This study seeks to understand students' perceptions of self-agency and how they demonstrate their agency by engaging in discussions of a highly controversial wetland policy facing their community. Five focal students participating in this 13-month long curriculum were selected for further explorations. We traced their learning trajectories to…

In middle-grades settings, students are cultivating critical consciousness to apply general knowledge of equity to their local context(s) (Nojan, 2020). As educators work to foster environments that allow middle-grade students to cultivate critical consciousness, expectations have shifted in the area of leading for equity. We have outlined a…

This paper explores how minoritized Computer Science (CS) students articulate their sense of critical agency to positively impact the world around them, both for today and the future, when participating in a Girls Who Code program focused on ethics, equity, and underrepresentation in computing. Observations, interviews, and surveys were conducted…

Youth are social actors who not only engage in but transform culture. Promoting plurality often means letting go of preconceived notions of power in youth social circles. Here, we utilize parent-child ethnography and the lens of queer theory to analyse four stories of youth identity exploration and answer the following research questions: 1) how…

Climate change education (CCE) programs should foster citizen response to climate change by integrating knowledge/skill development with reflection on the need for actively changing current social systems and personal actions. An analytical framework was developed to examine 16 Korean and international CCE programs to identify (1) structure and…

Because of its focus on mutual understanding, the language classroom is uniquely situated to discuss and enact ideas about social justice. This book brings together authors from different geographical and professional contexts united by a common goal: to bring about a change in language teacher education and language classrooms. The chapters…

Participatory action research (PAR) with youth holds potential to spur social justice-oriented change due to its explicit orientation to transform systemic inequity. Whereas youth in PAR projects embody agency in their actions, they hold less institutional power than adults in positions of authority. In addition, youth who have been marginalized…

In connection with the historical legacy and imaginations of youth of Color advocating for more just and equitable futures, I consider the complex political terrain through which teachers of Color cultivate students' agency for social change within the narrow confines of schooling institutions. In this article, I conceptualize "racial…

Social media use, activism, and critical digital making are areas where artmaking can serve as both a mode of expression and a civic practice. In light of this context, the authors wonder how art curriculum can both draw on and support this form of civic work. The authors hope to demonstrate in this article that social activism is a highly visible…

Change comes when individuals transform themselves first and then move outward into the world. The C3 Framework lays out a vision for civic action within Dimension 4 of the Inquiry Arc in a section titled "Taking Informed Action." The Framework emphasizes that "It is important to note that taking informed action … should be grounded…

In this article, we examine one teacher's enactment of critical literacy pedagogy in a 7th-grade English language arts classroom in a New York City public school. By conceptualizing critical global literacies in relation to preservice and in-service teaching practices that reflect neoliberal interests, we attend to pedagogy inclusive of…

This qualitative study explores how middle school students in the Western United States participated in a curricular unit that focused on action for socioenvironmental sustainability. Using inductive coding and building on prior research, I examined actions that students took during this sustainability unit and how students talked about action…

The authors of this article, a 7-12 English teacher, a 7-12 social studies teacher, sought to cultivate spaces where their students could "wrestle with making sense of systemic oppression that exists within historic, geographic, and economic structures of our reality" (Duncan et al., 2023, p. 241) and, hopefully, sustain their civic…

An open classroom climate, one where diverse opinions and discussion of social and political issues are welcome, promotes civic development among youth and fosters critical consciousness. Critical consciousness, defined as the capacity to recognize societal inequity along with the motivation and action taken to challenge such inequity and promote…

Using an ecological approach to trauma-informed care and radical healing, this case study explores how one Title I public middle school mathematics classroom offered students opportunities to engage in healing practices through the use of Social Justice Mathematics. Findings indicate that students identified their emotions, engaged in structural…