Part of a larger yearlong ethnography at a comprehensive, public high school in a Midwestern city in the United States, this article explores a telling case from a bookclub that was part of the school's Genders and Sexualities Alliance. Approaching curriculum as a question of what knowledges are valued in education, in this article I describe the…

The purpose of this action research study was to explore the impact instructional choices had on student participation in the classroom learning environment, growth of knowledge in social studies, and self-efficacy in the learning process. The instructional choices implemented through a flipped learning instructional approach were designed to…

This paper examines the work of a gay-straight alliance and the ways in which members use elements of queer theory to understand their own and others' identities, both to make sense of their experiences and to support their activist efforts. The analysis identifies queer perspectives on gender and sexual identity as useful tools for supporting…

This manuscript contributes to a discussion of how to meaningfully engage issues of sexuality in the curriculum. Noting the struggle to create social change through the inclusion of LGBQ people and events, the manuscript is premised on what we might learn about equity and change by locating the study of inequity in how it is etched into and…

This study stems from a yearlong qualitative inquiry examining the influence that gender ideologies exercised in the lives of four young men in the high school setting. Utilizing a feminist, post-structuralist perspective (Davies, 1997, 1989; Connell, 1996, 1997, 1989; Martino, 1995), it analyzes how masculinity constructs itself through…

This case study explores the challenges a school leader faced when her commitment to diversity was tested by a scheduling conflict. The school principal approved a Transgender Day of Remembrance but then realized that it was scheduled for the same night as the school's Open House to recruit prospective students. The case study provides an…

Employing a critical race analysis of contemporary suburban schooling in the US, the author challenges the ideology of colorblind racial contexts. The concepts of colorblindness, interest-convergence, racial realism, and white privilege are used to explain how federal mandates and common school policies and practices, such as tracking, traditional…

Commonsense understandings of school practices have historically painted parents of color as inattentive and non-participatory actors in public school settings. Racist implementations of policy and individual actions, based on teacher ideology and deficit paradigms of race, force parents of color to take an oppositional stance in public school…

In this article, the author demonstrates how a Bourdieusian analysis of poetic transcriptions offers great potential for helping teachers and students to understand how they are responding to state policy mandates in schools. Specifically, the author uses Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital, and habitus to analyze two poetic transcriptions,…

This study explores how academically talented Black girls read, write and narrate their lived experiences while attending a predominantly white, selective admissions urban high school. Black girls in these types of settings often experience feelings of isolation and silencing, unjust treatment, and underrepresentation in the curriculum (Carter,…

Research historically has demonstrated that a generational disconnect between the popular cultures from which students and teachers define normative behavior can impact classroom management and student learning. The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes, beliefs and perceptions of high school faculty toward the hip-hop culture and its…

The purpose of this personal narrative is to retrospectively analyze the actions and reactions of a young, female, white teacher who was faced with the reality of the dichotomy of race and power in a large school system. When an African American male student brings a gun to school, the teacher's personal assumptions come to the forefront, bringing…

Changes to the global workforce and technological advancements require graduating high school students to be more autonomous, self-directed, and critical in their thinking. To reflect societal changes, current educational reform has focused on developing more problem-based, collaborative, and student-centered classrooms to promote effective…

Positive school climates have been found to have favorable effects on adolescent health risk behaviors and mental health outcomes. However, the mechanisms by which teacher behavior may promote such effects in high schools have not been extensively studied. Based on social control theory and a social developmental-contextual model, it was predicted…

Drawing from a multi-year ethnography of a Latino/a immigrant Pentecostal church and from high school observations and interviews of three focal students, this article compares the language and literacy experiences of an immigrant Mexican Pentecostal adolescent in church and school contexts. I document how the youth's Sunday school class fostered…