Understanding Of Social Justice Research Articles

Engaging Students in Social Policy and Social Justice: The Use of Candidate Debates in Canadian BSW Education

ABSTRACT Social work pedagogy recognizes the educational value of experiential learning for the professional development of social workers, with a particularly rich experiential learning literature related to clinical work and field education. This study evaluates an experiential learning activity for large undergraduate courses in another area: social policy and social justice. We ask: How effective are electoral candidate debates in building BSW students’ understanding of social justice and its relationship with social policy? Using a constructionist approach, we qualitatively analyzed reflection data from 73 students on their experiences of two in-class electoral candidate debates (one municipal, one federal) held in consecutive offerings of a first-year survey course. Findings indicate that in-class electoral debates have the potential to effectively support learning and engagement related to social policy and social justice, especially foundational concepts such as Canadian federalism, ideologies that inform policy responses, and equity analysis of different policy responses. Learning was primarily limited to formalized conceptualizations of social justice. Recommendations to maximize learning include assessment and accommodation of the diversity of prior student knowledge and inclusion of briefing and debriefing activities. The study suggests that in-class electoral debates, if done properly, can be an effective experiential teaching tool for policy courses.

Implementation of Interpretation Method in Memorizing Al-Quran at Darul Huffadz Islamic Boarding School Rembang Purbalingga (Study Performance of Al Qur’an by Ingrid Mattson)

The tradition of memorizing the Qur’an has long been carried out in various regions of the archipelago. The effort to memorize the Qur’an was originally carried out by scholars who studied in the Middle East through their teachers. However, in subsequent developments, the tendency to memorize the Qur’an began to be of great interest to the Indonesian people. Darul Huffadz Tahfidzul Qur'an Islamic Boarding School is one of the boarding schools that has a program for memorizing the Qur’an or also called tahfizh al-Qur'an. This cottage has many activities like other tahfidz Islamic boarding schools. According to Ingrid Mattson, learning the Qur’an should encourage the formation of good character, strong ethics, an understanding of social justice, and continuous self-improvement. Ingrid Mattson is an American Islamic scholar known for her contributions to the study of the Qur’an and the understanding of Islam. Ingrid Mattson's thoughts on learning the Qur’an emphasize the importance of a holistic approach, practical goals, and contextual understanding. He argues that the Qur’an is not only a holy text that must be studied academically, but also as a guide that provides moral and ethical guidance to individuals and society.

‘Social Justice Practice’ in Social Work Under Political Challenge—Case in Hong Kong

Abstract Social justice is a core element of the social work profession. As Hong Kong has undergone a significant socio-political transformation, how social workers in Hong Kong cope with the challenges in practising social justice is a worthy case to explore. To explore how social workers approach social justice in this changing environment, this study conducted in-depth interviews with six social workers with different understandings of social justice and governance. Thematic analysis guided our analysis of the interviews, revealing the challenges and difficulties in social justice practice, social justice practice under the challenges and the unsolved vexation of the social workers.

Re/Definitions of teachers and teaching work in UK and US policy discourses under Covid-19 and their implications for social justice

ABSTRACT This article is concerned with the discourses of teachers and teaching work that have circulated in UK and US education policy circles during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on UK and US policy texts published in Spring and Summer 2020, we discuss how the policy discourses underpinning these texts re/define and mis/recognise teaching work. On a theoretical level, the article bears on a poststructuralist tradition calling, inter alia, for a critical deconstruction of discourses and the relationships of power they sustain, while also borrowing from critical theorists’ understandings of social justice. We argue that while some aspects of teachers’ work have attracted more visibility and recognition, these processes have been partial and coexist with the strengthening of some of the hierarchies of teaching work in place prior to the pandemic.

Reframing social justice through indigenous know-how: Implications for social development, policy and practice

Crafting a viable social justice–based policy is touted as critical for revamping social development in emerging economies. There is little understanding of social justice and forging sustainable relationships for social development through utilization of indigenous know-how. With evidence from local communities in Cameroon, this article explores conceptions of social justice through indigenous know-how and considers their implications for social development, policy and practice. Drawing on empirical data and in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key informants, this case study lays the foundations of what drives social justice and social development, often ‘behind the scenes’. This study ‘unpeels’ the invisible enablers and barriers to social development; a proposed social justice wheel and instruments deployed demonstrates how indigenous knowledge systems and institutions address multifaceted problems. Uppermost on the social justice agenda are issues related to counsel, affective community ties and social cohesion, oral traditions and mores, arbitration of community affairs, and projects of pressing need such as clean water, land disputes, mobilizing local resources in tackling key concerns related to poverty, agricultural practices, food security and climate change. Although due process and traditional diligence are harder to maintain due to underhand arrangements and often corrupt leadership, communities are reframing social justice to build capability on an incremental scale. The study illuminates the centrality and policy conundrum of fostering people-centred development. Harnessing indigenous agency, in synergy with modern governance institutions such as social services, to bolster social development is a prerequisite for enhancing a heightened sense of human rights and lessening inequality.

Finnish ECEC personnel’s views on the challenging nature of promoting social justice: a sustainability research perspective

ABSTRACTPrevious research has shown that the importance of education for sustainability is acknowledged in Finnish early childhood education and care but not systematically put into practice. At present, curricula require considering social, cultural, economic and ecological sustainability in all activities. In this research, discourse analysis was used to examine Finnish personnel’s views on the ways in which social and cultural sustainability are taken into account and implemented in work with children. The participants consisted of 53 ECEC teams. The data were gathered through the Assessment tool for Promotion of Sustainability in ECEC (PROSUS). Based on the analysis, three constructions emerged which describe the sustainability work with children under 6 years old. Findings revealed the challenging nature of integrating social justice issues into pedagogy. The implications of this research point the necessity of strengthening personnel’s knowledge and understanding of social justice and emphasising children’s own agentative role in promoting sustainability work.

Understandings of Social Justice among College Students: Learning Catholic Social Thought through Ignatian Pedagogy and Community Engagement

This paper offers a framework for teaching and learning Catholic social thought. Drawing upon theories of community engagement and justice education, the paper observes stages of student learning related to Catholic social thought. Finally, it draws upon Ignatian principles and pedagogy as an approach to teaching Catholic social thought to college students.

Культурно-антропологическое измерение современного уголовного права

The spread of cultural-anthropological methodology to the problems of modern criminal law enabled to formulate a new doctrinal definition of criminal law as a culturally agreed system of social freedoms focused on protecting social, material and spiritual values that are the human culture achievements and belong to a person. The proposed cultural-anthropological dimension allowed us to substantiate the appropriateness of recognition anthropodicy as a paradigm of modern criminal law. 
 The idea of periodization of criminal law genesis was further developed with the identification of three qualitatively different periods of premodern, modern and postmodern, each of which is distinguished by a special role played in culture in general and criminal law in particular. 
 The article provides different understanding of social justice as the purpose of applying criminal law which is more complicated in the context of the rule of law dominance than in the traditional understanding of the compliance between crime and punishment.
 The proposed approach allows to obtain a new type of criminal law, in which a person, regardless of the nature of participation in criminal relations, is provided with a number of rights and legal opportunities to protect their own, or those represented by it, interests. Іn addition, it creates grounds for further study of less global, but no less relevant problems of criminal law, in particular, ensuring objective criminalization, the formation of a coherent system of criminal law measures as a legal consequence of a socially dangerous act, the ratio of measures to physical and legal persons, etc.

Social Justice and Public Health: A Framework for Curriculum Reform

As public health aims to improve health outcomes of all populations, social justice is argued to be the philosophy on which public health is based. A social justice approach to population health requires the field to recognize that the inequities in society have negative consequences for health. The purpose of this work is to develop a framework for integrating social justice into a public health curriculum. We used an interprofessional approach to create a definition of social justice, and develop a training program and evaluation plan. The program weaves social justice throughout the core MPH curriculum. The social justice definition is the foundation of the curriculum which is composed of eight key social justice domains with competencies directly aligned with each of the domains. Our evaluation plan focuses on students’ change in understanding of social justice in public health. The overarching goal is to explicitly integrate social justice into an MPH curriculum such that students can work toward health equity and justice in their careers.

Рец. на кн.: AMIRA MITTERMAIER. GIVING TO GOD: ISLAMIC CHARITY IN REVOLUTIONARY TIMES. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2019. XIV+233 p.

Amira Mittermaier’s book examines the practices of Islamic charity in contemporary Egypt. To answer the question of how and why pious Muslims engage in charity in their mundane lives, the author visits not only mosques, shrines, charitable and volunteer organizations, but also Tahrir Square in Cairo, an important locus for understanding Islamic piety. The place became widely known in 2011 due to the massive anti-government protests that came to be known as the Arab Spring in Egypt. The study of political activism allows the author to get a better grasp on the ordinary ethics of Islamic charity that considers the issues of social justice to be no less important compared to the political activism. But unlike liberal emancipatory projects, the understanding of social justice within the framework of Islamic piety relies on a fundamentally different ethics, political ontology, and temporal orientations. Drawing upon different cases, Mittermaier demonstrates the diverse ethical repertoire of Islamic giving, ranging from the examples of radical asceticism and self-denial, based on the Sufi ideal of the gift, to the more utilitarian approaches to charity, where gift exchange is considered to be a means to collect divine rewards for performed virtues. By comparing the Islamic gift ethics with the secular projects of social restructuring and reducing poverty, the author urges the reader to rethink Islamic charity as having a specific political meaning and potential vis-a-vis progressive ideas and politics.

Using Transformational Leadership to Create Brave Space in Teaching Multicultural Education

The study explores how multicultural education instructors use transformational leadership to establish “brave space” as a foundation for critical conversations about identity. Establishing brave space within education courses is essential to facilitating pre-service teachers’ understanding of social justice; yet, little research exists regarding the use of transformational classroom leadership to achieve this. This qualitative study is comprised of semi-structured interviews with three instructors through a lens of transformational classroom leadership. Our findings suggest that transformational leadership practices such as modelling the way, challenging the process, encouraging the heart, etc. facilitate students’ understanding of identity, relational trust, and their tacit values.

Community participation in a low-income neighborhood: The salience of sociodemographic characteristics, perceptions and experience of violence, and neighborhood attachment.

While community participation may serve as a vehicle to improve health and socioeconomic outcomes for residents in poor communities, little research exists on the individual factors that influence community participation, particularly in contexts where violence is exceptionally high. This study examined the relationship between sociodemographic characteristics, perceptions, and experiences of violence, neighborhood attachment, and community participation in a low-income, under-resourced neighborhood in Johannesburg South Africa. The study used baseline data from 300 randomly selected households and multiple linear regression to assess the relationship between individual factors and community participation. The results suggest a high level of community participation, with religious organizational membership the most common. Being female, employed, and fear of violent crime were positively associated with community participation. Future research should include mixed methods and transdisciplinary research approaches for building our understandings of social justice and transformation-oriented community participation.

Sprawiedliwość społeczna jako równość szans w postaci egalitaryzmu trafu

Article 2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland invokes the idea of social justice without specifying its understanding. The present analysis deals with the problems of characterising it as equality of opportunities (possibilities) in the form of luck egalitarianism. Based on hypothetical examples, we have attempted to show that the social justice, which consists in the enforcement of equal rights, whether they are maximalist or merely positive, faces serious theoretical obstacles. The article contains three main theses. The first thesis is that it is impossible to enforce equal rights in maximalist terms. The second thesis states that the luck egalitarian project of equalizing opportunities for the younger generation by redistributing resources seized through the liquidation of inheritances shows the incoherence of the rules of justice. The third thesis is that luck egalitarianism violates the principle of consistency. For the above reasons, such an understanding of social justice as equality of opportunity in the form of luck egalitarianism should be excluded from the interpretation of Article 2 of the Polish Constitution.

Urban Agriculture Education and Youth Civic Engagement in the U.S.: A Scoping Review

Urban agriculture education is increasingly used to foster civic engagement among youth. To better understand empirical research on this topic, we analyzed peer-reviewed journal articles that focus on civic engagement among high-school-age students in urban agriculture education programs in the U.S. Using a scoping review approach, we identified 10 relevant research articles published between 2004 and 2018. These articles show that urban agriculture education programs prepare youth for future civic engagement, including by enhancing their understanding of social justice and community assets, and by building their leadership skills. In addition to promoting skills for future civic engagement, these programs engage youth in current civic actions in their neighborhoods, such as creating community gardens and donating food. Although the long-term effect of these programs on youth is still unclear, analyzed articles offer convincing evidence that urban agriculture education programs can be instrumental in helping youth become involved in addressing social and environmental issues in their communities.

Supervision to Deepen Teacher Candidates’ Understanding of Social Justice: The Role of Responsive Mediation in Professional Development Schools

Those responsible for supervising teacher candidates have an obligation to promote socially just pedagogies. In this paper, I investigate my own supervisory practice as a novice supervisor in my mediation of a teacher candidate’s understanding of social justice. I rely on a sociocultural theoretical perspective (Vygotsky, 1978) and the psychological tool of responsive mediation (Johnson & Golombek, 2016) for my supervisory practice and an anti-capitalist interpretation of socially just teaching (Apple, 2004; Ayers, 2010; Bowles & Gintis, 2011). Through a microgenetic analysis (Wertsch, 1985) of a post-observation transcript, I empirically document the developmental opportunities that take place over a span of 15 minutes and how my responsive mediation shaped how the teacher candidate shifted to talking about socially just teaching differently. Implications for an expanding conception of social justice in supervision and the introduction of a theoretical perspective for the dialectical unity of supervision and teacher candidate development are discussed.

Practical applications of a social justice agenda in counselling and psychotherapy: the relational equality in education framework (REEF)

ABSTRACT Recently there has been an increasing focus on the social justice agenda in counselling and psychotherapy. To ensure that this does not merely function as rhetoric, therapists must consider how to translate their social justice values into action. In this paper we aim to extend current understandings of social justice by foregrounding an emphasis on relational equality and power. We consider the importance of educational settings as a site of social justice action for therapists, and set out the Relational Equality in Education Framework as an illustration of how therapists might work to enhance relational equality in education on micro, meso and macro levels. Such efforts would ensure the social justice work of therapists takes an important shift from rhetoric to action.

The factor of justice in the consolidation of urban communities

The article analyzes the role of the equity factor in the consolidation of urban communities. The consolidation of the population is considered a way to achieve its stability. Social consolidation is discussed as an ambiguous concept that characterizes the process and outcome of an agreement between different communities on the basis of the unity of values and interests and the establishment of relations of mutual trust and solidarity, in order to achieve common goals. The results of the research have shown that justice is not only the dominant value of urban residents but becomes a factor that determines many daily practices of the population. As a conclusion it has empirically confirmed that, if there are significant discrepancies regarding the understanding of social justice by the inhabitants of the city and their lack of conviction in the practical implementation of this principle, consolidation remains only an illusory opportunity. Therefore, the consistent implementation of the principle of justice and the search for social consensus among various segments of the population are strategic priorities for the development of urban communities around the world.

An Exploration of Pre-Service Student Teachers' Understanding of Social Justice Issues Through Theatre-in-Education

The aim of this qualitative study was to establish how students' understanding of social justice was enhanced through their participation in the theatre-in-education process, and its contribution to their learning. The population of the study comprised all students registered for the third-year education module, Issues and Challenges in Education-PGED 302. The population included Bachelor of Education (Foundation Phase, Intermediate Phase, and FET) students. Of the population of 300 students registered for the module, only 72 Bachelor of Education (Intermediate Phase) students who participated in the theatre-in-education presentations, constituted the sample for the study. Data comprised students' written reflections based on their theatre-in-education experiences, which were coded and analysed thematically. The study indicated that students' understanding of social justi ce in education was enhanced through their participation in their theatre-in-education presentations.

“WOKE” in Historically Black Colleges and Universities

This research paper aims to examine and critique the impact and contribution of HBCUs in advancing societal issues and education while fostering a heightened understanding of social justice for today’s HBCU students. The purpose of this research is to discuss, expose, and share the impact HBCUs have had on the “WOKE” movement and social justice in the United States of America. The discourse centers on the development of scholars and activities who have been nurtured by and at HBCUs. The primary sources and events have been summarizing, focusing on the cause and effect of the injustice minorities face from the modern Civil Rights Era to the present day. The information/data demonstrates core components that have shaped American HBCUs from their establishments/foundation. Those ideals still evoke the same emotion of individuals who effort toward higher education decades ago up to today’s HBCU student bodies that embrace societal images upon their school. It also demonstrates how HBCUs have shown their ways of waking to societal limits in multiple forms of action to be heard through their oppression. Some sources broadly state approaches to reinstating these essential values, while some indicate the efforts to prove the name of HBCUs compared to PWIs. Some sources even show how our institutions solidify our government. This paper expresses how HBCUs in our nation keep students aware of the delinquent acts around them from social injustice and racial inequality.
 
 

Sensory Arts-Based Storytelling as Critical Reflection: Tales From an Online Graduate Social Work Classroom

Drawing upon Heron and Reason’s (1997) participatory inquiry paradigm and extended epistemology, this article explores how six Master of Social Work (MSW) students engaged in sensory arts-based critical reflection concerning their social location, identities, social justice, and social policy. We share our process for creating sensory arts-based stories, the stories themselves, and pedagogical reflections. We elucidate how sensory arts-based storytelling allows learners to draw upon their strengths, unique perspectives, and experiences in the world, generating transformative understandings of social justice. Sensory arts-based storytelling holds potential as an interdisciplinary mode of critical reflection, generating inclusive learning environments oriented towards social change.