Building Critical Communities Amid the Uncertainty of Social Justice Pedagogy in the Graduate Classroom

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes Although these quotes come from an unpublished course paper, I have no doubt that Otto will someday publish amazing scholarship. For now, I would like to give him full credit for his words. Be on the lookout for future writings by Otto Harris. I have students play Monopoly in my Sociology of Education course. The game is set up in a particular way with students having staggered entrances to incite discussions about power and inequity. For more on the use of Monopoly for this purpose see: Jost, Muktha, Edward L. Whitflield, and Mark Jost. Citation2005. When the Rules are Fair, but the Game Isn't. Multicultural Education, (Fall): 14–21. This is a pseudonym. All names are pseudonyms except for Erin and Gail. The Jena Six are a group of six black teenagers from Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, who were caught in racial conflict at school, which included the hanging of nooses from a high school courtyard tree. The Jena Six were convicted of beating a white student (one conviction was overturned). These convictions, however, occurred after several other violent interactions between white and black students in which white students beat black students and were treated leniently. Many, who acknowledged that the Jena Six incident occurred in the context of a racist climate, viewed the charges as excessive, which sparked large-scale protests.