Written by: Alen Kuriakose, Trainer HSSW
Classrooms have been the stage for social change, providing a venue to promote and accelerate new ideas. In addition to academic instruction, one of a classroom teacher’s most important roles is to help students develop the critical thinking, collaboration and self-reflection skills necessary to foster a better society.
Like somebody said, “Classrooms can be places of hope, where students and teachers gain glimpses of the kind of society we could live in and where students learn the academic and critical skills needed to make it a reality”. This type of classroom is one that teaches students to be better people, to contribute fully to society, one in which deep and meaningful learning takes places, one that encourages critical thinking and one that encourages students to do something to make the world a better place.
Social justice is recognising and acting upon the power that we have for making positive change. Teachers do this every day in many ways. And, in order to take that idea to the next level, teachers might include classroom practices that will make this dynamic explicit. It’s a good idea to give students opportunities to see how positive change happens and how they can be both actors and leaders in creating change. How can we build up social justice and equity in classrooms? This question needs to be answered.
Familiarising with Students’ Lives
When making curricular decisions, consider, value, and build on the diverse prior learning experiences of your students. This can be as simple as knowing a little bit about every student’s background, if they are coming from another school, or if they have an interest in a particular area. Acknowledging and showing that you value what students are already bringing to the classroom is an important step in creating a classroom for social justice.
Associating Lessons to Real-World Problems
Connect the lessons to real life situations. The classroom walls aren’t magical barriers to the realities outside of them. If there’s something happening in the news that you can link to your content, do it. Choose something controversial, or ask your students if they have questions regarding anything they have been hearing about.
Of course, this is not an opportunity for a teacher to impose his or her beliefs on the students. It is important to choose topics about which you feel they can digest, as you support students’ own journey of learning how to be critical thinkers and forming their own opinions.
Forming Classroom Community
Create opportunities for students’ voices to be heard. They need to be taught how to participate in a discussion. As teachers, we can encourage both sharing one’s own ideas and responding to the ideas of classmates. The teacher’s role is to use questioning that can help students make connections between the big ideas that inform the lesson content.
Also, teachers can take a critical look at the materials in the classroom. Do the books, stories, and other curricular materials present one specific narrative? If they do, restore what you have to be sure that your materials include examples from diverse aspects of society, including ethnicity, religion, language, gender, ability, sexual orientation, and socio-economic status in a non-stereotypical manner.
Incorporate Authentic Assessments
Authentic assessments are opportunities for students to write for real audiences, share knowledge with a wide audience, and engage in the kind of work that occurs outside the classroom. For example, if you are trying to teach the students how to interview a person. Let them see a video of it and later let them have a real life experience of interviewing a person, so that they be aware of the process and mode.
There are many other ways that you can be an advocate for social justice in your classroom. Ultimately, social justice can’t be taught in one easy lesson. It is a value that gets integrated into the teaching philosophies and actions of teachers. By helping students feel safe and encouraged, teachers can help students start asking the right questions and then participate in ways that are purposeful and productive.
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