Social Justice Dialogues in the Classroom

Social Justice Dialogues in the Classroom demonstrates how pre-service and in-service teachers can initiate and hold conversations about social justice and liberation with youth of all ages in their classrooms. Educators and practitioners are facing unprecedented national challenges in the work of supporting youth around issues of social justice, making it even more important to learn how to navigate these conversations in order to support students. This book showcases how pre-service and in-service teachers can have and hold challenging conversations in the classroom, particularly around issues of race, gender, disability, classism, multilingualism, and youth oppression. Each chapter of this book features a vignette of a social justice topic, along with discussion questions and the language needed for classroom teachers to navigate these discussions. The book also has featured dialogues and examples of conversations that uphold social justice and equity ideals in the classroom, as well as examples of dialogue moments that went successfully, and how to recover from unsuccessful and unforeseen moments in dialogue. This book approaches those difficult conversations with humor, hope, and joy, showing readers that fruitful and generative conversations about social justice are possible. This book can be used in teacher preparation programs and in equity and inclusion courses, as well as by scholars interested in social justice.

Jackson M. Matos is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Education, and the director of middle, secondary, and the arts teacher licensure programs, at Mount Holyoke College.

Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction PART I: Shared Understandings Chapter One: Atrevidx Teaching and Social Justice Chapter Two: Social Justice and Language Chapter Three: Understanding the Learning Community Landscape Chapter Four: Setting the Stage for Healthy Dialogues and Engaged Spaces PART II: Having and Holding Challenging Conversations Chapter Five: We Need to Talk (about Racism): Racial Dialogues with Youth Chapter Six: Personal Pronouns, Chosen Names, and Safe(r) Spaces: Addressing Gender Chapter Seven: More than Ramps and Accommodations: Embracing Dialogues about Disability Chapter Eight: Battling the Monsters of Adult Supremacy: Dismantling Youth Oppression PART III: Shared Liberation Chapter Nine: Freedom Dreaming, Action Planning, and Co-Conspiratorship