My thoughts on… “Five Essential Components for Social Justice Education”

In my independent research for social justice in the classroom, I came across an article talking about the social and political climate and how such a thing can relate to the educational field and the classroom itself. I liked this article because it caused me to immediately think of a civics classroom or a current world affairs classroom where a teacher, or me in the future perhaps, can impact students in their senior year with regards to the political and social climate of today and the future. The article also touches on how educators can teach social justice while also empowering education and its students. The article defines the five essential components to be: “tools for content mastery, tools for critical thinking, tools for action and social change, tools for personal reflection, and tools for awareness of multicultural group dynamics.” It is noted, however, that these five components are not the solve-all solution. There are certainly other components that can be thought of, but these components are supposed to be an example of what should be in an educator’s tool box to teach his/her students such a thing.
One of the five components I was able to connect to another article that we read for class. The “tools for action and social change” made me think of the article from last week, where there were students that were being oppressed vis media and that it is up to educators to help students recognize their oppression and in such a way, the students will be more likely to face their oppressor. Furthermore, the tool that brings up personal reflection sunk in with me because I often think that reflection is often overlooked in the classroom. How can a student learn if there is no reflection? Reflection is important because not only the student is able to reflect, but the teacher is as well. “Ongoing self-reflection also reminds educators that there is always more to consider, and helps to keep their minds open to other possibilities.” The educator is almost certainly going to have to reflect on every lesson he/she hosts, so that future lessons can go well. Educators should ask themselves, what went well and what can I improve on, constantly throughout their career.



Here is the link to the article:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10665680590935034?src=recsys&

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