This study examines the potential of community schools to revolutionize the educational landscape by creating a more impactful and locally tailored ecosystem. Through Action Research methodology, the research explores how deep community engagement can reshape educational experiences, focusing on the Flexible Pathways Initiative that empowers…

Iowa BIG is a system of high schools located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the United States which emerged from community rebuilding efforts following catastrophic flooding in the city. The aim of this case study is to highlight Iowa BIG's complexity by describing how it functions as a: (1) school system; (2) vision for student-centric learning; and…

Since college, La Puente, CA has been the focus of my research and activism from bilingual education, sanctuary to by-trustee area school board elections. As a graduate student in the 1990s, I returned to live and research in this city of my childhood and where my immigrant grandparents eventually moved to in the 1950s from Nicaragua and Sicily.…

School principals must play a vital role in facilitating homeplace and Black joy by promoting, modeling, and holding educators responsible for their roles in contributing to homeplace. We argue that principals can enact homeplace by embodying the tenets of culturally responsive school leadership (CSRL). The purpose of this paper is to make meaning…

This interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) sought to answer the question: How do skilled martial arts practitioners with advanced academic degrees interpret the role of mindfulness in their practice, and how do they believe this integration impacts the social and emotional learning of children? The focus of the study was to understand…

From a university perspective, service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) has been identified as a high-impact practice that offers advantages over traditional lecture and assignments, yet students do not always embrace SLCE courses. While most studies of undergraduate students' perceptions of SLCE focus on particular experiences or on SLCE…

Productive tensions with traditional academic practices develop within a graduate certificate program in community engagement at Tulane University. The program offers an alternative approach to traditional graduate education practices by fostering community, epistemic justice, and care for the whole person through sustained interdisciplinary and…

Background: Involving communities in school health has been purported as a practice integral to supporting a Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) approach. Although community collaboration is often included in school-based health initiatives, there is little research considering methods for increasing community engagement. The purpose…

Looking back and learning from Indigenous knowledges in education holds the key to supporting change in educational spaces today to be more inclusive and wholistic. Indigenous practices, passed down from generation to generation, hold important knowledge that can be used in classroom teaching. My hope is that by using this Indigenous lens of…

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the practice of community-engaged scholarship and challenged internal and external boundary spanners to maintain and grow authentic and meaningful relationships. Female-identifying scholars and practitioners faced, and continue to face, extra personal and professional demands in the postpandemic era…

"Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Education and Care" delves into the dynamic landscape of early childhood education and critically addresses the intersection of theory and practice, offering a range of theoretical frameworks and practical strategies to support the holistic development of children. It explores a diverse array of…

Within the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model, community involvement and family engagement are distinct, yet highly connected components. According to the model, communities and families play a vital role in the learning, development and health of children and young people, with "community" being placed as an…

Global protests and civil unrest in 2020 has renewed the world's interest in addressing injustice due to structural racism and oppression toward Black and Latinx people in all aspects of society, including computing. In this article, we argue that to address and repair the harm created by institutions, policies, and practices that have…

Literacy development in the early childhood and elementary school years is critical for learning and the acquisition of other skills essential for educational achievement. Although schools typically assume the primary responsibility in developing children's literacy and reading skills, a holistic approach to overall literacy development requires…

The sudden and unprecedented outbreak of the global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought along a series of abrupt and sweeping disruptions to almost all learning systems around the world. The pandemic has simultaneously revealed many weaknesses and problems associated with the existing educational model, which serves as a…