Emerging Voices

Abstract

Introduction

This issue, Emerging Voices: Towards Improved Educational Outcomes in Urban Education features junior scholars who currently attend or recently graduated from Michigan State University. Collectively, we are Black and Latino/a former classroom teachers, graduate students and faculty in teacher education, educational administration, education policy, and educational psychology. The intelligence and leadership in communities of color, and among scholars of color in particular, are not readily accepted as valid in academia. Therefore, we assert the legitimacy of our lived experiences, our training, and our academic integrity through our scholarship. We do this for the benefit of the academy, but more intentionally for the benefit of our respective communities. Our emerging voices have significant depth and breadth in providing both theoretical and practical pathways toward academic success for youth of color in urban contexts. This special issue privileges the perspectives of Black and Latino/a students, parents and teachers. This issue illuminates academic success by carefully and critically examining classroom and schooling experiences. Altogether, the manuscripts highlight major implications for policies that inform the preparation of teachers and administrators in daily practice.