Despite decades of effort to broaden participation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), many fields remain demographically skewed. Marginalized and minoritized people are still underrepresented in and underserved by the sciences. In this paper, the author considers the question, "How do we improve representation in…

In order to understand our present and future work in planting the seeds of solidarity, we excavate the past, through an exploration of transnational solidarity and the vestiges of U.S. legislative policy and philanthropy. Through life notes and sharing circles, we examine policies (Morrill Act of 1862, Refugee Act of 1980, and the Gates…

In the last four years, teacher-activists in the United States have engaged in an unprecedented wave of protests and strikes. The developing body of literature seeking to understand this flurry of activity has taken various analytical approaches; for example, distilling movements into their key tactics in the hopes of lending important tools to…

In this essay, Luis E. Poza argues that educational dignity can help practices and reforms targeting students classified as English learners move beyond a narrow focus on programmatic and material factors related to English language development and instead toward more holistic consideration of these students and their schooling ecologies. In…

This paper draws on the concepts of settled expectations and the educational racial contract to provide an analysis of the current social movements calling for the improvement of teacher salaries and work conditions in K-12 schools. This paper argues that some teacher unions' lack of centering race in their advocacy to ameliorate educational…

This article focuses on a youth participatory action research (YPAR) program called the Social Justice Education Project (SJEP) that fostered young people of color's critical consciousness. Their critical consciousness emerged through praxis (reflection/action) while focusing on preserving ethnic studies in Tucson, Arizona. Because the SJEP home…

The population of children in schools is rapidly becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse. However, there is a mismatch between the cultures in children's homes and the cultures in their schools. The funds of knowledge approach emerged in Tucson (Arizona, USA) in order to counter the deficit perspectives common in depictions of…

This essay reviews Latina/o students' counter-narratives challenging colorblindness. The author highlights the experiences of students from Tucson Unified School District's Mexican American Studies program. By examining student counter-narratives, the author also identifies race-related terms that are more suitable for dialogue among and with…

Is the U.S. Supreme Court inviting litigants to take aim at unraveling injunctions in institutional reform litigation--especially consent decrees in the schools? In "Horne v. Flores" (2009), the court remanded a 17-year-old school reform case to a federal judge with orders to look beyond consent decrees on financing, reducing class…

This article reviews the social justice youth development (SJYD) model conceptualized to facilitate and enhance urban youth awareness of their personal potential, community responsibility, and broader humanity. The SJYD requires the healing of youth identities by involving them in social justice activities that counter oppressive conditions…

The authors' purpose in this article is to interrogate the mediated and political discourses that emerged alongside the "Flores v. Arizona" case. The authors endeavor to offer another voice, framework and approach that may help sustain a continuous, paramount conversation concerning the educational rights of English language learners and…

Two decades ago academics based at the University of Arizona brought the anthropological concept of Funds of Knowledge into the educational realm, providing a new conceptual framework to counter deficit theorizing of Latino students and their families. The growing body of literature evidences the belief and hope of academics in the potential of…