Systemic institutional racism in schools engenders different and difficult educational experiences for students of Color. Relatedly, there is an enduring divide between home and school that often influences school curricula, teachers' pedagogies, and students' educational progress. Considering this preclusion to learning, this case study gleans…

In recent years, a number of states in the United States have enacted educational policies, often referred to as "critical race theory" bans, that aim to restrict teaching about race and racism in schools. This study examines how current and future elementary literacy educators interpreted and intended to respond to one such law in…

This interview-based study examines how justice-oriented K-12 administrators and teachers in Iowa make sense of the recent state-level education policy, H.F. 802. Synthesizing literature on Critical Policy Analysis and epistemic justice, we introduce Critical Epistemic Policy Analysis to understand the micro-level impact of divisive education…

Pre-K-12 schooling in the United States has historically and systemically promoted ideas of Black inferiority while safeguarding the characteristics of white supremacy culture embedded in all aspects of the education system. The notion of white dominance is evident throughout studies, policies, and reports from district, state, and federal…

Scholars have called for critical research that positions Black girls in a positive light while centering their constructed meanings and resistance against stereotypes and dominant discourses in mathematics spaces, particularly in reform-oriented instructional contexts. Black girls may resist deficit master-narratives about the intellectual…

Building on AsianCrit, reader response theory, and critical literacy perspective, this dissertation study investigated how second-generation Chinese American students at age eight to twelve respond to culturally relevant texts which portray contemporary and historical Chinese American people's lives and experiences in the United States. In…

Children in elementary schools think, talk, and reason in big ways that reflect how they live and experience race, racism, and racialization. Some elementary school teachers -- or critical-race teacher change agents -- intentionally include this work in their classrooms. My aim is to find out what motivates critical-race teacher change agents to…

In 2018, 13.3% of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families with international marriages had at least one child with a disability enrolled in South Korean public schools. Increasing school diversity requires special education teachers to bring new professional knowledge(s) and identities to meet the unique needs of CLD students with…

This mixed-methods case study examines data for over 1,500 student awards at two dual language elementary schools collected over the course of two years. Using descriptive statistics, this paper examines student representation by demographics in quarterly scholastic awards. Through document analysis of award descriptions, we analyze how students…

Applying critical race theory and colorblind ideology, this phenomenological qualitative study explored implicit racial bias in educators and whether that affected learning. From a target pool of educators from the three school districts, 146 completed an online questionnaire. Twenty-six of those educators agreed to be interviewed, of which 10…

This article examines the purposeful use of counternarrative to develop an antiracist school identity. Based on a seven-year ethnographic project at an elementary school in the southeast U.S., it illustrates how counternarrative can be employed as strategy to embed Critical Race Theory (CRT) into school equity discourse and, in doing so, help…

The purpose of "Pedagogy of Humanization: Preparing Teachers for Culturally Sustaining Classrooms" is to build a critical mass of educators who know how to employ the principles of critical pedagogy in elementary classrooms. This includes attention to the various knowledge, skills, and dispositions required of critical pedagogues in…

This study delved into the recruitment and retention challenges faced by Black male K-12 teachers in California's Central Valley, shedding light on their perceived impact on students. The underrepresentation of Black male teachers, comprising only 2% of the national teacher workforce and less than 1% in California, underscores the urgency of…

This research aims to contribute to understanding what criminalization for boys of color looks like in urban elementary school settings and to offering insights into what we must do to disrupt criminalization in urban schools. Using multiple sources of data from four elementary schools across a 2-year period, we found that boys of color in the…

There is an overrepresentation of African American students in special education classes; placing African Americans disproportionately in special education classes lowers their self-esteem and compromises their academic performance. This study aimed to increase understanding of the meaning-making processes elementary school general education…