The continuous improvement (CI) approach to systems change has rapidly spread across education policy circles in recent years and has been hailed as a promising means to achieve educational equity and social justice. CI's highly routinized, scientific process for improving efficiency and productivity is a somewhat unexpected means to pursue…

This critical constructivist descriptive case study examined how 12 students in a diversity dialogue course conceptualized action in response to oppression. Participants often defined action as individual-level intervention and rarely discussed systemic change. Although they increased their knowledge during the course, participants hesitated to…

Debates about what constitutes a socially just education remain a central concern in these complex times. Embodied and creative practices in schooling offer a pedagogical approach that can respond to social justice within schooling and classrooms. This paper draws on pedagogies that utilise the body and creative practices as a method for engaging…

Many teacher preparation programs have a commitment to preparing teachers who teach equitably. However, current research shows that many teachers struggle to move beyond theoretical understandings into practical enactments once they enter inhospitable teaching contexts. This case study examines the effect of co-creating a conceptual framework of…

Higher education and student affairs graduate programs have attempted to prepare aspiring administrators to answer the call for increased multicultural competency through diversity courses, yet research suggests that new professionals feel ill-prepared to enact social justice work. Current instructional methods foster awareness but fail to…

Until recently, many early childhood educators, particularly those in nontraditional preschool spaces, leaned on a color-evasive approach to their work, largely ignoring systemic racism and bias, claiming love and acceptance of all children in their care. While well-intentioned, these practices left young children to construct their own…

Storytelling is a powerful tool to be utilized within racial justice education. It humanizes our experiences, promotes empathy, and allows us to connect across difference. Existing literature illustrates the influence of storytelling being rooted in marginalized populations and its ability to transcend cultural contexts (Banks-Wallace, 1998; Bell,…

Human Rights Education (HRE) is critical to human development and societal transformation. In India, although HRE emerged in the 1980s, its incorporation in higher education has not yet reached its full potential. Using the state of Tamil Nadu as our case study, this paper evaluates the integration of courses on human rights in universities and…

This study examined the social justice teaching beliefs and practices of three novice teachers from the perspectives of complexity theory. A qualitative multi-case study methodology was used to collect data that included interviews, classroom observations, and simulated recalls. The findings describe the lived experiences of the participants…

This study examines how storytelling can guide the critical reflexivity of secondary science teachers engaged in a professional learning community. Traditionally, storytelling has been used in Black communities to "teach the people to know themselves." The author engages in racial storytelling to remember, envision and consider what…

Social justice is a hallmark of social work practice. The call to end oppression and discrimination are voiced in the Grand Challenge, Achieve Equal Opportunity and Justice, the National Association of Social Work Code of Ethics preamble, and the Council on Social Work Education Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. However, none of…

Drawn from an ethnographic study of spoken word poetry in Australia, this article offers case studies of two youth poets and follows their journeys with spoken word over three years as they performed in community-based slams, engaged with the New South Wales English Extension 2 curriculum, and served as mentor poets in culturally and…

The effects of professional teacher dispositions on student development have been widely documented. Yet there is limited discussion of the impact of socially just dispositions. The present study critically examines the relationship between justice-oriented mind-sets in preservice teachers and their perceptions of teaching in urban schools. Using…

On 20 September 2019 in Cape Town, as part of the global protests on inaction on climate change, the African Climate Alliance submitted a memorandum of demands to South African government representatives, one of which was 'the creation of a mandatory climate-education curriculum for South Africa'. This raises the question of how this imperative…

This article shares an innovative pedagogical experience that approaches diversity through cinema-based affective literacy practices in the EFL/ESL classroom. Following a social justice approach to education, we designed and implemented a workshop to develop affective literacy practices targeted at 49 pre-service teachers from the Master's…