Teaching, Leading, and Social Justice

Only half of the national curricula in the world have a reference to climate change

UNESCO

New UNESCO data from 100 countries shows that only 53% of the world’s national education curricula make any reference to climate change and when the subject is mentioned, it is almost always given very low priority. Furthermore, fewer than 40% of teachers surveyed by UNESCO and Education International were confident in teaching about the severity of climate change and only about one-third felt able to explain the effects of climate change on their region or locality. When asked about the challenges of teaching climate change, 30% of the 58,000 teachers surveyed reported that they were not familiar with suitable pedagogies. Over a quarter of those surveyed felt some approaches to teaching climate education were not suited to online teaching. This is of particular concern given that 737 million students in 66 countries are still affected by full or partial school closures.

Schools Can’t Hide From Climate Change. They Must Be Part of the Solution

Debra Duardo & Pedro Martinez, Education Week

This past year has seen many of our schools pushed to their limits, not just by the pandemic but also the impact of climate change. Schools across the country have faced closures from climate-related disasters including hurricanes, floods, and wildfires. When COVID-19 exposed the fragility of public education, our schools adapted. It’s never been clearer that schools are the cornerstones of our communities and will find a way to build resilience, even in the face of a crisis. We can, and should, harness that same spirit of resilience to fight the climate crisis. This generation of students is rightly concerned about the planet they’re inheriting. As leaders of some of the largest school districts in the county, we agree that action is needed now. And that means mobilizing the education sector to work with community, state, and federal leaders. That’s why we’ve developed an action plan, taking inspiration from the educators and administrators who are already pioneering change.

The People v. the Hip-Hop Industry

Jessica A. Rucker, Rethinking Schools

“So, Ms. Rucker, those companies profit off of culture they appropriated? And we purchase the music that we grew up with, but it’s not truly our music, but it comes from our culture?” Natasha raised these questions during our study of the commercialization of the hip-hop industry. She and other students were dismayed to learn that four major record labels, the Big Four — Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Group, and Warner Music Group — produce and distribute more than 80 percent of the music that is sold and purchased. (Since I originally wrote this lesson, the industry has further consolidated and the Big Four has become the Big Three.)  Hip-hop music was conceived by impoverished Black and Brown youth, a score of whom were immigrants or the children of immigrants in the South Bronx, New York, in the 1970s following the Black Freedom Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s. But the hip-hop industry is neither owned nor controlled by the people who create the music; this is reflected in much of the content of commercial hip-hop music.

Language, Culture, and Power

Fighting for the education of Black students in California

Diana Lambert, EdSource

When Sacramento State professor Otis Scott slammed his fist on the table at a Sacramento Area Black Caucus meeting in 2007, infuriated about the test scores of local Black students, no one knew he was setting in motion the creation of an organization that would eventually fight for the equity and fair treatment of California’s Black and Latino children. In February 2008 a small group of community activists formed the Black Parallel School Board to advocate for Black students in the Sacramento City Unified School District. Since then, the organization, which now has 300 members, has become a formidable force, holding monthly meetings in a Methodist church to hear from the community and sending parent advocates to meetings with teachers and principals to support Black parents and their children.

Omaha district hires high school students as interpreters

Associated Press

Facing staff shortages, public schools in Nebraska’s largest city have turned to bilingual high school students to interpret when families talk with teachers during report card conferences. The Omaha school district has some full-time bilingual liaisons, but students and their families speak more than 100 different languages, and more than 18,000 students have received services for limited English speakers at some time while in the district. Lisa Utterback, the district’s chief student and community services officer, told the Omaha World-Herald that the district has about 20 students contracted as interpreters. The students are paid $18 an hour to help with middle and elementary school conferences.

Right to education and educational inclusion of LGTB+ youth in Latin America and the Caribbean/ Derecho a la Educación e Inclusión Escolar de Jóvenes LGTB+ en América Latina y el Caribe

Jaime Barrientos Delgado, María Teresa Rojas, Ismael Tabilo, Canela Bodenhofer, EPAA

This issue aims to highlight the barriers that LGBT+ children and young people in the region must overcome, both in and out of school, in order to exercise their right to education. The different articles in this special issue help to critically analyze the experiences of school inclusion of this group in different countries, highlighting the successes and failures of educational policies. In this introduction to the special issue, we will briefly review the theoretical aspects of the right to education and social justice in order to present some ideas and concepts for the debate on inclusion in education. Then, we will present some advances and debts of school inclusion of LGTB+ youth in the region, and the presence of LGTB+ inclusion policies in education agendas. Finally, the articles included in this special issue are presented in order to provide a cross-cutting look at the different topics and countries that are part of this publication.

Whole Children and Strong Communities

What did OECD find in its first-ever survey on social-emotional skills?

Roger Riddell, K12 Dive

We know the importance of social-emotional skills for success in work and life, Andreas Schleicher, director of education and skills at OECD, told attendees. He added that in an age of artificial intelligence, people need to be educated to do more than just what they’re told. “We found, for example, the quality of student/teacher relationships was a very big predictor for social-emotional skills, as was the learning environment,” Schleicher said. In regard to declines in skills like creativity in older students, Schleicher said, “Our education systems seem to sometimes inhibit the development of social-emotional skills rather than foster it.” Neurological changes as students age, including an increase in self-criticism and self-awareness, may also factor into this, he said. “But if that would be all of the story, we wouldn’t see that same picture in the reports from parents or from teachers.

COVID-19 threatens the already shaky status of arts education in schools

Ryan Shaw, The Conversation

Parents can watch their kids draw and paint at home or perform in school music concerts and dance recitals. But they may not know how their school arts program compares with others around the country. As a music education professor and a researcher who studies arts education policies, I know that access to and the quality of arts programs vary greatly among states, districts and even schools within the same district. Additionally, I see that disruptions from the pandemic are threatening the already tenuous status of the arts in public schools.

Learning Policy Institute outlines strategies to improve equity through restorative justice practices

Shawna De La Rosa, K12 Dive

Restorative justice can be particularly impactful in making disciplinary practices more equitable for students of color, who are often disproportionately affected by exclusionary practices. At Las Vegas’ Cheyenne High School, Black students were suspended at five times the rate of their white peers, even though they only made up one-third of the student body. To address this, Principal Zachary Scott Robbins set up a restorative justice tribunal to allow students to tell their side of the story and reflect on how their actions impacted others. To make it work, Robbins made the process time-efficient and cost-effective so it takes no more than 15 minutes away from class time.

Access, Assessment, Advancement

America’s Childcare Crisis [Audio]

Mary King, No Jargon

The decades-long childcare crisis in America — worsened by the pandemic — continues to deepen: parents all across the nation have been facing immense challenges in finding quality, affordable childcare, all while childcare providers continue to deal with poor working conditions and cripplingly low wages. This month, we spoke to labor economist Mary King, who focuses on the public provision of high quality preschool and childcare. During our conversation, Dr. King offered a detailed examination of the crisis and explained the many advantages of creating a universal preschool program.

Child care in California hasn’t rebounded — why many workers aren’t coming back

Grace Gedye, Cal Matters

For Tonya Muhammad, who runs Lil Critters Family Daycare in Hawthorne, spring of 2020 was, in a word, “horrible.” The early rush on cleaning supplies meant that she and her husband had to criss-cross Los Angeles to find disinfectant, sourcing bottles of Lysol from a dental supply company and aloe vera from a local nursery to make homemade hand sanitizer.  But that wasn’t the worst of it. Muhammad’s assistant left, fearing for the health of her grandmother, whom she lived with. That was in March of 2020, and Muhammad hasn’t been able to find a replacement since, despite posting the job on Indeed, Facebook Jobs and at a nearby community college. “I’ve even paid for fingerprints for a couple (of applicants) and then there’s just no follow up,” said Muhammad.

Breaking Down Inequitable Barriers for Students

Liann Herder, Diverse Education

Norfolk State University offers childcare supports, not just for their students but for their surrounding community. Delaware State University used its Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF) to be one of the first institutions to pay off student debt. These are just some of the ways that historic Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) continue to address inequity, mentioned by panelists gathered by The HopeDr Donna PattersonDr. Donna Patterson Center for College, Community and Justice at Temple University in  Philadelphia.

Inequality, Poverty, Segregation

Report: California still sees widespread Islamophobia in schools

Ali Tadayon, EdSource

A survey released Thursday of Muslim students in California shows high levels of Islamophobic bullying, harassment and discrimination occurred not only during remote learning but also after their return to school. The California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations surveyed 708 students in grades 5 through 12 between January 2021 and August 2021. The survey was conducted by CAIR’s four California offices serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the Sacramento Valley and Central California regions, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Areas. About 891 individuals responded to the survey, of which 708 were eligible for the study. Though the switch to remote learning resulted in a decrease in bullying, more than half of respondents reported feeling unsafe, unwelcome or uncomfortable upon their return to school because of their Muslim identity.

Are Regressive Spending Decisions Undermining This Progressive School Finance Reform?

NEPC

By almost any measure, it was an ambitious reform: In 2013, the state of California, which educates one in eight U.S. students, implemented the Local Control Funding Formula, which allocates school funding on the basis of student need rather than local property tax wealth while also removing many of the strings attached to state funds under the prior approach. These changes in the allocation method were accompanied by a significant funding increase of $23 billion annually in a state where per-pupil spending had declined by nearly 14 percent during the Great Recession (2007-2011). Past research clearly indicates that with schools, as with so many other things in life, money does matter. Yet so far, the results of California’s reforms have been disappointing in that it has had little if any impact on reducing learning disparities. Now, a new study attempts to explain why by examining how the additional funding was spent.

Moral policy = Good economics

Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, Shailly Gupta Barnes, Josh Bivens, Krista Faries, Thea M. Lee, and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, Economic Policy Institute

When the coronavirus pandemic arrived, the United States was already deeply unequal. Before the pandemic, 140 million Americans were poor or near poor, living just one emergency above the poverty line. The 140 million included approximately 60 percent of Black, non-Hispanic Americans (24 million), 64 percent of Hispanic Americans (38 million), 60 percent of Indigenous Americans (2 million), 40 percent of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (8 million), and 33 percent of white Americans (66 million). Indeed, the pandemic spread rapidly in the fissures that previously existed because of racism, poverty, and profound inequality—and our refusal to acknowledge the full extent of these injustices in our public discourse or public policies.

Democracy and the Public Interest

Do Politics in our Democracy, Prevent Schooling for Democracy? [Video]

Emily Richmond, John Rogers, Joseph Kahne, Vernon M. Billy, Daniel Domenech, Michael M. Matsuda, Olivia Krauth, UCLA Ed & IS

Recent months have seen a rise in heated rhetoric and hostile threats that have interfered with classroom instruction and disrupted school board meetings. In this contentious environment  fueled  by reactions to Covid-19 health policies and issues of race, this  new webinar explores what’s happening in school communities, what education leaders can do to safeguard democratic governance and civic learning, and importantly, how  we can  all stand up for democracy.

What American schools can learn from other countries about civic disagreement

Ashley Berner, The Conversation

Few areas of American life have experienced more conflict of late than public education. The conflict has largely revolved around how public schools should deal with the difficult subjects of race and racism. The situation has become so inflamed that a national school board group asked the federal government to step in and protect school officials and educators from what they said were a growing number of attacks from angry citizens. As a historian who specializes in education policy, I believe it is worth asking: Is the United States the only place where debates rage about what should and shouldn’t be taught in public schools? My experience studying school systems throughout the world tells me that the U.S. can learn a lot from how other countries handle divisive issues. Put simply, other countries don’t necessarily view studying different ideas as the same as being forced to believe in them. That is to say, they don’t conflate exposure with indoctrination.

University of Florida faces investigation after blocking professors from voting case

Associated Press, NPR

The University of Florida has been asked by its accrediting body to explain how denying a request by three professors to serve as paid experts in a voting rights lawsuit conforms to standards for academic freedom and avoids undue political influence. University leaders prohibited professors Dan Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Austin from being paid as expert witnesses in a lawsuit that says Florida’s new elections law harms voting rights. Over the weekend, school officials said such testimony would go against the school’s interest by conflicting with the administration of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. On Monday, Belle S. Wheelan, president of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Colleges, told news outlets the organization planned to investigate the university’s decision.

Other News of Note

A climate change disaster led this shy 24-year-old from Uganda into activism [Audio]

Lauren Sommer, NPR

At 22 years old, Hilda Flavia Nakabuye stepped onto a very big stage. The audience was filled with hundreds of international delegates attending the 2019 United Nations Climate Change Conference, where countries were hashing out efforts to slow climate change. “I come here to represent millions of African young people who are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis,” she said. “As I speak to you right now, extreme weather events are killing people in my country.” As a climate activist from Uganda, Nakabuye knew voices like hers aren’t often heard in high-level negotiations, where powerful countries dominate. Yet the decisions made in those rooms are vital to her country.

As young climate strikers, we are sick of conference upon conference. The clock is ticking

Ella Simons, The Guardian

I am 15 years old, and like so many young people across the world, I came to climate activism through protest. I don’t know exactly how to write a policy; what exact words or grammar should be used. I am not a scientist. I am a year 9 student. But through joining the School Strike for Climate (SS4C) movement, I have learned the basic science and policies, and I am doing my best to make a change in this world.

Young climate activists and the battle to avert catastrophe

Ruairi Casey, Al Jazeera

More than three years have passed since the solitary protest of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg quickly grew into a youth climate movement of unprecedented size. Millions have participated in climate strikes in more than 150 countries as part of the Fridays for Future movement, demanding governments take the action necessary to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) and ensure a just and equitable transition away from fossil fuels.

Teenagers and young adults are now some of the most prominent figures in the global debate around climate change. As world leaders are set to negotiate further emissions targets and economic measures at the COP26 in Glasgow, their demands are louder than ever. Al Jazeera spoke to several young activists around the world about their work, how climate change is affecting their communities, and their hopes for the future.