Social Justice in the Classroom

What is our job as teachers? This is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately, and to be honest I am not sure if I have found an answer, I am not sure if I ever will, it is a very complicated question that has a lot of room for twists and turns. So far what I have come to decide is that my job as a teacher is going to be rewarding my student’s freedom. Freedom to have their own opinion, freedom to share that opinion, freedom to question, and be questioned, freedom to have their own story and share it, freedom to disagree, freedom to not always know the answer. I believe that to give freedom is to give the students the power. Education is power, but educational freedom is powerful. When talking about social justice I think that freedom should be at the root of the conversation we have with our students, and that they have with each other. When I was reading this article that I have identified so strongly with she mentioned that “the issue [social justice] is not mine to let go. It is either mine to acknowledge or ignore.” Social justice means allowing students to take agency in their own learning. When students are personally invested in what they are learning they are going to be more passionate in their responses and more engaged in their peers. Taking students personal experience and applying it to what is going to happen in the real world outside of your classroom is recognizing your privilege as a teacher and then learning from your students. Torres mentions in her article that when talking about social justice with your students it is important to remember that these conversations while they may seem difficult to have in your class are vital, because your students will be facing these difficult things in life outside of your classroom. Giving students the opportunity to express their opinions in a constructive and meaningful way while also learning from their peers is what will equip them to have fully developed opinions about social justice topics in their adult life. I am firm believer that providing a classroom culture that allows difficult conversations to happen should be a main focus for us as educators. Giving students more freedom to control their own education and beliefs will only help them later in life, and will fulfill our job as educators, to provide purposeful avenues of education and exploration. 

Link to the article I responded to-
https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/why-teaching-about-social-justice-matters