Responsibilized as a Student Activist: Justice-Oriented Pedagogy in a Predominantly White Institution

A small liberal arts college provides the context for the proliferation of justice-oriented pedagogy. Yet what exactly is learned through such pedagogical practices? How do students apply their learning about inequality and social change? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with racially marked students, I argue that justice-focused pedagogy responsibilizes these students to adopt an activist identity in pursuit of their own vision of good studenthood. This notion of good studenthood is defined by engaging in publicly legible, justice-focused work, yet it also leads young people to evade critical analysis of the very meaning of politics.