The aim of this paper is to bring together concepts and commitments from both liberal and queer theories with the purpose of designing an integrated framework for equity-focused education policy analysis and implementation. In essence, we aim to build a conceptual bridge between queer and liberal democratic theories and to develop what we call a…

This essay explores a Latinx, queer and trans, student's resistance to a gender-neutral restroom at a high school in an agricultural community of the Central Coast of California. Through a close reading of a field note, I analyze Joaquin's narrative of refusal to demonstrate how queer and trans youth engage in an active subjectivity (Lugones,…

Talcott Parsons is often identified as the "master" of mid-twentieth-century social theory. In the 1960s and 1970s, however, his writings were hardly any longer discussed, but mostly neglected. "The American University" is Parsons's last monograph published during his lifetime. On the basis of extensive archival research, this…

This paper places under examination the arguments used to fight against school policies and legislation intended to guarantee and protect the rights of trans students. That is, the paper's central investigation works to uncover the regimes of truth about children, gender, race and privacy implicit in the methods employed by activists who seek to…

As a result of the economic recession, the State of California has set in motion new policies for its community college system known as the Student Success Act, fundamentally altering open-access (Yamagata-Noji, 2014; Bennett et. al. 2013). Individuals most vulnerable to the policy shift are under-represented college students who constitute the…

Black women still experience racial oppression in the academy. In this study, I draw on Black feminist theory and oral narrative research to examine the narratives of Black women graduate students discussing their educational experiences. Black female graduate students deal with acts of everyday racism and instances of structural and internalized…

This article explores civic learning, civic participation, and the development of civic agency within the Council of Youth Research (the Council), a program that engages high school students in youth participatory action research projects that challenge school inequalities and mobilize others in pursuit of educational justice. We critique the…

This essay argues for a paradigm shift in what counts as learning and literacy education for youth. Two related constructs are emphasized: collective Third Space and sociocritical literacy. The construct of a collective Third Space builds on an existing body of research and can be viewed as a particular kind of zone of proximal development. The…

While we often write about adolescents as full of turmoil and angst, focusing on "student voice" instead highlights ways in which young people can learn democratic principles by sharing their opinions and working to improve school conditions for themselves and others. This article examines the connection between the types of student…

Understanding the progression of violent and nonviolent criminal activity remains a matter of theoretical debate. In the present study, the authors build on criminological theory and assess the extent to which the progression of violent and nonviolent criminal behaviors follows different trajectories. The authors rely on semiparametric mixture…

This paper seeks to explain the epistemological bases for the two cultures and to show why this disciplinary divide continues to plague American academic culture. Next, we discuss strategies for bridging the two cultures through general education curricula which promote mutual understanding of the two cultures while educating students in basic…

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…

Through interviews and focus groups with 106 high school juniors and seniors, this research examined the college choice process for Latina and Latino students in the greater Los Angeles basin. Using chain migration theory within a social capital framework, the results indicated that as primarily first-generation college students, the students in…

This article considers how 3 fundamental concepts of second language acquisition (SLA), the native speaker, interlanguage, and the language learner have fared since Firth and Wagner (1997). We review the ascendancy of these concepts and their relationship to the traditional dichotomies of language learning versus language use and individual mind…

With serious problems plaguing California's juvenile justice system, the efficacy of incapacitating juveniles in the Division of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) correctional facilities must be reexamined. California's youth incarceration patterns offer an opportunity to analyze the validity of incapacitation theory as it applies to young people. Under…