Championing Social Justice in Education | SXSW EDU 2024

Equal opportunities and fair treatment are necessary to bridge the gap between different social groups and fight inequalities. This past March, passionate thought leaders tackled social justice issues in education and offered takeaways and opportunities to create a more equitable educational system.

With no shortage of topics to address, speakers touched on how educators can use hip-hop culture in the classroom, how tech supports Higher Ed in prison programs, how to close racial equity gaps with the involvement of young adults, approaches in heritage language preservation, and so much more.

Explore these sessions and learn how you can be a social justice advocate in and out of the classroom:

Keynote: Unraveling Myths About Critical Race Theory in Education

“Empathy is what we need in order to put ourselves in the position of another to better understand and to better respond to the continuing dimensions of some of our historical challenges.”

Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw
The African American Policy Forum

Watch as Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw and Dr. Jonathan Cox explore how integrating critical race theory (CRT) into academic and political discourse is a significant step toward achieving justice.

Featured Session: Centering Blackness: Educate... Inform & Innovate!

“We were able to extend the learning beyond what was in the textbook and how we’d always done the course and really enhance student’s ability to do some archival research.”

Jana Duckett
The HistoryMakers, Morgan State University School of Global Journalism & Communication

Join Julieanna Richardson, Danielle N. Gray-Singh, and Jana Duckett, to discover how digital archives can transform how history is taught.

Featured Session: For the World to Come: Exploding How We Do Civics in Schools

“I think it's really important for us to sit with the idea of civic dread among our young people and think seriously about what that means for the kind of civic education that we offer them.”

Nicole Mirra
Rutgers University Graduate School of Education

Hear from Antero Garcia and Nicole Mirra as they discuss how civics can support students in building futures worthy of their creativity, ingenuity, and passion.

Featured Session: The Power of Place: Transforming America One Block at a Time

“No one came to Harlem to do work. People avoided Harlem. They thought you couldn't do business there. Once we improved safety, improved education, improved how the neighborhood looked. There's not a national chain that you can think of that's not currently in Harlem.”

Geoffrey Canada
Harlem Children’s Zone

Learn about the vital role of education within the place-based field aspiring to empower and uplift youth nationwide with Geoffrey Canada and Christian Rhodes.

Listen to more inspiring sessions:

• The $50 Study: Creating an Income Floor for Teens
• Accidental Activists: Student-Athletes Fighting for Change
• An Equity Agenda for the Post-Affirmative Action Era
• Brown at 70: Can Separate Ever Be Equal?
• Compassionate Classrooms: Empathy, Hunger Issues, & Wellbeing
• Developing Black High School Students to Be Educators
• Empowering Incarcerated Learners Through Technology Solution
• For The Culture: Honoring The Legacy To Build The Future
• HBCUs & Black Higher Ed's Future Post Affirmative Action
• Hip-Hop & Politics: Political Education & Radical Tradition
• Holocaust Education Through Art
• How America Will End Legacy Admissions
• How to Help Teachers Under Attack from Teachers Who Lived It
• How To Stand Up for Students Post-SCOTUS Affirmative Action
• Making Black History Visible: From the U.S. to the U.K.
• Navigating Climate Anxiety with Resilience & Hope
• The Neuroscience of Black Joy & Black Play
• Overlooked Threat to Student Success – Economic Abuse
• Partnering to C.R.E.A.T.E. a Pipeline of Local STEM Talent
• Science of Reading Champions Shifting the Nation
• Sí Sabo: Children with Bilingualism in Their Bones Speak
• The Time Is Now: A New Playbook for Education Leadership
• Using Youth-centered Design to Improve Racial Equity Gaps
• Yet Unfulfilled, the Promise of Title IX: Let Girls Learn

Stay in the Know

Catch up on select sessions you may have missed at SXSW EDU 20224, now available to watch on demand or listen to their audio recordings. Plus, mark your calendars for SXSW EDU 2025 in Austin, Texas from March 3-6 and subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know of any updates. See you next year!

Photo by Sofie Milton