Scope of the Book: Personal~Passionate~Participatory Inquiry into Social Justice in Education, the first book in the series, features 14 programs of social justice oriented research on life in schools, families, and communities. This work, done by a diverse group of practitioner researchers, educators, and scholars, connects the personal with the political, the theoretical with the practical, and research with social and educational change. These inquiries demonstrate three distinct qualities. Each is personal, compelled by values and experiences researchers bring to the work. Each is passionate, grounded in a commitment to social justice concerns of people and places under consideration. Each is participatory, built on long-term, heart-felt engagement, and shared efforts. The principle aspect of the inquiries featured in the book series that distinguish it from others is that researchers are not detached observers, nor putatively objective recorders, but active participants in schools, families, and communities. Researchers have explicit research agendas that focus on equity, equality, and social justice. Rather than aiming solely at traditional educational research outcomes, positive social and educational change is the focal outcome of inquiry. The researchers are diverse and their inquiries are far ranging in terms of content, people and geographic locations studied. These studies reflect new and exciting ways of researching and representing experience of the disenfranchised, underrepresented, and invisible groups seldom discussed in the literature, and challenge stereotypical or deficit oriented perspectives on these groups. This book informs pre-service and in-service teachers, educators, educational researchers, administrators, and educational policy makers, particularly those who advocate for people who are marginalized and those who are committed to the enactment of social justice and positive educational and social change.

In Internationalizing Teacher Education for Social Justice: Theory, Research, and Practice, editors Suniti Sharma, JoAnn Phillion, Jubin Rahatzad, and Hannah L. Sasser present a collection of personal, passionate, and participatory global perspectives of teacher educators on internationalizing teacher education for social justice. The reader will encounter each author’s personal and professional journey into global classrooms for internationalizing teacher education and supporting future teachers in developing competencies necessary for addressing the academic needs of diverse K-12 classrooms. This collection provides a broad, critical, and interpretive overview of shifts in U.S. and global perspectives to offer transformative frameworks and strategies on preparing K-12 teachers to meet the complex demands for skills in the twenty-first century. The global tenor of this book, framed by theory, research, and practice spanning several countries provides a timely contribution to internationalizing teacher education for social justice in the twenty-first century. The authors’ dedication to preparing teachers who have knowledge of world cultures and global issues, combined with a deep commitment to social justice for promoting equity in education, informs each chapter. The authors take up the internationalization of teacher education for social justice as both an opportunity and a challenge, transcending rhetoric to meaningful action, situating their global understanding to inform readers of critical engagement with, and examination of, theory, research, and practice for effecting social and educational change.

Indigenizing Education: Transformative Research, Theories, and Praxis brings various scholars, educators, and community voices together in ways that reimagines and recenters learning processes that embody Indigenous education rooted in critical Indigenous theories and pedagogies. The contributing scholar-educators speak to the resilience and strength embedded in Indigenous knowledges and highlight the intersection between research, theories, and praxis in Indigenous education. Each of the contributors share ways they engaged in transformative praxis by activating a critical Indigenous consciousness with diverse Indigenous youth, educators, families, and community members. The authors provide pathways to reconceptualize and sustain goals to activate agency, social change, and advocacy with and for Indigenous peoples as they enact sovereignty, selfeducation, and Native nation-building. The chapters are organized across four sections, entitled Indigenizing Curriculum and Pedagogy, Revitalizing and Sustaining Indigenous Languages, Engaging Families and Communities in Indigenous Education, and Indigenizing Teaching and Teacher Education. Across the chapters, you will observe dialogues between the scholar-educators as they enacted various theories, shared stories, indigenized various curriculum and teaching practices, and reflected on the process of engaging in critical dialogues that generates a (re)new(ed) spirit of hope and commitment to intellectual and spiritual sovereignty. The book makes significant contributions to the fields of critical Indigenous studies, critical and culturally sustaining pedagogy, and decolonization.

In Queer Multicultural Social Justice Education: Curriculum (and Identity) Development Through Performance, I take a pragmatic approach sharing my intimate journey, my stories, and myself with you—the reader—as I actively perform and model the development of queer explorations (i.e., lessons) and curriculum. I begin this journey with three accessible histories of multicultural education, queer perspectives, and autoethnography, respectively. These easy-to-navigate stories provide you with important background knowledge, highlighting the evolution of, commonalities between, and need for each discipline, along with their connection to identity and identity awareness as a form of social justice practice and advancement. Next, I share and perform the nine explorations developed for this project, collectively titled Queer Explorations of Identity Awareness. Modeling for you in practical terms how to queer curriculum and its development, I openly examine my raw performances, discuss my personal and analytical reflections, and embrace my own personal experiences and revelations that occurred throughout this project. Finally, I close with a creative, reflective, and story-like analysis of the process that includes a call to action from you to share your stories as a way of knowing yourself—and others—as a form of social justice education and advancement. This book is intended for all formal and informal educators interested in performing and developing queer multicultural social justice curriculum and practices. Inspired by Ayers (2006), I invite you on this “voyage” with “hope and urgency” (p. 83). It is time we share our stories as a form of curriculum, activism, and coming together.

This narrative ethnography adopts an aesthetic lens to relay the various lived experiences of a non-traditional, Midwestern public high school during its final year in its original building. Extending upon previous research of high school dropouts, I examine how this one particular high school incorporated a self-paced curriculum with a focus on “family” to address the unique learning needs of students at risk of not graduating. By employing elements of grounded theory, narrative inquiry, and autoethnography, I share the stories of Walgut High School’s (a pseudonym) roughly sixty students as they struggle to navigate their respective roles in a dominant cultural narrative to which they’ve never felt like they belonged. Through the extensive and organic voices of the primary participants—as well as my observations of my own participation in the school culture over the course of a year—this project serves to offer insights not only into the school experiences of marginalized adolescents, but also into Walgut’s myriad successes and failures. In particular, this piece highlights the vitality of unconditionally caring or “hospitable” teachers (Derrida, 2000), while ultimately questioning the presumed utility of a high school diploma. The story concludes not by lauding the alternative mine created for Walgut’s canaries, but by questioning the purpose and stability of all scholastic minds. As American schools continue making strides to accommodate and support the complex and oftentimes contradictory needs of their students, what it means to succeed as a teacher in (and prepare teachers for) these diversified, inclusive learning spaces is growing increasingly complicated. Indeed, given the shifting paradigm of American public education, teacher preparation programs must continue to adapt their practices and philosophies in order to equip their teacher candidates with the skills needed not only to thrive but also find purpose and meaning in schools similar to this project’s Walgut. While this book doesn’t claim to offer any answers to the myriad questions concerning the future of public schools, it does endeavor to offer a springboard from which all education stakeholders can continue engaging in healthy and productive discussions of how best to prepare students (and teachers) for autonomous, democratic, curious, creative, and compassionate citizenship both in and apart from their academic communities. To this end, rather than write from a detached, traditionally academic vantage, I have sought in these pages to compose from a personal (albeit limited), passionate (albeit subjective) and participatory (albeit someone marginalized) perspective. In my pursuit of social justice for the characters of Walgut High School, I begin first by exposing my own privileged role in perpetuating injustice. Only through recognizing and naming our own demons can we ever begin to exorcize the System writ large. Thus, in this book’s lack, there is possibility; in its futility, hope.

In Beyond Retention: Cultivating Spaces of Equity, Fairness, and Justice for Women of Color in U.S. Higher Education, Brenda Marina and Sabrina N. Ross address the continued underrepresentation of women faculty of color at predominantly White colleges and universities through a creative convergence of scholarship focused on intellectual activism and structural change. Inspired by the African American oral tradition of call and response, this text illuminates the calls, or personal narratives of women faculty of color who identify racialized, gendered, sexualized, and class-based challenges associated with work in predominantly White institutions. Accounts of social justice-oriented strategies, policies, and practices that support women faculty of color and reflections by women of color who are senior faculty members serve as literal and metaphorical responses. The convergence of calls for social justice and equity-minded responses and reflections in this text provide intellectual foundations for the development of higher education spaces where women faculty of color can thrive. Beyond Retention is a critical geographic project intended to identify and mitigate structures of oppression that act as barriers to the full incorporation of women of color in predominantly White academic contexts. This text will be of interest to scholars interested in curriculum topics of race, gender, sexuality, and place. The text offers strategies for coping and success for women of color in doctoral programs, faculty positions, and mid-level administration positions within the academy; as such, Beyond Retention will be a valuable addition to the reading libraries of each of these groups. Men and women with interests in the experiences of educators of color within predominantly White contexts will also gain valuable insights from this book, as will individuals interested in various areas of women studies, multicultural education, and diversity. Beyond Retention also provides accounts of practices and policies that have been successful in supporting the needs of women faculty of color; knowledge gained from this text will be useful for higher education administrators seeking to improve the campus climate for faculty of color. Additionally, human resource directors, equal opportunity specialists and diversity trainers will find this text helpful when considering strategies for managing diversity.

The issue of social justice has been brought to the forefront of society within recent years, and educational institutions have become an integral part of this critical conversation. Classroom settings are expected to take part in the promotion of inclusive practices and the development of culturally proficient environments that provide equal and effective education for all students regardless of race, gender, socio-economic status, and disability, as well as from all walks of life. The scope of these practices finds itself rooted in curriculum, teacher preparation, teaching practices, and pedagogy in all educational environments. Diversity within school administrations, teachers, and students has led to the need for socially just practices to become the norm for the progression and advancement of education worldwide. In a modern society that is fighting for the equal treatment of all individuals, the classroom must be a topic of discussion as it stands as a root of the problem and can be a major step in the right direction moving forward. Research Anthology on Instilling Social Justice in the Classroom is a comprehensive reference source that provides an overview of social justice and its role in education ranging from concepts and theories for inclusivity, tools, and technologies for teaching diverse students, and the implications of having culturally competent and diverse classrooms. The chapters dive deeper into the curriculum choices, teaching theories, and student experience as teachers strive to instill social justice learning methods within their classrooms. These topics span a wide range of subjects from STEM to language arts, and within all types of climates: PK-12, higher education, online or in-person instruction, and classrooms across the globe. This book is ideal for in-service and preservice teachers, administrators, social justice researchers, practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in how social justice is currently being implemented in all aspects of education.