Abstract
In a unit on social movements for freedom, urban fourth grade students examined the activities and lives of activists who worked for social change. Using an integrative and strategic approach to literacy, children researched, wrote, and presented their ideas to family and community members through visual, textual, digital and artistic expressions. In this autoethnography, I present several stories of my encounters with children, to describe how they synthesized learning, explored the intersection of race, economics and power, identified tensions in approaches to civil rights, and challenged heteronormativity. Children learned the struggle for justice is complex and ongoing, and that people must work together and persist to bring about social change.
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