When I think of radicalization, the book, Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, first comes to mind. I am sure there are similar books that look at untold histories in Australia, Canada, the UK, and other countries with a history of colonization.

The goal of radicalizing the content is about integrating untold stories and perspectives – of women, people of color, those with a different first language that was criminalized.

Radicializing acknowledges that the stories we tell through the curriculum are incomplete. More than an approach to promote social justice themes directly; it’s aim is to restore a wholeness to the perspectives offered to students.

Radicializing isn’t about getting on a soapbox and railing against colonization, White privilege, etc. It is about helping students understand historiography – the study of how history is written. Whose perspective prevails?

This approach looks different at different grade levels. While it seems only appropriate for social science and humanities classes, it is a valuable approach in science and math albeit more nuanced and requiring more skill to integrate without it seeming to take away from learning the math skills and science procedures.