Abstract
Educators realize that too often schools fail to incorporate a cooperative and productive environment which addresses racially, linguistically, and culturally diverse students. Social justice, as applied to marginalized cultures, has increasingly gained attention in the field of education where transformation in curricula, teaching, and learning addresses these insufficiencies; however, concrete applications are often overlooked by those who encourage equity in the classroom. This article encourages practical strategies for implementing a revised perspective in education through describing ways to incorporate social justice in classroom practice.
In every child who is born, under no matter what circumstances, and no matter what parents, the potentiality of the human race is born again.
(Agee and Evans, cited in Krovetz)
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Lesson Plan for Social Justice by Megan E. Mendoza
Lesson Plan for Social Justice by Megan E. Mendoza
Previous Lesson:
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Focused on the Industrial Revolution in Britain—the factors that led people out of the fields and into the factories, the problems that arose from this shift, ways that the British government tried to improve living conditions for the workers (building better housing, creating laws to protect children, raising wages for adults so that children would not have to work)
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Watched BBC’s North & South to gain a perspective on the issues facing those working in the mills and those who owned and ran the mills.
Goals and Objectives:
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To understand the effects of the Industrial Revolution in the 1900s
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To analyze solutions that were created by leaders and government officials
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To make connections between child labor during the Industrial Revolution and current child labor issues in third world countries
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To investigate solutions to the current child labor conditions that exist today.
Duration:
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One block period or two regular class periods—approximately 1 h 20 min.
Materials and Resources:
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History Textbook
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Documentaries—YouTube:
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Can Photography End Child Labor? (by Seeker Stories)
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The Industrial Revolution: A Boon to Industry, a Bane to Childhood (by ElainaIsabelle)
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Ending Child Labour by 2016: the Continuing Challenge (YouTube: by International Labour Organization)
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16×9—Child Labour: The Dark Side of Chocolate (YouTube: by 16×9onglobal).
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Anticipatory Set or Entry
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YouTube video: Can Photography End Child Labor? (by Seeker Stories)
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Based on everything learned this far, students write key issues that caused child labor, issues that kept child labor as a necessary means to an end, and which methods were used to improve the circumstances for children and their families. Write this as a chart or a tree map—students can do this individually or in twos.
Instructional Input
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10 min Documentary: The Industrial Revolution: A Boon to Industry, a Bane to Childhood (on YouTube—posted by ElainaIsabelle)
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How child labor was eradicated in Britain and the USA
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Documentary: Ending Child Labor by 2016: the Continuing Challenge (YouTube: by International Labor Organization), 16×9—Child Labor: The Dark Side of Chocolate (YouTube: by 16×9onglobal)
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Provide main points from documentary—issues that cause child labor, issues that keep child labor as a necessary means to an end, infractions upon human dignity or basic human rights, responses to these issues by various organizations.
Guided Practice
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Create a compare/contrast Venn diagram for issues during the Industrial
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Revolution versus current issues in child labor
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Students share results in groups of 3–4; one student from each group share with the class.
Independent Practice
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Out of the various ways in which organizations tried to improve working conditions and child labor issues during the Industrial Revolution, which do you think would be most useful for current child labor issues?
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Think about the video clips we watched today and answer the following questions:
Based on Britain’s and America’s example, what are some ways of improving conditions for child labor?
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What are two ways that our society can help put a stop to child slavery?
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How do our shopping behaviors play a part in the issues of child labor and slavery?
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How can we make a difference in this area?
Assessment and Evaluation
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There will be an informal formative assessment based on responses to group discussion
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There will be a summative assessment of comprehension by use of written responses to the questions presented.
Lesson Extension
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Go to slavefreechocolate.org and click on the Directory of Slave-Free Chocolate: Do you recognize any of the brands? Look at the right side of the page: Do you recognize any of those labels? Next time you go to buy chocolate, look for those labels. Are they easy to find?
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Based on the information listed on the Web site, how would you personally respond to the information presented? Would you continue to buy products from companies who might be purchasing their cocoa from slave owners? Or, would you write a letter to your favorite chocolate company in hopes that they would change their policies?
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What are some other possible ways of dealing with this issue?
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If you want to know more about the difference between Fair Trade, Rain Forest Alliance, and UTZ, go to slavefreechocolate.org and click on “Where does Fair Trade fit in?”
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Lee, H., Givens, R., Mendoza, M.E. (2017). Social Justice: Why It Matters and How It Can Be Implemented in a Classroom. In: Lee, H., Kaak, P. (eds) The Pedagogy of Shalom. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2987-5_7
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