Over 30 years ago, Feiman-Nemser and Buchmann (1985) wrote about "pitfalls of experience" in teacher education. In the current study, I share vignettes of three student teachers engaged in an urban teacher preparation program to highlight how these pitfalls are still operating--and are arguably even more problematic--as we prepare…

The authors put forward a theorization of a Black Critical Theory, or what might be called BlackCrit, within, and in response to, Critical Race Theory, and then outline ways that BlackCrit in education helps us to more incisively analyze how the specificity of (anti)blackness matters in explaining how Black bodies become marginalized, disregarded,…

This article describes the Make-A-Difference: Guard East New York program, a sports-based youth development program that utilizes the holistic teaching approach of teaching for personal and social responsibility.

This manuscript seeks to situate access to higher education as part of the public good of universities, and connect that specifically to the mission of institutions that are charged with carrying this out more than others. One such institution--the Urban-Serving Research University (USRUs)--has a distinct mission that emphasizes not just location…

This article is about teaching art-based inquiry and equity pedagogy. The author introduces an aesthetic-inspired afterschool curriculum in the urban context in the United States and theorizes the meaning of active citizenship and community. Conceptually framed by "community without community," this article explicates the ways in which…

This qualitative study examines the teaching of urban education in introductory and foundational college courses. The research positions course syllabi as ubiquitous public documents that socialize students into discourse communities, and is framed within theories of social constructivism. An examination of course objectives, course assignments,…

The rhetoric about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education in urban schools reflects a desire to imagine a new city that is poised to compete in a STEM-centered future. Therefore, STEM has been positioned as a critical part of urban education reform efforts. In various US cities, schools labeled as "failing"…

This article begins with an introduction to the concept of urban education. Next, the author addresses the future challenge of long-term and developmental perspective in this field, as contrasted with perspectives held by prekindergarten and preschool professionals in early childhood education. Her hope is that this challenge will be addressed in…

Conceptualizations of urban context and place in research, practice, and policy are relational, ranging from spatial dimensions to cultural practices of children, families, and communities in metropolitan areas. In this article, we focus on the inherent complexity of these conceptualizations and long-standing debates in education and social…

Despite the abundance of literature that attests to a myriad of complex and entrenched problems within urban education, the authors of this forum maintain that in addition to shedding light on oppressive structures and ideologies, critical pedagogues must remain steadfastly engaged in solution-oriented endeavors. Using Cheryl McLaughlin's…

For the past several decades, the construct of parent involvement (PI) has framed much of the literature on school-family-community partnerships. In this study, the authors used a qualitative form of meta-analysis called "thematic synthesis" to explore a programmatic alternative to conventional PI known as "collective parent…

This article investigates the link between school climate and student academic progress in New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) high schools. Using a data set compiled from 2010-2011 NYCDOE school-level aggregated demographic, survey, and progress report achievement data, the authors ran ordinary least squares regressions where they…

This essay explores the political economic roots of the notion of precarity and migrates the construct into critical educational studies, reviewing the literatures on structural dispossession and race; disruptive innovation and educational reform, and embodied precarity as narrated by youth of color, poverty and immigration. Implications for urban…

Every day brings news about so-called Islamic State and its seduction of young people in the West. The radicalization of young Muslims causes alarm; even the desirability of multiculturalism is questioned in troubled cities where racism and Islamophobia are on the rise. This book is a case study of one distressed post-industrial city struggling…

Educational equity dominates discussions of US schooling. However, what "educational equity" means is much contested in the scholarly literature and in public discourses. We follow the lead of scholars of color who have problematized the definition of educational equity. They have shown that the dominant, taken-for-granted definitions of…