Embedded Files
Hello, my name is Brian De Sousa and I am a Secondary Special Education - History major at TCNJ. As a future educator, I want all of my students to understand how history interacts with contemporary issues and shed light on silenced or forgotten histories. One such example of a silenced history is the US government's success in perpetuating and maintaining racial segregation through housing and residential districting. Through these silenced histories, I hope to inspire my students to become unapologetic activists, determined to make a change in their country in whatever social, political, or economic issue that speaks to them. Through youth activism we can develop an inspired, politically involved citizenry capable of building a nation that history will smile upon.
#WEWANTSPACE: Developing Student Activism Through a Decolonial Pedagogy
Silva and The Students for Diversity Now propose that schools can stimulate their students to pursue activism if they adopted a decolonial pedagogy. Decolonial pedagogy as a means of teaching is, "...strengthening, and honing students’ analytical skills to question dominant narratives and develop a critical lens," (375). Basically, decolonial pedagogy asks teachers to pose curricula in a manner that promotes critique. By promoting critique and practicing it within a school environment, students will be more comfortable applying a critical lens to contemporary issues. This is important because students need to be comfortable critiquing contemporary issues if they are expected to engage in activism. Additionally, decolonial pedagogy values diverse perspectives in an effort to give marginalized groups a louder voice.
In a history classroom, decolonial pedagogy could easily be implemented. There are endless events in history where dominant narratives can be interrogated. For example, some textbooks make the argument that the Civil War in the United States started because of conflicts involving states rights. An activity or lesson utilizing a decolonial pedagogy would ask students to critique this narrative using evidence from primary sources or events from the time leading up to, during, and after the Civil War. Not only does this lesson give students experience analyzing historical literature and events but it also highlights an issue affecting education currently. Furthermore, a follow up lesson or assignment could ask students to brainstorm ways that they could effectively raise awareness to or protest the systems that allow textbooks to construct and publish misleading narratives. Lessons and assignments like these ensure that students are practicing skills conducive to activism, so as a future teacher I will try to involve a decolonial pedagogy within my repertoire of teaching skills in order to encourage my students to participate in activism.
We Don’t Shush Here: Student Voice in the Library
Christine Sturgeon and Hannah Groos provide an overview of different forms of student voice and discuss how libraries can better foster environment that encourages student activism. In general, Sturgeon and Groos want librarians to be more engaged rather than the typical passive, shushing librarian. For example, they propose librarians to create dialogues with students in the library and to even form relationships with them. Furthermore, they propose that librarians create a youth leadership team as they believe, "If you want to attract youth to your library, let them build the library with you." Lastly, they urge librarians to stay up to date with research, movements, and more so that they can offer potential research or activism opportunities to interested students.
All of the proposed changes from Sturgeon and Groos' article sound incredibly enticing to a future history teacher. As a history student, the library can often be your best friend. After all, it is where countless historical monographs, primary sources, archives, databases, and scholarly works are located. Therefore, I will always try to get my students into the library so that they are prepared for their future historical endeavors. However, the library, with all of its scholarly contents, can be an incredibly intimidating place. But, if librarians were as active and engaging as the article wants them to be, I believe we can begin to dismantle the intimidating nature of academic spaces. All that would be needed would be to make intimidating, academic resources more accessible to the average student, and with a well-informed, engaging librarian this can easily be done. I hope to show any school I work at this research to show that the library is a place brimming with potential during a time where increased access to technology has, unjustly, began to make librarians obsolete.
“School’s a Lie”: Toward Critical Race Intersectional Pedagogy for Youth Intellectual Activism in Policy Partnerships
Sheth and Salisbury propose that teachers should adopt "...critical race and intersectional feminist perspectives..." in their classrooms to better foster youth activism. They argue that schools often exclude these perspectives which leave marginalized students unequipped to engage in activism and leaves students who are not marginalized unable to sympathize with issues affecting marginalized groups. The article suggests that teachers can accomplish this by devoting class time to analyzing dominant teaching narratives and encouraging students to evaluate them through race and gender conscious lenses. Furthermore, Sheth and Salisbury urge teachers, especially those who teach students of color, to have their students evaluate how their social and political positions interact with school and other systems. Doing this allows students to practice skills required to analyze, critique, and ultimately reform systems of oppression within our society.
Sheth and Salisbury's proposed changes can easily be translated to a history classroom. History holds endless opportunities for students to interrogate social norms, policies, and injustices. One lesson could revolve around the US during World War Two and their policy surrounding Japanese internment camps. Although this example is obviously indefensible, it can prove useful as an introduction to the skills Sheth and Salisbury want students to build in order to become activists. This provides students an opportunity to critique a policy and culture that was created and existed in their own country, which is eye-opening in its own right. Then, the students can translate the skills they used in this exercise to tackle hotly contested, contemporary issues. Also, some contemporary issues have persisted long enough that they can be analyzed in history classrooms. For example, currently many US states are still embroiled in housing and educational segregation. A lesson exploring this can shine light on the history of redlining, a federally-backed practice that divided cities based on race, and how its effects can still be seen today. Lessons like these can be so impactful because not only does it provide students an opportunity to practice their skills, it also gives them a contemporary issue that could use their attention.
Classroom Cons and Assigning Activism: Ethical Issues in Relational Pedagogy
Kristin Hunt explains how to better inspire students to be changemakers through her own experiences with encouraging student activism in her classrooms. Hunt preaches that teachers must make assignments designed to pique student activism unpredictable, open ended, and unregulated. Hunt believes that too specific instructions will restrict a student's capacity to identify social issues that speak to them and their capacity to act on their call to activism. By making the classroom a more free space, even if temporary, it allows students to better express themselves without fear of retaliation from classmates, the teacher, or administration. Hunt accomplished this in her classrooms through her "incendiary moment" project, which required all students to have a moment where they act in a manner symbolic of their ideological position regarding a social issue they deem important. One student ripped up a dollar bill based on his belief that money and the pursuit of wealth is inherently evil. Then, class time is dedicated to discussing and debating the social issues at the heart of each incendiary moment. Moments like these allow for discussions that essays, tests, and other typical assignments fail to create. By making the student's incendiary moment the catalyst for discussion, the class shifts from a teacher-led environment to a student-led environment where students engage in Socratic-like discussions of student activism.
As a future history teacher, assignments like the incendiary moment assignment could be incredibly useful and engaging. Of course, something as expansive and unregulated as the incendiary moment assignment may not translate to a K-12 environment. For example, although I might not be able to make an assignment span the length of the class like Hunt was able to do, but I may be able to incorporate a few key aspects of the assignment into smaller assignments. Specifically, I envision one group project that could be made in a US history class that would task groups to analyze and present different movements in the USA. Students would research movements like the abolitionist, civil rights, feminist, populist movements, etc. Then, they would give a brief overview of the movement and then engage in an incendiary moment symbolic of the movement they chose. For example, a group that focused on the abolitionist movement might bring in chains and throw them out or break them at the end of the presentation, but the more creative the better. Then the class will discuss the importance of that movement, how it has changed their country, identify any similar movements today, and/or discuss the meaning of the group's incendiary moment. These discussions will allow the students to understand the historical significance of the movements while practicing skills required to carry out activism and highlighting some important contemporary movements that might need their attention. History allows students to prevent the mistakes of their forefathers, but it also allows them to see where they might have fallen short or had some unfinished businesses. By analyzing historical movements students can highlight these areas and prepare to address these shortcomings through determined student activism.
Is Another World Possible? Is Another Classroom Possible? Radical Pedagogy, Activism, and Social Change
Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval provides a unique perspective into promoting youth activism because his research outlines his attempt to do just that. He taught a course called "Racism in American History" where he challenged students to reevaluate their preconceived notions of racism, and analyze systems of racial oppression throughout American history. His advice for other teachers is to be involved in activist work. He believes that leading by example can be effective for students, but also he thinks that having experience making change will inevitably make teaching others how to make change easier. Furthermore, he wants teachers to be able to understand that they have "institutional obligations" associated with their job and that they need to be able to balance these obligations with their ideological aspirations. However, he also makes the admission that perhaps one teacher is unable to make a substantial change on their own, and that the responsibility should fall on all teachers to promote youth activism, not just a select few.
The reason I chose this article is because it provides an example of a successful classroom that is similar to something I would like to carry out. The only difference is that I would be doing this in a public high school setting rather than a college setting. This distinction is important because the "institutional obligations" can sometimes be more intense in K-12 settings than in higher education. For example, K-12 schools place higher emphasis on following textbooks than many colleges do. Also, K-12 education is embroiled in standardized testing which means sometimes teachers are measured on their ability to drill memorization than teach meaningful curricula. Therefore, in K-12 settings extra attention has to be paid to balancing institutional pressures and obligations against ideological aspirations. However, as Theodore Roosevelt said, "Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, and difficulty," and I believe youth activism is important enough to afford plenty effort, pain, and difficulty pursuing.
Page updated
Report abuse