This article reports on racism expressed by school personnel (administrators and teachers) and experienced by Latina/o students at a high school located in Tucson, Arizona. Students in a specialized social science research program, called the Social Justice Education Project (SJEP), documented personal encounters with racist articulations at their…

This qualitative study analyzes how an urban schoolteacher guided her 19 tenth grade Latina and African American young women in developing positive self-concepts as expressed through the implementation of design thinking processes. This work examines how young women who had limited access to digital media negotiated their identities as they…

This article considers how after-school digital media clubs, as an example of informal learning, can provide meaningful opportunities for youth to participate in the creation of interest-driven learning ecologies through media production. Ethnographic research was conducted in two after-school digital media clubs at a large, ethnically diverse,…

To understand the digital divide as a matter of social justice, I identify access to computational fluency as a civil rights issue. "Access" refers to material as well as social resources, including meaningful learning opportunities that create the conditions for urban youth to engage in computational thinking. In this article, I explore…

As the gulfs between low-income and more affluent youth widen, researchers and practitioners continue to search for effective means of closing gaps in academic achievement, digital participation, and civic engagement. This article examines how youth organizing offers a bridge across these divides. We consider how one youth organizing group, The…

This qualitative case study investigates how service-learning may enable self-direction and the development of a critical consciousness for marginalized high school students by exploring the dynamics of service-learning through a theoretical framework of critical theory. Service-learning is theorized to counter the oppressive nature of schooling…

This article chronicles how a group of university researchers initiated a research and professional development project called Culture of Care at a large high school in the Denver Metropolitan area. After implementation, Latino/Hispanic students and their parents maintained the project. It was the charge of Latino/Hispanic parents to dismantle the…

Using Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latino/a Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) as analytical tools, this article examines the experiences of a seven Latino/a high school students at various points of engagement with the school-to-prison pipeline. Building on and extending Franz Fanon's (1952) concept of the epidermalization of inferiority, the…

Breaking down the social, political, and cultural processes through which race, class, and gender worldviews are established, ideological literacies help students look closely at the intricate, contradictory meanings in texts. The purpose of developing ideological literacies in urban youth is so they become more socially conscious of the…

Academic tracking has been shown to limit the quality of student instructional opportunities, decrease students' perceptions of their abilities, and negatively influence student achievement. These factors associated with academic tracking also may influence students in lower tracks to learn less and ultimately to drop out of high school. Few…

This article responds to two long-standing dilemmas that limit the effectiveness of language education for students who speak and write in African American Language (AAL): (1) the gap between theory and research on AAL and classroom practice, and (2) the need for critical language pedagogies. This article presents the effectiveness of a critical…

The lack of strong literacy skills and practices among students is perhaps the clearest indicator that the education system continues to leave millions of children behind. To advance the reading, writing, and speaking skills of middle and high school students, this study examines a professional development model that brought trained…

African American youth have been disciplined and dismissed from classrooms for engaging in culturally-based communication practices that teachers misinterpret and perceive as disruptive. Teachers have significant power in how they communicate with their students. White teachers should be especially aware of this power because misunderstandings…

Given persisting patterns of racial, ethnic, and class re-segregation, this study considers opportunities that high school-aged youth have to cross these divides. What critical learning might occur? What can educators learn from student reflections toward providing opportunities, experiences, or structures to challenge the status quo? In…

This article presents the "testimonios" of two high school girls coming of age in one of the most marginalized areas of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico who attend a school with a critical pedagogy orientation (Freire, 1970). Ciudad Juarez is a city on the U.S-Mexico border and considered one of the most violent in the world today. These "testimonios" shed…