Even though significant progress has been made on raising awareness about equity and diversity issues in science education in the last two decades, the current push to address the Next Generation Science Standards' (NGSS) emphasis on integrating engineering and scientific practices has opened up new pitfalls. Here, I describe seven of the most…

Background/Context: Teaching to empower requires a critical focus on the unique challenges and opportunities of teaching in socially unjust educational environments. Effective teaching happens in an environment that engages students and teachers in critical investigation of content, knowledge, and activities. Critical learning environments…

Understanding a student's community and home life enables the professor to tailor the teaching method to support them best. Embracing the student's cultural background provides a nurturing that makes the environment more conducive to learning and gives credence to their well-being and place in society. If there is no cultural responsiveness, it…

Farms and gardens are increasingly being recognized as dynamic educational settings through which learners can engage in a wide variety of activities and practices to connect with land, food, self, and community. Across these settings, teaching with political clarity represents a pathway for identifying, interrogating, and disrupting systems of…

This article evaluates data from a case study involving five third-generation Mexican American teachers who work in an urban school district in Central Texas. The study analyzes their social capital and their culturally responsive connections with immigrant, first-, second-, and third-generation Mexican American students' in and out-of-school…

This autoethnographic study examined the influence of my positionality in designing a hopeful, racially just online learning. Hope stems from an innate belief in the possibilities for a brighter future. Therefore, hope involves embracing strengths. In this paper, I explore the influence of my positionality on my online course design through…

Mathematics teacher educators experience tensions when developing their practices in order to integrate social justice issues, such as language diversity. Research on what in fact causes the experiencing of these tensions and how to navigate them to improve professional practice is yet limited. As part of an action research project, I investigate…

The problem addressed by the study was African American and Hispanic students' literacy scores remain the lowest of all ethnicities at high schools in a district, despite the implementation of numerous initiatives and curricular platforms. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate how high school teachers perceive their…

Policies in education ensure that educators and educational leaders are receiving and implementing equitable and adequate educational services and opportunities to all students. Some of these policies are proactive and others are reactive. In 2018, Judge Singleton decided in the "Yazzie-Martinez v. NM" (2018) court case the State of NM…

Years of professional neglect, scrutiny, and inequitable pay have forced educators across the country to fight for improved policies and reforms. A public, in some circles, that views educators undeserving of their salaries due to the unpreparedness of the American youth to succeed in the economy and the continued societal problems emanating from…

Providing opportunities for youth who have been 'pushed out' of traditional schools to re-engage is an issue of social justice. The lack of equitable learning opportunities in the traditional science classroom is a contributing factor to youth being pushed out. Alternative education programs have the potential to support youth who have been…

This article provides a rationale and resources for teaching climate justice and civic engagement across the STEM curriculum in K-12 and higher education. It presents a culturally responsive approach to STEM teaching and learning that centers social justice issues arising from climate impacts, and energy extraction and development activities, with…

This paper focuses on the trajectories of two mathematics teachers in developing Political Conocimiento through one year of Professional Development (PD) on culturally responsive mathematics teaching. The PD was organized around teacher and student noticing, positionality, community partnerships, and action research. The study found that the…

The ahistorical objectives of social and emotional learning fall short of repairing the cultural contempt of hegemonic miseducation and does not address the primary social forces negatively impacting the health and wellness of communities of color -- their colonial relationship with inequitable social systems. In this article, we posit…

Effective school leaders develop the capacity to connect with their staff, students, and educational stakeholders to form bonds of respect and trust, and to foster a sense of efficacy in their practice and the practice of others. This phenomenological investigation aims to better understand how school principals interpret the influence of their…