America's school-age population is experiencing a demographic shift. In 1972, students of color represented 22% of the school-age population; in 2005, minority students accounted for 33% of public school enrollment (Statistics, 2007 Villegas, 2002). This study sought to explore how these changing demographics affected University Town Community Schools, the district's interventions, and teachers' perceptions to those interventions. This study also explored teachers' feelings of efficacy when teaching minority students. Using a qualitative study among third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade elementary school teachers, a random sample of 9 teachers from schools comprising a minority population of at least 40% were interviewed. Data analysis involved the use of themes that emerged from the interview data, observations, and quotations from participants. The findings indicated that the district acted on a school-by-school basis, with no specific actions to target any one racial group. Meanwhile, teachers were inconsistent when discussing race, behavior, and learning. Teachers felt comfortable assigning behaviors based on race and culture, but were hesitant to assign learning strengths and weaknesses based on race or culture.

The focus of this study was on how to help narrow the achievement gap between Native American students and their non-Native peers in an urban Oklahoma school district. A qualitative case study approach was used to answer the questions of how parents of Native American students perceive their children's academic success in reading and mathematics in Grade 1- Grade 12 and why they believe their children have consistently (or historically) performed below district, state, and national expectations in these subjects in an attempt to better understand the achievement gap. Progress reports, institutional reports, and standards-based test scores were indicative of the widening achievement gap between Native American students and their non-Native peers. Bourdieu's cultural capital theory supported by Epstein's model of parental involvement were used as the conceptual framework for this study. Six parents of Native American students in Grade 1– Grade 12 were selected as participants and were interviewed using open-ended, semistructured questions to gain insight and help to answer the research questions. The coding of collected data, an analysis of emergent themes and triangulation, peer debriefing, and member checks were all utilized as analytical procedures to ensure accuracy and credibility. Results from the study revealed that parents of Native American students perceive their students' academic success as a struggle and identify parental involvement, curriculum relatability, class size and communication among some of the barriers to their students' success. Implications for positive social change for this study included the potential to inform more effective teaching strategies for teachers who teach Native American students, inform their curriculum development, and foster the empowerment of Native American families.

The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry was to describe the teachers' perceptions of pedagogy and examine their cross-cultural strategies regarding culturally responsive teaching of K-12 students. Indigenous students of the Northwest Territories (NWT) face academic challenges in a Eurocentric educational system. Tribal critical race theory and Eurocentric diffusionism provided the conceptual framework in this study. Six participants were interviewed and their narratives were triangulated by a 5-member focus group. The research questions focused on the teachers' strategies for building bridges between the Eurocentric and Native ways. Participants were interviewed and their responses created individual stories, which added to the meaning making. Fifteen themes were identified using open and axial coding. The findings showed a teacher proclivity for pedagogy infused with Indigenous thought, and an understanding that residential schooling was intrusive to Indigenous life. Participants presented an anti-Eurocentric diffusionist stance, advocating for schooling that matches Indigenous life and is devoted to a dynamic home-school culture directed at closing the achievement gap with the rest of Canada. This study contributes to social change by providing supporting evidence for the need to involve Indigenous students in the development of their education.

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Discrimination occurs against underrepresented and misrepresented cultures in the United States of America. Hate crimes, racism, and stereotyping are not only against adults but also students in the educational system. These actions are causing division within our nation. There is a movement for transforming the classroom into one that is culturally inclusive for everyone. These Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) methods can help to unite our nation by celebrating diversity. One very effective method to achieve this is by using multicultural literature in classrooms as a way for students to see themselves as if looking in mirrors, understand their peers as if looking through windows, and empathize with other cultures as if stepping through a sliding glass door into the other culture (Bishop, 1990). Arab Americans too often are experiencing discrimination at the same or worse levels than other underrepresented and misrepresented cultures. The goal of this study was to find quality books by and about Arab Americans as multicultural literature is an effective means for creating a culturally inclusive classroom. My first step was to locate any and all books I could find that were written by or about Arab Americans. Then using specific parameters, I narrowed my findings to list only the quality literature I found within the last ten years. These findings are listed for teachers to use and access with ease. While reading these books in the classroom, it is important to initiate conversations with and among the students. Therefore, I created a list of general guiding questions that pair with the literature for teachers to use in their classrooms to get their students talking and thinking about the multicultural books they are reading. These discussions can help move classrooms into ones that celebrate individual cultures, embrace diversity, and instill empathy among the students.

All educators are responsible for making their students feel safe, capable, and seen in the classroom. One way this can be accomplished is by implementing culturally responsive pedagogy. Our students will come from many different backgrounds. One of the most vital ways students will feel seen is by having characters in the books they read that they can identify with and learn from. Therefore, teachers should put effort into including children's literature in their classrooms by choosing culturally diverse books that are also high-quality and align with state standards. There are many high-quality pieces of children's literature that include culturally diverse protagonists, and finding these books is the focus of this study. High-quality multicultural literature exists and is celebrated by several race-based literature awards. This thesis analyzes race-based literature awards for African American and Hispanic children's literature, Florida's ELA standards, and the state's student demographics to create a standards-based inventory list of multicultural K-2 children's literature to distribute to teachers in Orange County. This inventory list acts as a guide and starting point for teachers to see how to choose literature with characters that represent the students, they teach without sacrificing the quality of education. When teachers have the resources to choose high-quality multicultural literature, they can implement them across other disciplines.

Every child in America is entitled to a free public education; however, racial disparities in academics and discipline continue to grow in America’s school system (Glock et al., 2019; Muñiz, 2019). These racial disparities begin in preschool, following the students throughout their school years. African American students, specifically African American males, are three times more likely than their Caucasian peers to be suspended in preschool (CRDC, 2016; Musu-Gillette et al., 2016). Suspension at an early age correlates with students entering juvenile detentions, prisons and incompletion of schooling (Love, 2014; Meek & Gilliam,2016; Muñiz, 2019). Culturally responsive teaching and classroom management practices are a solution to reduce overrepresentation in exclusionary discipline practices; however, many educators remain unprepared to teach minority students (Muñiz, 2019; Taylor & Wendt, 2023). This research study used an exploratory mixed methods design to examine the associations between culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy scores and preschool teachers’ privilege scores. Associations between race and privilege scores and between culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy scores and teacher demographics were also examined. Data was collected and analyzed in two phases. In Phase I, 471 teachers from public school classroom, Head Start, and private preschool classrooms completed a survey combining the Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy Scale (Siwatu et al.,2017) and a Privilege Test (McIntosh, 1990). In Phase II, the researcher chose six preschool teachers (two each from public, Head Start, and private preschool classrooms) to participate in a semi-structured interview. Results indicated a significant negative correlation between teacher privilege scores and teacher culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy scores, r(471) = -.171, p < .000. Significant associations were also found between culturally responsive self-efficacy classroom management and race, teacher work experience, educational background and educational site. Qualitative results indicated that all interviewees agreed culturally responsive practices include all children’s cultural background, values, and experiences. Interviewees said that culturally responsive classroom management should be a necessity in the classroom. They felt that the absence of minority teachers is harmful to all students and that professional development should be a requirement. Results suggest that there are benefits to including culturally responsive classroom management models in teacher education programs and professional development to prepare all teachers with the skills to aid the growing, diverse population of students.

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