The present article explores the experiences of two international graduate students who studied in the United States and how they dealt with the challenges of living in a new country. The researcher was inspired by Bhabha's (1994) third space theory and aimed to investigate how these students tried to create a space for themselves in the classroom…

The benefits of afterschool activity participation for youth development are well-documented. An interesting question dominating this field is whether there is a threshold at which point participating in too many activities (breadth) and spending too much time in those activities (intensity) is negatively associated with desirable outcomes. Using…

Drawing on evidence and example legislation, this policy research brief identifies school-based policy options for Texas to prevent and mitigate toxic stress caused by Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). The term ACEs refers to the 10 common categories of adversity included in a landmark study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…

This conceptual paper explored the fundamental barriers to successful equity training and professional development for teachers. This was done to show the need for a professional development series, based on Ting-Toomey and Chung's (2012) cultural value pattern analysis. Using the theoretical lens of post-colonial theory, the authors posit the…

This qualitative case study examined five preservice social studies teachers (PSSTs) working in an urban teacher preparation program as they learned methods of critical historical inquiry (CHI). Moving from a critical multicultural citizenship education frame, CHI supports analysis of multiple perspectives and sources to construct equitable,…

The research-practice divide between social scientists and educators is a persistent problem for the accurate communication and translation of social scientific research into pedagogical practice. This paper uses mindset theory as a case study, arguing that the social scientific theories transcending the research-practice divide tend to be those…

This qualitative case-study looks at how one preservice teacher uses multimodal counter-storytelling to push back on dominant historical narratives in social studies teaching. It examines how the teacher conceptualizes the use of critical arts and humanities as pedagogical tools to represent historically marginalized voices and disrupt dominant…

This study contributes to existing literature on critical historical inquiry used in the social studies field. Furthering the research, this qualitative study examines the emotional navigation of five preservice teachers in a graduate-level methods course of a collegiate, urban-focused, teacher preparation program as they traverse learning about…

In 2018 the universities in the University Social Responsibility Network (USRN) embarked on the ambitious project of creating a collaborative Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), aiming to raise awareness of the concept of University Social Responsibility (USR), boost the visibility of the achievements and social impacts of its members, and promote…

Via care ethics and culturally relevant pedagogy, this article explores the events observed in fifth grade science classrooms of two Mexican American teachers. The participants were observed expressing dichotomous emotional struggles with their feelings towards their Mexican American students. The struggle consisted of a genuine caring attitude…

This autobiographical research draws from testimonio inquiry exploring my lived curriculum as an emerging scholar and curriculum administrator of students who are living in historically marginalized areas. The questions are: How can testimonios inform the struggles of immigrant students in the Whitestream curriculum? How does my life in Nepantla…

The purpose of this research is in exploring how a critical curriculum in the social studies classroom leads to a transformative education. Since foundational narratives are deeply embedded in our educational curriculum, critical sources offer contradicting cultural and socio-political relevance within traditional works. As counternarratives,…

As a Queer, Indigenous descendant, and first-generation doctoral candidate, I often write through autoethnography as a theoretical and methodological tool that contextualizes personal experiences through communal onto-epistemologies. In this paper, I share experiences, stories, and dreams in the academy and within my own communal knowledge systems…

Higher education that intentionally fosters genuinely meaningful work remains on the periphery of mainstream educational systems. Despite the abundant evidence of the life-giving impacts of educational practices that support these aspirations, there are few indications that conventional higher education systems offer much attention to this…

Learning within public education takes place in diverse settings other than traditional classrooms. Constructivism, the dominant learning theory in Texas public education classrooms, falls short of giving those who lead musical ensembles (such as band, orchestra, choir) a solid epistemological foundation. The edusemiotic concept of coordination…