By: Dr Valentina Baú (DSAA Creative Approaches & Practices in Development Studies working group), Professor Nichole Georgeou (DSAA Creative Approaches & Practices in Development Studies working group), Associate Professor Garry Stevens, and Dr Melissa Phillips
This post discusses how social justice is positioned within Western Sydney University Humanitarian and Development Studies (HADS) undergraduate and postgraduate programs, both from a pedagogical perspective and in relation to their curriculum design. Our aim is to champion the idea that since social justice is embedded across sustainable development work, teaching programs in Development Studies must ensure that its notions are integrated effectively in both current and future curricula.
The link between university education and social justice
Social justice is a critical pillar of universities’ work, involving engagement with partners and students. It is also integral to a liberal education, fostering students’ awareness of social responsibility and active citizenship. It is crucial for faculty to deeply embed social justice principles across the curriculum, linking academic knowledge to real-world issues so that students are equipped with diverse competencies and world views to effectively understand and address global and social injustices (Nagda et al. 2010).
Faculty across all disciplines should incorporate research and effective teaching methods to promote an understanding of social justice (McDaniels and Haynes 2023). A pedagogy centred on social justice cultivates in students the inclination and skills for critical thinking, encouraging them to connect classroom knowledge with real-life situations. Fundamentally, social justice pedagogy operates on the belief that comprehending diverse societal experiences and histories empowers students to take action against the conditions that foster injustices (McDaniels and Haynes 2023).
Embedding social justice in development studies
The linkage between social justice and development studies offers an important pedagogical approach. Social justice ideology can be explored using thematic, issue oriented, problem solving and experiential learning. To do this, social justice is embedded in Western Sydney University HADS programs by bringing students along in the journey through discussions about this theme and related topics in the classroom from the commencement of their studies. Service-learning opportunities with international and local partners, work integrated learning, and exchanges that facilitate critical engagement with scholarship – including with dominant development histories, theories and approaches – are also critical components of their pedagogical path.
The service-learning model of HADS programs’ internship is grounded in a social justice framework (Morton 1995) and is informed by a decolonial pedagogical approach that emphasises the knowledge and expertise of host organisation partners over dominant Western economic models of “doing development” (Kapoor 2023). Internships are designed by the host organisations to address development needs prioritised by them, and student performance is assessed by the host partner. They are also structured to enhance students’ intercultural competence, defined by Hammer (2013: 26) as the capability to shift cultural perspective and appropriately adapt behaviour to cultural differences and commonalities.
Social justice in HADS curriculum
A comprehensive approach to social justice should encompass various disciplines, merging and strengthening knowledge to advance the creation of a fair society. By witnessing social justice applied through diverse academic perspectives, students are better equipped to grasp the complexities and individual needs required to challenge policies and practices hindering its achievement.
The HADS programs integrate relevant interdisciplinarity into their curriculum through a strong focus on peacebuilding. The course content is designed to blend diverse field-specific concepts and perspectives, providing a multi-dimensional view of international development and capturing its inherent complexity. Subjects that exemplify this approach include:
HUMN 1028 – Human Rights, Peace and Development: this subject examines and critiques the concept of human rights. It shows how differentials of political and economic power between countries and groups within countries are used to prioritise and preference different rights in order to justify selective humanitarian efforts in the initial phases of peace-making.
HUMN 2033 – Issues in World Development: Rich World, Poor World: introduces students to the field of international development by looking at the social and economic inequalities that exist at the global level, while the ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ world paradigm is critically examined. Students are equipped with theories and case studies interrogating development, underdevelopment, and their related issues within a contemporary political, economic, and social framework.
HUMN 3063 – Peace & Development Project: is concerned with understanding and addressing inequities of power, wealth & opportunity that contribute to international and local conflicts and environmental degradation. Students identify individual and collective actions that can be taken to improve conditions so that opportunities for peaceful, equitable and sustainable living are created, locally and globally.
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The HADS programs also provide knowledge and practical experience in humanitarian preparedness and disaster management, and their interface with development assistance. In line with this focus, the programs have increasingly been developed around the notion of environmental justice, including equitable access to sustainable development resources.
Sustainable development interventions have progressively expanded their scope to community hazard management, guided by the ethos of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR). HADS subjects have a strong focus on DRR. They also focus on developing students’ skills in finding practical solutions through experiential learning techniques that include simulation activities, problem and solution-based studies. Relevant subjects include:
HUMN3116 – Emergency and Disaster Management examines the causes and consequences of disasters and the application of international guidelines governing humanitarian responses. It outlines theoretical approaches to the understanding of the political aspects of emergencies and introduces real-life case studies that aim to engage students in critical thinking and improve their knowledge of the core humanitarian standard on quality and accountability, and the challenges related to interagency coordination in emergencies.
HUMN3119 – Emergency Field Operations | Supply Management and Logistics: this subject equips students with the required skills to assess organisational capacity to respond to disasters and other complex humanitarian emergencies. It covers logistical frameworks and tools for planning; the sustainable deployment of goods and services; and monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of local and global supply chains.
HUMN7019 – International Disaster Management: this postgraduate subject provides students with knowledge of the geo-political forces and key international frameworks and standards that shape humanitarian responses, and of the motivations and approaches of aid donors and humanitarian NGOs when intervening in states. It also develops foundational knowledge of assessment of NGO capacities and organisational infrastructure for managing emergencies.
ENGR3032 – Humanitarian Design and Practice. This new subject is a collaboration between the School of Engineering, Design and Built Environment, and the School of Social Sciences. It offers introductory design notions on community-based planning, hazard management and DRR. Focused on principles of humanitarian engineering and human-centered design, it develops students’ understanding of the importance of community engagement around real-world problems.
In this post, we have discussed how social justice is positioned within Western Sydney University Humanitarian and Development Studies programs. This was done by unpacking both the pedagogical orientation of the learning methods adopted and the ideas driving the curriculum design. We embrace the view that social justice is a fundamental component of sustainable development and humanitarian work: hence, its notions should be foundational to all teaching programs in Development Studies, both now and in the future.
References
Kapoor, I. (2023). Decolonising Development Studies. Review of International Studies, 49(3), 346–355.
Hammer, M.R. (2013). A Resource Guide for Effectively Using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Berlin, MD: IDI, LLC.
McDaniels, C. and Haynes, N. (2023) Social Justice in Higher Education: interdisciplinary approaches across the curriculum.
Morton, K. (1995). The Irony of Service: charity, project and social change in service learning. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 2,19-32.
Nagda, B. (Ratnesh) A., Gurin, P. and Lopez, G.E. (2003). Transformative Pedagogy for Democracy and Social Justice. Race Ethnicity and Education, 6(2), 165–191.