We investigate fifth-grade students' identity work and science learning at the margins of a science classroom. By "margins" we refer to activities unrelated to formal classroom instructional content and practices, and which unfold across many settings and contexts, including the classroom itself, but also multi-party, social group…

Identity has emerged as a compelling force in understanding leadership. Situated within the identity approach to leadership, this study explored identity within the context of leadership for both assigned (i.e., positional) and emergent (i.e., nonpositional) student leaders. Findings from this study suggest that a distinct set of a leader's…

Black and Brown men continue to be underrepresented in engineering. One explanation for the dearth of Black and Latino men in engineering is that engineering (and STEM) identity often is not inclusive of People of Color. As a result, Black and Brown boys may be less likely to become interested in STEM subjects. The purpose of this study, then, was…

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educational camps and fellowships that specifically target underrepresented populations in STEM fields, such as Latinas, have become more common place across the United States. In this article, we analyze multimodal ways of representing, opportunities, and role-models present at these camps,…

Sustained academic growth of the Mexican population in the public schools of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas has precipitated a need for new and innovative ways to effectively educate English-language learners (ELLs). In place of common external factors typically used such as attendance, socioeconomic status, and test scores to address ELL's…

In this study, we analyze the experience of students in the Physics Learning Assistant (LA) program at Texas State University in terms of the existing theoretical frameworks of "community of practice" and "physics identity," and explore the implications suggested by these theories for LA program adoption and adaptation.…

This article explores how a Chicana/Mexicana teen parenting educator along the U.S./Mexico border crafted her pedagogy from personalized care, conceptualized as "borderland pedagogies of cariño" (care). This approach is rooted through the teacher's interactions with teen mothers who straddle contradictory identities like the boundary of…

Ethnic identity (EI) affirmation has been related to positive academic outcomes for Latina/o youth. However, there is a dearth of research examining mediating mechanisms to this relationship. To address this gap, we examine psychological functioning (depressive symptoms and life satisfaction) as a mediator in the relationship between EI…

Despite dedication of tremendous resources to developing literary proficiencies, advanced readers may remain an underserved and understudied population. This qualitative study included nine preadolescent participants aged 10-12 years who demonstrated reading comprehension abilities within the top 10% on a national normed achievement battery. The…

Less than 20% of undergraduates earning a degree in engineering are women, and even more alarming is minority women earn a mere 3.1% of those degrees. This paper reports on a qualitative study examining Latinas' identity development toward and in undergraduate engineering and computer science studies using a sociocultural theory of learning. Three…

Antoine de Saint-Exupery said, "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up people to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea." This article presents a pedagogical approach for framing a digital-identity-enhancing ePortfolio that maximizes student engagement and…

Gender bias, reduced sense of belonging, and lower physics self-efficacy are among the challenges faced by women who choose to study physics. Prior studies focusing on this underrepresented group have examined the experiences and impacts of formal educational settings, leaving the impact of informal physics programs, frequently called outreach…

In spite of high-stakes testing that challenges teachers to think about classroom decisions, the authors believe teachers can promote classroom practices that provide opportunities to develop the reading and writing identities of their students while also preparing students for required assessments. Using teacher writing as mentor text, showing…

Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) educate nearly two-thirds of the Hispanic/Latinx students who attend college. Yet little is known about the student populations they serve. Findings from two NSF-funded surveys completed with students at 14 HSIs in Texas and New Mexico in 2018 and four HSIs in TX in 2019 are presented. The combined sample was…

This study investigated discursive positioning moves that facilitated Latino/a English learners' (ELs) opportunities to take on agentive problem-solving roles in group mathematical discussion. A focus on mechanisms that support students' agentive participation is consistent with the authors' view that recurrent experiences participating and being…