Teaching Social Justice

By Rachel Satira
SED 305 01

The goal of all educators,

Is to teach social justice.
This is becoming student mediators,
Or becoming advocates.

Making schools harmonious is a team effort.

Teaching acceptance and beliefs.
The school should be a system of relief,
Helping obtain a status-quo.

Teachers pass this wisdom,

From one generation to the next.
Every person who enters the schooling system,
Should abide to the Functionalism text.

Students should be learning,

About differences in the workplace.
Successful figures, they should be yearning.
They need to recognize this and assimilate.

The role of the education system,

Is maintaining and keeping political order.
Take it from the child who is restricted
Because their school isn’t their supporter.

It is unfair to avoid such political hate.

Within school walls, you get a taste.
It is now our turn to change it.
Educators can switch it up a bit.

Critical race, feminism, and multicultural education,

Are just some things the school system exposes.
There is negativity around this information,
Institutions should unveil and oppress this.

Keeping dialogue fresh is an important tool.

It shows where people stand without looking like a fool.
Ask questions, share ideas, and become team players.
These ideas can become documented laws written down on papers.

The “banking method” is not what it seems.

Teachers deposit knowledge to students,
Then ask for it back through testing machines.
It defeats the purpose of providing opportunities.

The hierarchical arrangement of classrooms is concerning.

Teachers at the top of the structure,
While students are at the bottom, working.
Teachers and student should be together in the architecture.
 Teachers should analyze and construct,
The system and strategies that they teach.
Teachers are shaping the classrooms they instruct.
Teachers provide opportunities for students to reach.

Students and teachers alike

Must realize they are subjects.
When this takes place, their goal will align.
They recognize they are not objects.

When teachers and student work together,

Studying the past and working towards the future.
They partake in a pedagogy,
Of freedom and education; a testimony.

A testimony that all can share:

Institutions and social structures are unjust.
It is up to us,
To dismantle the corrupt nightmare.

Class, race, and sex are forms of inequities.

Critical theorists claim schools should be democracies.
Changes have to occur with bias and curriculum.
Transformations will begin, starting with the minimum.

A Multicultural Education advocates

For diverse students,
To conform in one place.
This theory doesn’t align with social improvements.

Putting limits on or grouping everyone together,

Doesn’t work out.
Especially in schools where it has been forever.
We should be agents of change, walking about.

According to Banks there are five strands.

Integration, construction,
Equity, empowering, and reduction.
This theory raises social justice commands.

Schools are transformative places,

Where children can learn and adapt.
Teachers are included in the changes,
In an environment free from being trapped.

Curriculum and unequal resources

Have an effect on instruction.
Not all children can benefit from unjust forces.
Teachers must personally change their production.

On the other hand, Post-Modern theorists,

Believe that teachers and students should move
Away from narratives and revise it.
Emphasizing the relationship between power and knowledge and applying it.
 Classrooms are a place of communication.
Sharing thoughts and ideas in a neutral location.
Teachers begin to self-reflect on what they teach.
Inspiring others to practice what they preach.

Last but not least,

Post-Structural theory has social justice under heat.
Individuals under the same power,
Receive rewards and punishments within the same encounter.

One child might be privileged

While one might be suffering,
Without clear order in the classroom,
The divide will be never-ending.

Teachers should encourage students.

“Stand up and question authority”
One teacher proclaims, seeking improvements.
For their beliefs can make a difference,
When they make up the majority.

To wrap it all up, social justice theories of education,

Have two main goals:
Recognize the marginalization
And transform the schooling role.

Free, equal, and just education for all.

No matter the race, background, economic standing.
Teachers and students must work together.
With all theories in place, the classroom will be advancing.
Summary:
I tried to summarize each section of the article into stanzas. I also added in examples that might be
happening in today’s educational system. Poems are supposed to be a form of self-expression. Through the words of
the poem, I expressed what I received from the article. I combined key facts and my own words to share from the
article. With the poem read in rhyme scheme, it is easier to comprehend. Readers can feel emotions through the
rhyming words and stanzas. The added pictures give imagery to the stanzas. A reader can interpret what they want
from the poem but the pictures also add meaning. The topic of social justice in the classroom needs to be talked
about more. As a future educator, I will see the injustice or hate. I need to stop it. It is my job to teach compassion
and equality no matter the background. I will also see the equality and push for more advocates in the educational
system. The article provided many different theories. Teaching in a diverse school district, whether socioeconomic
status or race causes divide, I must end the division. Educators have the power to make a difference! Educators have
to provide opportunities for student growth. The classroom is a place of comfort and expression. I can take these
ideas and align them with my own to create a socially just education for all. The serious issues with social justice
education can be easily remembered in a sing-song tone. I want these ideas and theorists to be remembered
naturally, without thinking. Just like lyrics to a catchy song. Teachers can replay this poem in their head and put the
theories into effect; creating a socially just environment.

Picture Sources:
 https://spiritualmusclehead.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/struggling-to-confess-the-sin-of-racism/diverse-
children/
 http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/07/05/half-of-school-children-trust-their-teacher-more-than-parents-
and-friends_n_7387336.html
 https://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-image-group-children-crossed-arms-colorful-t-shirts-
standing-together-white-background-image38895726
 http://drpfconsults.com/classroom-strategies-for-diverse-students/
 http://www.garysiplin.com/issue/improve-education/
 https://investorplace.com/2017/04/top-trends-for-teenagers/
 http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.8565977/k.58D2/About_the_Advocacy_Summit.
htm
 http://findreallife.com/kids-on-the-v-i-n-e/
 http://unitedfamilies.org