Papers by Erin Feinauer Whiting
Journal of Youth Studies, 2023
This study explores open-ended student responses representing advice for belonging from all stude... more This study explores open-ended student responses representing advice for belonging from all students in one junior high school with 3 grades of youth ages 12-16 (n= 618). Nearly 5% of responses indicated that there was no way to belong at all. A variety of ideas about what matters for belonging in school emerged, including features of academic life and relationships with teachers, as well as friendships. Surprisingly, responses suggesting personal dispositional qualities far exceeded any other emergent themes. These included calls to be nice and to be outgoing as well as calls to avoid being “weird.” Managing and forming friendships were also very important. Chi-square analysis was used to explore differences across basic student characteristics for student positioning toward these emergent concepts of belonging. Gender and grade level stood out as significant, raising questions about how schools can organize to support belonging for students in middle level education. These youth represent the school context as a social and emotional space where they perceive normative dispositions are managed for belonging and where they grapple with authenticity. Implications surface for how to support students during important school transitions by attending to the social and emotional geographies over which young adolescents must traverse.
Journal of Language Identity and Education, 2012
This study examined the sociolinguistic contexts of neighborhoods and schools in two predominantl... more This study examined the sociolinguistic contexts of neighborhoods and schools in two predominantly Latino communities in the United States. We used census data to assess social and ethnic composition and observational data to compare and contrast environmental print, language use, and availability of community services in Spanish in these schools and neighborhoods. Structured interviews with pre-adolescent (5th grade) students raised questions about how these sociolinguistic contexts might contribute to ways they viewed themselves as part of their ethnic community. Observational results revealed striking differences in the prevalence and use of Spanish across these two communities. Student interviews raised questions about how pre-adolescent Latino students in these two very different sociolinguistic contexts may see themselves in relation to their ethnic group. Implications for supporting ethnic-identity-development processes are discussed.
Community Development, 2000
Several questions are addressed in this article: How have welfare changes related to food assista... more Several questions are addressed in this article: How have welfare changes related to food assistance affected a specific reservation community, the Northern Cheyenne Nation, and what are the implications of these changes for community development? Using descriptive ...
This self-study examines how our non-personhood experiences (NPHEs) contributed to
our teacher ed... more This self-study examines how our non-personhood experiences (NPHEs) contributed to
our teacher educator identity process. We took up exploration of these experiences,
which were very painful for us, not as entre´e into victimhood but because we wanted to
learn something about how, in the face of such experiences, we could engage with these
troubling interactions in order to renew our commitment to our work as teacher
educators in the university. During the analysis, we considered our stories on four
overlapping dimensions: (1) our selves in our own story, (2) others in the story,
(3) colleagues not in the story, and (4) non-colleagues and others not in the story.
A framework for looking at our NPHEs allows teacher educators to attend to students’
needs while simultaneously reasserting their own teacher educator identities in more
honest and vulnerable ways. Analyzing NPHEs has the potential to help teacher
educators engage and invite students to recognize teacher educators’ personhood and
thereby better position them to recognize the personhood of their future students.
Research articles and theoretical chapters about online learning for diverse students. Countries ... more Research articles and theoretical chapters about online learning for diverse students. Countries represented in this volume include the United States, Canada, and New Zealand. Chapters are divided into sections with introductions.
Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 2014
School Science and Mathematics, 2015
ABSTRACT This study examined the science self-efficacy beliefs of students at the transition from... more ABSTRACT This study examined the science self-efficacy beliefs of students at the transition from elementary school (Grade 6) to middle school (Grade 7) and the transition from middle school (Grade 8) to high school (Grade 9). The purpose was to determine whether students’ perceived competence is impacted at these important school transitions and if the effect is mediated by gender and ethnicity. Self-efficacy was measured through a modified Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (Muris, 2001), which was adapted to focus specifically on science self-efficacy. Multiple ordinary least squares regression was used to analyze the data. Two models were developed, one using ninth grade as the comparison group and the other using sixth grade as the comparison group. In each model, the independent variables (grade level, gender, ethnicity) were regressed on the dependent variable, science self-efficacy. The most striking finding was the large and significant decline in science self-efficacy scores for ninth graders at the transition to high school. We also found that females and Hispanic students had lower scores across grades as compared to males and Caucasians. How these results relate to existing studies, and implications for practice and future research are discussed.
Claims abound in the research literature regarding multicultural teacher dispositions, including ... more Claims abound in the research literature regarding multicultural teacher dispositions, including how to foster them in teacher preparation programs. However, measures of multicultural dispositions of teachers that (a) capture the range of conceptually rich constructs and (b) demonstrate strong psychometric properties are not represented in the literature. In this article, we discuss the iterative development and psychometric properties of the Multicultural Teacher Dispositions Scale (MTDS), a survey of 15 items designed to assess three dispositions/ factors: Meekness, Social Awareness, and Advocacy. We analyze responses from 372 preservice teachers in three samples and analytic phases, and discuss factor and item analytic results from the final phase. Results demonstrate strong support for Meekness, though moderate support for Social Awareness and Advocacy. We discuss limitations, implications for measure refinement, and eventual use for research and practice improvement.
Feeling a sense of belonging in schools has been shown to be important for all students. However,... more Feeling a sense of belonging in schools has been shown to be important for all students. However, little systematic attention has been paid toward belonging for young children. Mechanisms for inclusion connect to belonging in the context of diversity that is regularly a part of school settings. Two-Way immersion (TWI) programs provide one educational context ideally suited for exploring the constructs of belonging and inclusion in linguistically and culturally diverse settings. This study explores how kindergarteners articulate a sense of belonging in a socio-linguistically diverse international Two-Way immersion school. Focus groups were conducted with kindergarteners asking children to help English and Spanish language dominant puppets understand what it would be like as a new student at the school and what they would need to fit in and belong. Findings reveal that these kindergarteners recognize the utility of language but do not segregate peers by language group. Language proficiencies were articulated as a procedure for being able to 'do school.' These young children appear to experience language diversity as a 'de facto' context and something to manage procedurally. Comments on friendship-making also express the importance of conforming to concrete social interpersonal norms, namely friendship as compliance to social norms and procedures of asking someone to be your friend and being nice. A consideration of inclusion as the negotiation of belonging in this diverse context allows us to consider the specific ideas and solutions of these kindergarteners as a shared project of belonging in which they all work to enact inclusion. (250)
Educational Studies, 2019
This reflexive inquiry explores a teacher educator’s efforts to design opportunities for students... more This reflexive inquiry explores a teacher educator’s efforts to design opportunities for students to use their knowledge of social media and the Internet to contribute content to their online critical multicultural education course. Findings identify steps critical multicultural education pedagogues can take to design such opportunities: (a) identify contradictions in their practice, (b) take pedagogical risks, and (c) work with chronic tensions. Designing formal opportunities for students to identify and use content from social media and the Internet as learning resources and curricular content for critical multicultural education shifted the power relations in the course. These results demonstrate the potential of critical pedagogy online to create new practices of shared knowledge construction, expertise, and authority, and to address the call for research into the potential of online environments to foster critical pedagogy.
Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 2020
This article explores notions of belonging and citizenship for "American Mexican" students-Mexica... more This article explores notions of belonging and citizenship for "American Mexican" students-Mexican-heritage youth born in the United States who return to Mexico with their families. Our findings reveal belonging as a sociocultural practice that participants negotiated spatially and relationally, chiefly by making their US-born status more and less visible within particular spaces at school. The experiences of American-Mexican youth reveal the crucial roles of migration and belonging in shaping civic identities and future potentials in a transnational world. [belonging, transnationalism, immigration, latina/o, civic identity]
International Journal of Inclusive Education, 2021
Feeling a sense of belonging in schools has been shown to be important for all students. However,... more Feeling a sense of belonging in schools has been shown to be important for all students. However, little systematic attention has been paid toward belonging for young children. Mechanisms for inclusion connect to belonging in the context of diversity that is regularly a part of school settings. Two-Way immersion (TWI) programs provide one educational context ideally suited for exploring the constructs of belonging and inclusion in linguistically and culturally diverse settings. This study explores how kindergarteners articulate a sense of belonging in a socio-linguistically diverse international Two-Way immersion school. Focus groups were conducted with kindergarteners asking children to help English and Spanish language dominant puppets understand what it would be like as a new student at the school and what they would need to fit in and belong. Findings reveal that these kindergarteners recognize the utility of language but do not segregate peers by language group. Language proficiencies were articulated as a procedure for being able to 'do school.' These young children appear to experience language diversity as a 'de facto' context and something to manage procedurally. Comments on friendship-making also express the importance of conforming to concrete social interpersonal norms, namely friendship as compliance to social norms and procedures of asking someone to be your friend and being nice. A consideration of inclusion as the negotiation of belonging in this diverse context allows us to consider the specific ideas and solutions of these kindergarteners as a shared project of belonging in which they all work to enact inclusion. (250)
Agriculture and Human Values, 2010
Living in poverty is associated with high levels of protracted stress associated with health prob... more Living in poverty is associated with high levels of protracted stress associated with health problems. Economic and food insecurity are particularly poignant aspects of poverty and condition the work of securing basic daily needs of families. Recent studies suggest that levels of stress increase as family food needs rise. This paper presents new findings which clarify the relationship of food provisioning to stress levels, by examining actual food provisioning strategies and food insecurity among the Northern Cheyenne Indians of southeastern Montana. Results clearly show that stress varies by types of food acquisition strategies. Contrary to our expectations, more complex strategies, including relatively unpredictable and cumbersome food provisioning activities, are not linked to higher stress levels in our analysis. Controlling for food security levels, households using a combination of local programs and informal subsistence sources are the least stressed, despite the demands of managing a large number of food sources. Households primarily using Food Stamps are the most likely to experience high levels of stress. Interviews with Food Stamp recipients show that potential sources of stress include inadequate allocations of Food Stamps, difficulty achieving and maintaining eligibility, challenges to complying with paperwork and appointment requirements, as well as personal obstacles and community barriers to making food stamps last. Analyses indicate that contradictions between local cultural norms for food provisioning and the realities of food insecurity in this context promote strategies emphasizing greater independence from federal food programs.
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 2012
Scholars who work with Latino/as in the USA have long been calling for a more nuanced understandi... more Scholars who work with Latino/as in the USA have long been calling for a more nuanced understanding of the heterogeneity of the US-based Latino population. Two-way Immersion (TWI) bilingual education programmes are an interesting context in which to examine the Latino parent communities in the USA. Overall, the language enrichment nature of TWI programmes attracts diverse parents from across many different demographic groups, and for a variety of reasons. This study uses an innovative application of cluster analysis to examine the parent population at one TWI Spanish–English elementary school. Survey questions asked were: parents’ income, educational achievement, ethnicity, language spoken at home, religious affiliation, country of origin and residential distance from the school. Our analyses reveal that parents in our sample can be classified into four distinct groups based on the combinations of included characteristics. Our analyses show the emergence of three Latino parent clusters and one Caucasian parent cluster. These analyses show how accounting for the different social dimensions of these parents’ lives simultaneously can provide a more nuanced understanding of the Latino parents at this school.
Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition, 2007
Using data from a 2001 survey of a representative sample of Northern Cheyenne reservation residen... more Using data from a 2001 survey of a representative sample of Northern Cheyenne reservation residents, this paper examines use of a variety of food sources, nutritional health and risk factors, diabetes risk factors, and food insecurity. Results indicate that substantial proportions of the respondents had high levels of nutritional risk, food insecurity, and diabetes risk. Importantly, those using community emergency food sources and informal economic strategies to meet food shortages were more likely to be food insecure. Those with higher nutritional risk and lower nutritional health were also more likely to be food insecure. Finally, being younger, educated and using wages to obtain food increased the risk for diabetes.
International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2011
This study builds on previous work to examine parent reasons for enrolling their children in a tw... more This study builds on previous work to examine parent reasons for enrolling their children in a two-way immersion (TWI) charter school. This work goes beyond ethno linguistic background variables (language, ethnicity), to include other key variables such as education level, income, religion, household distance from school, and family structure. This study takes place in one school-wide TWI program in a charter school where parents must choose and actively pursue enrollment. These highly motivated parents articulate, in their own voice, their reasons for choosing to enroll their children in this school. Using open-coding strategies, six overarching categories emerged from parent responses about their reasons for enrollment: Bilingualisms/Biliteracy, Educational Experiences, Future and Career Opportunities, Cultural Immersion/Diversity, Preserving Heritage, and Proximity to Home. Chi-square statistics are used to compare demographic characteristics across these six reasons. Our findings show that parents from many different background characteristics share a desire for their child to participate in TWI education. Additionally, there are many factors outside of language dominance that are relevant to parental decisions for enrollment. These data clearly showcase a highly motivated and diverse parent population who report various reasons for choosing the school for their children.
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Papers by Erin Feinauer Whiting
our teacher educator identity process. We took up exploration of these experiences,
which were very painful for us, not as entre´e into victimhood but because we wanted to
learn something about how, in the face of such experiences, we could engage with these
troubling interactions in order to renew our commitment to our work as teacher
educators in the university. During the analysis, we considered our stories on four
overlapping dimensions: (1) our selves in our own story, (2) others in the story,
(3) colleagues not in the story, and (4) non-colleagues and others not in the story.
A framework for looking at our NPHEs allows teacher educators to attend to students’
needs while simultaneously reasserting their own teacher educator identities in more
honest and vulnerable ways. Analyzing NPHEs has the potential to help teacher
educators engage and invite students to recognize teacher educators’ personhood and
thereby better position them to recognize the personhood of their future students.
our teacher educator identity process. We took up exploration of these experiences,
which were very painful for us, not as entre´e into victimhood but because we wanted to
learn something about how, in the face of such experiences, we could engage with these
troubling interactions in order to renew our commitment to our work as teacher
educators in the university. During the analysis, we considered our stories on four
overlapping dimensions: (1) our selves in our own story, (2) others in the story,
(3) colleagues not in the story, and (4) non-colleagues and others not in the story.
A framework for looking at our NPHEs allows teacher educators to attend to students’
needs while simultaneously reasserting their own teacher educator identities in more
honest and vulnerable ways. Analyzing NPHEs has the potential to help teacher
educators engage and invite students to recognize teacher educators’ personhood and
thereby better position them to recognize the personhood of their future students.