Adult cultures matter. In today's volatile political climate, the call for human-focused leaders is stronger than ever. Guided by adult development theory and supported by multiple scholarly sources, the researcher synthesized a theoretical framework for understanding what human-centered leadership entails: Honing compassion; Understanding one's…

The study investigates educators' perceptions of Restorative Justice Practices (RJPs) in inclusive classrooms, focusing on students with dis/Abilities, within the frameworks of Social Justice, Critical Race Theory, and Disability Studies (DisCrit). It aims to address a gap in the literature on equity in education, particularly the effects of RJPs…

Equality discourse endeavors often aim to eliminate the various positionings of people in order for them to become equals. This paper aims to re-approach the notion of educational equality beyond neoliberal definitions and reconceptualize it in light of the Aristotelian "philia," with attention paid to its ethical dimensions and the…

Teachers' judgements and interactions may be influenced by the backgrounds of their students, yet research shows that they may be reluctant to accept evidence relating to such biases. We investigated teachers' perceptions of their own and others' biases and explored whether a brief self-affirmation manipulation--which tends to reduce defensive…

Most educators enter the profession with a strong sense of purpose, often connected to a love of children and hope for the future, a desire to make a difference and give back to the community, or a belief in education as a catalyst for social justice. However, competing educational goals and purposes, as well as current educational reforms rooted…

Purpose: Integrating sustainability into university curricula brings diverse challenges and conflicts as separate units vie for ownership of courses and topics. This case study presents a six dimensions sustainability framework developed at The Ohio State University to organize curricula under an inclusive strategy. Design/methodology/approach: An…

In this essay, music education is conceptualized as a game or performance within The Game, the "pervasive atmosphere" (Fisher 2009) of neoliberal capitalism, which inevitably shapes scholarship, practice, and policy. Even people who strive to see music education for what it really might be (e.g., those researching and promoting social…

PreK-12 schools across the United States are adopting social and emotional learning (SEL) programs for both students and educators. However, most of these schools are adopting non-contextualized, trendy, and traditional SEL programs, in which students and educators are conditioned to apply certain knowledge and skills that speak to only a small…

The national demand for social justice, racial equality, and criminal justice reform rightfully and painfully continues to sweep the consciousness of this nation. Community colleges were founded on educational excellence, opportunity, and access and should reflect principles of equity, justice, and community. This mission calls upon us, the most…

Each year, more than a million high school students nationally take college dual enrollment courses, which have been shown to increase college access and success among participants. Yet racial/ethnic and other equity gaps in dual enrollment participation are widespread. To broaden the benefits of dual enrollment, the state of Ohio passed…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore how US graduate students described their diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) education and engagement experiences outside their academic departments. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a critical constructivist qualitative approach and methods (i.e. interviews) to explore how 44 graduate…

Background: Makerspaces have increased in popularity recently and hold many promises for STEM education. However, they may also fall prey to hegemonic, marginalizing norms and ultimately narrow the definition of making and exclude who counts as makers. Explicitly focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion when examining makerspaces is of utmost…

Equity is increasingly seen as a core value for higher education systems around the world. (In)equity is often measured through construction of achievement gaps, quantifying the relative outcomes of two populations of students. Institution-level gaps are embedded in the policy landscape of HE, becoming performance metrics in their own right. These…

Addressing the ongoing calls to reform teacher education to prepare future teachers to serve students from diverse backgrounds, this introduction reviews recent developments in teacher education to situate our thematic issue on critical teacher education for equitable learning in multilingual classrooms. The five empirical papers and two…

Educational disparities are one of the most essential issues surrounding education and equity. Previous research includes many empirical studies which have been conducted to eliminate educational disparities. However, the normative question "Why do educational disparities matter?" has not been carefully examined in empirical studies on…