This essay draws from a study conducted as part of graduate thesis work at George Mason University. The thesis examined the purpose of human rights education and critical media literacy, and the international inducements to include these subjects in the national education systems of United Nations (UN) member states. It compared the United States…

In this plenary discussion, Dr. Chao presents his research framework and reflections from engaging in Digital Mathematics Storytelling within Black, Asian American, and Asian American communities in multiple countries. The framework, based heavily around storytelling, counter-storytelling, and Critical Race Theory, has been employed as a workshop…

As campuses across the world grapple with serving their students during the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests, "Liberal Education" asked educators from a range of institutions about their experiences. These educators offered insights into how the current moment is affecting student well-being and community engagement. They…

Social movements are pedagogical spaces for collective learning across difference. Divergent worldviews, interest and identity, historical legacies and relations of power complicate notions of allyship and solidarity for common cause. In this article, we draw on social movement and transformative learning to reflect on our experiences of learning…

This conversation/article resituates the concept of reciprocity, as it has been theorized and enacted in rhetoric, composition, and literacy studies, within a larger framework of social justice, one that recognizes legacies of struggle, survival and perseverance. When situated within the Filipinx indigenous notion of "kapwa," reciprocity…

Bullying is increasingly considered to be an important moral, political, and social issue within modern society. Academic research on this issue has mostly been examined through a psychological lens, often using questionnaire data to examine and explain the prevalence of different types of bullying. In this position statement, we apply a…

This article examines why liberation theology needs to be a core resource in religious education settings, especially in Catholic secondary schools. It will first touch on key tenets of liberation theology and the reasons why it was silenced and underused. It will then analyse poverty in the Jewish tradition as an interfaith resource and…

This commentary suggests that a countermovement for educational and social justice must learn from the dominant global neo-liberal movement and its successes in creating institutions and knowledge-making processes and networks. Local struggles for educational justice are important, but they need to be linked to a broader educational justice…

As the authors, a Midwestern American educational administration professor and a Middle Eastern Iraqi doctoral candidate, have continued to interact over the past 3 years, both have come to appreciate the importance of increasing their tolerance for ambiguity--ambiguities in examining cultural, linguistic, and religious customs and complexities in…

Historian of religions Charles Long uses the term "American cultural language" to identify discursive challenges to democracy and social justice in the Unites States. The American cultural language, Long says, is the "misinterpretation" of humanness and freedom conveyed when the term "American"--used to signify…

This essay reflects on Daniel Tanner's "Race to the top and leave the children behind" by attention to the way our particular national histories impact on our thinking about what is valuable, the kinds of curriculum pressures and common senses that are now at work internationally at government and policy level, the specific forms these…

America is supposed to be a place of freedom and kindness. People from other countries look at America and see a place of opportunity where they can raise their children. Immigrants see America as a place where their children can receive a solid education and have a chance for a better life. Unfortunately, many Americans do not see it the way…

In this article, the author argues that despite wide-ranging appeal of the discourses of globalization, our modes of thinking and ways of addressing issues of cultural diversity remain trapped within a national framework. The dominant constructions of cultural diversity often overlook the ways in which experiences of diversity now take place in…

The slogans, the effigy, and the disruption of public space reflect tactics for which AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) is commonly remembered, but the occasion is somewhat unique. These protests and actions challenged the Bush and Clinton administrations' policy on HIV-positive Haitian migrants fleeing political repression in Haiti after…

This article analyzes Henry Giroux's recent book Youth in a Suspect Society: democracy or disposability? (Palgrave, 2009) and situates it within his post-9/11 critical interventions. Giroux has focused his recent work on theorizing, critiquing and challenging the confluence of militarization, corporatization and right-wing ideology that has…