In this article, James Noonan uses portraiture to examine how the administrative team and the teachers at a small, urban middle school approach school improvement. He illustrates the ways in which the pressures associated with attempting school reform in our current high-accountability environment make it difficult for school personnel to engage…

The authors of this article, Silvia Diazgranados Ferráns and Robert Selman, use an emergent framework to explore how the rules of the school culture at different perceived school climates affect early adolescents' decisions to upstand, bystand, or join the perpetrators when they witness peer aggression and bullying. Through a grounded theory…

In this ethnographic case study, Ann M. Ishimaru examines how a collaboration emerged and evolved between a low-income Latino parent organizing group and the leadership of a rapidly changing school district. Using civic capacity and community organizing theories, Ishimaru seeks to understand the role of parents, goals, strategies, and change…

In this piece, Gretchen Brion-Meisels investigates how adolescents conceptualize support in the context of school. Student support systems have become a permanent structure in most U.S. public schools, responsible for ensuring equal access to support services. Unfortunately, little is known about how adolescents make meaning of school-based…

Through a comparative case study, Sheridan and colleagues explore how makerspaces may function as learning environments. Drawing on field observations, interviews, and analysis of artifacts, videos, and other documents, the authors describe features of three makerspaces and how participants learn and develop through complex design and making…

In this article, David J. Knight investigates where and when Black and Latino male adolescents engage in self-disclosure--sharing their emotions, thoughts, and social perceptions--with their peers. Building from asset-based research and ecological theories of development, Knight analyzes in-depth interviews and finds that these adolescents may…

In this research article, Myosha McAfee presents findings from her grounded theory and microethnographical study of math instruction in a racially and socioeconomically diverse public school. Her analysis puts forth a new theory-the kinesiology of race-which conceptualizes race as a verb rather than a noun. It centrally considers how racial…

Electronic textiles are a part of the increasingly popular maker movement that champions existing do-it-yourself activities. As making activities broaden from Maker Faires and fabrication spaces in children's museums, science centers, and community organizations to school classrooms, they provide new opportunities for learning while…

In this article, Uma Jayakumar, Rican Vue, and Walter Allen present their study of Young Black Scholars (YBS), a community-initiated college preparatory program in Los Angeles. Through in-depth interviews and surveys with twenty-five middle- and higher-income Black college students, they document the positive role of community in facilitating…

In this article, Amy N. Farley, Matthew N. Gaertner, and Michele S. Moses examine the use of ballot initiatives as a particularly attractive form of direct democracy for opponents of affirmative action in higher education. Building on previous scholarship, the authors question whether anti-affirmative ballot initiatives validly reflect…

In this empirical study, the authors draw on classroom observations and interviews with twenty-three Black male ninth graders in an urban district to focus on the nature of disciplinary practices in an all-Black, all-male manhood development class. While scholars have identified the "discipline gap" as a salient aspect of the experience…

In this article, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley illuminates the challenges and opportunities posed by demographic change in suburban school systems. As expanding student populations stretch the enrollment capacities of existing schools in suburban communities, new schools are built and attendance lines are redrawn. This redistricting process can be used…

With the growing number of immigrant youth moving into new communities and host nations across the globe (Suarez-Orozco, 2007), it is critical that we deepen our understanding of the ways in which schools enable either the civic engagement or the social marginalization of these young people. In this article Reva Jaffe-Walter presents the results…

In this study, Simon Hayhoe investigates the experiences of blind museum visitors in the context of the relationships between the artworks they learned about in museums, those they experienced when younger, and the social, cultural, and emotional influences of their museum experiences. The three case studies he presents support his hypothesis…

In this study, Kimberly A. Truong and Samuel D. Museus focus on understanding strategies doctoral students of color use to respond to racism. The authors conducted semi-structured individual interviews with twenty-six participants who self-reported experiencing racism and racial trauma during doctoral studies. Analysis of the data resulted in…