The reason why it is so important to implement social justice perspectives into my teaching

practice is so that justice, in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges

within a society, can be understood on a human equality and rights platform. Humans are great

at individualizing issues, so by having social justice perspectives in my pedagogy can help create

cognitive connections to the problems of the world. Personally, even though I understood and

knew about racism, it wasn't until I started dating my current partner and had a transformation

(Cammarota 2011) for me to understand how deeply embedded racialized ideas are within the

dominant discourse. I had no problem having my best friends spout racist and homophobic

slurs as we played video games during my adolescence.

Today, however, I have grown and learned about the devastating effects, and power words

hold over today's discourse. This is important because, while this may seem like confirmation

bias, I feel like most students who play video games would be in my boat, ok with saying slurs of

any kind or conversely ok with not saying anything about the slurs; without education, I would

still be as ignorant as I was during my adolescence. This needs to change, and the only way it

can is through education and teaching practice. One such teaching model is the social justice

youth development (SJYD) which "facilitate and enhance young people's awareness of their

personal potential, community responsibility, and broader humanity." (Cammarota 2011) The

model focuses on self, community, and global awareness and hopes to help young people

facilitate academic achievements and social activism. I believe this approach, coupled with

8ways (2016) Aboriginal pedagogy, can have a massive influence on social justice discourses

with students. This is backed up by Applebaum (2008), “Social justice pedagogy also appeals to
experience as a form of empowerment, often emphasizing that a starting-point for working

collaboratively is the sharing of experiences.”

The question then becomes, what pedagogical theories would influence and enhance learning

and teaching? I believe having theoretical perspectives and understandings in cultural identity,

postcolonialism, feminism, globalization, transnationalism, and cosmopolitanism is the

foundation of where to start. Per Watkins (2016) “rethinking multicultural education requires a

far stronger intellectual and critical engagement with the theoretical tools.” To have a

"theoretical toolbox" would enhance the student experience as well as you would have

contextualized knowledge to deal with any incidents that may come up. However, to be able to

do this correctly, a teacher must be reflexive and reflective. As Ullman puts it, "…an

understanding of the relationship between reflective practice and reflexivity enables teachers

to effectively adopt reflective and critical dispositions in their work, particularly with marginal

communities, to bring about social justice and equity in their pedagogical practice." (2016) I will

need to be reflective to make theory and practice work together, beyond that I will need to be

reflexive and have a critical awareness of my self and recognize "the multiplicity of

interrelations between power and knowledge" (Ullman, 2016)

How then, will my teaching practice address issues of equity and diversity? First off I don't think

it will be easy as the educational landscape is almost always changing. (Smith & Ell & Grudnoff

& Haigh & Hill & Ludlow 2016) In fact, Smith (et al) state four essential tasks must be completed

to bring equity front and center of the classroom. These four tasks are conceptualizing
educational inequality, defining the nature of practice for equity, creating ITE curricula and

program structures that are equity-centered, and implementing research about equity-

centered ITE for continuous local improvement. In essence, to put equity front and center

means a consistent reflective and reflexive approach as the overall plan changes over time. This

equitable discourse also helps with diversity as pre-service teachers need to be "self-aware,

reflective, and understanding of the future populations of children that they will be held

accountable for in the very near future." It is evident that I need to be open to new ideas, able

to reflect personally and about my class, able to be reflexive in all situations, able to use my

theoretical toolbox and to be thoughtful in my pedagogical practices when dealing with equity

and diversity.

I question; however, how truly reflective I am being. The fact is that while what I have said up

until this point may be correct but what if I am falling into the same trap as I did when I was an

adolescent. We talk about racism and gender inequality so much it has become a second

language. Am I, and conversely other people, stuck in a cycle where no matter how hard we try

to escape our prejudices we will always be stuck with something? Will I always dislike "Brads'"

because I was bullied by one? Or am I able to move on, understand the individual experience

and grow from it? What frightens me most is that we will continue to perpetuate this insistent

hate with new words as old words lose power. To sum it all up; we need to change dominant

discourses by helping students achieve autonomy through our pedagogical practices. If we

don't, we will be stuck in a never-ending cycle, and I refuse to do nothing about it.
 References

8ways. (2016). 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning. Retrieved 17 September 2017

http://8ways.wikispaces.com/
Applebaum, B. (2008). ‘Doesn’t my experience count?’ White students, the authority of
experience and social justice pedagogy. Race Ethnicity And Education, 11(4), 405-414.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13613320802478945
Cammarota, J. (2011). From Hopelessness to Hope. Urban Education, 46(4), 828-844.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0042085911399931
Cochran-Smith, M., Ell, F., Grudnoff, L., Haigh, M., Hill, M., & Ludlow, L. (2016). Initial teacher
education: What does it take to put equity at the center?. Teaching And Teacher Education, 57,
67-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2016.03.006
Ferfolja, T. (2016). Understanding sociological theory for educational practices (3rd ed.).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sanders, M. S., Haselden, K., & Moss, R. M. (2014). Teaching diversity to preservice teachers:
Encouraging self-reflection and awareness to develop successful teaching practices.
Multicultural Learning and Teaching, 9(2), 171-185.
doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/10.1515/mlt-2012-0012