This qualitative case study focused on an afterschool program having trained teachers to adequately address the needs of students with autism. The implementations of afterschool programs for students with autism are to have qualified teachers that are prepared to help students. Therefore, the specific problem addressed, was the lack of…

In this study, I conducted three separate, but interrelated studies that examine the ways preservice teachers (PSTs) generatively developed youth-centered, equity-oriented pedagogical imaginaries in their methods courses and how they enacted these practice(s) in their field experiences. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand how and in…

Accountability mandates linked to state education standards and assessments have largely replaced play in early childhood classrooms. This approach limits educators' opportunities by preventing them from using play as a means of identifying and expanding children's diverse range of competencies. In this ethnographic case study, we explore how…

This multiple case study is part of a larger investigation of literacy practices in "Our Home," an after-school program that provides learning support to children from refugee backgrounds. I asked, "What happens when translingual children from refugee backgrounds respond to multicultural, transnational, and translingual…

Little work examines the nexus of student homelessness and afterschool provision. This critical ethnographic case study of organizational culture draws from observation, documents, and interviews with youth experiencing homelessness, staff, and volunteers at a community-based afterschool center for youth experiencing homelessness. It explores how…

Gender in physical education (PE) traditionally enacts discourses of hegemonic masculinities where girls are frequently positioned as the 'problem' regarding their disengagement. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of mostly ethnic minority and low-socioeconomic status elementary school girls enrolled in an urban…

Little is known about why people decide to mentor in the context of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning. The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify the motivations of undergraduate student mentors working in an afterschool STEM program for underrepresented elementary schoolboys. We used self-determination theory…

The concepts of "culturally relevant pedagogy" and "culturally responsive teaching" have been interpreted and enacted in various ways for over two decades. Informed by this research, the author shares a critical approach to teaching and learning using "sociotransformative constructivism" (sTc). This framework merges…

This qualitative study draws from an after-school service project conducted by three research professors located in the Southeastern United States. Students from a local Boys and Girls Club were given an opportunity to participate in an integrated literacy, science, and mathematics program. The program was geared towards African American students…

We present an analysis of three 9th grade integrated mathematics lessons in which a group of teachers and researchers redesigned a sequence of lessons with the goal of engaging a linguistically diverse group of students in productive and powerful discussions (Herbel-Eisenmann et al. 2013). The three lessons were part of a design experiment. Two…

Getting more young people engaged in STEM is essential in part because jobs in STEM continue to grow at rates double those of non-STEM professions. Providing greater opportunities for STEM learning isn't just about preparing the future workforce. As the world continues to rely more and more on technology, everyone will require a greater level of…

This article explores the All-Day Neighborhood Schools (ADNS) program, operated as a partnership between the New York City Board of Education and local philanthropists from 1936 to 1971. Designed to expand the resources available to children and parents, the program included after-school activities, additional teachers, professional development,…

Out-of-school time (OST) programs can play an important role in fostering the development of literacy skills among children and youth. To investigate the variety of literacy skill-building strategies OST programs use, researchers from the National Institute on Out-of-School Time (NIOST) examined the practices of 31 programs in Massachusetts. This…

The Wallace Foundation's Partnerships for Social and Emotional Learning Initiative is a six-year initiative that The Wallace Foundation launched in 2017 to explore whether and how children benefit when schools and their out-of-school-time programs partner to improve social and emotional learning (SEL), as well as what it takes to do this work.…

This article presents three Bengali-English digital stories as vignettes and analyses young people's intercultural encounters as a moving story between Dhaka and London. The research case study is part of an international project, Critical Connections: Multilingual Digital Storytelling (2012-present), which links language and intercultural…