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Research on how teachers become culturally responsive tends to focus on preservice teachers or on the professional development activities that are associated with change for inservice teachers. Little is known about how the various elements of culturally responsive teaching--including knowledge, skills, and fundamental orientations--interact with one another as teachers change. This case study followed 19 educators across four schools and over 2 years as they conducted action research to enhance their cultural responsiveness. We found four zones of development that characterized the teachers' change: consciousness-raising, consciousness- and relationship-building, knowledge- and practice-building, and practice-refining. Within each zone, two or three elements of culturally responsive teaching appeared to change most dramatically and to mutually reinforce one another as teachers developed. Professional development experiences should attend to these different zones and to the gradual nature of this process.

Much of the formal professional development teachers experience consists of short-term workshops that maintain -- rather than disrupt -- the systems of power that reproduce educational inequities. In response, some scholars have advocated critical professional development (PD) as a means of supporting teachers' interrogation of these inequities and empowerment to effect change. Critical PD is based on Paulo Freire's ideas of dialogue, problem-posing, and praxis, and it tends to emerge within grassroots organisations that function independently from the school systems. There are two drawbacks to this autonomous structure, however: the "legitimacy problem," or the fact that the pedagogies advocated within these groups may be difficult to implement without the institutional support of participants' districts; and the "resource problem," or the fact that teachers' time and efforts within these independent organisations is typically uncompensated. In this essay, we describe a research -- practice partnership in which we co-developed critical PD on culturally responsive teaching with district leaders. The form of the PD, critical action research, allowed the participants to engage in problem-posing and praxis in order to analyse systems of power and their own positionalities within these systems. Recommendations for those with and without access to research -- practice partnerships are offered.

Despite substantial evidence of the effectiveness of--and the need for--culturally relevant education (CRE), it has been treated by many schools as a professional choice or new initiative rather than a fundamental approach to teaching in a multicultural, democratic society. Moreover, efforts to implement CRE across schools and districts have recently been met by strong opposition from well-organized groups. In this essay, the authors point to scientific, legal, and ethical arguments for why CRE should be considered a noncontroversial, evidence-based approach to education. The authors then draw on insights from political psychology and critical Whiteness studies to argue that the opposition to CRE is unlikely to be overcome through the evidence they present. The arguments therefore are meant not to convince critics but rather to bolster educational leaders' resolve to stand strong in the face of opposition. The authors conclude with specific recommendations for how districts might begin the work of institutionalizing CRE so that the approach ultimately becomes taken for granted and alternatives cease to be considered.

Purpose: Civic education in the United States has received renewed attention in state-level policy making. Yet defining what citizenship education entails has been long-contested terrain. This study explores the extent to which recently adopted civic education state policies are consistent in policy messaging around desired civic outcomes and civic debt. Research Methods/Approach: This study utilized political discourse analysis to analyze all civic education state policies enacted between 2017 and 2020, which included 45 laws from 29 states, through an iterative process of open and focused coding. Findings: The vast majority of policies espoused civic republican goals, with varying degrees to which they addressed civic debt. Liberal citizenship discourses were found in less than one-fourth of policies, and critical discourses were entirely absent. Patterns emerged in civic discourses by state political identity, geographic location, and whether civic debt was addressed. Implications: Findings suggest congruence across state law in stating that the rising generation of citizens should learn about the foundations and function of government, yet a continued disconnect between marginalized youths' lived experiences of disenfranchisement and exclusion from the dominant narrative. The flood of state bills in 2021 seeking to limit the teaching of structural racism and the roots of inequalities seems to push back against "critical" policies that these findings show are not widespread. This calls for future research that examines whether these state-level trends continue amid ongoing battles over the teaching of civics and history in K-12 schools and how state-level civic discourses manifest in civics education policy classroom implementation.

Working with ethnoracially diverse student groups is a reality in most K-12 classrooms. However, studies of the impacts of professional development for cultural responsiveness have tended to use a range of approaches such as action research, video reflections, and coaching, making it difficult to tease apart the effects of each one. The purpose of this study was to focus on how action research, specifically, influences educators' culturally responsive practices. Participants found that the action research process promoted their agency to effect positive change in their schools, a key component of culturally responsive education. Although participants found it challenging to balance learning the nuances of action research and culturally responsive education simultaneously, they appreciated this as a productive struggle and adopted the same growth mindset for themselves that they encouraged in their students. Based on our results, action research appears to be a promising form of professional development for enhancing culturally responsive practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing cultural and linguistic diversities in Western countries and rapid globalization have put urgent demands on K-16 schools in terms of developing strategies to accommodate these changes. One of the critical issues for schools is to prepare pre-service and in-service teachers to work effectively with their diverse student populations. The increased calls for global and cross-cultural competence training for teachers have led many teacher education programs in the U.S. as well as other countries to offer student teaching abroad opportunities. There seems to be international consensus that student teaching abroad confers significant benefits on pre-service teachers' professional skills and dispositions, including those involved in working with students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. However, most of the research has identified these benefits through survey or interview data collected immediately upon the participants' return. Few have studied participants' teaching in the following year to explore how the international experience has been translated to their domestic contexts in terms of their cultural awareness and skills in teaching diverse students. The research questions guiding this study were: (1) How did student teaching abroad influence participants' first-year teaching practices with culturally diverse students?; and (2) How were these impacts affected by the teachers' personal and professional backgrounds and current teaching contexts and situations? The participants in the study were twelve pre-service teachers from a large university in the southeastern United States who participated in a student teaching program in Beijing, China. Qualitative case study methodology was used to gain an in-depth understanding of the complex ways in which participants applied their experiences to their subsequent teaching. Data was collected from participants for pre- and post-trip surveys, structured journals, and observations and interviews in China. A later stage of data collection included interviews and classroom observations with five self-selected participant teachers in their domestic classrooms during the following year. To triangulate the data, the principal researcher took the role of a participant observer throughout the preparatory sessions and for two weeks of the time the participants spent in China. The findings suggest that all teachers can benefit from international student teaching; thus, educational institutions should provide international opportunities and encourage students to take advantage of them. However, based on findings from this year-long study, colleges and universities can re-plan their overseas teaching programs to make them more meaningful and useful for novice teachers.

Educators today must be able to respond to the needs of an increasingly diverse student body and to teach all students the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for civic participation in a globalized, pluralist society. While state departments of education and national teacher organizations have begun to adopt global awareness in their teaching standards and evaluation tools, educators need to understand what globally competent teachers actually do in classrooms across subject areas and grade levels. This qualitative, multiple case study explores the signature pedagogies (Shulman, 2005) of 10 in-service teachers in one southeastern state who teach for global competence in math, music, science, English, social studies, and language classes across elementary, middle, and high schools. We found three signature pedagogies that characterized globally competent teaching practices across participants: 1) intentional integration of global topics and multiple perspectives into and across the standard curriculum; 2) ongoing authentic engagement with global issues; and 3) connecting teachers' global experiences, students' global experiences, and the curriculum. These signature pedagogies provide visions of possibility for concrete practices teachers can adapt to infuse global citizenship education into their own contexts and for policies that school districts and teacher education programs can consider in preparing and supporting teachers in this work.

Teacher action research has been shown to both promote professional growth in teachers as well as produce gains for students. However, to date, little research has examined how action research might contribute to systemic changes in schools and school districts. This qualitative study of six teachers from various districts, subject areas, and grade levels, illustrates how action research can have simultaneous impacts on teachers, their students, and their schools and districts. The teacher action research projects all focused on culturally relevant education and the pursuit of equity. Impacts included teachers' deepened understandings of equity and inclusivity; students' diversity awareness, positive self-identities, and access to wider opportunities; and schools' adoption of equity-focused strategies. The findings suggest that action research on culturally relevant education serves not only as a powerful form of professional development but also as a means to potentially transform schools.

In this research article, authors Hillary Parkhouse, Virginia Massaro, Melissa Cuba, and Carolyn Waters examine teachers' perceptions of their responsibilities to support undocumented students and the barriers they encounter in fulfilling them. Since the 1982 Plyler v. Doe decision guaranteed public K-12 education to undocumented students, there has been little policy guidance on how schools can support these students, particularly within the increasingly contentious political climate. Focusing on one new destination area in Virginia, the authors interviewed eighteen teachers who expressed their support for undocumented students. Of various subjects, grade levels, and years' experience, these teachers represent a critical case in that they were likely to be more attentive to the experiences of these students than would the general teacher population. They took a variety of actions to enhance students' feelings of security and normalcy through curricular decisions, emotional and material support, and adaptive advocacy at the school and district levels. However, the lack of clear policy led to varied interpretations of their responsibilities and a fear that their actions violated school or district guidelines.

When their teachers are well equipped to foster inclusive and equitable classrooms, students from marginalized communities show higher rates of academic achievement, motivation, self-confidence, and self-efficacy. However, many teachers complete preparation programs feeling underprepared to work in culturally diverse classrooms, making high-quality professional development (PD) in this area crucial. We undertook a meta-ethnographic, systematic literature review of 40 studies of multicultural education-focused PD programs in order to better understand the forms and features of such programs that contribute to teachers' self-efficacy and success in working with culturally diverse students. We found a small literature base with too much variation across types of programs studied and outcomes analyzed to draw conclusions about the factors that contribute to effectiveness. However, the extant literature does point to important questions and considerations for both providers and researchers of multicultural education PD. One area for future research is how PD providers navigate tensions or challenges arising from resistance to discussions of diversity and equity. Another is locating the balance between providing specific knowledge about students' cultures and guarding against promoting stereotypes or broad generalizations. Researchers and PD developers should also pay close attention to their underlying theories related to both teacher learning and multicultural education.

Background/Context: Within the United States, wealth disparities are growing and upward social mobility is becoming increasingly difficult to attain. These trends call into question the American Dream ideology that anyone can succeed through hard work. This meritocratic ideal has traditionally been one of the unifying ideologies promoted through the public school curriculum. The topic of economic inequality, on the other hand, is largely absent from most social studies curricula. When teachers do address this issue, they tend to omit discussions of causes or potential policy solutions. Students are thus left with few resources with which to develop positions on policies related to inequality that would help them become more informed voters and contributors to public discourse on this issue. Purposes: Critical pedagogy is an educational approach that aims to develop students' sociopolitical consciousness of the world and understanding of the underlying causes of contemporary injustices such as rising economic and social inequality. We investigated whether students in classrooms using critical pedagogy might develop understandings of the roots of contemporary inequality. Setting and Participants: The study took place in two U.S. History classrooms in culturally diverse public high schools in a midsized city in the Southeast. The classrooms were selected because both teachers demonstrated critical pedagogy by helping students question norms and analyze underlying causes of contemporary social and economic inequalities. Research Design: We used a critical case study design with ethnographic methods to examine students' understandings of structural causes of inequality in classrooms where they are most likely to encounter this knowledge, namely critical history classrooms. Data included 10 weeks of observations in both classrooms, classroom artifacts, in-depth interviews with 14 students, and two in-depth interviews with each teacher along with daily informal interviews. Findings/Results: Students critiqued the notion of the American Dream and described ways in which certain social structures such as the judicial and educational systems reproduce social inequalities. Some pointed out how the "rags to riches" ideology precludes tax structures that might reduce economic inequality. However, many also made comments reflecting a belief that the United States is indeed a meritocracy. Conclusions/Recommendations: We recommend that teachers explicitly teach the structural causes of economic inequality so that students have the language needed to understand their dual consciousness that both meritocratic elements (e.g., hard work) and nonmeritocratic elements (e.g., race, family wealth) play a role in social mobility within the United States.

While the conceptual work on critical pedagogy is undeniably rich, few empirical studies have examined its applications in K-12 classroom settings and impacts on students. Based on ethnographic research in 2 public 11th grade U.S. History classrooms with critical teachers, this article describes 3 pedagogies that enhanced students' critical consciousness and agency to act on the world: naming, questioning, and demystification. These pedagogies emerged via dialogical relations between each teacher and her particular students, in 1 particular time and place. Thus, they are not presented as models to be applied elsewhere but rather as generative examples that educators can use to consider critical pedagogy in their own contexts. In addition, the study reveals how a standards-based U.S. History curriculum--constraining though it may be--can play a role in emancipatory pedagogy. Through centering instruction on students' immediate social realities, but tying these to historical antecedents, including histories of oppression and resistance, the teachers empowered their students to name and question contemporary hegemonic forces.

As classrooms become increasingly diverse and students need more complex skills for collaboratively addressing transnational issues, we need a better understanding of the factors that contribute to globally competent teaching. Education research has highlighted the benefits of study abroad and overseas teaching, as well as local cross-cultural immersion, but these options are not always feasible. We sought to identify the various means by which teachers develop global competence. Through this qualitative case study of 10 global educators, we found that international travel, though present in some instances, was not always necessary. In fact, it was an accumulation of experiences that prompted teachers to incorporate global perspectives, lessons, and skill development throughout their careers. Thus, globally competent teaching may be better conceptualized as a path, rather than as an end goal.

In this article, I examine the potential for developing preservice social studies teachers' understanding of transformational resistance, Latin@ civil rights movements, and culturally sustaining pedagogy through a project using the film Precious Knowledge. This documentary depicts high school students in a Mexican American Studies (MAS) program using civil disobedience to protest Arizona's ban of the program. The teachers prepared for the screening by reading and responding to scholarly articles on Latin@ school engagement and Chican@ student activism. After viewing the film and engaging in small group and whole class discussions, participants reported that they learned about current and past Chican@ student movements and gained an appreciation for the transformational potential of youth civic activism. The project serves as an example of how methods instructors could use school documentaries or other films as pedagogical tools, and more specifically it suggests readings and instructional activities to pair with such films.

In this article, I examine the potential for developing preservice social studies teachers’ understanding of transformational resistance, Latin@ civil rights movements, and culturally sustaining pedagogy through a project using the film Precious Knowledge. This documentary depicts high school students in a Mexican American Studies (MAS) program using civil disobedience to protest Arizona’s ban of the program. The teachers prepared for the screening by reading and responding to scholarly articles on Latin@ school engagement and Chican@ student activism. After viewing the film and engaging in small group and whole class discussions, participants reported that they learned about current and past Chican@ student movements and gained an appreciation for the transformational potential of youth civic activism. The project serves as an example of how methods instructors could use school documentaries or other films as pedagogical tools, and more specifically it suggests readings and instructional activities to pair with such films. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]