2017 | 2018 Innovative Teaching Showcase

SHOWCASE INDEX | CIIA | WWU ISSUE 20

Engaging Social Justice
“People who use social justice as a signal for what their work engages with understand that inequities are produced, inequities are structured, and that things have got to change in order to achieve different educational outcomes. Social justice education is a choice away from pathology and linearity. … There is no future in the field of education without the contributions of people who are doing their work under the rising sign of social justice.""

– Toward What Justice,
Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang, eds.

Ideas

Idea #12: Social Justice Playlists

Listening to music is an emotional and educational experience that potentially shapes an individual’s values, actions, and worldview.”1

Learning Intention

Engage students’ interest in music to “examine the role of the music industry in expressing or suppressing notions of justice.”2

Overview<

Have students curate their own playlists, complete with album cover art (that they find or create themselves) and booklet that describes each song and the version of justice the artist describes. Then have students discuss or write about their reflections on the music. The book Toward What Justice? includes a list of song ideas and further questions for reflection.2

Reflection Questions

  • Who is this music being created for?
  • What did we learn from this music?
  • What is special about it?
  • How do the songs in the playlist envision different ideas of justice?
  • What specific lyrics best describe justice movements or actions?
  • Are there places where lyrics or verses contradict others within the same song? What does that mean to you?
  • Do the songs in your list represent competing forms of justice, or could they take place together?
  • Mass media as an industry can exploit and harm artists. Are there situations where these artists seem to have been co-opted by popular culture? Explain.

Options and Reflection2

  • Have students listen to a playlist, album, or song that you have chosen/curated and do a personal response assignment to it. They could use the same reflection questions as above, or have them suggest another song/album that could either speak back to the artist’s version of justice, or compliment the version of justice it is expressing.
  • Have students share their playlists, or a single song, with the class and discuss the music together. What parallels exist in the music chosen by various members of the class? Can you identify intersectionalities or competing perspectives on justice?

References

  1. Levy, D.L., & Byrd, D.C. (2011). Why can’t we be friends? Using music to teach social justice. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 11(2), 64-75.
  2. Tuck, E. & Yang, K.W. (eds.) (2018). Toward What Justice? Describing Diverse Dreams of Justice in Education. New York: Routledge.