| Introduction | | Critical Social Theory, Educational Research, and Intellectual Agency by Jean Anyon | | 1 |
| Pt. I | | Theory and Explanatory Analysis | | 25 |
| 1 | | Critical Social Theory and the Study of Urban School Discipline: The Culture of Control in a Bronx High School by Kathleen Nolan | | 27 |
| | | Personal Reflection: A Theoretical Journey | | 49 |
| 2 | | Theorizing Student Poetry as Resistance to School-based Surveillance: Not Any Theory Will Do by Jen Weiss | | 55 |
| | | Personal Reflection: Finding Theory | | 75 |
| 3 | | Theorizing Redistribution and Recognition in Urban Education Research: "How do we Get Dictionaries at Cleveland?" by Michael J. Dumas | | 81 |
| | | Personal Reflection: Early Lessons | | 103 |
| Pt. II | | Theorizing with Research Participants | | 109 |
| 4 | | Theorizing Back: An Approach to Participatory Policy Analysis by Eve Tuck | | 111 |
| | | Personal Reflection: Reading and Writing Theory | | 131 |
| 5 | | Low-income Latina Parents, School Choice, and Pierre Bourdieu by Madeline Perez | | 135 |
| | | Personal Reflection: My Relationship with Theory | | 149 |
| 6 | | Queer Theory and Teen Sexuality: Unclear Lines by Darla Linville | | 153 |
| | | Personal Reflection: Queer Teens and Queer Theory | | 175 |
| | | Epilogue by Michelle Fine | | 179 |
| | | Author Biographies | | 197 |
| | | Index | | 199 |