Social Justice Talk: Strategies for Teaching Critical Awareness

by Chris Hass

We all have the intention of using our classroom to envision a better world, but what gets in our way? Our uncertainty about how to discuss implicit and systemic bias in our classrooms is one of the reasons we avoid this necessary work. In Social Justice Talk , Chris Hass, along with his colleagues Nozsa Tinsley, and Tiffany Palmatier, detail how to facilitate rich discussions that disrupt the harmful social beliefs and practices we and our students are immersed in every day. The first chapter dives into an important first step, knowing yourself, while the third chapter stresses the importance of knowing your students. Other critical topics Each chapter is filled with vignettes, transcripts, and video clips from real classrooms and families that offer realistic expectations and models of what we can expect and hope for when we take on this work.

Genres: Education

184 pages, Paperback

Published September 21, 2020

Reviews

[Brandi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I honestly wasn't sure what I was expecting when I purchased Chris's book, but I couldn't put it down once I got started. The shared real life examples go beyond just social justice talk. This takes me back to my foundational beliefs about practices that should be in every classroom that promotes student thinking and ownership of one's learning. This book could very easily be a book of strategies to incorporate into an ELA or inquiry workshop as many strategies shared lend themselves to the work done in such a setting.

What I think I love the most is Chris's honesty about his journey: his beliefs, his changes, his attempts at trying new things and the learning made from things that didn't go quite as planned.

This book is about more than race or politics. This book is about identity and learning how to see not only our own, but become aware of others and honor them in positive ways while also acknowledging and learning how to get to the root cause of beliefs and injustices. It's about teaching students and others how to observe the world around them, to ask questions, to learn how to have discourse around what sometimes can be difficult topics of discussion. It's about honoring voice in the classroom and learning how to agree as well as disagree in ways that value each other.

The videos embedded throughout add to the rich text and support the work shared.