In this article, the author focuses on a case study of an African-American teacher's perceptions about teaching and instructional practices in an urban middle school, Bridge Middle School. He provides a counter to some negative conceptions of Black teachers in general through a focus on this teacher: the way she thinks about her roles and…

Much of the history and study of leadership in general has omitted "other" perspectives in the literature. The same is true in educational leadership in general, and the principalship in particular. The discourse of the history of African Americans and their struggle to achieve equity in education has been enhanced by the work of noted scholars.…

In her 1995 article, "Sapphire Bound!", legal scholar Regina Austin calls for minority female scholars in the legal field to straightforwardly, unapologetically, and strategically use their intellectual pursuits to advocate on behalf of poor and working class minority women. Even though Austin is arguing from the perspective of a woman of color,…

The author's former College of Education encouraged faculty to implement pedagogy that responded fully to the needs of citizens in diverse situations, including the urban, metropolitan community they served. Such a vision requires, by default, a sincere effort to change or "reform" schools. Research endeavors involving the social and historical…

Since its inception, the United States has struggled with its responsibility for educating African American students. Its history of denial and discrimination in the education of Black children has created a national crisis in which academic difficulty and school failure is disproportionately high. In an effort to improve the education of African…

In today's school systems, students of color, particularly in urban settings, represent the majority student populations (Lewis, Hancock, James, & Larke, in press). Interestingly, the educators--teachers and administrators--that comprise these settings are predominately White, and, in turn, the students of color commonly face pressures that…

This study examined the extent to which ethnic-based differences exist in teacher ratings of African American students and White students on the language and literacy domain of a curriculum-embedded performance assessment for students in grade 1. It extended previous research on performance assessments to focus on issues related to equity in…

This article takes up what people might learn about resistance and surveillance by looking at how students at a Bronx, New York, high school have responded to security initiatives recently imposed on them. It discusses three responses: the protest; tactical avoidance; and what the author calls emergent participation. The author addresses each of…

The current school reform era has moved through a series of phases, coupling state centralization with a focus on school-level change at each step. Yet this era of reform also has a deeper history. Its deeper history reveals the dynamics that would plague the school reform era until the present day. While the school reform era seemed to focus on…

It is often noted that the vast majority of students in pre-service teacher preparation programs may be poorly equipped to teach in urban schools because, in great part, they are disproportionately White, female and middle-class (Darling-Hammond, 1997 and 2001; Delpit, 1995; Sleeter, 2001). Typically, these students arrive at the university with…

Explores the power of implicit and explicit metaphors to inhibit or prompt school change, using 5 years of case study data from a North Carolina elementary school to illustrate the shifting interpretations of an arts-based reform as implemented in one urban elementary school. The paper asserts that metaphors gave school personnel and researchers…

Examines the meaning of power differentials that exist between key interest groups in education, discussing the movement to foster educational collaborations between families, schools, and community institutions, particularly in low income, urban areas. The paper explores how differences such as race, gender, socioeconomic status, and culture…

A teacher researcher studied Hispanic-American seventh graders in an English as a Second Language class who had older siblings or close friends in gangs, conducting interviews with students and their teachers. The research investigated teacher researchers' social responsibility beyond the study. This paper discusses lessons for teacher researchers…

Discusses how many urban students are written off as unworthy of scant educational resources, using Weber and Marx to discuss how educational triage is best understood theoretically, exploring how broader processes of social distribution and triage link up with daily practices and policies in urban classrooms, and highlighting the need for a…

Uses field data gathered in two school districts to explore multicultural activity in social studies classrooms. The focus is on the source, treatment, and incorporation of multiculturalism into the lessons. The study concludes that larger structures, school culture, and teacher and student histories influence multicultural practice. (SM)