The purpose of this critical action research study is to examine how critical literacy, when used in the social studies classroom, can open up spaces where children construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct superficial notions of race and racism in an early childhood classroom. A nine lesson unit on African American history was developed and…

Booker T. Washington was born a slave in the American South, rising remarkably in the period after slavery to become a leader of his race. His advocacy of appeasement with the Southern white establishment incurred the ire of his black peers, given the withdrawal of the franchise from ex-slaves in southern states after a brief period of positive…

Tony Waters, a sociologist at California State University, Chico, has raised an interesting issue about the intellectual conflict some of his students experienced when they arrived on campus and enrolled in American history classes. He reported students were perplexed to find there were two kinds of American history--the version they learned in…

The focus of this research was on the affective learning experienced at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center--a museum that tells the history of slavery in the United States, the courage, cooperation, and perseverance enacted by many who overcame the challenges and consequences of the unfreedoms once practiced in America. Such a study…

Introduction: Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC), which encompasses acts of domestic minor sex trafficking, is a hidden problem in the U.S. that affects an estimated 300,000 children. Significant health impacts to victims include violence, substance abuse, mental illness, sexually transmitted diseases, and unintended pregnancy.…

The shadowy, criminal nature of human trafficking makes evaluating its nature and scope difficult. The U.S. State Department and anti-trafficking groups estimate that worldwide some 27 million people are caught in a form of forced servitude today. Public awareness of modern-day slavery is gaining momentum thanks to new abolitionist efforts. Among…

Protestant ministers often construct their sermons around a text from the Bible that they expand upon to make some broader point. In the nineteenth century, public speakers frequently used the same rhetorical formula, taking their text not necessarily from the Bible but from any well-known source. In his famous Cooper Union speech of 1860, Abraham…

In this study, I examined the lived experiences of African American students who studied abroad in Ghana, West Africa. I used two theoretical frameworks. The first, Racial Identity Development (RID) filtered through the Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI) as the conceptual model developed by Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, and…

Pupils' attribution of significance to sensitive "heritage" of slavery may differ, particularly in multicultural classrooms. Little is known about the ways in which pupils establish a relationship with the present when discussing the significance of heritage of slavery. Starting from theories of historical significance and identity,…

The legacy of slavery and racism in America and the history of what John C. Calhoun and other Southern leaders of the 1800s called "our peculiar institution" has not gone unnoticed. Neither has the psychological damage that remains as baggage carried by the descendents of both the slave and the slave owner (Berry & Blassingame, 1982;…

It is said that "a picture is worth a thousand words" as visual images can express complex and multilayered ideas. Sometimes photographic imagery is so strong and resonant of certain success, struggles, or events that it becomes key to a community or generation. As historic records, photographs are uniquely able to present not only success and…

The author knew that most of her students viewed Africa as a homogeneous place and, moreover, a place that they wanted no connection to. She wanted to be sure that she presented Africa in a way that empowered students and made them proud of their ancestry, as opposed to leaving them feeling the shame and humiliation that she once felt. She wanted…

In this article we first trace the history of "management," particularly in the United States, from the plantation to the factory to the corporation, with the intention of understanding and contextualizing "classroom management" in today's educational lexicon. To do so, we look at the intertwining history of racial knowledge…

This article examines the dynamic interplay between competing meanings of childhood and the social construction of sexual abuse in the Caribbean. Drawing on qualitative data from a study undertaken in six Caribbean countries, the article suggests that Caribbean childhoods are neither wholly global nor local but hybrid creations of the region's…

When Jackie Robinson broke through to the (white) major leagues, "Negro" was the agreed-upon term to designate African-Americans. In fact, he broke through from "the Negro leagues." It would be a historical distortion to say that Robinson had once played in the "black baseball leagues" or the "African-American…