This study examined how the concept of social justice was operationalized in the university coursework of students enrolled in an urban teacher residency program that aims to diversify the teaching corps and prepare secondary STEM teachers for urban classroom environments. Based on analysis of 39 syllabi and interviews with nine faculty members,…

East St. Louis educators provide critical counter-narratives to Jonathan Kozol's depiction of teaching and learning in East St. Louis, Illinois in "Savage Inequalities." Teachers, educators, and administrators provide a complex view of urban schooling beyond deficiency, inadequacy, and despair. Findings highlight educators' voices as…

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…

The author draws from critical Whiteness studies and the sociological imagination to show how three White preservice teachers in an urban education program used personal experiences with racial privilege to understand structural racism. These stories depart from portrayals of race-evasive White teachers who struggle to engage with critical…

This article reports on urban elementary teachers' understandings of cultural relevancy and the practices they enacted after a professional development on culturally relevant education (CRE) and cognitive apprenticeship. Focus group interviews support that participating teachers understood some principles of CRE but did not always match the theory…

This article uses counter-storytelling to examine how four urban African American mothers understand and discuss the role of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in their children's education. Counter-storytelling is used as an oppositional framework to dominant stories privileged by educational systems. Findings conclude how parents posit valid…

This article examines how 18 teachers, counselors, administrators, and support staff from seven New York City public high schools collaborated during the Black and Latino Male Professional Development Initiative (a pseudonym) to develop a "culturally relevant, schoolwide, college-going culture" supportive of Black and Latino males'…

This article reports on a study investigating relationships among the reasons for entry, preparation experiences, workplace conditions, and future career plans of 15 early-career teachers working in urban Los Angeles. Specifically, the authors examine why these teachers stay in, shift from, or consider leaving the urban schools in which they…

How one sample of teachers who were uncommonly successful with at-risk students achieved their results was studied. Six minority (African American and Asian American) and six nonminority successful teachers in a large urban school district were interviewed about their practices. Implications of the variety of strategies used are discussed. (SLD)