Equity & Excellence in Education, 40: 156–165, 2007
c University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Education
Copyright
ISSN 1066-5684 print /1547-3457 online
DOI: 10.1080/10665680701221313
Service-Learning for Social Justice in the Elementary
Classroom: Can We Get There from Here?
Rahima C. Wade
This article focuses on 40 elementary school teachers’ efforts to involve their students in social justice-oriented servicelearning experiences and the struggles and support they encounter in doing so. The service-learning activities described
here begin with student interest and initiative and focus on advocacy and concerted efforts to right unjust situations.
With teacher support and guidance, students consider multiple perspectives and challenge the status quo. At times
they accomplish their aims; in other cases, success is found in students learning valuable life lessons about the skills and
long-term effort needed to effect change. Struggles with state mandates, required curriculum, colleagues, and parents
are discussed, as well as the creative and subversive measures teachers use to address these challenges.
C
ommunity service-learning—the integration of
school or community-based service activities
with academic skills and structured reflection—
is a growing movement nationally in the field of education. With funding and initiatives at the federal, state,
and private levels, service-learning programs have proliferated in the nation’s K-12 classrooms as well as in colleges and universities. The popularity of service-learning
among the nation’s K-12 educators rests primarily on its
ability to promote students’self-esteem and civic responsibility. Critics of service-learning, however, point to its
limitations in helping students develop a commitment to
social justice by working for long-term systemic change
through both social and political channels (Boyle-Baise,
2002; Kahne & Westheimer, 1996; Wade, 2000, 2001). Too
often, service-learning projects neglect to include a focus on the root causes of the problem at hand; nor are
students often encouraged to question why the need for
service exists in the first place.
This article focuses on elementary school teachers’ efforts to involve their students in social justice-oriented
service learning experiences and the struggles and support they encounter in doing so. In order to make a
case for the value and practicality of elementary level
social-justice-oriented service-learning experiences, several tasks are in order. First, I discuss the defining features of service-learning aimed at social justice goals.
Next, I argue that this work holds distinct advantages
Address correspondence to Rahima C. Wade, University of Iowa,
College of Education, Curriculum and Instruction, Lindquist Center N
291, Iowa City, IA 52242. E-mail: rahima-wade@uiowa.edu
156
over traditional approaches to service-learning and that
it is a valuable pursuit for the elementary school. Finally,
I present examples from elementary teachers’ practice
that illustrate both the strengths and limitations of their
social justice work.
WHAT IS SERVICE-LEARNING
FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE?
Describing service-learning for social justice first necessitates a definition of social justice. While individual
understandings of social justice will necessarily be influenced by culture, historical context, and personal life experience, a definition of social justice will serve to ground
the following discussion of community service-learning
for social justice. Adams, Bell, and Griffin (1997), define
a socially just society as one in which all members have
their basic needs met. In addition, they note that in a
just society all individuals are physically and psychologically safe and secure and able to develop to their full
capacities and capable of interacting democratically with
others. If a socially just society is one in which all people
are accorded equal worth and opportunity, it follows that
social justice is incompatible with any form of prejudice
or discrimination based on race, class, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical ability, or any other factor.
To be authentic and relevant for elementary students,
social justice education needs to begin with children’s
lived experiences—their concerns, hopes, and dreams—
and then move toward multiple perspectives and action directed toward social change (Adams et al., 1997;
Bigelow, Christensen, Karp, Miner, & Peterson, 1994).
ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM SOCIAL JUSTICE SERVICE-LEARNING
Quality social justice education is: student-centered, collaborative, experiential, intellectual, analytical, multicultural, value-based and activist (Bigelow et al., 1994;
Wade, 2001, 2004). Social justice-oriented educators ask
their students “to develop their democratic capacities: to
question, to challenge, to make real decisions, to collectively solve problems’’ (Bigelow et al., 1994, p. 4).
High quality community service-learning activities
share many of the same characteristics as social justice education. Both are aimed at ameliorating societal
problems and both involve students working collectively
with others to effect change (Wade, 2000). In fact, educators and policymakers can use the characteristics of
social justice education listed above as a template for developing service-learning projects aimed at social justice
goals. Table 1 illustrates what each of the characteristics might look like in service-learning practice. While
few projects are likely to embody all of these characteristics, these characteristics do provide a model for
projects that address social justice goals from planning to
completion.
An example will illustrate how a traditional servicelearning project can be transformed into a social justiceoriented one. A service-learning project on the topic of
homelessness might typically involve collecting clothing
and blankets for a shelter or serving meals at the local
soup kitchen. With a few additions, this project could
incorporate a social justice emphasis. First, teacher and
students could discuss the different reasons that people
become homeless and the needs homeless people have
beyond food and clothing. Students could explore the
range of services provided to homeless people in their
community (such as housing offices and job centers) and,
in concert with interviewing agency workers and homeless individuals, if possible, determine what resources
and services are still needed to enable people to move
toward the goal of working and living on their own.
Students could write to or speak with public officials
and assist with fundraising to establish additional services, such as setting up a mail service, health clinic, job
training class, or a telephone message system at the shelter through which employers and job seekers can contact each other. With teacher guidance, students could
also learn about state and national organizations working to solve the problem of homelessness and assist with
fundraising or advocacy to further their work.
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Table 1
Principles of Social Justice-Oriented Service-Learning
Social Justice Education
Student-centered
Collaborative
Experiential
Intellectual
Analytical
Multicultural
Value-based
Activist
Examples in Service-Learning
Practice
Students are involved in choosing
the issue of concern for their
service-learning project.
Students are asked to explain
how this issue connects with
their own lives.
Students collaborate with their
classmates, others in the
school, and most importantly,
the recipients of the service, in
the design and conduct of the
service-learning project.
Students are actively engaged in
community needs assessment,
research, and project
development as well as service
activities in the school and/or
community.
Students seek out a variety of
sources with multiple
perspectives as they study and
analyze the issue they have
chosen. They also use subject
matter skills and knowledge to
plan and carry out their
service-learning project.
Students examine the root causes
of the problem they are
addressing. They consider
whose voices have been
excluded and what their own
role is in relation to the
problem.
Students adopt an inclusive
approach to the problem they
are addressing, in terms of
understanding the issue from
diverse perspectives and also
in terms of whom they involve
and how they work together
on the problem.
Students acknowledge the
controversial nature of aspects
of the problem they are
addressing. They examine and
discuss the values involved.
Students engage in direct and/or
indirect service as well as
advocacy aimed at creating a
more socially just society.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF
SERVICE-LEARNING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE?
From Wade, 2001.
The social justice-oriented homelessness project described above differs in several significant ways from traditional types of service-learning. Customarily, students
serve the school or community by addressing a problem
or need in the environment or within a given population (e.g., senior citizens, people with disabilities, those
who are hungry or poor). Typically such projects are carried out through collaboration with a community agency
as a partner. Projects are most often aimed at meeting
the needs of individuals as defined by the agency, using
strategies that do not question prevailing societal norms
and practices.
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RAHIMA C. WADE
The concept of service-learning that I propose here
goes beyond meeting individual needs and maintaining
the status quo. Social justice-oriented service-learning
involves inquiring about the root causes of societal
problems and, in addition to serving individuals, attempting to influence those causes at a structural level.
Traditional service-learning programs’ typically discrete
focus on meeting individual needs limits the power of
service-learning to effect broad-based changes in both
students and the communities in which they serve. Too
often, program leaders are more concerned with students’ personal, social, and academic development from
a charitable orientation than they are with working
to question prevailing practice and to create meaningful change in society (Wade, 2000). Rarely do students
in service-learning programs consider the root causes
of the structural inequities that have led to the need
for service (Wade, 2000). Nor do service-learning students often taken action to address injustice through
advocacy or political action (Kahne & Westheimer,
1996).
While traditional forms of service-learning have many
benefits for both students and communities, my point is
this: If, as educators, we want to work toward lessening
oppression and inequity in significant ways, we would
be wise to consider issues beyond immediate individual needs. Further, in order to effectively address social
justice issues, we must be dedicated over the long term,
as oppression and inequity in our society are persistent
problems.
Even if we are primarily concerned with what our students learn from their service-learning involvement, social justice service-learning may prove more instrumental. Paulo Freire, and a number of authors influenced by
his work, cautioned about the potential dangers of charitable work that did not include a critical examination of
the social and political forces that created the need for
charity in the first place (Maybach, 1996). Without a critical analysis of the conditions that promote poverty, for
example, it is too easy for the provider of help to blame
the recipient for his or her condition, a dynamic that may
be present in certain types of charitable community service (Maybach, 1996).
While meeting individual needs in the community is
an important aspect of effective citizenship, our democracy depends on its citizens’ willingness and ability to
examine current social problems, to evaluate how they
have developed over time, and to consider new directions in creating a better society for us all. An important
part of the civic mission of schooling is helping students
understand and work toward our societal creed of “justice for all.’’ Service-learning for social justice is service
to a cause, an ideal—indeed—to the vision of a wholly
just society. It does not ignore individual needs, but neither does it neglect to consider the long-term structural
issues behind the problems at hand.
DOES SERVICE-LEARNING FOR SOCIAL
JUSTICE EDUCATION BELONG IN THE
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL?
The complexity of social justice issues might lead one
to think that such topics should be relegated to higher
education or political “think tanks.’’ Yet it is precisely
because these problems are so pervasive and persistent
that service-learning for social justice should begin in the
earliest years of schooling. If students are to develop a
commitment to social justice ideals, this work should begin in the elementary years when children are concerned
with “fairness’’ and when their empathy and perspective
taking abilities are developing. While elementary school
efforts will, of necessity, be simpler than those at the high
school or college level, it is important that teachers at this
level lay the ground work for students to question and
pursue justice issues of interest and relevance to their
young lives.
This is not to say that the work is easy. Several aspects
of service-learning for social justice prove especially challenging at the elementary level. Discussing social justice
issues in the classroom can be difficult, given their complexity and controversial nature. Some equate “social justice’’ with left wing politics, which could be problematic
in many communities. Social justice efforts do tend to
focus on questioning the power structures in our society
and thus often have a political dimension. And working
for social justice usually involves activities focused on
long-term change, rather than on immediate observable
benefits.
Yet if educators are to give students the skills and
knowledge needed to address the increasing poverty,
discrimination, and other inequities in our society, approaches beyond meeting individual needs are critical.
And there are many benefits for students in this work as
well. Pelo and Davidson (2000), anti-bias early childhood
educators, asserted:
Activism is an empowering process for young children;
it calls on them to flex their social, emotional, intellectual
and sometimes even their physical muscles. They work
together to solve complex problems, make forays out into
the adult community, ask questions, and declare their
feelings. (p. 9)
But can we “get there from here’’? Can we transform
service-learning practice from its current state to fulfill
social justice goals? What are the challenges in elementary level social justice teaching and how successful are
teachers in addressing them? These questions prompted
my efforts to learn from elementary teachers across the
country who involve their students in service-learning
aimed at social justice goals. The findings focus on stories of promising practice and unmet possibilities as well
as on teachers’ struggles and sources of support as they
ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM SOCIAL JUSTICE SERVICE-LEARNING
attempt to teach for social justice in an often restrictive
educational system.
TALKING TO SOCIAL JUSTICE TEACHERS:
AN OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH
All of the teachers I interviewed self-selected for
this study by responding to an e-mail invitation sent
out through social justice education organizations and
teacher educators I know who teach about social justice.
The e-mail message included the following brief description to help teachers self-identify in a way that would
be consistent with the current literature on social justice
education. “Social justice education empowers students
to analyze the root causes of injustice, promote equal
opportunity for all people, and learn from multiple perspectives on an issue or topic within a collaborative, experiential approach to teaching and learning.’’
METHODS
Participants
Many teachers responded with enthusiasm to the invitation to talk about their social justice work in the classroom. The 40 teacher participants in this study range
in age from 24 to 63, with a mean age of 43.8 years.
Years of teaching range from 2 to 35 years, with a mean
of 13.3 years taught. Almost half of the teachers (n =
18) have taught 10 years or less; 9 of the teachers have
been teaching for more than 20 years. Most teachers have
had a broad range of experience within the elementary
grades, and several have taught preschool, middle, or
high school as well. Looking at the most recent elementary grade level taught at the time of the study for each
teacher, 20 taught at the primary (K-3) level, 16 at the
intermediate (4-6) level, and 4 identified their teaching
positions as K-6.
The teacher participants represent a more diverse
sample than one would find in the population of elementary teachers in the United States as a whole.1 There
are 34 women and 6 men; almost a quarter identified
their ethnicity as other than white (n = 9; 2 Puerto Rican,
2 Mexican American, 4 African American, and 1 Arab
American). Several teachers also identified themselves as
being from other targeted/oppressed groups in society
(gay, lesbian, Jewish, poor). Twenty-three of the teachers
taught in urban settings, 13 in suburban towns, and 4 in
rural communities. All of the urban teachers and many of
those teaching in rural and suburban settings indicated
they taught ethnically diverse student populations.
Data Collection
Each teacher participated in a one to two hour interview, either individually or in a small focus group.
159
Following a semi-structured format, I used a set of specific questions to frame the interviews (Rubin & Rubin,
1995). I asked teachers to reflect on how, why, and with
what resources they teach for and/or about social justice. I also asked them to define what “social justice’’ and
“teaching for social justice’’ meant to them. Teachers described both the teaching strategies and social studies
topics they focus on when teaching about social justice.
Several questions addressed what motivates and sustains these teachers in their efforts to teach for social justice as well as the challenges they experience and how
they overcome them. Each teacher also completed an information sheet that asked for the teacher’s name, age,
gender, ethnicity, number of years teaching, past teaching positions, present teaching position, and relevant life
experiences and interests in regard to teaching for social
justice.
When possible, I interviewed teachers in person at
their school sites; this was the case for 13 of the teachers. I interviewed five other teachers face to face in
their homes or at professional conferences. Due to limitations with time and funding to travel, I conducted
the remainder of the interviews over the phone. I taperecorded all interviews and I, along with a graduate student and professional staff in the University
of Iowa College of Education, transcribed the tapes
verbatim.
With funding from the National Council for the Social
Studies, I was able to convene a three-day meeting bringing together 10 of the 40 teachers to engage in focus group
dialogues about their work, the strategies they find most
useful, the topics most compelling, the challenges they
face, and the ways in which they create support for their
work. I also observed two of the ten teachers for two
days each to get a more in-depth look at their classroom
practice.2
Data Analysis
I analyzed all interview and focus group transcripts and observation notes using the grounded theory method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Patton, 1980), reading and re-reading the data while searching for salient
themes. I used several of Krueger’s (1994) systematic
steps to organize both the data gathering and subsequent
analysis: (1) sequencing questions to allow for maximum
insight, (2) tape-recording the data, (3) coding data for
emergent themes, and (4) participant verification of the
written report. Each teacher was mailed a copy of his or
her transcript and invited to send additional comments,
additions, or deletions as they desired. The coding process involved data reduction and categorization for the
purpose of gaining new insights about the phenomena
under study (Coffey & Atkinson, 1996). While the focus
of this analysis was primarily on those findings that pervaded many teachers’ experiences, I was also attendant
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RAHIMA C. WADE
to participants’ divergent views and discrepant experiences (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
The teachers’ stories of their daily efforts to promote
social justice in their students’ lives and in the world
provide an array of possibilities for how kindergarten
through sixth grade students can engage in social action for worthy causes. The experiences recounted also
point to the many challenges and limitations teachers
encounter as they attempt to integrate social justiceoriented service-learning in their classrooms, schools,
and communities.
TEACHERS’ EXPERIENCES OF
SERVICE-LEARNING FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
As I listened to teachers describe the varied social
justice service-learning projects in their classrooms and
communities, one fact was immediately evident. There
is no blueprint for this work; the teacher, the students,
the curriculum, the classroom, school climate, community values, and a host of other factors uniquely shape
each project. Despite the differences, there are several elements of high quality social justice teaching that featured
prominently in many teachers’ practice. This discussion begins with three strengths of teachers’ practice—
encouraging students’ questions, introducing multiple
perspectives for letter writing, and modeling activism—
and then moves to important elements that are more often omitted.
Encouraging Students’ Questions
Beginning with students’ interests and concerns and
encouraging them to ask questions about the injustice
they observe in their daily lives or communities provided
a starting point for many projects. For example, Laurie,
a fourth-grade teacher in inner city Philadelphia, shared
the following story:
One year I had a group of girls who desperately wanted
to play ball in the schoolyard. There actually was this rule
(I can’t even believe it—this is the 21st century) a rule that
said that there was a separation on the fields. Boys and
girls, they were not allowed to play together. The girls
had jump ropes and jacks and whatever, and the boys
had the ball equipment, baseball and stuff. . . . Anyway,
I had girls in my room who knew that they could bring
this up in the classroom and it could be discussed, and
we could figure out ways. They wrote a petition and sent
it around (These are nine-year-old girls.) . . . to the whole
school and had it signed by, I don’t know, 150 people,
and that rule got changed. They did that; I didn’t do that.
While Laurie emphasized her students’ empowerment in taking action, it is clear that her support was critical. The fact that the girls “knew they could bring this up
in the classroom’’ was instrumental in their working for
social change on the playground. Laurie’s students are
not unusual in encountering school rules or student behaviors they find unjust. What makes this classroom experience somewhat unusual is Laurie’s encouragement
of her students taking action. Teachers for social justice
support students’ initiative to identify and work on solving social problems.
The first and second graders in Molly’s class provide another example of student-led social action. Her
students were concerned about the wastefulness of the
Styrofoam trays used and thrown away each day in
the lunchroom. After students worked with parents and
school employees to collect a variety of data about the
problem, they arranged to have a meeting with the director of food services for the district.
This little girl, Cheryl, the one who was really big on
“Where’s the evidence?’’ . . . gathered the evidence together. (These are first and second graders). She said,
“Now listen, when this man comes in here, it’s really important that you don’t scare him. We know that we’re
right, and we have all these good reasons and stuff, but
we should be respectful, and we shouldn’t yell at him,
and we shouldn’t try to scare him.’’ Then a minute later
this guy walked into the room . . . this huge guy with
this really deep booming voice. These little kids were not
daunted at all. They invited him to sit down in one of
these pint size chairs in front of an easel. It just struck
me. I mean, when I was 6 or 7 years old, I would have
been terrified. The idea of talking with a grown-up about
changing something about how they work, I would have
been shaking in my boots. These kids were confident and
poised. [The director of food services told the students],
“We already bought 200,000 of these Styrofoam in bulk
so we’re going to use them until they’re used up.’’ But
the kids had responses. They said, “You could just use
the plastic ones and they could be washed.’’ [He said],
“Washing costs money too.’’ They said, “That’s a job for
someone that lives in our community.’’ There was a real
back and forth . . . They had a lot of comebacks for his different responses. In the end he said, “I’ll consider it.’’ It
turned out that he was actually leaving his job a couple of
weeks later. It was interesting to see the kids’ response.
After he left, this one little girl said, “You know, Mrs.
Kelly, the next time that students do a meeting like this
you should have them think of more ‘what if’ questions
before the person comes.’’ They didn’t feel defeated at all.
They felt like even though they had done this very rigorous preparation they recognized that they could have
prepared even more. (Molly)
Both Laurie’s and Molly’s students chose issues that
affected them but also had consequences for others. Are
these service-learning projects or self-serving acts? Perhaps they are both. Recess play and lunch tray use are
issues that affect students, yet they also reflect larger
issues of injustice in regard to gender equity and the
environment.
ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM SOCIAL JUSTICE SERVICE-LEARNING
Again, it is important to note that teachers’ support
for and dedication to student empowerment was critical
to their students asking questions and taking action.
With social action projects, I don’t say, “Well, this is the
project, we’re gonna do this,’’ but the students, often
when we’re dealing with an issue, they will want to do
something and then I’ll say, “Well, what do you think you
can do?’’ and they will start brainstorming different possibilities. Some of them would be completely impossible
to carry out, but at least they are coming up with ideas
and usually from those ideas we can sort out what they
could actually do. So I guess it’s real important to listen
to the students’ voices, listen to their ideas. (Kara, an ESL
teacher)
Multiple Perspectives for Letter Writing
Many of the teachers I interviewed provided opportunities for students to consider multiple perspectives on
an issue and then to engage in advocacy through writing
letters. In both the playground and lunchroom stories,
students wrote letters to people in positions of power.
Many teachers recounted stories of their students writing to the school principal, the mayor, the Governor, the
President of the United States, members of Congress, or
the CEOs of businesses.
Jeffrey, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher, assisted his students in taking action with regard to a situation that dealt
with issues of power and class in their rural Colorado
town. “The recreation center of the town I live in was
being put aside . . . being kind of bumped out of the way
by a golf course project from the local city council, which
was going to be a much more lucrative effort,’’ shared Jeffrey. Welcoming multiple perspectives, Jeffrey brought in
a variety of speakers including the mayor, council members, and people from various recreation centers and golf
courses. After the students learned about the different
positions on the issue, they wrote letters to the local paper advocating for the recreation center. Jeffrey noted,
“I think we were helpful in getting the rec center built
first. The golf course came along afterwards.’’Thoughtful
preparation was important to the success of this project,
again in regard to encouraging students’ questions. Jeffrey noted:
I have students generate questions beforehand that are
relevant to them, and then I send those questions ahead
of time to the guest speaker. That really helps get speakers
a little bit focused on kids ‘cause a lot of times they’re not
used to kids and so that helps.
Seren’s second graders were on a field trip and noticed
that the lights were out in the entrance to the subway
station underpass. After the students considered several
possible ways to make a difference in their urban
community, they took a vote to address the hazard. They
161
wrote to the commissioner of the Bronx Department of
Transportation and produced a play for the school titled
“Darkness and Danger.’’ Toward the end of the school
year, Sam took his students on another field trip. As they
approached the subway entrance, the children in the
front of the line started screaming and yelling with happiness, leaving the students at the back of the line wondering what all the commotion was about. The lights had
been fixed! One of the employees in the Department of
Transportation had a second grade daughter herself and
was impressed enough by the plea from Seren’s students
to order the repair. Thus a shining light in the tunnel
became a seemingly small yet powerful result of the concerns expressed by a group of eight- and nine-year-olds.
Modeling Activism
A third powerful strategy used by many of the teachers is engaging in and then talking about their own activism with students. Often student enthusiasm is a reflection of the teacher’s passion for and involvement with
an issue. Kit is a fourth-grade teacher in Toledo, Ohio
who is deeply invested in the Underground Railroad in
her state. Kit shared, “We have a bicentennial this year
and I’m on the Commission . . . I’m also writing curriculum for our state.’’ When the basement of a house owned
by the Catholic Church down the road from Kit’s school
was discovered to be a former stop on the Underground
Railroad, Kit and her students went into action. “We had
a lock-in with the fourth, fifth, and sixth graders and
they raised money, $1400. I thought it would be four
or five hundred dollars. They got pledges, they raised
money by walking around the gym at night. We stayed
all night at the school,’’shared Kit. Her students attended
meetings about the house, talked at City Council meetings, involved their parents, and eventually garnered
media recognition in the newspaper and on the Internet. While their efforts were not wholly successful (The
basement bricks were numbered and moved to a new
location when the house was dismantled), Kit believes
the effort was valuable. “I feel that somewhere down the
line they’ll be able to say that we did something to try
to save this house. At least they can educate their own
children about it.’’
Many other teachers noted how their own activism
inspired their students to get involved. Seren frequently
attends community rallies and marches and tells his students about them. His second graders pleaded to attend a
rally so Seren took them to an event on school funding at
City Hall. For several years, Molly has been working on
inviting parents and students from her school to attend
the annual Gay Pride March in her community. She has
watched the numbers increase, albeit less quickly than
she desires. Lindsey, a sixth-grade special needs teacher,
noted:
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I think I need to model it for the students by living a life
that is actively involved and I do that and tell the stories
and share some of the experiences. . . . [It’s] a lot about
modeling our responsibility as citizens of this planet to
make a difference, to do something to make the world a
better place.
As the stories above indicate, elementary teachers
can effectively inspire their students to engage in social justice-oriented service-learning through encouraging students to ask questions about issues of concern to
them, considering multiple perspectives, and engaging
in advocacy through letter writing. And when teachers
model activism, students often are inspired and want
to get involve themselves. Pelo and Davidsonm (2000),
early childhood anti-bias educators, noted, “Children do
indeed want to be change-makers. As children go about
their work of noticing differences, they also recognize the
inequity inherent in some of those differences and want
to do something about it. They want to be activists!’’(p. 1).
Missing Elements
These teachers’social justice-oriented service-learning
experiences have many strengths, but there are some
missing elements as well. First, it is common for projects
to “fail,’’ at least in the sense of leading to greater social
justice. Elementary students do not always have the ability, influence, or persistence to really make a difference.
But many elementary teachers measure “success’’ differently; they recognize that regardless of the outcome, their
students are learning valuable skills in community activism. Teachers assert that the end result is not as important as the fact that students are caring, getting involved,
and developing a set of strategies they can use in future
social action projects. Still, one would hope that servicelearning for social justice would actually contribute to
greater social justice in the school or community, and
clearly that is not always the case.
A second concern is related to both multiple perspectives and the value-based nature of service-learning for
social justice. As I listened to teachers’ stories, it seemed
that on some occasions teachers were indoctrinating their
students to adopt a particular viewpoint on a controversial topic. While students were usually (though not always) introduced to multiple perspectives, it appeared
that often students were persuaded to adopt the teacher’s
perspective on the issue at hand. However, these teachers did not express any discomfort about indoctrinating their students toward a particular point of view or
civic action (and when asked directly, denied that they
were doing so). It is important that teachers do not completely plan or guide students’activism work in the direction that the teacher thinks is appropriate. “The children
have the right to muddle around in the issues they encounter, to grow as critical thinkers and active learners’’
(Pelo & Davidson, 2000, p. 69). Best practice according
to the model of social justice-oriented service-learning at
the beginning of this article would necessitate both acknowledging the controversial and value-based aspects
of the issue being addressed and encouraging students
to take different paths if they wish to make a difference.
Perhaps the most troubling “missing element’’ of
teachers’ practice from a social justice perspective is addressing the root causes of the issues under study. Rarely
did a teacher talk about involving students in exploring and understanding the larger issues of class, gender,
power, environmental neglect, or other forms of oppression and inequity connected with their students’ servicelearning projects. This finding points to several key questions. Are such larger issues beyond the scope of young
children’s interest or understanding? Do teachers face
limitations or challenges that impede their efforts to engage in greater depth with their students? These are questions that merit further investigation in follow-up studies. We turn now to examining how teachers’ struggles
and support impact their social justice teaching.
STRUGGLES AND SUPPORT
Social justice teachers talk with great enthusiasm
about their efforts to help children make a difference in
their schools and communities. Yet these efforts are not
without considerable challenges. The ten teachers who
participated in the focus groups spoke frankly about the
many struggles they face day to day in teaching for social
justice. They also shared their creative and sometimes
subversive strategies for dealing with their struggles and
finding support.
Standards and Tests
Teachers talked at length about their frustrations with
district or state mandated standards and tests.
This preoccupation with state curriculum frameworks,
it’s all about testing. It’s not about learning. When I look
at social studies, science, math, I’m really trying to help
kids see the world and make sense of this place where we
are and find a place in it and know who they are and learn
how to be a change agent in their world. And that’s not
what the state curriculum frameworks are about. (Molly)
Laurie was even more exasperated:
I think about leaving teaching all the time now. . . . I don’t
actually want to do it, I love teaching and being with the
kids. But I am also miserable. . . . I have to believe the tide
will change back. I don’t think we’re going to stay in this
big business place forever.
Amy asked:
Where’s the balance between mandating stuff that you
know is good practice and giving opportunities for
ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM SOCIAL JUSTICE SERVICE-LEARNING
child-centered learning and for the kinds of things that
come out of the needs of the community and the school
and the parents working together?
In response to their frustration, teachers have found
ways to find time for social justice teaching and still fulfill their obligations to district mandates. Laurie is one of
several of the teachers who will not teach to the test but
does teach her students test-taking skills because she believes that “to not prepare them for it is wrong, whether I
believe in it or not, because they have to take them.’’ Rebecca chooses broad themes, such as civil rights, and then
fits her social justice activities under the social studies
standards. She also meets other standards in reading and
writing at the same time because she uses an integrated
approach to instruction. Kara develops her curriculum
and then looks for support in the state standards. For the
past 12 years, Kit has been involved in helping to write
the standards in her state. Several teachers emphasized
that teaching for social justice is important to them and
they are not being scrutinized by the administration so,
as Molly put it, “I can teach pretty much the way I want.’’
Required Curricula
Several teachers were very frustrated with some of the
curricula they are required to teach. Complaints ranged
from developmentally inappropriate topics, such as Explorers in first grade, to scripted teachers’ guides and
unethical science activities. Kara was outraged that one
of the science kits required an experiment with taping
weights to snails for them to pull.
It’s just the opposite of what I want to teach kids about
living organisms, that we respect them, that if we borrow
them we put them back into the environment where we
got them. We don’t hurt them, we don’t use them for our
own little games. (Kara)
When Saphira moved to a new school, the other primary grade teachers expected her to teach the same curriculum that they had planned. She was not interested
in “the cute little bears’’ unit, but she did agree “to let
the nature lady come in January.’’ “She came and did her
thing but it didn’t fit what I was doing,’’ Saphira noted. “I
tried to do some things their way, because I didn’t want
to make too many waves. I’m already making big waves
anyway.’’
Again, teachers employed a variety of creative and
subversive approaches to their dilemmas with required
curricula. Molly developed her own way of teaching
about explorers to her first graders. “I know that they
know the difference between visit, explore, conquer, invade, occupy. They understand those things and I think
that’s more important than what year did Balboa set foot
on this little peak in the Pacific,’’ asserted Molly. With
regard to science kits, Gaia noted that her school district
163
adopted them and then added, “Do I use them? That’s
another question.’’ Kara quipped, “ If you don’t learn the
three kinds of rocks in third grade, I’m sure you’ll have
another opportunity at another point in your life where
it might be easier to remember those long words.’’
Colleagues
Not all of the teachers struggled with being accepted
by their colleagues, but for those who did, this was often a painful aspect of their work lives. Laurie asserted,
“Finding an ally is really kind of like finding a pea under
the mattress.’’ Molly spoke about being seen as “elitist’’
and “feeling like an outsider’’because she had not gone to
the same local high school and college as many of her colleagues. Several teachers emphasized that they felt pressured to prove themselves as “good teachers’’ (translated
as having students achieve academically) because they
were teaching differently than their colleagues. Molly admitted, “I don’t want to give people room to criticize me
or how I teach, to say that this stuff that I’m doing is off
the wall and besides the kids aren’t learning.’’
Amy and Molly both shared stories of innovative
teaching practices that were criticized by their colleagues. In response to making home visits to her students’ families (a practice of several social justice teachers), Amy said, “I do get things like, that I shouldn’t
do certain things because I make them look bad.’’ Molly
countered, “Or they say, if you do that, the parents will
expect us to do that.’’ In Molly’s school, several teachers
went to the principal to complain about Molly offering a
family math night at the school. They asked the principal
to “make her stop.’’ Molly concluded,
I feel as though there’s a lot of stuff that you have to do in
the closet or do quietly. And it was funny that something
like family math, which would seem like, how political is family math? It’s very political because it’s really
about empowering parents to come into the classroom
and have a say about math and that was something that
was terribly threatening.
Molly eventually resolved the problem with her colleagues by teaching parents how to lead the family math
nights.
On the positive side, several teachers spoke highly of
their colleagues and how wonderful it was to work with
a group of like-minded people. This was true for Seren,
who works in a small school established with the support
of parents and Gaia, who teaches kindergarten in an alternative public school in Seattle. Several of the teachers
spoke about creative and assertive ways to reach out to
their colleagues and develop a more supportive work environment. The strategies included posting student work
in the hallway to initiate discussion and setting up book
clubs or teacher autobiography sharing in the evening at
each other’s homes. Rebecca found that “the best thing
164
RAHIMA C. WADE
to do was to talk to the people who were against it and to
seek to understand them’’ though she quickly added, “I
also do believe that life is short and to surround yourself
by positive people.’’ With regard to finding allies among
her colleagues, Millicent asserted, “You have to be the
one who creates them. They’re not going to find you. . . .
You have to be the one who seeks them out.’’
Parents
Teachers emphasized the importance of parents as
supporters of their work. Molly stated, “I’ve really got
nothing but support from the parents. I don’t have parents come up to me saying, ‘Oh, but hatching chickens
isn’t in the state curriculum framework, why are you doing that?’’’ And Amy, in explaining why she has been
able to teach for social justice, asserted:
Parents have infinitely more power than teachers do
when it comes to what we do in our classrooms. . . . They
can just complain about one little thing, and it gets blown
out of proportion. If they support you, you can get away
with all kinds of subversive activity.
Many of the teachers talked about building support
among parents even before the beginning of the school
year with home visits or letters. Molly shared about the
many valuable aspects of doing home visits.
The first step [is] going to the family’s home and getting
to know them and being willing to listen to whoever
they are and then being more comfortable that they can
come and if they’re concerned about something. I’m very
confident that if parents are concerned about something,
they’ll come talk to me about it first before they go to the
principal. . . . You won’t always agree 100%, but you’ll
have trust and the honesty to be able to always have a
dialogue, and that’s what you need . . . because a lot of
times, I need a reality check. Am I going too far? And I
need people to be honest with me and let me know.
Teachers did mention a few experiences with parents
that were difficult. Kara had a parent who did not want
her child to participate in some of the activities on civil
rights, because she worried that her daughter would be
too upset. Saphira, an African American kindergarten
teacher, asserted that because white parents sometimes
mistrusted her, and she felt she had to prove herself as
a good teacher. In general, however, parents were extremely supportive of the social justice teachers and their
work. Seren stated, “I feel really fortunate . . . to have my
strongest connections to be as much with families as with
colleagues.’’
justice. State tests and required curricula do not support
elementary teachers involving their students in servicelearning or examining the root causes of inequity in
our society. While parents are usually supportive and
colleagues are often but not always so, social justiceoriented service-learning is sustained more by individual teachers’ convictions, creativity, and subversion than
anything else. Teachers for social justice have a passion for changing the world that carries them beyond
their fears and hesitations. And part of this passion is a
commitment to giving their students the activist skills
necessary to work for a socially just world (Bigelow,
2004).
The service-learning projects described here are “getting there,’’ but they are not “there’’ yet. These teachers
inspire students to ask questions and take action on issues of interest to young minds, but in-depth consideration of the values, controversial nature, and root causes
of the issues under study is lacking. Projects at the elementary level appear to be limited in scope and may not
incorporate social justice in every aspect. It may be that
elementary age children have limited interest and ability to examine the root causes of complex social issues.
And students are often more successful at developing the
skills of activism than they are in bringing about changes
in the status quo.
Yet each of these projects contributes in some way to
enhancing young children’s commitment to and learning
about social justice. Whether promoting gender equity,
animal rights, or historical preservation, social justice
teachers use the following strategies to foster servicelearning experiences:
r
r
r
honoring students’ concerns and supporting their questions and initiative
including multiple perspectives and advocacy through
letter writing
modeling activism and concern for social justice issues
While not easy, and certainly time-consuming,
service-learning for social justice is not merely a theoretical possibility. In small and large schools, in urban and rural settings, with diverse groups of students, elementary teachers and students have taken the
first steps to “get there from here,’’ creating new directions for service-learning and new possibilities for
creating meaningful social change in our schools and
communities.
NOTES
CONCLUSION
Teachers in the present standards-based educational
environment fight an uphill battle to teach for social
1. About 90% of the U.S. teaching force is white (LadsonBillings, 2001).
2. For the complete results of this research study, see Wade
(2007).
ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM SOCIAL JUSTICE SERVICE-LEARNING
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