The core assumption of this book is the interconnectedness of humans and nature, and that the future of the planet depends on humans' recognition and care for this interconnectedness. This comprehensive resource supports the work of pre-service and practicing elementary teachers as they teach their students to be part of the world as engaged citizens, advocates for social and ecological justice. Challenging readers to more explicitly address current environmental issues with students in their classrooms, the book presents a diverse set of topics from a variety of perspectives. Its broad social/cultural perspective emphasizes that social and ecological justice are interrelated. Coverage includes descriptions of environmental education pedagogies such as nature-based experiences and place-based studies; peace-education practices; children doing environmental activism; and teachers supporting children emotionally in times of climate disruption and tumult. The pedagogies described invite student engagement and action in the public sphere. Children are represented as 'agents of change' engaged in social and environmental issues and problems through their actions both local and global.

The core assumption of this book is the interconnectedness of humans and nature, and that the future of the planet depends on humans' recognition and care for this interconnectedness. This comprehensive resource supports the work of pre-service and practicing elementary teachers as they teach their students to be part of the world as engaged citizens, advocates for social and ecological justice. Challenging readers to more explicitly address current environmental issues with students in their classrooms, the book presents a diverse set of topics from a variety of perspectives. Its broad social/cultural perspective emphasizes that social and ecological justice are interrelated. Coverage includes descriptions of environmental education pedagogies such as nature-based experiences and place-based studies; peace-education practices; children doing environmental activism; and teachers supporting children emotionally in times of climate disruption and tumult. The pedagogies described invite student engagement and action in the public sphere. Children are represented as 'agents of change' engaged in social and environmental issues and problems through their actions both local and global.

Many pre-service and beginning early childhood teachers question if critical literacy is do-able with young children, particularly in the current top-down educational climate. "Critical Literacies and Young Learners" shows how it is possible, even in the context of the mandates and pressures so many teachers experience, and honors the sophisticated and complex social theorists that young children are. Featuring a mix of groundbreaking work by iconic researchers and teachers and original contributions by emerging scholars and educators in the field, the text illustrates a range of approaches to doing critical literacy with young children and, at the same time, addresses the Common Core Standards.

Part I provides several orienting frameworks on critical literacy, giving specific attention to its relationship to the Common Core Standards. Part II features chapters describing critical literacy in practice, grouped in 4 thematic clusters: using texts from popular culture and everyday life; focusing on issues-oriented texts and cultural identity; functional linguistic analysis of texts; interdisciplinary that engage young learners in critical social action projects. Part III addresses the micro-political contexts of teaching critical literacy.

Here is the story of how Ken Winograd grappled with the uncertainties and contradictions of teaching and, in the process, began to understand himself as teacher. Winograd contends that it is crucial that teachers, especially beginning teachers, examine and reflect on the inevitable complexities of classroom life as they work to construct professional identities that are flexible, strategic, and multifaceted. After 13 years working as a teacher educator, he returned to the classroom as a teacher in a nongraded primary classroom. In Good Day, Bad Day, he describes this experience. The first half of the book contains Winograd's daily journal, where he details his everyday work. The journal describes his struggles with students, the efforts to construct a curriculum that reflected his changing beliefs about teaching, and the highs and lows typical of beginning teaching. The second half of the book formally examines various nonpedagogic aspects of teaching, including teacher-student power relations, the emotions of teaching, and the development of teacher identity. Good Day, Bad Day will be useful to teachers, teacher educators, administrators, and policymakers committed to the development of teachers who can reflect critically on their experience and then act to improve their working conditions as well as the learning conditions of students.

Many pre-service and beginning early childhood teachers question if critical literacy is do-able with young children, particularly in the current top-down educational climate. "Critical Literacies and Young Learners" shows how it is possible, even in the context of the mandates and pressures so many teachers experience, and honors the sophisticated and complex social theorists that young children are. Featuring a mix of groundbreaking work by iconic researchers and teachers and original contributions by emerging scholars and educators in the field, the text illustrates a range of approaches to doing critical literacy with young children and, at the same time, addresses the Common Core Standards.

Part I provides several orienting frameworks on critical literacy, giving specific attention to its relationship to the Common Core Standards. Part II features chapters describing critical literacy in practice, grouped in 4 thematic clusters: using texts from popular culture and everyday life; focusing on issues-oriented texts and cultural identity; functional linguistic analysis of texts; interdisciplinary that engage young learners in critical social action projects. Part III addresses the micro-political contexts of teaching critical literacy.