Continuing to negate deficit framings of youth sexuality and amplify youth voices, this critical queer ethnography understands California high school students' experiences with comprehensive school-based sex education. Findings make visible the detailed account of youth voices in the space of sexual health education, highlighting their agency,…

This article highlights the voices and expertise of Latinx immigrant parents when describing their and their children's experiences with schools in Texas and California. The video-cued ethnography method allowed participants to engage in dialogue among themselves across space and time as well as explore issues regarding their voice and power. By…

Drawing from ethnographic research in two sites in California, we examine how school boards' deficit practices create barriers for mothers. We analyze how school boards acted as gatekeepers to educational opportunities and maternal involvement. Our analysis reveals that mothers activated their agency as parents to foster civic capacity and create…

This paper provides a discussion of the challenges and possibilities of conducting critical research on highly contested practices, such as militarism and military recruitment, in schools serving vulnerable and nondominant communities. The discussion is grounded in data collected from a year-long qualitative case study of an urban school in…

This article explores the process and impact of women organizing for educational justice in Northern California by documenting the efforts of a committed group of mothers who sought to address the disproportionate underachievement of Latino and African American students within their city's high school. Using a combined methodology of ethnography…

Consistent with research conducted by George Spindler 60 years ago, teachers continue to perceive groups of students, typically students that differ from the teacher, as less capable of accomplishing meaningful tasks, belonging and contributing to social groups, and engaging actively in challenging work. The bias is especially great for students…

This ethnographic study of a high school gay-straight alliance club examines unintended consequences of silence during the Day of Silence, a day of action aimed at addressing anti-LGBTQ bias in schools. While this strategy calls for students to engage in intentional silences to raise awareness of anti-LGBTQ bias, it does not necessarily lead…

In this article, the author explores how African American children in a Black church Sunday school community in northern California developed positive membership identity. Focal participants were Sunday school children ages 9 to 12 and their Sunday school teachers. Drawn from a two-year ethnographic study, data showed that adults prepared children…

As neoliberal reformers are appointed to manage the "crisis" of U.S. public schools, their power has become a pressing reality for grassroots movements in education. I examine how the Small Schools movement in Oakland, California--just as the school district fell under state administrative control--employed rites of passage to socialize…

In this article, we consider the ways in which educational policies and institutions today enable or obstruct young people who are immigrant English-language learners as they seek to cross cultural and educational borders. Contrasting a class action suit in California protesting high stakes testing that will significantly limit graduation rates,…

Situating parental involvement in education within a sociohistorical context, this case study of a Nicaraguan immigrant household in California contrasts the perspectives of two sisters-in-law who shared a home and whose daughters attended the same urban elementary school. Although the two women were involved in their daughters' schooling in…

This article examines language and literacy use in two communities in which Spanish-speaking children live and attend school, documenting the confounding of socioeconomic status, ethnic density, and access to Spanish language and print. Drawing on community observations and interviews with parents and children in a yearlong ethnographic study, we…

This article examines the role of two African American-owned and -operated bookstores in the literacy practices and education of their participants. Part of a larger ethnographic study of Participatory Literacy Communities (PLCs), this study shows how featured authors and audience participants considered these bookstores as both alternative and…

Community action and social change have roots in personal family narratives that connect members within the same household, between families and schools, and between families across national borders. In two northern California communities, the value of computer literacy lies in the personal narratives that unite these families to each other,…

Single-sex public schools are seen as a vehicle for improving the educational experiences of low-income and minority students. Our two-year ethnographic study of low-income and minority students who attended experimental single-sex academies in California indicates that improving achievement involves more than separating students by gender. Using…