‘Leaning In’ Paper The article “Leaning In: A Student’s Guide to Engaging Constructively with Social Justice Content” by Robin DiAngelo and Özlem Sensoy begins by addressing that many students feel angry and resistant toward ideas of social justice, socialization, privilege, and oppression when these topics are first brought up in class. The authors go on to explain that most of these feelings are the result of “mainstream culture” that teaches that inequality isn’t a prevalent part of society. To exemplify, DiAngelo and Sensoy followed their claim with a short story of an astronomy student. The authors explain that this astronomy student is a good representation of many students they encounter dealing with the topic of social justice. This is because the astronomy student, much like non-hypothetical students, has “limited knowledge”, …show more content…
The first guideline is “Strive for Intellectual Humility”. This means that students should focus on understanding concepts rather than agreeing or disagreeing with them. The next guideline is to realize that “Opinions are not the same as Informed Knowledge”. So while there is a right to an opinion that doesn’t necessarily mean that that opinion is one based on facts. The third guideline is to “Let go of Anecdotal Evidence and Examine Patterns”. Anecdotal evidence comes from only one perspective and isn’t a true supportive piece of evidence to agree or disagree with a concept. Looking at patterns in society provides a better understanding of these concepts. Fourthly, “Using Reactions as Entry Point to Deeper Self-Knowledge” is the next guideline. This requires students to evaluate their personal feelings toward concepts and ask why they feel that way or what those reactions reveal. The last and fifth guideline is to “Recognize how Your Social Position Informs your Instructor and Those you
His first principle is definition. Students must consider that definitions are not concrete. They are created by people, which make definitions subjective rather than objective. One person’s definition of something may be different from another person’s, and they both could be correct. The definition is largely dependant on the viewer’s
1) Carbone II, Steven A. (2010). Race, Class, and Oppression: Solutions for Active Learning and Literacy in the Classroom. Student Pulse, 2.01. Retrieved from:
A student and teacher should be able to openly communicate or discuss the content and/or topic in class. To begin the educating process, one must set the correct tone and setting for it. Education is supposed to be an “experience”. An experience is supposed to engage all that are involved in it. “That every reader, everyone engaged in any teaching or learning practice, explicitly wonders about his or her work as teacher or pupil, in mathematics, history, biology, or grammar classes, is of little importance. That as teacher or pupil in the experience of the critical instruction in content that all explicitly engage a “reading of the world” that would be of a political nature, is not of the highest necessity” (Freire 49). ...
Currently, in our society we can see an increase in inequality and discrimination towards different people. Unfortunately, the American ideology does not take into account the diversity that exists in the country. The lack of an educational perspective that includes all people regardless of gender, race, sex, religion and social class is vitally important to take into account not just those people who meet the “normal” perspectives imposed by society, but also take in consideration those who don’t necessarily meet the social expectations. It could be said that intersectionality is a tool which helps us to analyze and defend multiple discriminations and above all to understand how different factors influence the rights and opportunities that
Being a teacher for social justice is more than just making sure you include all of your students in your discussions. It is being aware of the injustices that your students may have faced, are already facing, or may face in the future. With this awareness, as teachers, we should be able to reflect on what we know, and respond by using our resources to apply it to the classroom.
As can be seen, the victories for individuals who are in a certain group or society are so difficult to achieve because there are a lot of stereotypes and limits that others put in place that prevent certain individuals from achieving and pushing through diversity. During High school, I remember being treated harshly when I became pregnant at the age of 16; during the 90’s this was not precisely common for most High school students.
Social identities are important to consider while educating an anti-bias classroom. Anyone can learn to be a skilled teacher who makes a point to be anti-bias. What many people don’t understand, is that even if you think you are completely un-bias, some of our schemas are learned when you are very young.
My definition of social justice in the field of education is based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child and the British-Colombia School Act that state that every child has a right to a proper education (UNICEF, n.d.; School Act, RSBC 1996, c. 412). A proper education to me is based on opportunity. I believe that in order to have a proper education, children should all be entitled to equal opportunity in their learning process. Children should have equal opportunity to obtain the supports that will assist them in achieving their potential.
Being born into this class made it easy for me to pursue an education. Someone who is of less means has to overcome poverty to gain access to good education and technology. This does not mean that I did not have to work hard for the things I have, I just have to recognize that these things were simply more accessible to me. In Jamie Utt’s article , So You Call Yourself an Ally: 10 Things All ‘Allies’ Need to Know, he lists the things that we as privileged people who call ourselves “allies” of a certain marginalized group, need to do more of, he also address certain issues and conversations that need to be either altered or stopped altogether. In order to to break the cycle of oppression, it is important that we recognize the power we have and remember that what do with our privilege has an impacts others lives. We can choose to push back against your privilege and to use it in a way that challenges oppressive systems instead of perpetuating them. As Jamie Utt notes, “And in the end, part of the privilege of your identity is that you have a choice about whether or not to resist oppression.”(Utt,
In the world there is different systems that make some more privilege and others unprivileged. There is many factors that can lead you to have more privileges that others,for example the white, wealthy, educated, older, able bodied and heterosuxual male is most likelly be the one in power in a movie. From the different readings we have read in class I thought it was interesting how different schools teach the children of different social classes differently, Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work by Jean Anyon. In the movie Walkout the students realize the unfairness of the education they were getting. The privileges that other young adults were getting were being denied to the Mexican American students in Los Angeles.
Classism is perpetuated through cultural attitudes, institutional policies, and societal norms that reinforce stereotypes and further stigmatize individuals based on their socioeconomic status. Addressing classism requires recognizing and challenging these systemic inequalities, advocating for policies that promote economic justice and equity, and fostering empathy and solidarity across class
“Social Justice in Education” by R. W. Connell discusses the role of education in society and the implications that social justice issues have on education. Connell begins by establishing that education and social justice can be examined separately yet they are inescapably linked through the social medium of their implementation. “Education concerns schools, colleges and universities, whose business is to pass knowledge on to the next generation. Social justice is about income, employment, pensions or physical assets like housing.”(Connell, 1993) Three points validating the equal importance of social justice and the education system to people of all delineations are: 1.) in Western society public schools are key forums of social interaction and comprise some of the largest social institutions 2.) educational institutions are highly economic bodies and have become “major public assets” (Connell, 1993) 3.) teaching becomes a vehicle by which society is ultimately determined and has a great influence over society’s morality. Connell describes the meaning of justice in education as being “a question of fairness in distribution… equality.”(Connell, 1993) “Justice cannot be achieved by distributing the same… standard good to… all social classes.”(Connell, 1993) By stating this, Connell summarizes that in the attempt to achieve equality, unequal means must be employed.
Disadvantaged college students are the majority in college today, were yesterday, and will be tomorrow. At times disadvantaged college students feel ashamed of their cultural background. Disadvantaged college students feel ashamed because they feel other people will put them down. They don t want to talk about it. Concerning shame because of social conditions, Bell Hooks says that Class differences were boundaries no one wanted to face or talk about (95). Yet concealing cultural background can cause misunderstanding among peers.
I must see students for who they are individually and respect their ideas and opinions. Each student has a different learning style. I must take this into consideration because I want to provide a constructive learning opportunity for every student. I believe that every student has the potential to learn. My philosophy at this point is progressive.
Many people don’t want to believe that we are living in a social injustice environment in this country. They choose to ignore the fact that rich are getting richer while the poor are just getting poorer. The rich public schools are giving their students the necessary opportunities to live a decent life while the poor students are left out and have to struggle for those opportunities. The social injustice is visible to every citizen in this country and it continuing to grown; however, there is a few solutions to minimize and possibly to solve the social injustice problem we have in American. One of them is give equal education in all public schools so everyone can have an equal opportunities in getting the jobs and careers they choose. Second