Billions of dollars have been injected to reform turnaround schools over the past decades with minimal tangible positive outcomes related to improving student achievement, if any. In this qualitative study, we investigated how using longitudinal external root cause analyses (RCAs) contributed to enhancing leadership instructional practices in thee…

This article is guided by a commitment to equitable, affirming, child-centered literacy education, and the belief that student-led inquiry can be embraced within schools since this is an authentic way for children to learn about their world. This article describes how elementary educators can use an inquiry-based researcher's workshop to integrate…

Project based learning (PBL), a well-known pedagogical approach, is becoming more widely recognized for creating and sustaining student engagement and motivation in 21st-century learning while improving academic achievement. Teachers support this hands-on, collaborative approach and see it as beneficial for students of all learning modalities, but…

Polarization in the United States and controversy over the teaching of content some deem "divisive" has resulted in the enactment of restrictive legislation in many states. Such constraints contribute to a fraught environment in schools today and significantly impact the work of teaching. Utilizing frameworks of "ambitious…

This article examines the pedagogical potential of art-based, early critical literacy as a space in which young bilingual children can explore the issues of human diversity and uniqueness. Adopting a qualitative case study approach, this study focused on 12 five-year-old children of Mexican origin at a charter school located in Texas.

This socio-cultural practitioner-based study investigated the ways in which using a feminist pedagogy in a Gender and Education course would influence students' interpretations of their own lived experiences. Using atheory of experience, we examined reflections on 14 students' initial personal gender stories and their perceptions of feminism. At…

The marginalization of social studies has led to many questions about how elementary teachers include social studies in their curriculum. Using a survey distributed to Texas teachers, this study explores the instructional strategies, integration emphasis, and content area instructional time utilized in the elementary classroom. Through a…

The new statistics project that the nation will become "Minority White" in 2045 where Whites will comprise 49.7% of the population. In contrast, Hispanics will comprise 24.6%, Blacks 13.1%, Asians 7.9%, and 3.8% for multiracial populations. Given such shifts in the demographic trends, a culturally inclusive curriculum design and delivery…

How can teachers engage students in participatory civic education in a state like Texas where education policy is interfering with the Rights of the Learner by refusing to allow educators to support students in becoming active participants in vital democratic processes? Texas Senate Bill 3, passed in 2021, prohibits teachers from directly…

This article provides an in-depth examination of differentiation, instructional strategies that cater to all learners. Differentiation is beneficial when teachers can select content, process, and products that meet student's needs. While teachers incorporate differentiation to modify instruction with struggling students, gifted and talented…

This article proposes ways to authentically amplify writer's workshop for emergent bilinguals. Through the study of one bilingual teacher's mediation in teaching, we examined the affordances that translanguaging and transmodal practices have for emergent bilingual students' writing processes. In this case study, we focused on a writing sequence…

This case study focuses on the diverse discourses Latinx bilingual students bring to class to make sense of power relations in the world. The study implements critical literacy practices such as read-alouds, discussions, writing, and drawing activities that help students critique and disrupt power discourses embedded in texts and visuals. With the…

The article examines how a Mexican second grade dual language teacher guided his Latinx bilingual students in exploring Día de los Muertos, a cultural practice. Through the Día de los Muertos project, parents responded in a variety of ways. Some parents learned about Día de los Muertos for the first time, other parents remembered participating in…

This pilot study investigates content-area preservice teacher perceptions of literacy practices as humanizing pedagogy. Findings from open-ended survey questions and a focal interview suggest preservice teachers see the connection between literacy learning and the teaching of their content area. They also have a budding understanding of how…

Blended Learning (BL) is often used as a "catch-all" term describing the modern educational environment, which centers on using technology to integrate traditional face-to-face (F2F) and online paradigms in higher education for over fifty years. HyFlex is considered a subset of BL since it incorporates different modalities to support F2F…