Submission Date

5-11-2021

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Education

Adviser

Stephanie Mackler

Committee Member

Talia Argondezzi

Committee Member

Seamus Mulryan

Committee Member

John Spencer

Department Chair

John Spencer

Project Description

This paper seeks to explore the place of social justice as a goal of education and to offer suggestions for teachers in implementing this goal into their classrooms. I argue that social justice is a necessary aim of education and lay out two main understandings of what precisely that aim demands. Specifically, I explore arguments regarding whether social justice education should prioritize granting marginalized students access to power through schooling or whether it should prioritize a more radical transformation of unjust systems. Ultimately, I argue for a need to further emphasize this latter goal, and I propose ideas for teachers looking to do so. These recommendations take the form of both content and practice suggestions. In crafting these arguments, I draw primarily on educational theorists and philosophers. I conclude by discussing examples of pre-existing programs that can be classified as providing a social justice education. These programs allude to the many possible forms that such an education can take, and further support my central claim that education is a necessary component for the pursuit of justice overall.

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