Teaching Toward Justice: Reflections on Collaboration, Engagement, and Social Action in Uncertain Times

Environmental Justice Pedagogies and Self-Efficacy for Climate Action

“…Teaching about justice through a framework of social responsibility, alternatively referred to as an ethic of care [39], encourages the development of and commitment to a shared set of values and serves to develop students' sense of empathy, benevolence, and efficacy [29,[39][40][41]. Additionally, SJE prioritizes learning around the processes and tools for social action and social change [38,[42][43][44]. Along with content covering social action, SJE often incorporates developing and practicing real-world change-making skills through exercises in participatory action research, service-learning projects, involving students in partnerships with local organizations, and other civic engagement activities that connect the course content to meaningful and relatable student action experiences [42][43][44].…”

“…Additionally, SJE prioritizes learning around the processes and tools for social action and social change [38,[42][43][44]. Along with content covering social action, SJE often incorporates developing and practicing real-world change-making skills through exercises in participatory action research, service-learning projects, involving students in partnerships with local organizations, and other civic engagement activities that connect the course content to meaningful and relatable student action experiences [42][43][44]. Prioritizing a social action approach plays a role in emotional impacts, as providing students with the knowledge and tools of social change "is critical to help move students from cynicism and despair to hope and possibility" [38] (p. 106).…”

An Introduction to Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy for Students With Sensory Disabilities

“…The presence of disability is often seen as the individual's dominant personal characteristic, without regard to society's responsibility for creating environments and interactions that are inclusive and appreciative of differences as assets. Ableism, like racism, limits access to resources and opportunities (Shallish et al, 2020). For example, DHH students who use sign language may encounter educators or others who view its use negatively and may consider it inferior to spoken language (Cripps et al, 2016).…”

Social Justice in the Classroom

“…Wiltse, Johnston, and Yang (2014) note that even when teachers are supportive of social justice, they may hold "weak" conceptions of it, "believing it to be more about fairness than the need to address systematic inequalities" (p. 265). Such perspectives can be viewed as "diluted," according to Shallish, Rao, and Pancsofar (2020), who also caution against approaches that "individualize acts of oppression (and do not address the systems that support such ways of being), and fail to address the deep, historical, interconnected, and relational nature of power and oppression and historical foundations of inequality" (p. 20).…”