The desire to be close to nature and live in tune with it grew as industrialisation, urbanisation and the impact of technology became increasingly ubiquitous at the turn of the twentieth century. Throughout Europe, model schools were established in rural environments. These private reform schools could not solve the problems of public urban…

We examined how parents and educators in a low-income school conceptualize parental engagement, and how school, work, and family domains together shape these parties' practices as well as understandings of how and why parents engage. From interviews with the principal, five teachers, and 17 mothers of children at a Title I elementary school, we…

Background: The field of environmental education (EE) aims to produce an environmentally literate citizenry that is not only aware of environmental problems but is motivated to work toward their solution. However, much of the U.S. EE curricular focus has been on understanding the biophysical environment with rural populations, with little…

The purpose of this article is to bring attention to the illustrative power and capacity of qualitative longitudinal research within the context of the urban educational "reform churn." In this article, we draw upon longitudinal ethnographic data collected over 3 years in four low-performing, urban secondary schools in Buffalo, New York,…

Background/Context: For over three decades, Jean Anyon produced scholarship that revealed the deep-structural causes of educational inequality. Anyon's work in political economy includes a racial analytic; she argues that access to education does not reduce economic disparities in urban communities of color, and that schools in poor and…

Increasing evidence of the re-segregation of students of color within special education suggests that the constructivist-explicit instruction debate may still be relevant for urban educators. While inclusive educators advocate learner-centered constructivist methods for supporting students with disabilities, mainstream special educators equally…

Although state-run turnaround districts have grown in prominence as a school improvement strategy with significant equity implications for urban education, little is known about the similarities and differences across states. This article provides a comparative analysis of state-run takeover districts in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia. Although…

This special issue brings together a mix of early-career, mid, and senior scholars to critically examine current realities of, and boldly imagine future possibilities for, STEM education in the lives of racially minoritized children in the United States. Given the implicit and sometimes explicit aspirations of STEM education to be a counteracting…

Historically, primary and secondary distance education in New Zealand has focused on providing opportunities for rural students. With the advent of Tomorrow's Schools in 1989, the need for rural schools to compete with urban schools in terms of their curricular offerings was one reason for creating e-learning clusters that would eventually become…

The study tests the proposition that pedagogical orientations foster domain-specific teacher dispositions. Nineteen preservice teachers in an urban teacher certification program emphasizing culturally relevant teaching (CRT) were interviewed at the completion of all coursework and teaching experiences in diverse, urban classrooms. Dispositional…

This book includes 43 case studies showcasing the application of basic education informatization. It shares the experiences of 43 schools in the construction and application of educational informatization in various regions in China. It aims to promote the balanced development of education and expand the coverage of quality education resources.…

Many studies have argued the need for culturally competent teachers in the classroom as learners' demography shifts toward more diversity. The teaching workforce remains predominantly unchanged, with more White teachers than other races or ethnic groups. Many teacher preparation programs use multicultural education or equity and diversity courses…

Over the years, the nation's large urban school districts have consistently learned from the progress of their peer districts across the country. Great City School districts that have embraced the challenge of educating America's urban children have recognized the value of benchmarking their performance and growth against the progress of others.…

Urban agricultural educators face a number of unique challenges in performing their job duties. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to understand the essence of urban agricultural educators' meaning in their work by exploring their lived experiences. In this study, the essence emerged in the form of a metaphor: A Black Swan. The black swan…

Today there is a lot of discussion about creative economies and how cities are the engines driving growth in a variety of industries. But cities are not merely rows of buildings, or sets of laws, such as zoning ordinances or parking regulations. A city is, rather, a set of dynamic experiences that we all participate in as co(labor)ators. As a way…