Identity Construction in Latina Students

This chapter illuminates a literacy educator's efforts in engaging Latina adult university students with writing authentic texts in which they critically reflect on their life experiences. The study describes how critical autobiographies—by providing engaging opportunities for the writing process—also served as an initiator to articulate aspirant's difficult life experiences. The autobiographies are analyzed utilizing Howard and Alamilla's (2015) perspectives on gender identities (essentialism, socialization, social construction, and structuralism). The findings help connect with prior research that when students are allowed to write about their cultural experiences, they are (1) able to express their inadequacies and struggles using life experiences within their families and communities, and they (2) reveal multiple aspects of their cultural identities as Latina.

Non-Native English-Speaking Students' Perspectives of Culture, Language, and Academic Success

The chapter examines how non-native English-speaking graduate students perceive academic success and possible linguistic and cultural challenges in graduate schools in the United States. Data were collected from six in-depth individual face-to-face interviews specifically to understand the complexities and nuances in the perceptions of non-native English-speaking graduate students related to their academic success and possible challenges they face that may be caused by the lack of native-like language proficiency. Students' perceptions revealed the importance of cultural and language training for key stakeholders. Graduate schools as well as those teaching multicultural classes, among other stakeholders, should utilize this information to help modify English language programs and curricula for current and new students.

Examining Oppressions as a Way of Valuing Diversity

This chapter shares an example of using a critical multicultural lens in teaching and learning to engage diversity and social justice in intercultural experiences. The author draws on the classroom experiences of the author and highlights instructor-learner perspectives. Emphasized is the use of the knowledge building classroom engaging pedagogy of discomfort, courageous dialogues, and critical reflections in a reiterative process to engage students in “critical knowing thyself” and “respectfully knowing others.” Students are encouraged to use a critical multicultural lens that centers power in societies together with supportive readings, documentary/films, and activities to examine the social construction of race (racism), gender (sexism), heteronormativity (homophobia), class (classism), and (dis)abilities (ableism) at the personal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels. The conclusion highlights the need to engage self-criticality and the pedagogy of discomfort to examine the interlocking systems of oppression to support students' learning beyond just cataloging privileges.

Differentiation to Accommodate Diverse Learners in the Flipped Classroom

Flipping learning is an effective instructional strategy that allows for differentiation of instruction in a classroom with diverse learners. Paying particular attention to diversity of academic backgrounds and preparedness for college courses, this chapter explores differentiation strategies that could benefit a broad spectrum of learners in a flipped classroom. These differentiation strategies are at the course design and implementation levels and include differentiation strategies for pre-class preparation, in-class activities, and assessment.

Global Citizenship Education in the Era of Globalization

Global citizenship education (GCE) has become an important topic in education and development discourses in an increasingly globalised world. Globalisation has affected the world socially, culturally, economically, politically, environmentally, and technologically. This calls for education that can empower learners to become engaged global citizens: learners who can understand that factors like globalisation, the global economic crisis, the refugee crisis, and climate change challenge traditional boundaries because of their ripple effects. Global citizenship education becomes an important tool to aid learners' appreciation the interconnectedness of the world and its diverse cultures, and their role in responding to global challenges. The aim of global citizenship education is to create active and responsible global citizens. Based on a qualitative research approach, this chapter discusses the concepts of global citizenship, global citizenship education, and the role of global citizenship education in sustainable development.

Preparing Bilingual Teachers to Enact Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy

Bilingual students and teachers in the U.S. live in a context where linguistic and ethnic minorities are associated with inferiority. Preparing bilingual teachers of color without explicit attention to issues of race, language, and power would maintain and feed the vicious cycle of linguistic hegemony. With the goal of preparing critically conscious future bilingual teachers equipped to enact culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP), the authors centered issues of race, language, and power alongside bilingual instructional methodology and theories of bilingualism in their respective bilingual teacher preparation programs. Drawing on bilingual teacher preparation course material, student reflections, and bilingual teacher candidate interviews, they illustrate how two bilingual teacher preparation programs take two distinct approaches to developing bilingual teachers' critical consciousness and CSP practices. In this way, they outline how bilingual teacher educators can prepare and support bilingual teachers to enact CSP with their K-12 students.

Challenging Fear and Hate

We are living in times of neo-fascism where fear and hate are the dominant discourses. To counteract such challenges, caring and compassion are crucial components of a public school curriculum that promote humanization and empowerment. This kind of curriculum is missing in public schools. Mass shootings and acts of cruelty in the United States affect children the most. Educating our youth on action-based compassion is vital for critical pedagogy in teacher education programs. The authors question what it means to be human and believe that safe spaces where we can be ourselves and feel good being with others is an ontological necessity. Hence, this chapter expands on these claims and examines why and how this type of curriculum is essential for our multicultural communities.

Family-Community-Higher Education Partnership

Despite governments and the higher learning institutions investing greatly in the search for social justice, its realization has more often than not remained elusive. Could this state of affairs be attributable to weak partnerships among the critical players, as an increasing body of evidence tends to suggest? Accordingly, collaboration between the family, community, and institutions of learning plays a big role in any student's life, particularly in academic achievement, behavior, as well as development of social competencies. Engaging families from diverse backgrounds helps in promoting the view that education is a shared responsibility, including helping the orphans and vulnerable and those with special needs to access higher education. Against this background, this chapter discusses the benefits, barriers, and prospects of family, community, and higher education partnerships as a means of enhancing social justice today. Also elucidated are a relevant theory and the roles of partners in enhancing the provision of quality education.

Multicultural Education

Over the last five decades, multicultural education (MCE) has evolved from a national to a global phenomenon. Discussions within this chapter aim at showcasing how utilization of MCE curriculum and strategies by relevant parties such as academicians have improved socio-cultural issues, perspectives, and trends in diversity and social justice in higher education. Moreover, MCE over time has been curated to support and transform diverse populations, whose lives for varying reasons found themselves either displaced, disenfranchised, discriminated, or dehumanized. The chapter explores the various literary perspectives to get an in-depth understanding of MCE fundamentals while acknowledging that even with its benefits, critics exist, leading to discussions on the challenges and problems of MCE as well as providing solutions and recommendations. Insights on MCE trends and future research are presented with the overall conclusion that MCE is designed to transform students of all backgrounds to be equal players in the world market.

Critical Service-Learning

Colleges and universities in the U.S. engage in service-learning in order to cultivate dispositions of empathy and civic engagement. This chapter draws from a Foundations of Education course in a historically and predominately White institution participating in service-learning in predominately Black and Latinx high schools. The purpose of the course was to teach about the legacy of state sponsored oppression, social justice education, and advocacy. The course provided theoretical frameworks to the practical knowledge and skills that students garnered from engagement in community schools. Data collected for research purposes were quantitative and qualitative. The results of the study show that service-learning can be a vehicle toward social justice education particularly in exposing oppressive structures and practices in urban schools.