SSSP Educational Problems Division 
Winter 2020 Newsletter

Letter from the Division Chair:

Dear Division Members,

It is the last month of 2020 and I think we are all looking forward to raising a toast to 2021 on 
January 1st. It has been a year marked by a global pandemic, rising unemployment, a record-
breaking hurricane season, and a tumultuous election cycle that continues to drag on.  Yet 
despite it all, we have continued to be resilient and there is a lot still be thankful for.  We have 
seen inspiring and revolutionary work being done by the Black Lives Matter movement.  A 
COVID-19 vaccine looks promising.  For the first time ever with the election of Joe Biden, a 
community college professor will be in the White House, First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden. History was 
made when the first African American and South Asian-American woman, Kamala Harris, was 
elected as Vice President.  

Our division continues to prosper as well. Three amazing members have been nominated to fill 
the position of Division Chair for 2021-2023Ñwe look forward to an exciting election, free of 
voter fraud.  Some of our members have been quite productiveÑcheck out some of their 
amazing publications listed in this newsletter!  For those of us who usually teach in-person 
classes and have had to re-imagine teaching in a virtual environment, Dr. Chukhray shares with 
us some creative ways to combat ÒzoomÓ and ÒpandemicÓ fatigue.  

As you have no doubt already heard, the executive leadership has made a decision to move the 
SSSP 2021 conference to fully virtual.  If your organization is not currently supporting travel or 
the cost of a trip to Chicago just wasnÕt in your budget this year, this change is a most certainly a 
welcomed one! If you have not already done so, be sure to renew your membershipÑif you 
renew by the end of the month, you get to join a 2nd division for free with the ÒBuy One, Get 
OneÓ special.   As you get your paper together for next yearÕs conference, please consider 
submitting your paper to one of the 11 Educational Problems Division panels, listed later in this 
newsletter. If you are a graduate student, consider submitting your conference paper to our 
Graduate Student Paper Award as well!

We are also recruiting a new Social Media Coordinator for our Division! I want to thank Patricia 
Morency for bringing us into the 21st century with the creation of our Facebook page. If you 
want to carry on her legacy, please email me about your interest! lwaldron@cnu.edu.  The 
position begins at the start of the annual conference, doesnÕt require too much work, and carries 
with a $100 annual honorarium.  And if you havenÕt already done so, start following our 
Facebook page! @ssspeducationalproblems

As the year comes to a close, I wish you and your loved ones a safe, happy and healthy future!

My best, 
Linda Waldron, Ph.D.
Chair, Educational Problems Division of SSSP
Director, Center for Education Research and Policy
Associate Professor of Sociology at Christopher Newport University
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Nominees for 2021-2023 Division Chair
Be sure to vote for our next Educational Problems Division Chair! Full biographies will be 
include on the ballot. HereÕs a preview of who is running (in alphabetical order):

Elaine J. Laberge, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Victoria




Myron T. Strong, Ph.D. from University of North Texas; Assistant Professor at the Community 
College of Baltimore County


 

Catherine M. Voulgarides, Ph.D. from; Assistant Professor at the City University of New 
YorkÑHunter College



Publications by Division Members
Please take a moment to review, cite, and use as a class reading one of these wonderful works 
published by our division members.

Bell, C., & Puckett, T. (2020). I Want to Learn but They WonÕt Let Me: Exploring the Impact of 
School Discipline on Academic Achievement. Urban Education, 0042085920968629.
Abstract:
Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) as a guiding conceptual framework, this qualitative study 
examines black studentsÕ and parentsÕ perceptions of school discipline and its impact on 
academic achievement. The findings support the notion that out-of-school suspension has a 
negative impact on the academic achievement of African American students and suggest that this 
phenomenon emerges through a multifaceted process that includes (a) missing assignments and 
having trouble catching up, (b) missing vital instruction throughout the disciplinary period, and 
(c) educator resistance to providing makeup work to students who receive out-of-school 
suspensions. This study also provides some practical recommendations for school leaders.

Bell, C. (2020). ÒMaybe if they let us tell the story I wouldnÕt have gotten suspendedÓ: 
Understanding Black studentsÕ and parentsÕ perceptions of school discipline. Children and Youth 
Services Review, 110, 104757.
Abstract:
While studies confirm educators and administrators suspend Black students from school at 
disproportionate rates, few have explored Black studentsÕ and their parentsÕ perceptions of 
school discipline. Using Critical Race Theory as a framework, I interview thirty Black students 
and thirty parents of Black students who received an out-of-school suspension from a primarily 
Black high school (PBHS) in southeast Michigan during the 2016Ð2017 academic year. My 
findings suggest Black students and their parents perceive out-of-school suspension as unfair 
because (a) school officials marginalize their voices throughout the disciplinary process, and (b) 
students feel school officials target them for out-of-school suspension based on their style of 
dress, hair, and music preference. My findings also show out-ofschool suspension is associated 
with ÒBlack educational flight,Ó a process in which parents withdraw their children from PBHSs 
in response to excessive out-of-school suspension and enroll them in schools that are perceived 
to be less punitive.

Clonan-Roy, Katherine, Nora Gross, and Charlotte Jacobs. 2020. ÒSafe Rebellious Places: The 
Value of Informal Spaces in Schools to Counter the Emotional Silencing of Youth of 
Color.Ó International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.
ABSTRACT
Drawing on qualitative research with adolescent youth of color, this paper imagines the power 
and potential of informal youth-driven spaces in schools as sites of emotional safety and 
rebellion. Calling upon HochshildÕs (1979) conceptualization of the social regulation of 
emotions, we examine the racialized and gendered feeling rules that govern the social worlds of 
adolescents of color, particularly within educational institutions. Additionally, we theorize how 
the presence of informal youth-driven spaces inside schools, but outside of the traditional 
classroom or club structure, provide a place where young people can safely express their 
emotions, experience emotional understanding from their peers, and freely critique the 
institutional and systemic injustices they experience.

Miner, Michael A. 2020. "Unmet Promises: Diminishing Confidence in Education Among 
College?Educated Adults from 1973 to 2018" Social Science Quarterly 101(6) 2312-
2331 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ssqu.12873
ABSTRACT
This article asks: Does experience with education undermine confidence in the institution? If so, 
has this changed over time? This study uses mixed effects binary logistic regression on the 
General Social Survey (1973Ð2018). Confidence in the institution of education has declined over 
time. Those with a college degree are less confident in education and their confidence is 
diminishing over time. By 2018, those with a college degree indicated the lowest levels of 
confidence in education since 1973. These changes are distinct from general trends in 
institutional confidence. In fact, higher education is typically associated with more confidence in 
social institutions. These trends likely reflect the shifting rhetoric around the purpose and 
function of college education as well as the changing economic landscape of higher education. 
By focusing on long?term changes to a key symbolic impact of higher education (i.e., public 
confidence in education), findings add to the existing literature on the material benefits and 
consequences of attaining a college degree.

Shifrer, Dara. Published online first. Contextualizing Educational Disparities and the Evaluation 
of Teacher Quality. Social Problems. https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spaa044

ABSTRACT
Value added scores, statistical estimates of teacher quality, are representative of neoliberal logic. 
The higher average scores of teachers of socially advantaged students raise concerns that scores 
are inaccurate and unfair, and propagate decontextualized neoliberal understandings of the nature 
of learning and teachersÕ work. This study uses longitudinal data from roughly 4,500 teachers in 
a large urban district between 2007Ð08 through 2012Ð13 to follow individual teachers as they 
switch into schools of different Òperformance levelsÓ over time. Fixed-intercept models tracking 
individual teachers between 2007Ð08 and 2012Ð13 showed scores increased for teachers who 
switched into high-performing schools and decreased for teachers who switched into low-
performing schools. Particularly indicative of scores biased by contextual factors outside 
teachersÕ control, score changes for mobile teachers are partially attributable to shifts in the 
economic status and race of students in teachersÕ classrooms and schools. Understanding how 
neoliberalism operates within education provides sociological insight into how neoliberalism is 
legitimated and perpetuated in other central social institutions, such as the criminal justice 
system, the environment, gender, sexuality, and health.


Scherer, Mary L. (2020). Unequally Adrift: How Social Class and College Context Shape 
StudentsÕ Mentorship Experiences. Sociological Forum, online 25 August 2020,  
https://doi.org/10.1111/socf.12626

Abstract:
Faculty mentorship is a highly advantageous yet under?explored form of social capital which can 
grant access to co?curriculars (e.g., research assistantships), ensure strong letters of 
recommendation, and more. It is also typically informal and dependent on student initiative, 
requiring that students be skilled at engaging educational authority figures. Privileged students 
are most likely to have such skills as part of their dominant cultural capital, making faculty 
mentorship a site of social reproduction. To explore variations in this process, I compare two 
institution types: a small, teaching/undergraduate?focused regional university and a large, 
research?intensive flagship. In interviews with 68 working? and upper?middle?class students, I 
find that college context mediates the relationship of class background and faculty mentorship. 
Upper?middle?class students fostered advantageous faculty relationships at both universities, but 
working?class students diverged: at the flagship, they rarely approached professors in search of 
mentorship, while those at the regional university described close, beneficial connections with 
professors. I discuss working?class studentsÕ dissimilar experiences in terms of each universityÕs 
structural and cultural characteristics (organizational habitus), particularly their institutional 
focus and size. I argue that through their particular organizational features, colleges can both 
reproduce and reduce inequalities, challenging the determinacy of precollege socialization in 
education.

Nojan, Saugher. 2020. ÒMuslim Students Combating Institutional Inertia with Participatory 
Action ResearchÓ In Confronting Critical Equity and Inclusion Incidents on Campus:  Lessons 
Learned and Emerging Practices, Edited by Hannah Oliha-Donaldson. Routledge Press.

More about this edited collection:
Confronting Equity and Inclusion Incidents on Campus Lessons Learned and Emerging Practices 
Edited by Hannah Oliha-Donaldson 
Featuring the voices of faculty, staff, and students, this volume offers an interdisciplinary 
exploration of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) challenges at the intersections of race, class, 
gender, and socioeconomic status, while illuminating lessons learned and promising practices. 
Marrying theory and practice, Confronting Equity and Inclusion Incidents on Campus provides a 
framework for building more inclusive campuses that embody equity and the values of 
community.





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Rendon, Maria. (2019). Stagnant Dreamers: How the Inner City Shapes the Integration of 
Second-Generation Latinos.  Russell Sage Foundation.


Read the following Op Ed about Dr. RendonÕs book!
Rendon, Maria. For Latinos, a college degree doesnÕt guarantee entrance to the middle 
class. Opinion: OC Register, Los Angeles Daily News (February 20, 2020)

California public colleges and universities are confronting an unprecedented demographic shift. 
Fifty-five percent of California high school graduates are Latino, but these institutions 
overwhelmingly fail to connect them to vast resources available on campus. Most are first-
generation college students coming from the poorest neighborhoods in the state.
If higher education is to be a beacon of opportunity and a gateway to the middle class, 
universities must do more than give acceptance letters, financial aid packages, and diplomas. We 
must prioritize and systematize the practice of fully integrating these primarily working-class 
students through mentorship, professional development and connections to resources Ð networks, 
programs and other institutions Ð that can ensure they land on solid ground after graduation.
Take Manuel, one of the 42 young men I followed for more than ten years for my book, Stagnant 
Dreamers. Manuel graduated from an Ivy-League school on the East Coast, where his sense of 
alienation at the affluent college campus ended with him losing chunks of hair after his freshman 
year. Although Manuel powered through and his college education remains his proudest 
accomplishment, his degree fell flat when he returned home to Los Angeles looking for work.
Knocking on doors led him to some non-profit work but it paid very little. Eventually he resorted 
to friends and family who linked him to jobs. For Manuel this meant jobs at Target, mowing 
lawns, and in the garment district where his family concentrated. At twenty-seven years old and 
with an Ivy-League college degree, Manuel had yet to make more than $12.00/hour.
Higher educationÕs responsibility to these students is not only to educate them, but also prepare 
them for success in the workforce. It is not enough to make college more affordable or tout 
increasing diversity of incoming classes.
All students, including Latino students, deserve to be fully integrated in American society. 
Institutions of higher education have the capacity to transform these young peopleÕs lives and 
correct for our gross inequities. Yet as ManuelÕs story shows, for Latino college graduates, itÕs 
an uphill climb toward the middle class.
Middle- and upper-class students navigate college with ease, socially and culturally attuned to 
the unspoken norms of the university and with family and friends connected to the professional 
world. First-generation college students are often commuters and typically disconnected from 
campus resources, including faculty who rarely share their lived experience. At the University of 
California, only 4% of faculty are Latino.
Second-generation Latinos are often my strongest students at UC Irvine where I teach, showing 
up to almost every lecture. When they do not, I hear about family and work complications. These 
students carry the burden of our vast inequalities Ð from poor quality schooling and housing and 
food insecurities, to the over policing of their communities. I was reminded of this last quarter 
when one of my students apologized for his tardiness every week. On Tuesday mornings he 
checked in with his probation officer.
Focusing wholeheartedly on graduating, Latino students have few opportunities to expand their 
experiences and resources, specifically their social networks. These critical links can not only 
help them get through college but successfully transition into highly coveted jobs that give them 
entry into the middle class. Some return home with a diploma, but not much else.
CaliforniaÕs leaders, especially those of us in higher education, must recognize that helping 
students find community on campus, connecting them with peers, alumni, and mentors, is an 
integral part of how we measure success.
Upon graduating and fulfilling their and their parentsÕ dreams of a college education, young 
people like Manuel have already overcome significant barriers to success. Now itÕs our turn to 
make sure their hard work isnÕt in vain.
Mar’a G Rend—n is assistant professor at the University of California, Irvine and author 
of Stagnant Dreamers: How the Inner City Shapes the Integration of Second-Generation Latinos. 


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Congratulations are in order!

Odis Johnson, Jr., Ph.D. will begin a new position in January as the Bloomberg Distinguished 
Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management in the Bloomberg School of 
Public Health at Johns Hopkins University.  He will also serve as the Executive Director for the 
Center for Safe and Healthy Schools in the School of Education at Johns Hopkins University. 
Congratulations!

Nora Gross graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2020 with a PhD in Sociology and 
Education (dual-degree) and defended her dissertation, entitled Brothers in Grief: The Stages of 
Grieving for a School and its Students Following Three Shooting Deaths of Black Teenage Boys, 
with distinction. She is now a Core Fellow/Visiting Assistant Professor at Boston College where 
she is teaching courses in race, gender, and social inequality and working on transforming her 
dissertation into a book. Alongside the research, Nora produced two short documentary films 
exploring the secondary impacts of urban gun violence on adolescents and their families. One 
film, Our Philadelphia, made in collaboration with a team of youth, premiered online in July 
2020 and can be viewed on YouTube. The second film, Club With No Name, shares the stories 
of three Black mothers brought together by the tragic deaths of their sons; information about 
upcoming screenings can be found at http://www.noragross.com/film. Additionally, Nora and a 
team of colleagues are editing a methodological book, due out in late 2021 with Bloomsbury 
Press, about the role of critical care in conducting school-based research with youth. Well done!


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TEACHING ACTIVITY

Virtual Check Ins and Activities 
Irina Chukhray
PhD student, Univ. of CA - Davis

Problem. Exhaustion, Òzoom fatigue,Ó and Òpandemic fatigueÓ is a common feeling among my 
undergraduate students. Sometimes they share this and other times I just feel it. Across sociology 
classrooms, many professors do a common Òcheck inÓ technique asking students how they are 
doing. I find that this has become too common. This has become a bore, just adding to the 
exhaustion and fatigue.

Solution. I researched ideas for virtual activities and ice breakers that take about 5 minutes to 
complete.

Result. My students faces, those who are able to show their faces on zoom, indicate they are 
eagerly waiting to discover that dayÕs new activity. I also noticed more students signing in to 
zoom a few minutes early instead of a few minutes late. The evaluations from my classes 
indicate that students Òenjoy the activitiesÓ and they Òlike how [we] open each discussion with 
something that gets us talking and that [this] always fosters participation from everyone 
somehow.Ó (My reaction: mission accomplished!)

ACTIVITY EXAMPLES AND RESOURCES:

Online coloring activity: the instructor chooses 2-3 simple pictures ahead of time that require 
only 1-2 minutes to color. Send the website link to students via the Zoom chat. Instruct students 
to color just 1 picture. Ask students to share their screen and describe their creation. I recently 
did this activity right after Halloween where I chose a pumpkin and a Dracula (the Dracula 
picture was extremely popular, leading to many laughs for these precious few intro minutes of 
class).
Dracula Example, other online coloring picture options (www.online-coloring.com)
Meme: about 1-2 days prior to the class meeting, email students asking them to come prepared 
with a meme to share on X topic. Here is an example of email instructions: 

Please take 5 minutes to find one meme that describes some part of your college experience. This 
can be about COVID but does not have to be...it can be about friends, assignments, college life in 
general...etc. I will ask you to share your screens :)

MEME: A meme is a picture with a caption attached to it. 

Create fun and silly discussion questions. For example: ÒIf you could be a fictional character, 
who would you be?Ó Zoom breakout room for about 2 minutes and bring students back to share. 
Mental health ideas. For this activity, I shared a google doc with students and asked them to take 
2 minutes to answer, What do you do to help your mental health? In another version, I asked 
students, What do you do to help you stay focused when doing assignments? After class, I posted 
the completed document on Canvas for all to access.
Google search: Òvirtual activities for college studentsÓ or Òvirtual ice breakersÓÉetc.
Browse virtual activity ideas: 53 Virtual Activity Ideas (e.g., YouTube Video of the day, Weird 
Holiday Celebration, and Pet Photo Competitions)
Browse virtual ice breaker question ideas: SymoTraining, Univ. of Washington-Bothell, Univ. of 
Waterloo, BoredTeachers.com, 65 icebreaker questions (Michigan State Univ.)
Take a 5-minute virtual tour (share your screen and discuss what you see): The Louvre, The 
Great Wall of China, Yellowstone National Park
Take 5 minutes to view animal webcams (share your screen and discuss what you see): San 
Diego Zoo Cam, AtlantaÕs Panda Cam, Monterey Bay Aquarium Cam

TAKE AWAY: While virtual check ins are quickly becoming common, try an uncommon 
topic/activity to engage students. Consider asking students to submit their own activity 
suggestions (e.g., google form).


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SSSP 2021 ANNUAL CONFERENCE 
Revolutionary Sociology: Truth, Healing, Reparations and Restructuring
CONSIDER SUBMITTING YOUR PAPER TO ONE OF THE FOLLOWING DIVISION-
SPONSORED PANELS
https://www.sssp1.org/index.cfm/m/839/2021_Annual_Meeting/


Session 
#
Session Title
Organizer(s)
26
Schools, Punishment, and 
Juvenile Justice
Allen, Terrence Tyrone [ ttallen@pvamu.edu ]
Bell, Charles [ cabell6@ilstu.edu ]
(co-organizers)
35
Transformative Technology 
and the Growing Digital 
Divide: Educational Promise 
and Peril
Baird, Andrew [ andrew.baird@cnu.edu ]
36
CRITICAL DIALOGUE: 
COVID-19 and the Politics 
of Education
Walters, Kyla [ waltersk@sonoma.edu ]
Rosen, Heather Sue 
McDonald [ heather.mcdonald25@uga.edu ]
Karnad-Jani, 
Rashmee [ rashmee.karnad.jani@mail.utoronto.ca ]
(co-organizers)
49
Decolonizing Education-
THEMATIC
Coates, Rodney D. [ coatesrd@miamioh.edu ]
50
Immigrant Youth and 
Access to Higher Education
Chukhray, Irina [ ichukhray@ucdavis.edu ]
51
Radical Imagination, Global 
Social Change and 
Empowerment in Higher 
Education-THEMATIC
Laberge, Elaine J. [ elaberge@uvic.ca ]
52
Students on the Margins on 
Education
Oliveira, Kristopher A. [ KAOliveira@usf.edu ]
53
Family and Community 
Cultural Wealth and 
Precarity in Education
Linares-Ramirez, Noemi [ linaresr@uci.edu ]
Mar’n, EstŽfani [ marine2@uci.edu ]
(co-organizers)
54
CRITICAL DIALOGUE: 
International Students in 
Higher Education
Hou, Lydia [ lhou3@uic.edu ]
55
Mental Health in 
Educational Spaces: 
Promoting Student Social 
Welfare
Waldron, Linda M. [ lwaldron@cnu.edu ]
56
Teaching during the Racial 
Reckoning
Morency, Patricia [ pmorency821@gmail.com ]
Tartari, Morena [ Morena.Tartari@uantwerpen.be ]
(co-organizers)

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CALL FOR PAPERS

The Educational Problems Division announces its 2021 Graduate Student Paper Competition. 
Papers must address a contemporary educational problem and may be empirical or theoretical in 
nature. Authors must be current graduate students. In addition to single-authored papers, co-
authored papers will be considered for this award if co-authors are graduate students but not co-
authored with a faculty member or colleague who is not a student. Papers are not eligible for this 
award if they have been published or accepted for publication before being submitted for 
consideration. Papers are not eligible if they have been presented previously at SSSP or 
presented or accepted for presentation at other professional meetings, unless they have been 
revised substantially with new data, findings, or theoretical contributions. Papers must not 
exceed 30 double-spaced pages (excluding notes, references, tables, and figures). All papers 
must include a 150-200 word abstract and be prepared for anonymous review with the authorÕs 
name and institutional affiliation appearing only on the title page. The winner will receive a 
modest cash stipend, student membership in the SSSP, conference registration to the 2021 SSSP 
annual meeting, and a plaque of recognition at the conference awards ceremony. Authors are 
required to submit their papers through the annual meeting Call for Papers process as a condition 
for consideration for the award. Students may only submit to one division.
All papers must also be submitted electronically (as an attachment) to the Division Chair, Dr. 
Linda Waldron at lwaldron@cnu.edu with subject line: SSSP-Edu. Probs. Div. Student Paper 
Competition. Please include your name, institutional affiliation, and contact information in the 
body of your e-mail. The paper should be submitted no later than 11:59pm (Eastern Time), 
January 15, 2021.

Social Problems invites submissions for a special issue on the lives and futures of Black children 
and youth, focused on how their lives are impacted by various structures and social institutions 
while also appreciating their needs and development. For more information 
visit: https://www.sssp1.org/file/2020/Social_Problems_Special_Issue_CFP.pdf. The deadline 
for submitting papers is April 30, 2021

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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES/AWARDS

SSSP Racial/Ethnic Minority Graduate Fellowship
Applications for the 2021 Racial/Ethnic Minority Graduate Fellowship are now available. 
Persons identified as American Indian or Alaska Native, Arab/Middle Eastern/North African, 
Asian/Asian-American, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other 
Pacific Islander, or, including Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) from one of the 
aforementioned groups, accepted into an accredited doctoral program in any one of the social 
and/or behavioral sciences are invited to apply for the $15,000 fellowship. Two students will be 
funded. Applications must be finalized no later than February 1, 2021.

Nominations for the C. Wright Mills Award
The deadline for nominations for the 2020 C. Wright Mills Award is December 15, 2020. 
Authors and/or nominators do not need to be current members of SSSP. Self-nominations are 
acceptable. Edited volumes, textbooks, fiction and self-published words are not eligible. Eligible 
books must be first edition (not a reprint or later edition) and bear a 2020 copyright date. 
Exceptions may be made for a book bearing a 2019 copyright, but that was not released until 
2020 for the first time.