Every Learner Everywhere
Achieving the Dream

Putting Equity Into Practice: Social Justice Education

Social justice in higher education is an emerging equity-minded teaching and learning approach that creates liberating learning environments for students who have historically been marginalized due to their race, ethnicity, gender identity, religion, or differing abilities. Implementing teaching practices that validate students’ cultural values can address inequities, injustice, and disparities that have impeded the success of Black, Indigenous, Latiné, and people of color (BILPOC).

Advancing social justice in education requires establishing educational spaces that foster students’ critical consciousness and ability to analyze systems, policies, and practices that lead to inequitable and unjust experiences and outcomes. A social justice approach to education involves two strategies that will be featured in this guide: anti-racist teaching and abolitionist teaching. Both approaches allow faculty to disrupt the restrictive nature of oppressive forms of traditional pedagogy and institute educational methods that provide meaningful, relevant, and liberating learning experiences that uplift students. The goal is to develop social justice-centered instruction where students and faculty are empowered to challenge systems of oppression (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2009, p. 350)

Download Putting Equity into Practice: Social Justice Education

Watch a webinar on the resource, featuring faculty who have incorporated social justice into their teaching.

 

The Equity-Minded Digital Learning Strategy Guides

Putting Equity Into Practice: Culturally Responsive Teaching and Learning

Culturally Responsive Teaching cover page

December 2023

Culturally responsive pedagogy is a framework that is inclusive of culturally responsive and relevant teaching, and culturally affirming and sustaining instructional methodologies that validate and engage students’ cultural identities. These practical instructional strategies and practices guide the implementation of culturally responsive teaching and learning into educational spaces.

Putting Equity Into Practice: Open Pedagogy

Open Pedagogy Cover Page

December 2023

Being able to choose course design, content, assignments, assessments, and instructional approaches based on the context of the learners and the current events of the times allows students to relate all areas of the course to their lives and equitizes their experiences and outcomes. This guide is designed to support faculty with operationalizing open pedagogy through a culturally responsive lens.

Recommended citation:

Keith, H.R, Kinnison, S., Garth-McCullough, R. & Hampton, M. (2023, July) Putting Equity into Practice: Social Justice Education; Equity-Minded Digital Learning Strategy Guide Series. Every Learner Everywhere

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