Social Justice Group Project

Social Justice/Critical Theorists : 

Group Members Yesenia Gomez Sabrina Guerra Mallory Heida Kristen Mackin Social Justice/Critical Theorists

Slide 2: 

Social Justice - the distribution of advantages and disadvantages within a society (Social justice). Critical Theorists - focus on the marginalized in the schools (minorities/women) and expose how system of power attempt to control the schools through the curriculum (Lecture 5, 2010).

Jonathan Kozol : 

Jonathan Kozol Basic Premise Children should be allowed to be children and are often faced with adult problems at too early of an age Schools are more segregated today than they were before the 1960s Civil Rights Movement The Problem There is a large discrepancy between the spending per child in a suburban area versus urban causing educational inequality “Nationally, overwhelmingly non-white schools receive $1,000 less per pupil than overwhelmingly white schools.” – Jonathan Kozol Impoverished areas are neglected and ignored Children in these areas enter school below the baseline and are expected to perform the same as children from suburban areas Urban schools are dilapidated and students are expected to learn amidst, broken windows, sewage leaks, and disease While working in many diverse schools Kozol witnessed Inherent discrimination, an unequal distribution of resources, and the pervasive feeling that urban schools could remain out of sight and out of mind Text books portraying minority races as savage and barbaric Minority students were expected to take classes to fulfill blue collar positions while wealthy white students were trained in the arts and sciences

Jonathan Kozol: The Solution : 

Jonathan Kozol: The Solution Supplemental funding must be provided to urban and underprivileged areas. Teachers must work to abandon their bias and now allow it to affect their treatment or perception of their culturally diverse students. Students must be provided with an appropriate learning environment adequate and current learning materials. Minority students cannot be tracked into classes that only provide occupational training. They must be encouraged to explore all academic venues and have equal access as majority students do. “But for the children of the poorest people we're stripping the curriculum, removing the arts and music, and drilling the children into useful labor. We're not valuing a child for the time in which she actually is a child. “ – Jonathan Kozol

Jonathan Kozol: Educational Advocacy : 

Jonathan Kozol: Educational Advocacy Kozol has created the non-profit Education Action! which strives to push back the segregation of NCLB and provide educational equality through a grassroots approach of connecting teachers and organizing a national reform movement. Kozol has published 12 books between 1967 to 2007 on educational inequality in the United States. Kozol tours the country lecturing on the current state of American schools in an effort to bring to light the segregation of African Americans and Hispanics and how to reverse this modern day apartheid. “The ones I pity are the ones who never stick out their neck for something they believe, never know the taste of moral struggle, and never have the thrill of victory.” – Jonathan Kozol

bell hooks (1952- ) : 

bell hooks (1952- ) (nee Gloria Watkins) was born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. She came from a poor working class family and worked her way up the academic ladder to become Distinguished Professor of English at City College in New York. She gained a scholarship to Stanford University where, in 1973 she obtained her BA. From there she went to the University of Wisconsin where she was awarded an MA in 1976 and then her PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1983.

The Problem The Solution : 

The Problem The Solution Her first major book (1981) Ain't I a woman : Black women and feminism established her as a formidable critic and intellectual and set out some of the central themes around culture, gender, race and class that have characterized her work. hooks remains an outspoken feminist, an anti-racist, a democrat. A central aspect of her work is that she sees discrimination and domination not in separate categories but all interconnected. She sees no hierarchy of discrimination. Gender, race and class distinctions are not viewed as one being more important than the other. Her first major book on education, Teaching to Transgress, was published in 1994. She argued for a progressive, holistic education - engaged pedagogy: To educate as the practice of freedom is a way of teaching that anyone can learn. That learning process comes easiest to those of us who teach who also believe that there is an aspect of our vocation that is sacred; who believe that our work is not merely to share information but to share in the intellectual and spiritual growth of our students. To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin (hooks 1994: 13)

bell hooks Philosophy : 

bell hooks Philosophy bell hooks is heavily influenced by Paulo Freire whom she met and worked with on a number of occasions. hooks is a feminist and for her, literacy is essential to the future of the feminist movement because the lack of reading, writing and critical skills serves to exclude many women and men from feminist consciousness. She also promotes a notion of praxis in a similar way to Freire i.e. a combination of reflection and action and regards her notion of ‘engaged pedagogy’ as one which requires praxis on the part of not only students but also teachers.

Influence on Today’s Education : 

Influence on Today’s Education In order to create a learning environment within the classroom she aims to diffuse hierarchy and create a sense of community. hooks maintains that the classroom should be ‘a place that is life-sustaining and mind-expanding, a place of liberating mutuality where teacher and student together work in partnership’ (hooks 2003 p.xv). She maintains that it is vital to challenge all the misinformation that is constantly directed at people and poses as objective unbiased knowledge. She sees this as an essential educational task.

Conclusion on bell hooks : 

Conclusion on bell hooks She makes the point that what is needed are mass-based political movements calling on citizens to uphold democracy and the rights of everyone to be educated, to work on behalf of ending domination in all of its forms – to work for justice, changing the educational system so that schooling is not the site where students are indoctrinated to support what she refers to as ‘imperialist white-supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ or any ideology, but rather where they learn to open their minds, to engage in rigorous study and to think critically. The academy is not paradise. But learning is a place where paradise can be created. The classroom with all its limitations remains a location of possibility. In that field of possibility we have the opportunity to labour for freedom, to demand of ourselves and our comrades, an openness of mind and heart that allows us to face reality even as we collectively imagine ways to move beyond boundaries, to transgress. This is education as the practice of freedom. (hooks 1994: 207)

Dr. Cornel West (1953- ) : 

Dr. Cornel West (1953- ) Dr. Cornel Ronald West was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and raised in Sacramento, California. His father was a civil servant and his mother was a school teacher and would later become a principal. West was raised in a Christian home. As a young man, West organized and marched in civil rights demonstrations demanding black studies courses at his high school. (Elder, 1998) After graduating high school, West got accepted to Harvard University. West graduated from Harvard magna cum laude in three years. He then went on to Princeton University and earned a M.A. West continued with his studies at Princeton and earned his Ph.D in 1980. (Wes, 2010)

The Problem and Solution : 

The Problem and Solution West believed that “White America” was weak in ensuring racial justice and accepting the humanity of African Americans. (West, 2001) West thought that oppressed individuals were in search of identity, self-worth, and meaning. (West, 2001) West believed in equality for all and struggled for freedom in society at large. (West, 2010) . West became a professor of African American Studies at Princeton University. He wanted to raise awareness and empower the people. (West, 2010) West has written several books including Race Matters (1993), and The African American Century: How Blacks Americans have Shaped our Century (2000) (West, 2010) Is a member of many organizations such as the National Parenting Organization and the Democratic Socialists of America. (West, 2010)

Dr. Cornel West Philosophy : 

Dr. Cornel West Philosophy West believes in empowering people of all colors for a better society and to have empathy for the wretched of this world. (Saugstad, 2002) West’s believes that intellectuals should seek personal and social transformation towards a world of love, equality, and justice. (Saugstad 2002) West’s philosophy is about solidarity, love, and compassion. West stated “it is very simple, but it cuts very deep. If you love black folk, you hate white supremacy. If you love human beings, you love justice. If you love the life of the mind, then you hate all forms of dogmatism and parochialism. (West, 2002) “You can’t lead the people if you don’t love the people. You can’t save the people, if you don’t serve the people.”

Influence on Today’s Education : 

Influence on Today’s Education Some examples of how West has influenced education today are: -Students are independent critical thinkers in charge of their own learning -students have their own voice and are not just an echo -Multicultural instruction takes place in the classroom -Equality in the classroom -Students question -Students have compassion towards others

Paulo Freire : 

Paulo Freire Paulo Freire’s life and work as an educator is optimistic in spite of poverty, imprisonment, and exile. He is a world leader in the struggle for the liberation of the poorest of the poor: the marginalized classes who constitute the “cultures of silence” in many lands (NLU Webmaster, 2005). Freire wants teachers to be revolutionary in their treatment of students and awareness of the oppressive system that marginalizes those who are powerless to speak for themselves. By using methods that give students their own voice, teachers can help students realize their own potential (Green, 2010). On a planet where more than half the people go hungry every day because nations are incapable of feeding all their citizens, where we cannot yet agree that every human being has a right to eat and to be housed, Paulo Freire toils to help men and women and overcome their sense of powerlessness to act in their own behalf (NLU Webmaster, 2005). At the heart of Freire’s theories is his belief that education is an act of love. Shortly before his death he stated, “I could never think of education without love and that is why I am an educator” (Green, 2010).

Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of the Oppressed : 

In Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Freire differentiates between the two positions in an unjust society, the oppressor and the oppressed. He advocates that education allows the oppressed to regain their humanity and overcome their condition; however, he acknowledges that in order for his to take effect, the oppressed have to play a role in their own liberation (Freire, 2010). “No pedagogy which is truly liberating can remain distant from the oppressed by treating them as unfortunates and by presenting for their emulation models from among the oppressors. The oppressed must be their own example in the struggle for their redemption” (Freire, 2010). Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of the Oppressed Since the publication of the English edition in 1970, Pedagogy of the Oppressed has achieved near-iconic status in America’s teacher-training programs (according to Sol Stern, a social commentator critical of the entry of Freire’s Marxist-inspired teachings into the mainstream curriculum) (Freire, 2010). Pedagogy of the Oppressed is currently one of the most quoted educational texts today (Smith, 2009).

Paulo Freire: “Banking” Education : 

Students are viewed as empty “piggy banks” ready to be filled by the teacher. It allows students to receive education. It attempts to control thinking and action, leads men and women to adjust to the world, and inhibits their creative power (Freire, 2010). To Freire, education, like the oppressors, has maintained the position of those on power by utilizing methods that submerge consciousness in order to make people fit for the world. Through banking, the teacher “deposits” information by attempting to fill the student with mechanically narrated content, which only serves to reify the status quo. The students then become “containers” who passively receive what they are given, never questioning the validity or significance of the information they are receiving (Freire, 1972). Paulo Freire: “Banking” Education Libratory education occurs when students are engaged in critical thinking and the quest for mutual humanization. Critical theorists focus on the marginalized in the schools (minorities/women) and expose how system of power attempt to control the schools through the curriculum (Lecture 5, 2010). By recognizing the “hidden curriculum,” critical theorists hope to alert teachers and students of the ways they are being manipulated by those who hope to maintain the power in the schools (Lecture 5, 2010). Freire’s education for liberation is the focus of critical theorists who oppose traditional education’s acceptance of the status quo (Lecture 5, 2010).

Works Cited : 

Works Cited Burke, B. (2004). ‘bell hooks on education’, the encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved on July 20, 2010 from: www.infed.org/thinkers/hook.htm Elder, Robert (1998). Prisoner of Hope. Retrieved on July 20, 2010, from Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West Freire, P. (1972). Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Harmondsworth: Penguin Green, Dr. Glen. (2010). Lecture 5: Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Retrieved July 16, 2010, from online.apu.edu: http://online.apu.edu/re/DotNextLaunch.asp?courseid Green, Dr. Glen. (2010). Freire 2. Retrieved July 16, 2010, from online.apu.edu: http://online.apu.edu/re/DotNextLaunch.asp?courseid Kozol, J. (2002). Retrieved from http://www.learntoquestion.com/seevak/groups/2002/sites/kozol/Seevak02/ineedtogoHOMEPAGE/homepage.htm Kozol, J. Amazing Grace: The Lives of Children and the Conscience of a Nation. New York: Crown Publishers, 1995. Kozol, J. (Lecture). (2005). Explanation of the realities of modern education. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.altruists.org/static/files/Explanation%20of%20The%20Realities%20of%20Modern%20US%20Education%20%28Jonathan%20Kozol%29.mp3 Kozol, J. Savage Inequalities. New York: Harper Perennial, 1991. NLU Webmaster. (2005, May 1). Paulo Freire. Retrieved July 15, 2010, from National-Louis University: http://www3.nl.edu/academics/cas/ace/resources/paulofreire.cfm Paulo Freire. (2010, July 14). Retrieved July 15, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulo_Freire Saugstad, Andreas (2002). Cornel West and the Struggle for Social Transformation. Retrieved on July 20, 2010, from Go Inside Magazine: http://goinside.com/02/3/west.html Smith, M. (2009, November 4). infed. Retrieved July 15, 2010, from Paulo Freire: http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-freir.htm Social justice. (n.d.). Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon. Retrieved July 20, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/social justice West, Cornel (2010). Biography.com. Retrieved on July,21,2010, from Biography.com Website: http://www.biography.com/articles/cornelwest-9528216 West, Cornel (2004). Contemporary Black Biography. Retrieved on July 20, 2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West West, Cornel (2001). Race Matters. Retrieved on July 20,2010, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornel_West