This study explores how 10 principals in mostly-Black U.S. urban elementary schools staffed by mostly-White faculty understood and experienced the manifestations of racial differences. Narrative inquiry with nearly 700 pages of transcript data yielded three themes: (1) gradients of color-conscious leadership, (2) principals as moral agents, and…

Drawing on sociocultural perspectives, this article illustrates the potential for extending figured worlds through cultural artifacts. Using thematic and multimodal analysis, the authors first compare how spaces of authoring were produced in two professional development settings: Proyecto Bilingüe and Critical Education Studies. Following one…

This paper offers a comprehensive examination of the "lived experience" of workplace bullying in primary schools in Ireland. Underpinned by the qualitative analysis of in-depth interviews with a class teacher, a chairperson of a Board of Management and a school principal--all of whom who believe themselves to have been targets of…

This research gave voice to teaching assistants, exploring their experiences and perceptions. A small-scale case study approach was adopted, which aimed to interpret and explain human actions and thought through descriptions, capturing first person accounts. Qualitative data was collected from two focus group interviews. Participants were employed…

We explored 30 Black Kindergarten-2nd grade students' spoken narratives around pages of their science journals that the children selected as best for showing them as scientists. Because in all narratives, space-time relationships play an important role not only in situating but also in constituting them, we focused on such relationships using…

The purpose of this article is to show second-language pupils' experiences in school and their understanding of school through analysis of how they talk about the multilingual primary school and instruction. These stories about school life are studied with a life story approach, and the research process can be described in three steps: tell,…

Recent studies have identified multiple forms of capital that Latino students acquire in their homes and communities. Influenced by these studies, this article examines how transnational students of Mexican origin use various forms of their community's cultural wealth as tools to survive situations of violence in Mexico. In this article, we…

Primary school teachers are often tasked with puberty/sexuality education for students who are undergoing sexual maturation at ever-earlier ages. This study explores the changing trajectories of the pre-service learning and teaching of primary school puberty/sexuality education at an urban university, including student-teachers' childhood…

This author is on a journey--hoping that his expertise might have some small local impact. He shares his experiences that might relate to those who are thinking about volunteering abroad, or trying to modernise a system that is cemented in place. Creating change, developing teaching styles, and working for a charity are some of the challenges he…

This article presents an interview with Lyn Huston, who teaches in a one-room schoolhouse--Duckwater School--in Duckwater, Nevada. The school, which has a class of only 15 students, is set on a plot of land between alfalfa farms, an Indian reservation, and a 20,500-acre wilderness area. Huston discusses the challenges that exist when teaching in a…

This dissertation is an exploration of stories of uncertainty in the lives of elementary teachers and the value that the ideas of Hannah Arendt lend to the discussion around uncertainty. In "The Human Condition" (1958) Hannah Arendt theorizes the life of action, the "vita activa". Arendtian action is inherently uncertain because to be "capable of…

Writing assessments have attended to the mechanics of writing, reflecting a value on the teaching of writing conventions. One quality of writing rarely assessed is authorial voice, a personal style that communicates the author's stance toward events reported and the author's relationship to the audience. The authors explore associations among…

Where adults go, children follow. The reality of a globalized, interconnected world, characterised by the mobility of people, goods and knowledge, across physical and virtual spaces and time, has had a significant impact on children's early experiences of language, literacy and identity. Children are not peripheral to, but constitute an integral…

This qualitative study explored the perspectives of parents and teachers in the US with regard to the meaning and implications of disability in the context of schoolling, and of raising a child with a disability. The findings revealed broad conceptual differences in the perspectives of these two groups. Teachers' beliefs were generally consistent…

Public schools in some areas of the U.S. are as segregated as they were prior to court-ordered busing, in part due to school choice policies that appear to exacerbate extant segregation. In particular, Latina/o students are increasingly isolated in schools characterized as being in cycles of decline. Our case study of one such school is based on a…