ENACTING SOCIAL JUSTICE AT SCHOOL (MAURITIUS)

ENACTING SOCIAL JUSTICE AT SCHOOL IN MAURITIUS

1. ENACTING SOCIAL JUSTICE AT SCHOOL

2. There are various ways in which teacher can enact social justice

3. Raising student achievement. It was found that when teachers raise student achievement they are enacting social justice ( Theoharis , 2007). This can be done by having better knowledgeable and skillful teachers Ferguson, 1991). Hence, research shows that when teachers work on increasing student achievement they put emphasis on practices and not on programmes . Consequently, focus is on the teacher practices which influence student learning.

4. (a) Learning environment: Attention is given on how the teacher structures and organizes the learning environment (Wang, Haertel & Walberg, 1993). Additionally, the teacher also develops effective procedures to organise or manage the classroom as a lack of effective procedures negatively affects student achievement. Besides Cawelti (1999) found that teacher should also spend time on task, tutor students and involve parents as ways to increase student achievement. There is also evidence that the setting of clear and high standards and expectations for all help raise student achievement.

5. (b) End of year goal: Teachers are also encouraged to create an end of year goal for the class and/or specific goal for each student. This demands that the teachers have ample information on the students and how they have performed the previous year. When they set the goal it has to be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time bound). The teachers also need to prepare activities which will help the class reach its goal.

6. (c) Relevancy: Teachers must encourage students to do their best. They should also make it a point to show students how each activity which they are doing are drawing them closer to their goal. There is also need to have a close monitoring of student achievement all though the year. If some students are struggling, teachers need to talk to them and let them know that the teacher cares for them and discuss together how they can work to improve the situation.

7. (d) Safe environment: Teachers can also encourage students to ask questions and establish a safe environment in class. They can have procedures to make mistake a learning experience. It is also important to link what students are learning in class to real life situations thereby leading to an expansion of knowledge.

8. (e) Activities: Teachers are also encouraged to have activities which use group work. When students are involved in group work, they learn to support and encourage each other, as well as they develop their social skills. They learn to be aware of each other’s’ needs. They can also be engaged in long term projects as these will allow them to monitor their own progress. Portfolios will allow them to showcase their own growth and show their creativity. Hand-on activities can also be used to boost their confidence. These can be relevant to the programme but which can also draw from the students’ interests.

9. Parental involvement: Various studies have shown that parental involvement helps students achieve better results (Epstein, 2001). Teachers should find ways to communicate with parents and build strong links with them so that parents can help students in school activities. Many studies have made recommendations on how best to become involved in the education of their children. Research shows that ‘parental involvement, in almost any form, produces measureable gains in student achievement’ (Dixon, 1992, p.16).It was found that when schools engage parents in their child’s education, the students benefit more ( Sirvani , 2007). The roles and responsibilities of teachers in relation to parental involvement have also been defined and redefined. It is thus seen as vital for the home and the school to work together in educating children. Yet, research also shows that there is not much collaboration between the school and the home (Parsons, 1959)

10. Epstein (2001) thus recommends that teachers could provide suggestions for home conditions that support learning. They can organise workshops, videotapes and phone messages on parenting. They can also set up parent education and other courses or training for parents. They can also devise family support programmes to assist families with health and nutrition, internet safety and other services. They can also arrange for home visits and neighborhood meetings to help families understand schools and to help schools understand families. They can also have conferences with parents at least once a term with follow up meetings if needed. They can also send home feedbacks more regularly. They can have students build a portfolio which can be sent to parents for review and comments

11. Homework: Teachers could also have a well-defined homework policy, where they would explain to parents the relevance and use of homework (Brewster & Fager , 2000). They can explain to parents how to monitor homework and discuss schoolwork at home. They can also provide parents with information on how to help their children in enhancing their skills. They can even try to organise homework in such a way that it requires students to discuss and interact with the parents. They can also include parents in determining the individual goal for each student. Parents would feel welcome at school and this might help the students to work better.

12. (h) Safety: Teachers should also work to improve students’ safety in class and at school. Classroom teachers have the direct responsibility for maintaining discipline and order in their classroom. It is important for teachers to devise a fair and well understood discipline plan which they will consistently enforce. Rosen (2005) claims that ‘public demands that schools be places of effective discipline that create environments where teacher can teach and students can learn’ (p.1). The teachers are encouraged to set clear, consistent standard of conduct for the students. They would avoid gaining power over students through intimidation and punishment. Although teachers would get relief in the short term, in the long term this might not be very effective.

13. Rules: It is important for teachers to have rules. Rules are there to ensure discipline. Also, when applied consistently, they ensure equality and justice for all concerned. You must also reflect on the reasons why students might disobey class rules and explore how teachers are going to handle the situation. Teachers need to establish clear rules so that the classroom atmosphere is conducive to learning. Hence, it is important to have a well-disciplined classroom as this will facilitate learning.

14. Teachers need to set rules (Anderson & Spaulding, 2007). While trying to set rules, teachers may come across students who seek attention. These students may not get enough attention so resort to attention getting behaviour . If the teacher does not react promptly it can prevent learning to take place and this might affect student achievement. There are other students who seek power. These students may be tired often, may complain often or have an authoritarian attitude. There are also some students who seek revenge. They may be critical of the classroom, of other students or the teacher. They may ask questions very often, be aloof, or withdrawn. They also tend to do things their own ways instead of how they were instructed to do so. There are also other students who might feel inadequate. They tend to ignore the teacher. They do not participate. They may threaten to quit school. They also tend to over-react to events. Sometimes they come to class not prepared to work and tend to blame others when they fail.

15. Extra-curricular activities: Teachers should also encourage students to participate in extra-curricular learning activities (Little, 2005). They can explore their interests and discover other skills which can help them boost their self-esteem. They learn how to socialize with their peers and build strong relationship. They also learn about time and stress management. They also develop their abilities and strive for excellence. This tends to make them want to achieve academic success as well. They learn how to define their priorities and work to achieve them. Additionally, when students are engaged in extracurricular activities they develop their abilities to make a contribution to something else apart from themselves.

16. Positive student engagement: Positive student engagement in the classroom is another way to help student achievement. Engaged students tend to perform better academically. Garcia-Reid et al. (2005) claim that teachers need to have a wide array of strategies to engage students. They can develop a culture of achievement in their class. They can do this by providing challenging situations in class which keep students engaged in learning. When they are engaged they are less likely to feel bored and disengaged ( Akey , 2006). They should feel free to ask questions.

17. Active learning: Teachers can concentrate on active learning and a relevant curriculum. Studies show that the use of collaborative learning and experiential learning as well as a well-designed and accessible curriculum can help students in their engagement to learning (Heller et al.,2003). This can be done by the teachers when he/she plans leaning activities.

18. Improving school structures Another way to enact social justice at school would be to change the structure of schools. This can be done in various ways. It is recognized that teachers have little ability to change school structures they can nevertheless advocate for change. (a) Inclusion: Teachers can advocate for the inclusion of students with special educational needs in mainstream classes (b) Higher expectations: They can also increase rigor and access to educational opportunities. This implies that more subjects can be offered and also that teachers have higher expectations for their students. Teachers and learners’ expectations include all those hypotheses teachers make about students potential, achievement (Davis & Thomas, 1989). Sometimes, teachers’ expectations on achievement of student might be influenced on socioeconomic status, student appearance, type of school, student behaviour and even where he/she sits in the classroom (Davis & Thomas, 1989)

19. Within a social justice framework, teachers are to avoid basing those expectations on the issues above. They believe that some students’ potential achievement is low, they should consider it an avenue for more instruction and clarification. It is found that in schools where students succeed teachers take it as their responsibility to make it happen ( Clewell , Campbell & Perlman, 2007). In fact, it was found that students achieve when teachers have high expectations for them (Corbett, Wilson & Williams 2002). Furthermore, it is also expected that teachers do not make public evaluations of students’ performance and ability. Public evaluations of students’ performance and ability lead to students performing badly and having other students blaming them for their poor ability (Weinstein, 2002). Teachers should instead make use of sincere praise, more feedback, more eye contact, and allowing more opportunities to students to respond to questions (Gottfredson, Marciniak, Birdseye & Gottfredson, 1991).

20. (c) Question time: Teachers are encouraged to increase the waiting time between questions and answers, and ask higher level questions to all students, provide specific praise, and provide specific feedback on work (Rodriguez & Bellanca , 2007).If teachers do not give waiting time and move to another student the moment one student does not answer, then the student gets to understand that in fact the teacher was not expecting him/her to answer.

21. (d) Congruence and helping attitude: Hence teachers are encouraged to use specific language to convey their expectations. At the same time there must be congruence between what is said, the body language, tone of voice and other non-verbal communications (Rogers, 1961). Besides teachers work on creating the environment for success to occur. They keep students engaged with content (Davis & Thomas, 1989). They provide extra help and time if the students need it (Corbett, Wilson & Williams, 2002). Furthermore, it is said that when teachers have low expectations they tend to tolerate more nonattending behaviours from those students, allow these students to spend less time on academic instruction and cover less of the curriculum (Proctor, 1984). Hence, when teachers work along the lines of social justice, they reject that pedagogy of poverty (Lee, 2003).

22. (e) Curriculum: Teachers working for school justice ensure that while providing access to all to the full curriculum, they also expose all students to higher – order thinking activities. Teachers have to provide all students with complex materials as well. It is further expected that teachers provide the necessary scaffolding ( Vygosky , 1978). Hence, teachers are advised to use the constructivist learning theory. They could start by activating student prior knowledge. This makes students realise that they have the necessary foundation and background to learn. Then the teachers make all students participate in class.

23. This conveys the message to all students that they can be made responsible for their own learning. Hence, teachers move from simple concepts to more complex ones. In this way, there are no gaps in achievement levels (Weinstein, 2002). At times, teachers tend to use ability grouping. In these groups, students have the chance to have information which is accessible at their level. However, they must ensure that all students have access to the whole curriculum. Also, it is recommended that these groupings be flexible thereby allowing students to move between groups (Weinstein, 2002).

24. Assessment and feedback: Teachers need to assess for learning (Rodriguez & Bellanca , 2007). They must also provide opportunities for students to demonstrate knowledge (Wiggins & Mctighe , 2006). Teachers must also have high expectations and help students construct knowledge. Once, assessments are done, it is important to report student progress using letter grades. Although, popular this method has its limitations as it tends to categorise students without giving much information on the students’ progress in class or giving an indication about application of skills learned in class.

25. However, verbal descriptors tend to be more explicit and convey more information. At the same time, when teachers provide feedback, care should be taken. Walker (2009) notes ‘a necessary precondition for a student to act on a gap is that she/he is given a comment that enables her/him to do so: the comments must be usable by the student’ (p.68). Hence, attention must be given to the ‘quality’ of the feedback (Sadler, 1998. p.84).

26. Feedback must not be seen as an activity which must be done after marking. It should be viewed as a dialogue between the student and the teacher which has to be used to construct students’ knowledge, skills, confidence and how they perceive themselves (Nicol & MacFarlane, 2006). Hence, teachers should explain to students what they mean by good performance. They should facilitate the development of self-assessment in learning. It should also provide students with high quality information to students about their learning.

27. Feedback should also help develop dialogue between teachers and students around learning. These conversations will help the student to explore their understanding and correct any misconceptions and get instant answers to their queries. Feedback also encourages students and reinforces their self-esteem and confidence. This can encourage students to close the gap between actual performance and desired performance (Hounsell, McCune, Hounsell & Litjens , 2008). Teachers can also use the feedback to shape teaching. Hence feedback should be constructive ( Boud , 1991) Feedback

28. Recentering and enhancing staff capacity It is important for teachers to have additional professional development in how to substantiate a social justice orientation and practices. Teachers need to address issues which have impact on fairness and equity. They also need to commit to equity. (a) Empowerment: Teachers could help in the decision making process at school. They need to feel valued as individuals. They need to develop trusting and caring relationships among teachers and also with management.

29. Strengthening school culture and community It is imperative that the school culture be conducive for social justice. A culture which supports social justice offers teachers regular opportunities for continuous improvement ( Rosenholz , 1989) and encourages teachers to help each other (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1991). It also develops in teachers an increased sense of efficacy ( Rosenholtz , 1989).

30. (a) Warm and welcoming school culture: teachers must work to develop a warm and welcoming school culture. They need to determine the guiding beliefs and values which are evident in the way they operate (Fullan, 2007). They need to collaborate and communicate to come to a shared understanding on what social justice is. This will help develop professional learning communities. There is need for teachers to work in team and to come to shared decisionmaking . They must also develop links with colleagues so that they can help each other.

31. (b) Caring relationships: Teachers are to treat students with respect as this will guarantee the building of caring relationships ( Noddings , 2005). Teachers can also take feedback from students. This will show them that they are listened to and they should also be encouraged to speak freely. They help make schools places of hard work, of strong common commitment (Fullan & Hargreaves, 1991).

32. (c) Outreach efforts: Teachers have to reach out to the community. They need to welcome parents at school and make them more involved in school matters. They also need to have special programmes for marginalized family. It is imperative that they understand, construct, seek and value participation from families in non-traditional ways.

33. RESISTANCE FACED BY SOCIAL JUSTICE TEACHERS

34. (b) Outside the school: Teachers might face resistance from those in position of authority at central administrative level. They may have to face a culture of bureaucracy which prevents them from moving forward the social justice agenda. Teachers might also not receive the resources they need. If central administration does not endorse the policy of inclusive education then teachers might not receive the funds they need to transform their classes into inclusive settings in line with social justice perspective.

35. STRATEGIES TEACHERS DEVELOP TO SUSTAIN SOCIAL JSUTICE WORK