Social Studies for a Better World

"[T]his instructive, informative, and anti-oppressive pedagogical textbook is a long anticipated, how-to guide for explicitly promoting social justice and implicitly democratizing learning in the primary grades…. [I]n-service teachers, administrators, and those with a role in curricular decisions will also find the book to be helpful for rethinking Eurocentric practices and increasing young learners’ enthusiasm via discipline-specific rigor….[W]ill generally enrich the syllabi of like-minded college instructors."—Education Review

"No one should step into a classroom without first reading Social Studies for a Better World. The book sings with possibility about creating classrooms of justice and kindness. It is the book that all teachers need in these hard times."—Bill Bigelow, Curriculum Editor, Rethinking Schools

"Speaking as scholars, educators, mothers, and human beings, Noreen Naseem Rodríguez and Katy Swalwell offer the support and inspiration educators need to skillfully practice anti-oppression in our classrooms and to prepare children to carry that practice into their lives outside of school."—Carla Shalaby, author of Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom from Young Children at School?

"Brilliantly conceptualized, Social Studies for a Better World offers essential insights for understanding how social studies can help students decipher the past and make sense of the present. It is essential reading for anyone who believes in the power of social studies to transform society."—Hasan Kwame Jeffries, host of the podcast “Teaching Hard History,” and Associate Professor of History, The Ohio State University

"[T]he book that elementary social studies educators have been asking for and Rodríguez and Swalwell powerfully delivered. It is unapologetically critical and provides us with clear reasoning for the importance of engaging in anti-oppressive social studies teaching and the tools for how to begin the work necessary for creating a better world....[A] long-awaited treasure for critical elementary educators, teacher candidates, and teacher educators alike."—Teachers College Record

“This book exudes hope. It offers a comprehensive roadmap for elementary teachers to design and implement anti-oppressive social studies with children. The narrative text begs the reader to join, think together, and learn in a conversational style. My students often note that they feel as though they are talking with other teachers of young children as they read this book. I feel the same. The narrative voice throughout the book reads as a story of hope and possibility, and the authors ground that hope and possibility in practical applications. ... This book is the book I wish I had when I was an elementary teacher because I would have been far better equipped to be a critical social studies teacher who could both dream and act."—Lisa Brown Buchanan, Elon University, Book Review in Theory & Research in Social Education, 51:4, 661-663.