The Arizona state legislature has aimed to pass a series of bills banning those in schools from teaching topics associated with inclusion, social justice, and equity. Since 2020, the legislature has targeted teaching 'critical race theory' (CRT), often (mis)using the term to refer to any ideas related to systemic discrimination and racial…

Children continuously engage in developing theories about how the world works as they inquire through play and interactions with others. In this study, we investigated children's in-process thinking in the form of working theories about language as they participated in engagements around dual language picturebooks in an afterschool club. Our…

Purpose: From book challenges to anti-critical race theory and anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning legislation, US English teachers have been on the receiving end of a considerable amount of far-right conservative pushback. This study aims to explore the effects of conservative pushback on individual English teachers…

Background: In 2016, the United States Department of Agriculture issued a final rule to strengthen local wellness policies (LWPs). As school districts pursue compliance, states can provide critical guidance by leveraging support from intermediary programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program--Education (SNAP-Ed). After Arizona…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze an Arizona university's educational leadership program and the revisioning/restructuring process that program faculty have engaged in to ensure that the program provides aspiring school leaders with the conceptual knowledge, dispositions, and skills necessary to transform their schools…

This paper explores how two dual language preschool teachers demonstrated critical consciousness in their dual language education (DLE) classroom in Arizona. DLE has historically been grounded in equity for language minoritized students and promises to support students' bilingualism, biliteracy, sociocultural competence, and academic achievement.…

This article delves deep into the story of "illegal" immigration, while humanizing the issue of those who experience it and its enduring consequences. In so doing, this study seeks to look beyond the broadly articulated claims about undocumented immigrants and shed light on what it really means to be unauthorized in America. This body of…

This multiple case study unpacks White teachers' experiences of perceived cultural differences in their classrooms and deciphers their readiness to work with American Indian students. Situating our study using Tribal Critical Race Theory and culturally responsive teaching and using a developed conceptual model of Teacher Readiness to Work with…

With a reduced number of students purchasing required and necessary textbooks, higher education leaders must look to new opportunities to increase student success. While open educational resources have addressed this issue, they have not received widespread support from faculty, staff, and administrators. The Maricopa Millions OER Project: Scaling…

University-based teacher education programs are criticized for being too theoretical, disconnected from the everyday realities of schools. To bridge this gap, teacher education programs give students year-long field experiences under the joint tutelage of mentor teachers and university faculty. However, this assumes that mentor teachers will not…

Recently adopted state standards for middle grades and high school mathematics content have an increased emphasis on statistical topics. With this change, teacher education programs may need to adapt how they prepare preservice secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) to teach statistics and require measures related to statistics teaching to assess…

In this article, based on an ethnographic study in Sundale City, Arizona, I use an interpretive and anthropological approach to policy analysis to highlight how social actors interpreted the national charter school debate to enact local school choice policy development in their everyday lives. Specifically, findings from this study provide a…

Teacher educators needing to meet requirements of state licensing bodies and accrediting organizations are in a position similar to that of K-12 teachers: they must adhere to externally imposed standards and curricular requirements while keeping their courses rigorous, interesting, and critical. This article reports results from a self-study…

This article examines whiteness at the intersection of immigration and early childhood education as it was made visible during interviews with 50 preschool teachers in five US cities as part of the Children Crossing Borders (CCB) study. Findings show whiteness acting not only as a construct of privilege but also as an idea that manifests itself in…

Since the Great Recession, international student enrollment in U.S. institutions has experienced profound increases. As campuses attempt to attract more international students, they have placed greater emphasis on developing units that specifically serve the needs of these students. Using the qualitative approach of document analysis, this…