Making a Meaningful Difference Through Careers in Education

The College of Education at UMass Amherst seeks to prepare leaders who will improve education through their professional practice and research both locally and globally, and to diversify and expand its reach in all areas of education—creating interdisciplinary pathways, courses of study, and including students of all backgrounds in its core vision: education for a socially just world.

What is Social Justice Education?

Social justice education prepares teachers, leaders, and scholars for careers where they can make a difference in the lives of their communities and classrooms by fostering educational environments that are socially just, diverse, inclusive, and equitable. The Social Justice Education program is ideal for students who want to acquire the tools and knowledge they need to implement change in educational environments. Through informed, transformational education, these systems can be recognized, assessed, and reformed to better serve a vastly diverse world. 

Students learn to appreciate the diversity of the world while recognizing that everyone comes from different backgrounds, with individual experiences and levels of exposure to oppressive systems. “Oppression dehumanizes everyone,” says Raphaela Machado ‘24, a psychology major with a minor in education. Machado has learned that people in positions of privilege can themselves become dehumanized if they engage in or tolerate the oppression of others. 

Raphaela Machado (left) and her project partner Bailey Homan give a presentation on the topic of intersectionality. 

Courses in Social Justice Education

Machado plans to work as a therapist in underserved communities after graduating from UMass. She says that understanding how issues intersect with multiple social identities is a crucial part of understanding people as a whole. Despite being a Latina woman and a first-generation American, she recognizes her own privilege in certain ways.

Social justice education has factored prominently in the courses she’s taken throughout her time at UMass. "These courses have challenged me to dig deeper into systems [of oppression] while also furthering my ongoing efforts of being the best ally possible to friends of mine who share different social identities,” she reveals

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UMass Amherst launched the nation’s first doctoral program in social justice education in 1992. Since then, many related courses and educational pathways have been introduced for undergraduate students, including the Community Education & Social Change major. Courses such as Education 210: Social Diversity in Education and Education 202: Social Issues in Intergroup Dialogue: Exploring Social/Cultural Differences and Common Ground have also been added, extending the reach of social justice education. The college also runs a weekend-long seminar called Education 395Z: Issues in Intergroup Relations, co-sponsored by Student Affairs and Campus Life (SACL), whose mission is to help students transition to living on campus, foster diversity and belonging, and open opportunities for civic engagement campus-wide. 

Now more than ever, parents, students, and teachers alike are aware of the fact that our world is unequal.

Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin, Dean of the College of Education

John Boles ‘27 is one of many students to enroll in social justice education courses. For him and others, these courses make the need for the study of issues relating to equity and inclusivity even more apparent. “They allow me to not only see where work and help are needed,” Boles says, “but form a better understanding of the actions that I can take to create both equity and equality in places such as the classroom.”

Sara LaVigna ’27 is following in her mom’s footsteps by studying to become an elementary school teacher. Studying social justice has helped her become more aware of what is happening in society. “It’s important we learn to stand up for our peers and create change,” says LaVigna.

Social Diversity in Education

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In Education 210: Social Diversity in Education, students focus on issues of social identity, sociocultural diversity, and societal manifestations of oppression. Learning to draw on interdisciplinary perspectives, students analyze the systems of power and privilege that exist in familiar social contexts they interact with in daily life. This encourages close observation of specific structures and interactions across all facets of society. Princess Garrett, a PhD student who leads a discussion section for the course, says, “This course is one where you get to know yourself and your community.” Garrett notes that “so many of the students in the course look inward, deeply, and are invested in making change in our world.”

Social Issues in Intergroup Dialogue

Based on a critical methodology developed by UMass Amherst professor and chancellor's leadership fellow Ximena Zúñiga, Education 202: Social Issues in Intergroup Dialogue fosters ongoing student dialogue on issues of difference, identity, and community to facilitate intergroup understanding. The course focuses on introducing and discussing multiple perspectives across racial and ethnic identities. The inclusion of varied perspectives encourages students to recognize and analyze differences between groups and examine where commonalities might be found to foster universal understanding and change. Such a focus helps students become “more in-tune with society,” says Sara LaVigna ‘27. 

Joshua Nichols ’24 (left), a mathematics major, and Cristina Zhao Zhen ‘24 (right), an accounting major, participate in a class conversation in Education 202. Students explored the concept of “action” as it relates to interrupting racial oppression and injustice. 

Issues in Intergroup Relations

The one-credit seminar Education 395Z: Issues in Intergroup Relations meets one weekend a semester for two full days. Students become active participants in intergroup dialogue, bringing together personal ideas and experiences as well as individual perspectives. They learn from one another across a multitude of social divides and gain a greater understanding of their part in a larger, diverse society. 

Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research

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In addition to a focus on social justice education through coursework and degree programs, the College of Education is home to seven research centers, including the Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research, founded in 2020 by Associate Professors Keisha L. Green and Jamila Lyiscott. The center’s mission, as described by Green, is to highlight the voices and experiences of BIPOC youth, and to put them “at the center of educational transformation, educational research, and teacher education.” The focus on youth perspectives led to the creation of the center’s youth board, which engages in youth-participatory research to help inform and carry out the center’s vision for racial equity and educational justice. The work of the youth board provides critical input for educating and training the next generation of educators to be, as Green says, “leaders and front liners for racial justice and equity within their spaces.” 

Watch Jamilla Lysicott's viral TED talk, a powerful spoken-word essay that celebrates — and challenges — the three distinct flavors of English she speaks with her friends, in the classroom, and with her parents. Lysicott explores the complicated history and present-day identity that each language represents.

Taking Social Justice Education From the University to the Real World

The center is actively engaged in partnerships with multiple organizations, departments, and resources across campus—like the Department of Afro-American Studies—as well as local entities such as Holyoke and Springfield Public Schools. These partnerships facilitate the spread of social justice education beyond the boundaries of the UMass Amherst campus and into the community, where it permeates student life to spotlight more experiences, ideas, and opportunities. 

Cynthia Gerstl-Pepin, dean of the College of Education, observes that, “now more than ever, parents, students, and teachers alike are aware of the fact that our world is unequal.” She encourages students and scholars in all fields to engage with ideas that pose questions of inequity, discrimination, and injustice by developing informed, real-world responses. These responses encourage the spread of understanding and examination of the systems of oppression that exist today, and wider contribution to not only a more equitable education, but a more equitable society. 

This story was originally published in February 2024.