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This article describes three female professors’ experiences to attain degrees (bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate) as first-generation college students (FGCS) and become academics. Their individual stories are shared through narratives, which capture crucial episodes of overcoming challenges. Because completion of a terminal degree by FGCS (of the Baby Boomer generation) is statistically low, these professors are outliers to the norm. Discussion identifies factors that aided the educators in their educational advancement.

What skills are needed to view the world beyond one’s immediate reality? A deep perspective consciousness is required to live and solve complex issues within a globalized context. Cultivating the seeds of perspective consciousness roots the growth of an open-minded, humanly connected, problem-solving citizen. Literature is positioned as a powerful catalyst for the expansion of perspective, acceptance of varied lived experiences and discovery of connections between ourselves and others far removed from our reality. Educators are placed in powerful roles in which they can, with great intentionality, sow a garden of books which meaningfully expands the perspectives of citizens. The book collections, recommendations and strategies presented in this article serve as seeding packets that deeply root perspective consciousness within all learners.

The marriage between Social Studies and Language Arts is a natural one. Sadly, the compartmentalization of subject areas within elementary classrooms contributes to the lack of critical connection-building in young children. In many elementary settings, Social Studies is a casualty of daily schedules dictated by the pressures of standardized testing. The authors contend there is an urgent need to rethink current elementary teacher education programs to empower the next generation of teachers to create learning experiences that seamlessly integrate knowledge, thinking, and action in the Social Studies.

What is Social Education? This question becomes the underpinning of many subsequent conversations after entry to the Social Education program at the University of Houston. Central to these ongoing conversations are doctoral students who have filtered in and out of the program yet are intricately woven into the fabric of the Social Education cohort. Our cohort is not the traditional cohort in that each of the members is at different stages in the program and in their lives. Those who have long moved on to different professional and personal spaces still collaborate; theirs is an expanded mentorship that distance has not faded. The tools in this bricolage are our own personal stories, the stories of the others with whom we come in contact; and the stitches that bind our patchwork are the stories of the critical pedagogists who have molded and shaped our discussions and philosophical tenets.