The topic that I would like to explore is social justice,
and how it can be incorporated in the classroom and especially to my discipline
of art. I already know a few things about social justice and have taken a class
about climate change and a class about art and social movements. I learned a
lot from those classes about the different issues as well as movements occurring
across the nation and worldwide. There are a lot of problems going on that need
our attention; worldwide poverty, racism and sexism, climate change, human and
animal rights, and many more. I’ve always been one to stand up for what I
believe in, find the truth, and research information about what can be done. Social justice
teaching isn’t about making kids afraid of the world, but about informing them
and empowering them, allowing their contribution and ideas and showing them
they can make a difference in the world. I still want to know a lot about this
topic. I want to know how to teach social justice in the right way so that kids
will feel empowered and motivated instead of powerless and afraid. I want to
know different ways I can incorporate social justice into lessons and projects
especially through art. I want to know what I can do as a teacher to make a
difference in the world through social justice teaching and by being an
advocate for it, and how effective social justice teaching is. I want to know
important steps in curriculum and examples of great social justice programs involving art. I
began searching social justice teaching and found a lot of resources on it! I
was happy to find that there already is a big movement towards it. A few
great resources I found were Teaching Tolerance, Teaching for Change , Teachers for Justice, Using Their Words and Cult of Pedagogy. All of them are resources for teachers, by teachers, about social justice teaching, with various curriculum and resources. I'm eager to continue my search at the library for more books and resources.
