This article is the third in a series of narrative studies of leaders in the field of multicultural education researched and written by Cheryl Hunter and several of her graduate students at the University of North Dakota. The first in the series featuring Marybeth Gasman appeared in the Fall 2017 issue, the second featuring Gloria Ladson-Billings…

In this article, the author recounts his mission: a voyage into the "strange" world of American high school, specifically the science fiction elective classroom. His mission is one of curricular intervention to transform how students, particularly those of color, envision their own futuristic missions. The study strives to serve the too…

According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, the 2014-2015 academic year marked the turning point of a major shift in student demographics (Hussar & Bailey, 2013). For the first time, students of color (50.3%)--largely Asian and Hispanic students--outnumbered their White peers (49.7%) in public schools in the United States.…

Historically, American public schools played an important role in assimilating immigrants with different cultures into the mainstream. This process is currently occurring in other parts of the world that are undergoing demographic changes due to immigration. Some of these countries have turned to multicultural education as a tool to respond to…

This article is the second in a series of narrative studies of leaders in the field of multicultural education researched and written by Cheryl Hunter and several of her graduate students at the University of North Dakota. The first in the series appeared in the Fall 2017 issue and other articles will appear in future issues of "Multicultural…

Schooling in the U.S. is ideological by design (Althusser, 1971; Apple, 1990; Duncan-Andrade & Morrell, 2008). It can justify and further the inequitable, hierarchical, and stratified economic, social, and cultural attitudes of a society (Aronowitz & Giroux, 1985; Ayers, 2004; Bowles & Gintis, 1976; Eubanks, Parish, & Smith, 1997).…

In this article Puchner and Markowitz illustrate a major problem in education and in teacher education, the underlying dynamics of which are a national problem. The problem of negative beliefs about African American families in schools is not a new idea but actually stems from unfounded and untested assumptions about the way the world works and…

Public school curriculum battles offer great examples for illustrating how politics saturates education policy, particularly in the State of Texas. However, Arizona has emerged as another peculiar contender in contemporary battles to control high school curricula. Curriculum battles have deep historical roots in Arizona and elsewhere that go…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs), delivered through platforms like Coursera, edX, and Udacity, offer content from well-known universities and professors, at no cost, to students across the globe. Although they deliver thematically coherent material in instructional videos and supplemental materials, these online courses demand that users…

Migrant families are mobile by nature. They are constantly searching--for the next harvest, for a new job opportunity. It too often appears that this transient population drifts in and out of schools without one being appreciably affected by the other. This is a lost opportunity, both for the migratory students and for the communities and schools…

In this article, the author contends that there is by now a devastating catalogue of evidence revealing the depth and breadth of corporate-sponsored, government-sanctioned acts of violence against the environment across the globe. British Petroleum's (BP) oil spill, for instance, is a testament to large-scale catastrophic ecological damages…

If education is going to offer a remedy for rather than exasperate the problem of the ecological and cultural crisis currently being faced, teacher learning must be at the forefront of the discussion. Current efforts to educate for sustainability rely upon teachers who are knowledgeable, skilled, and committed agents for change. The same is true…

In "The Shame of the Nation: The Restoration of Apartheid Schooling in America," Kozol (2005) asked a question that many educators and other education stakeholders still wonder about in regards to the educational progress for many urban school students in the United States, "What do we need to do to alter these realities?" (p.…

Humanity has recently steered itself into an era of environmental instability where the earth is ravaged of its natural resources, where the biodiversity of living organisms is decreasing everyday, and where a rapidly growing human population has become a driving factor in an impending ecological crisis (Rockström et al., 2009; Steffen et al.,…

This article explores a university's Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP) and its success not just in recruiting, preparing, retaining, and graduating its students, but in likewise leading to employment and retention as teachers in urban schools. It focuses on critical aspects of the program, including recruitment of diverse candidates,…