Course-5 Understanding Disciplines and School Subjects pmd

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2.6.3. Learning Points and Learning Activities
2.6.3.1. Concept of Social Justice and Social Justice Culture within School
Set up
Social justice, if needs to be realised in society should start from our classrooms.
Therefore, social justice education should be part and parcel of our school set up. It is
concerned with achieving equitable and quality education for all students.
As experts in the field suggest, it is both a process and a goal. The goal of social
justice education is full and equal participation of all groups in society that is mutually
shaped to meet their needs.
Social justice includes a vision of society in which the distribution of resources is
equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure. It is a sort of
society in which individuals are both self-determining and interdependent.
In the school situation social justice should be viewed at two levels: one at the school
level, where in social justice is maintained by the teachers and students together and the
value of social justice is thus practiced. Second, to develop the thinking and behaviour of
students in such a way that they are able to maintain social justice culture in the society in
which they live.
Historically, classrooms have been the stage for social change, providing a venue to
promote and accelerate new ideas. In addition to academic instruction, one of the important
roles of a classroom teacher is to help students develop the critical thinking, collaboration,
and self-reflection skills necessary to foster a better society.
Social justice doesn’t manifest in a singular fashion, nor is it achieved through a
specific means of instruction. Students who focus on this concept and develop related
attitude and values, use critical examination of themselves, others, institutions and events
to find patterns of inequality, discrimination, then explore possible solutions to the problems
they have identified. Social justice advocates hope to build a society in which individuals
have equal access to resources and receive equitable treatment regardless of their race,
gender, religion, sexuality, income level or disability.
Enabling conversations about these issues empowers students to voice their concern
and question unjust situations in their lives or in the lives of those around them. To help
students examine systemic inequality, teachers can have them consider questions such as:
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• Who makes decisions and who is left out?
• Who benefits and who suffers?
• Why is a given practice fair or unfair?
• What is required to create change?
• What alternatives can we imagine?
Through answering these questions, students can start to recognize injustice existing
at the micro and macro levels.
Experts have suggested that we need to ‘rethink of our classrooms’ because they are
not taking into consideration the abilities required to deal with the social and personal
situation in ‘just’ ways. Our Classrooms, in reality can help teachers and students gain
indications of the types of society we live in and prepare students to develop critical thinking
abilities to deal with it.
In order to develop the attitude of social justice among students, we need to have a
special set up in our schools/classrooms. The following practices contribute to build up
such an environment.
•
The classroom should be a safe and encouraging place for students where they
can express their experiences, beliefs, opinions and suggestions. The teacher
should create space for students to feel free to say what they intend to say.
•
A community of conscience need to be developed within the classroom. What
is this community of conscience? It is a group working together based on a ‘a
set of moral principles. Social justice should be the base to set the norms within
this community also. This leads to fairness within classroom behaviour.
•
Productive conversations can be created by teaching students to share their
ideas and respond to the ideas of others in a way that allows for disagreement
but still values the student’s perspective.
•
Teachers can model questions and answers that illustrate ways to thoughtful
conversation rather than making students feel bad or devalued by their
classmates. By providing model responses, teachers can illustrate to students
how a good response helps to enrich a conversation whereas some responses
can shut discussions down.
•
Helping students see each other as co-learners rather than opponents. They
should view their classmates as academic siblings rather than as competitors.
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•
Attempts should be made to interact with every student and the views of every
student should be respectfully accepted and acknowledged.
•
Teachers can also strengthen the classroom community through learning
experiences that draw upon the diverse backgrounds of their students.  The
diverse background should be utilised as a resource in the classroom. This
helps the students with diverse background to understand better, at the same
time enriching the information of students who are from different backgrounds.
•
The messages from the materials from text books, resource books should not
be presented as they are, but should be analysed in front of students from the
point of view of social justice. For example, most of the times teachers complete
the lesson just by saying that ‘there were four varnas in Indian society namely,
bramhanas, kshatriyas, vaishyas and shudras’, but never make a comment on
the injustice made for some of these groups by the upper strata of the society.
•
Correlate the teaching points with the current issues. For example, while teaching
about some event of the past, correlate with the present situation so that the
students compare and see to what extent there was justice in the past and to
what extent the situation has improved. While teaching about varnas, teacher
can relate with the present situation, where our society is in transition as far as
this point is concerned, changing from the caste system to class system.
•
Give opportunities for self-reflection. At times, teachers can ask students to
reflect on their behaviour and find out to what extent they are contributing or
not contributing for social justice. The teacher can provide a three point or five
point rating scale for students to rate their behaviour.
•
Teachers can motivate students to critically analyse the information/ news
available from print media, television and social media and discuss from the
point of social justice.
Social justice can’t be taught in one easy lesson. It is a value that gets integrated into
the teaching philosophies and actions of teachers. By helping students feel safe and
encouraged, teachers can help students start asking the right questions and then participate
in ways that are purposeful and productive.