Social Change

Social change is greatly needed in today’s educational environment. Social change is being able to add a positive outlook on a person’s life through teaching and learning. People are not usually aware but learning about social change starts as a child. Most teachers take the opportunity to educate students about the world around them during social studies units. Keeping people aware of different cultural backgrounds and cultural changes can provide an impact with how people treat each other.  

Teaching students as they are young about how to view the world and treating people with respect no matter their backgrounds and challenges, is what empowers educators to lead our educational environment into positive social change. Each year, I get the opportunity to have my students learn about different global or local issues to form their personal opinions and solutions they feel their generation will understand. You can do this in different ways in the classroom. In first grade, students learn about the world around them by knowing where they live. Having a conversation about what happens locally can start them thinking about social change. In third grade, students learn about explorers. Teaching them about the real story (kid-friendly, of course!) of how people came to explore the Americas will allow them to start thinking about right and wrong. Integrating conversations with students about topics involving social change will allow educators to continue to change the world one classroom at a time.  

References 

Walden University. (n.d.-a). 5 things that everyone should know about social

change. https://www.waldenu.edu/about/social-change/resource/five-things-that-everyone-should-know-about-social-change