Radical Virtual Social Justice Pedagogy : Crisis is Opportunity

Workshop Presentation
Nina Rose Fischer,  Adriana Perez Cortes  

The pandemic revealed and heightened systemic inequalities in education. People of color from low- income and working class socio-economic status in metropolitan areas across the United States are disproportionately harmed by the pandemic. Black and Latinx people are three times more likely to contract COVID-19 and twice as likely to die from the virus than whites. As educators it is our utmost responsibility to create a supportive learning environment where our students thrive. Through this workshop we assert that traditional teaching methods are ineffective at addressing student needs, especially students disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Addressing the survival and affective needs of students in a social justice oriented classroom increases the likelihood of success in class and subsequent graduation rates. A unique case study from an Interdisciplinary Studies Program on an urban, public university campus demonstrates the efficacy of virtual social justice pedagogy to successfully meet the needs of students during the pandemic. We present thematic categories that emerged from evaluative data from both faculty and students that encompass the central aspects of our antiracist, culturally affirming pedagogical efforts: 1) Questioning interdisciplinarity, 2) Disrupting systemic inequality and 3) Power shifting. We also demonstrate and practice how to operationalize these themes in the classroom.