Attending college, for many immigrant families, is a critical step in achieving the American Dream. This essay, written as a reflection and response between professor and student, explores the conflicting messages young community college students negotiate and process as they move through the City, revealing how knowledge learned in the college…

In this article, I respond to my father's 2005 article "From Here to Clare: Yearnings of a Scholar-Turned-Dad." My goal is to share whether and how I followed the guidance he set forth, and how those recommendations shaped my life and moral development as an undergraduate student and beyond. It is my hope that students find inspiration…

Restorative justice (RJ) is a philosophy and set of practices that center harms and needs. Within a classroom setting, an RJ pedagogical approach invites a process of shared learning that attends to critical issues of equity, power, and voice. Utilizing an autoethnographic approach, this manuscript includes critical reflections from three faculty…

In this article, Jackson Toby discusses President Biden's proposal for free community college and substantial subsidies at public four-year colleges. Toby points out that if Biden means to require the beneficiaries to demonstrate that they have enough aptitude to graduate if they choose to study, the idea would be in the tradition of Thomas…

The California Community Colleges (CCC) system has adopted an equity-imperative approach to systemic reforms. As part of this effort, and to meet the state's workforce demands of the future, the system has focused on better serving the needs of adult learners, those between the ages of 25 and 64 with some college but no degree. The current impact…

Connecting schools and students to community members is a mutually beneficial effort that can transform education and society. In this article, Josh Schachter, founder of CommunityShare--an innovative nonprofit initiative that catalyzes real-world learning experiences by connecting teachers and students with the wisdom, skills, and lived…

In this article, Paula Mathieu shares a few lessons about what she now sees as the contemplative call of community writing, which is at once personal, political, historical, and pedagogical. If people are going to do community-based work ethically and, mindful of past and present racial and other political wounds, they need to do their work…

In this reflection, using the work of Ellen Cushman and Paula Mathieu as a framework from which to extend, I explore how my positionality as a graduate student affected my experience wading into community-engaged literacy work. Specifically, I reflect on my time with a nonprofit organization that provides no-cost legal support and safety planning…

Caucusing, as a social justice activity, is traditionally implemented to provide an insider space for marginalized persons to share experiences and build a space for belonging and safety by excluding those who hold privileged identities. Within a particular event that combines privileged and oppressed, experiences are uneven, with insiders…

This essay uses Paulo Freire as inspiration of thinking about the limits and possibilities of building bridges between elite universities in the Global North and communities around the world given the historic and present-day entanglements between these universities and empire, colonisation, and epistemic violence. It sheds lights on how…

Sharon Nelson-Barber, a sociolinguist, directs Culture & Language in STEM Education within WestEd's Science and Engineering content area. She is co-founder of POLARIS--Pacific/Polar Opportunities to Learn, Advance and Research Indigenous Systems--a research and development network that supports healthy communities by integrating Indigenous…

In this forum response essay, the author proposes that the largest challenge "and" benefit of Communication Activism Pedagogy (CAP) is bound up in a small but significant word in Frey and Palmer's (2014) definition of Communication Activism Pedagogy: "with." Working "with oppressed community members" challenges the…

In this commentary, author R. Eugene Rice reflects on Ernest Boyer's 1996 "Journal of Public Service & Outreach" article, "Scholarship of Engagement," (EJ532751) reprinted in this 20th anniversary issue of "Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement." Boyer opened his essay with a celebratory review of…

This article discusses a case for a different, socio-cultural way of looking at learning progressions as treated in the next generation science standards (NGSS) as described by Ralph Cordova and Phyllis Balcerzak's paper "Co-constructing cultural landscapes for disciplinary learning in and out of school: the next generation science standards…

Megan Bang (Ojibwe and Italian descent) is a Professor of the Learning Sciences and Psychology at Northwestern University and is currently serving as the Senior Vice President at the Spencer Foundation. Dr. Bang's research focuses on the complexities of navigating multiple meaning systems in creating and implementing more effective and just…