Reflecting on Social Justice Foundational Concepts

Introduction

This micro-course will focus on some of the foundational concepts of social justice and is intended to serve as a starting point for reflection and building individual capacity for engaging with further social justice concepts. Like everything in social justice, this work is recursive and can benefit from being revisited and reflected upon at various stages in our lives.

In this course, we understand social justice to be both a process and a goal. The goal of social justice is full and equal participation of all groups in a society that is mutually shaped to meet their needs. Social justice includes a vision of society in which the distribution of resources is equitable and all members are physically and psychologically safe and secure. Social justice involves social actors who have a sense of agency as well as a sense of responsibility toward and with others, their society, and the broader world in which we live. Social justice requires action.

We hope that this course will inspire you to reflect and engage in ways that feel meaningful to you.

Learning Objectives

By completing this course, you will be able to:

  1. Develop an awareness of social identity and the power dynamics associated with identities
  2. Describe the cycle of socialization and how it connects to our understanding of our own identities and actions
  3. Define implicit bias and identify ways to combat bias
  4. Understand what microaggressions are and their impact
  5. Identify campus and additional resources and where to get help