"Consider what each soil will bear, and what each refuses."
- Virgil
The Unit Plan and Lessons are linked to the Curriculum pull down menu! Please reference there for curriculum ideas, keep in mind these are not the "end-all-be-all" ways of teaching environmental justice through soil science, they are simply just ideas!
In this space, however, I would like to post my thoughts and ponderings of WHAT teaching for Social Justice is...what it looks like in the classroom! It is something that I struggle with everyday as i try to think of ways to create truly great curriculum through my own practices of teaching AND learning!
Please feel free to share your ideas with me, and the internet community at large, through my contact link on the menu bar. I look forward to hearing your critiques as well as words of wisdom!
Sincerely - Felicia Maxa
Definition of Social Justice Education - By Felicia Maxa (Spring, 2015)
My ideas on Social Justice Education are, as yet, lacking, but I look forward to expanding my horizons and broadening my views. I come from a very “White” community and was schooled as such. I only started seeing diversity and diverse education when I entered college and the military. As for how to define the term Social Justice Education I am somewhat stumped. There seems to be so much attached to such a small term. The Oxford Dictionary online defines social justice as a noun meaning “justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society” (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2014). This does nothing but give the most basic of glimpses into what it means to EDUCATE for Social Justice.
To me, Social Justice EDUCATION means that we, as teachers, are charged to help our students fight for equality, or at least equity, in the classroom, family, community, and in life. That our students are people and, therefore, should be educated in a way that reflects their individuality. From individualized lesson planning to understanding who they are culturally, socially, emotionally, ethnically, sexually, etc. We are expected to maintain an openness that allows for our lesson plans to be flexible and interesting to our students and meets their academic and social needs. We must educate children in a way that shows them that they can be their own tools of change and leads them to discover their own empowerment. ). This seems to line up with the reading by Dover which states that the major themes of teaching for social justice were “creating a supportive classroom climate that embraces multiple perspectives, emphasizing critical thinking and inquiry-based instruction, and promoting students’ academic, civic, and personal growth.” (Dover, 2013).
In a classroom these ideas should come together as a fully participatory and dialogue and discussion driven lesson. The outsider would see only confusion and chaos, students vying for discussion and talk time, excited to share their stories and ideas with the class as a whole. To the insider, one would see a much different story, one where all students in the class feel “safe” sharing ideas and stories with each other. Where they can, and are encouraged to be, themselves, because every individual brings a different, and important, perspective to problem posing and problem solving.
Social Justice Teaching allows for not one, but 5 ways to teach for social justice. Democratic Education, Critical Pedagogy, Multicultural Education, Culturally Responsive Education, and Social Justice Education all feed into Teaching for Social Justice (Figure 1, Dover, 2013). The use of any of these concepts would create a very participatory and personally meaningful learning experience for the students involved. Far from the front loaded narrow minded idea that curriculum should be based solely on federal and state standards, educating for social justice allows the students to learn lessons that will impact their lives. Not learning for the test, but learning to be successful at life.
The typical school, one which does not adhere to any form of teaching for social justice or the pedagogies involved, would operate on a very narrow, standards and assessment review of their students to measure for success. They would cite literature that defines, and defends, curriculum based on learning the “Big 4” (Math, English, Science, and History), most literature coming from a very “practical” writings which basically list conditions and competencies necessary for success (Hyten and Bettez, 2011). A great quote from Hytten and Bettez offers a major issue for both sides of this pedagogical “coin”. Available literature “is sometimes de-contextualized and under theorized , making it hard to see how to translate examples from one place to the specific situations in which people find themselves.” (Hytten and Bettez, 2011). This can be simplified across careers, from education down to retail and back up to medical doctors and politicians, just because someone says it’s worked well for them, does not mean it will work well for you. Every position, classroom, is different, even from year to year, within the same school, same teacher, same classroom. This quote reminded me of working for Dominick’s while it was owned by Safeway. Safeway thought all their successful practices from the west coast would translate easily to the Midwest market. The practices that the company used so successfully out west, drove sales and stocks down across the board here in Chicago, eventually forcing Safeway to close the entire Chicago market. The same mistake was made by Safeway in their Canadian stores, forcing their own program on stores that had been successful as individuals only to see them close down a few years later. You see, in this example, the mass “success” of the larger entity it forced on the smaller “successes” of the individual entities. These smaller stores had been successful for long periods of time because they met the needs of the community and individuals who shopped there. Once the national program was introduced (read No Child Left Behind, etc.) the individual stores lost a great deal of business because they no longer catered to the needs of their shoppers (read individual students).
So you see, a more individualized plan is required if the end goal is to be educating successful students, by successful I mean educated for life, not educated to test. What do you think? Are the Federal and state standards simply a coorporatization of the education system? Would we, and our students, be better educated if there were no state or federal oversight? Or is that simply my own naivety of the education system coming through?
I know that I expanded on the definition a little, so I am sorry if you read through all that and now are thinking to yourselves "What the heck kind of definition is that?", but I justify it by saying that the last portion is simply showing WHY we need to institute this kind of pedagogy in the classroom. We need to change our ides of what curriculum looks like in action before we can actually change how our schools educate. The idea that education has been coorporatized is sickening and must be attended to! With that statement I shall now withdraw from my soap-box!
Thank you for your thoughts and have a great day!
Felicia
Citations:
Dover, Allison G. (2013). Teaching for Social Justice: From Conceptual Frameworks to Classroom Practices. Multicultural Perspectives, 15(1), 3-11.
Hytten, Kathy and Bettez, Silvia C. (2011). Educational Foundations, Winter-Spring 2011. Pages 7-24.
No Author. (2014, January 26). Social Justice. Retrieved from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/
In this space, however, I would like to post my thoughts and ponderings of WHAT teaching for Social Justice is...what it looks like in the classroom! It is something that I struggle with everyday as i try to think of ways to create truly great curriculum through my own practices of teaching AND learning!
Please feel free to share your ideas with me, and the internet community at large, through my contact link on the menu bar. I look forward to hearing your critiques as well as words of wisdom!
Sincerely - Felicia Maxa
Definition of Social Justice Education - By Felicia Maxa (Spring, 2015)
My ideas on Social Justice Education are, as yet, lacking, but I look forward to expanding my horizons and broadening my views. I come from a very “White” community and was schooled as such. I only started seeing diversity and diverse education when I entered college and the military. As for how to define the term Social Justice Education I am somewhat stumped. There seems to be so much attached to such a small term. The Oxford Dictionary online defines social justice as a noun meaning “justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society” (Oxforddictionaries.com, 2014). This does nothing but give the most basic of glimpses into what it means to EDUCATE for Social Justice.
To me, Social Justice EDUCATION means that we, as teachers, are charged to help our students fight for equality, or at least equity, in the classroom, family, community, and in life. That our students are people and, therefore, should be educated in a way that reflects their individuality. From individualized lesson planning to understanding who they are culturally, socially, emotionally, ethnically, sexually, etc. We are expected to maintain an openness that allows for our lesson plans to be flexible and interesting to our students and meets their academic and social needs. We must educate children in a way that shows them that they can be their own tools of change and leads them to discover their own empowerment. ). This seems to line up with the reading by Dover which states that the major themes of teaching for social justice were “creating a supportive classroom climate that embraces multiple perspectives, emphasizing critical thinking and inquiry-based instruction, and promoting students’ academic, civic, and personal growth.” (Dover, 2013).
In a classroom these ideas should come together as a fully participatory and dialogue and discussion driven lesson. The outsider would see only confusion and chaos, students vying for discussion and talk time, excited to share their stories and ideas with the class as a whole. To the insider, one would see a much different story, one where all students in the class feel “safe” sharing ideas and stories with each other. Where they can, and are encouraged to be, themselves, because every individual brings a different, and important, perspective to problem posing and problem solving.
Social Justice Teaching allows for not one, but 5 ways to teach for social justice. Democratic Education, Critical Pedagogy, Multicultural Education, Culturally Responsive Education, and Social Justice Education all feed into Teaching for Social Justice (Figure 1, Dover, 2013). The use of any of these concepts would create a very participatory and personally meaningful learning experience for the students involved. Far from the front loaded narrow minded idea that curriculum should be based solely on federal and state standards, educating for social justice allows the students to learn lessons that will impact their lives. Not learning for the test, but learning to be successful at life.
The typical school, one which does not adhere to any form of teaching for social justice or the pedagogies involved, would operate on a very narrow, standards and assessment review of their students to measure for success. They would cite literature that defines, and defends, curriculum based on learning the “Big 4” (Math, English, Science, and History), most literature coming from a very “practical” writings which basically list conditions and competencies necessary for success (Hyten and Bettez, 2011). A great quote from Hytten and Bettez offers a major issue for both sides of this pedagogical “coin”. Available literature “is sometimes de-contextualized and under theorized , making it hard to see how to translate examples from one place to the specific situations in which people find themselves.” (Hytten and Bettez, 2011). This can be simplified across careers, from education down to retail and back up to medical doctors and politicians, just because someone says it’s worked well for them, does not mean it will work well for you. Every position, classroom, is different, even from year to year, within the same school, same teacher, same classroom. This quote reminded me of working for Dominick’s while it was owned by Safeway. Safeway thought all their successful practices from the west coast would translate easily to the Midwest market. The practices that the company used so successfully out west, drove sales and stocks down across the board here in Chicago, eventually forcing Safeway to close the entire Chicago market. The same mistake was made by Safeway in their Canadian stores, forcing their own program on stores that had been successful as individuals only to see them close down a few years later. You see, in this example, the mass “success” of the larger entity it forced on the smaller “successes” of the individual entities. These smaller stores had been successful for long periods of time because they met the needs of the community and individuals who shopped there. Once the national program was introduced (read No Child Left Behind, etc.) the individual stores lost a great deal of business because they no longer catered to the needs of their shoppers (read individual students).
So you see, a more individualized plan is required if the end goal is to be educating successful students, by successful I mean educated for life, not educated to test. What do you think? Are the Federal and state standards simply a coorporatization of the education system? Would we, and our students, be better educated if there were no state or federal oversight? Or is that simply my own naivety of the education system coming through?
I know that I expanded on the definition a little, so I am sorry if you read through all that and now are thinking to yourselves "What the heck kind of definition is that?", but I justify it by saying that the last portion is simply showing WHY we need to institute this kind of pedagogy in the classroom. We need to change our ides of what curriculum looks like in action before we can actually change how our schools educate. The idea that education has been coorporatized is sickening and must be attended to! With that statement I shall now withdraw from my soap-box!
Thank you for your thoughts and have a great day!
Felicia
Citations:
Dover, Allison G. (2013). Teaching for Social Justice: From Conceptual Frameworks to Classroom Practices. Multicultural Perspectives, 15(1), 3-11.
Hytten, Kathy and Bettez, Silvia C. (2011). Educational Foundations, Winter-Spring 2011. Pages 7-24.
No Author. (2014, January 26). Social Justice. Retrieved from http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/