The author presents ethnographic data drawn from an 18-month critical qualitative case study to examine how one white preservice teacher attempts to resist normative whiteness in her student teaching classroom. The author discusses the potential such moments hold for deepening white preservice teachers' sociopolitical consciousness and supporting…

Early purposes of education in the United States concentrated on preparing young citizens to understand democratic principles in order to participate in their democratic communities. Today elementary instruction has contracted in response to years of high stakes accountability measures. Social studies has not been a focus of federal accountability…

With a change in access to information and a rising social and political consciousness for young people, elementary schools must start to think more about their role in shaping kids' understanding of social issues. While researchers certainly have not agreed upon a single definition of social justice education, Bell (2016) defines its aim as…

In a 2018 study conducted by Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), school mental health experts screened close to 3,000 LAUSD students and determined "almost half (48%) of the students were found to be at-risk for traumatic stress, which manifests in behaviors [such as emotional outbursts, arguments and defiance] that impede…

Today's teachers must navigate a complex system of policy and curriculum, while striving to accommodate increasingly diverse student demographics and complicated social landscapes. In recognition of the modern-day K-2 classroom, this research reviewed and analyzed educational policy language to identify and examine social justice concepts related…

Black experiences and discourse concerning citizenship are unique. Moreover, Black access to full citizenship is often a matter of life and death. The civic purposes driving this pursuit are often negated in conventional curriculum and pedagogy, especially in early childhood settings. Still, it is essential for educators and policymakers to…

In this article, you will read about three early childhood justice-oriented teachers and the ways in which they develop pedagogy and curriculum that is deeply invested in the histories of their students as well as inclusive of their voices and lived experiences. The goal of this article is to contribute to a growing body of scholarship on social…

In this article, we provide an overview of the ways one ecosystem-based literacy program uses high quality racially affirming picturebooks with kindergarten-third grade teachers within communities of practice to develop racial literacy and enact more effective and equitable reading practices. Racial literacy here refers to teachers' ability to…

This paper draws on qualitative research that examines the biliteracy practices of Black Language (BL) speakers in an elementary, two-way immersion (TWI), dual-language bilingual program, using Raciolinguistics as a theoretical lens. Specific questions that guided the study addressed the features of communicative contexts where BL was utilized and…

Drawing upon the methodological approach of thinking with theory and the theory of "the wake," this article details the process of teaching and learning about race and racism with first graders and their responses to the picturebook, "Let the Children March." The theoretical concept of "the weather" and the…

Background or Context: There is increasing research focusing on dual language (DL) education program policies and practices regarding who has access to bilingualism and whose bilingualism is valued and represented. However, limited research is situated in the context of Chinese-English DL education and its service of emergent bilingual learners…

Both pre-service and practicing educators are entering classrooms with limited preparation for the social landscape, affecting a range of professional considerations such as educational equity, culturally responsive teaching, and effective assessment. In an effort to consider greater impact and meaningful development of teachers for social justice…

Previous work has provided evidence that both merit and social relationships guide resource distribution in children. However, no prior studies have addressed the question of how children as third-party distributors balance the 2 factors when they are in conflict with one another. Two studies tested 7-year-old Chinese children's allocation of 3…

Since the 2016 presidential election, American society and education has been assaulted with a barrage of overt racial bigotry. Consequently, educators across the U.S. have reported an alarming increase of racialized incidents and harassment in schools, referred to as the 'Trump Effect' (Costello, 2016). As a result, educators can no longer…

This study examines the experiences of six K-5 elementary school teachers in professional learning spaces for antiracism. Teachers from two elementary schools established school-university partnerships to begin antiracist work: one on a whole-school level, the other a group of teachers meeting voluntarily with university faculty. Given the paucity…