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The topic I chose for my discussion is Social Justice Education in the language classroom (foreign language in my context). Social Justice Education is most commonly talked about in relation to social studies and/or humanities, but it is really something that should be underlying in all subjects in my opinion.

Social Justice Education is something that I'm really passionate about, and for a long time I actually considered licensure in social studies because I didn't think that I would be able to contribute to the social justice education movement in a language classroom. This master's program has been a pleasant surprise in that many of the classes and professors I've had have talked about social justice and it has opened my eyes to the endless forms and practices that can be used in a language classroom.

It is a goal of mine to be very intentional about incorporating social justice topics and practices into my classroom. So for my discussion I wanted to share with you all some thoughts I've had, and a bit more information about SJ education in general. I was hoping you could add anything you might have seen done or thought of doing in your own spaces and contexts! Do not feel obligated to talk about every one of these points! I just wanted to be broad and give options so that hopefully everyone finds an interesting point to think a bit more about.

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In many ways "social justice" has become a "buzz word" of sorts and it can get thrown into many conversations and be practiced to varying degrees. The website Teaching Tolerance has a really awesome set of "social justice teaching standards" that I think provide a cool framework for thinking about what social justice looks like.

They refer to SJ education as "anti-biased, multicultural" and divide the standards into four domains which are to recognize that in today's diverse classrooms students need knowledge and skills related to both prejudice reduction and collective action.

Identity

Diversity

Justice

Action

Can we, and if so how can we incorporate these principles into our language classrooms/curriculum?

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Social Justice Narratives connected to the target language 

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Social Justice Narratives connected to the target language 

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Being that SJ education is antibiased, it is important to tell all the stories of the peoples and cultures connected to a particular language. With that I think it is important to think beyond the "majority speakers" of your target language. Often times our curriculum focus on the "mainstream" or "majority" of people, but often there is rich culture and stories to be told from other members of communities who also speak the target language (and dialects and varieties of it).

For example, when we talk about Spanish, rather than focusing on the big festivals and traditions of Spain, or even Mexico, it could be awesome to do a unit on a small village of people in Colombia who weave or what historical events lead to certain specific traditions or cultures in specific places.

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We all took Martha's class last Fall where we learned about Integrated Performance Assessments (IPAs). That class was my introduction to IPAs and then took two CARLA courses this summer on the topic of IPAs.

I still feel like I have only scratched the surface because IPAs are so complex but the curriculum that results can be really meaningful and often times social justice based.

One thing that helped guide my IPA development was thinking about "authentic questions" to base units on. Have a critical/authentic question to continually use as a base from which you are building helps give units structure and meaning. Some meaningful questions that I thought would be really great to incorporate into a foreign language curriculum are:

What defines art or street art?

Why do people Immigrate/move

How do eating habits affect quality of life?

These are questions that could really dig into culture and teach a much more meaningful lesson than "how do people celebrate day of the dead in Latin America."

In the class I took this summer on developing IPAS, I actually created this spreadsheet that I added to as we progressed through the week, where I added cool ideas I heard from other teachers that I thought could be starters for curriculum ideas. There is a tab in that document of "IPA Ideas." It might not be helpful as it is a smattering of ideas, but I'm all about sharing resources, so if it's helpful for any of you feel free to take a peek.

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The final thought I have is connected to the "native speaker." I know when I was learning my second language I wanted nothing more than to "sound like a native speaker."

This program has opened my eyes to how really biased that construct can be. For Spanish particularly, the dialect/type of Spanish spoken is often a strong indication of social class and there is a ton of discrimination and prejudiced lines drawn between social classes.

So it could even be as simple as thinking about why we choose to teach a particular dialect, how the dialects morphed over time, comparing the different "versions" in their L1 and thinking critically about how this similar issue might exist in their L1.