The Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement is generating a new appetite for understanding the ubiquity of systemic racism. In this short piece, a professor and three newly graduated students from different racialized groups reflect on the reproduction of social inequalities in key institutions and on what decolonization means for the nation, not just…

In this article, faculty and administrators describe their personal and institutional experiences with racial justice and equity.

As interventions show promise for reducing school discipline disparities, it is important to understand what variables increase educators' commitment toward addressing racial equity in schools. In-depth interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 15 educators asked to describe pivotal events that shifted their own or others' active…

There is a sense of urgency among P-12 educators to dismantle systemic school-based racism and radically transform conditions for teaching and learning in ways that advance equity, social justice, and social-emotional learning (SEL). This transformation cannot be achieved through typical top-down, short-term approaches to school improvement or…

In this study, we explored how an urban high school with a STEAM (Science, Technology, Arts, and Mathematics) theme approached racialized student experiences as learning opportunities. We were interested in documenting curricular and pedagogical practices, and the mission of the STEAM Academy, which was aimed at exposing African American/Black…

This study examines teachers' (mis)understandings of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in one school district in a socially conservative area of the U.S. Midwest. The central concern of this paper involves interrogating the way teacher conceptualizations of CRP maintain inequalities in urban schools by normalizing, reproducing, and protecting…

This manuscript focuses on the role of data analytics in mediating how teachers make sense of racial and gender inequity in patterns of student participation in their classrooms. Five middle school mathematics teachers participated in a year-long professional development program, centered on data analytics generated by the EQUIP observation tool.…

The aim of this study was to research whether teachers see global school partnerships as an effective tool to support anti-racist and inclusive approaches and deliver practice that reflects, is representative of, and engages all pupils. Over the last year, events have led to increasing debates around Black Lives Matter, the urgent need to…

Purpose: This study investigates how Norwegian social studies teachers express their views on cultural difference among students. Design: Qualitative, semi-structured interviews transcribed and analyzed abductively using concepts of imagined sameness, color-blindness, and a pedagogy of discomfort. Findings: The analysis shows on the one hand,…

Preparing teachers to provide an equitable and socially just education has become a focus for many teacher preparation programs across the country. Yet, relatively little research attention has been given to the role of mentor teachers--the people who student teachers identify as most influential in their learning to teach--in this work. This…

Few studies explicitly examine how opportunity structures impact school safety, school climate, or bullying. This article applies school-centered ecological theory as a heuristic conceptual framework that links opportunity structures and school safety. Historically, opportunity structures identified how institutional characteristics such as labor…

This counternarrative is an homage to the work of abolition in teacher education and a call to humanizing liberatory praxis as collective healing from racism and anti-Black hate. We, three critical teacher educators, interrogate our positionalities and the experiences within and beyond schooling that have shaped us. We recognize that our…

"Systemic racism" implies that racist policies are embedded in laws and institutions. That claim is patently false as evidenced by Americans having elected a biracial president for two terms and, more recently, a biracial vice president--not to mention blacks serving in the cabinet, in the highest ranks of the armed services, and in…

When inequitable situations arise, principals with strong SEL skills have a clear understanding of social emotional learning implementation to support teachers and are prepared to expose implicit bias with difficult conversations that allow teachers to examine personal beliefs and behaviors. In this article, we outline how to support SEL learning…

This article examines trends in learning among a multiracial group of activist urban educators in an inquiry group dedicated to the topic of structural racism. I find that deep learning about race and racism requires teachers to engage in risk-taking in 2 realms--conceptual and relational. Conceptual risk-taking involves grappling with ideas in…