The technological age has led to tremendous advancements, and in the process, has presented several challenges. One of the most pervasive is the need for an educated, highly skilled workforce. Unfortunately, many of today's youth are failing to obtain the requisite education and skills to survive in the new global economy, a fact confirmed by alarming high school dropout rates. One demographic group, more than all the others, frequently tops the lists of statistics about the rates with which they are unable to successfully navigate and complete their secondary education, namely African-American males.

For most people the words `HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT' represent a life sentence to abject poverty, especially in the increasingly competitive global economy we live in. At a minimum, many would argue, a high school diploma is needed in order to have a reasonable opportunity to earn a living wage. The long-term effects of dropping out of school are devastating to individuals, communities and the national economy.

In recent years much attention has been given to the crisis in the American educational system; from former President George Bush's `No Child Left Behind' initiative, to Oprah Winfrey's specials on the subject, to Bill and Melinda Gates funneling millions of dollars to organizations and schools, to TIME magazines' cover story entitled "Dropout Nation." Unfortunately, despite all the attention, the streets, prisons and dead-end jobs continue to be filled with far too many hopeless, desperate, frustrated, and angry youth, who have not been able to fulfill their dreams of becoming successful, productive members in society, partially due to their inability to complete high school.

This study seeks to direct the attention and energy of an often overlooked, yet potentially powerful group of popular culture icons, i.e. Hip-Hop artists, to the frequently discussed topic of educational reformation. Since Hip-Hop artists have generally become accepted as major opinion leaders, representing the eyes, ears, and feelings of global youth expression, this study seeks to determine what, if anything, Hip-Hop artists can contribute to the discussions about educational reform and strategies to reverse the disturbing trends among African-American males at all levels within America's educational system.

The Hip-Hop artist participants corroborate many popular theories and ideas about educational reform including an emphasis on parental involvement and engagement, the pervasive cultural and community influence on underachieving students, the importance of positive male role models, and most importantly the preeminence of cultivating respectful, caring relationships between African American male students, teachers, and administration. Simultaneously, these artists problematize some of the prevailing stereotypes about African American male students such as they don't value getting an education, they don't care about school, or that their parents are not concerned about their education. In all this study provides a very unique look at the issue of educational reform from a modern and unique perspective.

This study explores the impact of teaching critical literacy in an urban school with a group of African American male youth. Using action research, I present a program called the Black Male Youth Academy (BMYA), a critical literacy intervention intended to serve African American males. The aims of this study were to present outcomes of youth who participated in the intervention program and to understand the utility of action research in an urban school setting. Furthermore, this study sought to understand the ways in which critical literacy could be used to advance the academic and sociopolitical development of youth in the context of the Black Male Youth Academy (BMYA), the intervention program. Finally, I present the use of critical research methodologies, such as youth participatory action research (YPAR), and discuss the usefulness of these methodologies to help address challenges facing African American male youth in urban schools.

The questions associated with the potential influence of parental involvement on students' achievement at school have long been a focus of educational research. In particular, the involvement of immigrant Latino parents on the success of their children at school has been a matter of debate. This question is especially important with regard to students from Latino backgrounds who have the highest dropout rate across California and the United States. While the popular views are that Latino parents' involvement brings little benefit and that Latino parents are unwilling to be involved in the educational matters of their children, this study sought to determine whether these views could be validated empirically with regard to 5th graders. Specifically, the purpose of the study was to examine the level and nature of the involvement of immigrant Latino parents in their high-achieving children's school activities with the aim of establishing ways and means through which all parents can be empowered to help their children achieve academic success.

The objectives of the research were to explore immigrant Latino parents' participation in their high-achieving children's schooling; to determine how limited English-speaking Latino parents supported their children in becoming high achievers; to describe what Latino parents do in and out of school to support their children's academic performance; and to examine the home and school environment to which Latino high-achieving students are exposed for maximum opportunities for academic skills. To achieve the objectives, the author employed a qualitative research design. Specifically, qualitative data was collected from individual interviews with a random sample of ten immigrant Latino parents and their 5th grade students who have shown a pattern of high academic achievement as defined by the California Standards Tests (CSTs) over the course of three years data.

Interview data revealed that Latino parents are interested and are involved in their children's education. The involvement of these particular immigrant parents in their high-achieving children's education occurs primarily at home and secondarily at school. The study found that low educational background and specific cultural practices did not prevent these parents from being highly involved in their children's education both at home and at school. Parents mentioned their role in enhancing children's motivation, developing love for schooling, providing outside help by, for example, hiring experts to help. At the same time, the teacher-parent connection was found to be quite limited with the major obstacle being the language barrier. Students were found to positively assess their parents' involvement in their education. The findings illustrate the experience of immigrant Latino parents in promoting the education of their high achieving children. Specifically, the findings validate the importance of parental involvement in education of their primary school children and provide the background for recommendations as to making this involvement more effective.

It is argued that social toxins present in urban environments often stunt the growth of youth living in those areas (Gabarino 1995). And because of a deficit perspective of urban youth of color, some research has tried to argue that young people coming from those upbringings both perpetuate their own demise, academically and socially, and lack the desire to change their situations (Ogbu 1978, 1991). Although this may seem to be the grim reality of young people in urban areas, similar to scholars (Solorzano and Bernal 2001; Duncan-Andrade and Morrell 2008; Cammarota and Fine, et al. 2008), I argue that low-income youth of color in urban areas actually are resilient and find ways to cope with if not transform inequitable conditions that they face on a daily-basis. In this dissertation research, I focused on the ways in which five students from a large urban high school in Los Angeles participating in the Freedom Scholars Program developed their sense of agency and advocated for themselves and their community by conducting participatory action research, a research methodology that positions young people as critical sociologists and experts of their own experiences (McIntyre 2000; Morrell 2004). I address these following questions with this research: 1. How do urban youth negotiate/mediate cultural deficit perceptions engrained in dominant society? 2. How does their participation in a youth research program shape and influence their development as active agents in their school and community? 3. How are urban youth utilizing research as a pedagogical tool to a) resist deficit perceptions, b) teach others of their schooling experience, and c) actually transform inequitable social conditions?

Through a mixed-method, ethnographic, participatory action research design, this project examined how these five students over the 2010-2011 school year theorized and acted upon this concept of agency. As second-year continuing participants of the Freedom Scholars Program, they utilized the space and learning opportunities in this college access program to develop critical youth participatory action research (YPAR) projects that focused on pertinent issues in their schools and surrounding community. I argue in this dissertation study that in their processes of enacting their agency, the five students moved from doing research about their schooling experience to teaching and influencing others to change their schooling conditions, which I refer to as a pedagogy of agency. In building their pedagogy, these five students developed the potentials and capabilities as legitimate experts who presented their work to members of their community, as well as decision-makers as part of their efforts to transform their existential experiences in and out of schools.

The United States education system denies many Black and Latina/o students a quality education due to systemic racism, which is manifested in racial inequalities in access to educational resources. These disparities are multifaceted. For instance, Latina/o and Black students have fewer opportunities to take college preparatory courses than their white peers (Darling-Hammond, 2004a; Fanelli, Bertrand, Rogers, Medina, & Freelon, 2010; J. Rogers, Fanelli, & Bertrand, 2009). Also, there are inequalities in access to qualified and experienced teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2004a), college counselors (Fanelli et al., 2010), technology (Margolis, 2008), and schools that are not overcrowded (Fanelli et al., 2010).

My dissertation research examines how a group of youth and adults called the Council challenges these manifestations of systemic racism while engaging in Youth Participatory Action Research--youth-driven, critical research and advocacy. The Council includes about 30 Black and Latina/o high school students, along with a racially diverse group of adults, including me, a white woman. A partnership between a university and several California public schools, the group has been active for over a decade, cultivating a space for youth to learn and apply critical social science theory and research methods. Also the Council gives several presentations per year, allowing students to present their research findings and advocate for concrete changes in education.

My study investigates how Council students, during the 2010-2011 school year, took up and transformed discourses addressing educational inequality, and how they communicated the discourses through advocacy efforts. An example of such a discourse would be a research-supported appeal for more rigorous curriculum at schools serving Latina/o and Black students. I also study how the teachers and school administrators who attended Council presentations responded to the discourses. To study these phenomena, I used ethnographic methods and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). I grounded the study in sociocultural theory, Critical Race Theory and the theoretical aspect of CDA, which posits that discourse can influence action, leading to shifts in social structures. My findings indicate that the students learned discourses about educational inequality from the Council adults, but not in a straightforward manner. Instead, as students collectively appropriated discourses, they transformed both their content and their form. Also, I found that students' discourses, as communicated at presentations, had some influence on teachers and school administrators. For example, one presentation prompted several teachers to reflect on their teaching and, in some instances, alter their curriculum. Also, teachers and school administrators who attended presentations reported using the Council as a curricular model in their schools. These findings point to new possibilities for challenging systemic racism in education.

Computing occupations are among the fastest growing in the U.S. and technological innovations are central to solving world problems. Yet only our most privileged students are learning to use technology for creative purposes through rigorous computer science education opportunities. In order to increase access for diverse students and females who have historically been denied these opportunities, a course entitled "Discovering Computer Science" [real names were changed to protect participant privacy] was introduced to Metro City Unified high schools in 2008. During the 2011-12 school year, the "MyData" Unit--in which youth conducted community research using mobile phones and statistical analysis software--was added to the curriculum.

While quality curriculum is important, this curriculum's success depended on how it was engaged. Thus, through a qualitative case study of three classrooms chosen for their strong teachers, I examined what effective teaching and student learning looked like through the MyData Unit. Guided by Cultural Historical Activity Theory and critical pedagogy notions of learning while employing interpretive participant observation, critical ethnography, and multimodal methods to analyze data sources (observation field notes, video recordings, student surveys, teacher and student interviews, student projects, a researcher journal, and memos), I describe pedagogy that engaged diverse students with computer science practices and how students demonstrated these practices.

Effective teaching included what I define as a "Connected Computer Science Pedagogy" (CCSP) and the use of humor. CCSP involves: 1) making computer science personally relevant; 2) highlighting how computer science can address social issues; and 3) engaging collaborative learning. Humor proved valuable for 1) motivating student learning; 2) making learning less stressful; 3) building classroom community; and 4) mediating disciplinary situations. Key features of student learning included new understandings of data as well as feeling empowered as community researchers. Yet students demonstrated a range of ability with data analysis and computer science practices in their final projects.

This work fills a research gap regarding effective computer science pedagogy. My findings emphasize how computer science education can move beyond a mere fascination with technological tools toward learning that is driven by curricular content, strong teaching, and community interests.

This study examines how a video game project that focuses on students' lived experiences and cultural practices teach critical literacies and computational thinking. Specifically, this research looked at how the pedagogy, processes, and student products demonstrated culturally relevant pedagogy practices, critical literacy, and computational thinking. This design-based research study utilizes critical literacy, sociocultural learning theory, and culturally relevant pedagogy in the framing, structure, design, and instruction of the class. This study took place in a 10th grade Computer Science elective course in a Los Angeles public high school. Data were collected with: field notes, audio and video recordings, small group interviews, and student-produced artifacts. Data were analyzed using grounded theory and a multimodal social semiotics approach. Findings suggest that locally based, historicized content relevant to students' lives and their communities resonated with them through critical literacy development. Similarly, culturally relevant pedagogies that fostered and nurtured students' choice in the selection of personally meaningful topics while producing a multimodal composition to an authentic audience supported development of voice and agency in their work. Findings also showed the affordances of combining critical literacy and computational thinking in producing a critical computational literacy framework. The research showed students' seamlessly use their computational thinking to design and produce a multimodal serious video game with personally meaningful messages that explicitly pushed against dominant narratives of marginalized populations and their communities.

This study explores the ways that two learning environments, located in structurally different spaces, provide low-income Latino adolescents with opportunities for critical civic development. Through two case studies, I explore the relationships between the characteristics and youth development outcomes of two critical learning sites. One of the sites is a community-based youth organizing group that addresses issues of educational injustice and the other is a high school social studies classroom with a social justice focused teacher. I highlight the characteristics of critical learning sites that promote engagement, which in turn fosters critical civic development. I examine critical civic development from an individual, site based and structural analysis. I provide a model for understanding and categorizing individual critical civic development, examine the site-based characteristics that influence youth development and explore the structural features that provided affordances and challenges to educator efforts to promote critical civic development in each site.

This study examines the potential of mobile media and gameplay to develop critically literate, civically engaged inner-city high school students. Theoretically, this study is based on tenets of critical pedagogy as well as sociocultural and critical literacies theory. I also look to research on civic engagement and gameplay in structuring parts of this study.

Conducted over the course of a year, this study was divided into two phases. First, I conducted a qualitative study of student social practices with mobile media devices in an urban school. Conducting observations, focus groups, and interviews, this data focused on the student perspective of mobile device use within the school space. Inductively coded for the patterns and practices of mobile use, I analyzed this data to develop a framework for a wireless critical pedagogy and a curriculum to teach a class of ninth grade English students within the school site.

In the second phase of this study I taught the curriculum developed during my qualitative analysis of student mobile use. Handing out a set of iPods to the students in the English class, I led the class through an alternate reality game that I created. "Ask Anansi" was a game that guided in-class youth participatory action research and critical literacy development. During the game, students identified areas of inequity to research and document, created and participated in a campus-wide scavenger hunt, and edited their school's Wikipedia page. Daily fieldnotes, audio-recordings of the classroom interactions, and student work were coded and analyzed.

This study found that most students perceived time at school as fluidly social and academic. Students also demonstrated limited opportunities for civic engagement as a result of mobile device use and illustrated that leveraging mobile devices for academic purposes in schools was largely a matter of mutual trust between teachers and students. Findings from the second half of this study revealed how mobile devices and games could cultivate youth research and engagement in issues of equity within their school environments. The nature of producing and interpreting media on mobile devices also signaled shifts in reading and literacies for today's youth.

This study used the mixed qualitative methodologies of ethnography and a participatory action research inspired inquiry to challenge deficit meanings and assumptions through increasing learning. During the inquiry, a group of teachers and administrators at each of two school sites engaged in a process of learning about systemic inequality and its impact on students of color through reading and discussions of scholarly articles. The educators engaged new meaning negotiations about their students of color and their education. Findings are that providing appropriate spaces for educator learning and reflection is very important. At one school site where the inquiry included educators of color and white educators, the white educators initially shifted away from focusing on important issues raised by their colleagues of color. Issues of race and power created barriers to real conversations, created silences and impeded learning. These barriers began to dissolve when one educator, with some support, took a stand and helped change the power imbalance in the group leading the group from contrived conversations to real conversations. Though sometimes contentious the real conversations led to increased learning even some evidence of transformational growth with potential for changes that could benefit the school's students of color.

At the other school location, despite relative harmonious shared meaning negotiations, changed minds did not result in the immediate changed actions of this relatively homogenous group of educators of color. The context of that school with more institutionalized deficit-oriented cultural processes created challenges to growth. Nevertheless, this group received some tools for change, building a foundation for future change.

The study initially identified some meanings at the two school sites. Findings indicated that (i) both white educators and educators of color held deficit meanings about students of color, and (ii) such educators also held resourced-oriented/asset-based meanings. Such positive meanings had the potential for forming the basis for building student learning. This study documented important learning processes that may be involved when power differentials exist within a group as they attempted to negotiate new meanings around education.