Social Justice in the Classroom

Equal status, social justice and multiculturalism, all beautiful words that are meaningless in the society in which we live in. The sad reality is that there is a real sense of “us vs. them” right now and maybe that’s due to the political climate we are experiencing, or maybe that’s what America have been taught to believe. Either way, the sad reality is that there is racism and xenophobia lurking in the shadows of this country, and it is time for it to stop. Making such a drastic change can only happen in one way, by teaching the next generation of adults to be aware of the “beautiful words.” But, being aware of social justice and multiculturalism is not enough to catalyze change, no, we must bring these changes into the classroom now.

The very first change that must be addressed in the classroom is the most fundamental as Freire (2000) said, “Education must begin with the solution of the teacher-student contradiction, by reconciling the poles of the contradiction so that both are simultaneously teachers and students (p72).” For far too long teachers have considered themselves to be the keepers of knowledge and the student the recipient. But such an inverse relationship ultimately leads to a “us vs. them” instead of a cooperative relationship based on mutual respect. Therefore, to begin the change in society towards equality we must start by creating a classroom based on equality, and the teacher student relationship needs to be the foundation for a new type of classroom. The balance of power is merely the beginning; it is truly only the foundation on which to build.

Once the foundation has been put in place, we can begin to create a classroom that is inclusive of everyone including their culture. But how do we include everyone? The current classroom seems to perpetuate cultural and societal norms which, undoubtedly, serve to alienate some that do not fit within the “norms.” Teachers spend their time planning and creating lessons that only some students can relate to; simply by choosing to read a text like “Cinderella” the teacher has imposed their beliefs of culture to a group of pupils that may not have any connection to a “white lady.” Therefore, the teachers job becomes critical, in the simple act of choosing a book to read, the teacher must take into account the students in the classroom, their cultural background, community experiences, speech community and language. Because of the many variables, the teachers job does become complicated, but it must be complex because every student needs to be validated and included. Once the students have a sense of ownership within the classroom, where they feel they are cooperating in the learning, can the classroom begin to be inclusive. This type of classroom needs to be fostered and nurtured with care and responsibility. Students, having their differences included in the classroom, can then become aware and accepting of others; the goal is not to assimilate everyone into the cultural and societal norms, the goal is to appreciate and integrate their differences into the norms.

At this point, the foundation for the new classroom has been put in place as well as the structure, but we still need to talk about what goes inside. For that we need to speak of the curriculum; curriculum has been in isolation for too long. The rigid dichotomy between school and real life has put curriculum in a state of isolation. During isolation curriculum evolved into the monster that it has become. The monster has become almost unrecognizable within the society in which it lives. The monster has no relevance to anything that we do as humans, and it certainly does not prepare students to become aware of societal issues that plague our country. So, the question them becomes, why do we continue to perpetuate a useless curriculum that does not prepare students to be cognizant of the social issues that plague our society? To effect change we need to begin to incorporate real-world topics into the classroom, but it is not easy as just talking about social inequality. Before the classroom can incorporate issues like social inequality, we must reform our curriculum to include other nonconventional ways of speaking, listening and writing. As written by Zeeman and Urow (2013), “Deciding that some words are acceptable and that others are unacceptable is a no-win strategy. It does not lead to consensus and does not build on what students know and can do (p.72).” Thus, we can conclude that by only accepting the dominant language in the classroom we undermine the importance and value of the knowledge students may bring with them. And so the classrooms curriculum must include the learning of social justice through the use of different perspectives. This also lends itself to creating student experts, where the students can bring their personal experience into the classroom where it can be validated and accepted in academia.

By bringing in the students background and community experiences into the classroom, the teacher ultimately creates a curriculum that allows each pupil to become empowered and validated within the classroom environment. So, a student no longer needs to feel isolated for not knowing English, or for not understanding the social norms; students will come to a classroom that embraces their differences and thrives on individual experiences to create equal access to education and knowledge in the classroom. And through these fundamental changes to the classroom, children can become aware of those societal problems that lurk in the dark and, more importantly, we will begin to change the country towards acceptance and appreciation of each other.

(Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire, p. 72, 2000)

(Teaching for Literacy: Strengthening Bridges Between Languages, Beeman and Urow, 2013,p.72)