Background/Context: Recently there has been increased emphasis on disaggregating students' experiences collected through surveys based on student identities (Arredondo, 2016). Yet demographic data collection is problematic by nature, often reducing the complexity of an individual's racial, gender, or sexual identity to a single category. Racial…

Understanding identity labels as "jaulas" [cages] and testimonios as theory and method, this article centers bi/multilingual Latinx students' experiences in high school English Language Development (ELD) classes. We present how two teachers, now researchers, built long-term relationships with former elementary school students, affording…

Static reading labels are problematic not only because youths demonstrate varying reading skills and identities across secondary classrooms but also because being labeled as "struggling" can undermine literacy learning. Little research has investigated how "struggling" and "proficient" readers' interactions with…

This article focuses of 13 high school boys' experiences of getting into "trouble" in a former Coloured township high school in KwaZulu-Natal Province. This ethnographic study explored the reasons for boys being considered "troublesome" at school. Data collection included focus groups, semi-structured open-ended individual…

This narrative inquiry highlights the experiences of three high school students labeled Long-term English learners (LTEL) in a North Texas high school. This narrative inquiry study uses semi-structured interviews to restory the students' lives, emphasizing the emergent themes of family (the strongest pillar) and the language of the home (Spanish).…

Using theories of positioning, emotion, and power as a lens, this study explores the lived experiences of a reader labeled as struggling who was enrolled in four different course contexts: traditional high school English, high school remedial reading, high school Young Adult Literature, and college English. Interview data suggests the participant…

Frequent discussion in the field of disability research focuses knowledge on rehabilitation for students with disabilities. However, lacking is a focus on student identity development in the face of a highly stigmatizing and stigmatized label. Semi-structured interviews with four freshman males labeled with high incidence disabilities were…

A positive teacher-student relationship has for long been considered, a developmental asset for children from kindergarten to high school (Birch & Ladd, 1997). Such a relationship is usually characterised by less conflict and increased understanding between both. Students who enjoy a supportive relationship with their teachers, achieve at…

Alternative education provides different and powerful opportunities for learning. In this article, the author focuses on students who resist stereotypes that are produced and maintained by dominant powers and ideologies, and who share their knowledge and experiences with systemic marginalization. Drawing from classroom videos, qualitative…

Drawing from Chicana feminist epistemology and counter-storytelling, this article argues that Latina high school students' refusal to attach the culturally constructed and hegemonically imposed label of smartness to themselves, while easily identifying that label within others, stems from a resistance to associate themselves with traditional…

For over a century, genetic arguments for the existence of racial inequality have been used to oppose policies that promote social equality. And, over that same time period, American biology textbooks have repeatedly discussed genetic differences between races. This experiment tests whether racial terminology in the biology curriculum causes…

This article recounts a narrative of professional transformation inspired by the works of Paulo Freire and Gloria Ladson-Billings and advanced by a participatory action research (PAR) project. The PAR team for this case study, consisting of the university teacher educator as a "coach" and a high school classroom teacher along with her…

Poorer outcomes for youth labeled with learning disabilities (LDs) are often attributed to the student's own deficiencies or cumulative disadvantage; but the more troubling possibility is that special education placement limits rather than expands these students' opportunities. Labeling theory partially attributes the poorer outcomes of…

This article examined changes in ethnic identity as a function of college type and residential status and whether differences due to college type could be explained by involvement in extracurricular activities and college ethnic composition. Although no changes in ethnic labeling or belonging were found, there was a normative decrease in ethnic…

The educational transition process experienced by adolescents with disabilities and their parents was examined in this study. The results of the qualitative study can be interpreted to conclude that students rarely were engaged in transition planning, and when they were engaged, it came too late in their high school careers. Students with…