School environments in Finland are changing from traditional classrooms towards more flexible architectures. This change invites designers and commercial organizations to take part in re-thinking these environments by creating narratives of desirable educational environments. Their comprehensive furniture solutions promise flexible entities,…

In a socio-political moment marked by attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, the preparation of middle level teacher learners to engage in social justice advocacy (SJA) within their spheres of influence is imperative. In this article, I share a Social Justice Action Project I use to support teacher learners in engaging in SJA within…

Fostering a sense of belonging is fundamental to recommended organizational structures in middle grades schools including interdisciplinary teams, advisory relationships, flexible instructional schedules, and heterogeneous grouping. Middle grades educators must ensure that organizational structures support a sense of belonging and also…

As the youth mental health crisis continues to worsen, there is a need for more evidence-based social-emotional interventions that can be applied in schools -- the setting in which youth are most likely to seek and receive mental health treatment (Simon et al., 2015). Further, exploring ways to culturally adapt interventions for marginalized…

What does it mean to have mathematical authority? How does it differ from pedagogical authority? We drew upon Goffman's (1981) ideas of author and animator to exemplify modes of mathematical authority that extend beyond the authorship of ideas. Through a series of excerpts from lessons in middle-grades mathematics classrooms, this paper emphasizes…

School and district leaders are challenged to communicate with transparency and positivity with families and communities; however, over the past decade, social media has become an important avenue for communication. An appropriate use of social media can be a delicate endeavor, as errors in use or negative reactions can become a flashpoint. This…

In this paper, we propose a teaching approach centered on community and care, aimed at fostering a democratic classroom environment. We highlight the communal co-creation of the Rights of the Learner (RoTL) as the foundation for establishing a shared responsibility atmosphere. Our interpretation of the RoTL challenges traditional power dynamics,…

The purpose of this article is to show how instruction that supports both mathematical learning (ML) and social and emotional learning (SEL) creates opportunities for equity. In fall 2020, the first author observed the co-authors, Ms. Wong and Mrs. Silverstein, providing instruction that supports ML and SEL in their hybrid ninth-grade algebra 1…

Sustained inquiry between school administrators and mental health professionals around critical incidents, school policy, and problems of practice is required to mitigate inequities so prominently illuminated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Collaboration between school stakeholders with different role identities and positionalities gainfully blurs…

As the number of displaced people increases, providing refugee-background students with critically engaging classrooms is essential. Supporting diverse learners, while focusing on issues of social justice and equity, critical literacy facilitates a perspective where texts are analyzed for underlying messages of power and sociopolitical issues.…

Schools are characterized by nearly constant internal and external demands to change, grow, and improve. Past research has found that the way educators "make sense" of what they are being asked to do bears on the effectiveness of reforms and the way changes are implemented in practice. Much of this past work takes a cognitive approach to…

Widespread global interest and adoption of deliberative democracy approaches to reinvigorate citizenship and policymaking in an era of democratic crisis/decline has been mirrored by increasing interest in deliberation in schools, both as an approach to pedagogy and student empowerment and as a training ground for deliberative citizenship. In…

In this article, the authors focus on how educators can use their responsibility and power to create learning spaces that foster change by empowering Black and Brown students to emancipate themselves through a process of critically dreaming (Wellington, 2023). The authors approach this work as a West Indian Black woman and a white woman from the…

Much has been written in recent years about how historical scholarship can be used to shape practice in the classroom. As an historian of the medieval period now working as an history teacher, Dhwani Patel offers a fresh perspective on these debates. During her PGCE year, Patel found herself reflecting on how the lenses and methodologies that…

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a plethora of problems globally for school boards, administrators, and teachers of science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics (STEAM). From the beginning of 2020, marginalized students--those who live in low-socioeconomic environments or come from traditionally underrepresented communities or…