In spring 2020 our team received funding from the Rapid Response Research program of the National Science Foundation to develop comics that would help youth understand the COVID-19 pandemic. Our project built on a decade of expertise creating comics about the biology of viruses. In collaboration with virologists and artists, we developed three…

Life experiences can affect students' educational experiences as they continue through the middle years (grades 7-9). Children carry negative experiences, societal and family influences, and early educational experiences with them. All of these factors can contribute to student anxiety while learning mathematics. Anxiety in mathematics may present…

This paper describes the integration of geographic information system (GIS) technology in a high school environmental science classroom, specifically examining the impact of GIS technology on student engagement, critical thinking, and interdisciplinary learning for Education for Sustainability (EfS). This environmental science classroom utilized…

Understanding the gender dynamics in educational transitions can help target policies to support equitable access to education as well as its quality and labour-market outcomes. In almost all OECD countries, the gender gap in favour of women is wider in tertiary education than at upper secondary level. Differences in programme orientation and…

High school ethnic studies courses that address the perspectives and experiences of people of color are increasingly in demand. The author describes the thematic, inquiry-based approach she developed that reflects her school's diversity.

This essay highlights and extends the distinct and critical work of Black Girlhood Studies. With a particular focus on how it differentially engages Black girls and Black girlhood, it takes readers on a journey of rumination through my exploration of coming to understand reliability as taught to me by Black girls and Black girl celebratory spaces.…

Part-time high schools function as an important safety net for marginalized students, including immigrants, who are often excluded from society and mainstream education. Since 2015, drawing on the participatory action research (PAR) approach, I have collaborated with a high school and a Non-Profit Organization (NPO) to develop an extracurricular…

Classroom discussions and deliberations on public issues stand at the core of civic education. Recent research has made a strong case for the potency of these approaches in teaching social studies. Students benefit by learning about argumentation and evidence use, examining their own thinking about an issue, listening to others, and developing…

In this response to the call for transformative models of teaching students in urban contexts, the author presents his own experiences in becoming a critical pedagogue, the path that led him there, and three models of classrooms that he sees in such contexts. He emphasizes the need to reject an apolitical stance in urban education, and provides a…

Since the 1980s, research about technological integration in education has relied on models that position teachers as inherently anxious and/or resistant. These models posit that the key to successful preparation and development is helping teachers accept that they must abandon their concerns and use these technologies regardless of personal and…

The narrative in this chapter runs as follows. As the political, social, and economic environments that surround the American high school undergo seismic shifts, they create new forms of secondary education. We report that the environmental conditions between 1890 and 1920 were such that most of the pillars that anchored the American high school…

This article explores how speculative civic literacies can support youth engagement in policy discourse in digital and analog contexts. We broaden the scope of civic literacies by emphasizing core principles of Afrofuturism and participatory culture. Articulating a specific framework for applying these principles to contemporary conceptions of…

Academic achievement among Latino high school students is a pressing issue as data consistently demonstrates that Latino students underperform and are at higher risk of dropping out of high school than their non-Latino peers. This paper reviews nonacademic barriers to the success of Latino students focusing on sociocultural issues that influence…

The purpose of geography education is to foster the development of citizens who will actively seek and systematically apply the knowledge and skills of geography in life situations. Geography education must be responsive to the abilities and needs of students and to the societal and workplace requirements of the community, the nation, and the…

Since the 2016 presidential campaign, for better or worse, the general public and media have placed rural America in the national spotlight. While the election placed an important spotlight on the lives, challenges, and strengths of people living in rural communities, the spotlight came with the perpetuation of myths of rural America (e.g., people…