Although scholarship has shown that new teachers struggle to make the transition to in-service teaching and enact the progressive practices that they learned during pre-service preparation, little research has explored how first-year teachers develop a justice-oriented practice during this transition. This project centers on a critical learning…

This paper describes the experiences of two teachers, Ms. Santiago and Mr. Jelenik, who participated in a comprehensive National Science Foundation-supported science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professional learning experience. This comparative case study describes how Ms. Santiago and Mr. Jelenik leveraged the…

Critical consciousness (CC) is the ability to understand, critique, and act against oppressive social structures and systemic forces. To assist educators in understanding and enacting strategies that foster CC, the authors identified examples of CC in third through fifth grade virtual classes of a 2020 "Children's Defense Fund's" Freedom…

Teaching requires careful attention to the needs of all learners. How do we ensure we consistently meet them holistically? Though we live in what is considered a post-racial society, several injustices are suffered by minority groups. To combat this, many have adopted anti-racist pedagogy. Research suggests, however, that anti-racist teaching…

Fairy tales are ubiquitous in Australian primary schools. Drawing on a review of key literature, this paper aims to determine the implications of teaching fairy tales in the twenty-first-century primary classroom. Research points to the benefits of including fairy tales as a tool to improve all subject areas of the curriculum. Fairy tales present…

Research in early childhood and elementary social studies education has illuminated how teachers can use children's literature to explore issues of injustice, elevate hidden histories, and affirm students' identities. Integrating children's literature into social studies instruction not only supports literacy education aims but also promotes…

Children in elementary schools think, talk, and reason in big ways that reflect how they live and experience race, racism, and racialization. Some elementary school teachers -- or critical-race teacher change agents -- intentionally include this work in their classrooms. My aim is to find out what motivates critical-race teacher change agents to…

Early adolescence is a dynamic stage for the development of critical consciousness, yet there are few resources focused on social justice education (SJE) in the middle grades. This article shares the findings from a study that investigated the experiences of three social justice educators as they engaged in SJE with young adolescents (YAs). We…

Critical praxis is an important means of increasing educators' critical consciousness. Culture circles are one avenue for educators to engage in a critical praxis, to dialogue, listen, reflect, and develop direct action steps. Both critical consciousness (Freire) and an ethic of care (Noddings) are essential and require an ongoing critical praxis.…

This study employed design-based research to explore the efficacy of professional learning materials and approaches in developing social justice advocacy with rural elementary teachers in Appalachia. Bronfenbrenner's (2005) bioecological theory and Boler's (1999) pedagogy of discomfort formed the theoretical framework for the design,…

With a change in access to information and a rising social and political consciousness for young people, elementary schools must start to think more about their role in shaping kids' understanding of social issues. While researchers certainly have not agreed upon a single definition of social justice education, Bell (2016) defines its aim as…

Language teaching activism is a political movement for educational transformation where the role of teachers and languages, as a medium of instruction and literacy, are fundamental for equity and social justice. This paper analyzes the reflections from elementary school teachers from Austin (Texas, U.S.) and Oaxaca (Mexico) during a collaborative…

Recently, there has been a surge of literature on the implementation of translanguaging pedagogy and practices in science education settings. By activating and validating learners' full communicative repertoire, translanguaging holds promise to build an inclusive science learning community where multilingual learners' ways of knowing are not only…

Teachers regularly plan and implement lessons to facilitate student learning using a traditional lesson model where the content often progresses in a linear manner. Through our work of preparing pre-service elementary teachers to teach about race and racial injustice, we wondered if some content might be better developed using a specialized or…

This research study delves into the transformative possibility of culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) within elementary STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) classrooms. Born from decades of research on culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy, CSP aims to dismantle barriers, foster access and equity, and promote equality…