We examine how teachers from two alternative preparation programs--Teach for America (TFA) and Kansas City Teacher Residency (KCTR)--contribute to the teacher labor market in and around Kansas City, Missouri. We show that TFA and KCTR teachers are more likely than other teachers to work in charter schools, and more broadly, in schools with high…

This paper explores the ways in which success in school is constructed by a majority White teaching staff during day-to-day classroom practices and schoolwide policies, such as the disciplinary systems at a "no-excuses" charter school in one of the largest urban districts in the U.S. Stakeholders were assessed by interviews and…

What occurs when teachers in urban social studies classrooms want to do their best by incorporating culturally relevant pedagogy into their historical literacy instruction? While culturally relevant pedagogy and historical literacy are complementary in theory and a few scholars have demonstrated how teachers have integrated the two approaches in…

In 2011, the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) received an Investing in Innovation (i3) Grant through the U.S. Department of Education. UAF applied for the grant to expand the predominantly rural-serving Alaska Statewide Mentor Project (ASMP) to urban settings. ASMP is a professional development initiative that supplies fully released, highly…

This report shares findings from three longitudinal studies of the Urban Teacher Residency (UTR) Project, a partnership between New Visions for Public Schools, Hunter College, and the New York City Department of Education. From 2009 to 2014, with funding from the US Department of Education's Teacher Quality Partnership (TQP) Program, UTR placed…

Enactment of social justice education is an important step toward rectifying pervasive discrimination woven into public schools and other American institutions. A social justice educator must develop diverse cultural competencies and also recognize oneself as a racialized participant in a system of racial inequity. The demographics of an…

On taking power the coalition government embarked on what many commentators believe is a radical programme of public policy reform. Under Michael Gove, education policy has become totemic to those arguing that Britain's classrooms are mired in academic mediocrity and behavioural failure. One policy response by the government has been to propose…

This article focuses on the accounts by teachers who are positioned and who position themselves as "effective." It draws on the relational aspects of positioning theory with respect to a determination of how the "effective teacher" position necessarily positions students. Findings suggest that students are positioned as (a)…

Spreading accountability from the teacher back to the education school is an idea the Obama administration is also promoting in its efforts to remake teacher training. This spring, a federal panel looking at teacher-preparation programs debated, among other things, rating education schools based on how much their teachers add to student learning.…

This study describes teachers' experiences of success and failure in teaching through interviews. The analytical framework for this study was based on Activity Theory (Leon'tev, 1978), and the research methods were developed by Herzberg et al. (1959). The inclusion of factors identified by Seligman (2006) and Maslach (1982) allowed for…

The detrimental effects of high-stakes testing and accountability mandates are experienced disproportionately in high-poverty urban schools, which African American and Hispanic students are more likely to attend. However, the literature does not fully address how teachers experience the inequitable working and learning conditions in these…

In her new book, Valerie Kinloch, award-winning author of "Harlem on Our Minds", sheds light on the ways urban youth engage in "meaning-making" experiences as a way to assert critical, creative, and highly sophisticated perspectives on teaching, learning, and survival. Kinloch rejects deficit models that have traditionally…

This study addresses the link between urban teachers' beliefs about their students' ability to succeed in astronomy and their instructional decisions and practices in response to those beliefs. The findings suggest that teachers believe that the student characteristics that are necessary for high achievement in astronomy include specific cognitive…

School-university partnerships have the potential to greatly benefit teaching and learning in PK-12 environments, as well as educator preparation programs. This collaboration is advantageous to teachers, counselors, and administrators. "Professional Development Schools and Transformative Partnerships" provides a comprehensive look at the…

In this dissertation, I examine the mediating role of emotion during lived interactions between students and teachers at an urban charter high school. While the importance of student-teacher connectivity for positive school engagement has been well documented, research that attempts to describe the mechanism of that link is scarce. This…