On this page, I describe the ten scholarly works that have most shaped my own research and teaching. I do not mean that I consider these materials the ten best works or that this is in any way a comprehensive list of all of the meaningful scholarship that has shaped my thinking over time. But these are the most significant pieces of writing that I return to over and over again in my research and teaching. For each resource, I give a brief overview followed by an explanation for why it has made my list. At the bottom of this list is a bonus list of additional scholarly works. To make the bonus list, the resource: a) is something I have recently discovered and am excited about; b) relates to a new direction in which I am considering taking my scholarship; and/or c) challenges my current way of thinking and is something I am grappling with.
Contents
- Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate by Ernest Boyer
- Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences, Revisited by Yvonna S. Lincoln, Susan A. Lynham, and Egon G. Guba
- Toward an Experimental Ecology of Human Development by Urie Bronfenbrenner
- Learning to Labor: How Working-Class Kids Get Working-Class Jobs by Paul Willis
- Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education By Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo
- Manufacturing Hope and Despair: The School and Kin Networks of U.S.-Mexican Youth By Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar
- Make Me! Understanding and Engaging Student Resistance in School By Eric Toshalis
- “I Didn’t Do Nothin’”: The Discursive Construction of School Suspension By Frances Vavrus and KimMarie Cole
- Effort and Excellence in Urban Classrooms: Expecting—And Getting—Success With All Students By Dick Corbett, Bruce Wilson, and Belinda Williams
- Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform By James A. Banks
- Bonus Works
#1 Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate
by Ernest Boyer
Full citation: Boyer, E. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Overview
In this report, Boyer wants to broaden the ways that scholars who work at research universities are evaluated for their work and by doing that, he wanted to also broaden the ways that researchers themselves think about and do their scholarship. He argued that researchers are most often focused, and evaluated, on the scholarship of discovery, which is the creation of new knowledge usually through empirical research. He described three additional types of scholarship that he argued should also be areas of focus and evaluation: the scholarship of integration, the scholarship of application, and the scholarship of teaching. The intended audience for this report is higher education administrators as well as researchers themselves.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
You may have noticed that I have organized this website based on Boyer’s model, which resonates with my values and priorities for my own scholarship. I believe that Boyer’s model emphasizes that there should be societal relevance in research activities and scholars should put energy into bridging research and practice. This bridging is particularly important in applied fields like education, where research and practice need to inform each other. I use this book in the courses I teach that are focused on the development of educational researchers.
#2 Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences, Revisited
by Yvonna S. Lincoln, Susan A. Lynham, and Egon G. Guba
Full citation:
Lincoln, Y. S., Lynham, S. A., & Guba, E. G. (2017). 2. Paradigmatic controversies, contradictions, and emerging confluences, revisited. In N. K. Denzin &Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research(5th ed., pp. 108-150). SAGE.
Overview
These authors explain differences among approaches to qualitative inquiry. They clarify that there is no such thing as “qualitative research,” but instead that there are different ways that scholars can conduct investigations using qualitative information. Whether or not they are aware of it, scholars who use qualitative information make assumptions about knowledge and how best to learn about their topic. This chapter clarifies what those different sets of assumptions are and how those assumptions guide different approaches to the research process and lead to different sorts of truth claims.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
In my opinion, educational research is currently dominated by the postpositivist scientific paradigm. That means that there is a common belief that objective, generalizable truth can be discovered by unbiased observers who conduct controlled experiments. We see evidence of these beliefs in the quests for “what works” across contexts and independent of the individuals or groups involved. Qualitative information can be used with these set of assumptions in place. However, there are other ways to think about knowledge and truth and these different sets of beliefs lead to different approaches to scholarship. For example, a scholar might believe that truth is constructed among individuals within particular social and historical contexts. Some knowledge or practices might apply across contexts, whereas others may not. There is no such thing that works everywhere for everyone. If a scholar makes these assumptions, then they will approach research differently than someone who is searching for “what works” or for “best practices” because this scholar will not assume that there are such practices that work the same way in every time and place. This article helps to clarify these different approaches. It has been important in defining my own research as well as in my teaching of novice researchers.
#3 Toward an Experimental Ecology of Human Development
by Urie Bronfenbrenner
Full citation: Bronfenbrenner, U. (1977). Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist, 32(7), 513–531.
Overview
In this article, Bronfenbrenner explains that humans develop within contexts and that contexts play an important role. That seems obvious now, but he was responding to trends in developmental psychology that tended to look primarily at what occurs within an individual apart from context. In his theory, he divided context influences into nested levels, from those closest to the individual to those furthest from the individual, in order to help us understand and study them. He named these levels the microsystem (closest to the individual, such as the immediate family), mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem (furthest from the individual, but affecting all of the levels). Social and institutional patterns at the broadest macrosystem level, such as patriarchy or White supremacy, take shape in the institutions at the other levels that are closer to the individual, such as government or school. He uses this framework to explain the important research term ecological validity, which means that a topic is studied in a way that considers both individuals as well as the various contextual influences that shape everyday life.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
Bronfenbrenner’s framework has shaped my own perspective about the connections between individuals and the society in which they live. In my own research, I study student marginalization and inclusivity by looking across these levels of contextual influence. While isolating certain factors might help us understand them better—such as how a particular teaching strategy works—it might also blind us to the important roles of other factors at other context levels that affect teaching and learning. In my research, I attempt to look across these levels. This framework is also useful in my teaching because it helps students to think about how social contexts shape experiences and also how individuals can shape social contexts. For example, teachers’ beliefs and the ways they teach show certain influences of the macrosystem. But teaching itself also shapes the macrosystem because teachers pass along certain assumptions, beliefs, and ways of being in their classrooms, and their students affect the macrosystem as they participate in society. Considering how the macrosystem shapes experiences can particularly help pre-service teachers understand their students’ behaviors and experiences. It can also help pre-service teachers shape their own roles as teachers.
#4 Learning to Labor: How Working-Class Kids Get Working-Class Jobs
by Paul Willis
Full citation: Willis, P. (2017). Learning to labor: How working-class kids get working-class jobs. Columbia University Press.
Overview
In this book, first published in 1977, researcher Paul Willis presented his examination of working-class boys in British schools. This landmark sociological study explored and explained how the boys’ individual perspectives and decision-making regarding school led them to ultimately occupy the same social class as their parents. This study is a good example of Bronfenbrenner’s model in action because it shows how industrial capitalism (a force at the macrosystem level) shaped the boys’ parents’ experiences as factory workers (at the exosystem level) which then shaped the boys’ own perspectives about school (at the micro- and mesosystem levels). The boys’ parents had not relied on school success in order to get satisfactory jobs and so the boys also did not believe that school would be the key to their own life satisfaction. Beliefs about strength and masculinity were also coupled with prioritizing physical labor over intellectual labor, which the boys viewed as less masculine. These beliefs led them to look down upon school success and to make fun of their peers who were successful in school. Rather than engaging in school and completing work, the boys were often truant and behaved in ways that they viewed as more adult and more masculine. When they consequently failed in school, they were only qualified for occupations involving physical labor, just like their parents. This study shows the connections between individual choices and broader social forces and explores the roles of each in social stratification.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
I view Willis’ book as a foundational publication that paved the way for many influential ethnographic studies that have examined how racism, sexism, heterosexism, and other macro-level social patterns affect, and get reproduced in, schools. Some of my favorites are Unequal Childhoods by Annette Lareau, Subtractive Schooling by Angela Valenzuela, and Despite the Best Intentions by Amanda Lewis and John Diamond. Other studies, such as Manufacturing Hope and Despair by Ricardo Stanton-Salazar (see #6) and The Color of Success by Gil Conchas, further develop our understanding of social reproduction by showing how educators can disrupt systems of oppression in school and support students from non-dominant social backgrounds in ways that lead to more liberating outcomes. I find these examples very influential in my own thinking as well as in my own research designs and approaches to teaching.
#5 Is Everyone Really Equal? An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education
By Özlem Sensoy and Robin DiAngelo
Full Citation: Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2017). Is everyone really equal? An introduction to key concepts in social justice education (2nd ed.). Teachers College Press.
Overview
In this book, Sensoy and DiAngelo introduce the important theoretical ideas that are illustrated in Learning to Labor and the other books I described previously. They give clear definitions and explanations of how social stratification occurs in education as a result of forces like racism, sexism, classism, and intersectionality.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
I use this book in my teaching because it helps students have language to discuss issues related to power and social justice in schools. It also supports us in investigating and reflecting on our own social positions and how we might consciously or unconsciously have or use power in ways that privilege us or some of our students and disadvantage others. This book could be used with advanced bachelor students as well as at the master and doctoral levels.
#6 Manufacturing Hope and Despair: The School and Kin Networks of U.S.-Mexican Youth
By Ricardo D. Stanton-Salazar
Full Citation: Stanton-Salazar, R. D. (2001). Manufacturing hope and despair: The school and kin networks of U.S.-Mexican youth. Teachers College Press.
Overview
As mentioned in #4, this book illustrates how social reproduction occurs in schools. Stanton-Salazar describes his study of how Mexican American high school students built social networks that shaped their school outcomes. Building upon Bourdieu’s explanation of economic, cultural, and social capital, this study dives into the role of social capital in student success. The students Stanton-Salazar studied were immigrants or children of immigrants and he looked at patterns of their relationships with parents and school personnel. He cites Bronfenbrenner’s model to contextualize these relationships within neighborhoods, schools, and broader national and international regions.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
I mentioned several sociological studies that have shaped my own research and teaching. I added this one to the top ten as an excellent example of research that names macrolevel forces while also honing in on the relationships that students have with educators. When educators or future educators start to explore the impact of forces like racism and classism, it can seem overwhelming. I have noticed that my own students sometimes feel powerless to make a difference in the face of such forces. In this book, Stanton-Salazar used the term institutional agents. This term means that, as representatives of schools, educators have a particular kind of power. They can use that power to support students by activating social networks and connecting students to powerful others. This study showed how educators can act as institutional agents to make a difference in students’ educational lives.
#7 Make Me! Understanding and Engaging Student Resistance in School
By Eric Toshalis
Full Citation: Toshalis, E. (2015). Make me! Understanding and engaging student resistance in school. Harvard Education Press.
Overview
Students from groups that are underrepresented in school often know that their cultural, racial, gender, class, or other social identities are not supported or equally reflected in school curricula, educator expectations, or teacher behaviors. Students’ knowledge of this situation and persistent encounters with marginalization sometimes lead them to resist the demands and requirements placed on them. In this book, Toshalis explained how behavior that educators often interpret as defiant can actually be better understood as acts of resistance to unjust social structures. He explains causes of resistance, and solutions to prevent or address it, using lenses from sociology, psychology, and pedagogy.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
Toshalis masterfully integrates a deep and thorough level of theory with educational practice. This book demands intellectual attention and avoids “quick fixes.” It asks teachers to question their assumptions, deepen their understanding of students’ challenging behaviors, and develop new ways of interpreting and responding to these behaviors. I use sections of this book in teacher education courses and would highly recommend the entire volume in doctoral courses. I also think this book provides a nice model for scholars seeking to connect theory and practice in writing for pre-service teachers, in-service teachers, and teacher educators.
#8 “I Didn’t Do Nothin’”: The Discursive Construction of School Suspension
By Frances Vavrus and KimMarie Cole
Full Citation: Vavrus, F., & Cole, K. (2002). “I didn’t do nothin’”: The discursive construction of school suspension. The Urban Review, 34(2), 87-111.
Overview
Vavrus and Cole conducted a semester-long study of two high school classes in the midwestern U.S. where they observed and conducted interviews about student discipline. They specifically wanted to understand how students ended up suspended from class and they brought a cultural lens to the question, meaning that they were particularly interested in the role of cultural differences between teachers and students in the discipline process. They found that suspensions began with what they called disciplinary moments. In these moments, teachers and students experienced conflict, often related to different, culturally based expectations related to behavior. These researchers showed how once this conflict began, teachers and students engaged in a sequence of interactive behaviors that ultimately led to students being sent out of class.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
I also study and teach about classroom management, school discipline, and culturally responsive teaching. What I think is so important about this study is that it does not assume that causes for problems or solutions rest with students or with teachers but rather that conflicts are constructed between them. By positioning the problem as taking place between individuals rather than because of them, it also makes it possible for different sorts of interactions to take place. This research brings into question teachers’ deficit perspectives, which often blame students for unruly behavior, and instead offers insight into how teachers may be contributing to their own classroom management difficulties.
#9 Effort and Excellence in Urban Classrooms: Expecting—And Getting—Success With All Students
By Dick Corbett, Bruce Wilson, and Belinda Williams
Full Citation: Corbett, D., Wilson, B., & Williams, B. (2002). Effort and excellence in urban classrooms: Expecting—and getting—success with all students. Teachers College Press.
Overview
In this book, the authors describe a study they did in diverse school districts in the Midwest and east coast of the U.S. Some schools in these districts outperformed those with similar student populations and the researchers wanted to know why. They found that teachers in these schools took what they called an “It’s My Job” approach to teaching. That meant that the teachers assumed that it was their job to teach the students in front of them to the point that the students succeeded in meeting the learning objectives. “It’s My Job” teachers found no legitimate reasons to stop trying to teach all students. The book provides portraits of how the teachers accomplished this approach at school and it includes interviews with students about their experiences at these schools as well.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
I rely heavily on this book in creating a foundation in my teacher preparation courses because it illustrates what it means for teachers to take an asset-based approach to teaching and to take responsibility for the learning of all students.
#10 Approaches to Multicultural Curriculum Reform
By James A. Banks
Full Citation: Banks, J. A. (1989). Approaches to multicultural curriculum reform. Trotter Review, 3(3), Article 5.
Overview
In this short, easy-to-read article, Banks names and categorizes different approaches to multicultural education in relation to school curriculum. These categories are important because he clearly differentiates between approaches where teachers present heroes and holidays of different cultures and approaches where teachers ask fundamental questions about which cultural perspectives, and whose interests, are represented in curriculum. He argues that education that is truly multicultural should lead students to question curricular content that supports unequal social structures by putting down or leaving out diverse perspectives and experiences.
Why This Resource Makes My Top Ten
Banks is a foundational thinker in multicultural education. Many scholars have “stood on his shoulders” in developing theories and approaches to culturally responsive teaching. Nevertheless, many teachers still subscribe to oversimplified versions of multicultural education. Such oversimplification is supported in efforts like X History Month or X Pride Month, where a historically or contemporarily oppressed or underrepresented population becomes a focus for this short time only to fade into the background or completely disappear in the rest of the curriculum. These campaigns also do not ask students, teachers, or society at large to question underlying policies, perspectives, or behaviors that lead to inequity. This article gives language for discussing the differences in these approaches. This work was important in my own teacher training and I refer to it when teaching about multicultural education.
Bonus Works
In addition to these core resources that I return to over and over, there are additional materials that have become important to me. Again, this is not a comprehensive list of scholarship that I think is important. Instead, these selected works particularly stand out as something that: a) I have recently discovered and am excited about; b) relates to a new direction in which I am considering taking my scholarship; and/or c) challenges my current way of thinking.I add to this list periodically as I discover resources that fit these criteria and give a one- or two-sentence explanation for why the resource made the list. The list is not in any particular order.
Advancing Culturally Relevant Discipline: An Ethnographic Microanalysis of Disciplinary Interactions With Black Students
By Olivia Marcucci and Rowhea Elmesky
Full Citation: Marcucci, O., & Elmesky, R. (2020). Advancing culturally relevant discipline: An ethnographic microanalysis of disciplinary interactions with Black students. Urban Education. Advance online publication.
This study is relevant to my own research and uses an intriguing theoretical framework (i.e., Collins’ interaction ritual chains). Its methodology is related to Vavrus and Cole’s work and holds promise for understanding the interactional co-construction of classroom culture and experience.
Black And Belonging At School: A Case For Interpersonal, Instructional, And Institutional Opportunity Structures
By DeLeon L. Gray, Elan C. Hope, and Jamaal S. Matthews
Full Citation: Gray, D. L., Hope, E. C.,& Matthews, J. S. (2018). Black and belonging at school: A case for interpersonal, instructional, and institutional opportunity structures. Educational Psychologist, 53(2), 97-113.
I have been moving in the direction of developing work related to sense of belonging. This article evolves the construct of school belonging by honing in on culturally relevant instruction as a critical component of the sense of belonging of Black students.
The Co-Construction of Opposition in a Low-Track Mathematics Classroom
By Victoria M. Hand
Full Citation: Hand, V. M. (2010). The co-construction of opposition in a low-track mathematics classroom. American Educational Research Journal, 47(1), 97-132.
This article also looks at student-teacher co-constructions. Hand shows how the teacher interprets and labels certain student behaviors as either relevant to mathematics or not relevant to mathematics. By doing this, the teacher misinterprets, or completely misses, students’ bids to participate in class. I find this concept useful for teachers, and I aspire to conduct research and write articles of this high quality.
The Role of Intuition in Pedagogical Tact: Educator Views
By Gerbert Sipman, Jürg Thölke, Rob Martens, and Susan McKenney
Full Citation: Sipman, G., Thölke, J., Martens, R., & McKenney, S. (2019). The role of intuition in pedagogical tact: Educator views. British Educational Research Journal, 45(6), 1186-1202.
Another area of my scholarly interest is in physiology and neuroscience as they relate to classroom co-construction between teachers and students. I view teacher intuition as related to this interest and was delighted to discover the work of Sipman and colleagues.
The Body Multiple: Ontology in Medical Practice
By Annemarie Mol
Full Citation: Mol, A. (2002). The body multiple: Ontology in medical practice. Duke University Press.
Mol’s extensive ethnographic study of atherosclerosis might not seem at all related to my research or teaching, but her methodological approach to focusing on enactments rather than perspectives is pushing my thinking.
White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race
By Gloria Wekker
Full Citation: Wekker, G. (2016). White innocence: Paradoxes of colonialism and race. Duke University Press.
In this book, Wekker addresses race in the Netherlands, which is culturally considered a taboo topic. This is an important book in helping me bridge my US-based work and my work in Europe.
Post Qualitative Inquiry in an Ontology of Immanence
By Elizabeth A. St. Pierre
Full Citation: St. Pierre, E. A. (2019). Post qualitative inquiry in an ontology of immanence. Qualitative Inquiry, 25(1), 3-16.
St. Pierre is a cutting edge, contemporary philosopher of science in the field of education. Implications of her work suggest a complete overhaul of many current approaches to research. I am grappling with this.
The Limits of Justice-Informed Research and Teaching in the Presence of Antiblackness and Black Suffering: Surplus of Transformation or (Un)Just Traumatic Returns?
By Keffrelyn D. Brown
Full Citation: Brown, K. D. (2021). The limits of justice-informed research and teaching in the presence of antiblackness and Black suffering: Surplus of transformation or (un)just traumatic returns? Qualitative Inquiry. [Advance online publication]
Brown challenges “progressive” approaches to teaching and research that focus on the suffering of Black people. While reading this article, I wondered about implications for research and teacher education.
Brianna L. Kennedy 