In this response to "The Political Nuances of Narratives and an Urban Educator's Response," the authors applaud Pearman's critical approach to deconstructing and challenging narratives of heroic figures who single-handedly change the world and agree with him that these narratives restrict the sense of agency that may propel citizens to…

Transformative urban high school teachers utilize a transformative pedagogical style in their classrooms to augment students' learning experiences and cultivate development in their students. Largely unexamined, however, is how the tools of transformative pedagogy used in secondary classrooms compare with those used in other contexts and with…

This qualitative case study explored teaching approaches designed to develop critically reflective thinking (CRT) for preservice teachers in an urban, secondary teacher preparation program. Despite concerted use of CRT within course lessons, online discussions, and case studies, participants demonstrated varying degrees in their understanding of…

This one year study examines the journey of two preservice urban high-school teachers in Arizona as they enact Culturally Responsive Teaching in a year-long student teaching residency. Factors that influenced their Culturally Responsive Teaching practices are discussed along themes that emerged from interviews and classroom observations.…

In considering "good teaching" in mathematics, scholars usually refer to teacher knowledge and instructional practices that promote understanding. However, researchers have found that these two elements of instruction are often not as prevalent in urban contexts, a space where high percentages of students of color and the poor are educated.…

In order to systemically improve student achievement in elementary literacy, a large urban school district partnered with a local university to develop a model for high-quality professional development that hopefully would result in long-term changes in teachers' literacy instructional/practices. Schools were selected based on their Adequate…

This study explores three Korean American social studies teachers' experiences of teaching social studies, focusing on their curricular and pedagogical perceptions and practices. Framed by sociocultural theory, this study aims to shed light on the heterogeneous stories and socially and culturally contextualized teaching experiences of Korean…

Using an ethnographic approach the study describes the curricula that veteran urban high school special educators use in self-contained special education classrooms with majority Blacks and Latinos. The findings show that the teachers routinely exposed students to elementary level curricula and to material that was rife with racist images of…

This paper explores the concept of "at-riskness" as defined by Head Start and elementary school professionals who work together in the same building. Using Bruner's (1996) idea of "folk theories," the authors show that the two groups' theories of at-riskness conflict and discuss how these definitions impact their practice with…

This instructional guide, one product of a large-scale research project on Jaime Escalante and his Mathematics and Science Program, describes the teaching and motivating strategies that he uses to bring about high academic achievement among poor minority urban youth in Los Angeles (California). The first part of five describes a pilot test in…