New issue of Critical Education, Vol. 16 No. 1 (2025)

Vol. 16 No. 4 (2025)

Articles

Empowering Changemakers:
Activist Pedagogy in a Democratic School 
Crystena Parker-Shandal

The Future of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) in Education 
Keep, Reform, or Dismantle? 
Ardavan Eizadirad, Gerald Walton

Learning Decision-Making and Democratic Participation in Early Primary Education 
A Case Study in Catalonia 
Clara Gallart , Jordi Castellví

Educational Outcomes of Indigenous Students Living in Remote Reserve Communities 
Complex and Multifaceted Indigenous Poverty
Kristen Anderson, Saiqa Azam

Fail Fast: The Discourse of Quality Research Perpetuated by Leadership at The Institute of Education Sciences
Jacob Bennett, Vonna Hemmler

Investigating Education, Class Antagonisms and Solidarity: Toward Critical Humanist Democratic Societies

Critical Humanism and Problems of Change 
Arturo Rodriguez, Kevin R. Magill

The Emergence of Narrative and the Discovery of Humanism
Curriculum and Research Lessons from the Italian Renaissance
Saville Kushner

“More beautiful and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said”: 9/11, BLM, and the creation of an American identity
Joanna Batt, Michael L. Joseph, Anthony L. Brown

Meet-and-Defer
The Rhetorical Unmaking of Graduate Academic Labor at the University of Maryland 
Samuel DiBella

Book & Media Reviews

A Sociopolitical Agenda for TESOL Teacher Education, by Peter I. De Costa and Ozgehan Uştuk (Eds.), Bloomsbury Academic, 2023, 208 pp., $ 108, (ebook), ISBN 9781350262850
Hossein Davari, Saeed Nourzadeh

Tell UBC: Keep the IDF Off Our Campus

Tell UBC: Keep the IDF Off Our Campus

On Nov 17th at 2:00pm, Hillel UBC will host an israeli occupation forces (IOF) soldier on UBC’s Vancouver campus. This comes one week after another IOF Soldier violently threw five students out of a locked room at Toronto Metropolitan University, leaving some hospitalized. Join us in telling UBC that the IOF is not welcome on campus.

The invited soldier, Itai Reuveni, served in active duty with the IOF’s 35th Paratroopers Brigade from 2001-2004, when the Brigade was accused of war crimes including unlawful killings and collective punishment in the Palestinian Territories. In October 2023, he rejoined the genocidal IOF to escalate against the Lebanese border. He is currently a reservist combat medic with the 35th paratroopers.

Reuveni is speaking at Hillel in his role as Director of Communications at NGO Monitor, a right-wing organization with close ties to the israeli government. NGO Monitor was founded on the basis of refusing to accept and abide by human rights and international law frameworks following the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa. This group routinely defames nonprofits (including student groups) that speak up for Palestinian rights.

We all saw what happened the last time UBC welcome IOF war criminals to campus during the Invictus Games. Students and staff were harassed, followed, and interrogated by militarized police around campus. A staff member was illegally detained while doing his job. This is a stain on UBC’s reputation. Shame on this university for continuing to platform war criminals who have participated in genocide.

The presence of IOF soldiers threatens the safety of students, staff, and faculty at UBC, especially Palestinian community members. UBC must commit to keeping its community safe. Join us in calling on the UBC President and UBC administration to keep the IOF off campus.

[Follow above link to send letter to UBC administration]

Palestine Under (Cease) Fire: The Struggle Continues

Palestine Under Fire: The Struggle Continues

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25 | 5:00–7:00 PM

LEW FORUM, ALLARD HALL (UBC)

SPEAKERS WILL ADDRESS:

DISABILITY, MAIMING, AND DEBILITATION

LEBANON AND REGIONAL DYNAMICS

ICJ RULINGS ON OCCUPATION AND APARTHEID

MODERATED DISCUSSION TO FOLLOW. ALL ARE WELCOME.

Registration link: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_82j9T8kEm2VrL7M

#freepalestine #UBC #UBCFaculty4Palestine

 

UBC Faculty for Palestine

F4P is a voluntary association of over 100 UBC full and part-time faculty and staff who share a commitment to support the struggle for Palestinian liberation from Israeli Apartheid and Occupation based on the principles of anticolonialism, anti-racism and social justice. #UBC #FacultyForPalestine

BCCLA: Reverse Kneecap Travel Ban

Posted on September 19, 2025
by BCCLA

BCCLA condemns the Liberal government’s unfounded, biased, and authoritarian decision to bar Irish-language rap group Kneecap from Canada, preventing them from performing their scheduled shows in October. In our view, this is another clear example of how Canadian governments are systematically targeting voices speaking out against genocide.

The Canadian government’s decision to smear Kneecap publicly as promoters of antisemitism, terrorism, and hate reflects not only the dangerous conflation of antisemitism with opposition to Israel’s actions, but also a tired, colonial form of anti-Irish bias that has no place in Canada.

Kneecap is a part of a resurgence of Indigenous Irish language and culture, and a powerful voice against colonial violence and for anti-sectarian connection through art.

Although there have been calls from a pro-Israel lobby for several months to ban Kneecap, the Canadian government has made this decision so close to their concert dates that it effectively ensures their artistic expression in Canada is silenced.

Something similar happened to BCCLA this year, when the BC Ministry of Education attempted to sabotage our 20th Youth Conference by spreading misinformation about BCCLA and one of our conference presenters, Teachers for Palestine, a few days before the event.

Without verification, the Ministry claimed that the Teachers for Palestine presenters were associated with Samidoun – an organization listed under Canada’s extremely flawed, opaque, and heavily-criticized terrorist listing apparatus. Canadian governments have used this listing to suppress free expression in support of Palestine by throwing out claims of association.

The Ministry wrote to all high school Superintendents in Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, who then wrote to Principals (who passed this message on to teachers and parents) instructing schools not to attend. Over a hundred students were pulled from the event.

Surrey’s Superintendent told BCCLA: “Students can access a variety of learning resources to enhance their learning in relation to civil rights which do not involve a risk of potential contact with members of a terrorist organization.”

Despite BCCLA giving the government a chance to correct their admitted mistake, no real action has been taken to undo the harm they caused. This was an abuse of power, aimed at undermining our efforts to educate youth about censorship, human rights, and community organizing in the face of authoritarianism and government repression.

We know that Kneecap and BCCLA are not the exception. Across Canada, no matter how big or small, acts of free expression in support of Palestine are being targeted and silenced.

Sign BCCLA petition to reverse Kneecap Travel Ban imposed by the Canadian government.

New Issue: Workplace: A Journal for Academic Labor

Workplace #36 includes the first installment of a series on Teachers’ Work in Contentious Political Times edited by Dana Morrison (West Chester University), Brianne Kramer (Southern Utah University), Lauren Ware Stark (Université de Sherbrooke), Erin Dyke (Oklahoma State University), and Denisha Jones (Defending the Early Years).

Jelena Starcevic (Cornell University) contributes a new article in the Workplace series featuring research from the Global Labour Research Centre Symposium at York University.

Featured articles include studies of: shared governance in academic libraries by Sarah Fitzgerald, Therese Kaufman, and Jaime Taylor (University of Massachusetts Amherst); how activist resistance on campus produces a shared sense of community by Kefaya Diab (University of North Carolina, Charlotte), Andrew Bowman (Independent Scholar), Bruce Kovanen (North Dakota State University), Liz Miller (The Ohio State University), and Jonathan Isaac (University of Washington); the relationship between social-well being and multi-locational work in a Finnish university by Maija Nyman, Satu Uusiautti, and Timo Aarrevaara (University of Lapland).

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14288/workplace.v36i1

Published: 2025-08-05

Towards an Ideal Model of Education for Critical Citizenship (now open access)

The article “Towards an Ideal Model of Education for Critical Citizenship. An Analysis of the Spanish Curricular Change in Social Sciences” published in January 2025 in the European Journal of Education is now available under Open Access license.

The article examines the integration of citizenship education in Spain’s new social sciences curriculum, focusing on primary and secondary education. ​ It highlights the importance of fostering critical citizenship, which involves questioning societal norms, challenging injustices, and engaging in transformative social action. ​ The study uses the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) framework to analyze the curriculum, revealing a stronger emphasis on cognitive skills and content knowledge compared to attitudes and engagement. ​

Key findings include:

  1. Cognitive and Content Focus: The curriculum prioritizes cognitive domains (e.g., reasoning and application) and content domains (e.g., civic principles and roles) over attitudes and engagement. ​
  2. Inconsistencies in Curriculum Elements: While competencies emphasize citizenship commitment, evaluation criteria and basic knowledge lack coherence, limiting practical classroom implementation. ​
  3. Limited Focus on Engagement: Engagement-related dimensions, such as activism and social participation, are minimally addressed, distancing the curriculum from fostering active democratic citizenship. ​
  4. Imbalance in Basic Knowledge: Basic knowledge focuses solely on content, neglecting cognitive, attitudinal, and engagement aspects. ​

The study concludes that while the curriculum incorporates cognitive and content domains effectively, it falls short in promoting critical social action and engagement. ​ Future efforts should focus on aligning curriculum elements and fostering interdisciplinary approaches to empower students as active participants in democracy. ​ Researchers are encouraged to examine the practical implementation of these curricular changes to advance education for social justice. ​

Navarro Medina, E , Ross, E. W., Pérez-Rodríguez, N., & De Alba Fernandez, N. (2025). Towards an ideal model of education for critical citizenship. An analysis of the Spanish curricular change in social sciences. European Journal of Education, 60(1), e70010. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejed.70010

Interview with Brazilian history education researchers

It has been a great honor and a learning experience for me to have connected with history education researchers in Brazil in recent years.

Prof. Dr. Luis F. Cerri (State University of Ponta Grossa, Brazil) contributed a chapter for the book Social Studies Education in Latin America: Critical Perspectives from the Global South , which I edited with Sebastián Plá .

Cerri’s chapter presents outcomes of an international project researching young peoples’ view of teaching and learning history, historical awareness and culture, political position and culture. The chapter presents comparative data on political position and views regarding history from young people across Latin America, including Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Peru and Colombia.

Subsequent to the book project, I had the opportunity to speak at the National Meeting of Researchers on the Teaching of History in Brazil and then last summer participated in a video interview with Dr. Cerri as well as Prof. Dr. Maria Lima (Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul) and Prof. Dr. Juliana Andrade (Federal Rural University of Pernambuco).

The interview has just been published in Revista Docentes:

Ross, E. W., Cerri, L. F., Lima, M. A., & Andrade, J. (2025). Entrevista com o professor E. Wayne Ross. Revista Docentes, 10(35), 99-111. https://periodicos.seduc.ce.gov.br/revistadocentes/article/view/1474

Summary

E. Wayne Ross, together with Sebastián Plá, organized a collection on the teaching of Social Studies in Latin America, resulting from the understanding that the Global South is rapidly changing its role in the various spheres of contemporary life, and among them, the debate on the teaching and learning of subjects such as History. In 2022, he opened the proceedings of the National Meeting of Researchers on the Teaching of History held at UFRPE, reflecting on the impacts of neoliberal policies on the teaching of History and other human and social sciences. In this interview, conducted by videoconference on July 14, 2024, three leaders of the ABEH Associação Brasileira de Ensino de História spoke with the professor about their experiences of civic and professional resistance to the advances of militarism, the business perspective and reactionism in education, themes that are older there than here, which resulted in a fruitful debate.

Download PDF of article (in Portuguese).