Social Justice Teaching and Research: Clearing a Pathway Toward Social Transformation

In this paper, we address the conceptual vagueness of teaching for social justice by providing a spectrum that synthesizes the extant literature and defines the four foundational tenets of social justice education. We then provide an example of social justice teaching, drawing on a larger ethnographic study that explored how a high school English teacher endeavored to promote social justice in her classroom. We describe the extent to which this teacher’s instruction represented each components on the social justice spectrum. We argue that understanding the factors that contribute to teachers’ critical awareness is important for moving toward social transformation and equity in education