How to teach Social Justice?

In the media, social justice has been talked about a lot.  Some of the issues of social justice aren’t being discussed, as teachers have some restrictions on what can be said in the classroom.  I began to think how we as educators can introduce / teach  social justice in the classroom.

 

 

If you start  discussing  social justice in elementary/ middle school, perhaps the issues would decrease. A way to introduce social justice to elementary / middle school is through photography.  Students like photographs. They’re visual and engaging, so they make great learning tools. Photographs are an excellent way to capture the spirit of an event or idea. Photographs also help express student’s feelings in a way that isn’t harmful to their self, or others.

 

Students will:

 -Discuss what they see in a photograph

-Discuss the mood of a photograph and determine what elements contribute to creating that mood

-Understand that photographs are not merely reflections of reality, but mediated images that convey many meanings;

 

What I think:

After researching social justice, and reading some articles about what is going on the world with social justice, and how teachers have an important factor in it, I started to think of ways how social justice can be talked about in a classroom setting, without hurting anybody’s feelings, or discuss these that aren’t meant for school discussions. I think that social justice is taught at earlier age that some issues will decline.  When I came across teaching social justice in photography, I found it interesting.  Art is a great way to express things, and won’t over stimulate the students.