Using Critical Reflection to Inform Social Justice Research and Pedagogy

Presentation given at SoTL Commons Conference.

This presentation explores the significance of critical reflection for social justice research and social justice pedagogy through a discussion of the role of critical reflection in aligning social justice claims and social justice practice. Using Brookfield’s (1995) four lenses of critical reflection (i.e., autobiographical, students’ perspectives, colleagues’ perspectives, and theoretical literature) to operationalize connections between critical reflection and social justice, ways in which critical reflection on our practices resulted in curricular changes during implementation of a summer literacy program for African American youth as well as changes in one of our undergraduate pre-service education classes are highlighted.