Social Justice
Working with children is a great opportunity to promote social change. If children become advocates for social justice at a young age it can help pave they way for a brighter future.
I believe there are a series of steps involved in promoting social justice.
1) AWARENESS: Children should be taught about tough issues from a young age. Social issues could include racism, homelessness, poverty, war, and violence. Issues should be considered on both a global and local level. Awareness is the first step in promoting social justice.
2) EMPATHY: Empathy is the next step in promoting social justice. If students don't understand and empathize with victims then they wont be interested in promoting change. A few ways to begin to foster empathy include role-playing, children's literature, and guest speakers.
3) CAUSES:
a) DIGGING DEEPER: Once students become aware of social justice issues and are interested in creating change, they must begin to look at the root causes. This could be complicated because there may be multiple causes. For example, with an issue such as poverty there could be various systems in place that prevent certain people from being successful.
b) ACKNOWLEDGING OUR PART: When looking at systems of inequity we must also look at how we contribute to these systems. One example of a complex system is white privilege. Whether I like it or not I have privileges that come along with being white. These privileges have contributed to my success. If I had been African-Canadian or Aboriginal I would have had to fight much harder achieve the same kind of success. By acknowledging this system and the part I play in perpetrating it, I can begin to work towards changing it. With older students, looking at how they may in some way contribute to some of the issues would be an important step in fostering change.
4) ACTION: Students need to learn that they can make a difference! Social action projects could be anything from simple actions that affect change in the community to more elaborate action projects that promote change on a global level.
Below are some links to examples of children making a difference.
Kids can make a difference
The ladybug foundation.
Kids make a difference on the war on hunger
Although I did not implement a social action project during my pre-internship unit on dinosaurs, I did include a lesson that had students consider how dinosaurs and people are different. Below I have included the video that I created using images from Flickr to help students consider how children are different around the world.
I believe there are a series of steps involved in promoting social justice.
1) AWARENESS: Children should be taught about tough issues from a young age. Social issues could include racism, homelessness, poverty, war, and violence. Issues should be considered on both a global and local level. Awareness is the first step in promoting social justice.
2) EMPATHY: Empathy is the next step in promoting social justice. If students don't understand and empathize with victims then they wont be interested in promoting change. A few ways to begin to foster empathy include role-playing, children's literature, and guest speakers.
3) CAUSES:
a) DIGGING DEEPER: Once students become aware of social justice issues and are interested in creating change, they must begin to look at the root causes. This could be complicated because there may be multiple causes. For example, with an issue such as poverty there could be various systems in place that prevent certain people from being successful.
b) ACKNOWLEDGING OUR PART: When looking at systems of inequity we must also look at how we contribute to these systems. One example of a complex system is white privilege. Whether I like it or not I have privileges that come along with being white. These privileges have contributed to my success. If I had been African-Canadian or Aboriginal I would have had to fight much harder achieve the same kind of success. By acknowledging this system and the part I play in perpetrating it, I can begin to work towards changing it. With older students, looking at how they may in some way contribute to some of the issues would be an important step in fostering change.
4) ACTION: Students need to learn that they can make a difference! Social action projects could be anything from simple actions that affect change in the community to more elaborate action projects that promote change on a global level.
Below are some links to examples of children making a difference.
Kids can make a difference
The ladybug foundation.
Kids make a difference on the war on hunger
Although I did not implement a social action project during my pre-internship unit on dinosaurs, I did include a lesson that had students consider how dinosaurs and people are different. Below I have included the video that I created using images from Flickr to help students consider how children are different around the world.
