District "equity director" (ED) roles have grown rapidly over the past decade. Drawing on interviews and surveys with over 70 EDs across nearly 30 states, this study documents dramatic ED role growth from 2018 to 2022 specifically and examines why, according to EDs, such roles were established locally. Findings, drawing on scholarship on…

This paper reports a small-scale qualitative inquiry in the discipline of Early Childhood Studies in Higher Education that explores how playfulness in pedagogy might create an environment in which people within the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) sector (including students) engage in dialogue about structural injustice. Participants in…

We explore how a social justice and capabilities perspective serves as a conceptual tool to understand the quality of education (QoE) in Turkey so that policy can be developed to make the education system inclusive of all learners, provide relevant education, and allow stakeholders' democratic participation. We provide a critical discussion about…

There is a critical need to disrupt the systemic racism that underlies educational inequities and support greater social justice (Croom, Journal of Literacy Research 52:530-552, 2020). One powerful way to do so is to foster racial literacy (i.e., the skill and practice of critically examining race and racism in teaching and in students' learning…

To make inclusive learning environments accessible, it is critical that parents of children without disability select inclusive alternatives when making decisions about their child's preschool placement. This study examined attitudes toward inclusive education among parents of children without disability across 18 state-funded pre-kindergarten…

In light of ongoing inequalities within society, the role of social justice leadership in educational spaces remains a central arena amongst research and practice. It is widely recognised that clear recognition and understanding of social justice among educators can offer the capacity for meaningful change against inequalities that continue to…

How do teacher preparation programs re-culture themselves so that we can supply educational settings with teachers who work toward liberation from racism and other systems of oppression? Abolitionist education is one strategic framework that can be utilized to support this systemic re-culturing. I share my experiences in re-designing and…

Educational assessments, from kindergarden to 12th grade (K-12) to licensure, have a long, well-documented history of oppression and marginalization. In this paper, we (the authors) ask the field of educational assessment/measurement to actively disrupt the White supremacist and racist logics that fuel this marginalization and re-orient itself…

This paper reports on a systematic review of the early childhood teacher education (ECTE) literature that explores what teacher educators have been doing to shift the curriculum away from developmental perspectives to more critical approaches. Twenty-three empirical studies were coded and analysed. It was found that most studies were qualitative…

The Building a Brighter Future: Community Symposium Against the Preschool-to-Prison Pipeline addresses systemic inequities in early childhood education and the juvenile justice system. The symposium aims to combat the preschool-to-prison pipeline--a phenomenon disproportionately affecting children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds,…

This dissertation delves into the dynamic interaction between picturebooks, culture circles, and social justice discussions in a second-grade classroom. Rooted in Critical Pedagogy, Transactional Theory, and Indigenous Social Justice Pedagogy, this study investigates two pivotal aspects. Firstly, it explores the issues raised by students in…

Issues of social injustice are pervasive in school systems around the world (Welton et al., 2019) with ingrained institutional barriers that hinder students from reaching future successes. As a result, the purpose of this study was to understand the focuses, mindsets, and actions of leaders for social justice working to redress issues of inequity…

Early childhood has become a priority in national and international political agendas. In the last decade, states have elaborated social policies and launched a variety of programmes for young children. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, this research explores the most prominent conceptualisations of children and childhood underpinning official…

In this article, we enact a partial cartographic storying of reconceptualist turns in our work. We do this by situating ourselves in relation to each other and our work across time as a mode of tracing the (situated) possibilities that these turns have enacted for children-in-relation with worlds. In enacting this dialogic and cartographic…

This study examined the potential role of critical reflection as a tool to support pre-service early childhood teacher interns in understanding and questioning pedagogical choices witnessed in their preschool internships while developing their own socially responsible teaching capacity. This study contributes to the field of critical reflection in…