InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies

Spring 2016 Editor's Note

A significant missing link in the work of school reform is understanding how students relate with learning spaces and their teachers' beliefs to harness a positive self-concept of academic achievement. This article draws from the traditions of spatiality, educational studies, and the concept of social identity contingency to generate new ways to understand how students interpret and experience their teachers' expectations for learning. Based on a multiple case studies design of two urban classrooms, the researchers discovered the spatial behaviors of students and teachers are greatly influenced by the expectations they had of each other, and by extension, the spatial arrangement of learning opportunities as manifestations of their expectations in learning contexts. In effect, this study aims to shed light on the importance of co-creating classroom spaces with students of color that take into account its multiple dimensions and the salience of teachers' expectations for learning.

This in-depth qualitative case study of a unique service-learning director explored the factors that enabled her to cultivate a thriving multi-faceted program at a major research university. Through repeat interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, it became apparent that the relational components of this director’s work were critical in her program framing and successes. This article explores the director’s social orientation and approaches to rapport building. In so doing, it highlights the importance of relationships and rapport-building strategies on service-learning endeavors. The study ultimately underscores the potential of positive rapport and accordingly, calls for more attention to the relational aspects of program facilitation.

First, this paper argues that applications of SCOT in feminist science and technology studies have largely focused on analyzing how gender and technology are coproduced, resulting in lack of scholarship that examines the mutually constitutive relationship between technology, gender and other intersecting categories, such as race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and ability. Second, this paper argues that an intersectional view of technology can dismantle the language of objectivity deeply embedded in technological artifacts by revealing how identity categories, such as gender, race, and ethnicity, are integral components of “the social shaping of technology” and by extension participation in technological initiatives (Faulkner, p. 90, 2001). Finally, through a brief discussion of CompuGirls, a culturally responsive technology program for girls of color, this paper demonstrates how an intersectional, social constructionist approach to technology education can challenge stereotypes of girls of color as passive victims of technology and provide a counter-narrative that can empower girls of color to form generative relationships with technology.

In this paper I consider the need to rethink existing ethical approaches to the internationalization of higher education. In particular, I consider the risk that the same developmentalist assumptions that reproduce the highly uneven global higher education landscape also shape many of our efforts to address these inequities. To do so, I situate the current moment within a longer history of colonial relations and identify five pressing ethical challenges for higher education scholars and institutions to address. Ultimately, I suggest the need to be more attentive to the harmful investments and colonial frames of reference that keep us from imagining a radically different ethics of internationalization.

Review: Boundary Objects and Beyond: Working with Leigh Star, Edited by Geoffrey C. Bowker, Stefan Timmermans, Adele E. Clarke, and Ellen Balka

This book explores how undocumented students make meaning of the intersection between their immigration status and their social identities as community activists under historical and current contexts of xenophobia. Susana M. Muñoz draws 39 interviews from 13 self-identified Latina/o undocumented and unafraid students across the United States. Students’ journey stories reveal how undocumented student identities and experiences are complex, fluid, and unique to the individual. The author applies queer and resistance theories to help readers understand how undocumented students engage in the “coming out” process as a strategic political action for recognition and visibility. Findings provide recommendations for K-12 and higher education practice, policy, and future research for the advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion of undocumented students.