Emphasize Social Justice More Than Skills Development 2 Of course, presenting this challenge as a dichot- omy is not fair; CRE can create more socially-just communities by developing skills and attitudes of collaboration, empathy and tolerance. Still, we’re
dealing with an increasing question of “What Do
‘We’ Stand For?” as the popular song asks. This
tension between the instrumental accomplishment
of skills development and the generative attention
to inequity and oppression has existed in our field
for decades. Yet there is a maturity and ripeness
question; CRE is no longer an adolescent, semi-ex-perimental initiative. It is a powerful and profound
intervention that requires us to reflect on the moral
and philosophical standpoint we take. Thus, a core
ethical issue of the field is the necessity for us to
take a stand on the side of more deliberate targeting of our work for non-dominant and disadvantaged groups and to frame our work as a social justice intervention rather than a competence-based
social advancement protocol.
In earlier work, I’ve argued that CRE should take a
stronger human rights and social justice orientation –
for example, that bullying prevention should be seen
as a human rights issue rather than an interpersonal
power dynamic. Ask yourself – to what extent is the
field of CRE making it a mission to advocate for social justice and empowerment for these and similar
groups? If your (our) answer is that these groups are
incidentally benefitted rather than essentially empowered by CRE, I suggest that we need to do more.
One example is the degree to which CRE programs
are currently available for and addressing issues of
immigrant and refugee students. Martin Scanlan, in
his 2011 article on “Inclusion: How school leaders
can accent inclusión for bilingual students” brings our
shifting demographics and the implications for education into sharp relief. In 2000, two out of five children in the United States came from racial and ethnic
minority families, immigrant families, or both, and by
the year 2035 the numbers will be close to 50%.
Sadly, immigrant and refugee students are often
targets of xenophobia in schools. Both educators and
policy makers often have negative attitudes toward
immigrant students, who they fear will will pull down
the performance of the entire school and require
accommodations that will strain limited resources.
Newcomer immigrant and refugee youth grapple
not only with learning a new language but also with
numerous resettlement stresses. Their families are
often isolated, uncomfortable interacting with gov-
ernment and official sources, and usually face unem-
ployment and/or other economic difficulties. Immi-
grant children may have to take care of the house-
hold or younger children in addition to dealing with
their role as student. In short, immigrant and refugee
children are seriously “at-risk” and “in-need” and can
benefit from the empathy, decision-making, and con-
flict resolution skills that CRE can provide.
A second area for examination is the extent to which
CRE initiatives are focusing on children with special
needs. Both regular and special needs students can
benefit from CRE programs, but most CRE programs
are focused on “regular education” students – even
though NCES estimates that 15 and 22% of children
in U.S. schools have special needs students that have
greater social skills deficits than other children.
Even in dispute resolution in special education,
where considerable resources are devoted to conflicts among and between adults involved with students with special needs, there is almost nothing focusing on helping the children themselves (especially
at high school or middle school levels where they can
be a part of Individualized Education Programs meetings) develop conflict skills to empower them to have
voice and advocate/participate for themselves.
The examples of immigrant/refugee students and
students with special needs are only two of many that
could be cited. The point is that the CRE field bears a
responsibility to provide educational efforts to directly empower and benefit these less powerful groups.
There are CRE practitioners and programs that focus on helping immigrant and refugee children and
students with special needs, but is this a central concern and focus of the field? Do we create programs
specifically to teach CRE and SEL to these students,
to help them navigate the schools and communities
with more confidence and protection? Ask yourself
whether a CRE program immediately comes to mind
that meets these criteria?
Accountability is an important concept in educa-
tion and social change. The power of CRE is the po-
tential to help create generations who will forge a
better world and more peaceful and inclusive com-
munities. As we start the next three decades of our
work, we are ethically responsible for holding our-
selves accountable to addressing – at least – these
two challenges. n
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