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Research on Teach For America (TFA) continues to grow, but scant scholarship has explored the experiences of its corps members working in special education in urban schools. As teachers who require in-depth knowledge of legal and liability processes as well as effective pedagogical practices, corps members in special education positions have significant demands placed on them that often lie beyond the roles and responsibilities of other TFA teachers. This article therefore focuses on the experiences of five TFA corps members placed in special education as it explores their critical reflections about the minimal preparation and support they received from TFA. In light of recent special education initiatives launched by TFA, the article raises questions about the continued involvement of TFA in the field of special education and its ability to adequately prepare corps members for the unique responsibilities served by special education teachers in the United States.

This article aims to move beyond issues of access to schooling for girls to investigate the constructions of gender through a macro-level analysis of policy and micro-level analysis of practice at a secondary school in Tanzania. State-sanctioned school texts are examined, as well as classroom discourse and teachers' understandings of gender, to show how both "gender as equity" and "gender as power relations" perspectives interact in schools. While there have been advances in the recognition of gender as a structuring force within schools and society, this article contends that the capabilities approach adds value to these views by considering how gendered texts and discourses may still be limiting the capabilities of female and male students in Tanzanian secondary schools.