Social Justice Within the Classroom: My Daisies are just as important as my Daffodils

This week for our EDU 100 class, we talked a lot about Social Justice. The topic I researched was Social Justice within the classroom: How do we as teachers implement Social Justice into our classrooms. 

We can refer to the pin I chose to help understand this question a little better. 

My Pinterest

Social Justice Pin 

I guess we should start out with a definition of Social Justice. According to Matthew Robinson from the Department of Government and Justice Studies at Appalachian State University, Social Justice is "defined as "...promoting a just society by challenging injustice and valuing diversity." It exists when "all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of community resources.""

It is important to implement values of Social Justice within our youths because we are teaching the future. We can see a smaller scale of Social Injustice within our schools today, and by trying to create socially conscious students, we are working towards eradicating social injustice, not only in the schools but in society as well. Through quality instruction that teaches students about issues relevant to them, their learning will not only increase but their awareness of society and Social Justice will as well. 

One example of implementing Social Justice values is through Place-Based Education. This type of education involves curriculum and methods of teaching that the children face in every day life. Students who live near the beach can learn about keeping the oceans clean, and children living in the Rain forest can learn how to save the trees. This type of education creates students who know that their actions make a difference and that they have the power to change the future. Students who realize that they have this ability are in turn able to make changes in society and to enforce Social Justice in our future. 

Some ways to create Social Justice within the classroom (see pin)

• Connect with Students. Find out what they love, what their culture is, what they've experienced. 
• Create instruction and curriculum that is relevant. Don't teach students who live on the beach about a rain forest. Teach them about the ocean, marine animals, things that they can relate to.
• Create a Community within the Classroom. Participation is key, every student needs to feel as if they have a choice and that their opinion matters and that they can make a change.
• Include Authentic Assessments. Create Assessments where the students feel as if they actually get something from it instead of just mindless homework and standardized tests. 

As you can see, it is not difficult to implement Social Justice within the classroom. It is possible to create effective instruction while still promoting Social Justice. If we can start now within our classrooms, our students will grow to create a Socially Just future, and isn't that what we want??

I believe that a Socially Just future is extremely important. As educators, we are teaching the leaders of our future, so we want to nurture them and make them successful as well as promote social justice. In my classroom, or garden if you will, daisies are just important as daffodils. They are both beautiful and deserve equal opportunities. Their voices need to be heard and they need to know that they can make a change in the world. If we as teachers don't educate our students on and implement Social Justice within our classrooms, our future will be bleak.