Persistent educational inequity for immigrant and refugee students and their families calls for instructional practices centering on access, quality, and social justice. Drawing on two qualitative case studies, this article examines how three U.S. urban school teachers attended to the systemic inequalities and unique challenges confronting…

This article explores the dynamic structures of emotions used by former urban teachers as they negotiated the challenges of the profession. Drawing from a national sample of 25 former urban teachers, this article looks closely at the lives of two teachers who taught in urban intensive school districts. Specifically, the piece captures the…

Within an educational system increasingly focused on test-based accountability, how can a local education authority adopt an interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability education (ESE) policy? What local and global factors and actors shape and inform the creation of such a policy? In answering these questions, this article examines the…

Despite their long history and importance in the American curriculum, music programs must constantly justify their place in the twenty-first century. Urban areas that are economically depressed sometimes may not be able to offer music instruction due to the emphasis on raising test scores as well as unfavorable economic conditions that may limit…

This one year study examines the journey of two preservice urban high-school teachers in Arizona as they enact Culturally Responsive Teaching in a year-long student teaching residency. Factors that influenced their Culturally Responsive Teaching practices are discussed along themes that emerged from interviews and classroom observations.…

In this article we explore recent history to uncover the role that public engagement has played in the effort to reform America's urban schools. In the place of narratives that focus on elite actors (foundations, unions, corporations, etc.), we focus on the role of local stakeholders. Specifically, we look to how the changing political context…

There is a growing national movement in which schools and businesses have become allies in efforts to improve education. Many school-business partnerships focus on disadvantaged youth in urban areas. Three popular models for these collaborations are the following: (1) the pairing of a business with a single school; (2) collaborative efforts that…