Pushing the Boundaries of Social Justice: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations of School Finance Equity for Human Resources.
Introduction
Annually, policymakers and practitioners are asked to support and build the capacity of the education workforce and leadership while also addressing the historical challenges that have impacted minoritized student populations (DeMatthews et al., 2020). Understanding the nuances of school finance policy and praxis, including how finance affects the human resource functions of education institutions, is necessary to create positive change and breakthrough practical and theoretical assumptions (Martinez, 2021; Rolle & Houck, 2004). These considerations include the human resource management and school finance discord that continues to interfere with progress related to hiring and retaining personnel, academic improvements, expanding opportunities for students and enriching support for families. Due to these factors, questions remain about the efficacy of current human resource operations to ensure equitable policies and practices are implemented so that students receive socially just education experiences and opportunities.
Inequity and social injustice challenges continue to permeate the P-20 pipeline, and the recent SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic assisted in exacerbating these concerns, highlighting the historical inequities faced by minoritized communities (Fitzgerald, 2015; Hargraeves, 2021). Policymakers will inevitably feel the impact of the pandemic, not only on the social fabric of schooling but also on the economic and fiscal stability of schooling, including human resources and personnel vital to the maintenance of a healthy school. Human resource administration has played a critical role during the pandemic to ensure school districts meet teacher, administrative, and learning needs and deliver academic opportunities to students. School districts must now respond to revenue shortfalls, and as such, scholars at the intersection of human resource and school finance must respond to the impending need for salient evidence.
For these reasons, the Journal of Education Human Resources (JEHR) announces a special issue that places equity and social justice at the center of bureaucratic debate. It seeks to problematize inequity through thought-provoking, novel, theoretical, and methodological school finance inquiry with implications for human resources. This includes understanding the role that human resources have played in advancing or diverting necessary resources and expertise towards improving educational outcomes and opportunities. This special issue seeks to demonstrate that as a research and practice community, we use our knowledge to ameliorate the status quo and support ontological shifts in our understanding of best practices useful to critically conscious practitioners. Finally, this special issue seeks to interrogate our understanding of advocacy-based scholarship, research-practice partnerships and provide a platform for disseminating valuable inquiry for transforming our policies and practices.
Submissions should broadly study the impact of local, state, and federal policy on revenue or expenditure patterns, directed toward addressing school finance equity for human resources and social justice in the P-20 pipeline. We seek thought-provoking manuscripts that critically explore the impact of inequities and social injustice in the P-20 schooling pipeline and promote an open discourse between students, families, communities, practitioners, researchers, and policymakers. This special issue provides an opportunity for scholars to work directly with practitioners and grassroots advocacy organizations to explore equity and social justice challenges that require novel solutions to decrease P-20 resource disparities.
A broad range of contributions from areas, including, but not limited to, educational administration and leadership, sociology, history, economics, educational policy, public policy, public administration, and philosophy, are welcome. This includes qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method, and conceptual work; case studies, document analysis, archival analysis, Jotería Pedagogy (Gonzalez, 2021). We also accept manuscripts that consider intellectual inquiry a form of resistance against colorblind school finance conceptual frameworks that devalue critical consciousness and center meritocracy to support a discourse of deservingness.
Special Topic:
Pushing the Boundaries of Social Justice: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations of School Finance Equity for Human Resources.
We provide an intentionally broad, non-exhaustive list of thought-provoking methodological designs, theoretical frameworks, and practical concerns for authors to consider.
Methodological Considerations
Critical Policy Analysis
Difference-in-Difference
Discourse Analysis
Ethnical Chismé
Jotería Pedagogy y Platicás
Regression Discontinuity Designs
Theoretical Frameworks
Anti-Racism
Black Feminist Thought
Bourdieu’s Theory of Capital and Class
Critical Race Theory
Decolonization
Foucault’s Theory of Power
Practical Concerns
District/ School level budgeting and evaluation
Facilities Management
Fiscal austerity and revenue availability
Human resource and human capital
Impact of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID19) on school finance budgets
P-20 labor cost including recruitment and turnover
Policy informed wage mandates and personnel negotiations
Submission Information: Those interested in contributing to this special issue should submit a 1000-word proposal by August 1, 2021. A proposed title, a list of keywords, and a list of references should accompany the proposal – please note these items are not included in the 1000-word limit. All submissions must be submitted electronically to the special issue editors via email (see contact information below).
After initial review, the guest editors will invite select authors to submit their original articles for peer review. Final papers should consist of roughly 6,000-7,000 words (Excluding Title, Abstract, References, Appendices).
Abstract submission deadline:
August 1, 2021
Invitations to submit manuscripts:
September 1, 2021
Full-length manuscript submission:
December 1, 2021
Special issue publication date:
April 1, 2022
Editor’s Contact Information:
(Editor) Davíd G. Martínez, Ph.D.-University of South Carolina dgmar@mailbox.sc.edu
(Associate Editor) Joshua Childs, Ph.D.-University of Texas at Austin
joshuachilds@austin.utexas.edu
References
DeMatthews, D., Knight, D., Reyes, P., Benedict, A., & Callahan, R. (2020). From the field: Education research during a pandemic. Educational Researcher, 49(6), 398-402
Fitzgerald, R. (2015). Philosophy Rather than Finance: Redirecting the Discourse Concerning Inequitable School Funding in Illinois. Philosophical Studies in Education, 46(1), 52-61.
Gonzalez, S.A. (2021). Jotería identity and consciousness: Pláticas of co-creation with Undergraduate Queer Latinx Students at PWIs. New Brunswick, NJ: Samuel Dewitt Proctor Institute For Leadership, Equity, & Justice at Rutgers University.
Hargreaves, A. (2021). Austerity and inequality; or prosperity for all? Educational policy directions beyond the pandemic. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 20(1), 3-10.
Martínez, D.G. (2021). Interrogating Social Justice Paradigms in School Finance Research and Litigation. Interchange: A Quarterly Review of Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-021-09418-4
Reyes, A. H., & Rodriguez, G. M. (2004). School finance: Raising questions for urban schools. Education and Urban Society, 37(1), 3-21.
Rolle, A., & Houck, E. A. (2004). Introduction to the Peabody Journal of Education’s Special Issue on the future of school finance research. Peabody Journal of Education, 79(3), 1-6.