Approaches to Social Justice

How to use this tool:

This tool provides key questions and strategies that activists can use when working with allies and adversaries of varying levels of support and opposition.

Social Justice as Charity

Initiating a charity drive in reaction to a particular event or crisis.
Little or no discussion of issues or underlying systemic issues contributing to the need for charity.

Role of Student:

Passive medium through which fundraising or collection happens.
Little or no understanding of who is being supported, why, or the context of the issue being addressed.

Role of Teacher:

Initiator and organizer of fundraising or collecting.

School’s Relationship to the Community:

Not engaged.
Only connected through the donation or fundraising

**Learning About Social Justice**

Adding a variety of content, concepts, themes, and perspectives to the curriculum without changing its basic structure.
Adding justice-based issues to the curriculum (e.g. reading newspaper reports on world events, acknowledging commemorative days).

Role of Student:

Passive recipient of information about others.

Role of Teacher:

Provider of all information; structures materials, resources, time allocation

School’s Relationship to the Community:

Some acquaintance with school communities and organizations as sources of information

**Learning For Social Justice**

Challenging and changing the structure of the curriculum to help students to view concepts, issues, events, and themes from multiple perspectives
Engaging in deliberation about real-life local and global issues, and fostering critique of existing power structures

Role of Student:

Active learner
Engages literacy and numeracy as tools for societal critique

Role of Teacher:

Embeds knowledge of issues and critique in functional literacy and numeracy
Facilitator of learning opportunities for students to explore multiple perspectives and the critique of existing power structures

School’s Relationship to the Community:

Some acquaintance with school communities as sources of information
Growing partnership

Learning As Social Justice

Allowing students to make decisions on important social issues and take actions to help address them
Basing action on knowledge of issues and a recognition of the role of power and privilege in perpetuating injustice
Includes goal of raising awareness and addressing causes of injustices, with overt attempts to redress them

Role of Student:

Active learner, as ally with others
Engages literacy and numeracy as tools for critique and agency

Role of Teacher:

Embeds knowledge of issues and agency in functional literacy and numeracy
Facilitator of learning opportunities for students to explore multiple perspectives and critique existing power structures
Fosters activism in order to address injustices locally and globally

School’s Relationship to the Community:

Engaged partnership – community is brought in, and students engage in the community.