Racial Identity Theory and Peace Education: Tools for the Teacher In All of Us

As people develop a meaningful understanding of racism, they also experience shifts in their appraisals of self and others as members of an unfairly stratified society. Consistent with the premises of Helms' (1995) racial identity theory, these shifts can be explained as transformational processes that have relevance to matters of morality and peace advancement. Individuals who operate at advanced levels of racial identity development overcome the confinements inherent in a racism Zeitgeist and in so doing, learn to accept themselves and others more authentically. This theory can prove crucial to peace promotion in children because it espouses to nurture the integration of self within the broader spectrum of humanity. Educators who transform their selves can also transform their educational practices by disrupting cycles of socialization that adversely influence children's identity formation. They can also contribute to the creation of new structures of socialization. In this paper, I describe this theory and how it applies to peace education.     

Using Photovoice as a Tool to Engage Social Work Students in Social Justice

In order to ensure that social workers graduating from social work programs embrace social justice's central role in their professional careers, educators must find creative, theoretically grounded, practice-relevant ways of conveying this value and socializing social work students. This article describes the use of Photovoice as one tool for helping convey that value and describes its theoretical underpinning and use in a social work course. Originally developed as a participatory action research approach largely in public health, Photovoice can also serve as a powerful social work tool that facilitates the development of critical consciousness among community members who photograph and discuss elements of their lives and community. The author describes using this strategy with social work students, asking them as community members themselves to engage in the process of documenting, discussing, and transforming their analysis into an advocacy plan using the photographs. Through this process, the students learn about the power of collaborative creativity and strategic messaging. In the process of demonstrating the importance of relationship and the power of “problem-posing” the professor, as facilitator, role-models while teaching and engendering increasing critical consciousness among class participants.     

Beyond Diversity and Inclusion: Creating a Social Justice Agenda in the Classroom

ABSTRACT

A social justice classroom agenda relies on the ability of educators to create a space free from microaggressions that can be strengthened through an approach of cultural humility. Utilizing Bonnycastle’s social justice continuum, this article explores how to create a classroom grounded in social equality and guided by social work values to foster participation from students across all social identities.     

Doing Social Justice: Turning Talk into Action in a Mathematics Service Learning Course

Abstract

Many students experience mathematics as a neutral entity, without understanding its impact on social justice and equity. Students must understand that mathematics and statistics are powerful tools for creating social change, and that students themselves are capable to enact positive social change through their mathematical abilities. In this paper, we discuss how we have integrated both service learning and mathematical consulting into a single course to promote civic engagement by mathematics majors through professional applications. We outline methods to engage with community partners to create consulting projects for students while integrating discussions of professionalism, practice, ethics, and social justice into the classroom. We provide qualitative evidence that the integration of service learning and consulting empowers mathematics students to make a difference by doing social justice with mathematics.     

Critical Community Conversations: Cultivating the Elusive Dialogue About Racism With Parents,Community Members,and Teachers

Abstract

This article highlights how two researchers started Critical Community Conversations (CCC) with a school community in an effort to learn from one another and build solidarity. The intent was for CCC to focus on some of the most pressing issues facing our nation, state, and local neighborhoods, with a special lens on racism.     

Social Justice Becomes a Living Experience for Students,Faculty, and Community

This social justice course was the result of a service‐learning project with African American and First Nations peoples of a Southern community telling their story of desegregation through the creation of a video documentary project. Combining the pedagogy of service‐learning with documentary video making, a social justice project was created that impacted students, faculty, and community.     

Implications of a Learning Organisation for Social Justice in Poverty Stricken Communities: A Theoretical Perspective

Abstract

The term “social justice” cuts across disciplines and theoretical orientations. Critical theory underpinned the study reported on in this article. Many South African schools, particularly in poverty stricken communities, still experience insurmountable economic and social injustices despite progress since the apartheid regime. The injustices manifest in poverty, inequalities and unequal distribution of educational resources, impacting on the achievement gap. While social justice is a concern in the literature, South African literature has little on how to apply the concept of a learning organisation to reclaim a commitment to social justice. The article argues that schools perceived as learning organisations are sites of social and political struggle that can promote and encourage human rights to fundamental freedoms for all, without discrimination. This requires progressive teachers and critical thinking by students to transform dehumanising social milieus into communities of participation embodying the values of progress and human emancipation.     

Pedagogy and Diversity: Enrichment and Support for Social Work Instructors Engaged in Social Justice Education

The primary purpose of faculty development is to create and sustain a culture of teaching excellence. For social work faculty, an important part of teaching excellence involves incorporating core social work values such as social justice and diversity across the curriculum and developing pedagogical skills and strategies to teach these issues effectively. In this article, we present a model of a faculty development seminar that offers a facilitated space for instructors to discuss how issues of diversity, social identity, and oppression influence their teaching, the classroom environment, student interactions, and the overall campus climate.     

Urban Poetics: Poetry, Social Justice and Critical Pedagogy in Education

Posing an alternate view to high stakes educational models, the thoughts, opinions and practices of four poetry educators are used to provide critical insights as how to infuse creative outlets in the educational process. In gathering the motivations of these poetry educators, a goal of this project is to encapsulate their philosophies through researcher observation and participation. Engaging such work with social justice at the center creates a particular disposition. It can be subjective in the sense that an understanding of improvement requires an explicit commitment to the improvement of the lives of young people in education through a participatory process.David Stovall is an Assistant Professor of Policy Studies.     

Inspiring and Training Students for Social Action: Renewing a Needed Tradition

In social work, it is believed that certain knowledge and skills are learned more effectively through experience than through didactic classroom content. Members of the faculty of a school of social work have developed a Social Action Day to reinforce curriculum and translate into practice material about advocacy and ethical responsibilities for social action; show the breadth of social work practice; and enhance the school's sense of community. The authors share their experience to inspire other social work faculty, so that they are better able to foster student interest and passion for political action that may generate social change.     

老年社会工作的职业伦理向度及其美国经验

老年社会工作从本质上讲是人的道德实践和国家福利制度的社会结合。面对中国日趋严峻的老龄化现象,从福利制度和机构设置层面做出应对固然重要,但远非足够。基于职业伦理是社会工作“生命线”的事实,加强和提升老年社会工作的专业性和职业伦理精神,更有利于社会工作利他原则的实现。在此方面,美国的经验与教训值得汲取。     

Critical Race Studies in Education: Examining a Decade of Research on U.S. Schools

In this article, the authors critically synthesize how Critical Race Theory (CRT) as an emerging field of inquiry has been used as a tool of critique and analysis in K-12 education research. The authors point out that CRT has been used as a framework for examining: persistent racial inequities in education, qualitative research methods, pedagogy and practice, the schooling experiences of marginalized students of color, and the efficacy of race-conscious education policy. The authors explore how these studies have changed the nature of education research and stress the need for further research that critically interrogates race and racism in education.Marvin Lynn is an Assistant Professor of Department of Curriculum & Instruction in University of Maryland, College Park. He completed his B.S., at DePaul University, Chicago, IL, M.A. at Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY and Ph.D. at University of California, Los Angeles. He has published articles in the area of Critical Race Theory and education and critical race pedagogy. He has also written a number of articles that explore the work and lives of Black male teachers.Laurence Parker is Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies in University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He completed his B.A., at Earlham College, Richmond, IN, M.A. and Ph.D. in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His current research examines Critical Race Theory and its connection to educational research, policy and practice in the k-12 and post-secondary settings. His research also examines social justice perspectives in educational administration, leadership and policy, particularly with respect to race and social class     

美国社会能力培养研究与启示

作为儿童能力发展的重要组成部分 ,社会能力不仅影响着儿童的个性发展和社会适应性 ,而且还影响着儿童未来的社会生活。从 2 0世纪 70年代开始 ,社会能力培养的研究受到美国教育界的高度重视 ,关于社会能力的理论和实践不断得到拓展 ,并在促进儿童的社会性发展上起到了重要的作用。本文着重介绍美国社会能力培养研究的发展以及社会能力研究发展的新特点 ,并在此基础上进一步探讨美国社会能力培养研究对我国素质教育的启示。     

美国社区教育与基础课教学改革

美国的大学、学院、社区学院形成的高等教育体系中,社区学院承担了转学教育、职业教育、继续教育等重要职能。美国社区教育在其发展历程中形成了鲜明特色,其中有许多值得我国高职院校借鉴、学习的做法。结合我国的现实,提出了基础课教学改革的想法和思路。     

Thirdspace Investigations: Geography,Dehumanization, and Seeking Spatial Justice in Kinesiology

ABSTRACT

The 39th Annual Dudley A. Sargent Lecturer challenges the kinesiology professions to be intentional in addressing issues related to spatiality. Beginning with an outline of how such a focus has viability for the profession, the author overviews: (a) spatial justice and mobility through the lens of Gordon Parks; (b) surfing, localism and cityhood efforts; (c) notions of space and dehumanization as defined by Herbert Kelman; and (d) the need for a renewal of kinesthetic consciousness in the face of unrestricted technocracy in physical education. The second part of the lecture presents an interpretation of Edward Soja’s theory of Thirdspace in the midst of a social climate influenced by protectionism, isolationism, xenophobia, and anti-elite discourse. In relaying Olivia Butler’s caution on hierarchical thinking, the author ends by imploring academic institutions to invest in sustainable reconciliation efforts for the survival of humanity.     

P.S.: I Survived: An Activism Project to Increase Student and Community Trauma Awareness

Social work students created a community activism project to raise awareness about trauma prevalence and impact. Trauma theory describes silencing as the mechanism that hinders individual and community healing. Therefore, students sought to create an interactive opportunity to heighten trauma visibility on campus. They created a physical mailbox and invited community members respond to the prompt, “I am a survivor because …” and to read others’ responses. Through the project, students were able to document participants’ trauma experiences, increase community trauma awareness, and enhance their own learning. Moreover, the authors believe that this assignment successfully fostered student integration of micro and macro social work skills.     

Critical Thinking: Art Criticism as a Tool for Analysing and Evaluating Art,Instructional Practice and Social Justice Issues

Recent educational initiatives have emphasised the importance of fostering critical thinking skills in today's students in order to provide strategies for becoming successful problem solvers throughout life. Other scholars advocate the use of critical thinking skills on the grounds that such tools can be used effectively when considering social justice issues. In this article we make the case that the teaching and learning strategies of analytic art criticism can serve as fundamental tools used not just for the study of art but can also centre critical thinking and analysis in all aspects of the art education curriculum. Our argument begins with a review of literature on the use of art criticism for critical thinking and meaning making. Then we describe our efforts to address critical thinking with our students by using the critical analysis model of art criticism and applying it to learning environments for forming reasoned judgments about teaching and learning, and also as springboard for examining social justice issues. We believe that promoting this form of affectively driven, intellectually guided critical thinking makes our students potentially more successful not just in their encounters with art and education, but also in their lives as human beings beyond school.     

Sport for Social Justice,Capability, and the Common Good: A Position Statement in Honor of Tessa Jowell

ABSTRACT

There is a continuing debate about the contribution of sport and sport for development and peace (SDP) to both the theory and practice of social justice. At the same time the policy world is showing strong indications that it is seeking politically smarter ways of understanding what it means to foster social justice, development, and inclusive peace processes. This position statement is committed to sport actively being seen to be playing a part in addressing the challenges that face humanity in the 21st century. The proposition is that sport and SDP are served well by a capability approach (CA) as a framework that enables the construction of the common good. The article considers a CA for social justice prior to a discussion of sport, capability, and the common good, which positions sport as a resource of hope in fostering politically smarter cultural relations.