Theoretical Framework

Migration is a significant part of the multicultural reality of our times, and an integral aspect of globalization (Noddings, 2010; Zembylas, 2010). It poses challenges to many school systems in coping with cases of injustice and unfairness toward individual students as well as excluded groups of students. It is therefore to be expected that educating for social justice would be a central topic both in school curricula (Banks, 1995) and teacher-training programs (Zeichner & Flessner, 2009).

The notion of educating for social justice is a direct outgrowth of the humanistic-liberal worldview that evolved in the second half of the twentieth century (Dover, 2013). Common to these concepts is the view that education for social justice is based on ideals of human dignity and equality, the goal being to afford every person a fair opportunity for a full and decent life. To achieve this, it is not enough to uphold the rights of individuals and to foster their autonomy; it is also essential to recognize their cultural rights. Education for social justice enables the individual to live a meaningful and dignified life, keeping the mechanisms of control and exclusion of the hegemonic culture and society in check, and maintaining the possibility of class mobility. At the same time, it lays the foundation for democratic culture and active, participatory citizenship, and counters ethnocentric perceptions and behavior (Tillery, Jourdan, & Deis, 2011).

The teaching of social justice in schools entails actions at both the individual and systemic levels (Whipp, 2013). At the individual level, it is reflected in the way the students are treated and in their academic, emotional, and social empowerment. Teachers require professional, academic, and practical training to maintain a warm, supportive atmosphere in the classroom, learn the personal background of the students and their communities. Likewise, education for social justice involves preventing stereotypical attitudes on the part of both teachers and students, helping to develop critical thinking, identifying incidents and situations in the classroom that involve injustice.

At the systemic level, teachers must go beyond the walls of the classroom, and strive to instill norms of social justice in the school and in the public space (i.e., broader social frameworks) and to view the student not only as an individual but as a person who belongs to, and represents, a group (Cochran-Smith et al., 2009; Picower, 2011). At both these levels, there is room for reflective thinking by teachers about the opinions, beliefs, and philosophy that drive their pedagogical choices, and making systemic/structural decisions related to policy and cooperation between various sources of assistance in the school and the community (Whipp, 2013).

The following difficulties have been encountered in trying to implement the concept of education for social justice:

1.   It is hard to determine measurable standards to assess the quality of teachers' work in teaching social justice (Dover, 2013).

2.   Educating for social justice is context-dependent (Mayo & Larke, 2011).

3.   The lack of adequate training in this area makes it difficult for beginning teachers (Chubbuck, 2010).

4.   New teachers find it particularly hard to handle issues related to the teaching of social justice at the systemic level, (Johnson, Oppenheim, & Suh, 2009).

 The purpose of this presentation is to present six stories written by beginning teachers on the subject of social justice in the classroom and the public space. Through their stories, we will examine two principal questions: What process do beginning teachers undergo in coping with injustices committed against their students? And how do they handle cases of social injustice that arise in their work? 

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