In the course reading Interweaving Curriculum
and Classroom Assessment by Drake, Reid, and Kolohon it discusses an
interesting topic of how to teach social justice in the classroom. Within the
reading it discusses how different organizations such as Me to We can be used
to “empower and enable youth to be agents of change” (Drake et al., 2014, p.
164). I believe that the idea of teaching students about children all around
the world is essential for the development of their understanding of the world.
By allowing students to learn about different parts of the world and how they
can do their part, by fundraising or other things, they will learn to be more
caring and aware of injustices (Drake et al., 2014). An interesting article on
teaching social justice brings up another point that teachers should start
teaching social justice from an early age so that they begin to develop
awareness and understanding that can later be built on when they are older (Hawkins,
2014).
Here is a great link to the UNICEF Canada
website that gives teachers many resources on how to incorporate social justice
in their curriculum, as well as many other ways to connect with people and
classrooms around the world http://www.unicef.ca/en/our-work/article/global-classroom.
This website would be a great tool for teachers looking to enrich their
students with lessons that connect and even help others from around the world.
This particular reading from Drake et al.
(2014) had me very interested and feeling connected to the reading. From
personal experience last April 2015 I had the opportunity to travel with a
group of Brock University students to Namibia (South Africa). In my travels I
was able to go into and volunteer at an after school program set up by a women that helped
further the learning of the children in lower income areas.
Photo taken of me in Namibia by a person on my trip.
Here is a link with more information
about education in Namibia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Namibia.
This was a life changing experience for
me and it allowed me to learn a lot about education and how it is different and similar in
different locations. From this experience I can relate to the importance of
teaching social justice in the classroom because even as a 21 year old
Concurrent education student I was able to learn a lot from the perspective of
another country. Throughout schools it would be extremely useful for students
to learn about other countries and social justice to allow them to be an agent
for change. Although not all schools, especially at primary/junior level, cannot
always allow for trips like the one I had the opportunity to participate in
they can do other smaller things like fundraisers to help a classroom from
another country, or Skyping a classroom from around the world. Hawkins (2014)
states that by using children’s literature it can also be a way to easily
incorporate social justice from around the world into the classroom curriculum.
Another interesting article suggests an alternative method of teaching social
justice through music, since music often includes aspects of social injustice
in the lyrics (Berman, 2015). The use of alternative methods like music could
be an interesting way to introduce social injustice into curriculum since it
can often be hard to talk about serious issues with children (Berman, 2015). By
doing this students could see that students from all over the world are just
like them and it will empower them to change the world so that every child gets
the opportunity to learn the way they do.
Photo of a class Skyping taken from www.Flickr.com
References
Berman,
A. S. (2015). Teaching social justice in the music classroom: music educators
can open the door to dialogue and understanding of what can be difficult
subjects to address. Teaching Music, (4). 38.
Drake,
S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving Curriculum and Classroom Assessment: Engaging the 21st
Century Learner. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.
Hawkins,
K. (2014) Teaching for social justice, social responsibility and social
inclusion: A respectful pedagogy for twenty-first century early childhood
education. European Early Childhood
Education Research Journal, 22(5). 723-738.
First of all, I think it’s absolutely amazing how you went on a volunteer trip abroad. It looks like you learned a lot and had an incredible time, too! I have always wanted to participate on a volunteer trip abroad through an organization for many reasons. It would be so much fun to experience a different part of the world, meet new people, and would definitely help you grow as an individual. Not only that, but these trips can really provide us future teachers with a hands-on experience of the teaching profession and we could learn a lot by helping and implementing different strategies in another part of the world. I completely agree with you that we should start teaching students about social injustice early on in their education as it can spread awareness and knowledge about circumstances other children around the world are going through. Furthermore, it could motivate students to help make a difference and be the change in the world. The only question I have from a teacher’s perspective is how could we assess students on their understanding of social injustice? Do you think it is necessary for them to experience it first-hand or through a hands-on project, or could simply learning about it through books and musical lyrics help them as well?
ReplyDeleteKaylene,
ReplyDeleteI think the topic of teaching social justice in the classroom was a great blog choice! You made great connections between your topic and the links you included. The links helped me to understand the issue further and provided me with ways that I can incorporate lessons on social justice into my teaching. Perhaps to improve your blog, you could have included a video or lesson plan of a teacher who has integrated social justice issues into his or her classroom. Additionally, I enjoyed that you connected your topic to personal experiences in a classroom abroad and the benefits of teaching social justice that you witnessed in the classrooms while there. Your experiences in Namibia sound amazing and I truly believe that each of the lessons you learned there will help you in your teaching career. Specifically, now that you have experienced working with students in a low SES community, when you face that situation again, you will be better equipped and can use strategies and techniques that you learned in Namibia. I completely agree that it is important to teach issues of social justice because it is a way of teaching the whole child. By teaching them about issues of injustice, teachers are giving students agency so that they will become informed citizens in the future. In my experiences, I know that students can be extremely empathetic and understanding when you begin to teach them about injustices that exist. Coming from a musical background, using music to teach about issues of social justice was really interesting to me and was something I had never thought about before. I wonder how one would go about doing this? Additionally, you touched on the really fascinating idea of Skyping classrooms from around the world. My instructor for 8P15 used this idea in her classroom called “Mystery Skype” where her class would Skype a class from around the world, and guess where they were from based on a “twenty questions” style. This allowed her students to develop geography skills and learn more about cultures from around the world. However, as discussed in a couple of previous classes, teaching about social justice in the classroom can be potentially controversial. I wonder when, as future educators, is the appropriate age to begin teaching children about injustices in the world so that they are at the developmental level that they can understand the issues and so that they are not upset by potentially traumatic facts?
I love the idea of teaching social justice in the classroom because I feel like if we take the time to empower youth and get them inspired about real life issues that affect them that we will see major change occur. Youth can be more influential and enact more change in the world than they or even probably I can predict! But these days the majority seems to be stuck in the surface, superficial world in front of their faces with the internet and technology. I am adamant to move children away from these things as much as possible because they are everywhere you turn and I think school can be at least one place where we spend majority of our time in the present and immersed in reality.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you in the sense that I think working to give students a broader view of the world and global community is a good way to foster social justice in the classroom. Especially for children in North America and Canada especially who overall live pretty privileged lives in comparison to children in impoverished countries and communities. I think it’s amazing that you got that experience in Namibia! It must have been life changing. The things you saw and the lessons you learned while you were are not only invaluable to you but also to your own students! This gives you a great edge to begin teaching social justice in your own classroom and I certainly hope you take advantage of that! You will have excellent insider knowledge that not every teacher will have. Have you considered how you might do this at all? I too hope to take a trip like this in my lifetime! Thanks for the good read!