Six Elements of Social Justice Curriculum Design for the Elementary Classroom
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Introduction
The following is a review on “Using Their Words: Six Elements of Social Justice Curriculum Design for the Elementary Classroom” written by Bree Picower. The purpose of Picower’s study is to present the importance of teaching social justice in the elementary classroom to develop the student’s ability to respect differences in others. Picower does this by presenting framework of six elements of classroom teaching. The elements are self love and knowledge, respect for others, issues of social injustice, social movements and social change, awareness raising, and social action.
Summary
Bree Picower’s six elements of social justice provides reasoning for the importance of teaching social justice issues such as racism, gentrification, fairness, and other implied injustices in standard education curriculum (Picower, 2015). The article claims that by implementing these six elements into the teaching curriculum, students are able to apply social and cultural awareness to their lives, introspectively as well as outwardly. Picower describes the elements with her own personal examples as well using other elementary school teacher’s lessons.
Response
Picower’s research includes literature review as well as her own knowledge from teaching in elementary classrooms. The first element is Self Love and Knowledge. This involves teaching students who they are by having the student identify their backgrounds and use it to deconstruct negative stereotypes. Examples of classroom activities are given and Picower provides an instance of a teacher who had students read material that challenged harmful stereotypes and prompted the students to reclaim negative words. The second element is Respect for Others. In this element of teaching, Picower relates its importance to identifying self love, as in the first element. She cites an example from her own classroom and asserts that having students learn about each others’ cultures helps student’s gain respect for others while reducing stereotyping. The third element in Picower’s study is teaching issues in social justice. Picower describes a teacher who had his class discuss the social implications following hurricane Katrina. She says that this example shows that applying current issues to curriculum captures student’s attention and therefore allows their exploration into culture and social justice as part of their learning material. Element four relies on the introduction of social movements and change to the classroom. Specifically, it is meant to teach the importance of certain individuals role’s in social movements, and instead of focusing on the well-known figures, but on those that students can easily relate. This gives students identifiers in the social justice movement in which to relate and apply to everyday life. The fifth element is awareness raising, and by putting their knowledge into action, the students are able to passionately connect knowledge to their surroundings. This includes activies such as producing newsletters, volunteering in their communities, and generally raising awareness to specific social issues (Halgunseth et al., 2009). This is where students apply their skills in the real world. The sixth element is social action. This is the final step in which students apply course materials to situations in which they can enact change. This is crucial to the learning process as it is the sole reason for education—to prepare students for real-world activities that create change for the better and in the process, give the student a feeling of accomplishment and pride (Bowen, 2003).
Applications
Picower’s elements of curriculum can be applied directly to elementary school education. In an increasing multicultural environment, young students must learn to interact in a culturally sensitive way. This is not only for their benefit of engagement with their peers, but also to their own culture and history. By providing students with a culturally sensitive learning system that focuses on social justice, teachers are setting their student up to succeed and interact effectively with others. Research shows that students show greater confidence and well-being when introduced to these elements of social justice curriculum (Empowering Students, 2013). For example, Picower introduces important figures in social movements other than those that would be well know to the students. This provides the students with added knowledge of those who prompted and helped during social justice movements in the background, and this is something the students can relate to (Lent, 2012). The curriculum asks students to make change in the world and gives them the basis to do so (Lent, 2012). This curriculum allows for ease of educational integration that helps teachers find resources and avoid common pitfalls (Scharf, 2014). Basically, the students can see improvement and change within themselves and the teaching of social justice can bring that out.
References
Bowen, E. R. (2003). Student engagement and its relation to quality work design: A review of the literature. Action Research Exchange, 2(1).
Empowering Students to Promote Social Justice: A Qualitative Study of Field Instructors’ Perceptions and Strategies. (2013, October 1). Retrieved August 30, 2015, from http://fieldeducator.simmons.edu/article/empowering-students-to-promote-social-justice-a-qualitative-study-of-field-instructors-perceptions-and-strategies/
Halgunseth, L., Peterson, A., Stark, D., & Moodie, S. (n.d.). Family Engagement, Diverse Families, and Early Childhood Education Programs: An Integrated Review of the Literature. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
Lent, R. C. (2012). Overcoming textbook fatigue: 21st century tools to revitalize teaching and learning. Ascd.
Picower, B. (n.d.). Using Their Words. Retrieved August 30, 2015, from http://www.usingtheirwords.org/
Scharf, A. (n.d.). Critical Practices for Anti-bias Education. Retrieved August 30, 2015, from http://www.tolerance.org/sites/default/files/Critical Practicesv4_final.pdf
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