Globally, young people are asking questions about social responsibility. California addresses this in the second draft of its updated mathematics framework, still unreleased as this article goes to press. It defines these questions as authentic, suggesting that classrooms "include, at times . . . contexts students can engage with as a way to…

This article provides a practical illustration of how culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) and evidence-based practices (EBPs) can be integrated into a mathematics curriculum to address social justice issues. A vignette is provided to illustrate how a secondary teacher infused social justice education in a seventh-grade mathematics lesson through…

Co-authored by a college professor, a middle-school teacher, a college undergraduate, and a 7th grader, this article focuses on college and middle-school students' experiences of discovering their own and others' voices. The discovery unfolds through composing and reflecting on poems in the form of Jacqueline Woodson's "It'll be scary…

Guided by a critical race praxis for educational research lens, the authors worked individually alongside their students in a K-12 or higher education classroom, embracing spaces of tension derived from the push and pull between oppression and liberation. The authors explain how these tensions troubled the ways in which humanizing practices are…

Students are spending increasing amounts of time using technology, particularly computers (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2010). As students use search engines and Internet tools, they are able to access information about myriad topics (Fieldhouse & Nicholas, 2008). Educators are in a position to develop a culture of digital learning (Søby, 2008)…

When the author overheard her colleagues one day discussing teachers who don't follow state mandates--singing the benefits of enforced curriculum mapping to ensure every teacher is on the same page, teaching the same topic, at the same time--she didn't know they were talking about her. It wasn't until a colleague later cautioned that she was not…

Making the visual arts program meaningful in public education can be a challenge when one considers how little instructional time is devoted to the visual arts. A challenge for art educators is to seek opportunities outside the classroom for real-life inquiry-based projects. This form of systematic inquiry done by teachers for themselves is called…

In this article, we argue that preparing and maintaining a cadre of culturally responsive teachers is critical to improving urban education and achieving educational equity. We discuss a collaborative, social-justice-oriented approach to teacher preparation committed to developing a stable and effective teaching force reflective of the student…