In this article the author aims to broaden the conception of critical pedagogy, while maintaining its defining features, which make it an educational practice distinct from traditional approaches. The author illustrates how critical pedagogy might be made a more broadly embraced practice by teachers and advance its affects on individuals, schools, and society by adopting a less orthodox conception of what it means to practice critical pedagogy. The author maintains that the aim should be to rethink critical pedagogy and social studies so they become sites where students can develop personally meaningful understandings of the world and recognize they have agency to act on the world to facilitate change.