In this article, the authors present a qualitative study focused on preservice teachers employing a framework using tenets of critical race theory (CRT)--permanence of racism, experiential knowledge and counter-storytelling, interest convergence, and critique of liberalism--in literature study. Drawing on critical English education, critical race…

While the educational exclusion of students who wear hairstyles linked to people of African descent has garnered significant media attention, there has been little scholarly investigation of this phenomenon. Drawing on content analysis of dress codes in Texas public schools, this article addresses this gap in knowledge by conceptually and…

Three colleagues critically reflect on their experiences as educators, curriculum designers, leaders, and activists who set out to apply social justice education and transformative leadership scholarship to the creation of a Leaders of Social Justice in Education course. They begin with their background, the diverse change agents selected to build…

The authors explore their use of critical race media literacy in an elective elementary teacher education course. Analysis of course work and reflexive conversations (between the authors) indicate the necessity to support preservice teachers' embodiments of critical race media literacy, racial pedagogical content knowledge, and racial pedagogical…

This article presents popular misconceptions on teaching culturally relevant books and provides strategies that can inform the search, selection, and teaching of books in culturally responsive ways. Informed by relevant research and insights gained from collaboratively teaching a children's literature course at college level, I discuss how the…

Four recent movies and broadcasts have brought our attention to historical episodes of racism, anti-semitism, authoritarianism, and murder in the first half of the Twentieth Century. These episodes had been largely forgotten as the history of social progress has been celebrated. New attention to past events as presented in the four works is…

In this article, we advocate for integrating select graphic novels into curricula for English language learners and emergent bilinguals to push against the dominant and harmful narratives that tend to be found in traditional history texts and curricula. We use "Vietnamerica" by Tran and "Escape from Syria" by Kullab et al. as…

Disparate educational outcomes persist for culturally and linguistically diverse learners despite numerous efforts to encourage pre-service and in-service teachers to adopt culturally relevant education. The operationalization of culturally relevant education, however, remains relatively unexplored as an explanation for teacher resistance.…

The neatness of our referring to societies as units of encryption ignores the many real situations when boundaries and memberships may not be clear or recognized. Members may participate in several societies. The American society has been based on a set of common agreements, including the definition of who is a member. The American defining ideas…

Recent legislation in Tennessee regarding "divisive concepts" in secondary education negatively impacts teachers. It causes them to question previously taught content for fear that parents or administrators might deem it too controversial, which could put educators' jobs in jeopardy. Secondary educators used various approaches when…

Two movies appeared at the same time in the summer of 2023, Oppenheimer and Barbie. Although they seem to be quite different, they were joined together in the public eye, being referred to as "Barbieheimer". They were also notable for being very popular, although neither is a typical "summer movie". Each is focused on a serious…

This essay adds to the continuing discourse on the effective support of bilingual teachers. It examines the programmatic shifts in a university-based bilingual teacher preparation program, set against the challenges posed by a global pandemic and racial violence in the United States. Specifically, the study investigates the program's redesigned…

For most undergraduate students, history prior to college has been dominated by learning through a settler colonialism lens. Settler colonialism embodies the typical United States, master, or traditional narrative. It erases marginalized perspectives, histories, culture, and identity in favor of the white settler perspective. By overlooking the…

Around the world, refugees are portrayed as victims in need of humanitarian aid or alternatively, suspicious burdens on resettlement societies. These stereotypical portrayals position them as distinct from other migrants. However, in schools, students are homogenized. Here, we contribute to the fields of multicultural education and migration…

U.S. educational systems routinely dismiss and discount the voices of newcomer and emergent plurilingual students, and instead privilege ideologies of whiteness, ability, and English monolingualism. In this paper, we use a case study from a month-long arts- and literacy-rich summer program in Southern California to examine how three educators'…