Chapter 7: Social Justice Education in the Language Classroom and Beyond

This chapter highlights the important links between social justice education and the teaching of world languages, drawing on an exploratory study conducted with high school Spanish teachers in British Columbia, Canada. Despite a connection between language study and issues such as diversity, multiculturalism, and globalization, there has been little research in this area. And although talk of social justice is increasingly common in the educational context of British Columbia, the extent to which an actual transformation in practice has occurred remains to be seen. The study discussed in this chapter aimed at understanding the perspectives and practices of high school Spanish teachers in the region with regards to social justice education. Here, I highlight an inspiring number of ways that participants were able to engage in social justice education despite a lack of support and resources. It was found that many of the teachers’ practices could serve to counter each of the five faces of oppression outlined by Young (1990): exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and violence. I conclude the chapter by discussing the potential usefulness of this framework in both analyzing and furthering the goals of social justice education.