This article focuses on the presence and experiences of Latina academics in the U.S., especially those who serve in Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). Following the theme of this special issue related to Women of Color Faculty's "Testimonios" and "Laberintos," the authors add to the notion of academia as a labyrinth…

While research by scholars has contributed greatly to an emerging knowledge base on Black children and mathematics, there continues to be a dire need for insightful research that de-centers longstanding accounts that have contributed to the construction of Black children as mathematically illiterate and as less than ideal learners relative to…

This essay documents a few key examples of the critical pedagogy and curriculum that the authors employ to challenge pre-service and in-service teachers to consider the concrete and theoretical contexts of taking on a social-activist-teacher persona. Their vision of social justice is rooted firmly in the critical tradition, as it is anchored in…

In the fall of 2005 and as a second year doctoral student in an educational leadership program, the author was given the opportunity to participate in oral history research with three other White women, including one professor and two doctoral students. The oral history involved interviewing approximately twenty prior students of Frederick…

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…

The authors use Noddings (1984; 1992; 1999) and Beauboeuf-Lafontant's (2002) theories of caring in education to look at how race (conceptualized to include Whiteness) affected the implementation of the A+ Schools Program, an arts-based reform designed to augment student achievement and appreciation for the arts. They examine the implementation of…

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…

Since the 19th century and still today, persistent stereotypic beliefs about Blacks have portrayed them as athletically superior while intellectually inferior to Whites. In contrast, Whites have been portrayed as athletically inferior but intellectually superior to Blacks. These types of race-based stereotypic beliefs have present day implications…

On March 2, 1867, the Historically Black College or University (HBCU) Howard University (HU) was founded in Washington, D. C. Almost exactly one year later, the all white fraternity of Pi Kappa Alpha was founded at the University of Virginia. Over 100 years later, on February 18 2006, fifty-five HU students became charter members of Pi Kappa Alpha…

In this article, the author pursues to answer the query whether the impact and relevance of HBCUs has diminished over the past thirty years or not. He examines two research questions: (1) How do four African-American professors who self-identify as mentors at a highly-selective PWI describe and understand their formative experiences as they relate…

The author introduces this article by saying that there is a very intimate relationship between how caring the teacher is and the knowledge that students gain. Actually, it is not limited to student-teacher relationships only but also student-student relationships. Knowledge is something people acquire as they build relationships and have…

In this article, the author attempts to enter the charter school dialogue by looking at the new charter school movement through an anti-essentialist social movement and new social movement lens. In the anti-Western new social movement conception there are no set patterns to how movements manifest themselves, or how they were intended to manifest…

The purpose of this paper is to deconstruct the new racist discourse within an urban charter school. The authors focus upon how the new racist discourse relieves Whites, "of any semblance of social responsibility and commitment" (Giroux, 1999). As multiculturalism and political correctness are being taught and encouraged in the society to work…

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…

In this article, the author argues that women reformers are an under-researched influence on the school curriculum of this time period, their efforts having been eclipsed by myriad historical studies of the male professional leader. She presents an insightful analysis that interrogates the work of the woman's movement and asks how women sought to…