Social changes have resulted in an increase of students living in households that do not include both a mother and a father, reducing the efficacy of common survey questionnaire approaches to measuring student socioeconomic status (SES). This paper presents two studies conducted to develop and test a new,more inclusive set of student SES items…

The main goal of this study was to analyze the development of historical thinking abilities in two groups of fourth graders in Colombian schools. The study consisted of the design, implementation, and evaluation of a three-month pedagogical intervention. After an initial assessment, nine learning activities were implemented. An Intervention Group…

Primary school textbooks can provide space for learning about peace and inclusion but can also reinforce messages of inequality and division. This article describes a thematic analysis of South Sudan's textbooks for pupils in Grade 4 Social Studies, English, and Christian Religious Education. The analysis uses a conceptual framework that positions…

By participating in global projects, students learn to communicate, asynchronously or synchronously, through digital tools and media. The project in this article paired pre-service teachers in the United States with primary students, ages 8 to 10, in South Korea. The intent was to expose pre-service teachers to global collaboration projects, and…

An open classroom climate, one where diverse opinions and discussion of social and political issues are welcome, promotes civic development among youth and fosters critical consciousness. Critical consciousness, defined as the capacity to recognize societal inequity along with the motivation and action taken to challenge such inequity and promote…

This article analyses the experiences of teachers of literacy working in underprivileged communities in the Western Cape, South Africa. The purpose is to provide teachers in poorly resourced schools within economically deprived areas an opportunity to voice their experiences of teaching literacy. The article is based on an empirical study using…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the findings of an intervention program built on the concept of children's health literacy, particularly on its citizenship component. This intervention program employed the Investigation-Vision-Action-Change model for action-oriented teaching, where children were supported to investigate different…

History labs invite students to examine primary and secondary source documents related to an essential question. The sources used in a history lab should represent multiple perspectives so that students are aware of the varying accounts of and opinions about historic events. By being exposed to multiple perspectives, students also learn about…

The Statue of Liberty has traditionally served as a symbol of freedom and liberty for citizens in the United States and around the world. Lady Liberty was often the first symbol European immigrants saw as they arrived in New York Harbor. Many of them were escaping dire conditions back home and seeking a better future for themselves and their…

Drawing from a larger ethnographic study, this article engages post-structural theories of language and critical feminist theories of social class to examine two fourth-grade, White, working-poor girls' narratives about their urban neighbourhood in the United States. The author argues that young girls should be perceived as social theorists…

This research explores student responses to Beyond Today, an after school program that brings youth together from diverse urban neighborhoods to form a multiracial community. Through the enacted curriculum, Beyond Today facilitators scaffold opportunities for students to study race and racial discrimination in historical and contemporary contexts.…

In this paper, I explore the experiences of fourth and fifth grade students engaged in Beyond Today, an urban after school program, that aimed to enact a social reconstructionist multicultural curriculum. The program gathered White, Black, and Latino/a youth to explore issues of discrimination and social justice and develop leadership towards…

In this article, the author discusses her research on children's perspectives of interracial and interethnic friendships in a multiethnic school and highlights children's voices on these intergroup friendships. Schools are important spaces in which social and cultural competencies necessary to the formation of intergroup friendships may be…

The changes in post-apartheid South Africa have been accompanied by considerable changes in the education system. The most notable include desegregation of schools, development of a National Qualifications Framework, adoption of new language policies for education, and introduction of outcomes-based curricula. However entrenched assessment…

As a Teaching Artist (TA) for the past 12 years, the author has visited hundreds of schools in western Pennsylvania. She has had an opportunity to work with many talented and dedicated classroom teachers, arts teachers and administrators who all share an enthusiasm for making the arts central to quality education. The teachers and administrators…