READINGS & RESOURCES

The following resources were very useful in my own journey to teaching for social justice. Initially I wanted to comprehend what social justice is and I was also interested in how, as a university lecturer and specifically as an economics lecturer, I could incorporate social justice and a social justice pedagogy into my teaching.

Sensoy, Ö., & DiAngelo, R. (2017). Is everyone really equal?: An introduction to key concepts in social justice education. (I found this book very accessible to gain a basic understanding of key concepts. I also found it very accessible to use with students as I teach students who use English as an additional language.)

Bhambra, G. K., Gebrial, D., & Nişancıoğlu, K. (2018). Decolonising the university (1st ed.). London: Pluto Press. (As a beginner in terms of decolonising the university, I found this book very useful to give historical background towards this movement and to begin understanding what it means.)

Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books.(Due to its style of writing, this book can be heavy going. I started reading this a few years ago, and it made me aware of the historical beginnings of whiteness and racism. It made me question the ideological construct of the west vs east and how damaging this dichotomy is. I now plan on reading Said’s more up to date version ‘Culture and Imperialism’)

Hund, Wulf D., and Alana Lentin. (2014) Racism and Sociology. Chapter ‘Racism in White Sociology From Adam Smith to Max Weber’ p.23-67 Edited by Wulf D. Hund, Alana Lentin. Zürich: Lit, Print. (The Racism and White Sociology chapter highlights how white sociology played a highly influential role in creating racism. This chapter along with Orientalism helped me to gain a deeper understanding of where the concept of racism began and how racist views began to be documented and became normalised.)

Orwell, G (1946) Politics and the English Language, Horizon (This helped to make it clear how English can be used to exclude. This led me to start questioning the political issues and whiteness of the English language and more specifically academic writing.)

Gerald, J. (2020). Worth the Risk: Towards Decentring Whiteness in English Language Teaching. BC TEAL Journal, 5(1), 44-54. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v5i1.345 (This article helped to make the issues surrounding my discipline area (ELT/EAP) and whiteness more visible. It also highlights what radical changes are needed.)

Arao, B., & Clemens, K. (2013). From Safe Spaces to Brave Spaces: a new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice. In Landreman, L. (Ed.), The Art of Effective Facilitation: Reflections from Social Justice Educators (pp. 135-150). Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing. (This article really helped me to understand the concepts of safe and brave spaces. Previously, I had only used the word safe spaces, but now I negotiate with students how we together can create a safe and brave space to engage in meaningful discussions surrounding social justice issues.)