Social justice through education: Engaging students
WHO: Susan Taylor, service-learning coordinator at the U of M and member of the Board of Directors of the Manitoba School Improvement Program (MSIP).
WHAT IT IS: MSIP is a non-profit organization that promotes educational equity and social justice by collaborating with public secondary schools to build their capacity to improve student learning and engagement. The university has now begun a partnership with MSIP to offer two service learning programs for U of M students. Through the organization’s Peaceful Village Garden program, university students will learn about food security issues faced by newcomers to Manitoba. And through the Peaceful Village program, the students will help develop newcomers’ literacy skills.
IN HER OWN WORDS: “Education is necessary to the practice of social justice because it enables people to critically view their society in order to transform it,” says Taylor. “I’m motivated by my desire to support organizations that work towards goals that I think are important. The vision that I have is of a more sustainable, just, and critically thinking society and I believe that the way to achieve that society is through education that deeply engages students in their community, and that builds their understanding of how communities can develop and thrive.”
FUNDERS: The Canada Council for the Arts, Manitoba Education, Manitoba Children and Youth Opportunities (Bright Futures Fund), Rogers Youth Fund, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, The United Way (All that Kids Can Be), The United Way, Child Nutrition Council of Manitoba, the Winnipeg Foundation and Manitoba Alternative Food Research Alliance
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