This article examines how teachers can develop a sense of social activism in students through critical multiculturalism. Drawing upon data from a nine-month participant observation study of a first-grade public charter school classroom in central California, this article highlights how teachers can integrate critical multiculturalism within an…

This research project uses the methods of Crowder and Callinan and Sharp to assess year one children's (age 5-6) personal understanding of scientific concepts. This research project uses video recording as a primary resource of data collection within a case study approach using a participant observer method. Analysis supports the work of Crowder…

This article presents a case study that examines the level of integration of mathematical knowledge in physics problem solving among first grade students of upper secondary school. We explore the ways in which two specific students utilize their knowledge and we attempt to identify the epistemological framings they refer to while solving a physics…

This paper addresses some of the contradictions, dilemmas, and struggles in a Danish primary school practice involved in medicating children diagnosed with ADHD. It draws on a social practice research study of a 7-year-old boy diagnosed with ADHD, who was medicated against his will. It focuses on his struggles when being medicated, and…

This article reports and discusses findings from an ethnographic case study, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of how different children perceive their learning environment in the first grade of primary school, with regard to social as well as academic aspects. The theoretical framework is based on an interactional perspective, where…

Using ethnographic methods, this article looks closely at how a team of first-grade teachers and digital media artists in an urban elementary school used video in innovative ways during professional development over the course of one year. Extending a body of literature that primarily documents how video can be used as a tool in professional…

This study explored how an audience-focused writing curriculum mediated the literacy development of bilingual Latina/o first-grade students. Drawing on translingual theories of literacy and scholarship describing the role of audience and audience awareness in skilled writing, this study qualitatively documented and analyzed students' writing and…

Due to globalisation and rapid technological change, today's educators need to help students develop multi-literacy competencies to enable them to function successfully in our culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) and increasingly connected global and digital society. A qualitative, longitudinal case study attempted to uncover the…

Drawing on data from two studies conducted in US public schools, this paper traces the affective productions and performances of teachers to illustrate the role of affect in delineating (non)normative pedagogical practices in inclusive classrooms. Occupying a borderland space in narrative inquiry that permitted the straddling of differing…

As new standards require that teachers and schools move to incorporate argument writing beginning in the earliest grades, young children's interactions with opportunities to formulate claims require further investigation. This article, part of a yearlong ethnographic study of a first-grade class, examines young children's practices of argument…

In light of the historical failure of boys of color in US schools, this article sheds light onto the ways in which normative discourses of literacy and learning shape the experiences of immigrant boys and how they are perceived and defined as un/successful students. Findings indicate that although these boys--deemed to be "at-risk" or…

Researchers have linked teachers' use of mathematical tasks and questions to students' achievement in mathematics, and also have documented that the types of tasks and questions posed might change throughout the year in grades that include high-stakes tests of student achievement. This qualitative research study explored 3 elementary school…

The purposes of this naturalistic, descriptive study were to examine the stories that children in one first grade classroom told in a storytelling circle, how the children's knowledge, in-school experiences, and out-of-school experiences were reflected in their stories, and how the children used their knowledge and experiences as tools to…

The current paper examines teaching practices in three first-grade primary classrooms (age range from five years and nine months old to six years and nine months old) in Greek Cypriot public schools, exploring whether the wider changes in critical literacy education declared on a policy level are influencing classroom literacy practices. Greek…

This study identifies and explores the dilemmas experienced by three first-grade teachers in teaching elementary school science. The impact of coaching and teachers' career stages on how teachers reconcile their dilemmas was examined. Results of this comparative case study indicate teachers perceived tensions between focusing instructional…