Creating Classrooms for Equity and Social Justice

 In this introduction, Johnson argues that in order to create classrooms for equity and social justice, teachers need to not only teach students the academics but also foster an environment where activism isn't just encouraged, but expected. Johnson states that to be effective in this way, teachers much envision a "social justice classroom" which consists of "several interlocking components". 

Talking points:

As I was reading, I kept thinking about the time constraints on teachers already, asking them to take on an activist role on top of that seems like a lot at first but when Johnson breaks down how they envision it, I think it would become second nature at some point. It is certainly a shift in the traditional way schools are currently run. That model hasn't changed much, the teacher teaches and the students, by and large, are told not to question too much. One of Johnson's components for a social justice classroom is "Critical" in which students are expected to question and "talk back to the world". 

Another component discussed was "Multicultural, anti-racist, pro-justice".  Johnson speaks here about "literature and textbooks tend to value the lives of Great White Men over all others". They illustrate this by pointing out that we hear quite a bit of their lives, hopes dreams, etc while learning very little of all other groups. We see this currently when we speak of a "classical" education. The classics are mostly comprised of older works by European men as they were the ones encouraged and permitted to create. Why do we put such emphasis on these classics? 

I really liked the part about not sacrificing expectations while incorporating some of these ideas under the "Academically rigorous" component. On the contrary, the author would say that ideally, we have higher expectations for students. Johnson states "a critical and activist curriculum speaks directly to the deeply rooted alienation that currently discourages millions of students from acquiring those skills." Having high expectation sends the message that they are capable and worthy of the same academic rigor as their privileged peers.