Expert Study

Chelsea Womack
CI 3400
Dr. Laurie Ramirez
Fall 2015

I. Identification of Artifact/Evidence
Artifact: Social Justice Reflection Paper
Topic/Title: Social Justice Issues Within Middle School Classrooms
Medium: Microsoft Word Document
Technology Used: Microsoft Word, Class text and articles, Internet research
The artifact that I have chosen to use in this expert study was my final
reflection paper that I completed for my Foundations 2400 class during the Fall
semester of 2013. The purpose of this reflection was to focus on the importance
of being informed about social justice in terms of a Middle School setting. My
paper focused on social norms that exist within the classroom as a result of the
Patriarchy that our society has been engrained within. I received a 50/50 on this
assignment and received specific feedback from my professor stating that the
ideas presented in my final reflection are great ideas that I can take with me into
my own classroom.
Although this artifact is not from a specific content area, I chose to include this
artifact in my expert study due to its relevance to the middle school classroom,
as well as the social studies application that I can use in conjunction with it.
Because my specific focus was on our Patriarchal society and its effect on
students inside the classroom, I have corresponded to Standard 4 of the Middle
Grades Social Studies Content Area Standards:
Standard 4: Social studies teacher candidates who teach social studies
know and can facilitate learning about how individual and collective
identities are shaped by groups and institutions.
Standard 4 was addressed in my artifact in specific relation to the existence of
a Patriarchy within our own society. Middle School social studies teacher
Womack 2

candidates can facilitate learning about the impact of stereotypes, conformity,

acts of altruism, and other behaviors on individuals and groups. By focusing the
Patriarchy and its impact on individuals living within it, I am acknowledging the
importance of avoiding the social norms that are associated with being a woman
and being a male living within a Patriarchy.
Social justice and history go hand in hand, which is a significant reason as to
why I chose to include this artifact. Throughout history social justice has
appeared as an ongoing issue, whether it be womens rights, civil rights, or
anything of the sort. By understanding how to teach social justice issues to our
students, we can begin to defeat social justice issues while simultaneously
teaching our students about its impact on history. This artifact demonstrated my
content knowledge and passion for social justice within the classroom and even
more so my desire to effectively use my social studies curriculum to defeat social
norms in order to create a classroom community focused on individual success
regardless of gender, race, and socioeconomic status.

II. Analysis of Content Knowledge at the Time of Artifact Completion

At the time of completion, I had a pretty firm grasp on the concept of social
justice due to the fact that I had just completed an entire course about its
existence in a Middle School setting. However, in terms of applying social justice
to a social studies perspective, I honestly didnt even consider the idea before
beginning my expert study. I took my lessons in social justice and expected that
all I would need to do to be a good teacher was to apply them to a list of do and
do not dos in my own classroom. Do include all students; do not pick favorites.
Womack 3

Do compliment females on their intellectual thought; do not compliment females

solely on their handwriting. These are the kinds of messages that I took away,
expecting that these ideas would make me a better teacher. At the time I
absolutely believe that just having knowledge on the topic of social justice would
make me a better teacher, and I still firmly believe that having this knowledge
will make me a better teacher, but I now believe that knowing how to apply
social justice within my social studies curriculum will make me a great teacher.
The following is an excerpt from my paper, and I feel as though it completely
encompasses my beliefs towards the Patriarchal society at the time:
We are taught that Elementary School teachers are supposed to be happy
and upbeat, but most importantly: female. Middle School teachers are also
supposed to be female, and the sight of a male in a position that isnt
Principal or Vice Principal is learned to be uncommon or weird. Students
accept male teachers in a High School setting because High School is
where students start to understand what life is going to be like, and who
knows better about life than a man in a male-dominated society? These are
issues that students so young dont understand and so they are forced to
just sit and witness this throughout their entire education. They dont
understand that what they see as normal is actually a standard
composed by societys beliefs and that we are all supposed to follow. These
students follow these norms without even realizing it. We cant blame them
because they dont know, but how do we avoid these norms from being
deemed normal by the future generation? Simple enough, we change the
norms. Its not as simple as wed like to believe it is, though.
Womack 4

These social norms that I have listed above are some of the exact reasons
why I seek to include social justice in the social studies curriculum within my own
classroom. At the time that I wrote this paper, I was completely unaware of my
ability to apply these ideas to social studies content, but the simple fact of the
matter is that social justice is completely relevant to history. Its one thing to
know about social justice issues myself, but to apply them to my curriculum and
pass my knowledge of social justice onto my students is much more effective
when considering how to defeat Patriarchal societies and bettering our education
system.
III.Development of Content Knowledge Since Artifacts Completion
It wasnt until after my Fall 2015 semester that I learned that it was possible
to incorporate social justice into my classroom that could not only help me
improve my classroom community, but could also convey the importance of
social justice to my students within my curriculum. By doing so, I would be killing
two birds with one stone: avoiding social norms and defeating social norms.
Since completing this assignment in December 2013, I have significantly
increased my knowledge in the content area of social justice due to my varying
block classes. Specifically during this time, I was able to develop my knowledge
of social justice in a social studies classroom by exploring teaching strategies
that would allow me to focus on how to teach the topic of social justice while
simultaneously making my students aware of it within their own lives.
During the Fall 2015 semester I was enrolled in a Social Studies in the Content
Areas course, which focused on effective strategies that could be used to teach
Middle School social studies. We spent a great deal of time focusing on how to
avoid teaching using the Great Man Theory, which was something I also explored

Womack 5

in my NC History class in the Spring of 2015. For a project titled Correcting the
Past, which gave us the opportunity to teach a part of history that is often
misled, I focused on womens role throughout history because I have always felt
that women are not accurately represented. Rather than focus on the male
powerhouses who made big decisions and were the faces of our country, I
chose to focus on the women who helped them get to that point: their wives,
their daughters, nurses during times of wars, and so on and so forth. Not only did
I get to explore the female role within history, but I also got to address gender
bias in the retelling of historical events. By incorporating the two within one unit
of lesson plans, I was able to expand my knowledge both on social justice and
history. Without a doubt this presented a great more deal of work for me, but if
things are going to be taught to our future generations, they should be taught
the correct way.
Without a doubt, I still have a very long way to go in terms of how I can apply
social justice issues to more than just that of a select few lessons on women in
history, but I feel as though I have made great headway in recognizing the need
for its presence in history education. With a great deal of research, I should be
able to find examples of social justice continually throughout history. This makes
my job more difficult as a teacher in the sense that I wont be able to just teach
what the text book tells me to focus on, but I will be doing my students a better
service by giving them a bigger picture of history.
IV. Plan for Increasing Depth of Content Knowledge
My number one goal for my social studies classroom is to communicate to my
students the importance of defeating social norms that attempt to define our

Womack 6

roles in society. By this, I mean that girls should be seen as more than
housewives, men should be seen as more than dominant figures, and so on and
so forth. Our society has embedded predetermined roles within our daily life and
if someone doesnt fit those roles as they have already been defined for us then
they are seen as the other. My goal is to defeat this other by communicating
to my students the importance of individuality regardless of what societys
expectations of us are.
My first strategy in deepening my content knowledge of how to defeat these
social norms that are imposed on us with a specific focus on social studies would
be to expand my research to focus on individuals who are not put in the spotlight
of history. I am more interested in focusing on the gears of the operation. Who
was involved in making those big names such important figures? As I mentioned
in Part III, I chose to focus on individuals who helped the big names get to that
point. My specific example included women because that was the focus of my
lesson plans, but for a broader strategy that has greater application to other
topics, a general focus on any individual involved in making a difference could be
a great place to start in order to avoid the Great Man Theory. To do this, I could
first look at big names in history and then explore further research on individuals
who played a role in helping that big name progress. Individuals dont get to
where they are without the help of others, and I see the importance in
recognizing those smaller figures.
A second strategy that I feel is one of the most important aspects of teaching
would be to relate the material to my students interests. By doing this, not only

Womack 7

am I helping students to expand knowledge on what they are specifically

interested in, but I am also building relationships with my students by
incorporating their interests within my curriculum. Social Studies is never a crowd
favorite among students; however, by adjusting my curriculum to include
information that my students have specifically expressed an interest in, I can
increase student engagement and interest within the subject area. Not only are
my students increasing their knowledge, but this helps me to increase my own
knowledge in the content area as well because I am setting out to search for
individuals who arent as recognized within history. This is an effective strategy
that any teacher of any content area can use to increase student engagement
and interest within the classroom while increasing their own knowledge of the
content area.
V. Reflection on Depth of Content Knowledge
The knowledge that I have on this subject focuses around the influence of
social justice and social norms on the development of our society. I can look at
past historical events and see the influence of womens roles on the success of
more important individuals, but I can also recognize the lack of recognition that
these women receive.
Social justice can easily be integrated into the language arts curriculum as
well. I can only imagine how many pieces of literature exist about womens rights
and important women in history. Rather than hear about Michelle Obamas
achievements in terms of implementing health plans for schools, we hear about
what she was wearing at one of President Barak Obamas speeches. We are
taught that womens appearances are more important than their

Womack 8

accomplishments and then women are inferior to their male equals. Creating
interdisciplinary lessons that address social studies and language arts provide a
great opportunity to study literature while getting a history lesson
simultaneously.
There is so much to learn about social justice and it is a subject area that is
constantly evolving; because of this reason I dont consider my expert by any
means, but I am interested in learning and so I will take the initiative to keep
myself informed. Because social norms are constantly changing this provides an
excellent opportunity for students to observe their changes throughout history.
How have women made progress throughout history? They could focus on
Womens Suffrage all the way to a focus on equal pay in the workplace. Social
justice provides limitless opportunities for historical analysis and I believe that
these opportunities should be jumped on in order to benefit our students and to
keep them informed of societys progress. If students can see the progress that
has been made as history has progressed, they can then see the possibility to
VI.

create change themselves.

Growth as a Middle Grades Teacher through this Expert Study
Through the completion of this expert study, I learned that my final reflection
paper on social justice had more to do with the middle school curriculum than to
just say that we should be aware of its effect on adolescents and their
development. Prior to completing this expert study I wasnt aware of how I could
apply ideas related to social justice into a social studies perspective. Reading
back through this artifact reminded me of how strong of a writer I am when I am
writing about something that I care about and something that is important and

Womack 9

relevant to my interests. There is no doubt that adolescents and their success is

my top focus in this world. I absolutely love middle school students and I want
nothing but the world handed to them and so social justice issues are absolutely
relevant in terms of their development. Theyre exposed to so much from media
and advertising. Females are taught that their bodies are they only thing anyone
pays attention to. Males are taught that they arent allowed to have emotions.
These are stereotypes that I strive to completely shatter. I know that I wont be
able to do this alone because these stereotypes are embedded in our society, but
I firmly believe that if I can communicate to my students that there are more
important things to be aware of then they can leave my classroom with those
messages and share them with others. By embedding social justice issues into
my social studies curriculum, I can teach the history of where these issues exist
and why they exist. We learn from history and so including social justice issues
within the curriculum can help my students to see their influence on the
development of society.
In order to make any headway in changing the system we have to change
ourselves, but how can we be expected to do that when we were socialized into
these beliefs at such a young age? The Patriarchal system is all we have ever
known and it is all we have ever seenits not as simple to say that we can
simply change ourselves and change the system. It starts with a change of
behavior and a voice that speaks out against it. If I have the ability to teach my
students that they are better than the Patriarchal system, then I firmly believe
that I will have taught them the most important piece of information. Societys

Womack 10

norms teach us that if we arent good enough that we are the other. However,
if no one but a select few fit societys definition of perfection, those select few
become the other in a world where other people are just simply normal.

Womack 11