Engaging on Global Issues: a Social Justice Case Study

Engaging on Global Issues: a Social Justice Case Study

Mark SchulteEducation Director, Pulitzer CenterEmail: mschulte@pulitzercenter.org

Lorraine A. UstarisH.S. English Teacher, School District of

PhiladelphiaM.S. Journalism Student, Columbia University

Email: lau2107@columbia.edu

Practicioner Inquiry Question:

What happens when high school students participate in a Social Justice Day?

Other driving questions

• What are kids learning during the day? • How do we make sure learning happens during

the day? • How do ensure community building happens

and what does that even look like--how do we know if community building is happening before, during and after the day?• And finally, how do we make sure students are

taking real ownership of the day? And, what does ownership look like?

Collaborating Organization:The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Washington D.C.

School/ContextThe Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush, Grades 9-12arts-integrated magnet in The School District of Philadelphia

Who are our students?

What is Social Justice Day?An Introduction for Educators

Student Leadership and Collaboration

Agenda for Social Justice Day | Establishing and Exploring Context

(Examples from November 21, 2014)Periods 1 and 2:• Establish norms• Review definition for “social

justice” and “social injustice”• Introduce documentary and

topic• Explore historical context of

Congo’s conflict and introduce colonialism

• Define and discuss rape and rape culture

• View student documentary about rape

• Connect local and global reports of rape.

Agenda for Social Justice Day | Witnessing and Bearing Witness

(Examples from November 21, 2014)

Periods 3 and 4:• View and discuss Seeds of Hope as a whole schoolPeriods 5 and 6:• Spoken word and art gallery

Spoken Word Performances| Witnessing & Bearing Witness

Issues students have covered:-Rape-Fair Trade-Child Laborers-”Black Lives Matter” Movement-African American Identity-Domestic Violence-Gender Identity-LGBTQIA -Religious Persecution-Poverty-Body Image-Bullying-Sexual Harrassment-Animal Abuse-Abortion-Human Trafficking

Agenda for Social Justice Day | Dialoguing with the journalist

(Example from November 21, 2014)

Period 7 and 8:• Q&A with Fiona Lloyd Davies• Final Reflection and Debriefing

Documentary FilmThe Abominable Crime by Micah Fink, feat. Maurice Tomlinson

Documentary FilmThe Abominable Crime by Micah Fink, featuring Maurice Tomlinson

Maurice Enlists Students in a Media Campaign

| The Birth of the Rush Arts “Justice League”

Extensions in Learning | Dancing Dwayne’s Story

Documentary Film Seeds of Hope by Fiona Lloyd Davies

“Fiona takes us to a region known as the most dangerous place in the world for women, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. She tells the story of Masika Katsuva, herself the victim of multiple rapes, who has rescued some 6,000 women and children. In this searing film we also meet the perpetrators of rape, among them soldiers from the Congolese army. These men give extraordinarily open testimony as to why they rape and their attitudes towards their horrific acts.”

Student Documentary | Connecting the local and global

Leaving Scars: Stories of Rape

Visiting Pulitzer PhotographerLarry Price and “The Cost of Gold”

Visiting Teaching Artist William Lukas

Engaging the Justice League in

Artivism: Use of art of raise awareness of social issues, disrupt public life and systems and re-imagine visions of liberation and humanity.

Engaging the Whole School in Artivism

Engaging the Whole School in Artivism

Engaging the Whole School in Artivism

Engaging the Whole School in Artivism

Engaging the Whole School in Artivism: Collages

Engaging the Whole School in Artivism: Collages

Practicioner Inquiry Question:

What happens when high school students participate in a Social Justice Day?

Data Collection Methods• Whole-school surveys and reflection

sheetsNovember 2015- Online Morning and Afternoon SurveysMay 2015-Long-hand Morning and Afternoon Surveys-Post-collage-creation Reflection sheets

• November Student Video-Interviews– conducted throughout the day– student-selected interviewees– representative of all grade levels,

diversified by ethnicity and gender when possible

• May Student Phone-Interviews- Students selected by Lorraine Ustaris to be featured in a potential Heinemann education article

Student Reflections and Video/Phone Interviews:What stands out? What new questions emerge?• Ownership of the Day

– How do we ensure that students continue to recognize and claim their stakes in the day?

• Importance of connecting the local with the global– How do we inquire into this connection more indepthly with students? – How do we help students develop a habit of making this connection with or without our

prompting? • Students appreciate learning about “the real world”

– What are students learning in their classes on a daily basis and why aren’t they recognizing this learning as “real world”?

– How do we integrate more “Social Justice Day”-esque experiences into the everyday classroom?

• Student emphasis on community– How exactly have we built community? – How does a greater sense of community impact student learning when encountering sensitive, global

issues?• Popularity of spoken word performances

-But how do we/do we need to maximize learning during these performances?• Student desire to explore solutions

-What solutions are realistic for us?-What can we do to build beginning this work into our future Social Justice Day?