Learning Activism is designed to encourage a deeper engagement with the intellectual life of activists who organize for social, political, and ecological justice.

Winner, 2016 Best Authored Book presented by the Society for Research on Adolescence Diverse case studies on how youth build political power during an era of racial and educational inequality in America This is what democracy looks like: Youth organizers in Colorado negotiate new school discipline policies to end the school to jail track. Latino and African American students march to district headquarters to protest high school closure. Young immigration rights activists persuade state legislators to pass a bill to make in-state tuition available to undocumented state residents. Students in an ESL class collect survey data revealing the prevalence of racism and xenophobia. These examples, based on ten years of research by youth development scholar Ben Kirshner, show young people building political power during an era of racial inequality, diminished educational opportunity, and an atrophied public square. The book’s case studies analyze what these experiences mean for young people and why they are good for democracy. What is youth activism and how does it contribute to youth development? How might collective movements of young people expand educational opportunity and participatory democracy? The interdependent relationship between youths’ political engagement, their personal development, and democratic renewal is the central focus of this book. Kirshner argues that youth and societal institutions are strengthened when young people, particularly those most disadvantaged by educational inequity, turn their critical gaze to education systems and participate in efforts to improve them.

How can we reimagine the relationship between academia and activism to provide new opportunities for social change? Based on an ethnography with an anti-violence feminist collective, this vibrant and vital book develops an interdisciplinary approach to activism and activist research, helping us reimagine the role of scholarship in the fight against social inequality. With its reflections on novel tools that can be utilized in the fight for social justice, this book will be a valuable resource for academics in critical management studies, sociology, gender studies, and social work as well as practitioners and policymakers across the social services sector.

Take your first step toward activism! A little book with a big goal! This book aims to give kids the building blocks to develop strong principles of care, empathy, and community. Because you're never too young to make a difference!

In today's educational landscape, a pressing issue looms: deeply entrenched within the system are the prevailing cultural norms that have historically perpetuated the dominance of white, middle-class values. This has, in turn, marginalized and stigmatized traditionally underrepresented student cultures as inherently deficient. As the United States educational system grapples with a dramatic increase in low-income, non-white, and linguistically diverse students, now is the time to confront these inequalities that undermine student achievement. This challenge has thrust teachers into the forefront, compelling them to embrace social justice practices in their classrooms as counternarratives. Supporting Activist Practices in Education emerges as a timely and essential solution to address this educational conundrum. Within the pages of this book, a compelling narrative unfolds—one that delves deep into the experiences of educators who actively employ teaching as a form of activism, transcending traditional norms. Teaching through activism, as defined in this volume, represents the courageous actions of educators who champion participatory citizenship for social justice within their classrooms, nurturing environments that foster critical thinking about the world. This book emphasizes the imperative of challenging and dismantling systemic injustices, and it underscores the pivotal role of social justice as a framework for effective pedagogical practices.

Social demonstrations that take place on university campuses have profound effects on students as well as the environments in which those students live and learn. These demonstrations, in recent years, have taken on traditional forms such as spontaneous protests, organized marches, and organized rallies, but they have also been affected by technologically mediated strategies that can bring larger sets of students together to support shared beliefs. Exploring the Technological, Societal, and Institutional Dimensions of College Student Activism provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of social demonstrations on university campuses and responses from administrative professionals. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as advocacy, student activism, and free speech, this book is ideally designed for university administrators, policymakers, government officials, academic leaders, researchers, and institutions seeking current research on student engagement in social demonstrations on the campuses of colleges and universities.

This collection examines issues of agency, power, politics and identity as they relate to science and technology and education, within contemporary settings. Social, economic and ecological critique and reform are examined by numerous contributing authors, from a range of international contexts. These chapters examine pressing pedagogical questions within socio-scientific contexts, including petroleum economies, food justice, health, environmentalism, climate change, social media and biotechnologies. Readers will discover far reaching inquiries into activism as an open question for science and technology education, citizenship and democracy. The authors call on the work of prominent scholars throughout the ages, including Bourdieu, Foucault, Giroux, Jasanoff, Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Rancière and Žižek. The application of critical theoretical scholarship to mainstream practices in science and technology education distinguishes this book, and this deep, theoretical treatment is complemented by many grounded, more pragmatic exemplars of activist pedagogies. Practical examples are set within the public sphere, within selected new social movements, and also within more formal institutional settings, including elementary and secondary schools, and higher education. These assembled discussions provide a basis for a more radically reflexive reworking of science and technology education. Educational policy makers, science education scholars, and science and technology educators, amongst others, will find this work thought-provoking, instructive and informative.