The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (2010) encourages teachers and their students to "use the target language as exclusively as possible (90% plus) at all levels of instruction during instructional time and, when feasible, beyond the classroom," and local boards of education around the world, including here in…

Role models and motivators can influence young people in a general sense and have a significant effect on their values and beliefs. As part of a larger project, we investigated the presence of L2 (second language) role models and motivators among 12 Japanese high school students (aged between 15 and 18), who took part in one-to-one interviews with…

How can we inspire our youth to consistently do what is right? Lectures and readings on ethics could help, but are unlikely to spur intrinsic motivation. A more comprehensive option is to aid in the development of a characterbased moral identity which will stay with them as they grow. The development of a moral identity is desirable because it can…

The gender dimension of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) has intrigued social scientists for a long time. Although in India, women's entry to STEM higher education has been improving over the last few decades, the reality of premier institutions remains broadly unaltered. The current qualitative research was an attempt: (a)…

Female role models show promise for inoculating women against the harmful impact of stereotypes impugning their ability in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM, e.g., Dasgupta in Psychol Inq 22(4):231-246, 2011). We conducted a test of an intervention to leverage the benefits of STEM role models. Female STEM majors (N = 72) in their…

This meta-analysis synthesizes research on using ingroup role models to improve the performance and interest of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). A systematic literature search resulted in forty-five studies that met the selection criteria, including the presence of a comparison group. Both lab and…

This paper presents a novel approach to teaching how vaccines work in the body, and introduces a community outreach project and activity we piloted with youth. Our Nuestra Ciencia program addresses scientific misconceptions among bilingual elementary school children in engaging and scientifically accurate ways. Utilizing analogies and…

Black women teachers have a legacy rooted in resisting and disrupting racism and racialization in schools. Yet, stories of Black women teachers enacting their liberatory pedagogy in mathematics go untold. This study centers Black women mathematics teachers' liberatory stances towards teaching mathematics to Black, Latinx, and Southeast Asian…

This case study aims to investigate the effectiveness of an online science enhancement program in retaining ethnic minority students in science by providing them with opportunities to interact with cultural role-models of scientists and engineers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study draws on foundational theories of identity formation and…

The historical context of education in the United States reveals a consistent failure by American schooling to effectively educate Black boys. Multiple indicators of how Black male students are underserved have necessitated interventions to reverse decades of adverse outcomes. The single-gender school design became one such intervention dedicated…

Postgraduate output is important in any country's knowledge development and their knowledge economy. The development of postgraduate output especially at master's and PhD levels in South Africa is at risk due to its slow pace. An argument that can be made is that undergraduate experiences lend to postgraduate access and success. This article…

The annual "National Council for the Social Studies" (NCSS) Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People list often contains picture books that profile citizen role models--people who worked to change society for the better. In 2018 the list includes beautiful, thoughtful biographies of people who chose "doing good" over…

The perceptions of students interested in STEM, particularly those too often excluded due to race and/or gender, are necessary to create educational experiences that additively contribute to students' access and inclusion in STEM. The purpose of this inquiry was to understand the perceptions of 34 high-school students about race and gender…

Experiences of non-heterosexual teachers are relatively understood, but little work focuses explicitly on LGBTQ+, pre-service teachers and none in the Australian context. Alsup's ([2006]. "Teacher Identity Discourses: Negotiating Personal and Professional Spaces." New York: Routledge.) borderland discourse is used to explore the role of…

Studies consistently show benefits of teacher-student race/ethnicity matching, with some suggestion that these effects are driven by role modeling. We explore this hypothesis by examining effects on the educational outcomes of Black and Hispanic students for exposure to same-race/ethnicity professional staff (e.g., administrators, counselors),…