Engage and Empower: Expanding the Curriculum for Justice and Activism

(Paperback)

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This edited book provides ready-to-use engaging curriculum units for an integrated approach to teaching English language arts and U.S. history in grades 4-12. The purpose is to promote social justice and activism while building critical literacies students need in the 21st Century. Through implementing the curriculum units in this book, teachers and students can challenge inequities and promote activism.
A central goal of this project is to represent and empower marginalized students. The traditional curriculum presents one view, one story as the only story, and one people as the norm. This book intentionally centers the experiences of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and other marginalized communities. In addition to expanding the curriculum to include all people, educating students about issues of injustice in the U.S. will enable them to enact change.
Additionally, this book serves to educate all students by exposure to central issues in past and present society. By creating space for a multicultural perspective, this curriculum may reduce the friction that occurs when encountering those whose lived experiences and perspectives do not align with ones own. By educating students about the privileges they have not examined, teachers can foster empathy and empower allies.

Reviews

With this text, educators and literacy professionals now have a roadmap to follow when preparing justice-oriented lessons for children in grades 4-12 classrooms. The authors of this text do an amazing job of making abstract concepts related to social justice into practical, inquiry-based instruction. -- Tiffany A. Flowers, PhD, assistant professor of education, Georgia State University Perimeter College
When you are ready, the beautiful work awaits you...Fill yourself with inspiration, tune out the noise, and remember that you and your students are powerful and unstoppable. -- Isabel Morales, EdD, award-winning secondary social studies educator; named teacher of the year by the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Los Angeles County Office of Education
For social studies educators, it's past time to reconsider whose lives are given space in the histories, geographies, civics, and economics we teach in our classrooms. In each chapter of Engage and Empower: Expanding the Curriculum for Justice and Activism, teacher-researchers draw from their lived experiences to provide a curriculum that unapologetically centers students who've been pushed to the margins. This book is a starter kit for emancipatory educators. -- Daniel G. Krutka, Associate Professor of social studies education, University of North Texas; chair, Social Studies Research SIG of the American Educational Research Association

Author Bio

Mary Amanda (Mandy) Stewart is Associate Professor of Literacy at Texas Womans University and the co-author of But Does This Work English Learners A Guide for ELA Teachers, Grades 6-12.

Christina Salazar is school librarian, former high school teacher, and doctoral student at Texas Womans University.

Christina Thomas is a teachers and doctoral student at Texas Womans University.

Victor Antonio Lozada is a music educator and doctoral candidate at Texas Womans University