WE START WITH A QUESTION

What is Theoretically Specific?

• Involves theoretical positions that are connected to specific leftist and/or radical movements within academia– The meaning of social justice may be interpreted

differently within each of them

• Three more prominent theoretical specific discourses in education1.Multiculturalism

2.Critical Pedagogy

3.Cultural Studies

“Multicultural education acknowledges and affirms the multiple identities that students

bring to their learning” (Bode, 2005).

Bank’s (1979) 5 Dimensions of Multicultural Education

Content Integration

Knowledge Construction

Process

Prejudice Reduction

Equitable Pedagogy

Empowering School Culture

andSocial Structure

The infusion of various cultures and ethnicities into the curriculum

Students critiquing social positioning of groups and knowledge presentation

Lessons & activities which assert positive images of ethnic groups and intergroup relations

Modification of teaching styles to ensure academicachievement for all students

The restructuring of institutional practices to create access for all groups

A new relationship between teacher, student and society:

Achieving Social Justice through Education

What social conditions gave rise to the earliest forms of multicultural education?1920s – 1930s: Intercultural movement1940s – 1950s: Intergroup movement1960s: Civil rights struggles1968: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

How does social justice address these issues?RacismWhite supremacy

Power, Privilege and Opportunity

Critical Pedagogy: Understanding the Relationship between

Education and Society

McLaren (1996, 1997) defines critical pedagogy as “A term associated with teaching strategies sensitive to the effects of relations of power based on race, gender, ethnicity and so forth on learning and consciousness formation” (Morrow and Torres, 2002, p. 1).

Critical pedagogy provides a basis to challenge racism and other forms of oppression for students to be able to rethink how the relationships between dominant and subordinate groups are formed in order to transform social systems and structures.

Hytten (2006) writes “among its goals are to understand the relationship between power and knowledge, to look at how power gets symbolically and representationally reproduced, to challenge disempowering social practices, and to provide resources for resistance and social transformation.”

Cultural Studies: A Parallel to Multiculturalism and Critical

Pedagogy

DID THAT ANSWER THE

QUESTION

References

• Johnson, L. (2003). Multicultural Policy as Social Activism: redefining who ‘counts’ in multicultural education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 6, (2), 107 -121. doi: DOI: 10.1080/1361332032000076436. Retrieved from http://academos.ro/sites/default/files/biblio-docs/1311/ree_6_2.pdf

• Banks, J.A. (1993). Multicultural Education: Historical Development, Dimensions and Practice. Review of Research in Education: 19, pp. 3-49. Retrieved from http://inclusion4u.com/PDFs/5105%20Multicultural%20Education%20HQ.pdf

• Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed, 30th anniversary edition. New York: Continuum.

• Hytten, K., & Bettez, S.C. (2011). Understanding Education for Social Justice. Educational Foundations, Winter-Spring 2011.

• Morrow, R.A., Torres, C.A. (2002). Reading Freire and Habermas: Critical Pedagogy and Transformative Social Change. Teachers College Press, New York, New York. Retrieved from http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Mxge8wUpd7EC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=foundational+principles+of+critical+pedagogy&ots=NTOp4aWuW3&sig=_0sMHX-fB9QzMhn8-Hh8v5aUbyk#v=onepage&q=foundational%20principles%20of%20critical%20pedagogy&f=false

Photo Credits

• Raised hands: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/work-connect/images/2009-04/raised-hands.jpg

• Boy Thinking 1: http://www.crazytownblog.com/.a/6a012876c6c7fb970c014e887d8142970d-800wi

• Pedagogy of the Oppressed Book Cover: http://libcom.org/files/images/library/pedagogy_of_the_oppressed%5B1%5D.jpg

• Boy Thinking 2: http://jl10ll.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/boy-wishing1.jpg