In this Research and Policy column the authors define what it means for teachers and students to take a critical stance when reading children’s literature. They offer a framework teachers can use to enact a critical stance when reading picture books with their students and provide suggestions for how teachers might teach students about the world using children’s literature as a tool.

Early in the 2023–2024 school year Mr. Medeiros and a handful of his Kaua’i High School Future Teachers of Hawai’i club members took a two-day huaka’i (trip) to Oahu. This service-learning trip was part of the learning progression for the club which is focused on student advocacy and social justice. With the help of Josh Reppun retired Hawai’i State Supreme Court Justice Mike Wilson the people at What School Could Be and other amazing educators the students began their huaka’i by gathering together to think and talk about the purpose of education/school. Ostensibly they were traveling to Oahu to learn from others but really the adults were there to learn how to keep pushing the boundaries of the idea of “school.”

Across the country GOP legislators parent groups and school boards are banning books and attempting to take away the power of children’s literature. The resistance comes in the form of book bans and Critical Race Theory legislation. Taking away diverse books or banning the conversations that accompany such books from happening prevents books from being windows mirrors or sliding glass doors for students.

Using critical multicultural analysis and a justice-oriented approach to teaching history this study analyzes the portrayal of George Washington in children’s biographies.

As the fifth piece of our year-long inquiry asks “What does it mean to prepare students for civic engagement?” Vivian Vasquez Carolyn Clarke and Barbara Comber speak to the importance of developing learning experiences that center our students’ experiences questions and tensions when helping them develop critical literacies.