Social Justice and Power, Teaching About

Social justice education reveals the power dynamics at work in the world that are often undisclosed in traditional education. A social justice teacher encourages students to question, for example, the ethics of particular scientific studies, the stories behind crime statistics, the impact of gentrification, the role of corporations in determining the food choices in their cafeteria, and the testing and tracking practices of their school. Amy Goodman, of the news program Democracy Now!, has asserted that the role of the journalist is to “go where the silence is.” Social justice teachers seek to explore curricular silences that mask both historical and contemporary power.

Instead of asking students to memorize facts, a social justice education teaches students to pose critical questions that examine how power structures work ...