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Early adolescence is a time of rapid cognitive, psychosocial, and physical development, and an array of contextual factors, such as systemic racism, exert significant influence. Universal behavioral health screening data of 4,234 middle school students were examined to explore the influence of demographic (e.g. ethnicity, race) and contextual factors (e.g. school configuration). Findings suggest that middle school students are rated as having higher levels of behavioral concerns and lower adaptive skills compared with elementary and high school students and are influenced by both factors. Implications for universal screening, critical analysis of structural inequities, and district practices are also examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational research consistently underscores the significance of family engagement in children's education. However, diverse ideals regarding family involvement often constrain the potential for meaningful school-home interactions within culturally diverse urban communities. Amidst education reform priorities such as high-stakes testing and teacher accountability, the crucial connections between schools and families are frequently overlooked. In this essay, we explore strategies for urban schools to foster partnerships with families and communities that leverage the full range of urban families' literacies, knowledge, resources, and experiences. Informed by findings from our previous research, we propose an approach that encourages teachers to critically examine their assumptions and biases regarding family engagement in schools. Through reflective practices, educators can discern how their mindsets, language, and actions influence the perceptions of families as valued stakeholders in their children's education. By embracing a shift in perspective, teachers can develop more inclusive and respectful family engagement strategies tailored to the unique needs of urban schools and communities. This framework equips educators with the tools to design initiatives that honor the diverse backgrounds and contributions of families, ultimately fostering stronger partnerships between schools, families, and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper aims to center the experiences of three cohorts (n = 40) of Black high school students who participated in a critical race technology course that exposed anti-blackness as the organizing logic and default setting of digital and artificially intelligent technology. This paper centers the voices, experiences and technological innovations of the students, and in doing so, introduces a new type of digital literacy: critical race algorithmic literacy. Design/methodology/approach: Data for this study include student interviews (called "talk backs"), journal reflections and final technology presentations. Findings: Broadly, the data suggests that critical race algorithmic literacies prepare Black students to critically read the algorithmic word (e.g. data, code, machine learning models, etc.) so that they can not only resist and survive, but also rebuild and reimagine the algorithmic world. Originality/value: While critical race media literacy draws upon critical race theory in education – a theorization of race, and a critique of white supremacy and multiculturalism in schools – critical race algorithmic literacy is rooted in critical race technology theory, which is a theorization of blackness as a technology and a critique of algorithmic anti-blackness as the organizing logic of schools and AI systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is devoted to solving the problem of accumulation, systematization, and translation of the practices of using digital educational technologies in municipal educational organizations. The solution to this problem was implemented by implementing the project "Organization of a system of digital education practices in the urban district of the City of Yelets" in 2022. The project was aimed at involving at least 350 managing and teaching staff, 4000 students in the active practice of using digital educational technologies in educational organizations of the urban district of Yelets (Lipetsk region, Russian Federation) by the end of 2022. To achieve the goal, the implementation of a system of digital education practices in educational organizations of the urban district of the city of Yelets was determined. Continuity and concession are key features of this system. Consequently, the stakeholders are preschool educational organizations, public educational organizations, organizations of additional education, secondary vocational education, and higher education. This system involved the use of such organizational forms as a resource center, a municipal network platform, a pivotal school, and an author's school, within which approbation, tuning, and dissemination of the experience of using software products, the LECTA digital educational platform, the digital educational environment "Mobile e-education" and directions 3D modeling, digital video and robotics. The key results of the conducted research were quantitative and qualitative indicators. The main problem that has blocked the adoption of digital education tools among the pedagogical community is the belief that they are ineffective compared to full-time education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of a year-long writing intervention located in an urban high school in partnership with a university teacher education professor and the students. The goals were as follows: to increase student self-efficacy about writing overall; to increase the number of students who successfully improve scores on writing assessments; and to increase ACT exam scores, making students more qualified candidates for college admission. Design/methodology/approach: The main method used for the research is a quantitative longitudinal study method, which involves collecting from each student, at pre-intervention and post-intervention, a writing sample. There are 54 students in the study. Findings: Findings showed an increase in student proficiency overall, with an increase of 0.53 holistically. Effective writing instruction asks students to write often to develop their writing will and skill. There are many more factors beyond the teaching of "ACT prep" writing skills that must be considered, particularly when teaching marginalized groups. This study found that the following are important: building and sustaining positive rapport; using their language as part of the learning process; creating space for students to write regularly; writing on a variety of topics; reflecting on and monitoring their writing; and receiving timely and targeted feedback. Originality/value: This paper discusses the impact of the writing intervention and describes the practices that were a part of the intervention for marginalized students in an urban school to increase their writing scores. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Education Policy Analysis Archives / Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas / Arquivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas is the property of Educational Policy Analysis Archives & Education Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Education Policy Analysis Archives / Archivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas / Arquivos Analíticos de Políticas Educativas is the property of Educational Policy Analysis Archives & Education Review and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista de Investigación is the property of Universidad Pedagogica Experimental Libertador and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: This study aims to illustrate how one-sixth grade language arts teacher transforms the theory of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) into practice, an effort made visible through classroom discourse. Design/methodology/approach: This classroom discourse inquiry is guided by tools of reconstructive discourse analysis which encourage a complex consideration of communicative efforts with intent to deconstruct them in the process of uncovering how oppressive social power structures are maintained. Additionally, reconstructive discourse analysis drives attention to how the data analyzed can reveal both how discourse marks moments where justice is constructed as well as how unjust structures may be reshaped into those that are more equitable. Findings: In a setting where rapport and trust have been established, intentional teacher-driven classroom discourse influenced the ability of student cultures, namely, their languages, to be sustained in the classroom on their own merits and not merely as a conduit for accessing dominant academic material. Practical implications: The information presented in this manuscript in the form of analysis of discursive classroom moments provide examples for equity-driven practitioners to engage in similar critically reflective activities with the potential to expose instances of CSPs or to assist in the identification of instances where the taking up of CSPs should sought. Originality/value: One difficulty in transforming theoretical stances to practical actions stems from oversimplification of CSP and related asset-based pedagogical practices as "just good teaching." By deconstructing classroom discourse, this study can subsequently reconstruct effective, generative, culturally sustaining approaches to community practice within a classroom learning space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This qualitative research study examines classroom observations and transcripts, teacher and student interviews and student writing to investigate how white English teachers can cultivate students' critical literacies regarding race and oppression through classroom literature. As research and practice in the field of critical literacy has yet to effectively center black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) lives and histories, this study aims to expand on existing critical literacy research by examining how literature teachers disrupt the perpetuation of whiteness through literature instruction that explicitly grapples with race and structures of oppression. Design/methodology/approach: This research examines the pedagogical practices of two white English teachers through a yearlong investigation of classroom instruction and curriculum in an urban high school in a large Northeastern city. The overarching question of this study asks, how do white English teachers cultivate students' critical literacies regarding race and social justice through classroom literature? Additional questions that guided this study are: How do students in these classes learn about structures of oppression? What language is used in these classrooms to discuss ideas about power? What texts and materials do these teachers use to engage students in critical literacy practices? Findings: The findings of this study provide insight as to how white English teachers can foster students' critical literacy development regarding race and oppression through their pedagogy and curriculum. The two teachers' introduction of critical language and frameworks in the classroom supported students' ability to critically engage with classroom literature and with their own social worlds. In addition, these teachers' practices emphasize the need for white teachers to decenter their own knowledge and identities to effectively foster students' critical and sociopolitical development. Originality/value: This research responds to McLean et al.'s (2021) call for a disruption of the "perpetuation of Eurocentric, hegemonic perspectives by white scholars" in the field by centering race in approaches to critical literacy development in the classroom. By analyzing data from classrooms in the same school with distinct curricular approaches, this study examines not only what but also how educators are teaching in classrooms designed to cultivate students' critical and sociopolitical development through English Language Arts. This study offers hope for developing critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies among non-BIPOC educators who teach Black and Latinx populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Bitácora Urbano/Territorial is the property of Bitacora Urbano/Territorial and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Bitácora Urbano/Territorial is the property of Bitacora Urbano/Territorial and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Journal of Kirsehir Education Faculty is the property of Journal of Kirsehir Education Faculty and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article presents the discussion on grappling with the difficulty of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the school year. Topics include climate chaos, lack of refuge, human rights violations, global migration, immigration, state violence, and structural racism, all during a pandemic; and explorations of learning beyond strict curriculum maps, rigid learning standards, and so-called achievement tests.

Purpose -- The International Baccalaureate (IB) programme centers on developing students' international mindedness. Central to this effort is the programme's "Learner Profile," which details ten attributes that teachers seek to cultivate through classroom instruction. This article reports on the ways that middle grades and high school social studies and English teachers in Chicago Public Schools' (CPS) IB programmes are attempting to implement the Learner Profile as part of their classroom practice to support students' international mindedness. Design/methodology/approach -- The project was carried out as a two phase, sequential mixed-methods design. Phase I entailed a survey of IB teachers and programme coordinators across CPS to assess the incorporation of the Learner Profile into instruction. Phase II consisted of mixed-methods case studies of CPS IB programmes selected partially on Phase I data analysis. Findings -- We find that while teachers express high levels of familiarity with the Learner Profile attributes and confidence in incorporating them into practice, we find wide variation in the actual implementation. Taken as a whole, we find CPS programmes take divergent approaches to incorporating the Learner Profile based on differences in understanding of the attributes and its purposes as well as key organizational facets related to implementation. Originality/value -- Ultimately, we argue that the wide variation and lack of explicit incorporation of the Learner Profile into classrooms is related in large part to the broad, indistinct nature of "international mindedness" as a concept. The programme would benefit from creating more space for teacher and students to critique the concept, especially those working from non-Western traditions. Keywords International Baccalaureate, Middle years programme, International mindedness, Middle school, High school, Social studies, Humanities, Urban education [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the contemporary relationship established between schools and territories based on the experiences of school actors working in urban peripheries in the south of Brazil. Founded on the conceptual category of "urban-educational experiences" inspired by the sociology of experience, the study examines and problematizes the political views and sociocultural logics that are present in the pedagogical action of teachers who teach in primary education in schools located in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. From the methodological viewpoint, data were built from interviews with 66 selected school actors and were complemented with the analysis of institutional documents. As for results, three analytical perspectives were identified: (a) schools as territories of cultural affirmation through pedagogical actions developed by teachers teaching in the early grades of primary education, who mobilize learning about the history and geography of municipal territories, considering urban contexts marked by inequalities, migration and intercultural encounters; (b) schools as active agents in processes of recognition of cultural heritage, particularly in urban contexts where there is no official heritage listing, registration or other similar governmental procedure; and (c) the school's permeability to cultural practices developed by independent collectives and community associations dedicated to the political-cultural education of students in urban peripheries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Educacao e Pesquisa is the property of Faculdade de Educacao da Universidade de Sao Paulo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the predicament of educated youth belonging to socially marginalised groups in realising their aspirations in the city of Delhi. It critically foregrounds the potentials of education and urban location and analyses the educational and employment negotiations and outcomes of the urban youth living at the margins. It is based on a qualitative field study in a settlement predominantly inhabited by Dalits and other backward classes. The paper argues that the local aspirations amid neo-liberal economic expansion in a metropolitan city, alongside the long-cherished dream of respectable jobs, place an enormous hope on pursuing higher education and advanced skills. However, the nature and quality of education and skills that are accessible to these youths hardly enable them realise stable white-collar jobs. Armed with educational degrees, they join and shift between low-end precarious jobs while waiting for stable employment. Gender relations preclude some of these precarious possibilities for female youths who negotiate terms of patriarchal norms to gain economic autonomy. Overall, this paper identifies and elaborates on how urban structural conditions and individual negotiations combine to reproduce social inequalities through a process of socio-economic mobility which is adverse and rarely upwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This conceptual article examines the evolution of trauma treatment in schools--from early interventions such as cognitive behavioral intervention for trauma in schools to more recent interventions such as trauma-informed schools--that boast schoolwide supports for students. I argue that the current conceptualization of trauma used in schools, based largely on the Adverse Childhood Experiences Study, focuses on family dysfunction and overlooks systemic factors, such as racial trauma. Because this conceptualization of trauma is particularly detrimental to marginalized and vulnerable students, school social workers have an ethical responsibility to guide educators toward revolution and social justice by encouraging systemically trauma-informed practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: By engaging in critical literacy, participants theorized Blackness and antiblackness. The purpose of this study was to have participants theorize Blackness and antiblackness through their engagements with critical literacy. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used a youth-centered and informed Black critical-race grounded methodology. Findings: Participants' unique and varied revelations of Blackness as Vitality, Blackness as Cognizance and Blackness as Expansive Community, served to withstand, confront and transcend encounters with antiblackness in English curricula. Practical implications: This paper provides a model for how to engage Black youth as a means to disrupt anti-Black English education spaces. Social implications: This study provides a foundation for future research efforts of Black English outer spaces as they relate to English education. Findings in this study may also inform existing English educator practices. Originality/value: This study theorized both the role and the flexible nature of Black English outer spaces. It defined the multi-ethnic nature of Blackness. It proposed that affirmations of Blackness sharpened participants' critical literacies in Black English outer spaces as a transformative intervention to anti-Black English education spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chick lit which is generally described as the modern-day fairy tale focuses upon the lives of young urban educated working women in search of a life partner. These books labelled as popular literature were summarily dismissed by the critics as frivolous and insignificant. A deeper study focusing upon transformed symbols and motifs with respect to the lives of women, offers an important insight into how 21st-century feminism is moving beyond a 'victim feminism' mindset to that of 'power feminism'. This study is a semiotic study of Indian chick lit with a special focus upon four novels: Piece of Cake (2004) by Swati Kaushal, Girl Alone (2005) by Rupa Gulab, Almost Single (2009) by Advaita Kala and Losing My Virginity and Other Dumb Ideas (2011) by Madhuri Banerjee. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this special issue of the Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, a collection of international authors considers how their work and experiences in rural education research can inform, and sometimes even improve, urban-based education research. The issue responds to the provocation to shift such perceptions and locate the rural as a key and constituent part of the wider field of education. The articles set out to show connections between the rural and the urban. In doing this, the authors challenge existing notions of a rural-urban divide. They present examples of ruraling, a term coined by Roberts and Fuqua (2021) to explain the move to a rural perspective across the broader field of education. The collective aim of the articles is to demonstrate and speculate how rural education research might rural (using the word as a verb) urban education research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, a much-cited concept in recent years has been that of lokale Bildungslandschaften [local educational landscapes]. In this article, we focus on socio-spatial educational landscapes in the arrangement of a campus, which links the actors of education and urban planning to a specific leitbild, meaning a guiding principle in physical form and programmatic action. Therefore, an educational space designated as a campus includes constitutive dimensions of educational practices and a spatial reorganization of educational conditions, which are still to be discovered and investigated. We center our analysis on the perspective of children and young people as the main target group of this leitbild, as well as the perspective of the professional actors. In the following article, we give a brief overview of the characteristics of socio-spatial educational landscapes. We focus on the appropriation and atmospheres of access points and transitions, as well as patterns of use and spatial perception. After analyzing the ongoing development processes of socio-spatial educational landscapes as a campus, we adopt an internationally comparative perspective to research them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The word pivot has become the mantra for many educators during the year 2020. With the dramatic shift in instructional practices during the COVID19 pandemic, leadership and professional learning have necessitated a consequential pivot to offer support to new and experienced teachers. The North Dakota Teacher Support System and Iridium Learning have collaborated to deliver professional learning to new and experienced educators to address many of the needs and challenges currently facing education in rural and urban areas alike. Navigating similar obstacles, such as isolation and technology-induced stress, has become second nature to the state mentoring program in North Dakota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Papers: Revista de Sociologia is the property of Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Students from public urban secondary schools in the United States are often academically underprepared for post-secondary education. There are multiple social and structural factors contributing to this including living in communities where there are high rates of poverty, insufficient funding for public urban schools, and lack of rigor in their curriculum. Urban public post-secondary institutions struggle to bridge the gap to support students who are underprepared and in need of educational, financial, and social assistance. The purpose of this paper is to describe a partnership that was created between a public urban high school and a neighboring public urban university to address the issues underrepresented racially and ethnically (URE) diverse students encounter in order to not only better prepare them for the transition to post-secondary education, but to help them succeed once they arrive on campus. This partnership demonstrates that community cooperation to bridge the gap to support students who are underprepared is possible and benefits everyone involved. Preparing urban students for the successful transition to post-secondary education, particularly in the area of health professions can have a long-term impact on reducing racial inequities in health care. • Students from public urban secondary schools are often underprepared for college. • Community partnerships can help bridge the gap to support underprepared students. • Multiple funding sources can ensure successful program components are sustained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the experiences of middle-class African American parents who have enrolled their children in a central-city public school district and the factors that inform and contribute to their school enrollment decisions. Data come from nineteen in-depth interviews with middle-class African American parents in Albany, New York. The paper uses the conceptual framework of empowerment and agency to explore and analyze the findings. Findings suggest that middle-class African American parents possess some measure of empowerment based on their human capital and positive childhood experiences in public schools. The latter denotes the salience of emotions in intergenerational education transmission. Parents' empowerment, however, does not fully extend to agency. Most parents' school choices have been structured and narrowed by racial segregation in residence and by the real and perceived racial exclusion in private school settings. Therefore, even for highly-educated, middle-income African Americans, anxieties over racial exclusion act as a strong social constraint on parents' community and school choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article highlights how contemporary structural forces--the intertwined systems of racism, xenophobia, gentrification, and capitalism--have material consequences for the nature of community literacy education. As a case study, I interrogate the rhetoric and infrastructure of a San Francisco K-12 literacy nonprofit in the context of tech-boom gentrification, triggering the mass displacement of Latinx residents. I locate the nonprofit in longer histories of settler colonialism and migration in the Bay Area to analyze how the organization's rhetoric--the founder's TED talk, its website, the mural on the building's façade--are structured by racist logics that devalue and homogenize the literacy and agency of the local community, perpetuating white "possessive investments" (Lipsitz) in land, literacy, and education. Drawing on abolitionist and decolonial education theory, I prose a praxis encouraging literacy scholar-practitioners to question and ultimately divest from institutional rhetorics and funding sources that continue to forward racism, xenophobia, imperialism, and raciolinguistic supremacy built upon them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Race dialogues have the potential to promote shared family-school-community partnerships and equity in urban educational practices. Participation in dialogues allows for diverse school community stakeholders to engage in courageous conversations and reflect on how racial power dynamics affect students and families within the school community. We sought to explore how dialogues conducted among school community members may impact school climate and promote educational justice. Critical Race Theory in Education guided dialogues programming and analyses. Semistructured interviews with 11 participants were conducted and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Findings revealed a variety of participant experiences and learning qualitatively differed by racial identity and depth of personal engagement in the dialogues. Although the race dialogues supported personal growth, connection, trust, and a sense of commitment to school improvement for many, participants described several barriers to change, including time constraints and varied commitment to educational justice. Implications of dialogues and their impact on family-school-community partnerships are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This narrative case study examines the integration of culturally responsive and social justice pedagogy into an online Doctoral of Education degree program. This study was conducted over four years with two cohorts in a fifty-one-hour online doctoral program that also focused on instructional and professional leadership and presents findings of themes and issues of culturally responsive and social justice pedagogy. Additional findings provided a linking of culturally responsive social justice pedagogy with urban education issues found in EC to 12th-grade school settings to ensuring support of students and faculty when examining topics about race, ethnicity, gender, and economic status, and providing the needed knowledge, skills, and dispositions for instructional and professional leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

State takeover has become a consistent policy prescription for school districts who become financially insolvent and/or have low academic achievement. A look at the state of Michigan's state takeover laws and the case study of Detroit Public Schools (DPS) demonstrates the negative consequences and nuances of the policy to improve academic achievement and promote fiscal health. In Michigan, the takeover of school districts has had generally negative results in improving district fiscal health, test scores, or gaining the support of the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This follow-up study to College Readiness in Post-Remedial Academia (Schrynemakers, Lane, Beckford, & Kim, 2019) analyzed faculty's perceptions about students' academic literacies, academic standards, and grade inflation currently, as well as compared to five years ago. The study was conducted during a multi-year developmental education reform effort at a large, public, urban university, which has accelerated access to gateway courses and aims to improve college completion. Faculty also shared their attitudes about the need, if any, for high-stakes standardized testing at the associate's level (before students enroll in bachelor'slevel coursework). Findings indicated that a majority of surveyed faculty (N = 1512) at both community colleges and four-year colleges perceived weaker student academic literacies and academic standards compared to five years ago. Community college faculty--especially those teaching developmental education and mathematics--perceived the lowest levels of academic standards during this time. Respondents also identified significant levels of grade inflation, with half of surveyed faculty calling for a return of high-stakes standardized testing before students are permitted to enroll in bachelor's degree programs. Keywords: developmental education reform, completion agenda, academic standards, grade inflation, urban postsecondary education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored how middle-level teachers can combine a public platform for student voice, content related to the American Dream, and pedagogy informed by Tatum's racial identity development to prompt students to: explore their racial and civic identities; engage in critical, inclusive dialogue; complicate traditional narratives about America; and practice advocacy and activism within-and-beyond the classroom. The primary research questions addressed were: 1) When given a platform, what do racially diverse students say about the American Dream? 2) What pedagogy prepares students to engage in advocacy and activism within-and-beyond the classroom? 3) What is the effect of using spoken word pedagogy? We used inductive coding and thematic analysis of student poems and teacher reflections to derive findings. This study evidenced that students used their voices as activists to confront American racism, seek racial identity affirmation, advance racial equality, and question racial oppression. Further, it demonstrated how the concept of the American Dream and the use of spoken word pedagogy have the unique ability to help students and teachers build understanding across lines of racial difference, engage in dialogue that increases learning, and make the classroom a place of liberation. We provide Implications for racial identity work in middle-level teacher preparation and among middle-level students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The elevated demands of the new knowledge economy pose particular challenges to rural and northern regions in Canada, long acknowledged by policymakers to suffer from acute human capital deficits. Rural residents obtain lower levels of education than their urban counterparts and those that do obtain post-secondary training often migrate to urban regions offering abundant employment opportunities and higher wages. Despite an emerging consensus around over skill deficits across rural regions, Canadian researchers have yet to systematically explore contemporary rural-urban differences in human capital using refined measures of literacy and numeracy skills. We ameliorate this deficiency by mapping rural-urban disparities in skills across the working age population (16–65) using Statistics Canada's 2012 Longitudinal International Study of Adults (LISA). Our results indicate that residents from smaller population centers and rural areas within Canada show significantly lower skills proficiencies. These differences across location of residence shrink considerably when controlling for education level, underscoring the need to enhance post-secondary access in rural areas. • Residents from smaller population centers and rural areas within Canada show significantly lower skills proficiencies. • Rural residents show significantly lower literacy as well as numeracy proficiencies compared to urban counterparts. • Skills differences across population centers are largely explained by differences in formal education levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]