Most practitioners and scholars agree that critical and reflective early childhood and elementary teachers are foundational for children's holistic growth and development. Yet current policies focused on elevating testing and performativity are contributing to student and teacher anxiety and alienation. This book offers a counternarrative to…

This paper considers the emancipatory potential of incorporating youth participatory action research (YPAR) and restorative practices (RP) implementation into a transformative mixed methods study design as a means to create equitable and caring school systems for marginalized youth. The utilization of "transformative mixed methods"…

This action research study examines a graduate level course on Ethnicity and Education. Eighteen teacher participants enrolled in a Master of Education program. Course instructors analyzed teacher participants' perceptions of culturally responsive teaching. A teaching plan, a post-course questionnaire, a focus group interview, and a follow up…

This phenomenological action research study examined the experiences of minority students who participated in service learning activities at Northern Kentucky University. Five individual interviews were completed with students, consisting of undergraduate, graduate, and university alumni. Interviews uncovered five overarching themes. The five…

On many college campuses, faculty are being called on to act as change agents for racial equity. Through narrative inquiry analysis using the theoretical constructs of boundary crossing and boundary objects, this case study examined learning among faculty (n = 12) who attempted to broker structural changes at their universities through…

Research shows that many of the predominantly White and middle-class teachers are unprepared to teach an urban public school population increasingly comprised of low-income children of color. Lack of cultural competencies, low expectations of and lack of caring for students, and racial/ethnic, linguistic, and class biases are all cited as barriers…

This study organized five black American undergraduate students into a participatory action research (PAR) team to examine Cross and Strauss' (1998) and Cross, Smith, and Payne's (2002) functions of blackness theory (i.e., bonding, code switching, and individualism) within a sample of black American students, frontline staff (i.e., janitors), and…

Within a two-year mixed method action research study, two cohorts of White senior preservice Art Educators reflected on anti-racist and anti-classist course materials and attended field experiences within urban schools. A majority of both cohorts identified systemic racism within social systems and language after engaging in course materials.…

"Even the Janitor Is White" addresses challenges faced by teacher educators who are committed to diversity education. The chapters in this volume invite readers to reflect on their own practice as teacher educators as well as consider ways in which that practice might be improved. More than forty percent of students in U.S. schools are…

Pedagogical progress in the field of multicultural education moves at a snail's pace due to pre-service teachers' level of acceptance of multiculturalism and its tenets. Teacher candidates and seasoned teachers are simply unconscious and apathetic about matters of diversity. Pre-service teachers, primarily White and middle class, are mandated to…

This qualitative action research study investigates the common barriers encountered by successful undergraduate ethnic minority students enrolled in majors that serve as a pipeline for professional health sciences. Through specialized focus group interviews and individual interviews, this study explores the perceived barriers to student success…

This article describes an action research project undertaken in Australia to confront Eurocentrism in our social work curricula. Our aims, action, and reflections are discussed. Further, we explore the legitimacy of non-indigenous teachers taking action to reconcile indigenous knowledges in curricula. The findings have relevance for international…

This article discusses practitioner research that focused on student resistance to teaching about the apartheid past and issues of "race" in a first year English studies course at a predominantly Afrikaans and "white" university in South Africa. The study aimed to explore the way in which students and the teacher engaged with a…