Teachers for Social Justice

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Teachers for Social Justice (TSJ) is an organization of teachers, administrators, pre-service teachers, and other educators working in public, independent, alternative, and charter schools and universities in the Chicago area. We have come together based on our commitment to education for social justice. We are working toward classrooms and schools that are anti-racist, multicultural / multilingual, and grounded in the experiences of our students. We believe that all children should have an academically rigorous education that is both caring and critical, an education that helps students pose critical questions about society and "talk back" to the world.

Highlights:

Our Principles
Schools must empower students to be decision-makers in their own lives and to become active participants in our society by employing principles of Equity and Social Justice.

Curriculum and Classroom Practice should be:
1. *Grounded in the lives of our students.
2. *Critical.
3. *Multicultural, anti-racist pro-justice.
4. *Participatory, experiential.
5. *Hopeful, joyful, kind, visionary.
6. *Activist.
7. *Academically rigorous.
8. *Culturally and linguistically sensitive.

School-level Policy and Decision-making should support:
1. Collaborative and flexible curriculum.
2. Resources for thoughtful teaching.
3. Local, democratic decision-making.
4. School must address the whole child.
5. Multiple forms of academic assessment.

Principles of School Reform:
1. *Public schools are responsible to the community, not to the marketplace.
2. *Schools must be actively multicultural and anti-racist, promoting social justice for all.
3. *Curriculum must be geared to learning for life and the needs of a multicultural democracy.
4. *All children and all schools must receive adequate resources.
5. *Reform must center on the classroom and the needs of children.
6. *Good teachers are essential to good schools.
7. *Reform must involve collaboration among educators, parents, and the community.
8. *We must revitalize our urban communities, not just our schools. 

Adopted September 2000. We have adopted many of these principles (indicated with *) from Rethinking Schools www.rethinkingschools.org

Links:

• Teachers for Social Justice - http://www.teachersforjustice.org/
• About Teachers for Social Justice - http://www.teachersforjustice.org/2007/09/about-tsj.html
• TSJ on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/groups/6913425943/

Submitted by Shawn Strader on: Friday, September 23, 2011 - 4:58 pm

Tags for this entry:
social justice, equitable access, urban schools, democratic edcuation, equality