This presentation was given to the IT3 Doctoral Cohort's Social Justice course in the summer of 2012. The presentation described the fourth strand of social justice through three prominent theoretical specific discourses in education: multiculturalism, critical pedagogy, & cultural studies.

2. WE START WITH A
QUESTION

3. What is Theoretically Specific?
• Involves theoretical positions that are connected
to specific leftist and/or radical movements
within academia
– The meaning of social justice may be interpreted
differently within each of them
• Three more prominent theoretical specific
discourses in education
1. Multiculturalism
2. Critical Pedagogy
3. Cultural Studies

4. “Multicultural education acknowledges and
affirms the multiple identities that students
bring to their learning” (Bode, 2005).

5. Bank’s (1979) 5 Dimensions of
Multicultural Education
Content
Integration
The infusion of
various cultures
and ethnicities into
the curriculum
Knowledge
Construction
Process
Students critiquing
social positioning
of groups and
knowledge
presentation
Prejudice
Reduction
Lessons &
activities which
assert positive
images of ethnic
groups and
intergroup
relations
Equitable
Pedagogy
Empowering
School Culture
and
Social Structure
Modification of
teaching styles to
ensure academic
achievement for all
students
The restructuring
of institutional
practices to create
access for all
groups

6. A new relationship between teacher,
student and society:
Achieving Social Justice through Education
 What social conditions gave rise to the earliest
forms of multicultural education?
1920s – 1930s: Intercultural movement
1940s – 1950s: Intergroup movement
1960s: Civil rights struggles
1968: Pedagogy of the Oppressed
 How does social justice address these issues?
Racism
White supremacy
 Power, Privilege and Opportunity

7. Critical Pedagogy:
Understanding the Relationship between
Education and Society
McLaren (1996, 1997) defines critical pedagogy as “A term
associated with teaching strategies sensitive to the effects of
relations of power based on race, gender, ethnicity and so forth
on learning and consciousness formation” (Morrow and Torres,
2002, p. 1).
Critical pedagogy provides a basis to challenge racism and other
forms of oppression for students to be able to rethink how the
relationships between dominant and subordinate groups are
formed in order to transform social systems and structures.

9. Cultural Studies:
A Parallel to Multiculturalism and Critical
Pedagogy
Hytten (2006) writes “among its goals are to understand the
relationship between power and knowledge, to look at
how power gets symbolically and representationally
reproduced, to challenge disempowering social
practices, and to provide resources for resistance and
social transformation.”

10. DID THAT ANSWER THE
QUESTION

11. References
•
Johnson, L. (2003). Multicultural Policy as Social Activism: redefining who ‘counts’ in multicultural
education. Race Ethnicity and Education, 6, (2), 107 -121. doi: DOI:
10.1080/1361332032000076436. Retrieved from http://academos.ro/sites/default/files/bibliodocs/1311/ree_6_2.pdf
•
Banks, J.A. (1993). Multicultural Education: Historical Development, Dimensions and Practice.
Review of Research in Education: 19, pp. 3-49. Retrieved from
http://inclusion4u.com/PDFs/5105%20Multicultural%20Education%20HQ.pdf
•
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed, 30th anniversary edition. New York: Continuum.
•
Hytten, K., & Bettez, S.C. (2011). Understanding Education for Social Justice. Educational
Foundations, Winter-Spring 2011.
•
Morrow, R.A., Torres, C.A. (2002). Reading Freire and Habermas: Critical Pedagogy and
Transformative Social Change. Teachers College Press, New York, New York. Retrieved from
http://books.google.com/books?
hl=en&lr=&id=Mxge8wUpd7EC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=foundational+principles+of+critical+pedagog
y&ots=NTOp4aWuW3&sig=_0sMHX-fB9QzMhn8-Hh8v5aUbyk#v=onepage&q=foundational
%20principles%20of%20critical%20pedagogy&f=false

12. Photo Credits
•
•
•
•
Raised hands: http://planetgreen.discovery.com/workconnect/images/2009-04/raised-hands.jpg
Boy Thinking 1:
http://www.crazytownblog.com/.a/6a012876c6c7fb970c014e887d81429
70d-800wi
Pedagogy of the Oppressed Book Cover:
http://libcom.org/files/images/library/pedagogy_of_the_oppressed
%5B1%5D.jpg
Boy Thinking 2: http://jl10ll.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/boywishing1.jpg