"They Tell Us We Can Change the World but Never Teach Us How": Students on the Role of Social and Political Activism in the Curriculum

• In Event: Critical Explorations: Students Grappling With Critical Questions and Issues

Abstract

This article describes a design study that uses data from two focus group interviews focused on two texts, Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience and King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail as well as individual interviews to surface and center student perspectives on the role of teaching students to be social and political activists as part of the social studies curriculum.

Author

• Brian C. Gibbs, California State University - Los Angeles