Minding the Marginalized Students Through Inclusion, Justice, and Hope: Volume 16

In this introductory chapter, we articulate learning as the creative process of intentionally providing opportunities for growth in the learners’ cognitive, social, affective, and academic development and achievement facilitated and nurtured by true equity. The authors’ true equity framework entails providing the historically marginalized groups of students hope and justice, recognition and redistribution of resources needed to achieve their career and academic interests, motivation and engagement, consideration of the ways race and language matter in addressing inequities, and the critical consciousness required in interpreting, conceptualizing, analyzing, and interacting with the world in order to reach their career and academic achievement. The chapter recognizes and attempts to cover the social and cultural identities and needs of students who may be on the margins based on their race, ethnicity, religion, language, ability/disability, gender, sexual orientation, social class, and citizenship status. The authors believe that if we are truly committed to improving education for all children, we have to “mind the margins and it is imperative that we move the discussion about the impact of education from celebrating the academic gain of a few, to equity through inclusion of all, by attending to the needs of the many marginalized students who are often discounted.

Despite the plethora of instructional programs and strategies emanating from research, our current efforts have not produced results that could prove to us that our approach in addressing the needs of English learners (ELs) is working adequately. We believe that aside from the lively and rigorous standard-based teaching that is designed by teachers and others involved in educating students, it is imperative to view the impact of teaching on student learning which would be indicative of how ELs are connected in the process based on what their backgrounds are, who they are with regards to social and cultural identities, and how they learn. We put forth the idea that the lack of progress in the language development and academic achievement of ELs is not solely due to the body of knowledge related to curriculum and instruction but influenced by a variety of factors that pertain to language and race. We think race matters in working with ELs because teachers like any other people may have prejudgmental ideological stances and cultural and racial biases that might influence their perceptions of their students as learners. Several equity-related matters such as identity recognition, sense of belonging, critical consciousness, and hope are viable considerations as well in teaching ELs. However, prejudice against students based on race reinforced by institutionalized language policies related to teaching and testing and microaggressions may turn out to be the culprit in causing the disengagement of English language learners.

Poverty has many varying negative effects on the health and well-being of those enduring it. Specifically, in the world of education, regardless of the many educational reform efforts over the last 50 plus years, poverty results in markedly lower achievement regardless of the metric used to determine academic success. Through this work we hope to shine light on the wealth gap in contemporary American society and the academic achievement gap that is an inevitable consequence of this inequitable concentration of monetary means. We review various literature sources to illustrate this problem and propose possible research-based solutions to ameliorate this societal ill. Using our previous works which resulted in the creation of the theoretical foundational framework of Critical Determination, we identify tangible steps that PreK-16 professionals can readily apply in an effort to minimize the current wealth gap and correlating achievement gap experienced by many students on the margins of the American public education system.

This chapter discusses aspects of social justice pedagogy for teachers of students living in poverty. Statistical data are presented for context of what poverty is and how it impacts children and families. Theoretical frameworks are provided to help the reader understand how systemic oppression interacts with poverty in the public school system. Foundations for growth in social justice teaching are provided followed by effective models of teaching for children experiencing poverty. Throughout the chapter, the author provides first person accounts as examples for understanding practical applications of the content.

The purpose of this chapter is to critically analyze the historical relations between Black students and the American education system. In particular, this chapter is designed to challenge the status quo and examine the ways in which the K-12 educators today can mind the margins and remedy oppressive approaches to academically preparing and supporting Black students. Persistent informal educational tracking practices, an influx of education programs designed to segregate students, and educator biases all raise critical questions that must be addressed concerning educational equity for Black students.

This chapter examines the experience of aspiring teachers in a course on the foundations of learning taught inside a juvenile hall. The author describes what happens when he brings together incarcerated youth and college students across profound social boundaries to study educational inequalities and develop proposals to promote educational justice. Exploring the challenges of teaching toward more justice and more equity, while working with students inside the juvenile justice system, the author describes the potential of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange program to transform preservice teachers as they learn to put ideas about critical pedagogy into practice. The chapter pays particular attention to how the experience of taking a course inside a juvenile hall challenges aspiring teachers to reimagine the connections between communities and schools.

For teachers to fully enact pedagogy rooted in equity and inclusion, they must have access to purposeful systems and tools supporting proactive and collaborative planning built explicitly to center the needs of those historically denied full access to learning. This chapter takes on the historical injustices that have been perpetuated within public education in the United States since its inception and presents practical tools and systems (rooted in research and refined in the field) that can promote more equitable day-to-day teaching and learning in classrooms.

Written in dialogue form, the benefits and equality of Universal Design vs. Differentiated Design taking into account individual student needs will be explored while integrating literature, research, and both K-12 and higher education experiences. The danger of a singular lens is highlighted as well as the need for educators to be lifelong learners. Both Universal Design and differentiation theories will be tested against and/or aligned with disability studies, multicultural education, critical pedagogy, democratic education, LGBTQ voices, and educational leadership.

Higher education notices the need to support minorities and students with dis/abilities and may have additional programs to support their student populations, but students with a history of foster care are largely invisible in higher education. Using prismatic phenomenology, this study seeks to create a platform for the voices of adults in higher education who experienced the intersection of foster placement, ethnic minority, and dis/ability as children. This chapter focuses on the life story of one young woman. The goal of identifying these formative childhood experiences is to better understand how to respond to the inequities experienced as well as develop equitable practices to support students, whether in the higher educational classroom, in the preservice teacher classroom, or in K-12 educational arena.

This chapter brings the educational needs of students with disability from the margins to the mainstream by arguing that teacher education programs have a role to play in dismantling rigid and often unquestioned practices that segregate learners with disabilities from mainstream learning environments. This position is predicated upon a case study analysis of co-teaching strategies that emerged within the context of developing and teaching two new courses in an integrated dual credential program (general and special education) in our department. Construction and analysis of these cases reveal eight cross-cutting principles that serve as a framework for a praxis of desegregation in teacher education programs and K-12 settings and as a set of constructs for evaluating teacher training impact.

Despite ample international literature regarding the school-to-prison pipeline, researchers in the Australian context have remained relatively silent about this phenomenon. While there are several studies investigating the criminological characteristics of juvenile detention in Australia, a substantial gap exists examining the educational exclusion of young First Nations males from the education system and whether this has a direct bearing on their overrepresentation in juvenile incarceration. Highlighted in this chapter are the cultural complexities and inequitable practices associated with high rates of exclusion of First Nations boys from school resulting in the likelihood of potential incarceration for some. Finally, certain pragmatic solutions are offered so that educators may reflect upon their important role in disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline.

The indigenous peoples of the Philippines have had to struggle against historical injustices for centuries. They fought against colonization and the subjugation of their cultures and ways of life. Over the decades, their next generations are confronted with exclusion, discrimination, and encroachments on their ancestral domains which have resulted in social and economic disadvantages. An obvious case in point is the lack of sympathetic and affirmative policy directives for the culture-based education of indigenous children and youth. This paper reflects on the policy development processes undertaken to institutionalize inclusion and social justice in indigenous peoples education policies within the K to 12 Basic Education Program. Using the method of narrative inquiry, the stories of reform are told from the point of view of those who facilitated the crafting of these policies. Three narratives demonstrate that contextualized and empowering education strategies and processes transform not only policy but also the policy makers.

This chapter is an unpretentious attempt to arouse teachers and educators to convert classrooms into democratic spaces for critical discussion about martial law in the Philippines, a form of military-ruled government during the time of Ferdinand Marcos, the president of the Philippines, who declared it in 1972. Using critical theory, pedagogy, and literacy as tools for engaging teachers in careful and rigorous academic exploration about the topic of martial law, this monograph encourages teachers to view themselves as cultural workers who intend to facilitate meaning-making with students through dialogue, critical deliberation, and courageous civic engagement. In addition, this chapter shares a list of critical pedagogy resources and reflective readings, a socially and culturally situated perspective, and a culturally responsive pedagogy for teachers in their quest for a more committed, caring, joyful, hopeful, and conscientious view of teaching as a human act of generosity and respect for students' identity and autonomy.

Only by recognizing the consequences of state-sanctioned violence on the life of Black communities can teachers create learning conditions for students to engage in an education for humanization. Humanization disrupts dehumanization by teaching students' knowledge and love of self, solidarity, and self-determination. In this chapter, I examine the impact of an education for humanization on students' critical literacy and voice from the perspective of a teacher-researcher and educational activist in an urban classroom serving the needs of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). I offer a concrete example of praxis that positioned Black students to examine anti-Black oppression and radically imagine the possibilities of pro-Black social resistance in society and schools. I conclude the chapter with pedagogical implications for participating in the fight for Black life as teachers and humanizing the learning experiences of BIPOC students as a result.

Many students living in poverty experience daily hopeless realities that prevent them from meeting their full potential. Adversely, hope makes it possible for one to engage in the struggle, to believe in the possibilities of tomorrow, and actively participate in their quest for transformation. This chapter explains the role critical hope plays in dismantling systemic oppression and dehumanizing order of what society has historically and unjustly prescribed them to be. As agents of hope (Strikwerda, 2019), educators can beget hopeful possibilities for our students by instilling a belief that change is possible and creating loving dialogical spaces that awaken a taste toward humanization.