Presented in this article is a case study of first-year teachers working in an urban school. Drawing on literature around the early-career experiences of teachers--including a unique vulnerability for emotional turbulence and belief change--this article examines the changing beliefs of brand new urban educators as they progress throughout their…

The majority of teachers in the United States are of a different race, ethnicity, class, gender, and linguistic dominance from that of their students. Teachers are specifically challenged by a variety of racial and ethnic issues as they enter their classrooms. This paper discusses the importance of educator preparation programs devoting attention…

The purpose of this study was to examine the early career experiences of three physical education (PE) teachers who taught in urban charter schools. Using cultural relevance theory, three early career PE teachers were observed and interviewed for approximately six weeks each. Data were analyzed using constant comparison. Two major themes emerged…

This article explores teachers' technology integration in the classroom through 2 means: 1) what researchers are saying about emerging trends and best practices as well as, 2) the author's research assignment regarding the technology integration experiences of longer tenured teachers. More tenured teachers are different than their younger…

This ethnodrama communicates the lived experience of an outstanding teacher of English who worked in the Chicago Public Schools for more than 20 years. Excerpts from three semi-structured interviews have been constructed into a one-woman show that uses music, dance, and the art of theater to convey the spiritual beauty of ambitious, urban teaching…

This article presents snapshots of an innovative program in which performing actor, musician, and dancer TAs work as substitute teachers. Through STARRRs (Substitute Teachers for the Arts and 3Rs) Program, New York City principals hire professional performers as licensed substitute teachers. Actors, musicians, and dancers bring their craft into…

The educational accountability movement in the United States under No Child Left Behind has negatively affected urban teachers because of high-stakes testing, narrowed curriculum, and scripted pedagogy. Such conditions have led to teacher stress, burnout, and attrition. Missing from the scholarly literature are the ways in which teachers work to…

In this analysis of the extant literature, we examined teacher quality variables that have shown a relationship with teacher efficacy for instructing urban minority students. We focused on the following areas: (a) importance of teachers, (b) teacher quality defined, (c) components of teacher quality, (d) self-efficacy, and (e) teacher efficacy.

As a proposed solution to the issues plaguing urban schools in the United States, Teach for America (TFA) continues to garner national attention and attract an increasingly competitive pool of applicants from the nation's most elite colleges. In fact, TFA has become the nation's largest provider of teachers to low-income communities and…

Background/Context: Student teaching represents a critical component of most teacher education programs. However, there is significant variation both in the contextual factors that preservice teachers (PSTs) encounter in their field placements and in the ways that teacher educators mediate PSTs' learning in relation to those placements. In…

This case study examines the experiences of two fifth grade teachers as they dealt with district mandates while trying to address their high-poverty urban children's learning needs. It reveals their personal struggles that led to both compliance and resistance. In this case, the act of finding the space to engage in the intellectual and…

In our study, we chronicle the development of two novice urban teachers who developed in to mentors in the third year of their teaching. The two novice teachers were hired to serve as mentors to new teachers in or near their school. Interviews with the teachers about their experiences identified three areas of discussion as a result of their…

To counteract disempowerment frequently experienced in education, in 2001 the authors initiated a "Problem Solution Project" (PSP) in the second year a two-year urban certification and Master's program. The PSP, designed to promote empowerment of first-year urban teachers and their students, involves both service learning. In 2004, the authors…

Broadly speaking, this reflection approaches the on-going concern of capacitating an overwhelmingly White teaching profession for effectively teaching inner-city students attending "de facto" segregated schools. Using professional identifications, this reflection presents narrativized understanding of respondents' "becoming"…

The "urban" mathematics classroom has become an increasingly polarized site, one where many middle-class White teachers attempt to bridge the divide between themselves and their relatively economically disadvantaged, non-White students. With its mania for high-stakes testing, current education policy has intensified the importance of…