Social injustices in Ed
I had the opportunity to participate in a 2-day workshop on developing Social Justice overlays for STEM courses at CSUEB. It was a much-needed conversation that covered several topics from Identity/intersectionality map, course vision, and syllabi to Open educational resources and disabilities in STEM classrooms and practices. My friend and former colleague, Dr. Ana Almeida, and I were tasked to talk about how one recognizes social injustices in education in 50 minutes. As you can imagine, it was a daunting task. We did it, of course, and I might add successfully!
Here, I would like to share some of the takeaways Ana and I hoped will remain with the participants:
The classrooms/research laboratories are social environments that comprise people from all walks of life. Thus, our praxis should ensure inclusivity and equity if our goal is to provide education for all.
Social injustice, which is the manifestation of inequality in society, is often perpetuated inside and outside the classrooms, starting with the course content, delivery, and assessment to the manners in which we communicate with students during office hours and the institutional policies that govern our educational system.
As educators, we ought to recognize that social injustice has its roots in multiple factors, including racism, discrimination, economic inequities, and gun violence.
Social injustices present in many forms: Homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, bigotry, discriminatory practices based on religion, gender, race, age, sexual orientation, ableism, and bigotry.
Many of our students and colleagues face many of these injustices on a daily basis with consequences that negatively affect their professional and personal lives. Victims of social injustices often develop a wrong sense of justice, miss opportunities, lose their self-confidence, grow in despair, experience depression, and sometimes end up cutting their lives short.
The current pandemic has laid bare many of these social injustices, and as educators, we will be remiss not to collectively address them in our classrooms, research laboratories, departments, colleges, and institutions.
There are several ways to ensure that in our praxis we squash social injustices. The reflective questions we shared with the participants on this infographic are not exhaustive. They should serve as a starting point toward more social justice in education.
As President Nelson Mandela said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use to change the world.” I am privileged to be an educator. If you are reading this blog, you can join forces with me and countless others to make this “powerful weapon” accessible to all.
Social justice in education and society at large will only be achieved with equity-minded educators.
Additional resources
Blum SD, Kohn A, Saffel T. (2020) Ungrading : why rating students undermines learning (and what to do instead). Morgantown : West Virginia University Press. 1st edition.
Feldman J (2018) Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms. Corwin; 1st edition.
Nilson LB (2014) Specifications Grading Restoring Rigor, Motivating Students, and Saving Faculty Time. Stylus Publishing; Reprint edition.
Heffernan, T. (2021) Sexism, racism, prejudice, and bias: a literature review and synthesis of research surrounding student evaluations of courses and teaching. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. 10.1080/02602938.2021.1888075
Fan Y, Shepherd LJ, Slavich E, Waters D, Stone M, Abel R, et al. (2019) Gender and cultural bias in student evaluations: Why representation matters. PLoS ONE 14(2): e0209749. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209749
Murray D, Boothby C, Zhao H, Minik V, Bérubé N, Larivière V, et al. (2020) Exploring the personal and professional factors associated with student evaluations of tenure-track faculty. PLoS ONE 15(6): e0233515. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0233515
https://www.ascd.org/books/the-equity-and-social-justice-education-50?chapter=equity-or-equality
