Our contribution depicts the emerging of a 'Deficit Perspectives' scale (Döll et al., 2021) by surveying prospective primary level teachers' deficit perspectives regarding migration-related multilingual pupils, based on the theoretical framework of Migration Pedagogy (Mecheril, 2015). We therefore collected and analysed qualitative and…

This report highlights the enduring importance of our Young Readers Programme by providing children with impactful positive reading experiences as well as opportunities to choose and, crucially, keep books. This is particularly important for children from disadvantaged backgrounds, with over 1 in 4 children who receive free school meals telling us…

Jean Kirshner holds a Ph.D. in Education and Human Resource Development from Colorado State University and specializes in literacy and teacher education. Jean started her career as the Early Childhood Director at Saint Ignatius Grammar School, Chicago in 1988. After two years she joined the Child Opportunity Program in Denver as a Head Start…

Family literacy programmes operate on the periphery of American education and often employ a deficit orientation toward minoritized families; still, parents view these programmes as language-learning resources. This ethnographic study explores the experiences of Latina mothers enrolled in a school-based family literacy programme in Nebraska to…

In this paper, I look at multiple layers of context to explore the "figured world" of mathematics teaching in primary schools in Chile. I collected data from 15 teachers during 18 months after their participation in professional development for collaborative problem-solving mathematics. I found constraints to impact on the teachers'…

Research has shown educators' implicit biases to be a key factor in creating and perpetuating disparities in students' experiences of schooling, learning, and longer-term outcomes, including job opportunities, wealth, and health. Current school reform and transformation efforts are aimed at addressing institutionalized racism in school policies,…

The papers making up this Special Section reveal important findings and begin to fill gaps in existing literature about children's and young people's understanding and developing beliefs about socio-economic inequality and poverty. We draw on our research experience with children growing up in poverty in Ethiopia, India, Peru, and Vietnam (Young…

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly affected K-12 education worldwide, Peru has faced particularly unique challenges. A combination of quarantine requirements and unequal access to remote learning technology led to the creation of a series of multimodal programs by Peru's Ministry of Education under the umbrella title Aprendo en Casa [I…

The Student Achievement Initiative (SAI) is the guiding framework for the Washington state community and technical college system's goals for student success. SAI emphasizes student momentum for college success by both building college readiness (such as basic skills gains and completion of precollege education, sometimes known as developmental…

In 2010, the province of Ontario introduced a new universal two-year play-based full-day kindergarten program. The authors exploited the phasing-in of this program over five years, allowing a natural experiment in which children from full-day kindergarten could be compared with those from half-day kindergarten in matched neighborhoods. Children (N…

This paper reviews prior research to assess the effectiveness of Title I in closing the achievement gaps of disadvantaged students vis-à-vis their non-disadvantaged counterparts. A research synthesis approach is adopted to summarize national assessments of Title I conducted between 1966 and 2011. These analyses are supplemented by the authors'…

This article reports on an action-research study which examined the impact of a radio program as a strategy to develop the speaking skills of a mixed course at a private institution in Colombia. Hence, data were collected from 18 students through tests, surveys, field notes, and interviews. The results indicate that there is an important…

There is increasing evidence that addressing children's social and emotional needs has a positive impact on students' performance, their attitudes about school and the relationships that take place in educational settings. This study is focused on identifying the conditions that support teachers' development and implementation of Social Emotional…

The "David" is Fern Creek Elementary, a small urban school in Orlando, Florida, that serves an overwhelmingly disadvantaged student population. The "Goliaths" are the mountains of problems that many inner-city students face--poverty, homelessness, mobility, instability, limited parent involvement, and violent neighborhood…

The School Completion Programme (SCP) was first established in Ireland in 2002 with what appeared to resemble a "bottom up" model of support. The programme was based on authentic effort at partnership with schools, parents and relevant agencies through local management committees and enjoyed a fair share of autonomy in how they would…