In this paper, we entangle Latino/a youth activism with ritual culture in U.S. higher education. Specifically, we analyze ethnographically-generated data from Gildersleeve's (2015; 2016) study of Latino graduation ceremonies, emplacing our analyses within new materialist philosophy. We theorize the Latino graduation ceremony as assemblage…

This article examines the ways in which citizenship status uniquely shapes both the access and persistence of undocumented community college students in the Central Valley of California. Drawing on more than 2 years of qualitative fieldwork, it is argued that undocumented community college students navigate an institutional landscape of…

This study examines the role of implicit theories of change in inhibiting STEM reform and identifies a range of approaches to help change agents alter their implicit beliefs in order to develop more explicit theories of change. Through observations and interviews, we focus on the experience of reform teams on 11 campuses that were involved in a…

In this study, we told the story of a Kenyan couple, B. and F., who has left Kenya and moved to Southern California. We followed a narrative inquiry framework, using Clandinin and Connelly's (2000) guidelines. We delineated core components of narrative inquiry research, as well as related the journey of B. and F., who have created dual lives in…

This brief documents the expansion of instructional specialist staffing in U.S. public school districts. We use data from the National Center of Education Statistics' annual Common Core of Data to chart staffing trends in public school districts between 1997-98 and 2012-13. The number of instructional specialists per 1,000 U.S students doubled…

This brief documents the expansion of instructional specialist staffing in U.S. public school districts. We use data from the National Center of Education Statistics' annual Common Core of Data to chart staffing trends in public school districts between 1997-1998 and 2012-2013. The number of instructional specialists per 1,000 U.S students doubled…

"Some are born great; some achieve greatness; and some have greatness thrust upon them." "Twelfth Night," Act 3 Scene 4. This article examines the differences and similarities between two faculty members as they discuss their entry into the academy after successfully teaching in secondary schools. Both brought with them the…

Proposition 10, also known as the California Children and Families Act of 1998, is the legislation for creating Kern County Children and Families Commission (First 5 Kern). Over the past 15 years, First 5 Kern administered a trust fund from a $.50 per pack tax on cigarettes or equivalent tobacco products to support children ages 0-5 and their…

In 2006, New Leaders contracted with RAND to conduct an independent evaluation of its principal-preparation program. The analysis included all principals who have been prepared by New Leaders since the inception of the program, comparing outcomes of their students and outcomes of similar students in other, comparable schools in the same districts.…

The artmaking process is increasingly accepted in experimental forms of qualitative ethnographic, narrative, and phenomenological research in the social sciences, psychology, and education. Some artists and art educators are taking idea of using art practice in research a step further and claiming that art practice is research. That is to say,…

Cross-cultural interactions are inherently emotional processes because they involve a considerable amount of uncertainty and a potential for misunderstanding. This study aims to fill a gap in the literature by designing an easy-to-implement teaching module that brings emotions and emotional awareness more centrally into analysis of cross-cultural…

Existing knowledge and beliefs related to HIV vaccines provide an important basis for the development of risk communication messages to support future HIV vaccine dissemination. This study explored HIV vaccine mental models among adults from segments of the population disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS. Nine focus groups were conducted with…

Focusing on identity development explorations enables a greater understanding of contexts that affect immigrant adolescents. Utilizing thematic and grounded narrative analysis of 46 journal writings, during a one-month period, from first and second generation Vietnamese adolescents ranging in age from 15 to 18 (26 residents of a culturally and…

This article reports findings from a qualitative study of Spanish-English code-switching--or "Spanglish"--among bilingual Latina/Latino sixth graders at a middle school in East Los Angeles. Analysis of the data revealed significant parallels between the skills embedded in students' everyday use of "Spanglish" and the skills…

As a white, working middle-class adult queer from the Southwest USA, my subjective relation to the Mexican (im)migrant, poor, working, straight adolescent boys in California participating in my study was tentative, politicized, controversial, and surveilled from both social and individual lenses. Our relationships were also mutually caring,…