Social Justice In Education Case Study

At age five, Jennifer Wilson found her world torn apart in the wake of her parents’ divorce. With few outlets, it was Jennifer’s second grade teacher Mrs. Dills who provided her with solace and support. Taking Jennifer under her wing, Mrs. Dills would spend meals with Jen and was there for anything that she needed, consistently and constantly there for her. Jen would never forget this teacher’s incredible actions of love. Many years later, Jennifer Wilson now goes by Mrs. Wilson as a sixth through eighth grade alternative education teacher at Windsor Elementary School in Connecticut. Inspired by the tremendous compassion that she experienced with her own teacher, Mrs. Wilson’s objective is to be that person for other students. She …show more content…
Wilson is no stranger to this inequitable schooling and its relation to social justice. Prior to teaching at Windsor, Mrs. Wilson taught at a school in Hartford, Conneticut, as a fourth fifth and sixth grade teacher at a bilingual school with a primarily Puerto Rican population, most of her students experiencing poverty and violence. While Mrs. Wilson had thought that her experiences working with this community had enabled her to be well-informed on inequitable schooling and how to navigate various social justice issues, it was the introduction of her son Kellen to school that radically transformed her perception of social justice in the education system. Being white herself, Mrs. Wilson had known about and seen racial injustice, but had never had to feel it for herself. However, when she married her husband Omar, an African American man, the experiences she had seen became experiences that she felt. This was particularly true in the introduction of her son Kellen to school. Kellen has always been not only an intelligent child, but also an incredibly kind and warm-hearted individual. He is soft-spoken, well behaved, and has grown in the legacy of his father’s nickname: “gentle giant”. When Kellen was first introduced to school, however, this is not the student that the teachers saw. Instead, it was his skin tone became his defining factor. Despite being a proficient reader, Kellen was immediately placed on the intervention-based reading program, a determination …show more content…
Wilson has experienced as a teacher, her journey has certainly not been without challenges. According to Mrs. Wilson, the greatest obstacles that she experiences are her constant battles against people’s preconceptions of education, constantly having to prove the validity of the alternative education programs as well having to combat the negative perceptions of public education that cause parents to take a defensive stance against teachers. She has additionally faces struggles with parents of color distrusting white teachers, a fear that Mrs. Wilson both understands and tries to overcome in order to build essential relationships with the community. Furthermore, even in the diverse setting of the school, the students often segregate themselves. The school attempts to combat this by forcing students to sit with their classmates, but the problem still persists. Mrs. Wilson additionally has faced struggles working in coordination with other teachers. Her advice: never go into the teacher’s