Summary
This is the fourth section of our Workshop Series: Educational Justice Campaigns. Visions for Justice in Schools is meant to help students understand the importance of social justice, and the need to move from an equality framework to a social justice framework.
Objectives
- Develop an understanding of what justice might look like in our schools
- Understand how to picture justice in our schools for all students
Materials Needed: Vision for Justice in Schools Power Point; Poster Paper; Scratch Paper; Pen and Pencils; Markers
Drawing the Vision (0:15)
OPENING STATEMENT: Welcome to the Vision for Justice in Schools workshop. This is a visioning activity in which we will think about what JUSTICE IN OUR SCHOOL might look like. This activity will give us the framework we need to begin developing our educational justice campaign.
TRAINER 2 SAY: So what does justice in our school look like? In order to answer that we are going to do an activity where we envision justice in our school and draw it out. TRAINER NOTE: READ INSTRUCTIONS and begin passing out the paper and pens/pencils/markers. Have one of these drawings drawn up by the end of the activity.
POWERPOINT SLIDE
On your large sheet of paper, draw your answers to the following statements:
- Social justice for ALL students in my school looks like:
- ALL students who go to my school will ____________ so that they can _________
TRAINER NOTE: Give participants about 10 minutes to complete this first portion. Then stop them and go on to the next set of statements.
TRAINER (2): I know that some of you may not have finished drawing, writing, or visualizing your vision of justice in school, but we are going to continue on with what you have so far. TRAINER NOTE: READ the next set of statements
POWERPOINT SLIDE
WHAT DO VISIONS FOR JUSTICE IN OUR SCHOOLS LOOK LIKE? Does your vision include social justice that works for all students? What does social justice look like for:
- Social justice in my school for LGBQ folks looks like…
- Social justice in my school for students of color looks like…
- Social justice in my school for transgender and gender nonconforming students looks like…
- Social justice in my school for low-income students looks like…
- Social justice in my school for immigrant students looks like…
- Social justice in my school for differently abled students looks like…
TRAINER 1 SAY: As you continue to draw out your vision for justice in school, I want you all to keep these statements in mind to help us envision justice that includes everyone, not just a few students. TRAINER NOTE: Give participants about 5 minutes to finish up their drawings.
Sharing (0:10)
TRAINER 1 SAY: I can see that a lot of awesome drawings have been created. Now we are going to explore our visions by sharing our drawings with one another to see what everyone’s vision of justice is like and what the similarities might be between us. TRAINER NOTE: Ask for volunteers to start off the conversation. If no one volunteers, start off with one that you have drawn and ready. Record responses on a piece of poster paper, and if similar themes occur put a star by each theme.
TRAINER 2 SAY: Can I have a volunteer offer to share their drawing with us?
TRAINER 2 ASK: Thank you all for sharing. There were a few things in common between our visions for justice. What was similar between our visions? TRAINER NOTE: Take about 4-5 responses.
TRAINER 1 SAY: As we can see and as we’ve heard, our visions have quite a few things in common. From there, we can begin to create our vision statement.
Conclusion (0:05)
TRAINER 2 SAY: Our next steps include creating a vision statement, which will combine all of these similarities that we’ve found into one vision.
TRAINER 1 SAY: Can I have some volunteers who want to work together after the workshop to begin combining these visions into one big drawing?
CLOSING STATEMENT: Thinking about what our vision for a just school looks like will help our GSA know what we are fighting for, not just what we are fighting against. Our GSA mission statement is about the activities we do and our purpose; our vision statement is about what our GSA is fighting for and believes in.