Tyler-Shaye Miller

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Diversity, Social Justice and Learning

Assessment 2b
Critical Reflection upon the resource ‘The Social Pyramid’

Contextual information

Within the unit Diversity, Social Justice and Learning an exploration of social

stratification and the interrelations of education and inequality was effectively

portrayed within the group assessment. This assessment required an interactive

resource that effectively displayed one social justice issue whilst being supported by

appropriate sociological frameworks to increase student’s social awareness of power

imbalances and inequity. The game created by my team was called ‘The Social

Pyramid’ and is a board game that effectively addresses the social justice topic.

Implementing social justice issues

Within the Australian Curriculum, (ACARA, 2010) the general capabilities of Personal

and Social capability and Ethical understanding are key areas that an educator must

implement within their teaching practices and pedagogies. These capabilities develop

student’s social awareness, empathy and create active and informed citizens which are

all cultivated within ‘The Social Pyramid.’ The board game is a valuable resource for

educators as it creates a collaborative and engaging tool for the content of social justice

issues whilst also being applicable across all Key Learning Areas. This flexibility

ensures that the social justice issue can be discussed within any discipline, thereby

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promoting student social awareness and ensuring the application of ACARA’s general

capabilities.

Social stratification is a topic that should be explored by all students across Australia

as class, marginalisation and the effects of institutional classism should be understood

to create a more diverse and equitable educational system and more broadly, an

equitable society. The integration of social justice issues within the curriculum and

students’ lessons is necessary to challenge the negative social reproduction that occurs

within schools. ‘The Social Pyramid’ effectively challenges these issues as students

engage with how the social classes are divided and the inherent disadvantages related

to the lower classes and the privileges that are afforded within the higher echelons of

the social classes. The students will also have a greater understanding of class

disparities as it is highlighted by the interplay between the character cards and the

juxtaposition of the privilege and disadvantage cards. Moreover, students who are aware

of their social class and the advantages and disadvantages that are procured by societal

institutions creates the capacity for students to transcend their social class as they have an

enhanced level of social awareness, which is displayed through the topic of class mobility in

the game. The resource, therefore, is invaluable as it creates active and informed citizens,

which is an “important dimension in attempts to make their lives fairer and more equitable”

(Smith, 2012, p. 100). Therefore, the resource has the capacity to demonstrate the importance

of advocacy within social justice issues and can create individual empowerment and tolerance

whilst supporting the process of dismantling the disparities between the classes.

Sociological theories

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The predominant theory supporting the premise of the resource was the social reproduction

theories of Pierre Bourdieu, (1977) particularly focusing upon his three tenants of capital,

habitus, and field. Bourdieu’s emphasis on power, inequality, and the effects of habitus are

clearly linked within the resource, where students can understand how their individual

habitus and social class greatly effects their life experiences. The board game effectively

displays social classes without perpetuating negative stereotyping and supporting the

dominant and deficit discourses. As we created our resource, we centred student

participation around the concepts of social constructivism as student collaboration and

peer-to-peer learning is required (Young, 2008). The resource necessitates student

collaboration which resembles “Social progressivists theories as they assert that education

should be based on the principles that the child is part of society and that its learning is social”

(Langford, 2005, p. 124). The students will also garner a ‘deep learning’ of the social

justice issue and shall have the capacity to engage within higher-order thinking

strategies as the resource and consequential discussion requires introspective and

advanced critical thinking (Warner, Myers, 2014).

The resource also requires inquiry-based learning as students discover the content

through their engagement with the board game. Inquiry-based learning deepens

students’ cognitive capabilities whilst also transforming the learning environment and

making it more dynamic and meaningful, encouraging learners to be more self-directed, thus,

increasing student academic motivation and engagement (Blessinger, P., & Carfora, 2014,

p. 8). The resource also ensures that students reflect upon their learning and preconceived

notions as the collaboration and discussion that will occur upon the playing of the board

game enhance students critical thinking faculties, and metacognitive learning (Dunlosky, &

Metcalfe, 2009). An educator’s use of the resource would encourage a broadening of

perspectives, and possible alleviation of prejudice within the students themselves. Moreover,

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the board game presents the possibility of transformational experience as the students have

the capacity to be more self-aware and self-reflexive learners. (Ferjola, 2015)

Teaching practice

Within education, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation Development (2010)

found that a student’s socio-economic context is one of the main determinists of

student performance. This factor creates disparities between social classes and

promotes issues of inequity, exclusion, and intolerance, which is further perpetuated by

teaching practices. Thus, to overcome these challenges I believe that a major influence

is the classroom teacher and their philosophies, bias and prejudices. Thus, it is

imperative for educators to promote and regard social stratification as an important

issue within education.

Within my personal teaching philosophy, I strongly believe in an equitable education that

caters to all student ensuring an inclusive pedagogical approach. This approach has been

reinforced by this unit of work and game-based assessment and has greatly enhanced my

knowledge base of the inexcusable inequities prevalent and the deficit discourse and

hegemonic environment present in schools. The education system can unfortunately

perpetuate social stratification issues, lack of inclusion, and support for diversity that occur in

society broadly, consequently creating narratives of blame and negative stereotyping upon

certain students. (Bhopal, Bhopal & Maylor , 2014, p. 66) Thus, a transformative approach

must occur within teaching practices to effectively disrupt this pedagogy of poverty and

deficit views, ensuring a more inclusive, responsive, and reflexive approach (Bhopal et al,

2014). These positive and inclusive strategies are practices that I intend to interweave within

my teaching pedagogy corresponding with culturally and socially relevant content that

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engages the learners, as well as providing “learning opportunities where they can engage

subject matter with a critical lens” (Bhopal et al, 2014, p. 152). Furthermore, through my

enhanced knowledge base of Bourdieu’s sociological theory, I have an improved

understanding of the complexities and interrelations of diversity, socio-economic

stratification, and power. Therefore, I currently have a greater capacity to instil social

awareness within my teaching practices and create engaging lessons that challenge and

motivate my diverse range of students and engage with their critical and higher-order

thinking strategies.

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References

Australian Curriculum. (2020). F-10 Curriculum. https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/

Blessinger, P., & Carfora, John M. (2014). Inquiry-Based Learning for Faculty and
Institutional Development : A Conceptual and Practical Resource for
Educators. (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning).
Bhopal, D., Bhopal, Kalwant, Maylor, Uvanney, & Ebooks Corporation. (2014).  Educational
inequalities : Difference and diversity in schools and higher education  (Routledge
research in education ; 102).
Bourdieu, P. (1977). Distinction: A social critique of the judgement of taste. Routledge

Centre for Educational Research Innovation Corporate Author, & Organisation for Economic
Co-operation Development. (2010). Educating teachers for diversity meeting the
challenge. (Educational research and innovation). Paris: OECD.
Duchesne, S., McMaugh, Anne, Bochner, Sandra, & Krause, Kerri-Lee. (2012). Educational
psychology : For  learning and teaching (4th ed.).
Dunlosky, J., & Metcalfe, Janet. (2009). Metacognition. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Ferfolja, T., Jones Diaz, C., & Ullman, J. (2015). Understanding Sociological Theory for
Educational Practices. Australia: Cambridge University Press
Langford, P., & MyiLibrary. (2005). Vygotsky's developmental and educational
psychology (1st ed., MyiLibrary). Hove, East Sussex ; New York, NY: Psychology
Press
Sever, M. (2012) ’A critical look at the theories of sociology of education’, International Journal of
Human Sciences, 9 (1), pp. 640-671.
Smith, Emma. Key Issues in Education and Social Justice, SAGE Publications, 2012. ProQuest
Ebook 
Warner, A.J and Myers, B.E. (2014). What is Inquiry Based Learning? University of Florida
Young, M. (2008). Bringing knowledge back in : From social constructivism to social realism
in the sociology of education. London : New York: Routledge.