Activism has the potential for reform (Howard, 1976). Unlike previous studies on high school activism this study places a primary focus on underground newspapers and argues that underground newspapers allowed high school students to function as activists as well as educational reformers. In order to make this argument, this study examined over 150…

Public rhetoric pedagogy can benefit from an ecological perspective that sees change as advocated not through a single document but through multiple mundane and monumental texts. This article summarizes various approaches to rhetorical ecology, offers an ecological read of the Montgomery bus boycotts, and concludes with pedagogical insights on a…

Our feminist cross-national comparative study explored the informal and nonformal education and learning of women politicians in Canada and India. Using individual interviews, focus groups, surveys and observations of training sessions we compared and contrasted socio-cultural contexts, challenges, education and learning philosophies, and diverse…

This essay documents a few key examples of the critical pedagogy and curriculum that the authors employ to challenge pre-service and in-service teachers to consider the concrete and theoretical contexts of taking on a social-activist-teacher persona. Their vision of social justice is rooted firmly in the critical tradition, as it is anchored in…

Neoliberal values and ideology, which have broadly undermined social justice ideals, have been inserted into a range of public spheres both in the U.S.A. and internationally. Public higher education institutions have increasingly acquiesced to neoliberal strategies, which restrict access to public services, commodify the public sphere and…

We present a project that used the Iowa Caucus, an American political tradition, to support English-language instruction in Belgium and Luxembourg. Educators acknowledge that the cultural dimension is critically important in the acquisition of foreign languages, yet questions remain about effective ways to incorporate it in the classroom. Begun as…

In this essay, the author provides an in-depth description of the course "Communication and Activism" and its rationale. She then offers some evaluative reflections, and concludes with a discussion of tensions experienced and lessons learned. She closes with a recommendation for activist educators to be mindful of these tensions and their ethical…

Arguments for popular education in the twentieth century were articulated through a variety of media including publications, exhibitions and the press. Such arguments were also often directly linked to ideas about change and social justice. This article addresses both of these elements--the media and social justice. In so doing it makes a…

In this article, I examine the potential for developing preservice social studies teachers' understanding of transformational resistance, Latin@ civil rights movements, and culturally sustaining pedagogy through a project using the film Precious Knowledge. This documentary depicts high school students in a Mexican American Studies (MAS) program…

This article argues that the model of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in use at the Workers' College in South Africa may be seen as a form of "radical pedagogy." Drawing on documentary sources, focus group interviews with staff, and observations, it describes an educational philosophy which aims to build the competencies of activists…

In this article, Amy N. Farley, Matthew N. Gaertner, and Michele S. Moses examine the use of ballot initiatives as a particularly attractive form of direct democracy for opponents of affirmative action in higher education. Building on previous scholarship, the authors question whether anti-affirmative ballot initiatives validly reflect voters'…

In this paper we draw on theories of teaching English as a second language (L2) to examine ways in which a teacher taught a novel to Grade 9 students whose home language is not English. How this second language English-speaker engaged with and spoke about her teaching highlighted her understanding of the challenges students seemed to experience…

This article illustrates the transition from Bantu Education to social justice education in South Africa. I argue that education reform in post-apartheid South Africa has made important changes during this transition, although inequalities persist. Large disparities in resources between black township (still segregated) and formerly white (now…

This report concerns the corruption of the University of California by activist politics, a condition which, as it shall show, sharply lowers the quality of academic teaching, analysis, and research, resulting in the troubling deficiencies found in the studies to which the authors have referred. This report shall show that this is an inevitable…

Contemporary higher education leaders tend to view campus based activism as an outgrowth of an educational experience that inspires and leads students to engage in civic action for the purpose of alleviating systemic social, economic, or political injustices. Accordingly, this study explores the relationships between the structural characteristics…