Engage and Empower Engage and Empower Expanding the Curriculum for Justice and Activism Edited by Mary Amanda Stewart Christina Salazar Victor Antonio Lozada Christina Thomas ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Rowman & Littlefield An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www .rowman .com 86-90 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NE, United Kingdom Copyright © 2022 by Mary Amanda Stewart, Christina Salazar, Victor Antonio Lozada, and Christina Thomas All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Stewart, Mary Amanda, 1979– editor. Title: Engage and empower : expanding the curriculum for justice and activism / edited by Mary Amanda Stewart, Christina Salazar, Victor Antonio Lozada, Christina Thomas. Description: Lanham, Maryland : Rowman & Littlefield, 2022. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “This edited book provides ready-to-use, engaging curriculum units for an integrated approach to teaching English language arts and U.S. history in grades 4–12”—Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2021036911 (print) | LCCN 2021036912 (ebook) | ISBN 9781475863062 (paperback) | ISBN 9781475863055 (cloth) | ISBN 9781475863079 (epub) Subjects: LCSH: Social justice and education—United States. | Language arts (Elementary)—United States. | Language arts—Correlation with content subjects—United States. Classification: LCC LC192.2 .E64 2022 (print) | LCC LC192.2 (ebook) | DDC 370.11/5—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021036911 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021036912 ∞ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. To every student who has been ignored, devalued, and silenced. You matter. We value you. May every teacher hear your beautiful voice. Contents Foreword ix Tiffany A. Flowers Introduction: Teachers Unbought and Unbossed xi Mary Amanda Stewart PART I: EFFECTS AND TRANSACTIONS OF EXPANSION, COLONIALISM, AND MIGRATION 1 1 Colonialism and Native American Resiliency 3 Patricia Flint and Mariannella Núñez 2 Modern-Day Colonialism: Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and Other U.S. Territories 25 Marlene Walker 3 Immigration: The Fabric of Our Nation 39 Yismelle Duran PART II: THE INFLUENCES OF LATIN AMERICA ON U.S. CULTURE AND SOCIETY 57 4 Latinx Influencers: Past and Present Contributions to America’s Greatness 59 Margarita Ramos-Rivera 5 Latinas as Change Agents: Feminist Activism in the United States 71 Juan Borda vii viii Contents PART III: AMERICA’S ORIGINAL SIN: UNDERSTANDING AND RESPONDING TO RACISM 87 6 Antiracism: Understanding Our History to Co-create a Better Future 89 Christina Thomas and Victor Antonio Lozada 7 Redlining: A Mechanism of Systemic Racism 103 Christina Salazar 8 Cultural (Mis)representations in the Media: Challenging Hegemonic Ideas 121 Phyliciá Anderson PART IV: EXPLORING THE DIVERSE LIVED EXPERIENCES OF MODERN-DAY ADOLESCENTS 133 9 The Death of Childhood: Mass Shootings in the United States 135 Christina Thomas 10 Rap Music: Leveraging Hip-Hop Culture to Empower 147 Victor Antonio Lozada 11 Consent Isn’t Complicated: The Implications of the #MeToo Movement 165 Christina Thomas 12 See Us: LGBTQ+ Issues for Representation, Empathy, and Justice 179 Christina Salazar Afterword 197 Isabel Morales About the Editors 199 About the Contributors 201 Foreword When I was invited to write the foreword for this book, I was excited to under- take such an enormous responsibility. I was hopeful after reading several sec- tions of this text. I knew that the authors of this work have compiled a strong collection to show what integrated content instruction looks like across grade levels with adaptable and understandable content. In my experience within the field, one of the main reasons teachers have difficulty understanding these concepts has to do with lack of readily available standards-based resource materials they can use. In the past thirty years, there have been numerous changes to landscape of the field of education. Past theories, research, and teaching in the field of education go far beyond the initial ideas of inclusion within the curriculum, social justice frameworks, and racial representation. Current theories focus on using a variety of texts, practical strategies for studying diverse histories, and making critical conversations the norm. Many of these approaches pre- viously include diversity work in isolation and were deemed as important. However, the previous theories, research, and practice often fell short as merely literature extensions in ELA classrooms, specialized curricula in social studies classrooms, and various interpretations of classroom inquiry. While we continue to redefine curriculum, national standards, and teaching methods within the field, we must expand our existing understanding of these concepts as well. Additionally, we must recognize quality practice related to the new theories and research in the field. As more scholars continue to pro- duce texts which connect theory, research, and practice, we will no doubt see attempts to come to a consensus on the issues of teaching justice in English Language Arts and classrooms in practice. Engage and Empower: Expanding the Curriculum for Justice and Activism demonstrates a strong direction of ix