On February 17, 2016, I had the privilege of volunteering to run the 10th annual High School Social Justice Forum at the University of Windsor. The Social Justice Forum is an annual event hosted by Teachers for Global Awareness where students from local high schools gather to discuss important social issues. This year’s topics included #BlackLivesMatter, Saving Ojibway, Because It’s 2016: Feminism & Media, health hazards of social media on teens, politics, and LGBTQ+ representation in the media. As participants in the Social Justice Forum, students are encouraged to complete a social justice project at their school. The Social Justice Forum aims to help students become aware of prevalent social justice issues, to contemplate such issues, and understand the root of certain issues in order to become socially aware individuals. Helping students develop personal and social responsibility is just as important as focusing on lessons from ministry curriculum documents. As members of a larger society, it is important for students to develop a responsibility for social sectors, including media awareness, the environment, and community involvement.

Throughout the day, I attended different sessions and lectures where I gained valuable information about the representation, or the lack thereof, of LGBTQ+ people, and gender equality in popular television programs and Hollywood blockbusters. I realised that students are responsive subjects who are sensitive and aware of such inequalities and misrepresentations. This realization, and seeing how charged and enthusiastic students are to discuss such topics, allowed me to develop an understanding of what students want to talk about and what social issues interest them, which will allow me to create lesson plans and hold group discussions where students are free to talk about such subjects. For example, while teaching a social issues lesson in a general social science classroom, or exploring the feminist theory in an English classroom, exploring such topics could easily be done by using contemporary movies, lyrics, cartoons, and advertisements. It is vital for teachers to learn about their students’ interests in order to cater to their needs and learning styles. Ignacio Estrada once said, “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach the way they learn.” I believe that Estrada’s words extend beyond the methods in which students are taught, but includes the topics teachers choose to pose onto students in order to enhance their learning and critical thinking.