Context: This research contributes to a growing body of scholarship on affirming and accommodating transgender and gender-diverse students in elementary school spaces by exploring how institutional resistance to gender-inclusive practices manifested in a single rural school district. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: The study…

Background: Research into digital practices and cultures repeatedly calls attention to the complexity of communication spaces and meaning-making practices. With the blurring of boundaries between online and offline, these entangled practices involve the interweaving of human, material, semiotic, and discursive practices. Purpose: This introductory…

Background: Although there is a substantial body of literature on school leadership and its relationship with student achievement, few studies have examined how change in leadership is related to organizational growth and school improvement. Also less well studied is the influence of contextual conditions on how leadership and organizational…

Background/Context: There is an expansive body of research concerning high school graduation; however, most studies omit students who persist through four years of high school without earning a diploma. In addition, there is scant research exploring longer term outcomes among students whose academic trajectories do not fit within the traditional…

Background: A growing body of research highlights the experiences of Black men students who successfully navigate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational pathways. Many Black men graduate students in engineering describe moments when their advisors, peers, and, at times, community members make them feel different…

Background/Context: Culturally relevant education (CRE) is a powerful tool for improving students' educational experiences and outcomes. Yet CRE is not the norm in U.S. public education systems (Achinstein & Ogawa, 2011, 2012; Borrero et al., 2016; Coffey & Farinde-Wu, 2016), perhaps because teachers are socialized into systems that…

Background: Today, children play in transmedia franchises that bring together media characters, toys, and everyday consumer goods with games, apps, and websites in complex mergers of childhood cultures, digital literacies, consumer practices, and corporate agendas. Recent research on youth videogames and virtual worlds suggests the productive…

Background/Context: A long line of research has empirically examined the effects of social context on child and adolescent well-being. Scholars have paid particular attention to two specific levels of social context: the school and neighborhood. Although youths occupy these social contexts simultaneously, empirical research on schools and…

Background: Videogames and virtual worlds have frequently been studied as learning environments in isolation; that is, scholars have focused on understanding the features of games or virtual worlds as separate from or different than "real world" environments for learning. Although more recently, scholars have explored the teaching and…

Background/Context: In spite of the widely acknowledged importance of creativity to society and the economy, scholars have had difficulty providing research-based recommendations for how to foster creativity in schools. The article extends three strands of research that have attempted to provide such recommendations: studies of whether creativity…

Background/Context: Praxis Core, an ETS general knowledge examination, is required for teaching licensure in many states. However, it exists within a history of racist testing from time of the first IQ and SAT tests. Because of Praxis Core, Preservice Teachers of Color are regularly denied entry into the teaching profession, a reality incongruent…

Background/Context: Empirical evidence suggests women faculty spend more time in campus service than men, which perpetuates inequality between men and women because research is valued more than service in academic reward systems, especially at research universities. Purpose/Focus of Study: In this study I apply insights from research on gender…

Background: Teaching is comprised of interconnected practices. Some practices are domain neutral (DN), or independent of a content area. Examples of DN practices include emotional and instructional support and classroom organization. Others are domain specific (DS), or content dependent. Within a mathematics context, examples of DS practices…

This is the epilogue to the special issue. The authors, two White House officials and policy experts, describe how negative narratives surrounding Black men and the misuse of data can manifest as barriers to high quality learning environments or workforce development opportunities.

Background: Social justice orientation (SJO) is the motivation to promote justice and equity among all in society. Researchers argue that students of Color with high SJO can resist structural racism in their schools/society and have positive academic outcomes. Purpose: In the present study, a longitudinal model of cultural and environmental…