For Efraín Marimón, the more questions the Social Justice Collaborative tries to answer for its students, the more arise.
He recited these for starters:
- What does it mean to work with students from underrepresented communities or from black and brown communities?
- What does it mean in terms of your critical reflection?
- What are our responsibilities as educators, as individuals in society?
- How do we undo the harm of generations before us?
- How do we start working toward collective solutions to complex problems?
“We need to teach these concepts. We need to embed them into the curriculum, not just in a social studies class, but across the curriculum. That makes us more socially conscious individuals, and that hopefully leads us to a much better place tomorrow,” Marimón said.
“It needs to be very much a part of all our work, whether they’re going to be in the field as an advocate, a teacher, whatever it may be,” he said. “I want them to make sure that they’re thinking about impact on the community, thinking about what are the things that are informing their decisions.”
The fact that college and high school students are engaging in these topics is outstanding, Marimón said, but an infinite amount of work remains. “We have a long, long way to go,” he said. “While I want to celebrate the success we’ve had in partnering and expanding these opportunities in the school district and the College, I’m more aware of the likely challenges that lie ahead. This work is hard. We’re far from where I think we’d like to be in the future.”