This study presents a qualitative analysis of the knowledge teachers in one professional development course used to reason about proportional relationships with double number lines. We work from the knowledge-in-pieces perspective to consider the existing knowledge the participants did or did not invoke when learning to reason with this…

This evaluation reports findings from a study of a UCLA teacher education program called IMPACT, Inspiring Minds through a Professional Alliance of Community Teachers. To measure program quality and goal attainment, the evaluation team used a comprehensive, multiple measures approach which included instructional artifacts, classroom logs, measures…

This article explores how preservice elementary teachers change their negative beliefs toward mathematics into positive ones after taking a mathematics methods course that follows the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract (CPA) instructional method. Also explored is the relationship between those beliefs and sociomathematical authority. By administering…

This article documents what happened when a teacher in an urban school shifted classroom practice through changing participation structures to incorporate digital technology and multiple modalities into a fifth grade literacy curriculum. This shift in teacher practice provided opportunities for immigrant students to become more visible in the…

This article explores how exposure to aesthetic education approaches can help novice teachers reconsider their literature instruction in an age of mandated curricula and increased pressures to "teach to the test." The guiding questions were as follows: What similarities exist between transacting with a text on the page and aesthetically…

Teaching quality impacts classroom instruction. Teaching is difficult, demanding and draining work; teaching in urban environs exacerbates the difficulties, the demands and the complexities of teaching. Through the eyes of an assistant superintendent, charged with implementing a new vision for literacy teaching and learning, this manuscript…

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…

This paper responds to the call for further inquiry into the experiences of graduates of urban focused teacher education programs. I present and analyze the experience of Mia, a White, monolingual English female who earned licensure in secondary social studies through a graduate-level, equity-focused teacher preparation program before accepting a…

Research points to particular problems in the experiences of White teachers teaching children of color and diverse backgrounds because often they are unfamiliar with their students' backgrounds and communities. Additionally, research points to the educational value of linking students' lived experiences to their classroom learning. This paper…

An urgent goal for science teacher educators is to prepare teachers to teach science in meaningful ways to youth from nondominant backgrounds. This preparation is challenging, for it asks teachers to critically examine how their pedagogical practices might adaptively respond to students and to science. It asks, essentially, for new teachers to…

This action research study acknowledged the possibilities of culturally responsive pedagogy by examining digital storytelling via online workshops that were facilitated for a group of educators and educational leaders. The presence of cultural biases and cultural discontinuities in Pre-K-12 education has the propensity to contribute to the…

The relationship between Brighton High School (BHS) and Boston College (BC) spans several decades. Professors from multiple departments at the university--not only teacher educators but professors of psychology, measurement, and arts and sciences--have walked, as regular parts of the school community, the halls of the gothic-style high school…

The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation of brain-based instructional strategies by teachers serving at Title I elementary, middle, and high schools within the Memphis City School District. This study was designed to determine: (a) the extent to which Title I teachers applied brain-based strategies, (b) the differences in…

This study tested how well Fishbein and Ajzen's Theory of Reasoned Action predicted the attitudes and morale of urban teachers in high poverty schools under the pressures of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). NCLB forced local administrators to target schools that had not made adequately yearly progress (AYP) for two or more consecutive years.…

The 2007 film "Freedom Writers" portrays the real-life experiences of Erin Gruwell, a teacher at an inner-city high school in Long Beach, California. This article discusses the educational theories underpinning Gruwell's pedagogical practice, as seen in "Freedom Writers", and identifies four themes--rewriting curriculum,…