Research on Schools, Neighborhoods and Communities

Toward Civic Responsibility

William F. Tate IV

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9781442204690
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Evaluation & Assessment in Education

Research on Schools, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Toward Civic Responsibility focuses on research and theoretical developments related to the role of geography in education, human development, and health. William F. Tate IV, the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and former President of the American Educational Research Association, presents a collection of chapters from across disciplines to further understand the strengths of and problems in our communities. Today, many research literatures—e.g., health, housing, transportation, and education—focus on civic progress, yet rarely are there efforts to interrelate these literatures to better understand urgent problems and promising possibilities in education, wherein social context is central. In this volume, social context—in particular, the unequal opportunities that result from geography—is integral to the arguments, analyses, and case studies presented. Written by more than 40 educational scholars from top universities across the nation, the research presented in this volume provides historical, moral, and scientifically based arguments with the potential to inform understandings of civic problems associated with education, youth, and families, and to guide the actions of responsible citizens and institutions dedicated to advancing the public good.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I: Conceptualizing Urban Space
• Chapter 1: Neighborhood Inequality, Violence, and the Social Infrastructure of the American City
• Chapter 2: Toward a Theory of Place
• Chapter 3: Urban Opportunity Structure and Racial/Ethnic Polarization
• Chapter 4: Racial Segregation in Multiethnic Schools
• Part II: The Growing Complexity of Metropolitan America
• Chapter 5: Suburbanization and School Segregation
• Chapter 6: Schools Matter
• Chapter 7: Still Separate, Still Unequal, But Not Always So “Suburban”
• Chapter 8: Adding Geospatial Perspective to Research on Schools, Communities, and Neighborhoods
• Part III: Teaching and Learning Research in Social Context
• Chapter 9: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges to a Cultural and Ecological Framework for Studying Human Learning and Development
• Chapter 10: An Ecological and Activity Theoretic Approach to Studying Diasporic and Nondominant Communities
• Chapter 11: Reconstructing Education in America
• Chapter 12: Can School Improvement Reduce Racial Inequality?
• Chapter 13: Seeing Our Way Into Learning Science in Informal Environments
• Chapter 14: No Color Necessary
• Chapter 15: Taking Math and Science to Black Parents
• Part IV: Research on Human Development, Health, and Human Service Providers in Social Context
• Chapter 16: Maximizing Culturally and Contextually Sensitive Assessment Strategies in Developmental and Educational Research
• Chapter 17: Immigrant Children
• Chapter 18: Delivering High-Quality Public Services to Vulnerable Families and Children in America’s Cities
• Chapter 19: Health Disparities Among African Americans in Urban Populations
• Chapter 20: A “Tragic Dichotomy”
• Chapter 21: Pandemic Preparedness
• Part V: Case Studies of Metropolitan Communities
• Chapter 22: Urban America in Distress
• Chapter 23: God’s Will or Government Policy?
• Epilogue
• Chapter 24: Research Infrastructure for Improving Urban Education
• Chapter 25: The White House Office of Urban Affairs
• Chapter 26: Toward Civic Responsibility and Civic Engagement
• About the Contributors