K-12 Chinese Language Teaching, Issue 5

课 程 多 维 观 察
Incorporating Social Justice into the Chinese Classroom
Jing Gao 7
Ankeny High School
Abstract
The rapid changes of our world present challenges to our education. World language classrooms
focus on the development of students’ language acquisition and cultural understanding to attain
effective intercultural communication and global competence. Through continuous critical
reflection on and examination of cultural diversity in schools and society, this article proposes
incorporating social justice into the Chinese classroom. Resistance to stereotyping, cross-cultural
awareness, and curriculum diversification can be included in the Chinese classroom.
Incorporating social justice into Chinese teaching provides an opportunity for students to grow
their empathy and respect for different cultural groups and develop their intercultural
communication and global competence.
Keywords: Chinese teaching, social justice, intercultural communication, global
competence
Introduction
We live in an increasingly diversified and interdependent world, in which what happens
in one part of the world affects and is affected by others due to interconnected global systems.
People’s lives have been radically changed by developments in technology, the economy,
transportation, and migration. The demographics in U.S. society and U.S. schools have turned
toward more diversity. According to U.S. Census Bureau (2021), the Asian population is the
fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the nation. Chinese Americans are the largest Asian group
with 5.4 million people, 23% of the Asian American population in the U.S. However, the status
quo of Asian Americans as an invisible and silent model minority and perpetual foreigner image
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高 景 Jing Gao earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in education from The Ohio State University. She has published articles in multiple
journals. Her research interests include social justice and multicultural education in language classrooms, teaching strategies for
students’ second language acquisition and intercultural/global competency, etc. gaoxiaohua12@gmail.com