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ISSN #2331-6845 

 

Girls and boys for others: Creating relevance and 
critical inquiry for English learners 

 

By Dr. Annmarie Patricia Jackson 
Department of Elementary and Special Education 

University of North Georgia 
annmarie.jackson@ung.edu    

 
The paper describes a critical multiculturalist approach the author used while 
working as a reading support teacher in a third-grade classroom of English 
language learners. The author shares a step-by-step timeline she used to adopt 
a social justice agenda in the classroom, while teaching a unit. Through 
integration of reading and social studies content objectives, the author was able 
to meet students' reading needs, as well as foster critical thinking through 
questioning, through art, through discussion, and through writing about matters 
that were relevant to the students' own lives, their families' lives and the 
community, while teaching the social studies content. Students were able to 
identify important problems, determine relevant themes within and across texts, 
as well as decide on potential solutions. Ultimately, the critical approach helped 
students learn that they can be agents of change in their own communities, in 
and out of school.   

Keywords: critical multicultural education, English language learners, social 
justice education, integrated literacy, cultural relevant teaching 
 

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which was adopted in the state of 

Georgia in 2010, still generate apprehension and a great deal of tension for some 

educators. Therefore, the goal of this article is two-fold: (1) to provide meaningful 

lessons and strategies for literacy instruction integrated with social studies and a social 

mailto:annmarie.jackson@ung.edu


 
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justice emphasis to support K-5 English to speakers of other languages (ESOL) 

teachers or teachers working with English learners (ELs); and (2) to serve as an 

example for teacher educators in preparing their teacher learners to develop literacy-

based curricula, through the integration of social justice in the social studies content 

area.  

  The first part of the article addresses social justice education and some of the 

challenges teachers face in this era of mandatory high stakes tests. The remaining 

sections illustrate integrated literacy and social studies episodes and activities from 

lessons with a social justice theme in a grade three ESOL class.  In my lessons, I also 

discuss backward design and identify specific strategies which may be used to 

incorporate social justice in the curriculum. The final section addresses what teacher 

educators can do to bring a social justice platform to life in their classrooms. 

  Today, many teachers are still heavily utilizing the model of 19th century 

transmission style teacher centered, whole class teaching (Mehan, 1979; Tharp & 

Gallimore, 1988: Wells and Arauz, 2006). This enduring way of teaching serves to 

minimize students’ expression and dialogic engagement in the classroom and ultimately 

“keep kids under control” both physically and mentally. Moreover, teacher-centered 

teaching styles are increasingly found in low income, historically marginalized and 

minority students’ classrooms, where teaching to the test prevails and critical thinking is 

undermined and underdeveloped. For example, Latino and other minority students are 

often given work sheets and not challenged with higher level thinking activities. 

Students’ linguistic and cultural resources are underutilized or simply not valued in the 

K-12 classroom (Gonzalez, Moll and Amanti, 2005; Mantegna, 2013).  Against this 



 
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backdrop, there is an urgent need for 21st century educators to be critical 

multiculturalists, who generate analytic thinking in the classroom. The development of 

critical multiculturalist educators must begin in the teacher education classroom with an 

integrated approach to social justice and focused inquiry into the prevailing inequities 

that exist in our schools and communities (Gay, ND; Sleeter & Soriano, 2012).  

  Multiculturalism is often oversimplified by educators (Banks 1993, Nieto, 1994). 

For some, multiculturalism is superficial and consists of merely incorporating the 

heritage of minority students in school celebrations. However, Nieto (1994) challenges 

teachers to move away from mere tolerance of students’ cultures and be more 

accepting and respecting of them. Nieto (1994) also recommends that students work 

together, even amidst conflicts, to achieve solidarity and learn from each other’s 

cultures. 

While multiculturalism aims to empower students, critical multiculturalism goes 

beyond this and requires deeper commitments. Nieto (1999) argues that though 

multiculturalism is inclusive of students’ culture in instruction, it does not equate to 

shaping analytic thinkers. Critical multiculturalism is a transformative approach, which 

develops students’ interests and challenges hegemonic knowledge (Nieto, 1999) so that 

people may be empowered to become agents of change for their own lives. In other 

words, critical multiculturalism offers new directions in multicultural education (Ladson-

Billings, 2003). Furthermore, it poses alternative perspectives of the reality in people’s 

lives and allows for schools to provide opportunities for highlighting social injustices 

(Ladson-Billings, 1995).   



 
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   Esposito and Swain (2009) suggest that teaching for social justice includes 

building critical thinking skills, thereby empowering students not just for academic 

success, but helping them see how they are situated in society relative to others. 

Commitment to social justice also entails commitment to others. Arrupe (1973) coined 

the phrase, “men and women for others”, as a way of encouraging people to commit to 

serving others, thus becoming agents of change. To that end, teaching for justice 

constitutes educating for change (Arrupe, 1973). With that mindset, I extend that phrase 

to “girls and boys for others” and not just the spiritual dimension of this, but also the 

directive to “take action” for others for the good of humankind. Social justice education 

helps to shape students to be mindful of sociopolitical forces, to develop a sense of 

agency, and ultimately to become socially and culturally responsible citizens (Gutstein, 

2003). I argue that social justice education extends beyond gathering of knowledge to 

include lessons that are relevant to students’ lives. Furthermore, it comprises teachers 

having the courage to teach outside the box, beyond the mandated curriculum in an 

effort to prepare citizens with agency (Freire, 1970). Social justice education ensures 

that students have a voice and the classroom structures, topics, and themes that 

teachers enact will enable those voices to be heard.  As such, critical multiculturalist 

educators must be prepared to teach students to question why things are the way they 

are and to begin posing their own solutions (Gutstein, 2003). In so doing, students 

become agents of change and are inspired to “take action.”  

  Needless to say, with all the state testing mandates, even the most devoted and 

committed teachers are often overwhelmed and feel challenged with finding ways to 

prepare all students to be critical multiculturalists. For many teachers, there is added 



 
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pressure to decipher the correct balance between test prep and content instruction 

(Migliacci & Stoops Verplaetse, 2008). The Common Core State Standards have added 

increased challenges at our school. For one, some of the teachers believe that the 

standards do not provide much flexibility or room for creativity in lesson planning. There 

is ambiguity in how to design lessons that will accomplish the objectives of the 

standards. Teachers also feel that the standards lack clear outlines and sufficient ideas 

on how to accommodate ELs. For teachers wanting to provide a critical lens and build 

inquiry within the classroom, they face limits in choosing between teaching for the test 

or in helping to develop analytic thinkers. Moreover, building critical thinkers includes 

directing students’ attention to issues of inequities within society, in their communities, 

and in their families, thereby incorporating an understanding of social justice. However, 

building critical thinkers who are socially responsible takes time (Esposito & Swain, 

2009).  Dover (2013) alludes to the lack of time and room to integrate a social justice 

platform within the classroom, while up against a mandated curriculum. In the 

paragraphs below, I introduce the school context, followed by strategies and 

approaches that I used to accomplish the integration of social justice in my social 

studies lessons.  

  The setting of the school described here is a public elementary school in a 

suburban county in the Greater Atlanta area with 90% of the students being English 

learners. The students were born in America to immigrant parents, mostly from Vietnam 

and South America. English is not the primary language spoken at home. A small 

percentage of the ELs are new arrivals, who have immigrated to the U.S. within the last 

one to three years. Another five percent of the students are African American students. 



 
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Up to 90% of the students receive free or reduced lunch. English learner students, as 

well as mainstream English-speaking students are taught together in an immersion 

setting. That is, ELs receive general instruction within mainstream classrooms. Students 

typically receive instruction in reading, language arts, writing, social studies, math, and 

science. Most ELs receive daily instructional help from ESOL teachers. The instructional 

framework is primarily a push-in model, where ESOL teachers work with students in 

small groups within their mainstream classrooms. Typically, ESOL teachers provide one 

to two periods of instructional support for EL students depending on their level of 

English proficiency and need for vocabulary and language support. Students sometimes 

receive reading support from reading specialists to further accelerate their reading 

levels. Students are placed in classes with their age appropriate peers regardless of 

their academic abilities. Students are required to take all state standardized 

assessments if they have been in the country for at least ten months (Migliacci & Stoops 

Verplaetse, 2008). All students are expected to meet the grade level curricular 

requirements as laid out by the county and state for promotion to the next grade level. In 

an effort to prepare students for the state assessments, the county administers a 

benchmark assessment every quarter or nine weeks throughout the school year. All 

students, including ELs, are expected to complete these assessments. 

  The exemplars discussed in this article were written by nine third-grade students, 

all Latino/a, except for one African American. The Latino/a students all received at least 

one period of ESOL service daily. Two of the Latino/a students also received daily 

special education service in speech and language. The students’ reading levels ranged 

from beginning of first to second grade level at the start of the school year. During the 



 
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literacy block, the students received small group guided reading instruction. The social 

studies unit, entitled People who Made a Difference, was integrated with a literacy 

standard unit goal. I served as the instructor for this class between 2013 and 2014. 

  To demonstrate the integration of social justice in the curriculum for teaching 

ELs, I suggest the following lesson planning ideas below. As each of these ideas are 

developed, exemplars from the social studies unit are cited to corroborate them, with a 

play by play timeline: 

• Utilize a backward design model for unit and lesson planning  

• Introduce students to critical thinking through questioning and art integration 

• Teach students how to think critically about things in their own lives, by 

making content relevant to their families and society at large 

• Encourage students to be agents of change. 

• Teacher education: Prepare teachers to be social justice educators 

 

Utilize a Backward Design Model for Unit and Lesson Planning 

 McTighe and Wiggins (2004), in explaining how to move from the standards to 

the desired curricular outcomes, describe the backward design process. Backward 

design is an approach that starts with identifying the end curricular goal in mind, before 

starting a unit. Teachers consider the final assessments of students’ understanding of a 

unit and identify the appropriate lesson pace to achieve the goals before 

commencement of a unit. To implement the backward design, I recommend that 

teachers examine the standards and identify the essential objectives or goals students 



 
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should know by the completion of the unit. The following is a description of this first step 

implemented in an integrated literacy and social studies instructional unit with a focus 

on social justice.  

  In the unit entitled, People Who Made a Difference, I first identified the goal in the 

social studies state standards, which was to determine who key people were at specific 

times in history, and to tell how they made a difference in the U.S. Second, to fulfill the 

literacy goals, students needed to identify common themes that connected the lives of 

the key people. Last, in an effort to link new learning to students’ lives, as well as to 

relate to larger social issues in society, the students were challenged to brainstorm 

potential solutions for unfair practices they identified within their families or in society.  

  In considering the evidence for students’ understandings, several performance 

assessments were built in place, before the start of the unit. For instance, to meet the 

literacy standard, (a) the students were required to identify potential themes and cite 

evidences from their texts using graphic organizers. Stoops Verplaetse (2008) 

discusses the importance of providing ample opportunities for ELs to interact orally and 

in writing to foster language acquisition and academic achievement. Students (b) 

responded to critical questions by elaborating and citing reasons during discussions and 

writing. As students gave their opinions and reasons, it was necessary to look closely at 

their language to see the kinds of connections they were making between and across 

texts, as well as to determine the language patterns they were using to support their 

answers. Sentence starters on the graphic organizers were instrumental in scaffolding 

the ELs’ writing by providing the necessary language to help students frame their 

thoughts. (c) Students also compared key historical people by citing similarities and 



 
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differences in the problems occurring during particular historical time periods. Students 

created illustrations and drawings to reflect their understanding about the content as 

they compared features.  (d) Students established how each historical figure set out to 

solve problems by filling out a Compare/Contrast organizer. Graphic organizers are 

critical tools for helping ELs negotiate difficult academic content (Diaz-Rico, 2008), as 

well as for helping them to convey their understanding of text (Stoops Verplaetse, 

2008). The variety of ways to present information in graphic organizers builds interest in 

learning (Graves & Fitzgerald, 2003). In closing out the unit, the (e) Hands project was 

used as a tool to assess the critical thinking students used to identify a social issue in 

their family or community through discussions, drawing, and writing. Further details 

follow below. 

  Teaching and planning for social justice requires time (Gutstein, 2003). Teachers 

are not only planning for the essential and mandatory curriculum, but also are providing 

opportunities for students to think critically beyond the texts. Therefore, I suggest 

combining the literacy and social studies standards and objectives to create an 

integrated unit. For instance, the Standard 9 for reading and writing in the CCSS 

requires that students: “Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics 

in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the author takes” 

(CCSS.ELA-Literacy R.9). The 2014 Georgia third grade social studies standard 

SS3H2, stated that ‘the student will discuss the lives of Americans who expanded 

people’s rights and freedoms in a democracy’.  As a result, the goal for this unit was for 

students to compare the themes or common topics across texts of important American 

figures who made a difference in people’s lives. The rationale to integrate the content 



 
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areas was multifaceted. For one, it accommodated the challenge of meeting the content 

area standards, as well as the literacy goals (Holloway, 2002). Further, by integrating 

content area subjects with reading, it fostered stronger readers with expanded content 

knowledge (Holloway, 2002). Therefore, it was necessary to identify essential questions 

that served the social studies goals, as well as met the literacy standards for the People 

Who Made a Difference unit. Here are some of the essential questions for social studies 

that were integrated with the literacy standards: Who was Susan B. Anthony? How did 

she make a difference? What were her character traits? What obstacles did Susan B. 

Anthony face? How are Susan B. Anthony and Cesar Chavez alike? How did those 

traits help her make a difference in the U.S.?  

  During the first nine weeks or quarter of the school year, I began teaching 

students specific reading skills, during the literacy block. For example, I taught students 

the reading skill of identifying and determining themes. To start, I introduced what the 

concept was, cited examples, showed students examples and had them identify themes 

within short stories or passages. Next, I taught students how to compare and contrast 

objects, settings, ideas, concepts and people. Then, I ensured students understood 

what it means to compare and contrast, to specify key words authors use, and helped 

them identify possible graphic organizers that are useful for comparing and contrasting. 

I realized it was important to teach students how to determine the character traits of 

individuals based on evidence. It was equally essential to teach them how to express 

their opinions with supporting evidences. Throughout the unit, I modeled each 

expectation for students. 

 



 
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It was vital for me to be intentional about the integration of the social studies and 

literacy objectives. Therefore, in mapping out the framework for the People Who Made a 

Difference unit, I incorporated essential questions that served dual purposes. One goal 

was to gain facts about who the historical people were, including Susan B. Anthony, 

Franklin D, Roosevelt, Cesar Chavez, Fredrick Douglas, and Mary Bethune, as laid out 

by the 3rd grade social studies standards, at the time. For the second nine weeks or 

quarter, students were retaught the reading skills using leveled books or online texts on 

the historical figures, during small group guided reading block.  

  During week one of the second quarter, I began teaching students how to identify 

character traits for historical people by using character maps. In week two, I taught 

students possible themes or messages within each text, based on the historical 

people’s lives and their causes. For instance, after reading a Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 

(FDR) text, I modeled how to cite evidences and page numbers based on his actions. 

Also, I discussed with students how to describe Franklin Roosevelt’s character, based 

on the evidences I had collected. I shared why I gave those descriptions, page 

numbers, and supporting evidences. 

 In the People Who Made a Difference unit, the students concluded FDR was a 

caring person. Thus, the theme of caring was elicited. As students were strengthening 

their reading abilities by learning specific reading skills and the theme of caring, they 

were also learning the social studies content (Holloway, 2002). During week three, 

students compared two of the historical figures, Susan B. Anthony and Franklin D. 

Roosevelt, to determine commonalities and differences, as well as to identify important 

causes. Students provided facts about each of the two historical figures. See graphic 



 
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organizer, Comparing historical people below in Figure 1 and Appendix. The sample 

shown here is of a student, named Luis. It is evident, Luis was able to identify who the 

key people were, where they were located, and also find the existing problems and 

solutions across two texts.  

 
Figure 1.  Comparing historical people, in texts (graphic organizer) 

 

Introduce Students to Critical Thinking Through Art Integration and Questioning 

In an effort to provide differentiation, I invited the ELs who were just learning the 

vocabulary or who had language challenges, to draw pictures or comic strips to illustrate 



 
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their understanding of the social context during the time of history. Migliacci and Stoops 

Verplaetse (2008) recommend finding varied and creative ways for ELs to demonstrate 

their knowledge base of content standards. Drawing and illustrations are language 

mediums that can be used as scaffold or support for English learners’ language 

acquisition. For example, while working with the third graders on the unit, Luis used a 

graphic organizer to draw how life was before things changed, then drew pictures of 

difficulties the people faced, followed by things the people wanted to change, then 

outlined the outcome (See Figure. 2). 

 

 
                Figure 2. Students’ art work of Then and Now 

 



 
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Other students included captions and speech bubbles to further express their ideas and 

learning. During discussions, students explained their rationale behind the images and 

shared their work with the group. 

  I was purposeful about incorporating strategies that fostered deep and analytic 

thinking. Questioning is one approach that I used to prompt and generate students’ 

critical thinking skills. Questioning is a beneficial tool which can bridge communication 

for English learners (Brown, 2007). By using simple how and why questions during 

reading, students can become more analytic readers. Hedgcock and Ferris (2009) 

suggest students engage in a dialogue with the author, by asking questions about the 

text during reading. They also recommend students respond by agreeing or disagreeing 

to ideas, based on personal experiences or their own views.  

  During the fourth week, the goal for building critical thinking was gradually 

developed in the unit. For example, before the actual reading of the Susan B. Anthony 

text during the guided reading block, it was necessary to check students’ background 

knowledge to ascertain what students knew about how different racial groups and 

genders lived during that time. It was also essential to elicit responses about why things 

were the way they were, and how people’s lives were impacted by inequities. Midway 

through the week, students read a Mary McLeod biography as part of the unit. I asked 

students thought provoking questions, about what life was like during McLeod’s time. 

Luis offered the first response, followed by other students: 



 
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T:   Who had the better school? Why? 

Luis: Whites. They had desks, Blacks didn’t have anything. They used other  

                   things to write. Whites have a lot of things in school, but not blacks. 

T:  What would life be like for blacks, if Mary McLeod did not make a school? 

S2: They wouldn’t have nothing to learn about. They wouldn’t have good jobs,  

                 houses, and money.  

S3: If she didn’t build school, and people didn’t change their minds, then they  

                 wouldn’t have school for Black children. 

S4: It wouldn’t be fair for Blacks. She treated them good.  

T:  Do you think all people are treated fairly?  

     All students said no. 

By the end of the week, students were engaged in discussions and were providing 

answers about critical issues relating to equity during the historical time. It was 

necessary to have students talk about what they were noticing, using the sentence 

starters they were taught earlier in the quarter. By way of formative assessment, it was 

important to listen closely to students’ responses during the discussions. This provided 

the opportunity to assess student learning and clear up any misunderstandings students 

had at the time. 

  In an effort to create critical thinkers, it was also important to engage students in 

thought provoking questions about issues of equity (Gutstein, 2003). During week five, 

the issues of equity arising from the social studies texts were used to stimulate critical 



 
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questions and discussion. For instance, students were asked to offer their opinions 

about students being forced to speak only English in school (See Figure 3). They first 

had to discuss in a small group and then write their views on sticky notes, stating 

whether they agreed or not and explaining why. The rationale for including oral and 

written discourse was to provide different modes of learning, which is important for ELs.  

 
Figure 3.   Students’ opinions about speaking only English in school 

 



 
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In week six, after learning about Susan B. Anthony and Cesar Chavez, and how they 

fought for people’s rights and convinced people to vote, students, wrote their thoughts 

about the question below. See Figure 4 for sample student responses.  

Do you think everyone should be allowed to vote? Why or why not?  

                                       

                           Figure 4.  Several students’ opinions about voting 

Students were immensely opinionated and passionate about their views. Luis wrote that 

“yes, I think everyone should be allowed to vote. I think so because everyone should 

have the right to vote…” Another student wrote, “Yes, I think everyone should be 

allowed to vote. I think so because we would not have a leader, if we did not vote. Also, 

if we did not vote, we would not have laws”. Students were taught from the beginning of 

the year to use words from the question, to frame their answers. They were also 

instructed how to use the sentence starter, “I think so because”, to frame their opinions 



 
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on what they think about a topic. Providing ELs with scaffolds in writing builds 

confidence until they are able to write independently. Scaffolding their language also 

helps in their language development. 

              Make Content Relevant to Students’ Families and Community 

  Delpit (2006) proposes that while it is critical to teach academic skills, educators 

need to do more than just that. To further develop students’ critical abilities, it is 

important to invite them to make connection of learning to their own lives. Researchers 

(Ladson-Billings, 1995; Murray, 2010) suggest that teachers should be respecting of 

students’ culture and be intentional in incorporating students’ culture in their instruction.  

To that end, student diversity can be a vital resource for language development, as well 

as a means for providing cultural learning in the classroom (Murphy & Byrd, 2001). 

However, creating relevance in the curriculum goes beyond merely providing resources 

and textbooks and tolerating students’ culture (Nieto, 1994). It includes showing 

students how to identify issues of disparity within their families’ lives or in their 

communities. As such, talking to students about things they perceive to be unfair in their 

families’ lives, in their communities, or with what they see on T.V. is very important. For 

instance, ask, are there any unfair things happening with your family members? Is there 

anything being done about the issue? How does your family member feel about the 

unfair issues? What would they want change? Have you seen anything unfair in the 

news? It is important to pay close attention to the types of responses students are 

giving and be intentional about stimulating more critical thinking.  

  The third graders in this class each shared in discussion and in writing about 

issues of inequities. For example, Luis wrote how unfair it was that children were faced 



 
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with other people’s cigarette smoke and how harmful it is. As a follow up, I asked Luis 

how he felt about the smoking that was going on around him. He discussed how 

smoking could make people sick. Another student wrote how her aunt was often owed 

money by her boss, despite already receiving very low pay. Probably one of the most 

surprising responses was from a student who wrote about how some big countries enter 

other countries, create wars, and then force people in those countries to obey them or 

face being killed. See Figure 5. Giving ELs the opportunity to talk first and then write 

strengthens their vocabulary and listening skills, builds awareness about issues around 

them, and creates critical writers. Students are also able to extend their learning, in this 

case, about issues of fairness from the social studies unit and connect their learning to 

issues in their own lives and in society. 

 
 

Figure 5.    Social problems  
 



 
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Encourage Students to be Agents of Change 
 

It is important to prompt students to brainstorm solutions for inequities.  

By encouraging students to share what and how they think things could be changed, 

can help create agents of change. Delpit (2006) points out that children are rarely given 

the opportunity to tackle serious moral issues in society or seldom trained to think of 

themselves as agents of change. She praised the awesome responsibility teachers hold 

in shaping students to become agents of change. However, creating agents of change 

does not happen overnight, but takes time. Therefore, teachers need to be intentional 

and purposeful in directing students to consider issues that are unfair and that serve to 

exploit groups of people.  

  As a culminating activity and whole class assessment for the unit, students were 

required to offer their own solutions to the social problems they cited in their families’ 

lives or in society. The third grade students drew their hands as a symbol of what they 

would do to deal with the inequities they described. They then wrote a few sentences 

explaining how things could be changed. For instance, Luis wrote: 

“I think that the people have to stop the smoking because we will get sick 

            and die. I think the governor should make a law. The law should say, 

            people should not smoke around children. Also, if we see people smoke 

            tell them to stop. Friend should tell friends to stop smoking”.  

Students shared their hand project with the rest of the group by stating how they 

proposed to deal with the inequities.  See Figures 6. and Figure 7. 



 
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                       Figure 6.     Drawing hands as change agents 



 
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               Figure 7. Student’s solution for drugs in the world 

 
 

Teacher Education: Preparing Teachers for Social Justice Education 

When we consider the integration of social justice in our classes with a goal of 

“girls and boys for others” we need to bear in mind that we are talking about the context 

of 21st century knowledge-based economies and the real need for nontraditional models 

of education (Livingston, 2012). The content area of Social Studies is rich with 

possibilities of what non-traditional and integrated social justice classrooms and syllabi 

could accomplish.  In the earlier sections, I enumerate how one teacher set out to 

achieve this goal. This article can serve as one example as we forge ahead, committed 

to critical multiculturalism and envisioning a future bright with possibilities.   

  The continuing education of pre-service and in-service teacher learners must be 

grounded in critical creative curricula development. This means that teacher learners 

need to be equipped to develop long term (at least a half to a full semester) theme-

based lessons that integrate literature, literacy, and social studies while incorporating 



 
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social justice perspectives and habits. I used a theme of People Who Made a 

Difference, based on the teaching topic of civil rights and equality. My children 

participated in a Hands Project, citing what they would do to improve life in the family, 

the community, and in the world, which is the action element of critical multiculturalism. 

In teaching their classes, teacher educators need to model backward design with 

teacher learners. Teacher learners can work together in grade level groups to put all the 

components of social justice, literacy, language, literature, and social studies content, 

goals and objectives together into a coherent syllabus. Starting with the end in mind, 

teachers can then adopt a theme, select a major culminating task or event, and then 

work backwards to plan the content, language, skills and strategies they will use to 

reach the end standards, objectives, and goals. All of this must be set in a critical 

curricula context, where historical representations of knowledge are interrogated from 

the sociocultural perspectives of race, class, gender, abilities, cultural and linguistic 

backgrounds (Boyd et al., 2006; Luke, Woods and Weir, 2013).        

  Critical pedagogy and multiculturalists are about social justice in action. Critical 

pedagogues critique and contest the social forces that serve to replicate and reproduce 

social structures in society for the maintenance of the status quo. Many of these 

reproduction forces and structures are inherent in our curriculum and accomplish the 

continuing marginalization of various groups (King, 2005). Therefore, teacher educators 

need to ensure that they are modelling critical pedagogy in action and explicitly teaching 

about the need for critical approaches to teaching (Books, 2006; Wink, 2010).  

Furthermore, teacher educators need to engage in enquiry oriented ethnographic 

approaches to teaching, where teacher learners study others’ knowledge systems and 



 
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cultural resources in sites outside of the university classroom and in traditional PK-12 

classroom settings. Such sites may include, but are not limited to, living in other 

countries, study abroad programs, apartment complexes, community centers, churches 

and the homes of refugee and immigrant families (Gonzalez, Moll and Amanti, 2005; 

Tinker Sachs et al., 2008). 

  Integrating social justice into 21st century teaching with multimodalities and multi-

literacies approaches really requires a commitment to energy in teaching. This energy is 

enhanced and sustained when like-minded teachers and teacher educators work 

together in collaborative planning for curriculum development, research, and 

professional development.  Integrated approaches are challenging to enact and only 

through working together can action take place. Teacher educators who work together 

with one another in the academy and with teachers in K-12 schools, through their 

research and professional development activities, help to promote sustained action for 

social justice.   

  Multiculturalism and internationalism are necessary perspectives and 

dispositions for today’s educators.  Again, teacher educators need to be living and 

enacting these behaviors and attitudes in their classrooms by the design of their 

teaching activities and assignments and by the amount of attention they devote to these 

orientations.  Paying lip service and listing these as goals are inadequate without action. 

Conclusion 

In this article, I have sought to empower our ELs with voice and action in the 

classroom through the integration of social justice, language, and literacy within the 

content area of social studies.  I believe that empowering ELs is challenging work that 



 
25         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

requires collaborative commitment, passion, and energy from both university teacher 

educators and K-12 teachers.  We must break the barriers that divide us and together 

create the kind of educational spaces that we require in today’s world. 

 

  



 
26         GATESOL in Action, Fall 2018 
 

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Appendix 
 

      Name:  _____________________                                      Date: ____________ 

                                                Texts Comparison: Nonfiction 

            (Compare and contrast the most important points and key details  
            presented in two texts on the same topic). 

Title 
of 
Text/  

Who 
(names) 

Where/When 
(setting) 

What were 
the 
problem 
during this 
time? 

How did 
people try to 
solve the 
problem? 

What was 
the 
outcome? 
What 
changed? 

 
 
 
 
 
 

     

 
 
 
 
 
 

     

                     

             How are the texts alike?  How are the texts different? Explain. 
             Remember: Talk about the details in the texts. Details include names, dates,  
             places, events, text features, word choice, and author’s style. 

o  They are alike because 
________________________________________________________________ 
 
________________________________________________________________ 
 

o They are different because 
________________________________________________________________ 
 
________________________________________________________________ 
Jackson, A. P. (2014). Comparing historical people in texts, (graphic organizer). 

 


	Girls and boys for others: Creating relevance and critical inquiry for English learners
	By Dr. Annmarie Patricia Jackson Department of Elementary and Special Education University of North Georgia annmarie.jackson@ung.edu

