26th February 2014 9:00
By Blue Tutors
The World Day for Social Justice had its 5th anniversary last week, encouraging focus on global issues including human rights, poverty, citizenship, and environmental concerns. Organised by the United Nations, 20th February has been dedicated to discussion surrounding the issues which affect the lives of people all over the world. In Britain, teachers are encouraged to address themes of social justice with their students, and this is particularly reflected in the English curriculum where class, poverty, and injustice are central to many of the set texts. World Day for Social Justice is an opportunity for teachers to incorporate these themes into their teaching, and as tutors we should already be taking the opportunity to explore these themes with our students.
English tutors in particular can use this time to create a special focus on social justice in their teaching of the set texts. Of Mice and Men, An Inspector Calls, and The Great Gatsby all explore social issues which affect the lives of many, and call for discussion of the nature of poverty and socio-economic relations. Tutors can begin by asking questions about poverty and injustice in modern Britain, and using the discussion to draw out key themes which are relevant to the texts. Asking questions about social responsibility is also a good way to begin, especially when teaching an Inspector Calls in which the question of culpability is central in an environment which is inherently unjust.
However, teaching social justice isn’t just for English and Sociology tutors. Amnesty International has produced lesson suggestions which include using statistics regarding global mortality to help improve students’ understandings of how such figures are calculated and employed. These lessons help students engage with the issues affecting people worldwide, including the high maternal and child death rates, whilst teaching them how to produce diagrams and statistics. Providing basic figures for students and asking them to create diagrams which represent the global situation is a good start. The UN, Amnesty and Oxfam all have teaching resources which can be used by tutors; however they approach it, tutors should be incorporating social justice into their lessons.