This paper describes the use of an "institutional inquiry assignment" for pre-service teachers at a large state university in the US to foster critical understanding of institutional oppression. Written inquiry assignments, web-based journal entries, and class discussions with one hundred and six pre-service teacher candidates enrolled…

This paper examines the ways that one group of US pre-service teachers, enrolled in an alternate route teacher education class, expressed and challenged each other's contradictory discourses about teaching for social justice. Particularly significant are the many ways that this group of students enacted subject positions around race and sexuality…

Children from very young ages internalize messages about power and privilege with regard to gender, race/ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, and language, which they perpetuate through their play and talk. While families are a critical piece in shaping children's values on such matters, classroom practices communicate and reinforce strong,…