Schools as Sites of Activism: Students' Political Socialisation and Activism at School

Fisheries and Aquaculture Development in Sabah: implications for Society, Culture and Ecology builds on a trend in studies of social change of taking the environment seriously. Coming from the disciplines of sociology, economics and marine science the authors deal with issues of sustainability in economic, social and ecological terms. The overall political ecology approach of the book diversifies into sub themes as the chapters engage with frameworks on the ecological limits of economic development, entitlements and well-being, participatory development, gender and knowledge production, science and citizenship as well as the symbolic and material value of national and international borders. Ecological aquaculture introduces new livelihood opportunities as well as losses. And it has a degree of ecological costs depending on environmental conditions and power relations that affect local production. We argue in this book that social and environmental justice issues are connected so that effective solutions to environmental problems can only be devised if the social justice issues are paid attention to. This general thrust in placing centre stage social and environmental justice issues is not unique to Sabah since these are issues experienced by developing countries similarly positioned in their dependence on natural resources for economic development. Fisheries and Aquaculture Development in Sabah: implications for Society, Culture and Ecology should, therefore, be of interest to development practitioners (those involved in management and policy implementation) and researchers alike. For managers and policy implementers, the book confirms how, implementation at the local level are not smooth but are in fact, unruly practices. For researchers, the book provides an example of viewing social and environmental justice issues together.

Given that there is a general need for college students to learn about social justice and equity issues, and since college is a developmentally meaningful time for students, it is important for colleges and universities to adopt practices and provide opportunities that address power and inequality issues. This paper provides examples of social justice programs and practices in four areas (administrative, academic, co-curricular, and assessment) at a mid-size Midwestern institution, discusses how these practices are important and valuable to challenging power, and how they can be replicated or adapted at other institutions. Examples of everyday administrative programs/practices include creating a diversity/inclusion statement, programs sponsored by university administrators, and dedicating staff to support and advocate for equity and inclusion. Examples of everyday academic programs/practices include incorporating courses that focus on social justice issues into the general academic curriculum, training instructors on teaching and/or facilitating discussions about social justice issues, and creating centers on campus that can be the “academic home” for academic programs and research that focus on social justice issues. Examples of everyday co-curricular programs/practices include creating both reactive (in response to a current event or issue) and proactive/continuing (focusing on social justice issues in general throughout the year) programming and including students in the planning and execution of those programs. Examples of everyday assessment practices include multiple methods of collecting data that allow for a holistic “picture” of what students are learning with regard to social justice issues during their time in college. This paper also discusses how these programs and practices are important for encouraging awareness and challenging power and provides important lessons learned from social justice work in higher education.

This article offers an introduction to macro social work practice interventions. Specifically, it seeks to: (a) identify the difference between direct service (micro) and macro practice; (b) describe historical and contemporary foundations for macro practice; (c) establish a connection between macro practice and core social work values; (d) describe specific examples of macro social work practice using 21st-century social justice issues as exemplars; and (e) identify roles needed for macro social work practice. This article emphasizes the need for macro social work practice to create much needed change in the areas of social, environmental, and economic justice. It will examine the trend in social work that has increasingly placed emphasis and value on micro practice, which has marginalized macro-level social work as a result. Society continues to confront seemingly intractable social justice issues and is, in the early 21st century, experiencing a critical reckoning of how systems of oppression continue to exact violence against vulnerable populations. This article uses examples of social, environmental, and economic justice issues with specific recommendations on how to adopt an anti-oppressive macro practice framework.

Systemic racism and tobacco-industry targeting contribute to disparities in communities of color. However, understanding tobacco as a social justice issue and the industry's role in perpetuating inequities remains limited. This study explored youth and young adult awareness of tobacco marketing and perceptions of tobacco marketing as a social justice issue. Focus groups were conducted with youth and young adults in 2020 and 2021, including individuals who used tobacco and e-cigarettes and those who did not use either. Online surveys were conducted in 2021 with youth (n = 1227) and young adults (n = 2643) using AmeriSpeak's nationally representative panel, oversampling for black and Hispanic Americans and people who smoke. Perceptions of flavor bans, social justice, and industry marketing were assessed. Most (>80%) survey respondents agreed that tobacco companies target youth. However, only 20% saw tobacco as a social justice issue. Focus group participants regardless of their tobacco or e-cigarette use, reported higher prevalence of tobacco advertising in their communities relative to survey respondents but did not view it as targeting communities of color. Black non-Hispanic (20.9%) and Hispanic (21.4%) survey respondents perceived tobacco as a social justice issue more than white non-Hispanic (16.1%) respondents. The majority (>60%) of survey respondents supported bans on menthol and flavored tobacco, regardless of race or ethnicity. Respondents broadly supported menthol and flavored tobacco bans and recognized tobacco-industry influence on youth. Low awareness of tobacco as a social justice issue highlights the need to raise awareness of the underlying factors driving tobacco-related disparities. The majority of young people see the tobacco industry as targeting them. Most young people support bans on menthol and flavored tobacco bans, with support across racial and ethnic groups. While few young respondents perceived tobacco as a social justice issue, some perceived tobacco companies as targeting low-income and communities of color. Black non-Hispanic and Hispanic respondents were more likely to perceive tobacco as a social justice issue than white non-Hispanic respondents. Efforts to raise awareness among young people of tobacco as a social justice issue may be key in addressing tobacco disparities and advancing support for flavor tobacco bans.

After Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, we wanted to determine how the islanders viewed environmental organizations as part of an effort to understand the relationships between attitudes, institutions, and environmental and social justice issues. As a category 5 hurricane, Hurricane Maria was one of the strongest to hit Puerto Rico. Yet, the US mainstream media coverage of this and other environmental issues was lacking. From a total of 90 environmental organizations in Puerto Rico, we surveyed 19 that were active in the southwest of the island. We asked: (1) How do local people view environmental and social justice issues and (2) given their organizations’ efforts to deal with these issues, what are their successes? To address these questions, we developed a survey in English and Spanish and conducted personal and online interviews with 30 relevant individuals. Their most successful outcomes included: (1) educating and creating greater awareness of environmental issues; (2) introducing environmental changes into their communities; and (3) becoming and surviving as economically sustainable organizations. The results inform our understanding between environmental organizations and social and environmental justice in Puerto Rico and more broadly, because the organizations surveyed are at the center of fighting climate change and achieving environmental justice.

Engaging conservation decision‐making with critical aspects of social science can enhance the equitability of conservation practice by recentring issues of social and environmental justice. Using rewilding as a conservation case in point, we identify five foundational questions to ask of rewilding projects to help align rewilding decision‐making with justice principles. We unpack these questions through five rewilding case studies: Yellowstone National Park (USA), Oostvaardersplassen (NL), Knepp Wildland (UK), Alladale Wilderness Reserve (UK) and Carpathia (RO). Applying different social science disciplines—history, anthropology, political ecology, human geography and sociology—we explore rewilding's socio‐cultural and socio‐economic dimensions; aspects that underpin rewilding decision‐making, but that remain under‐represented in the literature as well as in praxis. We show that the decisions made in these rewilding projects not only impact ecosystems but are also deeply connected to people and societies, making them inseparable from issues of social justice. In addition to the ecological goals, we highlight the social motivations driving these projects and consider what society might gain or lose—beyond increased ecological dynamism and species recovery. Bringing in different disciplinary perspectives helps us better understand the key political issues and debates raised by rewilding projects. We argue that this approach is essential for achieving both ecologically effective and socially just biodiversity governance. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Alternative dimensions of curricula fall outside explicit and official curriculum. There is much more to teaching and learning than the formal, planned curriculum claimed by many teachers, administrators, and organizations. Beyond and within the textbooks, lesson plans, tests, and standards exist hidden, null (or absented), lived, material, and transgressive dimensions of curricula (to name only a few). Hidden curricula are messages that are sent implicitly, for example, giving students numerical scores on a quiz and using those scores to assess students as successes and failures functions as a form of micro-tracking, ranking students’ success and achievement in relation to one another in a hierarchical range. This scoring and ranking system implies that students are in competition with one another, that self-worth is evaluated with a score. The action of scoring and ranking itself teaches the lesson and is woven into the fabric of schooling, though it is neither explicitly stated nor explicitly taught (i.e., hidden) that success in learning requires winners and losers at learning. Null (or absented) curricula are topics that are specifically not taken up in the official curriculum. For example, although Protestant Christianity shapes a hidden curriculum of many U.S. schools, religion is largely excluded as an explicit topic of study in most state schools. This fulfills a claim of separation of church and state and religion’s obvious absence reveals a null curriculum. Lived curricula are the lived experience of the learner. For example, a student might experience being bullied, and this would comprise part of their lived curriculum, teaching lessons that are learned, retained, and tapped into over time, long after the specific encounters have passed. Material curricula (a term the authors coin in this article) are the material effects that curricula have on the learner, and more broadly, the world. For example, the grades and scores that students receive in school have direct effects on the future opportunities available to them as people. This is a material curriculum of sorting students into social roles and positionings, with accompanying material outcomes (e.g., a student is denied entry into college and further denied a class of jobs and their corresponding material aspects, such as salary and—in the United States—health benefits). Transgressive curricula are defined through the prism of teaching and learning in resistance to something, in the refusal of something, in defiance of something, or in disregard of something. These alternative dimensions of curricula exist anyplace learning occurs, not just in schools.

Taking a broader perspective to explore the relations between Taiwan's globalization, social justice issues and the DPP's political and economic nationalism, this study aims to understand the DPP's resurgence in local elections since 2008, and its defeat in the 2012 presidential election. Increasing capital flight from Taiwan to mainland China has contributed to Taiwan's rising unemployment and income inequality. Less privileged Taiwanese, having stronger nationalist sentiments and concerns about the Taiwanese government's open-door China policy, switched their support from the KMT to the DPP during the DPP administration of 2000–2008. Since 2008, the DPP's better balance between its political and economic nationalism has been instrumental in securing popular support, especially at the local level. Nevertheless, in the 2012 presidential election, the DPP failed to convince the majority of Taiwanese voters that its moderate political nationalism could maintain the significantly improved cross-Strait relations vital for Taiwan's economic revival under the current bleak world economic conditions.

Over the last decade, various organisations, scholars and educators across the globe have been arguing for the need to foster dialogue between and with children regarding the world they want to have, in terms of both justice and sustainability. Research has shown that stories and storytelling have a world‐making and world‐changing character that may trigger children’s social imagination on social justice issues and help them play a participatory role in society. In this context, the study presented here aimed to empower children to speak up for their beliefs and to become active agents of change in relation to social justice issues. To meet our research goals, we developed workshops around traditional folktales, which we implemented in four schools in Cyprus. During these workshops, we promoted critical dialogue for social justice issues through pertinent collaborative storytelling activities. Collaborative storytelling is a method that can involve participants in critical dialogue, enabling them to produce innovative and creative counter‐stories. This can potentially deepen their perceptions about social justice, while also allowing them to communicate the knowledge they have built in engaging and accessible ways. Data collection included observations during workshops, as well as post‐implementation interviews with a purposive sample of child participants. Our findings suggest that the children deployed either a ‘we are all different’ or a ‘we are all the same’ discourse to define social justice. Nonetheless, as the project progressed, they seemed to gradually turn to a ‘we need to see injustice to be able to act against it’ discourse. This project aims to contribute to academic discussions on promoting dialogue with children on social justice issues, and cultivating children’s metacognitive skills about societal injustices.

The recent Colorado Gold King Mine waste-water spill and Michigan's water supply re-routing program catastrophe, has directed renewed public attention towards resurgent environmental lead contamination threats. Leaded environments present social justice issues for children and mothers possessing blood lead levels (BLLs) > 5 μg/dL. Childhood lead exposure remains a continual U.S. public health problem manifesting in lifelong adverse neuropsychological consequences. The 2007 Inspector General Report demonstrated low BLL screening rates across the U.S. and this study examined the regularity of children's BLL screening rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Lead Poisoning National Surveillance2010-2014 children's BLL screening rates, were examined to assess BLL screening regularity in states traditionally known to have regularly occurring BLL screenings: New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The results extracted from the CDC data showed that < 50% of children were BLL screened by six-years of age across the states that were sampled. The findings highlight that without a "clear map" of lead exposed areas through accurate and consistent BLL screenings, how the potential for such disparities within - and between-states within the U.S. could arise due to environmental social justice issues in relation to BLL screening barriers. Barriers preventing children's BLL screenings were considered, and public health interventions recommended to improve screening rates included: routine BLL screening for all pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children; while, removing known lead exposure sources within communities. This study calls for action during a time of renewed public attention to resurgent lead poisoning within the U.S.

As museums serve as major tourist destinations, ensuring the sustainable presentation of exhibits addressing social justice issues, such as colonial legacies, is increasingly critical. This study examines how one destination museum engaged with its colonial past through a temporary exhibit designed to challenge traditional narratives and amplify marginalized perspectives. The primary objective is to assess whether such temporary interventions foster lasting engagement with colonial histories or risk becoming fleeting gestures that ultimately reinforce hegemonic narratives. Using Gramsci’s theory of hegemony and the concept of moral licensing as analytical frameworks, this research systematically analyzes the content of both original and supplementary exhibit labels to evaluate their impact on visitor engagement with colonial histories. Specifically, this study addresses two key research questions: (RQ1) What new historical narratives and perspectives on colonialism did visitors encounter through the inclusion of supplementary museum labels addressing colonial legacies? (RQ2) What insights can be drawn from the addition and subsequent removal of these labels to inform future strategies for fostering sustained critical engagement with social justice issues, particularly colonial histories, in museum settings? Findings indicate that the addition of supplementary labels provided tourists with a deeper, more critical understanding of the museum’s colonial history and helped disrupt hegemonic narratives. However, as the exhibit was temporary, the removal of these labels revealed the risks of moral licensing, where short-term efforts may justify a return to dominant perspectives. This research contributes to the literature by demonstrating that to effectively and sustainably engage visitors with social justice issues, destination museums must integrate marginalized narratives into permanent or recurring exhibits. While even modest interventions, such as additional museum labels, can challenge established narratives, sustained efforts are essential to ensure that tourists continue engaging with critical social justice issues.

The purpose of this article is to understand how historical oppression has undermined health through environmental injustices that have given rise to food insecurity. Specifically, the article examines ways in which settler colonialism has transformed and contaminated the land itself, impacting the availability and quality of food and the overall health of Indigenous peoples. Food security and environmental justice for Gulf Coast, state-recognized tribes has been infrequently explored. These tribes lack federal recognition and have limited access to recourse and supplemental resources as a result. This research fills an important gap in the literature through exploring the intersection of environmental justice and food insecurity issues for this population. Partnering with a community-advisory board and using a qualitative descriptive methodology, 31 Gulf Coast Indigenous women participated in semi-structured interviews about their healthcare experiences and concerns. Through these interviews, participants expressed concerns about (a) the environmental impacts of pollution on the contamination of food and on the health of tribal members; and (b) the impact of these changes on the land, such as negatively impacting gardening practices. The authors of this study document how environmental changes have compounded these concerns and contribute to the overall pollution of food and water sources and unviability of subsistence practices, severely effecting tribal members’ health. In conclusion, we show how social and environmental justice issues such as pollution, industry exploitation, and climate change perpetuate the goals of settler colonialism through undermining cultural practices and the overall health of Indigenous peoples.

Activism and volunteering are two noticeable forms of social participation. Although some researchers consider them similar, others affirm that they differ in their frames (charity versus change), effects (cohesion versus tension), social representations, and also in their psychosocial correlates. Drawing on role‐identity theory, this study based on an on‐line survey explores the extent to which individuals (N = 270) engaged in activities focused on social justice and equality issues, self‐identify as activists and as volunteers. We predicted and found that based on prioritised goals, and ideological, motivational, or dispositional correlates activist role‐identity can be characterised as ‘system‐challenger’ and ‘true‐to‐the‐self’; meanwhile, volunteer role‐identity can be described as showing a ‘system‐fitting’ pattern. Cluster and subsequent discriminant analyses allowed us to study the variety of role‐identity profiles, and to differentiate five forms of engagement in terms of role‐identity and psychosocial variables that explain belonging to one or another type. These were ‘activists’, ‘volunteers’, ‘highly identified’, ‘undefined’, and ‘low role‐identity’. We did not find psychosocial evidence about the existence of the ‘transformative volunteers’ profile, suggested by some researchers and other studies. We rely on the identity and identity process theories in order to frame the study and interpret the results. Possible practical implications are discussed.

The authors discuss the historical and contemporary connection to social justice issues in the fields of counseling and counseling psychology via the multicultural counseling movement. In addition, the authors present ways in which social justice issues can be addressed in counselors' and counseling psychologists' work with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds and in graduate training programs.

Diversity and Social Justice: Applying Theory and Adapting Practices Bengü Ergüner-Tekinalp, Guest Editor, Leigh Johnson-Migalski, Guest Editor, and Susan E. Belangee, Guest Editor This special issue was born over a luncheon during the NASAP Annual Conference in Minneapolis in 2016. As we three coeditors talked about Adler’s theory and underrepresented individuals, we realized that not much had been published recently (or ever, with regard to certain populations) and that the theoretical tenets were highly relevant to multiple aspects of diversity and social justice. Discussion brought out questions of how well the theory, techniques, and assessment tools captured those experiences of diverse populations and how those needed adaptation to be more sensitive and relevant. Practitioners of Individual Psychology cannot ignore how social and political realities affect their clients’ and students’ lives. Social justice and diversity issues are not at the margins of our work; they are very much at the center. A recent example of how the larger cultural and sociopolitical climate might have an impact on our clients’ well-being is that one of the editors of this special issue, Dr. Bengu Erguner-Tekinalp, decided not to attend the 2017 NASAP conference in Canada, as she did not want to take a risk in her international travel as a noncitizen and immigrant from a majority-Muslim country. Although her country was not an identified country in the United States travel ban, she did not feel safe to travel. A simple policy change affects individuals in many unexpected ways. A person with many privileges such as skin color, gender and sexual identity, and socioeconomic status may still feel marginalized, unsafe, or not belonging because of one part of identity. Even an identity that is not as salient for an individual may become a marker for a sense of marginalization. As belonging is one of the core tenets of Individual Psychology, Adlerians do not have the luxury to ignore the social, cultural, and political realities that make belonging difficult. [End Page 1] As a constructivist, humanistic, existential, postmodern, feminist, systemic, and culturally sensitive theory, Individual Psychology is strongly positioned to provide a theoretical framework for understanding, identifying, and addressing diversity and social justice issues. The articles in this special issue discuss various multicultural, diversity, and/or social justice topics from an Adlerian perspective and examine the practices and concepts in a cultural context. The special issue took the position of intersectionality and had an inclusive viewpoint on the definition of culture. Chavez, Moore, and McDowell educate readers on the distinctive experiences of Mexican American communities and show us how to tailor treatment of parenting-reorientation using Adlerian theory. Chatters and Zalaquett’s empirical study demonstrates success in integrating acceptance of others on the basis of social interest with bullying and prejudice reduction in pre- and postoutcome analyses. Johnson-Migalski and O’Connor Drout use a case study of a White rural woman facing shoulder injury to illustrate how Adlerian theory integrates into the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health for treatment recommendations and social justice practice. Day’s article provides a case of a coaching relationship using early recollections as metaphors with an African American woman. The coaching process described in the article focuses on both individual and systemic dynamics, providing practical applications to coaches as well as therapists working with marginalized populations. Lemberger-Truelove presents the results of a phenomenological study exploring belonging, striving, and lifestyle among Black women. Intersectionality of identities is at the core of her research, and as such, the article discusses the ways Black women deal with gendered racism and how Adlerian theory can promote resilience. In their empirical study, Akdogan, Aydın, and Eken explore the contributions of inferiority feelings on attachment styles of college students in Turkey. They discuss the research results in the cultural context and gender role expectations in the Adlerian perspective. Their article offers evidence for the cross-cultural applicability of Adlerian theory and provides future research directions for cross-cultural explorations of inferiority feelings. Harless and Stoltz present a case study showing the utility of early recollections in career counseling with a high school student from a low-socioeconomic-status family. Because...