After my first year of teaching and creating themes on writing at the community college, I was introduced to the topic of social justice issues by a colleague. Excited I brought these topics of social justice to my class. Soon I realized how I was teaching the material was going to be just as important on what I was teaching. 

Teaching social justice issues requires more than just sharing articles about social justice issues. Teaching social  justice issues requires the student and teacher to explore and share their own social identity. This starts with students understanding and reflecting about their own social identity and how a teacher understands their own social identity and authority in the classroom. By understanding social identity in the classroom and outside the classroom methods, strategies, and assignments can be applied more effectively with social justice issues. 

STUDENT SOCIAL IDENTITY 
When a students write about what they value like their friends, family, religion, or art, etc., it can improve academic performance and integrity of self. This transforms into meaningful writing about themselves and others. Race, gender, social class, and intellectual ability are all part of identity. Social identity is how one see’s oneself in a group setting. Writing and sharing about lived experiences and values, builds the students understanding of their ethos. Educational methods towards students’ cultural experience allows them understand themselves and their social identity. Social identity needs to be part of social justice issue instruction in the classroom, so the student understands their ethos on topics of social justice.  Exploring social justice issues requires a student to explore their own social identity, what they value, and their experiences especially because many community college students are marginalized themselves. A student’s ethos can strengthen when they value their character and goodwill, Craig Smith explains the connection of goodwill and Aristotle’s ethos and states, “Goodwill (eunota) means demonstrating that you have the audience’s best interests at heart. Aristotle compares it to friendship, “wishing for someone things you believe to be good, for his sake and not for your own, and being ready to do these things to the extent possible” (72). Students explore and learn to value their identity, their community, and realize their lives matter and the community they live in. Some teaching methods and strategies include:

• Reflective Writing for Social Identity for Students: Students writing about their experiences of their cultural history, lived experiences, and new experiences are all necessary while teaching about social justice issues. Students need to write about their own values to understand and relate to the topic of social justice in more depth. Teachers need to be aware of their own social identity, authority, and attitudes about social justice.
• Understanding Literacy Events, Practices and Performances: Stephen B. Kucer and Cecilia Silva write about the social aspect of literacy in Teaching the Dimensions of Literacy. They explain that social cultural examination of literacy moves beyond cognitive and linguistic uses of language but how it’s used in social acts and writing projects centered around social justice and civic engagement. 
• Community Service Learning and Social Justice : Differentiating the difference between charity and social change with service learning (Prentice). Service learning or volunteering for purpose. Interviewing others and their experiences.  

​TEACHER SOCIAL IDENTITY 
Teachers must also reflect about their own lived experiences on certain topics about social justice to understand their position and authority in the classroom setting. Specifically, we know that faculty members with different social group identities experience the academy differently and have varied reactions to those experiences (Chesler and Young 11). Students categorize their social identity in the classroom and often rely on how the teacher talks about social issues and their attitudes about certain topics.  Part of social justice studies does require the student and teacher to understand their position and agency in the rhetorical situation of social justice issues in the classroom.  Mark Boylan and Ian Woolsey who write “Teacher Education for Social Justice: Mapping Identity Spaces” go in more depth about the topic of social justice issues and identity in the classroom. Bolan states, Research on teacher education beliefs and identity in relation to social justice has supported the development of two important pedagogical approaches: “that of inquiry and of discomfort” but also “compassion and respect” (Boylan 63). He explains changing and negotiating identity can be uncomfortable, therefore respect about personal histories and ethical positions are important in teaching social justice issues especially when an instructor’s social identity is far from the marginalized students they teach. This requires instructors to really listen to their spoken and written words of their students especially when a students have lived experiences to share about social justice issues. This can be done with more student focused discussions and reflective writing. 

• Teaching Methods for equity​​

1. Giving students opportunities to think and talk about social justice issues through:
   1. Socratic Discussions 
   2. Personal Conferences
   3. Informal Writing Assignments
   4. Sharing their own experiences and creating value systems 
   5. Attending School events and events in the community
   6. Choosing topics that matter to them
2. Encouraging, demanding, and actively managing the participation of all students
   1. Getting to know all students names 
   2. Collaborative learning in pairs and small groups 
   3. Teachers attitude and experiences about learning 
3. Building an inclusive and fair classroom community for all students
   1. Establishing code of  conduct for participation in the syllabus
   2. Participation points with a purpose
4. Monitoring behavior to cultivate divergent social and critical thinking
   1. Assessing through the learning process
   2. Journaling about the learning experience, before, during, and after
   3. Applying methods of a growth mindset and good will of others 
5. Teaching all of the students in the English classroom (Tanner)
   1. Applying translingual approaches to teaching language versus monolingual methods of  language instruction  

Work Cited 
Boylan, Mark, and Ian Woolsey. “Teacher Education for Social Justice: Mapping Identity
Spaces.” Teaching and Teacher Education, vol. 46, Elsevier Ltd, 2015, pp. 62–71,
doi:10.1016/j.tate.2014.10.007.

Chesler, Mark, and Alford A. Young Jr. “Faculty Members’ Social Identities and Classroom
Authority.” New Directions for Teaching and Learning, vol. 2007, no. 111, Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company, 2007, pp. 11–19, doi:10.1002/tl.281.

Kucer, Stephen B., and Cecilia. Silva. Teaching the Dimensions of Literacy . L. Erlbaum
Associates, 2006.

Prentice, Mary. “Social Justice Through Service Learning: Community Colleges as Ground
Zero.” Equity & Excellence in Education, vol. 40, no. 3, Taylor & Francis Group, 2007, pp. 266– 73, doi:10.1080/10665680701396735.

Writing about social justice issues creates more meaningful learning and helps students develop an understanding of civic engagement in their communities both locally and globally. My goal is to help instructors provide more in-depth instruction and methods about social justice issues in the classroom and outside the classroom. I hope students are motivated and have the skills necessary to make real changes on real issues in their lives and the lives of others who are marginalized by social justice issues. 
 
Approaching social justice issue requires self-affirmation of values, so students can understand their position in society and identity (Shnabel). This is done through methods and application of critical pedagogy in and outside the classroom. Social justice is a part of critical pedagogy. “In short, critical pedagogy motivates both critique and agency—for teachers and students alike— “through a language of skepticism and possibility and a culture of openness, debate, and engagement” (Giroux, 2007, p. 2)” (Stinson 78). Addressing social justice issues is part of the critique and agency that takes place in the composition classroom and a way for students to apply rhetoric theory in meaningful ways. 

Social Justice issues can cover issues of race, gender, and poverty and many other social issues that people face in their communities, and often these issues are combined. Thomas Miler who wrote, “Teaching the Histories of Rhetoric as a Social Praxis.” states, “if we can move our courses beyond the history of ideas about rhetoric and focus on the practical rhetorical situations where shared traditions are called upon to speak to changing social conditions” (Miller 80). This is why social justice issues are important. Writing about social justice issues apply rhetoric in meaningful ways for change. Students want to learn about real issues and concerns that transform their lives and others. 
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​Social Justice Issues connect the self to the community in meaningful ways. It helps students understand and develop civic engagement with making their communities better especially for those who marginalized. Thomas Miler who wrote, “Teaching the Histories of Rhetoric as a Social Praxis.” states, “Historical research can contribute to the teaching of such critically engaged literacy if we can move our courses beyond the history of ideas about rhetoric and focus on the practical rhetorical situations where shared traditions are called upon to speak to changing social conditions” (Miller 80).  Writing about social justice issues creates more meaningful learning and real life application of problem-solving thinking skills . My goal is to help instructors provide more in-depth instruction and methods about social justice issues in the classroom and outside the classroom. By writing and critically thinking about real issues in the community that affect the students and others, I hope students and instructors are motivated and have the skills necessary to make real changes on real issues in their lives and their communities. 
 
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Work Cited
Miller, Thomas P. “Teaching the Histories of Rhetoric as a Social Praxis.” Rhetoric Review, vol.
12, no. 1, Taylor & Francis Group, 1993, pp. 70–82, doi:10.1080/07350199309389027.

Shnabel, Nurit, et al. “Demystifying Values-Affirmation Interventions: Writing About Social
Belonging Is a Key to Buffering Against Identity Threat.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 5, May 2013, pp. 663–676, doi:10.1177/0146167213480816.

Stinson, W. David, et al. “Critical Pedagogy and Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice”
 International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Vol 4, no. 1, 2012, pp 76-94

"Social justice is understanding "relations of power, resource inequities, and disparate opportunities and explicit discrimination among different social groups based on race, class, gender, language, and other differences" (Stinson 79). For those who are marginalized by social justice issues, it impacts their daily lives, families, and communities. Social justice issues affect individuals on both global and local scales. Here are just some of the issues listed for each.

Global Social Justice Issues:

• Climate Change
• Slavery
• Child Labor
• Starvation 
• Women's Rights
• Water Rights
• Rights to an Education 
• Sex trafficking 
• Immigration 

Local Social Justice Issues:

• Water Rights
• Native American Rights
• Racial Profiling
• Affordable Housing 
• Women's Rights
• Sex trafficking
• Gender and Sex Discrimination 
• Immigration 

Defining social justice is complex.  Addressing social justice issues is part of the critique and agency that takes place in the composition classroom and way for students to apply rhetoric theory in meaningful ways. David W. Stinson, Carla R. Bidwell, Ginny C. Powell who wrote “Critical Pedagogy and Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice” discuss the complexity of the definition with teaching. One that it’s multilayered, “teaching for social justice are complex, multi-layered, and often contradictory … social justice, emphasizes the multifaceted and relational aspects of different conceptualization about social justice but resists presenting a delimiting, unifying theory with the hope of provoking more questions and stimulating new discussions about the many meanings of teaching for social justice.” (Stinson 79). Two, social justice is dependent of its cultural surroundings and rhetorical situation and it is a ““sliding signifier,” which suggests that defining what social justice teaching “actually means is struggled over, in the same way that concepts such as democracy are subject to different senses by different groups with sometimes radically different ideological and educational agendas” (79). Social Justice issues can be applied to any subject area like in math class for statistical outcomes for racial profiling, or service learning for marginalized groups for a psychology class, or even a environmental biology class for understanding water rights. 

Social justice is not just writing about how people that are oppressed; it's working towards empowering those who are marginalized and creating real life application of critical thinking methods of problem solving for real life issues. Lauren F. Lichty, and Eylin Palamaro‐Munsell who wrote “Pursuing an Ethical, Socially Just Classroom: Searching for Community Psychology Pedagogy” explains, to create an ethical, socially just classroom, it is important to have processes for collaborating that encourage shared language, shared talking space, and valuing all members of a community.” Both professors understand the need to teach from social justice lens to help students prepare as community psychologist to fight oppression, reduce social inequalities, and work towards empowerment for marginalized people. 
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​Work Cited
Lichty, Lauren F., and Eylin Palamaro‐Munsell. “Pursuing an Ethical, Socially Just Classroom:
Searching for Community Psychology Pedagogy.” American Journal of Community
Psychology, vol. 60, no. 3-4, WILEY, 2017, pp. 316–26, doi:10.1002/ajcp.12199.

Stinson, W. David, et al. “Critical Pedagogy and Teaching Mathematics for Social Justice”
International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Vol 4, no. 1, 2012, pp 76-94