Our World, Our Fight: Teaching Advocacy and Activism as a Pivotal Practice for Talented Youth

Introduction

Advocacy is broadly defined as making a case for a particular cause. Much like the Social Studies curriculum telescopes from the neighborhood, community, and town, to state, country, and international realms, advocacy exists on a continuum from self-advocacy, community, and local issues, to sociopolitical, humanitarian, and global awareness contexts. Transitioning from advocacy–championing a cause–to activism, this chapter uses Valdez et al.’s (2018) definition of activism as a framework. Key to this definition is a struggle for rather than resistance against, working towards equity and humanity rather than pushing back on singular laws, policies, or government officials. Also inherent in the struggle word choice is the end goal, what is attained through the struggle towards a shared purpose is the ability to feel human, or in Valdez et al.’s words, human be. Activism is the shared struggle for the “inalienable right of all people to human be—to be liberated from any project of violence that treats persons as property, persons as things, persons as disposable, or persons as in any other way less than fully human” (Valdez et al., 2018, p. 247). This chapter discusses the pivotal practice of the intentional teaching of advocacy and activism to talented youth.

Editors Nyberg and Manzone (2023) outline characteristics of pivotal practices for talented youth that distinguish these instructional tools from strategies. Pivotal practices are authentic, cognitive, and holistic. Authentic practices are sustained over time by emphasizing pedagogical knowledge across disciplines and instructional contexts and promoting problem-solving. Cognitive practices incorporate students’ metacognitive development and promote inquiry, critical thinking, and creative thinking (Nyberg & Manzone, 2023). Holistic practices incorporate students’ funds of knowledge and social and emotional learning and promote individuality and agency in talented learners.

An essential principle of equity literacy—what helps to create impact in equity efforts while minimizing performative gestures—is intentionally centering and prioritizing the needs of historically marginalized youth and communities (Gorski & Swalwell, 2015). Teaching advocacy and activism embodies each aspect of a pivotal practice, while also following the equity principle of centering and prioritizing liberation: human be. To assist with this evolving process, throughout this chapter, we aim to assist educators proposing to begin or continue their advocacy practices for talented students and social activism. We say evolving because issues, events, and modalities are changing, and may require varying solutions to accommodate the times. Our objective is to help with authentic discourse, active analysis, and solution-building with our talented students and their families.

In this chapter, we first engage in background building, guiding the reader in understanding and enacting evidenced-based teaching that centers equity, advocacy, and activism with students. Pivotal Practice in Play sections provide the reader with an exemplar of grassroots activism using three characteristics of pivotal practices: authentic, cognitive, and holistic. In using case studies from grassroots activism, we can teach using relevant examples that students can connect with from history (Dolores Huerta and Ella Baker) to collective peace movements over time and a present-day case study. We include considerations from a sociohistorical and sociopolitical lens, to engage in critical thinking and discourse to nuance pivotal practices from an intersectional lens. As authors with similar interests and academic backgrounds but different life experiences, we frequently engaged in discussion throughout the writing of this chapter. We offered each other critical feedback, shared new perspectives, questioned one another, and pushed each other’s thinking. In the spirit of the growth, we shared by engaging in this active listening and critical discourse, and at the conclusion of the chapter, posed a few essential questions. These can be used for personal reflection, as potential journaling prompts, or as group discussion starters for educator activists.