This study examined how mentor teachers' perceptions of reciprocity and ideas around equitable teaching practice were cultivated within the context and practice of the Reciprocal Learning Partnership framework. For this study, I analyzed twenty paired interviews with ten mentor teachers and mentees participating in an urban teacher residency…

This study investigates the policy sensemaking of urban educators on the "Read by Grade Three" (RBG3) Law and their sensemaking impacts on English Learners' (ELs') learning experiences. Applying a critical cultural policy sensemaking framework, I conducted an urban district case study to highlight educators' perceptions and behaviors in…

This article reports on urban elementary teachers' understandings of cultural relevancy and the practices they enacted after a professional development on culturally relevant education (CRE) and cognitive apprenticeship. Focus group interviews support that participating teachers understood some principles of CRE but did not always match the theory…

This article investigates the experiences of three early-career secondary English urban teachers who sought to strengthen their perspectives and practices of social justice teaching through professional development. Data include teacher interviews across their first three years of teaching, artifacts across three participants representing their…

In this article, we describe the promise of professional development for teachers by considering the following questions: (1) What do teachers who work in urban public schools see as the intended purposes of professional development, and what do they identify as their needs? (2) Can a move from professional development as absent of what teachers…

The high-poverty urban school building is a prime environment for racial misunderstanding between teenagers and adults: most teachers are white and middle class, while most students are nonwhite and live near the poverty line. In this reflective essay, Jay Wamsted, a white teacher, examines the complicated nature of a teacher-student relationship…

Alternative teacher credentialing programs (ATCPs) have grown over the last two decades to address persistent staffing shortages in high-need schools. Today, nearly a quarter of new teachers are prepared though these programs. Nonetheless, there are few studies that examine teacher candidates' learning as facilitated by these programs, or their…

What occurs when teachers in urban social studies classrooms want to do their best by incorporating culturally relevant pedagogy into their historical literacy instruction? While culturally relevant pedagogy and historical literacy are complementary in theory and a few scholars have demonstrated how teachers have integrated the two approaches in…

Although teacher turnover affects many schools to some degree, it is especially problematic in urban settings (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). This qualitative study examined the perspectives of five Black urban students who experienced a midyear teacher change in their 7th grade mathematics classroom. Findings suggest that these students were able…

This significantly revised edition will help prospective and new city teachers navigate the realities of city teaching. Now the classic introduction to urban teaching, this book explains how global, national, state, and local reforms have impacted what teachers need to know to not only survive, but to do their jobs well. The Third Edition melds…

In this article, Nancy Barile, an urban high school teacher, questions whether "grit" can solve all students' problems. She states that when she first began teaching 20 years ago, she realized almost immediately that, as an urban school teacher, she needed to encourage grit in her students. She told "gritty" anecdotes of…

Despite increasing diversity in U.S. schools, the topic of teacher effectiveness remains to be dominated by a universal narrative. This study applies critical theory, critical race theory, and culturally responsive pedagogy to position teacher effectiveness as contextual to urban schools and relational to the asset-based view of the learner. This…

Previous research has shown that professional communities have the potential to be a powerful lever for continuous improvement in school settings. This research seeks to extend previous research by investigating the indicators of professional community that influence science teaching practice. This study took place in a network of urban…

On taking power the coalition government embarked on what many commentators believe is a radical programme of public policy reform. Under Michael Gove, education policy has become totemic to those arguing that Britain's classrooms are mired in academic mediocrity and behavioural failure. One policy response by the government has been to propose…

Background: Manuscript written for the Adult Education Research Conference based on dissertation research completed at National Louis University. Purpose: To increase knowledge base of art based learning as a mode of anti-racist pedagogy and the use of an Africentric framework for continuing and professional education. Setting: African Centered…