This article examines how undergraduate instructors of pre-service educators can address complex issues of sexuality and sexual orientation within the classroom. First, we explain our own backgrounds and positionalities to provide a context for our ensuing ideas and discussions. Second, by reviewing the literature on homophobic bullying, we…

This article begins from the premise that foundations scholars occupy an awkward place in the education school, because our work is predominantly grounded in the liberal arts but the work of other education scholars is predominantly preprofessional. To create a more meaningful place for foundations in the education school will require better…

Faculty members in teacher and administrator preparation programs have unprecedented opportunities to incorporate advanced technologies, including the expansion of online classes and the use of online discussion forums. Within online environments, the concepts of critical pedagogy are more connected to the landscape of digital information,…

In this autoethnographic, conceptual philosophical reflection, the author inquires: "Can my students and I, in a technologically mediated virtual space, harness the work of philosophy of education scholars to engage in a shared experience of (re)considering paths to sensitivity to diversity for equity and equality?" The author engages…

This historical work chronicles the emergence of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer (LGBTQ) student visibility at the University of Florida from 1970 to 1982. It focuses on the establishment of an LGBTQ student group and student reactions to queer visibility. This work relies heavily on the student newspaper for the student…

This article seeks to characterize Teach For America's (TFA) theoretical framework as engendering disillusionment among its corps members. Given that the corps members have little to no pedagogical or methods training prior to taking on teaching positions through TFA, the lessons learned during the summer training set the stage for the…

In response to a mandate to develop a more welcoming university for students, especially those of Aboriginal inheritance, we set out on a journey for ways of accommodating cultural differences in our university classrooms. Over the course of a year, we met regularly and audiotaped our conversations. By talking, transcribing, writing, and…

Despite numerous reform efforts, schools have not achieved equitable academic outcomes for all students. To better identify where schools have failed, research has sought to understand the complex role the school environment plays in mediating academic success, particularly for students of color. In this article, we forward the concept of…

This article explores the limits of introductory social justice education and the ways in which a social foundations course could expand and deepen the social justice lens of current and future educators. The authors, members of an introductory graduate-level Social Foundations course, discuss the limitations they realized in their previous social…

This article outlines the features and application of a set of model curriculum materials that utilize eco-democratic principles and humanities-based content to cultivate critical analysis of the cultural foundations of socio-environmental problems. We first describe the goals and components of the materials, then discuss results of their use in…

This article advocates a nonviolent approach to social justice education. First, social justice education literature is reviewed, and two contrasting and influential approaches--critical theory and poststructural theory--are the focus of critical analysis. A nonviolent approach is proposed as an alternative. Second, the notion of social justice is…

This article offers a quantitative analysis of the growth of for-profit provision of teacher education in the United States. Data from all Title-IV-aid-participating institutions from 1996 to 2008 is analyzed to provide a comprehensive overview of the relative changes in enrollments of education majors at public, not-for-profit, and for-profit…

In this article, I explore teaching with a social foundations perspective in the unusual place of an "Introduction to Assessment" course for second-year, undergraduate, teacher candidates. By bringing the work of three candidates together with the four concerns of the proposed third edition of the "Standards for Academic and Professional…

This article addresses the unique role performed by social foundations programs in colleges of education and in addressing broader issues facing education today, which fundamentally include the development of interpretive, normative, and critical perspectives in academia. All three perspectives serve to create a scholarly framework within which…

The third edition of the "Standards for Academic and Professional Instruction in Foundations of Education, Educational Studies, and Educational Policy Studies" ("Standards") challenge us to envision what "a more holistic, inclusive and intellectually challenging approach to preparing educators" might look like. This article discusses how the…