Social Justice in the Classroom

As discussed in my previous post, we have decided to create a culminating activity that requires students to hypothetically "re-locate" to another province and describe how, based on their geographical knowledge, this transition would contribute to their cultural identity and Canada's identity as a whole. This would certainly connect to many Social Justice issues, but for this blog post, I am going to focus on the workplace and the issue of unemployment. 

When students are moving to another province, they need to consider the employment rate in that location. Based on these numbers, students need to realize that in some areas of the Canada employment is not as available as in other areas. As they are taking on the role of this new person in a new area, they will have to deal with this social justice issue and consider what they would do if there were no jobs in their field. Answering questions like how would my unemployment affect or contribute to my identity as a Canadian or do the stereotypes concerning Canadian society support this social justice issue, which impacts many people in a variety of regions throughout the Country? These consideration alone, will hopefully get students thinking from different perspectives about the social justice issues that may be right under our nose as Canadian citizens. 

Within this inquiry, I would certainly provide students with resources that would allow them to explore unemployment statistics in a variety of regions throughout Canada. An interactive map on the CBC  website allows students to document the unemployment rates in each province and click on resources to discover more information about the areas of unemployment in each region. Further, this link actually has an option where researchers can "chose another province" and gather information about the unemployment rates of that location. This will allow students to easily compare and contrast the unemployment rates of two different provinces in Canada. 

Integrating social justice issues into the social studies, history and geography subjects is key to engaging student interest, and making learning relative and realistic for students. Issues that connect to the world around students, that although sometimes may be controversial, can be most engaging for them. Social justice issues and themes are related to the real-world and also need to be addressed in our classrooms in order to inform students and make them more responsible citizens. Sheltering students from the social justice circumstances that formed our past or are informing our present are vital to helping them comprehend their identity within Canada and around the world. Playing a blind eye to issues that may be controversial, does not make them go away, but further perpetuates and stigmatizing marginalized individuals or unfair circumstances. Of course, the teacher should always be tailoring their lessons to student interests and needs. Social justice should not be used as a scare tactic by any means and therefore, more controversial or "mature" issues should be covered at the intermediate grade level. It is all about knowing your students, knowing what they can handle and knowing their maturity level to determine if their grade level can handle these issues. You never want social justice to become a joke for your students, so if you don't think that they're ready to tackle these larger issues, maybe save them for a later day or start small and progress from there. Making the material relatable and real for students is key to engaging them and teachers should use the same philosophy to guide their social justice lessons in social studies.