Research shows that exposure to local neighborhood violence is associated with students' behavior and engagement in the classroom. Given the social nature of schooling, these symptoms not only affect individual students but have the potential to spill over and influence their classmates' learning, as well. In this study, I use detailed…

Drawing upon standpoint theory and phenomenology, this study chronicles the lived experiences of 16 successful female first-generation students of color as they pursued K-12 schooling and accessed higher education. Findings indicate that a complex set of school, family, peer, and personal factors affected students' lived experiences in their urban…

Research is just beginning to describe with precision determinants of racial and ethnic achievement gaps. Work by Reardon, Kalogrides, and Shores found that factors such as parental income, parental education, and segregation are the strongest predictors of achievement gaps. In this study we expand this line of inquiry to examine the role of…

The aim of the article is to show how substantial qualitative material consisting of graphic cognitive maps can be analysed by using digital CmapTools, Excel and SPSS. Evidence is provided of how qualitative and quantitative methods can be combined in educational research by transforming qualitative data into quantitative data to facilitate…

This paper addresses the question of what meaning urban public space has in relation to the process of children's socialisation. It builds on data from qualitative research into the social-pedagogical meaning of three contrasting neighbourhoods in the city of Ghent. In this research, the neighbourhood was studied as a social and spatial context in…

This article investigates the biopolitical dimensions that have grown out of the union between biocapitalism and current science education reform in the US. Drawing on science and technology study theorists, I utilize the analytics of promissory valuation and salvationary discourses to understand how scientific literacy in the neo-Sputnik era has…

This paper examines the progressive understanding of art advanced by Albert Barnes, and asks how the educational vision for his large collection of art might be preserved as it has now moves from its location in the idyllic suburban setting in Merion, PA to the hustle and bustle of central Philadelphia. I submit that the vision will be endangered…

District-led, dramatic change efforts in failing schools--including turnarounds and school closures--often face strong resistance from families and communities. Resistance may be based on years of tension and distrust between districts and communities, failed past school improvement efforts, or a lack of understanding about the chasm between a…

In contrast to the educational research and policy literature depicting urban adolescents as reluctant and struggling readers and writers, young people in recent young adult novels claim writing as an efficacious practice for self-discovery and social understanding. Analysis of the images of writers and writing in "Locomotion" and "Call Me Maria"…

This paper uses student level data from New York City to study the relationship between a public school losing enrollment to charter school competitors and the academic achievement of students who remain enrolled in it. Geographic measures most often used to study the effect of school choice policies on public school student achievement are not…

Superintendent Andres A. Alonso arrived in Baltimore in 2007 with a vision for improving the city's struggling schools. His vision included empowering school leaders and creating accountability for student learning through a series of reforms that center around a new system for giving resources to schools, called Fair Student Funding (FSF). FSF…

"Listening to children: environmental perspectives and the school curriculum" (L2C) was a UK research council project based in schools in a socially and economically deprived urban area in England. It focused on 10/12 year old children's experience of their local community and environment, and how they made sense of this in relation both…

Prior research suggests that exposure to conflict can negatively impact the development of executive functioning, which in turn can affect academic performance. Recognizing the need to better understand the potentially widespread executive function deficiencies among Palestinian students and to help develop educational resources targeted to youth…

While many urban teachers flee urban schools after a few years of teaching, many spend their careers in teaching in the urban environment. A series of biographical interviews was conducted with four "career" urban teachers; throughout the data collection and analyses and despite their decade or more in the field, the interactions between the…

This study aimed to determine how 33 urban 5th grade students' science conceptions changed during a place-based inquiry unit on watersheds. Research on watershed and place-based education was used as a framework to guide the teaching of the unit as well as the research study. A teacher-researcher designed the curriculum, taught the unit and…