The Social Responsibility of Educators as They Guide Young Learners

 

The Social Responsibility of Educators as They Guide Young Learners

Educators at every level have the weighty responsibility of designing and executing learning for students with very wide arrays of personal variables. Not only must educators consider students' individual learning challenges and needs, and linguistic/cultural differences, but also remain sensitive to variables such as sexual identity, race, socio-economic status, and variances in familial lifestyles. How these variables are addressed in the educational environment affects a student’s academic development and shapes their future identities as citizens. “How can we successfully teach and reach all students, from all backgrounds, while fostering a desire for increased social responsibility and awareness within them?” (Gangone, 2019, pg. 1)

Clearly, we live in a time of unprecedented insensitivity to many social-difference-related issues even though the United States has been working through many of these same issues for generations. There is a deep desire within the education community to grow up new generations of Americans who can cope with their own social responsibilities and support others while they do the same. The development of basic social skills early in life may be the key to the social changes many of us are desperate for. Enveloping lessons on cooperation, communication, conflict management, and role-playing perspective-taking (Berman, 1990) into the general curriculum at every level of education could be an excellent start. Learners of every kind need these valuable tools in their coping skills repertoire.

Resources

Berman, S. (1990). Educating for Social Responsibility. Educational Leadership, November, 75–80. http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_199011_berman.pdf

Gutierrez, A. (2020, February 12). Educators and Social Responsibility: What This Means to Informed Citizenry. American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE). https://aacte.org/2019/08/educators-and-social-responsibility-what-this-means-to-informed-citizenry/