This paper uses a dialogic approach following duoethnography to report on a research study conducted in a charter school offering a locally designed social justice course.  This narrative approach involves a critical dialogue between two people, each of whom pushes the other to further insights and understandings.  The urban prairie school under study focused on gifted learners and was funded as a public school.  Multiple methods of data collection included document and policy analysis, field observations, and open-ended interviews with administrators, teachers and students who were directly involved with the social justice program.  The results and discussion focus on student engagement in schools on issues of human rights and social justice, inquiry-based approaches to the curriculum, and include implications for educational policy and practice.   Keywords:  alternative school programs, social justice, duoethnography, inquiry learning