Social Justice Practice Research Articles

African and Indigenous games and activities: a pilot study on their legitimacy and complexity in Brazilian physical education teaching

ABSTRACT Although the teaching of African-Brazilian and Indigenous history and culture is mandatory in primary and secondary schools, there has been a lack of proper contextualizing in PETE programs [Corsino, L. N., & Conceição, W. L. (Eds.). (2016). Educação física escolar e relações étnico-raciais: Subsídios para a implementação das leis 10.639-03 e 11.645-08 [School physical education and ethnic-racial relations: Subsidies for the implementation of laws 10.639-03 and 11.645-08]. CRV, v. 11]. There is also a need to study how the recognition of African-Brazilian and Indigenous ethnic-racial issues in primary and secondary physical education is mandated by the law. The purpose of this research – framed as a pilot study – is to address the invisibility of African-Brazilian and Indigenous history and culture in schools. The objective is to analyze both the teachers’ knowledge and the law application in physical education classes concerning African and Indigenous games and activities. We have addressed the invisibility of Black and Indigenous people in Brazil, connections to the African diasporas and Indigenous cultures, ethnic-racial inequalities in physical education, and the African-Brazilian and Indigenous complexities as challenges for PETE. The research method is qualitatively oriented and descriptive. Data was generated from an online questionnaire responded to by physical education teachers who work in primary schools. Findings suggest that there is a lack of discussion on ethnic-racial issues in PETE or in permanent teacher education programs. Despite the law, there is a discrepancy in its application in Brazilian education. Physical education opens space to reflect upon the African-Brazilian and Indigenous cultures in the schools. Even teachers who do not teach ethnic-racial issues at their schools affirm the importance to teach. In conclusion, it is necessary to decolonize the curriculum, emphasizing the ethnic-racial complexity in PETE. Transform pedagogies and prompt the construction of new paths for social justice practices do require a more culturally diverse physical education curriculum.

Chilean Teacher Educators’ Conceptions on the Absence of Women and Their History in Teacher Training Programmes. A Collective Case Study

Schools must assume a clear position that considers gender perspectives and studies in their programmes’ construction as well as in discourses and practices produced and reproduced in the school context. Social sciences education is a key area that enables the creation of tools to reflect and foster social justice practices in face of violence against women. In this article, we focus on some reflections of social sciences education professors in Chile. Specifically, we discuss the limitations they face to include women and women issues in their classes. The methodology utilised is Collective Case Studies. The methodology used has a socio-constructivist approach and critical theory perspective, seeking to understand the structures of meaning around the invisibility of women and their history. Among the results, the willingness of professors to include and transform their practices towards perspectives that promote inclusion and social justice stands out. However, they have different limitations, such as excessive workload, the tradition already present in teacher education programmes, and the rigidity of the hegemonic and patriarchal structures.

Reparative Love

In this article, I use examples from my work with asylum seekers and refugees within the British city of Lancaster, and with groups working on its Black history to reflect on the role of ‘reparative’ love, and how this can be used to promote inclusion and secure social justice in practice. I draw on the work of Catherine Hall in relation to ‘reparative history,’ and the idea of ‘satyagraha’ in the work of M. K. Gandhi to formulate the concept of reparative love. I describe it as a way of repairing injustices and inequalities in the present which are linked to historical understandings of the past. It involves engaging with individuals and groups in a spirit of love characterised by submission without subordination, with a view to transforming both the present and the future in ways that can help all involved to have a richer and truer understanding of the past. In doing so, I highlight how individuals and groups that are involved can be both transformed themselves as well as becoming agents that effect such change within the community.

Critical Clinical Social Work and the Neoliberal Constraints on Social Justice in Mental Health

Despite a strong history of social justice–based social work professional education in Canada, there has not been an intentional integration of direct critical clinical mental health practice with social justice–based theory. Progressive social work has tended to view clinical work as focusing on the individual and failing to contribute to social change. In this article, I elaborate upon a critical clinical social work approach influenced by postmodern critique, and feminist-, narrative-, and collaborative-based practice rooted in critical theory. Critical clinical practice disrupts the individual/social binary through counterviewing unhelpful dominant social discourses and producing counterstories that participate in social resistance. I explore the constraints of neoliberalism on social work mental health practice and its influence on the ability of social workers to practice social justice–based social work. Neoliberalism constrains social workers’ ability to address the social and structural determinants of mental health through its focus on economic rationalization, biomedicalization, and individual responsibilization, alongside rationalized practices that emphasize evidence-based and short-term efficiency-based models. I argue that social work is facing a crisis as a disempowered profession, as it attempts to reconcile its commitment to social justice and the importance of addressing inequity, marginalization, and oppression while often working in settings that demand the subordination of social work knowledge to neoliberal biomedicalism. Under these conditions, a critical clinical approach to mental health practice is needed now more than ever.

Making the Case for Counsellor Education Accreditation in Canada: A Cross-Jurisdictional Review of Emerging Trends in the Pre-Service Training of Counsellors and Related Mental Health Professionals

The Council for Accreditation of Counsellor Education Programs recognizes quality assurance of master’s-level counselling programs in Canada. Accreditation is important to the pre-service training of counsellors and psychotherapists who are preparing to enter into practice after graduation. This article identifies trends in counsellor education accreditation from a national perspective—ranging from changes in the regulatory landscape in Canada to the integration of social justice and diversity practices into programs of study while fostering innovative program design in times of fiscal restraint within Canadian post-secondary institutions. From an international perspective, this article highlights trends for counsellor education accreditation programs in the United States, Britain, and Australia. Overall, it is important to inform counsellor educators and personnel running counselling programs in Canada on counsellor education program development, with the goal of supporting quality standards for accrediting counselling programs in Canada while acknowledging professional mental health service regulations and public policy.

Educational Leadership for Social Justice in Multicultural Contexts: The Case of Melilla, Spain

ABSTRACT In multicultural contexts, school principals and educators face unique challenges integrating disadvantaged and immigrant youth. We investigate how these leaders advocate, design and implement social justice pedagogies for inclusion. Drawing on an interdisciplinary literature and in-depth interviews with school principals in Melilla (Spain), we further explore the social justice ideologies and practices of leaders in culturally diverse, minority-majorityschools. The findings reveal that intercultural education and ICT both enhance the inclusion of students and families, transforming schools into more open, democratic, learning environments. However, scarce funding resources, exacerbated by Melilla’s remote location from its Central Ministry of Education and the limited bargaining power of leaders, often truncate social justice initiatives.

Language and Social Justice in Practice by Netta Avineri, Laura R. Graham, Eric J. Johnson, Robin Conley Riner, and Jonathan Rosa (Eds.)

Language and Social Justice in Practice by Netta Avineri, Laura R. Graham, Eric J. Johnson, Robin Conley Riner, and Jonathan Rosa (Eds.)

“Waking Justice”: An @cto on Education

“Waking Justice”: An @cto on Education Daniel Morales Morales (bio) “Waking Justice” is inspired by the work of Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino as well as Augusto Boal work around Theatre of the Oppressed. Actos that are part of El Teatro Campesino, like the ones in Valdez’s Early Works: Actos, Bernabé and Pensamiento Serpentino (1990), are not only art but social activism, and a key tool to challenge the status quo and advocate for change. According to Valdez (1971), the acto has five goals: “inspire the audience to social action, illuminate specific points about social problems, satirize the opposition, show or hint at a solution, and express what people are thinking” (6). This @cto was created during a series of workshops with middle and high schoolers who were part of an after-school theater class that collaborated with undergraduates, a graduate student, and a faculty member in creating and performing art. I refer to this piece as an @cto instead of an acto since its multiple versions were created online after receiving feedback from the students who authored part of the script and those who performed the @ cto on stage. This collective aspect helped the intergenerational artists of this @cto create work that included multiple experiences in educational spaces. The Latinx Theatre Project The Latinx Theatre Project was a collaborative theater experience that brought together undergraduates in the Spanish and Portuguese Program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and students involved in the First Generation Youth Program in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Dr. Kristie Soares, the instructor for the class, created a collaboration in the Fall of 2017 to immerse the undergraduates and the young performers in Latinx art pedagogies, divided into three units: Theatre of the Oppressed, the Nuyorican Poetry Movement, and El Teatro Campesino. The first third of the semester was spent mostly building community among the undergraduates and understanding the sociohistorical context of the Latinx community in western Massachusetts. During the second third of the semester, we started to collaborate with the young performers from First Generation. In the last third of the semester, we worked together with the youth as an ensemble to create and stage [End Page 232] performance pieces in the style of the Latinx art pedagogies that were centered in the partnership. For the whole semester, we not only trained to facilitate Latinx theater exercises as part of our social justice practice but also learned and practiced concrete skills in theater arts, such as writing, performing, and set design. For our final performance at Teatro Vida, in Springfield, we shared with the audience our Nuyorican-style spoken word collage, a rhythm poem combining Nuyorican poetry and Theatre of the Oppressed, a video of our creative process, and “Waking Justice,” our @cto written in the style of El Teatro Campesino. The first element used in our process of creation was Theatre of the Oppressed. Augusto Boal’s work offered us an embodiment of Freirean concepts that can be deployed in the classroom in a novel, engaging, and empowering way. Central to Boal’s ideas is what he terms a “spect-actor” (2002, 243), which means there is not a distinction between actors and spectators; we all have the ability to observe critically and act upon our analysis. As a result, the spectator becomes “spect-actor”—an element of the theatrical performance that both views and actively participates in and co-constructs the course of events, its actions, and outcomes. Boal’s concept of a spectactor is very closely related to Paulo Freire’s concept of “praxis”—the unification of theory and practice and “generative terms”—topics that participants generate which are used as centerpieces of student-centered curriculum (Freire 1970). Rather than talking about the issues affecting Latinx students in schools, the spectactors interacted and manipulated dramatized representations of codified generative themes. In the case of “Waking Justice,” the characters illuminated the disproportionate punishment of students of color in schools, the lack of caring from a predominantly white teacher population, and the focus on a Eurocentric curriculum and standardized testing. The solutions are for the audience to decide, but there is a clear indication for teachers to learn from students, to listen to them...

Teacher Narratives of Social (in)justice: Early Experiences Shaping Pedagogy

This paper explores a sample of English language teachers’ perceptions and practices of social justice in Johannesburg, South Africa. These teachers teach substantial numbers of learners who are not mother tongue speakers of English, learning exclusively through an English medium. This accounts for injustices that face learners regarding access to and performance in education. These learners are of various linguistic backgrounds and require support to meet the basic promotion and pass requirements for English proficiency. Guided by critical pedagogy, social justice education and multilingualism, this study explored teachers’ narratives of their experiences of justice/injustice. In examining teachers’ narratives this study explored whether these experiences of justice/injustice shaped teachers’ perceptions of social justice and if teachers actively took up positions as agents of change through their teaching practices. Using a qualitative exploratory case study method, data in the form of written narratives was elicited from ten English teachers from two secondary school sites. This study found that teachers’ views, values, and attitudes were shaped by their own experiences of injustices and marginalization. All teachers believed they play a critical role in the personal and academic growth of their learners and acknowledged the potential role they possibly play as agents of individual and social transformation. Curriculum demands and contextual factors for some made the enactment of social justice pedagogy challenging. Language was highlighted as a key area where learners were disadvantaged in the learning process and further support was needed.

EFL Pre-Service & In-Service Teachers as Agents of Change: Enhancing Social Justice Practices in a Colombian Public University

EFL Pre-Service & In-Service Teachers as Agents of Change: Enhancing Social Justice Practices in a Colombian Public University

Addressing the Needs of Vulnerable Refugees

In recent times there has been a large increase in the numbers of people who are refugees1 seeking asylum, safety, and a secure future in countries across the globe. The countries to which they seek to gain access have often placed barriers to their arrival, sometimes overwhelmed by the numbers. People who have become refugees have the same human rights and basic needs as anyone else. Rehabilitative work is limited in most instances, although if properly addressed would afford most people who are refugees the opportunity to integrate into their new countries, and enable them to contribute in a meaningful manner to that country's well-being and development. Displaced peoples have a broad profile, including people with disabilities, some being acquired on their migration journey. Social justice practice includes addressing the needs of refugees, especially the most vulnerable among them. This article will examine these issues, establishing the context of current displacement, with projected numbers for the future; it will describe and discuss the impact of the difficult journeys undertaken by refugees; and propose the key elements for focus by rehabilitation professionals, particular reference to the European situation, especially that of Greece. The article is based on the author's first-hand experiences while working in European refugee camps, including one specifically for those with disabilities. The article will draw upon information, statistics, and other evidence supporting the issues addressed, including Human Rights Watch; Pew Research Center; Aida: Asylum in Europe Database, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the United Nations.

Cultivating Problem-Solving Scholar-Practitioners: Impact of One CPED Program on Leader Self-Efficacy

This single case study is a qualitative inquiry into the cultivation of doctoral candidates and graduates on their efficacy as leaders in using inquiry as to approach problems of practice in daily work. The study examined a doctoral program in educational leadership at one large public university in California, USA. The case study methods included artifact analysis, an examination of field notes, and semi-structured one-on-one phone interviews. The data analysis of all sources revealed three themes related to participants’ leader self-efficacy in using scholarly inquiry on problems of practice in the field. Findings indicate that the participants grew in their leader self-efficacy, transformed, and confident in their sense of self as an educational scholar-practitioner to enact change. As a result of their experience in a Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED) program, graduate participants also highlight the focus on inquiry processes to solve problems of practice as vital to educational leadership. Conclusions highlight considerations for similar programs when evaluating how they prepare graduates to impact education beyond coursework. Further research should emphasize how programs are addressing problems of practice for social justice to impact educational leaders in the field upon program completion.

Standardization of Human Rights–Based Workforce Induction Curriculum for Social Work Field Supervisors

Field practicum is the signature pedagogy of the social work profession Ketner et al. (2017); CSWE (2015); Boitel and Fromme (2014), yet field programs struggle to find adequate field placements, in quantity and quality Maynard et al. (2015), especially those that highlight human rights and social justice advocacy as core programming. The authors propose a standardized 1-day eight-segment orientation and training, informed by Frimpong, Banks, and Brodie’s (2019) onboarding model, designed to cover 6 hours of in-person class time, operationalizing human rights and social justice practice into social work students’ field practicum experience. Social work competencies and standards from the International Association of Schools of Social Work, International Federation of Social Workers, and the Council of Social Work Education are embedded in the Standardized Field Supervisor Orientation and Training to help social work field students and agency staff employ human rights informed engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation with clients, constituents, and communities. By focusing on the important role of the Field Supervisor in emphasizing human rights and social justice, this paper fills a gap in the literature by offering an exemplar to cultivate a human rights and social justice practice paradigm in field education settings. The standardized training advances social work’s core mission and values of upholding and defending human rights.

Identities, exclusionism and politics in Africa

ABSTRACT In Africa, the youth play a major role both as activists and participants in cultural life and politics. Framed around the concepts of conservatisms and radicalisms, this special issue references various African contexts to explore the intersections of youthhood, identities, cultural practices, politics, struggle narratives, education, and marginalisation, and the role young people play in the political process. To this end, articles in this special issue collectively relate to and recount the politics and practices of neoliberalism, capitalism, globalisation, poverty, violence, elections, resource allocation, disability, social justice, and identity re-constitution.

“There Was Complete Silence”: Reflections on Teacher Preparation for Social Justice Education in a Predominantly White Community

This reflective narrative explores two university professors and one preservice teacher’s attempts to teach for social justice through justice-oriented children’s literature in an introductory level education course. Situated in a predominantly White context, the teacher educators reflect on their experiences piloting Book to Art, an afterschool book club that encourages preservice teachers to develop their equity literacy in the context of interactive read alouds with justice-oriented children’s literature books. Grace, the pre-service teacher, considers her role in designing and implementing her lesson, as well as the challenges she experienced educating young children about segregation and racism using Jacqueline Woodson’s The Other Side. This article contributes to a growing body of literature that illustrates how teacher educators can facilitate the critical consciousness and social justice praxis of White pre-service teachers who will likely go on to teach in mostly White communities.

A Call for Social Justice in the American Counseling Association (ACA)

Leaders and members of seven social justice-oriented divisions of the American Counseling Association (ACA) met at a Social Justice Summit called by the Counselors for Social Justice in March 2019 at the ACA National Convention in New Orleans. The goal of the summit was to create conversations among members of these seven divisions around ways to improve social justice within the ACA. These discussions at the summit were transcribed and summarized for the purpose of creating a document to outline how ACA could improve its social justice practice. The resulting call for social justice in ACA includes three topics derived from discussions of social justice in the counseling profession: social justice in the organization of ACA, social justice for the people in ACA, and social justice at the ACA conference. Implications for improved social justice practice in the organization are provided.

The Time Is Now: Modeling the Tenets of Critical Pedagogy for Our Future Teachers at Hispanic Serving Institutions

At this historic moment, the quest to develop equitable and inclusive curriculum is even more imperative to support all students in the learning process. This urgency becomes even more relevant when our K-12 schools need teacher education programs to prepare future teachers from diverse backgrounds with necessary tools to engage and empower underrepresented groups in social justice practices. One of the best guides for this task is critical pedagogy. This study sought to determine if Education Preparation Programs (EPPs) at three Hispanic Serving Institutes (HSIs) in North Texas were devoting their curriculum to principles of critical pedagogy. The study was guided by a critical pedagogy framework developed by Giroux (2020). This framework was used to analyze the EPPs required courses’ syllabi. In our article, we discuss how the EPPs are supporting preservice teachers’ knowledge of critical pedagogy aspects and inconsistencies found among the HSIs in our region. Additionally, implications are shared for further use of the framework to assess EPP curriculum, guide program revisions, and encourage discourse among EPPs at HSIs on how to best serve our students.

The potential for civic and political engagement practice in social work as a means of achieving greater rights and justice for marginalised youth

ABSTRACT This paper argues that attention to theory and practice relating to civic and political engagement (CPE) can lead to a stronger value orientation among social workers towards human rights and social justice when working with marginalised young people. Based on findings of a study based on three European cities (Dublin, Belfast and London), we demonstrate the potential for social work to embrace a specific focus on CPE as a means of achieving greater human rights and social justice for marginalised youth. Speaking specifically to the purpose of social work to promote active social citizenship within the context of social work paradigms, we discuss how a critical consideration of learning from research can be used to advance transformative social work practices. We outline ways CPE strategies can be used with young people, their families and communities to promote partnership and maximise the positive potential of proactive involvement in civic and political matters affecting their own lives. We conclude that CPE could be used more widely, in the context of citizenship based social work, to enhance the potential for transformative human rights and social justice practice with marginalised young people.

Democratizing politics and politicizing education: Critical pedagogy for active citizenship in the Taiwanese Sunflower Movement

This article is the first to employ a Freirean framework to discuss the Taiwanese Sunflower Student Movement and its political, pedagogical and social significance. We analyse lecturers’ and students’ perspectives and experiences of civic responsibility in order to explore the relationship between critical pedagogy and student participation in the movement. The latter is an important development in politics and student activism, as it touched the lives of an entire generation of young Taiwanese and highlighted the value of active citizenship in the fight to improve democracy as praxis for social justice. This article makes a threefold contribution: first, it adds to our understanding of the processes through which movement participants cultivate their critical consciousness; second, it offers a new angle on a politically significant moment in Taiwanese history; and third, it uses this movement to illuminate forms of oppression that exist in society and education and ways to transform it.

Promoting socially just schools through professional learning: lessons from four US principals in rural contexts

ABSTRACT The concept of professional learning, with the principal as lead learner working towards the institutional goal of social justice, is the focus of this descriptive qualitative study. The purpose was to examine the actions and behaviours of US rural principals as they demonstrate professional learning to ensure social justice for marginalised students. Multiple iterations of coding the field notes and interview data resulted in the following themes: Professional Learning in a Social Context; Professional Learning in a Culture of Care; and Professional Learning for Positive Change. This study confirmed that social justice practices for marginalised children may be taught by leading through informal professional learning and is accomplished through learning in a social context for others to observe and hear, development of a culture of care, and focus on positive change in beliefs and attitudes. Professional learning that is embedded in the daily work of schools is the most viable strategy for rural teachers to incorporate social justice practices in their daily work. One implication from these findings is that principals must first become social justice role models and competently practice socially just behaviours themselves. Based on findings from this study, a model for professional learning is offered.