Mindful Social Studies: Frameworks for Social Emotional Learning and Critically Engaged Citizens situates the field of social studies education as uniquely poised to integrate anti-racist, equity, and asset-based pedagogies with contemplative, mindfulness-based strategies to promote the knowledge, skills, and dispositions students need to be effective citizens. Students' Social Emotional Learning (SEL) hinges upon their experience(s) engaging in authentic learning that strengthens cognitive skills, including critical thinking, self-awareness, reflection, compassion, empathy, and perspective taking. In this volume, the co-editors have curated reflective K-16 practitioner-style, research-focused, and theory-based chapters that explore social justice-orientated contemplative pedagogies, as well as mindfulness-related frameworks and strategies for teaching social studies and the social and behavioral sciences. In this book, chapter authors explore ways of cultivating specific mindfulness-related social studies dispositions and transformative rationales and approaches for critical mindfulness and SEL based on compelling arguments for meeting the needs of students, families, and educators in a dynamic and increasingly diverse society.

Critical Perspectives on Teaching in the Southern United States presents new and provocative insights into education in the Southern United States, from the perspective of educators with a variety of experiences. This book foregrounds the Southern United States as having unique sociopolitical, sociohistorical, and sociocultural contexts which directly influence knowledge and classroom pedagogies. Contributors use a range of critical frameworks that coalesce around methods including: self-reflection through research, social justice advocacy, and culturally responsive, culturally relevant, culturally sustaining, and asset-based pedagogies. Through the lenses of these critical frameworks, several contributors also address challenges and strategies for teaching controversial topics in the classroom. Drawing upon unique experiences teaching in various regions of the Southern United States, chapters explore salient topics such as race, language, gender, discrimination, identity, immigration, poverty, social justice, and their influence(s) on pedagogy. This book raises questions considering the ways that history has shaped present-day Southern education and about the myriad complex dynamics that influence pedagogy in the Southern U.S. context. Ultimately, this book affirms the importance of utilizing critical perspectives in contemporary discussions about education in the Southern United States.