This article details a classroom-based study designed to provide agency and voice to first and second grade emergent bilinguals as they processed the COVID-19 pandemic. Two California teachers created a narrative writing unit not only to teach specific writing skills, but also to challenge pervasive deficit assumptions that young children…

Empowering settings are important places for people to develop leadership skills in order to enact social change. Yet, due to socio-cultural constructions of childhood in the US, especially constructions around working class and working poor children of Color, they are often not seen as capable or competent change agents, or in need of being in…

A participatory research project examined the transformative process that a first-grade two-way Spanish immersion classroom underwent to build a community of learners. Drawing on a critical pedagogy framework, the teacher provided daily opportunities to engage young students in dialogue to develop their voices and created a literacy-rich…