In this essay, we focus on the potential and promise that intersectionality holds as a lens for studying the social determinants of health, reducing health disparities, and promoting health equity and social justice. Research that engages intersectionality as a guiding conceptual, methodological, and praxis-oriented framework is focused on power dynamics, specifically the relationships between oppression and privilege that are intrinsic to societal practices. Intersectional knowledge projects aimed at studying this interplay within and across systems challenge the status quo. Whether reframing existing conceptualizations of power, implementing empirical research studies or working with community organizations and global social movements, intersectional inquiry and praxis are designed to excavate the ways in which a person's multiple identities and social positions are embedded within systems of inequality. Intersectionality also is attentive to the need to link individual, institutional, and structural levels of power in a given sociohistorical context for advancing health equity and social justice.

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W ithin the past 20 years, the arts have gained increasing prominence in educational discourses as well as public arenas. At the same time that traditional genres of art (e.g., music, visual art, and performance) are being taught as part of school curricula, the study of the arts in education has taken on new venues in supporting learning and teaching through technology and multimedia (Carey, 2005;Eisner, 2002; Flood, Heath, & Lapp, 2005). These new foci are especially critical in bridging the local and the global, and in linking cultures and worlds across age, time, and space that in earlier periods in history would have been virtually impossible to connect. Moreover, they portend opportunities for enhancing learning and improving pedagogy and practice (Bresler, 2001; Bresler & Ardichivili, 2002). They call attention to the ways in which these opportunities are constructed across place and culturally diverse groups, how knowledge (and what counts as knowledge) is defined and shaped within and outside of formal classrooms, and the ways in which reciprocal relationships across different settings are (re)formed and sustained. In short, they prompt us to examine critically how patterns of practice in areas outside of the arts are supported through the arts. They urge us to take up questions about the role the arts play in linking students' knowledge outside the classroom with the knowledge gained through the official curriculum and, in turn, about how such knowledge contributes to the formation of student and teacher identities.This chapter focuses on the arts within a social-cultural-contextual framework, examining their role as a (re)source in educational theory, research, and practice. Rather than highlighting individual disciplines within the field, typically referred to as "the arts," the chapter is concerned with the changing nature of the arts and what counts as the arts. 1 The chapter has a six-part structure that begins with an overview of issues that are central to redefining the relationship of the arts and education. This is followed

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This article reports on the development and field trial of an integrated Head Start curriculum (Evidence-Based Program for Integrated Curricula [EPIC]) that focuses on comprehensive mathematics, language, and literacy skills. Seventy Head Start classrooms (N = 1,415 children) were randomly assigned to one of two curriculum programs: EPIC or the Developmental Learning Materials Early Childhood Express, with curricula implemented as standalone programs. EPIC included instruction in mathematics, language, literacy, and approaches to learning skills; formative assessment; and a learning community for teachers. Multilevel growth modeling through four direct assessments revealed significant main effects and growth rates in mathematics and listening comprehension favoring EPIC, controlling for demographics and special needs and language status. Both programs produced significant growth rates in literacy.