Towards Social Justice Through Arts and Language-Based Learning

Towards Social Justice Through Arts and Language-Based Learning

Rebecca M. Sánchez, Karla V. Kingsley, Amy Sweet, Eileen Waldschmidt, Carlos A. LópezLeiva, Leila Flores-Dueñas, Nancy Pauly, Sylvia Celedón-Pattichis, Hollie Putnam
Copyright: © 2020 |Pages: 23
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-5098-4.ch005
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Abstract

The Teacher Education Collaborative in Language Diversity and Arts Integration (TECLA) initiative prepares elementary teachers at a Southwest majority-minority university. TECLA emerged from a social justice commitment to prepare teachers to work in linguistically and culturally diverse schools. The program integrates interdisciplinary arts-based approaches and culturally sustaining language acquisition strategies throughout the teacher education experience. TECLA conceptualizes social justice through a sociohistorical lens. Social justice is experienced when all people have equitable access to meaningful opportunities to participate in and (re)shape the social structures in which they live and work. TECLA relies on an expanded definition of social justice that includes building on students' home cultures, languages, and experiences to design rigorous educational experiences.
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Tecla And Social Justice Education

TECLA conceptualizes social justice through a sociohistorical lens (Vygostsky, 1978), where social justice is achieved when all people have equitable access to meaningful opportunities to participate in and (re)shape the social structures in which they live and work. Our definition of social justice education positions students’ home cultures, languages, and experiences in the center of rigorous educational experiences. We understand the arts to be a powerful tool for rethinking and incorporating social justice education into schools and teacher preparation programs. TECLA uses arts-based approaches to prepare teacher candidates to integrate the home languages and cultures of the children into the curriculum with the goal of promoting equitable access to meaningful learning experiences.

Key Terms in this Chapter

Clinical Educator: A teacher educator dedicated to assisting teacher candidates in their field placements.

Arts Integration: An educational approach incorporating art making, art thinking and art content into all aspects of curriculum and pedagogy.

Emergent Bilingual: Federal and state governments have struggled to find adequate terms to describe bilingual students as a group. Limited English Proficient (LEP) and English Language Learners (ELLs) are two terms that have been widely used by schools to describe this group. However, according to bilingual researchers, these terms fail to capture the value of the student's bilingualism. Emergent bilingual signifies a positive description of these students as it indicates that the student is learning in two languages, and that both languages are of value.

Community School: Community schools maintain clear partnerships with community organizations and community services to define and meet the needs of the whole child in terms of wellness and learning.

Funds of Knowledge: The term presumes that all families, from all cultures, have useful skills and background knowledge that can be mobilized by educators for new learning in the classroom.

Economically: Vulnerable Communities: Communities in which a large percentage of the population have employment and financial instability.

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