Power Visibility: An Analytic Construct and Framework for Epistemic Justice in Social Studies Curricula

• In Event: Onto-Epistemological (In)Justice, Curriculum, and Schooling

Abstract

History and social justice education often aim for students to recognize systems of power and privilege in order to imagine more just futures. Frustratingly, systems of power like white supremacy persist because their inner workings are rendered invisible. Further, there isn’t a clear definition of power operationalized across the social justice education literature. These obstacles impede facilitation of classroom dialogue about power, and systematic assessment of how explicit writers make issues of power in curricular materials. In this paper, I discuss the development of power visibility, a construct that supports the unmasking of issues of power in narrative discourse, as a means to promote epistemic justice. I offer an analytic framework of power visibility in written social studies materials.

Author

• Kailah McGee Adefolalu, Harvard University