Chapter 19: Examining the Power Structures that Impact Friendships

This chapter features an inquiry based social studies unit created for an elementary classroom. The unit entitled—Who Has the Power to Pick Your Peers?—is created around the Foucauldian concept of power flowing through both individuals and institutions. Using this theoretical framework, children apply a simplistic form of critical race theory (CRT) when they begin to consider factors outside of themselves, such as their parents and their schools, to understand what impacts who they are able to befriend. This chapter focuses on the importance of including lessons about race in an elementary classroom as a way to combat color-blind racism (Bonilla-Silva, 2003) starting at an early age. In addition, it highlights the marriage of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework with CRT. Several of the lessons from the unit were implemented as part of the author’s dissertation study, allowing the author to provide authentic tips for implementation.