A day-by-day summary of this year’s Annual Meeting, showcasing scholarship and expertise with presentations by UCLA Ed&IS students, faculty, and researchers.
Jump to summary for Wednesday, April 23 | Thursday, April 24 | Friday, April 25 | Saturday, April 26 | Sunday, April 27
Wednesday, April 23
During a session titled, “The Dynamics of Philanthropy: Racialization, Representation, and Research Equity,” doctoral student Abbie Cohen presented her paper, “A Spectacle by Design: A Racialized Performance for Donor Dollars,” providing an exploration of philanthropy in education through a lens of racialized power, knowledge infrastructure, representation theory, and educational innovation. Using critical ethnography, Cohen showed how community-based nonprofits navigate relationships with private donors, revealing the performative nature of securing funding in the current sociopolitical context.
Professor of Education Sylvia Hurtado and doctoral students Marcelo Alonso and Gabriel Gutierrez Aragon presented their study, “Racial Climate Assessments: Ends or Means for Institutional Action,” during a roundtable session on, “Race and Racism in Higher Education.” Their findings show how campuses use racial climate data, tracking progress, identifying in-action, or changing educational environments for marginalized racial identity groups, using a sequential mixed-methods approach.
The team’s data was collected from a national sample of institutions featuring DEIJ administrators and institutional researchers’ perspectives, emphasizing the importance of intentional data use for organizational learning and change in areas such as planning, faculty development, and student services. Their discussion shared the goal to understand how climate assessments can foster institutional change and identify best practices, as well as areas for further development. In addition, the researchers discussed the future of DEI and racial climate assessment.
Janene Ward, co-director of the LAUSD CGI Action Research Project, part of the UCLA Mathematics Project at Center X, and doctoral student Adejah Taylor presented “Designing Classroom Observation Measures to Support Teacher Learning and Instructional Practice in Mathematics” in a roundtable session on “Studies of Instructional Practices in Mathematics.” Their study addressed the challenges of producing observation data that will better support teachers in the learning about their students and their own instruction, and promote teacher thinking about potential changes, and is significantly linked to student learning outcomes.
Taylor and Ward’s paper describes the design of a real-time mathematics classroom observation measure that provides detailed information about student participation to support teacher learning and improvement of practice, and reports on the implementation of the measure in 26 classrooms in seven elementary schools.
Center X researchers Imelda Nava-Landeros, Jane Kim, Deborah M. LaTorre, and Maria Paz-Fernandez put a strong wrap on the day in a structured poster session titled, “Formative Research and Pedagogical Approaches to Integrate Computational Thinking and Computer Science in a Residency,” exploring their research on computational thinking and equity in computer science, with Jean Ryoo, director of research of the Computer Science Equity Project at Center X, serving as discussant.
“Computational thinking for equity allows us to create a pathway forward,” said Nava-Landeros, UCLA STEM+C3 director and STEM Teacher Education faculty member in the UCLA Teacher Education Program.“It explains and provides a road map, a way to engage in critical thinking. In our research, we wanted to assure that we engage the community, that we help our teachers think about how this work impacts the world around them, the community, and themselves. Because of that, we framed our computational thinking practices in equity issues, in dialogue and collaboration, and in real world data.”
Thursday, April 24
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Friday, April 25
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Saturday, April 26
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Sunday, April 27
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Above: UCLA researchers and faculty in UCLA’s Teacher Education Program (TEP) put a strong wrap on the day in a structured poster session, sharing their research on computational thinking and equity in computer science.
L-R: Jane Kim, TEP faculty member; Jean Ryoo, director of research, Computer Science Equity Project; Deborah M. LaTorre, research scientist, CRESST; Maria Paz-Fernandez, doctoral student; and Imelda Nava-Landeros, UCLA STEM+C3 director and STEM Teacher Education faculty member
Photo by John McDonald
Joanie Harmon contributed to this article.