Social justice is all about being equal in all senses. Herbert Kohl says that social justice teachers are "those who care about nurturing all children and who are enraged at the prospect of students dying young, going hungry, or living meaningless and despairing lives." The key word is children as these are the students of teachers. Basically Kohl says that social justice teachers are teachers with basic caring instincts.
I feel that social justice is important, but Kohl seems to really exaggerate it. I don't feel that social justice is a big issue because I feel most educators use it. I don't think people "fight" for it because it isn't a major problem in the overall picture. There are more important thinks which are explored in the article "Introduction: Creating classrooms for equity and social justice." The article mentions social justice as an issue, but it also explores teachers inability to control class size and management. The issues of boredom are brought up and the fact that teachers should watch how they teach the curriculum and make it gender, economic class, and racially equal. It's easy to rely on how things are traditionally taught, but to re-explore a situation to explore how other races, classes, and genders react to a certain situation is important.
How important is social justice in the classroom?
It is the responsibility of the teacher to be aware of social justice and a need for equality, but not necessarily to the extremes Kohl suggests. Kohl asks a lot of a teacher demanding a more important life role and creating effective techniques to keep social justice strong. However, he seems to find it a bigger issue than I have experienced in classroom observations. My favorite part of the articles was at the end of Kohl's. He even admits that a lot of his suggestions are overbearing and impossible for any standard person to live up to, but he wants a teacher to "nurture himself" to keep a life outside of the job. I feel this is important to remember how life is and remember that students live the same life in the same world. They experience injustice and it's important as a teacher to make their life and your life a better and more equal situation!
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