Both the United States and the United Nations have identified, examined, and put out a call to action to address the educational inequities that have disproportionately and negatively affected racially minoritized students, as well as those from a lower socioeconomic background, and poorer countries. Data from the Nations Report Card and the…

This article presents findings from a Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) study on the experiences of six undocumented college students at a community college in the Midwest United States. We focused on two main research questions: What are some of the key developmental experiences of undocumented youth? What is the impact of these…

Students from higher-income households have more advantages related to access to a quality education and educational opportunities. These advantages give students from higher-income households many opportunities to achieve academic and career success. Low-income African-American students, on the other hand, encounter many challenges as they aspire…

The political disengagement of youth in this country is a serious concern for those in higher education. Although many initiatives have been launched in recent years to address this situation, many have missed the opportunity to equip students with the political skills necessary for meaningful participation in our democracy. This article details…

The purpose of this study was to explore the roles, perspectives, and actions of teachers and students for first-time-detained juvenile delinquents by examining a reading intervention for a student. Using an action research methodology, the reading intervention was explored within the broader context of the history and operations of the juvenile…

Recruitment and retention in the sciences is both difficult and crucial, especially in the community college setting. In this study, the resources used by General Chemistry I students at two different public, predominantly two-year colleges in two states were studied via surveys for a semester. Data were analyzed with respect to student attitudes…

How do districts know if the resources they have allocated to support professional learning in their school district are actually improving the quality of teaching and impacting student performance? In an increasingly challenging financial environment, this is important to know. In this article, a Chicago-area district facing a budget deficit…

This article shares a first-hand account of an action research project conducted in a college-level early adolescent development course to better understand written and verbal reflection as learning tools, improve the author's teaching effectiveness, and foster reflective habits in pre-service teachers. The article includes a brief overview of…

Community-based action research (CBAR) encourages students to view internships and other civic-engagement opportunities as the first steps in collaborative projects that build long-term relationships with community partners and model how democracy works. We marshal longitudinal data, qualitative and quantitative, on both attitudes and behaviors to…

Secret shopping is a form of unobtrusive evaluation that can be accomplished with minimal effort, but still produce rich results. With as few as 11 shoppers, the author was able to identify trends in user satisfaction with services provided across two entry-level desks at Illinois Wesleyan University's The Ames Library. The focus of this secret…

This paper describes a method of analysing teacher growth in the context of science education. It focuses on the identification of pathways in the development of secondary school teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) by the use of the interconnected model of teachers' professional growth (IMTPG).The teachers (n = 12) participated in a…

This article charts the progression of my critical teaching practice as it examines how the emancipatory critical pedagogy of the visual culture of marketing used in my master's thesis study evolved into the critical-democratic pedagogy of the visual culture of marketing used in my dissertation study. It explores how my use of these two distinct…

This action research study investigated the impact of teaching physics using a disciplinary literacy framework for instruction across all units in one academic year. Through a suite of vocabulary strategies and lessons that encourage students to write, speak, draw, mathematically translate, and design experiments, students learn to do physics by…

Within an afterschool community arts program for underserved children, teacher candidates tested prescribed teaching methods, experimented with teaching styles, and worked cooperatively with peers and faculty to enhance the children's creativity and sense of accomplishment. Students connected theoretical classroom knowledge to real-world…

Many organizations use formal appraisals to measure employee performance. Augustana College's Office of Admissions introduced an appraisal process in 2006. Subsequently, staff expressed a number of concerns, ranging from confusion about the process to its link to compensation. Action research proved essential for understanding the problems; it…