What is Youth Activism

Middle level and secondary students' understanding of social justice can be cultivated through educators' inclusion of multimodal texts in the curriculum. By engaging in critical literacy through ongoing analyses of music lyrics, poetry, and prose related to social justice, students can develop a deeper understanding of the presence/lack of social justice in previous historical eras as well as its role today. Educators can ensure that formal explorations of issues surrounding social justice, such as race and socioeconomic status, become part of the curriculum through the inclusion of relevant multimodal texts. This chapter presents a variety of multimodal pop culture texts—including novels and song lyrics—that can be included in a middle school or high school curriculum focused on social justice education.