Advancing Critical Pedagogy and Praxis Across Educational Settings is both an inquiry and response of gratitude to the work of critical scholars, educators, practitioners, and researchers who honor the complex realities of partnerships between school communities and institutions of higher education. This volume centers the voices of those who explore across time and in between spaces to illuminate synergistic approaches, pathways to new ideas and consciousness, relationships of mutual respect, and human-centered perspectives. This collective of narratives reveals the power of local schools and communities partnering with universities and organizations to disrupt inequitable social processes. The authors interrogate the creation and permeation of boundaries to understand interconnectivity of educational practices, community, and the impact of social contexts.
Leanne M. Evans is an associate professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her research and teaching interests are focused on culturally responsive, equity-oriented teacher education practice in urban schooling.
Kelly R. Allen is an assistant professor in the College of Education and Human Development at Augusta University. Guided by perspectives grounded in critical race theory and Black feminism, Kelly’s research examines hip-hop education as a liberatory praxis.
Crystasany R. Turner is an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Her teaching and research focus includes early childhood education for social justice, culturally sustaining pedagogies and policies, and Black feminist epistemologies.
Foreword
Elizabeth R. Drame List of Figures and Tables
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: A Conscious Exploration of Mattering in Collaborations across Educational Settings
Leanne M. Evans, Kelly R. Allen and Crystasany R. Turner
PART 1: Cultivating Relationships with Youth, Families, and Communities
1 Reflections on Advancing Critical Collaborative Work across Educational Settings
Leanne M. Evans, Kelly R. Allen and Crystasany R. Turner
2 “You’re Not Just Here to Tell Me What to Do?”: A Study in Standing Under
Jennie Baumann
3 Let’s Take the Book off the Shelf: Using the StoryWalk® Method in Early Childhood Spaces
Samina Hadi-Tabassum and Nerissa Kuebrich
4 Slowly Lighting Fires: The Impact of Community School Partnerships
Leanne M. Evans
PART 2: Educator Voices
5 Co-designing a Justice-Centered
STEM
Teacher Professional Learning Project
Cory Buxton, Karla Hale, Jay Well, Diana Crespo Camacho, Barbara Ettenauer and Felisha Dake
6 “The Fact Is, This Was My Life”: Black Educators’ Privileging of Experiential Knowledge in School-University Partnerships
Kelly R. Allen
7 Preservice Teachers Honoring Emergent Bilingual Students: Creating and Enacting Equity-Oriented Science and Engineering Activities in Elementary Grades
Max Vazquez Dominguez, Romola Bernard, Sheri Hardee, Lorraine Ramirez Villarin and Winnie Namatovu
8 Advancing Critical Praxis through Action Research
Luisiana Meléndez
PART 3: Navigating and Re-imagining Systems and Structures
9 Navigating and Re-imagining Systems and Structures
Andrea Emerson and Ya-Fang Cheng
10 “I Heard a Teacher Say…”: Navigating, Interrupting, and Responding to Microaggressions in PreK-12 Classroom
Ashley Taylor Jaffee, Kara M. Kavanagh, Emma S. Thacker, Mira C. Williams and Joi D. Merritt
11 Working within, against, and beyond the Systems That Uphold Kindergarten Readiness: Centering Families’ Aspirations in the Transition to School
Katie A. Mathew, Vera J. Lee, Andrea R. DiMola and Cory D. Johnson
12 Toward Trusting Partnerships between Black Women Childcare Providers and Early Childhood Education Regulatory Agencies
Crystasany R. Turner and Michele Turner
PART 4: Reflecting on Collaboration
13 “I’m Glad It’s Us”: Reflections on a Teacher Professional Development Experience Designed by Women of Color
Van Anh Tran, Kristen Jackson, Nikita Patel and Lauren Beal
14 Bringing the Outside In: Leveraging Higher Education Resources to Support Diversity Instruction in Remote and Rural Schools
Robert D. Mitchell
15 There Is No Neutrality
Crystasany R. Turner
A Closing Reflection: Rest as Resistance in Critical Equity-Oriented Work
Tara Kirton, Crystasany R. Turner and Kelly R. Allen
Index
This edited volume will be of interest to teacher educators, educational researchers, teachers, and community members interested in engaging in collaborative, equity-oriented work across educational settings.