Teaching the Reconstruction Revolution
A high school social studies teacher describes a lesson that uses improvisations, historical fiction, and found poems to help students appreciate the first era of Black power: Reconstruction.
Social Justice Teaching
Recommitting to the Joyful Classroom
Joy is not an escape from the hard realities of our world, but a dive into them.
Teaching for Peace in a Time of War
Like you, we are angry and fearful about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and these are terrifying times for our students. As Ukrainian educator Igor Tsyvgintsev reminds us, “The entire curriculum of school studies comes down to humaneness.”
More Than McCarthyism
Wolfe-Rocca critiques textbooks’ focus on McCarthyism and describes how, instead, she centers radical activists who have been victims of ongoing government harassment and repression.
Pledge to Teach the Truth
To respond to the right-wing legislation across the country, which attacks racial justice teaching, the Zinn Education Project organized a “Pledge to Teach the Truth” and invited educators to say […]
Spring 2021: Our picks for books, videos, websites, and other social justice education resources.
Website One Out of Five: Disability History and Pride ProjectDesigned by the Washington State Governor’s Office of the Education Ombuds in partnership with Rooted in Rights, Adina Rosenberg, and Sarah Arveybit.ly/One_Out_of_Five […]
Who’s to Blame?
A middle school teacher organizes a tribunal for her students on responsibility for the COVID-19 crisis in the United States. Among those on trial are Mother Nature, Gen Z/Millennials, the Healthcare Industry, Racism and White Supremacy, the Chinese Government, the U.S. Government, and the Capitalist System.
New Online Workshop Series from Rethinking Schools
Join The New Teacher Book editors, authors, and early career teacher-scholars who wrote and shaped this book. Sign up for the entire workshop series or sign up for one workshop at a time.
The Fight of Our Lives
This has been a year like no other. Fear. Illness and death. Trauma for our students, their families, their communities — and for us, as educators. We are becoming new teachers, […]
Teaching Voting Rights in the Time of Coronavirus
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the 15th Amendment, which promised “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or […]
“I Don’t Like China or Chinese People Because They Started This Quarantine”
On April 20, 2020, blogger LittleGrayThread made a Facebook post of a note her daughter had written. She reported that in a Zoom class meeting, one of her daughter’s 2nd-grade […]
Our picks for books, videos, websites, and other social justice resources 34.4
Check out these valuable resources, reviewed by Rethinking Schools editors and Teaching for Change colleagues.
Heroes or Cultural Icons? Of Thee I Sing : A Letter to My Daughters
Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My DaughtersBy Barack Obama Illustrated by Loren Long(Knopf, 2010) On the title page of President Barack Obama’s picture book, Of Thee I Sing: A […]
Teaching the Prison Industrial Complex
“Harm comes from prior harm.” As Deandra says this, I am sitting in the back of my classroom, taking notes. My students are sitting in a circle in the middle […]
Empire or Humanity?
The American Empire has always been a bipartisan project—Democrats and Republicans have taken turns extending it
Putting a Human Face on the Immigration Debate
For those of us working with immigrant populations, we have in our students living examples that we can use to bring the immigration issue to the forefront and teach all of our students.
Acting In and On the World
Oregon students and teachers learn life lessons by participating in the ‘Theater of the Oppressed’.
Shaking Foundations
Virginia professors take on the state’s attempt to eliminate Social Foundations of Education” from required course work.”
Following The Flame
Teacher and students discover that even critically acclaimed literature can disenfranchise as well as empower.
‘Use Another Word’
One school’s campaign against put-downs.
Beyond Pink and Blue
A unit on gender stereotypes inspires students to take action.
Howling at the Ocean
A first-year teacher struggles with what it means to be a social justice educator.
Teaching the Truth About Climate Change Is Up to Us, Because Textbooks Lie
The second installment of our new environmental justice column focuses on one part of a resolution passed by the Portland, Oregon, school board that mandates the school district not use text material that doubts “the severity of the climate crisis or its root in human activities.”
Climate Change, Gender, and Nuclear Bombs
In the spring 2011 issue of Rethinking Schools we editorialized about the immense gulf between our terrible environmental crisis — especially the climate crisis — and the adequacy of schools’ curricular response. Seven years later, we still see this gap between crisis and curriculum — which is why we are launching this regular “Earth, Justice, and Our Classrooms” column: to offer encouragement and resources for teachers to help students explore the roots and consequences of the crisis and figure out how to respond.
How My 4th-Grade Class Passed a Law on Teaching Mexican “Repatriation”
How 4th-grade students in Southern California were helped by their teachers to develop curriculum surrounding the mass deportation of U.S. citizens of Mexican heritage in the 1930s and pass a law to investigate what happened.