* I teach at a private school in Mexico with a predominantly Mexican student population with a few students from the USA and a few minority students, mostly from South Korea and India. My ideas for teaching presented here are for these students in mind.
“The obligation of anyone who thinks of himself as responsible is to examine society and try to change it and to fight it – at no matter what risk.” – James Baldwin from “A Talk to Teachers”
One of the most encouraging examples of the positive effects teaching from a social justice lens can have occurred in a grade 12 English classroom in Barranquilla, Colombia in 2016. One of my students chose to read (or maybe watch…) The Help. The book, set in the 1960s sheds light on the unjust treatments of maids in the homes of their white owners. After learning about this story, my student came to me in class, all worked up to declare: “Miss, this book is just like how we are with our maids now.” While this realization is terrible, it is also wonderful because my student was able to connect systemic inequalities across history and cultures. How else can we expect our students to make a change if we don’t push them to seeing these realities?
In his post “Decolonizing the Classroom” published in the NCTE blog, Michael Seward advises:
“Let go of the disingenuous notion of objectivity in the classroom, of maintaining political neutrality, of seeing all sides and positions as having an equal impact on marginalized groups.”
Helping a student write her college essays, I told her that she needs to articulate what is important to her, otherwise how will the admissions officers know? As a professional pianist she mentioned that similar to writing, when she plays the piano she needs to emphasize what is important in the score. Her analogy inspired me to think about teaching and what I want to articulate and emphasize in my own classes. Social justice has always been very important to my teaching practice but there’s so much value in clearly articulating my support for the Black Lives Matter movement. For me, articulating what I believe and why I believe it gives students an example to follow, not that they need to replicate my beliefs but so they can see the power of standing up for what you believe in, in a rational, thoughtful and educated manner. That is why it’s so important for educators to educate themselves on the history of white supremacy and how it continues to thrive in our society in so many ways.
So, “You’ve donated. You’ve protested. You’ve self educated… Now what?” I believe now is a time to return to our sphere of influence and work to make a change where we have expertise and influence. Educators are now entering what I like to call “Idea Marination Season.” We take a moment to process everything that just happened in the past school year, and each school has its own moments of joy and sadness, with a dash of pandemic, but we’re also thinking (even if it’s in the deepest corners of our minds) of the beginning of the year when we are privileged with a soapbox or a Zoom screen and students’ attention. And while teaching during the pandemic seems to crowd our minds these days, let’s remember that in the USA, a black man survived COVID-19 only to die gasping for air under the knee of a policeman. Plus, us educators are always planning for the future. The work that we invest in education doesn’t bear fruit until maybe 20, 30, or even 50 years into the future. Historically, pandemics tend to last about a year, but I still, 13 years later, remember Ms. Mansfield’s Grade 11 Social Issues class as I start to rethink my approach to social issues in my own grade 11 classes. My “Idea Marination Season” starts with reading and understanding my implicit bias, coming to terms with my privilege and recognizing the responsibility that comes with the privileges I have been given.
So what are some practical things we, as educators, can do, besides getting educated and articulating our ideas?
- Reconsider what readings we choose for our students. It took me 3 years of teaching the Capstone Seminar Course to recognize that the material I was receiving from the College Board lacked equal diversity. Readings don’t just mean books; why are there no BIPOC scientists, philosophers or historians included in stimulus materials that are used for a College Board course assignment that emphasizes the importance of multiple perspectives? I like Alyshia Galvez’s approach to rethinking her syllabus. She presents key questions to shape our decisions:
“How is my understanding of what is necessary to read, write and know in this course shaped by white supremacist ideas about whose work matters? Do BIPOC authors have to earn their spot in my syllabus or do white authors? Rather than thinking about a “canon” and then sprinkling in diverse perspectives, what if I approach the course as an inquiry into the subject of the course: Whose ideas have shaped this field of study? Whose knowledge “counts” and whose knowledge has been systematically marginalized?”
- Give students freedom and choice to dig deep into social justice issues. Here is one example of a PBL unit I did with a Grade 12 English class connecting literature Literature Circles to researching social justice issues. This type of PBL gives students choice on what they read (which they love) and freedom to explore issues in their community while working on their literacy and research skills.
- Make Social Justice a theme in your class and connect it to Systems Thinking. We cannot fall into binary thinking anymore: Racism isn’t just bad, it’s very complicated and functions on so many systemic levels: psychological, educational, governmental, historical, etc. Getting students to look at racism from all these different lenses helps them to see that solutions need be equally complex and considerate of all these lenses.
- Keep searching! There are so many tools available. In her book, White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo tells us, “Break with the apathy of whiteness, and demonstrate that you care enough to put in the effort.” Each school and community has its own unique challenges. It is up to us as educators to do the work and provide our students with the inspiration to make big changes.
I think all education should be geared towards social justice. All the skills students are learning are meant to form them into better citizens of the world. Otherwise, what’s the point? I do recognize that social justice can be more directly addressed in some subjects than others and as an English and Research teacher it’s always been the theme of my classes. Though of course, I’m sure I can do better.
The Black Lives Matter movement has highlighted that racism continues to be a force of injustice in our society. Luckily, many of us are recognizing how deep racism has been ingrained in our socialization and how it manifests in our words and actions. Surely, we will still make mistakes but we must still speak up and try our best. As Maya Angelou said:
“Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”
