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Readings and Findings #7: Social Justice Throughout the Curriculum (Kelley…
Readings and Findings #7: Social Justice Throughout the Curriculum
Kelley
Focus on Children's innocence. Is teaching social justice going to ruin children's view of the world?
“When teachers are sensitive to countering oppression, many such “teachable moments” as Kelly described will arise in and around the classroom.
“’I would rather that I deprive them of a little bit of their innocence in an educated and prudent way,’ explained Amanda, ‘rather than have it be drastically ripped off of them by some other person who does something to them, or you know tells them something in a way that they can’t handle because it’s too much all at once.’”
, when the participants talked about childhood innocence, they seemed to be invoking the notion of children as blank slates
“Children enter preschool not ‘as empty slates but rather bring with them a myriad of perceptions of difference that they have taken up from their families, peers, the media and other social sources and negotiated in the representations of their own identities’”
Aside from the capacity for independent opinion formation, can children understand abstract concepts?
“For example, Alicia defined teaching for social justice as ‘encouraging acceptance’ and making it so matter of fact that, ‘Well, of course, we’re all different. You have dark skin, I have blue eyes, and her parents—she has two dads. That’s just the way things are.’ In other words, ‘no social stigma’ should be ‘attached to difference.’”
Teaching social justice requires classroom discussion. Also it requires teachers to be up to date with current social issues.
“Children enter preschool not ‘as empty slates but rather bring with them a myriad of perceptions of difference that they have taken up from their families, peers, the media and other social sources and negotiated in the representations of their own identities’”
“The first element involves teachers in a critical analysis of social and institutional inequities and oppression based on gender, race, culture, sexuality, social class, ability, age, and so on” (Kelly & Brooks, 2009, pp. 203).
“Anti-oppression educators work to create classrooms where their students can think about where they stand on social issues and what they might do to ameliorate suffering and inequities among groups of people with whom they are familiar as well as those with whom they have had little or no contact” (Kelly & Brooks, 2009, pp. 203).
• “To the extent that an anti-oppression approach emphasizes a critical sociocultural theory of learning, then, it may be at odds with a cognitive developmental approach to teaching for social justice” (Kelly & Brooks, 2009, pp. 204).
Hytten
Focus on the different definitions of social justice. Many people believe that social justice is very important but their definitions of social justice are different.
Teaching for Social Justice
“The first element involves teachers in a critical analysis of social and institutional inequities and oppression based on gender, race, culture, sexuality, social class, ability, age, and so on.”
“Anti-oppressive educators must assess who benefits and who loses in prevailing economic, political, and social arrangements. They must take into account the power of dominant institutions to perpetuate the status quo and shape what gets taken up as “common sense” and attempt to counter or interrupt oppressive power relations.”
“They recognize that teaching is inevitably political because it involves decisions that affect both the distribution of power, status, resources, and opportunities as well as whose knowledge is recognized and validated.
“The second element is a commitment to principled action to achieve social justice."
“Anti- oppression educators work to create classrooms where their students can think about where they stand on social issues and what they might do to ameliorate suffering and inequities among groups of people with whom they are familiar as well as those with whom they have had little or no contact."
“Underpinning this is a view of democratic citizenship as deliberative and action-oriented.”
“The third element is the understanding that teaching and learning are social practices mediated by language and shifting social and historical contexts.”
“Allied to this is a view of people’s identities as culturally produced within relations of power. The identities of children and youth, for example, have been historically constructed in dominant culture as opposite to that of adults (irrational, emotional, ignorant, carefree, etc.), and this construction has then been used to legit- imate curtailing their self-determination (e.g., power over what and how they learn in school).”
“To say that children’s identities are culturally produced also emphasizes that they are active in this process, not just passively taught ideas and values by adults, as they are conceived in socialization theory."
“Teaching for social justice necessarily entails classroom discussions of inequities and injustice. A commonly expressed concern is that such a focus will simply make children feel badly or lead to harmful and divisive talk.”
“The phrase social justice is used in school mission statements, job announcements, and education reform proposals, though sometimes understanding widely disparate one, from creating a vision of culturally responsive schools to leaving no child behind” (Hytten and Bettez, 2011, pp. 7 -8).
“Among the critiques, education that is grounded on a commitment to justice and the cultivation of democratic citizenship “is increasingly seen as superfluous, complicating, and even threatening by some policy makers and pressure groups who increasingly see and curriculum not ties to basic literacy or numeracy as disposable and inappropriate” (Hytten and Bettez, 2011, pp. 8).
“Nonetheless, we feel that ethnographic and narrative writings read differently than some of the other types of social justice literature, serving perhaps some different primary (though surely complementary) functions than in the other strands” (Hytten and Bettez, 2011, pp. 14).
Childhood Innocence: Trait to be Defended vs. Myth to be Challenged
“In general, when the participants talked about childhood innocence, they seemed to be invoking the notion of children as blank slates, occasionally expressing fear of disrupting children’s “natural” innocence.”
“The greater the belief in childhood innocence, the more likely teachers were to intimate or state that they would avoid “iffy,” “scary,” or “heavy” topics unless their early primary students raised them first.”
“Many teachers said that protecting childhood innocence would not influence their choice of topic but, rather, their approach to it. They emphasized tailoring their approach based on their knowledge of, and time with, the children.”