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Social Change
The philosopher John Dewey wrote, “Education is
not a preparation for
life but is life itself.” Dewey
reflected extensively on the page about
the role of
education in a healthy, ever-evolving democratic
society,
and he believed classrooms aren’t just a
place to study social change,
but a place to spark
social change.
Dewey wrote about these topics in
the early
twentieth century, at a time when debates raged
about whether
teachers should be tasked with
preparing students to conform or to actively push
for progress and improvement where they are
necessary.
Social change is a concept in sociology which talks
about a change
in the established patterns of social
relations, or change in social
values or change in
structures and subsystems operating in the
society.
The term social change is used to indicate the
changes that
take place in human interactions and
interrelations.
The role of the teacher:
1.Encourage active participation and
experimentation
2. Teach students how to think
Starting to make strides in this area may be as
simple as rethinking
common assumptions about
which subjects are suitable for which students
and
when.
For example, multiple studies suggest that
philosophical
inquiry is not above the heads of
elementary-aged students. Students are being
taught how to think
(and that their thoughts have
weight and value and should be pursued) rather
than what to think.
Socrates himself said, “Education is a kindling of a
flame, not a filling of a vessel.” It follows, then, that
using Socrates’ method of
discourse as a teaching
tool would line up well with Dewey’s goals for
the
classroom.
3.
Prepare students for change
One step teachers can take to encourage students
to play a part in larger societal improvement is to
create a classroom where they’re given
the
responsibility and authority to make some
significant decisions.
Teachers might try offering lessons in, for example,
how ethical decisions are made and the role of
empathy and considered argument, and then setting
up situations in which students can apply these skills
in
solving problems.
It’s also important to create a learning environment
in which students learn to see the benefit of a
worthy failure – rather than
learning to fear the
possibility of doing something wrong.
4.
Make democratic classroom
processes
Dewey noted that if we want our education systems
to benefit the
larger cause of a healthy democratic
society, then it’s important that
we keep democracy
as a central “frame of reference” in our classrooms.
Too often, he adds, we forget that participating in a
democracy is a
skill that needs to be honed in our
daily lives. The classroom is a good
place to learn
to do just that:
Consider making classrooms more democratic
than authoritarian, starting at a young age. What
decisions can you put to students in the classroom?
Before organizing a vote, can
you encourage those
on opposing sides to clearly state their positions
and try to understand and respond to the
counterarguments
5. Facilitate discussions to drive
social change.
Dewey made it clear that he believed teachers and
schools had great
influence over society, whether they
were aware of that fact or not. If
you think Dewey was
on to something with this point, then it most likely
follows that you’d agree teachers ought to be
intentional about how
they’re influencing our society.
The best way to do that is to come
together as a group
to share ideas, experiences, reading, and successes.
As these group discussions get bigger and broader,
teachers can start to take on questions of policy
—questions that should be decided with an eye on
the influence that teachers have.
If we
can begin to take these steps consistently in our
classrooms, then we’ll
be fostering a stronger societal
fabric, building a healthier
democratic process, and
benefitting people far from our schools,one classroom
at a time. As lives are being lived in classrooms and
societies are being forged, certainly that’s change we
can all get behind.
6-The role of teachers
in addressing the
issue of HIV / AIDS
It is very significance when it
comes to the promotion
of social
change in schools and in communities
at
large. Teachers directly
work with children and
community members who are infected with HIV/AIDS
and/or affected by
this deadly virus.
Hence, teachers
are expected to promote social
change in schools and communities
by partly doing
the following
when it comes to the curbing of
HIV/AIDS: promote awareness
about the virus, for
example how
it spreads and how it can be prevented
from spreading. I could not
stress enough that
teachers are regarded
as behavior - formation
and
behavior- change agents.
Before you can help students improve their social skills,
Even though your students may need to work on several
Write the name of the social skill in the box at the top
of the
Working Together Skills chart. Then ask your
students to help you
brainstorm what they might do and
what they might say when demonstrating
the social skill.
Write what they might DO under the Looks Like heading
because this is what the skill looks like when it is
demonstrated. Write the words they might SAY under
the Sounds Like heading because this is what the skill
might sound like to someone who is observing the
activity.
Examples for the social skill of
Praising:
Looks Like: Thumbs up, Clapping, SmilingSounds Like: Terrific! I knew you could do it! Way
to go! I like the way you…
4. Practice the Skill
After you complete the Working Together Skills chart
with your
students, it’s important to have them practice the skill
right away by participating in a structured cooperative
learning
activity. For example, if you taught Active
Listening as the social
skill, you might follow up with a
team discussion activity in which
students take turns
answering questions or sharing ideas around the
team.
Here a a few suggestions for cooperative learning
structures you can use to practice specific social skills
6. Review and Reflect
At the end of the activity, reflect again on how well the
social skills
were used. Take a few minutes to discuss
the positive interactions that
were happening, and
aspects of the social skill that still need work.
This is a
also a perfect opportunity for personal journal writing
and reflections. Consider these writing prompts:
- How well was the social skill being used on your team?
- What specific examples do you remember?
- How did you personally use the social skill?
- What did you do and/or say? To whom?
- How might you improve in using this skill next time?
By the way, it’s not necessary to follow all six steps every
time you
teach a new social skill. The most important
elements are explicitly
teaching of the skill and
immediately following the instruction with a
cooperative
activity to practice the skill. The reflection steps are
important and should be included as often as possible,
too.
Teaching Forum 2004, Volume
42, Issue 1
