Social work scholars have increasingly adopted community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches to center community voice in research and action to promote youth's healthy development. While valuable contributions have emerged to engage in further dialectical learning processes, limited research has examined in depth the participation,…

The transition from middle school to high school can be difficult for many students due to increases in school size, the structure of an academic schedule, and the complexity of social interactions in high school. However, Black boys face unique challenges during this transition period due to racism and structural inequalities. In response to…

This study investigates the experiences of one secondary preservice English teacher facilitating an out-of-school e-book club with urban youth while enrolled in a required course entitled Content Area Reading. Data were generated through field notes, interviews, course assignments, and book club artifacts and narratively analyzed using holistic…

The present case study investigated the impact of a short-term summer literacy approach on writing performance and self-perception of writing for young adolescents of low-income families residing in urban housing projects. The approach offered intensive literacy engagement to offset summer achievement loss; assisted ethnic-minority, low…

Hip hop culture is typically excluded from conventional educational spaces within the U.S. Drawing on the experiences of an educator who works with urban high school students and university level pre- and in-service educators, this article examines the role of hip hop culture for student engagement in two settings--an alternative high school…

This case study examines José, a bilingual Latino fifth-grader, and his complex and dynamic engagements in "travesuras" (mischievous behaviors). José's "travesuras" served to disassociate him from being labeled a "schoolboy." This disassociation was evident in how José: (1) renounced "school-like" work and…

A media unit for inner city high school students examined the relationship between youth and advertising by using drama as the medium through which learning and research occurred. Data were presented through scripted dramatic scenes. How the interpretation and generation of data were embedded in the process of writing these scripts is explained.…

Case studies of two urban adolescents interviewed over 3 years of high school show the complexities of life in the city for minority students and demonstrate the importance of supportive relationships in their lives. The chapters are: (1) "Interpreting Narratives"; (2) "A Study of Urban Youth"; (3) "Malcolm's Story"; (4) "Voice and Silence"; (5)…

School reform leaders from Chicago (Illinois), Denver (Colorado), New York (New York), Seattle (Washington), Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), and Los Angeles (California) created the Cross City Campaign for Urban School Reform to work to improve urban education so that all urban youth are well-prepared for postsecondary education, work, and…

This book focuses on the relationship between ethnic and racial identity and academic engagement, examining in particular the role that schools and classrooms play in shaping this relationship. It examines the lives of students to ask how they conceptualize and assert their ethnic and racial identities across varied curricular settings. The case…

A qualitative case study explored the perceptions of 37 urban secondary school students and 12 teachers about their school and community. Teachers and students worked in a landscape characterized as one of "urban abstraction," a term that helps explain the complex and contradictory fabric of current urban life. (SLD)

The purpose of this study was to give voice to students' perceptions in two science classrooms taught by two white teachers in an urban multicultural middle-level school situated in the American Deep South. Student participants were 35 students of different ethnicities in grades 7 and 8. The theoretical reference used is social contextual, a…

This book examines the maligned students who populate urban schools and finds a talented group of resilient young people who deserve the support of the larger society. The editors and authors explore the ways such students are undermined, in the process developing new ways of teaching based on an understanding and appreciation of them.…