The Advanced Placement (AP) program was initiated during the early 1950's in response to growing concerns regarding the educational needs of high ability secondary school students. The Advanced Placement "Status Quo" (AP Status Quo) framework suggests that there has been an emphasis on preparing a few students while excluding the majority of…

This article explores the theme of the "two faces of education" by reviewing new policy directives in the United Kingdom to strengthen community cohesion in schools and their communities. These directives have resulted from growing disaffection with the aims and outcomes of multiculturalism. This article will investigate the ways in…

This article attempts to provide some transparency with regard to how the intersection of race and class negatively affects African Americans in their effort to fight for social justice with regard to classism. Based on the explicit historical attempt to definitively make race and class synonymous, such a manufactured intersection is powerfully…

This article details the struggles that principals faced as they sought to enact an equity oriented agenda. Utilizing a qualitative approach combined with principles of autoethnography, seven urban principals described the resistance they faced "at every turn" in their pursuit of equity and social justice. This resistance was produced by such…

This article argues that testimonial novels are an important curricular addition in classrooms that take seriously the responsibility to educate students about social justice and civic responsibility in a global context. The addition of testimonial novels to our literature courses lets us internationalize our curriculum by including courses and…

The purpose of this study was to analyze changes made to the design of a principal preparation internship. The study is based in part upon findings of a previous study on internship practices in Illinois administrator preparation programs (Tripses, Philhower, Halverson, Noe, & Morford, 2005) which found discrepancies in the design of…

There is an emerging body of literature advocating a "critical" approach to community service learning with an explicit social justice aim. A social change orientation, working to redistribute power, and developing authentic relationships are most often cited in the literature as points of departure from traditional service-learning. This…

Under the principles of critical pedagogy, this article examines the process and experiences of 22 pre-service teachers enrolled in a required teacher education course, "Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice", who collaboratively developed and taught the course syllabus to one another. Through surveys, observations, and informal meetings,…

Engaging emotions in multicultural education is an important but a relatively neglected issue in teacher education. This essay calls for pedagogical attention to the role of emotions and attempts to analyze how teaching autobiographies and films sheds light on the emotional dynamics of multicultural education. Two films, "The Color of Fear", and…

This article suggests that any approach to the issue of access to higher education in the United Kingdom not view the approach of the United States in the recent University of Michigan cases as providing appropriate guidance. It is the author's assertion that the United States Supreme Court has failed to recognize the present effects of a long…

This study was designed to elicit concepts and practices of democracy and accountability from education practitioners--graduate students who are teachers and leaders in schools and who are differently positioned as workers in higher education systems. The author's intention was to prompt active and reflective thinking on the part of the students…

This article analyses the Communication of the European Commission (EC) devoted to efficiency and equity of European education systems. It shows the Commission's difficulties in integrating the multiple dimensions of education equity and the confusion between pedagogical and economical notions of efficiency. The authors also analyse the means…

Despite high levels of disengagement in urban literacy classrooms, few teachers have seen fit to explore spoken word--the performance of poetry--as a tool to engage students in literacy. Spoken word poetry serves as a powerful means of self-representation for youth that are traditionally portrayed as threatening, menaces to society that do not…

As populations in contemporary Western societies grow more diverse, the need for teachers to better understand and work with difference productively becomes increasingly critical (Allard & Santoro, 2006; D'Cruz, 2007). However, the literature on teacher education shows that historically, teacher education programs have aimed to address…

Three issues emanating from the Bulterman-Bos article (2008) form the core of this commentary. First, the issue of relevancy is addressed from the standpoint of action research and other forms of practitioner inquiry. From this perspective, the divisions between the cultures of university and school are addressed both ways: Each can potentially be…