PAGE TURNER
by Dylan Paul Hays and Tony W. Cawthon
From its beginning, higher education in the United States has been tied to activism. Students are encouraged to think critically and challenge the world around them, and, as a result, on many campuses they are the ones working for social justice. With factors such as the rising costs of higher education, the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 election, and the Black Lives Matter movement, this focus on student activism has only increased.
Students are holding their university personnel accountable for increasing diversity, preventing harm, and educating themselves and others. At the same time, corporations, politicians, and powerful figures within education are calling for the opposite: demanding that schools should ban certain forms of social justice education, including the teaching of critical race theory. So-called apolitical university figures are becoming bystanders while private-interest donations flood their campuses.
Within the past few years, social justice as a topic, as an act, and as a study has re-entered the cultural zeitgeist. Social media have made social justice as an action more visible than ever. Students can access information, petitions, and livestreams about any and every social problem they are passionate about. Social media have also made accountability within the culture a charged political issue, with major cultural figures coming out for and against so-called cancel culture. The complex narrative that is being created, along with the increased political polarization, has put many college and university personnel in a compromising position.
Doing Social Justice Education: A Practitioner’s Guide for Workshops and Structured Conversations by D. Scott Tharp and Roger Moreano is a workshop guide that provides a framework for college and university professionals to learn how to engage in productive dialogue and critical self-reflection about social justice. It serves as a comprehensive guide for anyone interested in social justice or anyone who wants to learn how to be a social justice educator. Beginning with theories and frameworks, it includes examples of workshops, activities, handouts, and case studies. At its heart, the guide is a foundation for multiple forms of social justice education that any working professional could use and adapt.
The purpose of the book is two-fold: to educate the reader on the framework and structure for introductory social justice concepts and lessons and to serve as a walk-through guide that any practitioner could use while they’re building their own workshops and structured conversations. Divided into two parts, the book consists of 10 chapters along with a detailed appendix and introduction. The introduction serves to help the reader understand the authors’ intentions and challenges the reader to reflect about their own identities and experiences.
Part One serves as an overview of social justice education as a definition, a concept, and a practice. The book then breaks down the factors that influence social justice education on college and university campuses and how institutional history and culture may affect the reader’s experience working through the text. Written in the format of a workbook, this chapter also includes personal stories, handouts, and reflections that are designed for the reader (referred to as “the educator”) to complete while building their own curriculum. Chapter 2 provides well-known social justice frameworks and theories, including Milton Bennett’s Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, Hardiman and Jackson’s Social Identity Development Model, and Collins’ concept of the matrix of domination. Broken down into different sections, the background of each theory or framework is presented, along with outlines of methodologies, qualitative examples, and facilitation tips. This chapter also introduces two fictional institutions that are used as examples in the remainder of the text to show how to adapt a workshop or conversation to two different institutional types: a small private institution and a large public institution. This approach allows readers to understand what key considerations should be made when adapting any form of social justice education experience to the institutional-appropriate setting.
Chapter 3 focuses on cultural consciousness and how to transform content areas into learning outcomes. Taking a slight turn, Chapter 4 shifts the focus towards detailing the pedagogical principles that must be considered and illustrating how to use those principles to inform activities. Chapter 5 focuses directly on the preparation, implementation, and execution of facilitating social justice experiences, with a heavy focus on different methods that can be used and when it is most appropriate to use them. Assessment of social justice programs and effective communication strategies for conducting such assessment is the focus of Chapter 6. Some of the strategies include self-reflection, the LARA method (listen, affirm, respond, and ask questions), self-disclosure, and creating transitions within conversations. The final chapter in this part spotlights how to build online social justice experiences, including considerations on pedagogical space in an online setting and facilitation.
The core of Part Two is the implementation of many of the examples presented in the first part. Chapter 8 offers insights into effectively facilitating workshops and includes a useful step-by-step guide. Using a case study allows readers to see a fully developed framework for facilitation in action. Chapter 9 explores the use of intentional dialogues as a workshop alternative for implementing social justice education. The final chapter presents a broad workshop overview that could ideally be used to present to any college student in the United States. If you’re a beginning facilitator or are trying to improve an existing workshop, Part Two of the text will assist you in working through the curriculum in a meaningful and intentional way.
The guidebook is an excellent tool for novice educators who are facilitating workshops, structured conversations, and classroom experiences. Although formatted for those working within higher education, many of the activities, handouts, and examples can be applied to any person-centered profession. It is easily read and provides a foundation for entry-level or introductory social justice education experiences. Seasoned social justice educators might not benefit as much as would those who are beginning their journey and can appreciate the guidebook as a must-have for the office bookshelf. One shortcoming of the book is the lack of specificity in the discussion of building online social justice experiences, and it could include more details on how facilitating in an online setting can shift learning dynamics and accessibility to information. However, the book shines with its unique case studies at the end of each chapter, which are interlaced with qualitative examples from a variety of social justice educators. The final pages are filled with pre-filled example handouts from throughout the book as well as an appendix detailing all the major activities that the reader or facilitator can quickly reference.
This book is designed purposely for entry-level student affairs and non-profit professionals. The case studies and other examples represent experiences that student affairs professionals can easily encounter while facilitating any number of social justice workshops. Given the emphasis placed on social justice by housing professionals in their curriculum development and structured training, this book is easily applicable. Housing staff could easily work with faculty and other academic professionals to engage students in conversations about social justice. The book easily allows the key points and frameworks to be applied to an individual social justice journey as well as the opportunity to hear about the journeys of others. If learning outcomes of living on campus include critical thinking, advocacy, and producing citizens committed to equity and inclusion, then housing professionals and students living in campus housing can see themselves as active participants in social justice wherever they work and in whatever community they live. Understanding the role that social justice has on our campus communities and its citizens is at the core of the higher education experience, and it is an experience this book provides to readers.
Dylan Paul Hays is a graduate assistant for student leader development at Clemson University. Tony Cawthon, Ph.D., is the director of graduate studies for the Clemson University College of Education. "Page Turner" is a recurring column that pairs Cawthon with a graduate student or professional colleague as they review books and scholarship of interest to campus housing and student affairs.