Early purposes of education in the United States concentrated on preparing young citizens to understand democratic principles in order to participate in their democratic communities. Today elementary instruction has contracted in response to years of high stakes accountability measures. Social studies has not been a focus of federal accountability…

With a change in access to information and a rising social and political consciousness for young people, elementary schools must start to think more about their role in shaping kids' understanding of social issues. While researchers certainly have not agreed upon a single definition of social justice education, Bell (2016) defines its aim as…

Black experiences and discourse concerning citizenship are unique. Moreover, Black access to full citizenship is often a matter of life and death. The civic purposes driving this pursuit are often negated in conventional curriculum and pedagogy, especially in early childhood settings. Still, it is essential for educators and policymakers to…

In this article, you will read about three early childhood justice-oriented teachers and the ways in which they develop pedagogy and curriculum that is deeply invested in the histories of their students as well as inclusive of their voices and lived experiences. The goal of this article is to contribute to a growing body of scholarship on social…

This paper engages with conversations with two teachers who each build socially just pedagogies and engage in minor gestures in response to the socio-educational-political reality they were confronted with -- namely, a pupil disappearing from the classroom when her parents' application for immigration was rejected. In an assemblage connecting the…

This article is inspired by my experience of aiming to teach against oppression on my return to an elementary school classroom after completing doctoral studies in education. The tensions that surfaced as I attempted to disrupt oppressive school knowledge in my second and third grade classrooms motivated me to engage in self-study. Locating my…

In this article, we explore ways in which arts-based approaches may be deployed to educate ways of knowing/becoming/doing difference differently, particularly when issues of racism and xenophobia come to the front. We present a school research intervention with students and in-service teachers in Santiago, Chile. In this study, we use "The…

This joint study in the elementary school social studies setting enacted the explicit intention of facilitating student understanding of social justice. The first study was conducted in a second grade classroom to assess how exploring historical neighborhoods in St. Louis impacted students' understandings of diversity. Student writings,…

This joint study in the elementary school social studies setting enacted the explicit intention of facilitating student understanding of social justice. The first study was conducted in a second grade classroom to assess how exploring historical neighborhoods in St. Louis impacted students' understandings of diversity. Student writings,…

Located across 30 different states, there are more than 1,700 symbols of the Confederacy including 772 monuments and statues on public property, and 100 schools named after prominent Confederates. Questions about the appropriateness of keeping these tributes to the Confederacy in places of honor have become flashpoints for public controversy in…

This article presents seven social justice-oriented model activities for 1st and 2nd grade Korean-English bilingual students. Considering the age and language ability of the target students, two picture books addressing social justice issues were selected as a main instructional material for those activities. Through the suggested model…

This qualitative case study documents pedagogical changes from a traditional teacher-centred instruction to an inquiry-based integrated literacy/science instruction in an urban second grade classroom. Social constructivist learning, where teachers and learners engage in discussion, argumentation, shared collective discourse, guided practice and…

This article describes a STEAM lesson focusing on Johnathon Green's landscapes and the science of the ecosystems in the coastal region of the southeastern United States. The learning that took place manifested into something more meaningful than just the intended lesson. The collateral learning included the fact that artists can be African…

This article is an analysis of picture books and chapter books involving lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender characters. Over 30 picture and chapter books were reviewed, each of which would be appropriate for use in elementary classrooms. For grades K-2, several picture books highlight different types of families, including families that…

When significant news events occur, usually the author's first reaction is "How will I teach this to my students?" This was the question the author asked on Aug. 5, 2012, when an assailant shot and killed six members of the Sikh community at their temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. The author felt such sadness and horror on hearing of this…