Teaching Social Justice: Pedagogies of the heart, mind and spirit

Three main goals to address: (1) The pitfalls of teaching fiction in a post-truth country, (2) Inspiring a critical lens for socially active students, (3) The affect of pedagogy. Drawing on our real experiences as protestors... [ view full abstract ]

Three main goals to address: (1) The pitfalls of teaching fiction in a post-truth country, (2) Inspiring a critical lens for socially active students, (3) The affect of pedagogy.

Drawing on our real experiences as protestors and instructors, we imagine here what it would be like to teach a course using Sunil Yapa’s Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist. In this story we examine the pitfalls of teaching using fiction in an era in which truth feels especially valuable. The instructor’s concerns about confusing documented fact and narratively useful fiction provide a parallel to the way this conflict plays out in public media. We know that teaching is an area in which emotion is essential and useful, but reflect on the struggles surrounding how to frame, shape and utilize affective strategies to spark interest and find connection. Finally we investigate how teaching can help inspire or suppress a sense of social justice in students and explore some of the circumstances that help provide students the knowledge and motivation to take action on their interests.

We use a story to delve into these ideas for a few reasons. First, we see this as a way to break out of the constraints that a typical scientific approach to articles puts on exploratory writing. We are not investigating a research question, rather we are imagining the costs and benefits of certain pedagogical approaches. Second, since we are discussing a work of fiction and feel that a story might be a useful way of responding to Sunil’s book. Third, since Drs. Rock and Rossi are writing together, this approach allows us to create a single narrative flow that draws on both of our experiences as community organizer, protestor, and teacher.