New Network Works for Racial and Social Justice in Education
Posted by Dana Bennis on Nov 27, 2012 - 07:48 AM
Last month in San Francisco, the newly formed Justice in Education Network (JEN) met for the first time. JEN is an outgrowth of the powerful work of Justice Matters, an organization whose mission is "is to bring about racially just schools by developing and promoting education policy rooted in community vision." The work of Justice Matters is "to build and support a national racial justice movement working towards transformative education for students of color – and to develop and advocate for a racial justice policy agenda in local schools and on a national level."
In early 2011, the folks at Justice Matters began visioning a network of schools focused on racial and social justice that could share and learn from one another, and work together to have impact on the national education landscape. In their words:
Springing from the Network will be a new coalesced body of individuals and organizations that create a visionary framework, united voice, inspiring products, and policy agenda presenting an alternative picture of education for students of color, and by extension for all students. Collectively, as a Network, successful schools and supporters of social and racial justice can provide undeniable insight on our most pressing education issues: 1) improving outcomes for students of color; and, 2) rethinking education to produce students able to think critically about, and craft effective and equitable solutions, for society's most complex challenges.
The six initial schools in the network are El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice (Brooklyn, NY), Social Justice High School and Telpochcalli School (Chicago, IL), South Valley Academy and the Native American Community Academy(Albuquerque, NM), and June Jordan School for Equity (San Francisco, CA).
At the initial JEN meeting in San Francisco at the June Jordan School for Equity, representatives from each school shared their school's founding stories and found commonalities and connections among their approaches - including how the schools empower students to engage in actual challenges in their communities, how they involve the arts as a key component of the curriculum, and how the schools deliberately create a reflective and caring school climate for all students and teachers.
The JEN effort is valuable both for the actual practices of these powerful schools - youth engagement, community connections, positive school climate - and for the example JEN gives of the kinds of networks and dialogue we need to realize the vision for all young people of meaningful learning rooted in local communities.