This article offers a framework for more equitable classroom reading assessment known as a Critical Assessment Practices (CAPS) approach. CAPS includes a set of four principles that teachers can use to partner with, and to empower, students to support more equitable and informative classroom-based reading assessment. Teachers can apply the CAPS…

Until recently, many early childhood educators, particularly those in nontraditional preschool spaces, leaned on a color-evasive approach to their work, largely ignoring systemic racism and bias, claiming love and acceptance of all children in their care. While well-intentioned, these practices left young children to construct their own…

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of culturally responsible music teaching (CRMT) from the perspective of U.S. music teachers working in various formal settings. "Cultural responsibility" is an emergent concept regarding teaching and learning that (a) connects with students' cultural frames and lived experiences, (b)…

This systematic review aims to identify the Discourses (Gee, 2000) invoked regarding justice in PK-12 mathematics education literature, linking visions and practice. The three Discourses of Justice presented in this manuscript draw upon different visions of justice, where the differences arise through the proposed locus of change -- the individual…

This paper presents the emergent paradigm of the "commons" as an alternative value and action system in the field of education, and it critically draws out the implications of the commons for refiguring education and its potential contribution to democratic transformation. The paper delves into an independent pedagogical community,…

Drawing on field-based research in selected government-run and private preschool centres in three selected districts of the Indian state of West Bengal, this article makes four basic arguments. First, there is a need to both defend public provisioning of early childhood education for equity goals and demand its major improvement on quality…

American schools have been dealt a blow that included a pandemic, economic crisis, as well as racial unrest, initiating an energized charge for social justice advocacy. Our superintendents are currently facing an unprecedented challenge in ensuring that the campus community lives in a fair, inclusive, and opportunity-rich society. However, school…

Learning remains largely out of reach for many of the most vulnerable children around the world. In low- and middle-income countries, an estimated 56% of children cannot read a simple text by the age of 10. This share is projected to rise to 70% after the pandemic. The school closures imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak, coupled with an enduring…

Historically, education research and practice has failed to accentuate the factors that promote Black student success and, instead, produced deficit-centered narratives that focused on Black students' academic underachievement and challenges. These dominant narratives have negatively influenced Black students' experiences and there is a need for…

The Salamanca Statement on Special Needs Education (UNESCO, 1994), an international declaration adopted by 92 governments, outlines a commitment to inclusive education as an educational imperative and as the most effective way to combat discrimination and build acceptance in communities. Booth, Ainscow, and Kingston (2004) developed the Index for…

While TVET literature focuses on the potential role of the sector in socio-economic development, seldom is attention given to how socio-economic conditions and policies affect the development of the sector. This paper endeavours to contribute to filling this gap. It argues that examining the factors that influence access, equity and outcomes of…

In this essay, Jennifer Keys Adair aims to clarify the concept of "agency" as a tool for improving the educational experiences of young children in the early grades. She conceptualizes agency in the context of schooling as the ability to influence what and how something is learned in order to expand capabilities, drawing on economic…

As an ideology, the concept of social justice has long been a worthy, if slightly volatile, companion of early childhood theorists and researchers. Whilst the majority of the literature has valorised social justice, discontented questions regarding "what" the construct entails and "how" it might be tamed to work still remain.…

UIL has published a second edition of a collection of case studies of promising literacy programmes that seek to empower women. "Narrowing the Gender Gap: Empowering Women through Literacy Programmes" (originally published in 2013 as "Literacy Programmes with a Focus on Women to Reduce Gender Disparities") responds to the…

This volume contains a collection of selected papers submitted to the 19th Annual International Conference of the Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) held in June 2021. The 19th BCES Conference theme is "New Challenges to Education: Lessons from around the World." The book includes 40 papers written by 66 authors from 15…