"He's on fire for justice!": Using critical conversations to explore sociopolitical topics in elementary classrooms

Laura Darolia

doi:10.46303/jcsr.02.01.3

Abstract

Despite the dominant discourse that childhood is a time of innocence, elementary students (kindergarten through fifth grade) notice the world around them, witness and experience injustice and deserve to explore “controversial issues” in their classrooms. This article introduces readers to Olivia and her second grade students. Olivia wanted to create what she called a “social justice classroom” and made intentional curricular moves in order to bring this vision to life. Primarily, she implemented “social justice read aloud time” and read and discussed thoughtfully chosen trade books on “controversial issues” every Friday afternoon. Students were highly engaged in these read alouds and developed understandings and insights well beyond academic content standards. Olivia’s approach to teaching aligned with critical literacy, a pedagogical framework that values multiple perspectives, brings sociopolitical topics into the classroom, disrupts the status quo, and moves toward social action and the Inquiry Design Model of social studies education. Using this interdisciplinary lens, empirical examples of the purposeful exploration of “controversial issues” in a second grade classroom are discussed. Through Olivia’s voice, along with the voices of her students, description of the learning that happened in this social justice classroom is offered as evidence that teaching controversial issues in elementary classrooms has repercussions far beyond school walls. Implications for both practicing teachers and teacher educators are discussed.

Highlights

We are in the midst of a global pandemic
The engagement of students in the content and discussion around social justice issues demonstrates how young children hold onto ideas and questions about equity and apply them to their own worlds through critical conversations
He’s using a source, the read aloud, to build an argument, using language to critique a social norm by responding to the compelling question, “Why is it like this?” Sam spends time and effort in his classroom developing his understandings of equity and justice through reading and discussion

Summary

Introduction

We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has grabbed the world by the throat, holding hostage the simple motions of going to a place (e.g., office, campus, restaurant, concert, hotel, school, a family member’s house) to do a thing (e.g., learn, socialize, eat, make a living, enjoy, embrace). We are in the early days of this crisis and, while much remains unknown, it is clear the effects will be devastating to the global economy, the health care industry, local businesses, and tens of thousands of families who will lose their livelihoods and their loved ones. If the initial wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed anything, it’s that the world is small, we are all connected, and we all have a responsibility to care for each other. This is evident through the imperative to socially distance, to check in on elderly neighbors, to patronize local businesses, and to be kind and gracious to all as we navigate this new normal together

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