North American teacher unions' positive contributions to educational change have historically flown under the radar of educational policy makers, a situation that has been reified by recent attacks on public sector unions. In this article, I draw on social movement theory and an institutional case study of a self described social justice union to…

This paper renews the case for social action as a necessary and exciting part of the social studies curriculum and suggests that the social study of public issues should have a central place within this vision. The document focuses more on practical ideas that social studies teachers who have chosen to work in the area of social action, or those…