Amanda Smith-Chonko

Choice Board #3

Multicultural Practicum (J-Term)

For this choice board, I have chosen to make a connection to a Catholic Social Teaching

Theme. With Social Justice as my specialization, I found that there are several CST themes that

can be connected to the article assigned, Understanding Education for Social Justice. Social

Justice alone has so many connections to the Catholic Social Teaching Themes as social justice is

one of the core standards within the CST. During this choice board, I am going to make several

connections to the Catholic Social Teaching Themes that I found to be connected to the article.

The first theme that I chose to connect would be the Rights and Responsibilities. Within the

Rights and Responsibilities theme, it is stated that all people need to have food, clothes, a

house, and to be able to go to school. The right to be able to go to school no matter what a

child’s background is connected to this article because it discusses the idea of teaching social

justice in the classroom. By teaching social justice in the classroom, students will know that all

humans are capable of learning and have the right to an education. The notion of bias will be

removed from the core of the students’ morals. Students are in a classroom for around 8 hours

a day and for about 8-9 months of the year. In this time, students are observing their teacher’s

actions. If a student is taught to help those that don’t have the food, clothes, house, or the

ability to go to school then we are expanding their notion of social justice instead of social

injustice.

The next theme I made a connection to with Understanding Education for Social Justice

article is Human Dignity. I chose Human Dignity as the theme to make a connection to because
of what Human Dignity is. Human Dignity according to the Catholic Social Teaching is people

should love each other and to solve problems without fighting. Also, Human Dignity is that all

people have value and should care for each other. In the article, it states that “social justice

education encourages students to take an active role in their education and supports teachers

in creating empowering, democratic, and critical educational environments” (page 6). While

teaching using social justice, teachers are allowing students to be an active participant in their

education. While Human Dignity relates to loving each other. The connection I found to

relevant is solving problems without fighting. If a student has an active role in their educational

environment, students will be more engaged in the material while being able to solve problems

that affect their world and future.

This brings me to the last theme of CST which is Solidarity. Solidarity is defined as the

need to get along with each other and not fighting and helping others. I chose this theme

because it goes hand in hand with Human Dignity. These two themes are so similar and

referring to the article when using the social justice in education, “schools should help to

provide equality of opportunity” (page 9). This piece of the article stood out to me in regard to

Solidarity because when education is taught with social justice then schools are helping others

to get along. My thought is that if social justice education is the prime resource for students to

realize other issues that are around them such as people not having access to water in some

countries then those students may find a way to help those people using their education.

I choose to make a CST connection to this article because as I was reading this article I

thought this could be examples of Catholic Social Teaching themes. The way that social justice
education teaches students is still toward the standards, but it is growing individuals into

caring, challenging, and determined individuals.

Works Cited

Hytten, K., & Bettez, S. C. (2011). Understanding Education for Social Justice. Educational
Foundations, Winter-Spring, 7-24.