Critical Race Theory and Social Studies Futures

Now more than ever, we need to teach the truth about history. This volume assembles a team of critical social studies Scholars of Color and co-conspirators who share both their nightmares and dreams for the future. The authors engage critical race theory (CRT) and its many branches and offshoots to better understand the permanence of racism in the teaching of social studies. The book’s first section, A Dream Deferred, outlines the endemic systemic issues and the ways in which the field and national organizations attempt to remain racially neutral in the face of the biases that permeate curriculum, disciplines, and the world. The second section, Racial Realities in Classroom Spaces, examines the various ways scholars and educators are applying CRT in PreK–12 spaces. In the third section, Possibilities of Praxis, chapter authors critically reflect on their own experiences and stories using CRT to work with young people and future teachers. In the final section, Dreaming of Social Studies Futures, contributors outline their dreams for the future of social studies, envisioning an unapologetically Indigenous field that centers Black futures and liberation and is free from the violence that has plagued the field and communities for centuries.

Book Features:

• Offers race-focused analyses from a wide range of perspectives and contexts of study related to social studies education.
• Highlights innovations, branches, and future directions of critical race theories and methods.
• Explores how race and racism have been situated within the field of social studies since the publication of Gloria Ladson-Billings’s 2003 edited volume, Critical Race Theory Perspectives on the Social Studies.

Amanda E. Vickery is an associate professor of social studies education and anti-racist education at the University of North Texas. Noreen Naseem Rodríguez is an assistant professor of teacher learning, research, and practice in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder.

“Efforts to erase race from what students should learn is precisely the recipe that leads to tragic events such as the one that occurred in Buffalo…. This work offers solutions, interventions, and important considerations about how to dismantle structural racism, and how to address and respond to racism in classrooms and in schools.”
—From the Foreword by Tyrone C. Howard, professor, UCLA

“Amanda Vickery and Noreen Naseem Rodríguez have, with great intentionality and urgency, engaged the collective wisdom and lived experiences of an array of scholars, educators, and activists. Together, this group of BIPOC authors and their co-conspirators challenges each of us individually—and the field of social studies writ large—to honestly confront what Critical Race Theory reveals and teaches us about our troubled past and present and to act, purposefully, for a more desired and inclusive future.”
—J.B. Mayo Jr., associate professor, social studies education, University of Minnesota