Transformative Approaches To Social Justice Education

Transformative Approaches to Social Justice Education is a book for anyone with an interest in teaching and learning in higher education from a social justice perspective and with a commitment to teaching all students. This text offers a breadth of disciplinary perspectives on how to center difference, power, and systemic oppression in pedagogical practice, arguing that these elements are essential to knowledge formation and to teaching. Transformative Approaches to Social Justice Education is structured as an ongoing conversation among educators who believe that teaching from a social justice perspective is about much more than the type of readings and assignments found on course syllabi. Drawing on the broadest possible definition of curriculum transformation, the volume demonstrates that social justice education is about both educators’ social locations and about course content. It is also about knowing students and teaching beyond the traditional classroom to meaningfully include local communities, social movements, archives, and colleagues in student and academic affairs. Premised on the notion that continuous learning and growth is critical to educators with deep commitments to fostering critical consciousness through their teaching, Transformative Approaches to Social Justice Education offers interdisciplinary and innovative collaborative approaches to curriculum transformation that build on and extend existing scholarship on social justice education. Newly committed and established social justice pedagogues share their experiences taking up the many difficult questions pertaining to what it means for all of us to participate in shaping a more just, shared future.

The similarities between the United States and South Africa with respect to race, power, oppression and economic inequities are striking, and a better understanding of these parallels can provide educational gains for students and educators in both countries. Through shared experiences and perspectives, this volume presents scholarly work from U.S. and South African scholars that advance educational practice in support of social justice and transformative learning. It provides a comprehensive framework for developing transformational learning experiences that facilitates leadership for social justice, and a deeper understanding of the factors influencing personal, national and global identity.

Based on the Transforming Lives research project, this book explores the transformative power of further education. The book outlines a timely and critical approach to educational research and practice, and draws extensively on the testimonies of students and teachers to construct a model of transformative teaching and learning. It critiques reductive ‘skills’ policies in further education and illuminates the impact colleges and lifelong learning have on social justice outcomes for individuals, their families and communities. For trainee teachers, teachers, leaders, researchers and policy makers alike, the book presents a persuasive argument for transformative approaches to teaching and learning, and highlights the often unmeasured and under-appreciated holistic social benefits of further education.

Tools and strategies to foster transformative change for social justice Many believe that social justice education is simply the new politically correct term for diversity-focused intervention or multiculturalism. The true definition, however, is more complex, nuanced, and important to understand. Higher education today needs clarity on both the concept of social justice and effective tools to successfully translate theory into practice. In Advancing Social Justice: Tools, Pedagogies, and Strategies to Transform Your Campus, Tracy Davis and Laura M. Harrison offer educators a clear understanding of what social justice is, along with effective practices to help higher education institutions embrace a broad social justice approach in all aspects of their work with students, both inside and outside of the classroom. Theoretical, philosophical, and practical, the book challenges readers to take a step back from where they are, do an honest and unvarnished assessment of how they currently practice social justice, rethink how they approach their work, and re-engage based on a more informed and rigorous conceptual framework. The authors begin by clarifying the definition of social justice as an approach that examines and acknowledges the impact of institutional and historical systems of power and privilege on individual identity and relationships. Exploring identity devel-opment using the critical lenses of history and context, they concentrate on ways that oppression and privilege are manifest in the lived experiences of students. They also highlight important concepts to consider in designing and implementing effective social justice interventions and provide examples of effective social justice education. Finally, the book provides teachers and practitioners with tools and strategies to infuse a social justice approach into their work with students and within their institutions.

The International Handbook on Educational Leadership and Social (In)Justice creates a first-of-its-kind international forum on conceptualizing the meanings of social justice and leadership, research approaches in studying social justice and combating social injustices, school, university and teacher leadership for social justice, advocacy and advocates for social justice, socio-cultural representations of social injustices, glocal policies, and leadership development as interventions. The Handbook is as much forward-looking as it is a retrospective review of educational research literatures on social justice from a variety of educational subfields including educational leadership, higher education academic networks, special education, health education, teacher education, professional development, policy analyses, and multicultural education. The Handbook celebrates the promises of social justice while providing the educational leadership research community with concrete, contextualized illustrations on how to address inequities and combat social, political and economic injustices through the processes of education in societies and educational institutions around the world.

The concept of "standards" seems antithetical to the ways critical educators are dedicated to teaching, but what would "standards" look like if they were generated from social justice perspectives and through collaborative and inclusive processes? Such is the central question posed by the contributors of this groundbreaking collection on the interconnectivity of social justice, peace, and environmental preservation. Challenging education that promotes consumerism, careerism, and corporate profiteering, they boldly offer examples of a new paradigm for practicing a transformative critical pedagogy. Rather than just talking about coalition building within and across educational communities, they demonstrate how we might communicate from different vantage points and disciplinary boundaries to create a broader picture of social and eco-justice. Social Justice, Peace, and Environmental Education will be required reading for educators and students who want to envision and practice living, acting, and teaching for a better world.

This book demonstrates how the pedagogical decision making of university academics can be shaped by engagement with an educational philosophy known as “relationship-centred education”. Beginning with critical analysis of concepts such as student engagement, student satisfaction, and student-centred learning, the author goes on to investigate how literature relating to social justice challenges educators to consider these terms in particular ways. From this basis, the book explores the factors featuring in inclusive, respectful, diverse and student-centred environments. In analysing these factors, the author illuminates the perspectives of university teachers who struggle with the unique challenges of working in the academy; including an increasingly broad set of employment demands and narrower criteria for determining ‘impact’, all while retaining focus on the transformative potential of higher education. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of transformative learning, as well as social justice within higher education.

This timely book successfully combines theory and practice to intelligibly show how to prepare prospective school leaders for social justice, equity, and excellence.