This study explores the experiences of early-career, tenure-track faculty at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), focusing on the structural challenges, professional rewards, and institutional opportunities that shape their academic trajectories. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 80 faculty members, the study uncovers persistent barriers such as limited institutional support, high service loads, unclear tenure expectations, and experiences of microaggressions and cultural taxation. These challenges are contextualized through the lenses of Critical Race Theory and Resilience Theory, which illuminate the systemic nature of racialized faculty labor and the strategies used by MSI faculty to persist and thrive. Despite these obstacles, participants reported deep satisfaction working with underserved student populations, engaging in culturally responsive teaching, and building community within their institutions. Findings highlight the critical role MSIs play in fostering equity in higher education and underscore the need for targeted institutional policies that affirm and support early-career faculty.

Educational inequities persist in U.S. education as disproportionate racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps, discipline practices, and attrition among Students of Color. Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) addresses these inequities by integrating students’ cultural identities and experiences into teaching practices. However, CRP requires teachers to develop awareness of systemic oppression, adopt equity-oriented outlooks, and reevaluate biases and assumptions, often necessitating perspective transformation. This study investigated experiences and activities that Oregon teacher education program graduates attributed to perspective transformation regarding CRP. Employing a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design, the study utilized quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. Quantitative findings indicated that reflection exercises, assigned readings, and class activities were statistically significant in fostering perspective transformation. Qualitative findings revealed opportunities to enhance perspective transformation and CRP application by building cultural competence and moving beyond static CRP definitions. Recommendations include cultivating environments where students are empowered to critically examine their beliefs and engage in meaningful discussions about CRP.

Greenwood-Hau posits that in this post-truth era, teacher education programs should focus on teaching critical thinking rather than teaching facts. This research explores the challenges, considerations, and experiences of engaging in that pedagogical task across intersecting racial, political, and socioeconomic boundaries within an educational equity course. The qualitative case study is grounded theoretically in Critical Whiteness Studies. This work originated in a required teacher education course, Equity in Education (EDU 5000), at a flagship university. The qualitative narrative details how the participant’s socialization within a “bubble” community, characterized by racial, economic, and cultural homogeneity, challenged their ability to take steps toward an equity-driven education. In this research, intersectional gaps in teacher education programs are identified and confronted. The paper calls on teacher education programs to consider the implications of race, gender, social class, and religion regarding differences across and between multiple paradigms related to teaching and learning, including those of researchers and participants, course objectives and student beliefs, teacher education program values and home community ideologies.

This article examines teacher educators’ professional pathways and their impact on practice within an international comparative context. Through analyzing narratives of 35 Israeli teacher educators, we developed the Path-Position-Practice Framework. Four international patterns were identified in the literature: academic coherence (Netherlands/Belgium), practitioner-academic misalignment (England/Ireland), hierarchical structures (China), and fragmentation (Australia). Our analysis reveals a unique fifth pattern in Israel, comprising three coexisting pathways—academic research, school-to-academia transition, and lateral disciplinary entry—operating within a coherent institutional culture. Findings demonstrate coherence through flexible “outside-inside” positioning enabling multiple community memberships, pathway-specific developmental catalysts, and shared institutional culture recognizing diverse expertise as legitimate. Participants systematically bypassed formal training, developing skills through community-based learning and research. The study challenges assumptions that coherence requires standardization, offering insights for systems seeking to honor diverse expertise while maintaining quality. Three case studies exemplify how each pathway shapes distinct yet legitimate practices within the shared institutional culture.

This qualitative study examines the intercultural effects of completing practicum placements in Jewish schools for minority Arab preservice teachers. Over one academic year, 13 second-year students specializing in English at an Arab teachertraining college—supervised by a Jewish pedagogical counselor—participated in semi-structured interviews and submitted reflective writings. Guided by questions about acceptance and belonging, the roles of mentors and school staff, cultural and linguistic gains, self-efficacy, and attitude change, the analysis indicated heightened awareness of the opportunities afforded by the placement, improved Hebrew proficiency and cultural knowledge, a strengthened pedagogical repertoire, and reduced preconceptions consistent with contact theory. Notwithstanding these gains, participants also reported challenges, including initial expectations of nonacceptance at host schools and concerns about potential discriminatory behaviors. Overall, multicultural practicum contexts cultivated both skills and professional identity while opening pathways to integration and social mobility within majority– minority education systems. The findings contribute to the literature on crossboundary practicum and offer actionable insights for multicultural teacher-education programs worldwide.

This manuscript chronicles an interview with Dr. Kenneth Zeichner, Professor Emeritus at the University of Washington, Seattle and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, conducted by Dr. Elisangela Venancio Ananias from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. The conversation centers authentic community engagement in educator preparation, elevating the construct of “third space” as a requisite, yet globally elusive dimension of most programs responsible for the development of future teachers. From an international perspective, the dialogue is informed by the criticality of privileging the voice of community as an equal partner in educator preparation. Both the interviewer and interviewee question the preparedness of the academy to authentically undertake this work, and deliberate alternative structures through which to achieve this vision.

This paper examines the essential role of teachers as civic agents in promoting civic literacy and teaching controversial topics. Amid restrictive policies, curriculum limits, and societal norms that often exclude marginalized perspectives from the classroom, the study asks: How can teachers promote civic literacy when crucial perspectives are excluded from school curricula? Combining Dewey’s theory of democratic education with recent studies on civic literacy, this study situates classrooms as a foundational environment necessary for cultivating critical thinking, civic identity, and a commitment to equity, justice, and the common good. An autoethnographic methodology, which blends personal anecdotes with literature, helps demonstrate practical strategies such as dialogic teaching, storytelling, and experiential learning, which enable students to navigate sensitive topics and develop as active, involved citizens. The findings demonstrate that intentionally engaging with, rather than avoiding, so-called controversial topics fosters inclusive democratic participation and challenges the notion that education is inherently neutral. This contributes an original argument: civic literacy is inseparable from openly discussing real-world inequities and supporting teacher agency. Recommendations for curriculum reform and professional development to support teacher agency in navigating these issues suggest that schools are essential to the renewal of democracy.

Effective classroom management is essential for fostering safe, engaging, and academically productive learning environments. This article explores six foundational “ingredients” that help educators create proactive and student-centered classrooms: relationship building, interest-based instruction, student engagement, time management, flexibility, and student-centered learning. Drawing from research and real-world applications, this article emphasizes the importance of cultivating trust, designing meaningful learning experiences, and using practical tools to support classroom systems. In a postpandemic educational landscape, where social–emotional needs and behavioral challenges have intensified, these strategies are not only relevant but essential. Educators at all levels can use these principles to build a positive classroom culture where students thrive.

Utilizing a framework of transformational and advocacy leadership, this study explores educator perspectives after completing a master’s program in dual language education and teacher leadership. Also examined are the perspectives of principals whose educators completed the program. This mixed-methods study draws from graduate surveys, principal surveys, and principal interviews from four cohorts of graduates across six districts serving large populations of emergent bilinguals. Findings highlight that graduates perceived that the master’s program helped them develop in the domains of advocacy, adult, culture, and instructional leadership. Principals perceived development of their educators in all domains, underscoring advocacy and instructional leadership. This study contributes to research on teacher leadership and the leaders serving in official and unofficial roles who impact the teaching and learning of emergent bilinguals.