Social Justice Curriculum Research Articles

Context, Climate, and Red Tape: Considerations for Social-Justice Curriculum Development in Kinesiology

Curricula grounded in social justice are vital in higher education, including kinesiology programs. The United States has seen continued increases in diversity, with education consistently displaying poor representation of historically marginalized groups. The purpose of this paper is to offer three elements that kinesiology programs should consider when aiming to successfully engage in developing social-justice curricula: context, climate, and “red tape.” We define and describe each element and how it influences our approach to curriculum development and provide specific examples from our work in the University of New Mexico Physical Education Teacher Education program to illustrate practical implementation. We argue that social-justice curriculum development is required to prepare young professionals to enter the field with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to meet the needs of diverse communities.

Design of a Social Justice Curriculum to Expand Critical Consciousness Among Resident Trainees.

Health equity curricula emphasizing critical pedagogy and centering perspectives of those with marginalized identities, both in curriculum design and execution, have yet to be described in interdisciplinary graduate medical education settings. The application of public health critical race praxis (PHCRP) in the redesign and evaluation of a social medicine immersion month (SMIM) curriculum. A mandatory, 4-week course within the Residency Program for Social Medicine in the Bronx, NY. First-year residents in internal medicine, family medicine, pediatrics, and clinical psychology fellows between 2019 and 2020. Residents and faculty underrepresented in medicine employed PHCRP to ground SMIM in critical pedagogy and structural competency with the goals of increasing critical consciousness, sensitizing trainees to structural barriers faced by patients, and promoting meaningful engagement in advocacy. SMIM was evaluated pre- and post-curriculum using a validated critical consciousness and intersectionality survey, with additional questions to assess competency and behaviors. Participants also provided course feedback. Participants demonstrated significant increases across all domains of the measure (Racism + 1.62 (p < .01), Classism + 1.62 (p < .05), Heterosexism + 1.06 (p < .05)). Participant feedback was positive. PHCRP is a valuable model for designing health equity curriculum. SMIM provides insights for incorporating this framework into GME curricula.

Culturally responsive professional peace officer framework: a community college’s response to educating the next generation of police officer candidates

Abstract From Sir Robert Peel’s 1829 argument for a professionally trained police force to President Barack Obama’s 2015 Task Force on 21st Century Policing, the discussion on quality and content of peace officer pre-professional education is ongoing. With an increase in police officer incidents impacting the BIPOC communities across the Twin Cities, the degree to which law enforcement education programs address topics of cultural relations and anti-racism has come into question by community and government agencies. In response to the public’s call for action for law enforcement education reform, Inver Hills Community College developed a pre-professional peace officer education framework which altered their programs to mirror this paradigm shift. The current programs: the Culturally Responsive Professional Peace Officer Associate of Science degree and certificate, integrate a culturally responsive and social justice curricula, experiential teaching and learning, and program mission, vision, and core values aimed to equip the next generation of police officer candidates.

Transnational language teaching activism for intercultural/bilingual education in elementary school settings

Language teaching activism is a political movement for educational transformation where the role of teachers and languages, as a medium of instruction and literacy, are fundamental for equity and social justice. This paper analyzes the reflections from elementary school teachers from Austin (Texas, U.S.) and Oaxaca (Mexico) during a collaborative symposium to exchange transnational classroom pedagogies from February to December 2022. Specifically, it analyzes three topics: (a) curriculum critique, (b) instructional strategies, and (c) the impact of standardized high-stakes assessment. Collaboration between educators in this transnational and multiethnic context fostered critical perspectives toward the curriculum, instructional strategies, status of languages, and the assessment processes. Despite bilingual teachers being in different linguistic, educational, and political contexts, there is a common thread evident in this transnational collaboration where educator strengths inform purpose of a social justice curriculum.

Creating Spaces of Engagement: Exploring High School Youth’s Voices in Reshaping the Social Justice Curriculum

The current structure of formal education makes it difficult for teachers and students to hold meaningful conversations to support high-school youth’s meaning-making of critical social-justice issues. This paper presents data on three high-school youth’s knowledge and experiences with social justice issues during the pandemic. Specifically, the paper aims to explore how youth construct knowledge and counter dominant discourses through utilizing informal learning spaces, such as social media platforms, peer and family conversations, as well as personal encounters. In addition, and more importantly, an exploration of how formal education can incorporate social-justice issues into the curriculum is considered. The analysis of these high school youth’s interview conversations presents their diverging needs to learn about social-justice topics in both formal and informal learning contexts. The data also illustrates the power of their voices in a way that could inform future curriculum development. Discussions and implications highlight the possibility of creating such ethical spaces in formal education to engage in social-justice topics.

Exploring the impact of an anti‐oppressive social justice internship curriculum

AbstractIn this qualitative case study, we implemented an anti‐oppressive, social justice curriculum in a school counseling internship course and then explored its impact on participants (N = 3) as school counseling students and full‐time school counselors. We identified 11 themes that reflect how the curriculum impacted participants as students and school counselors.

An Innovative Educational Intervention for Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Faculty to Meet Social Justice Curriculum Standards

The association between adverse childhood experiences and negative health outcomes is a public health concern, particularly affecting disadvantaged groups and contributing to health disparities. Pediatric nurse practitioners are well-positioned to address this issue, emphasizing the importance of incorporating social justice concepts into nursing education to develop a pediatric workforce with the necessary skills to curb health disparities. However, evidence-based approaches to incorporating these concepts into pediatric nursing education are limited. To address this gap, we describe an innovative educational intervention that harnesses the power of narratives to empower future pediatric nurse practitioners as champions of social justice and health equity.

Facing the Limitations of Teaching and Learning Committed to Solidarity and Social Justice: A Feminist Approach

This study examines how 52 graduate students enrolled in a social justice program in a large urban university in Canada relate to others in and outside the college classroom. Using a method involving creative student audio productions and self-reflections, the study finds that despite extensive learning about others and engaging with postcolonial, race, feminist, Indigenous and other critical theories and knowledges in the program, both racially privileged students and those who are members of disadvantaged and marginalized social groups enact relations extending power structures imagined as “solidarity.” These relations have important gender aspects and are shaped by broader historical forces, such as racism and colonization, as well as contemporary aspects of Canadian academia that have not been studied fully in relation to social justice education. These findings call for social justice curriculum and pedagogies that move learners from thinking critically and feeling empathy for others to behaving ethically and standing in political togetherness with those others as equals. The study suggests that transnational women and feminist political practices of solidarity mobilizing cross-racial and cross-national women’s movements in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s present valuable pedagogies that could position college students for such relating.

Constructing a Social Justice Curriculum Policy in the 21st Century

In the dynamic and ever-changing educational landscape, it is crucial to rethink and construct social curriculum policy in the 21st Century. At the same time considering integrating skills such as critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving into the curriculum, and reflecting the evolving needs of a dynamic society. The endeavour of developing a robust social justice curriculum policy requires a clear understanding of the diverse and ever-changing needs of learners and education practitioners, as well as the commitment to fostering inclusivity, equality, equity and empowerment within educational systems. There are twelve articles published in this special issue. We believe that these articles will assist policymakers in various countries, provinces or states, and districts to frame and construct the socially justice curriculum policy for 21st Century.

Just Because We’re Small Doesn’t Mean We Can’t Stand Tall: A Child and Youth Rights Movement

In this article, the authors share their research on a curriculum for social justice, truth, and then reconciliation as put forth by the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society (Caring Society). The Caring Society is a non-profit organization that advocates for equity and social justice for First Nations children and creates social justice educational materials for Canadian learners. The authors provide an overview of the Caring Society campaigns and educational research. More specifically, they discuss how the Caring Society is creating educational resources that center a child and youth-driven civil rights movement across the school curriculum. Such curricular and pedagogical approaches focus on truth and then reconciliation, Indigenous sovereignty, and position a social justice pedagogy. They then discuss some of the ways we might advocate relational forms of citizenship that seek to honour the truth, and then reconciliation education.

Distracting, Erasing, and Othering: A Critical Analysis of the Teachers Pay Teachers’ Teach for Justice Collection

In this article authors Katy Swalwell, Noreen Naseem Rodríguez, Amy Updegraff, and Leslie Ann Winters share findings from their critical content analysis of the free preK–5 resources for antiracist, social justice teaching in the Teachers Pay Teachers’ Teach for Justice collection. Using Picower’s (2012) six elements of social justice curriculum design, as well as guidelines and suggestions offered to content creators in this online curriculum market place, the authors found that the materials in the sample lacked accuracy, avoided clarity, and promoted thin conceptions of social justice and antiracism. They claim that, in general, the collection subverts traditions of social justice and antiracist education by erasing power dynamics, distracting students’ attention away from oppression, and othering BIPOC students. They conclude with a call for educators to avoid the collection and to instead invest in high-quality vetted resources as well as professional development that helps them sharpen their critical capacities around curricular resources.

Underrepresented in medicine students’ perspectives on impactful medical education

BackgroundExploring the perceptions of underrepresented in medicine (URiM) students about the medical education curriculum and learning environment could optimize their education outcomes. The current study delineated perceptions of URiM medical students about the unique elements and characteristics of an impactful medical education program that create a positive, supportive learning environment culture.MethodsWe conducted in-depth interviews with 15 URiM students between January 2018 and April 2018. Interviewees were recruited from an accredited medical education program in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The University is also a member of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities in the U.S. The main question that guided the study was, “What do URiM students at a Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) medical school believe would make a medical education program (MEP) impactful?” We used the grounded theory analytical approach and performed content analysis via qualitative thematic evaluation.ResultsOf 112 enrolled medical students (MS), 15 verbally consented to participation. We identified four general themes and several subthemes. The themes include 1) Grounding learning in the community; 2) Progressive system-based practice competency; 3) Social justice competency and 4) Trauma-informed medical education delivery. Theme 1 included the following subthemes (a) community engagement, and (b) student-run clinic, mobile clinic, and homeless clinic rotations. Theme 2 includes (a) interprofessional learning and (b) multidisciplinary medicine for cultivating a ‘just’ healthcare system. Theme 3 includes (a) longitudinal social justice curriculum, (b) advocacy, and (c) health disparity research. Theme 4 had the following subdomains (a) early and ongoing mentoring and (b) provision of supportive policies, services and practices to maximize learning and mental health.ConclusionOur learners found that social justice, trauma-informed, community-based curricula are impactful for URiM learners. These findings highlight the need for further research to assess the impact of permeating the championship culture, community cultural wealth, and transformational education in all aspects of the MEP in providing a supporting and positive learning environment for URiM students.

Leveraging storytelling and digital artifacts to design social justice curriculum in urban communities

Many students in Portland’s schools face racism and other forms of discrimination on a daily basis. Storytelling is a practice that is fundamental across all cultures and provides a vehicle that students from all backgrounds can access as a mechanism for engaging in the development of their academic identity. This article shares about how a digital workbook assignment was designed as an outlet for student self-expression dealing daily with racism and prejudice related to systems of oppression in education and the rapidly changing and evolving life of a city.

Embodied Social Justice Learning: Considerations for Curriculum Development and Training in Counseling Programs

Social justice curriculum development continues to be an evolving area in the educational and professional training of counselors and counseling psychologists. While many programs facilitate trainees’ exploration of social justice knowledge through infusion into multicultural counseling courses, there is a growing trend in counseling curriculum development to provide students with specific social justice-oriented awareness and approaches to advocacy. This article describes the development of two-course sequence in a mental health counseling program where trainees are introduced to multicultural and social justice content pedagogically organized around liberation and critical history frameworks. The theoretical frameworks, process of implementing specific curricular activities with a focus on a culminating service-learning experience, and strategies for enhancing social justice and advocacy curriculum development through an embodied social justice learning curricular approach are discussed. This article aims to advance curriculum development by encouraging faculty in counseling programs to consider implementing curricular activities that are guided by social justice embodiments and critical-liberatory frameworks to facilitate trainees’ social justice knowledge and their approach to advocacy in their roles as helping professionals.

Preparing Medical Students to Address Health Disparities Through Longitudinally Integrated Social Justice Curricula: A Systematic Review.

The education of health care professionals is a contributing factor to persistent health disparities. Although medical students are expected to understand racism, classism, and other social and structural drivers of health (SDH), standardization and best practices for teaching these concepts are lacking. Some medical schools are adopting social justice curricula (SJC) that prioritize health equity in teaching students to recognize SDH and preparing them to address the consequent health disparities. This systematic review sought to evaluate how these schools have integrated SJC into their core teaching; the criteria they have used to measure success and to what extent these criteria are met; and best practices in planning, implementing, and evaluating SJC. The authors searched 7 databases for English-language studies published between January 2000 and April 2020, reporting on longitudinally integrated SJC at U.S. medical schools intended for all students. Quantitative and qualitative outcomes were synthesized and summarized. Searches identified 3,137 articles, of which 11 met inclusion criteria. Results demonstrated schools use a variety of teaching methods over a wide range of didactic hours to teach SJC concepts. Surveys and objective tests indicated students in SJC are generally satisfied and demonstrated improved knowledge and skills related to understanding and mitigating SDH, although findings related to changes in attitudes were equivocal. Evaluations at graduation and in residency demonstrated students who experience SJC are more prepared than their peers to work with patients who are underserved. Best practices in SJC included addressing the hidden curriculum, considering medical mistrust, and using tools like the Racial Justice Report Card and Tool for Assessing Cultural Competence Training. These findings indicated SJC can prepare students to better address the root causes of health disparities. Future research should consider the long-term influences of these curricula on students, patients, and the community.

Cultivating True Leaders: A Social Justice Curriculum for Youth Development Programs

In recent years, there have been increasing calls to intentionally center diversity, equity, and inclusion within positive youth development programs. True Leaders: Culture, Power and Justice is a 4-H curriculum designed to engage young people in understanding and applying social justice concepts with the ultimate aim of nurturing their sense of self-efficacy as they work to find solutions to pressing social issues. The True Leaders curriculum is shaped by the Five Cs of positive youth development—confidence, competence, connection, caring, and character—and a social justice youth development framework. Each lesson is grounded in the critical experiential learning model, which seeks to move participants through a process of hands-on learning about social justice concepts, critical reflection, and, ultimately, collective action. The True Leaders curriculum is intended for use with middle and high school-aged youth.

Expanding STEM Membership: Using Science Process Skills in a Social Justice Curriculum to Combat Stereotype Threats and Build Self-Efficacy in African American Students

10.5590/JERAP.2021.11.1.18Science process skills were scaffolded throughout instruction over the ten-week program. The culminating project included the development, design, and testing of their own independent science fair project. The results reflect an increase in students’ self-efficacy which was evidenced by the students’ preparation and presentation of their projects in the science fair.

Expanding STEM Membership: Using Science Process Skills in a Social Justice Curriculum to Combat Stereotype Threats and Build Self-Efficacy in African American Students

Science process skills were scaffolded throughout instruction over the ten-week program. The culminating project included the development, design, and testing of their own independent science fair project. The results reflect an increase in students’ self-efficacy which was evidenced by the students’ preparation and presentation of their projects in the science fair.

Empowering Teacher Candidates to Create Social Justice Curriculum Through Civic Engagement Projects

The purpose of this research is to examine how participating in a Civic Engagement Project (CEP) led teacher candidates (TCs) to develop and publish race and social justice curriculum. This article describes the CEP, a graduate level social studies methods course assignment for TCs who research community issues, select a class project, collaborate, create and publish resources for educators. This mixed-methods study examines the challenges, benefits and process of the CEP. TCs' reflections, digital curriculum and resourcesthey created, surveys and interviews with TCs after graduation were analyzed through six criteria of anti-racist curriculum, based on Racial Pedagogical Content Knowledge and Critical Race Theory. The intent of this longitudinal research is to analyze the long-term development of social studies teachers across their experiences with civic engagement as pre-service and subsequently in-service teachers.

Formal Knowledge Acquisition and Socialization to Educational Leadership by Program Graduates: The Intersection of Social Justice and the Role of Program Faculty

Through the use of Twale et al.’s model of socialization of graduate students, this study sought to better understand the experiences of graduates from an educational leadership and administration program and the influence faculty have on the knowledge acquisition needed to create socially just educational communities. Graduate programs must be critical of the responsibility faculty have in preparing graduates capable of creating socially just educational communities, in particular as they enter educational settings that are the most diverse in U.S. history. Through the use of phenomenological inquiry, interviews with 10 participants revealed three themes: (a) Faculty Connection and Department Culture, (b) Social Justice Curriculum; and (c) Social Justice Pedagogy and Instruction. Implications for research and practice are discussed and center on graduate students, faculty, and departments of educational leadership and administration.