This volume brings together design thinking, critical social theory, and learning sciences to describe promising learning innovations that foster rights, dignity, and social justice for youth. Each of the chapters provides a case study of a project and discusses underlying theories and behind-the-scenes accounts of implementation and lessons learned. The group of contributors represent emerging scholars who are leading voices working at the intersections of theory and practice for educational equity. Chapters in this volume take up themes of power and equity in the design and redesign of learning opportunities for young people. The chapters show variation in the kinds of learning--from complex ecologies spanning multiple institutions and age groups to specific classroom or after-school spaces. Chapters also vary in the focal ages of participants. Although most discuss experiences of young people between the ages of 12-25, some also explore the learning of elementary age youth. All of the chapters make the authors--who were researchers, designers, teachers, and facilitators--part of the narrative and process of learning. We are especially thankful that the authors of these chapters invite the reader into their thinking process and the tensions and contradictions that emerged as they sought to catalyze transformative learning spaces.

The Complex Web of Inequality in North American Schools analyzes and challenges the critical gaps and inequalities that persist in the American school system. Showing how historical biases have been inherited in current polices relating to non-dominant youth, the text calls for educational reforms that perform in the name of social justice. This edited collection carefully interrogates how technocratic educational policies and reforms are often unequipped to address the interplay of political, social, economic, ideological factors that are at the roots of educational injustice. Considering the most vulnerable student populations, original case studies explore how inadequate structures, practices, and beliefs have increased marginalization, and highlight those instances in which policy has proved effective in reducing opportunity gaps between economically rich and poor students; between white, Asian, Black and Latino youth; between native English speakers and second language learners; highlighting racial integration and unequal American Indian education; and for students with special educational needs. The insights into such policies shed light on the complex web of historically embedded inequities that continue to shape the construction, roll-out, and consequences of education policy for the most marginalized youth populations today. This volume will be of interest to graduate, and postgraduate students, researchers and academics in the fields of education policy, sociology of education, economics of education, and history of education, and well as policy evaluation.

This book is a collection about cultural-historical activity theory as it has been developed and applied by Yrjoe Engestroem. The work of Engestroem is both rooted in the legacy of Vygotsky and Leont'ev and focuses on current research concerns that are related to learning and development in work practices. His publications cross various disciplines and develop intermediate theoretical tools to deal with empirical questions. In this volume, Engestroem's work is used as a springboard to reflect on the question of the use, appropriation, and further development of the classic heritage within activity theory. The book is structured as a discussion among senior scholars, including Y. Engestroem himself. The work of the authors pushes on classical activity theory to address pressing issues and critical contradictions in local practices and larger social systems.

Generating Transworld Pedagogy: Reimagining La Clase Magica lays the foundation for addressing one of the greatest challenges in the 21st century: meeting the educational needs of a diverse society living in a complex, technology-driven world. It extends bilingual and bicultural transformative critical pedagogy by appropriating the use of mobile devices and digital tools within an after-school setting. Four theoretical concepts anchor this collection: the dialectic method, concepts of culture, a bilingual/bicultural critical pedagogy, and the notion of the sacred sciences. Generating Transworld Pedagogy showcases the intersection of learners' linguistic, cultural, and historical knowledge as critical tools for learning and for navigating the broader society. The volume serves as an ideal framework for preparing teacher educators and teacher candidates for a world in motion. It provides a deeper understanding of the conditions needed to create the ideal learning and teaching opportunities for bilingual learners. Special highlights include a comprehensive resource for integrating linguistic and cultural diversity within a technological and global perspective for 21st century teachers and learners; a resource for launching the model in new sociocultural contexts; an exemplar of the innovative uses of mobile technology and digital literacies within the learning setting; and a model for engaging in socially-designed community-based research that can extend to an international scale.

Generating Transworld Pedagogy: Reimagining La Clase Magica lays the foundation for addressing one of the greatest challenges in the 21st century: meeting the educational needs of a diverse society living in a complex, technology-driven world. It extends bilingual and bicultural transformative critical pedagogy by appropriating the use of mobile devices and digital tools within an after-school setting. Four theoretical concepts anchor this collection: the dialectic method, concepts of culture, a bilingual/bicultural critical pedagogy, and the notion of the sacred sciences. Generating Transworld Pedagogy showcases the intersection of learners' linguistic, cultural, and historical knowledge as critical tools for learning and for navigating the broader society. The volume serves as an ideal framework for preparing teacher educators and teacher candidates for a world in motion. It provides a deeper understanding of the conditions needed to create the ideal learning and teaching opportunities for bilingual learners. Special highlights include a comprehensive resource for integrating linguistic and cultural diversity within a technological and global perspective for 21st century teachers and learners; a resource for launching the model in new sociocultural contexts; an exemplar of the innovative uses of mobile technology and digital literacies within the learning setting; and a model for engaging in socially-designed community-based research that can extend to an international scale.

The Complex Web of Inequality in North American Schools analyzes and challenges the critical gaps and inequalities that persist in the American school system. Showing how historical biases have been inherited in current polices relating to non-dominant youth, the text calls for educational reforms that perform in the name of social justice. This edited collection carefully interrogates how technocratic educational policies and reforms are often unequipped to address the interplay of political, social, economic, ideological factors that are at the roots of educational injustice. Considering the most vulnerable student populations, original case studies explore how inadequate structures, practices, and beliefs have increased marginalization, and highlight those instances in which policy has proved effective in reducing opportunity gaps between economically rich and poor students; between white, Asian, Black and Latino youth; between native English speakers and second language learners; highlighting racial integration and unequal American Indian education; and for students with special educational needs. The insights into such policies shed light on the complex web of historically embedded inequities that continue to shape the construction, roll-out, and consequences of education policy for the most marginalized youth populations today. This volume will be of interest to graduate, and postgraduate students, researchers and academics in the fields of education policy, sociology of education, economics of education, and history of education, and well as policy evaluation.

This volume brings together design thinking, critical social theory, and learning sciences to describe promising learning innovations that foster rights, dignity, and social justice for youth. Each of the chapters provides a case study of a project and discusses underlying theories and behind-the-scenes accounts of implementation and lessons learned. The group of contributors represent emerging scholars who are leading voices working at the intersections of theory and practice for educational equity. Chapters in this volume take up themes of power and equity in the design and redesign of learning opportunities for young people. The chapters show variation in the kinds of learning--from complex ecologies spanning multiple institutions and age groups to specific classroom or after-school spaces. Chapters also vary in the focal ages of participants. Although most discuss experiences of young people between the ages of 12-25, some also explore the learning of elementary age youth. All of the chapters make the authors--who were researchers, designers, teachers, and facilitators--part of the narrative and process of learning. We are especially thankful that the authors of these chapters invite the reader into their thinking process and the tensions and contradictions that emerged as they sought to catalyze transformative learning spaces.

This book is a collection about cultural-historical activity theory as it has been developed and applied by Yrjoe Engestroem. The work of Engestroem is both rooted in the legacy of Vygotsky and Leont'ev and focuses on current research concerns that are related to learning and development in work practices. His publications cross various disciplines and develop intermediate theoretical tools to deal with empirical questions. In this volume, Engestroem's work is used as a springboard to reflect on the question of the use, appropriation, and further development of the classic heritage within activity theory. The book is structured as a discussion among senior scholars, including Y. Engestroem himself. The work of the authors pushes on classical activity theory to address pressing issues and critical contradictions in local practices and larger social systems.