Framing through the concept of precarity, we share our arts-based research on the experiences of creating a collaborative performance-making project focused on connecting students from different education levels, to create a film-dance integrated performance to advocate for social justice issues in education. We, as instructors and researchers,…

The impetus to decolonise high schools and universities has been gaining momentum in Southern locations such as South Africa and Australia. In this article, we use a polyvocal approach, juxtaposing different creative and scholarly voices, to argue that poetry offers a range of generative possibilities for the decolonisation of high school and…

This article unpacks existing laws and disciplinary policies like "zero tolerance" and "disturbing schools" that criminalize youth behaviors in public schools and explores their roots in U.S. racialized histories using a critical carceral studies framework. Carceral studies scholars critique the punitive capitalist apparatus…

While attempts to decolonise the school curriculum have been ongoing since the 1970s, the recent Black Lives Matter protests around the world have drawn urgent attention to the vast inequities faced by Black and First Nations peoples and people of colour. Decolonising education and other public institutions has become a front-line public concern…

In this article, Kate Collins begins by explaining how she discovered that "Hamilton: An American Musical," a Broadway show that incorporates a mix of musical genres: hip-hop, jazz, classic show tunes, and show-stopper numbers based on the life of Alexander Hamilton, could be brought into her teaching as a rich resource for her high…

This article presents the reflections of a research team from the ZAPP-IKS project. ZAPP (the South African Poetry Project) undertook a three-year NRF-funded research project titled "Reconceptualising Poetry Education for South African Classrooms through Infusing Indigenous Poetry Texts and Practices". The research on which we report…

In teaching canonical literature, presuming a text's merit and infallibility can inhibit the development of critical thought and may transmit values that are not socially and politically just. The author describes how educators can promote academic literacy and critical consciousness in their students through pedagogy that helps students…

Chosen spaces are community organizations and programs, elective classes, and/or extracurricular clubs that students choose to participate in and have the agency to refuse their membership in. The youth's chosen spaces represent an alternate possibility for what English language arts (ELA) education could look like and how it might better sustain…

This article explores using spoken word poetry and song analysis in the classroom to inspire students to analyze their identities and strive for social justice in their research efforts. Poetry is empowering. It can show students how people express themselves, push them to consider their own identities, and inspire them to seek social change.…

Breaking down the social, political, and cultural processes through which race, class, and gender worldviews are established, ideological literacies help students look closely at the intricate, contradictory meanings in texts. The purpose of developing ideological literacies in urban youth is so they become more socially conscious of the…

In this article, I consider the literacy practices that emerged in an in-school elective course centered in the literacy tradition of African American women. Drawing from spatial perspectives (Leander& Sheehy, 2004), I explore what it means to consider this course an "Other space" (Foucault,1986), as a space created without the constraints of a…

This article presents a poem about Joe Cytrynbaum. The poem brings together all the many facets of Joe's personality into a crystal-clear image of the beautiful, smart, and magnanimous individual Joe's family, friends, students, and colleagues all knew him to be.

As classrooms become more diverse, not only in North America, but in most Western Countries, calls for more culturally relevant pedagogies that centre the lived experiences of diverse students have taken on greater importance and significance. This is in response to the need for increased engagement and educational success for all learners. I…

Urban youth in the United States often experience daily human rights violations such as racism and violence. Therefore, Human Rights Education (HRE) can strengthen their understanding of these issues and unleash their power to act toward positive change. This qualitative study attempted to gain a deeper understanding of the use of performance arts…

In this article, the author demonstrates how a Bourdieusian analysis of poetic transcriptions offers great potential for helping teachers and students to understand how they are responding to state policy mandates in schools. Specifically, the author uses Bourdieu's concepts of field, capital, and habitus to analyze two poetic transcriptions,…