Though the COVID-19 pandemic presented ongoing challenges for the entire nation, it wreaked unprecedented havoc on communities of color. Despite the turbulence and upheaval, this exploratory study illustrates that first-gen Latinx college students at an HSI in South Texas persevered and even thrived. Undergraduate teacher candidates participated…

This socio-cultural practitioner-based study investigated the ways in which using a feminist pedagogy in a Gender and Education course would influence students' interpretations of their own lived experiences. Using atheory of experience, we examined reflections on 14 students' initial personal gender stories and their perceptions of feminism. At…

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire system of education around the world is living each day under rapid experimentation to grapple with unforeseen challenges. The event of the COVID-19 pandemic has not only impacted a student's track of learning but also disrupted the everyday functioning of schools. In the case of the United…

This counterstorytelling study involved examining how Practitioners of Color (POC) enact "carino" and embed restorative literacies or cultural and community practices in community college integrated reading and writing (IRW) classrooms to create a safe counterspace for Students of Color (SOC). The significance of this research is to…

This scholarly personal narrative explores the experiences of a graduate-student turned tenure-track faculty member engaging religion and spirituality in the curriculum. Using autoethnographic methods, the author reflects on his curricular experiences in a student affairs master's program at a faith-based institution and his early career…

African American females have been historically underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career fields. Even with recent initiatives to increase the STEM persistence across all populations, African American female representation has decreased by 1.6% while other underrepresented demographics have continued to rise.…

This qualitative collective case study examines how pre-collegiate literacy practices affect Latino/a student college success. Conducted at a South Texas border-region University, this study utilized a sample of six Latino/a students enrolled in a freshman level composition course. A focus group was used to explore how academic and social literacy…

This document traverses through a series of genealogical stories that span close to a century to provide context to higher learning, education, and development. The stories of elders help us re-member their dreams, re-frame the process for growth, and re-imagine the possibilities for development at the self, organizational, and community levels.…

In a qualitative study, photo narratives from eight students covering eighty total photos were collected and analyzed to understand the existing student experience across eight short-term study abroad programs from three different institutions in Texas. Photos and their connected narrative interviews were examined for compositional focus,…

This study focused on three female superintendents from poverty and how they elevated out of poverty to become successful superintendents in their school districts and help students living in poverty.

Drawing on life stories and classroom observations, this qualitative study examined how six bilingual maestras enacted and embodied critical biliteracies through bilanguaging love. These maestras were born, raised, and now teach bilingual education on the Texas-Mexico border. Their stories revealed contradictory and complex beliefs about literacy…

In this article, Stephanie Alvarez, José L. Martínez, Annabel Salamanca, Erika Salamanca, and Roberto C. Reyna share the impacts of Cosecha Voices, a pedagogical approach used with college students from migrant farmworker backgrounds at one of the largest Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the United States. They argue that Cosecha Voices affirms,…

Honoring the voices needing to be heard, the research investigated the lived experiences of six Syrian Muslim refugee women who resettled in the United States after the 2011 Syrian War. Data analysis was informed by qualitative research methodology and narrative inquiry. The stories of Syrian women in this study highlight the complexities of…

Research supports the importance of developing early literacy skills through culturally relevant activities and school/home partnerships as essential ingredients in high quality early learning environments (Bentley & Souto-Manning, 2019; Gay, 2000). Educators, however, frequently dismiss the significance of honoring a child's first language,…

Although sense of belonging has been conceptualized by higher education institutions in marginalizing ways, we reclaim the construct as authentic relationships characterized by humanization, mutuality, and respect for students' cultural assets, values, and social identities. To dismantle colonizing perspectives and foreground Indigenous ways of…