Transnational children's texts can bring communities together, forcing us to reflect critically on our past, present, and future, and pushing us to action. In this column, we propose that texts that do this form of activist work are "cuentos combativos" and that all teachers and researchers can leverage "cuentos combativos" for…

Decolonial scholars endeavour to evade the construction of another singularity by rejecting the allure to universalise a single definition of decoloniality and difference, which may claim narratives and praxis that would liberate all peoples but would re-enact other forms of irreflexive violence. For this rationale, we draw on our loci of…

Peace education prepares people to deal peacefully with conflicts of various scales. The authors want to enrich this education by paying attention to situations when international tension increases, and it is still possible to defuse it. Social movements sometimes highlight the hidden conflicts in society. They provoke the authorities to act and…

As social studies teachers, the authors feel they have a moral and ethical responsibility to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary to become active participants in democracy. This starts with a transformative social studies curriculum that promotes critical thinking, is meaningful and relevant to the lives of…

In an era of scripted curriculum and high-stakes testing, the latitude teachers have for making curricular decisions in their classrooms has significantly declined. The authors report findings from a literature review of teachers' principled resistance to curricular control. Principled resistance occurs when teachers reject curricular mandates…

A silence in the resurgence of scholarship on W. E. B. Du Bois has been his work as an instructor. This article uses Du Bois's early teaching experiences and reflections on the "ugly" progress of schooling to ask: What should guide the pedagogy of sociology instructors when racial progress is so ugly? I sketch here a pedagogy inspired by…

This paper will focus on how communities can respond to the impacts of a more dangerous world but will emphasize that there exist powerful barriers to climate change adaptation (CCA). This article explores why there are so many barriers to change and offers a simple mnemonic to organize the argument--A.D.A.P.T. The A.D.A.P.T. framework shows that…

A teacher and author shares vital ways to help students counter climate despair with hope, agency, imagination, and activism.

This teaching note reflects on the challenges we face when attempting to cultivate the seeds of social justice in our pedagogy and our engagement toward social justice. First, we situate our vision of pedagogy in a critical lens and present challenges we encounter when trying to foster activism among students. The challenges we identify allow us…

By implementing carefully selected children's literature into the current reading curriculum, teachers can help students develop into civic-minded citizens who are willing and able to take meaningful action. Much has been written about the need to link learning and culture in our literacy classrooms (Banks, 1995; Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995,…

This chapter examines the craft of storytelling for the purpose of developing followers and exploring leader-follower transitions, while offering storytelling methods, classroom activities, and critical components of crafting a story. Through stories about the American Civil Rights icon, Mrs. Rosa Parks, and an unfamiliar Civil Rights activist,…

The term "freethinking" originated in the 17th century to describe inquiry into beliefs which were accepted unquestioningly. Feminists such as Mary Wolstonecraft, abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, and novelists such as Mark Twain and Zora Neal Hurston are among the many who dared to simultaneously challenge religious dogma,…

This STEM research project asks middle school or high school students to work towards creating ecologically friendly packaging. Packaging that can be composted instead of thrown away and collected in landfills and oceans like plastics. This inquiry uses nanocellulose and focuses on water permeability. The fibers of nanocellulose can be dried to…

The idea of making as a form of activism or, as we refer to it in this paper, "craftivism," underpins our ambition to transform pedagogical environments into spaces of possibility through sensory and affective making practices. A craftivist agenda pushes for open teaching and learning with materials so that students can inhabit a…

In the 21st century, fake news has detrimental consequences on global communities, relationships, and democracies. Unfortunately, youth unknowingly engage with misinformed content on their social media platforms. Teenagers often turn to social media for information, and it is essential that teachers address reading strategies such as sourcing to…