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Movements have been the driving force of social change through most of human history. Yet despite the important impacts that movements had in the past that led to a more just present, most Americans generally hold low opinions of movements. The authors see this as a major failing of history education. The authors argue for a need to center the people, rather than individual leaders, and their experiences in the history classroom. This article outlines three important concepts that should guide how history teachers approach the reorganization of their curriculum around movements, and ways this can ultimately help students develop a stronger understanding of the past. First, teachers should emphasize the role of the people organized in movements and engaged "collective action" in the past and present. Second, teachers should illuminate the role of "intersectionality" in movements for justice. Third, teachers should help students understand the difference between movements "for" and "against justice." Finally, the authors conclude this paper by presenting ways history teachers can do this work both as renegades and subversives, and how the role of community and school context influences how teachers might approach this work.

NCSS's framework for social studies education, "The College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework for Social Studies State Standards," is centered on the concept of inquiry. As social studies teachers have worked to incorporate historical inquiry, many have understandably emphasized the teaching of historical thinking and democratic citizenship skills. While these approaches have fostered important shifts in instruction, the authors argue that students must also develop activist thinking, which involves learning how movements are formed and sustained, leading to larger social change. The "C3 Framework" notes that historical inquiries should focus on helping students understand "interdisciplinary challenges in our social world." To do so, those inquiries must teach PreK-12 students how to take informed action collectively. The authors offer three vignettes that illustrate how students can develop activist thinking in their history classrooms.

In a previous study conducted before the emergence of the #MeToo Movement and the results of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, the authors examined feminist teachers and found differences based on their liberal feminist or critical feminist perspectives. In this study, the authors examine the same participants five years later to determine if and how their beliefs, teaching practices, and curricula may have changed. Using a multiple case study design, the authors found that all but one feminist teacher had become more critical in their stance. Five out of six teachers reported feeling a need to respond to the current climate for women and create more opportunities for their students to learn about gender equity. Yet, one of the six teachers, who previously had the strongest critical feminist views, described feeling defeated and frustrated with the outward sexism that has become more prevalent since the 2016 election.

In this interpretative case study, the researchers examined the beliefs and practices of 10 self-identifying race-conscious social studies teachers. Using critical race theory as the lens, the researchers found that most of the teachers made race explicit in their classrooms by including race in units not typically considered race-related and focusing on the relationship between race and inequity. Additionally, while all of the teachers made race a central theme in their classrooms, there was a division between teachers who emphasized working against individual prejudice (tolerance-oriented) and against racial inequity (equity-oriented). This study adds to the growing research on teaching race in social studies and offers new evidence on how teachers present race and racism differently across school contexts.

In this interpretive case study the researchers examined the beliefs of 13 self-identifying race-conscious secondary social studies teachers from diverse racial or ethnic, gender, and school-context backgrounds. The researchers found that the teachers' beliefs and views of practice were generally aligned with the main assertions of critical race theory. The teachers described their personal and professional experiences as a major influence on their race-conscious beliefs and views of practice. Moreover, teachers in diverse contexts described having to learn how to navigate the different racial experiences of the students in their classrooms, while teachers in racially segregated contexts (predominately White, Black, or Latino) emphasized the importance of teaching their students about others. Finally, despite the teachers' regular integration of race-related issues into their required and elective courses, they expressed a desire to have more opportunities to teach about race.

The article outlines important concepts that should guide history teachers in reorganization of their curriculum around movements and how these can help students develop a stronger understanding of the past. Topics include the need for teachers to emphasize the role of people organized in movements and collective action in the past and present, the importance of illuminating the role of intersectionality in movements for justice and the significance of the role of community and school context.