I examined a coursebook which is called “Teenwise” for the 9th graders published by the Ministry of Education. I chose this book because I used this book in my practicum the last term, and I observed the students attitudes towards the activities in the book. Firstly, this book consists of ten different units, and each unit has two different sections. When we look through these units, some of them may be a part of social justice education.
I would like to start with the first unit “Studying Abroad”, the unit starts with the different greetings expressions from different countries. In addition to this, we also see pictures of the different countries’ flags. This part of the unit may draw the students’ interest in other cultures, discovering different cultures may help students to understand and respect the other points of views of the people all around the world. Thus, students can notice the importance of world peace. If this unit is developed in terms of its content and activities, it would be definitely a good example of world peace.
Another unit is called “Human in Nature” when we look through its contents and activities, we mostly see the explanations of nature and natural disasters terms, and there are no other activities such as how we can prevent such disasters or what we should do for our environment. Humans are not thought to be responsible for natural disasters, however, Cannon (1994) states that humans are also responsible for the disasters. For instance, people have experienced a hurricane in Antalya, Turkey. In Turkey, such natural disasters have not happened until now, the reason why it has happened now is the global warming, and we, people, cause global warming with using plastics, cutting trees(deforestation)etc. However, in the book, these issues are not included. Thus, the contents of this unit are insufficient in terms of environmental issues.
Emergency and Health Problems is another unit can be related to social justice issues. The unit teaches students how to express their health problems in the target language, but there is no sign of the other people who cannot get help for their health problems in the world. This is one of the important issues in the world most of the people cannot be treated, these issues could be included in the unit.
Last not but least “ Bridging Cultures”, this unit can be a good example of social justice education. In this unit, the students learn about other cultures and customs. This unit is also a great example of world peace.
In a nutshell, every subject can be a part of social justice education because it is life itself, but unfortunately, in general, the purpose of this book is just to teach the language, not to raise the students’ awareness of social justice issues, but why? The reason behind is that the importance of social justice issues is not aware of by so many people. We need to teach our students how to save our planet, or how we can prevent poverty or why we can respect the differences of the people for the better and livable world. If they do not know these issues, there may be no future because the balance of the earth is disrupting day by day, people are dying because of hunger, people are upset because they are not respected because of their beliefs or differences. If we want to better and livable world, we need to tell students these issues importance or raise their awareness.
References
Cannon, T. (1994). Vulnerability analysis and the explanation of ‘natural’disasters. Disasters, development, and environment, 1, 13-30.