Educational research that effectively addresses larger sociopolitical and sociohistorical contexts must interrogate macro-level decision-making and policies "and" prioritize the lived experiences of those who directly affect and are affected by social structures. This project explores racial and economic justice work in schools by…

The current sociopolitical context of the United States has created a divide among the nation which has transpired into Kindergarten-12th grade public school settings. Throughout the United States school boards of education have banned books and Critical Race Theory while attacking social justice teaching pedagogies. Presently, there is growing…

This qualitative study explores the ways teacher leaders define educational social justice for themselves and what that means in their teaching. The purpose is to contribute to the body of literature on teachers' own perspectives and experiences of how they attempt to teach and lead for social justice within their context and roles. By using…

Standardization has been part of teaching and learning in the United States since the late 19th century. This technocratic approach has gained more traction in the past two decades beginning with the passage of the landmark No Child Left Behind law in 2001 and continuing through the recent standardization movement to restrict content and…

The teaching force in the United States is largely White, female, and unprepared to acknowledge the significance of being White and work effectively with a racially diverse student population. To better serve students of color, teachers must be able to understand their own racial identity to be able to respectfully acknowledge the racial and…

With the large discrepancy between the undergraduate graduation rates of Hispanic students and students from other racial and ethnic backgrounds, it is both an equity issue and an economic imperative that higher education institutions focus on retaining Hispanic students. This qualitative phenomenological study seeks to understand the barriers and…

Social media spaces are increasingly sites where people learn about the political and social landscape. Because social studies teachers can play a significant role in helping students make sense of a range of political and social issues, it is urgent to examine the role of social media in teachers' sense-making. Thinking with poststructural…

This dissertation is a historical case study that focused on the founding and continuation of the GSSch to define the term, academic resilience and to determine how the GSSch had impacted "academic resilience." I examined qualitative data from interviews alongside research published during the founding (i.e. mid-1970s) and continuation…

This qualitative critical multi-case study examines the nature of resistance as it emerges within the work of two urban secondary teachers acting as teacher educators, each teaching a secondary teacher preparation course within their own respective school context. Both research sites are discursively and functionally similar in terms of their…

A comparative case study of two cultural institutions, Henry Street Settlement and El Museo del Barrio, founded almost eighty years apart, were involved in social justice causes and community arts. Although both of these institutions participated in the political activism of their time, they also demonstrated an important adaptability. They were…

This qualitative study uncovers the voices of five Latin@ students who are high-"achieving" and undocumented and have strong aspirations in science, in a Southern, Title I high school. Through critical race methodology and these students' "testimonios"/counter-stories, these students' struggles and successes reveal their…