A Primer on Intersectionality
By African American Policy Forum
This article explains intersectionality and touches on some of the key issues regarding its development and implementation. As a critical lens for bringing awareness to the social justice industry, intersectionality is a way to present the simple reality that disadvantage or exclusion can be based on the interaction of multiple factors rather than just one. Intersectionality not only provides a tool to render certain exclusions more visible, it also suggests a reframed approach to social justice politics.
The Critical Pedagogy Reader (2nd Edition)
By Antonia Darder, Marta P. Baltodano and Rodolfo D. Torres
Since its publication,
The Critical Pedagogy Reader has firmly established itself as the leading collection of classic and contemporary essays by the major thinkers in the field of critical pedagogy. The book is arranged topically around such issues as class, racism, gender/sexuality, language and literacy, and classroom issues for ease of usage and navigation. In addition, two entirely new sections focused on teacher education and critical issues beyond the classroom provide readers with the all-important tools needed to put critical pedagogical theory into practice in their own classrooms. Carefully attentive to both theory and practice, this new edition remains the definitive source for teaching and learning about critical pedagogy.
Education and Power
By Michael W. Apple
In his seminal volume first published in 1982, Michael Apple articulates his theory on educational institutions and the reproduction of unequal power relations and provides a thorough examination of the ways in which race-gender-class dynamics are embedded in, and reflected through, curricular issues. This second edition contains a re-examination of earlier arguments as well as reflections on recent changes in education.
Reference:
Ferber, A., Jimenez, C., Herrera, A., & Samuels, D. (2008). The matrix reader: Examining the dynamics of oppression and privilege. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.
Global Crises, Social Justice, and Education
By Michael W. Apple
Global Crises, Social Justice, and Education looks into the ways we understand globalization and education by getting specific about what committed educators can do to counter the relations of dominance and subordination around the world. From some of the world’s leading critical educators and activists, this timely new collection provides thorough and detailed analyses of four specific centers of global crisis: the United States, Japan, Israel/Palestine, and Mexico. Each chapter engages in a powerful and critical analysis of what exactly is occurring in these regions and counters with an equally compelling critical portrayal of the educational work being done to interrupt global dominance and subordination. Without settling for vague ideas or romantic slogans of hope, this book offers real, concrete examples and strategies that will contribute to ongoing movements and counter-hegemonic struggles already active in education today.
Reference:
Apple, M. W. (2010). Global crises, social justice, and education. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed (30th Anniversary Edition)
By Paulo Freire
First published in Portuguese in 1968, Pedagogy of the Oppressed was translated and published in English in 1970. The methodology of the late Paulo Freire has helped to empower countless impoverished and illiterate people throughout the world. Freire’s work has taken on especial urgency in the United States and Western Europe, where the creation of a permanent underclass among the underprivileged and minorities in cities and urban centers is increasingly accepted as the norm. With a substantive new introduction on Freire’s life and the remarkable impact of this book by writer and Freire confidant and authority Donaldo Macedo, this anniversary edition of Pedagogy of the Oppressed will inspire a new generation of educators, students, and general readers for years to come.
Reference:
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.
The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Education
By Michael W. Apple, Wayne Au, and Luis Armando Gandin
The Routledge International Handbook of Critical Education is the first authoritative reference work to provide an international analysis of the relationship between power, knowledge, education, and schooling. Rather than focusing solely on questions of how we teach efficiently and effectively, contributors to this volume push further to also think critically about education’s relationship to economic, political, and cultural power. The various sections of this book integrate into their analyses the conceptual, political, pedagogic, and practical histories, tensions, and resources that have established critical education as one of the most vital and growing movements within the field of education, including topics such as: social movements and pedagogic work, critical research methods for critical education,the politics of practice, and the Freirian legacy.
Reference:
Apple, M. W., Au, W., & Gandin, L. A. (2009). The Routledge international handbook of critical education. New York, NY: Routledge.
Radical Possibilities: Public Policy, Urban Education, and A New Social Movement (2nd Edition)
By Jean Anyon
The core argument of Jean Anyon’s classic Radical Possibilities is deceptively simple: if we do not direct our attention to the ways in which federal and metropolitan policies maintain the poverty that plagues communities in American cities, urban school reform as currently conceived is doomed to fail. With every chapter thoroughly revised and updated, this edition picks up where the 2005 publication left off, including a completely new chapter detailing how three decades of political decisions leading up to the “Great Recession” produced an economic crisis of epic proportions. By tracing the root causes of the financial crisis, Anyon effectively demonstrates the concrete effects of economic decision-making on the education sector, revealing in particular the disastrous impacts of these policies on black and Latino communities.
Reference:
Anyon, J. (2014). Radical possibilities: Public policy, urban education, and a new social movement (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Controversy in the Classroom: The Democratic Power of Discussion
By Diana E. Hess
In a conservative educational climate that is dominated by policies like No Child Left Behind, one of the most serious effects has been for educators to worry about the politics of what they are teaching and how they are teaching it. As a result, many dedicated teachers choose to avoid controversial issues altogether in preference for “safe” knowledge and “safe” teaching practices. Diana Hess interrupts this dangerous trend by providing readers a spirited and detailed argument for why curricula and teaching based on controversial issues are truly crucial at this time. Through rich empirical research from real classrooms throughout the nation, she demonstrates why schools have the potential to be particularly powerful sites for democratic education and why this form of education must include sustained attention to authentic and controversial political issues that animate political communities.
Reference:
Hess, D. E. (2009). Controversy in the classroom: The democratic power of discussion. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Beyond Silenced Voices: Class, Race, and Gender in United States Schools
By Michelle Fine & Lois Weis
Resting on the belief that educators must be a the centre of informing education policy, the contributors to this revised edition of the classic text raise tough questions that will both haunt and invigorate educators. Beyond Silenced Voices is a research-based look at the ways American schools tend to discourage academic excellence in students from underrepresented groups. The book is an edited volume containing chapters from respected multicultural educators concerned with increasing academic access and opportunity among these underrepresented groups. By not focusing strictly on issues affecting Black and Latino/a students, Beyond Silenced Voices offers critiques that are relevant to a number of groups, including Asian, gay, and female students.
Reference:
Fine, M., & Weis, L. (2005). Beyond silenced voices: Class, race, and gender in United States Schools. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Educational Research for Social Justice: Getting Off the Fence
By Morwenna Griffiths
For researchers in educational settings whose research is motivated by considerations of justice, fairness and equality, this text addresses questions they may face. Such questions considered are: Will a prior political or ethical commitment bias the research?; How far can the ideas of empowerment or “giving a voice” be realized?; How can researhers who research communities to which they belong deal with the ethical issues of being both insider and outsider? The text provides a set of principles for doing educational research for social justice. These are rooted in considerations of methodology, epistemology and power relations, and provide a framework for dealing with the practical issues of collaboration, ethics, bias, empowerment, voice, uncertain knowledge and reflexivity, at all stages of research from getting started to dissemination and taking responsibility as members of the wider community of educational researchers.
Reference:
Griffiths, M. (1998). Educational research for social justice: Getting off the fence. Philadelphia, PA: Open University Press.
Learning Spaces for Social Justice: International Perspectives on Exemplary Practices from Preschool to Secondary School.
By Hanna Ragnarsdóttir & Clea Schmidt
International in approach, widely researched, theoretically informed and straightforwardly written, this book illustrates the perpetual process of working towards the goals of social justice, empowerment and integration and some of the many ways this is done. Taking a case study approach, Learning Spaces for Social Justice outlines and describes effective models of social justice and empowerment for diverse learners and diverse teachers developed by schools. With case studies ranging from preschool to secondary school and with examples from both rural and urban environments, it is essential reading for classroom teachers and administrators, teacher education students and their teachers.
Reference:
Ragnarsdóttir, H., & Schmidt, C. (2013). Learning spaces for social justice: International perspectives on exemplary practices from preschool to secondary school. London, UK: Trentham Books.
Pedagogies of Difference: Rethinking Education for Social Change
By Peter P. Trifonas
Peter Trifonas has assembled internationally acclaimed theorists and educational practitioners whose essays explore various constructions, representations, and uses of difference in educational contexts. These essays strive to bridge competing discourses of difference–for instance, feminist or anti-racist pedagogical models–to create a more inclusive education that adheres to principles of equity and social justice.
Reference:
Trifonas, P. P. (2003). Pedagogies of difference: Rethinking education for social change. New York, NY: RoutledgeFalmer.
TDSB Social Justice Action Plan
By Toronto District School Board
The primary purpose of the Social Justice Action Plan will be for all schools in the Toronto District School Board to have an opportunity to learn about local and global issues and to participate in actions that affect positive change. The creation of a Social Justice Action Plan for our district will allow for a deepening of the work that has already begun on social justice issues and will coordinate and align similar work and learning opportunities already existing within the Board, providing a more strategic approach to contributing to a more socially just world and positioning the TDSB as a leader in this movement.
Reference:
Fine, M., & Weis, L. (2005). Beyond silenced voices: Class, race, and gender in United States Schools. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press
Teaching for Social Justice: Translating an Anti-Oppression Approach Into Practice
By The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
The phrase teaching for social justice may conjure images of facing off against opponents or carrying protest placards while marching in the streets. To be sure, mass mobilizations and non- violent disruptions of business as usual are important ways to protest structural inequalities. What I hope is clear from the examples I have provided, though, is that anti-oppressive pedagogy includes work that teachers are doing, or might be inspired to do, in their classrooms and schools on a daily basis. The teacher stories I have detailed in this article, plus the growing number of published teacher inquiries, collectively suggest that teaching for social justice is possible even within current constraints and prevailing power dynamics.
Reference:
Kelly, D. (2012). Teaching for social justice: Translating an anti-oppression approach into practice. Ottawa, ON: The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Strategies for Social Justice: Place, People, and Policy
By Community Foundations of Canada
In 2001, CFC began to explore the role community foundations could play in advancing social justice issues in Canada. Since then, with support from the Ford Foundation and the Atkinson Charitable Foundation, we have been deepening our understanding of how community foundations might help to “level the playing field” for all Canadians by tackling the root causes of social problems. This paper was written to provide an overview of the key social justice issues in Canada.
Reference:
Maxwell, J. (2006). Strategies for social justice: Place, people and policy. Ottawa, ON: Community Foundations of Canada.
The Intersectional Approach: Transforming the Academy through Race, Class, and Gender
By Michele Tracy Berger & Kathleen Guidroz
Intersectionality, or the consideration of race, class, and gender, is one of the prominent contemporary theoretical contributions made by scholars in the field of women’s studies that now broadly extends across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Taking stock of this transformative paradigm, The Intersectional Approach guides new and established researchers to engage in a critical reflection about the broad adoption of intersectionality that constitutes what the editors call a new “social literacy” for scholars. In eighteen essays, contributors examine various topics of interest to students and researchers from a feminist perspective as well as through their respective disciplines, looking specifically at gender inequalities related to globalization, health, motherhood, sexuality, body image, and aging. Together, these essays provide a critical overview of the paradigm, highlight new theoretical and methodological advances, and make a strong case for the continued use of the intersectional approach both within the borders of women’s and gender studies and beyond.
Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global Perspectives
By James A. Banks
The increasing ethnic, racial, cultural, religious, and language diversity in nations throughout the world is forcing educators and policymakers to rethink existing notions of citizenship and nationality. To experience cultural democracy and freedom, a nation must be unified around a set of democratic values such as justice and equality that balance unity and diversity and protect the rights of diverse groups. Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global Perspectives brings together in one comprehensive volume a group of international experts on the topic of diversity and citizenship education. These experts discuss and identify the shared issues and possibilities that exist when educating for national unity and cultural diversity. Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global Perspectives presents compelling case studies and examples of successful programs and practices from twelve nations, discusses problems that arise when societies are highly stratified along race, cultural, and class lines, and describes guidelines and benchmarks that practicing educators can use to structure citizenship education programs that balance unity and diversity.
Reference:
Banks, J. A. (2004). Diversity and citizenship education: Global perspectives. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
Negotiating Identities: Education for Empowerment in a Diverse Society (2nd Edition)
By Jim Cummins
Aimed at “empowering” teachers and students in a culturally diverse society, this book suggests that schools must respect student’s language and culture, encourage community participation, promote critical literacy, and institute forms of assessment in order to reverse patterns of under-achievement in pupils from varying cultures. The book shows that students who have been failed by schools predominantly come from communities whose languages, cultures and identities have been distorted and devalued in the wider society, and schools have reinforced this pattern of disempowerment.
Reference:
Cummins, J. (2001). Negotiating identities: Education for empowerment in a diverse society (2nd ed.). Covina, CA: California Association for Bilingual Education.
States of Race: Critical Feminism For the 21st Century
By Sherene Razack, Malinda Smith, & Sunera Thobani
Critical race feminism, like critical race theory more broadly, interrogates questions about race and gender through an emancipatory lens, posing fundamental questions about the persistence if not magnification of race and the “colour line” in the twenty-first century. The writers of these articles – whether exploring campus politics around issues of equity, the media’s circulation of ideas about a tolerant multicultural and feminist Canada, security practices that confine people of colour to spaces of exception, Indigenous women’s navigation of both nationalism and feminism, Western feminist responses to the War on Terror, or the new forms of whiteness that persist in ideas about a post-racial world or in transnational movements for social justice – insist that we must study racialized power in all its gender and class dimensions.
Reference:
Razack, S., Smith, M., & Thobani, S. (2010). States of race: Critical feminism for the 21st century. Toronto, ON: Between the Lines.
Theorizing Empowerment: Canadian Perspectives on Black Feminist Thought
by Notisha Massaquoi &, Njoki Nathani Wane
This book is ia collection of essays by Black Canadian feminists centralizing the ways in which Black femininity and Black women’s experiences are integral to understanding political and social frameworks in Canada. What does Black feminist thought mean to Black Canadian feminists in the Diaspora? What does it means to have a feminist practice that speaks to Black women in Canada? In exploring this question, this anthology collects new ideas and thoughts on the place of Black women’s politics in Canada, combining the work of new/upcoming and established names in Black Canadian feminist studies.
Reference:
Massaquoi, N., & Nathani Wane, N. (2007). Theorizing empowerment: Canadian perspectives on black feminist thought. Toronto, ON: Inanna Publications and Education.
Intersectionality: A Foundations and Frontiers Reader
By Patrick R. Grzanka
Charting the development of intersectionality as an intellectual and political movement, Patrick R. Grzanka brings together in one text both foundational readings and emerging classics. Original material includes: Grzanka’s nuanced introduction which provides broad context and poses guiding questions; thematic unit introductions; author biographies and suggestions for further reading to ground each excerpt; and a conclusion by Bonnie Thornton Dill reflecting on the past, present, and future of intersectionality. With its balanced mix of analytical, applied, and original content, Intersectionality is an essential component of any course on race, class, and gender, feminist theory, or social inequalities.
Reference:
Grzanka, P. R. (2014). Intersectionality: A foundations and frontiers reader. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Emerging Intersections: Race, Class, and Gender in Theory, Policy, and Practice
Edited by Bonnie Thornton Dill & Ruth Enid Zambrana
Emerging Intersections, an anthology of ten previously unpublished essays, looks at the problems of inequality and oppression from new angles and promotes intersectionality as an interpretive tool that can be utilized to better understand the ways in which race, class, gender, ethnicity, and other dimensions of difference shape our lives today. The book showcases innovative contributions that expand our understanding of how inequality affects people of color, demonstrates the ways public policies reinforce existing systems of inequality, and shows how research and teaching using an intersectional perspective compels scholars to become agents of change within institutions. By offering practical applications for using intersectional knowledge, Emerging Intersections will help bring us one step closer to achieving positive institutional change and social justice.
Reference:
Thornton Dill, B., & Zambrana, R. E. (2009). Emerging intersections: Race, class, and gender in theory, policy, and practice. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
Framing Intersectionality: Debates on a Multi-Faceted Concept in Gender Studies
By Helma Lutz, Maria Teresa Herrera Vivar, & Linda Supik
Framing Intersectionality brings together proponents and critics of the concept, to discuss the “state of the art” with those that have been influential in the debates that surround it. Engaging with the historical roots of intersectionality in the US-based “race-class-gender” debate, this book also considers the European adoption of this concept in different national contexts, to explore issues such as migration, identity, media coverage of sexual violence against men and transnational livelihoods of high and low skilled migrants. Thematically arranged around the themes of the transatlantic migration of intersectionality, the development of intersectionality as a theory, men’s studies and masculinities, and the body and embodiment, this book draws on empirical case studies as well as theoretical deliberations to investigate the capacity and the sustainability of the concept and shed light on the current state of intersectionality research.
Reference:
Lutz, H., Herrera Vivar, M. T., & Supik, L. (2011). Framing intersectionality: Debates on a multi-faceted concept in gender studies. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment
By Patricia Hills Collins
In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known. In Black Feminist Thought, originally published in 1990, Patricia Hill Collins set out to explore the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals and writers, both within the academy and without. Here Collins provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde. Drawing from fiction, poetry, music and oral history, the result is a superbly crafted and revolutionary book that provided the first synthetic overview of Black feminist thought and its canon.
Reference:
Hills Collins, P. (2008). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. New York, NY: Routledge.
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study
By Paula S. Rothenberg
Race, Class, and Gender in the United States: An Integrated Study presents students with a compelling, clear study of issues of race, gender, and sexuality within the context of class. Rothenberg offers students 126 readings, each providing different perspectives and examining the ways in which race, gender, class, and sexuality are socially constructed. Rothenberg deftly and consistently helps students analyze each phenomena, as well as the relationships among them, thereby deepening their understanding of each issue surrounding race and ethnicity.
Reference:
Rothenberg, P. S. (2013). Race, class, and gender in the United States: An integrated study. Duffield, UK: Worth.
Making Space for Diverse Masculinities: Difference, Intersectionality, and Engagement in an Urban High School
By Lance T. McCready
What’s it like for Black male students who are openly gay or «gender non-conforming» to navigate the social geography of urban schools? In the tradition of critical ethnographies of schooling, Lance T. McCready mobilizes feminist theories of intersectionality to explore the voices of Black gay male students and their teachers in a Northern California comprehensive high school. He analyzes the brave and often hilarious ways students «make space» by challenging conventional notions of Black masculinity and gay identity in educational spaces, such as an African dance program and the Gay-Straight Alliance. McCready challenges the dominance of race-class analyses in the field of urban education that fail to critically account for the relevance of gender and sexuality in school reform. The book will be of interest to anyone seeking to gain a better understanding of the lives of queer youth of color in urban communities. Their experiences open up new ways of viewing the troubles of Black boys and the interventions meant to address those troubles.
Reference:
McCready, L. T. (2010). Making space for diverse masculinities: Difference, intersectionality, and engagement in an urban high school. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice Paperback
by Maurianne Adams, Lee Anne Bell, & Pat Griffin
For nearly a decade, Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice has been the definitive sourcebook of theoretical foundations and curricular frameworks for social justice teaching practice. This thoroughly revised second edition continues to provide teachers and facilitators with an accessible pedagogical approach to issues of oppression in classrooms. Building on the groundswell of interest in social justice education, the second edition offers coverage of current issues and controversies while preserving the hands-on format and inclusive content of the original. Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice presents a well-constructed foundation for engaging the complex and often daunting problems of discrimination and inequality in American society. This book includes a CD-ROM with extensive appendices for participant handouts and facilitator preparation.
Privilege, Power, and Difference
By Allan G. Johnson
This brief book is a groundbreaking tool for students and non-students alike to examine systems of privilege and difference in our society. Written in an accessible, conversational style, Johnson links theory with engaging examples in ways that enable readers to see the underlying nature and consequences of privilege and their connection to it. This extraordinarily successful book has been used across the country, both inside and outside the classroom, to shed light on issues of power and privilege.
Reference:
Johnson, A. G. (2005). Privilege, power, and difference. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.
The Matrix Reader: Examining the Dynamics of Oppression and Privilege
By Abby Ferber, Christina Jimenez, Andrea Herrera, & Dena Samuels
Written by four authors from different disciplinary backgrounds, this reader promotes a commitment to an intersectional approach to teaching race, class, gender and sexuality. Unlike most books of its kind, it highlights the duality of privilege and oppression and the effects that race, gender, and sexuality have on our lives. This reader includes poems, reflective literary prose, historical events and documents, images drawn from the media, contemporary statistics of inequalities, visual images, and tools that empower students to become agents for social change.
Reference:
Ferber, A., Jimenez, C., Herrera, A., & Samuels, D. (2008). The matrix reader: Examining the dynamics of oppression and privilege. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.
Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom
By Bell Hooks
In Teaching to Transgress, Bell Hooks–writer, teacher, and insurgent black intellectual–writes about a new kind of education, education as the practice of freedom. Teaching students to “transgress” against racial, sexual, and class boundaries in order to achieve the gift of freedom is, for hooks, the teacher’s most important goal. Bell Hooks speaks to the heart of education today: how can we rethink teaching practices in the age of multiculturalism? What do we do about teachers who do not want to teach, and students who do not want to learn? How should we deal with racism and sexism in the classroom? Full of passion and politics, Teaching to Transgress combines a practical knowledge of the classroom with a deeply felt connection to the world of emotions and feelings. This is the rare book about teachers and students that dares to raise questions about eros and rage, grief and reconciliation, and the future of teaching itself.
Reference:
Hooks, B. (1994). Teaching to transgress: Education as the practice of freedom. New York, NY: Routledge.
Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope
By Bell Hooks
In
Teaching Community Bell Hooks seeks to theorize from the place of the positive, looking at what works. Writing about struggles to end racism and white supremacy, she makes the useful point that “No one is born a racist. Everyone makes a choice.” Teaching Community tells us how we can choose to end racism and create a beloved community. hooks looks at many issues-among them, spirituality in the classroom, white people looking to end racism, and erotic relationships between professors and students. Spirit, struggle, service, love, the ideals of shared knowledge and shared learning – these values motivate progressive social change.
Reference:
Hooks, B. (2003). Teaching community: A pedagogy of hope. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
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Promoting Diversity and Social Justice: Educating People from Privileged Groups
By Diane J. Goodman
Promoting Diversity and Social Justice provides theories, perspectives, and strategies that are useful for working with adults from privileged groups—those who are in a more powerful position in any given type of oppression. The thoroughly revised edition of this accessible and practical guide offers tools that allow educators to be more reflective and intentional in their work—helping them to consider who they’re working with, what they’re doing, why they’re doing it and how to educate more effectively.
Reference:
Goodman, D. J. (2007). Promoting diversity and social justice: Educating people from privileged groups. New York, NY: Routledge.
We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know: White Teachers, Multiracial Schools
By Gary R. Howard
Once again, in this expanded Second Edition, Gary Howard outlines what good teachers know, what they do, and how they embrace culturally responsive teaching. Howard brings his bestselling book completely up to date with today’s school reform efforts and includes a new introduction and a new chapter that speak directly to current issues such as closing the achievement gap, and to recent legislation such as No Child Left Behind. With our nation’s student population becoming ever more diverse, and teachers remaining largely White, this book is now more important than ever. A must-read in universities and school systems throughout the country, We Can’t Teach What We Don’t Know continues to facilitate and deepen the discussion of race and social justice in education.
Reference:
Howard, G. R. (2006). We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers, multiracial schools. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Advancing Social Justice: Tools, Pedagogies, and Strategies to Transform Your Campus
By Tracy Davis and Laura M. Harrison
This groundbreaking book offers educators a clear understanding of the concept of social justice and includes effective practices to help them promote social justice and address identity development on their campuses. In the first half of the book, the authors clarify the definition of social justice as an approach that examines and acknowledges the institutional and historical systems of power and privilege on individual identity and relationships. They provide important frameworks and foundational aspects of understanding social justice, and several chapters explore identity development using the critical lenses of history and context, concentrating on ways that oppression and privilege are manifest in the lived experiences of students. In the second half of the book, the authors supply educators with the conceptual tools and strategies needed to infuse a social justice approach into their work with students and within their institutions. They highlight important concepts to consider in designing and implementing effective social justice interventions and provide examples of effective social justice programs.
Reference:
Davis, T., & Harrison, L. M. (2013). Advancing social justice: Tools, pedagogies, and strategies to transform your campus. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.
The Social Construction of Difference and Inequality: Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality
By Tracy E. Ore
This anthology examines the social construction of race, class, gender, and sexuality and the institutional bases for these relations. While other texts discuss various forms of stratification and the impact of these on members of marginalized groups, Ore provides a thorough discussion of how such systems of stratification are formed and perpetuated and how forms of stratification are interconnected. The anthology supplies sufficient pedagogical tools to aid the student in understanding how the material relates to her/his own life and how her/his own attitudes, actions, and perspectives may serve to perpetuate a stratified system.
Reference:
Ore, T. E. (2013). The social construction of difference and inequality: Race, class, gender, and sexuality. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill.
Double Jeopardy: Addressing Gender Equity in Special Education
By Harilyn Rousso & Michael L. Wehmeyer
Highlighting the educational issues of girls and young women with disabilities,
Double Jeopardy examines how they are exposed to discrimination based on gender and disability/special education status, and how they experience less successful vocational outcomes than their disabled male or nondisabled female peers upon leaving school. It studies both gender equity issues and inequitable practices that affect a wide range of students, such as Title IX, biased curricula, inequitable student-teacher interactions, and other issues such as eligibility for special education services. The book also describes innovative programs and strategies designed to empower disabled youth, who are ten percent of all students.
Reference:
Rousso, H., & Wehmeyer, M. L. (2001). Double jeopardy: Addressing gender equity in special education. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
Social Inequality: Forms, Causes, and Consequences
By Charles E. Hurst
This text explores how social inequality in the United States can be explained, how it affects us, and what can be done about it. The book is based on the assumptions that social inequality is multidimensional and that in order to deal with inequality and its consequences we need to understand the theories behind it. Taking a historical and social structural approach, the author simply but compellingly gives a sense of the pervasiveness of social inequality and how it affects us all. Book includes: (a) an examination of the pros and cons of globalization, (b) a powerful, in-depth discussion of socioeconomic status of homosexuals and legal discrimination demonstrating how sex, sexual orientation, and gender lead to discrimination in the legal system, (c) added coverage of environmental racism, and (d) the addition of discussion on Herbert Spencer’s theories of social inequality complements the discussions of the poor and welfare reform.
Reference:
Hurst, C. E. (2012). Social inequality: Forms, causes, and consequences. London, UK: Pearson.
Walking the Road: Race, Diversity, and Social Justice in Teacher Education
By Marilyn Cochran-Smith
In this skillfully written and incisive book, Marilyn Cochran-Smith guides the reader through the conflicting visions and ideologies surrounding educating teachers in a diverse democratic society. Mapping the way to reconceptualizing the problems in teacher education today, this volume spells out in detail the problem of teacher preparation and why it needs to be understood as both a learning and a political problem.
Reference:
Cochran-Smith, M. (2004). Walking the road: Race, diversity, and social justice in teacher education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Negotiating Critical Literacies with Young Children
By Vivian Maria Vasquez
Negotiating Critical Literacies With Young Children is specifically useful for early elementary (K-3) teachers as a demonstration of classroom applications of critical literacy that they can try in their own classrooms. It is equally relevant to all concerned with issues of social justice and equity in school settings and the political nature of education, and to educators at all levels who are interested in finding ways to make their curriculum critical. For preservice teachers, this book offers a model for envisioning their future practice and for recognizing the important relationship between theory and practice. Teacher educators and consultants will find this book valuable as an example of how to put a critical edge on teaching. It is intended for use as a text in reading, language arts, literacy, social justice, critical literacy, and early childhood education courses.
Reference:
Vasquez, V. M. (2004). Negotiating critical literacies with young children. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Is Everyone Really Equal?: An Introduction to Key Concepts in Social Justice Education
By Ozlem Sensoy & Robin DiAngelo
This practical handbook will introduce readers to social justice education, providing tools for developing ”critical social justice literacy” and for taking action towards a more just society. Accessible to students from high school through graduate school, this book offers a collection of detailed and engaging explanations of key concepts in social justice education, including critical thinking, socialization, group identity, prejudice, discrimination, oppression, power, privilege, and White supremacy. Based on extensive experience in a range of settings in the United States and Canada, the authors address the most common stumbling blocks to understanding social justice. They provide recognizable examples, scenarios, and vignettes illustrating these concepts. This unique resource has many user-friendly features, including ”definition boxes” for key terms, ”stop boxes” to remind readers of previously explained ideas, ”perspective check boxes” to draw attention to alternative standpoints, a glossary, and a chapter responding to the most common rebuttals encountered when leading discussions on concepts in critical social justice. There are discussion questions and extension activities at the end of each chapter, and an appendix designed to lend pedagogical support to those newer to teaching social justice education.
Reference:
Sensoy, O., & DiAngelo, R. (2012). Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key concepts in social justice education. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Storytelling for Social Justice: Connecting Narrative and the Arts in Antiracist Teaching
By Lee Anne Bell
Through accessible language and candid discussions,
Storytelling for Social Justice explores the stories we tell ourselves and each other about race and racism in our society. Making sense of the racial constructions expressed through the language and images we encounter every day, this book provides strategies for developing a more critical understanding of how racism operates culturally and institutionally in our society. Using the arts in general, and storytelling in particular, the book examines ways to teach and learn about race by creating counter-storytelling communities that can promote more critical and thoughtful dialogue about racism and the remedies necessary to dismantle it in our institutions and interactions. Illustrated throughout with examples drawn from high school classrooms, teacher education programs, and K-12 professional development programs, the book provides tools for examining racism as well as other issues of social justice. For every teacher who has struggled with how to get the “race discussion” going or who has suffered through silences and antagonism, the innovative model presented in this book offers a practical and critical framework for thinking about and acting on stories about racism and other forms of injustice.
Reference:
Bell, L. A. (2010). Storytelling for social justice: Connecting narrative and the arts in antiracist teaching. New York, NY: Routledge.
Facilitating Intergroup Dialogues
By Kelly E. Maxwell, Biren A. Nagda, & Minota C. Thompson
Intergroup dialogue has emerged as an effective educational and community building method to bring together members of diverse social and cultural groups to engage in learning together so that they may work collectively and individually to promote greater diversity, equality and justice. Intergroup dialogues bring together individuals from different identity groups (such as people of color and white people; women and men; lesbian, gay, and bisexual people and heterosexual people), and uses explicit pedagogy that involves three important features: content learning, structured interaction, and facilitative guidance. The least understood role in the pedagogy is that of facilitation. This volume, the first dedicated entirely to intergroup dialogue facilitation, draws on the experiences of contributors and on emerging research to address the multi-dimensional role of facilitators and co-facilitators, the training and support of facilitators, and ways of improving practice in both educational and community settings. It constitutes a comprehensive guide for practitioners, covering the theoretical, conceptual, and practical knowledge they need. Presenting the work and insights of scholars, practitioners and scholar-practitioners who train facilitators for intergroup dialogues, this book bridges the theoretical and conceptual foundations of intergroup relations and social justice education with training models for intergroup dialogue facilitation.
Reference:
Maxwell, K. E., Nagda, B. A., & Thompson, M. C. (2011). Facilitating intergroup dialogues: Building bridges, catalyzing change. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Social Justice Pedagogy Across the Curriculum
By Thandeka K. Chapman & Nikola Hobbel
What knowledge and tools do pre- and in-service educators need to teach for and about social justice across the curriculum in K-12 classrooms? This compelling text synthesizes in one volume historical foundations, philosophic/theoretical conceptualizations, and applications of social justice education in public school classrooms. Part one details the history of the multicultural movement and the instantiation of public schooling as a social justice project. Part two connects theoretical frameworks to social justice curricula. Parts I and II are general to all K-12 classrooms. Part three provides powerful specific subject-area examples of good practice, including English as a Second Language and Special/ Exceptional Education Social Justice Pedagogy Across the Curriculum includes highlighted ‘Points of Inquiry’ and ‘Points of Praxi’s sections offering recommendations to teachers and researchers and activities, resources, and suggested readings. These features invite teachers at all stages of their careers to reflect on the role of social justice in education, particularly as it relates to their particular classrooms, schools, and communities.
Reference:
Chapman, T. K., & Hobbel, N. (2010). Social justice pedagogy across the curriculum. New York, NY: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia
By Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs, Yolanda Flores Niemann, Carmen G. Gonzalez, & Angela P. Harris
Presumed Incompetent is a pathbreaking account of the intersecting roles of race, gender, and class in the working lives of women faculty of color. Through personal narratives and qualitative empirical studies, more than 40 authors expose the daunting challenges faced by academic women of color as they navigate the often hostile terrain of higher education, including hiring, promotion, tenure, and relations with students, colleagues, and administrators. The narratives are filled with wit, wisdom, and concrete recommendations, and provide a window into the struggles of professional women in a racially stratified but increasingly multicultural America.
Reference:
Gutierrez y Muhs, G., Niemann, Y. F., Gonzalez, C. G., & Harris, A. P. (2012). Presumed incompetent: The intersections of race and class for women in academia. Boulder, CO: Utah State University Press.
From Oppression to Grace: Women of Color and Their Dilemmas Within the Academy
By Theodorea Regina Berry and Nathalie Mizelle
This book gives voice to the experiences of women of color–women of African, Native American, Latina, East Indian, Korean and Japanese descent–as students pursuing terminal degrees and as faculty members navigating the Academy, grappling with the dilemmas encountered by others and themselves as they exist at the intersections of their work and identities. The first part of the book addresses the issues faced on the way to achieving a terminal degree: the struggles encountered and the lessons learned along the way. Part Two, “Pride and Prejudice: Finding Your Place After the Degree” describes the complexity of lives of women with multiple identities as scholars with family, friends, and lives at home and at work. The book concludes with the voices of senior faculty sharing their journeys and their paths to growth as scholars and individuals.
Reference:
Berry, T. R., & Mizelle, N. (2006). From oppression to grace: Women of color and their dilemmas within the academy. Sterling, VA: Stylus.
Can schooling contribute to a more just society? By Michael W. Apple Education, Citizenship, and Social Justice, Vol. 3, pp. 239-261 (2008)
This article combines discussions of the politics of education with personal story telling to remind us why the continuing struggle over schooling – over what is and is not taught, over how it is taught and evaluated, over how students with different characteristics are treated, over how teachers and other school employees are respectfully dealt with, over how the relationship between schools and their communities can be democratized, and so much more – is absolutely crucial to the pursuit of social justice. Using the example of the book Democratic Schools, it suggests tactics for making critically democratic practices more visible. It also describes seven specific tasks that critical scholar/activists in education should perform if we are committed to challenging dominant relations in education and the larger society.
The Need for Equality in Education: An Intersectionality Examination of Labeling and Zero Tolerance Practices By Wanda Cassidy & Margaret Jackson McGill Journal of Education, Vol. 40, pp. 445-466 (2005)
The authors observe that students in school who exhibit challenging behaviours are given labels such as “severe behaviour,” “troubled,” or “violent” and that these negative labels have repercussions on students. School administrators also employ zero tolerance policies without addressing the root causes of negative behaviour. Using students’ self-reports, the authors note the negative effects of labeling and zero tolerance practices on children and schools, and discuss the implications for society as a whole. They conclude with recommendations for changes in policies and practices that more carefully consider the systemic sources of the behaviour, and that align more closely with fundamental educational goals and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Introduction: Thoughts and Ideas on the Intersectionality of Identity By Theodorea Regina Berry, Michelle Jay, & Marvin Lynn Education Foundations (Winter-Spring), pp. 3-9 (2010)
This introduction will provide a glimpse of what is to come in this special issue. The dialogue contained in this article provides the ideological foundation for contextualizing McKay’s efforts to position African American community education as a space for adults to “counter the master narrative,” “recover silenced consciousness,” and affirm their identities. The testimonials of their education trajectories, re-presented in Lindsay Pérez Huber’s “Using Latina/o Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) and Racist Nativism To Explore Intersectionality in the Educational Experiences of Undocumented Chicana College Students,” reveal how the complex interactions between race, immigration status, class and gender gave rise to a detrimental educational context in which the racist beliefs of their teachers were tied to “constructions of undocumented immigrants who were perceived as a thread to the well-being of the U.S. and its native citizens.”
Traversing New Theoretical Frames for Intercultural Education: Gender, Intersectionality, Performativity By Zelia Gregoriou International Education Studies, Vol. 6, pp. 179-191 (2013)
This paper attempts to renegotiate the conceptual and political borders of intercultural education by importing ways of thinking, concepts, aporias and questions relevant to a gendered study of intercultural interactions from theoretical terrains outside the disciplinary borders and discursive limits of intercultural education. A number of theoretical developments in disciplines and area studies committed to a politics of justice beyond identity politics pose the need for rethinking the heading of intercultural education. These developments include: the prevalence of the concept and methodology of intersectionality in migration, gender and ethnicity studies; a concern across various kinds of social and political inquiry for the ‘culturalist emphasis’; poststructuralist theorizations of power, subjectivity and resistance; and, finally, the urge to re-politicize the study of intercultural interactions. The need to rethink intercultural education emerges with regards to curriculum and pedagogy, policy frames and research methodology.
Sex and Sensibility: Gender, Race, and Class in Three Youth Cultures By Amy C. Wilkins ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (2004)
This study combines interviews and participant-observation to explore the negotiation of gender, race, and class in three youth cultural projects: Puerto Rican Wannabes, Goths, and evangelical Christians. While these projects seem very different, they are all examples of local identities mobilized to solve a range of shared problems. These strategies, beyond the personal and idiosyncratic, are all about gender, race, and class locations. They allow young people to navigate gender, race, and class expectations by manipulating or transgressing established gender, race, and class boundaries. Despite variations in these strategies, each project is hemmed in by the intractability of inequality. Thus, these projects show us the possibilities and limitations of intersectionality as it is experienced on the ground.
Exploring Intersectionality in Education: The Intersection of Gender, Race, Disability, and Class By Amy J. Peterson Proquest Dissertations and Theses (2006)
The purpose of this study was to explore the intersection of gender, race, disability, and class within education. The educational experiences of African American women labeled with a disability and from a disadvantaged socio-economic class were examined. The story that emerged from this research was each participant’s strength. Their stories revealed that each woman persistently and continually engaged in the world around them in order to negotiate, evade, and resist the dominant ideology surrounding the discourses of race, gender, disability, and class. The results indicated that the participants’ lived educational experiences centered on three themes: educational and social barriers, questions of identity, and frustration at the intersections of gender, race, disability, and class.
Awareness and Integration of Multiple Sociocultural Identities Among Black Students at a Predominantly White Institution By Dafina L. Stewart Proquest Dissertations and Theses (2001)
The purpose of this study was to investigate the awareness and integration of multiple sociocultural identities among a group of black students attending a predominantly white college. Sociocultural identities are those identity facets which have a biological origin and are socially constructed (i.e., race or gender). The participant group consisted of five students who attended a small, liberal arts college in the Midwest. Data were collected in two forms, questionnaire and interview, over a period of three months. The individual interviews were conducted in four stages. Five research questions guided the study: (1) the ways these students perceived their own multiple identity facets; (2) how these students chose which identity facets to embrace or abandon; (3) the role of race, gender, and class on the lived experiences of these students; (4) how these students articulate an integrated identity; and (5) the impact of spirituality on the students’ perception and development of their own integrated identities.
What Does Teaching For Social Justice Mean to Teacher Candidates? By Young A. Lee The Professional Educator, Vol. 35, pp. 1-20 (2011)
To better prepare teacher candidates to teach for social justice, teacher educators need to know students’ understandings of social justice embedded in their personal histories and past and current learning experiences. Using participatory action research, this study examines how 6 early childhood (grades pre-K-3) teacher candidates understood and changed, or did not change their understandings of teaching for social justice. Using qualitative methods, this research aims to understand the complexities of interactions between the participants’ identity and their conceptualization of teaching for social justice within a teacher education program. The results of this study provide early childhood teacher educators with insights and tools for encouraging social justice teaching.
Dialogic Pedagogy for Social Justice: A Critical Examination By Liz Jackson Studies in Philosophy and Education, Vol. 27, pp. 137-148 (2008)
A crucial component of any education, dialogue is viewed by many social justice educators as their primary means towards rectifying social inequalities. Yet the extent to which the particular educational practices they recommend meet the needs or interests of their students who face systemic disadvantage remains unclear. This essay examines claims for and against dialogical pedagogy for increasing social justice. While conceding that dialogue is necessary for developing praxis as a student and participant in society, the essay argues that the prescriptive tone of some educators committed to social justice undermines their capacity for dealing concretely with the needs and interests of those they intend to better serve. The conclusion is drawn that educators committed to increasing equality must develop pedagogical attitudes informed by various educational implications of structural injustice as well as by the specific contexts in which they serve as teachers of both particular skills and content.
Dare public school administrators build a new social order?: Social justice and the possibly perilous politics of educational leadership By Catherine A. Lugg & Alan R. Shoho Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 44, pp. 96-208 (2006)
This paper aims to discuss how public school administrators with a social justice perspective have an obligation to permeate society beyond their schools and how they might address the perilous politics associated with advocating social change. Using George Counts’ landmark 1932 speech, Dare the School Build a New Social Order? as the conceptual lenses, it examines the relevancy of Counts’ words for contemporary school leaders and professors of educational administration. The paper finds that there are similarities between the present-day call for social justice and the earlier Social Reconstructionist movement that Counts’ manifesto sparked. Both movements have invited educators, and particularly the professoriate, to think more expansively when it comes to US public education, society at large, and the influence of educators in shaping a more democratic and just country. But Counts goes much further than most adherents of the current-day social justice movement. He stressed that educators must see themselves as political actors, who can shape their political environments through their teaching, as well as by participating in other venues. Consequently, embracing a social justice ethic invites a degree of risk-taking. This paper examines the relevancy of Counts’ words for contemporary school leaders and professors of educational administration and highlights implications for school leaders.
A Social Justice Approach as a Base for Teaching Writing By Thandeka K. Chapman, Nikola Hobbel, & Nora V. Alvarado Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, Vol. 54, pp. 539-541 (2011)
In this article, the authors employ Nieto and Bode’s (2007, p. 11) tenets of social justice education: (a) challenge, confront, and disrupt “misconceptions, untruths, and stereotypes that lead to structural inequality and discrimination based on race, social class, gender, and other social and human differences”; (b) provide “all students with the resources necessary to learn to their full potential”; (c) draw on the “talents and strengths that students bring to their education”; and (d) create a “learning environment that promotes critical thinking and supports agency for social change.” In the English language arts classroom, social justice is a way to increase students’ abilities to articulate their experiences, critique their world, and address those identified issues with subsequent action. Teachers who practice social justice education cultivate student voice through class activities, readings, assignments, and assessments that allow students to incorporate their personal stories within the contexts of the school curriculum.
Understanding Education for Social Justice By Kahty Hytten & Silvia Bettez The Journal of Educational Foundations, Vol. 25, pp. 7-24 (2011)
Just recently, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education removed social justice language from its accrediting standards because of its controversial, ambiguous, and ideologically weighted nature. While often these are overlapping and interconnected discourses, this is not always the case, and the strength that might come from dialogue across seemingly shared visions can be compromised. It seems useful to tease out more clearly what we mean when we claim a social justice orientation, especially so that we can find places where the beliefs, theories and tools we do share can be brought to bear on a more powerful, and, ultimately, more influential vision of educating for social justice-one that can better challenge the problematic growth of conservative, neoliberal, and many would argue, unjust, movements in education.
Acts of Solidarity: Developing Urban Social Justice Educators in the Struggle for Quality Public Education By Eleni Katsarou, Bree Picower, & David Stovall Teacher Education Quarterly, Vol. 37, pp. 137-153 (2010)
By taking the position that teaching for social justice is an act of necessity and solidarity, this work seeks to highlight two examples of teacher education initiatives. Because the relationships between teacher , student, family, school, and state are integral to the teaching process, three central questions guide our thinking and teaching . The first question in our inquiry is in what ways can teacher education be re-conceptualized in relation to communities to address the political function of teaching? Secondly, how can teacher education renegotiate traditional relationships with key stakeholders to move towards social justice education? Finally, what specific strategies and innovations are teacher educators implementing within communities and schools to develop social justice educators?
Democratically Accountable Leadership: A Social Justice Perspective of Educational Quality and Practice By Carol Mullen Teacher Education Quarterly, Vol. 35, pp. 137-153 (2008)
Creative and bold approaches for exploring how developing teachers and leaders alike understand social justice education with respect to thought-provoking concepts are needed. Because for the study participants had to record their ideas in response to open-ended questions concerning democracy, accountability, and leadership, instead of just checking off items on a survey, they were induced to articulate their own social justice values and to produce unique statements.
Creating Artwork in Response to Issues of Social Justice: A Critical Multicultural Pedagogy By Jana Noel Multicultural Education, Vol. 10, pp. 15-18 (2003)
Noel describes an arts-based approach to the study of multicultural education that challenges students to address issues of social justice. The class ” Education in a Democratic, Pluralistic Society,” which involves a cohort of practicing teachers working on their Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on the Arts, describes how the creation of artwork serves as a personal act of meaning-making for students, allowing them to create a vision for a project of social transformation.
Navigating Contradictory Communities of Practice in Learning to Teach for Social Justice By Maria Flores Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Vol. 38, pp. 380-404 (2007)
In this article, the author explores the contradictions that four new teachers experienced as their commitments to social justice collide with urban school culture. Framed within Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s (1999) theory of situated learning and development concepts of identity, practice, and relationships illustrate how teachers ‘ ideals are challenged as socializing features of two communities of practice–the universities and schools–intersect in new teachers ‘ development. This research contributes empirical evidence of the application of critical multicultural teacher preparation into practice, a cultural representation of how educational inequities are reproduced or disrupted in the situated contexts of urban schools, an application of Lave and Wenger’s theory of Legitimate Peripheral Participation that incorporates formal and informal education across multiple activity settings, and a call for collaborative communities of practice that support teachers ‘ situated learning in creating transformative practices.
Using Archetypes to Introduce Social Justice in PETE By Brian Culp Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance, Vol. 84, pp. 17-19 (2013)
Contemporary educators have advocated for improving the quality of teacher education programs by infusing concepts of social justice. However, the rationale for this adjustment has been a matter of intense debate in educational circles. Along with the lack of a consistent, agreed-upon definition, critics argue that a focus on social justice in teacher preparation would indoctrinate teachers into a particular ideology rather than focus on professional competence and subject matter knowledge. This recent critique is a call to action for those who prepare teachers. Namely, educators should have the ability to teach discipline-specific content, engage future teachers, and develop realistic solutions to problems in the midst of a diverse society that has accelerated in recent decades.
Preparing Teachers for Social Justice Advocacy: Am I Walking My Talk? By Stephanie B. Storms Multicultural Education, Vol. 20, pp. 33-39 (2013)
In this article, the author examines teacher candidates’ perceptions of how their experiences in a graduate level action research course, using a critical approach, promoted their readiness for social justice advocacy. This article draws on the experience of teacher candidates in an action research (AR) course required for students in our masters degree program. The course is for experienced teachers and community educators. The 15-week course enrolls six to eight students and is part of a six-credit integrative inquiry/advocacy sequence that teacher candidates’ take prior to their capstone course. The author has taught AR since 2008 and the primary goal of the course is for teacher candidates and community educators to gain knowledge and competence in designing and implementing socially responsible research and advocacy projects with and for students and community members.
Making Learning to Problem-Solve Count: Critical Use of Mathematics to Bring about Social Justice By Thomas A. Lucey & Madalina Tanase Multicultural Education, Vol. 19, pp. 8-13 (2012)
Educating for social justice requires teaching and learning practices that prompt critical thinking about the assumptions that guide mainstream social thinking. For example, education for contemporary capitalist society employs the myth of meritocracy to claim that social advancement occurs only through hard work and honest behaviour. Such myths are evidence of the ignorance that can occur when American educational processes limit opportunities for students to question and explore patterns of knowledge that exist outside the realm of general social and political convention and acceptance. The role of mathematics should include the empowerment of students to live successful lives by enabling them to appreciate their role as agents of change and use mathematics as a tool to affect societal justice. Educators should abandon traditional conceptions of mathematics as an isolated trajectory in the curriculum. In order to help students meaningfully apply mathematics, teachers should recognize and facilitate inquiry into the interrelationships among mathematics, social justice, and financial issues.
“A Rainforest in Front of a Bulldozer”: The Literacy Practices of Teacher Candidates Committed to Social Justice By Janet D. Johnson English Education, Vol. 44, pp. 147-179 (2012)
This critical ethnographic study explores how two teacher candidates in English education used specific and varied literacy practices to enact their social justice priorities at a troubled high school in a high-need district. Data include: interviews before and after the student teaching experience; observations of teaching, blogs, journals, and emails; and coursework required of candidates. Critical discourse analysis was used to analyze the data. The New Literacy Studies and teaching for social justice frameworks were foundational to this research. In addition, the theory of testimonial reading, as outlined by Felman (1992) and Boler (1999), was used to demonstrate how the two candidates worked within and against the system to resist deficit models of their students and ultimately bear witness to their students’ experiences.
A Mindfulness To Transcend Pre-Service Lip-Service: A Call for K-12 Schools To Invest in Social Justice Education By Olivia Murray Multicultural Education, Vol. 17, pp. 48-50 (2010)
According to Sonia Nieto (2000) and the National Center for Education Information (2005), student populations continue to be characterized by diversity while more than ninety percent of those in teacher preparation programs are mostly White, middle class, and from non-urban backgrounds. At a time when school budgets are deteriorating and creative tendencies are replaced with a need to prepare students for high stakes standardized assessment, taking on the bodies of knowledge, research, and practice that inform social justice education is not an easy task. The authors argue that school administration and educators committed to teaching social justice must naturally take on a leadership role in order to confront the challenges that come with this work.
Developing Teachers for Social Justice By Herbert Kohl Radical Teacher, Vol. 65 (2002)
The legislation of life in the classroom is being shaped by the makeover of teachers. The border between teaching students and testing is becoming increasingly unclear and the performance gap is increasing. Many people already teaching are demoralized. In addition, there is an assault on the very enterprise of public education emanating from the Far Right. The “Small Schools” movement, a ray of hope in a slough of despond, is struggling along. The author explores one key text, Nathaniel Higgin’s “The Deforming Mirror of Truth,” which allowed both of the classes to focus on constructing narratives and on the critical analysis of educational and philosophical theories of childhood, learning, and schooling. The author also covers an extensive use of the ideas of Paulo Freire, Myles Horton, and Vygotsky, among others.
“Am I a Black Woman or a Woman Who is Black? A Few Thoughts on the Meaning of Intersectionality.” By Julia S. Jordan-Zachery Politics & Gender, Vol. 3, pp. 254–63 (2007)
In some of our current work, intersectionality is employed more as a descriptive analytical tool that talks about how black women, women of color, or other marginalized groups tend to behave. While indeed this is an important element of intersectionality, focusing only on the descriptive analysis ignores the liberation/political framework of intersectionality. In its earlier conceptualizations, intersectionality was also about the issue of liberation. As we employ intersectionality as an analytical tool, we have to be very specific in articulating for what purposes(s) we are using it.
Intersectionality and Feminist Politics By Nira Yuval-Davis European Journal of Women’s Studies, Vol. 13(3), pp. 193–210 (2006)
This article explores various analytical issues involved in conceptualizing the interrelationships of gender, class, race and ethnicity and other social divisions. It compares the debate on these issues that took place in Britain in the 1980s and around the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism. It examines issues such as the relative helpfulness of additive or mutually constitutive models of intersectional social divisions; the different analytical levels at which social divisions need to be studied, their ontological base and their relations to each other. The final section of the article attempts critically to assess a specific intersectional methodological approach for engaging in aid and human rights work in the South.
“Through the Kaleidoscope”: Intersections Between Theoretical Perspectives and Classroom Implications in Critical Global Citizenship Education By Sameena Eidoo, Leigh-Anne Ingram, Angela MacDonald, Maryam Nabavi, & Karen Pashby Canadian Journal of Education, Vol. 34(4), pp. 59-84 (2011)
This paper presents a multi-voiced examination of educating for global citizenship from critical, interdisciplinary perspectives. The paper explores how insights from theoretical work on multiculturalism, race, religion, gender, language and literacy, and eco-justice can contribute to a critical global citizenship education practice. It reports the learning of a group of six Canadian PhD Candidates, who engaged in a year-long collaborative process to explore critical approaches to global citizenship education by focusing on key intersecting concerns, particularly critically understanding globalization. Drawing on theoretical considerations and discussions, the authors consider pedagogical implications for classroom teaching and learning.
(En)gendering Multicultural Identities And Representations In Education. By Nina Asher & Margaret Smith Crocco Theory and Research in Social Education, Vol. 29(1), pp. 129-151 (2001)
This article examines the place of women of the world in the implicit and explicit social studies curriculum of the schools. The authors establish a postcolonial feminist framework for dealing with this topic and draw on evidence from personal testimonies of immigrant and native women, the treatment of women of the “third world” by mainstream media, social studies curricular standards, and one classroom teacher’s story. Central to the article is an examination of the tension teachers face in dealing with issues of gender cross-culturally as they navigate between ethnocentrism and cultural relativism towards what is called “the middle ground.” The authors offer suggestions at the end of the article for incorporating material about women of the world into the social studies curriculum from a postcolonial feminist perspective.
Democratic Social Cohesion (Assimilation)? Representations of Social Conflict in Canadian Public School Curriculum By Kathy Bickmore Canadian Journal of Education, Vol. 29(2), pp. 359-386 (2006)
This article examines the representation of conflict , diversity, peace, and justice issues in selected mandated curriculum guidelines, grades 1-10, for three Canadian provinces. These curricula , grounded in prevailing assumptions, reflect political will and influence resource availability for teaching. Prominent among them is a neutral discourse invoking Canadian ideals of multiculturalism that emphasizes harmony, marginalizes conflict and critical viewpoints, and presents injustices as past or virtually resolved. Because relatively little attention is given to actual instances of social conflict , violence, or marginalization, these curricula limit students’ opportunities to practice with constructive democratic conflict and peacebuilding.
Citizenship and diversity in the global imperative: What does global citizenship education mean for multiculturalism? By Karen L. Pashby Unpublished Master’s Thesis, York University, Canada. (2006)
This thesis examines the shifting theoretical and pedagogical terrain between multiculturalism and global citizenship education. Scott’s (1999) notion of strategic criticism is employed to determine whether global citizenship marks a shift away from multiculturalism, and if so, whether multiculturalism remains a relevant educational agenda. The mutually reinforcing relationships between citizenship, multiculturalism, and education are examined in the context of globalization. Through a close, critical reading of Kymlicka’s works, multiculturalism is shown to have evolved a more socially just notion of democratic citizenship. This is compared to how current discourses of cosmopolitanism and global orientations to citizenship have further evoked and evolved citizenship. Important tensions emerging from the binary of unity and diversity are examined in debates around national and global priorities. Finally, these complex relationships are considered from the perspective of education, and global citizenship education is cautiously endorsed.
Some Challenges Facing Queer Youth Programs in Urban High Schools: Racial Segregation and De-Normalizing Whiteness By Lance T. McCready Journal of Gay & Lesbian Issues in Education, Vol. 1(3), pp. 37-51 (2004)
This article begins a conversation about two important issues that the author believes have an impact on queer youth programs in urban schools: racial segregation and the normalization of Whiteness. Data for the article are based on the author’s participation in a school-university collaborative action research project at California High School (CHS) between 1996 and 2000. The project’s research on participation in extracurricular activities led to the author’s independent participant-observation in Project 10, the school’s social/support group for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning students. The results of these investigations suggest that the racially segregated social environment of CHS greatly affects the participation of queer students of color in Project 10. Additionally, faculty advisors for this program seemed less aware of the social/support needs of queer youth of color. In conclusion, the author suggests that through collaborative inquiry, students, teachers, and queer youth advocates develop awareness of the relationship between the social context of urban schools and participation in extracurricular activities. He also suggests that faculty advisors and queer youth advocates become more aware of the identities of queer youth of color by diversifying the curriculum and building coalitions with students and teachers who are broadly concerned with the ways multiple forms of oppression make urban schools ineffective and unsafe.
“Making Space” for Ourselves: African American Student Responses to Their Marginalization By Terah T. Venzant Chambers & Lance T. McCready Urban Education, Vol. 46(6), pp. 1352-1378 (2011)
Drawing from two separate case studies, one on lower track African American students and another on gay and gender nonconforming African American male students, this article explores how students with multiple stigmatized identities make sense of and respond to their marginalization, a process we term making space. In particular, we consider how making space can support students’ psychosocial needs and at the same time work against school engagement and academic striving. We describe types of “making space” strategies: sociospatial, performative, and political/institutional, and use these categories to describe the ways students in our projects responded to their perceived marginalization. Institutional processes that make these responses necessary are addressed as well as how schools can either mediate or intensify students’ feelings of marginalization and therefore their perceived need to “make space.”
Intersectional Feminist Frameworks: An Emerging Vision By The Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (2006)
After years of working towards greater equality for women, CRIAW believes that different approaches are needed to make real social and economic change — approaches that offer diverse contributions, and that work from Intersectional Feminist Frameworks (IFFs). IFFs offer alternative frameworks to viewing economic and social change which value and bring together the visions, directions and goals of women from very diverse experiences and different perspectives. In this document CRIAW hopes to foster interest in IFFs and encourage their use by women’s and social justice organizations.
Unspeakable Offenses: Untangling Race and Disability in Discourses of Intersectionality By Nirmala Erevelles & Andrea Minear Journal of Literary & Cultural Disability Studies, Vol. 4(2), pp. 127-145 (2010)
The Literature of Critical Race Feminist Theory approaches disability as an expression of intersectional identity wherein devalued social characteristics compound stigma resulting in so-called spirit murder. Three diverging practices of intersectionality are identified as guiding scholarship on the constitutive features of multiply minoritizing identities: (1) anticategorical frameworks that insist on race, class, and gender as social constructs/fictions; (2) intracategorical frameworks that critique merely additive approaches to differences as layered stigmas; and (3) constitutive frameworks that describe the structural conditions within which social categories in the above models are constructed by (and intermeshed with) each other in specific historical contexts. In being true to Critical Race Feminist Theory approaches, the article draws on two other narratives, one historical and one contemporary, to describe how individuals located perilously at the intersections of race, class, gender, and disability are constituted as non-citizens and (no)bodies by the very social institutions (legal, educational, and rehabilitational) that are designed to protect, nurture, and empower them.
Transgender Youth of Color and Resilience: Negotiating Oppression and Finding Support By Anneliese A. Singh Sex Roles, Vol. 68, pp. 690-702 (2013)
This qualitative study explored the resilience of 13 transgender youth of color in the southeastern region of the U.S. The definition of resilience framing this study was a participant’s ability to “bounce back” from challenging experiences as transgender youth of color. Using a phenomenological research tradition and a feminist, intersectionality (intercategorical) theoretical framework, the research question guiding the study was: “What are the daily lived experiences of resilience transgender youth of color describe as they negotiate intersections of transprejudice and racism?” The researchers’ individuated findings included five major domains of the essence of participants’ daily lived experiences of resilience despite experiencing racism and transprejudice: (1) evolving, simultaneous self-definition of racial/ethnic and gender identities, (2) being aware of adultism experiences, (3) self-advocacy in educational systems, (4) finding one’s place in the LGBTQQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning) youth community, and (5) use of social media to affirm one’s identities as a transgender youth of color. Implications for practice, research, and advocacy, in addition to the study’s limitations are discussed.
Gender, Narratives and Intersectionality: can Personal Experience Approaches to Research Contribute to “Undoing Gender”? By Barbara A. Cole International Review of Education, Vol. 55, pp. 561-578 (2009)
This paper examines narrative methodologies as one approach to exploring issues of gender, education and social justice and, particularly, insights into “undoing gender.” It furthermore examines the possibilities of exploring gender and its multiple intersections in a range of global and policy contexts through the use of personal experience approaches. The “storying” of lived experience is examined as a means of challenging dominant discourses, which can construct and other individuals and groups in relation to many aspects of gender and education. Drawing on intersectionality, as a complex and developing feminist theory, the paper considers ways in which narrative can illuminate often hidden complexities while seeking to avoid generalisations and essentialisms. The difficulties of using narrative in relation to these aims are explored in the light of the warnings of feminist writers such as Michele Fine and bell hooks. The paper briefly considers narrative as both methodology and phenomenon, and finally, drawing on critical discourse analysis, discusses the potential of intersectionality and narrative in relation to undoing gender.
The Dimensions of the Right to Education for Inclusion Throughout Life By Cecilia Fernández Convergence, Vol. 39(2), pp. 109-121 (2006)
Discrimination – Education for Non-Discrimination – Education for Inclusion – Intersectionality are some of the terms and concepts that became relevant, particularly since the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance which was held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001, some days before September 11, an event which has been somehow responsible for the hurdles faced during the past five years. The discrimination term denotes all forms of distinction, restriction, exclusion and preference based on gender, race, origin, lineage, nationality or ethnicity, sexual orientation, social status, religion, age, disability, which aim at undermining or impeding the exercise and acknowledgement, under equal conditions, of human rights and fundamental freedoms.
When Black + Lesbian + Woman [not equal to] Black Lesbian Woman: The Methodological Challenges of Qualitative and Quantitative Intersectionality Research By Lisa Bowleg Sex Roles, Vol.59, pp. 312-325 (2008)
The notion that social identities and social inequality based on ethnicity, sexual orientation, and sex/gender are intersectional rather than additive poses a variety of thorny methodological challenges. Using research with Black lesbians (Bowleg, manuscripts in preparation; Bowleg et al., Journal of Lesbian Studies, 2008; Bowleg et al., Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology 10:229-240, 2004; Bowleg et al., Journal of Lesbian Studies, 7:87-108, 2003) as a foundation, the author examines how these challenges shape measurement, analysis, and interpretation. She argues that a key dilemma for intersectionality researchers is that the additive (e.g., Black + Lesbian + Woman) versus intersectional (e.g., Black Lesbian Woman) assumption inherent in measurement and qualitative and quantitative data analyses contradicts the central tenet of intersectionality: social identities and inequality are interdependent for groups such as Black lesbians, not mutually exclusive. In light of this, interpretation becomes one of the most substantial tools in the intersectionality researcher’s methodological toolbox.
“Don’t Ever Forget Now, You’re a Black Man in America”: Intersections of Race, Class and Gender In Encounters with the Police By Andrea L. Dottolo & Abigail J. Stewart Sex Roles, Vol. 59, pp. 350-364 (2008)
Middle-aged black and white graduates of a Midwestern US high school responded to interview questions about race and racial identity. Their answers included descriptions of police harassment and crime, and focused on those considered to be criminal actors: most often apparently poor, black men. Qualitative analysis of 38 interviews showed that questions about racial identity tapped into a discourse that constructs and stereotypes criminals as occupying social positions defined by race, class and gender, particularly for African Americans. The concept of intersectionality illuminates the cultural construction of police encounters with citizens in terms of poor black men, and the specific nature of the stories of racial identity told–and not told–by respondents with different race, class and gender identities.
Protecting Our Daughters: Intersection of Race, Class and Gender in African American Mothers’ Socialization of Their Daughters’ Heterosexuality By Tiffany G. Townsend Sex Roles, Vol. 59, pp. 429-442 (2008)
Using a framework of intersectionality and Black feminist thought, this paper provides a conceptual exploration of the socialization process among African American mothers and daughters, with special attention given to the ways in which African American girls become aware of their mother’s attitudes and beliefs concerning romantic relationships. The author proposes a model of sexual risk for low income African American girls in which the armoring process serves as the focal point. She then provides a conceptual discussion, comparing her proposed model to current social cognitive models in its ability to comprehensively explain the correlates and predictors of sexual behavior among this population. Implications concerning sexual risk prevention efforts are also discussed.
Race (and Gender and Class) and Child Custody: Theorizing Intersections in Two Canadian Court Cases By Charmaine C. Williams NWSA Journal, Vol. 16(2), pp. 46-69 (2004)
In the summer of 2001, the Canadian media devoted attention to two court cases that resulted in mothers losing custody of their children, Kimberly Van de Perre and Nadia Hama might have been overlooked if the presentation of their cases had not evoked discussion regarding the relevance of claims of racism in custody decisions. Analysis of the media narrative reveals that the narrow focus on race distorted perceptions of these family situations, and contributed to the marginalization of the two single mothers involved. This paper examines this process to explore how an analysis based on multiple identities, and simultaneous existence of oppression and privilege, may have led to different outcomes for these two families.
The Gendered Nature of Discriminatory Experiences by Race, Class, and Sexuality: A Comparison of Intersectionality Theory and the Subordinate Male Target Hypothesis By Gerry Veenstra Sex Roles, Vol. 68, pp. 646-659 (2013)
Three competing theoretical approaches to social inequalities by gender, race, class, and sexuality are examined. The additive approach assumes that people possessing multiple subordinate-group identities experience the oppressions associated with them as distinct phenomena. The intersectionality-inspired approach suggests that subordinate-group identities such as non-White, lower class, and non-heterosexual interact with gender in a synergistic way, occasioning inordinately pernicious experiences of discrimination for women possessing one or more additional subordinate-group identities. The subordinate male target hypothesis (SMTH) claims that the discrimination experienced by the men of subordinate groups—primarily at the hands of men of dominant groups—is greater than that experienced by the women of the same subordinate groups. In 2009, telephone survey data was collected from 414 women and 208 men in Toronto, Canada and 521 women and 245 men in Vancouver, Canada. Negative binomial regression techniques are applied to these data to determine whether and how gender (male or female), race (White or non-White), educational attainment, household income, and sexual orientation (heterosexual or non-heterosexual), as well as two-way interactions between gender and the other variables, predict scale measures of self- reported major experiences of discrimination and self-reported chronic, routine discriminatory experiences. High levels of both kinds of discrimination reported by men in general are at odds with the additive and intersectionality-inspired perspectives that accord women the gender identity most vulnerable to discrimination. Inordinately high levels of routine discrimination reported by men with a high school diploma or less are consistent with the SMTH-inspired perspective.
Race, Class, Gender? Intersectionality Troubles By Susanne Hochreiter Journal of Research in Gender Studies, Vol. 1(2), pp. 49-56 (2011)
Intersectionality is a key concept in recent Gender Studies. There is a lot research on the question of how to “intersect” different dimensions of identities – such as race, class, and gender. This triad of identity (model of “triple oppression”) became a buzzword and has been strongly criticized in the last years. At the same time new approaches can hardly solve the problem of what is denominated, what is not, and what the consequences of this politics of names actually are. The pluralisation of identities makes logocentric thinking visible and at the same time continues it. In this article the author will discuss recent intersectionality theory in the context of queer theory and queer politics.
Disappearing Acts: Reclaiming Intersectionality in the Social Sciences in a Post-Black Feminist Era By Nikol G. Alexander-Floyd Feminist Formations, Vol. 24(1), pp. 1-25 (2012)
The article investigates how post-black feminist definitions of intersectionality in the social sciences have “disappeared” black women as knowledge producers and subjects of investigation. This post-black feminist turn in theorizing intersectionality is assessed in terms of the rhetorical strategies critiqued by Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989, 1990-91) in her foundational work on intersectionality, demonstrating how the very strategies she identified as hegemonic limitations to black feminism have been incorporated into social science work produced in the name of intersectional investigation, thus re-subjugating black women’s knowledge. A reconstructive liberatory project in the name of intersectionality is suggested that would entail scholars across the disciplines implementing hermeneutical and/or narrative methodologies that center on black women’s subjectivity.
Toward a theory of disability and gender By Thomas J. Gerrschick Signs, Vol. 25(4), pp. 1263-1268 (2000)
Disability has a profound effect on the material and nonmaterial experience of gender. Gerrschick addresses how disability affects the gendering process, how it affects the experience of gender, how having a disability affects women’s and men’s abilities to enact gender and in what ways the experiences of men and women with disabilities similar and different.
Labeled “Learning Disabled”: Life in and out of School for Urban Black and/or Latino/a Youth from Working-Class Backgrounds By David J. Connor ProQuest Dissertation and Theses (2005)
This research is in response to the problem of overrepresentation of Black and Latino(a) students in segregated special education classes. The qualitative study reveals how working-class Black and Latino(a) urban youth labeled as having learning dis/Abilities (LD) describe the ways they come to understand their positionality in the discourse of LD through their lived experience. The research utilizes an eclectic theoretical framework culling from fields of Disability Studies, Critical Race Theory, LatCrit Theory, and Black Feminist Thought.
Reclaiming English Education: Rooting Social Justice in Dispositions By Janet Alsup & S. J. Miller English Education, Vol. 46(3), pp. 195-215 (2014)
This article addresses the importance of foregrounding social justice in teaching and assessing dispositions for preservice teachers in secondary English language arts. We provide a historical overview of dispositions and their politicization, and we address NCATE’s removal of social justice and its impending return. We conclude with possibilities for assessing dispositions for social justice and reflections on the implications for accreditation and consider what might be in store for the future of dispositions in English education.
How Teachers Contribute to Produce the Phenomenon of Cultural Reproduction: The Factor of Normalized Pedagogy By Tien-Hui Chiang Academic Research International, Vol. 4(6), pp. 165-176 (2013)
In terms of implementing social justice , education is imposed the emancipator function, referring to increasing the upward rate of social mobility for working class children through the channel of schooling in a meritocratic society. However, scholars, such as B. Bernstein and P. Bourdieu, discover the inequity of educational results and conceptualize it as cultural reproduction. They contend that this phenomenon roots in the gap between curriculum knowledge and cultural competence of working class students. This essay argues that teachers play as a crucial contributor to the issue of cultural reproduction because they do not recognize the teaching methods that they conduct normally are based on middle/upper class students. Consequently, such middle-class-oriented pedagogy tends to create advantage and disadvantage positions for middle/upper class students and working class students respectively. However, confining the narrow scope of instrumental rationality, teachers normally employ mental reasons to justify their pedagogy. In terms of uncovering this synthetic politics embedded in schooling, this essay borrows the concepts of M. Foucault, such as normalization and self-governing, to develop an argument – normalized pedagogy.
Teacher Education and Black Male Students in the United States By Richard H. Milner, Amber Pabon, Ashley Woodson, & Ebony McGee Multidisciplinary Journal of Educational Research, suppl. Equity, Social Justice & Democracy, Vol. 3(3), pp. 235-265 (2013)
Teacher education programs in the United States (U.S.) struggle to prepare teachers to meet the complex needs of elementary and secondary students in public schools – especially those of color, those living in poverty, and those whose first language is not English. In this article, we argue for focused attention on preparing educators to teach African American male students as these students face particular institutional challenges in successfully navigating the U.S. public school system. Drawing from the significant body of research on teacher education and teacher learning for equity and social justice, four Black teacher educators discuss challenges they have faced in classes designed to prepare teachers to teach Black male students. Through an analysis of commonalities in their experiences, they propose means for teacher educators to foster greater understandings of the heterogeneity found among Black male students so that teachers can craft more responsive and responsible educational experiences for Black males.
“These Things Do Not Ring True to Me”: Preservice Teacher Dispositions to Social Justice Literature in a Remote State Teacher Education Program By Tao Keonghee Han The Urban Review, Vol. 45(2), pp. 143-166 (2013)
This study describes preservice teachers ‘ (PTs) dispositions toward diversity education in a remote small town university. The purpose of the study is to find out whether PTs in an undergraduate elementary literacy methods class in this locale are willing to accept and adopt multicultural children’s and youth literature as pedagogical tools and materials in their future classrooms to address race and social justice topics. I used epistemology (i.e., the knowledge system, Scheurich and Young in Edu Res 26(4):4-16, 1997 ), interest convergence (Bell in Harv Law Rev 93(3):518-533, 1980 ), and field (i.e., setting, Bourdieu 1986 ) to analyze the qualitative data from this context. The findings highlight significant issues for teacher educators concerning development of critical consciousness among preservice teachers in small remote regions. Implications for social justice concerns and pedagogical recommendations are included for teacher educators to consider including social justice literature in their literacy methods classes.
Democracy and Social Justice in Sarajevo’s Schools By Peter McDermott & Brian Kirby Lanahan The Qualitative Report, Vol. 17(11), pp. 1-27 (2012)
After the end of the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, the people of Sarajevo found themselves rebuilding their country while also learning to live with their former enemies in this developing democracy. In this study we examined the extent to which democratic practices and social justice values were being taught in Sarajevo’s schools. Using a case study method, we gathered data gathered from interviews with educators in a variety of roles in Sarajevo, observations of elementary and secondary classroom teaching , and daily reflective journal entries about living and teaching in the city during the fall of 2008. Our data analyses revealed that democratic teaching practices and multicultural values are not being taught in Sarajevo’s schools. Instead, entangled and fragmented governmental structures, lingering emotional trauma from the war, and a general sense of pessimism about the future are interfering with educational reform and movement toward a democratic and socially-just society.
Unheard Voices of Minority Teacher Candidates in a Teacher Education Program By Tunde Szecsi & Carolyn Spillman Multicultural Education, Vol. 19(2), pp. 24-29 (2012)
According to the university’s mission and guiding principles, which emphasize social justice and diversity, the teacher education program has implemented a plan of action for recruiting and retaining teacher candidates from diverse backgrounds. Aashia, a 22-year-old Asian-American senior in her final internship, was born in the Philippines but grew up in Guam and moved to the U.S. at 16.\n However, these participants had a special calling, an intrinsic motivation and/or a significant friend, coworker, or teacher who made them confident about pursuing their dream (Chamness et.al. 2005; Gordon, 2005). […]outreach programs and support provided early, often through mentors as role models in high school, plus special guidance during general education courses all appear to have had the potential to attract and retain these particular minority teacher candidates.
Introduction: Caring about Social Justice Issues in Teacher Education By Christian J. Faltis Teacher Education Quarterly, Vol. 38(4), pp. 3-6 (2011)
What these new attacks on teacher education mean for the role and place of social justice is not entirely clear, but I would like to make the argument, as do several of the authors in this issue, that focusing on social justice , on inquiry into practices, and on the ethical dilemmas teachers face in teacher education is essential in preparing teachers for the complexities of teaching in today’s diverse classrooms and communities. […] much of the help that parents provided was in the role of classroom instructional assistants, working with and for the teacher to get things done.
Investigating Preservice Teachers’ Understandings of Critical Media Literacy By Lorayne Robertson & Janette M. Hughes Language and Literacy, Vol. 13(2) (2011)
This paper examines preservice teachers ‘ understandings of critical media literacy as they designed critical media literacy lessons in an initial teacher education language and literacy course for K-6 teachers . The teachers reflected on their initial understandings about social justice , designed several pre-tasks, designed and taught critical media literacy lessons, and then reflected on teaching critical media literacy to elementary school students. The results of this two-year study indicate that while the preservice teachers seemed willing to address social justice issues and they used digital literacies in interesting and engaging ways, some of them faced challenges articulating and focusing their own understandings in media literacy lessons.
Making Multicultural Education Work: A Proposal for a Transnational Multicultural Education By Adeela Arshad-Ayaz Canadian Issues, pp. 71-74 (2011)
In this essay I propose a new framework for multiculturalism and multicultural education . This framework seeks to move away from the ‘culture’ based understanding of multiculturalism by grounding the issues related to diversity and difference in trans-national social justice. My arguments are premised on the grounds that issues surrounding social justice and multiculturalism cannot be addressed within the contexts of individual nation states. These issues must be considered at the global level. The proposed shift away from the exclusivity of national contexts is necessitated by the recognition that the world is increasingly becoming an unfair place with a stupendously uneven distribution of resources and allocation of values. It is also mandated by the awareness that the actions of individuals are not confined to individual nation states. These actions produce and are reproduced by discourses, institutions and practices that cut across national boundaries and have varying influences on people living in diverse areas of the world. For example, immigrants are often disadvantaged in respect to access to social services as well as to the institutional and financial resources for preservation of their cultural distinctiveness.
Feeling in Crisis: Vicissitudes of Response in Experiments with Global Justice Education By Lisa Taylor Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, Vol. 9(1) (2011)
This paper considers the nexus of affective engagement, a critical analysis of systemic discrimination, and reflexive self-implication in education committed to social change. I ask how our inherited models and theories of learning and teaching for social change can curb our vigilance vis-à-vis the ways libidinal dynamics organize our curriculum as affective wish and our pedagogy as affective defense. I focus specifically on the qualities of global justice education –the ethical and political stakes of this project, the theories of learning, pedagogical strategies and discourses of moral development it inherits–that render learning, teaching , and learning to teach (none of which are discrete) affectively and ethically fraught. The paper examines student writing samples from a mandatory pre-service course on social and global justice education , one designed to engage future teachers in considering the inequitable global distribution of precarity and recognizability (Butler) within contemporary contexts of neoliberal globalization and war. In the writing samples, students reflect on the challenges they faced making sense of representations of the ravages of militarized capitalist globalization, in particular the challenges of creating and facilitating curriculum within which their peers might encounter such difficult knowledge.
“Social Justice Needs to Be Everywhere”: Imagining the Future of Anti-Oppression Education in Teacher Preparation By Deirdre Kelly & Gabriella Minnes Brandes Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 56(4), pp. 388-402 (2010)
This article analyzes a project of social justice in the setting of an important program of formation of the teachers in the Canadian west. This” program inside a program” adopted an educational approach against the oppression, conceived to help the students in pedagogy to understand and has put back in question various shapes of iniquity and the ties between them. We bend on the program of social justice, first by a descriptive analysis of our teaching, then by qualitative interviews and semi-structured nearby of one hour defining of our program (all starting their teacher’s career). Our old provided examples of teaching against the current and evoked the challenges bound to the implementation of critical pedagogies. We conclude while presenting four key recommendations and while thinking about the consequences for the formation of the teachers to the future.
Exploring Questions of Social Justice in Bilingual/Bicultural Teacher Education: Towards a Parity of Participation By Shanan Fitts & Evelyn M. Weisman The Urban Review, Vol. 42(5), pp. 373-393 (2010)
This qualitative study examined the development of bilingual and bicultural preservice teachers ‘ beliefs and attitudes about social justice and its role in the education of language minority children. Fraser’s in Redistribution or recognition: a political-philosophical exchange. Verso, New York, (2003) perspectival dualist framework, which calls for the consideration of both the distribution of resources and the recognition of cultural identity, was applied to the investigation of participants’ social justice claims. In addition to observing these preservice teachers in their courses and conducting interviews, the researchers also analyzed the teaching practices of their bilingual-bicultural professors. Findings indicate that bilingual teacher candidates need to have space and support for reflecting upon the conflicting meanings they might ascribe to experiences and insights gained through the occupation of different identity positions. Bilingual-bicultural university professors’ ability to recognize and legitimate the experiences and perspectives of bilingual/bicultural teacher candidates was significant and empowering.
Democracy Camp for Teachers: Cross-Cultural Professional Development for Preparing Educators to Create Social Justice-Minded Citizens By Susie Burroughs, Peggy Hopper, Kay Brocato, & Mary Lee Webeck International Education, Vol. 39(1), pp. 49-64 (2009)
The Civitas Democracy Camp for Teachers provides professional development for educators to collaboratively explore ideals of citizenship and citizenship education in democratic societies. Reported herein are the findings of a study of the camp experience of a cross-cultural group of educators who examined the concept of social justice and ways to teach their students about it. Results of the study indicate that the participants broadened their definitions of social justice, expanded their recognition of the importance of teaching about social justice, and enhanced their understandings of approaches for teaching about social justice. Further, the findings indicate that cross-cultural professional development can have positive effects in altering and expanding educators’ content and pedagogical knowledge of important international issues such as social justice.
Promoting Inclusion in Secondary Schools Through Appreciative Inquiry By Peter L. Kozik, Bernard Cooney, Scott Vinciguerra, Kathleen Gradel, & Joan Black American Secondary Education, Vol. 38(1), pp. 77-91 (2009)
Including students with disabilities fully in the general education curriculum has become accepted in elementary schools, but issues such as teacher collaboration, standardized testing, gaps in skill levels, and scheduling challenges continue to pose significant obstacles to full inclusion in middle schools and high school. This article describes an all day event at which 35 participants from a variety of settings, including higher education , school districts, the State Education Department, and technical support networks explored the question: “In order for inclusive adolescent education to be successful, what values, skills, and knowledge should teachers demonstrate?” Participants used a process of Appreciative Inquiry, a method of organizational development that uses past successes to create a vision of the future. The group discerned, social justice , passion, and courage for change as necessary values, and thought that listening and communication outweighed other skills. Adolescent development and research based practices in secondary schools were found to be the most necessary knowledge
Educating for Democracy: With or without Social Justice By Paul Carr Teacher Education Quarterly, Vol. 35(4), pp. 117-136 (2008)
…
[…] of particular interest to this research, I am concerned with the connection that educators make between democracy and social justice in education (Guttman, 1999; Regenspan, 2002). […] the final section serves as a discussion of the research, including suggesting policy and curriculum implications, and highlighting the role of teacher education in the debate. Four Educational Myths That Stymie Social Justice By Joan F. Beswick, Elizabeth A. Sloat, & Douglas J. Willms The Educational Forum, Vol. 72(2), pp. 115-128 (2008)
Four myths that underlie persistent, but ineffective, practices in early literacy education are analyzed in this article. Such analysis is essential because literacy disadvantage ultimately is an issue of equity-a matter of social justice . Research shows that these practices can be refuted and that optimal early literacy outcomes are possible for all students when parents, teachers , and school administrators serve as agents of equity.
Researching the Halted Paths of Male Primary School Teacher Candidates By Douglas Gosse, Michael Parr, & John Allison Journal of Men’s Studies, Vol. 16(1), pp. 57-68 (2008)
This arts-informed narrative inquiry will delve into the experiences of male B .Ed. teacher candidates in Northern Ontario who did not complete their education degree. Their intersectional voices will, hopefully, fuel dialogue around issues of power dynamics and intersectional identity (race, class, gender, sexual orientation, geographical location, and language and culture) applicable to education, men’s studies, social justice, arts-informed and arts-based educational research, and affiliated disciplines. This paper begins with a brief review of the literature on male primary teachers, then research methodology, next a look at theory, followed by a composite narrative in the voice of a former teacher candidate, and culminates in the researchers’ impressions and questions.
Navigating Contradictory Communities of Practice in Learning to Teach for Social Justice By Maria Timmons Flores Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Vol. 38(4), pp. 380-404 (2007)
In this article, the author explores the contradictions that four new teachers experienced as their commitments to social justice collide with urban school culture. Framed within Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger’s (1999) theory of situated learning and development concepts of identity, practice, and relationships illustrate how teachers’ ideals are challenged as socializing features of two communities of practice-the universities and schools-intersect in new teachers ‘ development. This research contributes empirical evidence of the application of critical multicultural teacher preparation into practice, a cultural representation of how educational inequities are reproduced or disrupted in the situated contexts of urban schools, an application of Lave and Wenger’s theory of Legitimate Peripheral Participation that incorporates formal and informal education across multiple activity settings, and a call for collaborative communities of practice that support teachers ‘ situated learning in creating transformative practices.
Inclusive Global Education: Implications for Social Justice By Hilary Landorf & Ann Nevin Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 45(6), pp. 711-723 (2007)
The overarching purpose of this paper is to empower K-12 educators, colleagues in teacher education programs, and educational leadership personnel to address social justice issues within communities where divergent perspectives abound. The authors use a discursive method to uncover the historical and theoretical differences between global education and inclusive education, identify the ways in which the two fields are complementary, and propose strategies for education leadership personnel that build on the commonalities and best practices of both fields. The authors argue that the two fields have essential elements that can and should inform each other. They term this intersection “inclusive global education “. They integrate the concepts from global education and inclusive education to define inclusive global education as a pedagogical and curricular stance, a way to honor the diverse cultural, linguistic, physical, mental, and cognitive complexities of all people, and a process that puts problematization of social justice issues at the center of leadership and teaching /learning activities. Whereas global educators traditionally focus on learning to understand and come to respect the cultural, social, and political “other,” the traditional focus of special educators is to empower students to gain self-respect.
The Power of Words: Top-Down Mandates Masquerade as Social Justice Reforms By Linda Christensen Language Arts, Vol. 85(2), pp. 144-147 (2007)
The teachers cited research that contradicted the district’s assertions that common textbooks would lead to equity for all students: * No research shows that purchasing a new reading program reliably raises reading achievement (Berends, Bodilly, & Kirby, 2002). * Building teacher capacity and supporting rigorous teacher communities (e.g., study groups, teacher research, etc.) is the key factor for student achievement (Allington & Cunningham, 2006). * Scripted curriculum deskills teachers, reducing them to deliverers of content rather than synthesizers of complex ideas (Rice, 2004). * The programs presented as possible adoptions do not align with the philosophies and rigorous teaching practices of many PPS schools. * No single program can meet the needs of a large and diverse district like Portland. * Portland’s reading achievement has consistently risen without a districtwide adoption. In these times, when even the historic civil rights case Brown v Board of Education has been proded, teachers cannot afford to stand on the sidelines of curricular debates wringing our hands while district leaders speak in social justice sound bites and impose cookie cutter curriculum reforms that deskill teachers, disempower local communities, and rob our students of a real social justice education.
Using Case Studies of Ethical Dilemmas for the Development of Moral Literacy: Towards Educating for Social Justice By Joan Poliner Shapiro & Robert E. Hassinger Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 45(4), pp. 451-470 (2007)
The purpose of this paper is to focus on a case study, framed as an ethical dilemma. It serves as an illustration for the teaching of moral literacy, with a special emphasis on social justice . Initially, the paper provides a rationale for the inclusion of case studies, emphasizing moral problems in university teaching . It discusses briefly the strengths and weaknesses of using these types of case studies in the classroom. In particular, it explains how both the rational and emotional minds can be addressed, through the use of these moral dilemmas, by introducing two concepts: Multiple Ethical Paradigms and Turbulence Theory. Following an explanation of the two concepts, an illustrative case is provided. This case deals with aspects of No Child Left Behind legislation that narrows the curriculum for some students. The underlying social justice issue of this case is raised. The dilemma is followed by a discussion of how to resolve or solve it by raising questions that relate to the Multiple Ethical Paradigms and Turbulence Theory.
Refining Social Justice Commitments through Collaborative Inquiry: Key Rewards and Challenges for Teacher Educators By Camille Wilson Cooper Teacher Education Quarterly, Vol. 33(3), pp. 115-132 (2006)
Cooper discusses the key rewards and challenges of the first two years of TEP’s case development project. Findings show that collaborative inquiry prompted the teacher education faculty to better define their social justice commitments, enhance the coherence of their program, and strengthen their community of practice.
Teachers and Tolerance: Discriminating Diversity Dispositions By Pauline Leonard & Lawrence Leonard The Teacher Educator, Vol. 42(1), pp. 30-42 (2006)
Prevailing values of equity and social justice are increasingly espoused in the mission and policy statements of public institutions, organizations, and agencies. In higher education , teacher preparation programs are considered to be key contributors to the cultivation of mores of inclusiveness, where diversity is embraced and appreciated in its multitude of forms. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the diversity dispositions of a group of preservice and inservice teachers participating in a multicultural education course at a university in the deep southern region of the United States. Data were collected in the following ways: (a) autobiographical accounts that participants compiled and shared; (b) responses to abbreviated biographies in an online discussion forum; (c) face-to-face discussions of issues related to goals of equity, tolerance, and social justice in schools; and (d) instructor observations of participants’ interactions with each other. The research revealed that in the electronic forum the teacher candidates and practicing teachers were particularly candid in reflecting upon and revealing their cultural roots, perceptions, and experiences and validated many-but not all-peer self-reports of marginalization. Three major diversity dispositions emerged in the data analysis: (a) cultural consciousness, (b) intercultural sensitivity, and (c) commitment to social justice.
Spheres of Justice within Schools: Reflections and Evidence on the Distribution of Educational Goods By Clara Sabbagh, Nura Resh, Michael Mor, & Pieter Vanhuysse Social Psychology of Education : An International Journal, Vol. 9(2), pp. 97-118 (2006)
This article argues that there are distinct spheres of justice within education and examines a range of justice norms and distribution rules that characterize the daily life of schools and classrooms. Moving from the macro to micro level, we identify the following five areas: the right to education, the allocation of (or selection into) learning places, teaching -learning practices, teachers ‘ treatment of students, and student evaluations of grade distribution. We discuss the literature on the beliefs by students and teachers about the just distribution of educational goods in these five domains, and on the practices used in the actual allocation of these goods. In line with normative ‘spheres of justice’ arguments in social theory, we conclude that the ideals of social justice within schools vary strongly according to the particular resource to be distributed. Moreover, these ideals often do not correspond with the practices that actually guide resource distribution in education, which may go some way toward explaining explicit or latent conflicts in this sphere.
Foreword-“Walking On Water” As Activism: An Invitation to Learn and a Call for Action By Alicia L. Moore & Neal La Vonne Black History Bulletin, Vol. 68(1), pp. 6-8. (2006)
In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Niagara Movement, its founders and its eminent status in African American history, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) has dedicated its Black History Bulletin to this seminal social justice movement. Accordingly, because one of the demands of the Niagara Movement was for public school education, ASALH has prepared a Black History Bulletin that highlights the code of beliefs that originally framed the bulletin’s purpose as it was founded by Carter G. Woodson in 1937-to serve the needs of primary and secondary teachers who incorporate African American History into their lesson plans. Woodson, a noted historian, author, professor, and journalist, believed that if Negroes had an understanding of their contributions to American society, they would be both psychologically and intellectually emancipated.
Implementing a Social Justice Perspective in Teacher Education: Invisible Burden for Faculty of Color By Jean Moule Teacher Education Quarterly, Vol. 32(4), pp. 23-42. (2005)
African Americans in predominantly White institutions often carry a greater load than their positions describe. While researchers have explored the unique role of African Americans in higher education , this study deepens the understanding of this role by analyzing the work of one African American woman in a teacher education program at a large Northwestern research institution. Moule discusses what it means to be an African American woman teaching for social justice.
The Burden of Teaching Teachers: Memoirs of Race Discourse in Teacher Education By Dawn G. Williams, & Venus Evans-Winters The Urban Review, Vol. 37(3), pp. 201-219. (2005)
This paper presents the views and educational experiences of two African American female scholars, from a critical race and black feminist theorist perspective, teaching in the area of social justice to predominantly white female pre-service teachers . These testimonies reveal the struggles encountered by these scholars when engaging students in a historical and contemporary examination of race, privilege, and systemic inequalities. The objectives of this paper are to expand on the literary dialogue of such resistance and attempt to bring awareness into the arenas that need the most exposure, i.e. departmental, faculty, and tenure review meetings. It is commonly written and verbalized that institutions are interested in attracting and retaining faculty of color. We argue that the ways we are supported must shift. This problem of student resistance, who they resist and why, should become open for discussion on college campuses across the nation.
Merging Social Justice and Accountability: Educating Qualified and Effective Teachers By Mary Poplin & John Rivera Theory into Practice, Vol. 44(1), pp. 27-37. (2005)
This article proposes that teacher education programs be developed to promote social justice and accountability. Teacher educators must prepare teachers by (a) inspiring them with experiences of schools and classrooms where the achievement gap is disappearing, (b) preparing them to use curriculum standards and assessments, as well as multiple pedagogical and learning theories and strategies, (c) equipping them to work closely with families and communities, (d) teaching them how schools and classrooms promote and end educational inequities, and (e) inspiring them to do the hard work necessary to close the achievement gap. This requires teacher educators who are committed to the same. The article describes a few instructive events that influenced changes in a particular teacher education program and concludes with ten paradoxes used to build the new program focus on equity, excellence, and integrity.
Multiculturalism, Peace Education, & Social Justice in Teacher Education By Reyes Quezada & Jaime J. Romo Multicultural Education, Vol. 11(3), pp. 2-11. (2004)
For public education to meet the civic needs of students and society, educators must be able to envision and promote systemic change that is transformational, fundamental, and adaptive for all students. Quezada and Romo examine the literature related to institutional and teacher education reform and change related to multicultural education, peace education, and social justice.
Literacy on Three Planes: Infusing Social Justice and Culture into Classroom Instruction By Karen Monkman, Laurie MacGillivray, & Cynthia Hernandez Leyva Bilingual Research Journal, 27(2), pp. 245-258. (2003)
This article argues that instruction should focus on the three “planes” proposed by Barbara Rogoff-personal, social, and cultural-as the multilayered sites where learning occurs. Because the psychological (i.e., personal plane) is commonly the focus of educational instruction, we focus more on the social and cultural planes. We demonstrate learning on these multiple planes using two examples drawn from classroom observations-one a planned routine, the other a spontaneous teachable moment, and both reflecting social justice concerns-and draw on interviews of the teacher about her philosophical and political approaches to learning. The article is intended to demonstrate how research can inform teaching -how one teacher is able to engage children in a bilingual classroom in learning on “three planes” (Rogoff, 1990, 1995) in a way that infuses social justice into the development and experience of literacy in which children “read the world” (Freire & Macedo, 1987)
Locating Gender Bias and Systemic Discrimination in Public Schooling Bureaucracy By Stephen K. Jull Alberta Journal of Educational Research, Vol. 48(1), pp. 47-60. (2002)
The contemporary model of bureaucracy guiding the daily functioning of public schooling in Canada is discussed in terms of its propensity for gender bias and systemic discriminatory practice. Systemic discrimination in bureaucracy is situated in a global culture of gender, founded on a universal acceptance of the duality of human sexuality, and rooted in dominant discourses of masculinity and femininity. Addressing inequities in the public schooling bureaucracy that are linked to the duality of masculinity and femininity and the resultant imbalance in the divisions of bureaucratic power and authority between men and women is fundamentally a gender issue. As such, facilitating stability-enhancing radical reform in the public schooling bureaucracy is an infinitely complex task–insofar as the foundations of the modern bureaucracy are closely tied to core sociopolitical constructs based on the so-called nature of sex, gender, and the natural distribution of knowledge-power. In the context of a critically pragmatic and practical suggestion for change, this article contextualizes Ramsay and Parker’s (1992) “neo-bureaucracy” (p. 269) as a model of reform that offers the possibility for broadly defined acceptance in the teaching profession and the wider society, while bringing issues of equity and social justice to the forefront of the daily practice.
