A new breed of leader is needed for American public schools, one who can both promote the public good and meet modern accountability demands. Often referred to as a scholar-practitioner, this type of leader blends theory with practice, philosophizing practice while practicing a philosophy. Such blending in a person is not simple, however, because…

In this reflective essay, Alan McCullough Jr., Felton Morrell Jr., Bernard Thomas III, Vincente Waugh, and Nicholas Shubert with their teacher, Amy Donofrio, share the youth self-authorship methods that empowered them to transform their labels from "at-risk youth" to "at-hope youth leaders" in Jacksonville, Florida. After…

The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), in the state of North Carolina, has gone through considerable recent effort to revise, support, and assess their seventh-grade social studies curriculum in an effort to serve three goals: comply with the Common Core State Standards (Common Core), comply with the North Carolina Essential Standards…

This dissertation explores the depth of the Black educator turnover problem in today's public schools. Black educators across the country have experienced higher than average turnover rates, eroding the success of recent minority teacher recruitment efforts. This epidemic has left the field of teaching consistent with the status quo, white and…

This review is focused on literature documenting the experiences of nondominant and minoritized parents who challenge injustice and inequity in the public schools attended by their children. It interrogates hegemonic approaches to parent involvement favoring dominant groups and silencing efforts of nondominant parents to confront discriminatory…

Motivated by the addition of a curriculum standard for active citizenship into New Jersey's social studies standards a group of educators and researchers set out to integrate an action research curriculum, based on a youth participatory action research (YPAR) model, into social studies classrooms. Adapting YPAR, with its promising blend of…

In this paper authoethnography was used as a process and product to explore one leader's journey from the classroom, as a student and a teacher, to opening a new school as the school's principal. These experiences create the backdrop of a larger narrative about public schooling and leadership. Traditional notions of learning, teaching, schooling…

This book introduces a progressive type of education called Critical Aesthetic Pedagogy. This pedagogy utilizes the arts to promote critical learning, and incorporates particular types of aesthetic experiences into pedagogical practices to increase students' social empowerment and commitment to social justice. The first coherent body of work that…

In a gentrifying area of St. Louis, Missouri, City Garden Montessori School is an integrated haven in a segregated city, as well as an active voice for racial justice and reconciliation. Realizing its power to both reflect and change its neighborhood, the school commits itself to harnessing its unique position to push for effective public policy…

This Chicana Critical Feminist Testimonio reveals a Mexican/Mexican-American Ethic of Care and Testimonios of struggle and survival informing curriculum and pedagogy of one Mexican/Mexican-American female educator of predominantly Mexican/Mexican-American students. This work is part of a larger ethnographic study conducted through multiple…

This article shows the process through which one teacher and a group of eleventh-graders worked to create spaces for democratic education in a hierarchically organized New York City public school that is heralded as a model of success under current reform initiatives. In response to student resistance to a required unit on Tim O'Brien's novel, The…

This research study examined the role of critical pedagogical teachers within the education system. Public school teachers in the past ten years have been placed in a vulnerable position due in part to the high stakes testing within the federally mandated No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. Classroom teachers are instructed by school administration…

Although public school teaching by its inherent nature presents numerous classroom challenges, the public high school teacher today is faced in addition with multiple external mandates from several outside stakeholders. Given the established track record of professional learning communities (PLCs) to provide teacher support and development, I…

This book overturns the typical conception of standards, empowering educators by providing concrete examples of how top-down models of assessment can be embraced and used in ways that are consistent with critical pedagogies. Although standards, as broad frameworks for setting learning targets, are not necessarily problematic, when they are…

The purpose of this article is to identify power through voting-school boards; it must be explicitly identified and highlighted as a way to empower students and their families. Implications for teachers are discussed, as their role in public schools is crucial to improved parent participation. It examines how Latino parents have used the justice…