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Racism is a systemic issue that works alongside white privilege, a system of unearned benefits, such as obtaining financial breaks and loans, being reflected consistently in classroom curriculum, and being assumed as the "norm." Assumptions about people with light skin include their being honest, responsible, and safe. Thus, white privilege also simultaneously works through the oppression of people of color, about which the opposite assumptions are made--they are often portrayed (especially through the media) as unsafe, powerless, and less deserving of resources such as health care. This article focuses on the novel "All American Boys" by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely (2015) to help students work through the implications of racism and the manifestation of racism in police brutality. Reading about youth who are similar in age will potentially help students discern how they are affected by racial relations in their own lives and to consider (and hopefully act on) the methods through which they can enact change to combat the negative effects of racial inequity. [This article is excerpted with permission from the authors' book, "Reading for Action: Engaging Youth in Social Justice Through Young Adult Literature" (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).]

This research sought to examine the various types of social justice knowledge that 10 practicing teachers possessed and how this knowledge can be categorized and further nuanced. Drawing from the theoretical framework of social justice pedagogical and content knowledge, researchers inductively and deductively coded a corpus of interviews to analyze participants' understandings of discourse, theory, history, and agency. Findings include the prevalence of an awareness of social inequity, a viewpoint that knowledge is socially constructed, an avowal of the existence of counternarratives to oppose dominant viewpoints, and a propensity for critical reflection. Knowledge of discourses, particularly in reference to both language and action, were less present in the data, while references to social responsibility were infrequent. Implications include more attention to the social justice knowledge base in teacher education, including the aspects of collective action and the common good.

In this article, authors describe an original framework aimed to acquaint pre-service English teachers with concepts related to social justice to facilitate their critical literacies related to eight components: positionality, race, orientation, gender, relationships, environment, social class, and stereotypes (PROGRESS). Authors then illustrate this text-based approach through an application of the paradigm to the young adult text "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian" with the hope that this model will be both useful for helping pre-service teachers participate in critical conversations on literature and social issues as well for assisting those candidates in finding starting points for similar work with their future students. Possibilities for implementing the paradigm in classroom practice are offered, which embrace examining intersectionalities and recognizing silences in the myriad texts to which the framework can be adapted.

Manifest in research, national policy, and instructional standards, the United States has a long-documented interest in teachers as 'content experts.' Yet, research offers limited empirical examinations of teachers' discipline-specific critical content knowledges--their curricular agility in noticing and disrupting power and oppression, and working to promote empowerment, joy, and liberation. Accordingly, this study asks: what critical content knowledges are most prominent among social justice-oriented secondary English language arts (ELA) teachers, and how do teachers understand and describe these knowledges? Using collective case study methodologies, this study investigates interview data from five ELA teachers to understand participants' critical content knowledges and their descriptions of these knowledges. Data were interpreted through deductive and inductive coding and analysis. Findings reveal that teachers' most prominent critical content knowledges include a) knowledge of disciplinary critique; b) knowledge of marginalized identities; and c) knowledge of supplementary content. Limitations to teachers' critical content knowledges include a narrow race and gender foci, and discursive avoidance of explicitly naming marginalized identities. Implications for future research aimed at better understanding, supporting, and expanding teachers' critical content knowledges are discussed.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore how preservice teachers conceive of and implement social actions on their college campuses related to a chosen social problem developed in a young adult novel and to examine how social action projects develop teacher candidates' critical literacies. Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative exploratory multiple case study (Stake, 2005) investigated 70 pre-service teachers on two college campuses over two semesters as they engaged in social action projects. The researchers engaged in layers of open and thematic coding through the theoretical lens of critical literacies. Findings: Preservice teachers engaged in a range of direct and indirect action and, as a result, experienced varying levels of self-efficacy and impact. While most felt their endeavors were successful, those who conducted awareness campaigns noted an inability to measure the effects they had on their communities. Their development of critical literacies through social action was evidenced in the partnerships across campus they established as well as their levels of engagement with peers and local officials. Originality/value: While the results of conducting social action with youth in secondary classrooms are well established in the literature, lesser well known are ways to engage preservice teachers in such endeavors. This study illustrates not only how teacher candidates can engage in social action as aligned with young adult literature but also offers insights gained from those processes.

Using a mixed-methods approach, this article reports survey findings regarding the factors secondary English-language-arts teachers in the United States reported as influential to their text selection and examines how those factors varied by years of teaching experience. Teachers' department was the most cited influence regardless of years' experience. Findings with statistical significance, supported by the qualitative data, include discrepancies in perceived curricular constraints between novice and veteran teachers as related to parental, administrative, and school board influence on text selection. Implications for the teacher preparation classroom, including building skills and confidence in curricular choices, are examined.

This self-study involves instructors of a Social Justice in Education course at a large university who engaged preservice teacher education students with assignments intended to solicit their critical self-reflection and to facilitate an awareness of themselves as sociocultural beings. Our work responds to the continued need to involve preservice teachers in experiences that foster critical consciousness and cognizance of their own socialization. For the assignments, students were first asked to describe key moments in their educational experience in the form of a multimedia submission and reflection. After a semester of critical discussions and readings, students were then asked to revisit their initial projects and critique those using course concepts. In addition, they were prompted to include plans for themselves as future social justice educators. In this article, we analyze those student submissions, and we find that many reached new conclusions about social justice topics such as race and gender, critiqued personal and social artifacts, and recognized the connections between privilege and meritocracy. Despite the limitations in class size and structure, we affirm the potential value of a multistage autobiography assignment. We also explore instances of student resistance, wherein students avoided the assigned task and our requirement for self-reflection. We conclude by offering implications for teacher education and posit considerations for future adaptions of the assignment, including the necessity to engage students in opportunities to take social action and to move beyond critique.

The article presents reflections by Maha Bali, Ashley S. Boyd and Remi Kalir on the histories and futures of collaborative reading and writing in education research, teaching and service. Topics include examines the tensions between individual and collaborative conceptions of literacy, the transformative potential of writing collaboratively across cultural difference and role that collaborative writing can play as a means of inspiring students to critique power toward more equitable futures.

In this article, the authors describe a qualitative case study of one secondary teacher and her ninthgrade students in the rural Northwest reading Jeff Zentner's novel The Serpent King. This work is situated in the recently developed theory of Critical Rural English Pedagogy which highlights the import of devoting attention to the unique aspects of rural life as well as having students critique and analyze related representations. Researchers collected the focal teachers' lesson plans, activities, handouts, and student work and observed class discussion seminars once per week. They also conducted three semi-structured interviews with the teacher and engaged in weekly informal conversations with her. Through open and thematic coding, they discerned how the teacher constructed a culturally affirming and rich unit that honored her students' lives and allowed them a space for validation and storytelling. Implications for pre- and inservice teachers are shared, including this illustration as a model for Critical Rural English Pedagogy, a group often missing from this scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author talks about middle school students about real-world topics can be challenging, and it is necessary in the eighth grade especially, students are beginning to develop their own perspectives on the world around them and to solidify their beliefs and values. Topics discussed describe how strove to achieve such goals with two classes of eighth grade students living in a predominately middle-class suburban area, and identifying the social impact of decision making.

In this article, authors propose a framework for social justice in pre-service teacher education that differs from traditional approaches to diversity related courses. Rather than a sole focus on the ‘isms,’ such as racism or classism, five distinct yet simultaneously occurring components are offered for the paradigm. First, this approach to social justice must continuously examine students’ autobiographical experiences. Learners interpret new information through their personal, socially constructed lenses, and it is thus crucial to help them identify and unpack their complex experiences. Second, we call for an organization by topics of concern for dismantling inequity, such as understanding systemic injustices within schools and outside of schools; the social construction of identity; and examining both how and what we teach. Third, we incorporate the critical analysis of media in order to better understand the ways issues are constructed and upheld in the dominant hegemonic culture. Fourth, our model encourages students to conceptualize social justice not only in pedagogical ways, but also as it relates to the content so as to address students’ struggles in connecting social justice to their discipline or grade level. Finally, this method includes the creation and implementation of social action projects. Too often we teach students ‘about’—about theories, about people, about schools without involving our students in the act of social justice. For each component, we provide a description and justification as well as tangible examples of its implementation from our own practice. We include further considerations for using the paradigm in discipline-specific ways, and we end with a call to action for continuing social justice education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]