To create a classroom for equity and social justice, it is important to look at the many different ways that a classroom needs improvement with this topic and from there, discussing the many different possible solutions that are needed accomplishes this goal. When thinking about the many ways to create a social justice classroom, it is important to think about aspects such as the ways we can teach students to understand and respect one another’s differences revolving around ethnic backgrounds, how teachers can help students who feel they are being treated unequally because of their ethnic backgrounds, the ways we as a society can help with educational equity, and the ways we can help students understand social justice. To create the ideal classroom that we dream of, we need to make it grounded in the lives of students, multicultural, anti-racist, pro-justice, participatory, hopeful, happy, empowering, activist, academically rigorous, and culturally linguistically inclusive. Furthermore, it is essential to have students reflect on their own beliefs, for students to have a voice in the classroom, to reduce any gender or race barriers in the classroom, and for all students to be and to feel respected and included. It is also essential to avoid assumptions about student’s backgrounds, being aware of religious holidays, starting clubs for kids who feel left out because of their religious backgrounds, and looking at different books to discuss and learn about different backgrounds. A classroom needs to be a welcoming environment for all students. Students should be excited to walk into school every day and students should be excited to learn. A classroom should be an environment that allows all students to feel happy and safe. No student should feel mistreated when an ideal social justice classroom is effective and that is the goal. For all classrooms to be culturally unified, these aspects mentioned need to occur in an everyday classroom and for that to happen, we as teachers need to make that possible with every effort our heart can put forth for these students. My classmates in my group and I discussed these aspects and we decided together that it would be best to teach our classmates the importance of what these aspects can bring to an ideal classroom.
The chapter in “The New Teacher Book” called, “Creating Classrooms For Equity and Social Justice” gave emphasis on the idea that we as educators have the power to make classrooms places of hope. We as teachers have the power to get rid of the hopelessness and inequalities that take place in the learning environment for students. I will always believe that teachers and students have the ability to work together to make classrooms socially justified. When using this section of the reading and the chapter of the book called, “Seeing Ourselves With Our Own Eyes,” as my Current Connection, I gained much knowledge and skills that I can use for my personal career path to make my classroom a hopeful and happy equal place for my students.
As I connected the chapter in “The New Teacher Book” to “Seeing Ourselves With Our Own Eyes,” with a separate source from the internet called, “Equity in groupwork: the social process of creating justice in a science classroom,” I found that these two sources of teaching information linked together effectively. In the chapter of the book called, “Seeing Ourselves With Our Own Eyes,” the teacher asked his students to write a dialogue to themselves about themselves so they could use it for self-affirmation as poetry. This allowed the students to see themselves from a positive perspective in their own skin so that they could feel comfortable expressing their identity through poetry. This gave the students the power to openly express themselves through writing so that they could uncover the beauty within themselves and not feel afraid to reveal their identity with others. Connecting this powerful piece of writing to the online source of information called, “Equity in groupwork: the social process of creating justice in a science classroom,” this source discusses the importance of requiring teachers to use more dialogic practice with their students. It encourages groupwork between students for the benefit of improving equity among students in the classrooms. Equitable groupwork is discussed by this source as having three main components which are student voice, visibility of all students and student authority. It is so very important for students to have their own voice in the classroom and for them to feel that they have the power to address issues of inequity when they experience it. Something that is essential to constantly being taught in the classrooms is the reassurance to making sure students know they always have the right to using their voice to express their thoughts and feelings. The source explains that results from studies of student voice in classrooms included an increase in student motivation and achievement and shifts in student’s identities. Dialogue is described as being crucial to our existence as humans because it impacts the world, and it is how we make ourselves and our truth visible. Dialogue has much evidence that it makes an impact on the lives of individuals by helping us achieve the importance we have as people. Overall, it is known from these comparisons that equal classrooms can be accomplished when teachers allow students to interact with their classmates and to speak their own voice through communication and writing. It allows for better understanding and respect when learning about each other’s unique identity. Students are visible in the lives of each other and when their voices are being listened to, the sense of understanding creates the social justice classrooms we need.
Christensen, Linda, et al. The New Teacher Book: Finding Purpose, Balance, and Hope during Your First Years in the Classroom. Third ed., Rethinking Schools, 2019.
Patterson, Alexis D. “Equity in Groupwork: the Social Process of Creating Justice in a Science Classroom.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, Springer Nature, https://eds-p-ebscohost-com.jcu.ohionet.org/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=e0f92ef8-e8e9-46f9-a6b1-087d8d17c2a5%40redis.
Katie's Educational Blog 