“Race is still real; it still
exists. We may question its necessity, the right of anyone to establish such
markers and its validity as a scientific concept” (Rosenblum and Travis, 2012,
p. 240). Race is becoming the biggest issue of social justice in today’s world.
Furthermore, in their book Rosenblum and Travis (2012) write about some other
issues related to social justice such as social status differences, gender,
class lines, disability, and other situations of unequal power that engender
oppression. There have been some approaches to dealing with social justice
issues, but these issues seem to be difficult to address. However, I believe social
justice issues can be deconstructed. In this paper, I discuss: social justice
issues, anti-oppressive education, social justice leadership and its impact to
my school in Indonesia.
Social Justice Issues
Lucas,
Henze & Donato (1990) focused their study on the language of minority
students as a social justice issues that needs to be remedied to increase
student achievement. They found out that Latino, Asian or Afiran-American
students actually have the same potential talent as White American students,
but they cannot express their ideas in writing and speech. Additional English
class is not enough to address this problem. The schools need also to include
their cultures as the approach of learning the language. In addition, the
increase of the conflicts in the globe recently has impacted the increase of
the immigrants. Lopez, Sribner and Mahitivanichcha (2001) have a concern on the
immigrant’s issue that educators need to focus on. The stereotype given to the
immigrants’ students are those who have lower ability, lower English and lower
economic status. In line with this, Ahser (2007) focuses on four issues
regarding to social justice: race, culture, gender and sexuality in education. Similarly,
Kumashiro (2000) expands the common classification of marginalized students in
the society; he uses the term “queer” to refer to persons who are gay, lesbian,
bisexual, transgender, intersexed. From those focuses of the social justice
issues, I can conclude that Social Justice Issues is the term used to address
some inequity treatments given by school to the students due to the some
situations of unequal power such as: race, gender, social economic statues,
culture, language, etc. We need an effective approach to address the social
justice problems.
Anti-Oppressive Education
The
term anti-oppressive education was introduced by Kumashiro (2000). He defined
anti-oppressive education as an effort and commitment of the educators and or
researchers to subversive views of the purposes of education, the roles and
responsibilities of teachers, and how we want students and society to change
especially with the issue of oppression or social justice. Delpit (2006) supported the idea of
anti-oppression by giving some approaches for social justice issues such as
bringing parents and community members into the university classroom, going out
to community gatherings to acquire such first hand knowledge, working hard to
develop multicultural staff, expanding the curriculum by inducing cultural and
diversity in the classroom. Delpit (2006) and Lopez, et. al (2000) have the
same concern on parental involvement. Lopez, et. al (2000) wrote some ways to
increase parental involvement at school by: (1) initiating parental contact, (2)
making non-traditional strategies and means to get parents involved in their
children’s education, (3) giving adult education and training for parents, and (4)
being accountable to parents. In line with this, Asher (2007) has some notes on
how to deal with the anti-oppressive education. She wrote three methods to
unpack tensions of multiculturalism in education: (1) teachers serve as a site
for modeling critical, (2) teachers serve as self reflective engagement with
the difference, and (3) teachers serve as democratic participation. I do agree
with the third approach that we need to give democratic participation in the
classroom no matter what race, gender, or social status of the students are.
Theoharis (2007) also gave some strategies in dealing with social justice
leadership. He suggested all principals to: (1) raise students’ achievement,
(2) improve school structure (3) re-center and enhance staff capacity, and (4)
strengthen school culture and community. In addition, Lucas et. al (1990)
focuses on language aspect for the social justice issue. They suggested
educators to respect and acknowledge the linguistic and cultural diversity of
the students and to help motivate students to gain their confidence in the
classroom. The approaches and strategies given by researchers above are evident
that we need to be brave to take some actions to oppose the idea of oppression
and marginalization. All components in the schools should adopt the idea of
some experts above in order to give impact on their buildings.
Social Justice Leadership and its Impact
to my School
To
implement anti-oppressive education at school, principals should be able to
understand their role as social justice leader. Theoharis (2007) contended that
social justice leaders are those who support a process built on respect, care,
recognition and empathy. He also defined social justice as “addressing and
eliminating marginalization in schools” (p. 223). From the definition given by
Theoharis (2007), I can connect to the social issues in my school in Indonesia.
If in the United States, race becomes the major problem in marginalization. In
my school, “tribal” stereotyping is now becoming the topic of marginalization.
Indonesia has hundreds tribe across the country. Each tribe has their own
identity and fanatic. In my schools, Malay tribe dominates the students, and
the rest of the students are Javanese tribe. Consequently, teachers tend to
treat students differently. Teachers are more likely paying more attention to
those who are from Malay tribe. As a result, students who are from Java score
lower than the majority students. In my opinion, the idea of anti-oppressive
education and the social justice leadership are considered to be the solution
of the tribe marginalization in my school. Social Justice leader (principal)
should be able to give the same right for the minority students in the school
in order to be able to see the world as the Malay students see the world. Thus,
if I become a principal in the future I will enact anti-oppressive education in
my building to give a positive impact for both my staffs and my students.
In conclusion, social justice issue
still exists in today’s world. This phenomenon can occur anywhere, not only in
the United States. Even though in my country, Indonesia, we do not have the
kinds of racism different as in the US. However, we do practice the so-called
marginalization according to tribal differences. It means the dominant tribe in
the school is more likely have more privilege than those who are from minority
tribe. I do believe, social justice (oppression and marginalization) also
occurs in other countries with or without a tribal component as we have in
Indonesia. In dealing with social justice issues, some experts in this article
have a very good remedy: anti-oppressive education. One role that can be used
by school principals in enacting anti-oppressive education is being social
justice leader. The final outcomes of these approaches are the deconstruction
of social justice issues and school effectiveness.
Reference:
Asher,
N. (2007). Made in the (Multicultural) U.S.A.: Unpacking tensions of race,
culture, gender, and sexuality in education. Educational Researcher,
35(2), 65-73.
Delpit, L. (2006) Other Peoples Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom. New
York: New Press.
Kumashiro,
K. (2000). Toward a theory of anti-oppressive education. Review of
Educational Research, 70(1), 25-53.
Lucas, T., Henze, R., & Donato, R.
(1990). Promoting the success of latino language minority students. An
exploratory study of six high schools. Harvard
Educational Review, 60, 315-400.
Lopez, Scribner, and Mahiticanichcha (2001). Redefining Parental Involvement: Lessons From High-Performing
Migrant-Impacted Schools. American Educational Research Journal.
Rosenblum, K. and Travis, T-M. (2013). The Meaning of Difference: American Constructions
of Race, Sex, and Gender, Social Class, Sexual Orientation, and Disability.
New York: McGraw-Hill. (6th Edition).
Theoharis,
G. (2007). Social justice educational leaders and resistance: Toward a theory
of social justice leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly,
43(2), 221–258
Videos:
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Changing
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