A Mindfulness to Transcend Pre-Service Lip-Service: A Call for K-12 Schools to Invest in Social Justice Education (Promising Practices) (Report‪)‬

Learning to consider the experiences and perspectives of those who are marginalized is difficult for members of a dominant group who have not encountered similar obstacles. According to Sonia Nieto (2000) and the National Center for Education Information (2005), student populations continue to be characterized by diversity while more than ninety percent of those in teacher preparation programs are mostly White, middle class, and from non-urban backgrounds. Comprehending this paradox is important for members of the teaching community to confront the deep social and psychological influences of the -isms that affect society and schools. In her book, Other People's Children, Lisa Delpit (1995) criticizes the deficits of teacher education programs that avoid and repress the multicultural voices found in American classrooms today. I support her argument to reform teacher preparation programs, but for the purpose of this article I will explore the responsibility of individual schools that presently ignore and deny the multicultural facets of a typically diverse classroom. In doing so, I plan to expose three main features of promoting social justice that I suggest individual schools be held accountable for in order to move toward the full inclusion of all learners and foster a democratic learning environment of informed and respectful young citizens.