This Handbook explores how the notion of borderlands is created within school spaces across the curriculum. It examines how borderlands appear within the traditional disciplines of language arts/reading, mathematics, science, and social studies across the K-12 curriculum in the United States and abroad. The volume considers borderlands from diverse perspectives, including special education/disability rights, tech/AI, LGBTQIAA+, language, race/ethnicity, gender, death & dying, body size/fatphobia, SES/income and wealth inequality, immigration/citizenship, indigenous rights, criminal justice system, and religion.

The major contribution of the handbook is applying the concept of borderlands from science education to the four core disciplines of K-12 education. By sharing the voices of numerous scholars, it seeks to expand the view of what counts as meaningful in educational scholarship. This resource is intended for classroom teachers, teacher educators, educational researchers, graduate students in education, policymakers, administrators, and anyone interested in understanding the often hidden worlds of K-12 education.

Alejandro José Gallard Martínez, PhD, is Professor and Goizueta Distinguished Chair in the Department of Middle Grades and Secondary Education at Georgia Southern University. His scholarship examines how contextual mitigating factors (CMFs) shape educational systems, drawing on global and interdisciplinary perspectives to analyze otherness, identity, and the sociocultural conditions that structure learning. 

Katie Lynn Brkich, PhD, is a Professor of Elementary Science in the Department of Elementary and Special Education at Georgia Southern University. Her scholarship examines elementary science teacher education, culturally responsive science pedagogy, and the contextual factors that shape equitable science teaching and learning. She studies preservice teacher learning, place-based science education, and emerging approaches to supporting ambitious elementary science instruction, including the use of generative AI for instructional planning.

Daryl E. Chubin, Ph.D., is an independent consultant, author, and advisor living in Savannah, Georgia: a social scientist by degree, a policy scientist by experience, and a marginal member of various intellectual communities. Through his academic, federal, and nonprofit service, he has focused on improving access and success of underrepresented students and professionals in science- and engineering-based organizations.