The descriptions below were drawn from the U.S. classroom observation data we collected over the course of the project. They are brief descriptions of situations that relate to one of the CRIOP dimensions. The examples were translated in Spanish. Translations in Chinese are forthcoming.

Interaction example 1 (Critical consciousness): Upstander, Bystander, and Whistleblower

Before the start of each class, the teacher usually has a vocabulary activity for students to review what they have learned the day before and use them in sentences. In this class, the vocabulary words are upstander, bystander and whistleblower. In addition to simply reviewing what the terms mean, she gives a handout about a story of a third-grade student who gets pushed by another student in the lunch line. She has decided to: (a) identify in the scenario who is a upstander, bystander or whistleblower; (b) let students discuss in groups what a different ending in the story would be; (c) ask students to share with the class what they would do if they witnessed the situation; and (d) identify the act with vocabulary.

Interaction example 2 (Classroom relationships): Heroes

The teacher presents a lesson about what it means to be a hero. The teacher asks students to write down who their heroes are and to explain why. Several students say their heroes are their parents, the teacher, and characters from comic books. There is a family-like environment while sharing their ideas of a heroes and a positive feedback from teacher as she walks around the classroom. The teacher, for example, shares that her son has the same hero as one of the students.

 Interaction example 3 (Instructional practices): Diverse experiences and views 

In a lesson about the traits of heroes, students work on making a list about who their heroes are. As students describe who their heroes are, one student indicates that his favorite heroes are his parents and his soccer team. The teacher notes how cool it was that the student listed his soccer team. She goes on to say, “Remember that quote we read from Nelson Mandela about sports yesterday? How sport unites the world and it cuts through any barriers? Which is really true, nice.”

Interaction example 4 (Classroom relationships; Instructional practices): Congo

 The teacher is conducting a social studies and geography lesson about maps. While watching a video describing different maps components, the teacher pauses it and ask students to identify the location of various countries. The teacher uses the opportunity to show a student’s country of origin in Africa-Congo. Later in the lesson, the teacher translates a part of a lesson on Google Translate from English to Swahili (for the same student) and the whole class learns how to say the sentence in Swahili.