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Strive for Intellectual Humility Our hypothetical student is representative of many students we encounter: He has not done the readings or has trouble understanding what he’s read; he has limited knowledge but is resistant to increasing it; he clings to the same worldview he came into the course with; and he is overly confident about […]

The Question of Planets Imagine: You are in a course that fulfills a university science requirement. The professor holds a PhD in astronomy. He has written several books, is widely published in academic journals, and has a national reputation in his field. The course objectives include defining terms used in modern astronomy and exposure to

Strive for intellectual humility. 2. Recognize the difference between opinions and informed knowledge. 3. Let go of personal anecdotal evidence and look at broader societal patterns. 4. Notice your own defensive reactions and attempt to use these reactions as entry points for gaining deeper self-knowledge. 5. Recognize how your own social positionality (such as your

An Open Letter to Students Courses that address social justice and inequality through a critical lens often challenge mainstream understandings and thus bring to the surface patterns and tensions that other courses do not (Gallavan, 2000; Kincheloe, 2008). This is due, primarily, to two key reasons: The first is that many of us are underprepared

How to Engage Constructively in Courses That Take a Critical Social Justice Approach* The struggle has always been inner, and is played out in outer terrains. Awareness of our situation must come before inner changes, which in turn come before changes in society. Nothing happens in the “real” world unless it first happens in the

Layers of the Parable This story is from the tales of Nasreddin Hodja, a 13th-century Sufisage. His wisdom stories often use humor to point out human failings and misunderstandings. What is relevant about this story for our purposes is the way it captures some of the key concepts in critical social justice literacy: Each of

A Parable: Hodja and the Foreigner Once upon a time, a foreign scholar and his entourage were passing through a town in Anatolia. The scholar asked to speak to the town’s most knowledgeable person. The townsfolk immediately called Nasreddin Hodja to come to meet the foreign scholar. The foreigner did not speak Turkish, Persian, or

Putting It All Together. Understanding social justice means that an individual must be able to recognize how relations of unequal social power are constantly being negotiated at both the micro (individual) and macro (structural) levels, understand our own positions within these relations of unequal power, think critically about knowledge, and most importantly, act from this

  Understanding the Global Organization of Racism Through White Supremacy. This chapter continues the examination of racism by identifying some of the ways in which racism adapts to and co- opts efforts to challenge it. We contrast multicultural education and antiracist education, introduce other concepts such as Whiteness and White supremacy, and end by addressing