Lessons learned from teaching social justice education in sixth grade

Exploring Social Justice Education as a Responsive Middle Grades Pedagogy to Promote Justice-Oriented Citizenship

“…Taken together, these findings affirm the potential for SJE and social action in particular to impact middle grades students' perceptions of citizenship in ways that support the ongoing pursuit of social justice in our American democracy. Furthermore, the shift in student perceptions as well as the increased evidence of critical consciousness affirm existing scholarship showing that powerful SJ learning can take place during the formative middle years through responsive teaching pedagogies such as SJE [13]. As such, we encourage others who work with middle grades students and preservice and in-service teachers to join us in radically envisioning middle grades schools and classrooms that are designed around SJE.…”

“…In addition, rapidly evolving cognitive development and increasingly complex moral reasoning, including a strong desire for justice and making the world a better place [21] during adolescence, creates rich learning opportunities to examine complex issues with real-world implications. Due to its emphasis on relevant social issues, identity exploration, criticality, and action, a curriculum that centers on SJ outcomes is also responsive to the developmental nature and needs of young adolescents [13]. By centering topics such as identity, diversity, justice, and activism, SJE capitalizes on the developmental readiness of young adolescents for SJ learning while addressing the best practices in middle grades education [13].…”

“…Due to its emphasis on relevant social issues, identity exploration, criticality, and action, a curriculum that centers on SJ outcomes is also responsive to the developmental nature and needs of young adolescents [13]. By centering topics such as identity, diversity, justice, and activism, SJE capitalizes on the developmental readiness of young adolescents for SJ learning while addressing the best practices in middle grades education [13].…”

“…Middle grades teaching approaches that emphasize critical inquiry have the potential to be both culturally responsive and developmentally responsive if they are designed to attend to the social, emotional, moral, and cognitive needs of young adolescents while also engaging them in authentic learning aimed at developing critical consciousness [1], which is an essential outcome of culturally relevant teaching [12]. Social justice education, with its emphasis on identity, diversity, justice, and action, is an example of one powerful middle level pedagogy that sits at the intersection of culturally and developmentally responsive teaching [13].…”