Reading comprehension is among the most challenging and complex skills to teach and research. Doing both well is critical to improving the reading comprehension proficiency of 67% of grade 4 students in U.S. public schools who scored below basic on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress. This Chapter presents Knowledge Acquisition…

This article argues for the need of a new, pragmatic response to claims of indoctrination in public school classrooms across the United States. While attempts at defining indoctrination and moral arguments for and against certain pedagogical practices may be worthwhile, the article maintains that claims of indoctrination, whether substantive or…

For social and emotional learning (SEL) initiatives to have the greatest positive impact on students, they must be implemented schoolwide. There is an urgent need for schools to shift away from traditional SEL frameworks toward transformative SEL (TSEL). TSEL program implementation cannot be done in isolation; rather, it must be fueled by a shared…

This study used a qualitative action research approach to engage a group of secondary English teachers in a collective inquiry to determine the best model for transformative teacher reflexivity and dialogue. Through solution-focused conversation, the goal was to design a sustainable framework for professional development that fosters creative,…

Many studies show the value of local history, especially multicultural history, to youth development and student learning outcomes. Incorporating local history into classrooms improves students' ability to question historical significance, analyze primary sources, contextualize their historical thinking, and embrace the learning process as their…

This mixed methods action research study was conducted in a Title I, K-12 public charter school with the purpose of exploring teachers' capacities to implement student-centered learning after participating in effective professional development (PD). Participants attended a PD cycle where the staff chose the topic, learning was sustained over a…

The United States educational system currently lacks cultural competence. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of teachers and coaches as they participate in transformational coaching to determine the utility of Elena Aguilar's model in supporting the development of cultural competency for educators. This study employed a fixed…

In November 2020, the school board governing Patinmay Public Schools (PPS) passed a policy change requiring ethnic studies coursework to graduate. For several years, numerous people have worked to make ethnic studies a possibility for all students. My story with ethnic studies in PPS, however, began more recently in August 2020. Utilizing methods…

Although reading comprehension research and instruction commonly focus on individuals' ability to extract meaning from text, eighth-grade students whose teachers chose to focus on engaged volitional reading, rather than comprehension, demonstrated expansive forms of meaning-making and purpose. Interviews and observations across two school years…

This paper examines the attributes of culturally responsive teaching (CRT) as well as its theoretical foundations. Gay's (2018) work describes the eight attributes of CRT as validating, comprehensive and inclusive, multidimensional, empowering, transformative, emancipatory, humanistic, and normative and ethical. After unpacking each attribute, I…

When Charlotte Brochu, Ashley Rasizzi, and Courtney Tanner taught deaf and hard of hearing students in public schools to complete their course assignments at Kent State University, they wanted to incorporate transformative strategies and their state's standards into their instruction. To become transformative teachers, Brochu, Rasizzi, and Tanner…

In this study, I explore how school principals experience transformative learning in relation to leadership development and how these experiences influence their leadership practices and perceptions. Transformative learning is critical for school leaders because it can lead to meaningful learning that qualitatively changes their leadership…

This article unpacks existing laws and disciplinary policies like "zero tolerance" and "disturbing schools" that criminalize youth behaviors in public schools and explores their roots in U.S. racialized histories using a critical carceral studies framework. Carceral studies scholars critique the punitive capitalist apparatus…

Religious Education in Ireland over the past two decades has achieved a new status in the publicly funded schools at the secondary (high school) level. This has happened largely because it has become examinable and is now a subject like any other. In this process however, it has tended to become too much like other subjects sharing their…

Research in the field of agriculture education suggests that students who participate in agriculture education lessons are likely to benefit in knowledge and comprehension of the topic. It was not known how 4th grade students from a Utah public school district envisioned agricultural concepts after being exposed to a four-lesson classroom unit.…