Social Justice Theme

As our culminating inquiry project focuses on “People and Environments: The Role of Government and Responsible Citizenship” using “How is a responsible citizen created in Canada?” as our key inquiry question,  the prior lesson and culminating inquiry project could be connected to the social justice theme of Power, Authority, and Governance and Civic Ideals and Practices. 

This means that students will be understanding the development of structures of power, authority, and governance and their evolving functions is essential for the emergence of civic competence. In addition, all people have a stake in examining civic ideals and practices across time and in diverse societies, as well as in determining how to close the gap between present practices and the ideals on which our democratic nation is based. An understanding of civic ideals and the practice of citizenship is critical to full participation in society. Students are encouraged to visit this resource to assist them in their research within this inquiry lesson and culminating project.  This is  a great website developed by the Government of Canada to educate citizens on their rights and roles of their citizenship. Furthermore, it allows students to look into the history and laws of where these decisions come from and how it impacts their responsibility as a citizen.  

Social justice themes could be incorporated into the many strands of history, geography and social studies as different patterns of globalization could be observed through history (early civilization and nation/citizen relationships), geography (local or global location disparities) and social studies (how relations develop over time and what implications this has for today). This can look different from grade to grade depending on the approach educators take within the instructional strategies in the unit (ex. group work, individual work, inquiry, class discussion, project, etc...) The type of unit organization depends on the academic and social level of the class, where the teacher's discretion  must be utilized. 

Teachers are encouraged to have a range of instructional activities within their unit as this allows for student engagement to be high within the unit. It also allows for educators to target multiple intelligences within their class which ultimately allows for greater student achievement. Questions that should be addressed within the unit should be broad, open ended questions that allow students to make connections and apply critical thinking skills.