1. Social Justice in the Classroom.
- Author
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Brooks, Jacqueline Grennon and Thompson, Eustace G.
- Subjects
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CLASSROOM environment , *CLASSROOM utilization , *STUDENTS , *CURRICULUM , *EDUCATIONAL tests & measurements - Abstract
The article reports that according to sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, every youngster brings rich cultural capital to the classroom, subtleties of language, artistic preferences, unique knowledge bases, and links to resources. But classrooms often do not value, acknowledge, or use the cultural capital of some groups of students. Thus, some students may feel that they have no acceptable way to express themselves and share their cultural capital in the school setting. Curriculum bound to textbooks, curriculum guides aligned to highstakes assessments, and large-scale multilevel curriculum adoptions are rarely concerned with the range of issues that students bring to the classroom. They focus instead on content, typically, content that has been carefully measured and edited to conform to widely accepted and easily assessed standards. In this era of highstakes testing, teachers' coverage of the explicit curriculum rules. Today's classrooms focus on topics that culminate in mandated tests, and there are no tests on justice.
- Published
- 2005