Book Review

Within the spectrum of literature surrounding social justice in the classroom, Teaching strategies for the elementary classroom by Rahima Wade is unique in the degree to which it engages younger children directly in democratic participation. In this installation of the Social Studies for Social Justice series, Wade encourages autonomous activism on the part the teacher, with concrete activities and examples that can be readily applied in the classroom. Although an activist stance within the public school system can present the challenge of balancing the teacher’s personal political opinions with his responsibility as an unbiased facilitator of learning, Wade illustrates the value of allowing young children to engage firsthand in questioning controversial topics and in organizing their own solutions to social problems that they identify in society. In order to contextualize the need for social justice teaching, Wade first defines social justice as a concept. Her approach to the implementation of a social justice curriculum emphasizes collaborative and experiential learning as critical components. She claims the teacher can start by building the socially just classroom community with care given to physical layout of the space and the use of class meetings to encourag