fromReflections learnersstudent JeslynLi‘22

allowing the students to control. Every day, as we entered class, either by opening a door or clicking a “join meet” button, we began a trip of thrilling challenges and reflective thinking. During class discussions, we were reminded that this differs from a debate where the goal is to present correct answers or conclude an agreement. Instead, we were encouraged to listen and empowered to share our experiences, voices and whatever we felt needs to be said. These classroom activities gave us more agency over our education and more confidence in our possibilities.

How this classroom transformed our learning and our project

One of our biggest takeaways from the interdisciplinary course was the development of our Social Justice Action Project. Right from the name, we see how it is distinct from any “action plans,” which highlight the intended ideas; an “action project” focuses on the actual efforts dedicated to accomplishing our passion. Thus, over six months, we developed a bilingual monthly magazine, a podcast series and a two-day student-led conference. Still, the measure of our project’s success didn’t rely on the number of listeners, length of publication or other numerical stats. What we truly achieved was the ability to discover, commit, connect and lead. Towards the end of the course, when we saw our classmates’ works, we realized we were not looking at school projects; we were looking at an exhibition of vitality, courage and the endless potential of 21st-century learners.

What we were able to do

Our experience in Ms Young and Ms Duplisea’s classroom can, arguably, be summed with two words: personalized and supported. Like other students enrolled in the course, we were able to tailor the curriculum to fit our Social Justice Action Project and had the (much-needed) support of our teachers every step of the way. The synchronous parts of class, such as the salons, quite simply became the foundational knowledge we leveraged to join society’s perpetual fight for social justice. Whether this was through amplifying our voices in our slam poem “Enough” to debunk the model-minority myth or striking up important conversations about mental health to challenge the stigma around the topic, the classroom opened up a gateway for us to call out injustice and call in the community to take action.

Our suggestions for improvement

Though our time in this interdisciplinary classroom has ended, we hope to continue this into the future. We, therefore, believe that it is vital for the learning and practice of social justice to continue beyond just one course, one semester or one year. If students are able to begin their journey earlier on in their studies and encouraged to continue their ‘assignments’ afterward, the true purpose of this class would be sustained. Furthermore, we appreciate the collaborative nature this class adopts. Nothing is more perfect for co-construction than activities where students bring in materials they found, should this be a book by an author from a marginalized group or a movie depicting a recent controversy. Such engaging and intellectually challenging undertakings will all lead to the betterment of this class.