21st Century Learning & Development
Activist Learning Theory
Within the classroom, activism can be used as a vector to teach students about various aspects of curriculum, while also making them aware of global issues and contributing to their development as global students. Activism in the classroom can be very beneficial for students because it makes them feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves (Kirshner, 2007). The students that were involved in this learning were interested in documenting the inequalities that could be found within the Los Angeles school system (Roger, Morrell and Enyedy, 2007). In their attempts to find and document evidence for their assignments, these students learned aspects of language arts, history and statistics skills (Rogers, Morrell and Enyedy, 2007). These skills became areas that the students needed to become experts in, in order to accomplish the goals that they cared about (Rogers, Morrell and Enyedy, 2007). This is just one example of how activist learning can connect the content of curriculum to the students in a meaningful way.
Another benefit of activist learning is demonstrated in the article by Watkins, Larson, and Sullivan (2007) as the students work together towards a common goal, they bridge differences related to race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation. This is an important aspect of creating students that are ‘whole’. Being a person with empathy and open-mindedness to other’s ways of life is important, in our opinion. By embedding both academic and life skills in activist learning, students have the opportunity to develop as scholars as well as social beings. This is crucial for teaching to the whole child.
One aspect of activist learning that is really important is the follow through that needs to be done by the teacher (Laffier, 2015f). When the students work together to make a change that they feel is important in our society, they need to know that the work they have done was not futile (Laffier, 2015f).
One other thing that needs to be really stressed is ensuring that the activist part is not due to the agenda of the teacher (Laffier, 2015f). The issue needs to be important to the students, so that they want to engage (Laffier, 2015f).
Teaching
Strategies
-
Be open. Students are going to want to learn about and be involved in something that htye care about, so let them decide what they do to make a change. Allow students to do some research and really decide what it is that they are poassionate about when it comes to social issues and let them go from there. Ensure that it connects back to the curriculum in some way, but give htem choice.
-
Teach the students about events around the world that are occurring so maybe a spark of interest could ignite motivation to learn about a social issue that they otherwise would not have known about. Set aside 5 minutes at the beginning of each class to talk about "current events"
-
Connect the social issues that are occuring around the world to the student's every day lives. By doing so, it might generate an interest in a social issue that the students could participate in activist learning for.
-
Have students watch the news for homework so that they are aware of issues that they might be interested in helping within the world.
-
The CNN app is available for Android and iPhone and is super conveinent for sharing what is happening around the world. The link for the app is here: http://www.cnn.com/mobile/index.landing.html
-
Another app that can help students learn about activism is "Simply Sharing: A Passion for Justice." This is a short, interactive app that takes you through learning about justice, what causes injustice, examples of injustice and how to fix it.
Technology
Tools