Abstract

As researchers in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University and advocates for teachers in the metropolitan Richmond area, Stemhagen and Nomi remain focused on current issues in public education and their local implications. They also work with Richmond Teachers for Social Justice, a collection of local educators focused on issues of justice and equity in our public schools. We talked with them about their research and advocacy work and what they see as the future of public education.

As college students studying to become teachers in local public schools, this discussion with preservice teachers Tyler Arnold, Jessica Shim, and Sarah Hunter covered what they thought about the current state of public education and the profession that they are about to enter. We discussed their reasons for wanting to become teachers, what impact they hope to make, and what they expect the role of a public school teacher to be in the future.

As the Director of the Center for Teacher Leadership (CTL) at VCU, Dr. Dozier focuses on providing high quality training to local educators to make them change agents in their schools. She also oversees the Richmond Teacher Residency (RTR) program within the CTL, which works to equip new teachers with the skills and experience they need to serve in high need, urban public school systems like Richmond Public Schools. We talked with her about the role of teachers in an evolving public education landscape.

As an associate professor of educational leadership in Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education, Dr. Siegel-Hawley’s research focuses on the social and political contexts that lead to racial and socioeconomic stratification in public schools. We talked with her about how this stratification impacts students and what some solutions might be for ensuring a more equitable public education system.

This episode of abstract features a roundtable discussion with Amy Corning and Kate Daly from the MERC College Access Study, as well as Paula Robinson from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia (SHEV) and Bettsy Heggie from the Great Aspirations Scholarship Program (GRASP). We discussed the importance of higher education, the availability access providers in Region One of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and where the current areas of need are. The MERC study, commissioned by SCHEV, was made possible through funding by Virginia 529.

How can educators be culturally-responsive in their work with an increasingly diverse student body? This episode of Abstract featured a roundtable discussion with members of our Cultural Diversity Professional Development for Teachers study team. The conversation focused on the importance of promoting culturally-responsive teaching, how professional development can help with that effort, and what directions this study may take. We had a great discussion about the opportunity that increasing diversity in our schools presents for educators.

We spoke with four awesome teachers who are conducting action research in their classrooms. We discussed the purposes for conducting action research, who benefits from it, and how to do it. Listeners will learn what can happen when teachers become researchers.

This episode of Abstract features a re-broadcast of an event sponsored by the Committee for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. The event focused on racial disproportionality in school discipline, with a specific focus on disrupting the school to prison pipeline. It featured educators, artists, and researchers from the Richmond community who came together to discuss this issue.

This episode of Abstract features a roundtable discussion with members of the Understanding Teacher Morale MERC study team. We talked about national trends in teacher morale, contributing factors, and recommendations for making sure that teachers are treated as professionals. We also shared stories from real teachers captured in the full report, available at http://www.merc.soe.vcu.edu/current-research/teacher-morale-study/.

This episode features a roundtable discussion with the study team for the Achieving Racial Equity in Disciplinary Practices and Policies MERC study. We discussed key definitions, evidence of racial disproportionality in school discipline, themes in the research literature, next steps for this study, local and national implications, and new policy directions in the upcoming presidential administration. This episode featured Adai Tefera, PhD, Jesse Senechal, PhD, William Noel, EdD, Evandra Catherine, and Rachel Levy.