Practice What You Teach follows three different groups of educators to explore the challenges of developing and supporting teachers' sense of social justice and activism at various stages of their careers.

This book is principally written for entry-level student affairs and non-profit staff who develop and facilitate social justice education workshops and structured conversations, as well as for student peer educators who are often employed to assist in the facilitation of such workshops for their peers. It is suitable for anyone starting out to do such work.It provides readers with a practical framework and hands-on tools to craft effective and positive interventions and workshops that are relevant to context and are true to the facilitator’s own circumstances.It offers a succinct but comprehensive introduction to the planning, design, and facilitation of social justice experiences, grounding readers in relevant theory, taking into account participants’ prior understandings of issues of race and privilege, institutional environment and campus climate, and the facilitator’s positionality. It provides guidance on defining outcomes and developing content and exercises to achieve workshop goals.Starting from the premise that the facilitation and delivery of social justice education experiences should be grounded in scholarship and that such experiences can only achieve their ends if crafted to meet the unique characteristics and circumstances of the institution and workshop participants, the authors begin by synthesizing current theory on social justice education and cultural competence, and then guiding readers on analyzing the context and purpose of their workshop. They provide readers with an easy to follow five-part framework to systematically design social justice education workshops and structured conversations and to assess the resulting learning. Particularly valuable for those starting out in this work is guidance on facilitation and on the use and selection of exercises to align with goals and participants' characteristics and social identities.

Transformative Approaches to Social Justice Education is a book for anyone with an interest in teaching and learning in higher education from a social justice perspective and with a commitment to teaching all students. This text offers a breadth of disciplinary perspectives on how to center difference, power, and systemic oppression in pedagogical practice, arguing that these elements are essential to knowledge formation and to teaching. Transformative Approaches to Social Justice Education is structured as an ongoing conversation among educators who believe that teaching from a social justice perspective is about much more than the type of readings and assignments found on course syllabi. Drawing on the broadest possible definition of curriculum transformation, the volume demonstrates that social justice education is about both educators’ social locations and about course content. It is also about knowing students and teaching beyond the traditional classroom to meaningfully include local communities, social movements, archives, and colleagues in student and academic affairs. Premised on the notion that continuous learning and growth is critical to educators with deep commitments to fostering critical consciousness through their teaching, Transformative Approaches to Social Justice Education offers interdisciplinary and innovative collaborative approaches to curriculum transformation that build on and extend existing scholarship on social justice education. Newly committed and established social justice pedagogues share their experiences taking up the many difficult questions pertaining to what it means for all of us to participate in shaping a more just, shared future.

Case Studies on Diversity and Social Justice Education offers pre- and in-service educators an opportunity to analyze and reflect upon a variety of realistic case studies related to educational equity and social justice. Each case, written in an engaging, narrative style, presents a complex but common classroom scenario in which an inequity or injustice is in play. These cases allow educators to practice the process of considering a range of contextual factors, checking their own biases, and making immediate- and longer-term decisions about how to create and sustain equitable learning environments for all students. The book begins with a seven-point process for examining case studies. Largely lacking from existing case study collections, this framework guides readers through the process of identifying, examining, reflecting on, and taking concrete steps to resolve challenges related to diversity and equity in schools. The cases themselves present everyday examples of the ways in which racism, sexism, homophobia and heterosexism, class inequities, language bias, religious-based oppression, and other equity and diversity concerns affect students, teachers, families, and other members of our school communities. They involve classroom issues that are relevant to all grade levels and all content areas, allowing significant flexibility in how and with whom they are used. Although organized topically, the intersection of these issues are stressed throughout the cases, reflecting the multi-faceted way they play out in real life. All cases conclude with a series of questions to guide discussion and a section of facilitator notes, called points for consideration. This unique feature provides valuable insight for understanding the complexities of each case.

In this book, a group of student teachers share their candid questions, concerns, dilemmas, and lessons learned about how to teach for social justice and social change. This text provides powerful examples of how they integrated diversity within a teacher education program--an excellent model for educators who are seeking ways to transform their teacher education programs to better prepare teachers to work effectively in multicultural classrooms.

This book addresses the combination of pedagogical, curricular, and institutional commitments necessary to create and sustain diversity on campus. Its premise is that the socially just classroom flourishes in the context of a socially just institution, and it invites faculty and administrators to create such classrooms and institutions.This book grew out of a project – involving deans and directors of teaching centers and diversity offices from six institutions – to instigate discussions among teachers and administrators about implementing socially just practices in their classrooms, departments, and offices. The purpose was to explore how best to foster such conversations across departments and functions within an institution, as well as between institutions. This book presents the theoretical framework used, and many of the successful projects to which it gave rise.Recognizing that many faculty have little preparation for teaching students whose backgrounds, culture, and educational socialization differ from theirs, the opening foundational section asks teachers to attend closely to their and their students’ relative power and positionality in the classroom, and to the impact of the materials, resources and pedagogical approaches employed. Further chapters offer analytical tools to promote inquiry and change.The concluding sections of the book demonstrate how intra- and inter-institutional collaborations inspired teachers to rise to the challenge of their campuses’ commitments to diversity. Among the examples presented is an initiative involving the faculty development coordinator, and faculty from a wide range of domains at DePauw University, who built upon an existing ethics initiative to embed social justice across the curriculum. In another, professors of mathematics from three institutions describe how they collaborated to create socially just classrooms that both serve mathematical learning, and support service learning or community-based learning activities. The final essay by a student from the Maldives, describing how she navigated the chasm between life in an American college and her family circumstances, will reinforce the reader’s commitment to establishing social justice in the academy.This book provides individual faculty, faculty developers and diversity officers with the concepts, reflective tools, and collaborative models, as well as a wealth of examples, to confidently embark on the path to transforming educational practice.

The authors draw from their work with teachers and students to address issues of social justice through the regular curriculum and everyday school life. This book illustrates an approach that integrates social justice education with contemporary research on students’ development of moral understandings and concerns for human welfare in order to critically address societal conventions, norms, and institutions. The authors provide a clear roadmap for differentiating moral education from religious beliefs and offer age-appropriate guidance for creating healthy school and classroom environments. Demonstrating how to engage students in critical thinking and community activism, the book includes proven-effective lessons that promote academic learning and moral growth for the early grades through adolescence. The text also incorporates recent work with social-emotional learning and restorative justice to nurture students’ ethical awareness and disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. Book Features: Guidance to help teachers move from classroom moral discourse to engage students in community action. Age-specific lesson plans developed with classroom teachers for integration with regular academic curricula.Detailed overview of moral growth with examples of student reasoning.Connections between moral development and critical pedagogy.Connections between moral development and digital literacy.Connections among classroom management, school rules, restorative justice, and students’ social development.Insights drawn from research conducted within the Oakland Public School system.