Drawing on ethnographic data of an urban school, this paper contrasts how two White female teachers take up the idea of 'teaching for social justice.' Fourth-grade teacher Maestra Rachel enacts a superficial understanding focused solely on curricular topics, while third-grade teacher Maestra Jennifer roots her teaching in an understanding of how…

This three-article dissertation explores the professional learning interests of veteran K-12 teachers and what those interest reveal about how veteran K-12 teachers are presently supported in the teaching profession. In article 1, data analyses of a mixed-methods survey indicated that veteran K-12 teachers in the Urban Public School (UPS) district…

This qualitative study explored the experiences, and specifically the challenges, of white elementary student teachers in an urban setting. One of the most interesting findings from this study involved the varied levels of engagement with the school curriculum. Although every Urban Student Teacher (UST) embraced the curriculum, data showed…

This research explores the cognitive dissonance experienced by novice teachers when entering the teaching profession, specifically around cultural competence while teaching in the urban core. The study builds upon previous research by Adam Eckard, who investigated the impact of teacher preparation programs on teacher identity development in urban…

As elementary teachers may serve as the initial advocates for students' safety, basic needs, and emotional well-being, research has pointed to teacher-student relationships as a means of increasing successful experiences within the school setting (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Cook et al., 2018; Pianta, 1999; Schafer & Barker, 2018). However,…

This study seeks to critically examine perceptions of urban school climate from a predominantly white teacher workforce and discuss the role that white identity, as the Dominant culture, plays in maintaining the status quo of racialized school climate. Participants included 145 teachers from a large southwestern urban setting. Teachers'…

The achievement gap between elementary students of Color, particularly, economically disadvantaged elementary students of Color and White students continues to be a concern. The problem in this study was that some White teachers working in urban elementary school districts have failed to include CRP practices in their instruction of economically…

This study investigates whether teaching practices of non-minorities who teach Black students has an impact on the achievement gap between Black and White students. There is a lack of awareness of culturally relevant teaching in the U.S public school system (Epstein, 2005). Per NCES (2015), 80% of public schools have a high density of Black…

The single-site case study described herein is part of a two-year professional development (PD) initiative aimed at helping teachers from an urban elementary (K-8) school learn how to implement explicit, transactional comprehension strategy instruction across grades using culturally relevant books. This paper describes the urban elementary…

Contemporary activists and scholars have framed how Black males are faced with constant policing and killing of Black bodies by White police officers (Coates, 2015) and how Black boys are being sent to punishment rooms in urban schools (Ferguson, 2000). Therefore it is not surprising that teaching in our politically and racially charged times can…