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Jadyn Laixely

Biography

Jadyn Laixely is a 5th year doctoral student in Curriculum & Instruction with a multi-focus on systemic racism, social-emotional learning, and aesthetics in urban schools. She holds a BA in Music Performance from San Francisco State University and a Master's degree in Music Education from Southern Methodist University. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, she taught elementary music in Dallas, TX for 10 years before moving to Champaign to pursue her PhD in education, after becoming increasingly frustrated with racial and class inequities she observed in the public school system. Jadyn's early research focused on mindfulness practices with children of color in a public fifth grade classroom. Her dissertation is a photovoice youth participatory action research project, working with Black girls and examining over-disciplining and identity.

Courses

CI 422: Families, Communities, Schools (CI 422) Principles and practices of building partnerships and collaboration among families, community agencies, and schools in a diverse society for early childhood professionals; covers strategies for building understanding, trust, and effective communication with all children and their families including those who have special needs, have cultural and linguistic differences, come from non-traditional family configurations, and who face poverty, health problems, and/or family dysfunction.

CI 445: Science and Social Studies Inquiry (CI 445) This course is an exploration into the construct of inquiry as an essential human trait and methodological approach for teaching and learning. Through the disciplines of science and social studies we will inquire into elements and methods for building inclusive and critical communities of practice, designing curriculum for depth of understanding, and using documentation as democratic action. This course will encompass and revisit enduring understandings from the entire ECE professional program sequence, mediated by Danielson's Framework for Teaching. Cohort members will synthesize the above in the real context of student teaching placements, class meetings, online discussions, and course assignments.

EDUC 202: Social Justice, School and Society (EDUC 202) Examines the nature of justice and the dynamics of a pluralistic society to derive a conception of social justice. Working with this conception, it asks how schools function to perpetuate and/or remediate social injustice. The course will consider the history and nature of schooling, issues of access and tracking, and notions of the public and the common. The course is designed for students interested in reflecting on their own educational histories, for those considering careers in teaching, and for all future parents and citizens needing to be able to reflect critically on justice, school, and society.

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