Social Justice Starting With Teachers

The article I read was titled Promoting Social Justice in an Urban Secondary Teacher Education Program written by Monica Medina, Anastasia Morrone and Jeffery Anderson. It was published in The Clearing House and I think it's important because in order to...incorporate social justice into our classrooms when working with students, we have to first address it as pre-service teachers.

The definition of social justice that this article uses is "social justice involves 'inspiring, working with and organizing others to accomplish together a work of justice...that primarily involves the good of others'" (pg. 208). The argument that these authors make is a strong one for university education programs to make transformations to address social justice as part of training.They worked with Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (yes this is the name of the school. IUPUI) and how their four semester block Learing to Teach/Teaching to Learn program delves into topics of diversity and culture. They do an activity where they are assigned either a dominant or minority group (primo or segundan). The dominant group is attempting to gain a grant from a fictitious foundation and has "the power to determine the development of a minority school and community, but they must collaborate with each other in order to receive the grant money." It helps them identify how their personal frame of reference negatively impacts others.

Another activity they complete is called the Kozol Project. They begin by reading Amazing Grace by Jonathan Kozol and identify five passages that they found meaningful and write a reflection of them, and they share with their peers. Then they are grouped into small teams and are asked to research the "community's assets." They develop presentations on various aspects of the community in attempt to "discourage a deficit perspective of the school and surrounding community."

Projects like these are what the authors suggest help pre-service teachers understand the diversity in future classrooms. Many of these pre-service teachers had the opportunity to critically reflect on their own views of teaching and social justice (209). If future teachers get the chance to develop their understanding of race, class, and ethnicity early in education programs, they will be able to actively engage their own students in the classroom in discussions of social justice (pg 209).

Critical Pedagogy and Pop Culture in an Urban Secondary English Classroom

Have you ever seen the movie Freedom Writers? It's a true story based on a teacher who gets her first teaching job at a high school in Long Beach. The school was once high achieving, but when they put an integration plan in place, it became more "urban" and "rundown". There is a scene in the movie where Hilary Swank (this new and excited teacher) attempts to teach poetry to this very segregated classroom using Tupac lyrics. It's awkward and funny, but it's what this reading reminded me of. (If you haven't seen Freedom Writers, drop whatever you are doing right now and watch it. Now.)

Anyway, I liked this reading. It was interesting to read about the implementations Duncan-Andrade and Morrell made in their urban classrooms. Personally, I went to a 4a high school in Tri-Cities. We weren't necessarily the richest school in the area, but we never really wanted for anything. 1700 students, and we all had the books and supplies we needed to be successful. When I envision myself in my own classroom, I think about the classrooms like the ones at Kamiakin. This made me think about what my classroom would be like if I was in a more urban setting. I really liked their unit using Savage Inequalities and Stand and Deliver. Although I haven't read Savage Inequalities, I have seen Stand and Deliver and it was interesting how they got their students to realize that things can be done. They were shown that there are so many other students that face the same issues they do and its possible to overcome these issues. At the end of the unit, change happened: "everyone on campus, from the principal to the teachers, was on notice that if something was not right, the students would get to the bottom of it" (pg 191).

I think it's incredibly important to empower students in this way. That they can change their circumstances, that it doesn't HAVE to be this way or another way. I really enjoyed the situations these gentlemen put their students in, and the way they taught difficult topics such as race and justice.

This, compared to our last couple readings, was my favorite.

Peter McLaren's Critical Pedagogy

Well. This was another long and dry piece of writing, but there were a lot of interesting parts. 

Something that really intrigued me was the "hidden curriculum". It seemed like it was very secretive and we were being shown a sneak peak of things that they don't teach you in school. The study done by Psychology Today showed that in classrooms, boys are accepted as being "academically aggressive" while girls are expected to be more "composed and passive." I would hope that, now in 2014, this doesn't happen anymore. Whether it be consciously or subconsciously, teachers need to not discriminate based on sex. It's crazy because I look at the people I know, and they generally show the exact opposite characteristics (the women are more dedicated and academically eager, while the men are less aggressive). 

I hadn't really thought about the different types of knowledge before reading this article. Knowledge has always just been....knowledge. Technical and practical knowledge make sense, but the connection between these two is considered "emancipatory knowledge". That was a new concept for me. 

And of course there was a section on discourse, which is a definite reoccurring theme in education. 

Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Okay. I have no idea where to even begin with this...

Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed was...interesting. It was incredibly difficult to read, and I feel like I need to read it a hundred more times before I can completely understand it. Although I understand where he's coming from as far as treating students as humans and not "alienate them like the slave in the Hegelian dialectic" goes, I think this piece as a whole was really negative. It was hard to follow and at every page turn I was like..."well that bums me out."He wrote about this insane epidemic that is teachers being awful and treating their students as empty receptacles to only be filled by information the teacher chooses to fill them with. He seems every..."TEACHERS NEED TO BE STOPPED, THIS IS A CRIME!" I get it. I understand that this happens and it's not great teaching form, but I do not appreciate how Mr. Freire makes it sound like EVERY teacher in EVERY classroom has these sort of dehumanizing underpinnings to their teaching. 

{Footnote #3: for example, some professors specify in their reading lists that a book should be read from pages 10 to 15 -- and do this to 'help' their students!} (pg. 4) 

What is this actually about? What is with the sarcastic quotes around the word help? I don't know any scheming teacher or professor that would be like "Oh let's give them reading requirements because they must be oppressed and held back! Those fools! ha ha!" It just doesn't make sense to me. So maybe I'm not understanding his point.

"Oppression -- overwhelming control -- is necrophilic; it is nourished by love of death, not life" (pg.4)

Okay, this statement is absolutely true, but it's a little dramatic to apply it to teaching, isn't it? 

I understand that he's calling for change. I agree that suppressing the creative minds of future generations is NOT the way to teach. I just didn't really like the way he went about discussing it. It was quite the interesting read. 

Common Core

I think the most important thing about common core state standards is that they provide a strong guidance to teachers and their curriculum. Especially new teachers, they will be able to access these standards and build relevant and specific lesson plans that ensure students learning what they need to learn. As a teacher candidate, I think these standards will be incredibly beneficial for me to make sure I'm addressing the crucial parts of a young persons education. Especially in the secondary field, they help prepare students for college and the workforce. Each content area has these common core standards and each grade level addresses different aspects in those core areas. Something I thought was interesting were the ELA appendices. They show research showing the support of the state standards and they show some examples of student work in different ELA classrooms.

Discussion as a Way of Teaching

I've always enjoyed classroom discussions in my educational experience, so I've always had this vision that my future classroom will utilize discussion. This article really helped cement that idea. Right off the bat, the author discusses a situation that Steve Preskill experienced while he was teaching a course on educational ethics. He opened his classroom to a discussion on an article he found on a schools refusal to honor a DNR order. What he experienced was eye opening. I think it's important to remember that discussion, like Mr. Preskill's example, opens up minds and gives way for healthy debate. I've learned a lot more through my peers and listening to their points of view than I could from a textbook or professor alone. It was interesting to consider the differences between the words conversation, dialogue and discussion. Those words had always been pretty synonymous with me, but this piece helped distinguish them a little more. Conversation being more informal and relaxed, while discussion is more structured and has an end goal.

I also really liked the fifteen benefits of discussion in chapter 2. With changing views and so much information out there, students are able to experience it all through talking with each other. Even if they can't agree, it's incredibly beneficial for them to understand there's much more outside of their individual box. Discussion will not always be nice and pretty, but I consider that the best part about it. I think the authors laid it all out really well and encourages me to use discussion in my classroom.

Introductory Letter

My name is Jaime Mahoney and I am a secondary social studies major with an english minor. This is my third year at Eastern, and I transferred from Columbia Basin College with my AA degree. I just recently got placed at Lewis and Clark High School observing freshman world history and junior AP U.S. history. My english class coursework is pretty limited so far: the basic 101 and 201, intro to poetry, intro to fiction and am currently taking English 408 (the composition process). I really do enjoy English and reading, which is partially why I want to each English. My weaknesses are typically centered around poetry. I don't mind reading it, but sometimes I find it difficult to analyze and write it. That's something I'm very nervous about teaching. The three week unit plan we have to create for this course is giving me a sense of impending doom. So far in my educational career, I have yet to write a lesson plan thats longer than a few days. I know I will be a better teacher and teacher candidate because of it but it's definitely something I'm nervous about. I want to be able to write effective lesson plans that are interesting and fun but still adhere to common core standards. I haven't written a lesson plan for english yet, I've stuck to history in my past lesson plans because that's what I'm most comfortable with. I'm nervous and excited and anxious for this class and this quarter. I know all of it will be worth it and make me a better teacher. I look forward to it :)