No other dehumanizing social construct has negatively impacted the realities and lived experiences of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) in North America more than racism. Teacher Preparation Programs (TPPs) are not exempt from this truth. Although there are many allies working both outside and within TPPs to ensure curricula,…

Drawing on ethnographic data of an urban school, this paper contrasts how two White female teachers take up the idea of 'teaching for social justice.' Fourth-grade teacher Maestra Rachel enacts a superficial understanding focused solely on curricular topics, while third-grade teacher Maestra Jennifer roots her teaching in an understanding of how…

In an era of scripted curriculum and high-stakes testing, the latitude teachers have for making curricular decisions in their classrooms has significantly declined. The authors report findings from a literature review of teachers' principled resistance to curricular control. Principled resistance occurs when teachers reject curricular mandates…

In this piece, I use a series of "found poems" created from my notes and memos taken while teaching, first curating them into thematic poems and then reflecting on what those poems say about the affordances and constraints of teaching courses--especially those focused on equity and justice--in an online format during the COVID-19…

"I don't see color; I only see children" is a statement I often hear when discussing antiracist teaching. This common statement identifies a teacher as colorblind and reflects their color-blind perspective: an assumption that race is not a factor in the classroom. With such a perspective, color-blind teachers imply that they are not…

In this article, the authors share what they learned from considering a collection of narrative reflections written by six high school educators, all co-authors, who have integrated youth participatory action research (YPAR) into their instructional practice. Taken together, the written reflections shed light on teachers' reasons not only for…

Dr. Lucinda Lee Katz was born and raised in North Beach, San Francisco, CA adjacent to Chinatown proper, where she spent her K-12 years attending San Francisco's public schools. Throughout her K-12 education, her peers were primarily Chinese, but she never had a Chinese teacher. She attended Chinese school every day after school and on Saturdays…

The cultural zeitgeist has reinvigorated needed conversations about systemic racism and its longstanding impact on education. Educators confronting educational racism encounter social and psychological challenges that stifle their antiracist efforts. Challenging social psychological encounters, which reflect unavoidable but requisite facets of…

This article addresses the challenges and importance of integrating discussions on race and social justice into the classroom. Considering recent legislative actions in various states aimed at restricting such discussions, the article presents an empowering framework designed to support educators in facilitating these conversations. This…

These three practices can help educators align their school's professed beliefs with its actions. Do your beliefs about social justice align with school policies and student experiences? Are you examining social justice on a systems level and drilling down to the root causes of disparities in student learning and success? Erica Buchanan-Rivera…

In this narrative essay, a mathematics teacher educator and a mathematics classroom teacher share their approaches and motivations behind introducing teachers and high school students, respectively, to the promises and challenges of mathematics taught from a social justice perspective. They conclude the essay by noting two preliminary pedagogical…

The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is generating a new appetite for understanding the ubiquity of systemic racism. In this short piece, a professor and three newly graduated students from different racialized groups reflect on the reproduction of social inequalities in key institutions and on what decolonization means for the nation, not just…

Claire Holliss reports here on the ways in which she has responded over time to the call to 'do justice' to the histories of those long neglected within the school curriculum. Reflection on the need to ensure that the discipline of history remained central to any reform prompted her to think of work on widening the curriculum less as a project…

In this article, faculty and administrators describe their personal and institutional experiences with racial justice and equity.

This response to the question about what we are angry about and what we dream of for young children reflects our work of over 30 years in Australasia. For Kylie in Australia and for Sonja in Aotearoa New Zealand and now also Australia. We direct the RECE common call, for an elevation of children's rights, to a voice, to a 'good' education, and to…