gendered stereotypes and yelling at each other. it happened before class and i didn’t see it, but it was tense all the way through class. afterwards, jazmin, the female student asked that something be done. i held a ‘harm circle’ the next day. the mood was different that next day, no music playing, he did not greet students at the door as he usually did, he even had the door locked. he did not let students into the room until after the tardy bell had rung. when students walked in the room had been moved into a circle. students were instructed to take a seat. i greeted students with an arabic greeting, ‘assalaam alaykum,’ and the students responded with the same greeting. i used different ethnic greetings to open class. i told students that students were harmed yesterday. i introduced students to the idea of an rj circle that it was similar to a socratic seminar (roberts & billings, 2011) in that we sit in a 106 circle and discuss a text, but this time the text was the event that happened and what we needs to be done to heal. i introduced students to a talking piece telling them that only the person holding the piece could speak. i told students to listen with their hearts and speak from their hearts with respect. be sure that what you say does no harm. the students were all nervous and so was i. while i had conducted many discussions, i had never facilitated something so personal, it felt truly risky. ‘we have two questions to consider today. first, what harm has been done? second, once harm has been committed how do we move forward and heal?’ the discussion took place in two rounds, one for the first question and one for the second. the talking piece made it from student to student, some sharing what they witnessed others choosing not to speak. it then came to one of the students involved. she stood and spoke her truth, admitted what she had done and explained how she had also been harmed. she cried quietly then sat down. i asked all students to show appreciation for her courage. they did by doing the sign language sign for clapping, something i’d shown them earlier. the young man spoke a few minutes later making eye contact the entire time. he admitted what he had done and admitted he had been harmed. he didn’t cry exactly but seemed to be shaking. we spoke for a while and spoke about what could have been done differently and what could be done now. the students spoke really generally but that was ok, it was our first time. the most important part was what happened next. a student, a young man who had been in my class before and after school, except when he was ditching class, which was pretty often said, ‘why can’t we do this more often?’ and that was it, rj for life. “i’m so glad we built this.” several conversations later, with the young man who spoke at the end of the rj circle and several other students in the bal squad [before, after, and lunch], mr. jacobo began what he termed a circulo de hombres, or circle of men. they began by meeting before school for just 20 minutes, a rj circle once a week. the students soon began to ask for more, so they began meeting after school twice a week. i know it sounds like the white dudes in the woods beating on drums and hugging each other, but that’s what it was, a space for kids, young men, to feel safe, comfortable, and really talk. i sold it, when i spoke to young men about it by describing the circles the lakota warriors would sit in before and after battle. before battle they would share their fears and their worries as they headed into battle. after they would share the weight of their sins, the violence they witnessed and the violence they engaged in. this notion of it being a warrior space seemed to entice them, ‘nerds’ and ‘thugs’ alike. it was such an interesting mix of young men who began to mesh. by the end of the first semester, mr. jacobo’s circulo de hombres had 25 regular attendees twice a week for over an hour and about five others who would sporadically attend. “the funny part was that students would skip school all day then come to circle.” this is when mr. jacobo began to lobby the principal to get the group designated as a course. it was a struggle, a 107 semester long fight of logistics, course names, and scheduling that worked for the youth, but eventually it was granted. it was during the second semester that mr. jacobo received a challenge. we were in circle one afternoon talking about a problem that we saw at school when a young man said, ‘we talk a lot in here…are we ever going to learn how to do anything about it?’ i remember i was drinking water and i almost spit it out i was laughing so hard. i was laughing not at him but the obviousness of his comment. i had used y-par [youth participatory action research] in the past and this space was the perfect place for it, but i hadn’t made that connection till then. the next meeting, i began to grow researchers. as part of the circulo de hombres mr. jacobo began to walk his students through the ypar process. he began by leading them through a series of discussions about what problems they saw in their school and neighborhood, then taught them how to make problem statements into research questions. they worked on this for a time then focused on what types of research qualitative, quantitative or mixed would lead to the best result, then how to analyze their data and write research reports and make presentations. students were also asked to develop possible solutions to the problem based on their research. it was a struggle. the students loved the problem identifying, they were good at it and got really strong at developing questions, but the design of study was hard for them to wrap their head around not to mention the analysis portion, but we grew into it. we decided for the first round to focus on school-based issues and problems. the problems raised were everything from students ditching class, suggested by the two most notorious ditchers i have ever had to trash on campus, to students get labeled as failures, to student drug testing, to gender issues in sports (women’s sports were given the lesser of fields to practice and play on). the students did well. they designed surveys, conducted interviews, chased down outside experts for facts and evidence and wrote up reports. the students complained, ‘but mr. jacobo, this wasn’t supposed to be a real class.’ and, ‘that’s due today?’ but they laughed and smiled while they complained. we held an after-school event where administration came as well as parents and community supporters to witness the presentations. i think it was when admin saw what the young men had done that, they decided to allow it to become a class. because it did the next year. the students presented their data, the research process, and their recommendations. they spoke directly to administration, several students a bit aggressively but it was received well by school leadership. they were impressed with the young men and told them so. we ended the presentations with a circle including the young men and all those in attendance. it was a high. the students saw that they were heard and heard that they were seen. they felt it all. a young man ended the ceremony with a statement i think about all the time, ‘i’m glad we built this’. what was interesting to me was he wasn’t just talking about me and the young men he was talking about all those in attendance. the this he was talking about was 108 the continuation, the continued conversation, the continued work. the students looked at hard things and grew from it. they fought back against it and i think it that, in the struggle to be seen, heard, recognized, identified as something more, they and i, i know for sure, were healed. discussion and conclusion though taking different paths, ms. cortez and mr. jacobo engaged their students similarly, namely that they engaged in ethical and moral dilemmas through a critical examination of content (apple, 2004, 2014; freire, 1970). as important, both teachers taught students the importance of healing, of working through the pain and the discomfort that an honest look at content creates. having been wounded themselves and in search of healing, both ms. cortez and mr. jacobo found ways to raise the critical consciousness, moral and ethical awareness of students, and offered their classrooms as spaces of healing and growth. one, both teachers agreed, could not happen without the other. there would be no healing without acquiring new knowledge, and both provided opportunities for just that. ms. cortez developed an ethnic studies program that explored the history of the neighborhood, both wrapping students in the knowledge and understanding of community wealth and community difficulty. mr. jacobo, recognizing a need amongst the young men of his classes, developed the circulo de hombres to begin to find a place for them, a space to heal and eventually through the community’s push, to become activist through the use of youth participatory action research where students found strength and a voice. neither teacher avoided difficult topics; instead, they fostered a critical sensibility among their students by engaging directly in social justice issues related to race, gender, poverty, sexuality, and resistance. both recognized the need to not leave students there, in the space of knowing and understanding the damage that violence had caused, but instead sought to help their students find a place for this knowledge to settle through restorative measures and action. both teachers understood that students need to be made cognizant of their own power and their own ability to save themselves and fight for their community. both ms. cortez and mr. jacobo took different paths that led their students to similar spaces of healing and action. engaging students in moral and ethical growth is not easy. more than a teacher disposition or pedagogical approach, these testimonios reveal that a broader understanding is necessary. a raised consciousness can inflict or cause new awareness of wounds. by engaging an ethnic studies approach (tintiangco-cubales et al., 2014) with embedded restorative practices (acosta & mir, 2012; cuathtin et al., 2019; sleeter & zavala, 2020; zavala, 2018) teachers can both teach for social justice and offer a critical examination of content as well as offer students the possibility of healing. to develop robust ethics and morality, students must face, examine and understand the darkness of our history and be inspired to engage in acts of change on the personal, local, national and global levels. there is weight and heaviness to this work and to the 109 knowledge that comes with it. for ethical and moral growth students need to learn how to simultaneously guard and give voice to their spirits. the testimonios of ms. cortez and mr. jacobo presented above, provide insight on how this demanding work can, and must, be undertaken. references acosta, c., & mir, y. 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(2015). the little book of restorative justice. new york: skyhorse publishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cws60ykm8s journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 79-99 factors that influence students’ learning progress in the science spiral progression curriculum rizaldy e. garcia* * rizal technological university, college of education, mandaluyong city, philippines email: regarcia@rtu.edu.ph article info received: june 9, 2020 revised: july 18, 2020 accepted: july 26, 2020 how to cite garcia, r.e. (2021). factors that influence students’ learning progress in the science spiral progression curriculum. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 79-99. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.5 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract the study delved into the factors that influence students’ learning progress in the implementation of the science spiral progression curriculum in selected public junior high schools in the division of pasig city, philippines, covering the school year 2017 – 2018. the study used the quantitative approach to research, particularly the descriptive research methodology. the specific descriptive research design utilized was normative survey. data were statistically tested with the use of frequency distribution formula, percentage formula, and weighted mean. the study concluded that the perspectives of the science teachers in executing the science spiral progression curriculum vary from school to school. the study also found out that several factors influence the students' learning progress and that majority of the grade 10 students for the school year 2017 – 2018 of the division of pasig city philippines have “fairly satisfactory” performance. keywords teacher education; science education; science curriculum; science teaching; spiral progression. 10.46303/jcsr.2020.5 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 80 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 introduction the old basic education curriculum of the philippines mandates that filipino learners should finish their schooling for ten years. this is 6 years of primary school and 4 years of secondary school. primary school is composed of grades 1 to 6, while secondary schooling is composed of 1st year to 4th year. kindergarten is also not mandatory. the philippines' department of education in the time of the then-president benigno c. aquino pushed for the amendments of the basic education curriculum. the president and the department envisioned a 12-year basic education curriculum in addition to a mandatory kindergarten, hence the birth of the k to 12 basic education curricula in the philippines. the implementation of the new k to 12 basic education curricula in the philippines started in the school year 2012-2013. preceding this, the kindergarten act was implemented in the school year 2011-2012 under republic act 10157. with its implementation, a paradigm shift in the basic education system had been implemented. one feature that had changed is the structure of the curriculum. in the area of science, especially in the junior high school level, the spiral progression curriculum has been adopted. this curriculum deviated from the usual practice in which in each grade level, there is a specialized science subject. for instance, the 1styear level will take integrated science, the 2nd-year level will take biology, the 3rd-year level will take chemistry and the 4th-year level will take physics. in the case of the new curriculum, the specialized subjects are merged into one level. this means that in each grade level, students will take the four basic science disciplines, namely earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics in a spiral progression manner. the basic concept of this curriculum is to highlight the understanding and application of scientific knowledge, learning scientific inquiry skills, and developing and demonstrating scientific attitudes and beliefs (science framework for philippine basic education: dost, 2011). a spiral progression is an approach that follows the progressive type of curriculum. the approach was anchored from john dewey’s total learning experiences of an individual. martin (2008) defined progression as a thing that labels pupils' flights through education and ways, in which they acquire, apply, develop their skills, knowledge, and understanding in increasingly challenging situations. based on this approach, the k to 12 science spiral progression approach was implemented to utilize a learner-centered approach such as inquiry-based learning pedagogy. the k to 12 curriculum guide of science (2013), stated that the goal of the science curriculum is to produce scientifically literate citizens who are informed and active participants of the society, responsible decision-makers, and apply scientific knowledge that will significantly impact the society and the environment. the research is based on three theoretical lenses namely, constructivism, progressivism, and social reconstructionism (mauch & tarman, 2016). according to elliot et al. (2000), constructivism is a learning approach that holds that learners' construct knowledge based on their past experiences. its focus is on the idea that human learning is constructed, that learners build knowledge upon the foundation of previous learning to influence his/her new knowledge (phillips, 1995). the philippine k to 12 curricula as a curriculum embraces the idea of constructivism. learners in this curriculum use spiral progression which means that concepts are taught early and then being retaught in succeeding years but with increased sophistication and complexity. also, learners continuously reflect on their experiences while developing the needed abilities and skills to achieve learning. 81 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 john dewey's progressivism, on the other hand, talks about individuality, progress, and change as fundamental aspects to one's education, labaree (2000), said that progressivism is a child-centered instruction (mason, 2019). he said that all that is accomplished in the classroom is accomplished to assist and foster the student's development, which is also based on the developmental task of the learners and that learning is constructed based on discovery and experience. in the philippine k to 12 curricula, the curriculum aims to improve learners who are equipped with adequate proficiencies which could be attained by keenly utilizing and employing it in the actual world. also, in the current philippine k to 12 curriculum learners are to experience the world; it is, therefore, active not passive in its nature. brameld (1956) stated that reconstructionism is a philosophy that underscores the tackling of social questions and the pursuit to establish a better society and global democracy. on the current philippine k to 12 curricula, its goals underline on social reform, which is from a 10-year basic education to a 12-year plan. the traditional perception that a 10 – year basic education is adequate has been transformed to enhance human conditions and will let the students experience and take a social action on real problems. when the philippines’ department of education implemented the said curricula, it demanded a lot from the teachers. science teachers cannot escape this new challenge because the basic concept of this curriculum is to emphasize the understanding and application of scientific knowledge, learning scientific inquiry skills, and developing and demonstrating scientific attitudes and beliefs (science framework for philippine basic education: dost, 2011). studies have shown that 'teacher quality' is the single most important school-level variable influencing student achievement (oecd, 2005). a review of 20 high-quality studies measuring the impact of teacher quality in developing countries found that teachers when subjected to knowledge training was strongly related to student learning (glewwe, hanushek, humpage & ravina, 2011). colclough (2005) said the importance of teachers to student outcomes has resulted in a shift in aid investment from a primary focus on increasing access to education to increasing support for interventions aimed at improving teacher quality in developing countries. burila (2012) wrote that concerns have been raised in the communities where poverty is prevalent that the k to 12 curricula will not be viable because of some concerns such as availability of technology, teachers training, and even salary of the workforce. since its implementation in the school year 2012-2013, the first batch of graduates had walked on the stage in 2018. hence, this is the best time to assess the curriculum. it is a time to know the factors that influenced learning progress and to know whether the science teachers make the best out of the new curriculum to teach their students. research questions the purpose of the research was to look into the factors that influence student’s learning progress and to know the teachers’ perspective on the implementation of the science spiral curriculum in the selected public junior high schools in the division of pasig city, philippines during the school year 2017 – 2018. specifically, the study sought to find answers to the following research problems: 1. what is the perspective of the science teachers when executing the new science spiral progression curriculum? 2. what is the progress of the students as measured by their grade 10 individual grade average in science for the school year 2017 2018? 82 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 3. what are the factors that greatly influence students’ progress in the science spiral progression curriculum as to: 3.1 student factor: a. learning style; b. study habits; and c. motivation to learn. 3.2 teacher factor: a. teacher’s specialization; b. teacher training; and c. teaching style; 3.3 school factor: a. school facilities; b. learning materials; and c. support to teacher training. conceptual framework the conceptual framework as shown in this research illustrates the processes that were undertaken in the conduct of this study. the framework explains that there is a great deal of connection between science teachers and the students. this connection is signified and carried out in the execution of the science spiral progression curriculum. in the execution of the curriculum, the teacher and the students will encounter factors that can affect students' progress. the factors that could influence these outcomes may come from the teacher themselves, the students, and the schools. to facilitate and to take advantage of these factors, a thorough study should be done to facilitate which of the factors that influence students' progress the most. figure 1. conceptual model research methods and designs this research used the quantitative approach as it delved with numerical data relative to the subject of the investigation. hunter and leahey (2008) defined quantitative research as the systematic empirical investigation of social phenomena via statistical, mathematical, or computational techniques. the specific research methodology utilized was descriptive research. this type of research involves either identifying characteristics of an observed phenomenon or exploring possible correlations among two or more phenomena. science spiral progression curriculum factors that influence student learning progress students students’ learning progress science teachers 83 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 in every case, descriptive research examines a situation as it is (leedy & ormrod, 2014). in this research, the descriptive delves into situations or conditions about the k to 12 science spiral progression curriculum through its normative survey design and contextual analysis techniques. the normative survey design describes and interprets “what is” and reveals conditions that exist, practices that prevail or do not prevail, and in attitudes that are held on or not (estolas & macaballug, 1995). this design was used in this study to generate data on the perceptions of teachers on their execution of the science spiral progression curriculum, on how they handle the progression on factors that influence students’ learning outcomes in the spiral progression curriculum and on how they describe themselves in selected personal characteristics. a total of 195 science teachers were asked to answer the survey questionnaire. the purposive sampling was used to intentionally select individuals and sites to learn and understand the central phenomenon (creswell, 2012). the same sampling scheme and standard were applied to the selection of the ten public junior high schools of the division of pasig city in the national capital region. the ten school participants represented 83.33 percent of the 12 public junior high schools in the division of pasig city. the science teachers who participated provided the necessary information required by the study. they were considered as "information-rich". more than 50.0 percent of the grade 10 students from each school were likewise purposively selected to elicit information on the progress of the students in the science spiral progression curriculum. their science grade averages based on report cards and grading sheets were used in the study. the sample for each group was very adequate as shown by the sample percentages of more than 50.0 percent for each study population. the research instrument used in this study is a modified instrument. the instrument was based on the "a manual for the use of the motivated strategies for learning questionnaires" by paul r. pintrich, david a.f. smith, teresa garcia, and wilbert j. mckeachie which was published by "the regents of the university of michigan" in 1991. the researcher devised the instrument in relation to the said questionnaire, with modification to suit the local setting in the philippines, hence it is called a modified instrument. the validation process includes judgments by experts and pilot testing or dry run. the draft of the instrument was shown to the experts. comments and suggestions were then incorporated in the final draft of the instrument. to strengthen the content validity of the instrument, a dry run was conducted to 15 selected science teachers in a certain secondary public school in the division of pasig city, philippines. the modified instrument used in this research has two major parts. part i was concerned with the perspective of the public junior high school science teachers in executing the science spiral progression curriculum and it is composed of 15 item questions. part ii of the instrument gathered information on the factors that influence students' learning outcomes in the spiral progression curriculum in terms of student factor, teacher factor, and school factor. this part of the instrument is composed of 83 item questions distributed across the three variables namely, student factor, teacher factor, and school factor. the behaviors measured by the instrument are the students' learning style, study habits, students' motivation to learn, and teachers' teaching style. the arbitrary ratings of the instrument are as follow: scale value verbal interpretation 3.26 – 4.00 strongly agree (sa) 2.51 – 3.25 agree (a) 1.76 – 2.50 disagree (da) 1.00 – 1.75 strongly disagree (sda) 84 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 the report cards and the grading sheets were used to get the grade averages of the student respondents. the researcher compared the report cards with the grading sheets to check the accuracy of the data. the description, grading scale, and remarks of the grades are shown in table 1. table 1: description, grading scale and remarks of the grades description grading scale remarks outstanding 90-100 passed very satisfactory 85-89 passed satisfactory 80-84 passed fairly satisfactory 75-79 passed did not meet expectations 74 – below failed reference: department of education order no. 8 series of 2015, “policy guidelines on classroom assessment for the k to 12 basic education program. data analysis the data gathered in this research were analyzed through descriptive statistical analysis. specifically, this research utilized the weighted mean, percentage and frequency distribution, and likert scaling. the weighted mean was used to compute the mean in the items presented in the instruments used. each computed weighted mean was then traced to the likert scaling with the corresponding verbal interpretation shown also in this research. the results were then interpreted and were intertwined with previous literature. results and discussion what are the perspectives of the science teachers when executing the science spiral progression curriculum? the table below shows the science teachers' perspectives when executing the science spiral progression curriculum in the division of pasig city, philippines, the school year 2017-2018. the table conveys the weighted mean and its verbal interpretation for each item presented to the science teachers during the survey. based on the findings in table 2, the overall weighted mean for all the selected public junior high school in terms of their perspective when executing the science spiral progression curriculum is 2.84 with a verbal interpretation of "agree". this means that science teachers generally agree on the items presented to them in the survey. analyzing the results deeper, with an overall weighted mean of 2.66 the science teachers agree that they have less likelihood to agree that they are given enough time to discuss the different topics in a school year while with an overall weighted mean of 3.23, the science teachers have generally agreed that they have a 85 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 good understanding on the content of the science spiral progression curriculum in terms of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that my students should learn) got the highest. table 2: weighted means of the perspectives of science teachers in executing the science spiral curriculum items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. i have a good understanding of the content of the science spiral progression curriculum in terms of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that my students should learn. 2. i have a positive attitude towards the implementation of the science spiral progression curriculum. 3. i’m provided with plenty of resource materials in the execution of the science spiral progression curriculum. 4. i have the opportunities to receive recent or up to date curriculum professional support. 5. i have a sound knowledge of strategies known to be effective for the teaching of the new science spiral progression curriculum. 6. i’m not reluctant to execute the science spiral progression curriculum even though some of the topics included in the curriculum are not my area of specialization. 7. i’m given enough time to discuss the different topics in a school year. 8. i’m provided with a sound understanding of the alternative ways of teaching the science spiral progression curriculum for the students to understand better the scientific ideas included in the curriculum. 9. i have a strong motivation to ensure that the topics in the science spiral progression are taught clearly in my school. 10. i have a strong conviction that the science spiral progression curriculum is solid in bridging the gap of the former congested science curriculum. 11. i have the personal confidence and necessary skills to execute the science spiral progression curriculum competently. 12. i’m provided with the opportunity to undertake professional development to enhance my knowledge in executing the science spiral progression curriculum. 13. i have the confidence that the contents in the science spiral progression curriculum are well organized. 14. i’m supported by the administration in your efforts to execute the science spiral progression curriculum. 15. i’m provided with the necessary equipment to teach the science spiral progression curriculum. 3.23 3.19 2.65 2.83 3.08 3.02 2.66 2.93 3.06 2.70 3.00 2.80 2.72 2.84 2.73 agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree overall 2.84 agree 86 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 these perspectives of the science teachers coincide with what snider (2004) supposed that the spiral progression approach has advantages and disadvantages. he said that the spiral progression approach avoids disjunctions between stages of schooling; it allows learners to learn topics and skills appropriate to their developmental/cognitive stages, and it strengthens retention & mastery of topics & skills as they are revisited & consolidated but the problem with the spiral design is that the rate for introducing new concepts is often either too fast or too slow. similarly, cobern et al. (2014) stated that a critical aspect of teacher education is gaining pedagogical content knowledge of how to teach science for conceptual understanding. also, understanding of the curriculum is a teacher’s responsibility as crawford (2000) expressed that in teaching science, especially in an inquiry-based classroom, teachers assume the roles of a motivator, diagnostician, guide, innovator, experimenter, researcher, modeler, mentor, collaborator, as well as a learner. what is the progress of the students as measured by their grade 10 individual grade average in science for school year 2017 – 2018? the data presented in table 3 indicates the student respondents’ learning progress as measured by their grade 10 individual grade average in science subject for the school year 2017-2018. these were obtained from the grade reports of the students and grading sheets of the science teachers. table 3: overall students’ progress in science of the different schools _____________________________________________________________________________ grades frequency (f) percentage (%) grade description 90-100 928 10.9 outstanding 85-89 1715 20.1 very satisfactory 80-84 2406 28.3 satisfactory 75-79 3150 37.0 fairly satisfactory 74 and below 314 3.7 did not meet expectation _____________________________________________________________________________ total 8513 100.0 table 3 displays that 37.0% (3150 student respondents) of the grade 10 students have “fairly satisfactory” performance, followed by “satisfactory” (28.3%, 2406 student respondents), then “very satisfactory” (20.1%, 1715 student respondents), “outstanding” (10.9%, 928 student respondents) and lastly “did not meet expectation” with 3.7% (314 student respondents). results revealed in the data imply that there were still a lesser number of students who have “outstanding” performance and “very satisfactory” performance compared to the total number of students who have performances classified as “satisfactory”, “fairly satisfactory” and “did not meet expectation”. this suggests that the result still conforms to the findings of the department of education (deped) and commission on higher education (ched) together with some representatives from private sectors who made an evaluation study on evaluation of basic education program of the country, and found out that the country’s basic mathematics and science education is at alarming stage (lumaque, sarraga & jumawan, 2005). also, based on the united nations development report 2009, the philippines is among the countries in the world with a higher literacy rate at 93.4 percent in 2008 but the performance of filipino students in 87 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 international mathematics and science tests stuck at the bottom while struggling at a passing level locally (ombra, 2016). with its maiden implementation, fixed results have yet to come if the new k to 12 curricula will help improve the science performance of filipino students. in the philippine k to 12 curriculum guide of science 2013, it states that the goal of the science curriculum is to produce scientifically literate citizens who are informed and active participants of the society, responsible decision-makers, and apply scientific knowledge that will significantly impact the society and the environment. what are the factors that influence the students’ progress in the science spiral progression curriculum? the following results below focus on the factors that influence students' progress in the science spiral progression curriculum as answered by the science teachers. it is divided into three factors namely, student factor, teacher factor, and school factor. in each factor, it is likewise divided into three variables. first, variables under the student factor are learning style, study habits, and motivation to learn. second, variables under the teacher factor are teachers' specialization, teacher training, and teaching style. lastly, variables under the school factor are school facilities, learning materials, and support for teacher training. student factor as to learning styles table 4: weighted means of the factors affecting students’ progress as to learning styles based on the findings in table 4, the overall weighted mean for all the selected public junior high school in terms of student factor as to learning styles was 2.94 with a verbal interpretation of items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. students read their notes and the course reading over and over again. 2. students memorize keywords to remind them of important concepts in the class. 3. students to make a list of important terms for the course and memorize the lists. 4. students pull together information from different sources, such as lectures, readings, and discussions. 5. students to write summaries of the main ideas from readings and the concepts from the lectures. 6. students to make simple charts, diagrams, or tables to help them organize course materials. 7. students find themselves questioning things that they hear or read in the subject to decide if they find it convincing. 8. students to play around with ideas of their own related to what they are learning in the subject. 9. students to apply ideas from course readings in other class activities such as lectures and discussion. 10. students study the subject in a way that they try to go over their class notes and make an outline of important concepts. 2.84 2.91 2.82 2.92 2.93 3.04 3.00 3.00 3.02 2.91 agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree overall 2.94 agree 88 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 “agree”. individually, santolan high school (shs) got a weighted mean of 2.74 (agree), nagpayong high school (nhs) got 3.27 (strongly agree), manggahan high school (mhs) got 3.23 (agree), sta. lucia high school (slhs) got 2.86 (agree), pinagbuhatan high school (phs) got 2.82 (agree), rizal high school (rhs) got 2.99 (agree), rizal experimental station and pilot school of cottage industries (respci) got 2.98 (agree), san joaquin kalawaan high school (sjhs) got 3.77 (strongly agree), eusebio high school (ehs) got 2.74 (agree), and sagad high school (sghs) got 2.99 (agree). with an overall weighted mean of 2.82 (agree) item 3 (students to make a list of important terms for the course and memorize the lists) got the lowest, while with an overall weighted mean of 3.04 (agree), item 6 (students to make simple charts, diagrams, or tables to help them organize course materials got the highest. this conforms to what the common core state standards (ccss ela) believed, that english and language arts teachers share the responsibility with other educators for teaching students to understand "informational text," including science material found in books, magazines, and newspapers, and on the web (ngac and ccsso 2010). they added that a picture, a graph can be worth a thousand words. however, almost all students need teachers' help, over a period of years, to read graphs well. in that sense, graph literacy is like learning to read graphs well. in that sense, graph literacy is like learning to read text; each requires repeated practice and a focus on greater complexity as students develop their skills. student factor as to study habits table 5: weighted means of the factors affecting students’ progress as to study habits table 5 reveals that generally the science teachers “agree” with an overall weighted mean of 2.95 on the items presented to them in the questionnaire in terms of the factors that affect students’ progress as to study habits. with a weighted mean of 3.09, item 2 got the highest; it denotes that participating proactively during group work affect students’ progress relative to the execution of the spiral progression curriculum. with progressivism as one of the basic theories encapsulated in the k to 12 curricula, thus, group work or practical works would help students to learn science. johnson, johnson, and holubec (2008) conveyed that many teachers items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. students read books other than textbooks. 2. students to proactively participate during group work. 3. students to do their assignments diligently. 4. students break down major concepts into smaller concepts. 5. students learn better when given more complicated examples. 6. students take notes during classes. 7. students to study by following strictly the teachers’ instructions. 8. students memorize the concepts as much as possible. 9. students to ask questions. 10. students use different methods from what they learned at school to solve problems. 2.84 3.09 2.80 2.89 2.92 3.01 2.93 2.94 3.06 3.01 agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree overall 2.95 agree 89 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 from disciplines across the academe use group work to enhance their students’ learning. whether the goal is to increase student understanding of content, to build transferable skills, or some combination of the two, instructors often turn to small group work to capitalize on the benefits of peer-to-peer instruction. accordingly, johnson, johnson, and smith performed a meta-analysis of 168 studies comparing cooperative learning to competitive learning and individualistic learning in college students (johnson, johnson and smith, 2014) and they found that cooperative learning produced greater academic achievement than both competitive learning and individualistic learning across the studies. item 3 in table 5 deals with students doing their assignment got the lowest weighted mean with 2.80. this means that there is a lesser likelihood that the science teachers "agree" that assignments could be a factor that affects students' progress. this conforms also to the department of education's memorandum encouraging teachers to lessen the assignments given to students, which according to cooper, robinson, and patall (2006), that while assigning homework may have academic benefits, it can also cut into important personal and family time. accordingly, fernandez, suarez, and muniz (2015) in their research revealed that assigning too much homework can result in poor performance. on a lighter note, darling-hammond & ifilllynch (2006) stated that the goal should not be to eliminate homework but to make it authentic, meaningful, and engaging. student factor as to students’ motivation to learn table 6: weighted means of the factors affecting students’ progress as to motivation to learn items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. use course materials that challenge the students so that they can learn new things. 2. make students think that what they will learn in the subject could be used to understand other subjects. 3. make students realize that getting good grades in the subject is the most satisfying thing for them. 4. let students be confident that they can learn the basic concepts taught in the course. 5. use course material that can arouse their curiosity, even if the subject is difficult to learn. 6. make students realize that the most satisfying thing for the students is to try to understand the content of the subject as thoroughly as possible. 7. encourage students that they can master the skills being taught in the subject. 8. make students participate in class because they need to show their abilities, to their families, friends, and others. 9. make students think that the course materials on the subject are useful for them to learn. 10. make the students feel confident that they can understand the most complex material presented by the teacher of the subject. 3.13 3.17 3.09 3.11 3.13 3.13 3.16 3.14 3.17 3.19 agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree overall 3.14 agree 90 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 exhibited in table 6 that generally the science teachers “agree” with an overall weighted mean of 3.14 on the items presented to them in the questionnaire in terms of the factors that affect students’ progress as to motivation to learn. item 10 of table 6 talks about making students feel confident that they understand the most complex material presented by the teacher of the subject got the highest weighted mean of 3.19. this implies that because of the complexity of topics in the progression as it progressed, teachers must have the ability to motivate students to make them believe that they can still understand the lessons presented to them. delong and dale (2002) indicated that intrinsic motivation can be long-lasting and self-sustaining. efforts to build this kind of motivation are also typically efforts at promoting student learning. such efforts often focus on the subject rather than on rewards or punishments. with the lowest weighted mean of 3.09, there is much less possibility that the science teacher "agree" on item 3, which talks about making students realize that getting good grades in the subject is the most satisfying thing. however, kumar, gheen, and kaplan (2002) argue that performance goals can potentially lead to academic struggle. similarly, midgley (2002) points out that the promotion of mastery goals over the school years decreases that the learning process and quality of learning are at risk when grades are used as a motivating force. teacher factor as to teachers’ specialization table 7: weighted means of the factors affecting students’ progress as to teachers’ specialization table 7 shows largely that the science teachers "agree" with an overall weighted mean of 3.09 on the items presented to them in the questionnaire in terms of the factors that affect students' progress as to teachers' specialization. with a weighted mean of 3.21 item 1 of table 7 got the highest. the statement focuses on the difficulty of teachers in preparing students for the examination. this may be due to a more sophisticated process of assessment processes under the k to 12 curricula as assessment in the k-12 curriculum is also standards-based as it seeks to items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. preparing students for examinations. 2. giving students a positive outlook on the content that i'm teaching. 3. choosing the right or appropriate outside readings and materials. 4. changing the mindset of the learners to jump to the next topic. 5. changing the nature of the concept of the topic at hand based on recent discoveries or recent developments in science. 6. in creating a rubric that can be used effectively to assess the students. 7. managing the time devoted to a particular topic. 8. tailoring class plans, activities, and scientific language for students to understand me better. 9. motivating me to teach the topic. 10. keeping students on task in the classroom and sparking their imaginations. 3.21 3.10 3.08 3.04 3.07 3.01 3.20 3.16 3.06 3.01 agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree overall 3.09 agree 91 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 ensure that teachers will teach to the standards. the students' attainment of standards in terms of content and performance is, therefore, a critical evidence of learning (deped order no. 31, 2012). tordecillas (2014) as cited by orbe, espinoza, and datukan (2018) reported that k-12 teachers should understand the standards-based assessment and all other terminologies connected to it. further, they must have a positive view of it. however, understanding the concept and having a positive perception of it does not guarantee teachers' ease where the construction of the assessment is concerned. items 6 and 10 got the lowest weighted mean of 3.01. this implies that the science teacher respondents were less likely to "agree" that they have difficulty in creating a rubric that can be used effectively to assess the students and keeping students on task in the classroom and sparking their imaginations. this implies that science teachers are good at making rubrics to effectively assess their students. this might be because even before the implementation of the k to 12 science spiral progression curriculum, they are already used to using rubrics as a way to assess their students. according to glickman-bond and rose (2006) apart from being considered as an 'effective' tool for measuring, evaluating, and reporting student achievement, rubrics are also 'designed' to guide students' learning, teachers' instruction, course development, and administrators' program observations. rubrics, therefore, are held as being direct assessment measures which help to answer the key questions driving outcomes assessment, i.e. "how students learn; what students learn; how is student learning assessed; and how are assessment results used" (glenn, 2005). teacher factor as to support for teacher training table 8: weighted means of the factors affecting students’ progress as to teachers’ training as shown table 8, essentially the science teachers "agree" with an overall weighted mean of 3.01 on the items presented to them in the questionnaire in terms of the factors that affect students' progress as to teachers' training. item 5 in this table got the highest weighted mean of 3.10. science teacher respondents are more likely to "agree" that the new science curriculum demands them to have a faculty mentoring program for the out of field subjects being taught by them in the curriculum. this might be because, in the case of the new curriculum, the specialized subjects are merged into one level. this means that in each grade level, students will take the four basic science disciplines, namely earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics in a spiral progression manner. this implies that science teachers will now teach the four basic disciplines even though it's not their area of specialization. science teachers cannot escape this items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. adequate and serious in-service pieces of training on the curriculum. 2. equal available professional development opportunities. 3. available scholarship grants for continuing education. 4. quarterly in-house professional development in the school. 5. faculty mentoring program for the out of field subjects being taught in the curriculum 3.07 3.07 2.85 2.97 3.10 agree agree agree agree agree overall 3.09 agree 92 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 new challenge because the basic concept of this curriculum is to emphasize the understanding and application of scientific knowledge, learning scientific inquiry skills, and developing and demonstrating scientific attitudes and beliefs (science framework for philippine basic education: dost, 2011). with the lowest weighted mean of 2.85 is item 3, this implies that there is a much lesser possibility that the science teacher will "agree" that the curriculum demands them to have available scholarship grants for continuing education. witnessing the latest trend in continuing education, teachers now are aware of the importance of getting a higher degree whether it is for professional and personal growth or promotion. it is now an initiative coming from the teachers because of the stiff competition in the academic world, thus, they now go to graduate schools with or without a scholarship program. teacher factor as to teaching styles table 9: weighted means of the factors affecting students’ progress as to teaching styles it is revealed in table 9 that fundamentally the science teachers “agree” with an overall weighted mean of 3.17 on the items presented to them in the questionnaire in terms of the factors that affect students’ progress as to teaching styles. correspondingly, datu (2016) said that the curriculum aims to develop learners who are armed with sufficient competencies which could be achieved by actively applying and utilizing it in the real world, actively testing ideas or concepts learned. items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. communicate clearly with your students. 2. use science materials that are easy to understand. 3. present the lesson in a variety of ways. 4. give feedback to students about what should be done from time to time. 5. adapt learning experiences to the learners according to their developmental level. 6. maintain eye contact to all corners of the room. 7. adopt a reasonable and adjustable pace that balances content coverage and student understanding. 8. make connections of the topics to current events and everyday phenomena. 9. move around, but not so much that of a distraction. 10. avoid direct repetition of material in a textbook so that it remains a useful alternative resource. 3.20 3.16 3.15 3.13 3.12 3.15 3.20 3.22 3.19 3.19 agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree overall 3.17 agree 93 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 school factor as to school facilities table 10: weighted means of the factors affecting students’ progress as to school facilities it is disclosed in table 10 that primarily the science teachers “agree” with an overall weighted mean of 3.20 on the items presented to them in the questionnaire in terms of the factors that affect students' progress as to school facilities. largely, the science teachers agree that classroom and laboratory furniture that is functionally sound and facially attractive influences students' progress, as this is the item that garnered the highest weighted mean of 3.20. this might be because, in teaching science, the laboratory is one of the basic needs of students to learn the concepts in science in a real-world scenario. hofstein and mamlok-naaman (2007) state that laboratory experiences have been given a central role in science education. many benefits are said to come from engaging students in laboratory activities. item 1 in table 10 got the lowest weighted mean of 3.06. the lesser likelihood exists in this item that science teachers would agree that the overall design of a school in terms of aesthetic values for learning and appropriateness for the age of the students. this implies that science teachers believe that the overall aesthetic of the school is not much of a concern, as long as the school is clean and peaceful, and students can learn the lessons in the best possible way. also, this might be because schools in the philippines are built not by age level but by the design appropriate for the whole grade levels, notwithstanding the political intervention of the politicians. items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. the overall design of the school in terms of aesthetic values for learning and appropriateness for the age of the students. 2. exterior noise and surrounding environment should not disrupt classes. 3. the site and the building should be well landscape. 4. the location of the facilities should enhance the learning climate of the school. 5. floor plans should direct student movement and minimize student disruptions 6. the lighting system that provides proper intensity, diffusion, and distribution of illumination. 7. sound control of the classroom that can provide a balanced distribution of sound. 8. classroom windows that the passage of air so that students wouldn’t be feeling being choke. 9. classroom and laboratory furniture that is functionally sound and facially attractive. 10. school facilities are both excellent cosmetically and structurally. 3.06 3.20 3.15 3.19 3.23 3.22 3.22 3.25 3.27 3.19 agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree overall 3.20 agree 94 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 school factor as to learning materials table 11: weighted means of the factors affecting students’ progress as to learning materials table 11 reveals that predominantly the science teachers “agree” with an overall weighted mean of 3.11 on items presented to them in the questionnaire in terms of the factors that affect students’ progress as to learning materials. with a weighted mean of 3.22, item 9 in table 11 got the highest. more likely, the teachers would agree that the adequacy of books given to every student influences their progress. this issue must have come into place because, in the philippines, students were not given the chance to have a one is to one supply of textbooks. critics in the philippines suggest that this issue stem from the government's propensity to address shortages of inputs—through new classroom construction, teacher hiring, and textbook procurement—rather than focus on root causes of the underperformance, such as weak governance, political discontinuity, and lack of accountability (pids, 2009). item 6 got the lowest weighted mean of 2.99, which implies that there is a lesser likelihood that the science teachers agree that the use of field trips/excursions in the school to explore science concepts influences students' progress. this might be because science teachers believed that mastery of science concepts can be done already in the school as long as there is an adequacy of materials needed in teaching the subject and there is the availability of laboratory to perform experimental activities in teaching the subject. however, behrendt and franklin (2014) have a different perspective; they said that effective methods to develop student interest include experiential activities and field trips, which create authentic learning opportunities for students, regardless of the content area. also, lei (2010) argues that field trips take students to locations that are unique and cannot be duplicated in the classroom. each student observes natural settings and creates personally relevant meaning to the items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. capacity and resources in the library are adequate for the number of students in the school. 2. adequacy of tables and chairs in the classroom. 3. adequacy of equipment in the laboratory to be used in teaching science concepts. 4. sufficiency of the number of teachers' guides in the school. 5. availability of resources such as manila papers, chalk, models, charts, and other teaching paraphernalia. 6. the use of field trips/excursions in the school to explore science concepts. 7. availability of teaching soft wares in science and the use of computers in teaching and learning science concepts. 8. the rigidity of procedures of acquiring the materials for learning. 9. adequacy of books given to every student. 10. sufficiency of visual resources such as videos, powerpoint presentations, and the like in teaching science concepts. 3.04 3.08 3.12 3.12 3.19 2.99 3.09 3.08 3.22 3.18 agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree agree overall 3.11 agree 95 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 experience. interactive exhibits help students play with concepts, activities often not possible in the classroom. school factor as to support to teacher training table 12: weighted means of the factors affecting students’ progress as to support to teacher training it is disclosed in table 12 that chiefly the science teachers "agree" with an overall weighted mean of 3.28 on the items presented to them in the questionnaire in terms of the factors that affect students' progress as to support teacher training. with a weighted mean of 3.40, item 4 got the highest. there is a great agreement from the science teachers that a full-fledged training and development department in the school must be built and must be manned with competent professionals that influences students' progress. studies have shown that 'teacher quality' is the single most important school-level variable influencing student achievement (oecd, 2005). recognition of the importance of teachers to student outcomes has resulted in a shift in aid investment from a primary focus on increasing access to education to increasing support for interventions aimed at improving teacher quality in developing countries (colclough, 2005). also, a recent review of 20 high-quality studies measuring the impact of teacher quality in developing countries found that teachers when subjected to knowledge training was strongly related to student learning (glewwe, hanushek, humpage & ravina, 2011). items weighted mean verbal interpretation 1. having a training and development policy applicable to all teachers. 2. intensifying echoing program of seminars and training attended. 3. intensifying linkage in from stakeholders for training and development. 4. a full-fledged training and development department in the school must be built and must be manned with competent professionals. 5. coordinators help teachers set realistic goals for performing their work as a result of their training. 6. schools make sure that teachers have the opportunity to use their training immediately. 7. schools must make it a point that the equipment used in training is similar to the equipment found in real teaching scenarios. 8. teachers who use their training are given preference for new assignments. 3.24 3.26 3.26 3.40 3.27 3.24 3.29 3.30 agree strongly agree strongly agree strongly agree strongly agree agree strongly agree strongly agree overall 3.28 strongly agree 96 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 conclusions based on the findings from this study, the following conclusions were drawn: (1) the perspectives of the science teachers foster a positive understanding of the science spiral progression curriculum as to the content, strategies, and confidence in implementing the curriculum; (2) the public junior high school grade ten students of pasig city profess “fairly satisfactory” academic performance or progress in science; and (3) there are many factors that may influence students’ learning progress in the science spiral progression curriculum as seen in the results of this research. recommendations the following recommendations are drawn based on the findings of the study: (1) the department of education of the philippines and its implementing arms may integrate plans in providing more concrete programs to support teachers’ training in relation to the science spiral progression curriculum; (2) principals in the public junior high schools may develop motivational plans that would encourage science teachers to continue to learn and to persuade graduate studies to enhance their knowledge on the disciplines of science that are not their area of specialization; (3) principals in the public junior high schools may devise concrete and serious faculty development programs to be conducted as timely as possible not only on strategies on how to teach the science spiral progression curriculum but also the understanding of the content of each discipline in the science curriculum for the benefit of the science teachers who are teaching the science disciplines which are not their area of specialization; (4) administration of each public junior high school may establish school-based training or cluster-based training program if there are financial constraints in sending teachers to big training events; (5) school administrators in the department of education may revisit the implementation of the science spiral progression curriculum and this research may guide them to trace immediate problems regarding the implementation of the curriculum; (6) future researchers may conduct future researches in relation with this research on the following aspects: (a) effects of the scheme of implementation (disciplinal or not disciplinal) of the science spiral progression curriculum in the academic performance of the students (b) phenomenological plight that teachers are experiencing on executing the spiral progression curriculum (c) students’ progress focusing on the individual disciplines in the science progression and (d) correlates of the academic performance of students in science in terms of their demographic profiles. 97 jcsr 2021, 3(2):79-99 references behrendt, m., & franklin, t. 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(2004). do school facilities affect academic outcomes? washington dc: national clearinghouse for educational facilities. journal of curriculum studies research curriculumstudies.org open access journal 2019, 1(1):33-42 research paper second language learning and cultural identity: reconceptualizing the french curriculum in louisiana colleges and universities jerry l. parker * * southeastern louisiana university, department of world languages and cultures, hammond, la, usa. e-mail: jerry.parker@selu.edu article info received: 05.11.2019 revised: 27.11.2019 accepted: 27.11.2019 how to cite parker, j. l. (2019). second language learning and cultural identity: reconceptualizing the french curriculum in louisiana colleges and universities. journal of curriculum studies research, 1(1), 33-42. abstract the importance of the teaching of louisiana regional french language and culture as an academic subject has been debated by many scholars for decades. while some see it as a necessary dimension of a french course offered in the state of louisiana, others see the dialect and culture as unreal, non-existent, and less prestigious than parisian french. this article presents a rationale for offering louisiana regional french courses as equivalents to parisian french in the post-secondary core curriculum in louisiana colleges and universities. keywords louisiana regional french; curriculum studies; foreign language education; second language learning; biculturalism. introduction curricula for french as a foreign language in academic spaces (k-12 and post-secondary education) have traditionally been geared toward the teaching of parisian french with the purpose of traveling to france (lindner, 2008; 2013). although the parisian dialect of french is seen as a type of de-facto lingua franca for visiting all french-speaking territories, curriculum and place are closely linked (pinar, 1975;1991; 2004). it is therefore more beneficial to teach students a mutually intelligible dialect of any second language that values the place in which the language is learned but can still be used to converse with other speakers around the world (auger & valdman, 1999). the question of what dialect of french to teach in louisiana 34 classrooms has been debated by scholars for decades (ancelet, 1988; 2007; lindner, 2008; 2013; westerman, 2012). this article seeks to contribute to this scholarly discussion by suggesting louisiana regional french as the dialect of choice in college and university french departments throughout the state. french in louisiana to argue the value of offering louisiana regional french as an option throughout all louisiana colleges and universities, a clear understanding of the history of louisiana french must be established. the french language first came to north america in 1604 with the french citizens who moved to what became acadie (acadia) in canada. (ancelet, 1988; 2007; brasseaux, 2005; klingler, 2003). for these settlers, life in this territory was hard. they were not adequately prepared for the hard winters nor to grow and to hunt their own food. eventually, they were forced to return back to france. another group of french settlers returned in 1632 to acadie and attempted to establish a settlement. by 1755, the british had taken control of the territory after the french and indian war. they arrested and deported all of the acadians who would not convert to protestantism. while some acadians went back to france, some went down into the new england area, and some went to louisiana because of the religious freedom offered by the spanish who controlled the territory at the time. these settlers become known as the cajuns. upon their arrival, the cajuns settled in southern louisiana. as they built communities, they adjusted to the land and started to grow, trap, and hunt their food for survival. french-speaking louisiana developed throughout the nineteenth century. during this time period, there were consistent linguistic and cultural connections and influences from the creole islands of the antilles as a result of the haitian revolution (ancelet, 2007; brasseaux, 2005). during this time there were also four distinct cultural groups that emerged: white creoles, black creoles, french-speaking indians, and acadians/cajuns (trépanier, 1991). interestingly, the term cajun came to compromise the italian, spanish, german, and scots-irish who lived in louisiana at the time as well. southern louisiana over time became known for its mixture of colonial, creole, and cajun french dialects which still persist today. the term “louisiana regional french” eventually came to be used mainly by academics to describe the dialect of french that surfaced (lindner, 2008; 2013; trépanier, 1991). at the turn of the twentieth century, there was a transition to the usage of english in virtually every part of the state except for the black, creole societies and the poorer, cajun communities (ancelet, 2007; 1988; brasseaux, 2005; klingler, 2003). in the aftermath of the of the civil war, the english-speakers started to assimilate the french-speakers of louisiana into mainstream society. the black french speakers or gens de couleurs libres where viewed just as other african americans. individuals who identified as cajun were viewed as white. mandatory 35 english language only education began in 1916 which further pushed the assimilation of frenchspeaking children (both black and white) into mainstream english-speaking culture. those who did speak french at schools were punished which further stigmatized any association with the language. by the end of world war ii, there was a cultural shift as the result of the young soldiers returning from france (ancelet, 1988; 2007). a large revitalization effort known as the “cajun renaissance” had started and cajuns and creoles alike started to take pride in their language and cultural heritage. in 1968, the council for the development of french in louisiana (codofil) was created (ancelet, 2007; council, 2019; lindner, 2008; trépanier, 1991). the mission, as established by its organizers, was to make louisiana regional french mainstream again. its organizers started to bring in teachers from canada, france, belgium, senegal and later haiti and other territories, to teach thirty-minute french lessons. the issue was that the children were learning standard, international french while their parents and other relatives only spoke the louisiana regional dialects (cajun, creole, or colonial). klingler (2003) suggested that the three dialects rested on a continuum. first there is “colonial french”. this is a variety that differs from standard parisian/international french in syntax and morphology and sometimes phonologically and lexically depending on the speaker. the dialect did not emerge until after french and spanish colonialism. the term “plantation society french” therefore became a more accurate descriptor because the dialect was mostly used on plantations. “cajun french” this is the dialect spoken by the acadians that came to louisiana after being expelled from novia scotia in 1755 by the british. “louisiana creole french” is the term used to describe the language that was spoken by the enslaved africans that came into contact with french-speakers throughout southern louisiana. it has a strong connection to the french creoles of the caribbean and the indian ocean. in contemporary southern louisiana, there was a steady shift in the transmission and usage of louisiana regional french among families (lindner, 2008; 2013). even though codofil started its work back in 1968, as time progressed more and more of the younger generation become monolingual in english and the dialect has thus being diminishing in the number of speakers for decades. louisiana has tried to legally preserve the usage of the language, on and off, for centuries throughout its legislature (ward, 1997). codofil also still works to nourish and increase efforts in teaching french in the k-12 system with the importing of teachers and the establishment of immersion programs throughout the state. while french education is in a constant state of growth in louisiana, leaders in postsecondary education (community colleges and four-year universities) must develop curricula that will ensure longevity of the programs and the language and culture. reconceptualizing the relationship of curriculum to place in post-secondary education provides one resolution. from 36 this perspective, curriculum becomes a tool for french educators in louisiana to transmit and preserve the language, heritage, and culture. why curriculum? in the context of this article, curriculum is understood to be the intellectual and organizational center of education (pinar, 2004). there exists a direct relationship between curriculum and the place in which it is being experienced. curricula in western universities are usually composed and further validated with content produced by men from italy, france, england, germany, and the united states of america because of their colonial past (grosfoguel, 2013). curriculum has long been subject to issues of power because of the tendency of the group being dominated to interiorize their inferiority. consequently, it is naturally assumed that knowledge produced in these geographical regions is sufficient to explain the social and historical realities of the rest of the world (grosfoguel, 2013; valenzuela, 2019). the teaching and learning process in contemporary western universities is thus reduced down to the learning, re-learning, and replication of knowledge from these regions with an adaptation to space and time. to decolonize the structure of what is deemed valid knowledge in the westernized university requires diversity in the curriculum (valenzuela, 2019). such diversity creates a pluriverse of meanings and concepts instead of furthering the tradition of re-definitions of old ones. likewise, diversity in knowledge creates new pluri-versal concepts with “the many defining for the many” instead of “one for the rest” (uni-verse). part of the decolonizing process is understanding that education is driven by the place in which the educating happens, and curriculum provides a roadmap (grosfoguel, 2013; pinar, 2004; valenzuela, 2019). in other words, the educational experiences of students and the place in which the students experience them are intertwined—a causes b and b causes a (pinar, 2004; schmidt, 2011). this theory is well-known by scholars in various academic disciplines such as history and geography; however, this is an emerging concept as a curriculum approach in the field of foreign language education. because change is so rapid from generation to generation in american culture, there is never enough time from a curricular model in any field to be created, thoroughly developed, and validated for long-term replicability in various classrooms before a change is made (taba, 1962). this results in students who are pushed to constantly adapt to changing social conditions via their usage of critical thinking skills, creativity, discovery, and experimentation with ideas. in foreign language education, this all translates to teaching practices that focus on a deep understanding of grammar and vocabulary because they are standardized and less emphasis on culture which is ever-changing. likewise, students are taught grammar rules and expected to 37 “figure it out” as it relates to usage rather than a deep focus on building reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills through learning experiences based on their daily lives. foreign language educators are well aware of the fact that there is a relationship between where a student learns a language and his or her ability to speak the language. this is the rationale behind study abroad and other foreign exchange programs. moreover, scholars (auger & valdman, 1999) have argued that there is value in exposing students to deep in-depth study of various dialects of languages within academic spaces if that dialect is relevant to students. such is the case for teaching canadian students and those close to the canadian border the canadian french dialect, also known as joual. joual is suggested to be more beneficial to these students than modern standard parisian french but is also a mutually intelligible dialect of french that can be understood throughout the french-speaking world. by teaching joual in the french classroom, canadian teachers are further validating the french historical past and present influence in canada and connecting the language to the reality of those living there. just as with k-12 immersion schools in canada, this serves as an excellent model of teaching and learning french as a second language. louisiana regional french and the curriculum of identity formation teaching practices affect the formation of identities and how students construct the value of a place (pinar, 2004). curriculum is indeed embedded within cultures and that is most apparent throughout the deep south. the american south as a whole is a “place” with a unique history, culture groups, and societal problems. this is additionally true for the distinctive french culture that has developed in louisiana since the 1600’s. because of the increasing human need for spaces to live, consume, and produce change, the value and perspectives on the french language and specifically the louisiana regional dialect there have shifted across centuries. interestingly, there has been a gradual decrease in the perceived value of fluency in the language as a whole while identity formation, as being cajun and creole, is still strong throughout the state (schmidt, 2011). there is a direct connection between identity formation and education which every educator must address via the usage of cultural sustaining teaching practices as appropriate to his/her discipline (charles, 2019; ladson-billings, 1995; paris, 2012; pinar, 1991). the unwillingness to approach teaching from a standpoint that includes awareness of race, ethnicity, sex, class, and other aspects of identity is often rooted in the fear that classrooms will be uncontrollable and that emotions will not be contained (hooks, 1994). however, it is more beneficial to students to experience an education where their cultural and/or linguistic competency is validated and they are also allowed access to those of the dominate culture (paris, 2012). 38 students’ academic success for many decades has been valued over their cultural and psychological well-being (pinar, 1991). in the foreign language classroom, this is manifested in the teaching of parisian french over other dialects from across the french-speaking world because of its standardization via l’académie française and the ease of replicability in teaching practices (auger & valdman, 1999). as argued by pinar (1991): if what we know about ourselves, our history, our culture, and our national identity is deformed by absences, denialism and incompleteness, then our identity both as individuals and as americans is fractured. this fractured self is a repressed self. such a self lacks access both to itself and to the world. repressed, the self’s capacity for intelligence, for informed action, even for simple function competence, is impaired. its sense of history, gender, and politics is incomplete and distorted. (p. 9) language is an aspect of cultural and is issued among other things for either inclusion or exclusion of a cultural group within a society (parker, 2019). a large number of young adults living in south louisiana identify as cajun or creole even if they do not speak either dialect (lindner, 2008; 2013). there also exists a variance in what is understood as cajun and creole heritage. however, in the 21st century, students taking french courses in louisiana universities view french not just as a means of communication with those living abroad. it is one of the many languages and aspects of culture engrained in their everyday surroundings via various aspects of culture (thiery, 2018). lindner (2008; 2013), in surveying students in thirteen high schools in the acadian region, namely evangeline, lafayette, st. landry, st. martin, and vermillion parishes, found that students, mainly identified themselves as cajun, had only taken french in only high school, had one or more family members that spoke french, and the majority of the family members spoke specifically cajun french. additionally, she found that the majority of south louisiana students agreed that students in louisiana should learn french. the majority of respondents also agreed that students should specifically learn standard french and/or cajun french. likewise, the majority agreed that if given the choice they would take a course in cajun french at the university level. louisiana students are eager to learn more about their heritage once they get to college. although there is support among students, for the louisiana regional french dialect, history, and heritage to move forward, the knowledge must be normalized and then standardized into the university french course curriculum. normalizing a louisiana regional french curriculum speculations on the future of french education in the state of louisiana range from pure optimism to overt pessimism. some citizens feel that all of the recent efforts to save the language are simply too late. even the most zealous louisiana regional french activists admit that the french-speaking population continues to decline at an alarming rate and that 39 preserving louisiana regional french as a native or second language is a far-fetched dream (ancelet, 1988; thiery, 2018). with enough money and enlightened leadership, any community can learn a second language. in louisiana, the presence of a culturally and historically appropriate context only increases the possibility for french education to thrive. it is the work of the university to train french teachers, majors and minors in the louisiana regional french dialect (westerman, 2012). the traditional teaching of louisiana regional french has been polarized mainly into ethnic studies courses on cajun and creole language and culture rather than bringing them together as reflective in society. offering cajun and creole french as separate courses in the curriculum beyond the traditional introductory curriculum furthers willful ignorance and aggression towards louisiana regional french and culture in the international perspective (ancelet, 1988; pinar, 1991).the normalizing of the teaching of louisiana regional french as a course offering in louisiana universities can only happen if the proper social forces are enacted. french is not a foreign language in louisiana and should be not treated nor taught as such. incorporating louisiana regional french into the core university french curriculum legitimizes the francophone culture of the area and validates the history and culture of those who identify as cajun, creole, or of french heritage. without knowledge of the value of the louisiana regional french linguistic and cultural heritage, future generations will never understand themselves. phrases like laissez les bon temps rouler, lâche pas (la patate), and “to make groceries” will no longer make sense. standardizing the curriculum to reconceptualize, normalize, and create a standard louisiana regional french curriculum will require linguists, curriculum theorists, and those from ethnic and cultural studies to enter into conversation (pinar, 2004). curriculum itself is a complicated conversation driven by politics, bureaucracy, and human knowledge and experience. the refusal to incorporate louisiana regional french into the mainstream university french curriculum is psychoanalytic as well as a political process of repression. this repression stems from the stigma associated with the dialect during the early and mid-20th century. likewise, the study of french in louisiana is even more of a complex, emotional experiment which has captured the attention of many (ancelet, 1988). in traditional french courses faculty actively integrate aspects of louisiana french language and culture into their introductory courses whenever possible (parker, 2019; atranfresco, 2014) thus there is little validity in arguments against such a curriculum that can be based around non-feasibility. further, louisiana state university-baton rouge (lsu-br) has implemented course offerings of cajun french as the curricular equivalent to traditional prerequisite parisian french courses at the elementary and intermediate levels for decades (cajun 40 french, 2018; thiery, 2018). the longevity of this program further suggests louisiana regional french courses can be implemented, replicated, and sustained at other louisiana universities. as curriculum leaders in louisiana universities start to development and expand their curricular offers to fit with the needs of the technology-driven classroom, it is highly important that they reconceptualize the curriculum as place rather than from the traditional contentbased perspective. there needs to be an infusion of louisiana regional french into the core curriculum of course offerings to truly validate its necessity. conclusion foreign languages are one of the oldest academic subjects in the world. for years, american universities and colleges have produced students at the undergraduate and graduate level will skills in a second languages. although textbooks, their writers, and their publishers are often blamed for what we teach and how we teach it, the truth is that curricula are the result of social reproduction (auger & valdman, 1999; stinchcomb, 2007). curricula reflect the knowledge that the dominate group in society wants to present to students (pinar, 1991). auger and valdman (1999) argued the lack of standardization of dialects of french leads many faculty members to revert back to teaching the parisian dialect of french because of its simplicity. however, all dialects of the francophone world should be embraced by french language educators. for decades students of french have studied the parisian dialect and cultural norms with the aim of the course being to go to paris. with the growth in technology, american students now better understand that paris is not the only french-speaking territory in the world standardizing louisiana regional french in the post-secondary core curricular offers would further boost efforts across the state to preserve and grow the language and normalize it. the normalization of louisiana regional french is just one contributing factor to the larger fight in the field of foreign language education to make bilingualism and biculturalism a typical aspect of american life. just as language revitalization in quebec, canada has increased the study of canadian french, the effort in louisiana must start at the local level and work outward. it is through the curriculum of colleges and universities that the biggest impact can be made. references ancelet, b. (1988). a perspective on teaching the “problem language” in louisiana. the french review, 61(3), 345356. ancelet, b. j. (2007). negotiating the mainstream: the creoles and cajuns in louisiana. the french review, 80(6), 1235-1255. 41 atran-fresco, l. (2014). les revendications indentitaires d’une population francophone en situation minoritaire. (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from proquest dissertations. (3622919) auger, j. & valdman, a. (1999). letting french students hear the diverse voices of francophony. the modern language journal, 83, 403-412. berman, r. (2011). the real language crisis. academe, 97(5), 30-34. brasseaux, c. (2005). french, cajun, creole, houma: a primer on francophone louisiana. baton rouge, la: louisiana state university press. cajun french: le français cajun. (2018). louisiana state university: department of french studies. retrieved from: https://www.lsu.edu/hss/french/undergraduate_program/cajun_french/index.php charles, e. (2019). decolonizing the curriculum. insights, (32)1, 1-7. casteñada, j. a. (2012). the future of foreign language study in american colleges and universities. profession. 71-86. council for the development of french in louisiana. (2019). timeline/chronologie. retrieved from https://www.crt.state.la.us/cultural-development/codofil/about/french-inlouisiana/timeline/index grosfoguel, r. (2013). the structure of knowledge in westernized universities: epistemic racism/sexism and the four genocides/epistemicides of the long 16th century. human architecture: journal of the sociology of the self-knowledge, 11(1), 73-90. hooks, b. (1994). teaching to transgress. new york, ny: routledge. klinger, t. a. (2003). language labels and language use among cajuns and creoles in louisiana. university of pennsylvania working papers in linguistics, 9(2), 77-90. lindner, t. (2008). attitudes toward cajun french and international french in south louisiana: a study of high school students. (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from proquest. (3344586). lindner, t. (2013). access to french education and attitudes toward international french and cajun french among south louisiana high school students. french review, 86(3), 458472. paris, d. (2012). culturally sustaining pedagogy: a needed change in stance, terminology, and practice. educational research, 41(3), 93-97. parker, j. l. (2019). ¿c(o)mm(o)ent se pr(é)sente?: identifying instanced of epistemic racism in french and spanish introductory textbooks and the associated culturally relevant teaching practices in louisiana universities. (doctoral dissertation). retrieved from proquest. (22587245). 42 pinar, w.f. (1975). the method of “currere”. proceedings of the annual meeting of the american research association. retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ed104766.pdf pinar, w.f. (1991). understanding curriculum as a racial text. scholars and educator, 15(1), 921. pinar, w.f. (2004). what is curriculum theory?. mawhah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. schmidt, s. (2011). theorizing place: students’ navigation of place outside the classroom. the journal of curriculum theorizing. 27(1), 20-35. sexton, r. l. (2000). cajun-french language maintenance and shift: a southwest louisiana case study to 1970. journal of american ethnic history, 24-48. stinchcomb, d. f. (2007). multiculturalism and diversity in the spanish undergraduate classroom, 38, 29-33. taba, h. (1962). curriculum development: theory and practice. new york, ny: harcourt, brace, & world, inc. thiery, c. (2018). the rebirth of cajun french in louisiana classrooms and online. franceamérique bilingual: the best of french culture. retrieved from https://franceamerique.com/en/the-rebirth-of-cajun-french-in-louisiana-in-classrooms-and-online/ trépanier, c. (1991). the cajunization of french louisiana: forging a regional identity. the geographical journal, 157(2), 161-171. valenzuela, a. (2019). the struggle to decolonize official knowledge in texas’ state curriculum: side-stepping the colonial matrix of power. equity & excellence in education, 1-19. ward, r. k. (1997). the french language in louisiana law and legal education: a requiem. louisiana law review, 57(4), 12831324. westerman, a. (2012, august 23). the future of french in louisiana. wrkf: all things considered. retrieved from http://wrkf.org/post/future-french-louisiana journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 194-206 determining the influences of a hidden curriculum on students’ character development using the illuminative evaluation model melanie joy gunio* * college of education, university of the philippines, diliman, quezon city, philippines email: mdgunio1@up.edu.ph article info received: october 14, 2020 revised: july 12, 2021 accepted: july 27, 2021 how to cite gunio, m. j. (2021). determining the influences of a hidden curriculum on students’ character development using the illuminative evaluation model. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 194-206 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.11 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract this study aimed to determine whether the illuminative evaluation model, with its three-stage framework: investigate, inquire further, and explain, can be used as a methodology in understanding the influences of a hidden curriculum on the character development of pre-elementary students. in stage 1 investigate, document analysis, observations, and interviews were conducted to examine the characteristics which were targeted to be developed through the formal curriculum, and the deviations and unintended outcomes that occurred during implementation. in stage 2 inquire further, surveys, structured observations, and focus group discussions were conducted to progressively focus on selected issues. in stage 3 explain, principles and patterns were organized to describe the hidden curriculum. in conclusion, the illuminative evaluation model was found to be effective as a tool in determining the influences of a hidden curriculum on students’ character development. keywords curriculum evaluation; illuminative evaluation model; hidden curriculum; qualitative evaluation; character development 10.46303/jcsr.2021.11 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.11 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 195 jcsr 2021, 3(2): 194-206 introduction conventional approaches to curriculum evaluation are often within the paradigm of the experimental and psychometric traditions wherein objective methods are more prominent (parlett & hamilton, 1972). this has led to evaluation results which are often restricted in scope due to these approaches’ failure to account for the subtler aspects of curriculum implementation, one of which is the hidden curriculum. this study intends to inquire whether the instructional evaluation model developed by malcolm parlett and david hamilton (1972) named illuminative evaluation model (iem), which stands within the alternative anthropological paradigm, can be used to determine the influences of the hidden curriculum on students’ character development. under this paradigm, this study intends to provide a complete picture of the educational program (madaus et al., 1983; ornstein & hunkins, 1993). the hidden curriculum is a commonly neglected component of curriculum given its implicit nature. whereas the formal or intended curriculum is characterized by planned experiences and activities that students undertake in their educational program, the hidden curriculum describes the unintended and implicit learning derived by students through socialization with other people which leads to the internalization of values, attitudes, behaviors and skills (elliot et al., 2016). it is significant for it reveals aspects of schooling that provide elements of socialization that may not be a part of the intended curriculum. the hidden curriculum, therefore, conditions the norms, values, and belief systems which in turn shapes students’ character development as they deal with school life (glatthorn et al., 2009; margolis, 2001; tallerico, 2012). the hidden curriculum is originally conceived as a negative mechanism inherent in schools due to associated concepts of power, control, discipline, and punishment which have been used to fuel socio-economic interests of capitalism (halpern, 2018). this negative connotation and its imprecise nature are generally the reasons why greater attention was given to the intended curriculum in the process of curriculum development (cited in elliot et al., 2016). however, recent studies have highlighted the opportunities in the hidden curriculum and the need to recognize and harness it for use in curriculum planning, implementation, and evaluation (elliot et al., 2016; hogdal et al., 2021; sulaimani & gut, 2019; warren et al., 2019; zorec & dusler, 2016). this would entail identifying and describing the hidden curriculum at work in schools. however, much of what is considered in the process of evaluation is the intended curriculum and the “objective” aspects of schooling (parlett & hamilton, 1972) with the hidden curriculum disregarded due to the methods by which evaluation proceeds with (elliot et al., 2016). as evinced by most studies (acar, 2012; bray et al., 2018; elliot et al., 2016; hogdal et al., 2021; mirabueno, 2003; mossop, et al., 2013; sambell & mcdowell, 1998; warren et al., 2019; winter & cotton, 2012) conducted on the hidden curriculum, qualitative methods have been primarily used (cobanoglu & engin demir, 2014). despite this presumed significance of the hidden curriculum in student development, studies about these are almost nil in the philippine context. one of the reasons for this lack is perhaps the absence of concrete methods of understanding and analyzing the hidden curriculum. this study therefore aimed to determine whether the iem can be used as a methodology in understanding and analyzing the hidden curriculum and its influences on the character development of pre-elementary students. character development, as one furthers in age and educational level, is influenced by an increasing complexity of factors and settings. this study, 196 jcsr 2021, 3(2):194-206 thus, focused on the pre-elementary level with their primary environments being the home and the school. specifically, this study seeks to answer the following research questions: • how can the three-step framework of the iem be used to describe the hidden curriculum among pre-elementary students? • what are the principles and patterns in the students’ character development influenced by the hidden curriculum? • how does the hidden curriculum reveal the disparities and features in the character development for pre-elementary school students? literature review the hidden curriculum the hidden curriculum, as coined and used by philip jackson in his 1960s pioneering work, refers to the “unpublicised features of school life” (jackson, 1968, p.17). it has also been called the ‘implicit curriculum’ or the ‘unwritten curriculum,’ highlighting how it involves values, expectations, and outcomes or by-products of schooling which are not generally included in the intended curriculum but are learned by students, thus influencing the character and direction of their lives (eisner, 1985; goodlad, 1984; king, 1986; martin, 1976). due to the latent transmission and reinforcement of attitudes and behaviors inherent in the hidden curriculum, it was perceived as having functional roles in providing the elements of socialization in the maintenance of society or even in becoming oppressive agencies of domination through cultural reproduction (hlebowitsh, 1994; vallance, 1973). putting these together, portelli (1993) describes the hidden curriculum to have four major meanings in curriculum discourse: (1) the unofficial expectations (implicit but expected messages); (2) unintended learning outcomes; (3) implicit messages arising from the structure of schooling; and (4) the curriculum as created and interpreted by students. a more in-depth look at the hidden curriculum in schools may tell a lot about the reasons for inconsistencies between the intended and the learned curriculum. in a classic study on american public schools conducted by goodlad (1984) with his associates, it was noted how creative thought and critical thinking skills were not really espoused even in subjects where these skills are of prime importance. along with that, a closer look on the physical environment of the schools lends itself to a critique of how schools do not seem to serve fertile grounds of inspiration in terms of encouraging creativity and wonder through students’ aesthetic senses. the instructional methods used by teachers such as lengthy lectures and lack of group collaborative activities reflect how passivity and independence are the much-desired attitudes among students. as such, the perpetuated goals of schools as learning environments and avenues of growth and development are deemed largely inconsistent with what is actually learned by students. several studies (bray et al., 2018; hogdal et al., 2021; warren et al., 2019; zorec & dosler, 2016) across different levels and disciplines of education have recognized misalignments between the intended curriculum and the hidden curriculum. this resulted to educational and program goals which are not fully attained as intended. these inconsistencies were brought about by teacher habits and practices (zorec & dosler, 2016); instructional delivery practices, student-teacher interaction, school governance (hogdal et al., 2021), inherent subject-matter biases (warren et al. 2019); and wider socio-economic and cultural contexts (bray et al., 2018). on the contrary, when the hidden curriculum is recognized and identified, research (elliot et al., 197 jcsr 2021, 3(2): 194-206 2016; lindsay, 2020; sulaimani & gut, 2019) suggests that it can be an effective tool for utilization and integration in curriculum planning. an awareness of the hidden curriculum will help students succeed in different societal and academic contexts. these circumstances of schooling of which the hidden curriculum is primarily concerned with is indeed crucial if we are to have a more holistic understanding of character development. if one would look at questions of curriculum quality, one should go beyond what is purported to be taught to what is caught by the students during their schooling. to have a full understanding of student experiences through the learned curriculum, the workings of the intended curriculum need to be analyzed side-by-side with an uncovering of the dynamics of the hidden curriculum. the illuminative evaluation model the characteristics of the iem which makes it fit for a study on the hidden curriculum involve the following: (1) it deals with description and interpretation rather than measurement and prediction, (2) it uses the instructional system and the learning milieu as central concepts, (3) it is appropriate for dealing with questions which lack precision, and (4) it is commonly used in small-scale curriculum projects pertaining to the context of a classroom or classrooms in a school (lubiano, 2013; parlett & hamilton, 1972). though used as a model for the purpose of curriculum evaluation, parlett & hamilton (1972) asserts that the iem is: not a standard methodological package but a general research strategy...the choice of research tactics follows not from research doctrine, but from decisions in each case as to the best available techniques: the problem defines the methods used, not vice versa. (p. 17) following this precept, the iem follows three stages. the first stage, investigate, is more ethnographic in nature in that the researcher familiarizes herself thoroughly with the instructional system and the learning milieu. the instructional system is a catalog description containing the idealized specification of the school’s program, while the learning milieu refers to the social-psychological and material environment of the school (parlett & hamilton, 1972). the second step is to inquire further, wherein phenomena, occurrences or groups of opinions are selected for intensive inquiry. emergent issues or themes found to be critical in identifying underlying problems, interrelationships among variables, and invisible realities are given focus with the goal of finding real explanations of issues. the third stage, explain, consists of interpretation and explanation. from the collected data and information, the researcher then seeks for principles, themes, and patterns which may explain organizational structures, reveal cause-and-effect relationships and situate messages and meanings in a broader explanatory context (lubiano, 2013). character development beyond the development of skills and abilities in academics which teachers are tasked to do, educational experiences provide a lot more to the students. character education is seen as embedded in this whole process of teaching and learning, from the intended curriculum into actual classroom instruction (suhartini et al., 2019) leading to the learned curriculum. moreover, the 21st century has seen an increased effort to enhance the development of values and character in schools in an attempt to address national issues concerning the youth and the future. this is in response to the alarming and disturbing levels of deviant behavior among students influencing their personalities and identities (berges-puyó, 2020; suhartini et al., 2019). concepts such as positive education, values education, character education, or 198 jcsr 2021, 3(2):194-206 resilience learning are being used in countries around the world with the purpose of developing students’ character and values (berges-puyó, 2020). character development, which is heavily influenced by social factors, is a crucial aspect of student development. due to its nature, character education is primarily induced through conditioning students into certain socializing skills, behaviors, and attitudes which schools find as essential conventions needed to sustain collective life. values and character development is considered as a transmission of dominant values involving a multifaceted process of socialization in schools (margolis, 2001; zajda, 2014). in the case of private sectarian schools, central to the development of students’ character is spiritual development as it relates to the principles of their religion. the ways by which character is built through religious school culture is found to be predictive for student religious character (marini et al., 2018). this is facilitated through the presence of worship facilities, religious ceremonies, and religious symbols which promote the effectiveness of character building in religious school culture. berges-puyó (2020) advocates for an approach on values and character development that is holistic involving the following elements: family, government, school administration, teachers, and students. the family plays a firsthand role in transmitting values which powerfully influences children’s character. secondly, governments influence school culture through their educational models that condition the principles, values, vision, and expectations of actors within schools. the school administration, on the other hand, is a crucial factor influencing teacher performance, retention, and resignation. the environment and support provided by administrators are reflected in the performance of the teachers. teachers then are the major players in character development as they not only teach content, but also become the conduits and role models of good character for the students. character is reflected through attitudes, behavior, and habits conditioned by the surrounding context. suhartini et al., (2019) further notes that the social construction of student behavior occurs through a dialectical process comprising three simultaneous moments. first is externalization which involves an adaptation and habituation process where activities and ceremonies are carried out. objectivation refers to institutionalization and legitimacy, where the intersubjective world of students is activated through social interaction and participation. lastly, internalization involves identification within the social institution whose identity becomes part of the student’s character. the process of character development involves the cultivation of three critical aspects of a person, namely, the cognitive, the emotional, and the behavioral side (windmiller et al., 1980). examining character development should thus be done in the context of a holistic approach which values all student’s learning factors. furthermore, education should be a holistic mechanism that values the cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of learning (cited in bergespuyó, 2020, p.3). it is in these light that the hidden curriculum plays a critical role in forming the values, beliefs, and behavior of the students through its socializing and ideological functions in the school. the formative years of a child, namely, the pre-elementary years are especially crucial as these are the years where children are ushered into schooling. it is in these years of early childhood where important cognitive, social, and emotional skills are primarily developed as conditioned by the stimulus within the child’s environment (cited in evans et al., 2018). hence, in the study of character development among students as it relates to the hidden curriculum, it is necessary that methods used would consider the following: (1) real school 199 jcsr 2021, 3(2): 194-206 settings wherein the study would be conducted, (2) multiplicity of sources to serve as evidence in identifying the components of the hidden curriculum, (3) the educational processes which provide meanings to the how’s and why’s of the hidden curriculum, (4) the absence of a predetermined thesis in order to come up with emergent themes and synthesis about it, and (5) a comprehensive survey of the different actors, i.e., teachers, students, parents, administrators, etc., who play a role in its formulation and sustenance (cobanoglu & engin demir, 2014). this paper sought to determine whether the iem with its three-step framework – (1) investigate, (2) inquire further, (3) explain – can be used in understanding and analyzing the hidden curriculum and its influences on the character development of pre-elementary students. in order to get an accurate and more complete picture of the curriculum as it was implemented, evaluation should proceed beyond the intended to that of the learned curriculum. it is in the spaces and gaps between these two that the hidden curriculum primarily functions. an understanding of the dynamics of these would require a comprehensive description of the learning milieu through which the details of the implementation process occur. the model espouses the collection of data from four main methods: observations, interviews, questionnaires and tests, and documentary and background sources (parlett & hamilton, 1972). as a study on the hidden curriculum, the last stage of the evaluation is on the interpretation and analysis of the reasons for, and responses to, the deviations and unintended outcomes vis-a-vis the intended curriculum. this results to the formation of general principles and patterns describing the hidden curriculum and its influences on students’ character development. figure 1 is derived from the explication model to describe the framework employed in this research study on the influences of the hidden curriculum on character development using the iem: figure 1. the illuminative evaluation model as derived from the explication model 200 jcsr 2021, 3(2):194-206 methods research design the research employed content analysis as its primary method and design. this is to formulate themes that describe the hidden curriculum from the collection of data espoused by iem. content analysis facilitates the study of human behavior in an indirect way revealing conscious or unconscious beliefs, attitudes, values and ideas of persons or groups (fraenkel & wallen, 2009). the development of themes from the research is emergent as prescribed by the iem. the aim of the research is to evaluate the curriculum with an emphasis on the learning milieu or the social-psychological and material environment of the school (parlett & hamilton, 1972). the goal is to examine the implementation of the curriculum within the learning milieu in order to illuminate the dynamics of the hidden curriculum. the focus of analysis are the patterns of behavior reflected by the actors within the school community. the data that informs this content analysis are curriculum documents, observed classroom practices, and responses to questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions. the research used purposive sampling of pre-elementary students in a private christian school in san juan city, philippines. data collection data was derived from the intended curriculum and the implemented curriculum. using the three-step framework of the iem, the intended curriculum was examined in stage 1 investigate through document review of formal curriculum texts. the purpose was to describe the instructional system containing the idealized specification of the educational program (parlett & hamilton, 1972), particularly the student characteristics targeted to be developed through the intended curriculum. moreover, to understand the contexts of student development among the pre-elementary students, data was gathered from the implemented curriculum. these include daily unstructured observations in the classrooms and pertinent parts of the school, and informal interviews with teachers and staff. for stage 2 inquire further, data sources included pertinent school documents related to identified issues from stage 1 on deviations and unintended outcomes. in addition, data was collected on curriculum implementation through focused and structured classroom observations, and structured interviews with select participants. emerging issues were validated through surveys given to parents. in stage 3 explain, data sources included separate focus group discussions with the class advisers and the school administrators. this is to further validate initial findings and to formulate principles and patterns in students’ character development that are influenced by the hidden curriculum. thus, content analysis was primarily used to organize the large amount of data (fraenkel & wallen, 2009) derived from the four main methods of data collection stipulated in the iem which are observation, document review, questionnaires/surveys, and interviews (parlett & hamilton, 1972). research procedures this study is a descriptive research which seeks to provide a complete picture of the interaction of various factors which come to determine the school’s hidden curriculum. the study employed naturalistic methods, wherein the researcher was a participant-observer in the school environment, experiencing what it meant to be a teacher and/or a student. the research proceeded for approximately four months in a private christian school in san juan city whose main thrust is to provide quality education to students in a christian 201 jcsr 2021, 3(2): 194-206 environment while striving to teach students to look at the world with a biblical perspective. the school studied has as its primary objective the promotion of christian education which attests to the highest standards of morality, christian behavior and academic excellence as conditioned by a christian environment. the processes and contexts by which this objective is sought to be achieved are carefully looked into with the aim of understanding the hidden curriculum through its professed goals and environment. the school has three preschool levels with single sections each: pre-kinder 1 has seven students, pre-kinder 2 has eight, while kindergarten has ten, totaling 25. total population sample of the pre-elementary level of the school was employed in order to examine key characteristics of each differing level, and at the same time to compare the reinforcement and progression of initiatives on character development across increasing preschool levels. the time period involved was the start of classes for the school year, thus involving adjustment periods especially for the pre-kinder 1 students. due to the overlapping schedules of the pre-elementary classes, the researcher did alternate observations among the three classes. this research focused on one school only as the model is commonly used in small-scale curriculum projects pertaining to specific classroom contexts (cited in lubiano, 2013). the selection of the sample and the site were found to be appropriate for this study since its main thrust is to focus and conduct in-depth investigations in a specific context, rather than generalizability to other settings. the focus was on the particular set of characteristics that were developed in students in their pre-elementary years since these constitute the critical stage of learning wherein a student is ushered into schooling, and therefore into its formal and hidden curricula (bronfenbrenner, 1994; king, 1986). data analysis the study followed the model’s three-step framework: (1) investigate, (2) inquire further, and (3) explain, as well as the model’s recommended research instruments. in stage 1, the instructional system was understood and described through initial document analysis of the school manual, (containing the policies, vision, mission, philosophy, goals, etc.), intended curriculum for kindergarten, the department of education’s learning standards for kindergarten, pre-elementary textbooks, teachers’ lesson plans and unit plans, and students’ and teachers’ profiles. afterwards, the learning milieu was examined through daily classroom observations; interviews with key people from the administration, preelementary teachers, and select school personnel; and further document analysis of relevant documents. the goal of examining the learning milieu was to identify key characteristics that were targeted to be developed among the students through the intended curriculum, and the deviations that occurred during its implementation. for stage 2, selected concerns and deviations found pertinent to an understanding of the influences of the hidden curriculum to character development were identified. with the aim of progressively focusing upon these issues, surveys were distributed to parents, structured daily observations were conducted, and a focus group discussion was held with the three class advisers. lastly, stage 3 involved the validation of initial findings with the administration through another focus group discussion. the qualitative information gathered through document analysis, interviews, focus group discussions, and observations, were analyzed through the identification of constructs, categories and themes (cct) which emerged. from the surveys, coding and descriptive statistics 202 jcsr 2021, 3(2):194-206 were used to supplement initial data. finally, data was organized into overarching themes which describe the influences of the hidden curriculum on students’ character development. results and discussion describing the hidden curriculum through the three-step framework of the iem student characteristics targeted to be developed through the intended curriculum during stage 1 investigate, the instructional system and the learning milieu were explored resulting in the identification of these five key traits: (1) godly leadership, (2) lordship of christ, (3) excellent christian lifestyle, (4) lives of legacy, and (5) global competence. as a christian school, the primacy of putting christ as central to the students’ lives and encouraging them to take the lead in influencing other people for evangelistic purposes and for humanitarian causes is part of its ulterior goals. at the same time, excellence in both the academic and spiritual aspects is envisioned among its students to make them competent wherever they eventually choose to be and in whatever field they may take. deviations and unintended outcomes for progressive focusing in stage 2 inquire further, progressive focusing was conducted on the following concerns: (1) repetitive cases of disobedience; (2) self-centred leadership; (3) prejudiced treatment of, and attitude towards classmates; (4) lack of interest and lazy disposition towards studying; (5) sexually-related cases; (6) incongruent teaching philosophies; (7) inconsistency in implementation of language policies; and, (8) administrative and management policy concerns. aspects of the hidden curriculum among pre-elementary students the discussion in stage 3 explain focused on five distinct aspects of the hidden curriculum that emerged, namely: (1) the inculcation of school values and principles, (2) approaches to character development, (3) development of readiness for formal schooling, (4) functions of the physical environment, and (5) managerial and policy concerns general principles and patterns in students’ character development influenced by the hidden curriculum the inculcation of school values and principles proceeded through the hidden curriculum in the form of (a) formal ceremonies such as their weekly mini-church services and flag ceremonies which transmit values of godliness and excellence, spiritual and academic integration, the school as a family, and leadership; (b) class routines centered on specific class rules which enforce the importance of praying at all times, following authority, and individual achievement; and (c) the memorization of scripture verses in imparting the bible as the source of truth, and the role of rote memorization in breeding eventual life application of these verses. the inculcation of principles demonstrated reflects the dialectical process of externalization, objectivation and internalization (suhartini et al., 2019) which leads to the social construction of student behavior. as a christian school, character development is explicit in the school’s intended curriculum. moreover, research provides empirical character education implementation strategies (berkowitz, 2011). however, in the case of the study, approaches to character development are not indicated in the intended curriculum and are rather employed by the teachers based on factors such as personality, autonomy, discretion, and belief system. these strategies condition culture and norms which yield unofficial expectations or unintended learning outcomes which constitute the hidden curriculum (portelli, 1993). these approaches to character development are thus subsumed in the hidden curriculum and involve the following: (a) social conventions conditioned through moral principles, (b) use of dialogue and 203 jcsr 2021, 3(2): 194-206 reflection, (c) system of accountability, (d) role playing/role modeling, (e) publicly addressing negative behavior, (f) reference to authority figure/use of fear, (g) direct teaching/practice of behavioral skills, (h) system of rewards and punishment, (i) teacher conference, (j) parentteacher conference, and (k) positive confession of behavior. most of these approaches are parallel with some of the general techniques supporting character development which are subsumed under the concept of prosocial guidance (cited in priest, 2007). other approaches, however, such as the use of rewards and punishment, have been regarded as unfitting for developmental discipline due to its inability to encourage discipline based on internal values and intrinsic motivation (priest, 2007). another aspect of the hidden curriculum in the school involves the activities which influence character development by training students to develop readiness for formal schooling. these activities were accomplished through (a) training for independence through classroom routines, (b) providing constant practice on writing skills, (c) habituating them into an increased volume of subjects as compared to the typical load of pre-elementary students, and (d) orienting children into maturing roles and activities. aside from these, the hidden curriculum also played a role through the physical environment of the pre-elementary rooms and of the very school itself (margolis, 2001) such that it conditioned them into (a) being more independent, (b) becoming more aware of their behavior due to close monitoring, (c) being disciplined within the confines of the classroom, and (d) being appreciative of a rather meager representation of nature within the school facilities. lastly, the hidden curriculum’s impact existed beyond concerns within the classroom doors and into the more personal nature of (a) teacher personality factors, (b) teacher and administration connections, and (c) the pervading conception of teaching as a ministry leading to low compensation and teacher satisfaction. these were crucial elements influencing students’ character development (berges-puyó, 2020) from a more organizational perspective as they impact teachers’ behavior and attitudes. the disparities and features in character development revealed in the hidden curriculum aside from these findings derived from the research problems, it was realized that the focus of the explication process (ornstein & hunkins, 1993) – from which the iem is derived – in exposing the disparities between goals and outcomes served to limit the process. part of the findings of this research study is concerned with the methodology used in uncovering the dynamics of the hidden curriculum. the focus on deviations or inconsistencies made it challenging for the researcher in a context wherein positive results were being gathered initially. as observed, the hidden curriculum, in terms of the school environment and the approaches to behavior correction worked accordingly to positively develop the character of the students. as such, conceiving the hidden curriculum merely in the context of deviations and inconsistencies did not work to illuminate it but rather to limit it. based on the study, it is crucial that an understanding of the dynamics of the hidden curriculum be represented both in spaces pertaining to deviations or inconsistencies, and just the same through the reinforcement of school goals as evident through recurring trends or incidents. the first stage of investigation should take into account both the ways by which the instructional system worked and did not work in the context of the learning milieu. incidents which produce similar effects also have to be considered to highlight the significant features of the program, for the hidden curriculum can both serve to fulfill or to deviate from the instructional system. 204 jcsr 2021, 3(2):194-206 hence, in the study of the hidden curriculum, these two aspects – disparities and features – should be taken into account so as to present a more complete picture of how the intended curriculum interplays with the hidden curriculum to form the learned curriculum. conclusion in summary, three conclusions have been derived from this study. first, the iem, as a tool or method, was indeed effective in determining the influences of the hidden curriculum on students’ character development. the three-stage framework of the model helped to accomplish the process of illumination by bringing out the realities and complexities of the interaction between the intended and the learned curriculum, and the gaps and spaces in the interplay of the instructional system and the learning milieu; thus, the dynamics of the hidden curriculum. secondly, the hidden curriculum involves the processes, settings, and situations – inherent in the learning milieu, thus, conditioning the learned curriculum – which are not explicitly stated in the intended curriculum but influence the character and experience of the members of the school community, whether intentionally or unintentionally. the intended curriculum interplays with the hidden curriculum through the contexts and conditions during program implementation. this allows students to internalize certain modes of behavior, perspectives, and attitudes which prove foundational to the development of their character as they eventually move on to higher levels in their schooling. the dynamics of the hidden curriculum may work intentionally in the accomplishment of the school’s curricular goals, or rather unintentionally in the frustration of these goals. lastly, in the 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(2019). towards a knowledge-rich curriculum: a case study of english as a foreign language education in a vietnamese context. journal of curriculum studies research, 1(1), 54-70. abstract this action research endeavors to develop a framework of a knowledgerich curriculum from the traditional formalist knowledge-based approach. rather than to replace current approaches to knowledgebased learning, this article seeks to enrich the knowledge mining orientations with additional criteria for organizing and assessing knowledge to ensure the quality of educational experience through which those orientations are developed. the proposed curriculum is characterized by principles for specific components: content, teacher roles, teaching sequence, and assessment. it presents one typical class session and subsequent teacher reflections that put the framework into practice for english as a foreign language in a secondary school in vietnam during 2016-2017 academic year. keywords curriculum; instruction; knowledge-rich curriculum; action research; english as a foreign language; language education. introduction one of the classic questions in curriculum studies is "what is the curriculum?" (dilon, 2009). the traditional approach to this question conceptualizes the curriculum as a dichotomy between conventional formalist and progressive curriculum (egan, 2003). however, the "traditional versus progressive" debate is irksome if there can be no middle ground between those two polar opposites. the reason is that those two labels are somewhat ideologies, while in real-world practice, the two exist on a continuum where there shall stand a curriculum that can be mid55 towards a knowledge-rich curriculum way to serve best the goal of education: preparing a series of experiences that children and youth must experience for handling their own unknown future with intellectuality (franklin bobbitt, 1918). that goal is determined as the guiding rationale for sketching out the basic components of a curriculum. this paper puts forward the fundamental principles for shaping a curriculum that is a midpoint on the continuum. this kind of curriculum is referred as a knowledge-rich (kr) curriculum, which is based on the traditional knowledge-based approach and the spirit of the scientific curriculum yet is different when it comes to discussing the subtle nuances. this paper follows the conceptual framework of van den akker (2003) in which there are four major premises that shape the components of a curriculum: the nature of content included in a curriculum, the role of teachers, the teaching sequence (the learning activities), and the assessment (see figure 1). those four premises help reflect the fundamental components in constructing a curriculum and, in this case, shape the kr curriculum. there may also be radical opponents who object to the formulation of kr curriculum, so this article additionally aims to address their concerns and elaborate epistemological stances which kr principles demonstrate. figure 1. the spider web of curriculum components (adapted from van den akker, 2003) the term “knowledge-rich curriculum” as a mid-way curriculum puts “traditional” and “progressive” as opposites on a continuum rather than a dichotomy. the proposal of the terminology, therefore, is unfamiliar within the context of mainstream education where the pedagogy is over‐simplified and polarized in either authoritative or liberal directions (lawton, 2012). a knowledge-rich curriculum has neither been translated nor applied into mainstream education. therein lies the original contribution which this article aims to make. first, the article is going to clarify and make arguments on theorizing a knowledge-rich curriculum. second, the proposed curriculum is contextualized in the case of vietnamese language education, where the national teacher-centered and knowledge-based curriculum is struggling for curriculum innovation (canh & barnard, 2009). in other words, this paper aims to explore the implementation process of the new curriculum in a specific context through an interpretation 56 of qualitative data from classroom observation and in-depth interviews with teachers. the proposed curriculum was piloted throughout the 2016-2017 academic year in a vietnamese international secondary school. the description about the kr curriculum provides a more nuanced understanding of how to enforce the intended curriculum, teachers’ classroom practice, and teaching activities in real-world practices. concrete curricular tasks would be cited to demonstrate the educational potential of the proposed curriculum. research background and methodology in the vietnamese educational system, the curriculum is deeply rooted in the traditional knowledge-based approach, governed by the influence of confucianism and communism. the ideology underlying the national curriculum is the imposition of knowledge memorization, which is pre-determined and highly centralized through the ministry of education and training (moet) and its departments (srv moet, 2004). the curriculum content, teacher roles, teaching sequence, and assessment are regulated by the moet’s centralized management. established upon those characteristics, the national curriculum is representative of the traditional extreme on the continuum. however, in recent years, english-language education has been experiencing reforms, including in secondary schools, which are adopting a communicative approach to teaching. according to canh (2003), “english must be taught both as an integrative discourse and an empowering discourse through a curriculum that reflects the cultures, values, and lives of students and provides them with knowledge of the cultural values and daily lives of the people with whom they are likely to interact” (p. 40). the documented curriculum seems to concentrate on the communicative and applicable language skills while formal linguistic knowledge serves as “the means to the end”. paradoxically, the moet’s central control over the curriculum still enforces the practices and standards across the whole system. this has led to an unwelcome top-down imposition of the renewed curriculum, which promotes learner-centered and communicative task-based teaching to enhance communicative competence, in real-world practice. the curriculum is prescribed for all grades from grade 6 through to grade 12, with three forty-five-minute lessons per week. teachers and students use a set of textbooks that has been locally written and institutionalized since 2006. the curricular content is packed with key grammatical structures and phonetic features. the introduction of reading and listening texts is considered the consolidation of relevant grammatical rules, which is followed with speaking and writing sections as a practice of applying rules. for assessment, the curriculum employs quantitative measurements to evaluate linguistic skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) and linguistic knowledge (including phonetics, lexis, grammar) (moet 2006: 18). it is not until the privatization and internationalization of education in vietnam is possible that more alternative curricular models will be considered, including the learner-centered approach and societalapproach (bui & nguyen, 2016; hung & nguyen, 2006). even in that favorable scenario, there is a lack of curriculum design orientation for the k-12 language education system. 57 towards a knowledge-rich curriculum in that k-12 context, the principles of a knowledge-rich curriculum are developed, which respect the value of knowledge and academic rigor that has existed within the traditional system for many decades. at the same time, the principles aim to incorporate a pressing need to address certain possible flexibilities in the theory and practice of knowledge content, teaching process and assessment. the empirical data of the research took place during the 2016–2017 academic year, when the researcher had a chance to pilot and implement the knowledge-based curriculum for an english as a foreign language (efl) subject at a private secondary school in the south of vietnam (four years, ages 11–14). a group of teachers for grade 9, who were supervised by the researcher, were invited to participate in a collaborative action research project. the researcher documented the degree to which the principles for a knowledge-rich curriculum were applicable to secondary efl classrooms. the class observation took place twice a week during the mentorship. at the end of each class session, the teachers sat down with the researcher to reflect on the principles of procedure that had been proposed, as well as reciting their designed specific tasks carried out in class. before the data was reported, a concrete framework for constructing a knowledge-rich curriculum was described below. principles of a knowledge-rich curriculum the nature of content compared to other major types of curriculum (the learner-centered approach and the societal-based approach), the knowledge-based approach is the one that most emphasizes the systematic construction of specialized knowledge designed to develop the cognitive and intellectual abilities of a learner. a kr curriculum is in support of the knowledge-based approach because, undoubtedly, without knowledge an independent thinker cannot be born (shinn, 2002). however, it is vague about what kind of knowledge should be included in the curriculum. hence, it crucial to examine how knowledge is defined in a kr curriculum, and how it is different from the traditional, formalistic knowledge-based curriculum. a kr curriculum aligns with the traditional knowledge-based curriculum regarding the essence of academic knowledge in the liberation of thinking (ellis, 2004; eck et al, 2016 in “the global education 2030 agenda unesco”). that being said, the essence of knowledge can be divided into two types: academic knowledge and procedural knowledge. the first type of knowledge in a kr curriculum is academic knowledge, which is the systematic set of theoretical and empirical outcomes of perception and thinking generated by past and present generations. knowledge, in that sense, is called declarative knowledge. it helps explain daily experiences and thinks beyond specific activities. in the kr curriculum, declarative knowledge exemplifies a reasonable line of thinking for the next generation – the students – to describes and explains things, events, or processes, their attributes, and their relations. for example, students can observe the falling direction of any object from a higher to lower place. however, only by going to school and explicitly being taught the vocabulary to describe a phenomenon in physics can a language learner explain the particulars of this phenomenon, such 58 as why an object falling through a fluid will not continue to accelerate indefinitely but reach a terminal velocity. moreover, declarative knowledge is the common ground and expressway to enlightenment expected to obtain before any further explorations in a specific conceptual domain, or a sphere of life, can be proposed. the learner may observe the phenomenon and engage with it via his or her senses. however, without obtaining the knowledge about velocity, there would be no basis of inquiry and no linguistic building blocks for a student to further speculate on the conditions under which an object has reached a terminal speed. however, a kr curriculum is inherently different from a traditional knowledge-based curriculum because its cumulative knowledge serves as the means and the regulator of thinking, not an end to thinking. the key characteristic of knowledge is that it does not emerge from mere imagination, but from a process of justifications in some ways (e.g. reasoning, synthesizing, experimenting, comparing and contrasting, grouping, measuring). in other words, the knowledge a student acquires in a knowledge-rich curriculum cannot be indoctrinated. knowledge, by its nature, may lead down the road to counter-hegemonic, or even revolutionary, activity. thus, knowledge needs to also be defined as a set of self-philosophized methodologies that demonstrate one's increasingly more profound levels of conceptual complexity when he gets closer to the truth of the matter. that second type of knowledge is called procedural knowledge. students use knowledge to their advantage in navigating decisions, formulating opinions, solving problems, and generating new knowledge (nagel, 2014; young, 2013). in this vein, knowledge is not discrete and far-removed scripts summarized by a group of experts and material creators; knowledge is what has been recycled, consumed, and reconceptualized by students. for example, knowledge is not only the names of emperors and kings or rivers and mountains in english, which may be recorded in a vocabulary section in the textbook. knowledge must be the students' interpretation of the pitfalls of power, inferences that separate personal opinion from the scientific methods to preserve natural resources, organizations of related ideas to judge the reasonableness of a knowledge application in new situations, such as whether monarchy or democracy is suited in the governance of contemporary societies. procedural knowledge is mentored by the guidance of teachers, self-reflection, and peer discussion. thus, knowledge in a kr curriculum is not merely what is transmitted from past generations and uncritically taken by the students. students do not come to class as 'empty vessels' who passively receive declarative facts from their teachers. indeed, the nature of knowledge is continually evolving, and (re)constructing, and knowledge receivers are simultaneously knowledge creators. categorizing the types of knowledge is important because opponents who support the learner-centered approach criticize the knowledge-based approach with regard to the unbalance between declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge. they claim that declarative knowledge is unnecessarily indoctrinated and cognitively overloading for learners (solomon, 1999). the critical point is that, firstly, while there can be several disciplines and subjects arranged within the students’ schedule at school to diversify their experiences, the 59 towards a knowledge-rich curriculum nature of selected knowledge in kr curriculum follows the principle of "less is more,” which "focuses curricular efforts on (only) existential themes and generates deeper and broader learning of the students of the traditional school curriculum, while encouraging students’ personal (and social) growth” (stengel, 1997, p. 591). that is to say, the amount of declarative knowledge is minimized into cohesive, simplified, and methodized sequences to benefit the procedural knowledge. the focal point in a kr curriculum is that it embraces the quality of knowledge, not the quantity of it, and provides students with time to think and explore the topics raised (ildefonso, 2011). for instance, both the law of reflection (from fermat's principle) and the ways to distinguish different types of mirrors (moet, grade 7 physics coursebook, vietnam) are declarative knowledge which students are expected to memorize. however, the former shall be kept to apply in different contexts of use, while the latter shall be omitted. the reason is that if deep-knowledge structures about the law of reflection are prioritized, and if students acquire it, they are selfmotivated and competent enough to develop relational understandings of that subject-matter. in brief, while the disciplines of study can be varied, the archetype concepts, patterns, and strategies in each discipline are tailored to represent more depth and less superficial coverage. second, despite the legitimacy of raising such concerns on the level of difficulty the knowledge in a curriculum exhibits that might wear out the students’ interest, there is a considerable difference between cognitive overload and cognitive challenge. knowledge in the kr curriculum, like everything else of value, is not to be obtained without disciplined effort, yet it does not mean such an effort would overwhelm students. the process to acquire academic knowledge simulates "the challenges of becoming human" (leggo, 2004, p.34), so that not only specialized knowledge but also any other issue in real life must be worked for, studied for, reflected on, and more importantly, thought for. there is no short-cut to intellectuality. although children can simply search for anything that does not exceed cognitive limits on google, that information cannot be compared with the kind of knowledge extracted from their thinking process under the scaffolding of the teachers. thus, when students can grasp the knowledge, they consider the subject a cognitive stimulation that shall be comfortable enough to struggle within before reaching what vygotsky (1978) called "the zone of proximal development" (zpd). with that perspective, knowledge in a kr curriculum generated in the zpd is only achieved when students depart from the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and move towards the level of potential development as determined through problem-solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with peers (chaiklin, 2003). that knowledge requires cognitive commitment and perseverance yet is bearable and intrinsically rewarding in the end. such dedication and bravery, to step into exploring the unknown and embrace the standards of diligent knowledge construction, which is emphasized mainly in the knowledge-based approach, can prepare a solid foundation for any individual to gain both the 60 information and the methods of pursuing their interests and the ability to resolve whatever demands are placed upon them from society later in life. teaching sequence and learning activities the epistemological question, ‘how do we know?’ features more than the ontological question, ‘what is there?’ therefore, the teaching process, which reflects the epistemological perspectives and affects all involving participants in the pedagogy (teachers and students), shall be the focus in a curriculum. in a traditional knowledge-based approach, the content and behavioral objectives from that top-down perspective make teachers focus on the end goals, not the process that leads to those goals. the importance and the dynamism of logical teaching sequences are downplayed. those objectives overlook the psycho-cognitive processes the teacher has to facilitate to scaffold and transform students’ existing knowledge. take the example of the national english as a foreign language (efl) curriculum in vietnam as an example. while the documented curriculum envisage that students would participate in communicative activities actively, creatively, and collaboratively, the realized curriculum demonstrates a systematic, scripted teaching sequence. the teacher is an effective model of the target language, yet in such efl curriculum, students could recite the verb form in simple past tense but could not retrieve it automatically to tell a story they experienced in the past. that teaching sequence trains students to be diligent knowledge receivers who could pass the requirements of a competence-based k-12 curriculum in vietnam with the mastery of all english linguistic grammar points and functional meanings of english expressions. however, they are not confident in using the knowledge flexibly and naturally outside class. these students are competent at communicating with their partner in an assigned task in their coursebook, which consists mainly of fill-in-the-blanks and mechanical controlled exercises, yet they fail to be successful in real-life tasks, such as managing an interview in english. thus, the competence may temporarily emerge within classroom practices, yet it is not proven in real-world relevant contexts. in consequence, there is a large gap between writing efl curricular objectives and actualizing those in a way that is meaningful for efl students. that gap in epistemological framing for a curriculum, wherever it is (e.g., in vietnam), needs to be closed because it directly affects the focus of teaching. the core value of a teaching sequence and learning activities shall be the process of facilitating students’ experience in using content knowledge in meaningful contexts, including the quality of teaching sequence, the task authenticity, and the real achievements reflecting each student’s current level. for that operational goal, firstly, learning objectives are provided not as the final inflexible outcomes of learning process but as the divergent expectations derived from each student’s abilities. next, the processed-based teaching sequence creates learning contexts that allow students to 'think in a discipline at elementary as well as advanced levels of study’ (stenhouse, 1981, p. 38). it ensures the delivery of educational experiences in which knowledge is considered the materials for thinking (the food for thought), and simultaneously, the subject to explore and the goal to 61 towards a knowledge-rich curriculum gain (mckernan, 2008). scholars so far have articulated a process-based sequence in curriculum design which engages students’ prior knowledge background and experience, integrates declarative knowledge with underlying conceptual frameworks, and carries out explicit teaching of metacognitive learning strategies (bransford, brown, & cocking, 2000; erickson, 2002; villacañas de castro, 2016). developed from the process-oriented teaching philosophy of stenhouse (1967), the teaching sequence of a knowledge-rich curriculum towards an orientation of deep knowledge mining would be as follows: (1) investigate how the knowledge works as a disciplined system; (2) investigate how society impacts the validity of knowledge and knowledge transformation throughout the course of history; (3) experiment with how to generate new knowledge based on the foundation of instructed knowledge; (4) experiment with how new knowledge can be expanded and validated in different contexts and fields (in an interdisciplinary approach); and (5) experiment with how to act on and transform social realities through knowledge application. that teaching sequence promotes more open communication between teachers and students, more talk to seek both concrete and abstract information, and more questioning to relieve egalitarianism and intellectual inquisitiveness. aligning with the five core principles in the teaching sequence, each teacher can accommodate his or her teaching sequence with available materials, resources, and pedagogical tools. the role of teachers critics of the knowledge-based approach claim that teachers may find it burdensome to be experts in their subjects (see friedman, 2000). those perspectives are derived from the traditional notion that teachers are mere transmitters of knowledge (grosser & de waal, 2008). nevertheless, in a knowledge-rich curriculum, the resolution is that teachers are not asked to list tiring facts and vocabulary on the board as in a victorian class and act them out in a robotic manner: “let’s learn about the romans on page fifty-six.” instead, the professional endeavor of teachers is to optimize the knowledge sequence in each lesson so that it can help students to secure key schema in a lesson; e.g., a sense of place and time, a framework for understanding diversity and human evolution, or a way to appreciate the aesthetics of poetry. in other words, they are the ones who fortify and turn the specific subject topics into experiences for the study of logic and the practice of thought processes. teachers play an irreplaceable but not excessively strenuous role, irrespective of how large their class is or how different their student backgrounds and personal interests are. in the kr curriculum, teachers support the students' methodological inquiry to develop their mental abilities so that they cannot only solve a particular novel problem in class, but so 62 that they can also transfer that ability to other problems and experiences beyond the classroom. for instance, one procedure for facilitating students' inquiry in knowledge-rich classroom discourse can be "i do – we do – you do" (fisher & frey, 2013). in this model teachers, promote learning through guided discovery by walking students through their presentation on declarative knowledge and modeling of procedural knowledge first; then, they involve students in reproducing the knowledge through practice, which explicitly constructs their conceptualization. the end goal of the teaching sequence lies in gradual scaffolding so that when students reach the "you do" phase, they arrive at their "proximal development zone," which demonstrates their knowledge ownership and their abilities to do more than what they have received: they can apply the knowledge without the aid of teachers. the role of the teacher in a kr curriculum requires a disciplined yet open-minded and flexible approach. they orchestrate the learning experiences of students as the facilitator, making sure that each student gains the important knowledge, no matter which stage of the project he is working on. now, another concern raised by the learner-centered advocates is that a ‘one fits all' orientation in a teaching sequence is impossible. the thing is, before teachers cater to the needs of each student and allow space for individual knowledge inquiry, all students must be equipped with a firm procedural foundation for thinking. instead of jumping quickly to examining the topic, students are required to closely and patiently observe the topic with the teacher’s modelling and guidance. teachers need to make sure that the cognitive ability level is secured. all students first need to reach the requisite level before liberating themselves from the scaffolding for generating ideas that evolve alongside the reasoned facts. such uniqueness and fundamentality in schooling experiences organized by teachers are what young (2013) explained: "pupils do not come to school to know what they already know from (daily) experience" (p. 111). with the curriculum principle for content delivery sketched out above, the fact that teachers are facilitators for thinking and building procedural knowledge is the key to making "a coherent curriculum" (van den akker, 2003). that is, teachers as kr curriculum transmitters respect the core value of knowledge, which is the science of using knowledge, and refrain from a rote teaching approach that fails to integrate students' skills of critical thinking and decision-making effectively. the assessment in the kr curriculum, the major shift from the traditional curriculum is the focus on both the bodies of knowledge and the practice. consequently, the deviation from the progressive curriculum lies in disciplined study instead of an unstructured and extravagant construct of learning. the purpose of assessment in the kr curriculum serves, therefore, to parse teaching practice into lists of discrete procedures that can be both quantitatively and qualitatively evaluated. thus, the notion of standardized testing, which is the most prevalent type of assessment in a traditional knowledge-based curriculum, needs to be revisited. at the same time, progressive educators are concerned with high‐stakes testing because they are afraid that 63 towards a knowledge-rich curriculum such assessment would narrow the instructional curriculum into a teach-to-test practice (e.g., crocco & costigan, 2007). while skeptics' reticence on both sides is noted, it is not the idea of standardized testing that is detrimental to the quality of teaching and learning. rather, it is the objective of the test and how teachers shape the content norms of the curriculum to match those of the tests, that matters most. therefore, the curriculum‐aligned assessment in a kr curriculum reserves space for formative assessment tasks to allow the individuality of students' learning. for example, teachers can evaluate student learning as it happens. after students have gained enough access to texts and concepts through visuals, media, and interaction with their teachers and their peers, they can be assigned a task that allows them to demonstrate their comprehension. the type of assessment that teachers opt for in the kr curriculum is to display the diversity in students’ language output. that output is assessed in a non-judgmental manner to make small adjustments to the student’s individual progress. the implementation of alternative, less anxious assessment types throughout the course of study is a way of preparing students for standardized assessment yet would maintain the motivation in teaching and learning. insights of the insiders: a possible curricular framework when the teachers first examined the principles of a knowledge-rich curriculum, they generally experienced mixed feelings and doubt about its practicality. on the one hand, they were excited about the possibility of empowering their students stay interested in the knowledge for its own sake, reducing the amount of information forced to cover dictated by the moet, and investing in an experiential learning process in which one can learn about and create knowledge. on the other hand, they raised considerable doubts and concerns about the students’ reactions, the time management issues, and the levels of student anxiety, as they are not accustomed to learning by doing. rather, both teachers and students are used to the old way of teaching sequence where they remain quiet, take notes, and are provided with information. one of the teachers expressed, “i started my teaching career with a lot of energy and wanted to make the bottom-up change in the way i taught to inspire students. however, i feel like i am in an isolated environment and have little power to affect the feudal structures which have been long embedded in the teaching sequence. i am in class to cover up everything in the coursebook so that i do not feel regretful if the test includes the question related to the part i skip. activities are good for student’s learning yet may not beneficial for their test scores which test their memory of english rules.” vietnamese teachers trained in the norms of the traditional-based approach are frustrated because it is not that they are falling short of their ideal expectations in pedagogy, but that they are not empowered to challenge a combination of complex manifestations of external control. to resolve those negative reactions, teachers found it necessary to engage in conversations with the researcher and administrators who actively support the subtle yet significant difference of setting up a knowledge-rich curriculum from the traditional knowledge-based curriculum. after 64 one month of training, teachers started to become the classroom leaders and promoted different coping strategies. due to space constraints, only one example of classroom observation that implemented the proposed knowledge-rich curriculum proposal is reported. van, one of the teachers from the group, designed a workshop entitled news around the world & my response, which was implemented with efl learners grade 9 in unit 5 (srv moet, 2011, p. 40). the pupils were tasked with learning about writing in an english argumentative essay with a list of different vocabularies related to the unit topic – “the media.” in order to teach about the organization of an argumentative essay, van asked students to examine model essays written in the coursebook. she also brought along some other samples from the argumentative genre she found in newspapers. students were given time to read the model essays, but not to memorize them, and mimic that knowledge in practices such as “fill-in-the-blanks” and “read and answer questions” in the coursebook (figure 2). students were asked to write down questions related to the genre of the text and the content conveyed. next, van asked her students to discuss those questions in groups. the aim of this activity is to activate students’ knowledge background and accelerate incidental learning. figure 2. screenshots from the english coursebook van moved on to give each group some other model essays and asked which essays prove to be the most persuasive, coherent, and well-articulated. students needed to think critically about how an argument should be organized to be both effective and persuasive. students also had to determine whether the style of argumentative writing differed in different modalities. one group was given print newspapers while others read online newspapers and watched 65 towards a knowledge-rich curriculum videos. the students had to devise a rubric delineating what they believed to constitute a wellstructured argumentative essay. students could refer to the theory and principles of organizing ideas for an argumentative essay in their book, yet they could also argue to make modifications to it as long as they could justify their points of view. that activity allowed them to gain facts about the genre and investigate the underlying procedure to produce the text at the same time. after those warm-up inquiry-based activities, van carried out the “i do” phase. van told the class that she would simulate the writing process of how an argumentative paragraph could be produced. the students observed van articulate her opinion on the topic, “shall we let young children use social media?” on the board. during this phase, van was careful to do a step-bystep procedure, explaining the strategies a writer would use to strengthen their argument. she also repeated the organization of an argumentative essay genre as it was presented in the coursebook. then, during the “we do” phase, van and the students revised their rubric and evaluated van’s paragraph with the rubrics that the students had come up with in their groups. throughout this phase, if students could not retrieve a word in english, van allowed them to use their first language while she noted down that word on the board in english. she asked students to use those words in english if they emerged again in the discussion. once the students were clear about how an argumentative paragraph should be, they gave evidence pf their acquired knowledge at the broader level of an essay. at that time, van asked students to choose one topic that their group wanted to research. adopting google docs, van let students do the research and gather the information in a matrix. the group then did collaborative work while drafting the essay on their chosen topic (figure 3). van did not force the stance of students on the topic they chose. she visited each group to facilitate the inquiry into the topic and the interactions among group members. figure 3. a sample of group corrections during the process of argumentative essay writing when the drafting was complete, van organized the class as a gallery where students of all groups could mingle and provide feedback on each other’s work, using the rubrics they had worked on from the beginning of the class. each student was then asked to reflect on the knowledge they gained in their journal. during the last phase – “you do,” each student needs to choose a topic to write his or her own argumentative essay. each student could continue working on the topic chosen by his or her group and incorporate the feedback the group had received from peers and the teacher. the students could also choose the topic of another group that they had found interesting during the gallery exhibition. for assessment, students needed to submit their essay and use it as a 66 model for standardized testing when they would be asked to produce their essay within a time limit. the standardized testing would occur at the end of the semester. thus, van added a formative assessment when she asked students to think of a way to present their arguments. students could choose one form of media to deliver their argumentation. in the next lesson, students would use the rubric, which was derived from the knowledge listed in the book and from their own experience. figure 4. a sample of peer feedback on a topic chosen by a group figure 5. samples of digital portfolio, comic strips, and digital storytelling, which are the three formats that students showcased for their argumentative project van expressed her opinions towards the knowledge-based framework: “to make sure that the students can gain a deep knowledge about argumentative writing essay, i need to let them consolidate the knowledge repetitively but with an increasing level of cognitive difficulty. i feel like i am still in charge of offering to them, which i find it an honor of my job. at the same time, i also feel that my students can have a voice over their interests and showcase their ideas right 67 towards a knowledge-rich curriculum away in class after they grasp the knowledge. what is important here is that we need coursebook as a skeleton for knowledge to emerge systematically, yet all the learning process is organized under the facilitation with the teacher. my students and i interact with each other in our experience with the intention of earning the knowledge, but we do not have to stick to the formatted activities in the coursebook. that gives me more space for creative and meaningful lesson planning.” another teacher added, “i agree with the importance of assessment and such assessment tends to repeat the mechanical types of exercise in the book. that washback effect of testing creates a teach-to-test orientation in a traditional knowledge-based curriculum. fortunately, a knowledge-rich curriculum can mediate by allowing teachers to bring in more types of formative assessment in class. it means that students can indeed obtain the knowledge, but not in a oneway indoctrination. it is a way that allows us to stay curious about different products students can make using knowledge as a material or a subject to work on.” he concluded, “the major difference between a knowledge-rich curriculum and a knowledge-based one is that it is process-based priority, knowledge-focus yet allowing more methods to get that knowledge as long as they can be justified, and triangulated assessment which gives a more holistic picture of learning. also, the major strength of a knowledge-rich curriculum over other types of curriculum is its systematic knowledge. that cannot be possible if a curriculum designer or a teacher gives excessive freedom for students when they go to class to study or when they are too into ambitious projects. i want them to take their intellectual journey at school at their own pace with the finer things in life that we are willing to offer.” however, maintaining the excitement and effectiveness in implementing knowledge-rich curriculum in the language education in vietnam is challenging. from the micro-level, while the vietnamese english teachers welcomed the proposed curricular model, they expressed the concern about the long-term practicality of applying it into large classes where they still had to maximize the number of students passing the standardized testing with high scores. “both i and my students want learning to be relevant and meaningful to students, yet we need to take time to coordinate the class activities that allow both serious learning and enjoyable learning. we have been either used to the old ways of teaching for a long time or the over-liberal teaching. it is either to ask students to remember rules and do quizzes or to listen to us reading powerpoint slides or letting them do whatever they want. i feel like the cultural norms of respecting the teachers give us the advantage to tell students what to do, yet if we do not let students practice their independent thinking, they will have low tolerances for challenge in life, including applying the knowledge,” van expressed in her reflection on her lessons. her reflection reveals that the merger of theoretical complexities and practical realities is necessary to collapse the binary of traditional curriculum and progressive curriculum, as well as teacher-centered and studentcentered classrooms. a balanced way of teaching takes effort, experience, and a passion for learning, both for the sake of knowledge and for students’ growth. to embrace this model, both teachers and students need training workshops, time, and mutual support to address a number 68 of factors that may contribute to their resistance to the intellectual work of knowledge-rich learning. figure 6. principles for developing a knowledge-rich curriculum with an orientation towards deep knowledge mining conclusion a knowledge-rich curriculum attempts to tackle the long-held assumptions of both a knowledge-centered approach and a learner-centered approach. the knowledge-rich curriculum proposes an alternative framework that is grounded in traditional knowledge-based curriculum yet selectively incorporates the value of liberal thinking. it looks into the nature of knowledge worth teaching, such as elements of interactivity, abstraction, underlying principles, and counter-intuitive experimentation. while the primary focus is inevitably academic knowledge, the curriculum prioritizes the development of students' procedural knowledge, which would become transferable how-to skills to tackle problems related to the declarative knowledge and benefit students’ conceptual understanding. consequently, the role of teachers is to mentor that development in thinking, not to reinforce rote learning in students. the teaching sequence, accordingly, needs to be emphasized on how the knowledge is delivered within the manner and the context such knowledge emerged, is being applied, and will be implemented. once the seed of knowledge-seeking strategies is cultivated, teachers let the intrinsic passion for deep knowledge mining inside students thrive naturally via their formative assessment as well as standardized testing. the question of whether a knowledge-rich curriculum is or is not an acceptable and durable good practice of curriculum design is open to empirical studies. this paper, however, 69 towards a knowledge-rich curriculum aims to confirm how a knowledge-rich curriculum has to be set up and how it is contingent on distinguishing itself from other types of curriculum on the "traditional versus progressive" curriculum continuum. in addition, i demonstrated the preliminary findings from my case study to indicate a promising movement from vietnamese efl teachers who used to be trained to teach in a traditional formalist knowledge-based curriculum. such a growth mindset among curriculum practitioners proves the possibility for refining and translating curricular proposals into more meaningful practices for all levels in an educational system in the 21st century. references bransford, j. d., brown, a. l., & cocking, r. r. 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(2013). overcoming the crisis in curriculum theory: a knowledge-based approach. journal of curriculum studies, 45(2), 101-118. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 57-78 graduate students share their experiences of building helping skills: a case study michael houdyshell1 & natasha ziegler2 1. corresponding author florida gulf coast university, college of education, fort myers, united states e-mail: mhoudyshell@fgcu.edu 2. florida gulf coast university, college of education, fort myers, united states article info received: june 15, 2020 revised: september 25, 2020 accepted: october 25, 2020 how to cite houdyshell, m. & ziegler, n. (2021). graduate students share their experiences of building helping skills: a case study. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 57-78. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.4 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract higher education needs individuals working with students to have the skills to handle a variety of issues related to success and wellbeing. graduate programs preparing higher education professionals to work with students provide the opportunity for skill-building to occur. however, how do graduate students perceive their skill development in courses offered in a graduate program, specifically related to basic helping skills? this study, conducted in a college of education at a university located in the southern united states, posed two questions to find out more about the attributes graduate students contribute in the development of their knowledge of helping skills and to document the lived experiences of graduate students practicing helping skills. five graduate students, enrolled in a new course on helping skills, were part of this case study. three themes emerged after collecting and coding data during the course. the three themes were: building helping skills, confidence and comfortability, and multicultural, diversity and inclusion. the discussion section includes recommendations to offer a helping skills course in graduate programs to prepare individuals for working in higher education. courses on helping skills should always include a multicultural focus, and the course curriculum should include a mix of clinical and practical elements. keywords helping skill; higher education graduate programs; student affairs preparation programs; curriculum; case study 10.46303/jcsr.2020.4 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.4 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 58 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 introduction college-age students are often under great duress and experience a chronic or sudden mental health crisis, but they are not inclined to seek professional assistance (massey et al., 2014; novotney, 2014). for this reason, higher education staff should be trained in helping skills so they can recognize and reach out to students who are struggling (council for the advancement of standards in higher education (cas), 2012; protivnak et al. 2013; reynolds, 2011). access to these skills is no longer limited to counseling programs, and they can be utilized to strengthen the skills of higher education professionals. many institutions now have helping skills courses within a variety of graduate, noncounselor education programs. basic helping skills training for higher education professionals to assist college students who may be struggling emotionally and mentally is an important component of our educational systems (becker et al., 2002; lipson et al., 2014; mitchell et al., 2012; reynolds, 2011). staff must know how to identify signs of mental and emotional instability and how to respond appropriately to those students. little is known about student perceptions of the preparation of helping skills in noncounselor education programs (jaeken et al., 2017; reynolds & altabef, 2015). it is important to document the learning experiences of these students as they prepare for future careers that will require the daily practice of these skills (reynolds & altabef, 2015). because this focus on helping skills in non-counselor education programs is fairly recent, it is important to learn if what is taught and how it is being taught are adequately preparing them for interacting with students, especially with those who are struggling emotionally and psychologically. this study follows the recommendation by reynolds (2013) to investigate the components of a course on helping skills in “exploring the ways that graduate students are taught about helping skills throughout the curriculum will provide educators the tools to determine where the gaps are and how current courses may need to be redesigned or new courses may need to be developed” (p. 230). with this in mind, the researchers sought to document and describe the complexity and effectiveness of a new helping skills course offered for higher education professionals at a university. in doing so, the purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of students in an educational leadership graduate program at a midsized university located in southwest florida, who were enrolled in a new helping skills course. as part of the study, the researchers completed a review of the assertions about the level of preparedness students possessed coming into and during the course. the results of this study could also develop a framework for other graduate programs to assess their helping skills course curriculums for non-counseling professionals. college students and mental health many higher education professionals working in student affairs, housing and residence, student services, as well as faculty, report interacting with students who are experiencing mental health difficulties (becker et al. 2002; lipson et al., 2014; mitchell et al., 2012; moss, 2017; reynolds, 59 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 2013). researchers have found that mental health difficulties were among one of the issues facing college students, as well as a lack of professional training on practicing appropriate methods of intervention (becker et al., 2002; mitchell et al., 2012; reynolds, 2011). however, researchers have shown that most higher education staff and faculty are not trained to identify or respond to students with mental health difficulties or able to refer them to the appropriate student support services (becker et al., 2002; mitchell et al., 2012; reynolds, 2011). in several institutions, helping skills and counseling courses for prospective student affairs professionals have been incorporated into their graduate programs (protivnak et al., 2013; reynolds, 2013). the florida institution utilized for this study has chosen to provide the resources of a helping skills course to both present and future higher education professionals. on campus mental health resources today there is a demand for institutional counseling professionals to conduct informational programs on preventative mental distress practices for students and professionals, as well as accessing students’ wellbeing (francis & horn, 2017). in addition, an alarming rise in the inability to even access existing mental health services on campus because of increasing wait times, is becoming an issue. a 2016-17 survey released by the association for university and college counselors center directors reported 34% of centers had to place students on a waitlist to receive mental health services (burwell, 2018). moss (2017) found that colleges and universities are experiencing daily difficulties of connecting students to immediate campus supports and resources for individuals who are struggling with academic or personal difficulties. trela (2008) reminds professionals that there is not only a focus on the individual student during each instance of a crisis but also the impact on other students whom they are connected to, which may also explain the increase in needs. a survey completed by a population of student affairs professionals found that mental health was listed as a difficulty for students and a concern for professionals on taking appropriate steps toward intervention as more students come forward (reynolds, 2013). astin (1993), in his early work on college student persistence and retention, found that the transition to college can lower psychological well-being. however, most students will not utilize psychological counseling offered at the institution. there is a stigma to attending counseling in higher education and some students are less likely to know or connect with counseling centers in college (massey et al., 2014; protivnak et al., 2013). stigma still exists despite researchers reporting that relations and connections with higher education professionals show a positive influence on students overall academic success, positive attitude, and motivation within education (astin, 1993; martin & siefert, 2011). also, training for frontline staff that provides the ability to recognize and assist students with mental health crises can improve the likelihood of those students connecting with the appropriate support resources on campus, such as counseling centers (massey et al., 2014; novotney, 2014). thus, to assist students, it is important to provide educational training and courses for higher education professionals (becker et al., 2002; moss, 2017; reynolds, 2011; trela, 2008). training and educational 60 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 opportunities may even have a positive impact on professionals’ and students’ attitudes towards students who have difficulties with mental health (becker et al., 2002; massey et al., 2014). some researchers encourage going beyond training and continuing different efforts of collaboration between institution counseling centers and other higher education personnel (moss, 2017; novotney, 2014). mental health helpers okun and kantrowitz (2015) clarified the difference between professional helpers, those who serve as psychiatrists, psychologists, and mental health counselors in clinical settings, who obtain certifications through in-depth practicums within their graduate program, and what are termed “next level helpers.” next level helpers are described as general human services workers, traditionally providing services when professional helpers are not in the position to provide immediate support. when describing the expectations and roles of helpers, whether professional or next level, any person striving to assist others with difficulties require a certain level of skill. helping skills are appropriate for those in positions of support and referral to mental health departments (okun & kantrowitz, 2015). helping skills are traditionally defined as micro-skills, focusing on listening, paraphrasing, attending behaviors, and showing empathy (egan, 2013; reynolds, 2011). these skills can also be described as advanced helping skills that allow for short-term helping and the development of rapport (okun & kantrowitz, 2015). helping skills are important for effective interactions for those practicing as helpers and making connections with clients (egan, 2013; moss, 2017). reynolds (2009) and burke et al. (2016) recommend the specific use of helping skills to assist students in this area should be taught within graduate programs and possibly professional staff training. helping skills and higher education professionals student affairs professionals are already working with students to recognize mental health difficulties and connecting to appropriate resources during the normal course of performing their regular roles on campus as student affairs professionals (burke et al., 2016; reynolds, 2013). additionally, college students interact frequently with a multitude of supporting offices on university and college campuses that already provide support, and with proper training, they would act as an additional resource for mental health assistance (massey et al., 2014; protivnak et al., 2013). in a delphi study on entry-level competencies of new student affairs professionals, burkard et al., (2004) observed that graduate programs for these professionals would benefit from participating in graduate courses in relatable fields, including counseling, business, and computer science. this delphi study was utilized to build a common understanding of the needed skills and knowledge for entry-level student affairs professionals. out of the 32 competencies, problem-solving ranked 7th, counseling/active listening ranked 11th and multicultural competency ranked 12th, as they relate to the content of a helping skills course (burkard et al., 2004). 61 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 simply being able to identify that students are experiencing difficulties is not enough. trela (2008) noted that when higher education professionals act as frontline responders, it is important to know basic counseling skills. college and university administration, as well as counseling departments, have been encouraged to collaborate in creating preparation programs for future higher education professionals with skills focused on helping students who are experiencing a personal crisis (stark & weinbaum, 2018). the lack of proper training for higher education professionals related to identifying, communicating, and appropriately referring students dealing with psychological difficulties creates an overall negative effect on student success within institutions (becker et al., 2002; trela, 2008). likewise, moss (2017) argued that the higher education professionals trained in micro-counseling skills must remember the importance of practicing referring within their professional scope. reynolds (2011) believed that the simple proof in the rise of mental health difficulties should concern a college and university; enough to encourage leaders to implement the support needed for professionals to learn new skills. helping skills training and graduate programs reynolds’s (2009) book on helping skills has been utilized for courses within student affairs graduate programs. burke et al. (2016) also published helping skills for working with college students, applying counseling theory to student affairs practice, supporting the implementation of helping skills training for professionals within higher education. the unique benefit to teaching helping skills as opposed to or in addition to mental health first aid (mhfa) training are the different populations these helping skills can assist. mhfa trainings provide undergraduate and graduate students, as well as staff and faculty at higher education institutions, with skills to identify students experiencing mental health difficulties and how to mak appropriate referrals to counseling centers. however, a course or training on basic helping skills not only benefits professionals working in higher education, but also broadens the scope of their interactions with students on issues such as mental health challenges, cultural competencies, working with other professionals, training, and multicultural competencies (burke et. al., 2016; reynolds, 2009). in addition to the helping skills text by reynolds, there was a delphi study on student affairs professionals, that collected information on the skills needed to work within the student affairs profession. reynolds (2011) reported on specific skills identified in the delphi study, which included helping skills, on the job training, and professional development opportunities. in this study, traditional helping and micro-counseling skills including listening, reframing, goal setting, etc. were identified to advance helping skills (reynolds, 2011). in a review of the council for the advancement of standards in higher education (cas professional standards), protivnak et al. (2013) identified departments within university and college settings that need assessment and training support for micro-counseling skills, building upon reynolds (2011) work. it is noted that continued study is encouraged by some researchers in identifying which recent discrepancies exist in the cas professional standards skills recommended for areas of higher 62 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 education, and the degree of what administration and professionals are currently employing daily (protivnak et al., 2013). more recently, reynolds and altabef (2015) reviewed syllabi related to the teaching of helping skills in graduate programs such as education, counseling, and student affairs. the results showed that many of the courses were missing educational information related to common mental health issues such as signs of suicide interventions and eating disorders (2015). when offering a helping skills course, reynolds and altabef (2015) encouraged the use of quantitative and qualitative studies to assess the comfort level, understanding, competence, and in-depth understanding of participants. both reynolds and altabef (2015), as well as protivnak et al. (2013), encourage continued research at institutions that do and do not have helping skills training for higher education professionals. burkard et al. (2004) recommended that graduate programs for future student affairs professionals also evaluate their programs as they relate to expected competencies for the field. at the institution used for this current study, there are no existing courses that teach helping skills or education on the mental health crisis in higher education for prospective student affairs or higher education professionals. in this context, this study would investigate the quality and effectiveness of the curriculum in a higher education course at a midsized university located in southwest florida. helping skills courses are provided in graduate programs for future counselors, human service workers (e.g. social workers, nurses, life coaches, etc.), and higher education programs. research by banks et al. (2016) provides information relating to mindfulness and gaining people’s trust through the practice of a three-tiered model of mindfulness integration within a basic helping skills course for human service workers. their research reviewed a theoretical practice within the course, detailing a great level of support for incorporating mindfulness practices into helping skills courses. gockel and burton (2014) studied 132 students within a graduate social work program, reviewing their helping skills training which was offered within foundational courses. in their findings, the student participants reported an increase in their self-efficacy of practicing counseling skills while participating in the training and thus benefited from the helping skills training (gockel & burton, 2014). grockel and burton (2014) described the three most preferred instructional strategies as identified by the student participants; instructor practice examples, live demonstrations, and videotaped reviews. the researchers explored the answers for two research questions related to the experience of graduate students in a new course on helping skills as follows: 1. what attributes do graduate students contribute in the development of their knowledge of helping skills as future higher education professionals while enrolled in a helping skills graduate course? 2. what are the lived experiences of graduate students practicing helping skills within a hybrid graduate course design? 63 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 methodology dr. houdyshell teaches in both the masters and doctoral programs, with an emphasis in topics relating to higher education. he has worked for 20 years in higher education administration including with college students in a variety of settings. this sometimes includes working with students experiencing personal crises influenced by at times, unresolved issues with mental health, and employing helping skills. more recently, studying the topic of helping skills in more detail while working together with natasha ziegler in creating a new course on helping skills for a master’s program for professionals working in higher education. natasha ziegler was an academic success coach and second-year doctoral student in an educational leadership program at the time of the study, and served as the co-creator and teaching assistant for the helping skill course. she has worked in the center for academic achievement for six years, helping students improve their academic performance within their undergraduate courses. having earned her master’s in school counseling, she is familiar with micro counseling skills and mental health counseling. for the past three years, she has trained new incoming academic success coaches on helping skills, identifying students struggling with mental health, and making appropriate referrals to counseling resources. the researchers used a qualitative case study to gather information and data for this case study (creswell, 2013; yazan, 2015; yin, 2014). the case study approach was used for this research because it lends itself to detailed analysis and descriptors, in this case of a single environment, with the opportunity for a rich and in-depth discussion in a real-life context (baxter & jack, 2008). the researchers wanted to describe the experience of students enrolled in a new graduate course on helping skills offered by a small college of education at a four-year mid-level university in florida, making it an intrinsic case study for the newness to the program. creswell and poth, (2018) describe intrinsic case study as the study of a unique situation. it was conducted over one term in a hybrid delivery method focusing on creating and practicing helping and supporting skills for current and future work with students and colleagues in higher education. the study group was selected with purposeful sampling, using only the five students enrolled in the course during one specific semester. participants included five master’s level students, and one doctoral student serving as the teaching assistant in the spring 2018 term, of which, all but one worked at a university at the time of the study. data collected involved responses to open-ended questions, in-class discussions, and personal reflections. discussion questions were posted online with supplemental questions and reflections for more objective results. content analysis was used to gather and report results (kohlbacher, 2006). no human subjects permissions were obtained because this study was conducted as part of evaluating a new course in the educational leadership graduate program. while this study is localized, both researchers view this study has an important examination into the thoughts and beliefs of how graduate students and higher education professionals view helping skills, how they gain helping/supporting skills, and how they might be better prepared to support students in their roles on campus or in the future. the results are 64 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 intended to be disseminated at the institution where the case study was conducted in a current climate of major institutional initiatives involving the examination of supporting students, including academic success, retention, and graduate rates. the data could also be used as continued support for the inclusion of a helping skills course and/or training in graduate programs training higher education professionals. participants as stated above, five master’s level students who enrolled in the course during the spring 2018 term were used as the sample in the study. these participants were chosen as part of purposeful sampling. purposeful sampling was used because all of the students were already in the helping skills course as an elective, it is less time consuming to gather data for the case study, and the course is taught over four months which allows for ample time to continue gathering data with the ability to refine questions (stake, 2005). all five were current graduate students in the educational leadership program in the college of education at the time of the course. this was a special topics course being offered for the first time, so all of the students selected this course as an elective in their graduate program. four of the students were currently employed in higher education, working with students in some capacity. the one student not currently employed in higher education at the time of the study has since graduated and is now working as an academic advisor at a university. finally, of the five students, four were female and one was male, three were caucasian, and two were students of color. all students gave written permission for use of the data to study the need, benefit, and structure of the course as this course would be offered in future terms. data collection and analysis the course on helping skills was taught primarily online but had five pre-scheduled face-to-face class meetings throughout the term. during these five in-class meetings, all the students were asked both structured and unstructured questions in a class discussion setting and were asked to participate in role-playing activities to practice different levels of helping skills and support. these questions dealt with topics such as how to gain helping skills, individual beliefs about helping skills, opinions about how higher education professionals use helping skills, and rating their preparedness being able to perform helping and support skills at the beginning of the course and the end. students were asked to share their expected outcomes from the course as it related to using helping and support skills in the future or strengthening their practice as a higher education professional throughout their on-line and in-class coursework. students used two required textbooks: 1. “helping college students: developing essential support skills for student affairs practice” (reynolds, 2009), and 2. “helping skills: facilitating exploration, insight, and action” (hill, 2014) during the entire course. both textbooks were supplemented with additional readings by both authors and others, and writing about helping and supporting skills. finally, each student was asked to prepare two final papers for the end of the course. the first paper was a reflection on the evolution of their thinking and the use of helping and supporting skills 65 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 when working with students. the second paper dealt with creating a personal theory of helping they would use in any future practice as a higher education professional when working with students. at the end of the course, all students were sent a student perception of instruction (spoi) course evaluation. this general evaluation is voluntary for students in a course. each instructor has the option to add up to five additional and specific questions to this survey instrument. five questions were added to the end of the spoi related to this research study. no irb was sought as the instructor was asking the students to evaluate the course while trying to understand how higher education professionals gain and use helping and supporting skills in their work with students through the delivery of the course. again, all students gave written permission for the use of the data for this case study as this course would be offered in future terms. rigor this study employed the method of data collecting using triangulation. using triangulation as a data collection method allows the researcher to create validity in the study with the utilization of multiple data sources (hussein, 2009). in reviewing data, all responses to in-class questions, final reflection papers, and personal theory of helping, were hand-written and/or reviewed after submission. responses to online discussion questions and the spoi questions were also reviewed after each submission. using a content analysis approach, the researcher is able to systematically categorize textual and conversational data to make sense of it (forman & damschroder, 2007). in addition, using unstructured interview questions during three of the five in-class sessions allowed the researchers to ask questions with further inquiry based on realtime responses. the researchers utilized content analysis to review online responses and probe further with additional questions, allowing each student to reflect and respond at their own pace. content analysis allowed the researchers to identify and construct important themes from the data review (creswell & poth, 2018). using coding with grouping and sub-groupings, the researchers compared emerging theme clusters before ultimately creating three themes (vaismoradi et al., 2016). in this study, the in-class discussions and responses were the preferred method of inquiry. in order to perform an in-depth case study, there must be a collection of many forms of qualitative data (creswell & poth, 2018). this data, combined with document analysis of the online responses to posted questions including the spoi, and the evaluation of posted course assignments (reflection paper and personal theory of helping), increased study validity through the use of data triangulation (hussein, 2009). after the course was completed, in-class discussion responses, online discussion responses, final papers, and course evaluation questions were all analyzed for specific themes using content analysis. the entire set of data produced individual participant and study themes, which were then analyzed for relevancy and presented in this case study. in this study, the role of the researcher was as the instructor for the course where participants were enrolled, and one graduate assistant who assisted with course design. the 66 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 primary researcher wrote and analyzed all discussions, both online and in-class, online questions and responses, course papers, and evaluation questions. he attempts to present the findings and discussion as it is reported and coded without the interjection of his own views. any personal opinions and other findings outside of the coded information are presented in the discussion section. to ensure the validity and reliability of the study, the researchers utilized the following procedures: a) data triangulation-all findings have been presented based on in-class discussions, online discussion questions and responses, course assignments, and final course evaluation questions. after each in-class session, students were able to review questions and responses online and provide feedback individually to the researcher or as a posted online discussion question/response. this allowed students to amend any comments or provide further clarification for the researcher and fellow students in the course. this was a 15week course that allowed for multiple and deep interactions with some participants, and repeated attempts at clarification of data. b) direct quotations have been used where necessary and appropriate when presenting the findings. all data were reviewed for the reporting phase to reach common conclusions on findings, and possible codes and themes were then determined. results in review of the data, including the pre and post helping skills survey and, the spoi, there were many overlapping themes and lessons learned. the results provided in this section are derived from the students' final reflection assignment, post helping skills survey results, and the spoi (completed at the conclusion of the course). in the initial review of the data, four themes emerged; however, through further review of participant responses discussing two topics within the same discussion, the themes diversity and inclusion, and multiculturalism were combined into one theme. in the following sections, we will provide qualitative information on the data we collected relating to the following themes; building helping skills, confidence, and comfortability, and multicultural, diversity, and inclusion. building helping skills during the helping skill course used for this study, students completed a variety of assignments including reflection journals, discussion boards, fill in the blank responses, presentations, and group role-play. for some of the assignments, the hill textbook was utilized with positive feedback from the students. some of the students found the framework of the different helping skills practices helpful to learn and practice: …the online activities were a chance to practice and solidify my helping skills.” (jessica, final reflection, 2019). 67 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 i appreciated the online activities where we could work out different responses that we could give within (each) phase of hill’s three-stage helping model (2014). conducting this exercise for immediacy, challenges, open questions for insight, interpretations, disclosures of insight or feelings, restatements, open questions about thoughts and feelings, and reflections of feelings was a good way to practice using these skills before doing the inclass role-playing activity and helping skills practice demo project (sara, final reflection, 2019). many others found it helpful to reflect in their journals on experiences in and outside of the classroom, what they learned in the readings, and their interpretations of the theories: the journal entries provided me with the opportunity to reflect, revise, and review my own perspectives about helping and allowed me to integrate the theories and skills that we learned in class with real-life situations. (jessica, final reflection, 2019) the journals were a great way to reflect on readings and some of the in-class role-plays were good for integrating and practicing the skills that we learned about. (anonymous, spoi, 2019) in addition to the journals and practice assignments, students had the opportunity to conduct group role-play scenarios in class and a final demo assignment that consisted of a roleplay with a classmate as a video submission: over this course, we participated in several in-class role-playing activities and ended with the video presentation with our partner. i feel that with each activity, i became more comfortable. (erica, final reflection, 2019). the helping skills practice demo assignment supported my learning the most. as uncomfortable as it was, the in-class role-playing and this assignment are the best ways to practice helping skills. (anonymous, spoi, 2019). the in-class role-playing and helping skills practice demo helped most in familiarizing myself with the different skills. (anonymous, spoi, 2019) an assignment mentioned frequently, was the inclusive helper because it challenged the students to consider culture and mental health influences on their own usage of helping skills. “i also thought the inclusive helper was a great way to integrate the learning we had been doing and apply it to specific examples. (anonymous, spoi, 2019). beyond practicing and using helping skills within the course, several students noted the practice and use of helping skills in other parts of their professional and personal lives. this demonstrated the application of helping skills in different aspects of participants’ lives: this course has provided me the ability to utilize my skill set off-campus. i have been involved in a local youth ministry in (name of city). i have always been a helper for many youths in the ministry. this course has helped me strengthen my character for the advancement of my personal growth (anonymous, post self-assessment, 2019). 68 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 another student saw a direct use for the helping skills she was learning in the course and shared some of her materials with students she mentored: “(i) gave them my training based on the knowledge i gained in this helping skills course” (sara, final reflection, 2019). confidence and comfortability at the beginning of this course, many of the students reported mixed responses when selfreporting their confidence in practicing helping skills. the majority of the participants ranked their ability to practice the skills very highly, while others ranked the confidence very low. when utilizing the pre and post-assessment on the comfort of utilizing helping skills, many of the participants showed little difference in their self-rankings of comfort. however, the postassessment showed more change in how students expressed how they had developed a great deal of confidence compared to the pre-assessment. one participant reflected on the possible over-exaggeration of their pre-assessment confidence in their ability to practice helping skills: before the course, i was not very confident in practicing helping skills.” (anonymous, spoi, 2019). i think i might have a little bit less confidence in my skills, but i think my original confidence was somewhat unearned. i consider myself someone who has decent emotional intelligence and interpersonal intelligence, so i was confident that helping skills would come naturally. turns out, i probably need just as much practice as everyone else, but i do feel like i have more knowledge to move forward with (anonymous, spoi, 2019). conducting my own research about students who face mental health struggles and creating a presentation that accurately portrayed what a student with a mental illness might face on campus as well as resources for best helping those students was eyeopening […] it also taught me about advocacy and how to stand up for and support students with diverse and varying characteristics (jessica, final reflection, 2019). as a result of participating in the course, many of the students expressed a sense of gratitude for the unique experience that influenced their confidence and comfort levels when practicing helpings skills: understanding the experimental, insight, and action stage makes me more comfortable to address students. (david, post-assessment, 2019). i feel much more confident helping not only students, but people in general as a result of taking this course. (erica, post-assessment, 2019). i certainly feel more confident with my helping skills now. (anonymous, spoi, 2019). very high-(i) want to do my internship specifically practicing these skills. (anonymous, spoi, 2019). […] (i) felt more comfortable understanding how to help someone make sense of their own problems and situations. it has been me more comfortable with who i am and my style of helping. it helped me realize that i make sense when i am comforting others, so be confident in my abilities and speak everything with conviction (kimberly, postassessment, 2019). 69 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 many of the participants made comments that reminded the future helpers that helping skills are ever-evolving through multiple stages and experiences. i believe that the more i continue to practice my helping skills, the better helper i will become. (erica, final reflection, 2019). i don’t think any of my professional experience really prepared for or affected my confidence level in practicing helping skills. i hadn’t been in a role that was particularly helping focused. (anonymous, spoi, 2019). multicultural, diversity, and inclusion as noted in the building helping skills section above, assignments and discussions were designed to challenge the students to consider how a student's culture and mental health could impact their use of helping skills. many of the students reflected on what they learned through these opportunities. culture has a lot to do with the effects of a helper towards their students. it presents the ability for the helper to understand certain behaviors and responses that they collect from the students […] cultures are constantly evolving, and as helpers, we have to remain aware of the cultural changes (david, final reflection, 2019). one student reflected on the importance of culture awareness when working within higher education: […] understanding different cultures is extremely important to helpers in higher education. the inclusive helper presentations helped me to learn about different cultures” (erica, final reflection, 2019). the student clarified that while progressing through the course they were not only able to learn about helping skills, but also learn more about underserved populations: i have learned questioning techniques, goal-setting, self-awareness, and disclosure. i have also gained great insight into different student populations, including multicultural, firstgeneration, non-traditional, lgbtq+ and low-income students, to name a few. (erica, postassessment, 2019). the design of this course is representative of the ability to include both helping skills and cultural awareness in the process. the assignments were designed to align with using helping skills in general areas, but also to demonstrate how the higher education setting is a unique venue for practicing these skills. some participants who currently work in higher education expressed the importance of using this new knowledge in their current and future work in higher education. the focus that we gave to certain issues related to mental health, such as awareness of suicidal intentions, being honest and calm in meetings, and how different populations are affected by the issue, were helpful for me to learn, for my current position and future career in higher education (sara, final reflection, 2019). 70 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 i know the needs for understanding different cultures, how higher education is changing and the mental health issues arising with our students. with this wealth of knowledge that i have gained, i am ready to assist students and their needs (erica, final reflection, 2019). discussion reynolds and altabef (2015) have emphasized the importance of collecting qualitative research of student experiences within helping skills courses in a higher education and student affairs preparation program. with the existing literature supporting the need for helping skills training for developing professionals in this field, little research has been completed that tells the lived experiences of the participants while enrolled in such a course. the responses from the students in this course support a continued narrative about why learning helping skills in higher education graduate programs is still essential. professional competencies for individuals working in student affairs positions have been crafted and revised by professional organizations like the national association of student personnel administrators (naspa) and the american college personnel association (acpa). both organizations published a joint statement and professional competencies originally in 2010 with an update in 2015 (acpa, 2010; 2015). the joint task force on professional competencies and standards reviewed documents produced by acpa, naspa, and the council for the advancement of standards in higher education (cas) and proposed ten competency areas (2015). of the ten competency areas proposed, one specifically influences the work from this case study in how graduate students and professionals in higher education gain and utilize helping and supporting skills. originally this specific competency area was termed advising and helping, and has since been renamed advising and supporting in part to emphasize ‘the agency of college students in their development of self-authorship” (2015, p. 5). the task force continues, “we also intend to better distinguish the role of student affairs educators from those of counselors, psychologists, nurse practitioners, among others” (p. 5). they continue, “we acknowledge this line is not easy to draw…even in student affairs roles that require a degree in counseling, individuals within those roles do not provide therapeutic or formal helping services” (p. 5). however, the authors still recognize “through developing advising and supporting strategies…we play critical roles in advancing the holistic wellness of ourselves, our students, and our colleagues” (2015, p. 36). by including helping and supporting skills/strategies as one of the ten original professional competency areas, the framers of these competencies understood how integral this set of skills for working with students but also to ourselves and those around us. the data from this study support the inclusion of helping and supporting skills within the original ten professional competencies for student affairs professionals, although graduate students in a higher education program are still unsure of how they gain and utilize these skills. diramio (2014) cited how these competencies help guide curriculum decisions and course 71 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 learning outcomes. if the professional competencies are being applied in graduate programs in their preparation of new professionals (gansemer-topf & ryder, 2017), is that application entirely clear to students in these programs, and how do they utilize these competencies once studied as new or emerging professionals in higher education? how higher education professionals, new or otherwise, gain and utilize this important competency in helping and supporting students is still not clearly defined or understood. the results of this study help support continued application of advising and support in competencies for student affairs professionals and graduate students. jaeken et al. (2017) found that participants in helping skills training have under-assessed themselves, exhibiting some self-diminishment bias in their ability to practice helping skills. this research supports the study results as some participants expressed high confidence in their ability to practice helping skills in the pre-assessment, but then reported lower confidence levels after participating in the course. participant responses described a pattern of students selfactualizing while practicing the skills and areas in need of improvement not initially known to them. the need for coursework related to a standard of professional studies, in this case counseling, or at the very least listening and reflection, have been found as important competencies when administrators are seeking to hire professionals working in student affairs (kretovics, 2002). reynold’s (2011) delphi studies support the inclusion of learning basic helping skills as an important piece of student affairs professionals’ daily practice. the research conducted in this study support this research as the student participants expressed how important it is for many of them to build these skills. the present use of the techniques was also discussed for the students who are currently serving in student affairs positions. students within this course expressed an appreciation for in-class role-play and practice with classmates as a strong contributor to their ability to develop the helping skills. it allowed for immediate feedback and practice with others who were also progressing through the learning experience. similar to gockel and burton's (2014) research on helping skills training for graduate social work students, many of the students in this study referenced the instructor’s modeling of the helping skills and practicing within the training as a preferred method of learning and a key contributor to their development. the idea of ‘learning by doing’ (also called experiential learning) in the form of strategies like role-playing, has been documented in the literature as an effective means of achieving learning gains (bradberry & de maio, 2018; oros, 2007; raymond, 2010). in a review of helping skills courses created specifically for current or future student affairs professionals, reynolds and altabef (2015) found educational issues, such as mental health, were often a missing component in how students and professionals develop appropriate skills for handling personal and mental health concerns. the course utilized for this study included coursework on mental health and multicultural awareness as it relates to the practice of helping skills. participants expressed an appreciation for not simply learning the helping skills techniques 72 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 but developing an understanding of how mental health and cultural awareness can influence the practice of these skills. research on mental health literacy shows that when students understand more about their mental health, they are better able to listen and empathize with others in their mental health (carr et al., 2017; kutcher et al., 2015; kutcher et al., 2016). conclusion graduate programs for higher education professionals this course is offered as an elective in a master’s program on educational leadership. while the program is not exclusively focused on individuals who are or will work in student affairs positions, examining and enhancing helping skills positively impacts any individual working with college students. the ability to listen, understand, empathize, and assist where appropriate, cannot be overstated when working with college students, regardless of position. at present, the specific course used in the case study is only offered as an elective because it was brand new when the study was conducted. the master’s program the course is housed under already exists, but as more students enroll with a student affairs background or interest, the need for such a course continues to grow. that is even more apparent for graduate programs focused entirely on creating new student affairs professionals. including a required helping skills course in master’s programs in higher education with a student affairs emphasis, and counseling only covers a small fraction of human service-related graduate programs offered in higher education. while the results from this study and others support the inclusion of this type of course, it is not clear if students enrolled, show markedly different approaches to assisting others. future studies on the efficacy and comfortability of students using these skills after completing a helping skills course would further strengthen the need for requiring this course in a larger number of graduate programs, diversifying and broadening its acceptance in other human service type graduate programs. this includes using different research studies to understand different methods designed to produce a similar outcome in assisting individuals, such as a solution-focused method, often taught in counseling graduate programs (stark & weinbaum, 2018). multicultural focus courses on helping skills are often based on psychological and counseling theories created years earlier and applied to work in other areas. application to fields such as student affairs have occurred much later. as college students have become much more diverse in their backgrounds and beliefs (ethnically, socioeconomically, religiously, etc.), it is important that individuals working with college students find ways to relate and apply their training or background in helping skills to the changing face of college students today and tomorrow. this includes adding a significant multicultural and inclusiveness component to any existing course on helping skills, or even creating a complimentary helping skills course that focuses entirely on the topic. additionally, a course might even offer practice and skill-building within topics like social justice, 73 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 income disparities, and global competencies. a recent study by lu et al. (2020), using students in two helping skills courses, showed gains in ethnocultural empathy after helping skills training from the course, primarily for white students (both male and female). as with the course for this study, lu et al. (2020) also based their course on hill’s helping skills textbook. with any course on helping skills building, building rapport among participants is key. according to lu et al. (2020), as a result, a helping skills course “may provide a structure of interaction that affords the learning of key skills in developing empathy about social inequalities…” (p. 9). mix of clinical and practical the textbooks used in the course were different in their approaches to how students learn helping skills. hill’s textbook is based on a more clinical approach to developing helping skills, as hill is a licensed counseling professional. in contrast, the textbook by reynold, is written with a less clinical focus and instead examines learning helping skills from a practitioner’s viewpoint, especially for student affairs professionals. reynold’s is also a licensed psychologist. using the combination of both textbooks for this course creates a dynamic where some clinical aspects of mental health as it relates to helping skills (hill), is more accessible. hill’s work is based on her model of helping which includes three stages for working with a client-exploration, insight, and action (2019). both hill and reynolds provide scenarios in each textbook. reynolds also includes additional information on role-playing exercise. this course employed a blend of both the review of helping skills in a clinical setting and role-playing of the same helping skills. participants reported this as a more desirable way to learn about helping skills, and understand how to apply them in their own non-clinical practice. research has also shown that some experiential learning techniques like role-playing, can reduce the anxiety of students learning about helping skills in a skills-based course (hall, 2009; hill et al., 2007; tolleson et al., 2017). while the researchers advocate creating a helping skills course that features both clinical and practical approaches to learning helping skills, we are cognizant this approach is limited to the experiences and backgrounds of faculty who teach the course within only one program. moving beyond the inclusion of including both clinical and practical materials in a helping skills course, we urge higher education administration graduate program faculty, and counseling graduate program faculty to jointly create and teach courses in helping skills as supported by the research of stark and weinbaum (2018). this can produce higher education professionals who have a more diverse and rich experience learning and practicing helping skills in collaborative course design. specific to the design and creation of the helping skills course used for this study, the experience of one researcher is primarily in student affairs, while the other individual has a graduate degree in counseling. the collaboration began even before the creation of the course. when looking to design and add this course to the master’s program in educational leadership, dr. houdyshell sought out collaboration with a fellow faculty member in the counseling master’s program. that faculty member was not able to collaborate because of prior commitments but supported the idea of including a helping skills course outside of a counseling graduate program, and recommended working with a recent graduate of the 74 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 counseling program who worked on campus. this collaboration was a significant catalyst behind the creation of the helping skills course, and subsequent case study, and it should be seen as a model in creating a helping skills course. size a limitation of this study was the small number of participants. as this was only one course on helping skills during one term, additional students over subsequent terms could impact the results of the study. because of this, the generalizability of the study to other graduate student experiences and programs presents a possible limitation on the results. however, there is prior research on this topic where these results can help support past results and conclusions. elective enrollment students who decide to enroll in an elective course on helping skills are already predisposed to be more interested in developing these kinds of abilities for their work in higher education. it does not make their experience or responses any less valid and can create an environment of increased self-awareness and identification of deficiencies in their helping skills knowledge and practice. in a higher education environment of increasing barriers to student success, additional awareness, practice, and reflection by current or future student affairs professional warrants continued contemplation, and perhaps even additional study on the efficacy of these types of courses. finally, for a more in-depth analysis of this topic, the addition of individual and group interviews would strengthen the validity and richness of any results. relying on self-reported or submitted responses creates an important snapshot of the topic. incorporating interviews would add significant depth to the study not found otherwise. richer analysis future studies may need to design questions that focus on specifics of practice, rather than the participants' opinion of their ability, to allow for a more accurate self-assessment measurement. this could best be accomplished by adding personal interviews and focus group sessions with participants. this type of data measure would allow future studies to more accurately gauge the proficiency in using a course on helping skills to enhance their own skill level. as college students arrive on campus, they bring with them different life experiences and issues impacting their lives while also trying to navigate the complexities of higher education. professionals working in higher education are often responsible for helping students make sense of their experiences while in college. these same professionals must balance their professional responsibilities with also providing emotional and personal support to students. many of these same professionals do not receive formal training about how best to support students emotionally in a non-clinical setting. without any formal training, it can be challenging to understand how best to approach these situations. this should be the role of graduate programs that offer courses on learning, developing, and practicing helping skills. helping skills courses should provide both the necessary foundations in which to learn about best practices, and a safe space to practice these skills. without access to helping skills courses, higher education 75 jcsr 2021, 3(2):57-78 professionals are left to learn while on the job in an environment that has little room for mistakes when dealing with the personal and emotional support of students. references astin, a. w. 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(2016). theme development in qualitative content analysis and thematic analysis. journal of nursing education and practice, 6(5), 100-110. https://dx.doi.org/10.5430/jnep.v6n5p100 yazan, b. (2015). three approaches to case study methods in education. the qualitative report, 20(2), 134-152. https://nsuworks.nova.edu/tqr/vol20/iss2/12/ yin, r.k. (2014). case study research: design and methods (5th ed.). sage. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 100-121 preparing secondary teacher candidates to teach academic english stephanie garrone-shufran* * merrimack college, winston school of education and social policy, north andover, ma, united states. e-mail : garroneshufs@merrimack.edu article info received: 23 july 2020 revised: 15 january 2021 accepted: 7 february 2021 how to cite garrone-shufran, s. (2021). preparing secondary teacher candidates to teach academic english. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 100-121. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.1 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract in this qualitative study, mainstream teacher candidates in a secondary teacher education program were asked to incorporate academic english instruction into their lesson planning and implementation in fieldwork placement classrooms. teacher candidates attended a training session in which one method for identifying academic english features was taught. artifacts, classroom observations, and interviews from four teacher candidates were analyzed to determine what features of academic english were identified and how these were taught to high school students. while all four teacher candidates accurately identified features of academic english in their lessons, only two participants taught features of academic english to students. the experiences of the participants illustrated that teacher candidates need, in addition to the ability to identify features of academic english, knowledge about how to teach language, a commitment to teaching language in their lessons, and the support of university supervisors and supervising practitioners who possess the same knowledge and commitment. keywords academic language, high school, teacher education, english language learners. 10.46303/jcsr.2021.1 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.1 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 101 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 introduction knowledge of academic english (ae), the ways of using english that are valued in the various contexts of schooling, is necessary for students to be successful in american schools. exposure to ae outside of school seems to accelerate the process of learning this language, as students whose parents are fluent in ae tend to be more successful in school (zacarian, 2013). learners of ae, those students who have limited exposure to ae outside of school, make up much of what enright (2011) referred to as the “new mainstream” in american schools. success in school is more challenging for this population of students, because “their language experiences at home are not aligned with those at school” (kalinowski et al., 2020, p. 2). within this “new mainstream” population are non-native english speakers, both those classified as english language learners (ells) and those who are fluent in english and their home language. also included are students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and those from diverse cultural and racial groups. to be inclusive of all students who make up the “new mainstream”, the term culturally and linguistically diverse (cld) students will be used to describe them in this article. the struggle to keep pace with peers who are fluent in ae grows more difficult as students enter the secondary grades (6-12), where ae becomes even more integral to success in school and also more challenging to learn (kieffer, lesaux, & snow, 2008; schleppegrell, 2018). while the scores of all groups that include cld students are not disaggregated in educational testing, the data gathered from ells may provide some indication of the impact that ae proficiency has on standardized test results. on the 2019 national assessment of educational progress (naep) assessments, only 4% of ells in grade 8 scored at or above proficient in reading, while 36% of students not classified as ells scored at or above proficient (national center for educational statistics, 2019). as zacarian (2013) suggests, there is reason to “reframe the achievement gap as being between students who carry academic language and students who are learning academic language” (p. 21). in other words, for cld students, the achievement gap may be more aptly referred to as the ae gap. in recent years, policy has shifted from focusing on language development as separate from content area learning to integrating content and language learning into mainstream classrooms (hakuta & pecheone, 2016). educators are asking cld students to learn both the content area concepts and the language used to express those concepts simultaneously (schleppegrell, 2018). however, in order to develop proficiency in ae, students must be explicitly taught the language functions and features that they need to use to make meaning in the various academic disciplines (lucas, villegas, & freedson-gonzalez, 2008). traditionally, mainstream teachers do not explicitly teach ae. this phenomenon is what macedo (1994) called “a pedagogy of entrapment”, in which schools “require from these linguistic-minority students precisely the academic discourse skills and knowledge bases they do not teach” (bartolome & macedo, 1999, p. 228). delpit (1995) explained that “the culture of power”, which are the “codes and rules for participating in power” related to “linguistic forms, 102 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 communicative strategies, and presentation of self,” must be acquired to be successful in a society and suggested that teaching the codes and rules should be the responsibility of teachers who work with cld students (p. 25). for cld students to learn to use and understand ae, all teachers must undertake the dual tasks of both providing access to the content and designing experiences that will help students to develop the language valued in the discipline (valdes, bunch, snow, & lee, 2005; snow & uccelli, 2009). teachers can only offer explicit instruction in the ae of an academic discipline if they are trained to do so. most teachers have a “fuzzy understanding” of what that language is (lahey, 2017, p. 241). teachers tend to come from middle-class, academically literate backgrounds and, for this reason, likely did not need explicit instruction in ae to be successful in school (morales & bardo, 2020). their own schooling experiences, in which ae was not a barrier to learning, have made the language and literacy demands of content area classrooms “invisible” to them (dejong & harper, 2005). this is not to say that these content area teachers do not care about their cld students but that they do not “allow that vision of care to extend to the political and social realities” of the students, which includes their differential access to the language valued in school (mccorkle, 2020, p. 34). ae is a complex construct that encompasses language functions and features that vary according to domain (listening, speaking, reading, or writing), grade level, content area, and context of use (anstrom et al., 2010). for the purposes of this research, ae is described in terms of the language functions it is used to accomplish and the linguistic features typically used in these functions. language functions, the purposes for which language is used, common to ae include explaining, summarizing, and arguing, and the use of certain linguistic features is necessary to express these functions appropriately (dutro & moran, 2003). students must use and understand precise academic terms, specific sentence structures, and organizational structures of various types as they read and write academic texts. turkan et al. (2014) drew on scarcella’s (2003) framework of ae to classify the common features of ae at the word, sentence, and discourse level. the lexical component of ae consists of the words students must know and what they must know about them. the grammatical component of ae includes constructions not commonly used in everyday contexts, such as conditionals and passive voice. discourse level features are those that create organization and coherence, such as signal words used to illustrate the organization of a written text. in order to prepare high school teachers to teach ae, secondary teacher education programs must begin to draw teacher candidates’ (tcs’) attention to teaching ae early in the required coursework and field experiences (lahey, 2017). in this article, one training session designed to aid in the preparation of mainstream secondary tcs to identify and teach features of ae in their content area lessons is described. the data presented were collected to determine how the tcs integrated what they learned about teaching ae into their lesson plans and how they implemented those lesson plans in their field experiences. 103 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 research questions 1.) how do secondary tcs who have attended a training session on teaching academic english incorporate instruction in that language into content area lessons in diverse fieldwork placement classrooms? 2.) what factors might impact the planning and teaching of academic english in tcs’ lessons? literature review studies in which in-service and pre-service teachers have been trained to look at, rather than through, language (dejong & harper, 2005) and identify the features of ae that are present have found some evidence that participants can be taught to analyze the language of the classroom and discipline. carter et al. (2016) designed a year-long professional learning opportunity in which 25 secondary teachers engaged in learning to identify and teach features of ae in their own content-specific materials and lessons. exit surveys and classroom observations showed that teachers seemed to gain knowledge about the concept of ae, broadening their definitions to include both content-specific and general language features, and that participants planned more targeted instruction in academic vocabulary in their content area lessons (carter et al, 2016). however, knowledge of ae goes beyond learning content-specific vocabulary (jensen & thompson, 2020). meier et al. (2020) found that the seven preservice secondary science teachers in their study developed a more nuanced understanding of academic language over the course of their program, moving from defining it solely as vocabulary to including higherlevel segments of scientific language. instruction in academic language is necessary for preservice teachers to see both what this language is but also why it needs to be taught (he et al., 2018). approaches for training in-service and pre-service teachers must balance the delivery of knowledge about ae with the development of practical strategies for applying that knowledge to teaching. in willett and correa’s (2014) research, a course designed to teach in-service teachers about the concept of genre and the language features of each genre had to be revised after one iteration because the instructors found that teachers could identify some language features but “had difficulty addressing the particular language needs of their students” (p. 159). similarly, in schall-leckrone and mcquillan’s (2012) study of two cohorts of tcs who took slightly different iterations of a secondary history methods course, the researchers found that shifting the focus from analyzing ae in texts to teaching strategies and applications to teaching seemed to create in tcs a stronger feeling of preparedness to work with cld students. while teachers may be able to identify features of ae, implementation of instruction in ae does not necessarily follow. despite carter et al.’s (2016) finding that teachers in professional development learned how to identify and teach some features of ae, the researchers acknowledged that only some of the participants chose to implement what they had learned in their classrooms. in townsend’s (2015) study of eight middle school teachers in a professional 104 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 development program dedicated to identifying and teaching ae, participants’ reflections and researchers’ observations showed that teachers’ implementation of strategies for language learning varied based on the content area taught, the teachers’ commitment to spending time on language practice, and the teachers’ background knowledge of the specific language features. tcs in meier et al.’s (2020) study were able to explain multiple support strategies for building academic language proficiency, including engaging in hands-on activities, using comprehensible input, and modeling language use for students when interviewed; however, only some of these strategies were actually incorporated into the lesson plans written by these tcs. an additional consideration for preparing teachers to teach ae is program coherence. schall-leckrone and mcquillan (2012) found that secondary history tcs benefited from learning about effective instruction for cld students from multiple sources at the same time, as several tcs in the second cohort, in which participants reported feeling more prepared to teach cld students, were taking a course in teaching cld students at the same time as they were taking the history methods course; this additional source of information about strategies for teaching cld students may have influenced the students’ feelings and, as a result, influenced their responses on the survey. support and mentoring from a more experienced educator has also been found to be important for preservice and in-service teachers who are learning to implement explicit instruction in ae. the tcs in meier et al.’s (2020) study worked with supervising practitioners who had broader definitions of ae than simply vocabulary knowledge, reflecting what the tcs had learned in their courses. when author (2014) trained five in-service high school teachers to identify features of ae through engaging in analysis of content area texts, the three teachers who were interviewed found that the support of a language specialist was helpful as they were trying to plan language-focused lessons and reported that type of support had not been offered to them previously. josh, the high school social studies teacher described in the study by he et al (2018), was offered support and opportunities for reflection by two teacher educators as he planned to teach language in his classroom. the presence of support and mentoring for teachers and tcs as they attempt to apply what they have learned about teaching ae seems to have an impact on both their ability and their willingness to implement instruction in ae. methodology the research described was part of a larger mixed methods study to determine the effects of an intervention created to provide tcs with knowledge about identifying features of ae and incorporating the teaching of those features into their content area lessons. in this article, the qualitative aspect of the study is described. qualitative data sources were collected in order to provide in-depth descriptions of how individual tcs applied what they learned in the training as they planned and taught lessons in their fieldwork placements. a bounded case study design 105 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 was employed to focus on the lesson planning and teaching of a small group of tcs who had received the training and who were completing fieldwork placements in a given semester. participants participants for this research were recruited during the mandatory training sessions held at the start of the semester. while a sample including tcs in all content areas was desirable, the sample chosen represented the high numbers of students pursuing history and english teaching degrees at the institution. the four participants discussed were part of a larger sample of eight tcs who consented to participate. see table 1. table 1 demographic information for tcs name gender l1 fieldwork experiences content area placement site jill f english 2 history high school a carly f english 2 english high school b lucas m english 3 history high school a felix m english 3 history high school b jill, carly, lucas, and felix were chosen for this article because they completed field experiences at diverse suburban high schools with similarly large populations of cld students who might benefit from explicit instruction in ae. jill and lucas were placed at high school a, located in a town that had seen a recent influx of immigrants from central america. latinx students comprised 34% of the student body at the high school. the high school population included 39.4% first language not english (flne) students with 11.7% of the student body classified as english language learner (ell) students. felix and carly were placed at high school b, located in a city with a large asian population. asian students accounted for 54.3% of the population of this high school. students classified as flne accounted for 47.2% of the student body and 12.3% of students were classified as ell. data sources data sources for this research included a completed lesson planning worksheet (appendix), a written lesson plan, an observed lesson, and an interview. the lesson planning worksheet was designed to be a scaffold for tcs to identify the functions and features of ae that they would need to teach to students. a tc would be expected to complete this lesson planning worksheet alongside their actual lesson plan for the placement classroom. the corresponding lesson plan was also collected. lesson plans were submitted in the format used by the teacher education program; all of the lesson plans contained the same elements in the same order: standards, 106 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 content and language objectives, a description of the lesson’s assessment, and the procedure (the step-by-step explanation of how the lesson would be taught). lessons would be observed in person by the researcher whenever possible. the audio of each lesson was recorded. the researcher would also take notes as the lesson was taught. the interviews with the tcs were audiorecorded as well. in the first part of the interview, tcs were asked to engage in a think-aloud. the think-aloud was utilized as a way to illustrate how tcs verbalized the process of identifying the ae present in their content area lessons and how they might apply their knowledge as they plan. in the second part of the interview, the tcs were asked questions about the lesson they taught; they were asked for clarification or explanation of any instances in which they discussed features of ae with students. in the third section of the interview, tcs reflected on what they learned from the training session. data collection the research was conducted in the undergraduate secondary teacher education program at a private university located in a suburb of a large city in the northeastern united states. in this program, tcs must complete three required pre-practicum experiences before their full practicum experience. in these pre-practicum experiences, they are assigned to work with one or more supervising practitioners at a school site. each tc also has a university supervisor, often a graduate student from the education program, who is responsible for observing and supporting the tc during the experience. tcs are required to plan and teach a certain number of lessons in each of the three pre-practicum placements: two lessons in their first placement, three lessons in their second, and four lessons in their third. the intervention studied in this research was the mandatory training session for all secondary tcs who were planning to complete a pre-practicum experience. all tcs in the secondary (grades 8-12) education program completing a pre-practicum placement were required to attend a two-hour training session about teaching ae in the content areas. in these interactive workshops, tcs were taught a process for identifying the features of ae present in their content area lessons and planning instruction of those features in their lessons. tcs were instructed to bring a lesson plan which they had previously planned and taught with them to the training session. in the training session, the process of using the lesson planning worksheet was modeled. after the teacher educator modeled each step of the process using a sample lesson, the tcs practiced that step using the lesson plan they had brought. the workshops were conducted with small groups of students so that students received individualized attention from the instructor as they identified ae features in their lesson plans. as a first step toward identifying the linguistic features present in content area tasks, tcs were asked to classify each instance in which students were asked to use or understand ae in their lesson plans as a listening, speaking, reading, and/or writing demand. after determining the two most important language demands in the lesson, they named the language functions (such as explain, describe, define, and compare) that best described the tasks. tcs then decided 107 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 what language features at the word, sentence, and discourse-level needed to be used in completing those tasks. word-level features were categorized into two types: general academic words used across content areas and technical words used in a specific discipline. to describe sentence-level structures, students engaged in a brainstorm to think about what are some of the features that are important to writing a correct sentence. typical responses included verb forms or tenses, nouns, article use, commas, and periods. discourse-level structures were defined as the amount and quality of language as well as coherence. the example provided for tcs was the typical paragraph structure taught to students: a topic sentence, three sentences that support the topic, and a concluding sentence. there is a specified amount of language (five sentences) and an expected organization (topic sentence, three details and a conclusion). finally, to reinforce the idea that tcs were responsible for teaching these language features to students, tcs were shown both how to create specific language objectives naming these required features and how to explicitly describe how they would teach the features of ae they identified in the lesson procedure section of their lesson plan. the tcs consented to be observed teaching one lesson in their placement classrooms. they were asked to submit via email the lesson plan and lesson planning worksheet for this lesson the night before they taught it. three of the four lessons taught were observed in person; lucas’s lesson was taught at the same time as another participant’s lesson so lucas recorded his own lesson using a provided digital recorder. recordings of the lessons were transcribed before each tc was interviewed. each tc sat for an interview as soon after he/she taught the observed lesson as possible; the length of time between the teaching of the observed lesson and the interview varied from 24 hours to four days. interviews were digitally recorded and then transcribed. data analysis the purpose for collecting the lesson planning worksheet and lesson plan was to determine what tcs identified in terms of features of ae and to what extent they incorporated those features of ae into their lesson plans. these written documents were analyzed using a researcher-created recording sheet. on these sheets, there were spaces to record exactly what tcs wrote on these documents as well as charts in which the number of identifications they made could be recorded. using the recording sheet also provided a way to determine the extent to which tcs incorporated features of ae into their lesson plan. tcs had been instructed in the training session to name specific features of ae in the language objective(s) and then describe how they would teach those features to students in the lesson procedure section of the lesson plan. if a tc had named specific features of ae in a lesson plan, it was noted on the recording sheet if the tc included the features of ae in the language objective(s), in the lesson procedure section, or both. since tcs were asked to supply their own identifications, their responses on the lesson planning worksheet and lesson plan varied greatly in wording and specificity, leaving room for 108 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 judgment in terms of categorizing these identifications. a second rater, a doctoral student with a background in linguistics and some familiarity with the concept of ae from her experience both as a research assistant and as a grader for the teaching cld students course, was engaged in the analysis. the criteria used to categorize identifications was reviewed and that criteria was used to evaluate the identifications on one document together. once agreement had been reached on the responses on that document, both raters would then fill out the recording sheet, evaluating a set number of documents independently and stopping to compare categorizations. discrepancies in categorization were discussed, and, for each discrepancy, each explained their reasons for placing the identification in that category. previous decisions regarding categorization were discussed to help in coming to consensus on a category. a constructivist grounded theory approach was used to code the transcripts of the observed lessons and interviews of the tcs (charmaz, 2000). the goal in analyzing these data sources was to discover how the tcs described their approaches to the process of identifying and teaching ae in actual lessons that they created and taught. grounded theory was used to conduct the analysis of the lessons and interviews because, according to charmaz (2006), the use of grounded theory “reduce[s] the likelihood that researchers merely superimpose their preconceived notions on the data” (p. 51). transcripts of the lessons and the interviews were coded using qualitative data analysis software. coding began with a line by line process for the interview transcripts. whenever possible in vivo codes were utilized. these codes included “naming functions and features is harder”, “never gotten feedback from supervisor about language”, “thinking about the words i’m saying”, and “seeing academic language is an additive-type thing”. with all of the documents coded, codes within each case were examined and compared first in order to get a sense of the tcs’ full experience of planning and teaching and how he/she chose to describe this experience. then the focused coding phase (charmaz, 2006) was begun: a complete list of action codes from the lesson and the interviews was compiled, along with the excerpts to which they were assigned. from these action codes, ideas about the processes in which tcs engaged as they planned and taught lessons as well as the factors that influenced those processes began to take shape. the different aspects of the process and the influential factors tcs discussed became the selective codes. these selective codes included “writing language objectives”, “incorporating supervisor feedback on academic language”, and “defining vocabulary words”. at this point in the process, memo writing (charmaz, 2000) was utilized. when a theme was perceived to be emerging in the data, a memo exploring what had been found and how it related to the questions about tcs’ planning and teaching of lessons was written. in writing these memos, explanations of the themes became clearer. after exploring the data and writing in this way, the selective codes were then grouped into three big categories: “planning”, “teaching”, and “assessing student learning”. these categories helped to explain the process that tcs were enacting as they planned and taught their lessons and allowed for the inclusion of tcs’ reflections on the process and on students’ learning of ae in their lessons. as the analysis 109 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 continued, the codes and memos were considered as aspects of the answers to the research questions regarding the presence of ae in the planning and teaching of these lessons and the influence that the training and any other factors may have had on tcs’ planning and teaching processes. in terms of triangulation, creswell (2008) wrote that reinforcement of observations may be built through “corroborating evidence from different individuals (e.g. a principal and student), types of data (e.g. observational fieldnotes and interviews), or methods of data collection” (p. 266). in this research design, triangulation was employed in the categorization of the identifications that tcs made on lesson plans and lesson planning worksheets. employing a second rater offered another perspective on how the identifications should be categorized, which helped to guard against the subjectivity that comes with having designed and delivered the trainings. the research design provided opportunities to collect data from different sources using different methods. the qualitative data included observational data in the form of the lesson as well as an interview with the participants. the data from these two sources were combined for the purpose of explaining tcs’ planning and teaching process. two written data sources, the worksheet and the lesson plan, were included in order to create a complete description of the tcs’ planning and teaching of the lesson results and discussion in reference to the first research question, while all four tcs identified specific features of ae that they could teach to students on their lesson planning worksheets, not all of the tcs taught features of ae in their observed lessons. jill and lucas did not teach any features of ae, while felix and carly each taught at least one feature. no teaching of ae in the lesson jill. jill, an aspiring history teacher, was completing her second pre-practicum experience. she planned for students to work in small groups to read and answer questions about a world war i poem and then share their answers with the whole class. all groups were expected to name the tone of the poem, whether it was pro-war or anti-war, what point of view the poem was told from. on her lesson planning worksheet, jill had identified several specific features of ae students would need to use or understand: the terms tone, pro/anti-war, point of view, reliability, and validity and the sentence starters “this poem is pro/anti-war because”, “the tone of this poem is”, and “this poem is written from the point of view”. jill did not include any of these features of ae in her written lesson plan. when she taught the lesson, jill read one poem with the students and asked them the types of questions that they would later answer in their groups. while presenting the assignment to students, jill used the terms tone, pro/anti-war, and point of view but she did not define or explain these terms for students. despite the fact that she had identified specific 110 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 sentence starters for students to use when she completed the lesson planning worksheet, she told students when they asked that they did not need to answer the questions in complete sentences. she thought that requiring complete sentences would not have necessarily made any difference, because she didn’t think “it would have changed the message of what they were writing down.” when asked in the interview about students’ ability to complete the assignment she designed, she said that students had difficulty determining “whether or not you could really use the poem as a valid source.” she cited an example of one student who “didn’t understand that because [the poet] was a doctor and he was well known in the society that, therefore, he would really be respected and people would believe him more.” when asked if she thought the student did not understand what she meant by valid, she replied, “what he most struggled with was reliability, because he was missing the fact that the poet was a doctor and he was well respected.” she was focused only on the application of the terms validity and reliability to the questions students needed to answer. she did not connect students’ struggles to answer these questions to larger issues of ae proficiency, including knowledge of the terms valid and reliable as she was using them in this lesson. lucas. lucas was completing his third and final pre-practicum experience at the same diverse, suburban high school where jill was teaching. lucas’s eleventh-grade history lesson featured two activities. first, in the simulation activity, which his supervising practitioner designed, students were grouped into “depression families” of different sizes, given a budget of $7 to buy food for their family, and instructed to make a grocery list and fill in a menu chart. on the lesson planning worksheet, lucas had indicated that students should complete the list in an “organized fashion”, but he did not name any particular way in which students should organize the lists. he explained, “any way they organized it would have been fine so long as it was organized in some fashion.” in his lesson plan, he reiterated this non-specific organizational requirement in the language objective, which stated that students will “create a shopping list for groceries they’ll need to feed a family for a week in an appropriate style with items listed in an organized fashion.” delivering the instructions for this activity was really the only instance in the teaching of this lesson when lucas addressed the whole class, and he did not tell students that they should organize the list. when asked why he did not bring up the idea of organization, lucas admitted that the activity had not been designed by him. one of the problems with this lesson was that i was using a pre-made worksheet my ct had given to me. had i been making the worksheet myself, these instructions would have been included right in there. i would have stated out in writing, “be sure to organize things in some way. you can decide how you want to as long as it’s done.” the other language-based task described in lucas’s lesson plan is an exit ticket in which students would express their feelings about the simulation in which they had participated. this 111 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 assessment was the only aspect of the lesson that lucas created himself. on the lesson planning worksheet, lucas named several specific features of ae that students should use in their exit ticket responses: “transitions words like ‘because’, sentence starters such as ‘i feel’ or ‘i think’ or ‘i’m of the opinion that’, a strong opening sentence that explains what the paragraph will be about, and a strong closing that makes the reader reflect.” while his language objective did not include any of these specific features, just below the language objective, in the section that asks tcs to describe how they plan to assess students’ attainment of the objective, lucas wrote, “students will write a five-sentence paragraph exit ticket expressing how they felt with a main idea at the beginning of the paragraph, an explanation/defense of their feelings, and a strong closing that makes the reader think or reflect.” in his interview, lucas demonstrated how he would have told students about the features of ae they needed to use when completing their exit ticket. everyone take out a piece of paper. i would like you to write a 5 sentence paragraph on how you felt during this activity, how it might have changed your views. i want it to start off strong, really set up your argument. defend it throughout. and in the closing don’t just restate what’s already been stated. say something new and try to make it leave me thinking. he was demonstrating how he would have introduced the assignment, because students were not asked to complete this assignment during the lesson. lucas explained, “my ct didn’t tell me but he was handing out books, so he handed them out and they had to write down the page numbers and that took 15 minutes. unfortunately with that, there wasn’t time.” lucas had tried to plan the lesson so that he would have time at the end for the exit ticket, but his supervising practitioner’s decision to hand out books interfered with his plan. lucas realized that changes should be made to the lesson to ensure that students would be aware of the features of ae they were expected to use. he listed the revisions that he would make if he taught the lesson again. i probably would retype the activity myself as i said with the listing. i would have the ae goals clearly stated to try to get more organized lists. i would try to shorten the activity a bit to make sure i had time to get to the activity, the exit ticket, in the end. i also would type up the directions for the exit ticket on a piece of paper and hand those out to students as opposed to going over it, as opposed to just saying it. teaching of ae in the lesson felix. felix’s tenth-grade history lesson on the congress of vienna consisted of a lecture with multiple “turn and talk” opportunities, a vocabulary activity, and an exit ticket. felix added the vocabulary activity, which was designed to deepen students’ understanding of the word alliance, to his lesson after he realized that the lesson planning worksheet asked for tcs to identify features of ae for two important uses of language in the lesson plan. the vocabulary 112 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 activity required students to “brainstorm with a partner, and come up with 2 synonyms, 2 antonyms, and 2 famous examples of alliances”. felix was not sure where he got the idea for this vocabulary teaching strategy he used in his lesson, but he said that generating synonyms and antonyms seemed like a good exercise for this word. at the end of class, students were assigned an exit ticket, which asked them to compare europe before and after the congress of vienna. on the lesson planning worksheet, felix listed several specific features of ae that students should use in their comparison, the words “before, after, whereas, both”, the sentence level structure “before the congress of vienna _____, whereas after the congress of vienna _____”, and the discourse-level requirement of a fivesentence response. he did not mention these specific features either in his lesson plan or during his teaching of this lesson. in the lesson plan, there is a language objective that corresponds to the completion of this exit ticket but it states that students will complete the exit ticket “using compare and contrasting words”. in his lesson plan, the directions for the exit ticket stated that students needed to answer “[i]n a short paragraph (3-5 sentences).” when felix asked the students to complete the exit ticket at the end of class, he informed students of this requirement. in assessing the exit tickets, felix found that all students wrote at least three sentences, and “[m]ost of them actually went five which is great.” he did not find that students used any comparing and contrasting words, the feature of language he had included in his language objective. i guess in the exit tickets that they don’t really reflect that like, “before the congress of vienna”. it was just like “the congress of vienna did this” or “this happened” so i guess it wasn’t really a true comparison. he was aware that he had not actually modeled the language he had included in the language objective. felix felt that both modeling the sentence structure and providing a written reminder on the exit ticket assignment would encourage more students to use the language of comparison and, therefore, help them to create stronger comparison sentences. despite the fact that felix explained how he had used the lesson planning worksheet to help him create language-based activities and identify features of ae that he would teach, he still felt that there was a disconnect between being able to identify features of ae and actually teaching those features to students. when asked if there was anything that the teacher education program could do to help him bridge the gap between identifying and teaching ae, he seemed convinced that the responsibility was his. “you guys have shown how important it is. but i guess it’s just on me to focus more explicitly on it and incorporate it.” carly. carly, in her second pre-practicum experience, had the same placement site and the same supervisor as felix. her tenth-grade english lesson incorporated two activities in which students needed to understand or use shakespearean language. in the first activity, students needed to “retell an excerpt from romeo and juliet in their own words,” which is how the task is described in the first language objective in her lesson plan. carly wrote in her lesson plan that she would “project on the board definitions of the ‘tricky’ words in the dialogue” to help 113 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 students as they rewrote the scene in their own words. as she had written in the lesson procedure, during the lesson she showed students a power point slide with the “tricky” words, which were wherefore, art, thou, thy, wilt, ‘tis, and thyself, and their modern-day equivalents; she read these pairs of words aloud to students. the second language objective written in the lesson plan described the other activity planned for this lesson, in which students “compose their own dialogue using shakespearean language in pairs by writing a conversation with five lines of dialogue using six of the common shakespeare words, two pronouns, two adverbs or nouns or verbs, and two greetings.” carly planned to both explain the instructions and use an example she created to model the process of creating the dialogues for her students. she projected two versions of a three-line dialogue that she had written, one in modern language and one using shakespearean words and phrases. she used a think-aloud procedure to explain to students how she translated her original dialogue by substituting the modern words and phrases for words and phrases from the list. so i used one of the greetings that’s on the sheet that says how fares and then the person’s name. that means “how are you”, so i just changed it to “how fares my friend?” and then i looked at the response. good can stay the same. and then on the sheet and it says for slowly he uses but soft. so it says “how soft doth school seem”. doth means does, so i kind of had to change the way that i said the second line. it’s still basically what i said just using his words. carly explained in her interview that she felt that it was the appropriate scaffold to use to assist the students in this class completing the task. it actually is a strategy that i learned in that class the teaching bilingual students one. . . i think sometimes it’s beneficial for all students, but especially students that are ell or special needs, to see how it’s modeled or how the thinking process that goes behind it. carly felt that students were fairly successful in using the required features of ae. all the dialogues all had five lines, and all of the pairs had used the two greetings and two pronouns, as they were instructed. however, she had noticed that they struggled to use the “other words” from the first section correctly. “most of them had those types of elements, but as i was reading through them some of them didn’t make sense.” carly explained why she thought they might have struggled with this task. [t]hey didn’t understand that they would have to change the structure of the sentence that they wrote in english to fit the word in shakespearean language, which i tried to model in my think-aloud. one of the phrases i had i changed to fit the word. but if they didn’t understand how you would change it, they just put the word into the sentence. she had originally wanted to spend some time during the lesson going over the parts of speech and how they are used in sentences so that students would understand not just that they needed to use these different types of words in their dialogues but how to use the words 114 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 correctly. however, she explained, “i couldn’t, when i was planning the lesson, find a good time to incorporate it into that with the content my ct wanted me to cover.” implementing instruction in ae as carter et al. (2016) and townsend (2015) found, the ability to identify features of ae does not necessarily lead to teaching ae. based on the descriptions of the planning and teaching processes of these four tcs, it became clear that the training session had some impact on tcs’ ability to identify features of ae but did not necessarily lead to the tcs actually teaching features of ae in their content area lesson. factors that impact the teaching of ae to answer the second research question, it was necessary to examine the tcs’ reflections on their lesson planning and implementation. for felix and carly, having taken the course on teaching cld students seemed to impact their implementation of language instruction. carly had taken the required course on teaching cld students in the spring semester of the previous school year, when the researcher was the course instructor. felix was enrolled in the same semester in which this research was conducted; the instructor of the course was also his prepracticum supervisor. in their observed lessons, both tcs implemented strategies that are taught in this course: the think-aloud procedure utilized by carly and the vocabulary activity implemented by felix. although only carly reported that she had learned about the strategy she used in the course, it is likely that felix learned the strategy he used in the course as well, since the exercise he implemented is an exact match for the way in which the four-square vocabulary template is taught. as the studies by willett and correa (2014) and schall-leckrone and mcquillan (2012) found, knowledge of practical strategies for teaching language may make tcs more likely to actually implement instruction in ae. the course also seemed to provide tcs with an understanding that all cld students, whether they are classified as el or not, require instruction in ae. tcs who had taken the course based their decisions to teach ae on the presence of cld students, not just el students, in their placement classrooms. carly had noticed that there were students with diverse linguistic backgrounds at the school, as she remarked in her interview, “i’ve noticed there’s a high asian population at that school. i’ve noticed some kids even in honors and ap classes that struggle with speaking english.” although carly had asked her supervising practitioner who the ell students in the class were, as she thought there might be a few, her supervising practitioner had not provided her with that information. when her supervising practitioner did not provide her with the requested information, carly went ahead with teaching features of ae anyway. similarly, even though felix did not feel that he had seen students struggling with language in the class in which he taught, he knew that “there are some students that speak a different language at home.” despite his belief that there were no ells in his class, he incorporated instruction in features of ae. as carly did, he based his instructional decisions on his perceptions of who his students were. both carly and felix seemed to recognize that they were teaching in 115 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 “new mainstream” (enright, 2011) classrooms in which students from different linguistic backgrounds with varied exposure to ae rely on instruction in both content and language to access the curriculum. the tcs who did not teach features of ae expressed little recognition of student diversity beyond the identification of ells. despite the diversity of the overall school population, jill’s supervising practitioner had told her there were no ell students in the class in which she taught this lesson. she said in her interview: i think if i was working specifically with ell students then i probably would have said, yes, use complete sentences to really enforce the language objective. but because the students weren’t ell students, i didn’t really think about trying to also enforce this language objective upon them. it seemed that jill believed only ells would require language instruction. lucas reported that his class had “really no ells”. however, considering the diversity of the student population at their placement school, there were likely cld students in both his and jill’s classes who would have benefitted from instruction in ae in their history classes. the need for support and coaching from mentors in planning and implementing instruction in ae discussed by author (2014), he et al. (2018), and meier et al. (2020) was illustrated by the findings of this study as well. the tcs who taught features of ae worked with a mentor who was able to support them in identifying and teaching language features. felix and carly’s supervisor was one of the instructors of the required course on teaching cld students. as she guided the tcs in their lesson planning process, she offered support and advice on how to integrate the teaching of language into their lessons. both tcs described receiving feedback from her about their language objectives, in which she reminded them to include specific features of ae in their objectives. on the lesson planning worksheet, carly named as a wordlevel feature, “at least six words that were common in shakespeare’s time”. however, carly’s supervisor told her that this description of the vocabulary could be more specific. carly recalled that she “changed it from originally just have them use 6 words to having them use 2 of the different types of words [pronouns; adverbs, nouns, or verbs; and greetings] which was her suggestion.” this supervisor also told felix that, in his language objectives, he needed to “specifically refer to the language that students are expected to use and that you have to teach to them.” he added the phrase “using comparing and contrasting words” based on his supervisor’s comment that his original language objective was not specific enough. in the end, he was not sure that this change had matched what she wanted him to do. “so did i make the change? i guess i really didn’t make too much of change but i added using compare and contrast words. . . i guess i’m still a little up in the air, confused”. while felix’s revision may not have been successful in that he neither taught nor required the use of the features he stated in the objective, the feedback his supervisor provided did make him focus on language and language use in his lesson. 116 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 jill and lucas had different supervising practitioners but the same supervisor. in planning the lesson, jill reported receiving no help from her supervising practitioner or supervisor. when lucas was asked if he received any help from anyone in planning his lessons, he replied, “i didn’t really get any comments at all”. however, lucas later explained that the lesson activity, a simulation designed to teach students about how the great depression affected poor families, had been entirely created by his supervising practitioner. he had added the exit ticket, which students were not asked to complete during the implementation of the lesson due to his supervising practitioner’s decision to distribute books instead. lucas’s supervising practitioner not only planned the lesson but also chose to alter the lesson plan as it was being enacted. the experiences of these four tcs illustrate what feiman nemser and buchmann (1985) described in their work on the “pitfalls of experience”. the "two worlds" pitfall acknowledges that teacher education goes on in two distinct settings, the university and the field, and that tcs need assistance to understand how the knowledge that they are learning through coursework should be applied to the actual practice of teaching. unlike what felix said in his interview, it is not “just on [tcs] to focus more explicitly on it and incorporate it”. tcs need the support of supervisors who can assist them as they apply their knowledge about teaching ae to their own discipline-specific practice. in this research, felix and carly, the tcs who received feedback related to language teaching from a supervisor, did teach language in their lessons. jill and lucas, who did not receive this type of feedback, did not integrate any language teaching into their lessons. additionally, lucas replicated the exact practices of his supervising practitioner, illustrating the “cross purposes” pitfall. in classrooms, the goal of helping tcs learn to teach is often subordinated to the desire of supervising practitioners to maintain the routines and practices that they have established for their students (feiman nemser & buchmann, 1985). lucas was instructed to enact his supervising practitioner’s teaching practices uncritically, a danger of fieldwork experiences highlighted by sleeter (2008) who warned that teacher education programs must be careful to prepare teachers “who do not simply replicate prevailing practices” (p. 568). in lucas’s experience, a vicious cycle in teacher preparation was repeated, a cycle in which tcs continue to enact the teaching practices currently accepted in school, most of which offer cld students no opportunities to learn ae and improve their educational outcomes. felix and carly, in addition to receiving the training described in this study, also previously learned about teaching cld students and received support in incorporating ae into their lesson plans from their pre-practicum supervisor. jill and lucas had neither the prior knowledge nor the support of a mentor to guide them in the teaching of ae. the findings of this study suggest that program coherence providing tcs with the knowledge and the support required for implementing language instruction in the training, their university coursework, and their collaboration with supervisors and supervising practitioners was more influential on the tcs’ implementation of instruction in ae than any one factor on its own. 117 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 darling-hammond (2006) wrote, “[i]t is impossible to teach people how to teach powerfully by asking them to imagine what they have never seen or to suggest they ‘do the opposite’ of what they have observed in the classroom” (p. 308). while the support of a supervisor who was able to assist tcs as they were learning to identify and teach features of ae seemed to make a difference, the tcs in this study did not observe in-service high school teachers implementing lessons that incorporated the teaching of ae. the ideal situation for preparing tcs to incorporate language instruction into their content area lessons would include both university supervisors who can help tcs identify features of ae and supervising practitioners who can model lessons in which content and language are taught simultaneously. for this reason, it would be beneficial for teacher education programs to provide their university supervisors and supervising practitioners with professional development opportunities that would allow them to assist the tcs with whom they work in adopting effective teaching practices that support the academic achievement of all students. additionally, offering this type of professional development and coaching to supervising practitioners may help them to plan and implement effective instruction in features of ae, instruction that would benefit the cld students in their classes. conclusion more research on the development of language knowledge involving larger groups of tcs with more diversity in terms of content area, as well as longitudinal studies focused on individual tc’s development of language knowledge during their time in teacher education programs, is necessary. there is also a need for research on what the university supervisors and supervising practitioners who work with tcs in their high school fieldwork placements know about teaching ae and how initiatives designed to provide them knowledge about teaching ae might impact their work with tcs. tcs must be supported in their efforts to integrate the teaching of ae into their lessons by university supervisors and supervising practitioners who themselves have both knowledge about teaching ae and the understanding of the responsibility of all teachers to provide instruction in ae. offering professional development initiatives designed to build this knowledge would both better prepare them to serve as mentors for tcs who are learning to integrate the teaching of ae into the content area lessons and help them begin to integrate the teaching of ae into their own classrooms, which would provide cld students in these mainstream classrooms with the language instruction they need to be successful in school. it is the responsibility of teacher education programs to prepare the teachers of tomorrow for the students who will populate their classrooms. however, the cld students of today can not wait for those new teachers to take over. by offering opportunities for in-service teachers to develop the knowledge about language necessary to teach ae in their mainstream classes, teacher education programs can ensure that the change begins now. 118 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 references anstrom, k., dicerbo, p., butler, f., katz, a., millett, j., & rivera, c. 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(2005). enhancing the development of students’ language(s). in l. darling-hammond & j. bransford (eds.), preparing teachers for a changing world: what teachers should learn and be able to do (pp. 126-168). san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. willett, j., & correa, d. (2014). on making language visible: reciprocal learning in a professional development alliance. in j. nagle (ed.) creating collaborative learning communities to improve english learner instruction: college faculty, school teachers, and pre-service teachers learning together in the 21st century (pp. 157-71). charlotte, nc: information age. zacarian, d. (2013). mastering academic language: a framework for supporting student achievement. thousand oaks, ca: corwin. http://www.academia.edu/1024876/snow_c._e._and_uccelli_p._2009_._the_challenge_of_academic_language._olson_d._r._and_n._torrance_eds_._the_cambridge_handbook_of_literacy_pp._112-133._cambridge_uk_cambridge_university_press http://www.academia.edu/1024876/snow_c._e._and_uccelli_p._2009_._the_challenge_of_academic_language._olson_d._r._and_n._torrance_eds_._the_cambridge_handbook_of_literacy_pp._112-133._cambridge_uk_cambridge_university_press http://www.academia.edu/1024876/snow_c._e._and_uccelli_p._2009_._the_challenge_of_academic_language._olson_d._r._and_n._torrance_eds_._the_cambridge_handbook_of_literacy_pp._112-133._cambridge_uk_cambridge_university_press 121 jcsr 2021, 3(2):100-121 appendix – lesson planning worksheet identifying and teaching the language of your lesson what are students doing during this lesson in terms of language? listening speaking reading writing what are the two most important uses of language for students in this lesson? why? 1. 2. language functions and features 1. function: features of that function i could teach: word-level sentence-level discourse-level 2. function: features of that function i could teach: word-level sentence-level discourse-level language objectives 1. 2. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 volume: 4 issue: 1 2022 pp. 18-30 let him use you: southern womanism, utterance, and saint katharine drexel’s educational philosophy berlisha roketa morton* * phd, independent researcher, new orleans, louisiana, united states email: berlisha@gmail.com article info received: october 16, 2021 revised: january 8, 2022 accepted: january 21, 2022 how to cite morton, b. r. (2022). let him use you: southern womanism, utterance, and saint katharine drexel’s educational philosophy. journal of curriculum studies research, 4(1), 1830. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.3 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract southern womanism recognizes the socio-historic ways in which black women’s intellectual subjectivity has been suppressed, and the womanish ways in which their intellectual subjectivity is expressed. utterance is a complex intersection of art, spirituality, and pedagogy. in this scholarship, utterance is used as a methodological tool to show how saint katharine drexel worked to develop her educational philosophy alongside her journey in faith and theological and spiritual motherhood. as such, this scholarship continues the lifelong work of father cyprian davis by acknowledging the african roots of catholicism and the existence of an afro-catholic diaspora in which the histories and experiences of black catholics are not isolated incidents, whimsical memories, or anecdotal musings. instead, they are testimonies to the socio-religious agency of the black catholic community. in the afro-catholic diaspora, saint katharine drexel is a beloved witness to the beautiful, mystical, and complex nature of self-determined black catholic education intermingled with the magical spirituality of new orleans, louisiana. keywords black women’s studies; southern womanism; utterance; black catholic education; black catholics; afro-futurism. 10.46303/jcsr.2022.3 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2022.12 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 19 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 introduction just over twenty years have passed since the woman born in philadelphia, pennsylvania as catherine mary drexel was canonized in rome as saint katharine drexel. drexel scouted locations, purchased land and buildings (often under assumed names), picked out materials, crafted floor plans, and designed buildings for the sole purpose of creating spaces for black and indigenous people to self-actualize in ways which honored their ancestral memories, histories, and expressions of catholicism. for black catholics living in communities where drexel and her sisters of the blessed sacrament built churches and schools, she is known as mother katharine. actually, a simple reference of “mother” will evoke a communion of warmth among african ascendants in the afro-catholic diaspora. dillard (2012) uses the term “ascendent” to describe african diasporic people as an upward and forward moving people that are ascending, and not descending, from their ancestral roots (p. ix). this term is deliberately used to describe black catholics in the united states because they continue to exist and persist in a country where their contributions to catholicism have been marginalized to the point of near invisibility. black catholics in the united states are not anomalies; they are african ascendents within the afrocatholic diaspora. purpose outside of the afro-catholic diaspora, mother katharine’s work within black catholic communities exists on a two-dimensional plane, with two opposing axes of scholarship which are both rooted in epistemological traditions which unintentionally -and in some instances, intentionally -diminish the socio-religious agency of black catholics. on one axis, her work with the black catholic community is woven into hagiographic narratives of salvation and conversion. in these narratives, she brought christ to millions of black, unchurched masses upon the collapse of reconstruction, the beginning of the jim crow era and thereafter. on the other axis, she is a paternalistic missionary who imposed the u.s. catholic church’s jim crow policies on black education in the south. in their very nature, historical research processes are expressions of collective nostalgia of romanticized, widely accepted institutional narratives. from this perspective, they are limited in their ability to offer solutions to current educational crises. however, this scholarship suggests that approaching historical educational research from a southern womanist lens (morton, 2014; morton, 2016a.; morton, 2016b.) can have a direct impact on the field of educational research in general, and education policy in particular. as a theoretical perspective and methodological tool, southern womanism continues the life-long work of father cyprian davis by acknowledging the african roots of catholicism and the existence of an afro-catholic diaspora. this scholarship invites readers into the afro-catholic diaspora where the histories and experiences of black catholics in the united states are not isolated incidents, whimsical memories, or anecdotal musings. instead, they are testimonies of the socio-religious agency of the black catholic community. in the afro-catholic diaspora, mother katharine is neither hero 20 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 nor villain; she is a beloved witness of the movement for self-determined black catholic education. and, as a witness to this self-determination, mother katharine experienced a shift from being a missionary to unchurched black souls to becoming an accomplice to the holistic survival of black people -mind, body, and spirit. theories southern womanism allows space for spirit within the research process. space for spirit is particularly important for historical researchers whose intellectual identities have been marginalized in academe. for these researchers, their work is part of a broader process of healing epistemological wounds, unbinding their scholarship from anti-black/anti-feminine epistemologies, and freeing their intellectual ancestors (morton, 2016b.; dillard, 2012; edwards, 2010; salami, 2020). blurring the lines between theory and method, southern womanism recognizes the socio-historic ways in which black women’s intellectual subjectivity has been suppressed, and the womanish ways in which their intellectual subjectivity is expressed (morton, 2016b.; morton, 2016a.). to access this knowledge, the research process must be reimagined as an onto-epistemological space where the subjectivity of the black divine feminine can be accessed through with methods associated with afrofuturism and through the writings of authors of the black southern renaissance -jesmyn ward (2017), kiese laymon (2018), eddie s. glaude, jr., (2020), regina n. bradley (2021), tressie mcmillan cottom (2021). southern womanism gives researchers a process to free themselves from collective nostalgia, and essentially, free their intellectual ancestors from the bondage of being framed in pictures where they are gazed upon as mere historical objectives. southern womanism understands that to see beyond the framed picture, researchers must look at their history with their soul. when the soul is allowed to look beyond the frame, the mind is then compelled to search for the intellectual wisdom of its ancestors in a dance of reason and spirit. kiese laymon explained this phenomena on darnell moore’s podcast being seen when he said, “sometimes, we gotta get out of the super structure and down to the narrow, and we cannot get anymore narrow than the specificity of the body...i think we have to let all this lush theory guide us back to the origin, and then let the origin magnify and broaden the theory” (moore, 2020). in this sense, our bodies become archives -living sites of ancestral memory. and in this living archive, utterance is the grace which allows southern womanism to blur the lines between theory and method. utterance makes what is tangible in the supernatural realm of the black southern divine feminine apparent to those who want to be invited in (moore, 2018) to the material world of justice work. utterance is a complex intersection of art, spirituality, and pedagogy (morton, 2016a., p. 750). utterance is an onto-epistemological process in which spiritual wisdom morphed into selfprotective phrases used by black enslaved and domestic women to protect themselves from the egregious emotional, mental, physical, and sexual violence they experienced in their homes and workplaces (p. 750). in this sense, phrases such as, ‘you can’t see for lookin’ and ‘ima feed him 21 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 with a long-handled spoon,’ become lusher than folk knowledge; they are the theoretical underpinnings of phenomenological experiences for people who find themselves in southernized spaces -i.e., spaces of hostile collective nostalgia, gross educational disinvestment, sanctioned resource scarcity, and fervent religiosity. southern womanism and utterance allows for a more complex and nuanced exploration of mother katherine’s work in black catholic education because in acknowledging the afrocatholic diaspora, it also acknowledges the presence of black feminine divinity within the diaspora. mainstream studies of black catholicism and hence, black catholic education are overwhelmingly written from male perspectives which focus on racist patriarchal, hierarchical structures which have served as a hindrance for black men ascending the ranks of the church hierarchy -priest, bishop, archbishop, cardinal, pope (davis, 1990; davis and pope-davis 2017; macgregor, 1999; ochs, 1990; phelps, 1997). similarly, studies written from a feminist post structural analysis turn mother katharine into an outsider within church structure, and the schools and churches she funded become trophies to her successful manipulation of church hierarchy (morton, 2013). as such, the current literature on black catholic education in the south is woefully stuck in a frame of a collective nostalgia with a myopic focus on the forever struggle for black catholics to be seen and supported by the u.s. church (collopy, 2011). these studies are valuable because they provide the foundation for research on black catholic education in the south. but when these studies become the sole source of black catholic literature, the full depth and breadth of the complex nature of black catholic education cannot be fully interrogated because they glaze over and magnify the church’s existential crisis of the role of women in the church. and thereby, ignores the church’s african cosmological roots which includes the presence of black feminine divinity. methods southern womanism uses utterance to make the intangible presence of black feminine divinity apparent in black catholic education in the south. when told through utterance, mother katherine’s life becomes a living archive of tactics and strategies for the advocation of black education in general, and black catholic education in particular. therefore, inquiries as to whether mother katharine’s actions were motivated by paternalism, and racism are irrelevant. what is more valuable for today’s educational landscape is the morrisonian question of not why, but how mother’s existential shift allowed her to move from the space of a missionary to embodying the role of an accomplice to the creation of an educational system that expresses the african roots of catholicism. as such, this scholarship does not try to hide or explain away moments in mother katharine’s history that are perceived as racist or paternal. these moments are part of the white ally's experience when they, like mother katharine, are indoctrinated into social justice ideologies rooted in liberal deficit theories of black education. when utterance is used as a methodological tool, moments in mother katherine’s life - known and not so known -show the work mother katharine did to develop her educational 22 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 philosophy alongside her journey in faith and theological and spiritual motherhood. while these pages do not offer the space to explore the entirety of mother katherine’s history, utterance reveals the most well-known moments in saint katherine drexel lore as an expression of the beautiful, mystical, and complex nature of black catholic education intermingled with the magical spirituality of new orleans, louisiana. results before she was mother mary katherine drexel, she was catherine mary drexel, a grieving woman looking for her beloved parents in the daylight with a candle. you’re gonna be lookin’ for me with a candle in the daylight when i’m gone is an utterance that expresses the temporality of life and the ways in which we take our loved ones’ physical presence for granted. this utterance is a warning that essentially says, “you cannot even comprehend just how much you’re going to miss me and all things i do when i am no longer on this earth.” this utterance is intended to evoke feelings of grief and sadness in the hearer because it visualizes an inconsolable and illogical depth of grief in believing that the light given off by a candle can compete with sunlight. but that little bit of light represents the sad hope that maybe in that little bit of extra light, we can see our loved one just one more time. upon their parent’s untimely deaths, the drexel sisters' grief, and willingness to give freely of themselves and their fortune coincided with the u.s. catholic church’s existential crisis of following rome’s directives against bigotry and racism while fighting american anticatholicism by embracing american bigotry (collopy, 2011). drexel’s transformation from catherine, the heiress, to katharine, the mother, was not a clean break. despite all the machinations she used to separate herself from personally benefiting materially from her wealth, she was still a white woman born of wealth and privilege. specifically, she was a wealthy, white northeastern catholic ensconced in the ethos of catholic social justice dogma. as devout catholics with considerable wealth, the utterance, charity begins at home and spreads abroad was a way of being and knowing for the drexel family. because of their fortune and influence, the drexel family were members of the emerging super-wealthy class of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (morton, 2014). collopy’s detailed history of the american church’s early history illuminates how impactful the holy see’s writings and directives on missions for people of color would have been for the devout and grieving drexel sisters’ intent on honoring their parents through charitable giving. they answered rome’s call for missionaries to first “evangelize african americans...rescue them from the darkness of sin” and second “to improve their social lot” (collopy, 2011, p. 19). it is in this space that the utterance, charity begins at home and spread abroad becomes complex. in southern womanism, charity is defined as kindness to one’s fellow family members which in turn translates to kindness to the human family. charity is understanding that one only survives because of god’s grace and mercy; and to truly be like christ, we give to others from the overflow of grace and mercy in our lives. charity is not a financial gift; it is a gift of love when 23 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 all one has to give is love. and that love is evidence of the living christ. hence, we freely give charity because family extends beyond the household, and community extends beyond the neighborhood (morton, 2016b.). although she was not formally educated, mother katharine was a highly learned woman, and as a devout catholic, she would have read and internalized the holy see’s written directives for missionary zeal. she was a woman of her time and understood her place in the hierarchy and was devoted to her place in the hierarchy. in her early years as a mother of a religious order, mother katherine was mentored by bishops and powerful laymen of the american church and markmann (2012) explains that these men’s tutelage were beyond influential; it was apostolic beyond question. mother katharine existed in this space where she performed intentional philanthropy safely ensconced in the hierarchical patriarchy; that is until the community she was sent on a mission to save made her question the mission. mother katharine was not completely naïve to the delicate threads that connected race, religion, and education as she specifically chose to do the church’s work with black and indigenous people (morton, 2014). however, it was not until she entered new orleans that she began to see that these threads were not woven in black and white (morton, 2014). and more importantly, she began to question exactly what she was spreading abroad. and she learns, the hard way, the meaning of the utterance, what you don’t know will make a whole new world. it is a blunt chastisement that lets the hearer know, “not only do you not know as much as you think you know, actually, you don't know anything.” afro-catholics in new orleans lived in a world of their own making, and they were fiercely protective of their world. the end of the nineteenth century saw afro-catholics in new orleans in a bitter fight against the imposition of an americanized system of segregation which reduced the public rights of new orleanians of color. it was in this environment that new orleans archbishop francis a. janssens invited mother katharine to fund st. katharine’s, the first “negro only” parish (church) in new orleans (morton, 2014). and of course, mother katharine answered the invitation with verve. as to whether or not janssens’s intentions were deliberately, his actions were in line with the american church’s acquiescence to the jim crow policies being enacted in the south (morton, 2013; morton, 2014). afro-catholics in new orleans harshly and publicly criticized mother katharine for being a co-conspirator in the church’s attempt to solve its “negro problem” by enforcing segregation (morton, 2014). prominent afro-catholic leader rudolph l. desdunes eloquently summarized the inherent flaw in her actions in relation to catholic theology in a column for the daily crusader mother katherine has taken the vows of the church, and yet she seems by her actions unconsciously to drift into the channels which lead into errors and contradictions. while christ has established the father-hood [sic] of god and the brotherhood of man, the great mother’s benevolence is being used by destination to destroy the fundamental principle of our religion. if men are divided by, or in, the church, where can they be 24 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 united in the bonds of faith and love of truth and justice? (desdunes, 1895, xavier university archives) this criticism was personally devastating and unsettling for mother katharine because it caused her to question the needs of the souls under her purview versus the needs of the hierarchy. writing in 1966, sister consuela marie duffy of the sisters of the blessed sacrament relayed a reflection from drexel’s personal notebook in which she wrote, “it seems that on sundays, the colored prefer to go to church with the whites” (p. 314). this is often the sentence that scholars select to present mother katharine’s position on the situation; however, mother’s next written lines are also essential: “before archbishop janssens purchased st. katharine’s, the colored asked for a separate church. they retracted but he held them to this first demand” (p. 314). duffy (1966) analyzes mother katharine’s writing as follows we do not have any other evidence of this request made by some of the colored people themselves for a separate church, but a woman as exact and painstaking as mother m. katharine would never have written this unless she had definite facts to justify it. (p. 314) in saint katharine drexel lore, this moment is seen as a faux pas, evidence of the sins regular people encounter on the path to sainthood. however, from a southern womanist perspective, a shift in mother katharine’s understanding of her work is visible. she begins to understand that the drexel money was indispensable to the church’s work, but her body was dispensable. and just as her body was dispensable, so too were the bodies which contained the souls she was charged to save. in the twenty-year period between her first invitation to save souls in new orleans to her opening of xavier university, she begins to understand that real systemic change can only occur through experiencing collective empathy. collective empathy cannot live in blissful cosmetic collective nostalgia; it is only gained by working with community members and experiencing, together, the sweat of fear, the weariness of battle, the sting of antiseptic on wounds, the itchiness of healing, and the grace to get up, yet again, to make a way out of no way. at this moment, stories begin to be documented of mother katherine hiring watchmen to protect the communities where she was building and fighting off the klu klux klan (markmann, 2012; morton, 2013). but more importantly, she begins to understand the true value of her white privilege intermingled with the invisibility of a woman in a nun’s habit. essentially, mother katharine’s greatest asset was her white privilege – her lawyers, her business acumen, her money, her knowledge of banking and real estate, and her knowledge of intentional philanthropy. she used her privilege, and the inattentional blindness the church and society had toward women to create a new supernatural technology to subvert racist systems to create safe spaces for people of color to learn and worship. in this sense, the utterance, you can’t see for lookin’ becomes a tactic mother katharine uses to lay the groundwork for the foundation of xavier university in new orleans. you can’t see for lookin’ refers to how black women’s work is often disturbed (morton, 2016a.) by people’s inability to find things on their own. this inattentional blindness becomes a way of life for people who are not forced to look beyond their own needs while black women 25 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 must always see, and attend to, the needs of everyone around them. mother katharine inverted this tactic to inconspicuously visit the old southern university buildings she wanted to purchase for xavier university without setting off alarm bells that the nun famous for building schools for black people was wandering around the uptown neighborhood -a neighborhood that white new orleanians had decided to claim as their own. this tactic worked, and mother katharine relayed their success in a letter to the sisters at the motherhouse in pennsylvania we went to see the southern university as soon as we had received holy communion and breakfasted…the member of the board who was in an office to the right, to our inquiry as to whether we could look around, said, “yes” in an indifferent kind of way, and he let us go around by ourselves and apparently forgot all about us. (drexel, 1915, xavier university archives) the sale of the old southern university physical plant was finalized on august 14, 1915 (notarial archives, new orleans, louisiana, act 00032). in the sisters of the blessed sacrament convent annals from new orleans, the sisters wrote of their first months in new orleans as well as the first months of what they referred to as the “reopening of southern university.” in the early months of september 1915, they wrote; the colored people are so delighted to have southern back again that they are doing everything to help us. we have received a list of probable students and september 9th has been selected for ‘visitation day’. the sisters will visit these homes even tho [sic] they are strangers in a strange land. (sisters of the blessed sacrament, 1915b., p. 4) as she was in new orleans during this time, mother katharine would have been among the sisters walking the streets and visiting homes in the city (morton, 2014). upon their return, the convent annalist wrote; the sisters were well received in every home and they found the people most refined and seemingly in better circumstances than the colored in the north. we have every reason to believe that we shall have a good attendance as the newspapers have given us splendid write-ups. mother is praying for at least two hundred children, boys too, but only manageable boys. on all sides we hear, ‘you will have plenty scholars’. we are trusting to the lord that this will be the case. (sisters of the blessed sacrament, 1915b, p. 4) the sisters opened xavier university on september 27, 1915. the scholars came, and several of the classrooms were overcrowded (morton,2014). in june 1915, three separate commencement programs were held, and according to the convent annals, “all the exercises were attended” (sisters of the blessed sacrament, 1915b., p. 21). the first program, the baccalaureate service, took place on june 11, 1916, at 8pm. according to the morning star, reverend carl f. schappert, s.s. j., preached the sermon “before a most appreciative audience” (p. 21). on june 15, 1916, forty-six eighth grade students received certificates “entitling them to enter the high school department next fall” (p. 21). at the june 16, 1916, commencement exercise, five students received diplomas from the evening normal class: mr. george carpenter, 26 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 miss beatrice bell, zerita bell, evelyn lachappelle and mrs. pricilla waterhouse. of this ceremony the convent annalist noted [t]he auditorium was packed to capacity in spite of the fact that there was a very heavy rain. we had to send many away and close the doors at eight o’clock. the rain was so heavy that we had to open a few classrooms to give shelter to those who could not be accommodated in the auditorium. (p. 22) the sisters dedicated these words at the end of the 1915 old southern year book; we hope the story of our work at “old southern” may be found written at the hearthstone of thousands of families throughout the length and breadth of new orleans. we hope the story of our work shall be burned into the very lives of devoted catholic and non-catholic, who trained within the walls of ‘old southern,’ shall do their share toward maintaining and perpetuating its holy ideals; and who shall yet offer the tribute of their love to the nuns who trained them in the ways that lead to life. very respectfully yours, the sisters of the blessed sacrament (sisters of the blessed sacrament, 1915a., xavier university archives). discussion a key tenet of catholic education is universality. black protestants and non-church going black folks attended and continue to attend black catholic schools in general, and xavier university in particular. in an evocation of mother katharine’s prayers for justice, christopher parris, sr., quoted the leadership of the national black sisters conference on a facebook post: “education and religion are the first two subversive forces that an oppressed people can use to free themselves. religion is the guts of all human life, it can suppress a people or free a nation” (national black sisters conference, 2021). when mother katharine opened schools for black americans in new orleans, she activated a mystical process. new orleans itself is a metaphysical text. the city is thick with african history, african cosmology, southern gothicism, and black feminine divinity. it is not an accident that xavier university, the first and only black catholic institution in the united states, is in new orleans, louisiana. in philadelphia, mother katharine is encased in stone and xavier university is the jewel of mother katharine’s legacy. however, in new orleans, xavier is alive; and mother katharine lives through her educational philosophy. in philadelphia, the figures of color encased in beautiful shrines to mother kathrine are alive in new orleans; they are living archives of love; they love mother katharine because they know she sweated with their ancestors. and their combined sweat watered the spirit of the afrocatholic diaspora. verily, there would be no xavier university without mother katharine drexel; and there would be no saint katharine drexel without new orleans. it is in new orleans that mother katharine experienced firsthand the problematic nature of the church hierarchy; and it is in new orleans where she saw beyond hierarchy, and looked with soul into the beauty of blackness and saw black joy. the historical line from the mother’s rescuing of the space that became xavier university which continues to the space that educates young black women is not sad, but joyful. in the utterance, they didn’t give us our joy, so they can’t take it, “they” 27 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 refers to white supremacists, sexists, predators, etc. as being no match for the sustainability of black joy. black joy is metaphysical and the material expression of survival. let him use you is an utterance used in black religious spaces where someone overcome with black joy allows god to take over their spirit so they can testify to god’s omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. the primary criticism of drexel’s educational philosophy was her belief in divine providence (morton, 2014). her father’s last will and testament stipulated that if no heirs were ever born to his three daughters, upon the last daughter’s death, the estate funds would be distributed to charity (morton, 2014). when francis drexel died suddenly, he could not have anticipated catherine would become mother mary katharine, founder of xavier university, the centerpiece of a system for black catholic education from pre-school to professional school. fear of the financial sustainability of this system without drexel money induced calls for mother katharine to break her father’s will; yet she did not do it. she truly believed that god would provide for the communities upon her death. when xavier prep, a high school for young catholic women which exists the original grounds of xavier university almost closed in 2013, many saw it as evidence that mother made a grave mistake in not breaking the will. but xavier prep did not close; it was reopened as st. katharine drexel preparatory high school. the school’s survival is evidence that if you let him use you, god will provide. mother’s faithfulness provides a valuable lesson of her educational philosophy. mother believed that the people were church, the material manifestation of the mystical body of christ. the closing of the motherhouse in philadelphia and the closing of churches and schools she founded are not markers of mother’s mistake; instead, they are indicators of church faithful’s misunderstanding of the theology of mother’s educational philosophy. instead of questioning mother’s decision to not break her father’s will, those interested in the survival of black catholic education should be asking themselves, are you letting him use you? mother katharine was a witness to a people whose love for education was rooted in spiritual expressions of black joy. the love black catholics have for mother katharine is witness to this supernatural love. the exchange of love between the afro-catholic diaspora and the woman they call mother is physically palpable in new orleans on xavier’s campus. she saw black joy, and she made the rest of the world see black joy, and she continues to make the world see black joy. on april 4, 1968, the sisters of the blessed sacrament appointed dr. norman c. francis the xavier university’s first black and lay president (morton, 2014). dr. francis, who led xavier university for almost fifty years, has been credited with shaping the policies that have allowed xavier to have long term success in preparing its black graduates for medical school and its graduate programs in science, specifically its school of pharmacy (morton, 2014). dr. francis has also been credited with leading the university to a strong reopening in the aftermath of hurricane katrina. he retired as the longest serving university president in the united states and is a recipient of the presidential medal of freedom. in january of 2021 the roadway that xavier 28 jcsr 2022, 4(1): 18-30 university overlooks, named jefferson davis parkway, was renamed norman c. francis parkway. when dr. francis cut the ribbon on norman c. francis parkway, he brought joy to all people with a signal of change, hope, and love. ascendents of the afro-catholic successfully petitioned for this change because they can't take our joy. conclusion southern womanism and utterance allows mother katherine’s educational philosophy to emerge —total gift of self, providing the best for the most vulnerable, a belief in divine providence, courageous travel, and understanding death as life (morton, 2014). the concept of the total gift of self is heavily present in mother katharine’s journey to sainthood. when the drexel family engaged in school building projects for women, black and indigenous people in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, they were motivated by the catholic principles of universalism. eventually, this morphed into a cosmopolitan philosophy of education where belief in divine providence became as equally important as courageous travel. in her life as a debutante and a missionary, mother katharine constantly travelled. it is during travel that mother katharine documented best practices in architecture which led her to always strive to provide for the best for the most vulnerable students at her schools. the primary criticism of drexel’s educational philosophy was her belief in divine providence. to be clear, this belief came from an understanding of life as death. death was ever present in mother katharine's life beginning with the death of her biological mother as an infant, to the deaths of francis, emma, and elizabeth when she was a young woman and later in life with the deaths of her travel companion and assistant, mother m. mercedes, and her beloved sister, louise drexel morrell. but as a courageous traveler, in a spiritual and physical sense, mother katharine always confronted death and believed that life could flourish from death, within death, and despite death. as jim crow tried to bring death to the educational dreams of black people, she instead saw black joy, and fought for spaces for black joy to flourish. mother katharine’s journey is a road map to the bumps and bruises that are bound to happen in the fight for educational equity. mother katharine faced the same challenges which continue to persist in education – segregation, underfunding, undereducation, racism, sexism, abuse, and mass incarceration. to those who want to get invited in to do the work, be prepared to work like mother worked, sweat like mother sweated, and love like 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(1915a). old southern yearbook. xavier university archives, new orleans, louisiana. sisters of the blessed sacrament. (1915b). sbs convent annals. xavier university archives, new orleans, louisiana. ward, j. (2017). sing, unburied, sing. scribner. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2020 volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. 81-97 care, control, and color: a conversation about disparities in school disciplinary practices diana wandix-white* * texas a&m university – san antonio, department of curriculum & instruction, san antonio, tx, usa e-mail: dwhite@tamusa.edu article info received: may 12, 2020 revised: september 9, 2020 accepted: september 25, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) how to cite wandix-white, d. (2020). care, control, and color: a conversation about disparities in school disciplinary practices. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), 81-97. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.11 abstract disciplinary practices teachers use in their classrooms frequently result in life-altering consequences for students who are historically marginalized and struggling to meet normalized standards of academic success. research suggests teachers often lack the skill needed to connect with students, manage their classrooms, and administer corrective action that is equitable, reasonable, and effective without being excessive and detrimental to the student’s future. this disconnection and lack of judgment is frequently attributed to 1) the cultural mismatch that exists between the majority u.s. teacher who is a young, white female, and the growing diverse population of students; 2) teachers’ deficit view of students of color, their families and communities; and 3) deficient preservice teacher training that does not equip future teachers with the culturally relevant pedagogical skills needed to meet the needs of today’s students. employing the qualitative research methods of interactive interviewing and parallel stories, an african american, veteran teacher and a young, white pre-service teacher explore the topic of disciplinary practices at the intersection of race, ethnicity, and a classroom culture of care in the k-12 u.s. classroom. keywords school discipline; teacher-student relationships; culture of care; interactive interviewing; parallel stories 10.46303/jcsr.2020.11 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.11 82 introduction every time america thinks the color divide is fading, someone turns on a uv light and all the nasty stains, residue, and hidden welts reappear. unfortunately, many of the lingering wounds are festering in the u.s. education system. this is particularly evident in the disparities present in school disciplinary practices. students of color are often more likely to be “differentially selected for discipline consequences” (gregory et al., 2010, p. 62), and african american and latino students, especially, are subject to extreme punishment for less than extreme behavior. in fact, in the u.s., african american students are consistently suspended and expelled at rates two to three times greater than other students (mitchell, 2014; porter, 2015; schiff, 2018; skiba, 2014); “black students are more likely to be suspended for discretionary reasons, rather than they committed infractions where suspension was mandatory punishment” (nelson, 2015, para. 13); and “school administrators are three and a half times more likely to suspend african american students than white students, even for the same non-violent offenses” (porter, 2015, p. 59). many scholars have researched this issue (alexander, 2010; dupper, 2010; gonzalez, 2012; herbert, 2015; mongan & walter, 2012), providing evidence that this condition is unfeigned. most often, right or wrong, the classroom teacher bears the blame for this injustice. if these inequitable disciplinary practices, however, are assumed to be the result of cultural misunderstandings and inadequate classroom management training rather than a conscious act of racism, a conversation can be had that could change the trajectory of this phenomenon. and as brown and isaacs (2001) note, intimate conversations can generate insight that spreads to larger groups, “carrying the seed ideas for new conversations, creative possibilities, and collective action” (p. 1), essentially acknowledging conversation as a path to large-scale change. during a short-term study abroad trip to guanajuato, mexico, such a conversation took place between an african-american, veteran teacher with more than 20 years of secondary level teaching experience, and a young, white pre-service teacher in her senior year of an undergraduate degree in education. while the interaction began as a simple conversation on a bus ride in mexico, it developed into parallel stories gleaned from an interactive interview, during which both participants ask questions, share narratives, and engage in dialogue with one another as a way to explore the topic of disciplinary practices at the intersection of race and ethnicity and a classroom culture of care in the k-12 u.s. classroom. context the provocation for the conversation occurred during a meeting between a university study abroad group and several rural mexico school leaders. following are the abbreviated field notes from the encounter: [june 2017] on this morning, all eighteen student members of the university study abroad group, and the two overseeing faculty members, went to [a local school] to meet with rural principals and school leaders. we arrived at the school, which was surrounded by a metal fence. there was an open courtyard in the middle, one small and two mid-sized 83 buildings, and situated on one end of the courtyard, a few picnic tables under full, green trees. we were greeted by our hosts, entered the middle building, and were seated in child-size chairs lined along the walls. after we all introduced ourselves to one another, some in spanish, others in english—both translated by our hosts, we were split into groups to talk about education in several different contexts. my group included madison marshall (pseudonym), [one other university student], one of our hosts, and two male principals from two mexican primary schools. at the end of our conversation, one of the gentlemen asked how we deal with disciplining students in the u.s. madison and [the other university student] responded by telling them if the teachers deem a student’s behavior as a discipline problem, the student is often sent out of class to the administrative offices. they stated that once there, there is generally a discipline process the student goes through before being able to return to class. i commented that it is important to build rapport with students very early on: “they need to know that you care about them and that you will not stand for an environment that is not conducive to learning for the entire class.” i mentioned that many times the school disciplinary procedures are responsible for what is called the school-to-prison pipeline in the u.s. i shared that the school-to-prison pipeline mostly affects african-american and hispanic students due to subjective discipline. upon returning to the bus after the meeting, madison asked if she could talk with me about my comments. with the conversations of our twenty or so colleagues going on around us, and the rugged beauty of the landscape breezing by our window, madison and i began to talk about school, race, culture, and discipline. relevancy madison was sincerely concerned about her ability to be sensitive to the fact that when children of color are sent out of a classroom, the results can and often are much more drastic than when white students are reprimanded by removal. she wondered if her background and lack of culturally relevant teacher training would render her blind to, or even a contributor to the systemic racism that exists in america’s schools. while madison’s concerns represent her personal narrative, they may resonate with the majority of u.s. educators who share similar characteristics and are struggling to meet the needs of the new student population in their classrooms. methodology there are plenty of statistics and figures that suggest disparities in the treatment of certain student populations. over the years, this type of information has led to various laws, acts, policies, and reforms that have only added to the plethora of problems with america’s education system (kauffman, 2002; miron & st. john, 2003; ravitch, 2014). as these attempts to leave no child behind failed, researchers and policy makers began to ask why. they needed 84 to hear the stories of students, teachers, parents, administrators, and other stakeholders to put meat on the bones of the data. qualitative research provides the why and how. this study employs two qualitative research methods to capture and interpret the rich experiences of the authors: interactive interviewing and parallel stories. interactive interviewing discomfort can arise when we reflect on our own biases and predispositions, and attempting to share these reflections can create additional anxiety and stress. however, when a researcher acts as a co-collaborator with participants, the communication process may become less daunting. interactive interviewing gave both parties in this study the opportunity to gain an indepth and intimate understanding of each other’s internal and external experiences with the sensitive topic of how race and ethnicity affect the relationship between teachers and their students. ellis (2012) makes the following statement about interactive interviewing: “emphasizing the communicative and joint sense making that occurs in interviewing, this approach involves the sharing of personal and social experiences of both respondents and researchers, who tell (and sometimes write) their stories in the context of developing relationships” (p. 444). conversations during our seventeen-day study abroad, two face-to-face discussions after our return, and several electronic communications created ongoing interactions between madison and me and allowed us to be open and vulnerable with one another regarding the topic at hand. furthermore, although i am considered the researcher, we worked to establish a collaborative relationship, rather than a hierarchical association, by treating our discussions as casual conversations instead of formal interviews. we engaged in reciprocal question and answer dialogue, avoiding any semblance of an inquisition. finally, we kept meticulous records of our interactions in order to strengthen the validity and reliability of our work. parallel stories in america’s current state of division, it is important to recognize the parallel stories that exist between individuals who, on the surface, have no intersecting lines between them. parallel stories, a methodology that evolves from clandinin’s (1986) narrative method, allows us to reveal conceptual and theoretical understandings that other methodologies do not necessarily allow (craig, 1999). by utilizing parallel stories as methodology, we were able to gain and present “insights relating specifically to stories of school, insights relating specifically to teacher stories, and insights relating specifically to the relationship between the two types of meaning recovery” (craig, 1999, p. 407). it allowed us to reflect upon and verbalize our stories in relation to the single, ever-changing narrative of school disciplinary practices. note: mm is madison marshall, participant. dw is diana wandix-white, researcher and participant. 85 conversations in black and white positionality mm. i am a non-hispanic white female in my 20s with an evangelical christian, politically conservative, middle class background. i, therefore, identify with a vast majority of the teachers presently coming out of teacher preparation programs. i hope to offer my perspective as such and share some of my journey in the pursuit of understanding the roles of cultural differences and equity in the classroom. i am currently a senior in the education department of a 4-year research university in the south-central region of the u.s., pursuing a degree in middle grades math/science education. dw. i also identify as evangelical christian; that’s something we have in common. however, i rarely put a name to my political stance, as my views are varied; but for the sake of parallelism, i’d say i am an african-american female in my 40s who leans toward conservative liberalism. i also come from a middle-class background, though in my earliest years, i didn’t always live in middle class surroundings. i’m currently a third-year doctoral student at a public research i university in the south-central region of the u.s. i’m studying curriculum and instruction, with an emphasis in urban education. what the literature says. positionality considers intersecting variables, such as race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, and other social diversities (moore, 2008). lei (2006) comments that “all teachers need to critically reflect on their own positionality within the system of whiteness and how their cultural lenses affect their pedagogy” (p. 85). clearly, both madison and i are aware that our list of internal and external characteristics are with us each time we enter a classroom and interact with our students. however, it is conceivable that many educators, including the two of us, do not realize the extent to which certain aspects of positionality affect how we relate to our students, especially those with whom we are culturally mismatched. much of the literature regarding the effects of positionality on teacher-student relationships and teacher disciplinary practices focuses on issues of whiteness and white privilege, this owing to statistics that assert anywhere from 80 to 90 percent of the public k-12 teacher population is white, and the student population is steadily growing more and more diverse (national center for education statistics, 2017; u.s. department of education, 2016). ladson-billings (2001) stresses how important it is that the majority teacher examine this social positionality as it intersects with that of their students: typically, white, middle-class prospective teachers have little to no understanding of their own culture. notions of whiteness are taken for granted. they rarely are interrogated. but being white is not merely about biology. it is about choosing a system of privilege and power. (p.81) some scholars suggest that the majority white, middle class teacher makes minimal effort to make inequity, intolerance, or powerlessness problematic and open to discussion (gollnick & 86 chinn, 2016; nganga, 2015); they understand their position of power as it relates to the very generic idea of teacher over student, but may fail to acknowledge the idea of white privilege and, therefore, fail to address the problems associated with this aspect of their power. white teachers are not alone in this matter of positionality. “teachers of color occupy unique positionalities when they teach students of their self-identified community in public schools” (heer, 2015, p. 369). conversely, teachers of color often feel pressure when teaching students of color, because they fear not living up to the expectation that they will be able to meet the student’s needs simply because they are culturally matched (heer, 2015). furthermore, when teachers of color teach a predominantly white student body, the teacher may deal with issues of identity and acceptance (kersey-matusiak, 2004) which act as barriers to relationship development. ultimately, positionality informs both the theorizing and the practice of education, and teachers must be critically conscious of their positionality as they consider how they will interact with students. theory versus practice mm. this summer, i had the opportunity to go with the university’s department of education to mexico for two weeks. during this time, our group met with some of the local principals. i was in a small discussion group with mrs. wandix-white. one of the principals asked us how we would approach a situation in which a student repeatedly engaged in poor behavior. one of the other undergraduate students and i shared what we had learned in our teacher preparation courses. we talked about behavior intervention plans, 3-tier programs, etc. after we shared, mrs. wandix-white offered a different perspective, one that i had never heard before. she said the plans and programs that teachers are often taught to implement only work for a specific type of student and often fail minority students. our time was cut short then and we had to end our conversation. i was left thinking, “how can i be wrong about this? i gave all the right answers. i’ve made all a’s in my courses. this is what they taught me! how can she say that it could fail?” i decided to swallow my pride and ask her to explain this new concept to me. i asked why the recommended behavior strategy system fails students of color. dw. relationship. behavior modification plans, punishment and reward systems, intervention tactics—none of those things work with any consistency if the relationship between teacher and student is negative or nonexistent. i have had my own issues with students in the past, and when i reflect, i see that it was always because i neglected to establish an authentic, caring relationship with that student. on the other hand, i remember fellow teachers complaining about a particular student behaving poorly in class, but in my class the student was cooperative, productive, and successful. i attribute that to having built a rapport with him, respecting him as a human being, and showing him that i cared about more than just his grades. my fellow teachers had rigid behavioral expectations and doled out punishment without first 87 understanding the situation or adapting their response to the specific needs of the student. yes, the student was african-american, i’m african-american, and the other teachers were white. while i believe that played a part in the relationship dynamics, i do not believe that cultural mismatch has to equate to relational negativity; just as i do not believe that cultural matching necessarily equates to positive teacher-student relationships. but when teachers do not initiate positive relationships with students and understand cultural differences that affect behavior, they tend to overreact or misread certain behaviors, which causes them to fear losing control of their classroom and hand out punishments that are far harsher than necessary. students of color are the most frequent recipients of this inequity. what the literature says. children and adolescents tend to operate mostly on feelings and social influences (steinberg, 2005); if they like a teacher, they will work hard to be a “good” student and make that teacher proud. on the other hand, students who have conflicted relationships with teachers “tend to like school less, experience less self-direction, and show lower levels of cooperation in classroom activities” (krstic, 2015, p. 168). positive teacher-student relationships may be even more essential in urban school settings where students face the additional challenges associated with high-poverty environments (murry & malmgren, 2005). studies have found that affirming, authentic teacher-student relationships, and the connection between positive relationships and academic achievement and resilience is stronger for ethnic minority students (mccormick et al., 2013; roorda et al., 2011), and “the protective effect of teacherchild relationships on academic achievement may be stronger for lower-income and racial/ethnic minority students, compared to more affluent, white students” (mccormick et al., 2013, p. 612). in fact, african american and hispanic students appear to benefit more from close relationships with their teachers than do white students (roorda et al., 2011; sabol & pianta, 2012). however, in school settings, where the student population is represented by a high percentage of children of color who come from low socioeconomic backgrounds, but the teachers are still mostly middle-class white females, there exists that cultural mismatch that encourages a distrust and separation, making affirming relationships challenging and leaving students feeling disconnected from their teachers (davis, 2003). ultimately, teachers who are supportive and have positive, caring relationships with their students are more apt to have students who avoid negative behavior (bergin & bergin, 2009; sabol & pianta, 2012). so, when it comes to “maintaining control” of student behavior, it is the relationships teachers have with students, more so than any policies and procedures, that encourage students to actually follow the rules. equal versus equitable mm. prior to my conversation with mrs. wandix-white, all my knowledge of behavior management was based in behavior intervention plans (bip), vague knowledge of different 88 programs such as conscious discipline or capturing kids’ hearts, and behavior contracts. i had frequently heard of individualization of instruction but never of individualization of behavior management. never had i considered that what is “fair” is not the same system of punishment or reinforcement for each child. i will share more of my personal background to better explain my perspective on this topic. i attended a private school in which the majority of students were, by far, white. furthermore, each student had nearly identical home lives, future goals, parental styles and expectations, etc. because of this, teachers at my school could easily implement one behavior strategy and find success with all but maybe one student. in all my life, what was “fair” was what was “equal.” i first heard the concept of equity in the classroom in a course called “diversity consciousness” in the spring of 2015. my inner capitalist background did not like this at all. to think that some students would receive more or less support and resources depending on their unique situation seemed unfair to me, because i had never had the experience of being the one with less or no empowerment. to me, what was fair was everyone receiving the same tools. if everyone had the same tools, everyone had an equal chance of reaching the goal. i came to realize, however, that my interpretation of things was greatly clouded by white privilege. oooooh i did not like the concept of equity. the more i came to realize my privilege, the more frustrated i became. despite myself, i started to understand that giving everyone the same tools does not mean they have equal opportunity to reach the same goal. some people get to start the race one hundred miles ahead of others. if i really wanted to care for students, it was time for me to stop treating them the same way and start treating them in the way each one, individually, needs. to be honest, this is incredibly difficult for me. so much of my instinct goes against this and i definitely prefer my own cultural norms and attitudes. however, i am working to build a habit of treating people with equity because i know its immense value. dw. in my youth, i attended both urban and suburban schools. many teachers in the urban schools showed they “cared” by lowering expectations, praising my artificial successes, and ignoring misbehaviors which sometimes created an atmosphere that made teaching and learning challenging; while my suburban school teachers maintained universal high expectations but failed to provide me with the tools i needed to reach them, and often disciplined instead of aided me when i lacked academic understanding. later in life, these divergent experiences highlighted for me the difference between equality and equity. hence, one of my favorite images is a modified version of craig froehele’s equality/equity meme (2012). froehele created the meme to illustrate his point in a political argument that “‘equal opportunity’ alone wasn’t a satisfactory goal and that we should somehow take into consideration equality of outcomes” (froehle, 2016). the meme depicts three individuals attempting to watch a baseball game happening on the other side of a wooden fence. to represent equality, the first image shows each person on a crate of the same height. of course, they are getting equal treatment by each getting one crate to add height, but now the taller one sees even better, the second is high enough to peek over the top, and the third’s view is still blocked by the fence. in the second 89 frame of the meme, each of the three are given crates of different height to make it possible for each to have equal access to the game; in this instance, they are being treated equitably. however, in the revised meme, there is a third frame. in this frame, the cause of the inequity, the wooden fence, has been removed. now each of the three individuals can stand on his or her own two feet and still have access to the end goal: watching the baseball game. this meme is a befitting symbolic representation of the disciplinary practices in america’s elementary and secondary schools. things like unilateral discipline practices, zero tolerance policies, and colorblind philosophies act as the equal sized crates that, theoretically, place everyone on equal footing; but the subjectivity with which unilateral punishment is administered, and the lack of cultural awareness and sensitivity associated with colorblindness creates further inequities. it is a difficult concept, but i think our heads can rationalize equality, but it is our hearts that have to acknowledge the need for equity. as an african-american woman, i can see it, and i can feel it. it is easier to fight for justice when you have been a victim of injustice. it is just easier to see the need for something different. what the literature says. in theory, blanketed, rigid disciplinary policies (zero tolerance policies, for example) remove bias and limit discrimination in discipline practices because they do not allow the discipliner to exercise discretion or be subjective when administering punishment. in practice, these types of policies have proven to be inequitable and detrimental to certain populations (demitchell & hambacher, 2016). when the act of misconduct itself can be viewed subjectively, scholars suggest that students of color are judged more harshly (herbert, 2015; mitchell, 2014). the cultural mismatch between the majority of america’s teachers and the u.s. student population often creates situations in which home and school culture are at odds; and in this society where all behavior is measured against a white, middle-class, christian code of conduct it is easy for subjective interpretations of misbehavior to result in biased judgements and excessive punishment. disparities between black and white student discipline, in particularly, occur most often in discretionary categories, like insubordination and insolence (skiba, 2014); and these discrepancies may be caused in part by lack of cultural sensitivity or inadequate training in culturally responsive classroom management. propensity versus preparation mm. many of my peers in my education courses feel my same deep love for children and desire for their success. i would not doubt the intentions of any of my classmates. however, nearly all of my classmates are female, and nearly all are white. many of us have not been in environments in which we would have been exposed to the perspectives of people of color who have been mistreated by the educational system, either through bad intentions or good intentions gone wrong. because of this, we teach to “us”“us” being white students of white culture. we want our students to succeed but are either unaware that our classroom management style is frequently harming students of color, or we are aware but do not know what to do because we have never had to live the experience of a minority in the united states. 90 so many people feel awkward having discussions about these matters and this further alienates us from students and families of other cultures. this alienation prevents us from ever having that genuine rapport that mrs. wandix-white shared with me as her true treasure in mastering classroom management. i believe that many, if not all, of the pre-service teachers at university crave this cultural understanding and sensitivity but don’t know how to achieve it. the fear of being disrespected as pre-service and first year teachers runs deep in many of us. many of the cultural norms and habits of minorities are interpreted as disrespect and thus responded to with a harshness borne out of fear of losing control. because we have not received adequate training in how to adapt our behavior management to specific cultures, backgrounds, classes, and ethnicities, we default to our own experience and fail to treat students equitably. dw. i mentioned relationship before, and i believe it is paramount; but it also takes training and preparation, and if your certification program did not prepare you to teach and connect with all students, then you have to be willing to seek professional development or mentoring that will help. you have to do it yourself. i tend to agree with madison—i do not think any teacher enters the profession wanting or intending to emotionally or intellectually harm their students. but if we ignore the problem, disregard the conversation, or neglect seeking additional training, we are, ultimately, causing great harm to our students. so, i am glad that we are having this conversation. i have no doubt that there are teacher training programs and professional development opportunities out there that authentically seek to train and develop qualified teachers not only to know their content area and understand the complexities of instruction and classroom management, but also to appreciate the diversity and recognize the importance of valuing student differences. we, teachers, just have to do a bit of research to find legitimate opportunities to gain authentic training and, most importantly, to engage in critical selfreflection to determine if we need to focus on external growth and development, like culturally relevant curriculum content, diverse instructional designs, and varied lesson plans; or internal growth and development, like cultural sensitivity, respect and appreciation for all students, and general humanitarianism. what the literature says. one sure answer to how do teachers develop authentic cultural sensitivity, effectively manage their classrooms, and successfully navigate school disciplinary policies in order to execute equitable disciplinary practices that eliminate racial disparities in school discipline is proper training. pre-service teachers need legitimate pre-service teacher training that truly prepares and equips them to meet the needs of all students. the demographics of the u.s. demand that prospective teachers learn to effectively educate culturally, linguistically, socioeconomically, and racially diverse students. regrettably, however, many new teachers who have completed pre-service education programs enter their classrooms with minimal prior contact with racial groups other than their own (milner et al., 2003), and they exit these programs with no greater cultural knowledge or understanding. while students of color account for nearly half of all students in public schools, the teacher workforce 91 is still predominantly white “and so teacher training programs are increasingly trying to figure out how to bridge this divide” (romo, 2016). goodwin (as cited in villegas & lucas, 2002) states, “the typical response of teacher education programs to the growing diversity among k-12 students has been to add a course or two on multicultural education, bilingual education, or urban education” (p. 20), but since these added courses are often optional, “students can complete their teacher education programs without receiving any preparation whatsoever in issues of diversity” (villegas & lucas, 2002, p. 20). milner (2015) points out that professional development and teacher education programs are not effectively preparing teachers to be managers of their classrooms, let alone effective teachers of diverse or urban classrooms. milner also discusses a study showing that when preservice teachers were given training on management strategies to use in diverse classrooms, many teachers were still unsuccessful because of “subtle forms of racism and strong cultural norm that impacted the teachers’ practices in the study” (p. 576). the difficulty may lie in preparing teachers to be effective managers in diverse school settings while simultaneously helping them to avoid accepting the fallacies and stereotypes regarding what it means to teach, learn, and manage in diverse classrooms. ultimately, a lack of effective pre-service training, especially in the area of culturally responsive pedagogy and adequate field experience, creates teacher ineffectiveness and magnifies the cultural mismatch that exists between the majority teacher pool and the growing multicultural student body that exists in america’s schools. discussion insights relating to stories of school according to the national center for education statistics (n.d.), there are well over 90,000 public k-12 schools, and over 34,000 k-12 private schools in the u.s. thus, there are over 120,000 unique school narratives to be told. madison attended a private, predominantly white school where the students, families, and surrounding communities were homogeneous. there were very few students of color in her school; none in her inner circle of friends. madison’s understanding of behavior and school discipline emerged as fundamental aspects of her school experiences in this shielded private school where she was with essentially the same group of students for 12 years. parents were actively involved and counted on to instill and uphold the school’s code of conduct. as madison stated, because “each student had nearly identical home lives, future goals, parental styles and expectations” teachers and administrators were able to “[implement] one behavior strategy and find success with all but maybe one student.” this is rarely the case in urban or other public school environments where the diversity of students, variability of socioeconomic status, variances in family dynamics, and miscellany of life experiences makes any type of standardized corrective processes often unreasonable and frequently ineffective. the founding stories of these divergent types of schools are deeply 92 rooted in their communities (craig, 2000), communities that may only be separated by miles, but are essentially worlds apart. insights relating to the relationships between personal and institutional narratives as stated in craig (1999), the parallel stories methodology allows us to determine the extent to which madison’s and my teacher stories are uniquely situated within the stories of schooling we have both experienced. i attended both extremely diverse public schools and predominantly white public schools. i have taught in a variety of school settings: public urban, public suburban (as a substitute), private christian, and private secular. as a student, i recall being sent out into the hall for “speaking out of turn,” while my white classmate was merely told to be quiet. as a teacher, i specifically witnessed the inequitable treatment of an african american male and a hispanic female at the hands of an all white administrative team. these experiences surely influence my attitude, beliefs, and practices regarding school discipline. i recognize that at times i have been more lenient on students of color, because i have assumed they have received the opposite consideration at the hands of other teachers with whom they are culturally mismatched. likewise, madison’s experiences as a student in a school that adopted the policy of treating their homogeneous student body virtually all the same shaped her experiences and influenced what she came to know (craig, 1999). this is illuminated by her initial dislike of equity in favor of equality. madison planned to treat all her students the same, no matter what. ultimately, our respective narratives “revealed the past residue of human experience on [our] professional landscapes and showed how such residue pervades school contexts” (craig, 1999, p. 408), manifesting itself in our beliefs and ideas about school disciplinary practices. fortunately, our ongoing conversation helped both of us recognize that our previous school experiences have a definite impact on our present state of mind; and it may be time to challenge our respective mindsets in order to better serve our future students. insights relating to teacher stories (in madison’s words:) for my senior student teaching experience with university, i was paired with a mentor teacher with whom i shared a similar background in terms of education, belief system, socio-economic status, and ethnicity. being so inexperienced, i attempted to mimic her in every procedure and attitude toward our fifth-grade students. (we were both white females with a student population of 60% hispanic, 20% white, 17% african american and 80% economically disadvantaged). her management style was one where she was able to rest on prior relationship building and “intimidate” students into adhering to her expectations. this did not work for me due to my lack of prior relationship with the students, my entrance into the classroom in the spring semester, and my very unintimidating [sic] personality. the gap between my culture and the culture of my students quickly became apparent to me, and it led me to view the enforcement of classroom expectations as a daunting task. i reflected on my conversation with mrs. wandix-white and recalled that this view could easily lead to me becoming harsher on the students who i feared would be a threat to my authority without first seeking to study 93 their backgrounds and understand them. while this still remained a struggle for me, i was much more aware of the habits i developed in the treatment of my students, for example, who i most frequently redirected, who i had relationships with, who i entrusted with leadership, etc. while i first sought to emulate my mentor teacher, i started to distance myself from her management style; not because it was inadequate, but because it was not consistent with my personality. to develop genuine relationships with my students, i had to be honest about who i was, even in discipline. now as a first-year teacher, i teach first grade at a title i school with a student population that is 83% hispanic, 5% white, and 5% african american. 88% of the students are economically disadvantaged. i find myself once again faced with the challenge of building deep relationships based on sincere care while attempting to understand students with backgrounds very different from my own. many of my coworkers share similar backgrounds and cultures with the students, and i have seen how quickly trust is established between them. these teachers have influenced my practice as a teacher by modeling an attitude of humility when approaching students with misbehavior – not looking to prove their dominance, but genuinely looking to help the student better express his or her problem. the power of that attitude has resulted in the development of wonderful relationships and a more peaceful, positive atmosphere than i could have ever expected. implications for teacher education the american psychological association zero tolerance task force (2008) listed findings suggesting that the “disproportionate discipline of students of color may be due to lack of teacher preparation in classroom management, lack of training in culturally competent practices, or racial stereotypes” (p. 854). classroom teachers are at ground zero of the student disciplinary chain of events since the classroom or a campus area that teachers monitor is most often where student misconduct is witnessed, addressed, and reported. when the classroom teacher fails to effectively address students’ minor infractions on his or her own, students, especially students of color, can end up facing severe consequences for petty acts of misconduct. state teacher training programs, as well as school districts and individual schools must provide pre-service and active teachers with ongoing culturally responsive education and effective classroom management training. in order for such training and development to be effective, however, it must include opportunities for teachers to examine their own perceptions, biases, and predispositions that affect the way they interact with their students. in addition to classroom management skills, teachers must learn how to initiate and maintain positive relationships with students; relationships characterized by social and academic support, high expectations, authentic caring, and genuine interest. sadly, however, teaching has become so focused on rigid curriculum and high-stakes testing that the endless list of things to do overshadows the practice of care and establishing relationship (cooper, 2004; narinasamy & mamat, 2013; wilde, 2013). at minimum, there is a need to restructure teacher 94 preparation programs to include training that promotes a commitment and capacity to care for all learners, paying attention to each student’s unique needs. conclusion the stories the majority u.s. teacher lives by are stories of the young, white, middle-class female who is influenced by all the rights and privileges (whether subtle or overt, accepted or rejected, imagined or unimagined) that accompany those characteristics. their identities inform their teaching, just as students’ identities inform their learning. the knowledge individual teachers and students construct is predicated on their lived experiences that are greatly influenced by each one’s identity and position within specific social contexts. this knowledge also extends to how teachers view misbehavior and how aggressive or lenient they are regarding certain subjective student misconduct. this would also suggest that the disciplinary actions teachers take are likely based on their personal values, thoughts, experiences, and beliefs about appropriate and inappropriate classroom behavior. madison’s willingness and desire to understand disparities in school disciplinary practices due to systemic racism in america’s schools, her courage to explore this issue with someone so seemingly dissimilar from herself, and this resulting manuscript do in deed create “seed ideas for new conversations, creative possibilities, and collective action” (brown & isaac, 2001, p. 1). thus, while the dialogue and critical self-reflection presented throughout this article represent my and madison’s personal narratives, we hope that our story contributes globally to redefining the ways in which teachers conceptualize and create a culture of care and equitable disciplinary practices in their classrooms. references alexander, m. 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(2013). care in education: teaching with understanding and compassion. new york, ny: taylor & francis. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 month year volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. 122-143 think outside the book: transformative justice using children’s literature in educational settings divya anand1 & laura m. hsu2 1. corresponding author cambridge college, department of early education and care, ma, boston, usa e-mail: divya.anand@go.cambridgecollege.edu 2. merrimack college, department of education and community studies, north andover, ma, usa article info received: april 1, 2020 revised: september 21, 2020 accepted: september 25, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) how to cite anand, d. & hsu, l. m. (2020). think outside the book: transformative justice using children’s literature in educational settings. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), 122-143. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.13 abstract using alexis jemal’s conceptualization of transformative potential, founded on paulo freire’s idea of critical consciousness, a guiding transformative justice approach and accompanying questionnaire are provided here that can be adapted into any existing early childhood or elementary curriculum for children. the approach provides teachers with a methodology to search for new books and resources and use existing ones to foster their own and their students’ critical social consciousness. the transformative justice approach has two objectives: one, to enable teachers to help understand, guide, and mediate differences in the context of equity and social justice; and two, to equip children with social awareness and critical consciousness to identify stereotypes and biases, and to build solidarities between and among themselves. the transformative justice approach does not actively avoid books or resources with stereotypes or biases, but seeks to build skill sets in children and teachers to recognize and counter biases and stereotypes using texts as learning tools. it synthesizes and builds on anti-bias and culturallysensitive pedagogies to intentionally center structural and systemic inequities, as well as fosters social awareness and critical thinking in both teachers and students by reimagining the classroom as a collaborative learning space. keywords transformative justice; critical social consciousness; children’s literature; anti-bias; equity; social justice 10.46303/jcsr.2020.13 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.13 123 introduction “i have never encountered any children in any group who are not geniuses. there is no mystery on how to teach them. the first thing you do is treat them like human beings and the second thing you do is love them.” –dr. asa hilliard children develop consciousness of differences, including that of race and skin tones, between six to 10 months, and begin showing racial preferences as early as four years of age (baron & banaji, 2006; dunham et al., 2013; raabe & beelmann, 2011; williams & steele, 2019). the meanings, associations, and judgments that children correlate with people are drawn from their environment, which encompasses families, media, school, and community. children and adults learn from the contexts they are embedded in, which inform each other, and show explicit and implicit biases that are learned from the environment (over & mccall, 2018). research shows how implicit bias impacts children who are african american, black, indigenous, people of color (abipoc)1 starting in preschool classrooms (gilliam et al., 2016; skiba, 2015; skiba et al., 2011). this finding also aligns with school disciplinary data that indicate abipoc students are disproportionately disciplined in comparison to their white counterparts (mcneal, 2016; us house of representatives, 2019; welsh & little, 2018). the preschool to prison pipeline is one of the tangible manifestations of bias that speaks to the gap between the promise of education and its disparate outcomes (anand, 2020; gilliam et al., 2016). the idea of what constitutes as an infraction in the classroom is chiefly dependent on the beliefs, implicit and explicit biases, and stereotypes held by the teacher, and plays a key role in the preschool to prison pipeline (carter et al., 2017; gullo, 2017; mcneal, 2016; staats, 2014). it is also pertinent to note that according to the national center for education statistics for 20152016, 81 percent of all public elementary and secondary school students in the u.s. were nonwhite. in contrast, teachers who identified as abipoc make up only 20 percent of the teaching workforce in public schools (national center for education statistics, 2017). as disciplinary measures are initiated based on teacher judgment, and given the gap between the demographic composition of public school teachers and students, the association among race, implicit bias, and school discipline need to be considered. in fact, several studies have pointed to the connections between racial stereotypes and biases, and cultural dissonance between students and teachers contributing to disproportionate discipline outcomes (fabelo et al., 2011; golann, 2015; gregory & mosely, 2004; gregory & thompson, 2010; howard, 2001; okonofua & eberhardt, 2015; skiba, 2015; skiba et al., 2011; staats, 2014). conversely, it becomes crucial to examine the relationship between school discipline and academic performance to interrogate the current us public school system’s capacities to nurture and support the holistic development of abipoc students. 1 we add african american to the beginning of black indigenous people of color (abipoc) to acknowledge people who are americans of african origin whose ancestors were enslaved, as opposed to black, which includes people from african countries who have immigrated to the us. one “a” instead of two are used at the beginning of the acronym for sake of brevity. 124 within this education system, disproportionate disciplinary outcomes, leading to students missing instruction in the classroom, directly contribute to the achievement gap, or the disparity in the academic outcomes of abipoc students and low-income students in comparison to their counterparts (gregory et al., 2010; morris & perry, 2017). discrimination based on race and ethnicity toward abipoc students triggers psychological and biological responses to these stressors, which has manifold impacts on learning. these stressors negatively impact motivation levels and cognitive processes such as attention, memory, and executive functioning, all of which are associated with academic achievement (heissel et al., 2017; levy et al., 2016). the correspondence between school discipline and racial differences in achievement point to multiple, intersecting factors operating inside and outside of the school system. for children belonging to the global majority, contextualizing differences based on social equities or inequities help them to not internalize discrimination as an experience they deserve or due to a deficit in them. it creates a sense of identity, consciousness, and agency that enable them to speak and act for themselves, and be who they are. for others, exposure to differences steers them clear from a false sense of ethnocentric pride and also “normalizes” differences in others, to identify inequities and use their platforms to amplify the voices of historically disenfranchised communities. in this context, it is important to create narratives and curricula that depict the full humanity of people, for both children who belong or do not belong to disenfranchised communities, as we aim for structural and systemic change in our education system. a consequent factor to examine is how observing and imbibing teacher behavior influences children’s self-perception and their perception of other children in early childhood and elementary classrooms. as bettina love (2014) reiterates for children of color2 in schools, it leads to spirit murdering, a term coined by legal scholar patricia williams (1991), which is “the personal, psychological, and spiritual injuries to people of color through the fixed, yet fluid and moldable, structures of racism, privilege, and power” (p. 302). instilling a positive social and racial identity in abipoc children, and bolstering their ability to withstand and counter the social, emotional, psychological, and cognitive effects of racism, becomes imperative. as stated earlier, the onset of the school to prison pipeline is identified in early childhood classrooms (edelman, 2006; goff et al., 2014). countering and re-imagining the gaps in both discipline and achievement in early childhood and elementary classrooms then needs to take a multidimensional and proactive approach. the approach needs to be multidimensional because for teachers to foster academic, social, and emotional development of children, awareness of the systemic and structural barriers that inhibit the learning and well-being of all students is key, as much as individual micro-level factors within the classroom. 2 we wish to preserve the original reference that love (2014) uses for “children of color” and thus do not reference abipoc here. 125 critical social consciousness and transformative justice founded on paulo freire’s (2000) idea of critical consciousness, alexis jemal (2017) puts forth the notion of transformative potential in urban educational spaces to transform oppressive, discriminatory spaces into equitable, just, and liberating spaces for all students. jemal offers three goals of transformative potential: (1) to objectify and address issues of systemic inequity, (2) to produce an informed and civically engaged student body with the capacity to transform individuals, families, communities, institutions, and sociopolitical systems, and (3) to raise the critical consciousness of educators who are responsible for producing the leaders of the future. (p. 18) transformative change and action for teachers start with creating awareness of explicit and implicit biases at the individual level. at the systemic level, understanding the disparate educational outcomes for children due to structural inequities, and being mindful of the intersecting nature of power and privilege that underpin social hierarchies is also vital. developing critical consciousness and incorporating practices rooted in social justice within the classroom, to critically reflect, question, challenge, and transform, is the next step. it involves both critical consciousness and critical reflection to engage in dialogue that causes discomfort, to understand and recognize inequities, and to take action. in this sense, critical consciousness leading to transformative potential also breaks free from the oppressed/oppressor binary as it recognizes people with different permutations and combinations of privilege and disempowerment at the same time. this understanding frees the onus of transformative potential as the sole responsibility of those who are identified as the oppressor or the oppressed. freire (2000) calls for solidarity, asking the oppressor to “enter into the situation of those with whom one is in solidarity” (p. 49). jemal (2017) identifies this as the “radical posture of empathy” (p.15), whereby the oppressed and oppressor must collaborate to transform the structures that beget oppression. taking into account the overrepresentation of white individuals who identify as female in the teaching workforce, this conceptualization opens up greater possibilities for solidarity in bringing transformative change by rejecting onedimensional bracketing of individuals based on singular identity markers, be it on the basis of oppression or privilege. in this context, the concept of intersectionality—often used to denote the presence of multiple dimensions of oppression based on an individual’s multiple identities—is pertinent. kimberlé crenshaw’s (1990) original conceptualization of intersectionality, used to frame the multiple dispossessions of african-american women based on race and gender, focused on transformative and counter-hegemonic knowledge production. however, as sirma bilge (2013) cautions, the “superficial deployment of intersectionality undermines intersectionality’s credibility and potentials for addressing interlocking power structures and developing an ethics of non-oppressive coalition-building and claims-making” (p. 408). while using intersectionality 126 helps circumvent defining individuals based on singular in-group identities, it is critical to use this term without depoliticizing it and by factoring in historical and structural inequities that mark the experiences of individuals as intersectional. it is with this understanding that we use the term “intersectionality,” to be bound by radical transformative action that develops critical consciousness of structural, systemic, and historical inequities in education and to move towards transformative change. this rationale is not to blame or stereotype white teachers, but to underscore the fact that they are the most likely to teach abipoc children, and the least likely to share common ground with them. they have the potential to create significant and affirmative cross-social interactions, while serving as role models for white children, and influencing the perception of all children about themselves and each other (allen & whitesmith, 2015). it, again, follows freire’s (2000) interpretation of the teacher-student relationship as one of co-learning, where teachers are facilitators who engage in a non-hierarchical relationship with their students, model how to challenge the dominant social status quo leading to transformation, and engage in a process of co-creating knowledge through multiple methods and dialogical practices (freire, 2000; jemal, 2017; smith-maddox & solórzano, 2002). in the classroom, teachers become the primary and active participants in developing critical consciousness and transformative potential for themselves, as much as they facilitate and develop the same for their students. the transformative justice approach is about consciously mediating meanings for children that are socially and historically grounded to help them understand differences in ways that counter stereotypes and negative biases, be it about themselves or others different from them. regardless of the curriculum, book, or medium where students are exposed to a stereotype or stereotyped narrative, students are able to identify and question the stereotype, moving towards transformative action. while culturally aware pedagogies are incorporated in classrooms, it is crucial to not consider such pedagogies as a substitute for equity-oriented transformation (gorski, 2019; gorski & pothini, 2018). at the same time, the ability to constantly question and rethink the teacher's own understanding in light of new information is necessary to build on this foundation of transformative potential— one that is rooted in the knowledge of bias, prejudice, human rights, and ideas of fairness and justice. this critical thinking ability grounded in social awareness is crucial as transformation is a constant process, since messages embedded in books, television, media, and the external environment continuously contribute to the ways in which stereotypes and biases, both implicit and explicit, get embedded in students’ consciousness (over & mccall, 2018). this approach allows both teachers and children to explore the ways in which stereotypes are created and the arbitrary ways in which they get embedded in the collective social psyche. abipoc remain underrepresented in children’s literature, including school curricula and, even if represented, they are often portrayed in stereotypical and unidimensional ways (cooperative children’s book center, 2019). children’s books are used as tools to build a transformative justice lens while revisiting and revising existing curriculum. in using this approach, teachers learn how to use books to foster critical social consciousness by centering 127 differences—to critically engage students on the different aspects of power and privilege made both visible and invisible within them. the transformative justice approach scaffolds critical thinking prompts that allow for intersectional understandings, untangling deficit and stereotyped subtexts, and a metacognitive understanding of social contexts, including racism and privilege. building on critical selfreflection, this approach uses a diffractive method and practice. diffraction involves reading insights through one another “in ways that help illuminate differences as they emerge: how differences get made, what gets excluded, and how these exclusions matter" (barad, 2007, p. 30). by placing the teacher at the center of the educational experience via self-reflection, diffractive practices allow for transformative shifts in pedagogy. as cher hill (2017) notes, teachers can be anchored as “nomadic” entities in order “to embrace a fluid and emergent sense of self, embrace difference and interference, while setting up pedagogical camps from time to time, and returning to familiar routes on a regular basis” (p. 9). this allows for the binaries of student-teacher to be disrupted and position them both with equal agency as “intra-acting bodies” (p. 8) that foster co-learning. transformative justice questionnaire building upon the research of equity literacy and anti-bias educators, such as derman-sparks (2013), gorski and pothini (2018), reese (2006), and york (2016), the authors created the following questionnaire, intended for educators and caretakers, to apply the transformative justice approach. the questionnaire serves as a guide for selecting books and facilitating discussions about books with children. one major distinction between prior approaches and the transformative justice approach is to address stereotypes in books as critical learning moments for both teacher and students, rather than shielding students from books with any stereotypes. the transformative justice questionnaire supports teachers in foregrounding conversations around diversity, equity, and social justice on a variety of identity markers, including race, poverty and socioeconomic status, religion, ethnicity and culture, hair diversity, immigrant status, language diversity, disabilities, sex and gender, sexual orientation, and family composition. although questions specific to distinct identity markers are included in the questionnaire, there may be multiple identities that are salient or not salient in any given context. characters have multidimensional identities, and often what is left unsaid and outside the text speaks as much to the story as what is within the story. thus, a combination of the following questions can be used while reading, and to discuss how various aspects of identity can impact a person’s experience differently. context is an equally important character in every story, as it situates a character within a particular time period, region, and cultural milieu, and within specific institutional structures. it is, then, impossible to ignore the transactional relationship between the environment and oneself on identity development and the reactions of others. 128 finally, it is important to note that this questionnaire will continue to evolve with new insights and socio-historical contexts. as with many aspects of equity and social justice, the process of asking critical questions and gaining insights is open-ended and timeand contextdependent. nevertheless, the authors hope this questionnaire can be a starting point for developing a transformative justice approach. general questions  who seems to be the intended audience for this book?  how would this book look different to varied audiences?  are the author and the illustrator able to speak to the experience depicted in the story, or does the story seem to be written by an outsider looking in?  if the author’s lived experiences speak to the major parts of the story (#ownvoices story), are there parts of the story that are not representative of the author’s lived experiences? if so, how do we address cultural misrepresentation in this context?  is one character from a particular socio-cultural background depicted as the spokesperson for that experience or socio-cultural background?  does the book use an “us” vs. “them” dichotomy, either overtly or covertly (those who belong versus those who don’t, as something “special” and hence “different”)?  is the book’s message essentially “we are all different but the same,” without acknowledging or addressing how these differences may mean inequitable and disparate experiences for “different” people, and that the conditions that create those “inequities” still persist?  does the book, in any way, depict inclusion as going out of the way to make “changes/accommodations” for a particular character(s)?  do the illustrations in the book contain stereotypical images or caricatures (e.g., exaggerated features of characters)?  how do the illustrations in the story impact the message of the story?  are characters depicted as “different” put in the spotlight in a way that forces them to overtly or covertly efface their identity markers? subsequently, do characters feel compelled to change their behavior or hide parts of their identity to belong in the story? poverty and socio-economic status  are the characters from lower socio-economic statuses depicted as african american black indigenous people of color (abipoc), and does the book overtly or covertly imply that lower income families or children can overcome poverty by hard work (or conversely, that it is their lack of hard work that is the cause of their poverty)?  how does the book depict the ways in which families can “rise out” of lower socio economic statuses? does it pathologize families or communities experiencing poverty? 129  are abipoc characters or other characters presented as “trouble-makers” for speaking up or advocating for themselves or others?  does it allow a conversation on systemic and structural barriers? religion  what religion is depicted as “normal” and “accepted” in the story?  are there assumptions made in the story about religions or religious practices? if yes, how true or nuanced are those depictions?  how would the book occur to children/families who do not follow any religion? ethnicity and culture  are particular cultural celebrations depicted without addressing the sociohistorical reality of the community depicted and the inequities they may continue to face?  are cultural markers depicted as “costumes,” “mascots,” or conflated with general “stereotypes,” including those of food, celebrations, dressing, etc.?  when pointing to “multicultural” celebratory plotlines, does the book speak of ethnic heritage that is easily traceable/identifiable for everyone? for example, there may be african american, transracial adoptee, or multi-racial children who may not be able to trace their ethnic lineage. race  in what ways are “whiteness” normalized as the status quo in the book? or, conversely, how does the story break “whiteness” as the status quo?  are black or shades of brown, for both people and the color, equated with negative traits or values, such as dirty, evil, or lazy?  is white, both people and the color, associated with beauty, cleanliness, goodness, etc.? hair diversity  what kind of hair is portrayed as “the” beauty standard?  does the book “normalize” different types of hair?  are different kinds of hair, depicted as needing different kinds of care, accurately represented without one being portrayed as preferable over another?  does the book overtly or covertly reference the ways in which african american/black hair continues to be policed and demonized in society?  is there a value judgement placed on natural hair versus coiffed/treated hair? 130 immigrant status  how are differences framed (e.g., immigrants as “foreign” or “illegal” based on human-made, arbitrary borders with immigration policies often stemming from racism)?  are all the immigrant characters’ experiences deemed the same? is there a value attached or a glorification of “non-immigrant” characters who accept differences?  is the immigrant or refugee experience portrayed in a deficit manner, such that the immigrant or refugee arrives to only “gain” opportunity and, in turn, prevents looking at their culture and presence as an asset? language diversity  what language is presented as the standard or the preferred language?  are people speaking languages other than english portrayed as “lacking” without fluency in english?  are words in other languages depicted as “unusual” or “exotic,” or are they integrated within the context of the book?  is speaking more than one language depicted as an asset or a deficit?  is speaking certain languages, such as french, seen more favorably than speaking other languages, such as arabic, spanish, or hindi?  how are different registers or dialects of english depicted? for example, does a book centering african-american experiences use african-american vernacular english (aave) with pejorative connotations?  does the story or the narrative involve tone policing, where the use of dialectical or colloquial variations are depicted negatively?  are stories about a particular community written in standard english? are the words/text used, reflective of the cultural-linguistic variations associated with a community? disabilities  what is the standard or basis from which acceptance is measured?  does the plot celebrate overcoming the adversity of having a disability as inspirational for people without disabilities? who seems to be the intended audience?  is “inspiration” drawn from a person with disabilities who is striving to be like an “able-bodied” person, which re-establishes able-bodiedness as an asset and disability as a deficit?  is the aim of the story to invoke guilt in people without disabilities to try harder— for example, “if x (who is on a wheelchair) can do it, so can you”? here, the onus is 131 for people without disabilities to either get inspired, or to feel compelled to strive more, using people with disabilities as examples. gender  does the book serve to neutralize the pressure to conform to particular gender identities aligning with accepted gender expressions?  what genders are “normalized” in the book and accepted?  how would the book impact a child who does not identify along the traditional gender binary or the gender depicted in the book?  do the characters depicted in the book conform to or break off from traditional “gender” roles? sexual orientation  in what ways does the book characterize heterosexuality as normative (for example, that all families consist of a mother and father only)?  what other social identities intersect with each character’s sexual orientation, and how does that affect their lived realities? family composition  does the book depict family structures as something that can change over time (e.g., new sibling(s), divorce, loss, blended families)?  how far does the plot allow the reader to think about family compositions other than dual-parent households and heteronormative couples as parents?  apart from heteronormative, cisgender characters, does the book feature diverse representation in terms of race, disabilities, gender expressions/identities, etc.? allyship  is it clear from the plot, who is oppressed and why?  do the ally character/s stand in solidarity with the oppressed character, despite a risk to themselves?  is the onus placed on the “oppressed” character to change themselves to be more “likeable” and to not be bullied/harassed?  is the reason (often it's the “difference” from the rest of the group) for being harassed/bullied presented as a character flaw or a physical disability? is this addressed in the book?  what is the role, if any, of the adults in the book? do any adults witness or, worse, take part in the oppression? are they merely observant, or do they intervene when they observe an oppressive act?  are the bully/harasser characters in the book held accountable at some point? does the corrective action seem adequate for what happened? 132 to illustrate how the transformative justice questionnaire can be used for diffractive reading, and to critically reflect on children’s literature, some examples are provided here. the colors of us by karen katz (1999) a widely used children’s book in anti-bias curricula is the colors of us, written and illustrated by karen katz (1999). the book is about a seven-year-old child named lena, who first introduces herself and says she is the color of cinnamon. she next describes her mother’s skin color, also analogous to a food, as french toast, and narrates that her mother is teaching her how to mix colors. her mother explains that if the colors are mixed in the right combination, it will result in lena’s skin color. lena replies that she thinks she simply has brown skin, which her mother refutes by saying there are a lot of shades of brown. lena’s mother then suggests they go for a walk so she can illustrate her point. on their walk, lena’s mother points out the various shades of skin colors they observe and makes a comparison to food for each person. the intention to normalize a spectrum of skin colors, and to celebrate the uniqueness of one’s skin color with a seemingly lighthearted and accessible comparison, are some of the reasons this book appeals to many. however, the book inadvertently reinforces stereotypes in its depiction of some of the characters associated with food. for example, mr. pellegrino, who works in a local pizza parlor-which is stereotypical in and of itself--is described as having skin the color of “pizza crust, a golden brown”. thereafter, mr. kashmir, who sells spices in lena’s mother’s favorite store, is the color of “ginger and chili powder”. this is especially fraught given the colonial stereotyping of the word curry, which is used to refer to the many gravy-like dishes made with a mix of spices, including ginger and chili powder, in different proportions. there is no one dish called curry, and the term was coined by the british to give a homogenized name for a variety of south asian dishes (maroney, 2011). the “curry smelling” indian immigrant or the stindian, a conflation of the stinky indian immigrant, is a common racist stereotype and, as madhavi mallapragada (2016) notes, “curry marks the outsider status of the [south asian] immigrant not just within the ‘national’ framework (‘indian not american’) but also within the racial hierarchies of american culture (‘not white’ and not a desirable ‘ethnic’ group within multicultural united states)” (p. 265). therefore, mr. kashmir, named after the disputed territory of kashmir in the indian subcontinent, looking like “ginger and chili powder” in the story, becomes problematic. essentializing skin color to stereotypical foods is a double affront--not only does it caricature certain skin colors and nationalities, but by comparing black and brown skin color to food, it implies it is something to be consumed, and thus also feeds into the oversexualization and fetishization of black and brown women and children (benard, 2016). without looking at the colors of us with a critical eye, it is tempting to accept the book at face value, so to speak, and see only the superficial merits of the diverse array of colors of people’s skin. however, a transformative justice approach reveals entrenched stereotypes and a trivialization of describing one’s skin color. addressing the following questions in the transformative justice questionnaire reveals such misrepresentations: “how would this book 133 look different to varied audiences?”; “does the book use an “us” vs. “them” dichotomy, either overtly or covertly (those who belong versus those who don’t, as something “special” and hence “different”)?”; “is the book’s message essentially ‘we are all different but the same,’ without acknowledging or addressing how these differences may mean inequitable and disparate experiences for ‘different’ people, and that the conditions that create those ‘inequities’ still persist?”; “do the illustrations in the book contain stereotypical images or caricatures (e.g., exaggerated features of characters)?”; and “how do the illustrations in the story impact the message of the story?” parker looks up: an extraordinary moment by jessica curry (2019) the much-awaited parker looks up: an extraordinary moment, written by jessica curry (2019) and illustrated by brittany jackson, is another book that lends itself to a diffractive analysis with the transformative justice approach. parker looks up was inspired by real life events in 2018, when 2-year-old parker curry visited the national portrait gallery in washington, d.c., with her mother, sister, and best friend. amy sherald's portrait of former first lady michelle obama led to the viral photograph, a visit with michelle obama, and, eventually, jessica curry’s book. the snapshot of a young, black girl looking up in awe at an african american woman whose portrait was as large as her stature and influence, captivated many, and the book quickly rose to best seller lists. there was one overlooked depiction, however, that caught the eye of debbie reese (2019) of nambé pueblo and founder of american indians in children's literature (aicl) blogspot. reese points out a page spread in parker looks up of a portrait of american indians3 at the national portrait gallery. the portrait titled, “young omahaw, war eagle, little missouri, and pawnees,” was painted by charles bird king in 1821. the actual size of the portrait at the national portrait gallery is 28 inches by 31 1/8 inches, whereas michelle obama’s portrait is 72.1 inches by 60.1 inches. in parker looks up, relative to how michelle obama’s portrait is illustrated, reese estimates king’s portrait in the book is approximately 72 inches by 36 inches. although there is a note in the back of the book that the paintings in the book are "reimagined as parker curry experienced them during her unforgettable and memorable visit to the national portrait gallery and smithsonian art museum," parker curry was 2-years-old when she visited the gallery. to have increased the size of king’s portrait relative to michelle obama’s portrait, in some ways minimizes what impact king’s portrait may have had in the context of the story. size aside, the most glaring misrepresentation of the portrait in curry’s book was the addition of more feathers on the american indian men in king’s portrait, which were not in the original painting, and which clearly reinforce the stereotype of all american indians wearing feathers. feathers carry significant meaning among american indian communities. feathers 3 we use “american indian” to be consistent with the title of reese’s blogspot, american indians in children's literature (aicl), in which she discusses american indian imagery and portrayals in children’s literature. we recognize others may alternatively prefer native, native american, or indigenous american, and, when possible, the particular tribal name with which one is affiliated (native knowledge 360° faq, 2020; reese, 2019). https://www.npr.org/2018/02/13/585299081/obama-portraits-unveiled-at-national-portrait-gallery 134 were bestowed to members who were particularly valiant in battle or exhibited great sacrifice to defend one’s community (kotrous, 2017). feathers were also used for ceremonial purposes, such as healing and spiritual rites (levine, 1991). the number of objects in american indian rituals have significance, as well (danchevskaya, 2016). for example, according to the pawnee nation of oklahoma (pawneenation.org), the four prime eagle feathers bear significance, which are attached at the top of the flag to represent the four pawnee bands: chaui, pitahawirata, skidi and kitkehahki. finally, the source of those feathers are important. according to the american indian heritage foundation, feathers from golden or bald eagles signify one of the highest honors that could be received, as american indians believe eagles have a special connection with the heavens because they fly at very high altitudes (“feathers,” 2018). in the original portrait by king, the men are wearing eagle feathers on their heads (smithsonian american art museum, 2006). however, curry (2019) clearly added additional feathers to the men, and feathers that may have come from birds other than eagles. while other bird feathers were used in american indian ceremonies, they had distinct meanings and were used in deliberately different ways (levine, 1991). thus, the addition of the feathers, of arbitrary number and kind, distorts the original portrait, not just in terms of accuracy, but the meaning of what the american indian men wore. as reese (2019) asserts, “there is absolutely no reason to lift one marginalized group and misrepresent another.” the book unquestionably lifted the image of black people, and black women in particular—so much so that it earned a nomination for the naacp outstanding literary work-children award in 2020. however, as reese (2019) exclaims, even the publisher, simon and schuster, did not catch the misrepresentation of american indians. book award nominees and winners are highly sought after additions to any library collection; nevertheless, it is important to consider the book’s explicit and implicit messages on every page, from its words to its illustrations. for example, caldecott medal awardee arrow to the sun by gerald mcdermott (1975) (see horning’s (2013) and reese’s (2006, 2009) critiques) and new york times book review best illustrated children’s book awardee, a fine dessert, written by emily jenkins (2015) and illustrated by sophie blackall (see thomas, reese, and horning’s (2016) critique), are other examples of books that garnered awards and later received criticism for gross misrepresentations and culturally insensitive depictions. the transformative justice questionnaire identifies these gaps with the following questions: “how would this book look different to varied audiences?”; “who seems to be the intended audience for this book?”; “are the author and the illustrator able to speak to the experience depicted in the story, or does the story seem to be written by an outsider looking in?”; “if the author’s lived experiences speak to the major parts of the story (#ownvoices story), are there parts of the story that are not representative of the author’s lived experiences? if so, how do we address cultural misrepresentation in this context?”; “do the illustrations in the book contain stereotypical images or caricatures (e.g., exaggerated features of characters)?”; and “how do the illustrations in the story impact the message of the story?” by reflecting on these questions, educators can 135 evaluate the authenticity and accuracy of the story and its illustrations to point out inaccuracies and misrepresentations, whenever possible. for older children, it can also lead to a meaningful conversation about why there may be a disjunct between reality and what is shown in books, television, and other media. i am jazz by jessica herthel and jazz jennings (2014) an example of diffractive reading concerning gender identity is the autobiographical children’s picture book i am jazz, written by jessica herthel and jazz jennings (2014) and illustrated by shelagh mcnicholas. while i am jazz positively models the transition of jazz with the support of family and friends, it inadvertently stereotypes gender roles and expressions along a binary, unless there is a critical conversation about how the story is particular to jazz’s experience as a transgender child. as michael lovelock (2017) notes, the visibility of trangender people in the media is largely due to the more specific fact that they are celebrities as much as they identify as transgender, which includes jazz jennings, laverne cox, janet mock, and caitlyn jenner. the book, while speaking of the transgender experience, reaffirms gendered binaries with lines such as jazz “having a boy body in a girl brain,” and liking pink, singing, make-up, dress-up, and mermaids. given that the story centers a transgender child and can lead to conversations about being gender-creative, “the unlearning of gender norms, is even more critical than the learning of anti-bias concepts” (sullivan, 2016, p. 79, emphasis in original). the questions from the transformative justice questionnaire, “what genders are ‘normalized’ in the book and accepted?”; “how would the book impact a child who does not identify along the traditional gender binary or the gender depicted in the book?”; and “do the characters depicted in the book conform to or break off from traditional ‘gender’ roles?” allow children to “diffract” from the book to develop a more nuanced understanding of transgender people. gender color-coded messages are shown to have a strong impact on children’s brain development, including the career paths they choose (anand, 2019). books such as julian is a mermaid, written and illustrated by jessica love (2018), and when aidan became a brother, written by kyle lukoff (2019) and illustrated by kaylani juanita, feature multiple aspects of identity. these books that provide a more intersectional analytic lens are, however, few and far between. the ugly dumpling by stephanie campisi (2016) a final example of diffractive reading using the transformative justice approach is an analysis of the ugly dumpling, written by stephanie campisi (2016) and illustrated by shahar kober. the ugly dumpling is critiqued for its racist depiction of a chinese restaurant with the main character being a cockroach (ray, 2020). the book depicts all dumplings as ugly, and the restaurant to be unhygienic with cockroaches and bugs, where the chef and the waiters are asian, while all the patrons are white. campisi identifies as white, and the story has multiple instances of stereotyping that are racist. the original ugly duckling is, itself, a deeply problematic story in 136 which the “duckling” is teased and ostracized on account of being different and only finds acceptance when it transforms into a swan that is recognizable by others. these examples evince how critically acclaimed books can still fall short, with hidden stereotypes that are easy to overlook, if not read with a transformative justice lens. implicit bias and social conditioning to stereotypes mean that unless conscious vigilance, critical thinking, and social awareness are developed, it is easy to overlook misrepresentations, inadvertently reinforce stereotypes, and thus perpetuate systemic inequities. books written by authors with lived experiences of the characters seem to address some of the challenges with misrepresentation. the rise of the #ownvoices movement in 2015, started by corinne duyvis in response to the lack of books written by authors belonging to non-white groups (https://www.corinneduyvis.net/ownvoices/), has provided much needed attention to bridge the “diversity gap” in children’s literature. according to the cooperative children’s book center (ccbc) 2017 multicultural statistics (2018), black, latinx, and american indian authors combined wrote just 7% of new children’s books published. furthermore, only 29% of books about african/african american people were written by black authors or illustrators; 34% of books about latinx folks were written or illustrated by latinx people; and 53% of books with american indian content/characters were written or illustrated by american indian creators. this “diversity gap” in publishing leaves out children who are abipoc to find adequate representations of themselves in literature (wenjen, 2018). however, #ownvoices has also led to some controversy, about the extent to which the entire book must be written from the lived experience of the author. the withdrawal of kosoko jackson’s young adult (ya) novel a place for wolves (2019) and amélie wen zhao’s blood heir (2019) are a couple instances where parts of the story were critiqued for not reflecting the author’s own lived experiences (waldman, 2019). the book parker looks up, as illustrated above, qualifies as a much-needed #ownvoices book, but at the same time misrepresents american indian people (reese, 2019). clarifying questions raised about #ownvoices include, do #ownvoices inadvertently consign authors to write only stories of marginalization, based on their identities? or when it comes to disability in children’s literature, should disclosing disabilities by authors be a prerequisite, or would a story written by caregivers about a non-verbal child qualify as #ownvoices? regardless of these questions and controversies, the significance of #ownvoices cannot be re-emphasized enough. conclusion the transformative justice approach requires an intentional centering of historically disenfranchised identities and a conscious dismantling of unconscious biases that people develop as a result of being exposed to systematic stereotyping of particular people and communities, which are often depicted in media, books, messaging by socializing agents, and other influences. the hope is that this way of thinking will become automatic with more repetition, so that the student and the teacher will become accustomed to inquiring about 137 structures of power and privilege that may or may not apply to them. inviting students’ lived experiences as part of the learning process means that abipoc students and their cultures are valued, not as tools to teach trauma, but as narratives that celebrate strength, resilience, and resistance. this balance has to be central in the classroom so that the humanity of all children are recognized and respected. teacher and student, in this sense, do not operate from a hierarchical binary, but as co-learners, bringing in experience and expertise to the common space of the classroom and beyond. rudine sims bishop (2007) notes that in books written by african american authors, the story “nurtures the souls of black children by reflecting back to them, both visually and verbally, the beauty and competencies that we as adults see in them” (p. 273). as shown with the book analyses above, despite the increase in the numbers of “diverse” books (school library journal, 2019), there are distortions and misrepresentations that are inadvertently incorporated. again, the question, “who is the intended reader?” becomes important here. based on bishop’s (1990) distinction of books as “windows, mirrors and sliding doors” for children, debbie reese points to “funhouse mirrors” when misrepresentation of american indian images trivialize, caricature and disrespect when children from those communities read them (school library journal, 2019, para. 3). ebony elizabeth thomas goes further to call them “distorted funhouse mirrors of the self” (school library journal, 2019, para. 3). moreover, books that represent one aspect of diversity are often consumed without question and read to children without any critical thinking prompts. the transformative justice approach is open-ended, in that it factors in systemic barriers that exist in the present to invoke systemic change, while standing within the structures of the us education system and simultaneously dismantling it. this includes the overrepresentation of white teachers in the teaching workforce as the number of abipoc students increase (national center for education statistics, 2017), the lack of diversity in the book publishing industry (leeandlowbooks, 2020), and the lack of representation within children’s books (cooperative children’s book center, 2019). with schools being increasingly underfunded (us house of representatives, 2019), access to books and other resources are further stymied. our hope is that the transformative justice approach would robustly complicate binaries and foster critical thinking to front and center people’s lived experiences, with classrooms becoming co-learning spaces that would lead towards systemic change and from equity to equality. acknowledgements we are immensely grateful to the staff and students of the former medford boys and girls club, in massachusetts, where we were able to conduct children’s book readings using the transformative justice questionnaire and whose wisdom and guidance has informed this paper. we also wish to thank gabrielle womack for providing invaluable feedback on the manuscript. 138 references allen, q., & white-smith, k. 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(2021). sixth-graders' paintings for the u.s. food conservation effort: a qualitative study. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 148-168. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.3 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract in this article, a research project is discussed that examines the political messages within the 12 paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration to cause civilians during world war i to donate food for the war effort. sixth grade students in my research project analyzed these paintings and then created their own painting based on arguments in hoover’s food in war speech on why u.s. civilians should donate for the food conservation effort. they conveyed in their paintings political messages found in the 12 paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration. the findings from coding students’ paintings and metacognitive writing pieces are discussed. keywords visual primary sources; herbert hoover; u.s. food administration, civic education; inquiry-based teaching 10.46303/jcsr.2021.3 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.3 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 149 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 introduction students encounter visual political messages on a daily basis. for example, political candidates and special interest groups create commercials with imagery to try and sway voters’ decisions. the imagery employed in these commercials is designed to play on viewers’ values, emotions, and beliefs (mason, 2015). social studies teachers need to utilize classroom activities for their students to critically analyze media tools in order to be critical consumers of political media messages (sperry & baker, 2016). social studies teachers can use visual primary sources from historical time periods to show how people attempted to convince citizens to support certain public policies. in this article, a research project is discussed that examines the political messages within the 12 paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration to cause civilians during world war i to donate food for the war effort. sixth grade students in my research project analyzed these paintings and then created their own painting based on arguments in hoover’s food in war speech on why u.s. civilians should donate for the food conservation effort. herbert hoover’s food in war speech and the series of 12 paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration were used on days three and four were provided with the permission of the herbert hoover presidential library-museum. these students conveyed in their paintings similar political messages to those found in the 12 paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration. warfare changed during world war i. industrialization in the latter part of the 19th century in conjunction with technological improvements in weaponry led to world war i having high numbers of casualties. the destruction from this war made countries more dependent upon civilians on the home front to contribute donations and create needed goods for the war effort. when the united states entered world war i, its demands on the home front were greater. the u.s. was mobilizing for the war while also providing food supplies to its allies. allied forces struggled to meet food supplies for their civilians and soldiers due to three years of war (miller, 2018). herbert hoover was charged with leading the u.s. food administration in large part due to his international successes as an engineer for various corporations with overseas projects (nash, 1988, 1996). he made speeches around the u.s. to encourage civilian donations for the food conservation effort (mullendore, 1941; nash, 1996). hoover articulates a vision for civilians on the u.s. home front in his food in war speech. in this speech, hoover defined american patriotism on the home front as civilians donating food for the war effort. the u.s. food administration commissioned a series of 12 paintings that toured the country based on hoover’s food in war speech. each painting visualized ideas that hoover conveyed about the reasons for food conservation. these paintings were designed to draw on american civilians’ emotions and patriotism. 150 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 in this article, i first provide a brief overview of the type of teaching advocated for in the c3 framework by the national council of the social studies (ncss). next, the theoretical framework for my research project is given. then, a brief overview of the sixth grade students and the school where this research study took place is provided. next, the procedures of my research study are discussed. then, i give an overview of the data analysis used to examine the sixth grade students’ paintings and metacognitive writing pieces. next, i provide the results from coding students’ paintings and metacognitive writing pieces. five student examples are examined. these student examples are reflective of themes found in students’ paintings and metacognitive writing pieces. finally, a discussion section gives takeaways for how this study potentially adds to the body of literature on teaching with visual primary sources that contain political messages. the two research questions for my study are provided below. 1. in what ways, if any, did students convey political messages through creating their own painting similar to those commissioned by the u.s. food administration during world war i? 2. how did students through their metacognitive writing pieces articulate the ways that their paintings were designed to convey arguments for food conservation similar to those found in hoover’s food in war speech? literature review the authors of the c3 framework advocate for middle school social studies teachers to utilize primary and secondary sources to help build students’ content-area literacy, thinking, and argumentation skills (lee & swan, 2013; ncss, 2013). social studies teachers should utilize analysis prompts that contain open-ended questions to help students deconstruct an author’s arguments. this type of teaching enables students to see how individuals frame their positions on issues based on their values, biases, and beliefs (seixas & morton, 2012). keith barton (2001, 2018) argues that visual primary sources are windows into a time period. social studies teachers need to model for students how to deconstruct visual primary sources because of the abstract thinking required (barton, 2018; callahan, 2013a). visual primary sources convey ideas and emotions through imagery. due to these various layers of meaning within visual primary sources, social studies teachers must give careful consideration to designing learning experiences for their students to analyze the complexities within a source. these learning opportunities with visual primary sources are crucial in building students’ analysis skills to employ historians’ heuristics (barton, 2001, 2018; werner, 2002). cory callahan (2013a, 2013b, 2015) provides guidance to k-12 social studies teachers and social studies methods teachers to help their students have meaningful discussions with visual primary sources. he argues that teachers should provide a compelling question to drive an examination of a topic. then, teachers should model how to analyze the contents of visual primary sources because it cannot be assumed students possess these needed skills. next, students analyze visual primary sources in small groups to practice the analysis skills learned. 151 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 then, there is a class discussion where groups share their findings. finally, students use evidence from the visual primary sources examined to answer a compelling question. callahan (2013a) argues that the skills learned from analyzing visual primary sources are instrumental in preparing students to have critical dialogues with political messages found in campaign advertisements. jon callow (2006) designed a research study where sixth grade students explored visual literacy skills through a unit examining australian democracy. the teacher and researcher designed several lesson plans to help students deconstruct the contents of visual primary sources. these learning experiences provided students with background knowledge to create their own political pamphlet using words and imagery. the researcher interviewed students to get them to unpack their thinking about choices made while designing their political pamphlet. the excerpts from these interviews demonstrate that students were able to apply the devices used within visual primary sources to articulate why their candidate should win the election (callow, 2006). one thing that is clear from the literature is that students need learning opportunities to explore the complex processes inherent within examining visual primary sources that contain political messages. theoretical framework my research project utilized the best teaching practices for social studies education advocated for in the c3 framework. the c3 framework emphasizes that students should research openended questions, analyze primary and secondary sources, and use evidence to support their reasons for taking civic action (lee & swan, 2013; levinson & levine, 2013; ncss, 2013). these steps argued for in the c3 framework change the dynamics of the u.s. history classroom to be driven by inquiry-based activities. inquiry-based teaching practices are centered around the idea that students do research and create their own answers to a question based on evidence. with inquiry-based teaching, the social studies teacher facilitates students’ research. students use background knowledge and knowledge from their research to construct solutions to an open-ended question (kohlmeier & saye, 2019; van hover & hicks, 2017). through these processes, students go from being passive observers to active participants in their learning (nokes, 2019). there are several parallels in my study to that of bickford’s study (2011). in bickford’s study (2011), students studied political cartoons, selected historical images, and created their own captions to go with their chosen images to summarize the content material. the utilization of historical images and students’ captions resulted in them creating their own original political cartoons. the creation of students’ own original political cartoons allowed them to apply higher levels of thinking by constructing a representation of their content knowledge as discussed in bloom’s taxonomy (bloom, 1956). in a similar vein to bickford’s study (2011), i had a class of sixth grade students analyze a series of paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration based on hoover’s food in 152 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 war speech. drawing on ideas from the literature about teaching with visual primary sources, the teacher and i started by modeling for the sixth grade students how to analyze the paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration because it cannot be assumed that students possess these analysis skills (barton, 2001, 2018; callahan, 2013a, 2013b, 2015). after analyzing these paintings, students created their own painting based on parts of hoover’s speech but were instructed to not replicate items from the paintings examined. they had to also write a metacognitive piece explaining how their painting connected to the reasons that hoover gave for the need of food conservation by u.s. civilians (yancie & clabough, 2017). the steps of my research study similar to bickford’s study (2011) engaged students in higher levels of thinking by having them construct a representation of their content knowledge. additionally, students articulated through their metacognitive writing piece how their painting draws on ideas from hoover’s speech in a similar way to how callow (2006) engaged students in unpacking their thinking. this project helped to engage these sixth grade students in higher levels of thinking because they had to create a representation of content knowledge that demonstrated their understanding of how to utilize symbolic imagery. the use of symbolic imagery in students’ paintings showed that they could craft similar political messages as the artists commissioned by the u.s. food administration during world war i. methodology participants this research study took place in a sixth grade u.s. history classroom in a southeastern metropolitan area. the school serves sixth through eighth grades with a student population of approximately 1,200 students. it was implemented with one of the teacher’s u.s. history classes. this u.s. history class had 8 boys and 19 girls for a total population size of 27. all of the students are white except for two asian american students and one african american student. procedures on day one of the project, the sixth grade students reviewed the devastation of europe caused in world war i. they selected a primary source from three websites and then completed the multi-sensory photograph analysis sheet in groups (see the appendix for teaching resources with my project). the day ended with students sharing their analysis of their selected photograph. on day two, the teacher and i discussed the challenge that the u.s. faced entering world war i of having to help feed u.s. and allied soldiers and civilians. then, students read an abbreviated version of herbert hoover’s food in war speech (see the appendix for teaching resources with my project). after students in small groups read this abbreviated version of hoover’s speech, they answered the following analysis prompts. 1. according to hoover’s speech, what was the purpose of the u.s. food administration? use evidence to support your arguments. 153 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 2. according to hoover’s speech, why did u.s. civilians need to take part in the food conservation effort during world war i? use evidence to support your arguments. 3. according to hoover’s speech, what is the united states’ responsibility to its allies? use evidence to support your arguments. 4. why do you think herbert hoover gave this speech? use evidence from hoover’s speech to support your arguments. these analysis prompts helped students examine hoover’s perspective about the role of civilians on the u.s. home front. on day three, the teacher and i discussed how people use imagery to convey thoughts and emotions. due to the complexity in the paintings based on hoover’s speech, we scaffolded for students how to analyze symbolic imagery in one of the paintings, the body may die but the soul is unconquerable (johnes, 1918). this painting is provided in the following section. the following analysis prompts were used to help students deconstruct symbolic imagery in this painting through a class discussion. 1. what stands out to you from this painting? use evidence from the painting to support your arguments. 2. why do you think the artist depicted the buildings and street in this manner? explain your reasoning. 3. what is the message that the artist is trying to convey in this painting? how does the message of this painting connect to hoover’s speech? use evidence from the painting and hoover’s speech to support your arguments. johnes’ painting (1918) the body may die but the soul is unconquerable 154 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 these analysis prompts helped students discuss why the artist depicted parts of the painting in a certain manner (barton, 2018). it took the majority of the third day to discuss this painting. after this class discussion, groups selected one of the other 11 paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration and answered the analysis prompts in the following section for the rest of days three and most of day four. 1. what stands out to you from this painting? use evidence from the painting to support your arguments. 2. why do you think the artist utilized certain symbolic imagery in your painting? explain your reasoning. 3. what is the message that the artist is trying to convey in this painting? how does the message of this painting connect to hoover’s speech? use evidence from the painting and hoover’s speech to support your arguments. this activity allowed students an opportunity to apply analysis skills learned about visual primary sources (callahan, 2015). after groups answered the analysis prompts, there was a class discussion where groups shared the symbolic imagery of their painting. on day five, the teacher gave the instructions below for the summative assessment that students completed individually. assume the role of an artist commissioned by the u.s. food administration to create a painting based on a portion of herbert hoover’s food in war speech. create a painting that uses symbolic imagery to discuss a portion of hoover’s speech. your painting needs to be different from the paintings already analyzed. in addition to your painting, please write a metacognitive piece for your painting to answer the following questions. what is the overall message of your painting? what symbolic imagery did you use in your painting? how did your painting use symbolic imagery to connect to a portion of hoover’s food in war speech? it took the students the rest of days five and six to finish their painting and write and edit their metacognitive piece. data analysis there were two sets of data examined from this research study: students’ paintings and their metacognitive pieces. students’ paintings and metacognitive writing pieces were coded using qualitative content analysis with inductive and deductive elements (elo & kyngas, 2007; kline, 2008; krippendorff, 2013; maxwell, 2010; zhang & wildemuth, 2009). during open coding, observations of and outliers to patterns that emerged during open coding were created and synthesized into testable codes for axial coding. with students’ paintings, i had to note how they used symbolism within the imagery in their painting similar to the series of paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration. during the step of axial coding, all students’ paintings and metacognitive writing pieces were examined to note the presence, absence, and frequency of the codes. data were compiled and analyzed. patterns are discussed, and their 155 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 significance is articulated in subsequent sections. the subsequent sections contain samples from student work that illustrate emergent themes from their paintings and metacognitive writing pieces. the student paintings and metacognitive pieces discussed reflect items commonly found in all students’ work. pseudonyms are given for all students. there were four themes that emerged from analyzing students’ paintings and metacognitive writing pieces: connection with how food donations by civilians directly helps u.s. soldiers on the front lines, u.s. civilians need to grow food for the war effort, some people are not taking part in the u.s. food conservation effort, and dire need for food donations to civilians of our european allies. this shows that students’ paintings reflected the same themes found in the 12 paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration. each of these themes will be explored in subsequent sections through a student’s painting and metacognitive writing piece. additionally, there was one student that talked about the u.s. food administration in such novel ways that a brief examination of her painting is warranted. results connecting how food donations by u.s. civilians directly helps u.s. soldiers the most common theme of students’ paintings was the focus on how civilians on the u.s. home front contributing to the food conservation effort helped soldiers fighting the war. there were 11 students who focused on this theme. i will use karen’s painting as an example to show the connections between civilians’ actions on the u.s. home front to the soldiers’ successes on the front lines. karen’s painting karen included two main images in her painting. on the left-hand side of karen’s painting, she shows a person at a dinner table with some food on it, but this person is giving 156 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 some food to soldiers on the right-hand side of the painting. on the right-hand side of karen’s painting, the focus is on u.s. soldiers on the front lines. karen is implying that the food donations being made by civilians are being used by soldiers on the front lines. she also utilizes strategically-placed words and phrases in her painting. a viewer’s eye goes to the phrase at the top of karen’s painting: “eat less, give more.” it comes across that the giving in karen’s painting will help soldiers be successful on the front lines, which is an argument made in hoover’s food in war speech. karen also did a good job explaining through her metacognitive writing piece about the choices that she artistically made in her painting. she summarized the main message of her painting in the metacognitive writing piece with the phrase “eat less, give more.” another item mentioned in karen’s metacognitive writing piece is about her choice to show an angel smiling directly above the middle of the painting where the civilian is handing the soldier a box of food. it can be inferred that this is a morally good action. karen also connects the contents of her painting to hoover’s food in war speech based on his argument that civilians should eat less food so they “can give a little more instead of eating it themselves.” while karen’s metacognitive writing piece was short, she did succinctly convey how her painting connects to ideas in hoover’s speech about civilians’ actions on the home front helping u.s. soldiers on the front lines. the role u.s. civilians play through food conservation efforts nine students in their paintings focused on how civilians’ actions of growing and conserving more food would help european allies. i use erin’s painting as an example to depict the connections between civilians’ actions with food conservation on the u.s. home front to addressing food shortages with our allies abroad. erin’s painting 157 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 erin’s painting contains a lot of images with symbolic meaning connected to hoover’s speech. first, several people are included that are taking actions designed to help in the food conservation effort. there is a blonde-haired girl shown at the bottom working a garden. there are several people carrying boxes of food, and based on erin’s description in her metacognitive writing piece, these people are about to go donate these boxes of food. there is also a person shown away from the other people that is not taking part in the food donation effort, which eludes to hoover’s statements that some u.s. citizens on the home front are not taking part to help in the war effort. erin did a good job unpacking arguments in her metacognitive writing piece. she states that the following is the overall message of her painting. the message of my painting is that all people should help out for a major cause. if you sit there and do nothing, that is one less box of food to the homeless and one less package of supplies for our soldiers. helping with the war effort helps us win the war. to convey this message, erin employs a variety of symbolic images focusing on people planting and donating food. she did this to tell her audience “where the food is going.” one person is mentioned to not be taking part in the food conservation effort to show how this person reflects the hoarding that hoover argues should not be done because as erin states “this person is not helping at all.” erin also provided the quote from hoover’s speech that was the focus of her painting: “the success of the war effort is dependent on the sacrifices of u.s. citizens on the home front.” she is one of the few students that actually connected her painting to a direct quote from hoover’s speech. erin justifies how the message of her painting “that all people should help out for a major cause” connects to the direct quote from hoover’s speech. some people are price gouging with food there were three students who focused their paintings on price gouging with food. hoover discusses in his speech that american civilians engaging in price gouging were not patriotic and were more focused on their own self-interests instead of helping with the war effort. i will use brook’s painting to examine the theme conveyed in students’ paintings of price gouging during the war. 158 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 brook’s painting in brook’s painting, she has two main images. the image on the left-hand side shows someone selling food for $5.99, and on the right-hand side, there is another person selling food at an inflated price of $9.99. the booths where these two people are selling food are the same, which brook uses to convey that the person on the right-hand side is price gouging. the person on the right-hand side is price gouging to earn more profits. this can be seen in brook’s image with the person on the right having more dollars below the booth than the individual on the left-hand side of the painting. brook conveyed in her metacognitive writing piece that the overall message of her painting is that “no one should use the war for their benefit. price gouging is when you raise your prices for your own goals. some people did this during world war i. herbert hoover did not approve of price gouging.” she said the symbolic imagery in her painting included the fact that, “i used money to show the benefits of raising your prices even though it is wrong. it also represents the differences in the pay check.” brook’s symbolic imagery reflects the arguments made by hoover about the unethical practices of price gouging during world war i. brook connects her painting to hoover’s arguments about price gouging even though she did not quote any part of hoover’s speech. she says “that hoover says price gouging is bad and effects the war effort. during this time, people needed to help the soldiers, but some people did not care. they raised their prices for the benefit of themselves.” brook’s statement shows that she agrees with hoover’s arguments about price gouging and regards price gouging as selfish and unpatriotic. dire need for food donations to european allies three students focused their paintings on conveying the reasons for why food donations were needed for our european allies. i will use martin’s painting as an example that captures how these three students depicted the urgent need for food donations to our allies. 159 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 martin’s painting martin painted a person in the middle of his image with dreary colors to show the sad state of people in europe with no food. next to the person in the middle of martin’s painting is an empty bowl of food symbolizing the food shortage hoover discusses in his speech. in the background, martin added a lot of people waiting in a food line. the dreary colors convey the sad state of europe in world war i. these emotions are driven home by the one word added at the bottom of martin’s painting with a black pen in all capital letters: famine. the use of this one word in conjunction with the bleak images captures how hoover discusses europe. martin’s painting shows that he was able to analyze how johnes’ painting (1918) depicted the impact of 160 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 world war i on civilians and used similar symbolic imagery to cause american civilians to want to donate to the food effort. martin works to show through the imagery of his painting how a viewer can empathize with what the civilians of our allies were going through in world war i. it is important for social studies teachers to frame topics so that students can connect on a personal level with content being explored (endacott & brooks, 2013). martin did an excellent job articulating his thoughts through the metacognitive writing piece about the choices that he made in his painting. he says the message of his painting was to “show how world war i impacted citizens of england and our other allies.” there are multiple examples of symbolic imagery employed by martin containing political messages to cause u.s. civilians to donate food for the war effort. martin mentions he “used dark colors to capture the sad mood in europe during world war i along with the empty bowl and long food line to convey the food shortage in europe.” he also points out his painting connects to parts of hoover’s speech. specifically, martin says his painting “shows the long food lines in england that hoover mentioned in the fifth paragraph of his speech.” this demonstrates that martin was able to accurately apply parts of hoover’s speech through the political messages within his painting. the u.s. food administration’s leadership for the food relief effort of european allies students’ paintings mainly fell into the four themes already discussed. eleanor’s painting is the only one that focused solely on the u.s. food administration. eleanor’s painting there are several elements in eleanor’s painting that highlight the impact of the u.s. food administration in feeding allied civilians. first, there is a building labeled at the top of a 161 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 hill as “food administration.” the placement of this building at the top of the hill denotes its importance. inside this building, eleanor put some food, which shows the role of the u.s. food administration to distribute food. a closer examination of eleanor’s painting adds meaning to the role of the u.s. food administration for food relief efforts. in the bottom center of the painting, there are two pairs of hands lifted up toward the building marked “food administration.” this shows how some people were dependent on the u.s. food administration. finally, eleanor’s color in her painting is worth noting. the color use near the top of the painting uses very warm colors with the light blue sky and the yellow and orange colors behind the building, which looks like the sun. the color choices were used by eleanor to show the positive impact of the u.s. food administration on people’s lives. in her metacognitive writing piece, eleanor discusses the overall message of her painting in religious terms. the u.s. food administration is like a savior and the cure, hence the light and clouds, but below the mountain are the hungry people from belgium. the mountain symbolizes how it is hard for them to get there. also, the sky at the bottom is darker to show that the people in belgium are in dark times. eleanor does a great job of discussing the use of color to capture the mood and stark realities that people in belgium faced during world war i. she does not quote hoover’s speech but does paraphrase certain parts of it. hoover talks about how the u.s. food administration is a primary source in feeding those in belgium. that’s the reason for the sun behind the u.s. food administration building. he also talks about how awful it is in belgium. this is shown by the dark colors at the bottom of my painting. the religious overtones used by eleanor are an outlier in the students’ paintings as is her discussion of the u.s. food administration and how this organization would be perceived by the belgium people. due to time constraints on the project, the teacher and i did not have time to discuss how the belgium people reacted to the food relief efforts by the u.s. food administration, and most notably the leadership efforts by herbert hoover to this organization. this is an example of inferential thinking that eleanor made in this project on her own that accurately reflects how hoover was valued by the belgian government as demonstrated by the excerpt below. to the foreign minister and his colleagues, hoover’s offhand remark provided an opening. that evening at the royal cottage, king albert hosted a dinner for his american guest; the visiting belgian cabinet officials also attended. at the end as hoover was about to leave for boulogne, the king suddenly addressed him. the monarch declared that he wished to express a “debt of gratitude” that could never be repaid. the belgian people he said, “would always turn to hoover as their savior in times of national calamity. albert thereupon state that he had created a new order and that hoover would be its only 162 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 member. he then conferred upon hoover the title “ami de las nation belge”---“friend of the belgian nation.” (nash, 1996, p. 463) again, this connection was made by eleanor. the teacher and i did not cover this content with the class. it can be presumed that eleanor probably had no knowledge of the quote from nash’s book (1996) that also associated the word “savior” with hoover and the work of the u.s. food administration to provide food relief for belgium. this is a text to world connection that eleanor made based on a previous life or educational experiences. while the origins of eleanor’s connection of the u.s. food administration as a “savior” similar to the historical anecdote shared in nash’s book (1996) cannot be ascertained, it does show that she applied disciplinary inferential thinking skills based on historical issues and events being studied in this project (nokes, 2013). discussion the findings from this research study support arguments from the literature that with the appropriate scaffolding even younger students can analyze visual primary sources (barton, 2001, 2018; callahan, 2013a, 2013b, 2015). with this research project, the teacher and i modeled for students on day three how to analyze the symbolic imagery with one of the paintings. students practiced these analysis skills on days three and four through group work to analyze another one of the paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration. it was clear from circulating the room while students were analyzing a painting in small groups that they still needed help deconstructing the meaning of the symbolic imagery within each painting. even when the groups presented their painting at the end of the fourth day, the teacher and i still had to use supporting questions to further help the students unpack the meaning of their painting. similar to the work of bickford (2011) and callow (2006), the sixth grade students in my research project created a representation of their content knowledge through their painting. one item that differentiates my research study from others in the literature was the focus on students completing a metacognitive writing piece. callow (2006) did interview the sixth grade students in his project about choices made in their political pamphlets. however, the sixth grade students in my research project did a writing assignment to unpack the choices made in their painting. these students on average wrote a short paragraph response to each of the three questions posed in the metacognitive writing prompt. students’ metacognitive writing pieces contained evidence of how they were able to articulate the parallels of arguments for food conservation in their paintings to those found in hoover’s speech. the third analysis prompt in the metacognitive writing pieces asked students to connect their painting to hoover’s speech. the majority of the students summarized how their paintings connected to hoover’s speech as opposed to directly quoting hoover’s speech. this reflects the type of evidence-based teaching advocated for in the c3 framework because students are supporting their arguments based on primary sources examined (ncss, 2013). social studies teachers need to carefully and thoughtfully design writing prompts for their 163 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 students to use evidence to support their arguments (monte sano, 2012). it appears more modeling is needed by the teacher to help students feel comfortable with directly quoting primary sources examined in their metacognitive writing pieces. it is worth noting several students consistently used words and phrases with their paintings. the teacher and i did not tell the students to include these words and phrases in their paintings. this was an artistic choice made by the students to convey messages within their paintings. karen and martin’s paintings discussed in earlier sections both used limited amount of words to convey the messages within their paintings. similar to bickford’s study (2011), students constructed a multimodal representation of their content knowledge through words and images (dalton, 2015). these multimodal representations of students’ messages in their paintings are encouraging since this reflects the way most political messages through visual sources are constructed. the ability to construct political messages in this way helps prepare students as future democratic citizens to deconstruct similar political messages (sperry & baker, 2016). due to time constraints, my research project was limited to six days. therefore, the focus of this project was on helping the students gain the ability to analyze and create their own visual primary sources containing political messages. this caused there to be missed learning opportunities. the students consistently conveyed traditional definitions of patriotism in their paintings and metacognitive writing pieces where u.s. citizens are loyal to the leaders and causes during times of war (westheimer, 2008). this is not surprising since hoover’s food in war speech articulates a more traditional definition of patriotism, and many of the students come from conservative families in a southern state that also agree with hoover’s beliefs about patriotism. a future study that builds on this project could replicate this research project but also add the additional component of how women and supporters of the suffragette movement demonstrated a different version of patriotism by protesting for the right to vote during world war i. it is important for students to realize that the three major wars of the 20th century, world war i, world war ii, and the vietnam war, were all protested by a portion of civilians on the u.s. home front. social studies teachers can use excerpts from zimet’s trade book (2018) roses and radicals: the epic story of how american women won the right to vote to expose students to how women protested during world war i for the right to vote. many americans have defined patriotism in different ways, especially during times of war (westheimer, 2008). the addition of this component helps students grasp the divergent ways that americans define patriotic actions. it is important for students to discuss these competing definitions of american patriotism since this is still a controversial issue in contemporary u.s. society as demonstrated by the protests of the 2020 summer about the deaths of george floyd and breonna taylor (carrega, 2020; searcey & zucchion, 2020). students need learning opportunities to deconstruct how american patriotism is defined and argued based on images from contemporary protests about issues of race. the social studies classroom 164 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 is one of the few safe spaces that our students have to examine competing beliefs about controversial public issues (kawashima-ginsberg & junco, 2018). conclusion middle school students need support deconstructing the symbolic images within visual primary sources. however, with the proper scaffolding, students can analyze visual primary sources. it took two class periods for the students in my study to gain the knowledge and ability to analyze political messages through the symbolic imagery of the 12 paintings commissioned by the u.s. food administration, but this was time well spent. the students in my research study constructed their own political messages in their painting similar to those found in the visual primary sources examined. they were also able to articulate how and why symbolic imagery was employed to convey certain political messages. the ability to analyze and interact with political messages through visual sources is an important skill to prepare our students to be future democratic citizens (clabough, 2017). references barton, k. 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(2018). roses and radicals: the epic story of how american women won the right to vote. puffin books. 167 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 appendix for teaching resources with my project multi-sensory photograph analysis photograph title or description____________________________________________________________ level i: two-dimensional experience what do you notice? observation inference level ii: three-dimensional experience select a location or position to explore ____________________________________________________ scents sounds level iii: three-dimensional experience select a location or position to explore ____________________________________________________ touch taste 168 jcsr 2021, 3(2):148-168 abbreviated version of herbert hoover’s food in war speech the food administration in the united states is an instrument of our war effort. its primary concern is feeding our own people and those of the allies. this guarantees the strength of all men, women, and children on the home front and abroad. the question of meeting the food needs for the war is mainly about determining the amount of food we need at home so extra food can be shipped to our soldiers and allies. the united states is the most important part of meeting the food needs not only of our soldiers but the soldiers and citizens of allied countries. this is because we can ship our extra food to the war effort, plant more food at home, and reduce our waste of food. the reduction of food use in the united states is important for the war effort to be successful. we have to reduce the food eaten in the united states a little bit to help the soldiers and citizens of our allies. this means that we are going to have to increase the exports that we send to the allies with food such as wheat and eat a little less of such food items as wheat. the success of the war effort is dependent on the sacrifices of u.s. citizens on the home front. this happens through the everyday actions of u.s. citizens and working with local community groups to meet the needs of the war effort. the food producers in the united states have also worked hard to meet the food needs of our soldiers and the soldiers and citizens of the allies. one group that we have had to feed is the needy displaced women and children in belgium impacted by the destruction caused by the german army. we have had this duty for the last three years. additionally, the food lines for the poor in england, france, and italy have been worse this past winter. this has really put a strain on the governments of our european allies. this should pull on our heart strings. these food shortages pose a threat to our success in war. u.s. citizens need to volunteer to help with the war effort by eating only what is needed and through saving extra food for the war effort. i do not believe that anyone has the right to profit from the war through high increases in prices of foods or supplies. price gouging reflects poorly on the american character and values. if our citizens engaged in price gouging, the united states would be no better than our german enemies. people price gouging hurt our soldiers involved in the war. the success of the food administration is largely because of volunteer cooperation of u.s. citizens on the home front. with our current war, it will be successful based on the actions of men, women, and children in the united states. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2020 volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. 170-188 pathways to becoming a culturally responsive teacher: narrative inquiries into a translanguaging read aloud stephanie m. moody 1 & sharon d. matthews2 1. corresponding author towson university, department of early childhood education, towson, md, usa e-mail: smoody@towson.edu 2. texas a&m university, department of teaching, learning, & culture, college station, tx, usa article info received: may 21, 2020 revised: september 4, 2020 accepted: september 25, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 ) how to cite moody, s. m. & matthews, s. d. (2020). pathways to becoming a culturally responsive teacher: narrative inquiries into a translanguaging read aloud. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), 170-188. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.15 abstract the increasing mismatch between the cultural backgrounds of teachers and students has caused teacher education programs (teps) to scramble to identify effective pedagogy that will prepare preservice teachers (psts) to work with diverse populations. one unexamined technique is the use of translanguaging books, which intertwine two languages for a myriad of social, emotional, and cognitive benefits. the present narrative inquiry follows two psts, kathleen and laura, who engaged in shared readings of translanguaging books within an afterschool literacy program for struggling second grade english language learners (ells). data include journal reflections and individual interviews. results show that the translanguaging books shattered their perceptions of the linguistic boundaries between english and spanish, and illustrated how language can be used to alienate students. however, kathleen and laura had contrasting views about the purpose of the translanguaging read alouds which illustrate implications for teps: a) authentic experience is essential to enable psts to challenge current monolingual ideologies; b) psts must be given the opportunity to engage in tasks that challenge their underlying assumptions; and c) teps should focus on the importance of cultural responsiveness, so that psts develop a prominent belief system that can be quickly recalled and enacted in the classroom. keywords narrative inquiry; translanguaging; read alouds; preservice teachers 10.46303/jcsr.2020.15 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.15 171 introduction the number of english language learners (ells) in united states (u.s.) classrooms has steadily increased over the past few decades, totaling approximately 4.8 million, or 9.5% of the student population (national center for education statistics, 2015). making up the bulk of these learners are native spanish speakers, who account for 3.8 million of the students (lam & richards, 2020). however, there is a paucity of bilingual teachers available to teach these ells, as well as a lack of general education teachers who are certified to teach english as a second language (esl) (lam & richards, 2020). colleges of education have tried to rectify this disparity by requiring esl methods coursework for general education teachers to enable them to also receive esl certification, and focusing heavily on culturally responsive teaching practices, including the use of the first language to support the acquisition of english (e.g. garcía et al., 2016; garcía, 2020; moody et al., 2020). however, one technique that remains unexamined within esl methods courses for general education students is the use of translanguaging books, or those which seamlessly intertwine two languages to tell a story. these books can be used to build cultural awareness and empathy, validate the students’ heritage language, and as a tool to aid in the acquisition of the second language (alamillo & arenas, 2012). however, translanguaging has only recently begun to become accepted as a legitimate literacy strategy for all learners (e.g., garcía et al., 2016), and most current research has focused on how it can be applied to support comprehension within traditional reading activities (e.g., pacheco & miller, 2016; zapata et al., 2015), without a specific examination of the use of translanguaging books. coupled with the fact that most general education teachers are required to use specific, often scripted, literacy curriculum that mandates the use of particular texts, the unfortunate reality is that translanguaging books are unlikely to be used by general education teachers (e.g., alamillo & arenas, 2012). thus, there is an urgent need to make preservice teachers (psts) aware of the existence and utility of translanguaging books. we began this inquiry out of a desire to see how monolingual psts would story (clandinin & connelly, 2000) the experience of conducting a shared read aloud of a book written partially in a foreign language in front of native speakers of that language. we wondered if this experience would provide psts with any insights into the ell experience, and if it would force them to confront any personal insecurities or predispositions that they may have around using an unfamiliar language. we were also curious how this experience would alter or enhance any existing beliefs related to teaching ells (hutner & markman, 2016). therefore, this narrative inquiry explores the lived experiences of two psts, laura and kathleen (names are pseudonyms), as they read a translanguaging book to ells, with a specific focus on the similarities and divergences in their beliefs about the utility of the books. it is our hope that this inquiry will highlight the necessity of experience in general education teacher training, particularly if it is coupled with supplemental esl training (dewey, 172 1938), and will provide a lens into the different pathways undergraduate education majors take on their journey to becoming culturally responsive. additionally, perhaps this study will ignite an interest in the use of translanguaging books as a culturally responsive strategy for working with ells, including as a method for developing cultural awareness in psts. review of literature there are two understandings that are key to this study, which will be explored in more detail below. briefly, they are: 1) culturally responsive teaching, and 2) the use of the first language in the second language classroom as a tool for learning, including bilingual books. culturally responsive teaching culturally responsive teaching, as defined by gay (2002), involves “using the cultural characteristics, experiences, and perspectives of ethnically diverse students as conduits for teaching them more effectively” (p. 106). a culturally responsive educator must counteract traditional hegemonic views (bergeron, 2008) through becoming knowledgeable about, and responsive to, diversity, and creating an environment of care within the classroom (gay, 2002). one way this is accomplished is by providing psts with methods for identifying high-quality pedagogy and materials for students of a variety of backgrounds. for teachers of ells, culturally responsive practices may include teaching and using materials that incorporate translanguaging. translanguaging is the flexible use of an entire linguistic repertoire, where meaning is constructed through the application of multiple languages, in order to facilitate comprehension and remove the stigmatization of first language use (e.g., de oliveira et al., 2016; garcía et al., 2016). unfortunately, there is a paucity of opportunities for psts to engage in, and reflect upon, culturally responsive teaching practices like translanguaging (gay & kirkland, 2003). a study by king and butler (2015) showed that out of 14 universities examined, only 4 incorporated a multicultural component into 20% of their courses; these findings show that the extent to which multiculturalism is incorporated across teacher education programs varies greatly, and may not be enough to enhance cultural competence in the classroom. research also shows that typical student teaching field experiences fail to interrupt stereotypes or underlying beliefs that the psts may hold (selland, 2017). to counteract this, bergeron (2008) suggests that psts must be provided with “powerful learning experiences that are designed to bring about a profound and personal transformation that is needed to truly become culturally responsive” (p. 9). part of this learning experience should include deep and critical reflections by psts on their goals for teaching, and how their ideals have evolved from their own class, racial, and linguistic positions (gay & kirkland, 2003; gomez et al., 2004). 173 first language and bilingual books in the esl classroom various educational policies in the u.s. have made clear that the ultimate goal of esl education is to have students become proficient in english as soon as possible (menken, 2010). this has led to many classroom policies which either discourage the use of the native language, or allot specific times of day for the first and second languages, without allowing them to be mixed (worthy et al., 2013). however, much research has demonstrated that using the first language in esl classrooms is a culturally responsive approach that promotes academic achievement and positive self-concepts (e.g. rodriguez-valls, 2009). recent research has focused on the use of translanguaging, in which the student is able to use their full linguistic repertoire to negotiate meaning, as a learning tool (garrity et al., 2015). translanguaging has been positioned by researchers as a socially just way to increase learning of the target language (baker, 2011), to develop collaborative skills (garcía et al., 2016), and to allow all students to feel valued and knowledgeable (garrity et al., 2015). garcía et al. (2016) provided a comprehensive overview of how translanguaging can be enacted within all types of esl classrooms, including those with monolingual teachers, however did not specifically address the potential of translanguaging books. bilingual texts of all varieties are critically important, chiefly because they provide bilingual students with representations of themselves; in this way, bilingual books are mirrors into the home language practices of bilinguals and situate bilingual students as a natural part of the human experience (bishop, 1990; garcía et al., 2016). this is particularly true of translanguaging books, where two languages are seamlessly woven together to tell a story. these books can be used as culturally responsive tools in the esl classroom (gay, 2000), as they allow all students to demonstrate expertise in different areas, and help to normalize natural languaging practices (de oliveira et al., 2016). theoretical framework our inquiry is guided by dewey’s notion of experience (1916; 1929), and hutner and markman’s (2016) operational definition of belief. dewey (1929) contends that experience is central, and allows hidden depths to come to light. for dewey (1938), there are three commonplaces of experience: temporality, place/situation, and sociality. in narrative inquiry research, the idea of temporality means an acknowledgment of the fact that experience changes over time (dewey, 1938). place and situation play a role in narrative inquiry, as not all locations and situations are the same, within stories (dewey, 1938) . finally, sociality is the milieu in which the experience occurs, as well as the researcherparticipant relationship (clandinin & huber, 2010). the examination of these commonplaces will allow us to “study the complexity of the relational composition of people’s lived experiences both inside and outside of an inquiry and, as well, to imagine the future possibilities of these lives” (clandinin & huber, 2010, p. 3). 174 hutner and markman (2016) contend that teacher beliefs mediate cognition, and cognition is evidenced within teacher practice. however, instead of assuming that beliefs are directly related to teacher practice, hutner and markman argue that “a specific belief only influences cognition if that belief is active” (p. 679). thus, teachers are more likely to enact beliefs that are salient to them, either because of constant use or because they align with other beliefs that are of importance to the teacher. part of this definition also assumes that teachers may fail to take action in certain situations because the corresponding beliefs are not active enough to be recalled and applied (hutner & markman, 2016). for the purposes of this inquiry, we use this operational definition of beliefs to tease apart how prominent beliefs drive kathleen and laura’s enactment of the read alouds. we also use this definition to examine how inserting students’ native language (spanish) into their english-only curriculum will activate a belief system that can be used in their future teaching. narrative inquiry: a research tool narrative inquiry is the “experiential study of experience” (xu & connelly, 2010). it is research about people, understanding that they exist in relationship to other people, places, and things (clandinin & connelly, 1995; 2000). it is not a method for answering specific questions, but instead a pathway towards understanding the actions and events that become stories (xu & connelly, 2010). in this study, narrative inquiry is used to examine the development of psts, to understand how the “stories to live by” (connelly & clandinin, 2000, p. 317) of teachers unfold in relation to the experiences and events around them. pst development is not linear, but uneven and subject to much uncertainty (britzman, 2007). likewise, the beliefs of psts are constantly changing due to the interactions they have with professors, mentor teachers, parents, principals, students, and others (huber et al., 2014). connelly and clandinin (1999) posit that all teachers constantly renegotiate and form knowledge about what it means to be a successful educator, outside of the pedagogical and theoretical information learned in educational programs (clandinin, 1993). thus, the narrative inquiry method will be used in this study to “illuminate human experience” (craig, 2018, p. 302), while acknowledging that these stories may change, and the spoken truths may be only so for now (bruner, 1986; 1987). as a method, narrative inquiry intentionally does not have a prescribed set of guidelines (clandinin & connelly, 2000), in order to privilege the participant as the full knower. to garner an understanding of participant stories, narrative inquiry uses three key tools: broadening, burrowing, and storying and restorying (connelly & clandinin, 2000). broadening, as explained by craig (2018) is how researchers “situate their studies in context” (p. 302). for this study, we enter through the lens of the psts, who exist in this halfway point between being professional educators and university students. the second tool, burrowing, is when the researcher closely examines a particular situation or lived experience (craig, 2018). in this study, we dig deeply 175 into the interview and journal entries of two psts, as they relate to two classroom read aloud experiences. finally, we use storying and restorying (craig, 2018) to conceptualize the shift in perceptions and perspectives experienced by the psts. background of the study the context of the study this study took place during spring 2018, when laura and kathleen were working as volunteers in an after-school program called becoming teachers of ell writing (btew). btew is an extracurricular program designed to prepare psts for ell writing instruction, a subject which is not addressed at any point within their teacher education program. thus, laura and kathleen volunteered to participate in btew to enhance their content and pedagogical knowledge for ell writing, but did not receive any sort of credit for coursework for their participation. in btew, laura and kathleen spent approximately 85 minutes a day, two days a week, for 10 total weeks teaching narrative writing at fremont elementary to second grade students who had also volunteered to participate in the program. these students were offered free writing tutoring in exchange for their participation in research. btew specifically targeted struggling ells, and selected fremont elementary as the site of study because of its majority ell population. total student enrollment in btew consisted of 16 second grade students, with 14 native speakers of spanish and two black native speakers of english. the two native speakers of english were admitted into btew because: 1) the principal had identified them as struggling with writing and in need of intervention, and 2) the enrollment of btew was relatively low during this semester, and thus there were open spots available for the native speakers of english. in the context of btew, the first author served as the lead teacher and mentor to the psts, which included laura and kathleen. a central goal of btew was to empower each pst by allowing them autonomy over the activities and lessons for each week, and by emphasizing their role as equal teaching partners. within the lesson planning for each week, the first author served as a guide and resource, providing the psts with new esl teaching techniques and exposing them to innovative pedagogical approaches, including culturally responsive pedagogies. after each day of instruction, laura and kathleen were asked to reflect on their teaching experiences via a teaching journal, which were reviewed by the first author who would then engage laura and kathleen in critical conversations about beliefs, identity, and pedagogy. in this way, btew became a space where laura and kathleen could begin to formulate their own teacher beliefs (huber et al., 2014) and develop efficacy for classroom teaching. ultimately, we hoped that the btew experience would give the psts an arsenal of tools to disrupt the many hegemonic ideologies that comprise the curriculum (huber et al., 2014). 176 the participants laura. at the time of the present study, laura was a 21 year-old elementary education major at a large public university in the southwestern u.s. it is relevant to note that laura is white, a native english speaker, and grew up in a homogeneous middle-class suburb about two hours away from the university in which she was enrolled. laura elected to participate in btew to gain firsthand experience working with ells, and had been part of the program for approximately one semester at the time of this study. laura’s path to becoming a teacher began in seventh grade, when she was a teacher’s aid for a class of students struggling to learn math. through this experience, laura formed a strong bond with her mentor teacher, and began to see how relationships between students and teachers can ignite change. this sparked a desire within laura to help struggling students, and was the driving factor behind her decision to pursue education. initially, laura hoped to teach in a homogeneous suburban district similar to the one she grew up in; however she stated that the experience of working with ells in btew had changed her mind. at the time of this study, she hoped to become esl certified and work with ells. kathleen. during this study, kathleen was a 20-year old elementary education major at the same university as laura. she is also white and a native speaker of english, however she grew up in a large urban city about three hours north of the university, in which she attended a culturally, economically, and linguistically diverse public school. kathleen comes from an upper-middle class family and was raised partially by two spanish-speaking nannies, so she considers herself to be more comfortable with the spanish language than laura. kathleen was recommended to participate in btew by an education professor, who described kathleen as an excellent and highly motivated student. kathleen first began to work as a summer tutor on another department research project, and was so successful that she was recruited into btew. at the time of this study, kathleen had been participating in btew for approximately two semesters. as a child, kathleen had difficulty in school and was eventually diagnosed with add. when this occurred, she formed a very close bond with two teachers who helped her develop strategies to circumvent the limitations of her add. much like laura, these relationships, and the idea of changing students’ lives through teaching, is what inspired kathleen to pursue a career in education. kathleen expressed that she had always wanted to teach in a title i school, but after working as a teaching assistant in btew, she now hopes to specialize in esl education. data collection and analysis the read alouds when we conceptualized the idea of engaging psts in a translanguaging read aloud, laura and kathleen were approached to see if they would like to be readers. at that time, they both had seven weeks of classroom practice conducting english-only read alouds, so we believed that 177 they were familiar with the procedures for read alouds and could handle the additional challenge of reading a book in both spanish and english. during a weekly planning lesson meeting, the first author presented laura and kathleen with the task, and they enthusiastically agreed to participate. laura and kathleen gushed over the translanguaging books, which they had never seen before, and negotiated between themselves who would read what, and which day they would read. laura chose oh no, gotta go! by susan middleton elya, in which the main character, a small child, desperately needs to go to the bathroom while on a long car ride with her family. the story uses simple language, and most of the spanish words are accompanied by their english translation within the same line. laura elected to read this book because she perceives herself as less proficient in spanish, having only taken the required spanish courses in high school, and thus the lower-level verbiage appealed to her. she also chose to be the first one to do the reading with the class. kathleen chose to read the book little roja riding hood, which is also by susan middleton elya, because she felt that she could handle the increased complexity of the spanish words. roja is a remake of the classic little red riding hood story, however its main character is a latinx girl who wears a capa to go visit her abuela with some sopa (elya, 2014). laura and kathleen read their books to the btew students on two different days, during the time that is reserved for sharing mentor texts. for the students, these translanguaging texts were to be used as an introduction to translingual writing (e.g., canagarajah, 2011), to normalize and validate the use of more than one language within writing. before each reading of the translanguaging books, the students were told that the books would have spanish words, and that their teachers may need some help with the words; they responded to this request with undisguised enthusiasm. during laura’s reading, the students were very eager to interrupt the reading to correct her pronunciation or provide definitions. on the second day, kathleen asked that the children wait until they are prompted before calling out, so that everyone could hear and enjoy the story. journals and interviews after each read aloud, kathleen and laura were asked to record their reflections about the experience in a journal. they were provided with a few guiding questions to get them started, but it was emphasized that they could write about anything that came to mind and did not need to follow a particular format. each completed two entries, one after they completed their own read aloud, one reflecting on the read aloud of their peer. laura and kathleen also participated in an individual, open-ended interview with the first author, which lasted approximately 45 minutes. the process of burrowing was utilized to examine the interview transcripts and journal entries of laura and kathleen. burrowing supports a deeper dive into the psts experiences with the read aloud, their resulting beliefs, and how their past stories influenced their actions. 178 commonalities in experience through journal reflections and interview transcripts, we were able to see commonalities in kathleen and laura’s book reading experiences. for both, the bilingual books shattered some of their perceptions of the linguistic boundaries between english and spanish. additionally, both demonstrated cultural responsiveness in their concern for one monolingual english student named chandra. breaking linguistic boundaries possible challenges were at the forefront of consideration when kathleen and laura were first approached with the idea of reading bilingual books to the students. kathleen, a fearless, goofy, eager student, wholeheartedly embraced the chance to step out of her comfort zone, but laura, who was much more reserved, fostered a greater sense of concern. however, while there were a few seconds of initial hesitation, she ultimately accepted the task without reservation. in perusing their interview transcripts and journal reflections after the readings, we immediately noted how laura and kathleen’s self-perceptions shifted through this experience, including their images of themselves as educators. before the book reading, laura’s story was one of linguistic intimidation, in which she was uneasy about speaking spanish aloud. she mentioned that spanish is “kind of a struggle” (interview transcript, march 2018, p. 6) for her, particularly the pronunciation, because she has not practiced it since high school. after the read aloud, her nerves had changed to excitement about the potential of the bilingual books. in the interview, she discussed how it was refreshing to finally have an authentic reason to use spanish, even mentioning that her observations of kathleen’s book reading motivated her to practice spanish more. thus, reading the translanguaging book had changed laura’s story from one of fear and hesitation to an interest in using the language more. when laura read oh no, gotta go!, many of the students called out to correct her pronunciation, or to provide english alternatives to the spanish words. as observers, we were curious about how the students’ behavior affected laura’s self-perception. was she uncomfortable because of their behavior? was she feeling insecure about her position as an “all-powerful teacher”? in her journal reflection, she wrote from the beginning of the story i noticed that every time i read a spanish word, they would correct me or tell me what it meant in english. at first, it made me a little uncomfortable, because i was already not confident going into it, and hearing them correct me every time validated how terrible my spanish speaking is. then i realized that they weren’t correcting me because i was really off, but they were saying the words along with me because they were excited that it was in their first language and they knew exactly how to read and pronounce it, (journal, march 2018, p. 1). this journal entry reflects an important epiphany, in which laura pushed past her ego and feelings of insecurity, and realized the larger purpose of the book reading. laura came to see 179 that the student’s were not focusing on her pronunciation to poke fun at her, but because they were eager to help their teacher in an area where they were, for once, the experts. kathleen’s extensive experience with spanish meant that she was not as nervous to read little roja riding hood as laura had been, however she was worried that “my students would think i was infringing on their culture, and not doing it justice,” (journal, march 2018, p. 1). instead of fretting about her own personal linguistic inadequacies, she was more concerned about her representation of latinx culture. she was hesitant to put herself in the role of the “white expert”, and wanted to ensure that she was accurately portraying the students’ culture. after reading roja, kathleen realized they did not care that my pronunciation was imperfect. in fact, they were ecstatic that their english speaking teacher was branching out and trying to connect with their culture. i think the students felt more known, and interpreted this read-aloud as a celebration and appreciation of their language and culture, (journal, march 2018, p. 1). kathleen realized that her fear was unfounded, that the students were simply happy to have their culture and language represented within a classroom of monolingual teachers. reading roja also boosted kathleen’s confidence with the spanish language, and her own linguistic abilities. she stated, “i realized i can speak spanish a lot more than i thought. and i can comprehend more spanish than i thought,” (interview, march 2018, p. 1). the book reading began a new story for kathleen, one in which spanish was no longer perceived as a barrier. laura and kathleen felt so strongly about the potentiality of translanguaging books that they both expressed the desire for all psts to have a similar experience. in this way, their beliefs of what is necessary for teacher preparation had changed. likewise, kathleen mentioned her attempt to insert translanguaging books into a charity event run by her sorority, replacing the standard dr. seuss stories with more culturally relevant material. she said, “...then i was like, you know what? i think that roja is way better than green eggs and ham, because pre-k and kindergarteners, they don’t understand that book,” (interview, march 2018, p. 7). kathleen’s story changed from one in which she casually accepted classic children’s literature, to one in which she was eager to use authentic texts for ells. these stories of kathleen and laura demonstrated how their conceived linguistic boundaries between spanish and english were broken down. kathleen and laura challenged the dualistic positioning of language (creese & blackledge, 2015), within which they viewed themselves as english-only speakers, and began to see themselves as emergent spanish speakers. they were able to story themselves as capable educators of spanish-speaking students, who could successfully enact culturally responsive strategies (dewey, 1916). kathleen’s desire to include translanguaging books within the charity event indicates that the read aloud activated a belief in the benefits of using the first language within the classroom; if this belief remains prominent, it will be recalled and enacted in her future teaching (hutner & markman, 2016). 180 focus on chandra a culturally-responsive curriculum can rarely be implemented without some form of resistance (chan, 2007); this was certainly the case when laura and kathleen read their bilingual books to the class. as mentioned earlier, 14 of the 16 students were ells, and the other two black students spoke only english. when laura was reading oh no, gotta go! we immediately noticed that chandra, one of the african-american students, was sitting with her head down, playing with her shoelaces, and even rolling her eyes at certain points. based on our previous experiences with chandra, this was very uncharacteristic; she was typically highly engaged and motivated, and enjoyed pleasing the teacher and following directions. we wondered how kathleen, who had also witnessed chandra’s dismissive attitude, would modify her book reading to more fully engage chandra. we also wondered if laura had noticed chandra’s reaction, and how that made her feel. in laura’s journal, she expressed a deep worry over chandra, and a feeling of failure that she had not done enough to accommodate her needs. laura reflected on how she could have done a better job to prepare the book reading to meet the needs of chandra, such as by pointing out the context clues about the spanish words and teaching cognates. later, when laura wrote about chandra’s experience listening to the second bilingual book, she said, i paid close attention to chandra because she is one of the students who had mentioned not liking the bilingual book on tuesday. i noted that she was the most disengaged, and was looking around the room at other things. this story was a little more in-depth and required more to comprehend, so i thought she might not be excited by it” (journal, march 2018, p. 3). laura noted that roja was likely to be more challenging than the first book, and seemed unsurprised by chandra’s continued distaste for bilingual books. her concern for chandra was evident in how she paid particular attention to her experience. kathleen, too, was concerned about chandra. when preparing to read roja to the class, kathleen mentioned that she very carefully practiced her pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm, so that all children would be able to follow the flow of the story. she also formulated questions to ask throughout the story to enhance comprehension. despite this, chandra remained disengaged. kathleen later reflected on some strategies that she could have used to increase chandra’s participation, including building a connection between chandra and the main character. kathleen also attempted to build a connection between herself and chandra: i think she felt a little isolated...so later, i remember i walked up to her and was like “i don’t know any spanish either...you and i are on the same page, i don’t know spanish”. and she was like “oh”. i think she felt better that she wasn’t the only one who didn’t know spanish (interview, march 2018, p. 6). in this story, kathleen believed she could use her shared monolingualism to build camaraderie with chandra. she recognized that the translanguaging books, which were so empowering for 181 the ells, were the exact opposite for chandra. what kathleen may not have realized was that reinforcing her monolingualism may have connected her to chandra, but disconnected her from the 14 ells in the class; in this way, her attempt to build camaraderie may have resulted in a bifurcation between language groups. instead, chandra and the other students may have benefited more from a classroom environment that valued the knowledge of all students. within such an environment, kathlen could have positioned the reading as an opportunity for chandra to learn from her classmates, and then given chandra the opportunity (within another assignment or during a different shared reading) to be the knowledge holder. the story of chandra and the translanguaging books demonstrated to kathleen and laura some of the obstacles to culturally responsive teaching (gay, 2002). they came to realize that culturally responsive teaching does not just mean incorporating materials written in english and spanish, but creating an environment in which all students feel safe and valued (gay, 2002); this means responding to the needs of all learners (brown, 2004). thus, the incorporation of spanishenglish translanguaging books is not a ‘magic cure’; teachers need to share many different genres of literature that include representations of students from a myriad of cultural and linguistic backgrounds. by normalizing this type of literature, students of all language backgrounds will become comfortable with, and accepting of, a variety of languages (moody et al., 2020). including literature that encompasses a multitude of cultures and languages will also allow each student to become an expert, and to share their experiences. by only privileging the dominant culture of the classroom, which in this case was spanish-english bilingualism, the shared readings may have actually caused chandra to withdraw from her peers and resent the translanguaging. perhaps the researchers in the present study made the mistake of introducing two spanish-english translanguaging books without also sharing books that represented the black culture. while this outcome was unforeseen and certainly unintentional, it did present a good lesson for laura, kathleen, and us as researchers; sharing translanguaging books is insufficient without also fostering a classroom climate where all students are positioned as knowledge holders. differing purposes for the read alouds while kathleen and laura both demonstrated a caring approach to teaching and a willingness to break linguistic boundaries, their beliefs about the purpose of the translanguaging read alouds were fundamentally different. for kathleen, the books were a way to enhance the academic success of ells, whereas laura perceived them to be a useful tool for developing empathy. these contrasting viewpoints provide a glimpse into the complexity of teacher development, which will be discussed further below. laura: developing empathy as discussed earlier, laura was initially nervous about reading aloud in spanish. she knew that she did not have native-like pronunciation, and she was worried about how the students would 182 react to her speaking. perhaps this experience, in which she challenged herself to step outside of her comfort zone, is why laura later framed the books as a powerful tool for developing empathy, both within herself and other speakers of only english. throughout her journal reflections and interview, laura continuously stressed the idea that translanguaging books are a tool for student empowerment through “role reversal”. she felt that her lack of knowledge about spanish actually benefited the students, as they were able to become the experts in a context in which they are usually at a linguistic deficit. when discussing this role reversal, laura focused primarily on the student experience, mentioning how excited they were during the book reading, and how they had so much fun being the ones “in control”. for laura, the best part of reading oh no, gotta go! was seeing how much the students had loved becoming the teacher. laura’s struggles with reading the spanish words caused her to reflect on her prior experiences in classrooms with ells. she stated, ...i’ve seen teachers...get frustrated when kids don’t..share...or during popcorn reading...when kids don’t want to…if they were in that same situation, like if they were asked to do a popcorn reading in spanish, they would probably be the same way, not wanting to in front of people...they’d be way more understanding, and it should make all teachers way more understanding of where their students are, and maybe why they don’t talk out loud, or read out loud to the class...cause i got to practice, which made me more comfortable, so maybe allowing students practice time before they have to read out loud, it would kind of take away the anxiety and the nerves (interview, march 2018, p. 4). by storying herself as a language learner, laura became more empathetic towards the challenges that ells face. she became critical of educators who push ells to engage in activities such as “popcorn reading”, in which students are forced to read aloud to the entire class, and began to develop a sense of herself as a culturally responsive educator. laura also addresses the idea of building empathy within all general education teachers that are certified to work with ell students by exposing them to a similar book reading experience, so that they can be exposed to the struggles that their students face. the development of empathy was something laura mentioned continuously throughout her interview and journal reflections. she shared, “i mean, i was nervous. but i liked having to feel that, because that’s what they feel” (interview, march 2018, p. 6). for laura, reading in spanish provided her with the incredible opportunity to step into the shoes of her students, so that she can now “be more understanding and compassionate towards their worries” (journal, march 2018, p. 2). she knew that the book reading was the first step in her journey towards becoming a more caring, understanding, culturally sensitive educator. laura also mentioned that she felt the bilingual books would be a useful tool for developing empathy within her english-only students. while she was concerned about chandra’s negative reaction to the stories, she also thought it would be an excellent opportunity 183 for chandra to become aware of how her ell peers feel every day. laura discussed her concern that the english-only students may feel superior to the ells, and believed that they too could benefit from a role reversal. in the interview, laura said ...usually the english speakers are going to have the advantage, naturally, in the classroom, so it kind of gives them the advantage over their english speaking peers, which i think is also important to show...how they feel...cause sometimes they might get frustrated if they’re partners with a spanish speaker (interview, march 2018, p. 9). in this dialogue, laura expresses a desire to ensure that every student in her future classroom be positioned as equals. she wants the english-only students to understand the lived experiences of the ells, and believes that bilingual book reading would foster this empathy. however, this situation is also more complicated than native versus non-native speakers of english; teachers need to consider the complexity of how students who exist outside of the white majority (culturally, ethnically, or linguistically) may consistently feel left out of the school or classroom culture. in the context of fremont elementary, where the majority of students were ells, chandra may have felt that the translanguaging books were simply another way that she was left out of the school culture. neither laura or kathleen seemed to understand the implications of this, which stresses the critical need for extensive multicultural education courses not just esl methods (e.g., king & butler, 2015). after kathleen read little roja riding hood, laura expressed some disappointment in how kathleen had restricted student participation. she wrote, “...the read aloud is a great time to allow listener participation...students should feel comfortable getting excited about the story, and i think that her speech may have limited some student involvement,” (journal, march 2018, p. 3). while laura believed that kathleen did a wonderful job reading, she was worried that the students were not able to interact as much with the story as they had during her read-aloud. once again, she is emphasizing her belief that the translanguaging read alouds should be student-centered activities, in which the ells are seen as knowledgeable individuals. kathleen: a focus on academics kathleen, unlike laura, was not overly concerned about her spanish pronunciation during the book reading. her extensive experience with spanish while growing up enabled her to feel more comfortable and confident with speaking and reading spanish. it is possible that this level of familiarity is what led kathleen to focus more on the academic benefits of the translanguaging books. from the beginning, kathleen’s story of the book reading focused more on the students’ comprehension of little roja riding hood than any other aspect. she prepared quite extensively for the read aloud, even going so far as to ask her two english-speaking roommates to pretend to be second graders so that she could stop and check for comprehension. of utmost concern to her was maintaining the correct rhythm, stopping and asking questions, pointing out tricky 184 vocabulary, and ensuring that the spanish words did not detract from the overall meaning of the story for english-only speakers. kathleen said, i also practiced it a lot more because...i wanted to make sure i was stopping at the right points, and making sure they understood the plot, and terms, and stuff like that...i needed to make sure everyone, esl and monolingual students, understood (interview, march 2018, p. 5). kathleen’s story of the experience reflected her belief that student understanding should be the foremost goal of the book reading. she was not worried about her own experience as a monolingual teacher reading in spanish, but was more concerned that mixing both spanish and english into a text would be too confusing for all of the students. afterwards, she stated, it impressed me how well they understood. i thought maybe that switching back and forth between english and spanish would be confusing for our bilingual students...because maybe they’ll have to, like, set off both parts of their brain, and it would get kind of mixed up in their head, and i was surprised by how smoothly it went...they were able to comprehend it really well (interview, march 2018, p. 7). before reading, kathleen believed that the combination of spanish and english would impact the students’ ability to achieve the overall goal of reading: comprehension. when she determined that this was not, in fact, an obstacle for the students, kathleen was impressed at the potential of bilingual books for developing strong readers. she later wrote in her journal, “...it could actually be more beneficial to acknowledge the fact that they know spanish because it can be used as a tool for learning” (journal, march 2018, p. 2). for kathleen, the incorporation of the first language within instruction is primarily beneficial for academic development, and she views it as a strategy that she can employ to improve comprehension, vocabulary knowledge, problem solving, and higher order thinking. kathleen’s focus on the first language as a tool for learning was also echoed in her journal reflections of laura’s read-aloud. she wrote, “personally, i would have told the students beforehand that they were not allowed speak out unless i called on them...they became distracted because they were shouting translations” (journal, march 2018, p. 2). her criticism of laura indicates that kathleen approached the book reading from a teacher-centered perspective, in which she framed student interruptions as harmful to understanding. while she was not ignorant of, or adverse to, the socioemotional benefits of the bilingual books, kathleen’s main goal for the read-aloud was increased academic achievement. complexity of purpose hutner and markman (2016) posit that prominent beliefs drive cognition, which then results in action. using this theory, we posit that active beliefs underscore the teaching practices of educators. the stories of kathleen and laura reflect commonalities in their beliefs, such as their desire to be culturally responsive teachers to all of their students. in this way, both laura and kathleen are both child-focused, and subscribe to a culture of care (gay, 2002). however, their 185 enactments of care stem from fundamentally different belief systems, which reflect the complexities of teaching. laura is focused on teaching for socioemotional growth and the development of empathy, whereas kathleen views teaching more traditionally, for the purpose of developing academic skills. kathleen’s focus on comprehension during the read aloud shows that she privileges the academic benefits of a culturally responsive curriculum. for kathleen, care takes the form of academic success, and the translanguaging books are tools to increase achievement. this aligns with research on the benefits of shared reading (e.g. auerbach, 1989) and translanguaging for reading comprehension (e.g. song, 2015). conversely, laura demonstrates care through her willingness to challenge the hegemonic ideologies present in the curriculum (martinez et al., 2015). for example, even though laura was concerned about chandra during the read aloud, she also realized that the books could be a tool to develop new understandings about other cultures (hildebrand, 2016), and thus foster empathy within monolingual students like chandra. the read aloud was also a mechanism for laura to to reflect upon and challenge her own ideologies surrounding language use in the classroom, through which she was able to start envisioning a linguistically diverse teaching style. gay and kirkland (2003) posit that educational equity is impossible if psts do not engage in deep reflection about what is considered “truth”, and so laura used the read aloud as a way to confront her perceptions of linguistic truth, thus developing a more empathetic and culturally responsive approach to teaching (gomez et al., 2004). laura also chose to position the read aloud experience as a way to step back from her position of power and allow the students to become the experts. in this way, she was affirming the knowledge of all students in the classroom (garrity et al., 2015). conclusion the read aloud stories of kathleen and laura highlight how teaching actions are influenced by individual beliefs (hutner & markman, 2016), which are precisely what makes teacher development so complex. kathleen’s belief that culturally responsive education is primarily for academic achievement influenced her approach to the read aloud. on the other hand, laura believed that the translanguaging books were an effective way to challenge educational injustices and foster empathy within herself and the students. while their approaches to the reading were fundamentally different, they both demonstrated a belief in culturally responsive teaching and a desire to create a caring environment through privileging the students’ native language and culture (gay, 2000). this study has several implications for education. first, experience is essential; without authentic experience, psts will not challenge the hegemonic ideologies present within the curriculum (dewey, 1938). gay and kirkland (2003) posit that reflecting on authentic culturally responsive experiences is equally as important for pre-service teachers as mastering educational pedagogy; pre-service teachers must be given the opportunity to engage in tasks 186 that challenge their underlying assumptions. secondly, teacher educators and administrators must realize that beliefs situated in cognition drive action (hutner & markman, 2016), making pst development an incredibly complex process. it is essential that teacher education curriculum focuses on the importance of cultural responsiveness, so that psts develop a prominent belief system that can be quickly recalled and enacted in the classroom (hutner & markman, 2016). references alamillo, l. a., & arenas, r. 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(2015). bilingual picturebook making in the elementary classroom. language arts, 92(5), 343. https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2020/01/06/more-hispanic-students-than-ever-go-college-but-cost-high/2520646001/ https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2020/01/06/more-hispanic-students-than-ever-go-college-but-cost-high/2520646001/ https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/nation/2020/01/06/more-hispanic-students-than-ever-go-college-but-cost-high/2520646001/ https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgf.asp journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2020 volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. 40-59 experience with diversity is not enough: a pedagogical framework for teacher candidates that centers critical race consciousness alice y. lee*1, amos j. lee1 * corresponding author e-mail: alice.lee@ucr.edu 1. university of california riverside, graduate school of education, riverside, ca, usa article info received: july 15, 2020 revised: august 18, 2020 accepted: september 25, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) how to cite lee, a. y., & lee, a. j. (2020). experience with diversity is not enough: a pedagogical framework for teacher candidates that centers critical race consciousness. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), 40-59. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.9 abstract given the overwhelming whiteness of teacher education, we offer a pedagogical approach rooted in critical race theory, and draw on notions of critical race consciousness to: 1) center a critical race perspective in methods-based coursework; and 2) employ critical race theory to analyze the function and role of clinical fieldwork. in this article, we provide examples of how we engage white teacher candidates to preemptively take stock of their own racial journey and biases prior to being responsible for educating students of color. we also focus on the process of selecting clinical placements and assignments. we explicate how current selection criteria for clinical sites and cooperating teachers are undergirded by systems of white supremacy, and problematize the reality of majority white clinical placements. we further provide suggestions for teacher education programs that pay particular attention to the roles and responsibilities of white teacher educators and predominantly white teacher education programs. keywords teacher education, critical race theory, pedagogy, methods courses, clinical sites 10.46303/jcsr.2020.9 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.9 41 introduction teacher preparation programs continue to be overwhelmingly white (liu & ball, 2019). this white majority phenomenon, however, is not recent nor new. for decades, scholars have pointed out the persistence of whiteness within teacher education and its associated problems (e.g., school to prison pipeline, deficit thinking, tracking, school discipline) (howard, 2019; ladson-billings, 1998, 2011; milner, 2008; sleeter, 2017; zeichner, 2006). in light of these critiques and an increasingly non-white student demographic, teacher education programs are scrambling to add coursework and field placements that would better prepare teacher candidates to work with racially diverse students (liu & ball, 2019). many teacher preparation programs, however, only sprinkle issues of equity into the peripheral by delivering the minimum of one to two diversity course requirements that are intended to inform teacher candidates all they need to know about students and families of color (sleeter, 2017). other programs are moving to increase the amount of clinical experience teacher candidates have in diverse spaces, with hopes that prospective educators will be more prepared to work with a diverse student body. in our experiences formerly working at a predominantly white institution with a large teacher preparation school, we have engaged in much discourse about how to incorporate pertinent issues of diversity and equity throughout the sequence of courses and fieldwork. as faculty who have led such endeavors, however, we have found that experience with diversity in these arenas is simply not enough to ameliorate deeply entrenched deficit thinking, particularly from a majority white teacher candidate demographic with backgrounds from predominantly white contexts and communities. we recognize, therefore, that any substantial discussion about equity in teacher preparation must underscore the urgent need to diversify the teacher workforce. anti-racist pedagogical frameworks can be beneficial in reducing harm for students of color, but there is no substitute for a racially diverse makeup of teachers in the u.s. (sleeter, 2017). thus, we offer a pedagogical framework that anticipates increasing diversity in the teacher preparation pipeline, and, simultaneously, can lay groundwork in programmatic structures that support racially diverse teacher candidates. we do so because we refuse to write for a future that does not imagine a drastically different reality in who becomes prospective teachers. our twopronged pedagogical approach, then, hinges on: 1) centering a critical race perspective in methods-based coursework; and 2) employing critical race theory to analyze the function and role of clinical fieldwork. for the foreseeable future, an expansive chasm will persist between our anticipation for a more diverse teacher demographic and current teacher education programs monopolized by white teacher candidates. given this reality, the first prong regarding critical race consciousness work specifically pays attention to how literacy and general methods courses can disrupt white dominant norms and center communities of color. we provide examples of how we engage white teacher candidates to preemptively take stock of their own racial journey and biases prior to being responsible for educating students of color. the second 42 prong focuses on the process of selecting clinical placements and assignments. we explicate how current selection criteria for clinical sites and cooperating teachers are undergirded by systems of white supremacy, and problematize the reality of majority white placements. in this article, we first highlight literature surrounding the pedagogical frame we propose. we divide this literature into two sections: the first focuses on extant notions of critical consciousness, and the work of whiteness and critical race theory in teacher education. in the second section, we review literature that problematize critical issues in clinical fieldwork, and how such issues play a role in reifying systems of deficit thinking. we then describe what a pedagogical approach that employs a critical race consciousness looks like using examples from each of our own literacy and general methods courses, as well as our experiences leading clinical fieldwork. we integrate suggestions for teacher education programs to pay attention to the roles and responsibilities of white teacher educators and predominantly white teacher education programs. critical consciousness, whiteness, and critical race theory in teacher education critical consciousness of teacher candidates nieto and mcdonough (2011) underscore the role of critical consciousness in developing socially just educators, and synthesize its various forms, including political clarity (bartolomé, 2004); critical social consciousness (grant & agosto, 2008); and interrogating power, reality, and complex identities (freire, 1973; nieto et al., 2008). critical consciousness is an understanding of the sociopolitical landscape that grants power for some at the expense of others, and affords those with power to live a vastly different reality. such an awareness is fundamental for prospective teachers interested in engaging in equitable schooling practices. the problem, however, is that most white teacher candidates are not interested in such endeavors. this is evident in the ways white teacher candidates: display white fatigue when learning about race and racism (flynn, 2015); evade discussions of equity through silence, disassociation, and separation from responsibility (case & hemmings, 2005); resist understanding the structural nature of race and privilege (crowley & smith, 2015); retaliate against faculty of color who teach them about racism and power structures (evans-winter & hoff, 2011); and actively protect white supremacist ideologies (picower, 2009). such whiteness is made possible by “the center of gravity of a program in which the center is defined by white interests” (sleeter, 2017, p. 158). thus, teacher education programs sustain teacher candidates’ whiteness through various institutional mechanisms, including the racial demographics of faculty, multicultural education coursework that cater to white interests and needs and are separated from the overall program, and the financial role of programs for universities (sleeter, 2017). 43 whiteness in teacher education the white center of gravity in teacher education programs directly conflicts with an increasingly non-white educational world. despite the increase of students of color in public elementary and secondary schools, the majority of teachers in these institutions continue to be overwhelmingly white. in 2017-2018, the percentage of white teachers stood at 79% while only 48% of students were white. teachers of color comprised only 18% (i.e., 7% black, 9% latinx, 2% asian) of the overall teaching force compared to students of color who comprised 48% (i.e., 15% black, 27% latinx, 6% asian) of the overall student population (national center for education statistics).the preponderance of white teacher candidates (sleeter, 2017) in conjunction with the overrepresentation of white teachers already in classrooms provide a long overdue rationale that race should be centered (including in intersectional conversations regarding ability, class, gender, sexuality, etc.) when reforming whiteness in preparation programs. in our experiences, faculty discussions about “cultural diversity” are often refocused to issues regarding ability, class, and gender as a way to obfuscate the central role of race in equity. critical race theory in teacher education centering race and the interrogation of racism and white supremacy are rooted in a critical race perspective. while we employ this perspective to approach the critical consciousness of majority white teacher candidates, carter (2008) has previously integrated tenets of critical race theory in a pedagogical approach towards black high school students, termed, “critical race consciousness.” such an approach is a “critical understanding of the asymmetrical power relationships that exist between blacks and whites in america,” which affords students a deeper understanding of the ways that both race and racism can impact their future opportunities and success (p. 14). carter (2008) posits that having a framework to interpret historical and structural barriers is vital for black students to navigate pitfalls endemic within a racial hierarchy, and to empower positive racial identity. johnson (2018) and baker-bell et al. (2017) have also underscored the need to center critical race theory in classrooms. for this article, we draw on carter’s notion of critical race consciousness in our pedagogical approach towards teacher candidates, particularly through our focus of asymmetrical power between white hegemonic schooling norms practiced against black students. for teacher candidates of color, a critical race consciousness provides a framework to unpack their own racialized experiences, help navigate structural barriers and pitfalls, and offer tools to analyze racist teaching practices. for white teacher candidates, a critical race consciousness opens avenues to deconstruct a white hegemonic system in which they participate in and benefit from, begins the process of decentering white emotions and values (matias et al., 2014), and provides historical evidence to radically critique a racist schooling system. in previous work (lee & lee, in press) and listed below, we draw on critical race scholars (bell, 1980; ladson-billings & tate, 1995) to review key tenets of critical race theory. 44 1. race and racism are central and interconnected to every aspect of u.s. society. crt rejects the notion of a post-racial or colorblind society. crt posits that race and racism are endemic within everyday life, has a permanency within u.s. society/institutions, and is so commonplace that only the most egregious forms of racism are acknowledged, thus de-emphasizing all other forms of racism present in daily life. 2. one’s whiteness is a property right. crt also argues that u.s. society is based on property rights and that a person’s whiteness is considered as their property. under a system of white supremacy, whiteness has value and racism is used to maintain a racial hierarchy in which white people dominate. 3. societal changes must converge to white interests. this notion posits that any progress made for people of color, particularly black and brown communities, is achieved only when it “converges with the interests of whites” (bell, 1980, p. 523). and, since racism is permanent, the progress established can be reversed based on whether or not it continues to benefit white people. 4. majoritarian views are rooted in false notions of meritocracy, neutrality, and ahistoricism. majoritarian views are narratives that substantiate ideologies rooted in ahistorical notions (e.g., slavery ended a long time ago and no longer affects us today). ahistoricism rejects historical contexts (e.g., legal, social, political) and distorts our understandings of current forms of subordination. these notions often lead to myths of a meritocratic society, in which everyone has the same opportunities and chances to succeed, and false beliefs that the law is neutral, objective, and fair to people, regardless of race. while people of any racial background may hold these views and ideologies, they mostly serve the interests of white people, and thus, support white supremacy. 5. the experiential knowledge of people of color need to be centered as sources of knowledge. crt purposefully centers the experiences, stories, and narratives of people of color as meaningful and instructive. people of color’s voices are valuable and necessary, particularly to destabilize white hegemony. 6. racial issues are inherently intersectional and interdisciplinary. while crt promotes the centrality of race within analyses, it also acknowledges that race intersects with all other forms of subordination (e.g., classism, sexism, ableism, etc.), and thus, must be interdisciplinary and intersectional in its interpretation and study of racial inequality (e.g., discrit, latcrit, queercrit, tribcrit, etc.). 7. justice and liberation must include a commitment to praxis. critical race theory praxis moves crt beyond intellectual endeavors, and underscores the need for a movement that directly impacts and benefits communities of color as theory meets practice. in order to broaden students’ critical race consciousness, we employ these critical race tenets within teacher education. these tenets provide the necessary explanatory framework to center race and racism in the analysis and critique of school systems, including teacher preparation at the collegiate level. decentering whiteness as normative is essential within 45 teacher education programs (ladson-billings, 1998). not interrogating how whiteness is embedded within teacher preparation continues to disadvantage and harm students of color, particularly black, brown and indigenous students who do not benefit from white mainstream norms. ladson-billings (1998, 2011) contends that in order to build an equitable and socially just future for people of color, we must dismantle white dominance within schools and colleges, deconstruct oppressive school-related structures, and reconstruct agency for students and teachers of color. though programs may have verbal commitments to dismantle white supremacy or antiracism, such commitments are empty without systemic change. milner (2008) points to interest convergence as a governing tenet to explain why there has been minimal progress for black communities, and is only achieved when aligned with white interests (bell, 1980). this is evident in “progress” made towards equity in teacher education programs when changes are made to equally benefit white educational interests. for example, implementing equity-based curricula intended to bring issues of racism to the forefront can be beneficial to people of color but are often focused primarily on white teacher candidates’ experiences and in trying to create a safe space for them to talk about race (milner, 2008). also, providing diverse clinical placements changes the overwhelming whiteness of classroom experiences, but at the same time increases the employability of white teacher candidates in a demographically changing landscape (ladson-billings, 2011). finally, while hiring faculty of color provides additional opportunities to enter academia, these hiring decisions also benefit the reputation of predominantly white teacher education programs (by appearing to be less racist) and often come at the mental expense of faculty of color (evans-winter & hoff, 2011). white interest convergence also governs program-related issues, particularly when white teacher candidates are provided an option of whether or not they want to deeply pursue issues of equity (sleeter, 2017). creating a diversity cohort or a specified curricula track for those who are interested in learning more about issues of equity gives white teacher candidates a choice that caters to their fatigue and fragility. such tracks often exist under the guise of matching teacher candidates to where they envision as their future teaching placements. undergirding these options, however, are the assumptions that white suburban and rural schools do not need teachers with deep knowledge about inequities and that students in these schools are somehow exempt from an anti-racist education. offering white teacher candidates a programmatic choice to deeply pursue issues of equity conveys the message that dismantling white supremacy and fighting for a more just world is an optional activity. those who do not choose a diversity cohort are often limited to a required course related to equity, in attempts to spare white teacher candidates from thinking and conversing about race outside their comfort zone, a privilege not granted to teacher candidates of color. moreover, when teacher candidates and teacher educators are both white, there can be a shared interest (e.g., white fragility, white fatigue) to minimize the amount of time spent in deconstructing racism within their own practices (milner, 2008; sensoy & diangelo, 2011). therefore, teacher education 46 programs that promote their one or two mandated equity-related courses, offer optional curricular tracks focused on equity, and/or hire some faculty of color as a sign of change, substantiate watered down notions of social justice that do little to improve teacher preparation for a more racially just future (ladson-billings, 2011; zeichner, 2006). problematizing clinical fieldwork in teacher education is clinical fieldwork more relevant than coursework? part and parcel of teacher preparation is clinical fieldwork, which has the potential to offer teacher candidates valuable learning experiences and apprenticeship in the classroom. however, while teacher candidates largely believe that their clinical experiences are the most valuable part of their programs (hollins, 2011), they are often riddled with issues. entering a classroom space without having a critical framework/race consciousness to understand the socio-political environment that schools are situated in continues to propagate majoritarian views and often reproduces deficit mindsets that harm children of color. as ladson-billings (2011) notes, teacher candidates regularly critique foundational courses that deal with history, philosophy, or psychology to be non-related or too far removed from being relevant in the classroom space. however, foundational courses are profoundly relevant as they afford teacher candidates the opportunities to develop an explanatory framework and critical lens to identify and ameliorate structures of inequity embedded within schools. a critical eye on field placements ladson-billings (2011) and nieto and mcdonough (2011) provide a warning for teacher education programs in regards to their pursuit of locating enough field sites. the goal of finding enough placements for their teacher candidates places too much emphasis on the willingness of school districts to accept teacher candidates, instead of a critical review of the district’s stance and actions on issues of equity. simply trying to find enough placements puts teacher education departments solely into the hands of school districts, administrators, and teachers who have varied interests in hosting teacher candidates. in addition, accepting new clinical placements without critically reviewing classroom spaces and cooperating teachers can reinforce deficit views within teacher candidates (nieto & mcdonough, 2011). the practice of placing white teacher candidates in the hands of white cooperating teachers without first interviewing and getting to know their beliefs and practices regarding students of color must be re-examined (ladson-billings, 2011). moreover, the disadvantages of having teacher candidates’ “view of education” come from “the sole purview of whites” must be factored in when deciding on clinical placements (p. 366). “the prevailing discourses of the field experience” (p. 369) must be critiqued, particularly those surrounding the “culture of poverty,” which must be dismantled. as bomer et al. (2008) and sato and lensmire (2009) assert, blaming families, communities, and students for their 47 perceived failings continue discourses that reinforce a deficit frame of non-white students. cooperating teachers who blame families of color for what they perceive to be “underperformance” reify meritocratic myths and white supremacist ideologies--these views should function as a warning sign for teacher education departments. furthermore, cornbleth (2008), zeichner and tabachnick (1981), and nieto and mcdonough (2011) contend that teacher candidates do not sustain new knowledge about equity and diversity acquired via coursework when entering schools that center white hegemonic discourses. much is at stake when deciding clinical placements and participating cooperating teachers. later in this article we outline a selection criteria for how to better choose fieldwork sites. a pedagogical framework toward fostering critical race consciousness in teacher education programs we offer a framework of racial and economic justice that challenges the performative ways teacher education programs purport to support diversity. designating a portion of a methods course as “diversity-related” or “urban-education” focused does little to address the complexities of race and racism within public schools. re-designing one section of a standard multi-section course as urban is also performative because it seeks the least amount of disruption to the status quo, and stereotypes equity issues as being solely relevant to urban areas--which is a false and dangerous notion. given our current sociopolitical context, it is clear that students from suburban to rural schools are in dire need of an anti-racist curricula in order to foster a more informed citizenry. further, faculty of color are often asked to critically modify coursework, which involves overseeing white instructional or clinical adjunct faculty who are resistant to implementing such changes. white supremacist practices can also be reinforced when resistance among white adjunct faculty is validated and tenure-track faculty of color are asked to provide a rationale for making critical changes. anti-racist praxis can no longer be isolated to one required course, optional “diversity” programmatic choices, nor superficial integrations of portions of coursework--which almost always fall back on faculty of color who are provided no support from the inevitable fallout of whiteness. we argue, therefore, for a multi-pronged pedagogical approach in methods-related coursework, whereby future teachers grow in their understanding of how critical racial awareness is necessary, and, without it, racist practices will be reproduced in their future classrooms and schools. critical race consciousness in methods-based coursework literacy methods (alice) in my experiences teaching both introductory and advanced literacy methods courses, i foster a critical race consciousness by centering issues of race that challenge white supremacist ideologies and literacy practices throughout the semester. while i draw on all the crt tenets through various learning engagements, for the purposes of this paper, i focus on the ways i 48 utilize tenets four, five, and six to replace white monolingual norms with black language. while i incorporate other languages, such as spanish, mandarin, etc., into discussions, i employ black language as a lens by which to consider myriad literacy topics because of the ways black language speakers continue to be unrecognized as linguistically legitimate, and for the interchangeable ways they are discriminated against by race and language. tenet four focuses on challenging majoritarian views, particularly ones often perceived as neutral. one majoritarian view that dominates language and literacy practices in schools is the notion of “standard” english--the assumption of its linguistic legitimacy, and the belief that it should be a linguistic norm for all students. i begin the semester challenging this majoritarian view of “standard” english by pointing out how its existence and assumptions about it are ahistorical, since the only standard thing about it is the way in which it became perceived as standard--namely by white people in power across time and space (lippi-green, 2012). thus, the broad acceptance and enforcement of “standard” english as neutral (and oftentimes academically positive and necessary) reinforces white linguistic norms and sustains white supremacist norms in schooling. pushing against “standard” english becomes a recurring theme in my class when considering a variety of literacy topics, such as reading assessments, building classroom libraries, and selecting instructional texts. the term “standard” english also elicits discussions about raciolinguistics, and how language and race function as a proxy for one another (smitherman, 2017; alim, rickford, ball, 2016). these discussions are inherently rooted in the sixth tenet of crt, which underscores how race intersects with all other forms of subordination (e.g., classism, sexism, ableism, etc.) (crenshaw, 1989), and thus, can be more broadly understood in conjunction with other disciplines. as mentioned above, the historical construction of “standard” english is intertwined with white linguistic norms. consequently, i draw on baker-bell’s (2018) use of the terms, “white mainstream english” (wme) and “black language” to signify how race and language are deeply intermeshed. i also explain that not all black language speakers are black (paris, 2011), and that not all black people speak black language. however, given the afro-centered historical roots of the language, and how pervasive discrimination against black language is a form of anti-blackness, the term, “black language” refers to both the racial and linguistic racism incurred by black speakers of the language (baker-bell, 2020). i draw on the fifth tenet of crt, centering the experiential knowledge of people of color, to replace white linguistic norms with the linguistic repertoires of black language. for example, in teaching basic linguistic concepts (i.e., phonetics, semantics, morphemes, syntax), rather than normalizing wme structures, i showcase how each of these concepts appears in black language. in doing so, teacher candidates are not only exposed to the various linguistic concepts, but also learn that black language is linguistically legitimate and not “slang” or “incorrect english,” as many often assume. in approaches to reading and writing instruction, i challenge students to broaden their understanding of literacy beyond a written text, and to consider how community practices shape our linguistic repertoires. black language speakers, for example, often share 49 contexts in which oratory performance is valued, with discourse patterns (e.g., call and response, employing directives versus questions) that differ from many white families (smitherman, 1977). such discussions illuminate for teacher candidates how the instruction of key literacy concepts must take into account the rich social and cultural practices of students, particularly when those norms are different from that of the teacher. i intentionally integrate black language as a recurring concept in teaching literacy concepts throughout the semester, since my research and extant literature underscore how critical consciousness cannot be fostered in one or two lectures. currently in the state of illinois, a primary way to measure and identify students’ literacy identities is through a one-minute reading fluency test in which teachers grade these tests based on how many words are orally read “correctly” and “incorrectly.” the grades, however, are subjectively based on teacher judgment, and their (lack of) knowledge about black language. i disrupt these practices for teacher candidates through an in-class activity in which they conduct one-minute fluency tests on each other through an excerpt of young’s (2010) “should writers use they own english,” which is written in black language. after teacher candidates are graded on how correct their oral reading was (based on black language pronunciation), i ask them how reading in black language affected the speed and comprehension of their reading. most share that they lack confidence reading aloud in black language, and thus, their oral reading is slower, and they need to re-read phrases in order to comprehend. i then ask teacher candidates to imagine if black language was the main mode of communication in every textbook, every book in classroom libraries, all instruction, and every interaction with teachers and principal—how would they feel about reading, about school, and about learning? at this juncture, many teacher candidates reach an epiphany about the harm done to black language speaking students, and we use this learning engagement as a starting point for creating critical instructional units and selecting children’s literature focused on social justice. social studies methods (amos) in my experience teaching social studies methods for early childhood/elementary settings, i utilize two main pedagogical approaches in order to foster teacher candidates’ critical race consciousness. the first pedagogical approach uses race-centered critical self-reflections as a way to draw out teacher candidates’ understanding about how racial privilege works within society. the second approach uses online atlas maps, case studies, and state report cards to illustrate the interconnectedness of housing segregation, family income, and schooling opportunities to emphasize the systemic nature of racism. the goal of these approaches is to foster teacher candidates’ critical race consciousness. being a teacher educator of color in a predominantly white teacher education program, i often find myself as either the only person of color or one of very few, in a white majority classroom. my lived experiences differ vastly from my white teacher candidates’ lived experiences. additionally, trying to develop my white teacher candidates’ critical race consciousness based on their limited experiences with racism 50 is challenging. to address these challenges, race-based critical self reflections are necessary to begin the journey of fostering a deeper understanding regarding how race functions in and governs everyday life. race-based critical self reflections for many of the white teacher candidates in my classes, going to college is their first consequential experience with racially diverse people. their hometowns, either rural or suburban, along with their social spheres consist of very few people of color. given that most of them have not experienced racism on a daily basis, racial discrimination is often seen as isolated incidents enacted by a small racist minority. they do not see how race plays a lead role in systems such as education, particularly as it relates to curriculum, pedagogy, and classroom management. thus, in order to foster teacher candidates’ critical race consciousness, i have them complete a critical self-reflection outlined by milner et al. (2018) in these kids are out of control: why we must reimagine “classroom management” for equity. this critical reflective autobiography begins the metacognitive process by asking a range of questions to foster teacher candidates' understanding of how race affords privileges previously gone unacknowledged. the following are a few of the excerpted questions (see appendix for full list of questions): ● what is your racial background? how do you know? ● in what ways does your racial background privilege you (or not) in society? ● how and when did you first see yourself as a racial being? how do you know? ● in what ways do your race and socioeconomic background shape your worldview, what you do, how you experience the world, and what/how you teach? ● how does your racial and socio-economic background influence decisions you make about what you emphasize in course content, how to teach it, and classroom management practices? ● how does your personal experience with regard to family structure and family life patterns growing up shape your expectations of student behavior in class? from my experiences as a teacher educator, while these autobiographical questions may seem straightforward, they are not interpreted, understood, or valued in the same way by all the teacher candidates. therefore, i begin by having my teacher candidates think through, with one another and later as a whole class, how these questions are directly related to their classroom practices. this initial dialogue is important because resistance to answering questions regarding racial privilege has been a continued norm in my white majority classes. i also intentionally give them class time to complete this assignment so that i can check-in with students and provide feedback as they go. i make it a habit to check-in with everyone and if their final responses to the above questions are brief or superficial, i know that we have to talk more about the nature of the assignment. once they have all completed the assignment, i organize students in groups of three and have them read their responses to one another with 51 one specific direction: they must read their written responses aloud to each other rather than summarizing what they wrote. for many of my teacher candidates, white fragility and white fatigue prevents them from thinking about racism on a daily basis as most people of color are required to do. the act of summarizing can be used as a tool to avoid and minimize time spent talking about an uncomfortable subject. understanding, however, that students are continuing to learn and grow in their knowledge of racism, i create pedagogical room for them to grow by allowing re-writes of this assignment. my hope is that if they initially struggled to answer the questions, being a part of a dialogic conversation with their peers gives them the opportunity to think further about the centrality of race within education. my goal is to help teacher candidates understand that there is no neutrality within the classroom, and we cannot assume or give the benefit of the doubt that teachers will be fair and unbiased arbiters for children of color. after they read and discuss each others’ reflections and thoughts in small groups, i ask them to highlight common themes from their collective reflections. oftentimes themes highlight how little experience with diversity many white teacher candidates have had. for example, students share about how they did not have non-white friends until entering college or about how they are not sure how race plays a major role in the classroom and in schools. other themes center on their plans to never discriminate based on a student’s race in their future classrooms, to treat all students the same, and to not base their classroom management decisions on a child’s race. while on the surface this sounds wonderful, crt informs us that racism is ever adapting to its environment. color-blind notions harm children of color as race and racism govern daily life, a central crt tenet. within teacher education, if teacher candidates believe that all they need to do is not discriminate based on a person’s race, then they believe the solution lies outside of themselves. it is a problem for those who discriminate based on phenotype only. but as kohli (2009) notes, “even though racism is tied to race, it is not always acted out based on racial categories; it can also manifest as discrimination based on factors affiliated with race or ethnicity such as language, religion and culture” (p. 237). discrimination based on wearing a hijab, based on speaking black language or spanish with friends in a classroom space, or based on a student having a parent who is incarcerated are all affiliated factors of race that must be recognized. it is not as simple as stating, “i will not discriminate based on a student’s race.” while well-meaning, this refusal to see the ways in which whiteness discriminates in education continues to disadvantage non-white students. atlas maps, podcasts as case studies, and funding data crt does not view race as only a physical trait or as a person’s phenotype; instead, race has power, privilege, and benefits within the u.s. more specifically, the tenet of whiteness as property is a framework that explains the way a person’s race is a form of property that grants real and tangible rights (e.g., political, social, financial). in order to understand structural privileges afforded by a person’s race, teacher candidates are presented with and think through 52 multiple sources of evidence related to racial privilege and racial discrimination within education. the first source consists of various atlas maps that present social mobility data through “the opportunity atlas” (chetty et al., 2018), which show household income based on geography. specific zip codes or cities can be inputted and the household income discrepancy based on where a person lives is displayed. what is evident in these maps is that household income is not neatly spread out within a geographical location. specific neighborhoods have much lower income than others. i then show “the racial dot map” (cable, 2013) which displays an interactive map in which every person, based on their race and home address, are represented by a different colored dot. together these different colored dots show the racial makeup of different geographic areas. the racial dot map clearly shows how segregation works geographically. if society was integrated (as many still erroneously believe), it would be hard to distinguish racial dot patterns in cities, towns, etc. however, what you can see in almost every metropolitan area and small urban environment is racial segregation. this reality shocks teacher candidates as they tangibly see the ways that segregation works on a national scale. i then choose a specific city (e.g., st. louis) and put the “racial dot map” next to the “opportunity atlas” to show the interrelatedness between race, geography and household income. after learning the ways that race, geography and income intersect, we then discuss how schools are funded. while many of the teacher candidates know that property taxes fund a majority of the school budget in illinois, they do not have a strong grasp on why this is racist. however, when they see the racial segregation, the depressed incomes in communities of color (particularly black and brown), and school funding through property taxes, they begin to make the connections in seeing how race and racism is structural, both geographically and financially, and how it limits educational opportunities. where children grow up dictates the kinds of opportunities and resources they will be afforded in public schools (siegel-hawley, 2013). to prove this unjust reality, we then turn to the state’s school report cards that unveil the amount of funding available per pupil in schools across the state. we compare the per pupil expenditure of wealthy, white majority communities and compare them to communities where the majority are non-white. the racial inequity is startling. we then have discussions about how unequal schooling conditions are well-known and, thus, readily accepted as the status quo. to prove the claim that the miseducation of black children is intentional and normalized, i introduce a case study from st. louis where new york times writer, nikole hannah-jones, talks about the ways in which integration was fought by a predominantly segregated white community in the recent past. in a two-part episode of this american life, entitled “the problem we all live with” (hannah-jones, 2015), hannah-jones walks us through the nuanced ways that white majority communities entrenched in economic and educational privilege continue to defend their resources, particularly from black students and families. throughout these activities, i challenge my teacher candidates about what it would take for black and brown students to have educational equality. i ask them to re-investigate their commitment to not discriminate based on race versus a commitment towards anti-racist praxis. as mentioned earlier, the commitment 53 to not racially discriminate is meaningless if teachers cannot regularly identify racist practices within themselves and within schools. we further discuss that striving towards anti-racist praxis means re-examining power structures (e.g., teachers, administrators, board of education) and actively working towards abolishing practices that support and normalize black educational oppression (e.g., language discrimination, suspension rates, teacher demographic). critical race consciousness in fieldwork experiences practicums, while both valuable and necessary, are not inherently neutral spaces. schools exist within a racialized hierarchy whereby white students, teachers and communities benefit the most (ladson-billings & tate, 1995). understanding the historic and continued racial oppression in school systems are necessary in order to make careful decisions when finding field placements. we, therefore, call for a renewed focus on selecting clinical sites with the explicit purpose of fostering teacher candidates’ critical race consciousness. we begin by highlighting several critiques from our own experiences that problematize the selection of clinical sites, followed by a guiding set of questions that help programs critically interrogate their clinical selection process. we then apply these questions when considering white majority and racially diverse schools as potential clinical sites. selection criteria for clinical placements colleges with white majority teacher education programs must thoughtfully consider how school sites are selected for field placements. in our experiences, selection criteria for placements focus on geographic distance from campus, school districts’ willingness to host teacher candidates, and/or past relationships or partnerships with schools. while these methods may appeal to practical logistics, they obfuscate the role of race and systems of white supremacy that undergird the selection criteria. to select sites simply because they are close by, are willing, or because “we always have,” places an extraordinarily low standard for selecting placements, especially when juxtaposed to the myriad high standards programs place for teacher candidates in all other areas (e.g., course content, attendance policy, certification, etc.). it is duplicitous and white-serving, then, to continue such a low threshold of entry for host schools, particularly for such a significant portion of teacher preparation. we pose the following questions for teacher education programs to critically interrogate the process and criteria by which clinical placements are selected. ● what is the process by which schools and districts are selected as host sites for teacher candidates? ● who do current selection criteria serve? who or what is sacrificed under the current selection process? ● what does this school site offer in terms of experience when it comes to fostering teacher candidates’ critical race consciousness? 54 ● what does this school site offer white teacher candidates’ in their understanding of how race functions within the classroom space? ● is the school site a safe space for teacher candidates’ of color to develop their skills without having to placate white dominant norms? ● is the school district actively pursuing and committed to anti-racist praxis within multiple areas of school oversight: curriculum, teacher recruitment, hiring of administrators, school policies, teacher recruitment, etc.? problematizing clinical placements an essential issue that must be problematized is the normalcy of majority white clinical placements in teacher preparation programs, particularly regarding what these sites offer in fostering teacher candidates’ critical race consciousness. if the school is majority white both in teacher and student demographic, we must ask tough questions about whether these placements provide the necessary experience for teacher candidates to be prepared for teaching a racially diverse classroom in the future. clinical placements hosted by white cooperating teachers with white teacher candidates often function as mentoring sites into white dominant ways of doing school. we are intimately aware of the rationalizations often provided to sustain such white systematic norms: teachers are a work in progress and still need additional development regarding racial equity; sites understand some equity-related issues (e.g., income, gender, etc.), which is better than nothing; there are excellent teachers in content (e.g., guided reading, math instruction) who still need growth in criticality; there are no perfect teachers, and waiting for such will yield zero clinical placements. in each of these rationalizations, issues of race and confronting white supremacy play a separate and ancillary role from content and other aspects of learning. critical race theory, however, underscores the centrality and pervasiveness of race and racism. thus, within the context of rationalizing majority white placements, we contend that critical understandings of race pervade content learning (e.g., how excellent can guided reading instruction be when it is only successful with white monolingual students?), and should be centered instead of counted as an aside (e.g., would a teacher be selected to mentor teacher candidates if they were not competent in math instruction, or was not successful in teaching children how to read?). we must grapple, therefore, with the continued use of majority white clinical sites that do not afford the opportunities needed to prepare teacher candidates for a rapidly changing student demographic. another essential question for teacher education programs to consider is whether or not their clinical sites are safe spaces for teacher candidates of color. as both supervisors and professors overseeing clinical sites, we have experienced firsthand the marginalization experienced by teacher candidates of color within white dominated classroom spaces. the onus is often placed on teacher candidates of color to assimilate rather than challenging teacher education departments to pre-empt these structural concerns within the clinical selection and 55 assignment process. moreover, any pre-emptive changes to place teacher candidates of color in diverse classrooms is often met with giving white schools the benefit of the doubt, and only addressing race-based issues when they inevitably arise. this approach does nothing to consider the racial trauma that can be experienced in white majority schools and gives the benefit of the doubt to white cooperating teachers and administrators at the mental and emotional expense of teacher candidates of color. we must care more about teacher candidates of color who are historically and currently underrepresented within the teaching profession and their experiences throughout their fieldwork placements. finally, as teacher preparation programs attempt to ameliorate the lack of diverse clinical placements through more racially diverse placements, we contend that the goal should not be to simply increase non-white school sites. as previously mentioned, diverse and “urban” sites can house teachers (across racial lines) who practice deficit ideologies and beliefs. instead, teacher preparation programs should find racially diverse placements that are engaged in antiracist praxis, and cooperating teachers who are critically aware of how race and racism function within education. we acknowledge that this is difficult work which requires significant efforts to uproot established practices. however, when those established practices conform to white dominance in a society yearning for racial equality, we believe the effort is worthwhile. conclusion teacher education programs continue to incorporate diversity and equity-related topics throughout their courses and fieldwork. yet, merely increasing the diversity quotient alone does little to unpack the racialized issues pertaining to a majority white teacher candidate demographic that comes from predominantly white spaces. while there already is a large amount of literature that discusses deconstructing and transforming teacher education programs, white hegemony continues. we, therefore, offer ideas and practical suggestions not as a definitive and prescriptive way forward, but as a commitment in dismantling white supremacy within the teaching profession. we do not offer a checklist, since no checklist will fully dismantle the structural permanency of white supremacy. instead, we offer guidelines to help white majority teacher education departments to think through and confront practices that maintain white dominance. furthermore, as sleeter (2013) notes, there is no substitution for a racially diverse teaching force. no amount of curricular adjustments or approaches focused on racial awakening will dismantle an education system based on white supremacy and dominated by white teachers. teacher education programs that want to offer more critical coursework without closely looking at the racial makeup of their teacher candidates continue to support a system that privileges white people. there is much at stake when racial inequality is not centered in teacher education. as howard (2019) writes, “some of the most important stakeholders who will serve as arbiters of how the new racial realities will be understood are classroom teachers'' (p. vii.). future teachers 56 need to be prepared to understand the ubiquitous role that race plays within schooling and within their own classroom practices. this preparation requires teacher education programs to actively seek anti-racist praxis within their departments in terms of teacher recruitment, course development, and fieldwork placements. references alim, h. s., rickford, j. r. & ball, a. f. 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(1981). are the effects of university teacher education “washed out” by school experience? journal of teacher education, 32(3), 7-11. appendix critical reflective autobiography questions (milner et al., 2018, p. 63-64) ● what is your racial background? how do you know? ● in what ways does your racial background privilege you (or not) in society? ● how and when did you first see yourself as a racial being? how do you know? ● what is your socioeconomic background? how do you know? ● what is your socioeconomic background? how do you know? ● what was your socioeconomic background growing up? ● how has your socio-economic background influenced your educational opportunities? ● in what ways do your race and socioeconomic background shape your worldview, what you do, how you experience the world, and what/how you teach? ● how does my racial and socio-economic background influence decisions i make about what to emphasize in course content, how to teach it, and classroom management practices? ● how might students of gender identity, sexual orientation, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds different than my own respond to my instructional choices and classroom management strategies and approaches? ● how does my personal experience with regard to family structure and family life patterns growing up shape my expectations of student behavior in the class? ● how do my beliefs about personal and community responsibility inform the expectations i have about how students treat the physical space of our classroom and school? ● how do i shape instructional practices and classroom management strategies in ways that create classroom spaces of collective expertise, interest, and motivation? journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2020 volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. 1-20 fighting the plague: “difficult” knowledge as sirens’ song in teacher education cathryn van kessel1 & muna saleh2 1. corresponding author university of alberta, faculty of education, edmonton, canada. e-mail: vankesse@ualberta.ca 2. concordia university of edmonton, faculty of education, edmonton, canada. article info received: june 15, 2020 revised: september 04, 2020 accepted: september 25, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) how to cite van kessel, c., & saleh, m. (2020). fighting the plague: “difficult” knowledge as sirens’ song in teacher education. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.7 abstract of the many plagues that affect communities today, a particularly insidious one is indifference and depersonalization. this plague has been articulated by albert camus and then taken up in an educational context by maxine greene. in this article we, the authors, respond to greene’s call to co-compose curricula with our students to fight this plague. recognizing the role of difficult knowledge as well as conscious and unconscious defenses, we develop an approach to “diversity” harmonious with radical love during these troubled times of conflict and increased visibility of hatred. through a weaving of our experiential, embodied knowledge with theory, we consider how we might invite students to consider contemporary, historical, and ongoing inequity and structural violence. like sirens luring sailors to precarious shores, we seek to entice teachers and students to the difficult knowledge they might otherwise avoid as all of us together consider our ethical responsibilities to each other. keywords difficult knowledge, diversity, radical love, structural violence, teacher education, terror management theory 10.46303/jcsr.2020.7 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.7 2 van kessel, c., & saleh, m. introduction “and i wonder whether the curricula we devise can be of the kind that awaken, awaken sufficiently to move persons to fight the plague.” (greene, 1993, p. 214) over twenty-five years ago, drawing on the work of albert camus, maxine greene (1993) wondered about how educators might compose curricula that could “awaken” humans to “fight the plague” of “abstract thinking, indifference, [and] depersonalization” (pp. 214-215). as teacher educators, we read her words and find ourselves pondering: how might we co-compose curricula alongside students, pre-service teachers, colleagues, and community members that allows for more humane ways of living alongside each other and other beings? in particular, how might we honour multiple forms of diversity in the spirit of what audre lorde (1984/2007) and bell hooks (2001, 1994/2006) conceptualized as radical love? this approach is needed during these troubled and troubling times of (intra/inter)national and global conflicts, the rising tide of populist sentiment, the unabashed (re)emergence of neo-nazist and other white supremacist groups, the assault on the rights of indigenous peoples, women, lgbtq2+, refugees, the dis/abled, and others who are marginalized by different forms of structural violence, climate crises (and the lack of personal and political leadership to counter this), and the seemingly endless supply of “fake news.” many of these challenges are not new. however, their very persistence (and apparent rise) concerns us greatly. how do we move those in pre-service teacher education to fight the plague when collective action is ever more urgent? the hope, then, is that these emerging teachers can create a similar ethical foundation in their own classrooms. in this paper, we draw upon our experiential, embodied knowledge (lorde, 1984/2007; saleh, in press; waheed, 2013, 2014) as humans who identify themselves as first generation immigrant women in canada with commitments to breaking the structural violence we (ought to) study in social studies pre-service teacher education. our other identities also shape our relation to co-creating more humane ways for humans with a variety of intersecting identities learning and living together: cathryn with a white racial identity that implicates her in settler colonialism and its white supremacist assumptions, and muna who is a muslim palestinian woman in hijab and intergenerational survivor (young, 2005) of violent displacement living as a settler within treaty 6 lands (saleh, in press). through our experiences in our postsecondary institutions and ongoing conversations with each other, we seek to illuminate educative (dewey, 1938) insights we have gleaned from our research and practice. how we might (continue to) invite students to consider contemporary, historic, and ongoing inequities with open hearts and minds? unfortunately, there are few opportunities in the united states and canada (and likely other contexts), for students to interrupt prevailing systemic inequity because some teachers avoid dialogue that might lead to conflict, even in classrooms with teachers who have self-selected for professional development on dialogic conflict education 3 (bickmore & parker, 2014). furthermore, pre-service teachers (and likely humans more broadly) can struggle to maintain a consistent commitment to thwarting structural violence, particularly when they themselves are implicated; e.g., white pre-service teachers engaging with antiracist education (hawkman, 2020). there is a need to “consider what supports could make them more willing to incorporate critical approaches” (shim, 2020, p. 366). if educators want to encourage learning about the intersectional nature (crenshaw, 1989, 1991; crenshaw et al., 2019) of multiple diversities and inequities—and our relationships to them—in nuanced ways, we (as k16 educators) must attend to the highly emotional component of such experiences (e.g., garrett, 2017; van kessel et al., 2020). with a spirit of wakefulness (greene, 1995) to these complexities and considerations, this article delves into some of our encounters engaging alongside pre-service teachers. (heeding) the siren’s call “why do we have to learn about this? it feels like you are stuffing this indigenous stuff down our throats.” shocked and troubled, i try to calm my breath and refocus on the undergraduate student in front of me. although i had sensed his resistance to our class discussions in our social studies methods class, i never imagined he would confront me—and the difficult knowledge we were learning alongside each other—in such an overtly aggressive and defensive way. “i don’t think that i am ‘stuffing’ anything ‘down your throats.’ what i am trying to do is honour our responsibilities as treaty 6 people and educators …. i think you might need to inquire into why you feel so strongly about this, and then maybe we can have a more respectful conversation about your tensions.” in homer’s odyssey, sailors are drawn to the perilous and rocky shores by the sirens’ song. these mythical creatures draw sailors to them with their beautiful and enticing music—if one does not hear the song (e.g., in the myth odysseus commands his crew to block the sound with beeswax) then there is no urge to take the risk and sail closer. although not advocating to put students literally in peril like the sailors on odysseus’ ship, it is vital to draw students closer to the difficult knowledge (britzman, 2013) of historic, ongoing, and systemic inequities (au, 2017; ladson-billings, 2017; ladson-billings & brown, 2008; nieto, 2000; sibbett & au, 2018) that might feel perilous to some students. it is a natural reaction for humans to avoid knowledge that might shatter their worldview or their feeling of being a “good” person (van kessel et al., 2020), and so as educators we must draw them closer to these emotionally perilous shores. how do we move students to fight the plague of “abstract thinking, indifference, [and] depersonalization” (greene, 1993, pp. 214-215) when collective action is ever more urgent? to begin, it is helpful to identify and describe difficult knowledge and the concomitant existential defenses. 4 van kessel, c., & saleh, m. difficult knowledge one might think of the plague in the context of discussions around topics imbued with what deborah britzman (1998, 2013) conceptualized as difficult knowledge. multiple educators and theorists have written about how students might wish to avoid a careful consideration of events like war, slavery, genocide, racism, famine, climate catastrophe, bigotry, and other injustices that reveal suffering caused by human indifference or disdain (see, for example: britzman, 1992, 1998, 2013; garrett, 2017, 2020; gaudelli et al., 2012; rodríguez & salinas, 2019; stanley, 1999; van kessel, 2019). difficult knowledge can lead to a range of challenging emotions related to the uncertainty anyone might feel as educators strive for more harmonious relations in society: “the pushes, pulls, and emotional boundaries of learning” (britzman, 2013, p. 101), which can provoke a “sense of crisis, burden, discomfort, or trauma” (garrett, 2019, p. 612). recognizing emotional barriers to learning is vital to teaching topics fraught with discomfort. teachers might avoid topics that they perceive as potentially affectively difficult for their students, and also might shy away from potential conflict due to anxieties beyond their classrooms, such as (real or imagined) backlash from parents, administration, and even politicians. a variety of conceptual tools are needed so that teachers have a variety of sources for intellectual and emotional support in order to feel “prepared” to teach vital topics when their students are divergent in their relation to that difficult knowledge (e.g., some may feel that their teacher paints them as a victim, others as victimizers). in this way, topics can be emotionally provoking and this is the root of the problem discussed in this article. troubling (and thus troublesome) responses arise and consequently a framework to understand defensive compensatory reactions has some potential to help teachers and students cope with their conscious and unconscious emotional responses and associated behaviours. existential defenses in order to seek ways to soften initial defenses and thus lure teachers and students into important conversations about difficult knowledge, it is first important to understand a variety of reasons these defenses occur. a key aspect is the link between defensive reactions and humans’ fear of their mortality. to flesh out this connection, an interdisciplinary variety of existential scholarship is helpful. through ernest becker (1973, 1975) and terror management theory (tmt; pyszczynski et al., 2015) as well as dark pedagogy (lysgaard et al., 2019), it is possible to map out (and thus mitigate or perhaps even thwart) defensive moves. drawing from cultural anthropology, psychoanalysis, philosophy, sociology, among other fields, becker (1973) proposed that human behaviour is intimately linked to anxieties about someday dying as humans seek ways to repress or deflect those feelings, thus thrusting existential anxiety, in part, into the unconscious. despite a commonality of existential anxiety of humans, we experience it in highly particular ways (e.g., those from bipoc communities in the united states and canada have very tangible fears of death in their daily lives, whereas those without racialized identities might experience anxieties about their mortality in a more abstract 5 sense). quests for permanence and meaning are also variable. they can take a variety of forms (e.g., romantic relationships, see mikulincer et al., 2003), but the main source according to tmt (a theory derived from becker’s claims; see pyszczynski et al., 2015) is our cultural worldview (i.e., a symbolic conception of reality shared by a group) and the self-esteem we derive from being a valued member among others who share the same worldview (schimel et al., 2018). because of this protective function, when someone threatens another’s worldview and/or selfesteem, we react defensively, including with prejudicial behavior (e.g., greenberg et al., 1990; greenberg et al., 2001). a different worldview reminds us that ours might be arbitrary, and thus at least for a moment we lose our shield against our fears of impermanence, and we can react in hurtful ways (solomon et al., 2015): derogation, a dismissal of another view as inferior (e.g., insulting the other person/group); assimilation, an attempt to convert another to your worldview (e.g., such as a teacher insisting students parrot their worldview); accommodation, an appropriation of one or more aspects to diffuse the perceived threat (e.g., a surface-level inclusion of indigenous content, instead of engaging with the deeper cultural differences); and annihilation, forms of violence, war, genocide, etc., as well as the expression of support for such annihilation (e.g., a student or teacher making callous and hateful comments about asians in relation to covid-19). there are also more subtle defenses, such as decreased reading comprehension (williams et al., 2012). these defenses prevent students (and humans more generally) from adequately addressing the harms that are inflicted upon individuals and groups, and thus are a breeding ground for the plague. denial is also a powerful defense against difficult knowledge (including worldview threat) that can contribute to the plague. as articulated in their book, dark pedagogy, lysgaard and colleagues (2019) took an approach based upon speculative realism to explore the constructive aspects of negative concepts in the context of not only humans, but things considered to be more than human. although our article here has a clear focus on humans and human relations, there is much to be learned from a more-than-human approach. of particular relevance to this article is lysgaard’s (2019) individual chapter on denial which draws, in part, from psychoanalysis (e.g., sigmund freud, jacques lacan) but then expands. denial’s harm stems from the refusal to acknowledge “uncomfortable facts and suffering the consequences of failing to acknowledge them” (lysgaard, 2019, p. 25). yet, denial is a coping mechanism for a reason— it can help people “limit the impact of uncomfortable facts, as not to be paralyzed in horror and/or existential angst” (p. 25). the task, then, becomes some sort of middle ground: we need to have denial in the form of hope, to keep on fighting to save a world that seems impossible to save, but too much denial, even in the form of hope, can make us turn a blind eye to pressing problems. (lysgaard, 2019, p. 29) how might students avoid the sort of denial that creates the plague of indifference, and yet still be able to function cognitively and emotionally in a way that they can sit in the discomfort of the difficult knowledge? 6 van kessel, c., & saleh, m. identifying the potential reactions related to the plague is helpful—and thinking alongside difficult knowledge and worldview threat is one way to consider why the plague occurs—but alas such a conceptual pairing is nonetheless insufficient on its own. critique alone will not change the existence of structural violence or instances of indifference to it. in order to take this thinking a step further, another theoretical foundation is needed: radical love. radical love a few days after his outburst, we are sitting in my office and he apologizes if his earlier words came across as “harsh” and proceeds to explain: “it feels like we are being asked to feel guilty about things we had nothing to do with.” i take a deep breath before responding, “but i don’t understand why you would feel guilt? as a hijabi muslim woman, there are people who try to make me accept guilt for the horrific actions of isis and other terrorist groups. but i refuse to accept that guilt. i do, however, feel a sense of responsibility to live in good ways alongside others …” pausing, as if surprised, he takes a moment before replying, “i never thought about it like that before.” we try to engage in this work alongside students and others with radical love (hooks, 2001, 1994/2006; lorde, 1984/2007) and radical hope (gannon, 2020; lear, 2006)—not being glibly optimistic, but instead with wakefulness of our relational responsibilities (donald, 2009, 2016, 2019) and shared vulnerability. importantly, we believe that engaging with radical love and hope requires sustained and committed action. this is the sort of loving commitment that bell hooks (2001) described when she wrote, “to begin by thinking of love as an action rather than a feeling is one way in which anyone using the word in this manner automatically assumes accountability and responsibility” (p. 13). like hooks, we believe that radical love necessarily entails telling the truth about historical and continued effects of racism, colonialism, and other forms of violence within fundamentally inequitable systems—including educational systems. for, as she powerfully asserted, “to know love we have to tell the truth to ourselves and to others” (hooks, 2001, p. 48). as educators and human beings committed to fighting the plague, we need to tell the truth even when it’s not easy. especially when it’s not easy. an ethical foundation as bell hooks (1994/2006) asserted, educators need “love as the ethical foundation” (p. 247) of all we do in education and beyond. she emphasized that “[w]ithout an ethic of love shaping the direction of our political vision and our radical aspirations, we are often seduced, in one way or the other, into continued allegiance to systems of domination—imperialism, sexism, racism, classism” (p. 243). this conception of radical love is inherently ontological and epistemological. at its roots is honouring different ways of knowing, and of being and becoming. like ibram kendi (2019), we see radical love as a profoundly needed, anti-racist way of relationally and actively bringing about individual and social changes that have the potential to root out violent policies 7 and practices that live at the intersections (crenshaw, 1989, 1991; crenshaw et al., 2019) of racism, colonialism, ableism, capitalism, sexism, imperialism, ethnocentrism, homophobia, transphobia, and too many other violent forms of injustice and inequity. at times, students question “why we need to learn about” various forms and systems of historical and ongoing violence. they do not (yet) see the relevance to their lives. however, schools—and teachers—cannot claim to be separate from these networks of violence (ladsonbillings, 2008, 2017; ladson-billings & brown, 2008; nieto, 2000; paris, 2012; sensoy & diangelo, 2014; sibbett & au, 2018). accordingly, educators are called upon to uncover how profoundly implicated we all are. to foreground this in our own classes, we introduce kevin kumashiro’s (2004) discussion of how taken-for-grantedness in education (i.e., what he refers to as “common sense”) obscures the networks of violence and inequity that schools (as social institutions) continue to maintain and perpetuate. kumashiro argued that “we do not often question certain practices and perspectives because they are masked by or couched in concepts to which we often feel social pressure to conform, including such concepts as tradition, professionalism, morality, and normalcy” (p. xxiii). inviting students to interrogate the everyday “common sense” of our lives, we ask students: what makes a “good” school? teacher? student? who/what is therefore outside these taken-for-granted notions of who/what is “good”? where did these ideas come from? who has (had) the power to define and impose these normative standards of “goodness”? why? as we attempt to trouble the structures and practices that have become commonsensical (kumashiro, 2004), we simultaneously invite students to join us in imagining and living out different, more sustaining ways of engaging alongside each other in ways that honour our different ways of knowing and being. here, we draw inspiration from dwayne donald’s conceptualization of ethical relationality (2009, 2016, 2019): ethical relationality does not deny difference nor does it promote assimilation of it. rather, ethical relationality supports the conceptualization of difference in ecological terms as necessary for life and living to continue. it guides us to seek deeper understandings of how our different histories, memories and experiences position us in relation to one another. (donald, 2016, p. 11, emphasis added) donald (2019) asserted that we need to recognize, foreground, and sustain other ways and understandings of human being-ness that are rooted in ethical relationality because, “[a]s human beings, we live in the logic of the stories we tell about the world and our place in it” (p. 119). we ask students: what other stories might we live alongside the children and youth in our care, their caretakers, communities, and each other? how might we imagine and live these stories into being? as the storied fragments woven throughout this paper make visible, living these commitments can be tension-filled. however, we remind ourselves and students of these beautiful words from a course reading in which ted aoki’s (1991) fictionalized teacher, miss o, 8 van kessel, c., & saleh, m. dwells in “the zone of between” (p. 7) as she navigates the curriculum-as-plan and curriculumas-lived-experience alongside students: miss o knows that it is possible to regard all tensions as being negative and that so regarded, tensions are “to be got rid of.” but such a regard, miss o feels, rests on a misunderstanding that comes from forgetting that to be alive is to live in tension; that, in fact, it is the tensionality that allows good thoughts and actions to arise when properly tensioned chords are struck, and that tensionless strings are not only unable to give voice in songs, but also unable to allow a song to be sung. (aoki, 1991, p. 8) for aoki (1991), balance is not possible, but tensionality (i.e., the in-between liminal space where one is attuned to differences and conflict, and yet this tension remains unresolved) opens up possibilities for engaging in good ways with students with a variety of identities and commitments, some of which might be different from their teacher’s as well as those of their classmates. both educators and students can hold in the tension between different ways of knowing (and being/becoming-in-the-world). this approach allows for an exploration into how we (as humans) are all in relation to each other without feeling the need to resolve our differences by assimilating the other or finding something specific and tangible in common. “the diversity dodge” simply recognizing diversity is insufficient. as we engage in this work with radical love, we are wakeful that the term/concept of “diversity” must itself be troubled, because it is frequently used in troublesome and troubling ways. in what she termed “the diversity dodge,” kimberlé crenshaw (2017) discussed how “diversity” is often used as “a way of acknowledging ‘difference’ between racial groups while ignoring the power relations between them” (p. 55). we agree. too often, “diversity” is used as a euphemism for humans who are racialized, dis/abled, lgbtq2+, and others (said, 1978) marginalized by historic and systemic inequities/violence. implicit in this use of the term is a “norm,” a standard mode of being human. thus, those who fall outside of the standard of “normality” (i.e., those who don’t identify as white, straight, able-bodied, christian, cisgendered and male) are often labelled “diverse.” the word “diverse” ought not be used to describe a person, but (because the word is so ingrained in the field of education) there is some merit in employing the word to our classrooms, but only with an explicit caveat about the harm this concept can inflict, as well as an attention to the diversity within an individual human being. lugones’ (1987) conception of the fluidity and multiplicity of identity as “a plurality of selves” (p. 14) provides insight into how differences are not only between self and other, but within us all at every moment. in her discussion of “coming to consciousness as a daughter and … as a woman of color” (p. 3), lugones differentiated between what she understood as “world”travel with loving or arrogant perception. a “world,” she explained, “need not be a construction of a whole society. it may be a construction of a tiny portion of a particular society. it may be inhabited by just a few people. some ‘worlds’ are bigger than others” (p. 10). lugones 9 emphasized that it is possible to negotiate a multiplicity of worlds because one “can ‘travel’ between these worlds and can inhabit more than one of these ‘worlds’ at the very same time” (pp. 10-11). she asserted that “world”-traveling with loving (rather than arrogant/agonistic) perception is what allows us to remember ourselves while appreciating others, is what “enable[s] us to be” (p. 8), as we traverse between, within, an among our own “worlds” and those inhabited by others. to build upon this conceptualization of “worlds,” we also introduce and discuss kimberlé crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality (1989, 1991; crenshaw et al., 2019). as a female black american legal scholar, crenshaw (1989) was troubled by the “tendency to treat race and gender as mutually exclusive categories of experience and analysis” (p. 139). using contemporary court cases (at that time) as places of departure, she argued, “black women are sometimes excluded from feminist theory and antiracist policy discourse because both are predicated on a discrete set of experiences that often does not accurately reflect the interaction of race and gender” (p. 140). she further argued that attempting to address the unique experiences of black women’s exclusion within the existing legal framework was insufficient because “the intersectional experience is greater than the sum of racism and sexism” (p. 140). crenshaw concluded her article by noting that “it seems that placing those who currently are marginalized in the center is the most effective way to resist efforts to compartmentalize experiences and undermine potential collective action” (p. 167). holding crenshaw’s words close, we call upon educators to try to engage in this work in ways that center and uplift the voices and experiences of those most marginalized by intersecting systems of violence. we explicitly state to our own students that we are unapologetically committed to doing this because “when—in service to ‘fairness’—instructors give equal time to dominant narratives, we reinforce problematic discursive effects by legitimizing the idea that the conversation is equalizing only when it also includes dominant voices” (sensoy & diangelo, 2014, p. 3). like sensoy and diangelo (2014), we believe that “restricting dominant narratives is actually more equalizing” (p. 3) because we are constantly inundated with dominant narratives. we are literally living and breathing them. we make it clear that a “both-sides” approach is ridiculous, not only because not all “sides” hold equal weight, but also because “everyone’s perspective is not equally valid when some are uninformed, unexamined, or uphold existing power inequities” (p. 4). although uncomfortable, we agree with sensoy and diangelo (2014) that: because schools are among the most powerful institutions wherein social stratification is reproduced, they are also where it must be challenged. to do this, we must be willing to interrogate our notions of what fairness, safety, and participation look like. (p. 8) for, as applebaum (2009) advised, we must be wakeful to how we might “focus our inquiries on how to get resisting students to engage, but not at the expense of the marginalized” (p. 403). 10 van kessel, c., & saleh, m. shifting from shame and guilt to responsibility “this has nothing to do with me.” “this is a problem somewhere else (e.g., the united states), not here.” “why do they get special status?” “i feel that i am being attacked.” “i don’t understand why we all just can’t get along.” “this has nothing to do with teaching kids.” “i already had a class on this.” “i’m not racist so i don’t need to hear about white privilege.” “i don’t want to engage with a perspective i’m not an ‘expert’ on.” as i put up a slide on the projector with these statements, i can feel the visceral reactions among many of my students. i am careful not to look at any student in particular to make them feel like i’m accusing them of one or more of these defensive moves. they know, and i know, that many of the students in our class have thought or even said such things in the past, or even recently. so, how might i help these students understand why they might have had those thoughts, and how can i help them shift their thinking and actions in a more helpful direction so that we might co-compose curricula that allow for more humane ways of living alongside each other and other beings? we, the authors, agree with noddings (2006) who asserted that “more attention should be given to exploring the root psychological causes of hatred and abuse. we need to understand ourselves if we are to understand others” (p. 225). yet, we seek ways to take this approach while sustaining a rigorous critique of structural violence with the radical hope that societies can change. the task, then, is for education to “invite a learner into understanding the self, the other, and the relationship between the two” (garrett, 2017, p. 3), and so what do teachers need to do so that students can accept that invitation? regardless of how one or more of our identities are related to power within structures (e.g., perceptions of being privileged or marginalized and/or oppressed in relation to the topic at hand), such learnings can provoke emotional responses. for those who feel implicated as agents or accomplices in these inequities, feelings of guilt and shame regarding privilege(s) are unhelpful and need to shift toward a feeling of responsibility to oppose and dismantle oppressive systems. following crowley (2019) and sullivan (2014), we understand guilt as a result of (in)actions and shame as linked to one’s identity. there is a need to coax those of more privileged identities from unhelpful feelings of guilt and shame because these can function in ways that unintentionally thwart anti-oppressive aims and teaching. when the core of someone’s self-esteem is threatened (i.e., being considered a “good” person according to one’s worldview group), there is an often unconscious desire to deflect (e.g., derogating others as an angry outburst), appropriate, or otherwise neutralize an aspect of the threatening information, among other reactions (van kessel et al., 2020). some of those with privileged status can be discouraged from developing critical thinking; for example, crowley’s (2019) study illustrated how white pre-service teachers were hindered from growing their critical racial knowledge due to experiences in relation to their skin colour (and its relation to racism) that caused confusion, fear, and shame. 11 it is even more complex for students and their teachers who feel implicated because of structural violence enacted against those who share similar identities (subedi, 2008). it is understandably disturbing to learn about the structures that have harmed them directly and indirectly, and also risky—what happens if other students respond in hurtful ways, such as perpetuating stereotypes and other simplistic thinking? it is often exhausting to lead, participate in, or even witness the education of those coming to terms with hitherto unknown (or unacknowledged) structures of violence. furthermore, their pain can become “a lesson” for other students, a situation that is disrespectful to that pain. in this way, dialogue about these perilous topics can involve the “the unleashing of unpopular things” (britzman, 1992, p. 151). applications to classroom practices knowing what we know about the complicated emotional terrain of learning, educators seeking to invite students into conversations about structural violence must find ways to lure students toward difficult knowledge. much of this task relies upon building respectful and thoughtful relationships between educators and students, as well as among the students in the class. additionally, though, in this article we invite educators to consider two broad recommendations: attending to the emotional aspect of learning and challenging single stories. attending to the emotional aspect of learning teachers’ decisions are, in part, influenced by their perceptions of students’ emotional responses (sheppard & levy, 2016), and thus if teachers are willing to do the emotional work necessary to thwart harmful systems and actions, perhaps societies stand a chance of hurting less. when this invitation is a sirens’ song, we might lure those who might have been resistant to this emotional work into conversations about structural inequity and violence. educators and students need a language for the range of emotions and feelings that they might experience. first, to be aware that concepts and conversations can threaten a student’s self-esteem and worldview, and next to warn the students of the possibility before this situation occurs and provide a language to talk about defensive reactions (e.g., derogation, assimilation, etc.). furthermore, educators can use strategies to lure students toward difficult knowledge, such as starting with a less threatening example (e.g., a different place and/or time), then moving closer to home. as an example, a pre-service teacher in one of cathryn’s classes began a mini-lesson on the canadian justice system with u.s. statistics; e.g., that in the united states, black men are ten times more likely to be imprisoned than white men (worse than south africa at the height of apartheid). he then invited his colleagues in the class to guess whether or not the statistics were accurate. this sparked a lively conversation about racism in the united states, the #blacklivesmatter movement, and the urgent need for change. then, he coyly revealed that the statistic was actually for indigenous men in canada. the outrage of his colleagues about the situation in the united states foreclosed the possibility of dismissing the situation here in canada—he had lured them into the difficult knowledge and prevented a degree of denial. 12 van kessel, c., & saleh, m. in addition to beginning with a less threatening example and shifting closer to home, educators can lure students to difficult knowledge by engaging (carefully) with humour. humour aids in the diffusion of anxiety (existential and otherwise), which is why nervous laughter is a thing. as neil elgee (2003) stated: our sense of humor enables us not only to exist in this predicament but also to play with it to our advantage… humor in the service of faith and grace can be affiliative rather than ostracizing, and serve to disarm fundamentalism. ( p. 475) humour can be employed with loving kindness as a strategy to help students with difficult knowledge. much care is needed, however; for example, it is important not to make light of someone’s experiences with structural violence. furthermore, if one includes humour that derogates someone’s worldview, then the prompt that was intended to diffuse anxiety might inadvertently create more via worldview threat. to this end, cathryn often uses internet memes (i.e., popular image macros annotated that have traction on social media) to diffuse tension, such as during a lesson on privileges in a third-year undergraduate class on social studies curriculum and pedagogy, cathryn discusses how anyone can be antiracist in one moment, and racist in another (kendi, 2019), a discussion that is potentially quite threatening. thus, she uses a meme of dr. evil (from the austin powers movie franchise, who, in the movies, pathetically and unsuccessfully tries too hard to be evil, cool, etc.) doing air quotation with the caption: “i’m woke. i’m with it.” this image usually engenders a chuckle or two, which diffuses some of the tension. and then the students and i can sit longer with the idea of having to be constantly selfreflective if we want to be good allies, accomplices, and co-conspirators in the fight against racism, among other manifestations of structural violence (e.g., gorski & dalton, 2020; murray & brooks-immel, 2019; smith & crowley, 2018). challenging single stories although attending to the emotional component of learning with pedagogical strategies is essential for educators to navigate the waters of “diversity,” the curriculum itself needs attention. in her ted talk, chimamanda adichie (2009) discusses the danger of holding a single story of people and places. she explained that a single story is created and perpetuated when we “show a people as one thing, as only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.” adichie importantly emphasized that stories—and their narration—are profoundly imbued with power: it is impossible to talk about the single story without talking about power. there is a word, an igbo word, that i think about whenever i think about the power structures of the world, and it is "nkali." it's a noun that loosely translates to "to be greater than another." like our economic and political worlds, stories too are defined by the principle of nkali: how they are told, who tells them, when they're told, how many stories are told, are really dependent on power [emphasis added]. 13 in our social studies methods classes, both authors often watch adichie’s twenty-minute ted talk alongside students, and then engage in group and whole-class discussions related to the video. we ask questions such as: have you ever felt single-storied? do you believe you’ve witnessed someone else being single-storied? do you feel you’ve ever engaged in single-storying another person, community, and/or place? how can we teach in ways that challenge single stories (our own and those that are dominant)? often, students express resonances with adichie’s ideas and begin using the language of “challenging single stories through providing multiple perspectives” in class discussions and assignments. this is a promising step forward in fighting the plague and heeding the sirens’ call; however, we also encourage students to inquire into what “providing multiple perspectives” means for them. for, we remind them, not all perspectives hold equal weight. although it is important, for example, to understand the perspectives of settlers to the land that has come to be known as canada, we argue that the perspectives and experiences of the original inhabitants of this land are absolutely essential to understanding this creation story. we ask: what are the numbered treaties? how did they come to be signed? who signed them? who has not signed them? what was the intent and/or goals of those who entered into the treaties? how are we implicated? whose perspective is being considered and foregrounded in these stories? whose perspective is being left out or ignored? what is the spirit with which i am engaging in this work (saleh, in review)?1 drawing upon the work of dwayne donald (2009, 2013), we also ask: how might we avoid “incorporating and/or infusing” indigenous perspectives? how might we instead root and thread our work in relationship with indigenous peoples and communities? a few key considerations we ask students to ponder throughout our work is how, considering the aforementioned concepts and discussions, we might co-compose and live out culturally sustaining curricula and pedagogies (paris, 2012; paris & alim, 2017) alongside students and each other? how might we make the myriad of psychological and physical borders between and within us (menon & saleh, 2018) visible … so that they can be dismantled? how might we braid and/or thread diverse stories and perspectives in ways that honour, rather than collapse, our differences (donald, 2009, 2016, 2019; kasamali, 2019)? greene (1993) recognized the danger of espousing that “we are all really just the same in the end” type of rhetoric when she asserted: if there is to be a truly humane, plague-free community in this country, it must be one responsive to increasing numbers of life-stories, to more and more “different” voices. yes, many of the shapes are alike; there are tonalities that resemble one another, that merge. but there are differing nuances, shimmering contours; no one exactly duplicates any other. this is what ought to be attended to, even as we resonate to what is common, what is shared. (p. 218) 1 our work must be alongside the people and communities i am discussing and advocating for to avoid (well-meaning) colonization and/or condescension (saleh, in review). 14 van kessel, c., & saleh, m. we continue to walk uphill, only to realize that we have left some of our colleagues and classmates behind. we laughingly turn back and help each other to navigate the precarious trail near the river valley. when dwayne pauses to speak, i silently say alhamdulillah for the blessings of being able to learn from dwayne alongside students (who are also pre-service teachers) on this beautiful almost-spring day. as dwayne shares stories of his papachase cree ancestors, and their deep history and relationships with the land upon which we stand, i marvel at how much i did not know of our treaty 6 history and vow to purposefully search out more knowledge. a student raises his hand to speak and i briefly worry at the question or comment he might bring forward into this space. my worries are rooted in previous comments he has made about feeling forced to learn about our responsibilities as treaty people. my anxieties are assuaged, however, when he expressed gratitude to dwayne for guiding us in our walk and learning that day. i say alhamdulillah once again and continue to walk alongside everyone with a full heart and huge smile. concluding thoughts “even in the small, the local spaces in which teaching is done, educators may begin creating the kinds of situations where, at the very least, students will begin telling the stories of what they are seeking, what they know and might not yet know, exchanging stories with others grounded in other landscapes, at once bringing something into being that is in-between. as they do so, what hannah arendt called “webs of relationship” may be woven, webs overlaying the worldly things people normally talk about when they are together. it is when they begin disclosing who they are to one another that worldly things can be overgrown with such a web …. it is at moments like these that persons begin to recognize each other and, in the experience of recognition, feel the need to take responsibility for one another.” (greene, 1993, p. 218) maxine greene reminds us that the responsibility of webbed relationships invites us all to tap into our shared vulnerability. identity work is important, but regardless of identity/ies we (as humans) need to attend to our emotional responses when we encounter provoking knowledge. intersectional lenses reveal that a simple identification of being black, brown, indigenous, white or any other identification has limits, even in combination. no one’s response is dictated by the colour of their skin, what religion (or not) they practice, what sexual organs they have inside their bodies, and/or who they love or are sexually attracted to (among other identifiers). without robbing folks of their communities of support, shifting our intellectual focus to emotions and how they can influence our thoughts and actions allows for a framework that 15 does not predetermine, and thus limit, our potential as beings plagued by situations of structural violence. at times, we have encountered students and teachers who would prefer to assert a “postracial” (or any other post-identitarian) stance, and thus our goal has been to lure them to the difficult knowledge of structural inequities and violence. like sirens, we know that the shores are precarious, but we also know the urgent need for students (and all humans) to come to shore, see the horrors, and then work individually and collectively to stop and prevent hatred and violence. we invite students with open hearts, recognizing that no one’s value or potential is dictated by genetics, somatic presentation, or any other mechanism for supposedly differentiating humans. this article is a call to wed a nuanced intersection of our relationship to historical and ongoing violence (crenshaw, 1989, 1991; crenshaw et al., 2019) with commitments to thwart the (historical and ongoing) metaphorical plague(s) of violence, inequity, indifference, and abstraction. for, as greene (1993) so powerfully dreamed forward: “if pestilence in our time can be identified with exclusion and violation and the marginalization of certain human beings, i would hope to see more and more teachers willing to choose themselves as healers” (p. 215). funding information cathryn van kessel’s work engaging with existential defenses in the context of education was supported by the social sciences and humanities research council of canada [430-2018-00257]. references adichie, c. n. 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(2005). pimatisiwin: walking in a good way—a narrative inquiry into language as identity. pemmican. https://.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1849 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 122-147 campus attitudes toward academic and social inclusion of students with intellectual disability douglas carothers* 1, hasan aydin 1, clarisse halpern1 * corresponding author e-mail: dcarothe@fgcu.edu 1. florida gulf coast university, department of curriculum, instruction, and culture, fort myers, florida, united states. article info received: december 5, 2020 revised: february 14, 2021 accepted: april 2, 2021 how to cite carothers, d., aydin, h. & halpern, c. (2021). campus attitudes toward academic and social inclusion of students with intellectual disability. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), 122-147. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.2 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract empirical evidence suggests college attendance by students with intellectual disability (id) results in academic and social benefits. however, insufficient literature has explored the attitudes of university constituent groups toward the social and academic inclusion of students with id before introducing these students to campus. this paper reports the results of a survey given to administrators, faculty, staff, and students of a southeastern public university to examine attitudes toward including students with id in academic and social activities on campus. differences in attitudes were examined based on participants’ academic discipline, gender, and role within the academic community. the results indicate that all constituencies had positive attitudes toward the participation of students with id in college academics. however, significant differences were found based on academic discipline; participants from the college of education had the most positive attitudes, while those from the college of business had the least positive responses. recommendations for future research are included. the article emphasizes the benefits of planning similar post-secondary programs before including students with id to create a welcoming education environment and provide the best possible education to all students. keywords campus attitudes; academic inclusion; social inclusion; intellectual disability; higher education 10.46303/jcsr.2021.2 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.2 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 123 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 introduction while it may seem impressive that more than 270 colleges and universities host educational programs for adults with intellectual disability (id) (thinkcollege.net, 2017), that is fewer than 6% of the more than 4,700 twoand four-year colleges in the united states. this lack of inclusive post-secondary educational options is surprising because educating individuals with disabilities in the least restrictive environment has been a key tenet of the individuals with disabilities education improvement act (idiea, 2004) since its original passage as the education for all handicapped children act (eha) in 1974. in fact, nearly 95% of students with id currently attend school with their peers without disabilities (u.s. department of education, 2016). as a result, students whose schooling has been entirely in inclusive settings now increasingly seek postsecondary education in equally inclusive settings; attending college with their peers is the natural educational progression for them (papay et al., 2018). college attendance by students with id results in both shortand long-term benefits. in addition to fulfilling their desire to attend college, short-term benefits include the development of academic, employment, and self-advocacy skills, boosting self-confidence, and assuming the socially respected role of a college student (hart et al., 2010; ogurlu & sevim, 2017). in the longer term, individuals with id who attend college have higher rates of post-participation employment than those with id who did not attend college (butler et al., 2016; zafft et al., 2004). moreover, a study in kentucky found that individuals with id who attended at least two semesters of college reported better health and less reliance on psychotropic medications, higher rates of employment, and more friendships than a comparison group of 18–30-year-olds who received state developmental disability waivers (butler et al., 2016). society reaps long-term benefits when individuals with id attend college. parisi and landau (2019) found that students with id consumed fewer government support services after leaving college, saving taxpayers’ money. a five-year review of federal records found that individuals with id who attended post-secondary education received $77.00 per month less in ssi payments (sannicandro, 2016). further, because health care costs are lower for employed people (goodman, 2015), programs that enhance employability skills can reduce government health care expenses. several studies have shown that employed individuals with disabilities have lower medicaid expenses than those who are unemployed (chambless et al., 2010; hall et al., 2013). others on campus also benefit when individuals with id attend college. westling et al. (2013) examined changes in attitudes of college students after individuals with id were included on a college campus. they found that 83.1% and 91.5% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that including students with id can benefit other students in class and in campus life, respectively. similarly, another study found that faculty perceive the inclusion of students with id in classes as beneficial for all students because they asked unexpected questions or asked questions and made observations that other students may not have been willing to make 124 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 (o’connor et al., 2012). the study also revealed that having students with id in class led faculty to modify instructional methods to more student-centered approaches that benefit all students, including assessing students’ background knowledge, over-explaining concepts, and following lectures with question and answer sessions (o’connor et al., 2012). regrettably, even parents and professionals rarely understand or share the belief that students with id belong in college (eisenman & mancini, 2010; haffner et al., 2011; sheppardjones et al., 2015). restrictions on the social activities of individuals with id occur because practitioners do not always support their active social participation (santos, 2014). further, acceptability and opportunities for interaction can be adversely impacted by society’s perception of “people as ‘clients’ or ‘consumers’ of services controlled by others, rather than as ‘citizens,’ ‘neighbors,’ or other generic roles that might give a quite different perception of the nature of one’s personal rights and empowerment in the community” (keith & bonham, 2005, p. 801). as a result, an individual with id’s quality of life may be impacted less by the presence of the id than by the individual’s access to social opportunities and needed supports (simoes & santos, 2016). in fact, more positive societal attitudes toward individuals with id can result in their having a better quality of life and influence laws and public policies that impact their lives and opportunities (westling et al., 2013). these findings illustrate the importance of “breaking the cultural barrier that always said young adults with intellectual developmental disability could not go to college” (baker et al., 2018, p. 14). intergroup contact theory suggests that increasing positive interactions between groups can reduce social bias, especially when the individuals know each other and are working toward a common goal (allport, 1954). a recent study in a university gym (mcallister et al., 2018) found that bystanders believed discriminatory attitudes and behaviors toward individuals with id and autism would be reduced, and comfort and perceptions of capability would be increased by increased exposure to individuals with these disabilities. moreover, in a study involving individuals with a different disability, white et al., (2019) found that student characteristics impact their acceptance of individuals with asd on the college campus. for example, they found that those with a family member with asd were more likely than those without a family member with asd to interact with college students with asd. they also found that students majoring in physical sciences and engineering were relatively more likely to interact with students with asd than students studying arts and social sciences. intergroup contact theory would suggest that familiarity with individuals with id might also result in greater likelihood of interaction, though again, attitudes might vary depending on personal characteristics as manifested by choice of major. social acceptance has a significant impact on college success and college experiences impact life after college. as a result, and to facilitate success during and after college, it is crucial to understand campus attitudes toward the inclusion of students with id before introducing them to campus life. it is also important for colleges to identify how campus stakeholders conceptualize inclusion and whether the same vision is shared by all (bumble et al., 2019). still, 125 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 no literature was found regarding the attitudes of constituent groups of a university toward social and academic inclusion of students with id prior to introducing these students to campus. methodology a survey instrument (fowler, 2014) was used to examine the attitudes of various campus constituencies (administration, faculty, staff, and students) concerning the participation of students with id in college academics and social activities in a college campus in southwest florida. the research questions that guided this study were the following: 1. what are the attitudes of various constituencies (administration, faculty, staff, and students) toward the participation of students with id in college academics? 2. what are the attitudes of various constituencies (administration, faculty, staff, and students) toward the participation of students with id in social activities on a college campus? 3. are there any differences in attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id based on participants’ academic discipline, gender, or role (administration, faculty, staff, or student) within the academic community? data collection and analysis the data were collected using a survey via qualtrics software. the survey was divided into two parts; one to collect demographic information and another consisting of questions to assess attitudes toward the inclusion of individuals with id on a university campus (fraenkel et al., 2015). in the first part, participants were asked to define their gender, academic disciplines, and role(s) within the university. the second part consisted of 19 questions divided into academic and social factors (see appendix a). the survey was distributed via email to the administration, faculty, staff, and students of a mid-sized public university in southwest florida three times in two-week intervals in march and april 2020. out of the 1460 respondents to the study, 1097 completed the survey. the data were analyzed using spss 22.0 software. in addition to calculating separate means for the scale’s academic and social dimensions, an overall mean of the scores obtained from all items (general scale) was calculated (rea & parker, 2014). table 1 displays descriptive statistics for the three mean values calculated using the scores gathered from participants. the cronbach’s alpha test was carried out for all items for the reliability of the scale data and resulted in a score of 0.87 for 19 items. because a coefficient of 0.87 is considered very high, it substantiates the reliability of the items. 126 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 table 1 descriptive statistics n minimum maximum mean std. deviation skewness kurtosis general scale 1101 1.00 5.00 4.15 0.72 -0.90 0.94 academic 1101 1.00 5.00 3.72 0.57 -0.96 0.82 social 1101 1.00 4.50 3.22 0.44 -.50 1.00 participants participants from all constituencies (administration, faculty, staff, and students) of a public university in southwest florida were recruited via an email that explained the purpose of the study and included a statement about informed consent and a link to the survey administered via qualtrics. table 2 shows participants’ demographic information in terms of number and percentage of the survey population. the frequency information of participants who completed the scale is provided in the findings of this study. participation rates were highest for students (approximately 71.74%), people from the college of arts and sciences (approximately 31.60%), and females (approximately 70.70%). results the general scale scores of 1101 participants are displayed in table 2. the mean score for all participants was 4.15, with a standard deviation of 0.72. in the academic dimension of the scale, the scores of 1101 people were calculated, and the mean score was 3.72 with a standard deviation of 0.57. in the social dimension of the scale, 1101 scores were calculated, and the mean score was 3.22 with a standard deviation of 0.44. the mean and standard deviation of the general scale scores were higher than the means and standard deviations of the sub-dimension scores. the mean score of the general scale scores was 4.15, which is situated in the range of 3.41 to 4.20. therefore, attitudes towards the academic and social participation of students with id at the university were generally highly positive. as for the standard deviation values, the general scale’s standard deviation value was higher than the standard deviation values of the sub-dimensions (see. table 1: 0.72> 0.57 and 0.72> 0.44). therefore, the conclusion can be reached that the general scale scores varied more than the sub-dimensions scores, indicating greater disagreement among participants on the general scale than on either of the subscales. 127 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 table 2 frequency statistics n % what is your role at fgcu student 1018 71.74 faculty 178 12.54 staff 204 14.37 administration 19 1.33 total 1419 100.00 with which college are you affiliated? college of arts and sciences 412 31.60 college of business 221 16.90 college of education 179 13.70 college of engineering 81 6.20 college of health and human services 227 17.40 honors college 18 1.40 other administration 167 12.80 total 1305 100.00 how do you identify your gender? male 361 27.80 female 917 70.70 transgender 10 0.80 other 9 0.70 total 1297 100.00 additionally, a one-sample kolmogorov-smirnov test was initially performed in the nparametric test to decide which tests would be conducted to find answers to the research questions. as shown in table 3, all significance (p) values were less than 0.05 (p = 0.00), though this value should be greater than 0.05 if parametric tests are to be performed. despite this, if skewness and kurtosis coefficients are within the range of -1 and +1, then parametric tests will 128 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 be performed (çokluk et al., 2012). referring to table 2, the skewness coefficients of the general scale, academic, and social variables were -0.90, -0.96, -0.50, respectively, and kurtosis coefficients were 0.94, 0.82, and 1.00, respectively. therefore, parametric tests can be carried out in data analysis. table 3 one-sample kolmogorov-smirnov test general scale academic social n 1104 1104 1101 kolmogorov-smirnov z 4.56 5.27 4.28 p 0.00 0.00 0.00 having been justified by the analyses described above, parametric tests were conducted for each of research questions. to answer the first question, table 4 displays descriptive statistics and frequency counts of participants who completed the academic sub-dimension of the scale. the mean scores show that all constituencies (administration, faculty, staff, and students) have positive attitudes toward the participation of students with id in college academics. the mean score of the staff group was higher than the mean scores of the other groups (4.03 of 5.0). the group with the lowest mean score was not staff. because some participants belonged to two or more groups, a univariate analysis was conducted in spss 22.0 to determine if the differences were significant. university roles were the independent variables in this analysis and academic means were the dependent variable. results are displayed in table 5. table 4 the descriptive statistics and frequencies of each group role mean std. error n not student 3.89 0.12 299 student 3.81 0.14 805 not faculty 3.91 0.12 944 faculty 3.79 0.15 160 not staff 3.71 0.09 928 staff 4.03 0.17 176 not administration 3.75 0.06 1087 administration 3.97 0.19 17 129 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 table 5 tests of between-subjects effects source type iii sum of squares df mean square f p corrected model 7.52 10 0.75 2.30 0.01 intercept 362.82 1 362.82 1.10 0.00 student 0.08 1 0.08 0.26 0.60 faculty 0.02 1 0.02 0.08 0.76 staff 1.30 1 1.301 3.97 0.04 administration 0.68 1 0.68 2.07 0.15 student * faculty 0.00 0 . . . student * staff 0.00 0 . . . student * administration 0.00 0 . . . faculty * staff 0.00 0 . . . faculty * administration 0.00 0 . . . staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . student * faculty * staff 0.00 0 . . . student * faculty * administration 0.00 0 . . . student * staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . faculty * staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . student * faculty * staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . error 357.78 1093 0.32 total 15703.74 1104 corrected total 365.31 1103 examination of column p of table 5 may lead to the conclusion that the p-value was not calculated for comparisons of groups of two, three, and four and that no significant difference existed between these groups. however, the staff group had a significant within-group difference (p = 0.04). this conclusion can also be inferred by conducting independent samples t-tests. as displayed in table 6, the p-value in the equal variances assumed row was lower than .05, indicating a significant within-group difference in favor of staff. as a result, the attitudes of various constituencies (administration, faculty, staff, and students) toward the participation of students with id in college academics were positive. additionally, a statistically significant 130 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 attitude difference was present between staff members and non-staff members, with staff members having a more positive attitude on this measure. table 6 the result of independent samples t-test levene’s test for equality of variances t-test for equality of means f sig. t df sig. (2tailed) equal variances assumed 2.75 0.09 -3.69 1102 0.00 equal variances not assumed -4.01 266.74 0.00 the second research question examined the attitudes of various constituencies (administration, faculty, staff, and students) toward the participation of students with id in social activities on a college campus. to answer this question, table 7 shows the descriptive statistics and frequency count of participants who completed the academic sub-dimension of the scale. the mean score of the staff group was greater than the other groups (3.40 of 5) and the lowest mean scores belonged to the groups of non-staff members and students (3.23 of 5). because the mean scores derived from this sub-dimension were very close to each other, a series of analyses were performed to determine if the differences were significant. table 7 the descriptive statistics and frequencies of each group univariate analyses were again conducted in spss 22.0 to determine whether betweengroup differences were significant. participant roles were independent variables and the social mean was the dependent variable. column p of table 8 shows that all values for the academic role mean std. error n not student 3.37 .09 297 student 3.23 .11 804 not faculty 3.28 .09 943 faculty 3.34 .11 158 not staff 3.23 .07 925 staff 3.40 .13 176 not administration 3.28 .05 1084 administration 3.34 .14 17 131 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 role variable were greater than 0.05. also, pvalues were not calculated among the groups of two, three, and four. therefore, the inferred comment that was made by evaluating the mean scores in table 8 was confirmed. the mean scores were very close to each other. nonetheless, the data were checked to determine if a statistical difference existed for additional confirmation, and the p-values in the tests of between-subjects effects table proved that no significant difference existed between groups on attitudes toward social participation of individuals with id. table 8 tests of between subjects effects source type iii sum of squares df mean square f p corrected model 10.16 10 1.01 5.36 0.00 intercept 265.49 1 265.49 1.40 0.00 student 0.11 1 0.11 0.60 0.43 faculty 0.08 1 0.08 0.43 0.50 staff 0.20 1 0.20 1.09 0.29 administration 0.03 1 0.03 0.17 0.67 student * faculty 0.00 0 . . . student * staff 0.00 0 . . . student * administration 0.00 0 . . . faculty * staff 0.00 0 . . . faculty * administration 0.00 0 . . . staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . student * faculty * staff 0.00 0 . . . student * faculty * administration 0.00 0 . . . student * staff * administration 000 0 . . . faculty * staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . student * faculty * staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . error 206.61 1090 0.19 total 11644.50 1101 corrected total 216.78 1100 132 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 the third research question asked whether there were differences in attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id based on participants’ academic discipline, gender, or role (administration, faculty, staff, or student) within the academic community? three separate analyses were required to answer this research question. academic discipline, gender, and role were assigned as the independent variable in each analysis, and the scale general mean was assigned as the dependent variable. a one-way anova was performed to find the differences in attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id based on participants’ academic discipline. table 9 descriptives n mean std. deviation std. error college of arts and sciences 343 4.10 0.70 0.03 college of business 176 3.90 0.91 0.06 college of education 160 4.40 0.58 0.04 college of engineering 68 3.87 0.72 0.08 college of health and human services 195 4.28 0.61 0.04 honors college 15 3.97 0.68 0.17 other administration 140 4.29 0.60 0.05 total 1097 4.15 0.72 0.02 table 9 shows that most participants were from the college of arts and sciences (n = 343). the lowest participation was from the honors college (n = 15). the highest mean score belonged to the college of education (4.40 of 5), and the lowest was from the college of engineering (3.87). whether such differences are statistically significant can be determined from the data in table 10. as displayed in table 10, the between groups p-value is lower than 0.05 (p = 0.00). therefore, a statistically significant difference was present between the groups. to understand which groups differed significantly, table 11 displays the results of a post hoc multiple comparison. table 10 anova sum of squares df mean square f p between groups 33.46 6 5.57 11.33 0.00 within groups 536.28 1090 0.49 total 569.74 1096 133 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 based on the values in the p column of table 11, the inference can be made that there is a significant difference between attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id by academic discipline. specifically, ; 1. there is a significant difference between the college of arts and sciences variable and the college of business variable, with the college of arts and sciences having more favorable attitudes toward college academic and social participation of individuals with id. (p = 0.03) 2. there is a significant difference between the college of arts and sciences variable and the college of education variable, with the college of education having more favorable attitudes toward college academic and social participation of individuals with id (p = 0.00). 3. there is a significant difference between the college of business variable and the college of education variable, with the college of education having more favorable attitudes toward college academic and social participation of individuals with id (p = 0.00). 4. there is a significant difference between the college of business variable and the college of health and human services variable, with the college of health and human services having more favorable attitudes toward college academic and social participation of individuals with id (p= 0.00). 5. there is a significant difference between the college of business variable and the other administration variable, with other administration having more favorable attitudes toward college academic and social participation of individuals with id (p = .00). 6. there is a significant difference between the college of education variable and the college of engineering variable, with the college of education having more favorable attitudes toward college academic and social participation of individuals with id (p = 0.00). 7. there is a significant difference between the college of business variable and the college of engineering variable, with the college of engineering having more favorable attitudes toward college academic and social participation of individuals with id (p = 0.00). 8. there is a significant difference between the college of engineering variable and the other administration variable, with other administration having more favorable attitudes toward college academic and social participation of individuals with id (p = 0.00). table 11 post hoc multiple comparisons (i) with which college are you affiliated (j) with which college are you affiliated mean difference (i-j) std. error p college of arts and sciences college of business 0.20 0.06 0.03 college of education -0.30 0.06 0.00 college of engineering 0.22 0.09 0.17 134 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 college of health and human services -0.17 0.06 0.07 honors college 0.13 0.18 0.99 other administration -0.18 0.07 0.11 college of business college of arts and sciences -0.20 0.06 0.03 college of education -0.50 0.07 0.00 college of engineering 0.02 0.10 1.00 (i) with which college are you affiliated (j) with which college are you affiliated mean difference (ij) std. error p college of business college of health and human services -0.37 0.07 0.00 honors college -0.06 0.18 1.00 other administration -0.38 0.07 0.00 college of education college of arts and sciences 0.30 0.06 0.00 college of business 0.50 0.07 0.00 college of engineering 0.52 0.10 0.00 college of health and human services 0.12 0.07 0.64 honors college 0.43 0.18 0.25 other administration 0.11 0.08 0.80 college of engineering college of arts and sciences -0.22 0.09 0.17 college of business -0.02 0.10 1.00 college of education -0.52 0.10 0.00 college of health and human services -0.40 0.09 0.00 honors college -0.09 0.20 0.99 other administration -0.41 0.10 0.00 table 11 (continued) 135 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 (i) with which college are you affiliated (j) with which college are you affiliated mean difference (ij) std. error p college of health and human services college of arts and sciences 0.17 0.06 0.07 college of business 0.37 0.07 0.00 college of education -.0.12 0.07 0.64 college of engineering 0.40 0.09 0.00 honors college 0.30 0.18 0.65 other administration -0.01 0.07 1.00 honors college college of arts and sciences -0.13 0.18 0.99 college of business 0.06 0.18 1.00 college of education -0.43 0.18 0.25 college of engineering 0.09 0.20 0.99 college of health and human services -0.30 0.18 0.65 other administration -0.31 0.19 0.63 other administration college of arts and sciences 0.18 0.07 0.11 college of business 0.38 0.07 0.00 college of education -0.11 0.08 0.80 college of engineering 0.41 0.10 0.00 college of health and human services 0.01 0.07 1.00 honors college 0.31 0.19 0.63 another one way anova test was performed to determine differences in attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id based on participants’ gender. table 12 shows that the majority of the participants were female (n = 776). the lowest participation was from the groups of transgender and other (n = 8). the highest mean score belonged to transgender (4.47 of 5) variable, and the lowest mean score belonged to other (3.63) variable. 136 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 table 12 descriptive statistics whether these differences in means were statistically significant can be inferred from the data in table 13). as displayed, the p-value between groups is lower than 0.05 (p = 0.00). therefore, a statistically significant difference is present between the groups. table 13 anova sum of squares df mean square f sig. between groups 23.67 3 7.89 15.90 0.00 within groups 543.30 1095 .49 total 566.98 1098 examination of the values in the p column of table 14 allows determination of which groups have statistically significant differences between the general scores obtained from the scale. accordingly, only male and female variables have a significant difference in attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id with females having more positive attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id. although the mean score of transgender individuals was higher, there was not a significant difference due to the low number of participants in the transgender group. to carry out the anova test, at least 20 data points must be present in the subgroups of variables (çokluk et al., 2012). given the utilization of parametric tests in this research, there is no objection to performing the anova test. a univariate analysis was performed to find differences in attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id based on participants’ academic role. table 15 shows that the staff group had the highest mean score among the general scale scores, while the group with the lowest mean score was not staff. attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id based on participants’ academic role scores were highly positive in all groups. as shown by the data in table 15, the mean scores were very close to each other. whether the scores groups obtained from the general scale are significantly different can be understood by looking at the tests of between-subjects effects table. n mean std. deviation std. error male 307 3.94 0.80 0.04 female 776 4.24 0.65 0.02 transgender 8 4.47 0.73 0.26 other 8 3.63 1.14 0.40 total 1099 4.15 0.71 0.02 137 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 table 14 post hoc multiple comparisons (i) how do you identify your gender? (j) how do you identify your gender? mean difference (i-j) std. error p male female -0.30 0.04 0.00 transgender -0.53 0.25 0.14 other (please identify) 0.30 0.25 0.63 female male 0.30 0.04 0.00 transgender -.0.23 0.25 0.79 other (please identify) 0.60 0.25 0.07 transgender male 0.53 0.25 0.14 female 0.23 0.25 0.79 other (please identify) 0.84 0.35 0.08 other male -0.30 0.25 0.63 female -0.60 0.25 0.07 transgender -0.84 0.35 0.08 table 15 descriptive statistics role mean std. error n not student 4.23 0.15 297 student 4.32 0.18 804 not faculty 4.32 0.15 943 faculty 4.21 0.19 158 not staff 4.12 0.12 925 staff 4.45 0.22 176 not administration 4.16 0.08 1084 administration 4.40 0.24 17 table 16 displays the values for the academic role variable in column p, which are greater than 0.05. also, pvalues are not calculated among the groups of two, three, and four. therefore, the inferred comment made by evaluating the mean scores in table 15 was confirmed. the mean scores were very close to each other; however, because the p-values are 138 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 greater than 0.05 in the tests of between-subjects effects table, no statistically significant difference was found between the attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id based on participants’ academic role. table 16 tests of between-subjects effects source type iii sum of squares df mean square f p corrected model 6.36 10 0.63 1.22 0.27 intercept 447.66 1 447.66 862.11 0.00 student 0.32 1 0.32 0.63 0.42 faculty 0.00 1 0.00 0.00 0.97 staff 0.94 1 0.94 1.81 0.17 administration 0.50 1 0.50 0.96 0.32 student * faculty 0.00 0 . . . student * staff 0.00 0 . . . student * administration 0.00 0 . . . faculty * staff 0.00 0 . . . faculty * administration 0.00 0 . . . staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . student * faculty * staff 0.00 0 . . . student * faculty * administration 0.00 0 . . . student * staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . faculty * staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . student * faculty * staff * administration 0.00 0 . . . error 567.55 1093 0.51 total 19634.79 1104 corrected total 573.91 1103 139 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 discussion and conclusion the education for all handicapped children act (p.l. 94-142), passed in 1974 and signed into law in 1975, required public schools receiving federal funds to provide children with disabilities with equal access to education. it also required that these children’s education be provided in the least restrictive environment (lre) to provide maximum opportunity for interaction with children without disabilities. still, students with intellectual disabilities were excluded from attending college with their peers until relatively recently. this inconsistency is concerning, especially because many positive outcomes are associated with college attendance by individuals with id. the benefits to students with id include higher rates of employment (butler et al., 2016; zafft et al., 2004), more friendships (butler et al., 2016), and increased confidence and better self-advocacy skills (hart et al., 2010). further, society benefits because college attendance by individuals with id results in reduced dependence on tax-funded government services (chambless et al., 2010; hall et al., 2013; parisi & landau 2019; sannicandro, 2016). to maximize these benefits, factors that enhance the successful participation of students with id in college activities deserve more study. these factors include feelings of being accepted (choi et al., 2013) and how inclusion is supported and conceptualized at an institution (bumble et al., 2019). the present study was conducted at a medium-sized comprehensive regional university in the southeastern united states. its purposes, stated in the research questions, were: 1) to assess the attitudes of campus constituencies (administration, faculty, staff, and students) regarding the participation of students with id in college academics; 2) to assess the attitudes of these constituencies regarding the participation of students with id in social activities on campus; and 3) to assess differences in attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id based on participants’ academic discipline, gender, or role (administration, faculty, staff, or student) within the academic community. in answer to research question one, the results indicate that all constituencies on the campus under study had positive attitudes toward the participation of students with id in college academics. staff members held significantly more positive attitudes toward the academic participation of these students than were held by the rest of campus; still, a mean rating of 3.71 on a scale of 1 – 5, with 5 indicating complete agreement that students with id should participate in college academics, was found for members of the campus community who did not identify as “staff.’ no significant differences in attitude were found between any other constituencies. in answer to research question two, campus attitudes toward the social participation of students with id on campus were moderately positive, though not as positive as attitudes toward academic inclusion. the mean rating, again on a scale of 1 – 5, was 3.22, and both the range of the scores and the standard deviation were narrower for this question, which means there was less variation in campus attitudes toward social participation than there was toward 140 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 academic participation. further, there were no significant differences between constituencies in their attitudes toward the social participation of students with id. it is noteworthy that attitudes toward the social participation of individuals with id were both lower and less variable than attitudes toward their academic participation. while academic coursework frequently contains group projects and other opportunities for students to interact, many courses on college campuses also tend to rely heavily on lecture formats in which interaction is limited. as such, it is possible that attitudes toward academic participation were higher due to a perception that less interaction will be required. however, research on attitudes of both students and faculty report positive perceptions after experiencing the inclusion of students with id in classes (o’connor et al., 2012; westling et al. (2013). one of this study’s potential contributions is that it provides a measure of baseline data, and future studies can assess how having students with id on campus impacts attitudes. likewise, theories such as intergroup contact theory (allport, 1954) and studies of the social perceptions of college students (phillips et al., 2019) indicated the perception that increased familiarity with individuals with id in social settings should result in increased perceptions of their competence and comfort in interacting with them. it is unclear why attitudes toward the social participation of students with id were viewed less favorably than their academic participation was. still, starting in the fall 2021 semester, students with id will be enrolled in classes and welcome at all other social activities on the campus on which this study was conducted. as was mentioned regarding attitudes toward academic participation, we recommend that future studies examine whether increased interaction and familiarity with students with id would impact campus attitudes toward their social inclusion. regarding the third research question, significant differences were found in attitudes toward the academic and social participation of students with id based on academic discipline. participants from the college of education had the most positive attitudes toward the social and academic participation of students with intellectual disabilities. participants from the college of business had the least positive responses to this question, with each the college of arts and sciences, college of health and human services, college of engineering, and other administration reporting significantly more positive attitudes than the participants from the college of business. no significant differences were found between the colleges of arts and sciences, health and human services, engineering, and other administration other than that the attitudes of other administration were significantly more positive than those of the college of engineering. significant differences based upon the gender of participants were also found, with females having more positive attitudes toward the academic and social participation of students with id than male students. attitudes toward the college academic and social participation of individuals with id based were highly positive regardless of academic role and no signficant differences were found between attitudes based on their academic role. the difference in attitudes toward the academic and social inclusion of students with id based on academic discipline also provides an opportunity for further research. studies that 141 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 examine the attributes or experiences that cause those in the college of education to hold the most favorable attitudes and those in the college of business to hold the least favorable attitudes toward inclusion would be valuable. such studies may find that groups with relatively less favorable attitudes had less previous exposure to individuals with id prior to their introduction to campus. if increased exposure as a result of this university’s inclusive programming results in more positive attitudes among these groups, this could confirm studies that found that greater knowledge about id and more frequent contact with individuals with id resulted in a reduction of discomfort, less feeling of pity, and higher levels of interaction with people with id (phillips et al., 2019). if, on the other hand, individuals with id are perceived less positively in some environments because they perform less competently in those situations, it would be helpful to determine how to support better performance to increase acceptance. likewise, it would be interesting if future studies explored why females report more positive attitudes toward the inclusion of this population than males. this study limitations include the time available for the respondents to complete the survey, particularly considering that the instrument was administered in the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic and transition from face-to-face to online learning. notably, the unprecedented times of the global pandemic must have had an impact in the respondents’ ability to respond to the survey and focus on the matter of inclusion of students with id in campus academic and social activities. moreover, we cannot generalize the results as the respondents may not be representative of other higher education institutions across the united states. finally, numerous benefits have been reported concerning campus involvement in planning inclusive post-secondary programs for students with id (corby et al., 2020; judge & izuzquiza gasset, 2015; mckay et al., 2015; moore & schelling, 2015; wilt & morningstar, 2020). while students with id are likely to need some specialized supports, they should typically use the same supports as are used by other students. as a result, training must be available to all campus citizens to ensure they feel competent and comfortable interacting with students with id. certainly, when higher education institutions are committed to diversity and inclusion efforts, supporting the participation of individuals with id on campus academic and social activities, students with id experience strengthened autonomy, increased agency, sense of belonging, and representation which have significant impacts on their learning experiences (leake & stodden, 2014). therefore, it is important to involve a broad range of stakeholders from the earliest stages of planning. involving individuals performing different functions and representing different offices will ensure that services and supports are in place, that needed modifications to environments and processes are made, and that employees possess the skills and attitudes to provide a successful experience for students with id. moreover, a campus-wide involvement in actions that benefit students with id “serve as [inclusive] models for the wider society” and to the campus community at-large (leake & stodden, 2014, p. 406). finally, special care should be taken to ensure that those anticipated to have less frequent interactions with 142 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 students with id also have input and receive training so that all corners of campus provide a welcoming environment. this broad approach to planning enhances the likelihood that everyone can see beyond their differences and focus on providing the best possible education to all students. funding information this material was produced in part under grant no. 14107033-070120-3-18 provided by the florida center for students with unique abilities at the university of central florida, with funding made available by the florida postsecondary comprehensive transition program act (fla. statutes 1004.6495). the views expressed herein do not necessarily represent the positions or polices of ucf or the state of florida. no official endorsement by the florida board of governors of the state university system or by the florida department of education of any product, commodity, service or enterprise mentioned in this publication is intended or should be inferred. this product is public domain. authorization to reproduce it in whole or in part is granted. references alnahdi, g. h. 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(2020). peer supports: focusing on the experiences of college students with intellectual disability. think college fast facts, 27. 146 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 https://thinkcollege.net/sites/default/files/files/resources/ff_27_peer_supports_wilt %26morningstar.pdf zafft, c. hart, d., & zimbrich, k. (2004). college careeer connection: a study of youth with intellectual disability and the impoact of post-secondary education. education and training in developmental disabilities, 39, 45–53. appendix a statements n u m b e r s ta te m e n t s tr o n g ly d is a g re e d is a g re e n e u tr a l a g re e s tr o n g ly a g re e a. people with severe disabilities have the same educational opportunities as people without disabilities. b. people with severe disabilities have the same employment opportunities as people without disabilities. c. people with severe disabilities should have more opportunities for post-secondary education. d. i would like to see people with severe disabilities engaging in social activities on the fgcu campus. e. i do not think that people with severe disabilities can benefit from higher education f. i would prefer not to work in settings that employ individuals with severe disabilities. g. i would like to take a class with students with intellectual disabilities. h. students with disabilities have the ability to learn in a college class. i. people with severe disabilities should have the opportunity to take courses and earn employment certifications at fgcu. j. i would like to have a roommate with an intellectual disability. k. people with severe disabilities do not want to interact with non-disabled individuals. l. people with intellectual disabilities will be happiest if they live in group homes. https://thinkcollege.net/sites/default/files/files/resources/ff_27_peer_supports_wilt%26morningstar.pdf https://thinkcollege.net/sites/default/files/files/resources/ff_27_peer_supports_wilt%26morningstar.pdf 147 jcsr 2021, 3(2):122-147 m. i would like to see people with severe disabilities living in residence halls at fgcu. n. i am not comfortable in the presence of people with severe disabilities. o. separate housing and education are the most effective ways to meet the needs of people with severe disabilities. p. my own education/work would suffer if people with severe disabilities were members of the fgcu community. q. i enjoy participating in leisure activities with people with intellectual disabilities. r. i often strike up conversations with strangers who have intellectual disabilities. s. many jobs on campus could be performed by individuals with intellectual disabilities. journal of curriculum studies research curriculumstudies.org open access journal 2019, 1(1):17-32 research paper the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum: a narrative critical ethnographic case study benedict l. adams * * missouri western state university, st. joseph, mo, usa. e-mail: badams16@missouriwestern.edu article info received: 11.11.2019 revised: 28.11.2019 accepted: 29.11.2019 how to cite adams, b. l. (2019). the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum: a narrative critical ethnographic case study. journal of curriculum studies research, 1(1), 17-32. abstract throughout the curriculum history in the united states, attempts to improve the educational outcomes have been challenging. nonetheless, dealing with systems of curricular which have never delivered the highest quality of education to diverse body of students, let alone immigrants and english language learners (ells) has been even more problematic. consequently, scholars and educators have increasingly been faced with dilemma of implementing robust transformative curriculum in schools for these particular students. this case study is based on narrative critical ethnography. the researcher collected data of seven students from five non-english speaking nations (immigrants) and ells within the high school setting for a year. through observations, interviews, and focus groups, the findings suggest that the curriculum transformed them to believe more in their dignity and worth, achieve academic excellence, and the commitment to advocacy. the study concludes with the analysis of the transformative curriculum as the renaissance of the curriculum theory and practice and made recommendations for future research. keywords transformative curriculum; english language learning; immigrant pedagogy; united states. introduction to many critics and reformers alike, the history of the curriculum in the united states has been challenging (dewey, 1964; kliebard, 2004; sleeter, 2017; tyack, 1974). this is because among others many issues raised in the society especially where unequal power is contested and reproduced has something to do with the curriculum and its theory in practice (apple, 2019). for that reason, since the beginning of the u.s history, scholars and practitioners have attempted to improve the educational outcomes of this nation through a strategic curriculum 18 adams, b. l. in all education levels (kliebard, 2004, pinar, 2019; priestly, 2011). for example, according to pinar (2004), the herbartians developed a curricular theory around 1892 in reaction to the classism of the faculty psychology. for the herbatians, the curriculum must essentially include a lesson plan which should be both scientific and systematic to be effective to the mental and emotional visualization of students. however, this did not sit well with other scholars because by 1918s, the curriculum took another shape due to the reaction to the prevalent industrial revolution. the social efficiency movement was born led by bobbit and thorndyke [1924] who expressed that schools should devise a curriculum by identifying specific activities and abilities in various occupation, family, and social roles (pinar, 2019). that signifies that the school experiences be constructed to enable children attain industry age objectives. furthermore, social efficiency advocated that the curriculum be differentiated into a number of specialized vocational tracks to fit one’s abilities. thus, schools should assign children to these specialized curricular tracks based on the assessment of their intellectual abilities tailored to their destinies (kliebard, 2004). then the third group of curricular reformers, the progressive movement (tyack, 1974). these reformers felt that the curriculum must be child driven and hence meet the present capacity level of the children. led by icons, john dewey and lester ward, they envisioned the curriculum that is arranged and is an orderly view of the previous experiences of a child which serve as a guide to the future experiences, gives direction, facilitates, and prevent useless wandering of children’s path (dewey, 1964; kliebard, 2004). nevertheless, from 1958, the curriculum again took a different turn after the launch of sputnik in 1957 by the soviet union (priestly, 2011). the united states government started providing funds for curriculum reforms at all levels focusing on science and mathematics. that embodied rigorous intellectual preparation of students’ mind to think clearly, logically, and independently through classical thoughts in the competitive age, thus going back to classism (pinar, 2019). however from 1960s, curricular reforms took a different note through the multicultural education movement (banks, 2019). this was a reaction to the racial crisis in the united states which was exacerbated by the huge widening gap between the rich and the poor. led by several scholars like banks (2019), gay (2018), and sleeter (2017), the curriculum needed a paradigm shift to acknowledge the plurality and diversity of students which was perceived to be the obstacle to integration and upbringing the socioeconomic life of everybody. in fact, they lamented the increasingly disparate levels of the lack of progress on the quality of education and overall experiences that was being provided to the minorities and the poor students. then again from 1970s, another group of curricular theorists and reformers emerged known as the reconceptualists (kliebard, 2004). lead by schwab, pinar, and apple (2019), the reconceptualists devised a curriculum in terms of thinking beyond the traditional approach. their main focus was the understanding which may have occurred and the process of that ongoing understanding of the curriculum that is unique to every learner (kliebard, 2004). they actually sought to drive wedge between theory and practice by suspending the instrumentalism intention of the curriculum. rationale as seen above, scholars’ critique of the u.s curriculum is not new. in fact, this has been a long standing issue since the early beginning of america (actually since the reconstruction era). surprisingly till recently, the body of curricular reforms were not at the fore front to the issues of race, class, gender, or other forms of differences which was contrary to the original purpose 19 the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum of public educational system, thus giving everybody an opportunity for a fair short at participating in social and economic welfare of the american democracy (kliebard, 2004). instead, the curriculum and its theory continued to disseminate hegemonic tendencies, alienating and privileging other folks and harming others especially minorities (sleeter, 2017). however, although recent curricular trends of multiculturalism and reconceptualism have addressed the plight of minorities and poor students by thinking beyond the traditional approach, the plight for urban students, students at risk especially english language learners (ells) and immigrants has been explored in a more general and undifferentiated way (lee, 2012, goodwin, 2002 &noguera, 2006). thus why scholars, educators, and policy makers have been looking for a standard robust transformative curriculum for these particular student population (sleeter, 2017; lee, 2012; darling & hammond, 2005). nonetheless, the call for complex and ambitions goals for curricular reforms and models which are transformative and pragmatic for 21st century students is crystal clear (ball and forzani, 2011; banks, 2019; sleeter, 2017). research questions this study seeks to contribute the body of research on the curriculum based on the narrative critical ethnography on which the researcher analyzed the transformative curriculum and how it was taught for a period of one full academic year in a high school setup. the study addresses the following research questions: 1. how did the curriculum look like at thomas aquinas tenth grade language arts class over one school year? 2. what teaching support was implemented and how did it affect their overall learning outcomes? theoretical framework relevant immigrant pedagogy as the conceptual framework this research study is guided by the term “relevant immigrant pedagogy” as an umbrella concept which encompasses three educational theories: identity theory (kroger, 2007; taylor, 2002), sociocultural theory (vygotsky, 1978) and self-efficacy theory (bandura, 1977). these theories have informed my thinking about relevant pedagogy for immigrants and ells. they informed how i observed, analyzed, and conceptualized the curriculum, teacher-student interactions, student-student interactions, and the climate of the school. together, they explained the essence of what relevant immigrant pedagogy was in this research study. by definition, relevant immigrant pedagogy serves as a vehicle linking curriculum, schooling, and culture for prompting students to engage in inquiry and reflectiveness (berghoff, blackwell &wisehart, 2011). this is because their voices and the nature of their experiences are distinctively different from other students. identity theory identity theory contends that each human being is unique because upon being born we are endowed with the ego, the id, and the superego. the ego is oriented externally, the id is oriented internally (intrapsychic), and the superego is neither externally nor internally oriented, thus has its own genetic roots and energy. these three balance one another and form who we are (identity). they are characterized by their unique process, they have their own pattern of development, and their own energy (epigenetic principle) (kroger, 2007). in other words, all these form the self which is reflective and can take itself as a subject. the self can make meaning in many ways in relation to others, thus the process of selfidentification (kroger & marcia, 20 adams, b. l. 2011; taylor, 2002). ultimately, the core of identity theory is the categorization of the self as an occupant of a position, the incorporation into the self of the meanings and expectations associated with that position and its performance (kroger, 2007; taylor, 2002). given this conception of identity, individuals neither solely adapt to the society nor does the society mold a human being (the self) into its pattern, but rather the society and the individual form a unity within which a mutual regulation takes place (kroger & marcia, 2011). for example, during growth, the ego goes through self-reconstructive processes to make itself strong for handling the tasks of development from within and outside itself, thus reformulating its essence. this means the person’s identity is the same but a new self at the same time (kroger, 2007). this study is framed using identity theory because the self which is the essence of identity has four key components, "personal identity, personal esteem, collective identity and collective esteem" (taylor, 2002, p. 11). these provide important foundations for the urban teachers and the curriculum prepared today in order to be effective. inherent in this identity theory are conceptions that all teachers must be effective in teaching ells and immigrant students. furthermore, understanding identity formation propels teachers to grapple with themselves as a cultural beings. as professionals, they also develop knowledge of their students, their strengths, their weaknesses, and their challenges and how they interact with the curriculum in order to connect well with their home situations (banks, 2019). in other words, self-knowledge is the foundation of being a great teacher in a diverse urban environment because unexamined life could be a danger not only to students taught but also to individual growth and the profession (taylor, 2002). nonetheless, self-knowledge can broaden and deepen teachers understanding of other cultures, allow them to ‘go inside themselves’ and look at their preconceived notions and come to understand the cross-cultural experiences of the immigrants, the marginalized ethnic minorities, and realize their invisibility in the curriculum and ultimately become agents of change (cavan, 2008). similarly, through the underpinnings of identity theory, teachers will genuinely search for their authenticity which can enhance the development of their personal integrity and faithfulness to their call as teachers (sleeter, 2017). in fact, teachers will come to know that teaching is not only an academic obligation, but also a moral one, since self-knowledge and self-awareness will help them to connect well with their personal and interpersonal wellbeing which in turn will have great effects on the way they build relationships with diverse students including immigrants (delpit, 2006). i believe that identity formation of teachers deepens their development of their own identity, culture, and how they interact with the curriculum thus, modeling their sense of belonging which is needed to be effective in their classroom. correspondingly, teachers with a positive identity of themselves will transfer that to students who really need it in order to have the best educational experience. in the classroom, students care deeply about learning when they are confident that their contributions matter and the curriculum speaks to and about them (taylor, 2002). i selected identity theory for this study as part of the definition of relevant immigrant pedagogy because the curriculum, classroom instructions, and interactions with dominant discourses perpetuate the status quo, thus oppressing the marginalized ells and immigrants which results in negative self-perceptions (cavan, 2008). sociocultural theory vygotsky’s sociocultural theory contends that learning is a social process because it comes about through interaction with society and culture. that means social interaction is very critical for the development of cognition (vygotsky, 1978). for this reason, sociocultural theory provide 21 the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum an important framework in this inquiry because the external social world of teachers and the curriculum have impacted how they see the world and see students. moreover, all human activities take place in cultural contexts, mediated by language, beliefs, values, and symbols, which must be systematically understood. in this way, it is imperative for the curriculum and its implementation be critical and display students’ own sociocultural identities so that they come to realize the deep seated connection between the school systems and the society and how the curriculum continues to reproduce the social inequities that are alienating the marginalized low income students stratified in urban environments (sleeter, 2017). furthermore, using vygotsky's zones of proximal development (zpd), urban teachers interaction with the curriculum could be inspired to provide the marginalized urban learners/immigrants/ells with scaffolding to support their evolving understanding of knowledge domains and development of complex skills (sleeter, 2017). in other words, these teachers will learn to be experts in grasping that children learn from their interactions with the curriculum, society, and their culture and with proper assistance (scaffolding), they can learn even more. they will come to know that their roles are not to make students fit into the curriculum, but for the curriculum to fit into their culture, thus helping them connect the curriculum to their daily lived experiences outside the school environment (cavan, 2008). self-efficacy theory the third theory incorporated into the definition of relevant immigrant pedagogy is the theory of self-efficacy (bandura, 1977). according to bandura, self-efficacy connotes one's belief in his/her capabilities to organize and execute a planned action to manage prospective situations. this signifies that it is these personal beliefs, attitudes, and cognitive skills that determine how individuals behave, feel, and think. according to bandura, it is not about a systematic planning for an action which matters but how goals, tasks, and challenges are approached. individuals with a strong sense of self-efficacy look at difficult and challenging problems as mere tasks to be mastered and implemented. this attitude encourages them to develop a deeper interest and eventually form a stronger sense of commitment to get the job done. additionally, when people with a stronger sense of self-efficacy meet adversities and disappointments, they usually recover quickly and keep progressing. however, the opposite is true for those with a weaker sense of self-efficacy. they tend to avoid difficult tasks, focus on their failures, and eventually lose confidence in their personhood and their abilities. the researcher selected bandura's self-efficacy theory as part of a larger definition of relevant immigrant pedagogy because hegemony operates through the control of the meaning and manipulation of ideas (apple, 2019). thus, the dominant ideologies in the curriculum which are considered real knowledge advance the same agenda, manipulating people’s minds, hence recreating the same problems and yet expect a different result. so teachers’ self-efficacy and their interaction with the curriculum matter. this is because their strong sense of self-efficacy will transfer their abilities, skills, and knowledge to urban students especially ells and immigrants. they have abilities to perform at a high level and may adopt new strategies to perform better and get a more positive outcome from their classes. in other words, teachers with a very high-self efficacy will incorporate the most effective ways of creating a strong sense of self-efficacy to their students through their mastery experiences (bandura, 1977). in that way, it follows that students in their class develop and build robust beliefs in their personal efficacy and become academically successful. 22 adams, b. l. an overview of the transformative curriculum the yearlong curriculum was arranged in four categories i.e., the civil rights movement from august to october end; discussion on the american values from november to january end; district language acquisition prompts from february to april; and cultural artifacts and identity building activities to the end of the academic year. all these were typically explored in a form of short stories, essays, writing genres, drawing, movies, and writing about different characters. the civil rights movement the first three months included short stories and essays about the civil rights movement and dr. martin luther king. students were introduced to the concepts of civil rights and human rights, and explored why these are the essential components of being a human in a global social and economic society. to get started, students were provided selections of abstracts of the speech by dr. martin luther king jr.at washington d.c in 1963 from an online collection. they read and reflected on this and this is significant to them today. additionally, they also read a text about the myths about enrolling immigrants from a book by samway and mckeon (2007). students discussed the myth: “schools should ask for proof of citizenship, resident visas or social security numbers when enrolling second language (l2) students” (p. 9). students debated this topic and then were asked to read the views of the 1982 supreme court ruling, plyler v. doe, 457 u.s. 202, that prohibited public schools from asking for documentation of any student’s legal status. then apart from other writing prompts given, students also had a chance to debate about the syrian refugee crisis and how the world at large including the united states could do more to help. apart from the essays written and put on the class walls, students also did a play to show to the public on their views and activism stand. discussions on the american values the second theme in the curriculum began with discussions of american values and reflecting on the following questions: • how do literature and nonfiction texts reflect american values? • what is the american dream and how has it changed over time? • in what ways does the american dream mean different things for different people, and is it an achievable dream? during the course of three months, students read the stories of among them the one on, the uprooting of a japanese-american family by yoshiko uchida from the prescribed textbook (hall, p. 536-544). they discussed reflected and wrote essays about this book. additionally, students also read about the japanese internment camps in the 1940s and compared that experience with the holocaust. using these stories, students were able to develop critical views of american life, and have a sense of the historical social political nature of this nation. district language acquisition prompts the school district provided prompts sporadically for schools to follow which are in line with the state testing board. however, much of the prompts were focused during the months before the final academic year. at the beginning of the month of february, the curriculum focused on preparing students to take standardized tests. students spent more than a week in training to respond to the district’s writing prompts which included writing four to five paragraph essays with an introduction, body, and conclusion. they also were being prepared for the standardized assessments from the state. then as month went by, students were encouraged to focus on writing, specifically writing to district prompts, including introductions and examples of figurative language. students also completed a climate study project which was 23 the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum embedded within their development of literacy skills. then the curriculum emphasized on personification, characterization, and career explorations. for each of these topics, the teachers introduced essential vocabulary terms and explained the significance of the various literary devices and their appeal. students were later asked to read passages and identify personifications, figurative languages, and characterizations. all these were to help students develop and grow in their literacy skills, able to communicate, and pass the standardized exams well. curriculum based on cultural artifacts and identity building the last two and half months of the academic year were dedicated teaching ethnic diversity and identity building. this was done through to plays, the elements of plays, and their significance as cultural artifacts. teachers put forward three essential questions: • what are the elements of a play? • how can little decisions have big consequences? • what evidence does the author use to convey tone? how does this affect the mood of the reader? teachers shared with students the different elements of the play like drama, comedy, theatre, stage authors, characters, settings, plot, dialogue, monologue, soliloquy, plot, and settings. students watched a video biography of william shakespeare and used their phones and computers to do a scavenger hunt page. they also did the same with romeo and juliet scene 1 act 1. additionally, each and every lesson throughout was constructed to examine the influence of biases, experiences and perception of historians and researchers, thus how history was interpreted. furthermore, on identity building, students were given a chance to do a research project about their culture, ethnicity, race and their values, and beliefs. they were given a chance to relate it to their experience in class and also what they are reading in class by pulling evidence from the texts. then each of them was able to do a presentation to the whole class. methods design the researcher used a narrative critical ethnographic case study methodologies to investigate the impact of a newly implemented curriculum. firstly, narrative inquiry captures the voices of those vulnerable people like ells and immigrants which have not been represented in historical writing (clark, 2007). this research captured narratives of these participants who belong to the marginalized groups and provided a rare in depth understanding of their experiences and challenges and how their association with ahistorical nature of the curriculum was perceived to have an impact. at the same time, the study is based on critical ethnography because this type of ethnography is founded on a compelling sense of duty and commitment on principles of human dignity, social justice, compassion, and the well-being of others (madison, 2012). according to carpecken (1996), critical ethnography deals with power structures thus exploring system relations by careful conceptualizing the curriculum, home life, schools life including the national mood. and lastly, it is a case study because according to merriam (2012), a case study “is an intensive, holistic description, and analysis of a bounded phenomenon such as a program, an institution, a person, a process, or a social unit” (p. x). this study is specific to seven students from non-english speaking nations (immigrants) and struggling ells and how the curriculum transformed them within a year in an urban high school setting. 24 adams, b. l. study context and data sources this research study took place during a full year academic cycle in a large urban high school tenth grade that followed a traditional calendar. the school was within five miles of downtown of a large midwestern city. it was one of several high schools in the school district which spans a large urban geographical area. the population in this school district was very urban, with huge housing disparities, mostly low-income people with very few upscale apartments. the southern and northern boundaries of the district are bordered with more affluent wealthy suburban districts. at the time of this study, the school served students from grades 7 to 12 with an enrollment of 1,210 students. of these, 60 percent identified as black, 20 percent identified as hispanic, 13 percent identified as white, 4 percent identified as multiracial, and 3 percent identified as asian. among this group of students, 13 percent identified as english language learners (ells), with 71 percent of students participating in a free or reduced-price lunch program (state department of education, 2015). for many years, this urban high school has been trying to cope with typical urban problems like excessive indiscipline, a high dropout rate, bullying, and very low academic performance especially for english language learners and immigrants. according to the state department of education (2015), the school’s overall performance grade in 2014-2015 was a low d. only 37 percent of students from the school enrolled in college immediately after high school graduation compared to the state average of 64 percent. additionally, this school had 69 percent of graduates who needed remediation or help in strengthening basic skills, while the state average was 31 percent. it was a requirement for every student at the school to take a test after completing english 10. students had to pass this end-of-course test required by the state to graduate from high school. in the four years before this study, as few as one out of ten students passed this end-of-course test and the pass rate was even worse for english language learners and immigrants ([state] department of education, 2015). the school district administration tried to disrupt this pattern of failure by implementing a pacing guide, prescribed curriculum, and multiple practice tests, but these measures had been largely ineffective. at the beginning of the school-year of this study, the school administration decided to try something new, a co-teaching arrangement for english language arts 10 with a more critical and robust curriculum. english language arts grade 10 was special to the researcher because it had more 40 students who were from different nations (non-english immigrants) and some ells (native born but speak one or two languages at home), and general urban students. this class had students from iraq, africa, mexico, burma, vietnam, and many more, which touched the core of this project. seven students were chosen for this study along with their two classroom teachers. these two teachers were both in their third year at this school, and were graduates from a midwestern urban university. one teacher was highly qualified with english as a second language (esl) and foreign language expertise with a master’s degree and the other one was english/language arts (ela) certified with a bachelor’s degree. the two teachers were applying a more robust curriculum newly recommended in this tenth grade which was required for graduation. therefore, data for this study included curriculum documents like the resources, and physical artifacts obtained from the school district and also the two participating teachers. they included lesson plans, progress grades, and teacher’s journal reflections. additionally, the researcher had fifteen classroom observations with audio recording and field notes. furthermore, the researcher had in depth seven semi-structured open interviews with the two participating teachers which lasted approximately 90 minutes that were audio-recorded and 25 the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum transcribed within 24 hours. and lastly, the researcher did four preset focus-group interviews with students involved on separate dates that were transcribed so they could be coded and analyzed. data analysis the bulk of data analysis was conducted using the interactive model by miles and huberman (1994) and the research questions. data was analyzed from the original documents, transcribed audiotapes, interviews, and focus groups developed themes and coded. miles and huberman (1994) developed a comprehensive interactive model of analyzing data that assists the researcher to reflect and explore a visual reference on how data can be safeguarded, tracked, and tackled. these components were data collection, data reduction, data display, and verification and conclusion drawing. for example, following the components of the interactive model, the analysis of each collected data followed the process of data reduction, data display, and verifying and drawing conclusions. the data reduction phase from the interviews and all other sources were simplified and organized into more easily manageable components over three phases. in the first phase, thus level one, the interview was transcribed (merriam, 2009). in this phase, significant information was noted (denzin & lincoln, 2005). then each sentence or group of sentences were examined and given a label with a descriptive name. next data was simplified further through phase two or second level coding process. in this aspect, the first level descriptive codes were merged into similar coded units and form categories, and these categories were given another pertinent label (merriam, 2009; miles & huberman, 1994). in this sense, the researcher did line by line coding and clustering the themes together. then eventually sought to further simplify the data with the third level, or phase three, coding in which similar conceptual themes are further merged and given a more abstract conceptual label (denzin & lincoln, 2005). miles and huberman's data display embodies mapping out phase two and phase three categories on a chart in a simplified form. this chart displays how the categories are situated and show their relationships to each other (merriam, 2009). then, key themes were identified from each data, developed patterns, and merged them. the concluding phase of coding drew merged concluding themes from interviews, focus groups, documents and compared them across ( triangulated), and offered propositions from the themes that emerged (denzin & lincoln, 2005). then, the researcher also used nvivo (version 9) to organize and synthesize emerging themes. findings utilizing the robust transformative curricular concepts presented and teaching support students received over the course of the academic school year, the researcher considered three patterns emerging from the data: a) curriculum which led to tremendous growth in their construction of self and identity, b) critical robust curriculum which made their progress to being fully effective and future community members, c) the teaching with effective language support, technology integration, and proper mentoring made space for student thinking. curriculum led to tremendous growth in students’ construction of self and identity in general, the curriculum had tremendous impact on the growth of students over the course of the year. they grew in their construction of self and identity. they developed a set of beliefs and values and saw their environment in a new way with new prospects (sociocultural understanding). students also grew in their self-esteem and came to believe more in 26 adams, b. l. themselves, their dignity and worth, and became determined visionaries (self-efficacy). as evidenced during the third focus group interview, one student expressed the following sentiment which was a general impression for all of them: i feel like that i have grown and i am different this time. i am a dynamic individual. i have changed in my thinking about life, i have grown in knowledge and i now know that i have power to contribute something in this class, this school, the community around and even beyond. i think i now know myself better than before. my classmate, my teachers, and the school community and learning prompts have made me grow and believe more in myself. i was shy at the beginning of this year and had very few friends but now i have many friends and i feel happy. (focus group transcript, january, 2016). critical robust curriculum which made their progress to being fully effective and future community members the english 10 class also became a community of learners because each one of them did their part. the curriculum and instruction included sharing stories about problems immigrants and ells face. at the beginning of the year, there were sporadic tensions between nonimmigrants and immigrants in the class, but it was significant to note how students eventually began to champion for their classmates. through sharing, students realized that it requires great personal sacrifice to leave ones native home. they developed empathy for one another, care, and social action awareness for community activism in order to give back to the community. the climate and overall learning experiences transformed the students not to fear diversity but embrace it with dignity, confidence, and pride. as the result, they came to be dedicated to value sociocultural differences and developed a class project of advocacy for others. academically, students’ learning growth became evident virtually across the spectrum through bumps on their grades. they discovered that education was the key to their lives and worked hard and achieved good grades. they became open to scaffolding by their teachers and help from others in class. for example, arturo, who was an ell-second generation immigrant student acknowledged that despite his struggles and disability status, he was progressing well. he worked hard and was determined. with his job and ambition to go for heating, ventilation and air cooling (hvac) training, he knew that he needed to work hard and obtain a high school diploma. from mid semester, he began attending tutoring twice a week in order to improve his grades. he even stopped playing soccer which he liked so that he could do well. his progress report showed improvement. he had an f in september, cin october, c+ in november, b in december and ended up in b+ at the end of the year. this was a good sign which was the fruit of his hard work and resilience. teaching with effective language support, technology integration, and proper mentoring made space for student thinking as individuals, students made progress toward being fully effective students and future community members. with effective language support, technology integration, and proper mentoring embedded into the curriculum, students became engaged and motivated. they became critical thinkers and developed from less confident individuals to confident people capable of being successful and becoming self-reliant. for example, the18 year old julissa who emigrated from honduras was very shy and withdrawn during our first focus group interview. by then, she expressed that she was not sure of going to college and wanted to work at the amusement park as an attendant. nevertheless, after learning about the civil rights and the tough text units in the curriculum, she seemed to be animated and increasingly became more 27 the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum assertive. during the fourth focus group interview, i asked her how she thought the curriculum was helping her self-esteem, and self-concept and she replied, “yes, she was growing”. she related most to the units on characterization; speeches of dr. martin luther king jr. and the civil rights movement. and this is what she actually said: i learned more about what i can do as a human being, my dignity, my human rights, my civil rights, and how i can step up for myself and for others. i gotten a new perspective on how to get what i want which i felt was not possible before. i have grown and would like go to college and become a psychologist so that i can help people with mental illness. i have learned more from my teachers who are calm, compassionate, and confident in their abilities in dealing with me, sharing these values through personal reflections and assignment. i have learned more about american politics, values, and even world politics which have opened my eyes. (focus group transcript, march, 2016). discussion the results show how transformative this curriculum has been to students within one academic year. based on narrative critical ethnography, the study captured the voices and narratives of the marginalized groups and provided a rare in-depth understanding of their experiences and challenges. ultimately, their voices here became the source of social power bearing in mind that critical ethnography is founded on a compelling sense of duty and commitment on principles of human dignity, social justice, compassion and the well-being of others (madison, 2012). through observation and analysis for patterns in relation to internal and external influences, listening to their voices in focus groups, and teacher interviews, the findings suggest that the curriculum transformed them to believe more in their dignity and worth (construction of identity and self), became determined to achieve excellency in their lives (academic resiliency), and were drawn to the commitment of advocacy and activism. based on their narrative critical analysis, students were transformed not only emotionally, technologically, or in their linguistic abilities, but broadened their inner and outer concept of what it means to be successful in the united states today despite the social political upheavals. the curriculum which included effective language support, technology integration, and proper mentoring, motivated them to be more engaged community members. they developed from less confident individuals to confident people capable of being successful and becoming selfreliant. they understood the need to be aware that they were active agents in the learning process who should be eager to shape their own learning experiences and overall growth. that meant the knowledge, skills, and experiences they obtained needed to be used to educate others and the community as well. of special significance is that all students had their grades trending upward from september to the end of the school academic year and hence all passed their high school diploma. 28 adams, b. l. figure 1: toward a transformative curriculum model for 21st century teaching and learning careful selection process i agree with apple (2019) who said that effective curriculum should be rethought in terms of unequal relations of power in larger society and conflicts that are generated by these relations. moreover, rather than asking whether students have mastered concepts, the curriculum should reconceptualize and critically ask: whose knowledge is more worth? how did this knowledge become official or legitimate? who is the beneficially of this and who is not? and of course, how can we transform the landscape and create a more socially just and transformative curriculum? as a researcher, my answers are careful selection process. that means, effective transformative curriculum should follow milner’s views (2010) that include relevant conceptual repertoires of diversity. the curriculum must unmask the assertion of color blindness, cultural conflict, myths of meritocracy, deficient thinking, and low expectations which are prevalent. the curriculum should emphasize the belief that all students are capable learners and at the same time, social justice is a moral and ethical obligation in a teaching profession. improved urban education many scholars throughout the u.s history have a peculiar view of the curriculum and its theory in practice. they envisioned the curriculum as a black box where one calculates the input and output and what happens when entering the black box is of no concern (apple, 2019; sleeter, 2017). for the progressive educators, this aspect was known as the problem of indoctrination. (apple, 2019, p. 27). this curriculum model would analyze inside the box by embodying two aspects of pedagogy: pedagogy of formation of identity, self-efficacy, and sociocultural development; and pedagogy of enactment in authentic settings and rigorous content knowledge (dewey, 1964; mcdonald, kazemi, & kavanagh, 2013). i believe that programs must help students develop self-awareness, self-esteem, and confidence, including their sociocultural development as future citizens (danielewicz, 2014). furthermore, programs should be built on rigorous relevant content area knowledge and the ability to transfer those skills and aspirations to workplaces (mcdonald, kazemi& kavanagh, 2013). 29 the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum urban based field experiences relevant immigrant pedagogy embodies critical race theory because it aligns with race as a way of understanding social inequities that exist in the society (delpit, 2006; noguera, 2006). urban oriented curriculum is the most viable vehicle to challenge dominant ideologies that allow students with traditionally marginalized social group membership as well as those with dominant membership expand their understanding of reality (apple, 2019). in order to bridge this gap, urban based field experiences matter. research has revealed that field experiences have successfully been able to build bridges between theory and practice for recent graduating teachers who have become more effective in their practices (sleeter, 2017). moreover, according to milner (2012), field experiences have become more effective and developmental when aligned to course content. that means, the more the curriculum exposes students to a rigorous practicum immigrant preparatory experience, the better they have been transformed as individuals. faculty mentoring and group support net-work the fourth component of the model involves a comprehensive support network from faculty mentors. literature has revealed the correlation between being an effective urban teacher for the first five years and continued mentoring and professional support throughout (garret & holcomb, 2005). the notion of mentoring denotes the ongoing affair where teachers are assisted to reach out to others, gain knowledge and experience of how to work with diverse students especially immigrants in theory and practice. the two teachers in this study had a mentoring program as part of the transformative curriculum to help them get the job done. through mentoring program curricular model, teachers realized that teaching is a public good which prepare diverse generations to live in a socially just society. mentors help impart special skills to teachers through ongoing support, follow-ups, and refine their relationship skills, attitudes, and rapport to students (milner, 2010). ideal teacher goal-set attributes banks (2019) made a distinction between curriculum infusion and curriculum transformation whereby in infusion, students view the experiences of other cultural groups as outsiders thus mainly through eurocentric eyes, while transformative curriculum occurs when students and teachers make a paradigm shift and view the world and american values from a different perspective. thus in line with my model. the ideal curriculum should prepare teachers who are well prepared as scholars’ professional, nurturer professional, the clinician professional and moral agent-professionals (dewey, 1964; sockett, 2009). as scholar professionals, urban teachers are prepared with robust urban educational principles of both pedagogical knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (cavan, 2008). as nurturer professionals, teachers are there to care, nurture, and bring rapport to the vulnerable and disfranchised urban students, immigrants, and ells and know that their role is also to advocate (villegas, 2007). as a clinical professional, urban teachers understand that public teachers in a democratic society must work toward critical reflectivity and social justice. their ideal character is founded on their strong belief that knowledge assumptions, truths, beliefs and integrity must be based and guarded through rigorous collaborative research (sockett, 2009). and lastly as moral agents, the curriculum should model teachers as wellprepared individuals who are defenders of moral integrity and integrate academic and moral virtues in class for exemplary development and growth of kids in class as good citizens of the globe. and lastly, the curriculum should display to both teachers and students that learning never stops (berghoff, blackwell &wisehart, 2011). 30 adams, b. l. conclusion this research on the “far reaching impact of transformative curriculum” is a humble beginning which has so far been productive. many scholars, educators, and policy makers have been looking for a standard robust transformative curriculum for these particular student population for a century, perhaps since the reconstruction era (dewey, 1964, sleeter, 2017). above all, teacher educators are challenged to prepare candidates to learn to enact responsive teaching practices. the proposed transformative curriculum would equip new urban teachers with appropriate tools, skills, and best practices for supporting immigrants, ells, and the marginalized urban students in their unique learning challenges in order to function well in the american social, economic, and political environment. limitations and future recommendations in this study, i would like to emphasize that this narrative critical ethnography case study was not designed to generalize all immigrants from non-english speaking countries and ells, nor to exemplify them against all other minority groups. however, it was intended to provide a snapshot of these students were transformed not only emotionally, technologically, or in their linguistic abilities, but broadened their inner and outer concept of what it means to be successful in the united states today despite the political upheavals through a very strategic and scientifically curriculum. however, further exploration is needed to see if the same could be true to one specific immigrant group like asians or africans in the another location other than the midwestern urban context in which this research was conducted. finally, while this study was specific to immigrants and ells, the author did not specify their immigrant statuses like refugee, hb-1 visa, etc. the researcher was warned at the research site not to disclose or explore students’ immigration status. therefore, any analysis of the impact of student’s immigration status was not in this study, even though such information might have added insight into ways to improve the curriculum for these at-risk students and reduce disparities in school systems. references apple, m. (2019). ideology and curriculum. 4rd edition. new york: routledge. bandura. a. (1977). self-efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. psychological review, 84, 191-215. banks, j. (2019). an introduction to multicultural education. 6th edition. new york: pearson. berghoff, b., blackwell, s., & wisehart, r. (2011). using critical reflection to improve urban teacher preparation: a collaborative inquiry of three teacher educators. perspectives on urban education, 8, 19-28. carspecken, p. (1996). critical ethnography in educational research: a theoretical and practical guide. psychology press. cavan, j. (2008). language, culture, and identity: immigrant female students in u.s. high schools. in m. he & j. phillion (eds.), personal-passionate-participatory inquiry into social justice in education (pp. 161-175). charlotte, n.c: iap. clarkson, l. (2009). demographic data and immigrant student achievement. theory into practice, 47(1), 20-26. 31 the far reaching impact of transformative curriculum danielewicz, j. (2014). teaching selves: identity, pedagogy, and teacher education. albany, new york: suny press. darling-hammond, l., & bransford, j. (2005). preparing teachers for a changing world: what teachers should learn and be able to do. san francisco, ca: jossey-bass. delpit, l. (2006). other people’s children: cultural conflict in the classroom. new york: the new press. denzin, n., & lincoln, y. (2005). the handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage. dewey, j. (1964). the child and the curriculum. in r. d. archambault (ed.), john dewey on education: selected writings. chicago: university of chicago press. dotger, b. (2015). core pedagogy: individual uncertainty, shared practice, formative ethos. journal of teacher education, 66 (3), 215-226. garret, j., & holcomb, s. 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(2011). whatever happened to curriculum theory? critical realism and curriculum change. journal of pedagogy, culture & society, 2 (19), 221-237. samway, k., & mckeon, d. (2007). myths and realities: best practices for english language learners. portsmouth, nh: heinemann. sleeter, c. & carmona, j. (2017). un-standardizing curriculum: multicultural teaching in the standards-based classroom. new york: teachers college press. sockett, h. (2009). dispositions as virtues the complexity of the construct. journal of teacher education, 60, 291-303. stake, r. (1995). the art of case study research. thousand oaks, ca: sage publication. state department of education. (2015). state k-12 school data. retrieved from http://www.doe.in.gov/ taylor, d. (2002). the quest for identity: from minority groups to generation xers. westport, ct: praeger. tyack, d. (1974). the one best system: a history of american urban education. cambridge, ma: harvard university press. villegas, r. (2007). dispositions in teacher education: a look at social justice. journal of teacher education, 58(5), 370-380. vygotsky, l. s. (1978). mind and society: the development of higher psychological processes. m. cole, v. john-steiner, s. scribner, & e. souberman, (eds.), cambridge, ma: harvard university press. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2020 volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. 21-39 the social justice teaching collaborative: a collective turn towards critical teacher education brittany aronson* 1, racheal banda 1, ashley, johnson 1, molly kelly 1, raquel radina 1, ganiva reyes 1, scott sander 1, meredith wronowski 2 * corresponding author e-mail: aronsoba@miamioh.edu 1. miami university, oxford, ohio, usa 2. university of dayton, dayton, ohio, usa article info received: june 11, 2020 revised: september 21, 2020 accepted: september 25, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) how to cite aronson, b., banda, r., johnson, a., kelly, m. radina, r., reyes, g., sander, s., & wronowski, m. (2020). the social justice teaching collaborative: a critical turn towards critical teacher education. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), 21-39. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.8 abstract in this article, we share the collaborative curricular work of an interdisciplinary social justice teaching collaborative (sjtc) from a pwi university. members of the sjtc worked strategically to center social justice across required courses pre-service teachers are required to take: introduction to education, sociocultural studies in education, and inclusive education. we share our conceptualization of social justice and guiding theoretical frameworks that have shaped our pedagogy and curriculum. these frameworks include democratic education, critical pedagogy, critical race theory, critical whiteness studies, critical disability studies, and feminist and intersectionality theory. we then detail changes made across courses including examples of readings and assignments. finally, we conclude by offering reflections, challenges, and lessons learned for collaborative work within teacher education and educational leadership. keywords social justice teacher education, collaboration, critical theory 10.46303/jcsr.2020.8 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.8 22 introduction in 2000, sonia nieto argued that in order to put equity at the center of teacher education, schools and universities must “radically transform their policies and practices if they are to become places where teachers and prospective teachers learn to become effective with students of all backgrounds in u.s. schools” (p. 180). since then, other critical scholars have argued the need for social justice to be a focus in teacher education (cochran-smith et al., 2009; zeichner, 2009). despite these calls to action, there are still few teacher preparation programs centering social justice across coursework (liu & ball, 2019), and even fewer programs that require courses in race and ethnicity (cook, 2015), gender and sexuality (gorski et al., 2013), or disability studies (annamma, 2015). in general, race, ethnicity, and whiteness continue to be undertheorized in teacher education (harris et al., 2019). these gaps in social justice teacher education (sjte) are problematic given the “demographic divide” between a predominately white, heterosexual, female, monolingual, able-bodied teaching force who are charged with teaching an increasingly diverse student population (enterline et al., 2008). early career and pre-service teachers (psts) also report that they are underprepared to have conversations about race in their classrooms; only 31% of 386 surveyed teachers reported their teacher education programs prepared them for this type of social justice work (milner, 2017). in agreement with these scholars, we argue that social justice is a crucial part of effective teaching and should be the core of teacher education. in this piece we examine what it looks like when we, interdisciplinary faculty, collaborate to center social justice across multiple required courses in a teacher education program, located at a mid-sized predominantly white institution (pwi) in the midwest. we also discuss how critical theories in education can be used to construct transformative curricula and pedagogy for psts. representing teacher education, educational leadership, and educational psychology, we came together to form the social justice teaching collaborative (sjtc) within our college. in response to the tradition of minimal cross-departmental communication about curriculum and pedagogy at our institution, we formed this collective to un-silo our individual efforts in centering social justice in our courses required for psts. the formation of this group is a manifestation of our commitment to prepare culturally proficient and justice-oriented teachers. with the support of the college of education, health and society, we worked on an interdisciplinary teaching grant which encouraged collaboration across departments. our unique collaboration consisted of faculty from across departments with differences in power dynamics. at our initial inception, we were all either pre-tenured or contingent faculty (i.e. in a clinical role or a visiting assistant professor which is not a permanent position and holds heavier teaching loads). this meant that the charge to lead change within our college was initiated all by junior faculty in precarious roles. the position we held was actually pointed out to us by some of our senior colleagues who noted that doing social justice work is sometimes viewed as “risky,” especially for junior faculty. however, with the grant support from our college, our dean’s and department chairs’ support, and the support we provided each other, we pushed forward to do this work despite some of the resistance we faced from some faculty. 23 through the sjtc, we revised our curriculum and engaged in critical introspection of our teaching. instead of adding a single course on social justice, our interdisciplinary work redefines the content and pedagogy across a sequence of required courses (i.e. introduction to education, sociocultural foundations, and inclusive education) to map a curricular trajectory for psts to learn about justice in education and practice the use of critical perspectives. in this manuscript, we highlight particular critical theories that inform our curriculum and pedagogy with psts. we then connect these theories into practice by re-imagining teacher education courses through a social justice lens. in providing a rich exploration of our practice in preparing “psts to engage with student diversity in socially just ways” (mills & ballantyne, 2016, p. 263), we address a gap in literature about what justice-orientated teacher education looks like in practice, particularly from a collaborative standpoint. collective foundation guiding the sjtc in our collective work, we align ourselves within the larger framework of critical social justice teacher education (csjte). sensoy and diangelo (2017) point out that the concept of social justice moves beyond a notion of fairness and equality for all people, explaining a critical social justice (csj), “recognizes society is stratified (i.e., divided and unequal) in significant and farreaching ways along social group lines that include race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability. critical social justice recognizes inequality as deeply embedded in the fabric of society (i.e. structural), and actively seeks to change this” (p. xx). from the beginning of our collaboration, we realized that as csj educators, we must have a collective vision of teaching and learning (villegas & lucas, 2002). since 2017, we met regularly to discuss central frameworks and goals that currently guide our work. one of the tasks accomplished was to develop our own definition of social justice to operationalize through our curricular revisions and teaching. for us, social justice teaching is: a mindset, orientation, a way of thinking, and teacher identity that encourages dialogue among learners. it is a method that explores the emotional and moral dimensions of learning, facilitates problem solving, and interrupts normative narratives. it promotes social awareness and an ongoing process of critical consciousness toward self in relation to others. the implementation and practice of this definition is guided by what we call the “north star,” or linchpin, that rests on critical theories that question power dynamics in education. below are the main critical theories that shape our teaching. these lenses also foster the development of critical thinking and agency for our psts to work towards socially just and transformative teaching practices. critical pedagogy while there is no unified definition of critical pedagogy, several tenets help explain its usefulness in classrooms. proponents of critical pedagogy disrupt and challenge the status quo 24 through a “variety of tools to expose... oppressive power politics” (kincheloe, 2004, p. 50). a key component of critical pedagogy is emancipation through uncovering sociopolitical forces shaping schools. critical pedagogues understand there are multiple forms of power along the lines of race, gender, class, sexual orientation, and other social identities. these forces are legitimized as natural and inevitable through day-to-day routines and social structures, such as schools. additionally, critical pedagogues recognize the discursive power of language “defined as a set of tacit rules that regulate what can and cannot be said, who can speak with the blessings of authority and who must listen, whose social constructions are valid and whose are erroneous and unimportant” (kincheloe, 2004, pp. 55-56). in school, this is normalized through required texts, accepted belief systems, definitions of success (i.e. standardized testing), and approved instructional methods (kincheloe, 2004). bell hooks, a critical pedagogue, weaves feminism with frierian (1970) thought to create an engaged pedagogy. hooks (1994) encourages educators to be aware of how knowledge is produced and transmitted in the classroom. teachers should teach to develop critical consciousness and work toward emancipatory education. a teacher’s work is not just about sharing information, but also holistically healing and nurturing the intellect and spiritual growth of students. this contrasts with the “banking system” of education in which teachers deposit knowledge into students (freire, 1970). through critical thinking, hooks re-imagines the possibilities of teaching and learning. hooks’ (1994) concept of engaged pedagogy also stresses that “excitement could co-exist with and even stimulate serious intellectual and/or academic engagement” (p. 7). classrooms do not need to be ruled by rote learning in order to be considered rigorous. teachers can help students tap into a passion for thinking, learning and creating new knowledge in ways that are both collaborative and engaging. these strategies are not a “blueprint” for teaching, rather they must constantly adapt to meet the needs of students. finally, hooks explains that engaged pedagogy emphasizes well-being and a commitment towards reflection, and self-actualization of the teacher. democratic education within our courses we touch upon theories related to progressivism, commonly referred to as democratic education, which emphasizes how schooling incorporates civic aspects of selfgovernance, community engagement, and experiential learning (dewey, 1938). to understand how democracy and education are inextricably linked, we need a clear understanding of democracy beyond political mechanics such as voting, constitutions, courts, etc. (quantz, 2016). hytten (2017) explains, “democracy is more than a political system or process, it is also a way of life that requires certain habits and dispositions of citizens, including the need to balance individual rights with commitments and responsibilities toward others” (np). spring (1985) challenges some key political purposes of schooling like meritocracy and americanization as contradictory and problematic. hooks (2010) contends that schools do not teach students what democracy actually is or how to engage in it, leaving “most students simply assume that living in a democratic society is their birthright” (p. 14) and not something that must be reworked and 25 reimagined. additionally, marginalized students may be excluded from this “birthright” altogether. unlike critical pedagogy, democratic education does not always share an explicit social justice agenda (dover, 2013). collins (2009) argues that democracy is not a finished product and questions what counts as legitimate knowledge in the u.s.; specifically, “do the ideas of some people count more than others?” (p. 5). the answer “yes” is shown throughout history. john dewey is often credited as the “father of progressivism” and promoting the idea that an american democracy requires an educated citizenry. however, black and marginalized theorists like anna julia cooper, w.e.b. dubois, and jane addams also acknowledge that social justice is central to democracy. critical race theory and critical whiteness studies critical race theory (crt) is a theory and movement that stems from critical legal studies to examine the role of race, racism, and whiteness in society. crt aims to “[transform] the relationship among race, racism, and power” (delgado & stefancic, 2012, p. 3) to address social inequities. while there are no definitive core tenets to crt, there are seven commonly cited tenets: 1) racism is permanent and an endemic part of u.s. society (bell, 1992); 2) people of color’s interests are met when whites’ interests are also served (i.e. ‘interest convergence’ (bell, 1980)); 3) counter-narratives (bell, 1992) expose and challenge dominant “master narratives'' in society ; 4) race is socially constructed; 5) whiteness functions ‘as property’ (harris, 1993); 6) while racism is a primary tool of analysis, it intersects with other forms of oppression, e.g. sexism and classism--what crenshaw (1991) terms ‘intersectionality’; and, 7) social justice must be a commitment. additionally, critical whiteness studies (cws) stems from the broader work of “whiteness studies” by scholars like peggy mcintosh or david roediger, however, black literary scholars such as james baldwin or toni morrison were writing about whiteness long before it was “academized” (leonardo, 2013). in regards to teaching, cws shifts the question from “what does it mean to be a person of color?” to, “what does it mean to be white?” this is an important framework when helping white teachers understand their culture, themselves as racialized, and how privilege and power function in u.s. schools. matias and mackey (2016) explain, “[cws] uses a transdisciplinary approach to investigate the phenomenon of whiteness, how it is manifested, exerted, defined, recycled, transmitted, and maintained, and how it ultimately impacts the state of race relations” (p. 34). therefore, we use crt and cws in tandem to 26 understand how racism is systemic and institutionalized in society and how whiteness impacts teaching. critical disability studies in education and discrit critical special educators annamma, connor, and ferri (2013) contribute the theoretical framework of discrit to analyze race and disability status. this framework also informs scholarship and praxis in social justice for disabled students of color. discrit extends the work of the theoretical frameworks of crt and disability studies in education to illuminate how disability and race shapes injustices in schooling, such as the disproportionate representation of students of color receiving special education services and the school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately impacts disabled youth of color. annamma et al. (2013) point out that while “ability and racial categories are socially constructed, they continue to have real material outcomes in terms of lived experiences” (p. 9). within crt/discrt, it is understood that race and disability are social constructions fraught with bias that continue to perpetuate inequality in society and thus schools. nevertheless, these categorizations have real implications for those whose bodies are racialized (i.e. black or brown) and/or disabled. the experiences faced by students of color and/or with disabilities are important to acknowledge given we live in a society that emphasizes their labels and, more importantly, their oppression. to be clear, when talking about disabled students, we are not suggesting that they are not students who have impairments (i.e. cerebral palsy) that might require different types of support to navigate schools. however what discrit scholars emphasize is it is not the student who is disabled, but rather society that is disabling the student (i.e. not having access to an elevator). building from the tenets of crt, discrit examines the interlacing of racism and ableism and also values the examination of intersectional identities. like crt, discrit recognizes “gains” in the disability community have largely been a case of interest convergence of white, middleclass citizens. additionally, discrit advocates for allyship, activism, and resistance. discrit considers legal and historical aspects of disability and race, legitimizing the lived experiences of people of color and people with disabilities. finally, discrit aims to amplify voices of marginalized populations. in these ways discrit creates a meaningful consciousness for teachers, teacher educators, and teacher candidates in their work towards disrupting the social injustices for students of color with disabilities (annamma et al., 2013). feminist theories feminist theorizing from the experiences of people/women of color also offers pedagogical and curricular possibilities for all educators to consider in their teaching. feminist scholars draw from the situated experiences of individuals to generate theories that explain social reality and what it takes to create social change (harding, 1987; collins, 1990). it is through everyday experiences in personal interactions, within institutions, and across society at large that feminists understand how structural, interpersonal, and cultural dimensions of power are constructed and perpetuated (collins & bilge, 2016). intersectionality is an analytical lens that has a long history within the experiences, history, and theorizing of ordinary women of color, 27 women of color activists, and feminist of color scholars (crenshaw, 1991; moraga & anzaldúa, 1983). this lens has played an integral role in education to unravel how students across contexts differentially experience privilege and oppression due to multiple intersecting hierarchies of power across race, class, citizenship, gender, sexuality, ability, and language (elenes, 2001). feminist educators have also integrated intersectionality as a pedagogical orientation to critically reflect upon their teaching and curricular decisions (naples, 2009) to create a more inclusive learning environment. feminist perspectives have also led to the development of care theories in education. noddings (2013) emphasizes the relational practices that women typically embody as they develop morality, ethics, and selfhood. within this framework, morality is crafted through intimate interactions between the one who cares and the one who receives care. everyday interactions and relationship building between the teachers and students are key in developing care (i.e. a teacher checking in with a student who is struggling emotionally). that said, theories of care have been further expanded by women of color to include a critical analysis of power. thompson (1998) points out that educational caring cannot be color-evasive (annamma, jackson, & morrison, 2017) or powerblind. intersectional caring is necessary in order to attend to relational power dynamics. for example, the concepts of politicized love and care (darder, 2002) have pointed out communal forms of care in which educators are not only attuned to the personalized needs of students, but also take on a justice-oriented stance in their teaching to fight against systems of oppression alongside students. these critical conceptions of care offer educators a pedagogical approach that can foster a sense of community and belonging among students. connecting frameworks by implementing these critical theories, we have identified four streams that unite our curricular and pedagogical efforts: (1) engage in self-reflection/praxis to promote ongoing contemplation and self-checking of personal biases and limited understandings based on our positionalities; (2) teach common theory vocabulary, language, and concepts throughout our courses so that students are scaffolded into higher learning; (3) engage theory and language into practice through assignments, projects, and outside classroom experiences; (4) emphasize how stereotyping and lack of critical understandings about the educational experiences of students of color can perpetuate structural inequalities in society. in the next section, we break down how our collective work shaped the curricular changes for each of our courses. these revisions were not individualized treatments, but rather we integrated this work to invite ongoing critical conversations and learning for our students. 28 the course revisions social justice courses in teacher preparation are essential to help psts meet the educational demands of diverse students. unfortunately, over the past two decades such courses have been “phased” out of teacher preparation through the removal of social justice from teacher accreditation standards and the addition of methods or assessment courses (aronson & anderson, 2013; butin, 2007). research shows that one single course is not enough to impact psts beliefs and pedagogy toward teaching students across race, class, gender, sexuality, or ability (mills & ballantyne, 2010). thus, through our interdisciplinary sjte, we worked through these constraints by centering social justice within required foundational courses for psts. below we share how these “typical” courses in teacher education programs changed through our collective work. while our narrative focuses largely on the conceptual and theoretical underpinnings of the course revisions, we provide specific examples of content, pedagogical, and cultural shifts within the courses in figure 1. figure 1. social justice teaching collaborative curriculum changes 29 edt 190 introduction to education introductory courses within teacher education programs play a vital role as they must both interrupt existing dominant narratives that psts bring with them from previous schooling and (re)frame the narrative of the entire program (feiman-nemser & featherstone, 1992). during initial planning meetings we worked to leverage the critical frameworks outlined above to deliberate around two questions: “what initial experiences should psts have?” and “what initial ideas should psts be exposed to?” in an introductory class to begin conversations about socially just curriculum and pedagogy. we did this in order to interrupt a rigid focus on technical aspects of teaching and instead create awareness of the sociocultural aspects of schooling. we developed this introductory course to raise awareness about the unquestioned, common sense notions of traditional schooling (kumashiro, 2015), knowing that psts will explore these concepts in greater depths in other courses. out of our critical theoretical orientation and conversations, we developed guiding questions and re-envisioned the state’s mandated themes and our department’s curriculum goal for the course to “challenge candidates to become critically conscious curriculum makers for social justice, in solidarity with communities, within diverse contexts.” readings, activities, assignments and class conversations prompt students to critically reflect on their common sense answers to these seemingly simplistic, yet complex questions: (1) what does it mean to teach?, (2) what is the purpose of school?, and (3) how do college students become transformative teachers? four course themes take up these questions. the first theme focuses on the aims of education and the role of schools in a democratic society. for this theme, psts begin to grapple with the historical purposes of schooling and the evolution of the current functions of schools. psts are positioned to ask critical questions like “who was included” and “who benefits” in order to uncover the power structures of schools used for discipline and control. this allows students to reevaluate their own past educational experiences in relation to what they learned in school and what they were allowed to ignore. explicit attention is given to the notion of critical thinking, and learning through discomfort (hooks, 2009; wheatley, 2002). this is an intellectual practice we ask psts to engage in. for example, they get an introduction to “othering” (brown, 2005) and how it occurs across diversity markers to position certain students as “normal” and allows students to critically question these existing social norms that impact classrooms and society. critical thinking asks psts to confront their own privilege (mcintosh, 1990) as unearned benefits not equally afforded to all individuals. here psts begin thinking about the role of teachers in democratic education… past, present, and into the future; what it means to get an education in a democratic society; how democratic is u.s. schooling; who gets included and excluded; and what are some contradictions (hooks 2010; collins, 2007) in the u.s. system of education. this knowledge sets the stage for the second theme in which we dig deeper into the current context of u.s. schooling and explore these contexts through the lived experiences of teachers and students in classrooms. 30 the second theme delves into the economic, legal and political context of schools. here, psts are exposed to 1) the historical, social, political, and economic development of the u.s education system, and 2) basic critical reading skills. this theme provides an introduction to the sociocultural foundations of schooling in which we highlight the context of schooling from the point of view of psts who have been “othered” due to race, gender, class, sexuality, language, immigration status, ability, etc. psts consider how learning about multiple experiences and perspectives gives them a much more comprehensive view of the world and how teachers can serve their students in ways that validate students’ diverse backgrounds. psts begin to understand that schooling experiences differ because of varying social identities, and this becomes part of the third theme, the practice of becoming a culturally competent and caring teacher. the third theme highlights the importance of culturally responsive and inclusive education. this is the pedagogical and curricular framework that we utilize as a response to the injustices that targeted students are facing both inside and outside of the classroom. this theme becomes important after grappling with themes 1 and 2 which delve into historical and present contexts. theme 3 focuses on praxis as a way to address social inequalities rather than engage in token lip service to celebrating diversity. this is perhaps the most uncomfortable work for psts whose dominant identity markers (male, white, cisgender, able-bodied, etc) position them to view current systems as ‘normal’ and ‘just’. in this course psts are required to unpack the concept of socialization and to deeply interrogate their existing opinions, where they came from, and how experiences in places like schools can be different based on intersectional identities. we ask psts to confront the notion that there is a difference between personally held opinions (which everyone has based on personal experiences) and developing informed knowledge (that comes from the diverse course texts where the experiences others should expand and deepen psts’ perspectives and can liberate them) (sensoy & diangelo, 2017). some questions we ask psts to consider: will they rely solely on their own positionality and experience to teach, or will they take on the intellectual challenge to allow the experiences and perspectives of their students to imbue their practice? will they teach to simply bank information into their students to meet technocratic standards, or will they value the local community assets knowledge students bring into the classroom? will they be open to considering pathways for creating inclusive learning environments that simultaneously challenge school norms that privilege certain students at the cost of others? in this sense, we define what we mean by transformative teacher. it is important for psts to understand that social justice is not a special interest agenda that gets in the way of learning, but rather, social justice teaching is the foundation for what enables students and teachers to become engaged in school and find meaning, purpose, and belonging in the classroom. the fourth theme, ethics and professionalization, helps psts understand and grapple with the complexities of the teaching profession. through this theme we challenge psts to think more critically about what it means to be a “professional” within the field of teaching as we position teachers as intellectuals. to “intellectualize” teaching and learning is to confront the 31 current nature of schools and then theorize/ reconceptualize the way schools operate today. this is part of an ongoing, de-normalizing process required to consider alternatives to traditional ways of teaching and learning. throughout the semester, students should be acquiring a scholarly language of social inequality and how it works in order to 1) discuss it in an academic context; and 2) eventually take action against it. by continuing to use the critical lens introduced early in the semester, psts can challenge limited, deficit notions of “being professional” and “disobedience” in order to see themselves as powerful advocates for students. edl 204 sociocultural studies in education courses in history, philosophy, sociology, and psychology of education have been included in teacher preparation in the u.s. as early as the 1930s. in 1929, william kirkpatrick, a philosopher of education at teachers college, recruited a group of interdisciplinary scholars to build upon the ideas of john dewey and discuss how the commonalities amongst their disciplines could aid future teachers to be more effective with students in a changing world (butts, 1993). tozer (1993) explains that the interdisciplinary field called “social foundations of education” (sfe) emerged with a commitment to prepare psts to contribute to the political and social welfare of diverse groups of students. what has commonly become known as sfe draws on multiple disciplines and includes topics ranging from the history and purposes of schooling as well as “moral, civic, and social dimensions of education” (beadie, 1996, p. 77). ultimately, sfe courses rely on interdisciplinary perspectives that seek to investigate education through a philosophical, historical, sociological and political lens. our sfe course, “sociocultural studies in education,” is taught using a cultural studies approach. sfe courses across teacher education programs in the u.s. vary greatly in both content and pedagogy and do not always explicitly align with social justice aims. at our campus, edl 204 is a required class for all psts, but also fulfills a university liberal arts requirement, so it brings in many majors across campus. in 2016, aronson was hired for a new role in which she was charged with revising the sfe curriculum taught across 17 sections. over the course of a year she conducted informal interviews with colleagues and former instructors, studied syllabi at other institutions, and spoke with experts in the field to truly grasp the needs of the course and to gain many perspectives. soon after her hire, she met with the sjtc to discuss possibilities for edl 204. while considering the changes that had been made for edt 190, the sjtc members brainstormed objectives for what we wanted our students to get out of edl 204 and how this would differ from 190 and other teacher education courses. we plotted major concepts, theories, and possible readings to include in edl 204. we also discussed possible major assignments across these courses and how we could build them to foster psts pedagogical growth throughout their teacher preparation. aronson then took all this feedback and constructed a “master curriculum” that would be used by all the instructors of the course. sjtc members also reviewed and offered feedback on the final curriculum. after dialogue with all the sjtc members, the final course question devised for edl 204 asks: what does it mean to educate children to live in a pluralistic democratic society? we also 32 ask several sub-questions: (1) how do social norms and political climates impact individual choices, access, or opportunities in school?; (2) how does an historical understanding of schooling create tensions for moral aspects of schooling today?; and (3) how can we a) develop cultural competence (raise awareness) about the oppressive aspects of schooling while b) learning to navigate anti-oppressive education? we organized the course around three units each with their own objective(s). unit 1 is focused on the “foundations of education '' with an objective to focus on the role of being a community member in a pluralistic democracy centered on social justice. within this first unit we build off of edt 190 to distinguish between “education and schooling” (quantz, 2016) and introduce psts to the complexity of “democracy” (collins, 2007). sfe is also presented as a discipline with philosophical concepts such as pluralism, epistemology, theory, paradigm, ontology, ethics and morals. during this unit, we also introduce students to critical pedagogy. in aronson’s design of edl 204, she situates the class “unapologetically” through a critical pedagogy lens. thus, psts are introduced to critical pedagogy and concepts such as cultural capital, hegemony, discourse, and hidden curriculum, with an understanding that this course is taught from that perspective. although many of the voices in sfe historically are white men, our curriculum centers these voices of women and people of color in the curriculum; psts are expected to place white, male educational philosophers like john dewey in conversation with w.e.b. dubois, carter g. woodson, and anna julia cooper. unit 2, the bulk of the semester-long course, again builds from the work started edt 190 by 1) focusing on how schools’ perpetuate inequality 2) making connections between the historical and the contemporary in relation to issues of social inequalities and the construction of identities such as sexuality, race, gender, and social class and 3) understanding how issues and actions in broader society impact what happens inside of schools. throughout this unit, psts are introduced to both theory and history. we begin with an introduction to intersectionality, intentionally connecting to its roots in the experiences of black women, (crenshaw, 2016; sensoy & diangelo, 2017) as a starting point for psts to understand all the systems of oppression we investigate should be done through an intersecting lens. students are also introduced to concepts such as identity, positionality, power, privilege, and oppression. with this foundation set, we study various histories of social groups/identities across class, indigenous, african americans, latinx and asian communities, whiteness, disability, gender and sexuality. over the course of unit 2, psts are introduced to feminism, capitalist critiques (brief introduction to marxism), decolonialism, critical race theory, discrit, critical whiteness studies, and queer theory. finally, in unit 3 we focus on “action, community, and praxis” which carries over the last objective of unit 2 and also charges psts to become community members engaged in social action and to seek imagination for change. in this final unit, psts are introduced to critical educational policy through the works of jean anyon (2014), ayers, kumashiro, meiners, quinn, and stovall (2016), and bettina love (2019). they also begin to unpack political ideology and how this influences policy decisions. finally, as a means to encourage action, we do an in-depth 33 analysis of culturally sustaining pedagogy (irizarry, 2017) and a case study of the raza studies ethnic studies ban and court case win. edp 256 inclusive classrooms teacher preparation in special education draws from the medical/psychological model of disability in which disability is perceived as a deficit within the student. this makes it difficult or impossible for the student to be successful in a “typical” education classroom without specialized support. connor et al. (2015) describe this approach as “predicated upon scientific, medical and psychological understanding of human difference” (pp. xiii). this perspective of disability results in the development of a separate education track that carries stigma, separates children from the general curriculum and their peers, lowers standards, and limits opportunity. it is rooted in “long-held cultural beliefs about children with disabilities being qualitatively different from children without disabilities” (connor & valle, 2011, p.11) thereby designating special education for students with disabilities. despite recent efforts at inclusion, high stakes testing has prompted the segregation of students with disabilities to minimize the liability of students’ test scores on teacher evaluations. this trend perpetuates racist practices that overidentify and segregate students of color (ferri, 2016; connor, ferri & annamma, 2016). while “inclusion” has been mainstreamed in schools, few teachers are prepared to rigorously implement inclusive teaching practices. teacher preparation has failed to “…imagine the possibilities beyond the parameters of inherited institutional practice” (ware, 2005, as cited in gabel, 2009, p.105). moreover, efforts at merging general education and special education teacher preparation at an institutional level are minimal due to demands on time, curriculum protectiveness, and lack of knowledge about the educational experiences of students with disabilities (llasidou, 2011; harry & klingner, 2014). disability has long played a fourth fiddle to justice issues like race, class and gender in education. through our sjtc work, we have developed a systematic approach to infusing critical studies in all aspects of social justice for psts. using disability studies in education we have centered the voices of the disabled to redesign the edp 256 inclusive classroom introductory course. this course was previously rooted in the medical model, but has now changed to a course focusing on how to develop inclusive classrooms that meet the learning needs of a wide range of students. through a disability studies in education (dse) framework, we situate disability within social, cultural, and political contexts to understand how and why it is constructed as an individualized deficit. this approach reveals how special education practices are discriminatory and places the onus of accessibility on individualized accommodations, rather than a communal responsibility of general curriculum and schooling to fundamentally change to become more accessible (gabel, 2009). harmful practices in special education includes the disproportionate representation of children of color, especially males, in special education feeding into the cradle/school-to-prison pipeline (annamma, 2015; connor et al., 2015; connor et al., 2016). 34 dse provides an opportunity to “…critique and change oppressive practices currently taking place in schools…” (cosier & ashby, 2016, p. 7). universal design for learning (udl), in particular, shifts the mindset and attitude of teachers to develop actual inclusive classrooms. edp 256 begins with an exploration of how students understand disability and how social norms perpetuate stereotypes and stigma about disability. psts then learn about the medical/psychological model and social model of disability to understand the difference between treating individuals as deficient (former) versus examining how social structures disable people (latter). students use the social model lens to examine how special education policy and social attitudes institutionalize discriminatory and disabling practices into schools. psts are also asked to understand disability as a marker of human diversity rather than a deficiency. we have adopted new texts for this course (see figure 1) that critique traditional special education practices and provide approaches that change classroom practice rather than children. these texts are supplemented by discussions about current research regarding the disproportionate representation of certain students in special education. films such as dan habib’s intelligent lives and including samuel are used to highlight disability as a marker of diversity rather than a deficit that requires remediation. this work builds on the systematic readings strategically included in earlier required coursework (i.e. edt 190 and edl 204) to address other aspects of social justice in education. these revisions have been underway for years and are now fully implemented in 2019. not only are we observing psts understanding disability through a critical lens, but the sjtc work and course revisions as a whole has also shifted psts’ thinking about privilege, racism, and classism. psts have built up the skills in critiquing policy and social attitudes that work from a deficit lens. observing the change in our psts renews our hope in promoting meaningful change in classrooms resulting in greater equity for all students. inciting such change in teacher preparation from the grassroots level promises more expedient impact in the classroom, rather than trying to prompt reform from top down policy changes. we feel encouraged that children will experience greater educational equity under the instruction of teachers prepared through social justice. discussion and implications we have shared our process and efforts in creating courses centered in social justice. however, this is not a “how to” guide in implementing social justice in teacher education. we recognize that our geographic context, our students, and who we are as professors shapes the pedagogical and curricular choices we make. that said, our collaborative work does offer examples of how faculty can organize around sjte to advocate for curriculum changes at their own respective institutions. while we consider these beginnings to be successful at our institution and have yielded positive results in terms of students’ social justice growth (wrononski et al., under review), we recognize that more work must be done, and data collected to support sjte. data supporting 35 the positive results of our curricular changes will add to the literature on the need for critical teacher education, as well as continue to garner support for this approach within our departments and division. with a growing mass of critical educators, psts will experience a more coherent and cohesive message in their preparation, increasing the likelihood they will enter their classrooms with the efficacy to take on social issues. while many teacher educators are fine with the “one and done approach” (one course that “covers” all social justice topics), we argue that the tenets of social justice should be embedded across all courses within teacher preparation programs. if we truly want equity and justice in educational settings, we must be willing to reimagine the way we prepare psts. we started this process through our sjtc with the long-term goal of implementing this approach across the curriculum. to accomplish this goal, we must continue fostering relationships with other faculty members and welcome more colleagues into the fold of our collaborative work. this also requires professional development for us and our colleagues. while we have seen success building a foundation for social justice with the psts we work with, we also face challenges once students leave our courses. many of our students have informally shared that their block courses, which are courses that are taken together during a certain times of their program, and often connected to a field experience, are heavily comprised of methods classes where the emphasis on social justice seems to fade away. this by no means suggests that all our “methods” professors are not interested in social justice, in fact there are a few who continue to think about ways to incorporate more social justice material in their courses. however, it does shed light on this divide that continues to exist in many teacher education programs between what students see as “theory” and “practice” classes, and that we often perpetuate as teacher educators. in order for us to advance the work of the sjtc, we must continue to advocate for social justice to be integrated throughout our entire teacher preparation program in intentional and meaningful ways. this is often easier said than done of course, especially given the fact that many of us leading this change are junior or contingent faculty at our university with less power than those who are already tenured (at the time of this writing one member of the sjtc is tenured and another is going up for tenure currently). we still face challenges of getting buy-in from all faculty members, but we remain hopeful with the support from our college administrators that we have been able to take these small steps to break these barriers. nevertheless, we aim to continue this work and continue to build sjte. we, as higher education faculty, and our teacher education students face numerous sociopolitical and organizational challenges on our journeys in sjte. however, our psts are likely to confront similar systemic challenges to their social justice work once they enter the teaching profession, and it has been widely recognized that educational leaders are critical mediators of social justice praxis in schools (theoharis, 2007; theoharis & o’toole, 2011). while principals and other educational leaders have the potential to assist in addressing systemic social justice challenges, the educational leadership field recognizes that this type of critical social justice leadership is not the norm. educational leaders, like teachers, face a myriad of demands from multiple stakeholders who frequently have competing interests, and this creates leadership 36 tensions that, if not confronted with an explicit social justice lens, tend to favor the bureaucratic and accountability-driven status quo that all too often runs counter to social justice aims (capper & young, 2014). although the need for social justice educational leadership has been well described, we see the field of teacher education advancing in terms of a commitment to social justice, while this same commitment is lagging in educational leadership preparation programs (horsford, scott, & anderson, 2018). teachers and administrators alike need to be prepared for social justice teaching and leadership so that communities of solidarity can be built within school spaces (furman, 2012; theoharis & causton, 2014). we cannot send teachers into schools without the support of social justice-minded leaders. this is something we aim to work on in future research as we build partnerships with our educational leadership program. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank their college for internal funding and support while navigating these curricular changes. references annamma, s. a., jackson, d. d., & morrison, d. 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(under review). moving towards a comprehensive program of critical social justice teacher education: a quantcrit analysis of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of social justice education. race, ethnicity, & education. zeichner, k. m. (2009). teacher education and the struggle for social justice. routledge. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2020 volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. 60-80 contextualizing “practice”: helping pre-service teachers unpack the ideological and sociopolitical dimensions of required practices for licensure rachel moody* * boston college, department of teaching, curriculum, & society, chestnut hill, ma, united states e-mail: rachel.moody@bc.edu article info received: june 18, 2020 revised: september 20, 2020 accepted: september 25, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) how to cite moody, r. (2020). contextualizing “practice”: helping pre-service teachers unpack the ideological and sociopolitical dimensions of required practices for licensure. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), 60-80. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.10 abstract the turn toward “practice” in teacher education, while controversial, has become a reality for many programs that prepare pre-service teachers for state licensure. this conceptual paper argues that while many people link teacher quality to educational equity, a focus on discrete teaching practices alone is insufficient to address inequitable outcomes in schooling. in addition to developing pre-service teachers to be critically conscious of the contexts in which their work is embedded, i contend that pre-service teachers may also benefit from contextualizing prescribed teaching practices themselves. using examples from essential “elements” for teaching in the state of massachusetts, i demonstrate two ways that required practices are themselves ideological and sociopolitical manifestations. by highlighting the ideological and sociopolitical discourse embedded within elements of effective teaching practice, teacher educators have the potential to prepare pre-service teachers to become critical consumers of practice. keywords teacher education, teacher practice, practice-based teacher education, sociopolitical context, teacher quality 10.46303/jcsr.2020.10 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.10 61 introduction a focus on “practice”—broadly defined as instructional strategies or teacher moves—has returned to teacher education as a remedy to purported issues of teacher quality (grossman & dean, 2019; zeichner, 2012, 2016). proponents of a focus on practice contend that improving teacher quality will lead to more equitable outcomes in schooling. this movement of sorts, although diverse in vision and enactment, has resulted in teacher preparation programming, coursework, and assessments that increasingly rely on the identification and acquisition of key knowledge (e.g. effective lesson design) and skills (e.g. how to facilitate a discussion). whether described as “core practices” (grossman, 2018), “high-leverage teaching practices” (ball & forzani, 2011; teachingworks, n.d.) “techniques for champion teachers” (lemov, 2010), or “instructional best practices” (sposato graduate school of education, n.d.), the concept of “practice” has become firmly rooted in contemporary educational discourse. hotly debated by scholars, teacher educators, and policymakers, this return to practice is seen by many critics as a silver bullet solution that ignores the inherent complexity of our educational landscape (bowman & gottesman, 2017; crawford-garrett & riley, 2019; dutro & cartun, 2016; kretchmar & zeichner, 2016; philip et al., 2019; zeichner, 2016). further, skeptics doubt that the acquisition of teaching moves absent an understanding of this complexity leads to increased equitable outcomes. even the strongest critics, however, do not eschew the concept of practice entirely. some have argued that equitable teaching cannot occur without deep social, cultural, and historical knowledge of the contexts in which practice occurs (bowman & gottesman, 2017; kretchmar & zeichner, 2016; zeichner, 2012, 2016). zeichner (2016) advocated for a kind of “democratic practice”, or “deliberation and collaboration across institutional structures” (p. 154). this strategy is used to model for pre-service teachers the ways that schools can work together with communities. dutro and cartun (2016) further, stressed the need to pay attention to bodies, affect, and power in complex moments of practice. they viewed the use of particular teaching practices as crucial, but added that pre-service teachers should also be “striving—imperfectly, but persistently—to be one on whom nothing is lost” (dutro & cartun, 2016, p. 126). finally, some critics have argued that without foundational knowledge of larger systems and trends (e.g. cycles of poverty, systemic racism), a focus on strategies alone limits what one can really “see” during any enactment of practice (bowman & gottesman, 2017; crawford-garrett & riley, 2019; philip et al., 2019). while the aforementioned scholars critique the ideas of locating practice at the “core,” they nevertheless acknowledge that the practical matters of teaching represent a critical piece of a complex profession and field. in this paper, i further explore the rhetoric surrounding such practicalities as well as ways that teacher educators can infuse discussions of practice with appropriate complexity. as scholars debate visions of teacher quality, the rhetoric of a focus on practice has simultaneously seeped into state policy. indeed, edward crowe’s vision for teacher accountability, outlined in the 2010 report by the center for american progress, has become a 62 reality in most states’ teacher evaluation and licensure systems. as states become increasingly concerned with evaluating “pupil learning results or other outcome measures” (crowe, 2010, p. 5), they have more narrowly focused on the teaching practices that they believe produce those outcomes. in michigan, for example, value-added measures of teacher effectiveness have been phased into evaluation systems and the michigan department of education has heavily invested in the utilization of teachingworks’ 19 “high-leverage” teaching practices in their preparation programs (michigan department of education, n.d.)1. although value-added measures are no longer used for evaluation in the state of massachusetts, a focus on practice is nevertheless baked into program requirements in the form of “essential elements of practice for novice teachers” (massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education, 2016, p. 5). as state officials attempt to isolate the variables (in the form of teaching moves) that produce effective instruction, many preparation programs must increasingly focus on practice regardless of institutional goals and visions. like those featured above, i echo the sentiments of teacher educators and scholars who posit that a focus on practice alone is insufficient to address issues of equity and opportunity in education. this paper argues that pre-service teachers may additionally benefit from a rich contextualization of required teaching practices themselves. using the term, “contextualization,” i signal the unpacking of individual teaching practices in order to identify from where and whom they have emerged. as i will show, education stakeholders construct seemingly objective criteria for effective instruction while operating from specific ideological and sociopolitical positionings. instead of isolating ideological and sociopolitical topics within social foundations coursework (e.g. “democracy and equity in education”), i, and others, propose that teacher educators take up these topics with pre-service teachers as we engage in practical conversations of what “good” teaching looks like (milner iv, 2010; nieto, 2000). to illustrate this process, this paper draws upon required teaching practices for massachusetts state licensure. although the focus of my analysis is limited to one state, my interrogation of practice discourse in massachusetts will likely resonate elsewhere. in the section that follows, i provide further details about this contextualization process, including a rationale and examples of scholars already engaged in similar work. i also expand upon my own context and make a case for utilizing discourse from massachusetts as an example of stakeholders’ discursive construction of teaching practice writ large. in the second part of the article, i draw upon personal experience and relevant literature to illuminate ways in which teacher educators might critically interrogate practice discourse with pre-service teachers as they learn to teach. specifically, i detail my exploration of massachusetts’s descriptors of “wellstructured lessons” and “high expectations,” two of the state’s elements of effective teaching practice for licensure. the article concludes with a call to continue to find ways to develop pre 1 in 2018-19, the michigan department of education (mde) required that 25% of teacher and administrator evaluations be based on student growth (value-added) measures. in the 2019-20 school year, mde required 40% of evaluations be based on student growth. (https://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-5683_75438_78528---,00.html) 63 service teachers’ professional judgment, manifested in their ability to become critical consumers of practice. contextualizing required teaching practices there is significant debate about the kind of teacher quality that is required to help achieve equitable outcomes in schooling. universities have been criticized for doing too little to prepare pre-service teachers for the practical matters of the classroom (ball & forzani, 2009; grossman et al., 2009; zeichner, 2012). driven by federal mandates (e.g. no child left behind, every student succeeds act), select scholarship on the importance of practice in teacher education (e.g. ball & cohen, 1999; ball & forzani, 2009; grossman et al., 2009; mcdonald et al., 2014; thompson et al., 2013), and “research-based” teaching strategies (e.g. what works clearinghouse), leaders have begun to define quality teaching at the state level. some states, such as michigan and massachusetts, have further infused this vision into requirements for teacher preparation programs. manifested within these practices are specific ideologies of teaching and learning along with signals of larger sociopolitical trends in education and society. pre-service teachers focused on acquiring specific skills for licensure may miss out on these larger references and debates. if teacher educators want teachers that are not only skillful practitioners, but who also know how their teaching practices position them within the field of education, we must let them in on larger debates surrounding practice. in other words, pre-service teachers can become attuned to deeper meanings embedded in practice as they practice teaching. this integrated approach is rooted in a vision of teaching as a complex intellectual, political, and practical professional that involves careful decision-making (cochran-smith & lytle, 2006). cochran-smith & lytle (2006) asserted that “rather than a process of using strategies certified by so-called scientifically based research, teaching requires the intentional forming and re-forming of frameworks for understanding practice” (p. 691). through an unpacking of discourse and reflections on my own experiences teaching, this paper identifies some ways that teacher educators can engage preservice teachers in this formation process. although there are many dimensions of practice that could be explored, i examine two: underlying ideologies of teaching and learning and sociopolitical discourse manifested in individual practices. first, i focus on ideologies of teaching and learning due to the significant shifts in the ways that scholars have studied and conceptualized what it means to know and learn over the last few decades. in kolodner’s (1991) opening editorial of the first issue of the journal of the learning sciences, she declared that although there were many theories of teaching, those in education “[did] not have sufficiently concise theories of learning to be able to tailor the curricula to the natural way kids learn” (p. 1). at the time, kolodner was speaking to the ways in which cognitive science could play a role in education, but the research on learning has since been undertaken by scholars with diverse orientations and backgrounds 64 (yoon & hmelo-silver, 2017). scholars in the learning sciences now know that depth of understanding is more important than coverage of topics; students must actively engage in their own learning; teachers should draw upon students’ prior knowledge; and students benefit from metacognitive awareness of the learning process (bransford et al., 2000; sawyer, 2014). many also understand that culture and identity play a large role in students’ understandings of content and engagement in classrooms (gutiérrez & rogoff, 2003; lee, 2017; nasir et al., 2014; sfard & prusak, 2005). pre-service teachers deserve to know how required practices reflect (or do not reflect) these evolving understandings of what it means to know and learn. pre-service teachers may also benefit from understanding how individual practices can reflect larger sociopolitical trends in education—messages which are perhaps more difficult for beginning teachers to locate themselves. nasir et al. (2016), for example, spoke to the frequent absence of sociopolitical context in research on teaching and learning. this paper aims to address that gap. nasir et al. (2016) further highlighted the ways in which stakeholders utilize sociopolitical frames to “shape norms, attitudes, and beliefs about what constitutes equitable teaching, what equitable schools look like, and which practices such schools should emphasize in their daily work” (p. 356). stakeholders that believe in the frame of meritocracy, for example, may push for equity via educational efficiency. “equitable” schools in this scenario, might separate students by (perceived) ability in an effort to tailor instruction to individual needs (i.e. tracking) (anderson & oakes, 2014; lucas, 1999). this common sense approach, although hotly debated, is thought to result in increased achievement for all students (hallinan, 1994). teachers are then guided toward specific practices for different levels, often resulting in higherorder creative tasks for higher tracks and simple recall tasks or test preparation for lower tracks (oakes, 2005; watanabe, 2008). in this example, the frame of meritocracy has been effectively mobilized toward a specific school structure and corresponding teaching strategies. if teacher educators attempt to deconstruct other popular instructional strategies, they might similarly uncover specific sociopolitical frames underlying the rationales for such approaches. this contextualization process might also help pre-service teachers discern whether seemingly equitable approaches match their own definitions of educational equity. recent scholarship has similarly attempted to locate ideological and sociopolitical discourse embedded in popular approaches to teaching. dutro and cartun (2016), for instance, explored ideological discourse emerging during enactments of instructional routines for writing. specifically, the authors helped pre-service teachers look at student affect as a way to highlight “discourses of control and failure in teaching and learning” (p. 124). both crawford-garrett and riley (2019) and sheth (2018) have engaged in the identification of sociopolitical frames embedded in best practices in their content areas. crawford-garrett and riley (2019) intentionally addressed the need to “[help] pre-service teachers recognize how daily practices are bound up within broader discourses” (p. 43). in their study linking knowledge of endemic poverty and equitable assessment in literacy, the authors consistently asked pre-service teachers to examine this discourse and consider “how particular practices can both promote 65 and undermine efforts towards educational equity” (p. 46). additionally, sheth (2018) located the frame of colorblindness in windschitl et al.’s (2012) strategies for “ambitious science teaching”. her study found that colorblind teaching practices served to flatten the racialized experiences of students in science classrooms she proposed “grappling with racism as a foundational practice that provokes teachers to critically engage with…contradictions that emerge from racism manifested in science and science teaching to make principled decisions that disrupt persistent unequal relations of power” (p. 55). in summary, the aforementioned scholars argued that students benefit from having teachers who have critically interrogated the complexity of any instantiation of “effective” teaching practice. these authors, however, have mostly questioned the use of best practices in different content areas. i specifically focus my questions on massachusetts state policy surrounding effective practice and draw from my own experiences working with beginning pre-service teachers in the licensure process. massachusetts is unique in that it is consistently looked to as having the best public schools in the united states (u.s. news & world report, 2020). scoring exceptionally well on standardized tests such as the naep, massachusetts has historically led the way in embracing high standards and accountability structures (chieppo & gass, 2009; wong, 2016). as such, the state was also an early adopter of performance assessments used to measure the readiness of pre-service teachers. as other states are now just beginning to adopt similar assessments (e.g. edtpa), massachusetts has spent years developing and implementing their own home-grown version. the candidate assessment of performance, or the cap, identifies effective teaching practices, or “elements,” and is purportedly better aligned to massachusetts standards for the teaching profession (massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education, 2016). because massachusetts has identified specific practices to help pre-service teachers be ready “on day one,” (massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education, 2016), it is a ripe context for the application of my pedagogical approach. as a trailblazer in education policy, massachusetts’s focus on practice may additionally be emblematic of future policy trends across the u.s. in the following two sections, i examine discourse from two teaching elements from the massachusetts cap, “wellstructured lessons” and “high expectations,” in order to illustrate how one might do the work of contextualizing required practices with pre-service teachers. unpacking the “well-structured lessons” teaching element although there are six required teaching elements in massachusetts2, this paper will focus on two in order to demonstrate ways to contextualize practice with pre-service teachers. the first 2 required elements include “well-structured lesson,” “adjustment to practice,” “meeting diverse needs,” “safe learning environment,” “high expectations,” and “reflective practice.” the list of elements and their descriptors were updated in august, 2019 to include an additional element (“subject matter knowledge”) and some revised language. in this paper, however, i am using the 2016 list of elements as preparation programs are not yet required to utilize this revised version (see massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education, 2019). 66 element i explore, “well-structured lessons” (figure 1), was designed as part of the larger “curriculum, planning, and assessment” standard. embedded within each descriptor of proficient practice are obvious and less explicit referents to sociopolitical frames and visions of teaching and learning. there are numerous ways to draw out these contextual features, thus, the examples i provide are not exhaustive. for the purposes of this paper, i specifically focus on one phrase in the “well-structured lessons” descriptor: “challenging, measurable objectives.” i utilize this discourse to highlight some questions and topics that one could use to help preservice teachers both understand what they’re being asked to do and critically examine whether and how to do it. figure 1 well-structured lessons element descriptor element proficient descriptor 1.a.4 : wellstructured lessons develops well-structured lessons with challenging, measurable objectives and appropriate student engagement strategies, pacing, sequence, actiities, materials, resources, technologies, and grouping. note. table reproduced from the guidelines for the candidate assessment for performance (massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education, 2016) “challenging, measurable objectives” in policy and practice the use of “backward design” (wiggins & mctighe, 2005) and the revised bloom’s taxonomy (anderson et al., 2001; krathwohl, 2002), originally called the taxonomy of educational objectives, have become ubiquitous in teaching and teacher education (cho & trent, 2005; peltier & noonan, 2003; j. schneider, 2014). the two are used in tandem so frequently that wiggins and mctighe’s (2005) understanding by design advocated for the use of the revised bloom’s taxonomy in its introductory chapter. when pre-service teachers are asked to develop “challenging, measurable objectives” as part of lesson planning, they are being asked to engage in the backward design process. this process involves determining learning objectives and related assessments prior to teaching a lesson. objectives are derived from larger unit or course goals (“enduring understandings” or “big ideas”) as well as state content standards (wiggins & mctighe, 2005). to make sure objectives are appropriately “challenging,” pre-service teachers are regularly asked to refer to bloom’s in order to choose a verb that describes the type of thinking that students will be doing during the lesson. although not explicitly stated in the cap’s descriptor for “well-structured lessons,” both backward design and the revised bloom’s taxonomy are commonly used by preparation programs to meet such visions of effective practice. indeed, in all four institutions where i have supervised or taught pre-service teachers in massachusetts, required lesson plan templates align with these approaches. at one institution, for example, pre-service teachers are asked to create objectives and assessments 67 that align to larger state curriculum standards and the “big picture” of student learning (figure 2). figure 2 one institution’s required lesson plan template note. this template was publicly available via online google search (boston college, 2013) to complete this template, one of my supervisees wrote the following learning objective: “students will be able to classify four-sided shapes as rectangles or other quadrilaterals.” here, this pre-service teacher utilized the verb “classify,” which is drawn from the lower part of the bloom’s triangle (figure 3). not surprisingly, i had not prepared this teacher to draw upon bloom’s in this way. before working together, they were already familiar with the process of creating “challenging, measurable objectives” via other coursework and practicum experiences. this instructional planning example, thus, highlights the degree to which massachusetts guidelines for effective instruction are paralleled in many institutions’ program design features. figure 3 bloom’s taxonomy triangle note. image licensed under a creative commons attribute and retrieved from the vanderbilt university center for teaching website (armstrong, n.d.) 68 questioning the role of the teacher in instructional planning as we consider the popular instructional approaches reflected in state directives (such as using “challenging, measurable objectives”), it is important that teacher educators raise questions about their affordances and limitations. approached uncritically, pre-service teachers may not realize that nearly all aspects of curriculum design are debated. in fact, some scholars who advocate for the use of inquiryor project-based approaches to teaching, reject the idea that all learning outcomes be predetermined by the teacher (blumenfeld et al., 1991; file et al., 2012; schneider et al., 2002; singer et al., 2000). dewey (1959) argued that when students are engaged in an inquiry process, they are more intrinsically motivated and gain deeper understandings of material. in phenomenon-based science teaching, an approach rooted in student inquiry, teachers and students engage in a process of collectively formulating questions in order to investigate a particular scientific phenomenon (next generation science standards, 2016). the teacher understands the components of the phenomenon in order to nudge students in a particular direction, if necessary, but students are often responsible for identifying which topics surface at which times. inquiry thus, involves students in directing the content and flow of discussion. this is a more constructivist approach to teaching and learning, while the language of “well-structured lessons” more closely resembles teacher-directed learning. in my own classes with beginning pre-service teachers, we critically examine required lesson plan templates. these templates differ slightly across institutions, but all reflect a standard backward design process. i first gauge my students’ initial assumptions about planning and their reactions to the lesson plan format. we then co-construct our class objectives for learning about lesson structure. this approach accomplishes two goals. first, our instructional objectives emerge from where students are beginning and what they are interested in. second, my modeling of a more constructivist approach to lesson design serves as an opportunity for critique and comparison via meta-analysis. in this example, beginning pre-service teachers are presented with alternatives to “normal” backward design processes, and are, thus, treated as discerning consumers of practice. by engaging in conversations about the pros and cons of studentand teacher-centered instruction, they are allowed to consider the philosophical, moral, and practical implications of their work. sociopolitical debates : predetermined objectives and measurement of learning embedded within the short phrase “challenging, measurable objectives” are also referents to sociopolitical discourse and historical trends in education. although “measurable” may immediately appear to education scholars as a loaded term, this is likely not the case for preservice teachers. thus, pre-service teachers may benefit from unpacking the concept of measurement with teacher educators as they learn to measure what students produce. in their early conception, measurement practices in education were used as mechanisms for determining who was capable of learning. although this practice continued for many years (see larry p. v. wilson riles), the purpose of measurement shifted as the field of curriculum and 69 instruction emerged in the earlyto mid-20th century. measurement was now seen as a mechanism for educational improvement by a growing camp of educational researchers focused on child and human development (lagemann, 2000). in 1949, ralph tyler, a member of this developmentalist camp, published his famous text basic principles of curriculum and instruction, in which he stated that the formulation of objectives (and corresponding assessments) was crucial for effective instruction. interestingly, wiggins and mctighe (2005) (who are scholars in the field of educational measurement) credited “the logic of backward design” to tyler in the first chapter of understanding by design (p. 20). in my discussions of practice with pre-service teachers, we consider how the purposes of education evolved alongside testing and measurement practices. as momentum shifted in favor of increased educational access, curriculum and instruction scholars “wanted to improve the effectiveness of instruction, rather than perfecting instruments of selection” (lagemann, 2000, p. 157). measurement, then, could be used to help tailor instruction to increasingly diverse groups of students. today, the effects of measurement in education are widely contested. cho and trent (2005) argued that a focus on predetermined objectives and their corresponding assessments align neatly with larger accountability practices in education. the process of designing curriculum “backward” “fulfill imperative needs of stakeholders facing standards, assessment, and accountability measures resulting from the no child left behind act” (cho & trent, 2005, p.105). nasir et al. (2016) further posited that measurement practices in education reflect the neoliberal values of “competition, productivity, and efficiency” (p. 359) and that “public education’s heavy reliance on high-stakes, standardized testing, data-driven decision-making, technology, objectives-based planning, performance monitoring, and curricular alignment reveals the depth with which schools and districts mediate these institutional trends” (p. 359). implicit in such market-oriented approaches to education is the idea that tight control and measurement of instructional practices will result in high academic achievement for all students. the presupposition underlying this assumption is that teachers can create the conditions for educational equity. another presupposition is that increased academic achievement (likely measured via standardized test scores) will translate to a more equitable distribution of our society’s resources. when discussing this idea with pre-service teachers, it is important that they understand that teaching-centered approaches to educational equity are debated. cochran-smith et al. (2016), for example, saw such approaches as overly simplistic, or “thin” attempts to increase equity. these authors wrote: when policies work from a thin equity perspective, the assumption is that school factors, particularly teachers, are the major source of educational inequality and that access to good teachers is the solution to the equity problem. this viewpoint ignores the fact that teachers account for a relatively limited portion of the overall variance in student achievement, and it does not acknowledge that inequality is rooted in and sustained by 70 larger, longstanding, and systemic societal inequalities. (cochran-smith et al., 2016, p. 5) by investigating this tension, pre-service teachers learn how “good” instructional practices can be mobilized by state officials and practice-focused scholars as silver bullet solutions to problems of educational equity. if instructors present pre-service teachers with these tensions related to instructional measurement, they not only learn where a focus on measurement comes from, but can develop a more well-rounded view of what their teaching practices can realistically accomplish. unpacking the “high expectations” teaching element students come to school with varying levels of preparation, interest, and success in different content areas. a perennial challenge for teachers is figuring out how to set realistic, but challenging goals for student outcomes. this is especially difficult for pre-service teachers. education stakeholders regularly attribute student success to the expectations teachers hold for them. phrases such as having “high expectations for all students” are ubiquitous in everything from school promotional materials to national governing agencies’ websites. many charter school leaders, for example, believe that “high expectations are the most reliable driver of high student achievement” (lemov, 2015, p. 89). but what exactly is meant by “high expectations”? this seemingly common sense phrase is laden with assumptions about teaching and learning and has been historically mobilized toward sociopolitical ends. as teacher educators talk to preservice teachers about their expectations for students, it may be beneficial to deeply contextualize the usage of this common rhetoric. in this section, i explore the required element of practice, “high expectations.” this element comes from the cap’s “teaching all students” standard and asks pre-service teachers to facilitate students’ mastery of content by emphasizing the importance of “effort,” rather than “innate ability” (see figure 4). in order to explore concepts that influence teacher expectations, i specifically focus on the juxtaposition of “effort” and “innate ability” used in this element. i also delve into the historical usage and contemporary debates surrounding “high expectations” for student effort and performance. figure 4 high expectations element descriptor element proficient descriptor 2.d.2 : high expectations effectively models and reinforces ways that students can master challenging material through effective effort, rather than having to depend on innate ability. note. table reproduced from the guidelines for the candidate assessment for performance (massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education, 2016) 71 the juxtaposition of “effort” and “innate ability” scholars, policymakers, and educators have long tried to distill the elements that produce academic success. in particular, many believe that teachers’ expectations of students influence schooling outcomes. the logic goes that if teachers set high goals and provide appropriate supports, any student is capable of growth. this refutes the common rhetoric that some people are “born smart.” although educators likely believe that they are communicating the importance of effort to students, schools also communicate many messages about “innate ability.” in my own classes, for example, pre-service teachers who regularly applaud the efforts of their hard-working students also utilize evaluative labels when discussing their (perceived) abilities. this phenomenon is not surprising given that by the time pre-service teachers arrive in their teaching programs, they have already experienced years of formal evaluation in the form of grades, test scores, and admissions processes. many have internalized the results of these evaluations as hard-and-fast judgments of their (innate) abilities. thus, i first use the “high expectations” element as an opportunity to unpack ideas with them related to fixed intelligence, or ability. many people wonder how to define intelligence and whether it can be measured. with my own students, i have explored these questions using the case study of larry p. v. wilson riles. the popular radiolab podcast, “the miseducation of larry p.,” (lee, 2019) profiled the elementary school experiences of a black student in the 1970s who was segregated into special education classes after receiving a low score on an iq test. at the time, iq tests were regularly used in schools as determinants of students’ overall academic abilities (lee, 2019). the podcast described how “larry’s” (a pseudonym) case led to the eventual banning of iq tests for black children in california. interestingly, it also revealed that the original creator of the iq test never meant for it to be a determinant of fixed ability. this revelation, along with the podcasters’ detailed content analysis of iq test items, helped my students problematize the universality of standardized measures of intelligence. the podcast let us examine our own constructed notions of intelligence and then begin to consider this concept’s relationship to effort and growth. the relationship between effort and growth, however, also deserves attention. all educators acknowledge that some students struggle academically. a critical question, then, is whether or not students can grow academically through “effective effort.” by juxtaposing student effort and ability, the cap’s “high expectations” element highlights this larger tension. although teachers’ ideas about the influence of effort on student achievement may vary, many have been influenced by the popular concept of “growth mindset” (dweck, 2007). dweck’s (2007) work on mindset has been widely adopted in educational settings around the world. the concept of “growth mindset” is rooted in the belief that like a muscle, intelligence or skillfulness can grow with practice. those with a growth mindset seek out feedback and new ways of approaching difficult tasks because they believe improvement is possible. people with a “fixed mindset,” on the other hand, are more likely to believe that they are just not good at a 72 particular skill and give up. educators, upon learning that dweck’s notion of intelligence defied conventional wisdom around innate ability, flocked to this concept for its applicability with struggling learners. when the massachusetts cap references a focus on “effort,” rather than (perceived) ability, it is likely drawing upon this perspective. pre-service teachers should consider, however, that shallow uptakes of “growth mindset” can result in a sole focus on student effort, persistence, or “grit” (duckworth, 2018; duckworth et al., 2007). as dweck (2015) noted upon reflecting on her work years later, a common misconception is that individual growth happens solely through increased effort. she wrote: certainly, effort is key for students’ achievement, but it’s not the only thing. students need to try new strategies and seek input from others when they’re stuck. they need this repertoire of practice—not just sheer effort—to learn and improve. (dweck, 2015) just as pre-service teachers problematize what it means to be smart, they must also carefully examine how student growth occurs. if teacher educators do not facilitate this investigation, pre-service teachers may fall back on traditional beliefs that improvement happens through “sheer effort” (dweck, 2015). similarly, if pre-service teachers maintain uncomplicated notions of fixed intelligence, it may result in superficial attempts at promoting student effort. in other words, one has to believe that it is possible to grow and understand academic growth in order to hold high expectations of others. thus, as teacher educators push their pre-service teachers to hold high expectations for all students, they may find it useful to unpack internalized beliefs around “effort” and “innate ability.” the sociopolitical framing of “high expectations” when using “high expectations” as a model of effective practice, it is also important that preservice teachers be given the opportunity to learn about the historical legacy and continuing debates around “high expectations” rhetoric. this rhetoric includes the placing of sole responsibility for educational outcomes on teachers and the ideologies mobilized in support of an emphasis on student effort. by unpacking the sociopolitical underpinnings of this discourse, teacher educators can help pre-service teachers better navigate their roles in schools and society. the influence of “high expectations” on educational outcomes although neoliberal reformers and progressive educators often disagree on pathways to educational equity (and, sometimes, definitions of “equity”), their beliefs in the power of teacher expectations are often aligned. the focus on teacher expectations in education has existed for decades. in 1979, ron edmonds wrote his famous appraisal of effective and ineffective schools and in reviewing the research found that “urban schools that teach poor children successful have strong leadership and a climate of expectation that students will learn” (p. 15). this represented an early vision of equitable schooling practices. in 1999, george w. bush mobilized the language of “high expectations” to push for neoliberal reforms. as governor of texas, he wanted stronger testing and accountability measures for schools and teachers. in 73 his now famous speech, bush warned that resistance to high standards and measurement represented “the soft bigotry of low expectations” (“excepts from bush’s speech on improving education, 1999). when bush passed the no child left behind act in 2002, the use of testing and educational standards became widespread in the united states. as standardized testing confirmed the persistence of achievement gaps based on income and race, the language of “high expectations” returned. many progressive educators and scholars have since rallied in response to these gaps, also stressing the need for high(er) teacher expectations for student achievement. although their underlying motives may differ from those of neoliberal reformers, they send similar messages about the degree to which teachers bear responsibility for equitable outcomes in education. gershenson and papageorge (2018), for example, examined the degree to which a teacher’s race influences their expectations of black students and how these expectations influence educational trajectories. their analysis of data from the educational longitudinal study of 2002 revealed that “black students do not receive the same positive bias enjoyed by white students” (p. 69) when white teachers predict their likelihood of attending college. whether this practice is rooted in beliefs of racial superiority or an understanding of the systemic barriers that black students face, the net result was a self-fulfilling prophecy of lower educational attainment. delpit (2012) and sleeter (2008) similarly emphasized the influence of teacher expectations on student success. delpit (2012) rejected the idea of an achievement gap, insisting instead on the existence of an “expectations gap” in our schools. sleeter (2008) called for the diversification of the teaching force to combat the low expectations of white teachers. the volume of such rhetoric, thus, implies that teachers are a major contributing factor to educational inequity. some scholars disagree, however, with placing the sole responsibility of educational equity on the shoulders of teachers. nieto (2010), for example, acknowledged the harmful outcomes correlated with individual teacher’s low expectations, but argued that these expectations are small-scale manifestations of larger issues in our society. she wrote that “the use of the term teachers’ expectations distances the school and society from their responsibility and complicity in student failure” (p. 59). as mentioned earlier, cochran-smith et al. (2016) also questioned stakeholders’ overreliance on aspects of teacher quality to produce equitable outcomes in schooling. they argued that a focus on teachers is not only inaccurate, but, as nieto (2010) asserted, conveniently puts the onus on individuals to change instead of larger systems and institutions. this debate over the responsibility of teachers in student outcomes presents another opportunity for teacher educators to delve further into the complexity of common educational rhetoric. it is clear that teacher expectations matter, but can “high expectations,” or teachers alone, achieve the kinds of outcomes stakeholders seek? these are critical questions to unpack with pre-service teachers as they begin to internalize their roles as society’s change makers. 74 the emphasis on individual effort in promoting academic achievement finally, the language of the massachusetts cap requires pushing students to meet high expectations through “effective effort.” because so many educators draw on the logic of “effort” to encourage a growth mindset, it is important to discuss the implications of a focus on effort with pre-service teachers. as previously noted, equating effort with growth mindset is an overly simplistic interpretation of the concept. instead, their emphasis on growth through effort alone is more aligned with duckworth et al.’s (2007) conception of “grit.” duckworth et al. (2007) defined “grit” as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” (p. 1087). people who have a lot of grit persist despite challenges, setbacks, and adversity. an explicit focus on grit, or a focus on grit masked as growth mindset, is a feature of many schools and programs aimed at achieving equity through increased student achievement. it is unlikely, however, that pre-service teachers understand this concept’s link to meritocratic ideals of education. meritocratic framing locates the root of educational failure within the individual and ignores “systematically rooted systems of marginalization and oppression” (nasir et al., 2016, p. 352). if a student fails, it is because they did not sustain enough effort, or persist in pursuit of long-term goals. this framing becomes particularly problematic when “grit” is mobilized in contexts with students who already face significant challenges within and outside of school. strauss (2016) argued that by virtue of having to navigate the daily challenges of poverty, low-incomes students already have sufficient grit. love (2019) further noted that black communities have survived generations of oppression and asked, “is this not grit?” (p. 85). both authors agreed that the reliance on effort through the lens of meritocracy did not accurately represent the realities of the complex, inequitable systems affecting students’ lives. a sole reliance on individual effort, then, has the potential to further marginalize students who are already battling the effects of multi-systemic oppression. as i contextualize the discourse surrounding academic expectations, i do not mean to imply that teachers should hold low expectations for students who face challenges. locating the sociopolitical controversies in such common-sense statements like “high expectations,” however, may help pre-service teachers more critically consider their own expectations for students. regardless of the exact language of the cap, pre-service teachers stand to benefit from considering how high to make their expectations as well as the long-term impact of the practices they utilize to help students meet those expectations. conclusion when pre-service teachers are given the opportunity to grapple with the complexity of educational rhetoric, they can begin to consider whether required teaching practices align with their own equity goals, approaches to teaching and learning, and conceived roles in the teaching profession. practical preparation can go hand in hand with critical consciousness. for example, pre-service teachers can question whether lesson plan templates that adhere to state mandates 75 reflect equitable visions of planning for learning. as they consider how high to hold academic expectations, they can draw upon differing perspectives on intelligence and effort. finally, preservice teachers can consider the social, historical, and political implications of holding teachers accountable for regularly assessing learning outcomes as well as setting “high expectations” for all students. by drawing on literature and my own teaching experiences, i have demonstrated how contextualizing the rhetoric in two required practices for state licensure can provide rich opportunities for deep, critical engagement with ideas around what teachers should do in the classroom. perhaps ironically, my aim in this article has been to articulate a vision for improving the practice of teacher educators. if teacher educators want pre-service teachers to deeply understand the pedagogical practices that are required of or recommended to them, they should engage in more complex investigations of practice discourse. just as we should avoid “thin” approaches to educational equity (cochran-smith et al., 2016), we should avoid approaches to teacher education that are overly simplistic or narrow in scope. instead, explorations of ideological and sociopolitical debates in education are necessary and cannot only occur in separate, social foundations classes. pre-service teachers stand to benefit from the integration of complex perspectives into their early coursework, as they are introduced to requirements for licensure, and into their methods classes. we cannot allow the turn toward practice in teacher education to result in generations of technician teachers focused on quick fix solutions to complex problems. rather, teacher educators should empower pre-service teachers with robust understandings of the field, their position in it, and the larger implications of their teaching practices. by engaging in these critical discussions, teacher educators can help pre-service teachers become critical consumers of practice, focused on long-term outcomes instead of short-term outputs. references anderson, l., krathwohl, d., airasian, p., cruickshank, k., mayer, r., pintrich, p., … wittrock, m. 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(2012). the turn once again toward practice-based teacher education. journal of teacher education, 63(5), 376–382. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022487112445789 zeichner, k. (2016). advancing social justice and democracy in teacher education: teacher preparation 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0. kappa delta pi record, 52(4), 150–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2016.1223986 microsoft word 2-isidro-and-teichert journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 june 2021 volume: 3 issue: 1 pp. 21-41 towards socially just literacy teaching in virtual spaces elizabeth isidro*1 and laura teichert1 * corresponding author e-mail: elizabeth.isidro@wmich.edu 1. dept. special education & literacy studies, western michigan university, usa. article info received: march 1, 2021 revised: april 29, 2021 accepted: may 24, 2021 how to cite isidro, e. and teichert, l. (2021). towards socially just literacy teaching in virtual spaces. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(1), 21-41. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.6 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license (cc by 4.0). abstract this study inquires into preservice teachers’ teaching experiences within a virtual tutoring field experience in a literacy methods course. our work is situated against the greater institutional and social-political context of a competency-based model in education and the covid-19 pandemic that led to a shift to online instruction. from a social justice lens, we approach the research questions: what are undergraduate preservice teachers’ literacy teaching experiences in a newly-transformed-to-online literacy methods course? in what ways does a virtual tutoring field experience prepare preservice teachers towards socially just literacy teaching? by engaging in narrative inquiry, we unraveled preservice teachers’ experiences in facilitating literacy lessons that combine print-based and multimodal instruction, while learning about the specific tensions and questions that they confronted during the process. we realized that preservice teachers’ virtual teaching experiences develop towards more socially just teaching along the areas of knowledge, interpretive frames, teaching strategies, methods, skills, and advocacy and activism. we further found that this approach is a complex process characterized by the personal, contextual, and relational aspects of teaching. keywords virtual tutoring; social justice; curriculum studies; teacher education; online teaching; teacher stories. 10.46303/jcsr.2021.6 22 introduction designing teacher education curricula is a serious undertaking fraught with personal, political, and relational tensions that educators navigate (isidro, 2019). this work is critical when considering the social inequities based on the widening gaps in education and income (zeichner, 2011). the covid-19 pandemic provided more evidence of social inequities as disparity in access to good teaching widened between the rich and the poor (horrowitz, 2020). indeed, the need for high-quality teacher preparation has never been this urgent as more higher education courses are offered in online-only formats. research shows that experience integrating technology with instruction prepares preservice teachers (psts) for a technology-driven society (moore-hayes, 2011; trumble, 2016) and provides them the necessary teaching skills for future disruptions to in-person teaching and learning (basilaia & kvavadze, 2020; toquero, 2020). however, little research shows how technology use in instruction and virtual teaching aligns with what is socially just teaching, much less socially just literacy teaching. the fundamental question for us as literacy teacher educators, then, is not just “how do we prepare our psts for literacy teaching within virtual contexts” but “how do we prepare psts for socially just literacy teaching within virtual contexts?” needless to say, our challenge in literacy teacher education has compounded as we aim to reconstruct learning experiences for psts that must not only build knowledge and skills but also cultivate asset-based perspectives and advocacy for inclusivity. this paper is an inquiry into our own work as literacy teacher educators who are trying to understand socially just literacy teaching within virtual spaces. the purpose of this study was to examine psts’ literacy teaching experiences within a virtual tutoring context through a social justice lens. under extraordinary circumstances, our work is situated against the greater institutional and social-political context of a competency-based model in education and the covid-19 pandemic. the research questions that guided our inquiry: what are undergraduate preservice teachers’ literacy teaching experiences in a newly-transformed-to-online literacy methods course? in what ways does a virtual tutoring field experience prepare preservice teachers towards socially just literacy teaching? a turn to literature our limited knowledge on the topic ‘socially just literacy teaching in virtual spaces’ prompted us to turn to available research in the field. our search led to three separate bodies of literature which we discuss below. psts and virtual teaching experiences kennedy and archambault (2012) reported that only 1.3% of us teacher education programs responded to the need for virtual school field experiences (vsfe), while 13% of the programs surveyed were in the process of planning for vsfes. almost a decade later, there has been no available research that documents teacher education programs’ inclusion of vsfes in their 23 programs. while psts’ hold negative misconceptions about vsfes (compton et al., 2010), research shows psts benefit from vsfes by gaining confidence in providing instruction online and other communication skills (wilkens et al., 2014), though building rapport and community is a challenge within online spaces (waters & russell, 2016; wilkens et al., 2014). socially just teaching and literacy instruction many scholars have conducted literacy teaching research that embodies some elements of social justice. for example, the seminal work describing the need for culturally responsive curriculum and pedagogy (au & jordan, 1981; gay, 2002; ladson-billings, 1995; villegas & lucas, 2002). though specific use of the term ‘socially just literacy teaching’ is less common in research, studies have addressed the idea of social justice in relation to literacy teaching, albeit with varying emphases. for instance, we learned that examination of social justice-oriented professional development among literacy teachers and professors resulted in a better understanding of culturally relevant instruction, the place of oneself and values in the classroom, and transformative curriculum (rogers et al., 2005). teacher educators should also revisit pst curricula and include critical reflection, use common vocabulary across courses in the program, emphasize connection between theory and practice, and dismantle stereotypes that perpetuate structural inequalities (aronson et al., 2020). research shows that psts come to our program with little understanding of socially just teaching, but those initial conceptions may (or may not) change based on contextual factors (lee, 2011). yet, with exposure to students from diverse backgrounds, psts are apt to revisit their own assumptions about students of color and disrupt a deficit mindset towards marginalized students (baldwin et al., 2007). the challenge lies in enacting socially just literacy teaching practices as beginning teachers navigate administrative policies, historicized beliefs about literacy instruction and assessment, limited resources, and maintaining relationships with students and other colleagues (williamson, 2017). socially just literacy teaching in virtual spaces an emerging line of research, we found one paper that aligned with our work. smith et al., (2020) offered guidelines that enable students to develop literacy practices for promoting respectful and trusting relationships among students and teachers in the classroom. these trustbased guidelines are: a community that is “always there” for students; letting students attend virtual meetings as themselves-wherever they are; and, creating a safe virtual space for everyone. while informative for our understanding of pst practices we have been seeing “in the field,” there are specific limitations in the bodies of literature with regards to psts’ virtual teaching experiences that align with socially just literacy teaching: 1. lack of in-depth descriptions of psts’ virtual teaching experiences; 2. study focusing on socially just teaching experiences is based on a single-participant case study; 24 3. paper focused on socially just literacy teaching in virtual spaces but not an empirical study. theoretical perspectives fraser’s (1997) seminal work on social justice provides language for understanding this concept through the notions of redistribution, recognition, and representation. in the context of schools, redistribution refers to the equitable distribution of funds and resources to facilitate equitable access, engagement, and participation for all students (woods, 2018). a co-fundamental is the recognition of social groups based on culture, race, gender, religion, language, sexual orientation, and ability/disability (cochran-smith, 2010) and, as fraser clarified, recognizing them as equal partners and “able to participate as peers with others” in social interaction (dahl et al., 2004, p. 377). finally, representation refers to establishing systems that provide equitable opportunities to have multiple perspectives, consultation, and shared decision-making (woods, 2018). building on fraser’s thinking, we turn to cochran-smith’s (2010) conceptualization of social justice within the context of teaching and learning. termed as a ‘theory of practice,’ she argued that socially just teaching should be a combination of the following with the overarching goal of improving student learning and their life chances: 1. knowledge teachers have the knowledge base but also should be able to critique it and know its limitations. 2. interpretive frames teachers approach their work through an inquiry stance, and believe they have the agency to influence students’ life chances 3. teaching strategies, methods, and skills teachers know the guiding principles behind the different strategies and methods they use for specific circumstances, students, content, and communities 4. advocacy and activism teachers advocate with and for students, parents, colleagues, and communities this perspective rejects a narrow definition of teaching (i.e., having subjective matter knowledge and teaching skills). instead, it includes “how teachers think about their work and interpret what is going on in schools and classrooms; how they understand competing agendas, pose questions, and make decisions; how they form relationships with students; and how they work with colleagues, families, communities, and social groups” (smith, 2010, p. 454). method we utilized narrative inquiry methods to describe psts’ lived experiences as they engaged in virtual tutoring with k-8 students. narrative inquiry involves a shaping or ordering of experiences that gives participants and researchers a way to understand experiences by organizing them into a meaningful whole (chase, 2008; clandinin & connelly, 2000). from a socially just and humanizing research perspective (paris & winn, 2013), engaging in this inquiry 25 is essential because it creates space for psts to share their personal experiences and practices about virtual teaching. the knowledge gained from this inquiry serves as a knowledge base for teacher educators to understand and promote socially just teaching in a contextualized manner (i.e., within a virtual tutoring field experience). our inquiry was taken in four directions: inward (e.g., psts’ internal feelings), outward (i.e., psts’ contexts); backward and forward (i.e., past, present, and future), and opened room for questions and puzzles. context of the study this study was situated in an online literacy methods course in the elementary teacher preparation program offered by a public university in the midwestern united states. the online course is the second of two required literacy courses, where each student is expected to complete eight hours of virtual tutoring with an assigned k-8 student. the second author taught the methods course and supervised the psts in tutoring, while the first author coordinated the field experiences by recruiting families and k-8 children to participate in the virtual tutoring. there were two sections of the same course, with a total of 35 psts enrolled. the fall 2020 semester was 14 weeks, which allowed psts four weeks of content learning before tutoring began. psts were paired to work with one k-8 student. to prepare psts for field experience, we provided videos to support psts’ literacy pedagogy in either in-person or virtual teaching (e.g., how to use pre-assessment data to develop lesson plans). we also created online discussions to help psts think about literacy instruction collaboratively and how it might be adapted for an online space. psts were supported in this space with constant instructor feedback. psts’ first session consisted of implementing literacy assessments, such as an interest inventory, qualitative reading inventory (qri) word lists, and a qri passage to assess their student’s fluency and comprehension. they then planned lessons based on the literacy preassessment results. participants all psts enrolled in the course were invited to participate and eight psts willingly agreed. in this paper, we center on our focal participants--kerry, helina, natalie, and james-whom we purposefully selected based on the distinct richness of their stories in relation to our theoretical framework. we also noted diversity in terms of age, race, and gender across the eight participants while remaining cognizant that their experiences and perspectives (except for helina’s) may be influenced by their white, middle-class backgrounds, which may be a prevalent phenomenon in other teacher preparation institutions. at the time of the study, kerry, was in her senior year, working towards an elementary education certification with a major in english language arts. kerry is anglo-american and a mother who described herself as a non-traditional student. the bulk of her teaching experience was teaching her own children; however, her mother was a teacher, which allowed her to 26 regularly visit and volunteer in a classroom. while she had teaching experience before the course, none of it was online. helina, the only african-american participant, was a senior and was completing an elementary education certificate with a major in early childhood education. she, too, had no experience teaching online prior to the study. natalie was a senior and working to complete her elementary education certificate with a major in early childhood education. she is also of anglo-american descent and regularly tutored middle school students. she too had no online teaching experience prior to the study. finally, james, anglo-american descent and the only male participant, was also in his senior year, working towards an elementary education degree. he entered the course with no online teaching experience but had some experience reading to elementary-aged children when he was a junior in high school. data sources and analysis data sources included semi-structured interviews with eight pst participants, instructor observational field notes of psts’ virtual teaching, lesson plans, and course artifacts (e.g., final paper, discussion boards, instructor videos). interviews were held virtually after the semester ended and lasted for approximately one hour. interview questions focused on areas such as initial reactions to virtual tutoring, literacy lessons and instructional activities, successes and challenges, and equitable teaching practices (e.g., making content more accessible for the student). data analysis consisted of reading through the texts and creating margin notes to form initial codes. these codes were collapsed into categories and emerging themes. to aid with interpretation, we used both the inductive codes as well as deductive codes (i.e., based on research questions; epiphanies within stories; tenets of socially just teaching) to capture the salient points in the data (fereday & muir-cochrane, 2006). during initial coding, we engaged in coding the data independently. we then engaged in discussions to reconcile our coding differences until we achieved 100% agreement. we followed the same process when forming categories and crafting the themes for each of our participants. findings this section presents co-constructions of our focal participants’ narratives in the virtual tutoring field experience. we tell their stories individually to highlight the differences in their journey towards socially just literacy teaching. for each individual story, we spotlighted themes within each participant’s lived experiences and included quotes to capture each participant’s voice in our narrative (clandinin & connelly, 2000). to honor the privacy of our participants, we used pseudonyms for all individuals and schools referenced in this paper. 27 stories from virtual tutoring kerry’s account shifting the focus: personal fears to student’s needs. kerry began her story recounting her fears from the onset of the pandemic when everything shifted online, and her struggle to focus on her own online learning given her other responsibilities at home. with a virtual field experience, she had wondered where to even begin and said, “i have to make videos of myself? i’m not an actress” (interview transcript, p. 1). further listening to kerry, we understood that these feelings could be traced back to earlier experiences: i have a fear of being on camera. i've been mocked for how i talk when i was little. so just to be on that kind of a platform where i knew family members might hear me, it was really scary for me. (interview transcript, p.1). kerry also reported a low level of comfort with technology. she considered herself good with new apps but got very intimidated by them. and while she found comfort viewing [2nd author’s] tutorial videos in class (e.g., how to schedule a webex meeting), questions around the use of technology remained a puzzle. this feeling extended into a discomfort for teaching online. she had wondered what literacy teaching would look like in a virtual environment, questioned her ability to keep a student on task, and thought about how to establish a connection with her student and co-tutor. she stated that the “downside of digital technology [is] that it can make people feel disconnected from one another” (final paper, p. 5). however, as she gained more experience, her initial focus on technology fears shifted to a focus on her student’s needs: [...] our student was unable to hear the audio due to technical difficulties. i quickly realized how important it is for students to have access to multiple means of representation. we wanted to be sure our student could hear and see what we were talking about, to the best of our abilities. we also observed our student struggling with some of the smaller prints presented to him on the screen and later learned that our student needed reading glasses. these experiences reinforced the need to use universal design for learning guidelines in the classroom, whether it’s a physical classroom, or virtual” (final paper, p. 4). creating literacy lessons for personal meaning-making. kerry was assigned to tutor a thirdgrade student, jeremy. some of the lessons kerry taught included vowel digraphs and text comprehension, with a specific interest in meaning-making for the student: [we] talked about long vowel sounds, which he knew, but he didn't know how different vowel combinations could result in that sound... we also talked about general rules on vowels, saying their names, and then we also went into creating sentences, so that he could then take those words and put them into meaning. it should have meaning rather than just being a word. so we use the word ‘lie.’ we had ‘jeremy likes to blank on the couch to write comic books’ because jeremy loves comic books. so, then he could pick which word fit in there, and 28 then he could connect the vowel sounds with the word that he chose” (interview transcript, p. 6). kerry also described her comprehension lesson on predicting and inferring using the book jumanji (van allsburg, 2011) based on information from the interest inventory: i created this board because i knew he liked games, and he liked jumanji, and it would be interactive that he could move his piece. i didn't have to move it for him, and he could just play the game, which then i did ask questions about the book. but it wasn't just, "well, tell us who was the main character?" it was "okay, now tell us this... (interview transcript, p. 11). her lesson plan demonstrated a high premium for making deep meaning from the texts, where she wrote high level open-ended questions along with asking jeremy to evaluate how the book compared to the movie (lesson plan 3, p. 3). kerry also pointed out the importance of using games in lessons in order to build an authentic relationship with her student. she explained that instead of having jeremy answer a list of questions, she wanted to teach to his interests and strengths. in reflection, she shared that her aim was to design creative lessons so that jeremy would find virtual tutoring as a place for him to enjoy and be himself. according to her, she did this by connecting her lessons with the results of the interest inventory. what sounded to us as an epiphany, she shared: we were coming up on thanksgiving, so a lot of people might right away say, ‘oh, well, let's write a thanksgiving book,’ but we stopped to think, ‘well, what holidays do you celebrate?’ and found out jeremy does not celebrate thanksgiving or christmas. he celebrates kwanzaa ... we knew right away, well, maybe in a full classroom setting, it would be appropriate to teach about thanksgiving in the correct way. but for jeremy, in a one-on-one setting, it wouldn't be appropriate because we're here to teach to his strengths and his interests. (interview transcript, p. 10). letting go of an agenda. as our conversation with kerry unfolded, what became more apparent was not just a valuing of her student’s interests but a decision to “let go” of the notion of a fixed lesson. kerry explained that she had always been a planner with specific goals in mind. however, recognizing the effectiveness of flexibility with her student, she realized how important it was to work on this practice. she stated it was reassuring to know that it was okay when a lesson did not go as planned. she further noted that she just stopped thinking about the lesson agenda and instead focused on jeremy’s interests and skills. we present a specific incident below that illustrates this idea of “letting go.” kerry tried to implement a lesson based on a book that the student was supposed to read: so we ran out of time to do the whole book, but our student was so excited about the game of asking questions. so we kind of abandoned the book idea and continued it into the next week on having him ask questions… which then led us 29 into, ‘well, let's do inquiry-based lessons and let him choose a topic’. (interview transcript, p. 4). on the other hand, kerry said that she continued to wonder how this practice may be used in an actual classroom with a structured curriculum. she remained puzzled about deciding when and how she might be able to tweak the curriculum for her students. family as part of the classroom. as our conversation came to a close, kerry revealed another aspect of the virtual tutoring experience that made her nervous: interacting with families. on the last day of tutoring, she virtually met with jeremy’s mother and facilitated a conference where she described jeremy’s literacy skills. she said it was a positive experience to be welcomed into jeremy’s home (virtually). she thought it was good practice to be mindful of what families may think of the things she says. she extended her thinking into her future classroom: i think that also translates into the classroom that we want families to be a part of the classroom, and that it's not my space that they're walking into. it's their space. it's their school. it's their child's classroom. so even though it was a virtual situation where i was the guest in their home, it's also a really good lesson on how to build community with families in the classroom” (interview transcript, p. 14). helina’s account when happy is not ever after. helina’s initial feelings towards virtual tutoring were marked by excitement and happiness in relation to the amount of time she could save from commuting to and from school and her potential flexible schedule by being at home. she also recognized that having virtual teaching experience would strengthen her credentials for future employment. however, her optimism faded as she started feeling overwhelmed by the volume of work: i felt in many of my classes there was more work than i would do if it was in person. and so doing all of that on top of and preparing for the virtual tutoring— i've never done that before…and so really as soon as the semester started, it was work right away and then it was not fun. (interview transcript, pp. 1-2). helina said that she coped with the situation by creating a schedule and having an agreement with her co-tutor, kerry, for them to alternately lead the weekly lessons with their student jeremy. when challenges come your way. helina also shared more specific experiences that challenged her in virtual tutoring. for example, she remembered jeremy having audio issues on the first day of tutoring. she and kerry had to troubleshoot for 15 minutes and ended up using the chat and laser pointer function to continue communicating with the student. “although we found a solution, we lost a major portion of time with the student,” (final paper, p. 5). she seemed unfazed by this untoward incident and continued her story: as far as instructional challenges, i thought that he (jeremy) would retain the information better. so then throughout the later lessons, we tried to add more 30 formative assessments and we tried to be really explicit on the main idea and then even have him repeat it multiple times so we weren't the only ones saying it. (interview transcript, p. 3). helina did share that she felt successful upon seeing jeremy’s progress in learning the irregularly spelled words they were focusing on in their lessons. getting to know the student. helina shared that one way she had gotten to know jeremy better was through the check-ins at the beginning of the session, by simply asking about his day and if there was anything special happening. according to her, this was how she and kerry learned that jeremy did not celebrate halloween. in addition, she said she also asked questions at the end of the session in order to know more about his specific interests and incorporate his input into future lessons: ‘what do you want to do next week or what's something that could interest you? do you want to write or do you want to read? do you do want to do nonfiction next week, do you want to do fiction?’ stuff like that. and you know him, he was pretty open to sharing anything” (interview transcript, p. 8). helina also turned to the use of the interest inventory for text selection: our student was really engaged. he's just a good student overall but then it was exciting when we went back to his interest inventory and we're really intentional about doing the stuff that he said he likes. we could see him getting excited. so, for example, he likes superheroes, so we had him read about different superheroes. (interview transcript, p. 4). a focus on growth. many parts of our conversation with helina delved into her desire to improve in several areas as a teacher. she identified her need for more creative lesson planning after recalling the large amount of time she expended online to find engaging lesson ideas. she wondered about websites and sources of texts and articles that she could offer to students: i feel like just getting more guidance on what to do for lessons because if i didn't, then i felt like i came up with really generic things and i thought it would be cool to experiment and do really creative things that they might have never done before or something like that. (interview transcript, p. 7). helina also expressed a desire to learn more about online platforms such as google classroom and zoom as well as other educational applications that are interactive (e.g., edpuzzle, pear deck) aside from google jamboard that she had used in her lessons. finally, she resolved to be clearer with her instruction by not only being more concise with her words but by speaking “their language” in order to be understood better by students. natalie’s account fears and frustrations. natalie’s story began with her remembering how comfortable she had been with technology from a very young age. she recalled watching videos and playing video games. she regarded technology as a natural part of life, much like breathing, and enumerated 31 many authentic ways to use technology for learning (e.g., exploring places through google maps; connecting with experts). however, despite her comfort with technology, natalie admitted she felt intimidated by the idea of virtual tutoring. one of her concerns was her ability to maintain her student’s interest and attention, especially with the belief that even adults struggle to stay focused in virtual learning environments. realizing that her 1st grade student, adi, would have been in school all day, she wondered if she could keep him engaged. an added layer to her anxious feelings was her nervousness about meeting a new student and entering into that getting-to-know stage. her affect for the virtual tutoring then shifted to moments of frustration. she recounted an instance when her student did not respond the way she anticipated, and it made her step back and reflect about her teaching: we built on [short vowels] and introduced long vowel sounds. and at the end of the long vowel sound lesson, i remember feeling really frustrated because he still wasn't getting it. and i was like, "okay. what did we do wrong? what are we missing here? (interview transcript, p. 9). creating and adjusting instruction to foster engagement. natalie described the different literacy activities she and her partner facilitated with adi. these included identifying elements of a story, sorting words with short and long vowel sounds, and decoding words with the ‘qu’ pattern. for instruction, she mentioned using “youtube videos because adi responded well to those, and tried to get him to physically engage by asking him to draw illustrations of the book and stories read … [adi] loves to draw so this was really engaging for him" (final paper, p. 3). as natalie continued describing her tutoring experiences with adi, we noticed that natalie made several instructional modifications geared towards increasing engagement and promoting a positive virtual learning environment for adi. here is one example where she decided to instantaneously modify her lesson: [...] he got on the conference (call) and was just not in a good mood. he was upset. i was like, "do you want to talk about it?" and he's just, "no." so i was like, "alright. i will read the story to you. i just want you to listen." and then--i quickly decided to do a read aloud version instead of having him read it. and it's a silly book and i would pause every so often and be like, "oh do you--" i would just have him respond to whatever was on the page. and by the end of it, he was much more excited” (interview transcript, p. 5). another moment which had a significant impact on her was a moment when she made another breakthrough with adi. she explained that it was important for her to see her student from where he was coming from and continue to get to know him on a deeper level. she sensed that he was having a rough day and she could tell he was frustrated. she invited adi "do you want to take a break and meet our cats?" (interview transcript, p. 13) to which we imagined that he agreed with enthusiasm. according to her, that interaction really developed a more rounded 32 sense of knowing adi. she had noted that after adi met her and her partner’s pets, they were able to continue the lesson more smoothly (final paper, p. 4). respecting the family’s privacy. natalie’s experience interacting with adi’s family is a unique story to tell. during her tutoring sessions, she thought of the times when she sensed that adi’s parents seemed shy to interact with her. she said she knew that adi’s parents would be around to set up the virtual meeting for him, blur his background, and occasionally reminded adi to pay attention to us, but they never appeared on camera. she thought that blurring adi’s background may have been due to their desire to maintain their privacy. having shared her personal impression of adi’s family, we understood the context for natalie’s reaction to the family conference when neither parent came to attend: [...] that's why i was a little disappointed because i didn't get that experience to interact with them... but it's still an experience that i can expect to have in my career as a teacher. so i'm not super disappointed. and i at least appreciated that he responded with telling us why he didn't come. (interview transcript, p, 15). according to her, she and her partner waited for thirty minutes until they just decided to email the parents and inquire. they eventually received a response that the father did not make it to the conference because he was in a meeting at that time. realizations from virtual tutoring. natalie defined her success in virtual tutoring in terms of the times when adi understood the content (e.g., when adi grasped the concept of short and long vowels). when further probed for how else she may have felt successful in virtual tutoring, she added her thoughts on having a positive relationship with adi: i felt successful in developing a relationship or rapport with him. like his drawings were always really fun because if he were to draw something and like bring it to us the next day or the next session, he'd be like, "oh look what i did, look what i did." and that was really encouraging, i guess. so i enjoyed that aspect of it… with the one on one kind of sessions, it really is more rewarding because you really get into what they're doing and they get into it too. (interview transcript, p. 9). additionally, she recounted the different ways she tried to get to know adi--by asking him about his day instead of immediately starting the lesson and inviting him to show his favorite book. she said that it was during those kinds of conversations that led adi to share his interest in cats and even showed her his stuffed animal cat. she explained that the incident stayed with her which prompted her to later share her own pets with him. as we approached the end of our conversation, natalie summarized the meaning of her virtual tutoring experience. she realized that a level of anxiety always came from not knowing how adi was going to respond to her lessons. she worried that the lessons were either too advanced or not engaging enough. to her surprise and relief, adi had a positive response almost every time. she revealed there were also times she felt that adi did not want to be at tutoring. 33 and while those times were harder to navigate, she said she understood the position of the student and left us with this advice: i honestly think one of the most important elements for me in beginning this whole experience was really having that interest inventory to build on. and i think one of the biggest considerations you have to have when you're doing this kind of instruction is you really have to focus on their interests because otherwise it's almost impossible to get them engaged in this format especially at his age because he's limited in his capabilities when it comes to technology. (interview transcript, p. 16). james’ account teacher-centered moving towards student-centered. james recalled nervousness and uncertainty when preparing for virtual tutoring. he felt “i didn’t have any idea how this was going to go … it was a little nerve wracking” (interview transcript, p. 2). he described the literacy skills he and his partner facilitated with their third-grade student, mojib. they focused on informational texts and developing paper-based annotation skills. they used microsoft word and screen-shared their modeling of annotation by highlighting. they used the website ducksters.com to access historical figures and quizzes. each week mojib selected an historical figure to read about and practiced his annotation skills. mojib would then complete the online quiz with james by verbally answering each question. this lesson structure was designed to accommodate the lack of time james had to plan for and develop lessons: we were kind of so busy with other classes. [my partner and i] really liked what we did so we would add that into the lesson plan, but not completely add a new element. like, it was very similar: ask [mojib] some questions, read him some stuff about new people, he learns how to annotate, he’s learning how to comprehend, and he answers a quiz, or he writes. it’s kind of it. (interview transcript, p. 8-9). while james’ lessons were highly structured and fixed in curricular content (author 2 fieldnotes), there were burgeoning aspects of student-centered learning. james did not rely on the literacy interest inventory, instead building student interest into each lesson through an exit ticket. to prepare for the third week of tutoring, james asked “what do you want to learn about?” mojib wanted to learn about pandas so james built a literacy lesson on the topic ‘pandas’. this process became part of the routine, as james explained: 34 we would be, ‘what did you think of the lesson, or what did you think of the material you just learned?’ and ‘what do you want to learn?’ and that really was it. so, we asked him, i think the first couple lessons, after each lesson, like what i just said. and he would say one thing he wanted to learn and then we would make that lesson half of what he said and then we would repeat that after the next lesson. and we would just kind of continue. (interview transcript, p. 7). handling challenges. james’ story continued by delving into the challenges he faced in virtual tutoring. for instance, he offered caveats as he described mojib’s intellectual abilities, “i’m not a teacher yet, but he seemed like he was grades ahead of where he should be” (interview transcript, p. 6) or “and it’s like i’m not really one to tell him what to work on. i don’t have my degree yet” (interview transcript, p. 15). this may have impacted his actions when addressing challenges in lessons. for example, mojib routinely turned the microphone off during the lesson. this persisted in each lesson despite james requesting the microphone stay on and left james frustrated: i didn't want to be rude. i didn't know how to talk, we didn’t want to be like, “you have to turn your mic on or we’re going to email your dad.” i mean, i couldn't say that. i wish i did. i don’t know. but we would be, ‘hey [mojib] can you please turn on your mic?’ and he would just look at the camera. and we were asking him for the third time and typing it in the chat. then he would, and then he would turn it off five minutes later. so that was just awkward, like can i be a little more strict with [mojib]? i don’t know how i should. i want to be professional, like i don’t really know. (interview transcript, p. 16) james also described communication frustrations, such as a time mojib read a text aloud with the microphone off. james asked, “do we ask him to read it again?” or times when james wanted to check-in with mojib’s annotation progress but mojib could not screen-share, “[he] was communicating with us saying, ‘i can’t’-just wouldn’t respond.” in an effort to problemsolve, james requested mojib’s father to email the work to him and his partner; however, the email did not come, and james said he was unsure if and how mojib annotated the text. he lamented a desire to provide more direction but did not know the appropriate avenue to ask, “we want you to be here. we want you to be at your house. we need reliable internet. we need you to be paying attention. we need you to always have your mic on.” experience and “what could be.” we acknowledge that james’ experience was the most challenging virtual teaching scenario to date in our program. in the final lesson, james entered the web-conferencing space to discover mojib traveling in his family’s car. james recalled, “i just started shaking my head thinking this isn't going to work. not good.” despite the strangeness of the learning environment, james began the lesson. he recalled: we couldn't see him, but we were asking him if he could hear us and he wouldn't answer. then, he put something in the chat ‘yes.’ so, then we would start the lesson, and then he dropped [again] like the first time. i think that happened 35 three more times. then the mic was on because we could hear his family--his brother or his dad calling or something. then the camera was switching to be his dad or his mom. and i was just thinking this is awkward and not going well” (interview transcript, p. 18). and yet, he persisted and the lesson was completed. james had emailed mojib’s father asking for the lesson materials and the father responded with all the work completed for that lesson (a post-assessment of reading comprehension). james identified what he wished he had approached differently in virtual tutoring: lesson plans and technology. with respect to lessons, he expressed a desire to diversify the structure and focus of lessons: i didn't feel we changed enough. when i look back on it, we were so busy with other classes. i was-we really liked what we did so we would add that into the lesson plan, but not completely add a new element. it was very similar, now that i think about it: ask him some questions, read him some stuff about new people, he learns how to annotate, he’s learning how to comprehend, and he answers a quiz, or he writes. that’s kind of it. and i think we should have probably changed that. i think we could have added a new element or a new website or a new tool to try to broaden the comprehension stuff using other stuff instead of just using similar material. (interview transcript, p. 8-9). had time not been an issue, james felt he would have learned how to diversify his lesson plans and “learn how a teacher builds a specific [skill] they’re working on without just using the same tactic” (interview transcript, p. 10). in a similar vein, james wished he had had the time to thoroughly explore digital resources for virtual teaching. a course assignment had required psts to develop a text set for virtual tutoring. james had found a number of texts but he did not feel he took the time to learn how to use them to their full potential. he told us “if i had time, i would have actually wanted to go through and use those tools that i had found” and learn “more about virtual.” especially as it related to building a rapport with his student: i know virtual [learning] would be hard, talking with two random dudes. i have never seen this person. but just really trying to make the student feel more comfortable. to open up and [say], ‘this is what i really want to learn’ or ‘i didn’t like this lesson plan’. (interview transcript, p. 10). while the interview seemed to emphasize the challenges and annoyances james experienced, he did not view the experience negatively. he emphasized that virtual tutoring was: [...] was a good experience. i know we talked a lot about negatives, but it really was good. i learned a lot, and i know [partner] learned a lot … it was a good experience. i learned a lot from it. it was worth it. especially since, who knows how long we will be doing virtual. i hope not long, but it was great to have an 36 opportunity to see what it was like, even if it was just with one student” (interview transcript, p. 20). discussion to situate our discussion, we first characterized psts’ experiences within virtual tutoring. then, we moved into discussing the ways psts work towards socially just literacy teaching within this virtual tutoring context. psts’ literacy teaching experiences in virtual tutoring our participants’ stories illustrated literacy lessons facilitated in different ways. after they conducted pre-assessments to determine their students’ instructional needs, their lesson plan foci diverged into the areas of teaching phonics (e.g., vowel digraphs, short and long vowels), elements of a story, predicting, inferring, and text annotation. we found this reaffirming of our teaching philosophy that students need skilled teachers who can identify students’ strengths and needs and differentiate instruction accordingly (education endowment foundation, 2021; kunz & lapp, 2020) and even more so in virtual spaces given the inequitable access to education (doyle, 2020; jæger & blaabæk, 2020). to facilitate lessons, they utilized a wide variety of teaching activities: word sorts, games, read alouds, ire (initiate, response, evaluate), and quizzes. additionally, they combined print-based and multimodal resources, such as hard copies of texts, ebooks, google jamboard, and youtube videos, either “screenshared” or emailed to the family. majority of their instruction relied on oral explanation or oral discussion. while we promoted a pedagogy of multiliteracies in the course (cope & kalantzis, 2000, 2009) we also learned that psts are exploring print-based and digital texts while using tools and resources that they had access to at that time (gee, 2015; walsh, 2008). like us, they too were learning and building their knowledge of teaching literacy virtually (kunz & lapp, 2020). across all participants, the psts also described varying levels of anxiety and nervousness upon first hearing of the virtual tutoring field experience as well as feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work involved in teaching. these findings show that feelings of apprehension, anxiety, and nervousness that psts face during their in-person field experiences (yuan & lee, 2016; wilkens et al., 2014) are also experienced in virtual contexts. regardless of their comfort levels using technology (e.g., kerry and natalie), they all felt anxious not knowing what to expect. for james, other aspects remained uncertain throughout the field experience (e.g., handling challenges) and even extended into his own identity as a teacher. zimmerman et al. (2019) caused us to reflect on how much of our work as teacher educators involves addressing the affective dimension that also comprise psts’ field experiences. working towards socially just literacy teaching in our inquiry, nieto (2013) helped us to think that psts become socially just literacy teachers through a lifelong process of transformative practice. we discuss the different renditions of this 37 process below by returning to the four components of cochran-smith’s (2010) theory of practice for socially just teaching. knowledge our participants’ stories suggest psts’ valuing for traditional knowledge (e.g., phonics instruction). however, after recognizing their students’ needs, they were able to reframe their thinking towards more socially just teaching through fraser’s (2003) notion of recognition and redistribution (i.e., rethinking how and what kinds of knowledge should be taught). for instance, kerry questioned its universality (e.g., teaching all students about thanksgiving). helina solicited her student’s input on future lessons while natalie reflected with the question, “what are we missing here?” james also privileged traditional knowledge (e.g., text annotation) but later realized he should have changed the lesson. interpretive frameworks having been assigned to teach students of color, we observed all our participants showed a deep respect for each of their students despite their racial and cultural differences. this respect was shown based on the way they interacted with them, which we believe was also influenced by their stance towards teaching and their own understanding of themselves as a novice teacher. kerry gravitated towards an inquiry stance and a ‘centering on the student’ rather than maintaining her agenda. helina demonstrated an asset-based perspective by recognizing that her student has something to offer. natalie assumed a relational stance, with her strong focus on engagement and establishing rapport, while james approached virtual tutoring from an experiential stance, remaining to be open to whatever came his way and persisting through multiple challenges. we see this practice supported by what smith et al. (2020) offered, that socially just literacy teaching in virtual spaces means meeting the student for who they are and wherever they are, while also exercising empathy in light of the current crisis (baba, 2020). and though their experiences were marked by highs and lows, they were reflective and identified opportunities for growth during the interviews. this highlights the importance of including critical reflection when thinking about pst curricula (aronson et al., 2020). literacy strategies, methods, and skills psts implemented literacy lessons while using different activities mediated by their students’ interests in and response to the activities. we see these actions resembling fraser’s (2003) idea of recognition (i.e., making students’ personal backgrounds visible in the curriculum), while also underscoring psts’ varying understandings of what it means to use what they know about their students to design instruction (villegas & lucas, 2002) and the asset-based perspectives undergirding their mindset (souto-manning, llerena, martell, maguire, & arce-boardman, 2018). advocacy and activism we did not see accounts of advocacy or activism embodied by our participants except for kerry who explicitly stated that she viewed the family as a part of the classroom. in a sense, she knew and advocated for the family’s role in building community. the limited opportunities to interact 38 with families and the short duration of tutoring may be partly the reason but this finding reminds us to provide psts more experiences working with families (evans, 2013; graue & brown, 2003). conclusion we learned through this inquiry that framing literacy instruction in virtual spaces from the lens of socially just teaching is a complex process (lee, 2011) characterized by personal, contextual, and relational aspects. we highlighted the personal aspects of this process, given the personal backgrounds and past literacy teaching experiences our psts bring into virtual teaching. the process is also contextualized as psts work through different circumstances (e.g., affordances or challenges with technology), different students who also bring in their unique personal and family backgrounds and strengths as literacy learners. finally, the process is also relational as psts try to work along with their peers (co-tutors) in planning and facilitating lessons, establishing good rapport with their students and their families, while also trying to meet course expectations. though our study is limited in scope, we hope the stories outlined here provide a meaningful situated interpretation to nieto’s (2013) words, that socially just literacy teaching in virtual spaces is a lifelong process of transformative practice for psts. references aronson, b., banda, r., johnson, a., kelly, m., radina, r., reyes, g., sander, s., & wronowski, m. 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(2019). knowing teaching poetically. learning landscapes, 12(1), 303-315. https://doi.org/10.36510/learnland.v12i1.995 journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2020 volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. 98-121 how preservice content teacher background qualities influence their attitude and commitment to supporting multilingual learners adam v. agostinelli* 1 & patrick mcquillan1 * corresponding author e-mail: agostiad@bc.edu 1. boston college, boston, ma, usa article info received: june 5, 2020 revised: september 7,2020 accepted: september 25,2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) how to cite agostinelli, a. & mcquillan, p. (2020). how preservice content teacher background qualities influence their attitude and commitment to supporting multilingual learners. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), 98-121. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.12 abstract with the growing number of multilingual learners (mls) in u.s. schools, research relating to effective teacher training methods has gathered increased interest; however, research on how teachers’ background qualities (bqs) influence teaching practices for mls is lacking. in the field of multilingual education, scholars have suggested that certain qualities, particularly cultural and linguistic backgrounds, contribute to effectively accounting for mls in the content classroom and embracing the role of language teacher. in this study we draw upon in-class comments, classroom interactions, targeted interviews, and assignments from teachers-in-training (n=12) throughout one semester in a history teaching methods course to address the following research question: how do prospective teachers’ language-related bqs (i.e. mlrelated education, cultural experiences, language learning experience, and teaching experience) shape how they approach ml-related activities and assignments in a content methods teacher education course? the data indicate that preservice teachers with these bqs were better prepared to embrace their roles as language teachers and tailor lessons for mls than their peers without such bqs. keywords teacher education; multilingual learners; preservice teachers; background qualities; history methods. 10.46303/jcsr.2020.12 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.12 99 introduction with the growing number of multilingual learners (mls)1 in u.s. schools, research relating to effective teacher education methods for working with this population has gathered increased interest (brisk et al., 2014; dicerbo et al., 2014; viesca & teemant, 2019); however, as viesca & teemant (2019) observe, “the existing conceptual and empirical knowledge-base for preparing preand in-service content teachers is still in its infancy.” (p. 371). specifically, in the field of bilingual education scholars have suggested that certain background features, particularly the cultural and linguistic, contribute to teachers effectively accounting for mls in the content classroom (clayton, 2013; jimenez & rose, 2011; lucas & grinberg, 2008) and embracing the role of language teacher (schall-leckrone & mcquillan, 2012). seeking to enrich our understanding of background and contextual factors that shape the ability and inclination of pre-service teachers to work effectively with mls, we undertook a semester-long study of a secondary history methods course we taught in fall, 2019. drawing upon preand post-course surveys, in-class observations, targeted interviews, and assignments from our pre-service teachers (n=12) we address the following research question: ● how do prospective teachers’ language-related background qualities (i.e. education, cultural experiences, language learning experience, and teaching experience) shape how they approach ml-related activities and assignments in a content methods teacher education course? literature review although a growing field, multiple researchers have called for further research on how to prepare preservice content teachers to work with mls (clark & medina, 2000; jimenez & rose, 2010; lucas & grinberg, 2008; marquez-lopez, 2005; sleeter, 2008). several have explored strategies to help content teachers work with mls (anstrom, et al. 2010; brisk, et al. 2014; viesca & teemant, 2019), often focusing on those qualities which are markers of effective teachers of mls (clayton 2013; lucas & grinberg 2008) and proposing that certain background qualities (bqs) intertwine with their ability and inclination to accommodate mls. in a literature review, anstrom and her colleagues (2010) outlined the academic english demands of each subject area, detailing, for instance, how those in history classrooms are unique because of the background context necessary to engage the material as well as the text structures and syntactic features unique to this discipline, all of which complicate challenges faced by mls (short 1994). in a related vein, zwiers (2006) found that mls are more inclined to use academic english and engage in critical thinking when the instructor articulates their thought processes and academic english is “modeled, scaffolded, and practiced in the ways that 1 terms referencing those learning second, third and more languages seem to constantly evolve. we think it is respectful and empowering to describe such persons as “multilingual learners,” so we therefore use this terminology, to highlight the possibility that they may be learning more than one language, and abbreviate references to this population as “mls.” when authors we cite use alternative terms, such as “ells,” we include their specific terminology. 100 historians think about history” (p. 330). thus, academic english needs to be taught in tandem with discipline-specific content and analytic skills. jimenez & rose (2010) identified an additional factor intertwined with teaching mls: preservice teachers who have lived abroad or have in-depth language learning experience seem better prepared to meet the needs of mls, suggesting that preservice teachers lacking such experience engage in field-based research with ml populations (i.e. visiting neighborhoods and collecting materials in different languages) to generate empathy and understanding. additionally, they suggest three strategies content teachers can employ to support mls: identifying language objectives (los), providing accessible content, and connecting lessons to students’ backgrounds. moreover, in a foundational review, lucas & grinberg (2008) specifically focused on preservice and in-service teacher preparation, dedicating considerable attention to teacher background and identity, traits they see as markers of effective teachers of mls. they propose four overarching categories concerning “language-related qualities teachers need for teaching ells” (p. 61): (1) attitudes and beliefs about teaching ells; (2) knowledge for teaching ells; (3) skills for teaching ells; and (4) experiences of teaching ells. in this final category, they highlight that studying a second language and having contact with speakers of languages other than english can enrich teachers’ ability and inclination to teach ells. this final dimension is central to our study, as it directly connects content teachers’ previous experiences and their ability to accommodate mls with their teaching. furthermore, in a study of esl instructors clayton (2013) argued that certain background characteristics were predictors of exemplary teachers of mls—including previous ml teaching, second language learning, and cultural immersion experiences. master et al.’s (2016) research provides further evidence that experiences with mls and ml-related professional learning opportunities can shift attitudes towards teaching this population. as the authors note, “…prior teaching experience teaching ells predicts improvements in novice teacher’s differential instructional effectiveness with ells” (p. 1). offering something of a shift in focus, de jong & harper (2008) emphasize that “standard curriculum teachers need to embrace the role of language teacher” (p. 137), which in practice requires understanding the linguistic demands of their content area (brisk et al., 2014). however, this often proves challenging since most teacher candidates are monolingual english speakers lacking meaningful second language learning experience and having limited interactions with multilingual learners (brisk et al., 2014). multiple studies have also identified the value of having content teachers embrace a commitment to working with language specialists as a marker of an effective teacher of mls (hopkins et al., 2019; lucas & grinberg, 2008; martin-beltran & peercy, 2014; schall-leckrone & mcquillan, 2013; viesca & teemant, 2019). finally, schall-leckrone & mcquillan conducted two previous ml-related studies (2012 and 2013) in the same history methods course observed in this study. in both studies a team of 101 language learning experts infused three modules linked to enriching students’ ability to craft los and related strategies for history lessons into the methods course. in both courses, researchers utilized systematic functional linguistics (sfl) to “do history” and prepare preservice history teachers to account for mls. in this context, “[d]oing history connotes processes historians use to construct knowledge, including sourcing, contextualizing, and corroborating” (hynd, et al. 2004 via schall-leckrone & mcquillan, 2012 p. 247), and sfl addresses the authentic use of language for a specific purpose and audience (fang & schleppegrell, 2008). we see these strategies as similar—attending to matters of context, audience, and language choice—and therefore appropriate for use with mls. results were mixed in both studies. some students embraced the role of language teacher and the importance of incorporating academic los into their lessons, while others seemed confused and frustrated when challenged to embrace this role and integrate what some perceived as an irrelevant, extra burden. in the words of one participant: “honestly, this all means nothing to me until i get into the classroom… i just want to teach” (schall-leckrone & mcquillan, 2012, p. 256). similarly, a general trend revealed that some students felt prepared to teach mls, but a contrary trend emerged in students’ inability to create robust los and integrate sfl analysis into their teaching. as one student noted: “[i]n general, we struggle with . . . language objectives. a lot of us don’t understand the point of them . . . . it’s not something that comes natural to me” (schall-leckrone & mcquillan, 2013, p. 93). in response to these trends, schall-leckrone & mcquillan (2013) called for greater coherence in teacher training programs in terms of closer collaboration between content instructors and language specialists. they also wondered whether expecting novice content teachers to fully embrace the role of language teacher and create effective los for mls was overwhelming: perhaps a more reasonable outcome of infusing ell strategies into a content methods course would be to encourage novice teachers to recognize the complexity of historical language, appreciate their role as language teachers, and develop a repertoire of strategies to scaffold academic language instruction in history classes. (schall-leckrone & mcquillan, 2013, p. 96) these two studies serve as valuable reference points for understanding our research. incorporating ml-related modules into the history methods course began in 2011, and despite the efforts and collaboration of the instructor of the history methods course and language learning experts and professionals at boston college some students still struggled to embrace the role of language teacher nearly 10 years later in our course. we hope that our study supplements this research, as we account for an important variable omitted from these studies: teacher background. perhaps this is the missing piece of the puzzle? could it be that students struggled with the role of language teacher due to a lack of previous language-related background experiences? to address this question, we draw upon established predictors of being a good ml teacher as noted in our literature review (clayton, 2013; lucas & grinberg, 102 2008) and consider how language-related background qualities influenced whether and how preservice history teachers embraced, or distanced, themselves from the role of language teacher. methodology conceptual framework as noted, we view our participants’ multiple standpoints, roles, and realities through the lens of their background qualities (see figure 1 below), an encompassing construct we generated from our reading of the extant literature on connections between preservice teachers’ background qualities and the impact of these qualities on their inclination and ability to embrace practices and ideals linked to teaching mls. figure 1: background qualities, as adapted from lucas & grinberg (2008) to be effective instructors of mls, lucas & grinberg (2008) maintain that teachers need certain language-related background features—which they delineate as experiences, attitudes and beliefs, knowledge, and skills—maintaining that these qualities are often overlooked during teacher education courses. while their constructs serve as a holistic list of language-related qualities necessary to instruct mls, we focus specifically on how pre-existing language-related qualities of pre-service teachers affect their ability to account for mls during a history methods course. as such, two constructs outlined by lucas and grinberg (2008), namely the study of a second language and contact with people who speak languages other than english, directly relate to our conception of pre-existing language-related qualities we term ml-related background qualities (bqs). additionally, in her study of exemplary teachers of mls, clayton (2013) found that a teacher’s background experiences, particularly second language learning 103 experiences, being immersed in a culture other than their own, and the amount of time spent teaching mls, influenced their ability to successfully teach mls. finally, in response to cochransmith & fries’ (2005) call for more research that connects the “baseline knowledge and understandings” that novice teachers bring with them to teacher education courses and what they actually learn, we attempt to make such a connection by observing preservice teachers’ inclass performance in light of these ml-related bqs. adopting the aforementioned qualities from lucas & grinberg (2008) and clayton (2013) we propose the following four categories of relevant bqs: ml-related education, cultural immersion, language learning, and ml-related teaching experience. each construct represents different previous experiences and knowledge students bring into teacher education courses, and we believe all are intertwined with student engagement and ability to enact ml-related coursework. ml-related education. lucas & grinberg (2008), amongst others (brisk, 2015; de jong and harper, 2005; viesca & teemant, 2019), believe content teachers can become effective educators of mls with appropriate learning opportunities. accordingly, we suspect that students in content area courses who already completed formal ml-related coursework are more likely to embrace and effectively enact the role of language teacher than classmates lacking such experience, which often occurs because schools of education structure students’ programs of study so that some enroll in content electives before taking ml-related coursework, thus they have no foundation to build upon. cultural immersion. clayton’s (2013) findings suggest that having cultural immersion experiences can prepare novice educators to become successful teachers of mls. while her study included exemplary teachers who were immersed in foreign nations, we embrace lucas & grinberg’s (2008) more holistic notion of “cultural experience” to include students having significant interaction with speakers of languages other than english, as their findings suggest that increased contact with mls promotes a more positive disposition toward them. this construct, therefore, could be the result of extended periods abroad and encompasses previous contact with ml friends, family members, neighbors, classmates, coworkers, or acquaintances (youngs & youngs, 2001). language learning. lucas & grinberg (2008) and clayton (2013) maintain that significant study of a second language can set a foundation for effectively connecting with and teaching mls. lucas and grinberg (2008) decided that teachers with one or more years of language study in high school or college are more positive about teaching mls, and that such teachers were more adept at identifying difficulties faced by mls and implementing appropriate approaches for teaching language. while there is no widely accepted conclusive level of fluency or amount of time a teacher needs to spend learning a language to develop these skills, such experiences may range from rudimentary language courses taken in high school or college to multiple years of language learning experience. such experiences seem to afford students insight into second language acquisition while helping them appreciate the social challenges faced by ml students. 104 ml-related teaching. clayton (2013) also found that the amount of time teachers spent teaching mls was a marker of successfully educating mls. however, she also maintained that the mere presence of mls in a classroom is not enough; truly successful teachers also spent time reflecting on their work with these students. this construct encompasses previous-teaching experiences with mls and reflection on these experiences. as we later discuss, being aware of these bqs may prove useful for teacher educators who want to help preservice content teachers embrace the role of language teacher. doing so can reveal how these factors influence prospective teachers’ propensity to effectively account for mls in their teaching and it allows instructors to identify the strengths and weaknesses of preservice teachers and respond accordingly. research design this study was conducted during a semester-long course entitled, middle school and secondary history teaching methods, at boston college. a required course for graduate and undergraduate students planning to become secondary history teachers, one core objective is to instill a commitment to history-based pedagogical content knowledge in preservice teachers, emphasizing the process of “doing history” (wineburg, 2001; wineburg & fournier, 2004). however, as noted previously, throughout the last 10 years there has been a growing focus on accommodating the needs of mls—a development attributed largely to the presence of a graduate assistant and faculty colleagues who helped redesign two earlier iterations of the course to make the needs of mls more prominent. in addition, the graduate assistant, laura schall-leckrone, co-taught select classes of the course over those two semesters and, along with the instructor, mcquillan, conducted two longitudinal studies on preparing prospective history teachers to work with mls (schall-leckrone & mcquillan 2012; schall-leckrone & mcquillan 2013). participants our study of how preservice content teacher bqs shape their inclination and ability to support mls in classroom instruction represents a multi-participant case study (n = 12) (stake, 2006) informed by critical socio-cultural theory. from this perspective, all social practices—including one’s likelihood of acknowledging a need to support the instruction of mls and embracing opportunities to learn how to do so—are informed by some set of cultural ideals, beliefs, principles and values (gee, 1996). to generate a cultural understanding of ‘learning to teach mls,’ our study examined the bqs teacher candidates brought to the teacher education program, work they generated during class sessions, and assignments completed as course requirements—all intended to assess the relationship between participants’ cultural, linguistic, pedagogical, and educational bqs and whether and how they engage in activities about and create lessons for mls. we utilize constructivist grounded theory to explore the relationship between novice teacher bqs, their engagement in ml-related class activities, and the curricular and pedagogical 105 strategies they drew upon to support mls in lessons they developed. besides utilizing inductive, simultaneous data collection and analysis, we focused on charmaz’s (2017) contemporary grounded theory constructs concerning: (1) participants’ multiple standpoints, roles, and realities; and (2) the position of this research in its historical and social context. to understand how students approached our course, participants completed a presemester questionnaire focused on their bqs and a post-semester reflection on ml-related takeaways from the course that included additional background questions. (see appendix 1.) we also collected qualitative data throughout the semester during all ml-related class activities. further, using analytic rubrics we evaluated student performance on a range of assessments, including work completed during two classes devoted to helping pre-service teachers generate strategies to support mls in their teaching and those developed for a culminating five-day unit plan that included a section for “supporting all learners” and asked students: “what will you do to ensure success from all students [including] students on individual education plans, english language learners (at a variety of english language levels), and students who may need an extended challenge (emphasis added)?” additionally, two students participated in semistructured interviews the last week of the semester and two participated in informal interviews and an email discussion the following semester. results our data reveal a strong relationship between students’ diverse cultural and linguistic experiences and their ability to commit to engaging in ml-related practices in the history classroom. to varying degrees, students who possessed these bqs were better prepared to embrace their role as language teachers and tailor lessons for mls than peers without such bqs. of the 12 students in our course, we considered three to be exemplary embracers of the role of language teacher, seven to be strugglers who embraced the role of language teacher but were challenged in certain ml-related areas, and two who were distancers and saw the role of language teacher as rather irrelevant to their work as a content area teacher (see figure 2). for each of these categories, we present one student who seems to best embody the nature of that particular category and allows the reader to get a rich sense for what each category looks like in practice. 106 figure 2: embracing the role of language teacher findings explanation embracers three of twelve students were exemplary embracers, actively participating in ml-related in-class activities and consistently creating effective language objectives on lesson plans. strugglers (1) three of twelve students were embracers in terms of actively participating in ml-related in-class activities, but struggled to create language objectives on lesson plans. strugglers (2) four of twelve students were embracers in terms of creating effective language objectives on lesson plans, but struggled to actively participate in ml-related in-class activities. distancers two of twelve students distanced themselves from the role of language teacher in terms of not being able to create effective language objectives on lesson plans and struggling to participate in ml-related in-class activities. embracers three students in this course, categorized as “embracers,” effectively engaged with opportunities to enact the role of language teacher in all related course work, comfortably sharing teaching strategies for mls in class and incorporating relevant los into their lesson planning. examining their bqs reveals that each possessed more background indicators of successful ml teachers than their classmates, though not every one. for example, each had previous experience teaching mls, taking an ml-related education course, and traveling to foreign countries where english was not the primary language. two had notable language learning experiences. one student maintained that he had “limited” spanish proficiency from taking required courses in high school, one had taken advanced placement levels of spanish classes in high school, and the other reported becoming a fluent spanish speaker during college. their in-class comments and written work suggest that their bqs helped them engage with mlrelated themes when others struggled. one embracer, colleen, embodied every bq in our conceptual framework, offering a perspective as to how an exemplary embodiment of the bq framework allows preservice teachers to effectively engage with ml-related materials and activities. ml-related education. unlike many classmates, colleen completed her teaching english language learners certificate at bc prior to taking our course, a state certification which entailed taking two courses focused on “bilingual learners” and working in a school that serves mls. in practice, these courses served as reference points throughout the methods course, “every time something was brought up [ml-related], i would just think, ‘oh, that is connected 107 to something i learned in my other class’ . . . i have a larger context to think about it, or a larger background knowledge.” these course experiences also influenced how she approached teaching mls. during a group lesson planning activity, for example, she noted that she would highlight african american vernacular english (aave) within the song, “changes” by tupac shakur, allowing students to identify unfamiliar words, thereby hoping to empower students who use aave and raising awareness for its status as an english language variant, “i learned that from another class, to know that aave is its own language. and helping [mls] with this definition is important for a lesson like this.” here, previous ml coursework—“i learned that from another class”—helped a preservice teacher embrace the role of language teacher in a content course, explicitly articulating the connection between her educational background and ability to account for mls. in a similar instance, when asked why she used translanguaging in a class with mls, she replied: i learned about it here first [in previous bc bilingualism courses]…. but didn’t know the term for it or the theory behind it. for me, as someone who knows their language [referring to her mls] . . . i can get them to where they need to get to [by translanguaging]. additionally, this experience may have contributed to her developing asset views of her students’ language use, as she reflected on their translanguaging, “i’ve never seen spanglish as a negative thing, i think it shows the depth of language knowledge…. it shows higher order thinking.” these experiences afforded her opportunities to formulate a theoretically-based disposition toward linguistic diversity, thereby contributing to her embracing the role of language teacher. cultural immersion. colleen also had significant experience in a culture where english is not dominant, having studied in spain for a semester during college. while she already spoke competent spanish, this was her first time immersed in an authentic language context, a factor which shaped her teaching philosophy: i studied abroad in spain and had a host mom who didn’t speak any english. that is the experience that has influenced me the most in my teaching…being able to empathize in a way with that position of, ‘you kind of know what i’m saying, but not really because this is not your native language’. . . [s]o my brain was constantly working and there was never a moment of rest… [that experience] let me be cognizant of their [mls] situation. in this account, colleen “empathizes” with challenges ml students face, suggesting how time abroad influenced her perceptions of mls (clayton, 2013; youngs & youngs, 2001). also, judging by her performance in our course, it supports the assertion made by jimenez & rose (2010) that “students who have lived abroad for a significant amount of time . . . are among the students best prepared to become teachers of students who are learning english” (p. 408). language learning. the fact that colleen speaks spanish fluently has also helped her in her practicum: “all of my students speak spanish, which is helpful for me because i have been learning spanish since third grade.” this experience also shaped her teaching: “i’ve seen a 108 variety of ways that people teach spanish to english speakers, so it gives me that flipped perspective of a person who is trying to teach history in english to people who know spanish.” further, these experiences help her avoid practices she considers ineffective: “when i was learning spanish, i didn’t find that kind of repetition and memorization [style of teaching] helpful at all.” ml-related teaching. another influential bq concerned colleen‘s experience in a sheltered english immersion (sei) history course at a nearby high school. as she explained, “because of my practicum, every time i open my mouth when i’m teaching i am thinking about how i can use a word my students will understand.” in a related vein, she noted that incorporating mlrelated material in a content course “is helpful, because just putting that idea in your head is important.” when encountering comparable material during the semester, she could reflect on how it might play out in class; in essence, her teaching experience provided a context to assess practices she found useful, or not, for her lessons. for example, she found the “concept definition map” (echevarria, vogt & short, 2017, p. 87) to be “very helpful for mls,” but decided that a socratic seminar would not be effective in certain circumstances. similarly, during a group language objective activity, colleen suggested allowing students to select words from song lyrics that “stood out,” instead of simply introducing pre-selected vocabulary, the only time a student allowed pupils to identify difficult vocabulary, a common practice in ml classrooms. colleen’s ml teaching experience also provided a foundation from which to join class discussions confidently. while discussing “bridging gaps” and teaching for social justice, for instance, she recounted a successful experience teaching dominican students how to use a venn diagram. with no prompting, she linked her teaching of mls to issues of social justice, further indication of her affirming views on teaching mls. in a lesson on creating los, colleen confidently engaged in ml-related discussions, though other students struggled. after sharing her objective, the instructor asked how she would scaffold it, to which she answered, “usually, i use guiding questions or students use venn diagrams to compare in a more visual way”—her use of the term, “usually” suggesting her ability to draw on experience. these comments suggest colleen could engage course content in ways classmates lacking comparable teaching experience could not. strugglers we categorized seven students as “strugglers.” each embraced the role of language teacher, but struggled with certain ml-related activities. interestingly, these students separated into two subcategories: (1) those who engaged in ml-related in-class activities, but struggled to incorporate ml-related strategies into lesson plans; and (2) those who incorporated ml-related pedagogical strategies in their lessons, but seldom made meaningful contributions during related class activities. during the semester three students fell into the first subcategory of “strugglers.” all three regularly engaged in ml-related discussions and activities, generating much in-class data 109 for this study. they also had some relevant bqs—one having taken an ml-teacher education course the previous summer and completed a pre-practicum in a class with multiple mls; another having many ml classmates and neighbors as a youth. overall, this group willingly engaged with ml-related materials and activities in class, yet they struggled to create formal los when lesson planning. one struggler, jeff, expressed frustration with incorporating linguistic scaffolds for mls but continually displayed a commitment to accommodating mls, as manifest in his eagerness to participate in ml-related in-class activities and ml-related discourse. his bqs reveal a mix that could explain his strong performance in certain areas and difficulty in others. cultural immersion. jeff grew up in a linguistically diverse town, having spanish-speaking friends, classmates, and neighbors. he believes his related interactions influenced how he will approach teaching mls: my hometown is close to 40% puerto rican… i was always hearing spanish growing up. . . . so i’m not going to be taken off guard if there are students who don’t speak english in my classes. . . my most vivid memory of [elementary school] was the teacher being frustrated by two girls speaking spanish in the back. he went on to say he would not mind students using their home language in his classes, suggesting a link between previous experiences with mls and his inclination to engage with mlrelated activities during our course. language learning. two salient language-related experiences appeared to shape how jeff viewed teaching mls, perhaps the most influential being his experience growing up with a learning disability. though exempt from taking a second-language class in high school because he struggled with spelling and grammar in english, his consequent predicament led him to empathize with students challenged to grasp language-related content: “i feel like i can help els because i have a learning disability and know what it’s like to sit in a class and have no idea what the teacher is saying.” comparably, when required to take a language class in college, this too enriched his empathy for those with linguistic challenges, “i got the whole perspective of sitting in a language class and not knowing what the teacher was talking about.” this sense of empathy for mls carried over into jeff’s classroom performance. for instance, when the instructor showed the class a ppt slide with an historical excerpt and asked, “why is this hard for bilingual learners?” jeff commented, “the names are difficult. like ‘lincoln’…. they might be like: ‘who is that?’” a fine observation from someone with no teaching experience, and revealing instance of how this particular student consistently strove to engage in conversations concerning mls. ml-related education and teaching. at the time of our study, jeff had no school-based experience with mls, but noted, “i substitute taught a few classes with mls in them.” he also had limited ml-related coursework prior to this history methods course: “i took an education class in my undergrad…. it was like, ‘you read [an article about bilingual learners], so you should know it.’” he recalled no discussions or practical teaching strategies discerned from the course. the ml-focused lessons in our course were his first exposure to multilingual education. 110 on two occasions, jeff struggled to create los. in the first, as noted earlier, students analyzed a lesson plan from a former student, seeking to adapt the lesson for mls. the ensuing discussion introduced students to the song, “changes” by tupac shakur. in groups, an embracer explained that the song uses aave, and that students, mls in particular, would need help interpreting lyrics. jeff immediately distanced himself from this undertaking, seeing the process of adapting the lesson for mls as a problem, not a means to enrich the activity: i never even thought of any of the things you are talking about when i was looking at this lesson plan [referring to the use of aave]. i would never do this lesson with mls. this song is way too hard. during another class, jeff questioned the need to create los at all. after outlining potential los in group work with classmates, jeff summarized his thinking, “your language objectives are not as important as the way you actually introduce language objectives in the class”— characterizing lesson planning as an administrative requirement not a reflection of what “really” happens in schools, again distancing himself from the role of language teacher. strugglers ii contrasted with the previous example, the four other strugglers were embracers in terms of creating effective los on lesson plans, but made few meaningful contributions during class activities, a development we link to their bqs. indeed, some students may appear disinterested in ml-related activities, but have difficulty engaging the material because of a lack of immediately accessible ideas. ml-related education and teaching. for linda, this was her first semester taking any educationrelated course. she even mentioned being “terrified” about participating in a course where other students either had teaching experience or were graduate students: “[i]t was challenging to speak up both because i struggled to apply the experiences i've had in my own classroom experiences and volunteering a few times a week at [a local public school] to our class activities.” besides french and spanish classes in high school, she had no significant language learning experience. in most classes, she had little to say, but clearly paid attention, internalizing many ml-related concepts and practices from class and, with time, creating excellent los with corresponding scaffolding on her lesson plans, a topic discussed later when we outline objectives students created for a culminating unit plan each developed. distancers we categorized two students who seldom embraced the role of language teacher as “distancers,” as they largely disengaged from assuming the role of language teacher, judging by their difficulty with, or avoidance of, ml-related discourse as well as their struggles to incorporate los into their lesson planning. viewed through the lens of their bqs reveals that these students had few previous experiences considered indicators of exemplary ml teachers; only one had more than one bq. yet they did not completely disregard all ml-related activities; in fact, at times both showed encouraging signs—contributing to ml-related class discussions 111 early in the semester. nonetheless, these students likely struggled with ml-related course features, at least partly, because they lacked bqs that would otherwise motivate them to engage with materials and opportunities in meaningful ways. ml-related education and teaching. one of the more salient comments from this group came during a discussion on los during the final class. the speaker, carl, was in a full-practicum with no mls in his courses, nor in any previous classrooms in which he taught. when asked which los he would use in his unit plan, he replied, “we don’t do language objectives at my school. i feel like teaching mls and language objectives is something that just gets swept under the rug [in his school].” carl also expressed skepticism about enacting effective los as well as teaching mls: i don’t think it’s something you can just learn quickly in a class. you need to be super qualified to teach those students. there is no way i am qualified to teach them. i don’t even speak a lick of spanish. so, when we talk about doing los and we write them, it’s like i am in no way qualified to actually use them. . . . it is totally different in a real class and just making them on a lesson plan. in his remarks, carl connected his lack of bqs—no foreign language fluency, no experience teaching mls—with his inability to embrace the role of language teacher. even creating los in a lesson plan would in no way prepare him to enact those objectives in an actual lesson. this sense that los were not a requirement in an authentic school setting, validated by his full-time teaching position, likely contributed to distancing himself from ml-related coursework, as it seemed inapplicable to his current, real world teaching situation. unit plan language objectives the culminating assignment for this course required students to create a five-day unit plan on some historical topic. offering another perspective on the ability and inclination of students to create los to support mls we present sample language objectives students from all three groups created for their unit plans. the lesson plan format (generated by the boston college practicum office for all content methods courses) asks students to “choose 3 examples of support from the list [of possible language supports] and explain in detail the differentiation [enacted for your lesson].” for each student we selected sample los that represented the most robust “examples of support” each created. embracers the ml-supportive los presented by the embracers each include at least three different manifestations of linguistic support, all aligned with lesson objectives. specific strategies entail “doing history” or systemic functional linguistics (daniello, et al., 2014; wineburg, 1991), the use of graphic organizers (hall & strangman, n.d.), creating word banks, using a concept definition map (echevarria, vogt & short, 2017, p. 87), employing artful thinking routines (tishman & palmer, 2006), or embracing a topic linked to issues of 112 social justice as motivation for engagement (teemant & hausman, 2013). notably, individual language objective examples we include entail at least three means of supporting mls learning. morgan’s lesson, a study of early twentieth century feminism that critically examined the treatment of “flappers” in u.s. society, offered students varied ways to participate in class discussion: i will put sentence stems on the board to offer ways students can participate if they are nervous. . . . discussion questions will be collected, so if a student feels nervous to participate, i still know they engaged with the video. . . . focused on an individual student, colleen customized her instruction for that student’s needs: i have one student who struggles to write due to a disability so after i instruct students on how to complete the activity. . . . i will circulate throughout the room but spend time working with her specifically so she can verbally answer the questions. . . . charles drew on the practices of systemic functional linguistics to “do history”, integrating that with aspects of artful thinking: students will explain that african americans were protesting the systemic oppression that stemmed from jim crow laws and will ‘do history’ . . . by completing a beginning-middle-end artful thinking activity relating to select images from the movement. to create effective accommodation strategies for mls the lo supports implemented by embracers integrated varied scaffolding strategies, all aligned with the overarching objectives. strugglers this group included students committed to enriching the learning of mls by drawing on los during in-class activities but were ineffective in doing so for the unit plan. they have valuable insights to offer and willingly share them, but need time and experience to enrich their understanding of ml-related pedagogies. jeff, for instance, included the following in his unit plan on the separation of powers in the federal government: “students will be provided guided notes and graphic organizers to fill out during the lesson and use as a reference.” the lesson included no examples of guided notes and the graphic organizer used for all five lessons had the same image of the three branches of government with arrows suggesting how power might be divided among them. students were told, “over the course of the unit, label the arrows with the appropriate checks and balances.” frank, who focused his unit on world war ii, sought to get students to “write and verbalize their thoughts when looking at images from pearl harbor” by asking students to “write down their 10 x 2,” an artful thinking routine in which students record their first ten reactions to a photo, reflect on their choices, and then reflect a second 113 time with ten more reactions. the associated objective seemed vague, noting that students should “be able to verbally share.” in a unit on causes of the civil war, matt asked students to select five terms from a “list of concepts” and complete concept definition maps for each. these graphic organizers offer a rich way to understand important vocabulary but connection to any los were unclear. overall, their strategies offered limited scaffolding toward any specific los. jeff’s highlighted the fact that the three branches of government possess differing powers but asked students to do no higher order thinking nor synthesize or evaluate any data sources beyond placing them in the correct structural context. frank’s 10 x 2 strategy asked students to describe powerful images from pearl harbor but offered no opportunity to reflect upon their decisions beyond “writing and verbalizing their thoughts.” matt’s strategy helped students grasp important vocabulary terms that were central to work done in his unit, with little sense for how they might be used in the lesson. a second group of four strugglers were committed to integrating los into their unit plans but offered few meaningful contributions to related class activities. sean’s unit plan offered mls the following supports to develop notetaking skills: “writing and drawing notes; modeling the note taking process; and individual check-ins during note taking,” all of which seem as though they would enrich students’ note taking skills. gina’s most compelling strategy blended two relevant practices, sentence stems and graphic organizers: “ml students will receive a sentence stem and/or graphic organizer depending on their proficiency for understanding the reading,” two strategies with the potential to scaffold mls’ learning. linda integrated a graphic organizer with an artful thinking routine to “do history”: “students will complete a think/puzzle/explore graphic organizer including a copy of the image (the original historical source), which is a helpful tool for ‘doing history’ [in a lesson on ‘bleeding kansas.’].” the final student in this group, sam, blended a translanguaging strategy with a word bank and graphic organizer to help students connect the atlantic slave trade with columbus’ arrival in the new world: support [students’] access to content by providing . . . graphic organizers, complementary vocabulary, [and] alternative definitions and concepts in [students’] native language, utilizing their native language to develop their literacy skills. these examples are strong; however, in class activities these students offered few ideas when conceptualizing how history teachers might help mls enrich their language proficiency. distancers during the semester, these students seldom engaged in ml-related class discussions or exercises. their efforts to create “three examples of support” for mls with their unit plans were limited. carl’s most extensive enactment of los included the following: sentence starters for comprehension questions 114 vocabulary graphic organizers individual prints for paul revere’s engraving though potentially rich ideas, his description included no more information, no examples of sentence starters nor relevant graphic organizers. a second distancer, george, had los for one lesson over five days. it allowed students choice of the form each lesson resource might take: students will have hard copies of the primary sources, as well as having the sources projected on the large screen in the front of their class and have an opportunity to access the sources via their cell phones. students may choose which method works best. overall, these examples offer three insights: first, the embracers, as during the semester, created rich and relevant los. the strugglers, building on what they had done during the semester and given the time and opportunity to create los, also did a fine job. and third, the distancers continued to show little interest in creating los for their lessons. discussion educational significance for us, the most notable finding from this study is that over half our class fell into either the strugglers or distancers categories, as students’ words and actions, to varying degrees, disengaged them from responsibility for helping mls grasp the language of historical analysis, not unlike what occurred in two previous studies of this course where students “had difficulty actually creating language objectives for the unit plan assignment” (schall-leckrone & mcquillan, 2013, p. 93). by disaggregating students into three conceptual groupings— embracers, strugglers, and distancers—various pedagogical and curricular implications become apparent. to begin, with the strugglers in mind, instructors need to recognize that difficulties students have with ml-related concepts and practices may not reflect inadequate effort but rather a lack of relevant experiences to draw upon when asked to contribute during class or when crafting los for a lesson plan. as students typically have differencing structures/arrangements to their programs of study, including ml-related coursework, they will likely bring diverse experiences and understandings to your class—including whether they have taught mls or taken a course aimed at enriching their ability to teach mls. in your teaching, instructors may want to encourage students who have taught mls or taken ml-related coursework to introduce ideas from other courses or their teaching into your class. ask them to go beyond your syllabus. for less experienced students, offer scaffolds such as think-pair-shares or concept definition maps, that will enable them to complete relatively straightforward mlrelated practices that can still generate rich understandings and serve as a foundation for later growth. know who these students are and be prepared to support them. in another manifestation of how differing programs of study may impact student performance, instructors should keep in mind that in group activities students with more significant bqs, such as having already taken coursework linked to teaching mls or actually having taught ml students. with such background experiences to draw upon, these students 115 may dominate discussion and restrict participation by classmates, especially if those students question the very relevance of attending to the needs of mls. when groups “report out,” you may actually only hear the ideas of stronger students. in our course, when students developed los in group work, only one student from each group presented the los to class, all of which were fine. in retrospect, only some students, typically stronger students, spoke about creating los. allowing all students to discuss teaching los would help instructors better understand which students grasp this critical skill and identify potential strugglers early on. to address such bq-related concerns, schools of education could strive to make the teacher education system more “coherent”, that is, ensure students receive similar or at least complementary messages across teacher education course work (mcquillan, welch, & barnatt, 2012). as presently constituted, the teacher education program requires students to take two courses on pedagogical and contextual issues linked to working with mls. however, there is no requirement as to when courses are taken. ml-related coursework can occur before methods courses, after methods courses, or both before and after methods coursework, a development we suspect is common beyond boston college. as a consequence, when students take content methods courses, they may have had two semesters of ml-related course work or none, and as we aimed to convey, this factor can shape how students respond when addressing the needs of mls. with this issue in mind, faculty could administer an introductory survey in each relevant course—those focused on working with mls or content area coursework—to assess students’ teaching-related skills, including their facility with supporting mls language growth. this survey, which could be collectively designed by teacher education faculty, might identify a check list of practices and allow students to signal where they feel confident in their pedagogical skills and where they need additional support. faculty could tailor instruction to students’ specific bqs. students who already have strategies for teaching vocabulary, could move on to more challenging practices, such as ‘doing history’ (wineburg, 1991) or artful thinking routines (tishman & palmer, 2006). those with fewer bqs may need additional supports. an introductory survey could target their needs. moreover, helping students understand how their bqs shape their instructional practices would offer students insight into the nature of how teaching practices emerge and evolve, in and of itself a powerful lesson. as became apparent in reviewing students’ unit plans, we never pushed them to go beyond their existing understanding of los. we exposed them to varied instructional practices and related theoretical foundations but never required, nor even strongly encouraged, them to develop facilities across a range of strategies. most ml-related practices were acceptable, though an overreliance on certain practices might inhibit our students’ growth. the impact of this oversight was evident with their unit plans as students drew on a limited repertoire of strategies, with every student using some los multiple times, suggesting that all three groups—embracer, strugglers, and distancers—had limited repertoires to draw upon. certainly, redundancy can reinforce central ideas and practices, but encouraging 116 students to explore new forms of los can enrich their long-term teaching skills. a quick survey of students at a semester’s outset could help faculty identify students’ skills and shortcomings. having faculty collectively design the survey could enhance faculty understanding and ability to modify what each other do in their courses regarding los for mls, ideally enhancing the likelihood students receive a well-rounded understanding of strategies for working with mls. often, pedagogical and curricular innovations initially target specific student groups and needs, a classic example being that universal design for learning (rose & meyer, 2006) was conceptualized initially to aid special needs students. now, it is understood as a means to enrich all students’ learning. we believe the same holds true with creating los for mls. what history lesson doesn’t involve los? and what teachers and students, regardless of their linguistic backgrounds, would not benefit from having relevant los integrated into lessons? as our study reveals, some students need to be convinced of the relevance of creating los for their lessons. as seems evident in the culminating unit plans, when teachers do integrate explicit los into every lesson, it clarifies the nature of those los as well as the means by which they will be assessed, thereby potentially benefiting all students, regardless of linguistic background. in this sense, los become a means to enact social justice, a common priority for teacher education programs nationwide. conclusion given this study, we maintain that content teacher candidates’ background has a substantial effect on their ability to enact practices that will enrich the learning of mls in history methods courses and to embrace the role of language teacher. we intend this study to contribute to understanding the currently uncertain relationship between teachers’ backgrounds and effective and inclusive teaching techniques, in terms of accounting for mls in the content classroom. in future iterations of this course, it would seem logical to allow time for preservice teachers to read this manuscript and reflect on their own bqs and the impact those experiences might have on their course performance. ideally, understanding this relationship could facilitate preservice teacher engagement with ml-related activities and thereby lead them to internalize ml-related pedagogical techniques and understandings while offering insight into their personal process of professional growth. potentially, drawing on these insights will allow our students to embrace the role of language teacher, which can empower them to develop and implement pedagogical strategies for working with mls in an authentic classroom setting. one final point is crucial to our analysis: we needed to listen more to students. we made ml-related pedagogical practices and los central to our course. yet when trying to create relevant los some students were confused. further, at times a sense of disinterest regarding the education of mls was palpable but never addressed. given these developments and outcomes from the previous two studies of this course, the need for respecting students’ point of view and opportunities for them to stop and reflect now seem quite evident. we should have engaged students in a collective analysis of our course, with a focus on concerns linked to 117 teaching mls. we should have talked with those who felt confident using los and explicitly drawn on their experience to enrich the work other students produced. beyond its pedagogical value, this would have been a wonderful opportunity to model respect and inquiry in the classroom for all students. references american council on education. www.acenet.edu brisk, m. e., homza, a., & smith, j. 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(1991). on the reading of historical texts: notes on the breach between school and academy. american educational research journal, 28(3): 495–519. zwiers, j. (2006). integrating academic language, thinking, and content: learning scaffolds for non-native speakers in the middle grades. journal of english for academic purposes, 5(4), 317–332. 120 appendix 1 background questions (beginning of semester) general questions 1. what is your major? _____________________________________________________ 2. where are you from? (country / city / town) _________________________________ 3. what are the names of the 2 previous educational institutions that you attended? a. ______________________________________________ b. ______________________________________________ teaching background (general) 1. briefly describe your teaching experience. (position? institution? course? age of student? how long? etc.) 2. what do you consider your strong points as a teacher? 3. which areas do you feel that you need to improve upon as a teacher? teaching background (bilingual learners) 1. briefly describe your experience teaching bilingual learners (which school(s)? how many students? where were they from? etc.) 2. reflecting on your experience with bilingual learners, do you have any memories of specific difficulties you faced? or ways you altered your lessons because of these students? linguistic background 1. do you know any other languages? please describe your language learning experience and level of ability for each language. (even if it is just a few phrases in a specific language, please make a note of it.) cultural background & travel experience 1. what is your race/ethnicity? 2. would you say that you have a culturally diverse background? (i.e. how diverse was the place you grew up? the schools you attended? the jobs you have had? etc.) 3. have you ever been abroad? (where? how long? why?) 121 course reflection questions (end of semester) general information: 1. prior to this course, did you take any course(s) where the curriculum focused on teaching bilingual learners? which course(s)? what are some examples of topics you covered in the course(s)? 2. have you had any additional teaching experience since the beginning of this semester (since august 2019)? if so, please describe in some detail (position, course, age of students, duties, etc.) 3. which type of teaching position do you hope to get in the future? please answer the following questions about the class 1. do you feel that you became a better teacher this semester? please describe. (i.e. which specific areas or skills) 2. do you feel that you are more prepared to teach bilingual learners? please describe. 3. which activities, readings, or assignments do you feel will be the most helpful for teaching bilingual learners in the future? 4. do you anticipate any difficulties teaching bilingual learners in your future teaching positions? please be specific. 5. are there any difficulties with teaching bilingual learners that you feel you will not encounter in your future teaching position(s) because of something you learned in this class? please be specific. 6. do you have any questions regarding bilingual learners that went unanswered this semester? further reflection: teacher identity and teaching bilingual learners 1. how do you feel your personal background (i.e. education, hometown, work experience, etc.) influenced how you accounted for bilingual learners during this class? (i.e. during assignments or class activities) please give an example. 2. do you feel that your identity (in terms of race, ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, etc.) influenced how you accounted for bilingual learners during this class? (i.e. during assignments or class activities) please give an example. 3. do you feel that your previous language learning experience influenced how you accounted for bilingual learners during the course? how so? 4. do you feel that your previous experience(s) abroad or in a different culture(s) influenced how you accounted for bilingual learners during the course? how so? journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2020 volume: 2 issue: 2 pp. 144-169 “ever wondered what schizophrenia was?”: students’ digital storytelling about mental disorders deoksoon kim1 & fang jia2 1. corresponding author boston college, lynch school of education & human development, chestnut hill, ma, usa e-mail: deoksoon.kim@bc.edu 2. shanghai experimental school, middle school department, shanghai, china article info received: june 30, 2020 revised: august 4, 2020 accepted: september 25, 2020 this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the cc by 4.0 international license. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) how to cite kim, d., & jia, f. (2020). “ever wondered what schizophrenia was?”: students’ digital storytelling about mental disorders. journal of curriculum studies research, 2(2), 144-169. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.14 abstract digital storytelling is a short form of multimedia production that can foster digital literacy and facilitate subject matter learning. this study describes how middle school students learned about mental health by composing digital stories, showing how this also influenced their attitudes toward mental health in their own lives. using a qualitative multiple-case method, we explored three immigrant students’ digital storytelling in a psychology class. we use a visual grammar derived from systemic functional linguistics to analyze their digital stories, examining representational, relational, configurational, and social functions. our analysis shows how students chose design elements to reflect their learning about and reactions to mental illness. we analyze how students projected relationships with the audience and how these projected relationships both reflected and influenced their learning and personal development. we conclude that digital storytelling can be an excellent pedagogical tool that allows students to engage both in subject matter learning and self-reflection. keywords middle school, bilingual learners, digital storytelling 10.46303/jcsr.2020.14 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2020.14 145 introduction in america’s increasingly diverse classrooms, teachers must meet the needs of students from heterogeneous backgrounds. immigrant students, and many children of immigrants, face challenges due to linguistic and cultural differences. in this article, we focus on how teachers can better address one particular challenge that immigrant students face. many cultures stigmatize mental health disorders, which makes it difficult for people to seek help. how can teachers serve students from these cultural backgrounds, being respectful of their beliefs while also helping them to see the realities of mental health disorders and the positive potential of mental health treatment? we show how teachers can use the educational technology of digital storytelling to help immigrant students learn about mental health. ever since youtube began, people have been generating vast amounts of digital content. every day, millions compose slide shows, digital brochures, videos, web sites, podcasts, blogs, and other digital content. much of this content is used for entertainment, but it also has substantial potential for education. digital storytelling is one popular format, one which teachers can use to help students learn subject matter and also address personal challenges. by digital storytelling we mean 2-to-5-minute multimedia movies that combine visuals such as pictures, images, animation, text, and audio like music and narrative voiceover (kim & li, 2020). digital storytelling facilitates personal expression and is a versatile tool for teaching and learning. through this modern expression of the art of storytelling, students can learn about new areas, develop their own voice, and engage with otherwise difficult issues (rule, 2010). recently, digital storytelling has become a popular tool for teachers in the k-12 classroom (kingsley et.al, 2019; niemi & multisilta, 2015; yang & wu, 2012). nilsson (2010), for example, describes a 9-year boy with reading and writing challenges who used the narrative and multimodal affordances of digital storytelling to develop his own voice and become more deeply engaged in learning. angay-crowder, choi and yi (2013) analyzed a summer program for multilingual middle school students, concluding that a digital storytelling curriculum “can be particularly powerful for multilingual adolescents as it permits them to reflect on and recreate their multilingual and multicultural lives and identities ” (p. 44). digital storytelling has been found to enhance subject matter learning because it offers students an alternative, multimodal pathway for meaning-making (honeyford, 2013; lantolf, 2000; swain, kinnear, & steinman, 2015). digital storytelling can be particularly useful with subject matter that connects to students’ own experiences and requires deep involvement. it can provide opportunities for students to explore subject matter that has particular meaning or might otherwise be difficult. in this study, we explore firstand second-generation immigrant middle school students learning about mental health using digital stories. mental health can be difficult to teach about, because the subject can be upsetting and threatening, especially to adolescents, and especially to students from cultures where mental illness is not typically talked about. digital stories, as a medium, allow middle school students to learn, express themselves, and articulate their own 146 voices, and we show how this can facilitate their engagement with curriculum about mental health. it would thus be useful for beginning teachers to have digital storytelling as one pedagogical tool that can benefit immigrant students. teaching mental health through digital storytelling as a teaching and learning tool, digital stories extend the genre of personal narrative. lambert (2013) described them as an expressive form available to anyone and offers comprehensive guidelines for how teachers can use them. robin (2019) showed how digital stories can be used to inform and instruct, cataloging 10 elements of digital-story composition: (a) the overall purpose of the story; (b) the narrator’s point of view; (c) a dramatic question or questions; (d) the choice of content; (e) clarity of voice; (f) the pacing of the narrative; (g) the use of a meaningful audio soundtrack; (h) the quality of the images, video, and other multimedia elements; (i) economy of story detail; and (j) good grammar and language use. by attending to these different dimensions and scaffolding students’ work on them, teachers can take advantage of the power digital stories can have for facilitating student learning and engagement. teachers sometimes design digital-story assignments for english-as-a-second-language (esl) classes and immigrant students (angay-crowder, choi, & yi, 2013; emert, 2014; green, inan, & maushak, 2014; honeyford, 2013). prior research has documented how student-driven digital-story projects can be effective and engaging for english language learners. green et al. (2014), for example, documented how the integration of student-generated videos into esl classrooms can encourage language production. skinner and hagood (2008) described a digitalstory project that allows students to explore, express, and reflect on the evolution of their sociocultural identities and individual lives. most studies of english language learners, however, focus on students’ language and identity development and not on their acquisition of subject matter knowledge. children of immigrants face acculturation challenges and disproportionate suffering from mental disorders (caballero et al., 2017). some also come from cultures and societies in which mental health is rarely discussed. learning about mental disorders can be crucial for these students, helping them to be aware of their own mental health, to understand the causes of disorders, and to manage their own and others’ mental health problems more effectively. despite various programs on social-emotional skills, positive self-image, and behavioral adjustments (sklad, diekstra, de ritter, & ben, 2012), most middle schools do not offer psychology courses. in high schools, psychology courses are usually designed to help students enter psychology majors in universities (ernest & petrossian, 1996). this is unfortunate, particularly for immigrant students facing challenging situations or dealing with trauma, because psychology could facilitate self-understanding and perhaps reduce stress. since such 147 courses are so rarely offered, there is no research on how to integrate digital storytelling to help immigrant students learn psychology. employing digital stories in psychology courses could increase students’ awareness of mental disorders and provide content-specific knowledge. furthermore, multimodal formats like digital stories that involve modes of meaning making and representation (baldry & thibault, 2006) can provide english language learners various forms of access, thus overcoming some of the linguistic disadvantages that they face in monolingual classrooms. this study explores one classroom in which english language learners were given an opportunity to learn about the psychology of mental health through digital stories. in addition to describing this unusual teaching of mental health content to middle schoolers using digital stories, we also implement an innovative approach to analyzing digital stories as data. digital stories are challenging, complex objects for empirical analysis, because they include several modalities that work together (baldry & thibault, 2006). they represent “a different system of signification” (honeyford, 2013, p. 17), one that not only supports students’ comprehension but also empowers them to research, experience, and imagine (castañeda, 2013). the complexity of this medium creates methodological challenges. in response, we have designed a framework to analyze digital stories, drawing on contemporary work in systemic functional linguistics and related fields (jewitt, 2009; kress and van leeuwen, 2006; martinec and salway, 2005; painter, martin, & unsworth, 2013; unsworth, 2001). we apply this framework to analyzing how middle school students used digital storytelling to understand subject matter in mental health, asking the following questions: 1. how do middle school students from immigrant families experience learning about mental health through digital stories? 2. what are middle school students’ design choices while composing digital stories? 3. how do middle school students articulate their understandings of and attitudes about mental health through digital stories? methods employing qualitative multiple-case methods (merriam, 2009), we explored three immigrant students’ digital storytelling experiences in a psychology class. we also examined their use of visual grammar in composing their digital stories, adopting a systemic functional linguistic approach to understand the resources that they used (kress & van leeuwen, 2006; painter et al., 2013; serafini, 2015; unsworth, 2001). the capstone program st. corus school (a pseudonym) is a private catholic school in the northeastern united states. about 40% of students come from immigrant families. we gathered data in a 3-week capstone program. this program offered sixth and seventh grade students’ a choice among six subjects: psychology, arts, science/engineering, career, math in cooking, and virtual reality. psychology 148 was the most popular subject. this program used project-based learning (pbl), engaging students in realistic projects related to the subject matter (gülbahar & tinmaz, 2006). each psychology student chose one mental disorder among the many options offered by the teacher and conducted research. students created a short digital story to introduce their concept to others and to demonstrate their understanding of it. ms. bora (a pseudonym), the school counselor, led the psychology project. a researcher worked closely with the teacher and the students to help with the projects, and also took observation notes. the procedure for developing the program included five steps: 1. planning: teachers and research team members met and developed a central question and detailed plans for each project, focusing on how the subject matter connected to students’ interests and experiences. students signed up for one of 6 subjects: psychology, arts, science/engineering, career, math in cooking, and virtual reality. 2. training: the research team leader conducted a digital storytelling workshop for teachers. the workshop focused on definitions of and methods for composing digital stories. the steps include 1) the place of stories in our lives, 2) digital storytelling, 3) the story circle, 4) scripting and storyboarding, 5) assembling the story, and 6) sharing and celebration. 3. fieldtrip: ms. bora took a fieldtrip with students to a women’s hospital to learn about mental health issues. 4. composition: each student composed a digital story. students used voicethread or wevideo to compose digital stories on the topics they chose (i.e., depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia). 5. sharing and celebration: students shared their digital stories and provided feedback to each other. students seven students (all female) participated in the psychology capstone project. we purposefully selected (merriam, 2009) three of them to participate in the study (see table 1). all were first or second-generation immigrant students. they volunteered for the study and signed consent forms. 149 table 1 demographic information of participants grade born in first language home language technology digital story topic molly 7 us english swahili & english voicethread bipolar disorder jenny 6 china chinese chinese voicethread depression kate 7 us spanish spanish wevideo schizophrenia molly, explorer molly was an african american seventh grader born in the united states. her parents immigrated from kenya and speak swahili at home. she understands swahili, but she did not speak it well. molly was a snapchat, instagram, and google slides and docs user, but never a video maker. in this project, she used voicethread to present her topic, and she enjoyed the freedom of choice afforded her while composing her story about “bipolar disorder.” jenny, critical user jenny was a sixth grader who came from china to live with her father in the united states three years prior to this study. her mother was still in china. she learned to use voicethread to complete a project on “depression.” she regularly used instagram, snapchat, and youtube on her phone, and she often used a chromebook and google drive for her schoolwork. she was a skillful user of technological tools. kate, avid user kate, a u.s.-born seventh grader, spoke spanish at home and learned english as a second language. kate’s parents were immigrants from bolivia. she was an experienced video editor, often editing video and posting on youtube. kate considered herself technology savvy. she was comfortable using a variety of digital visual tools, including imovie, filmora, picmonkey, wevideo, and voicethread. for this project, she chose wevideo to introduce “schizophrenia.” data collection we collected four kinds of data during the 3-week year-end capstone project period in spring 2017. our goal was to understand how teachers can use digital storytelling to engage diverse students with personally challenging subject matter. we collected data using 1) observation, 2) two semi-structured interviews, 3) digital stories, and 4) researchers’ journals. 1) observations: as a participant observer, a research team member observed the entire implementation period for 3 weeks and took detailed observation notes. 2) two semi-structured interviews: we asked open-ended, semi-structured interview questions about three topics at the end of the program: (a) background information; (b) design choices for each slide; and (c) reflection and future considerations. 150 3) digital stories: all students created a digital story in the program using tools of each student’s choice, and we analyzed their final products. 4) researcher’s journals: the observer wrote a researcher’s journal, which included students’ performances and class activities and elaborated the observation notes in detail. the researcher also wrote in her reflective journal after every class session during the research period. data analysis in order to explore students’ experiences and learn about students’ design choices, we performed two types of data analysis: qualitative case-study analysis and multimodal analysis. to answer research question 1, we analyzed interview data, observations, and the researcher’s reflective journals using a qualitative multiple-case method. we followed three steps. first, we analyzed the data using coding categories derived from the literature (e.g., project-based, experience, composition of digital stories, etc.) as well as inductive open coding (lincoln & guba, 1985) -creating new codes like, for example, eye contact, anxiety, relationships. second, we did axial coding, in which related codes are put into subcategories (e.g., choices of images, audio and visual relationships) and then combined to form new thematic categories (e.g., representational, interpersonal, compositional, and sociocultural aspects). we reviewed emerging concepts and clustered them with similar concepts. third, we compared new themes across the three students. for example, we calculated the number of “everyday” images used by the three students to see if this kind of image was commonly adopted. to answer research questions 2 and 3, we analyzed students’ digital stories and the interview data. we have developed a systematic approach to analyzing digital stories. we build on unsworth’s (2001) analysis of multimodal texts, which is based on halliday’s (2014) systemic functional linguistic analysis. we modified the framework so that it applies to digital stories. we focus on four functions of the signs used in digital stories: representational, relational, configurational, and sociocultural (kim & li, 2020). representational structures verbally and visually present the nature of events, the objects and participants involved, and the circumstances in which they occur. relational signs communicate the nature of relationships among speakers and listeners, writers and readers, and viewers and the viewed, as well as among participants in visual representations. configurational meanings are concerned with the distribution of information among elements of the text, images, and audio elements. drawing on serafini (2015), we included a sociocultural function as well. this includes the author’s personal background and the social context, as these are represented in multimodal artifacts, including the sociocultural contexts that led to the author’s subjective views. table 2 presents our comprehensive analytical framework for digital stories. 151 table 2 analytical framework for digital stories construct multimodal element elements of construct representational visual: everyday images technical images audio (non-linguistic) written language oral language relational contact demand offer social distance close-up medium long-shot configurational information zone left–right top–bottom center–margin salience size color audio–visual relationship elaboration extension projection enhancement sociocultural construct context history values politics we applied our analytical framework to the students’ digital stories, attending to various types of signs (visuals, audio, texts), developing a detailed analysis of their digital-story compositions. first, we analyzed the students’ digital stories by breaking them into slides, sorting them for patterns, and coding them based on our framework. we also incorporated maton and doran’s (2017) distinction between everyday and technical images, to understand the connection between a multimodal artifact and its sociocultural background, as well as martinec and salway’s (2005) insights into text–image relationships (see table 2). with respect to the first function, we examined representational communication in the digital stories, focusing on four modes: visual, nonlinguistic audio, written language, and oral language (see table 3). within the visual mode, we divided the various images into kinds: (a) 152 everyday images, where “meanings are not given by their location within such specialized domains but rather through their usage in commonplace practices and contexts” (maton & doran, 2017, p. 58); (b) technical images, where “meanings are given by their location within a specialized domain of social practice” (maton & doran, 2017, p. 58). for example, in the students’ work, we sorted everyday images into four main categories: field trips, real people and objects, cartoon figures, and symbolic icons that are commonly used in daily life. technical images are, for example, those used to illustrate academic or professional topics. we also reviewed the audio. audio consists of voiceover (a form of oral text) and music (nonlinguistic audio; see table 4). additionally, we reviewed written language (e.g., text), and oral language (e.g., voiceover). we explore how students “verbally and visually construct the nature of events, the objects, and the circumstances in which they occur” (unsworth, 2001, p. 18). table 3 a map to understand representational constructs visual everyday images image of the students’ field trips (taken by the author) images with real people and objects (downloaded from online) images with cartoon figures (downloaded from online) images with symbolic icons (downloaded from online) technical images images specifically for academic/professional use (downloaded from online) audio (nonlinguistic) background music written language written texts oral language voiceover/oral script second, we explored relational communication (see table 4). we examined the demand and offer functions of images for social contact, as well as the exposure of characters or animals for social distance. according to unsworth (2001), demands often involve the straight gaze of participants toward viewers, while offers exist mostly in nonhuman, human-like, or animal images and leave no room for imaginary interpersonal relationships. unsworth (2001) also identifies three levels of social distance: (a) close-up shows viewers only the face and shoulders of a person; (b) medium depicts a character from the waist up; and (c) long shots present the whole-body image of people, suggesting more distance. 153 table 4 a map to understand relational constructs contact demand a straight gaze of participants toward viewers offer nonhuman, human-like, or animal images, with no gaze toward participants social distance close-up show the person’s face/head and shoulders, intimate/ very personal medium show the person from waist up, socially interactive long-shot present the whole-body image of people, suggesting more distance. third, we explored the configurational dimensions of the digital stories (see table 5). signs within a text relate to each other, such that “all elements of a multimodal text are associated with the other visual and verbal aspects of the ensemble and affect how meaning is represented and constructed” (serafini, 2015, p. 417). we focused on students’ design choices about information zones, salience, and audio-visual relationships (see table 5). information zones depict the positions of different visual elements on the screen and the meaningful relationships achieved through visual structuring. in this case study, we categorized information-zone choices mainly into three types: left–right, top–bottom, and center–margin, which signal given and new, ideal and real, nucleus and subordination, respectively (unsworth, 2001). salience entails the use of size or color and contrast to demonstrate importance (serafini, 2015). we also analyzed students’ voiceovers together with the visuals to examine how students made decisions on inter-modality (unsworth, 2001). martinec and salway (2005) provide a framework to understand relationships between visual and audio signs, emphasizing how “content that has been represented by text or images is re-represented in the other mode” (martinec & salway, 2005, p. 349). the framework identifies projection, in which textual or visual content is re-represented in other modes, and expansion, in which non-linguistic relations are created between represented events. expansion can be divided into three kinds: 1) elaboration deals with the levels of generality of the text and the image, examining whether one or the other is more general; 2) extension involves the addition of new, related information in either the text or the image and resulting changes in the relationship between the image and a text.; 3) enhancement refers to the qualification that one text or image does to the other (martinec and salway, 2005). 154 table 5 a map to understand configurational functions information zone left-right left: more familiar information (given) right: new information (new) top-bottom top: more generalized, conceptual information (ideal) bottom: more concrete, specific information (real) center-margin the center: the nucleus of information (central) the margins: subordinate to/dependent on the center (peripheral); salience size importance or a hierarchy of importance color importance or a hierarchy of importance audio-visual relationship projection expansion text or image content re-represented in other modes; non-linguistic relations between represented events; table 6 projection and expansion (martinec & salway, 2005) projection “content that has been represented by text or images is re-represented in the other mode” (martinec & salway, 2005, p. 349). expansion elaboration exposition: “the image and the text are of same level of generality” (martinec & salway, 2005, p. 350). exemplification: “the image and the text have different levels of generality: either the text or image can be more general” (martinec & salway, 2005, p. 350). extension “a relationship between an image and a text in which either the one or the other add new, related information” (martinec & salway, 2005, p. 350). enhancement “when an image and a text are related by enhancement, one qualifies the other circumstantially” (martinec & salway, 2005, p. 350). fourth, we also investigated social contexts (serafini, 2015). students created their projects in social context, reflecting certain values and norms. to better understand their 155 meaning-making processes, we analyzed authors as social, cultural, and political beings. for example, all participants were immigrants or the children of immigrants. they brought with them understandings drawn in significant part from their own or their parents’ home cultures. we examined their stories, trying to understand whether and how their social positions influenced their points of view. this allowed us to address a central objective of the study: exploring how digital storytelling can help teachers address the challenges faced by students from immigrant families. findings in this paper we focus on one type of student diversity and one type of pedagogical task for beginning teachers: helping teachers use technology to engage students from immigrant families with the challenging subject matter of mental health. in the classroom we described, the teacher was able to use digital storytelling to engage students productively with mental health issues. in order to see how she did that, we will analyze each of the stories using the analytical framework introduced above. we organize our findings according to the four functions of representational, relational, configurational, and social. for each function, we first describe how students made design choices. our analysis of the digital stories shows how the students made intentional choices of different design elements, in order to reflect their learning about and reactions to the mental disorders. for each function, we also analyze how students projected certain kinds of relationships with the audience. we show how the diverse students’ design choices both influenced and reflected their learning and personal engagement with the challenging issues in the curriculum. choices about representational meanings molly’s story molly’s story was about bipolar disorder. in her four-and-a-half-minute video, she talked about the definition, the symptoms, the diagnosis, and the illness in children, and she added detail from two of her field-trip experiences. molly effectively used her field-trip photos in her psychology project. for example, their trip to the women’s center at a local university (image 1) helped her learn. she described “how [the university] advises the women there and helps them in their time of need.” she also related her experience with therapeutic drawing (image 2) for the treatment of bipolar disorder: “the art therapy was helpful because in each disorder that i think we had, therapy was a type of way that helps them. i learned that art therapy could be a useful tip for people with bipolar disorder.” in slide 6 (image 3), molly included a photo of her observing and assisting a younger child in a kindergarten art class, and she explained the genetic and environmental causes of bipolar disorder in her voiceover. she made this image choice because it shows how art can be used to calm children and prevent them from being negatively affected by distracting stimuli in the environment. 156 molly also chose cartoon images with symbolic icons intentionally, as an implicit representation of psychological concepts. slide 3 (image 4) presents the face of a cartoon girl in half green and half brown with happy symbols such as hearts and smiling faces on one side of the background and evil symbols such as skeletons, bats, and angry faces on the other side. she illustrated the extremes of happiness and sadness experienced by a patient with bipolar disorder through this image, saying that “you can’t really put pictures of someone with bipolar disorder” and see just from their appearance what the disorder is like; and “for someone who has bipolar disorder, you can’t just look at them and say they have it. it is a process to diagnosis it.” she used various visuals such as cartoons images, pictures, and internet images to compose the story and communicate the experience of bipolar disorder. jenny’s story jenny’s story was about depression. in her three-minute video, she talked about the definition, the facts, the mental and behavioral symptoms, the physical problems, the causes, and the treatment of the illness. jenny mainly demonstrated her understanding of the topic using online images and word-based images such as word clouds. she chose everyday images of people and objects not only to show explicitly and vividly the various aspects of the disorder (facts, causes, treatments, etc.), but also to connect the subject matter to her own life experiences. for example, slide 8 shows a man sitting at a desk with furrowed eyebrows and surrounded by hands with all kinds of office tools (i.e., phone, pen) coming from different directions. jenny selected the image to illustrate being stressed because it resonated with her. she said, “i am searching for stuff on my phone to do my homework, so i am kind of overwhelmed. so that’s kind of like me.” her choice of representation here was based on empathy with people who have this disorder. jenny also used everyday images with symbolic implications. for example, she chose an image of a smoking skeleton (image 9) to convey the image 1 (from slide 2, case a) image 2 (from slide 4, case a) image 3 (from slide 6, case a) image 4 (slide 3 from case a) 157 fact that depression may increase smoking, thus relating the disorder to a deadly addiction. jenny selected a number of word-integrated pictures, including word clouds and words in handwritten form that represented abstract concepts. her digital story started with a word cloud of things associated with depression. the big key word depression sits in the middle in red and is surrounded by various relevant words such as hopeless, depressed, and mental, words that tell “how you would feel if you have depression” and serves as a good “topic picture.” in slide 6 (image 6), jenny included a word cloud labelled “self-harming” to illustrate possible behaviors of depressed people. it defined the concept of self-harming with words such as injuring, feeling, and abuse, and it was shaped like a human brain. jenny chose pictures with handwritten words to make the concepts feel more intimate and thereby convey the feelings of people with depression. slide 5 (image 7) has “i hate myself” written in white, slender and curvy lines on a black background, which jenny chose to evoke malfunctional mental activities. common to all these problems, she said, are difficulties concentrating, making decisions, and remembering things. she mentioned in her voiceover: “you just don’t like yourself and find the image of ‘i hate myself’ in quotation marks a good fit.” image 7 reflects jenny’s learning about the suffering of people with depression. she selected a photo (image 8) of a human fist with the letters p-a-i-n on the fingers (one letter for each finger), trying, again, to evoke the experiences of sufferers. she incorporated these images and texts to share her strong emotions about the disorder, and when you watch her video you can feel both the concepts she is communicating and her concern. image 5 (from jenny’s story) image 6 (from jenny’s story) image 7 (from jenny’s story) image 8 (from jenny’s story) image 9 (from jenny’s story) 158 kate’s story kate’s story was about schizophrenia. her video was 3 minutes 45 seconds, in which she defined the illness briefly and introduced the causes, the symptoms, and how people with schizophrenia experience the world differently. kate included fewer images, choosing mainly technical images (two out of three of her images) to support her discussion. the image on slide 8 (image 10) presents the outline of a human brain and compares the mri of a normal brain with the brain of a patient with schizophrenia, which supports the idea that schizophrenia is caused by brain chemistry, something that she also articulates in her voiceover. on slide 14 (image 11), kate included an image that compares what a normal person would see when looking at a cat to what is seen by a patient with schizophrenia. the image illustrates vividly how people with schizophrenia feel and think differently about the world around them. image 10 (kate’s story) image 11 (kate’s story) from these brief descriptions of the stories’ representational content, we can see how the students developed understandings of the mental illnesses. they also came to see these as disorders instead of personal failings. this began to address the pedagogical challenge of helping students from immigrant families engage with the difficult topic of mental illness. as we turn to the second, interpersonal dimension, we will see more clearly how this worked. choices about interpersonal meanings the students’ design choices also shaped the interpersonal implications of their digital stories. in addition, students designed their stories in ways that projected certain relationships with the audience. this was crucial for understanding how digital stories helped the students engage productively with mental illness. eye contact and social distance molly and jenny selected images that differed in the degree of eye contact and the establishment of social distance, in ways that shaped viewers’ attention and evoked emotions. in molly’s story, the cartoon girl on slide 3 (image 4) is portrayed from her neck up, and her eyes gaze straight at the audience. this close-up with direct eye contact reduces interpersonal distance and demands increased attention from the audience, often arousing strong sympathetic emotions. the crying girl on slide 8 (image 12) faces the audience with her eyes in tears and her full body shown. the image creates medium social distance from the audience and vividly presents the tantrums a child with bipolar disorder could experience. it is strong, but a bit more analytic than the prior image. 159 in jenny’s story, jenny included images that execute what kress & van leeuwen (2006) call demand and offer. in slide 8 (image 5), a man is portrayed from the waist up looking directly at the audience with eyebrows frowning. the close interpersonal distance here places the audience in the position of someone sitting across the table who can vividly experience the man’s upset feelings, caused by excessive multitasking, and can generate strong sympathy for him. in slide 6 (image 13), a little boy is sitting against a wall with his body facing towards viewers, but his head is buried in his arms. the image communicates to viewers the boy’s depressed condition and yet creates detachment for the viewers through the distanced longshot and the lack of eye contact. by combining detachment with an “offer” to empathize, in a complex way (kress & van leeuwen, 2006), jenny told the audience accurately how people with depression suffer, yet she also evoked how depressed people tend to separate themselves from others and refuse to communicate. thus, her emotions and her stance toward other people was engaged in her story. image 12 (slide 8 from molly’s story) image 13 (slide 8 from jenny’s story) image 14 (slide 6 from kate’s story) molly and kate’s stories used changing positions to interact with viewers. in case a, molly occasionally shifted from the position of a professional explaining bipolar disorder to a learner reflecting on her field trips. she folded her field-trip photos into her explanations of bipolar disorder three times; in this way, viewers were positioned not just as learners who are interested in knowing about the disorder, but also as witnesses to her own learning process. kate’s story presented questions written from the audience’s perspective and answers from teachers’ or experts’ perspective. for example, slide 9 (image 14) poses the question “how will i know if i have schizophrenia?” from the viewer’s perspective. this question was quickly answered by slides 10 (image 15) and 11 (image 16) where she listed a few symptoms of schizophrenia (hallucinations, false beliefs, etc.), speaking as a knowledgeable professional. kate started her video by asking, “ever wondered what schizophrenia was?” positioning herself as a host speaker and drawing the audience in by using a question. kate intentionally made her digital story expressive, “like a mystery that tries to drag you in.” this interpersonal stance revealed her intellectual engagement with the subject matter, and it also showed how she became comfortable addressing mental illness. by allowing her to 160 engage the difficult topic of mental health in a digital storytelling format, the teacher opened a space or her to address it productively. image 15 (slide 10 from kate’s story) image 16 (slide 11 from kate’s story) choices about configuration and composition some of what students communicated depended on certain configurations of signs. we explore three ways in which they created such configurations, focusing on image zones, color contrasting and salience, and the relationships between visuals and audio. this provides more detail on how the specific composition of digital stories can allow students to organize information and express their attitudes. this is a complex medium for communicating interpersonal, and emotional content (kim & li, 2020). image zones the layout of images is typically divided into two zones, center and margins (kress & van leeuwen, 2006). the center is the nucleus of information, and the margins or the periphery are subordinate to/dependent on the center. all the students’ digital stories use a centermargin organization of image zones. molly’s story frequently included a single image on each slide (six out of nine slides) and occasionally put singleor double-word texts (three slides out of nine) alone on the screen. the images were either placed in the middle of the screen (three out of six) or enlarged to cover the entire screen (three out of six). the written texts appear in large font in the middle of the screen. jenny’s story applied a center-margin structure in four of her nine slides. she placed a single big image in the center and added a topic title (i.e., definition, thoughts people have during depression, etc.) in the top left corner. in addition to this, she used two other forms of visual organization: left–right, in which images on the left are typically more familiar and images on the right typically communicate new information; and top–bottom, in which images on the top are typically more general and those on the bottom are typically more specific. one pattern she used was having two images on the same slide, one on the left and the other slightly higher on the right. another pattern was having three images on the same slide with the first one on the left, the second one on the top right and the third one on the bottom right (i.e., image 13). 161 kate also enlarged each of her images to cover the whole screen, placing them in the center. three online images that she used themselves contained image zones divided into left, middle, and right parts (i.e., image 16) and fit into the left–right category. image 13 (slide 6 from jenny’s story) image 17 (slide 6 from kate’s story) image 18 (slide 9 from jenny’s story) color contrasting and salience all the stories used contrasting colors to mark salience. molly’s used a simple white background that contrasted sharply with the color of the images and written texts, to drive the audience’s attention to valuable information about bipolar disorder. the title, bipolar disorder, is in black and large font with a white background, occupying two thirds of the screen space, while the author’s name is presented in black with smaller font size and a purple background covering one third of the screen. this design helps the audience distinguish the most salient topic (bipolar disorder) from minor ones. in jenny’s story, she placed all the colorful images on white backgrounds and typed all her subtitles in black to make them easy to see. most of the images she chose have a light background that helps the main characters and objects stand out on the screen (i.e., slides 8 and 9). exceptions occur in some of her images (i.e., slides 3 and 6), where a black background is used to foreground important light-colored visual information such as a skeleton or cigarettes. in kate’s story, she used text (11 out of 15 slides) with large font sizes and contrasting colors to hold the audience’s attention. she used white, yellow, and red to highlight texts on a black background and assigned different colors and font sizes to different lines. for example, slide 6 (image 17) includes, “it is a disorder that’s characterized by hallucinations.” the last two words were put on the second line in yellow, bolded, and enlarged, while the rest of the sentence remained on the first line in white with a smaller font size. such design draws the audience’s attention to the key terms. visual/audio relationships projection and expansion. molly and jenny closely related their visual choices and oral scripts (voiceover), frequently using projection, and occasionally through elaboration or extension. kate’s story has a weak audio–visual relationship with limited samples of projection and enhancement. projection is a common audio–visual relationship in molly’s and jenny’s story. molly’s story (image 4) used symbolic icons such as red hearts and smiling faces to project a manic episode, where “a person would go through extreme happiness and would be overly hyper,” and icons such as black bats and white skeletons to project a depressive episode, where 162 “a person would experience extreme sadness, lack of energy or interest in things,” as she explained in her voiceover. jenny’s story projected her oral script mostly through various images from daily life in her digital story. elaboration occurs when the student selects specific visual images to exemplify the ideas stated in the voiceover. jenny used a photo of pills and syringes on slide 9 (image 18) to exemplify the medications for treating depression that she described in her voiceover. extension occurs occasionally in molly’s explanation of subtopics of bipolar disorder when describing her field trips. for example, slide 2 shows students sitting in groups trying art therapy, which aligns with her voiceover: the treatment for bipolar disorder can range. depending on the person, medication can be an option, for example different types of mood stabilizers. there is [are] also different types of therapy a person with this disorder can attend (part i). in this picture, the psychology capstone is trying art therapy to see how effective it was. it worked, we got to release our emotions in a safe and quiet environment on paper however we wanted (part ii). the image here directly represents part ii, yet it also serves as an extension to part i that is more relevant to the subtopic of bipolar disorder. molly stated, “art therapy is an option for treatment.” similarly, on slide 4, a student observes a young child in an art class, projecting the second part of the voiceover: “in this picture our capstone visited an art class for kindergarten just to observe them and assist them in there [their] projects.” however, this leaves the main subtopic (the causes for bipolar disorder) visually unpresented. molly extended the main subtopic to the scene of child observations based on her belief that “little things can affect kids and that’s why art was a nice way to calm them down.” kate selected technical images to solidify her explanation of specific knowledge in an enhancement about schizophrenia. for example, the different brain structure of people with schizophrenia illustrated on slide 8 enhances the voiceover: “it’s a combination of genetic and brain chemistry, and environment contributes to develop this disorder.” by focusing students’ attention on the implications of design choices like this, the teacher was able to help them learn about the subject matter, understand the nuances of how to communicate to an audience, and also give them an opportunity to express their own reactions toward the threatening subject matter. sociocultural influence on the design choices the digital stories also reflect the individual author’s sociocultural contexts, through their topic and subtopic choices. molly chose to learn psychology because she had seen patients of her mother, who worked as a nurse. molly explained her decision to choose bipolar disorder: “it is one that you don’t look in and see why it is there, how it can be treated.” molly also showed her special care for children by explaining disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (bipolar disorder in children), which links to her own identity as a child. 163 jenny chose psychology as her capstone project because of her own interests in the topic: “it is common and i wanted to see what it feels like for people that have depression;” “a lot of my classmates seem really sad and down all the time;” and “some of my family have had depression, too.” she also described her own struggle with the middle school experience and a communication gap between herself and her parents. kate chose psychology because she wanted to be “a doctor and a psychologist” (also her mother’s wish), and she wanted to learn about the brain. she chose schizophrenia because it is a rare disorder and she wanted to “learn more about how people see things that nobody else sees.” all three students had strong interests in human functioning and showed their empathy with people who struggle. the digital storytelling format allowed them to engage their own personal experiences and perspectives, as they took on challenging topics. discussion immigrant students face many challenges that teachers must address. we have focused on one challenge, the difficulty engaging issues of mental illness. we argue that beginning teachers should adopt digital storytelling as a pedagogical tool, because students can use these stories to learn subject matter and also work through their own perspectives on challenging issues. digital storytelling allowed the middle school students in our study to personalize their learning about mental disorders. through the multimodal medium of digital stories, they were sometimes able to express their own voices in relation to the subject matter and they were also able to engage fellow students through their capstone presentations. by analyzing the digital stories themselves, we have been able to offer detailed descriptions of how the students did this. by understanding how digital stories work, beginning teachers can more effectively use them to facilitate learning and personal development for immigrant and other students. sense making in the composition of digital stories sense making involves elements of learning that include creativity, comprehension, curiosity, and situation awareness. it is “a motivated, continuous effort to understand connections (which can be among people, places and events) in order to anticipate their trajectories and act effectively” (klein, moon & hoffman, 2006). digital storytelling allowed middle school students to make sense by connecting the psychology subject matter to their own experiences through the composition process. students engaged in sense making by incorporating symbolic visual elements, adding voiceover narration, exploiting audio-visual relationships, and conveying attitudes and positions through varying degrees of social distance. for example, molly engaged in learning about mental disorders using various visuals and language, in her case emphasizing images of ways in which her field trips enriched her own life experiences. jenny also used images of people and objects that resonated with her own life experience. the students systematically connected the subject matter described in their digital stories to images, audio, and concepts from their everyday lives. for example, they used 164 symbolic visual elements, such as smiling faces and a smoking skeleton, to draw on familiar, common meanings. they also used common, everyday explanatory language for their voiceovers, with little disciplinary vocabulary, as in words like substance abuse and tantrum. middle school students made sense by adding such visual elements and narrations to the digital story. they also included at least one image with direct gaze and close-up distance to invite the viewers into an imaginary, intimate personal relationship with sufferers and to ask viewers to share their pain. it is true that students’ analyses in the digital stories convey only a relatively rough, surface-level learning of the disorder. for example, substance use in the voiceover was illustrated with an image of pills, cigarettes, syringes, and wine without further visual or textual explanation. kate did include two technical images in her 15-slide digital story; however, instead of analyzing the differences in detail, kate concludes generally that the disorder can stem from genetics and brain chemistry and can cause people to see an image differently. despite the lack of deep disciplinary understanding, the digital stories did allow students to engage in a preliminary way with the subject matter. we also have to remember that these were short three-week capstone experiences meant to whet students’ appetites, not full courses or curriculum units. despite their limitations, the stories offered students opportunities to connect their own experiences and articulate their own voices on issues related to the subject matter. we have shown this, for example, in how students created relationships between the viewer and the viewed. they chose pictures with various focalizations, social distances, and attitudes for their digital stories. all three students went through their own distinctive thinking processes when applying multimodal signs as tools in their learning of mental disorders. in their learning processes, visual representations played a pivotal role in the individualized interpretation and representation. molly’s field-trip photos connected her to the topic personally, while her cartoon photos aimed at an implicit display of how a patient may look; jenny’s various images of real people reminded her of her own stressful moments and her various word-embedded images offered rich visual and linguistic clues to a psychological issue; kate used fewer images but richer written language laid out in contrasting colors and sizes. her proliferating questions and answers reflected her own path in exploring schizophrenia. the students mediated interactions with the audience by creating a wide range of social distances and types of contact, to evoke emotions and offer different perspectives (e.g., an expert, a learner, a host speaker). their tools in this respect included various portraits of full-frontal faces with direct and indirect gaze, images of field-trip scenes, and oral and written language. nilsson (2010) describes how the multimodalities available in digital storytelling create semiotic means to “show the world creatively” instead of “telling it flatly.” in order to achieve the benefits of this multimodal medium in the classroom, it is important for teachers to analyze students’ choices of signs and modes as one way to observe students’ thinking and offer personalized instruction. this study shows the importance of analyzing students’ design choices 165 in their digital stories, from which teachers can observe how individual students think and how they connect personally to the subject matter. it is also important for both teachers and students to increase their understanding about the multiple affordances of multimodal media like digital storytelling for learning and demonstrating learning in depth, and perhaps also for assessing learning. with more detailed understanding like this, teachers can use this tool to engage students personally and help them overcome challenges like those faced by immigrant students wrestling with mental illness as a topic. design choices and self-expression all three students made unique design choices to reflect their learning and share their selfexpression while developing new perspectives towards mental health. the topic the students selected was itself a form of self-expression. molly chose bipolar disorder as her topic, in part because she was interested in how the disorder could characterize people who appear normal on the surface. “you can’t just look at someone and say they have bipolar disorder. [it] takes a long time to diagnose.” jenny selected an image (image 5 from slide 8, jenny’s story) for illustrating being stressed, because it resonated with her own life experience of having too much homework or too many different things to do at one time: [it] is sort like me—my dad would be yelling at me “what time is it!” “you are supposed to eat right now!” but i am still working on my homework. then my mom will be on the other side be like “stop getting on your phone!” and i am like “i am searching stuff on my phone to do my homework,” so i am kind of overwhelmed. so that’s kind of like me. jenny also identified with and felt empathy for depressed people. she described how we easily ignore those who suffer from bipolar disorder: if you are a person that does not have a disorder, and you know someone who does have a disorder—you are probably going to be like it is easy being them and it is really simple. but they are really annoyed, and they wished they didn’t have that. sometimes they wish they were dead than being with the disorder. and they feel bad for themselves. what these students learned about disorders during the project helped them realize the painful feelings people with mental disorders can experience and helped them see how they experienced some similar emotions in non-pathological form. the middle school students gained insights into dealing with real people and real situations in their daily lives. after the project, molly realized that she could not judge others simply by looking at them. instead, she needed to know more about a person before making a judgment. jenny displayed her confidence about helping people, as well as herself, deal with depression. she noticed that depressed people may fake being happy in interpersonal communication and she developed strong empathy for them. the project and the field trip to the women’s center prompted kate to reflect on body shaming and to come up with coping strategies when facing its challenges. molly noted in the interview that “people say bad things about others and then they start crying. why start crying when you could just say ‘thank you. i 166 take that as a compliment. i am glad that you noticed because i know you are jealous of me— bye.’” all three students were able to create more positive stances toward mental health issues like this, through the process of building their digital stories the three students all said that they would like to create more digital storytelling projects in the future. for example, molly wanted to create a digital story around religion or science with google slides. jenny wanted to compose digital stories with topics such as sports, food, culture, and other disorders. kate mentioned two options for her next digital story project: spanish and photography. being a spanish-english bilingual, kate ranked her home language as her favorite subject and was strongly motivated to create a video about the spanish language that would be easy and fun. the study shows the three middle school students’ strong interest in knowing about psychology and thus indicates that it might be a worthwhile subject for middle school students. learning about this subject matter, even in a short capstone unit, facilitated positive changes in students’ actions and perspectives. cholewa and west-olatunji (2008) describe how the great challenge of cultural and environmental adjustment can leave urban, ethnic-minority students vulnerable to mental stress. students can “experience a developmental mismatch between their individual needs and available supports within their school contexts” (carney, kim, hazler, & guo, 2018, p. 2). teaching about mental disorders and challenges can offer immigrant and other students tools to evaluate their own mental health, so that they can seek timely help if needed. it also improves students’ understanding of those who suffer from mental illnesses and encourages empathy toward them, which can lead to stronger social-emotional skills in real-life settings. we advocate for more middle schools to offer psychology learning programs to improve students’ understanding of common mental disorders, and we recommend a digital storytelling as a useful medium to teach this subject matter. this multiple-case study has shown how digital stories paired with mental health curricula can benefit middle school students from immigrant families. digital storytelling has great potential in the learning and teaching of psychology, especially in its ability to support personalized learning and improve mental health awareness among students from immigrant families. moreover, attending carefully to the details of digital stories can help teachers learn about their students’ subject matter learning, personal concerns, and capacity for communication across multiple media. future study could productively include design research with a variety of digital-story-based mental-health projects in different schools. further work could also 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(2015). sociocultural theory in second language education: an introduction through narratives. bristol, england: multilingual matters. unsworth, l. (2001). teaching multiliteracies across the curriculum. buckingham, england: open university press. yang, y. & wu, w. (2012). digital storytelling for enhancing student academic achievement, critical thinking, and learning motivation: a year-long experimental study, computer and education, 59, 339-352. journal of curriculum studies research https://curriculumstudies.org e-issn: 2690-2788 december 2021 volume: 3 issue: 2 pp. 169-193 the secreted curriculum and youth education to become the professionals the world craves for dinah katindi nyamai* * university of nairobi, nairobi, kenya e-mail: dinah.nyamai@aiu.ac.ke article info received: february 16, 2021 revised: may 11, 2021 accepted: june 24, 2021 how to cite nyamai, d.k. (2021). the secreted curriculum and youth education to become the professionals the world craves for. journal of curriculum studies research, 3(2), pp. 169-193. https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.10 copyright license this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ abstract societies have always recognized the need for nurturing children to not only become intellectually smart but also morally upright professionals. while factors pertaining to professionalism education include the environment, there seems to be limited awareness of the importance of creating holistically enriching learning contexts. this article sought to determine the role played by accidental lessons arising from the secreted curriculum on youths’ ways of thinking and behavior among 1246 young people in christian universities in nairobi county. the researcher begun with a quantitative phase and followed with a qualitative phase on major findings to provide indepth understanding on the initial results. yamane’s sample size calculation formula, which is given by n = n/ (one + ne^2): where n=corrected sample size, n = population size, and e = margin of error (moe), e=0.05, was employed in determining the sample size, which gave 486. the self-developed questionnaire with 64 items and an interview guide with 14 items were used. the spss statistical program version 25 was used in analyzing data. the results indicated that lessons arising from the secreted curriculum shape youth’s ways of thinking and behaviour either negatively or positively. keywords professionalism; moral values; education; secreted curriculum; youth. 10.46303/jcsr.2021.10 https://curriculumstudies.org/ https://doi.org/10.46303/jcsr.2021.10 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 170 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 introduction education has always been a trilogy: acquisition of professional skills, transmission of relevant knowledge, and inculcation of desirable values and attitudes. this means children, present and future leaders, not only require valuable information but holistic transformation—fostering the whole person: the psychomotor, cognition, intelligence, attitude, and behaviour (vazhathodi, 2013). some years ago, aristotle, one of the greatest western intellectual figures, asserted that “educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all” [cited by pasha, 2018, p.3]. in the same vein, mahatma gandhi (cited by covey, 1990) posited that pure “intellectual development without commensurate internal character development makes as much sense as putting a high-powered sports car in the hands of a teenager who is high on drugs” (pp. 87-93). a positive learning atmosphere is an indispensable component of holistic nurture (verma, 2019). learning contexts that holistically nurture young people to become the kind of people the world craves for—people who can positively change unwholesome moral situations, are described as reinforcing behaviours that benefit not only the individual but the world. merriamwebster “defines craving as an intense, urgent, or abnormal desire or longing (a great want).” h.l. hastings, author of “sold cheap” in 1866, [cited in kevin morgan, 2017], asserted: the great want of ‘this’ age is men—men who are not for sale—men who are honesty to the bottom—sound from centre to circumference, true to the hearts core. men that fear the lord and hate covetousness. men who will condemn wrong in a friend or foe, in themselves as well as in others. men whose conscience are steady as the needle to the pole. men who will stand for right if the heavens titter and the earth reels. men who will tell the truth and look the world and the devil right in the eye. men who neither swagger nor flinch. men who can have courage without whistling for it and joy without shouting to bring it. men in whom the current of everlasting life runs still and deep and strong. men careful of god’s honour and careless of men’s applause. men too large for sectarian limits and too strong for sectarian bounds. men who do not strive nor cry, nor cause their voices to be heard in the streets, but will not fail, nor be discouraged till judgement be send in the earth... men who know their message and tell it—men know their duty and do it—men who know their place and fill it—men who mind their own business. men who will not lie. men who are not too lazy to work, nor too proud to be poor. men who are willing to eat what they have earned and wear what they have paid for. men who are not ashamed to say ‘no’ with emphasis, and who are not ashamed to say, ‘i can’t afford it’… (p.1) these worthwhile attitudes, values and virtues are mostly nurtured in learning institutions where curriculum implementers not only teach students’ mind but also create learning environments that foster development of students’ affective domain. according to habibu (2020) and parihar et al. (2018), learning institutions cannot be solely blamed for dwindling numbers of morally upright professionals—people who maintain high decorum even when no one is watching, but young people spend much of their formative years in learning http://advindicate.com/articles?author=59f7266853450a1e3bd5472a 171 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 institutions—close to 900 hours a year (rowland, 2014), more than the time they spend in any other social context, which significantly shape their work ethic, emotions, intellect, behaviour, and professional identity. verma (2019) suggested that the process of acquiring moral behaviour becomes something that young people easily adapt to in conducive learning environments. fyock (2008) and drew (2021) echoed the same sentiments when they claimed that young people do not attend learning institutions in a vacuum: they gather in varied forums where they unconsciously pick messages regarding how to behave and interact with the world. chowdhury (2016), [citing reiss, 1999] claimed that “people do not live their lives in moral isolation but grow up within certain moral traditions” (p.1), which shape their behaviour in both positive and negative ways. as noted by dewey (1938), “perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the thing he or she is studying at the time. collateral learning in the way of formation of enduring attitudes, of likes and dislikes, may be and often is much more important than oral spelling lessons or a lesson in geography” (p. 20). a good number of learning institutions however do not pay close attention to creating conducive learning environments to promote students’ acquisition of non-cognitive skills and upright character values like professionalism. sager (2013) for example bemoaned formalized pure intellectual teaching-learning processes in learning contexts yet professionalism, like any other professionalism is more caught than taught—majorly reinforced and stabilized by accidental messages arising from casual interactions and non-verbal communications (drew, 2021; hafferty & franks, 1994; lempp & seale, 2004). crossman (2019), barani et al. (2011), çubukçu (2012), massialas and joseph (2009) and yousefzadeh (2014) concurred in that influences of the secreted curriculum on young people’s ways of thinking, and behaviour is equal to or are even greater than influences of the overt curriculum. according to lempp and seale (2004), some of the secreted curriculum consequences include “loss of idealism, adoption of a ‘ritualized’ professional identity, emotional neutralization, change of ethical integrity and acceptance of hierarchy” (p. 770). other negative consequences of the secreted curriculum included weakening of moral reasoning among young people (patenaude et al., 2003; doja et al., 2018). the unrestrained sleaziness and dishonesty permeating almost every facet of our societies rekindles concerns about the role of educational systems in the holistic nurture of young people. such moral hitches can be likened to what song of solomon in 2:15 called ‘small foxes’ that were threatening thriving vineyards which represented the budding love affair between solomon and his shulammite, bride-to-be. the phrase ‘little foxes’ suggest that the creatures were tiny, but though not as strong as a bull or an elephant that can trample down whole vineyards in just an hour, the tiny creatures did terrible damage—they burrowed and chewed a vineyard until the vines withered and become totally unproductive. the tiny creature can also be likened with small landmines buried beneath the surface which only detonates when somebody steps on them or an automobile drives over them. a small land mine may not really seem all that dangerous but of all the armaments nations across the globe have amassed over 172 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 their years of combat, few are as dangerous to young people as land mines. thousands of young people planting crops in their parents’ farms, herding their parents’ animals, or just playing, have been maimed or even killed by the deadly devices. like the alluded environmental hitches, some secreted lessons arising from social learning contexts, which are often “accepted as status quo, even when they contribute to undesirable behaviours” (howieson & cloke, 2019, p. 1), if not identified and ‘rounded up’, they will hinder or destroy that which is of value—the holistic nurture of young people to be the kind of people the world craves for. the question then begs is the role played by the secreted curriculum usually taken into consideration during the design and launch of every new curriculum? the word ‘role’ may seem to indicate that the researcher will pinpoint exactly how and through which mechanisms the secreted curriculum is involved in holistic professional values nurture, but the researcher does not claim to specify every causal relationship between young people’s acquisition of holistic professional values. the researcher rather, uses the word to emphasize her belief in that accidental messages conveyed through the secreted curriculum play an important role in the acquisition of holistic professional values and upright character among young people. the researcher believes minimizing negative aspects of the secreted curriculum while maximizing its positive elements is likely to create emotionally secure environments that facilitate acquisition of holistic professional values like integrity, trustworthiness, commitment to excellence, respect for human dignity, and compassion. at the end, the researcher will suggest strategies for utilizing positive aspects of the secreted curriculum in holistic professional education. the quantitative phase of current research sought to test the following five pertinent null hypotheses: • h01: there is no significant relationships between students’ demographics and their perceptions regarding how accidental lessons arising from the secreted curriculum influences their ways of thinking and behaviour. • h02: there is no significant relationship between unintended lessons arising from learning institutions’ organizational structure and students’ ways of thinking and behaviour. • h03: there is no significant relationship between unintended lessons arising from learning institutions’ social interrelationships and students’ ways of thinking and behaviour. • h04: there are no significant differences between influences of accidental lessons arising from learning institutions’ on-ground and accidental lessons arising from online instructional models on students’ ways of thinning and behaviour. • h05: there is no significant relationship between unintended lessons arising from learning institution’ cultural orientations and students’ ways of thinking and behaviour. 173 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 the qualitative phase of current research explored in-depth why selected respondents thought some elements of the secreted curriculum, tested in the quantitative phase, were perceived as having more significant influences on students’ ways of thinking and behaviour, than others did. the concept of secreted curriculum and professional skills the concept of a hidden or secreted curriculum was coined by phillip jackson in 1968. the emphasis here is that students learn a social curriculum evolving from social interrelationships in learning contexts, including dispositions, values, and behavioural expectations like learning to exercise restraint, being patient, completing class assignments properly and within set time, keeping oneself busy, collaborating with other students, being well-ordered and on time as well as conducting oneself politely (as cited in roig-debellis, 2014). while a comprehensive official curriculum can empower learners to be inquirers, and real leaders of their personal learning, the secreted curriculum is more pervasive, and more powerful in shaping young people’s attitudes, ways of thinking, and their professional identity compered to any prescriptions in lecture rooms (glicken & merenstein, 2009; howieson & cloke, 2019; hafferty & ronald,1994;). observing how other professionals do what they do and say what they say powerfully inculcate values and professional skills that last the entire life of young people (bayramlı, 2018; killick, 2016). these sentiments are echoed by rogers et al. (2012), safari et al. (2020) and abroampa (2020) when they claimed that there existed a substantial influence of the secreted curriculum on the development of professionalism of medical students. abroampa (2020) asserted that the hidden curriculum: […] is responsible for as much as ninety percent (90%) of all learning taking place in school. it may therefore be posited that learners learn more than they are taught. the implication then is that a huge chunk of what learners consume unintentionally (90%) in any school environment, be they worthy or unworthy, happens on the blind side of the school and not under careful control since schools, policy makers and parents are interested in what learners have been taught and how it manifests in their grades. (p. 71) a secreted curriculum is always experienced in every teaching-learning milieu albeit in varying degrees (hafferty et al. 2015; ruff, 2013), and its negative elements can lead to professional ethical erosion if left unaddressed (hundert et al.,1996; patenaude et al. 2003). even though influences of accidental lessons arising from the secreted curriculum on students’ learning experiences are enormous, educators often focus on the cognitive component of the official curriculum (prıestley, 2019, p. 1). learning contexts encompass an enormous diversity of social, intellectual, structural, cultural, and environmental factors that have a potential of generating a secreted curriculum, but this article was not able to extensively catalog all of them. yousefzadeh (2014) among other scholars however identified four key aspects: architecture, student-instructor interrelationships, instructional model, and cultural inclinations. this observation was echoed 174 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 by safari et al. (2020), which identified similar learning institutions’ places and activities that embody a secreted curriculum. they include learning institutions’ organizational structure (architecture), student-instructor interrelationships, instructional models employed by instructors, and learning institutions’ cultural orientations. the way in which a learning context is organized communicates unintended lessons to students which have a potential of shaping their ways of thinking either positively or negatively. for example, a rectangular classroom organization with the instructor mainly stationed in front of the class, can have negative effects on students’ sense of belonging, self-worth, and their potential in academic tasks (shaw, 2006). according to eisner (2002), what learning institutions choose to teach and what they leave out tells students what is most important in their life. even when a certain subject matter is entirely taught, what instructors choose to examine, and what they leave out communicate to students what is important to learn and what is of little value in that field of study. in addition, the ways in which learning institutions’ members interact with students and say what they say and do what they do significantly determines the kind of people students turn out to become irrespective of their gender, age, and mental aptitude. the accidental messages arising from the values and attitude instructors bring to their relationships with students gradually influence students’ values, attitude, knowledge acquisition styles, their ways of thinking and behaviour. other non-academic features of meta-learning contexts like learning institutions’ dispositions (cultural inclinations) also present a culture that embodies educational ideologies encapsulated in common metaphors learning institutions use such as “we produce—to describe educational purposes which portray students as raw materials to be processed. this observation is in line donohue (2021) who claimed that people’s “culture influences the goals people set, why they set such goals, and the degree of motivation they put forth to achieve those goals” (p. 1). yüksel (2006) and chandratilake & de silva (2009) pointed at deep sociological implications conveyed through learning institutions’ cultural inclinations which significantly shape the ways in which students come to perceive themselves. however, as noted by garcia (2014) most of the existing structures in some learning instructions are at odds with the holistic nurture of young people—that is inculcation of worthwhile attitudes, values, and other non-cognitive skills. some accidental lessons arising from some learning institutions’ secreted curriculum shape young people’s professional identity negatively (çubukçu, 2012; crossman, 2019; fyock, 2008; killick, 2016), but mostly curriculum designers and implementers rarely think about it during curriculum reforms. the researcher in this article frequently uses the terms: “profession—a distinct category of occupational work,” second, professionalization— “the process in which a professional group develops, pursues, obtains and maintains key characteristics of a profession” and third, “professionalism—the conduct, qualities, moral standards or aims that characterize or guide professionals’ work ethics,” as defined by evetts (2009, p. 3-7), among other scholars. based on these definitions, a professional is a person belonging to a certain profession while 175 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 professionalism is the character, status or skills expected of a professional such as discretion, reliability, even-handedness, compassion, and fair play. these definitions are echoed by dictionaries like the merriam-webster’s collegiate dictionary (2002) which defines professionalism as the aims, conduct, or abilities that mark or characterize a professional person or a profession. researchers like vivanco and delgado-bolton (2015) suggested that “given its universal nature, professionalism is not only global in its reach, covering the different geographical and cultural realities where the medical profession is practiced, but its timeless dimension makes it present at all stages of professional life” (p.7). porcupile (2015), vivanco and delgado-bolton (2015 and raghubir, 2018, among other researchers, suggested several professionalism attributes that define truly professional people as briefly discussed in the following short paragraphs: specialized knowledge: true professionals are known for their specialized knowledge (porcupile, 2015). they are commitment to developing and improving their professional skills and specialize in needed areas which makes them succeed in their fields and keep knowledge of their field up to date, so that they can continue to deliver the best work possible. competency: true professionals ensure jobs are thoroughly done. even when circumstances arise that prevent them from delivering on their promises, they do not make excuses about their failures. they focus on finding solutions and do their best to make the situation right (porcupile, 2015; vivanco & delgado-bolton, 2015). honesty and integrity: truly professional people endeavour to do the right thing, even when it means taking a harder road. they exhibit honesty and integrity. they are humble and not afraid to admit that a certain job falls outside their scope of expertise (porcupile, 2015). accountability: true professionals hold themselves accountable for their words, thoughts, and actions, especially when they make mistakes. the personal accountability is closely tied to honesty and integrity, and it is the most vital element in true professionalism (vivanco & delgado-bolton, 2015). self-regulation: true professionals remain professional even when dealing with irate clients. instead of getting irrational, they exhibit true professionalism by maintaining a calm, demeanour, and by doing everything that they can to make the situation right (porcupile, 2015). they show respect for the people around them, no matter their rank as well as exhibit a high degree of emotional intelligence. emotional intelligence: true professionals manage their emotions and are clearly aware of other people’s feelings. professionalism requires one to keep his or her emotions in check but at other times it requires one to express his or her feelings so as to have meaningful conversation or to stand up for what one believes in (raghubir, 2018). compassion/humanism: compassion/empathy is the common ground where the ethical teachings of all major traditions, religions, and humanitarianism, come together and it is the true mark of truly professional people (vivanco & delgado-bolton, 2015). 176 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 image: true professionals do not show up to work sloppily dressed or with unkempt hair (porcupile, 2015). they dress appropriately for the situation and because of this, they exude an air of confidence as well as gain respect. even though investigations on the term professionalism and related terms like profession and professionalization have a long-standing tradition in sociological research, “current employees lack soft skills like professionalism significantly” (denisov, 2017, p. 1) as employers continue to witness young people (present and tomorrow’s leaders), struggle with constructive criticism, acknowledgement of failure, and amending errors while others do the bare minimum to accomplish assigned tasks. this article describes the role played by holistically nurturing environments in nurturing truly professional behaviour. methods in this research mixed research method was adopted. according to shorten and smith (2017), this is a research method whereby investigators gather and analyses both qualitative and quantitative data within the same research. design in order to minimize limitations of either research approach, the researcher employed a sequential explanatory design. in the quantitative first phase, the researcher collected and analysed data from 486 responded about the secreted curriculum, which informed the followup qualitative second phase to explain and enrich the quantitative data as suggested by creswell & clark (2011) and hubbard (2010). the researcher went through the filled closed-ended questionnaires to identify factors tested in first phase that respondents had perceived as having significant (strongly agree) or not having significant (strongly disagree) influence on their ways of thinking and used them to develop an interview guide with 14 open-ended items to gather in-depth explanations through face-to-face interviews with 10 key informants. research population the population of the research was 1246 undergraduate students in christian universities in nairobi city county. the researcher employed taro yamane’s sample size calculation formula. the formula is given by n = n/ [1+ n (e^2)]: where n=corrected sample size, n = population size, and e = margin of error (moe), e=0.05. hence at 5% moe., the sample size from africa international university was 680 (1+680 (0.05^2) = 680/2.7 = 251.85~ 252 while from kenya methodist university was 566/ (1+566 (0.05^2) = 566/2.42 = 233.884~ 234—a total of 486 youth. the researcher stratified undergraduate students in each university and proportionately selected random samples. according to creswell (2009), stratified sampling produces are more inclusive because they incorporate sub-groups of small populations, which researchers are likely to leave out if they employ other sampling procedures. study sample undergraduate students at kenya methodist university were divided according to three schools: school of education & social sciences (sess), school of business and economics (sbe) and school 177 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 of medicine, health sciences & technology (smhst) while students at africa international university were divided according to school of theological studies (sts), school of business and economics (sbe) and school of education arts & social sciences (seas). table 1 provides a summary of the samples drawn from the universities. table 1. sample summary sample universities population per school sts sample seas sample sbe sample totals aiu 680 207 76 255 94 220 82 252 smhst sess sbe kemu 566 163 67 157 65 246 102 234 total 1,246 370 143 377 147 501 196 486 research tools the researcher used a self-developed questionnaire with five-point rating scale: strongly agree, agree, not sure, disagree and strongly disagree. the content validity of the 64-item questionnaire was determined by four research experts while its reliability was determined through cronbach’s alpha which gave a reliability coefficient of 0.83. the reliability of the interview guide was determined through pilot testing. data gathering with permission from national commission for science, technology & innovation (nacosti), the researcher personally distributed 486 questionnaires. out the distributed questionnaires 417 were correctly filled and returned. the researcher also conducted face-to-face interviews with 10 key informants to comprehensively explore the why and how of accidental lessons. the researcher met all the key informants, and after explaining the aims of the research, she invited each of them to participate in the face-to-face interviews. each interviews lasted close to 40 minutes. data treatment data was analysed using descriptive and pearson correlation statistics in the spss program version 25 program. the descriptive statistics determined frequency of respondents’ views on the likert scales while pearson correlation coefficient and analysis of variance tested the relationships between independent and dependent variables. the researcher also conducted regression coefficient to determine combined effect of the accidental messages arising from learning institution’s organizational structure, interrelationships, instructional models, and cultural inclinations on students’ ways of thinking, and professionalism development. 178 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 the grounded theory analysis approach was utilized in analysing the textual data because it was perceived as offering a more neutral view of informants’ experiences with the phenomenon and its influences on their behaviour. findings and discussion out of the 486 administered questionnaires, 417 questionnaires were returned and determined suitable for analysis. the remaining 69 questionnaires were not returned. scholars like morton et al. (2012) argued that questionnaire response rates are informative, but on their own, they are not enough evidence to judge study quality and/or validity. all the same, low response rates indicate a potentially greater risk of low validity. in line with this observation, creswell (2009) among other researchers suggested 60 percent or more response rate is preferable in social research. based on the above observations, a response rate of 86 percent garnered in current research, as summarize in table 3, was considered an excellent response rate. table 3. questionnaires return rate response rate frequency percent questionnaires given out 486 100 questionnaires returned 417 86 spoiled/not returned questionnaires 69 14 total 486 100 respondents’ gender the results from item 1 which asked respondents to indicate their gender indicated that a large proportion of the respondents 212 (50.8%) were male while 179 (42.9%) were female. 26 (6.2%) of the respondents who filled and returned the questionnaire did not indicate their gender. figure 1 summarizes the findings. figure 1. respondents' gender 51% 43% 6% male female did not indicate 179 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 the results on item 2 which asked respondents to indicate their age bracket indicated that a large proportion of the respondents 220 (52.8%) were aged 25-35 years, 68 (16.3%) were aged 17 years and below, 60 (14.4%) were aged 36-45 years, 42 (10.1%) were aged 46 years and above while only 6 (1.4%) were aged 18-24 years. the results also indicated that 21 (5%) of the respondents who filled and returned the questionnaire did not indicate their age bracket. figure 2 provides summary of the findings. figure 2. respondents' age the results from item 3 which asked respondents to indicate the number of courses they had taken on-line indicated that 189 (45.3%) of the respondents had done very few on-line courses, 77 (18.5%) indicated that they had done few on-line courses, 41 (9.8%) had done an average number of courses on-line, 22 (5.3%) indicated that they had done a good number of on-line courses while 88 (21.1%) of the respondents did not indicate the number of courses they had done online. a summary of the findings is provided in figure 3. figure 3. courses done online 53% 16% 15% 10% 6% 25-35 years under 17 years 36-45 years 46 and above years 18-24 years 45% 21% 19% 10% 5% very few didn't indicate few averange a good number 180 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 the results from item 4 which asked respondents to indicate their area of study indicated that 44 (10.3%) of the respondents were pursuing theological studies. 165 (42.2%) of the respondents were pursuing business and economics studies. 71 (18.2%) of the respondents were in the school of education, arts, and social sciences. 38 (9.7%) were pursuing counselling psychology while 46 (11.8%) of the respondents indicated that they were doing information technology. a small percentage 27 (6.9%) of the respondents who filled and returned the questionnaire indicated that they were in other schools while 26 (6.2%) of the respondents did not indicate their area of study. table 2 provides a summary of the findings. table 2. students' area of study category frequency percentage valid percent theological studies 44 10.6 11.3 business and economics 165 39.6 42.2 school of education arts and sciences counselling psychology information technology other sub-total no response 71 38 46 27 391 26 17.0 9.1 11.0 6.5 93.8 6.2 18.2 9.7 11.8 6.9 100.0 total 417 100 h01: there is no significant relationship between students’ demographics and their perceptions regarding how accidental lessons arising from learning institutions’ secreted curriculum influences their ways of thinking and behaviour. a pearson coefficient correlation analysing conducted to test hypothesis 1: students’ demographics have no significant influence on their perceptions regarding how learning institutions’ hidden curriculum influences their ways of thinking, revealed a significant relationship between students’ demographics and their perceptions regarding how secreted messages arising from the hidden curriculum influences their ways of thinking and their professional behaviour like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation and compassion/empathy. table 4 provided a summary of the findings. 181 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 table 4. correlation analysis on students' demographics' influences students’ worldview gender age courses done online school of study students’ worldview pearson correlation sig. (2-tailed) 1.000 gender pearson correlation .151* 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) 0.012 age pearson correlation .143* 0.085 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) 0.017 0.096 courses done online pearson correlation -0.057 -0.012 .132* 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) 0.384 0.83 0.017 school of study pearson correlation -.170** -0.089 0.065 0.053 1.000 sig. (2-tailed) 0.005 0.085 0.206 0.341 * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (1-tailed). ** correlation is significant at the 0.025 level (2-tailed). as indicated in table 4 respondents’ gender (r=0.151; p=0.012) and age (r=0.143, p=0.017) had a significant positive influence on students’ perceptions regarding how secreted curriculum influences ways of thinking, and professional behaviour like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion/empathy. the study program respondents were pursuing was revealed as having a significant negative (r=-.170** p=0.005) influence on the respondents’ ways of thinking and professional behaviour like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, and compassion/empathy. the results on the number of on-line courses respondents had taken revealed a lack of significant influence (p=0.384) on respondents’ perceptions regarding how the secreted curriculum influences their ways of thinking, and professional behaviour. the results led to the rejection of null hypothesis 1. h02: there is no significant relationship between accidental lessons arising from learning institutions’ organizational structure on students’ ways of thinking and behaviour. a univariate analysis the researcher conducted to test null hypothesis 2 indicated a positive and significant relationship between secreted messages arising from learning institutions’ organizational structure and students’ ways of thinking, and professional behaviour like honesty 182 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, and compassion. the coefficient of determination also known as the r squared produced a p value of 0.000, which was less than the conventional probability of 0.05 for a one tailed test, as summarized in table 5, suggested that secreted messages arising from learning institutions’ organizational structure have a significant influence on students’ ways of thinking, and their professional behaviour. table 5. analysis of variance indicator sum of squares df mean square f sig. regression 65.227 1 65.227 999.480 0.000b residual 21.014 322 .065 total 86.241 323 table 6 presents the regression of coefficients results, which indicated a positive and significant relationship between unintended lessons arising from learning institutions’ organizational structure and students’ ways of thinking, values, and professional behaviour as supported by a p value of 0.000 and a beta coefficient of 0.87 which was greater than the critical t statistics of 1.96. the results suggested mapping learning instructions’ organizational structure with positive elements of the secreted curriculum would improve students’ ways of thinking and their professional behaviour with respect to commitment to work, adherence to virtues like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion/humanism. table 6. regression of coefficients model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. std. b error beta 1 (constant) 0.189 0.077 2.446 0.015 organizational structure 0.919 0.029 0.87 31.615 0.000 regression coefficient dependent variable-students’ worldview the specific model. y= β0+ β1 x1 +e student’s worldview=0.189+0.87 christian universities’ organizational structure 183 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 h03: there is no significant relationships between accidental lessons arising from learning institutions’ interrelationships students’ ways of thinking and behaviour. a univariate analysis the researcher conducted to test hypothesis 3 indicated a positive and significant relationship between accidental messages arising from learning institutions’ social interrelationships and young peoples’ ways of thinking and their professional behaviour like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion. the coefficient of determination also known as the r square produced a p value of 0.000 which was less than the conventional probability of 0.05 for a one tailed test, as summarized in table 7, which led to the rejection of null hypothesis 3. table 7. analysis of variance indicator sum of squares df mean square f sig. regression 78.291 1 78.291 1180.354 .000b residual 24.143 364 .066 total 102.434 365 the regression coefficients results presented in table 7 indicated a positive and significant relationship between secreted messages arising from social interrelationships and students’ ways of thinking, and their professional behaviour like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion. a p-value of 0.000 and a beta coefficient of 0.874 which was greater than the critical t statistics of 1.96, which suggested enhancing positive interrelationships in learning institutions is likely to positively influence students’ ways of thinking, and their professional behaviour with respect to honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion. table 8. regression coefficient model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b std. error beta 1 (constant) .389 .068 5.681 .000 social interrelationships .887 .026 .874 34.356 .000 dependent variable: students' worldview the specific model. y= β0+ β1 x1 +e student’s worldview=0.389+0.874 christian universities’ social interrelationships. 184 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 h04: there are no significant differences between fluences of unintended lessons arising from learning institutions on-ground and on-line instructional models on students’ ways of thinking and behaviour. a univariate analysis conducted to test null hypothesis 4, indicated that there was no significant difference between influences of accidental lessons arising from learning institutions’ onground and the influences of accidental lessons arising from on-line instructional models on students’ ways of thinking, and their professional behaviour like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion. the coefficient of determination also known as the r square produced a p value of 0.000 which was less than the conventional probability of 0.05 for a one tailed test, as summarized in table 9, which led to the rejection of null hypothesis 4. table 9. analysis of variance indicator sum of squares df mean square f sig. regression 82.141 1 82.141 550.010 .000b residual 50.777 340 .149 total 132.918 the regression coefficient results presented in table 10 indicated a positive and significant relationship between accidental messages arising from learning institutions’ instructional models and students’ ways of thinking, and their professional behaviour like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion/humanism. a p-value of 0.000 and a beta coefficient of 0.786 which was greater than the critical t statistics of 1.96, which suggested ensuring each instructional model is mapped with positive elements of the hidden curriculum would positively shape young people’s ways of thinking and their professional behaviour with respect to commitment to work, honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion. 185 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 table 10. regression coefficient standardize unstandardized d model coefficients coefficients t sig. std. b error beta 1 (constant) .283 .099 2.855 .005 instructional models .828 .035 .786 23.452 .000 dependent variable: students' worldview the specific model: y= β0+ β1 x1 +e student’s worldview = 0.283+0.786 christian universities’ instructional models h05: there is no significant relationships between unintended lessons arising from learning institutions’ cultural orientations’ students’ ways of thinking and behaviour. a univariate analysis conducted by the researcher to test the null hypothesis 5, indicated a positive and significant relationship between accidental messages arising from learning institutions’ cultural orientation and respondents’ ways of thinking, and professional behaviour like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion. the coefficient of determination also known as the r square results in table 11 indicated a p value of 0.000 for a one tailed test, which was less than the conventional probability of 0.05 for a one tailed test which led to the rejection of null hypothesis 5. table 11. analysis of variance indicator sum of squares df mean square f sig. regression 289.292 1 289.292 1173.228 .000b residual 83.343 338 .247 total 372.635 339 the regression coefficients results presented in table 12 indicated a positive and significant relationship between learning institutions’ cultural orientations and respondents’ ways of thinking, and their behaviour. a p value of 0.000 and a beta coefficient of 0.881 which was greater than the critical t statistics of 1.96 which suggested ensuring positive cultural inclination in learning institutions would positively impact respondents ‘ways of thinking, and 186 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 their professional behaviour with respect to commitment to work, honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion. table 12. regression coefficient model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. std. b error beta 1 (constant) -.163 .101 -1.607 .109 cultural orientations 1.066 .031 .881 34.252 .000 a. dependent variable: students' worldview the specific model. y= β0+ β1 x1 +e student’s worldview = -0.163+0.881 christian universities’ cultural orientations a multiple regression analysis conducted to determine the strength of collective influence of the accidental messages arising from the four independent sources of hidden curriculum elements, indicated a positive and significant correlation between the respondents’ ways of thinking, and their professional behaviour and the accidental messages. the beta coefficients and p values in table 13 was less than the conventional p value of 0.05 for a one tailed test. the implication here is that accidental lessons arising from learning institutions’ organizational structure including rules regarding time allocation, social interrelationships, instructional strategies employed as well cultural orientations have a subliminal effect that significantly influences students’ ways of thinking, and ultimately their professional behaviour like honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion/humanism either negatively or positively. table 13. regression coefficient unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b std. error beta (constant) 0.228 0.082 2.766 0.006 organizational structure 0.163 0.029 0.178 5.608 0 social interrelationships 0.281 0.028 0.327 9.91 0 instructional models 0.196 0.022 0.272 8.716 0 cultural orientation 0.265 0.017 0.469 15.389 0 dependent variable: students worldview 187 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 the optimal model for the study was: students’ worldview=0.228+0.178 accidental lessons arising from learning institutions’ organizational structure +0.327 social interrelationships +0.272 instructional models +0.469 cultural orientation. the qualitative data generally concurred with the quantitative data. for instance, 9 participants out of the 10 who were interviewed claimed that the secreted curriculum was more important compared to the official curriculum in determining students’ leaning outcomes. the interviewed participants also claimed that secreted curriculum lessons are ingrained in learning institutions’ organizational structure, cultural inclinations, instructional strategies, and social interrelationships and neither curriculum planners nor teachers could purport to be very familiar with the secreted lessons students imbibe by just setting their feet in a learning context. participants 02, 06, 09 and 10 indicated that unspoken messages conveyed through evaluation strategies in learning contexts which emphasize the importance of students getting into instructors’ heads and reproducing its content pertaining to taught course content during exam, were detrimental to student’s critical thinking and problem-solving skills which are key elements of true professionalism. participant 03 echoed the same sediments when he or she asserted that “unintended lessons conveyed through cherished values in learning contexts like how instructors relate with students significantly shape young people’s knowledge acquisition styles, their view of self and reality in general including their professional identity. participant 04 suggested that if educators would thoroughly understand the accidental messages conveyed through learning institutions’ social atmosphere including how teachers evaluate students’ learning, especially evaluation strategies that encourage competition when success of some groups or individual students is showcased, then they are likely to positively restructure such important activities to positively influence students’ professional values such as honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion/humanism. when the researcher probed the participants on why they perceived the highlighted aspects as having significant influence on their learning experiences, the 10 participants claimed that learning social atmosphere is crucial on the kind of young people turn out to become. participant 05 asserted “the first day i entered the university classroom, the social emotional environment of the classroom immediately separated me from my high school world.” when the researcher prompted on what the participant meant by university’s classroom social emotional atmosphere “separating him from his high school world,” he said; “entering the university’s learning context seems to create open doors before students and i think it immediately begins to grow one up academically, emotionally, and professionally”. in the same vein, participant 01 asserted “when classroom setup is in harmony with the values a teacher cherishes and his or her teaching style, the benefits are endless, including encouraging students to be active creators of knowledge instead of being passive receivers.” in relation to on-line and on-ground learning experiences’ influences on students’ attitudes and ways of thinking, the 10 participants suggested that some students in purely online classes struggle in consistently displaying upright moral values like honesty and integrity, 188 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 accountability, self-regulation, and trustworthiness. this is because as highlighted by participants 01, 03 and 08, there is a great likelihood for students in on-line class to justify actions based on what they see in mass media as opposed to the intrinsic good such actions have. participant 03 explained that compared to on-ground learning settings where lecturers share their lives with students, in on-line settings there is limited lecturer-student interactions which sometimes negatively shape students’ professional values. these observations are in harmony with researchers like fyock (2008), crossman’s (2019) and mei (2015) who argued that the moral character of teachers influence students’ moral values development both positively and negatively. the findings also concur with rogers et. al (2012) research findings which revealed that secreted lessons arising from casual interactions as well as how businesses are conducted in social contexts influence young people’s ways of thinking, attitude, and values such as honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion/empathy. participant 09 echoed the same sentiments when she asserted: young people rarely talk about powerful lectures they had on professionalism. they mostly talk about role models and mentors—of faculty members and older peers who demonstrated to them what it means to live morally upright lives. mentors may not even be aware they are perceived as so by young people and those aware of being perceived as good models may believe that they are always positively mentoring but may sometimes mentor in the reverse direction as professional values permeate through the cracks of the official curriculum. according to participants 03, 07 and 10 any society that desires to see more morally upright societies, it must ensure its learning contest provide a viable framework for appraising the secreted curriculum and its effects on professional behaviour of present and future doctors, layers, politicians, teachers, faith leaders and at the same time minimize effects of negative secreted curriculum elements. according to participant 02 and 05 powerful lectures on commitment to work, humility, honesty and integrity, accountability, self-regulation, trustworthiness, and compassion/humanism have limited results, if any. instead, educator should demonstrate such professional values and young people will catch them. conclusion this article makes key contributions to existing literature on curriculum studies research and professional identity formation. the results of the research showed that accidental lessons arising from the secreted curriculum, especially role models’ cultural inclinations, can either reinforce and enhance professionalism or hinder its development, particularly when a learning context does not display upright professional values that young people are expected to demonstrate like respect, honesty, and compassion. according to these findings, the best solution to negative influences of secreted curriculum is to be cognizant of it, map its positive elements into the official curriculum, and intentionally develop approaches of mitigating its negative impact. even though some accidental messages arising from the secreted curriculum 189 jcsr 2021, 3(2):169-193 may present a huge challenge to professionalism education, they also provide openings to help redesign 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