Preparing and Sustaining Social Justice Educators spotlights the challenging and necessary work of fostering social justice in schools. Integral to this work are the teachers and school leaders who enact the principles of social justice—racial equity, cultural inclusivity, and identity acceptance—daily in their classrooms. This volume makes the case that high-quality public education relies on the recruitment, professional development, and retention of educators ready to navigate complex systemic and structural inequities to best serve vulnerable student populations. Annamarie Francois and Karen Hunter Quartz, along with contributing scholars and practitioners, present an intersectional approach to educational justice. The approach is grounded in research about deeper learning, community development, and school reform. Throughout the book, the contributors detail professional activities proven to sustain social justice educators. They show, for example, how effective teacher coaching encourages educators to confront their explicit and implicit biases, to engage in critical conversations and self-reflection, and to assess teacher performance through a social justice lens. The book illustrates how professional learning collaborations promote diverse, antiracist, and socially responsible learning communities. Case studies at three university-partnered K–12 schools in Los Angeles demonstrate the benefits of these professional alliances and practices. Francois and Quartz acknowledge the difficulty of the social justice educator’s task, a challenge heightened by a K–12 teacher shortage, an undersupplied teacher pipeline, and school closures. Yet they keep their sights set on a just and equitable future, and in this work, they give educators the tools to build such a future. Preparing and Sustaining Social Justice Educators spotlights the challenging and necessary work of fostering social justice in schools. Integral to this work are the teachers and school leaders who enact the principles of social justice—racial equity, cultural inclusivity, and identity acceptance—daily in their classrooms. This volume makes the case that high-quality public education relies on the recruitment, professional development, and retention of educators ready to navigate complex systemic and structural inequities to best serve vulnerable student populations. Annamarie Francois and Karen Hunter Quartz, along with contributing scholars and practitioners, illustrate how professional learning collaborations promote diverse, antiracist, and socially responsible learning communities. Case studies at three university-partnered K–12 schools in Los Angeles demonstrate the benefits of these professional alliances and practices. Francois and Quartz acknowledge the difficulty of the social justice educator’s task, a challenge heightened by a K–12 teacher shortage, an undersupplied teacher pipeline, and school closures. Yet they keep their sights set on a just and equitable future, and in this work they give educators the tools to build such a future. “For the last 30 years, UCLA’s Center X has been a beacon in preparing educators to teach and lead in culturally responsive and sustaining ways, especially in working-class, urban communities of color. This important book provides a valuable history of this inspirational body of work from the perspectives and stories of both university and school partners. It should be required reading for every aspiring and current teacher and leader educator.” —Ken Zeichne r, Boeing Professor of Teacher Education Emeritus, University of Washington Annamarie Francois is the executive director of Center X and a faculty member in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Karen Hunter Quartz directs the Center for Community Schooling and is a faculty member in the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Contributors Melissa S. Arias Heather F. Clark Carla Estes Megan L. Franke Leyda Garcia Ben Gertner Emma Hipólito Jo Ann Isken Lynn Kim-John Carrie Usui Johnson Orlando Johnson Jarod Kawasaki Queena Kim Jon Kovach Ung-Sang Lee Imelda L. Nava Jeannie Oakes Tonikiaa Orange Nancy Parachini Jaime J. Park Leticia Perez Jody Z. Priselac John Rogers William A. Sandoval Marisa Saunders Christine Shen Annamarie Francois is the executive director of UCLA’s Center X, where she guides the work of equity-driven educator preparation, development, and support for urban school communities, and is a faculty member in the UCLA Teacher Education Program. She has over thirty years of teaching, teacher leadership, and administrative leadership in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the charter school community, and UCLA’s Department of Education. Francois is currently the University of California representative on the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, advisor to the California State University C