Black women have a legacy of pedagogical expertise. However, Black women teachers' mathematics pedagogy remains woefully under-theorized and under-researched. This is to the detriment of Black and Brown mathematics students. Mathematics education in the U.S. mirrors our broader society, which continues to reinscribe patterns of intellectual and…

The current study examines the contribution of racial congruence on young children's speech and language production to determine if African American children produce more or different language with an African American assessor, as opposed to a White assessor. Participants for the current study were selected from a larger group of children…

Diverse children's literature can support understandings of our world as culturally, linguistically, and socially rich. It can cultivate empathy and understanding, and open a dialogic space of possibilities. In this article, we examine how "purposefully selected" children's literature prepares needed conditions for dialogic space:…

The reading achievement gap between Black and White students was 29 points in Florida, depicting an alarming eight-point increase over that of the United States. Within School District A, the reading achievement gap was over 40% for over 4 years resulting in a district-wide plan for reconciliation and to determine the contributing factors of the…

In this paper, I describe moments from a first-grade classroom whereas co-researchers, the classroom teacher and I found ourselves challenged by ways we experienced disruption in the classroom. Upon further analysis we saw these moments as opportunities to embrace culturally sustaining pedagogies, recognizing students' enactment of their…

In continuing the legacy of community-mindedness, good Black educators today consistently enact emancipatory pedagogies designed to protect Black children's personhood. Cultivating community in the classroom setting is one ritual they use toward affirming young Black children's literate character, presence, and pursuits, and they do so in the…

Although well-being appears to have improved for many public school teachers of kindergarten to grade 12 (K-12) since the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, in some states, more teachers left their jobs at the end of the 2021-2022 school year than in the two previous school years and at rates higher than prepandemic averages. When…

Schools are adopting social emotional learning (SEL) programs, intending to provide students with intrapersonal and interpersonal skills to better prepare them for life. Transformative SEL is designed to promote the building of relationships between diverse students and educators to build more just schools and society. Because SEL models are…

Background: A potential target of educational policies or practices to address racial or ethnic disparities in school functioning is to increase the extent to which Black and Hispanic students are taught by teachers who are of the same race or ethnicity. Exposure to teachers of the same race or ethnicity may help provide Black and Hispanic…

Teachers of African descent encounter obstacles such as lack of representation, microaggressions, myths and alienation within their profession and have multifaceted experiences that hinder or advance their identity development. Fifteen teachers of African descent from New York City were interviewed. The conceptual framework used for this study…

This essay decenters whiteness and centers who I am as a Black teacher weighed down by boulders representing the dominance of whiteness and internalized racism as well as the institutional and social systems within which I dwell. Slowly, I release them through partnerships, "remembered" histories, "re-righted" curriculum, and…

We examine the long-run impacts of having a same-race teacher. First, we leverage data from the Tennessee STAR class-size experiment to show that black students randomly assigned to a black teacher in grades K-3 are 5 percentage points (7%) more likely to graduate from high school and 4 percentage points (13%) more likely to enroll in college than…

There's mounting evidence that, for children of color especially, having one or more teachers of the same race over the course of students' educational careers seems to make a positive difference. But to what extent, if any, do the benefits of having a same-race teacher vary by type of school? Existing "race-match" studies fail to…

The population of English language learners (ELLs) in United States schools continues to increase year after year. These students enrolled in schools in the United States face many challenges as they are learning a new language and culture. This case study was designed to investigate the research question: What are the instructional approaches…

Inservice teachers' influence and power are vital components for academic success among Black children. Previous research has shown that when teacher/student interactions are culturally responsive, engaging, and equitable, student learning is positively impacted (Banks, 2001; Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 2011; Sleeter, 2000; Warren, 2018). However,…