Teaching is political: rethinking education towards social justice.

Growing concerns in society, for instance on race, gender, artificial intelligence, war, and the quality of life shape the socio-political dynamics of both learners and educators. Simultaneously, the rise of fake news, misinformation, intolerance, and propaganda is at par with the former concerns, affirming the need for literacy and an ethical understanding of the socio-political realm. Moreover, in a world where such affairs intersect with the global and the local, where socio-political discourse is inevitable to seep within the classroom, an outcry for educators to become activists and to develop their political propensity is very well needed — especially from a social justice position.

Teaching Ethics Education gave me the privilege of teaching a syllabus geared towards social justice. For instance, issues of equity & equality, vulnerability & the welfare state, fairness, solidarity, and human rights are just a teaser of what goes on and beyond the ethics room. However, and this is the point I would like to emphasise, such topics are not exclusive to subjects such as ethics or other “political/humanitarian” topics in our schools.

A mathematics teacher may be faced with an issue of racism in the classroom; a science teacher might be challenged by a student to state her views on abortion; a language teacher can be asked why the school excludes certain students’ languages in morning assemblies; an art teacher may be probed to explain why certain artwork has been…