The study of a middle school social studies project this article addresses occurred in the national capital region of the United States, where perceptions of ''patriotism'' and xenophobic immigration policies were the subjects of frequent media reports. With this examination the authors considered the overarching research…

Whether explicitly or implicitly, questioning and reformulating the purposes of public schools continues to be both a popular public and policy maker past time. Yet, few current definitions and assessments of school or teacher "quality" consider the social justice-oriented characteristics the authors of this article recognize as most important in…