Demanding Justicia: the justice orientations of Oaxaca’s Sección 22 teachers

Abstract

ABSTRACT The ‘demand for justice’ is a long-standing principle of Oaxaca’s Sección 22 union chapter, which has led a teachers’ movement since the 1970s that has evolved to meet changing social, political, and economic circumstances. Various researchers around the globe have increasingly linked notions of justice with education, exploring terms like social justice education, justice-oriented teaching, justice-oriented education, and teaching for social justice in a range of contexts, mapping the ways educators integrate these concepts into classrooms and schools. Missing from this research, however, is an examination of the ways teachers might practice ‘justice-oriented teaching’ outside the classroom as well, as they participate in movements and struggles. Drawing on ethnographic data collected over a five-year period, and on interviews with 40 teachers, teacher educators, union officials, and student teachers, I will map out four ‘justice orientations’ via which Oaxacan teachers demand justice. Sección 22 educators perform justice-oriented teaching along economic, political, cultural, and humanistic orientations, manifesting a widely held belief in Oaxaca that ‘the teacher fighting, is also teaching’. This study can inform research about teachers globally enacting justice-oriented pedagogies and practices, not only in the classroom, but also in the public domain as activists, movement actors, and union members.