Out-of-school time (OST) has great significance as a youth development space that can support students' exploration of social justice. Such opportunities for exploration are especially important in times of social distress and upheaval, such as those experienced during the school shutdowns and racial unrest associated with the global pandemic.…

From James Baldwin's (1962) "A Letter to My Nephew," which laid bare the brutalities of being black in 1960s America, to Chanelle Miller's published victim impact statement addressed to her assailant, which provided vocabulary and was kindle for #MeToo, examples abound demonstrating the ways in which the open letter continuously surfaces…

This paper explores the experiences of nonbinary and trans (NBT) facilitators of Safe Zone workshops, what we call LGBTQ+ social justice educational interventions (SJEIs). Despite their prevalence in higher education for over 3 decades, there remains a paucity of research about them and those who facilitate them. This research focused on 33 NBT…

In contrast to the traditional library instruction aim of finding and evaluating information, critical library pedagogies aim to teach students to analyze and challenge the power structures that determine what kind of information is deemed valuable. STEM librarians have been slower to take up these approaches than our colleagues with other…

There are complexities in how care in schools is perceived by students and how achieving culturally relevant caring necessitates a deeper level of engagement. This case study delves into the perspectives of thirteen Black and Latiné students attending a justice-themed high school, focusing on their perceptions of caring orientations within the…

Critical consciousness (CC) is the ability to understand, critique, and act against oppressive social structures and systemic forces. To assist educators in understanding and enacting strategies that foster CC, the authors identified examples of CC in third through fifth grade virtual classes of a 2020 "Children's Defense Fund's" Freedom…

Investigating crimes on college campuses is a prevalent phenomenon that often requires student cooperation with campus police. Using the procedural justice theory's process-based approach, this applied research examined the likelihood of students reporting campus crime based on their perceived legitimacy of campus police and whether the student's…

This dissertation examines the possibilities and anxieties that attend a notion haunting Western thought since at least Kant--that reality itself is a revisable construct, a kind of collective game with social and physical rules that simultaneously delimit and solicit radical interactivity. Investigating experiments in the gamification of reality…

The US student body is rapidly diversifying, but remains unmatched by the teachers who serve in their classrooms. There is a growing understanding that teachers, particularly White teachers, must explicitly and thoughtfully engage in anti-bias and anti-racist practices in their classrooms. Our nation, and correspondingly our schools, have…

Ungrading is an emancipatory pedagogy that focuses on evaluative assessment of learning. Self-regulated learning (SRL) has consistently been referred to as the learning theory that undergirds ungrading, but SRL--with its deficit frame in the literature and in practice--fails to uphold ungrading's emancipatory aims. An asset-framed learning…

For much of human history, inequity was taken as a fact of life. However, as reflection on the human condition became more prominent, arguments that some forms of inequity can be ameliorated began to emerge. In this paper, the authors note that "inequity aversion" is a built-in human trait, and they reflect on the fact that, nonetheless,…

Introduction: Poverty is a central concept in many fields of psychology, yet poorly designed activities regarding wealth inequality may backfire or cause students to become defensive. Statement of the Problem: Many students hold misperceptions about class mobility and lack an understanding of how systemic barriers perpetuate poverty across the…

Indigenous leaders in higher education are restive, disaffected, and dissatisfied with the slow gyrations of change. Using Interest Convergence Theory, this paper will unravel the constraints inherent in institutional reform that delimit the influence of Indigenous senior leaders in the sector. Positioned amidst the burgeoning impact of…

The authors have a lot in common. They are white, cis women, former K-12 art teachers, and recent doctoral graduates. They both entered their first classrooms with good intentions to create lessons reflecting diverse students. Yet, after a few years of teaching, they developed a sinking feeling in the pit of their stomachs. They developed a…

Antiracism and cultural competence, when incorporated into early childhood education, can powerfully impact young children's social and emotional development. Authors Christine Mason, Randy Ross, Orinthia Harris, and Jillayne Flanders guide leaders in cultivating compassion and equity in their school communities. Explore reflective practices with…