The goal of social justice in education is not simply to equate the distribution of resources and social assets, but to empower students with the tools they need to change the systematic injustices of our school system and society. To achieve this goal, there are three essential features that this paper will discuss: acknowledge and understanding oppression, critiquing oppression, and challenging systematic forms of oppression.
As defined by the British Columbia Ministry of Education, social justice is a philosophy that advocates for the full participation of all people in dictating how society functions, as well as for their basic legal, civil, and human rights (2008). Consequently, social justice calls for action against a broad spectrum of discriminations against race, ethnicity, language, sex, age, physical ability, culture, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, mental ability, and so on. Groups of these differences have faced strong barriers that have prevented them from full and equitable participation in society. The school system is guilty of unintentionally operating on assumptions that exclude or marginalize those of these classes that are discriminated against. The resources made available to students are produced by and catered to the dominant public. Curriculum and teachers unconsciously create a welcoming environment to those of power and a discouraging environment to others. The goal of social justice in education is not simply to equalize the distribution of resources and social assets, but to empower students with the tools they need to change the systematic injustices of our school system and society. Scholars such as Helen Harper and Heather Hackman have suggested that in order to achieve this goal, there are essential components of social justice education that need to be acknowledged. This paper will concentrate on three essential features: acknowledge and understanding oppression, critiquing oppression, and challenging systematic forms of oppression (Harper, 1997; Hackman, 2005).
The first essential feature towards promoting social justice is to acknowledge and understand all instances of oppression. If social justice education is to ask students to become engaged in social responsibility, educators must provide students with enough critical information to do so effectively. Unfortunately, the typical modern education does not delve deep enough into understanding all aspects of oppression. For example, McIntosh describes in her own personal awareness and education by stating, “my schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor…or as a participant in a damaged culture” (1989, p. 1). The dominant public is guilty of being unaware of the social injustices that exist in their society and how they impact those injustices. What is necessary for effective social justice is to explore broad and deep levels of oppression so that students can effectively examine content and conduct a critical dialogue about it with others. If social justice in education is going to ask students to engage in social responsibility, educators must provide students with enough critical information to do so effectively, otherwise oppression is bound to continue (Hackman, 2005, p. 108).
Most citizens of the dominant society believe that their actions are not oppressive since they do not explicitly commit oppressive actions towards minorities. What they do not realize is the advantages they are privileged with. A lot of oppression is unconscious. Peggy McIntosh addresses this phenomenon in her article “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack.” She addresses such white liberties as having a public trust in such things as financial reliability or criminal innocence, to name a few (McIntosh, 1989, p. 2-3). She lists many more examples that this paper will not go in to; instead this paper will refer to her concept of unconscious discrimination as an example of how oppression can go unrecognized if we are not trained to see it. Schools don’t teach this level of oppression. It is so ingrained into our daily lives that we don’t recognize that anything is wrong. I believe there is a tremendous amount of potential in improving the state of our social equality. We have come a long way in our extremely oppressed history and the improvements we have made have been through education and understanding. Both Harper (1997), and Ghosh and Abdi (2004) use the Ontario school system as an example as having evolved significantly from the anglo-dominate past to more recent developments of antiracism and ethnocultural equity policies. These are great strides in social justice education. If we are to take the next step in social justice, it must come from educating our students and ourselves to perceive the world differently.
This step of educating students about oppression starts with educating teachers. Unfortunately, many teachers are unaware of social justice matters and unconsciously behave differently towards visible and invisible differences (Gale, 2000, p. 24). Traditionally, most teachers were ‘color-blind’ as in they believed that the dominant societal views were best and all oppressive groups were inferior and that there assimilation or their place in society was in their best interest (Orlowski, 2008, p. 118). Shockingly, from Orlowski’s study, the teachers used the culture-deficit discourse in explaining the low graduation rates among Aboriginal groups. One teacher in particular believed that a more progressive perspective would be “certainly spoiling them a lot” (Orlowski, 2008, p. 199). This is an example that injustices do exist, even at the attitudinal level of teachers. Not only did these teachers have the discriminating beliefs, but also they refused to change to a race-cognizance discourse, dismissing it as an exaggerated issue. To encourage understanding oppression at the student level, teachers must educate themselves first. There is action taking place but teachers are still going through the process of change and are educating themselves to these forms of oppression (Gale, 2000, p. 25).
The second essential feature of social justice in education is to critique oppression and information. Simply relying on knowledge and awareness is not always enough motivation for the public to change, nor does it empower students with tools of action. By simply taking information as fact and not critiquing it, it leaves society vulnerable to injustices. By critiquing all perspective, we can aspire towards social justice. History must be examined with a critical perspective because history is written by the members of dominant society. All content and information is suspect to this critique since dominant society determines what is deemed relevant information. Even social equality theories need to be critiqued. If they were taken for granted without analyzing them, society might fall guilty for reinventing oppression in one form or another. The need for a broad representation of perspectives in regards to all social information is essential. Helen Harper (1997) believed “schools must continue to become sites not only for the production and performance of a wider range of complex and multiple identities but also for the critical study of difference” (p. 203). The moment we decide to take something as fact without analyzing it, we make ourselves vulnerable to committing oppression. And we know from experience how difficult it can be to not only counter, but also recognize oppression.
The third essential feature of social justice in education is to challenge systematic oppression. Today, students may be taught to recognize oppression as an individual act of dominance over the less fortunate. What students are never taught is to question the systems in place that create this social dominance (McIntosh, 1989, p. 4). Policies today continue to reproduce the dominant perspective through education. For example, our society defines minority groups as ethnic groups and cultural communities, while the dominant group simply as the norm group. This is implying that the dominant groups at the centre are devoid of ethnicity and culture of their own. This is a clear systematic segregation that welcomes the dominant society and distances itself from minorities. Freire (1970) believes that education is a practice of domination. Teachers and government wield the power of setting the perspective forwarded to students and future citizens. Thus, the education system is the critical systematic force that could solve oppression or reinforce it. If we are able to change the way students learn about social justice, then we can make progress towards a just society. However, it is not as simple as redistributing power. It is about forming the knowledge, and critical perspective to challenge the dominant power. If we were to just redistribute power, we leave ourselves vulnerable to fall back in an oppressed state. By simply redistributing resources and assets to students with little concern with social processes and procedures that reproduces those resources and assets, we are bound to recess back to social injustice in way form or another (Gale, 2000, p. 18).
Fighting against oppression is a complex difficult battle. The intricacies involved make it such that there is no simple solution. To be most effective, social justice education requires an examination of systems of power and oppression combined with a prolonged emphasis on social change and student empowerment. It involves all ground in a common effort to build society. Education is for empowerment. Social justice in education encourages students to take an active role in their own education and supports teachers in creating empowering, democratic and critical educational environments. Not only does this approach educate those that are unaware of the oppression around them, more importantly the oppressed are fueled when they begin to believe in themselves and take more control over their own lives, the dominant society may realize how their actions and privileges affect society (Gales, 2000, p. 21). Social justice education does not merely examine difference or diversity but pays careful attention to the systems of power and privilege that give rise to social inequality, and encourages students to critically examine oppression on institutional, cultural, and individual levels in search of opportunities for social action in the service of social change. Thus social justice is rooted in the education system and the potential of tomorrow’s students.
Bibliography
British Columbia. Ministry of Education, & British Columbia Government EBook Collection. (2008). Making space: Teaching for diversity and social justice throughout the K-12 curriculum. Victoria, B.C: Ministry of Education.
Freire, P. (1970). Chapter 2. In Pedagogy of the oppressed (pp. 52-67). New York: Continuum.
Gale, T. & Densmore, T. (2000). Playing fair: who gets what and why? In Gale, T. & Densmore, T., Just schooling: Explorations in the cultural politics of teaching (pp. 8-29). Buckingham: Open University Press.
Ghosh, R. & Abdi, A.A. Multicultural Policy and Multicultural Education: A Canadian Case Study. In R. Ghosh and A.A. Abdi, Education and the politics of difference: Canadian perspectives (pp. 91-139). Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press. 2004.
Hackman, H. W. (2005). Five essential components for social justice education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 38(2), 103-109. doi:10.1080/10665680590935034
Harper, H. (1997). Difference and diversity in Ontario schooling. Canadian Journal of Education, 22(2), 192-206.
McIntosh, P. (1989). “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack,” Peace and Freedom (July-August), n.p. (5 pages).
Orlowski, P. (2008). “That would certainly be spoiling them”: Liberal discourses of social studies teachers and concerns about aboriginal students. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 31(2), 110.
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