Teacher autonomy support and provision of structure are crucial for students' learning and motivation, yet it is unclear how to best blend them. Research describes autonomy support and structure as independent but mutually supportive, equivalent, and even opposite. These contradictions jeopardize the generalizability of findings across studies and…

Little is known about the role of teachers in fostering wellbeing in the everyday context of school life. This paper explores the phenomenon among a sample of Norwegian teachers. Focus groups with 23 teachers in four schools (grades 1-10) in Norway were conducted. In the analysis of the findings three themes were developed: 1) fostering student…

Background: Provision of structure in classroom settings constitutes one of the pillars of conducive learning environments. However, little is known whether the particular elements of provided structure--namely, contingency, clear expectations, help and support, and monitoring--are equally important for student learning and motivation. Aims: In…

Background: High academic aspirations relate to higher achievement and better mental health, but less is known about how these aspirations are formed in relation to the educational context. Objective: This study aims to investigate the relationship between overall school climate, with particular concern for the dimensions of school level…

Students tend to perform at the academic level expected of them. Although most expectation research has centered investigation of decontextualized teacher-student dyads to understand whether students behaviorally confirm their teacher's expectation, we now know that expectations operate at whole-group or system levels. Since underestimation is…

Given the rising efforts to ensure all young children have equitable access to high-quality early childhood settings and systems (Children's Equity Project, 2020; DEC, 2020; NAEYC, 2019), it is essential for early care and education practitioners to examine how their perceptions and implicit biases may impact their teaching and consider how to…

Teachers incorporate information from various sources as they form their academic expectations for students. The student record of prior achievement is the most salient factor that educators use to form their expectations for children's achievement. Research on the factors that influence educator expectations has primarily focused on the ways…

In tiered systems, all school faculty and staff ideally recognize student academic, behavioral, and social achievement as a shared responsibility. In an ideal system, faculty and staff collaborate in a data-informed process to define common student expectations to facilitate success. Adults provide clarity for all students by defining expectations…

Educators tend to think about the problem of distraction in the classroom as a modern one. Educators might battle digital devices for students' attention, but literary and philosophical heritage testifies to a robust tradition of people who have lamented their inability to pay attention in contexts that demanded it, from work and school to…

Context: Educators often engage with student performance data to make important instructional decisions, yet limited research has analyzed how educators make sense of student performance data. In addition, scholars suggest that teachers recognize a relationship between their instruction and student performance data, but this is a relatively…

This paper explores the ways in which success in school is constructed by a majority White teaching staff during day-to-day classroom practices and schoolwide policies, such as the disciplinary systems at a "no-excuses" charter school in one of the largest urban districts in the U.S. Stakeholders were assessed by interviews and…

Background: Blacks are commonly targeted as a population that will benefit from school choice. Drawing upon market theory, school choice advocates argue that educational opportunity will increase for Blacks and other underserved populations when schools are required to compete for students. With choice, the historically underserved can presumably…

Research has demonstrated that decades of equity-oriented reforms have not significantly repudiated problems associated with teachers' negative expectations of students of color in the classroom. This paper draws on the concepts of "Whiteness as property" and the "educational racial contract" to explore the first author's…

High educational attainment is associated with beneficial outcomes for both individuals and society; however, Black males are underrepresented among college students. This study drew on a positive youth development (PYD) perspective to investigate the role of academic self-efficacy beliefs (a malleable strength) in predicting academic preparedness…

This paper is designed to contribute to the discussion on how to conceptualise and study contextual influence in local school development. We propose a theoretical framework and an empirical illustration to supplement former research on rural school research. Focusing on what the school perceives as important in its community may explain why…