Sunday, September 25, 2016
Title: Social Justice: A Whole-School Approach
Source: Edutopia
Jeanine Harmon
February 18, 2015
URL: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/social-justice-whole-school-approach-jeanine-harmon
Key Point: This article highlights the critical perspectives each school employee should be asking themselves and others while working within the school system. A few questions within the article are; What is happening at your school to address social justice issues as a learning community? How are you addressing social justice issues within your classroom? In what ways are the families within your school community involved with learning about social justice? The author gives examples of strategies that work for other school systems and creates a practical approach to bringing the people within the school community together using social justice aspects creating a bond that over time strengthens the community.
Audience: All school system employees, and parent/guardians/families of students within the local school community.
Relevance: The idea of creating a social justice community within your school system can be daunting, especially if you are just beginning your teaching career. Jeanine Harmon wrote a simplistic article that creates a plan to involve the entire community using the school system at the core of implementation. As future special educators, we will be in charge of helping to create a system where our students are seen as equals in the community, and this article helps spark those thoughts and ideas of how and where to begin.
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I like the question: How are you addressing social justice issues within your classroom? I believe this is a question every teacher needs to ask about their classroom. It does not matter if you are in a general education classroom, special education classroom or inclusion classroom. All of our students need to be educated on social justice. As educators we have the ability to reach young minds and help them grow up understanding their own beliefs and their own prejudices. We all have prejudices, but these are learned ways of thinking. If we can give our students to the tools to assess themselves, hopefully we can start to move towards a more inclusive community. Differences will always remain, but the ability to accept those differences and function within a pro-social diverse society is the key. I liked how the article discussed having a common vocabulary. Language is powerful and building a common language will have monumental impacts.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of getting parents and families involved with the social justice at our schools. Moving parents, guardians and community members away from simply volunteering and fundraising but educating them as well through groups and events focused around social justice issues. I would be curious to see if any form of this type of group is in my school district or if there have been any thoughts of making this a priority.
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