In this article, the author discusses African American researchers' perspectives on the experiences, impact and success of Black teachers with Black students in public schools. This study builds on an earlier study that focused specifically on these researchers' insights about the impact of the "Brown versus the Topeka Board of Education" decision…

The George Lucas Educational Foundation began in 1991 with an ambitious mission: to demonstrate how innovative learning environments in classrooms, supported by powerful new technologies, could revolutionize learning. As an organization founded by George Lucas, its members believed that the same benefits of technology that were transforming…

In this article, the author presents a case study of one charter school that challenges the meaning of a public school education for diverse students from a different perspective. Embedded in the rhetoric of change and reform, charter schools have become a logical alternative to public education for discontented parents, teachers, community…

Over the past decade, numerous shifts in education policy have been proposed and implemented in the attempt to improve educational opportunities for the diverse American population. Some of these changes have been initiated by the federal government's No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2001) via its mix of standards, accountability, and punitive…

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…

In this article, the author explores the impact of contemporary economic, social and political shifts on the organization, curriculum and instruction of one charter school using the case of Forth Academy. Forth Academy is a charter school operated by a private company that uses market-based and consumer-driven methods to advance a particular…

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…

When addressing the problems for today's educators, Jonathon Kozol has joined with teachers' unions like the National Education Association to "stave off an onslaught of misguided federal dictates" in order to "help mobilize teachers to take action politically and launch a new movement for racial integration" (Jehlen, p. 17). Unfortunately for…

In this article, the author discusses the characteristics that are found in "democratic" schools, the importance of this type of school, and what Social Foundation teacher educators can do to support the development of teachers who are attuned to and grounded in an education for democracy. She contends that Social Foundations teacher educators…

Critical pedagogy has been widely characterized as a crucial construct in challenging the inequalities that have evolved in the context of schooling in the U.S. Evidence of this can be found in critical pedagogy's attempt to offer critique of the analytic connections between race and education within the context of the African-American struggle…

The specific purpose of this article is twofold. First, the article addresses critical teaching and learning evident in two generations of one nuanced Black family, the Foresight family, who appear to be surviving and thriving during and after the Freedom of Choice era of rural public schooling. The phrase "nuanced Black family" is intended to…

This report calls for federal, state, and local policies that support the exploration and redesign of the nation's learning system, including the structure of the traditional school day and academic year. The report finds that access to high-quality educational opportunities is crucial to helping children succeed in an increasingly complex, global…

In spite of the ongoing discussion and emphasis on student voice, talk curriculum, and small group discussion (Barnitz 1994; Johnson & Johnson 1994; Barnes & Todd 1995; Johnston & Nicholls 1995; Johnson & Johnson 2000), most classroom language/discourse strategies remain rooted in Socratic premises. That is to say, official classroom discourse…

Some scholars believe that humankind has inherited a collective responsibility of creating a peaceful new global social reality and to nurture the construction of planetary consciousness. However, a group of realist scholars with a critical disposition toward globalization emerged, and begun analyzing globalization objectively as an empirical…

Having worked and learned together, and shared many conversations about common goals and assumptions that guide their teaching and learning, the authors seek to construct a collaborative research project that will investigate how they were acting on, and building on, their shared pedagogical and political beliefs. In this article, they address the…