This article explores the way that discourses of smartness and whiteness are produced and reproduced in schooling. Using an approach grounded in narrative research, I explore the convergences and contradictions between my own educational autobiography and the representations of schooling found in my school pictures and yearbooks. In my analysis, I…

In this analysis of deficit theory, the plan is to understand how deficit ideology was visually perpetuated in the early twentieth century. The belief that Mexicans were racially, culturally, and linguistically inferior perpetuated itself in the classrooms of Southwest public schools, resulting in the proliferation of a structure of…

Participatory research is an ideal theoretical framework for understanding the lives of teachers. While there is ample research on the experiences of teachers who work in diverse settings, most researchers have often described issues of diversity for new teachers. Far too often, researchers are not able to fully capture the difficult issues and…

This article looks closely at one instantiation of a poetry-centered practice as supported by June Jordan's Poetry for the People, specifically in the context of an inaugural poetry contest. It builds on an earlier empirical study, which investigated the partnership between Poetry for the People and one East Bay Area high school and the rich…