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This qualitative study aimed to explore school principals' perceptions of social justice in a centralized school setting in Kuwait, as well as the challenges they face when promoting equity and equality for students' learning in schools.

Data were collected through in-depth interviews with 18 public school principals from Kuwait's six educational districts.

The results revealed that principals' experiences and unique perspectives shape their definitions of social justice within their schools. Some school principals see social justice as ensuring fairness and equal opportunities for every student regardless of their backgrounds. Others focus on creating an inclusive and supportive environment. The results also showed that limited resources, institutional barriers, limited autonomy, lack of training, and some ministerial laws are among the challenges that school principals face in promoting equity and equality.

The findings are informative to policymakers and other educational stakeholders. Practical suggestions are provided to improve school principals' social justice leadership practices.

This study adds to the empirical knowledge of school principals' role in promoting equity and equality for student learning in a centralized school setting and attempts to reduce the social justice leadership gap in schools.

This qualitative study interrogates the barriers that historically disadvantaged higher education students in South Africa face when it comes to access and success. It specifically explores the challenges black students encounter in gaining epistemic access within the South African higher education system.

This research draws upon empirical data collected from a mixed-methods research project conducted at six higher education institutions. It focuses on issues of epistemic access and success within humanities and sciences faculties. The dataset comprises interview transcripts involving 34 student and ten staff cases. Thematic analysis, aided by MaxQDA software, was meticulously conducted to extract and synthesise meaningful themes, crafting comprehensive narratives.

The study uncovers multifaceted challenges, including difficulties in understanding the admission process, financial barriers and language proficiency issues, faced by disadvantaged students when accessing universities and transitioning from basic to higher education. The research emphasises universities taking proactive measures, such as providing comprehensive early support, identifying at-risk students and collaborating with schools to prepare prospective students better. It advocates for the potential of resilience theory in addressing social justice issues related to access and success for these students. Furthermore, the study recommends developing inclusive curricula and underscores the need for universities to actively support disadvantaged students academically and socially.

This research departs from the conventional focus on physical access to universities, introducing a more comprehensive perspective that emphasises epistemic access as a pivotal aspect of higher education. Drawing on empirical data, it sheds light on the obstacles faced by disadvantaged students during the transition from high school to higher education while also exploring their resilience strategies.

This paper aims to consider the role of social media platforms as educational technologies given growing evidence of harms to democracy, society and individuals, particularly through logics of efficiency, racism, misogyny and surveillance inextricably designed into the architectural and algorithmic bones of social media. The paper aims to uncover downsides and drawbacks of for-profit social media, as well as consider the discriminatory design embedded within its blueprints.

The authors used a method of a technological audit, framed through the lenses of technoskepticism and discriminatory design, to consider the unintended downsides and consequences of Twitter and Instagram.

The authors provide evidence from a variety of sources to demonstrate that Instagram and Twitter’s intersection of technological design, systemic oppression, platform capitalism and algorithmic manipulation cause material harm to marginalized people and youth.

The authors contend that it is a conflict of professional ethics to treat social media as an educational technology that should be used by youth in educational settings. Thus, they suggest that future scholarship focus more on addressing methods of teaching about social media rather than teaching with social media.

The paper concludes with recommendations for educators who might work alongside young people to learn about social media while taking informed social actions for more just technological futures.

This paper fulfills an identified need to challenge the direction of the field of social media and education research. It is of use to education scholars, practitioners and policy makers.

This study aims to analyze to what extent distance education is feasible and efficient with the limited technological infrastructure in Egypt. The study answers this question from the perspective of households' preparedness level regarding possessing information and communication technologies (ICTs). In addition, it assesses whether the pattern of students' ICT ownership is influenced by disability- and socioeconomic-based inequality in education and whether the pattern of ICT ownership exacerbates such biases.

A three-stage probit model with double sample selection (PMDSS) was applied to estimate the factors likely to influence ICT possession, considering the selection process for school enrollment and education continuation. The authors utilized nationally representative data from the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey 2018.

About 40% of students aged 12–25 did not have ICTs. Most socioeconomically poor households, particularly those living in Upper Egypt, were the least likely to obtain ICTs and rely on distance education. In addition, female students, particularly those with disabilities, had the lowest chance of benefitting from distance learning.

The persistent structural deprivation of school enrollment and educational progression has led to the positive selection of well-off children in education, which is extended to ICT possession and internet use. Without addressing these structural biases, the study suggests that distance education will likely exacerbate educational inequalities.

The study analyzed the extent to which Egyptian families were prepared in 2018 regarding ICT possessions for distance education for their children, particularly those with disabilities. Furthermore, it investigated whether access to distance learning was influenced by disability- and socioeconomic-based inequalities in education.

The purpose of this study is to identify key school leadership practices that center social justice and are evidenced across multiple school and district contexts.

A qualitative, multidistrict research design is used within this study. Sampled across seven US school districts, 24 school leaders were interviewed about their justice-centered school leadership practices within and outside of their school buildings.

Participants engaged in five key domains of justice-centered practice, which included 13 practice areas and 28 sub-practices. These domains include (1) creating an inclusive and caring environment, (2) promoting equitable opportunity to learn, (3) strengthening staff capacity for justice, (4) positioning families as partners in education and (5) building and extending community capacity and resources.

This study incorporates empirical data across diverse contexts and investigates actions relevant to diverse students and multiple justice-centered leadership approaches. By doing so, this study unearths a spectrum of justice-centered school leadership practices, presenting these in one of the few empirically grounded frameworks available in the literature. This framework provides an accessible, comprehensive and actionable starting place for practitioners hoping to lead in socially just ways and for preparation programs who will support these leaders.

There is little to no empirical research on the phenomenon of ways in which the racism of whiteness transpires within the faculties and classrooms of US-based ALA-accredited library and information science (LIS) education programs. We do have scholars publishing meaningful work exploring diversity-equity-inclusion topics and initiatives to evolve the LIS discourse on these issues (Honma, 2005; Chancellor, 2019; De LaRosa et al., 2021; Gibson, 2019; Mehra et al., 2023; Colón-Aguirre et al., 2022; Hands, 2022). This research substantiates the conceptual research that exists by empirically exposing the ways in which the racism of whiteness functions at the interpersonal level of work culture in LIS programs (i.e. the academy) in the US.

Adapting Baima and Sude’s (2020) modified Delphi Method, a focus group of 13 BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) library and information science faculty members in the United States were recruited to participate in a one-time 60-min virtual Zoom session. Participants were engaged in three iterative rounds of reflective inquiry to reach a consensus of experience. The study design was embedded with critical race theory-based (CRT) ethnographic methods such as testimony (counterstorytelling), collective affirmation (shared narratives), and silence.

BIPOC LIS faculty (tenure-track and tenured) have similar ideas about whiteness and how it is operationalized as micro- and macro-aggressions in the LIS academic workplace, most significantly inside the classroom. The experience of whiteness was prevalent among all study participants in two areas: workplace meetings with faculty colleagues and classroom sessions (face-to-face and online) with students.

The findings offer empirical evidence to support the prolific conceptual literature in LIS discourse concerning ways in which critical race theory (CRT) interrogates LIS’s socio-professional injustices and inequities (e.g. Gibson et al., 2018; Stauffer, 2020; Leung and Lopez-McKnight, 2021; Jennings and Kinzer, 2022; Snow and Dunbar, 2022). There remains a dearth of empirical research that reports how whiteness is reproduced in the practices, knowledge, and resources that make up the ethos of the LIS faculty meeting and classroom. Documenting the testimonies of BIPOC LIS faculty solidifies the existence of whiteness as a toxic reality in the LIS academy.

In this article, we highlight ways in which disability critical race theory (DisCrit) (Annamma et al., 2013), inclusive education and community-based participatory research (CBPR) can be used within professional development schools (PDS) to provide students with disabilities with more access to inclusive classrooms. At a grade 4–6 elementary school, we developed a model of a critical PDS to promote inclusive education and facilitate the transition of students of color with disabilities from self-contained to inclusive classrooms. We conducted semi-structured interviews and used action plan meetings with school administrators, teachers, professionals and students with disabilities and their parents to assess the impact of our critical PDS model. Findings suggest this model had a positive impact on administrators’ and teachers’ critical consciousness, ideological and instructional practices, students of color with disabilities’ social, academic and personal outcomes, as well as a schoolwide culture of inclusion and social justice. This study can inform tailored professional development efforts to improve educators’ inclusive practices.

We conducted semi-structured interviews and used action plan meetings with school administrators, teachers, professionals and students with disabilities and their parents to assess the impact of our critical PDS model.

The findings of this study suggest this model had a positive impact on administrators’ and teachers’ critical consciousness, ideological and instructional practices, students of color with disabilities’ social, academic and personal outcomes, as well as a schoolwide culture of inclusion and social justice.

This study can inform tailored professional development efforts aiming to improve educators’ inclusive practices.

We developed a model of a critical PDS to promote inclusive education and facilitate the transition of students of color with disabilities from self-contained to inclusive classrooms.

Although a significant share of undergraduates, first-generation college students (FGCS) remain difficult to characterize. Consequently, academic libraries are challenged to identify the services most important to FGCS. This study measured the perceived importance of and satisfaction with library services among undergraduate students at an R1 land-grant university. The study further compared FGCS’s perceptions of library services with those of their non-first generation peers.

The authors measured importance and satisfaction using the Measuring Information Services Outcomes (“MISO”) Survey. They further analyzed responses according to first-generation status. The authors then compared mean scores and used the Wilcoxon rank-sum test to find statistical differences in perceived importance and satisfaction between first-generation and non-first-generation respondents.

The difference between first-generation and non-first-generation student responses was statistically significant for 35% of library services. FGCS rated library services higher than their non-first-generation peers for both importance and satisfaction. FGCS perceived library services related to physical spaces and access/discovery as most important. Library services that provide student support or access to technology showed strong evidence of difference between first-generation and non-first-generation student responses. The authors also determined the MISO Survey is a measure for assessing FGCS perceptions of library services.

This study adds quantitative evidence to research on FGCS and academic libraries, further demonstrating the importance of library services to FGCS.

Most research about combating the whiteness of teacher education neglects to analyze the whiteness of the higher education institutional contexts housing teacher preparation programs. This gap also holds true within research exploring Minority Serving Institutions’ potential to graduate large numbers of teachers of color. Consequently, this paper aims to argue that without strong institutional commitments to dismantle the whiteness of higher education, Hispanic Serving Institutions (a type of Minority Serving Institution) compromise their potential to robustly prepare and graduate K-12 teachers of color.

Drawing on an inductive qualitative analysis of interviews with teacher educators of color and students and a deductive qualitative analysis of publicly available data at two Hispanic Serving Institutions, this paper uses Critical Race Theory tenets of lived experience and intersectionality.

Both institutions enacted diversity commitments. However, findings demonstrated that institutional support neglected the multiple oppressive systems impacting students of color. Additionally, prioritizing (White) research norms invisibilized faculty of color in higher ranked professorial roles and compromised faculty pedagogy.

Findings address lesser known analyses of how the intersections between institutional climate, teacher education programs and the unique Hispanic Serving Institutional context impact student/preservice teacher and faculty/teacher educator racial diversity, demonstrate the necessity of using an intersectional lens when analyzing preservice teacher and teacher educator of color experiences, and demonstrate how racially diverse, multicultural higher education contexts can still invisibilize diversity.

This study aims to show the complexities of engagement between students - Venezuelan and Brazilian - and their teachers. This qualitative ethnographic study documents the everyday pedagogies and practices that take place in elementary schools with high levels of refugee and immigrant children. While Brazilian law ensures the basic right to public education, forbidding discrimination based on nationality or immigration status (Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação, 1996), the barriers remain. Through the frameworks of multicultural (USA) and intercultural (Brazil) education, this paper shows how Brazilian teachers and students of Venezuelan and Brazilian backgrounds engage, learn from one another and build welcoming spaces, but also how stereotypes are reinforced inside classrooms and schools.

This qualitative study uses ethnography to understand how recent Venezuelan migratory flow influences Brazilian and Venezuelan children’s educational experiences in elementary education. Participants were Venezuelan (N = 57) and Brazilian (N = 76) children in two elementary schools in the city of Boa Vista. Data sources for the study are school observations in four elementary classrooms (1st and 2nd grade) and semi-structured interviews with caregivers, teachers, administrators and other educators. This paper also collected children’s drawings and writings and documents like curricula, strategic planning, guidelines, policies, grades, reports and any other textual or photographic material made available at the city level.

In the field of education, there is a critical need for understanding children’s education experiences. This paper focuses on the experiences of teachers and students in two elementary schools in Brazil. This paper focus on two findings: first that teachers promote the learning of Portuguese to show care toward their Venezuelan students. Second, children in the classroom show solidarity with one another and resist some of the more rigid Portuguese-only practices enacted by teachers. This work uses the frameworks of intercultural (more commonly used in Brazil) and multicultural education to inform the analysis.

In this study, this paper puts these frameworks of interculturalism, multiculturalism, language use and solidarity into conversation to understand the dynamics of two elementary classrooms in the city of Boa Vista, Brazil. While this paper shows the shortcomings of a seemingly multicultural and multilanguage classroom, it also shows how children actively resist the rigidity of teaching and learning in elementary schooling.

This study is a response both to the increasing South–South migration trend in Latin America and its consequences on public education systems. Through multicultural and intercultural lenses, this research highlighted the complexity of interactions within multicultural classrooms by delving into a two-year ethnographic study conducted in Boa Vista, Brazil, focusing on Venezuelan and Brazilian children in two local elementary schools. This paper focused on two main observations this paper refers to as “Teaching Portuguese as a Way of Caring” and “Children's Solidarity Work.” Teachers primarily centered their instruction on teaching Portuguese to migrant children, believing it to lead to quicker integration in the classroom and beyond – thus as a way of caring for their migrant students.