This paper was designed as a way to document my personal growth as I explored ways to honor my identity as an educator while still navigating institutional and societal expectations regarding the meanings and methods of social studies education. Due to the nature of the paper, I decided to pursue a publication-ready thesis. The thesis itself is broken into several parts. First is the abstract. Next is the report, which is the main body of the thesis. The main body will be submitted as an article for possible publication in a peer-reviewed educational journal. Throughout this portion relevant literature is incorporated in a teacher-friendly format. The remaining information, including my research methodology and theoretical framework can be found in the Appendices A and B respectively.