This course challenges candidates to reflect on their individual beliefs in relationship to social justice teaching. Candidates will gain a comprehensive understanding of the historical struggles for equity and excellence. Using Freire's (1970) philosophy of social justice teaching as a context, candicates will analyze their relationship to issues related specifically to race, class and language diversity and examine how these categories intersect to reproduce inequality. The concepts of social justice, race, ethnicity, culture, privilege, institutional racism, poverty and wealth will be explored. In addition, the course will examine the ffect of public school students' self-perceptions in relation to how they are institutionally disenfranchised. This course will explore several theoretical frameworks related to social justice teaching, and use approached such as multiple perspective-taking, and self-actualization to help candidates develop new approaches to their teaching and interactions that facilitate a positive reframing of student self-perception. [ 3 credits ]