Freedom Schools, which operated during 1964 after the collaborative efforts of several Civil Rights organizations, provided an opportunity to understand how students can drive the curriculum to meet individual and collective needs within a community. The presence and use of poetry throughout the Freedom Schools was mysterious, given that it is…

The Children's Defense Fund Freedom Schools provide literacy-rich, summer experiences for both the K-12 children they serve and the servant-leader interns who serve as teachers. In this article, the author expands upon the scholarship of preparing teachers to be culturally responsive pedagogues of language arts instruction by illuminating…

During the summer of 1964, Mississippi communities and activists established forty-one "Freedom Schools" that served over two thousand students. The Mississippi Freedom Schools embodied a critical philosophy of education. Despite its grassroots orientation, the educational ideas espoused in the Freedom Schools did not necessarily…

Few reports have been published about the deliberations on classroom curriculum conducted by teachers. This qualitative case-study explored the curriculum deliberations of three fourth-grade teachers who met weekly to plan social studies and science lessons. The teachers participated voluntarily and routinely produced viable plans for the coming…