I explore the role of Philosophy for Children (P4C) and critical pedagogy in middle-school education and argue that P4C is a crucial component of an emancipatory education. A critical P4C is necessary to provide students what education ought to provide, that is moral reasoning skills, tools for thinking, and ability to engage in discourse. Proponents often justify P4C claims that philosophy lessons in K-12 education by demonstrating the improvement of outcomes in other subjects and gains in cognitive skills. Instead, I argue for an intrinsic value to engaging in philosophy with children. Critical pedagogy, and the methods developed within its framework, are helpful here to examine the structure of educational practice and its role in dehumanization, which "is a distortion of the vocation of becoming more fully human"; critical pedagogy is intended to be a tool for both the oppressors and the oppressed to become aware of their dehumanization. First, I justify P4C by showing that precollege students can understand and engage in philosophical discussion using academic references and my own experience working with middle-school students at the Ivy School in Portland, Oregon. Next I examine the philosophical influences of P4C alongside critical pedagogy to show how they interact and compliment each other. Lastly, I envision pedagogical techniques for carrying out Critical P4C in the classroom. Implementing critical P4C has the capacity to create communities of inquiry around questions of agency and freedom that are central to critical pedagogy. Critical P4C offers strategies for engaging students in socio-political discussions and promises to break the boundaries between "school life" and the students' everyday life outside the classroom.

The principle objective of this research is to contribute to a critical body of work by recent scholars who have challenged the popular understanding and the perceived differences of both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Minister Malcolm X. Scholarship has not yet adequately compared and contrasted the political messages and insights that each leader presented in the final years of his life. This research engages with Malcolm X’s and MLK’s later works, which were critical for understanding new developments in their political messages and strategies. In order to comprehend the final years of both leaders, this paper will use a close reading of primary and secondary sources to provide a comparative analysis of their work. Also, the paper seeks to explore the commonalities and divergent strategies that MLK and Malcolm X used in their final messages and suggests ways that these messages are still relevant to US society.