About

The provided page text does not contain specific biographical information, research focus, background, or key contributions of Professor Rebecca A London. It primarily describes the department, its community, and its programs without detailed individual faculty bios.

Research topics

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Medicine
• Political Science
• Developmental psychology
• Mathematics education
• Medical education
• Pedagogy
• Economics
• Economic growth
• Psychiatry
• Public relations
• Marketing
• Engineering
• Business

Selected publications

• Creating Lasting Conditions for Meaningful Recess Reform: A 5‐School Exploration

  Journal of School Health · 2024-10-24 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  BACKGROUND: When well implemented, recess is a critical part of the school day for children's healthy development. We explored the implementation of a recess improvement process in 5 elementary schools across 3 states. METHODS: We conducted a mixed-methods implementation study in which we visited each school 3 times over 1 school year, collecting observational, interview, survey, and focus group data. Qualitative data were coded thematically and analyzed across schools. Quantitative data were tabulated and aggregated over time and across schools. RESULTS: We observed improvements in aspects of recess quality at each school, with three schools demonstrating the most progress. Quantitative data showed null effects in aggregate; however one school demonstrated significant improvements. Four criteria contributed to the quality and sustainability of recess reform: staff engagement, integration with other programs, student leadership, and recess communications. IMPLICATIONS FOR SCHOOL HEALTH POLICY, PRACTICE, AND EQUITY: Program implementation research often refers to "buy-in" as a key ingredient to successful adoption. We provide a tool that helps to operationalize buy-in in the recess context. CONCLUSIONS: Changing the recess environment requires individual and institutional commitment to valuing recess as an important learning environment. School administrators must lead the change process and create institutional infrastructure to support success.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Community-Engaged Scholarship and Its Implications for Public Sociology and the Discipline

  Social Problems · 2024-11-24 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  ABSTRACT This article provides an overview of research, practice, and theory in community-engaged scholarship as a means to expand our understanding of public sociology and its broader implications for sociology as a discipline. We begin with an overview of community-engaged scholarship and how it is related to and distinct from public sociology. Five main principles of community-engaged work are highlighted: (1) reciprocity and mutual benefit; (2) ethics and knowledge production; (3) social action and change, typically from a social justice orientation; (4) multidisciplinary and mixed methods approaches; and (5) varied types of organizational partners. We elaborate these principles using illustrations from the Spivack-Community Action Research Initiative (CARI) grants funded by the American Sociological Association, which demonstrate the range of social problems that are addressed with community engagement. We conclude by delineating the importance of engagement for the ongoing development and revitalization of sociology and the institutional challenges that must be overcome for this approach to thrive in the discipline.

  PublisherDOI

• Not all fun and games: Disparities in school recess persist, and must be addressed

  Preventive Medicine Reports · 2023-06-25 · 14 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  School recess is an evidence-backed approach to increase school-based opportunities for students to play, accrue necessary physical activity, and socialize with peers, to the benefit of their physical, academic, and socioemotional health. As such, the Centers for Disease Control recommend at least 20 min of daily recess in elementary schools. However, unequal provision of recess contributes to persistent health and academic disparities for students, which remain to be addressed. We analyzed data from the 2021-22 school year from a sample of low-income (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education-eligible) elementary schools (n = 153) across California. Just 56 % of schools reported providing more than 20 min of recess daily. Differences in daily recess provision were apparent, with students in larger and lower-income schools receiving less daily recess than students in smaller and higher income schools. These findings support the enactment of legislation mandating health-sufficient daily recess in California elementary schools. They also highlight the importance of, and need for, annually-collected data sources to enable monitoring of recess provision, and potential disparities, over time, in order to assist in identifying additional interventions to address this public health problem.

  PublisherDOI

• Playing for Keeps: A Long‐Term Community‐Engaged Research Partnership to Support Safe and Healthy Elementary School Recess

  Sociological Forum · 2023-05-03 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  The field of community‐engaged research emphasizes the importance of creating long‐lasting, mutually beneficial, and reciprocal collaborations. However, many issues prevent collaborations from reaching this goal, including institutional structures at universities, power dynamics between research and community partners, and the project‐based nature of research funding. In this article, the authors reflect on the 15‐year research collaboration they have sustained with particular attention to the “how” of building trust, maintaining communications, and learning together. We conclude that our mutual commitment to supporting children and youth through play, and our attention to positionality and shared learning, have created the platform for a lasting partnership.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Las Voces de Mujercitas Empoderadas: Documenting Support for Youth with Youth Participatory Action Research

  Social Sciences · 2023 · 4 citations

  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Political Science

  Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is a critical approach that engages youth as collaborative partners in research. It acknowledges the unique expertise that youth have on the adversities and assets that are present in their familiar systems, such as schools and the community. These projects are often designed to identify and address community problems; however, our projects with local youth aimed to shed light on a pre-existing community asset, Salud y Cariño, an after-school community organization, and a particular moment in time, namely the pandemic shelter-in-place. The mission and epistemologies of the organization set forth by the co-founder and Executive Director informed our partnership and guided our approach to this work. Utilizing qualitative methodologies, the authors (a faculty member, two graduate students, co-founder and director of a local non-profit, and a high school senior) collaboratively designed and implemented an interview-style documentary and photovoice projects, which garnered testimonies on participants’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic regarding school and the community organization. By centering the perspectives of participating Latinx girls and non-binary youth, we demonstrate the effects of this local community organization on its participants during and after the COVID lockdown, and what it means to the youth they serve. The identified themes associated with program participation during this time include the following: (1) building community and a family, (2) creating a welcoming safe space, and (3) infusing love and happiness into everyday activities. We conclude by reflecting on the process of building these collaborative projects and their implementation. Our reflections and findings contribute new insights into utilizing YPAR approaches to research and showcase leading community assets and actors.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Not All Fun and Games: Disparities in School Recess Access Persist, and Must Be Addressed

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Recess in the 21st Century <scp>Post‐COVID</scp> World

  Journal of School Health · 2022 · 19 citations

  • Psychology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Medicine

  The abrupt onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the world into frenzied action, creating a series of ongoing stressors: school/work closings, remote learning, canceled events, family strife, fear, and a significant loss of social interactions. It is now unsurprising to learn that children's mental health has suffered. As social connection is tightly entwined with children's mental health, supporting school-based spaces for quality social interactions is an important post-pandemic recovery strategy. The unstructured school recess space is ideal for supporting recovery. A large and growing body of evidence supports the important role of recess, yet evidence also suggests that recess is not always implemented in ways that fulfill its promise. We use “recess” as an inclusive term for meaningful, self-directed, unstructured play at school for all children, through adolescence, ideally occurring outdoors. We note that what is referred to as recess by the American Academy of Pediatrics is referred to as “breaktime” in other countries. Despite advances in comprehensive school health, recess has received comparatively little attention with respect to translation of research findings, innovation, and change efforts. At a time of increased concern about the well-being of children and adolescents, addressing this setting is an especially relevant area of inquiry for school health. Recess offers the potential to positively shape learning, social connection, emotional well-being, and physical health. When daily recess is available and with attention to creating safe and healthy play opportunities, research shows improvements in student attention, emotional regulation, classroom behavior, and overall school climate. Furthermore, less chaos and bullying at recess occur when safe and healthy play opportunities exist, which reduces the time teachers need to ready their students for learning when they return to class. Yet, recess is also a space that can be a challenge for schools, as a time when children may experience or witness negative social interactions such as bullying, isolation, or exclusion. For recess to deliver its full potential, to be an inclusive, equitable space that alleviates stress, and promotes holistic child development, we must take action. The purpose of our commentary is to elevate school recess in the global conversation of schooling, specifically to highlight recess for critical reflection, consolidating contemporary research and providing recommendations for an urgently needed way forward. From a historical perspective, schools were designed to prepare students for an industrial-era workforce; the architecture, desk arrangements, daily routines, and focus on traditional classroom instruction reflect this ideology. Little attention was given to other types of learning activities—such as recess—which were considered ancillary and deprioritized accordingly with respect to funding and accountability. While there has been a notable movement towards an overall focus on well-being and equitable learning environments, the recess setting is often overlooked in school improvement efforts. As a result, schoolyards continue to receive minimal resources and consideration—particularly those in low-resource neighborhoods—and this is reflected in the commonly-seen asphalt-covered, barren schoolyard that does little to invite meaningful play, recreation, and social engagement. The global community has long recognized that breaks and unstructured play are fundamental to children's physical, social, mental, and emotional development as well as central to their enjoyment and happiness. Play was considered so necessary to healthy development that in 1987, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) deemed it one of 54 fundamental human rights: specifically Article 31, The Right to Play, Rest, and Leisure. Article 31 states: “every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child, and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.”1 The purpose of the 54 articles of the UNCRC is to ensure children's basic rights are protected and promoted regardless of race, religion, or abilities. In 2013, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child reviewed the progress of article 31 and found that, more than 30 years later, little investment has been made to protect and promote this right, including by schools. The Committee found: “where investment is made, it is in the provision of structured and organized activities, but equally important is the need to create time and space for children to engage in spontaneous play, recreation and creativity, and to promote societal attitudes that support and encourage such activity.”2 Notably, the Committee highlighted equity concerns in children's rights, with “girls, poor children, children with disabilities, indigenous children, children belonging to minorities,”2 of particular concern. Given that most children spend a considerable portion of their developmental years in the school community, recess provides a unique space in which children and adolescents can exercise these fundamental rights. Pioneering research methods have led to breakthroughs in our understanding of the neurophysiology of learning. Of importance to educators, student learning can be strengthened by regular breaks during the school day; time to allow memory traces formed in the classroom to be stabilized. Without these breaks, learning can be eroded by the inability to retain information. Recess affords the time for such breaks that are critical for learning and provides opportunities for physical activity and play, which are vital for cognitive development. Furthermore, research in both exercise science and child development indicates physically active play and creative play enhance executive functioning skills, which are predictive of both academic readiness and academic achievement. Enhancing physical activity levels in children increases inhibition, cognitive flexibility, and working memory as measured by both psychophysiological and behavioral indices, thereby making a substantial positive impact on classroom learning. Play also decreases stress, which has positive implications on memory, learning, behavior, and mental health, thereby addressing the holistic needs of children in schools. Training those who supervise recess is crucial for creating a safe, healthy, and equitable play space. Within teacher education programs, trainee teachers rarely receive adequate, formalized learning in the value of recess and unstructured play. Teacher certification programs often focus on direct instruction pedagogies and sacrifice time to promote developmentally appropriate practice in the areas of social and emotional development. This unbalanced approach places too much emphasis on skills-based learning while ignoring the needs of the whole child. Another concern is that many existing teachers consider recess supervision an unwanted burden. When recess is viewed as merely a time for students to expend energy, it devalues the important learning that the unstructured recess environment can offer. Educators require improved knowledge of the learning that occurs when students are playing during recess, and their role in supporting it. In addition to teachers, recess is often supervised by a largely untrained body of paraprofessionals. For example, in the UK “mid-day assistants” are typically responsible for recess, and training, if provided, is often informal and sometimes little more than general conversations as the need arises. This means that adults have no explicit training on their role in supporting play and a positive recess environment. As such, they are left to their own assumptions about how to supervise recess, and are unprepared to diagnose and moderate what might be problematic or dangerous behaviors. Schools should consider providing formal training for all who will supervise recess. Effective teacher preparation programs must begin to place a stronger emphasis on interdisciplinary child development. In doing so, social-emotional facets, such as play, risk, resiliency, and creativity can be brought into the classroom and encouraged during recess with the next wave of trained educators. Incorporating play for pre-service teachers can assist educators in refreshing their connections to play thereby strengthening play opportunities for the students they will serve. Furthermore, there is a need for principals and others in the administration to gain a deeper understanding of how play and recess/breaks support the needs of the whole child, at every age and grade level. Globally, many students experience recess throughout their schooling; however, this is not always the case. For example, in the United States, recess is often discontinued after elementary education (typically year 5 or 6). However, even for pre-adolescents and adolescents, recess offers important opportunities to socialize and engage in self-chosen activities with friends and peers. These are important for the development of social skills on which future relationships are based. Research demonstrates that during this transition from elementary to secondary, students often become less active at school. Developmentally, older students may prefer experiences that incorporate increased socialization. A challenge for secondary schools is that the way children desire to play shifts, requiring changes in the physical environment for recess. It is important to have well-resourced spaces dedicated to specific activities with socializing opportunities (eg, games, art, dance). These may include multiple alternative supervised spaces in addition to the outdoor school yard, such as the library, art room, computer lab, and so on. To better accommodate recess opportunities for older students, we recommend schools consult with students on what their interests and needs are. Every child has the right to breaks in the school day, time in which to play, be active, and interact with their peers. However, research shows that there is disparity in recess quantity and quality by race/ethnicity, disability, and socio-economic status. Children of color and those attending under-resourced schools experience lower quality and fewer minutes of recess, a phenomenon documented in Australia, Canada, the UK, and the United States. Other areas of concern are the limitations in play opportunities for children with disabilities. For example, many US school playgrounds are minimally compliant with current Americans for Disability Act regulations. Schools worldwide must consider play materials that provide appropriate adaptive physical and social play opportunities for children of all ages and abilities, which allow children with disabilities to interact with their classmates. One challenge to recess equity is that it is common for students to miss part or all of recess due to poor behavior in class or on the playground, or to complete classwork or homework. Children who struggle behaviorally or academically at school are the ones most likely to have recess withheld thus missing the opportunities to learn from engagement with peers in games and play. Using recess deprivation as punishment is unlikely to lead to increased educational engagement and is counterproductive to the goals of whole child education. Positive, motivational approaches should become part of a formal school policy on recess. We also recommend accountability mechanisms to support compliance and effective policy implementation. Our vision is that researchers, educators, and policy makers respond to our call to action, with collaboration, expanding the current body of knowledge of the benefits of recess; examining barriers and best practices in delivering a safe, inclusive recess; and advocating for change based on these best practices—all essential to ensuring recess delivers its potential for all children to experience their right to play. It is long past time for recess to join education in the 21st century; more importantly, it is time for education to reclaim its purpose to teach skills, provide intellectual exploration and foster emotional development. Recess must be included in every educational decision, considering, and promoting what is in the best interest of the child: the right to rest, leisure and play. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

  PublisherDOI

• Making Space: Exploring the “Thirdspace” of Breaktime in Middle School

  Youth & Society · 2022 · 2 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Sociology
  • Pedagogy

  Although scholars are attuned to the particular transitional dilemmas faced by middle school students, inquiry into middle school breaktimes is largely limited to research on bullying and peer victimization. This study interrogates the geography of middle school breaktime to expand understanding of student safety and recognize the ways that the state’s intervention in school spaces creates particular challenges for young learners. By investigating breaktimes at three middle schools and employing a critical geography lens in data coding and analysis, we demonstrate how the organization of space shapes student experiences. Findings suggest that scholars should consider breaktime as a “thirdspace” within the middle school day—one that offers vast potential for positive student development, but is marginalized due to its status as “non-academic” time. Findings reveal that school leaders and staff may better support students by addressing the ways that breaktimes are differently navigated by students along ethnic, socioeconomic, age, and gender lines.

  PublisherDOI

• It Is Not Called Recess Anymore: Breaktime in Middle School

  Journal of School Health · 2022 · 9 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Developmental psychology
  • Medical education

  BACKGROUND: School recess offers students a break from the rigors and immobility of academic learning, and a chance for social interaction, play, and physical activity. The recess literature is based on elementary schools, with little attention to older students. Early adolescents also need school breaks, and this study offers some of the first findings on how to organize this time to best support the developmental needs of middle schoolers. METHODS: The study explores middle school breatktime in 3 schools in California. It uses observations, interviews, and a student survey conducted in 2018. Data were coded thematically and analyzed. RESULTS: Findings indicate a tradeoff between socialization and physical activity among students who falls along age and gender lines. Adults viewed their roles mainly as safety monitors, including both physical and emotional safety. They were aware of the limitations of their breaktime offerings, which generally included access to outdoor and a few alternative indoor spaces, and attributed not having more options to lack of resources. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate the complexities of organizing breaktime space for early adolescents. Middle schools must plan their breaks with attention to developmentally appropriate activities, including games and sports as well as opportunities for other kinds of social interactions in safe, supportive environments.

  PublisherDOI

• Learning in the Counterspace of Not School

  Educational Studies · 2021-09-03 · 6 citations

  article

  This article considers the way that intergenerational familial settings have functioned as counterspaces where deficit narratives are challenged and youth identities are affirmed. These counterspaces support minoritized young people in particular as they learn in socio-spatial and cultural historical contexts, especially during the pandemic. We set out to consider this: What does family as counterspace contribute to our understanding of what it means to make learning more human? With a focus on the strengths of learning (rather than learning loss) during the pandemic and the power of intergenerational testimony and collective witnessing to foster this learning, the writers–ourselves intergenerational as PhD, early-career, mid-career, and late-career scholars–each contribute a story to reflect on that question.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Robert W. Fairlie

  14 shared

• Sebastian Castrechini

  14 shared

• Lisa Westrich

  Stanford University

  10 shared

• Katie Stokes‐Guinan

  Stanford University

  10 shared

• Susanne James‐Burdumy

  9 shared

• Martha Bleeker

  Mathematica Policy Research

  9 shared

• Nicholas Beyler

  Mathematica Policy Research

  7 shared

• Miriam Greenberg

  University of California, Santa Cruz

  7 shared