Race-based exclusion was fundamental to the creation and segregation of US schools, and the racial school-based trauma (SBT) continues in U.S. public schools today. The stories our nation tells of desegregation – of Ruby Bridges, the Little Rock Nine – are lauded as testaments of American progress. But these stories are often told from the white-dominant perspective. In this paper, our research team of 6th and 7th-generation Black Chapel Hillians and education scholars examines retellings of school desegregation in the 1960s to bring narrative justice to America’s historical record (McGregor, 2018). Oral histories from elders about their experiences in Lincoln High School and the Orange County Training School serve as counterstories (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) that illuminate truths about community care and Black brilliance even in the face of injustice and segregation (Bullock et al., 2012). We compare the popular iconography of desegregation with the experiences of Black communities who themselves desegregated schools, revealing a chasm between reality and the false dominant narratives of US school desegregation. Our interpretive analyses and coding attend to community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005) and Systemically Trauma-Informed Practice (Authors, 2020) and contribute to findings about how whiteness operates to construct distorted desegregation narratives, erasing the school-based trauma of Black children and communities. In addition, we consider the policy- and practice-based consequences of over six decades of narrative injustice in the retelling of the history of desegregation.
Black male educators remain underrepresented in U.S. K-12 schools, and their experiences as students and teachers are shaped by intersecting social, institutional, and historical conditions. This qualitative study examines how Black men make meaning of their experiences within educational systems throughout their lives, including schooling, teaching, and post-classroom engagement, providing context for ongoing discussions of Black male educator attrition. Guided by African American Male Theory (AAMT) and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), this study uses semi-structured interviews with five former Black male K–12 educators connected to an Afrocentric, community-based cultural platform. Analysis identified six interconnected themes: personal growth and healing; disruptors of adverse patterns; vulnerability, fetishization, and care; polarizing experiences and stereotypes; community and healing; and the implications of historical misunderstanding. These themes were examined across ecological levels to situate participants’ meaning-making within individual, institutional, community, and sociohistorical contexts. Findings illustrate how Black men make meaning of their experiences as students and educators and how this meaning-making shapes their engagement with education before and after K-12 service.
This editorial introduction to the second volume of Gradient Voices in Education returns to the concept of gradient voices as a way of understanding identities, experiences, and expressions shaped through movement, contradiction, relationality, and uneven recognition. Rather than treating marginalized voices as simply additive to existing conversations about diversity, this volume positions them as central to understanding how education organizes, naturalizes, and sustains inequality. Situated within a political moment marked by intensified attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion, antiracist teaching, queer and trans life, and historical truth-telling, the special issue examines how educational institutions continue to operate through racialized, gendered, colonial, and linguistic regimes of recognition. The stories in this volume refuse to separate educational critique from lived complexity. Across critical autoethnography, collaborative autoethnography, oral history, case study, testimonio, phenomenological reflection, poetry, playlist, and Indigenous storywork, contributors show how students, educators, and scholars navigate harm, build relation, reclaim voice, and imagine otherwise within and against institutional constraints. As editors, we argue that these manuscripts are not supplemental conversations about diversity, but indispensable analyses of education itself. Together, they expose the fault lines of schooling and affirm that gradient voices are central to understanding what education has been, what it continues to reproduce, and what it might yet become.
This personal narrative explores the process of writing a phenomenological dissertation as myself, considering my layered identities as a meaningful hermeneutic approach to study design and data collection, analysis and discussion (van Manen, 2016). I examine the role of self-reflection in qualitative inqury and present three practical tools that are in line with the philosophical background of hermeneutic phenomenological research, considering the current scholarship that supports their use as devices for research, self-reflection and communication. Framed by theories of vibrant matter (Bennett, 2001, 2010) and nepantla (Anzaldúa, 2012, 2015), this piece asks the question: How can the use of tools such as personal vignettes, poetry and playlist curation support the self-reflection of authors engaged in writing a phenomenological dissertation?
This critical autoethnography examines how intersecting identities—race, gender expression, linguistic background, and migration—shape professional legitimacy in English language education. Drawing on counter‑storytelling within a Critical Race Theory and intersectionality framework, the study centers the lived experience of a Filipino‑Canadian non‑native English‑speaking teacher (NNEST) and language assessor. Narratives trace early gendered exclusion, the internalization and critique of native‑speakerism, and a shift toward intelligibility‑focused assessment and translanguaging‑informed pedagogy. The analysis demonstrates how legitimacy is negotiated across individual encounters and institutional structures, and how reflective practice transforms deficit framings into asset‑based, identity‑affirming instruction. Findings highlight three implications: (1) redefining legitimacy beyond “nativeness” to emphasize pedagogical competence and lived expertise; (2) positioning identity negotiation and resilience as central to educator development; and (3) using counter‑storytelling to challenge dominant ideologies and inform inclusive assessment. Recommendations address teacher education, mentorship, anti‑bias admissions and hiring, and policies that value multilingualism and protect gender identity and expression.
In response to the growing bans on Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) across multiple states (Shwartz, 2021), the need to listen to Black Education Spaces (BES) advocates has never been more crucial to the thriving future of Black Education (Love, 2019, 2023). This article aims to amplify the important, yet often overlooked, voices of High School Black Student Union (BSU) advisors and their experiences with mentorship. Utilizing collaborative autoethnography methodology, we, the authors as research participants, collectively explored the following research question: “How do we steward Black Educational Futures that do not perpetuate school systems’ anti-Blackness rhetoric?” Through our four vantage points on advising BSUs within the same district in the American Southwest, we offer three findings that nuance Givens’ (2021) historical framework of Fugitive Pedagogy and Warren and Coles’ (2020) conceptualization of BES. By showcasing how our layered identities as BSU advisors impacted us and our educational landscape, we wrote this article to contribute to the literature on how educators, broadly defined, can challenge inequities while fostering inclusive educational environments (Crenshaw, 1991; Yosso, 2005).
As the student population diversifies, teaching initiatives increasingly seek to recruit Teachers of Color, particularly Black men. Yet, less is known about how teachers with intersecting marginalized identities navigate their roles and impact school communities. Through a case study, this study examines how the identity of one Black gay male music teacher shapes his self-perception and interactions within his school. Data were collected through a survey, three semi-structured interviews, and school and teacher artifacts, and analyzed using Grounded Theory methods. Guided by Critical Race Theory and Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model, the findings demonstrate the added value of bringing one’s entire self and authenticity into the classroom and school environment, but require careful foregrounding and backgrounding of identities. Moreover, his presence in the school provides a counterstory and challenges dominant narratives, which he also fosters through culturally relevant pedagogy and inclusive curriculum to normalize diverse identities and broaden representations for students. These representations also positively affect his interactions with school staff, parents, and guardians. However, discussions about race remain superficial, creating tensions as he navigates intersecting identity politics within his schools. Implications suggest that deliberate, attentive listening to the stories and experiential knowledge of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color is essential to supporting diverse educators, fostering truly inclusive school environments, and guiding recruitment and retention efforts.
Storytelling is a healing act. It is how we teach others to resist and see the invisible to envision new possible worlds. My goal is to reflect through my testimonio on navigating the US education system, how my experiences have been about being submerged, floating along, and eventually, learning to swim both against and with the currents of the whitestream curricula of our educational institutions. I use the stages of drowning to help organize my testimonio as an anthology of counterstories where each story is complete and distinguishable from each other but works together towards exploring larger themes. It is important to look back at how whiteness and the whitestream maintain dominant systems. Knowing better how the currents of the whitestream ebb and flow provides opportunities to understand the morphology of the whitestream. This adds to our understanding of how to swim freely.
This autoethnographic study examines the journey of becoming a Diné asdzáán (woman) scholar through the intersections of race, language, identity, and education. Grounded in Diné epistemologies, this narrative draws on lived experience, intergenerational teachings, and relational accountability to explore how Indigenous knowledge systems shape scholarly identity and practice. The study situates personal experience within broader contexts of colonial schooling, highlighting how educational systems have contributed to the erasure of Indigenous language and knowledge while also serving as sites of resistance and resurgence. Through Indigenous storywork and interpretive autoethnography, this article illustrates how storytelling functions as both methodology and pedagogy, affirming lived experience as a legitimate and rigorous form of knowledge. Findings demonstrate that relationality, cultural grounding, and community responsibility are central to navigating and transforming academic spaces. This work contributes to scholarship on Indigenous methodologies by offering a Diné woman scholar’s narrative as a form of relational knowledge that advances Indigenous educational sovereignty and supports culturally sustaining and decolonizing approaches to education.
Queer people have long faced systematic oppression, often labeled mad or deviant for sexualities deviating from heteronormativity. This paper employs autoethnographic inquiry to assemble and queer the narratives through my personal narrative, deeply entangled with Queer Theory. My mother's "Braided Girl" story signifies how society defines gender and how cisnormativity excludes other gender expressions. Through this personal narrative, I assemble my lived experience of gender dysphoria—a struggle triggered by bodily changes and the restrictive labels assigned by a heteronormative society. I learned my body defied binary classifications and the eugenic terms. These lived experiences inform my educational practices and research ethics to avoid labeling or categorizing participants, respecting the agency for genders and sexualities. Queer narratives are plural, resisting reduction to singular categories, as a Queer account is never a fixed truth. This work transcends simple categorizations like storying, restorying, or counterstorying, instead offering a Queer narrative that critically articulates a uniquely Queer lived experience. Informed by my lived experience with gender dysphoria and the violence I encountered as a youth within home and school contexts, I argue that nonviolent, supportive environments are not merely beneficial, but mandatory. We are required to shift the educational paradigm: we must begin viewing Queer youth as inherent assets rather than as deficits.
This systematic review of reviews is an exploratory study that aims to synthesize the myriad of reviews about Problem-Based Learning (PBL) to provide a consensus regarding the definition, components, effectiveness, and most common areas of application of PBL. This will provide educators and policymakers with a robust framework to enhance instructional design and implementation in various educational contexts. The review examined 22 studies, primarily focusing on healthcare education but also including other fields. Findings indicate that PBL is consistently defined as a learner-centered approach, emphasizing collaborative learning and problem-solving. Evidence supports the effectiveness of PBL in enhancing student engagement, critical thinking, and professional competencies, although its impact on theoretical knowledge is mixed. Factors such as instructor expertise, cultural context, and subject matter influence the effectiveness of PBL.
In this editorial introduction to the Fall 2025 issue of Current Issues in Education, we explore belonging as the relational and systemic foundation of educational transformation. Building on prior discussions of equity and redesign through care, this issue highlights how belonging and agency operate across micro, meso, and macro levels—from teacher identity and classroom collaboration to institutional leadership and policy design. Across the eight articles published in this issue, authors demonstrate that transformation is sustained not by compliance or reform cycles, but by relationships that cultivate trust, capacity, and shared purpose. Together, these works illustrate how belonging can be institutionalized as both a human need and a policy imperative, shaping educational futures that are inclusive, adaptive, and rooted in connection.
Institutions of higher education face the ongoing challenge of fostering a culture that empowers students to excel academically, professionally, and personally. Such a culture requires a common understanding among all university stakeholders on what constitutes student success and how this can be achieved, and the Institutional Capacity Assessment Tool (ICAT) is one tool that can be used to establish this. Using the quantitative methods, this paper discusses how the ICAT helped one South African university assess its capacity for enabling student success and identify strengths and areas for improvement. A structured survey (the ICAT tool) was administered to gather data from institution staff and stakeholders, applying mixed methods, which combined qualitative and quantitative insights to evaluate institutional capacity comprehensively. Results show that completing the self-assessment tool enabled institutional executive management, academic support staff, and academics to evaluate their institution’s capacity to improve student success. Through ICAT, the university gained several benefits: insight into the key capacities for student success, stakeholder engagement across all areas of the institution using a common framework to share opinions and identify perception gaps, prioritization of areas for improvement, and the development of strategies to build and strengthen student success interventions.
This study explores the impact of belongingness among alternatively certified educators to identify strategies for better supporting them during their early years. Using a qualitative multicase study design, the researchers employed within-case and cross-case analysis, with each case representing an individual alternatively certified educator. Data were collected from three sources: individual meetings with the director of the alternative certification program, a belongingness survey, and a semi-structured focus group with participants. Data analysis included both within-case and cross-case approaches to identify themes across participants and address the research question. The findings hold implications for educational policy and practice, particularly in light of ongoing challenges in teacher recruitment and retention.
Recent scholarship has demonstrated the negative impacts of the pandemic on educators. However, it is less clear whether special education teachers (SETs) incurred more severe effects. This mixed-method study draws on a survey of 419 teachers from 38 schools in New York State to identify differential impacts of the pandemic on SETs. Our analysis found that SETs reported lower levels of stress compared to general education teachers and perceived that greater supports were available to them. Open-ended responses provided a space for SETs to describe the experience of teaching during the pandemic and identify particular stressors and challenges they faced. These findings hold important implications for the SET workforce as stress is a major factor linked to the educator shortages facing many schools. Ensuring that SETs are supported and retained is critical to ensuring the needs of students receiving special education services are being met in the post-pandemic era.
In the realm of literacy education, curriculum is driven by politics, finances, standardization, and accountability. How specified curricular materials make their way into the classroom often baffles educators. The one thing they know is it is "isn't the one we voted for." This study includes a review of literature on how curricula were historically adopted and provides a current view of how literacy curricula are selected across multiple states. To make the adoption process more visible and discernable, participants provided visual diagrams combined with interviews. Actor Network Theory allowed us to examine not only the actors but the flow of decision making and the hierarchies within. Results in process and flow varied, but the one common finding is that classroom educators were not the most essential actors in this adoption network.
Novice teachers of Color (TOC) leave the profession at higher rates than their White peers, often due to inadequate preparation, poor working conditions, and racialized school climates. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory, this study investigates how structural factors influence the decisions of novice dual-certified TOC who leave, move, or remain in the profession. As part of a larger research project, in this quantitative study, we surveyed 17 participants who completed a dual general and special education undergraduate program at a Historically Black College and University (HBCU). Through our analysis we identified four primary drivers of retention: educator preparation; mentorship; administrative and district support; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Findings provide empirical evidence that novice dual-certified TOC navigate unique challenges and supports that influence their professional trajectories. Implications emphasize the importance of educator preparation, intentional mentorship, and systemic reforms at school and district levels, with recommendations for future research to address teacher attrition and retention.
American education has inherited beliefs and practices unaligned with 21st-century needs, which prevents us from providing an appropriate education to many students. To reimagine education, we must understand tensions between shifting societal values, developmental goals, and educational structures. After discussing some of the values that pull education toward different goals, the authors present several lessons learned from Gifted and Talented Education pertinent to changing broader educational structures. Pivoting away from the age-in-grade model to one that flexibly addresses diverse individual learning pathways can help to increase equity and excellence, as well as develop individual talent for self-fulfillment and societal betterment.
Wide agreement exists about the value and power of learning in social contexts, and social influences on learning have been studied from multiple perspectives. However, before this study, no known measure of the value of learning that happens in social spaces had been developed. This study introduces a scale to measure value created through participation in social learning spaces as theorized by Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner (2020). Data were collected from 18 distinct ECHO® education and health learning communities in New Mexico, Oklahoma, India, and Nigeria. These ECHO® communities align with the conceptualization of social learning spaces. Findings resulted in a parsimonious survey that represents the distinct cycles of value creation. The results of the CFA support the validation of this scale and suggest that the instrument accurately represents the value cycles in Wenger-Trayner and Wenger-Trayner’s (2020) framework. This protocol has utility across educational institutions, organizations, and agencies.
Our prior research with indigenous school children and adolescents in Perú, often in remote high-altitude Andean locations, mostly centres on an exploration of health and school performance and their relation to the practice of Transcendental Meditation, an easy-to-learn technique for mental and physiological rest and stress reduction. We have established that higher levels of health and school performance are associated with regularity of meditation practice, but most attempts to identify a causal link between the two have been deferred until more reliable data were available. The present cross-sectional study of 248 students seeks to build on these earlier findings in three ways: first, we have expanded the variable range from health and school performance to now include personal wellbeing as a measure of student development; second, we compare present educational outcomes at three new schools in Cusco, Huancayo, and Acomayo with normative data from five other schools located throughout Perú and with international settings; and third, using multiple linear regression, we endeavour to establish preliminary evidence for a possible causal link between the regularity with which students practice Transcendental Meditation (y) and physical health, cognitive health, emotional health, school performance, and personal wellbeing (x). The preliminary results mostly support, and in some cases strengthen, our earlier findings about the relationship of Transcendental Meditation to health and school performance, and now includes personal wellbeing. We conclude that controlled, longitudinal research of meditation, health and wellbeing may be warranted in primary and secondary school settings in Perú.
