This study presents data gathered from an international service-learning experience in Costa Rica situated within a foreign language methodology course. Research has shown the benefits of international experiences on teacher education in raising participants' awareness of the importance of teaching for cultural relevance; however, legislation in some states limits such efforts. Data include participant responses to writing prompts and interviews reflecting on their experience in Costa Rica. Overall, participants reported that their commitment to culturally relevant education increased but highlighted the challenges that exist for implementation in the United States due to legislative restrictions. Discussion and implications focus on empowering teachers to resist self-censoring and to continue advocacy work.
Picturebooks are powerful tools for fostering social awareness, critical thinking, and transformative learning across all educational levels. This article explores how interactive read-alouds in higher education, specifically teacher education, can cultivate a learning community that nurtures students' critical consciousness and commitment to social justice. Grounded in theories by Rosenblatt, Bruner, and Freire, it highlights the ability of picturebooks to promote empathy, challenge biases, and analyze systemic inequities through critical literacy practices. Drawing on the author's reflective notes, preservice teacher course artifacts, and weekly planning data, the article outlines practical strategies for teacher educators to incorporate picturebooks into their teaching, offering guidelines to support equity, inclusivity, and action. By bridging theory and practice, picturebooks inspire reflection, dialogue, and the development of just and inclusive educational environments.
This work highlights the ways refugee-background newcomer youth and families enact agency and engender self-definition spaces and practices. This focus elevates their experience and shifts away from deficit-based perspectives in popular discourses, in order to equip educators for teaching and engaging that are equitable, culturally-sustaining and dignity-conferring. I build on scholarship that centers the knowledge and ways of being of newcomers-including perspectives from critical refugee studies-and include findings from my ethnographic work in educational and community spaces of refugee background youth. I argue for foregrounding newcomers' self-definition processes, which are on-going and formative, and are employed not only for adaptation to the new context of reception, but also as ways to resist confining or dehumanizing labels and narratives.
