2019 – Down the Rabbit Hole

A few weeks ago, a colleague asked if I was going to write an end-of-year article. Last year, I wrote about The Year of Learning. Two years ago, while in a bit of a funk and having recently gone to see Star Wars, I wrote that It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn, and before that it was The Year of Agency (I might have written a part 1 and part 2 of that post but can’t remember right now).

Anyways, I initially told my colleague that I wasn’t sure if I would write anything or not. However, here I am – mostly because I’m totally stumped with something else that was due last week, but I want to try something different. Instead of a post, I want to take you down a rabbit hole inspired by the amazing Sabba Quidwai (@AskMsQ). Last week, while I prepped what would eventually become a charred Chanukah dinner, we had a chance to catch up about both of our current projects as well as some plans for 2020 – more on that later. In reflecting on the conversation, I realized that without following me down the rabbit hole, my year could seem disjointed instead of a fairly deep, methodical, scholarly spelunking expedition.

Beginning on January 1st, I started digging into Digital Equity, the Digital Divide, and the Homework Gap for my new role at CoSN. However, I also accepted a short-term consulting project that had me reading deeply about the history of the American education system. In the first month of the year, I read over 20 web articles (at least that’s how many I saved to Diigo), 26 scholarly articles, and 4 books. Here’s a partial references list.

• Gardner, B. (1975). The Educational Contributions of Booker T. Washington The Journal of Negro Education 44(4), 502 – 518. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2966635
  
• Trow, M. (1961). The second transformation of American secondary education International Journal of Comparative Sociology 2(), 146 – 166. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002071526100200202
• Carper, J. (2000). Pluralism to Establishment to Dissent: The Religious and Educational Context of Home Schooling Peabody Journal of Education 75(1-2), 8 – 19. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0161956x.2000.9681932
• Coleman, J. (1988). Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital American Journal of Sociology 94(), S95 – S120. https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/228943
• Dumenil, L. (1990). “The Insatiable Maw of Bureaucracy”: Antistatism and Education Reform in the 1920s The Journal of American History 77(2), 499 – 524. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2079181
• Carper, J. (2001). The Changing Landscape of U.S. Education Kappa Delta Pi Record 37(3), 106 – 110. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00228958.2001.10518478
• Urban, W. (1981). History of Education: A Southern Exposure History of Education Quarterly 21(2), 131. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/367687
• Goldin, C. (1998). America’s Graduation from High School: The Evolution and Spread of Secondary Schooling in the Twentieth Century The Journal of Economic History 58(2), 345 – 374. https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0022050700020544
• Deschenes, S., Cuban, L., Tyack, D. (2001). Mismatch: Historical Perspectives on Schools and Students Who Don’t Fit Them Teachers College Record 103(4), 525 – 547. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/0161-4681.00126
• Reese, W. (1998). Public Schools and the Common Good Educational Theory 38(4), 431 – 441.
• Hanushek, E. (1998). Conclusion and controversies about the effectiveness of school resources FRBNY Economic Policy Review 4(1), 11 – 28.
  
• Generals, D. (2000). Booker T. Washington and Progressive Education: An Experimentalist Approach to Curriculum Development and Reform The Journal of Negro Education 69(3), 215 – 234. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2696233
• Ogata, A. (2008). Building for Learning in Postwar American Elementary Schools Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 67(4), 562 – 591. https://dx.doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2008.67.4.562
• Goldin, C., Katz, L. (1999). Human Capital and Social Capital: The Rise of Secondary Schooling in America, 1910–1940 Journal of Interdisciplinary History 29(4), 683 – 723. https://dx.doi.org/10.1162/002219599551868
  
• Best, J. (1996). Education in the Forming of the American South History of Education Quarterly 36(1), 39 – 51. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/369300
• Aikin, W. (1942). High schools and the promise of the future The High School Journal 25(4), 149 – 155. https://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40367403
  
• Kridel, C., Bullough, R. (2002). Conceptions and misperceptions of the Eight-Year Study Journal of Curriculum and Supervision 18(1), 63 – 82.
• Bullough, R., Kridel, C. (2003). Adolescent needs, curriculum and the Eight-Year Study Journal of Curriculum Studies 35(2), 151 – 169. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0022027022000014305
• Kridel, C., Bullough, R. (2007). Stories of the Eight-Year Study: Reexamining secondary education in America State University of New York Press
  
• Kahne, J. (1995). Revisiting the Eight-Year Study and rethinking the focus of educational policy analysisEducational Policy 9(1), 4 – 23. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0895904895009001001
  
• Watras, J. (2002). The Eight-Year Study: From evaluative research to demonstration project, 1930–1940 Education Policy Analysis Archives 14(21), 1 – 23.
  
• Meyer, J., Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony American Journal of Sociology 83(2), 340 – 363. https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/226550

With those books, Maxine Davis’ 1936 Lost Generation is still haunting me.

The pace didn’t really subside through the rest of the winter. I continued to read about digital equity (just keep searching my Diigo library) and also dove into the world of pre-school media and science for my post-doc. In that space, I learned about the Next Generation Science Standards, the nature of science, and learning ecosystems. Here’s another snippet:

• Hannon, V., Thomas, L., Ward, S., Beresford, T. Local Learning Ecosystems: Emerging Models 
  
• Parsons, A. (2019). Deepening kindergarteners’ science vocabulary: A design study https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220671.2014.968913
• Pasnik, S., Llorente, C., Hupert, N., Moorthy, S. (2016). Dramatic change, persistent challenges: a five-year view of children’s educational media as resources for equity Journal of Children and Media 10(2), 227 – 235. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2016.1140483
• Council, N. (2012). A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas https://dx.doi.org/10.17226/13165
  
• Curran, F. (2017). Income-Based Disparities in Early Elementary School Science Achievement The Elementary School Journal 118(2), 207 – 231. https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/694218
• Daugherty, L., Dossani, R., Johnson, E., Oguz, M. (2014). Using early childhood education to bridge the digital divide
• Rideout, V., Katz, V. (2016). Opportunity for All? Technology and Learning in Lower-Income Families
• Takeuchi, L., Vaala, S., Ahn, J. (2019). Learning across boundaries: How parents and teachers are bridging children’s interests
• Rideout, V. (2014). Learning at home: families’ educational media use in America
• Network, O. (2018). Big ideas, little learners: Early childhood trends report
• Bustamante, A., White, L., Greenfield, D. (2017). Approaches to learning and school readiness in Head Start: Applications to preschool science Learning and Individual Differences 56(C), 112 – 118. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2016.10.012
• Magnuson, K., Duncan, G. (2006). The role of family socioeconomic resources in the black–white test score gap among young children Developmental Review 26(4), 365 – 399. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2006.06.004
• Children, N. (2009). Developmentally Appropriate Practice in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8

You might notice the overlaps between media, learning, and equity. When looking at these articles in light of the historical evidence reviewed in January, new trends emerged across systems – namely that digital equity merely serves as a symptom of the broader inequities rampant within the education system.

Thanks to the insights of Teshon Christie, I uncovered more gaps in my thinking and background knowledge. Over the summer, I read S. Craig Watkins and Alexander Cho’s The Digital Edge: How Black and Latino Youth Navigate Digital Inequality which then took me deeper into an exploration of the effects of race, gender, ethnicity, and bias on digital equity. The timing of that literary meander then corresponded with two new CoSN projects surrounding artificial intelligence, learning analytics, and adaptive platforms – more on that in 2020 as well. Beyond what I bookmarked, I also read Holmes, Bialik, and Fadel’s book, Artificial Intelligence in Education: Promises and Implications for Teaching and Learning.

Since it’s now December 30th, I’m not sure if I can make it through the rest of my reading list for 2019. I cheated earlier today and read the free preview of Safiya Umoja Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism.

The list for 2020 so far includes:

• McIlwain, Black Softrware: The Internet & Racial Justice, from the AfroNet to Black Lives Matter
• Zhao, Emler, Snethen, & Yin, An Education Crisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste: How Radical Changes can Spark Student Excitement and Success
• Eubanks, Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor
• Esmonde & Booker, Power and Privilege in the Learning Sciences

In some ways, this feels like a 2019 confession – or at least an intellectual autopsy. If you’d like to join me in my rabbit hole, hop on down. See you in 2020!