As per course,
"Read:
Applying Human Rights Principles
Introduction: Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice
http://rethinkingschools.aidcvt.com/publication/roc1/roc1_intro.shtml
Making Space: Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, page 3
https://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/pdfs/making_space/mkg_spc_intr.pdf
Understanding Barriers to Accessibility
https://accessiblecampus.ca/understanding-accessibility/what-are-the-barriers/
School can be a safe space to connect to your identity and build confidence when the school itself promotes a sense of trust and appreciation for students’ backgrounds. When students’ cultures, beliefs, religions, values, talents, etc. are not only acknowledged but celebrated, students will develop pride in who they are and where they come from. It is important to include a multitude of perspectives in class resources, and to incorporate students’ home lives in what they learn.
The best way to support social justice in the classroom is to have students engage in social justice. Whether it be through simulations of historical events that connect to modern society or looking at the progression of specific cultural and/or social groups throughout multiple eras, students need to see and interact with social justice and social change. From doing this, they can gain a better understanding of what social justice looks like.
In order for students to feel as though school is a safe space, they must feel welcomed and valued in the school environment. By teaching relevant content about social justice, it is possible to help students realize that they have a voice and that they can change things in the world. While it is important to explore the issues and challenges of the world, it is equally important to help students discover ways that they can make a difference.
Post:
Why does social justice play an important role in the school? How can you promote social justice initiatives to a strengthen school culture? "
As per discussion,
"Social justice is an important area of focus in the 21st century because of the fact that it has been an area of focus for all that long. A couple decades of focus now and the changes in regards to special education, gender inclusion practices as well as multicultural sensitive learning environments are all areas that have seen positive progress over the last couple decades. Prior to 2000, yes Special Education was being provided for students as per Bill 82 in 1980, but as noted in (Ontario Ministry of Education), it was not until the year 2000 that the MOE had taken serious motions to ensure that there were stipulations in place to accommodate and support areas of need in regards to Special Education.
Furthermore, areas such as GSA's (Gay-Straight Alliances) were late blooming activist hubs that offered support to students who not only identified but wanted to support someone who identifies as "gay". It was not until 2012 that the first series of alliances were given brick and mortar hubs within school communities to operate and support. (Globalpost).
The role social justice plays in the school community is the safety net that allows all students to receive equitable education and take part in classrooms equally regardless of age, race, sex, or sexual orientation. Social justice is a fuel for educational reform. With the need for social justice and identification of individualism comes the need to better understand and development of harmonious being. Students who are participating in an environment where they need to understand that there are different perspectives, experiences and interests of those around them learn social etiquette unique that environment. These developments in understanding provide them with opportunity to see the world function in a different way than if all members of the community were united in a hive mind manner of thought.
This extends into the idea of an environment such as this developing leaders and advocates in particular who take it upon themselves to represent themselves in a community where there may be few of those who identify as they or even none.
In regards to leadership, the question I have resonates with a couple experiences as an educator overseas. What I observed in the leadership during the two events seemed-a bit unreasonable from a colleague's view but diplomatic on a social justice level, justifiable.
I will speak to the experience that I was involved in so it is not a "hearsay" or form of workplace gossip. In this particular case, I am sharing an experience in which I was "a leader" and my advocacy was utilized in a positive 3 hour professional development on how technology works.
Rewind the tape back to Feb 2020. The pandemic is upon us. Dalian, China. Uncertainty, worry, fear and still yet-work. While everyone in Canada was going about their busy lives we were on the stage for one of the most organized bits of government orchestrated chaos one would have seen in this century (maybe-debatable I guess). Students were advised not to return to school and introduced to "Canvas" (LMS), in which teachers needed to spend the first week "back from holiday" at home learning the system. A week, literally hours of training, Pro-D and just messing around with the system. We weren't allowed to leave the house, so-literally this was one of the only things to productively do around the house (at first).
Anyways, after two weeks of readiness and full 24 access to tech support, leaders (department heads) were still tasked with keeping their eyes on their departments to ensure any questions that can be taken care of in house, could be done instead of relying on tech support all the time-from my understanding there was actually a point where tech support wanted to refund the customer service line guarantee because of how many questions were flooding their service and could have been read about in their Q and A.
At this time I was a lowly classroom teacher thinking they would be finishing the semester and returning home to Canada (soon realizing I would be actually staying in China for a longer period of time but deciding to move locations/employers). My career with that school in particular led to a lack of interest in an official title with a stipend, I really disagreed a lot with the administration on a lot of things-specifically their expectations versus treatment of their teaching staff. I have an axe to grind with that school/system-yes. A teacher (new that year), reached out in hopes that someone could offer tech support. They created a new course electronically and wanted to duplicate but didn't know how. Yes, with Canvas its not easy actually. You need to have some background knowledge of technical terminology and where APP developers usually hide/place particularly functions. I knew how to do it and had done so effectively-but when I first described it to this teacher they were halted after being asked to copy and paste a file. There are reasons beyond my knowledge of that colleague that blocked them from being able to copy and paste/knowing what that mean't-but I digress. an hour in, we needed to go to a screen share/video call. Two hours-in I asked what their department head had done with them the week before and the week we started the training (out of curiosity-I knew most of the heads quite well and was curious if I could check to see if my colleague-her head-needed a hand), to my surprise she said they had done this but forgot how. To my surprise the teacher had actually received resources and assistance previous to my ending at a little over 3 hour 1-1 Pro-D. I have long since been weary to dive into "tech support", not because I don't want to help, but because I usually ask what the problem is first and gauge how much a colleague knows before jumping in. I think had I known that this teacher not had basic computer skills/previous assistance I would have approached the process a bit differently, but meh I guess I helped in the end.
Later in the semester (let's say about May) we begin our first classes as usual through spaced out and alphabetically/grade level sorted classroom pods. It was a first run for the money to be the international that solved COVID. The online classes were good opportunities for students and teachers to make that necessary growth into the 21 century learner mentality, but still very trying for those who were not there yet.
Teachers and students alike were livid with the school's functionality at this point. Students were still online learning but the teachers were present and on site (available for office hours in a spaced out meeting room and basically just in a room with a random group of students-except for a select few teachers (one of which was the teacher I had assisted previously). the school made special arrangements to get the teacher in front of their students to teach them with an in class setting while following prevention measures. A lot of teachers were envious, some felt-well could go back to regular teaching if I just "don't know how to teach online I guess?". In some cases it was a matter of high stakes small courses and others are as they were because they were apart of their governing department/program anyways.
After going through the module's focus area content, I find the phrase "don't create more barriers", applicable to this situation/experience-having seen this, I don't feel as judgemental of that particular situation.
Maybe next time I'll share the other one, but in this case-thanks for reading.
Sources:
Ontario Ministry of Education. An Overview of Special Education. Oct. 2014. http://www.ldao.ca/wp-content/uploads/Special-Education-Overview-Oct-2014.pdf. Feb. 14, 2022.
David Trifnuov, Gay Straight Alliance Clubs Approved in Ontario Schools. June 05, 2012. Globalpost. https://theworld.org/stories/2012-06-05/gay-straight-alliance-clubs-approved-ontario-schools. Feb. 14, 2022"
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