Many schools attempt to address the needs of "English-language learners," who usually are Spanish-dominant Latinxs, by offering dual-language (DL) bilingual education. While undertaking a larger ethnographic study of one such secondary-level dual-language program, I examined how dual-language teachers understood the program as equitable…

This article presents a grounded model of how educators earn students' trust in a high performing U.S. urban high school. This long-term anthropological project set out to understand the beliefs and practices of experienced teachers and staff members nominated by students as helping them feel like they belonged in school. Analysis of study data…

This article presents a meta-ethnography (Urrieta Jr and Noblit (eds), Cultural constructions of identity: meta ethnography and theory, Oxford University Press. 2018. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190676087.001.0001) of school choice across education sectors in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. A site of intense contention and experimentation around…

In the primary grades, decisions regarding the language/s of instruction for emergent bilinguals labeled as disabled (EBLADs) are often made entirely by school representatives with little to no input from the child or the family. These decisions, which often result in a monolingual placement, not only impact the linguistic practices of EBLADs in…

Despite persistent class and race inequalities in educational attainment and achievement in the U.S., hegemonic cultural ideologies and urban education politics and policies continue to proceed from an insistence that education is the great equalizer. These ideologies do not take into account the ways that normative school culture and pedagogical…

Seeking to meet Freire's (Pedagogy of freedom: ethics, democracy, and civic courage, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 1987) call to enact a critical pedagogy of love, this article explores how one urban teacher/researcher engages in pedagogy that supports students to heal from internalized oppression towards what bell hooks (Talking back:…

The authors draw from a 16-month ethnographic study to examine Latino middle school boys' early college and career aspirations. Sources of information and support for students, as well as contextual factors that shaped students' early career aspirations were explored. Findings indicate that early college and career exposure may allow Latino middle…

A group of Roma and non-Roma participants worked on the topic of ethnicity and its influence on individuals' lives, using the Theatre of the Oppressed method. The group process was analyzed by means of ethnographic research and was perceived by the researchers as a process of formulating the research question. Interaction between the audience and…

The history of relationships between Roma/Sinti and non-Roma/non-Sinti is marked and crossed by negative features and trails: anti-ziganismus, asymmetric power relationships within institutions and the absence of social justice in the school toward Romani minorities. This article--starting from the negative aspects of the inter-ethnic relations…

This article focuses on methodological and epistemological issues arising from a research project with two Gypsy communities (2010-2012) in the South West of England. Although the two communities seem to share cultural roots and values, and live within a few miles of each other, they have contrasting experiences within the education system and…

In our paper, we present the story of emancipation of a Roma woman, who works as a social outreach worker. Our method is based on ethnographic approach and our paper focuses on the study the emic perspective of participants in our research. The aim of the paper is to show the tension arising between the actions and expectations of Alice and the…

This article documents minority youth sense-making around the concept of diversity and the founding of a youth activist group that seeks spaces for policy thinking and protesting against racial inequalities in selective enrollment schools. Utilizing the sociological theory of racial formation and the concept of racial projects (Omi and Winant in…

Based on a 3-year ethnographic project at a public elementary school in North Carolina, this article discusses how the concept of racial realism can be useful to researchers trying to live up to the goals of critical race studies in school-based research. Racial realism maintains that racism is a permanent aspect of U.S. society and schools. A…

In the era of school accountability, school reform programs aimed at shifting school culture are often implemented in an attempt to increase student achievement as measured by standardized test scores. This ethnographic case study was conducted in Hawk Elementary, a low-performing, high-poverty school. Quantitative and qualitative data collected…

In this manuscript, we take up a "critical friend" perspective on sociopolitical development (SPD), seeking to expand the field's understanding of the collective, intersectional, and dialectic qualities and dimensions in which sociopolitical youth development might occur. Specifically, we contribute to thinking around how SPD is…