Running head: SOCIAL JUSTICE ARTICULATION

Articulation of a Social Justice Perspective

Alexandra M. Savat
Iowa State University

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Throughout the past 14 weeks within the student affairs program at Iowa State University
I have learned immense information that will guide me as I move from student- practitioner to
eventually a professional. Throughout these 14 weeks, many of my personal beliefs and
understanding of topics have developed and changed. This paper will reflect on how my
experiences, readings and interactions have contributed to this development and how I plan to
continue fostering such development.
Social justice has developed into a complex term for myself over the course of 4 months.
At the beginning of the semester I was often asked to discuss what I thought social justice was
and often times I would respond by acknowledging my lack of understanding, which was almost
none. Coming into this program social justice in my perspective essentially involved treating
everyone equally and being a practitioner who is nondiscriminatory. In my initial praxis journal,
I wrote that I saw equity, diversity and inclusion in combination with social justice to be the
methods in which we discuss the difference society sees between each human. Although I feel
that this description is not completely inaccurate in this regard, it is a very surface level
understanding. As a future student affairs professional, social justice to me means that each
person is treated with equity and acknowledging difference but understanding that because of
this difference students are automatically at different vantage points. I understand social justice
to be an umbrella term that is encompassing all of the ideas discussed in within this class. For
example, intersectionality, racial formation, critical race theory, queering within student affairs,
and globalization within the field are just a few topics discussed and all play a major role in
understanding social justice. These various topics are all considerations that need to be accounted
for when discussing social justice.
I think that it is crucial to note that none of this development would have been possible

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without the assistance of my peers. Not only have they challenged my existing beliefs but they
have taken the time to explain concepts and experiences. I would like to acknowledge that
Chelsea Smith is a co-worker of mine in the Office of Admissions and has constantly challenged
the views I have and encouraged me to push my boundaries in both a career setting and an
educational perspective. She has encouraged me to think about my identity as a white individual
who can use their privilege to help those who dont have the same privilege. In my interactions
and conversations with her, she has encouraged me to think about where I am in my journey and
where I need to be in order to best work with all students. This has played an enormous role in
my development of social justice. Through the interactions that I have had over the past 14
weeks, I have been able to develop my surface level understanding of many of these concepts
and turn them into a solid base for the development of the next 2 years. I do believe that this
development has a long way to go and will develop as I develop into a professional and beyond.
A major way that I have found to be helpful in uncovering my own personal development
and social justice understanding has been through praxis. Before coming into the student affairs
program, I found journaling to be a meditative process that I was engaging in regularly but often
times it was very surface level reflection on my personal experiences. However, since beginning
praxis journals for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion I have found myself integrating increased
levels of critical thinking into my journaling routine. I have seen that by doing this and reflecting
on each journal I am able to see development in my understanding of complex concepts. By
doing this I have been able to stop and truly think about how my actions, words and movement
through society are impacted by others and also impact others. Not only does this practice allow
me to reflect on my surroundings but it has allowed me to reflect on my position within society
and how my identities as a white woman play into these interactions. I hope to continue this

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practice in multiple ways as my journey continues and my position continues to shift.

Although I have integrated praxis into my personal life, I have not integrated it into my
career as much. I feel that this is due to a variety of reasons. First, I have gone through an
immense amount of personal reflection and checking my personal identities and privileges
through the past four months that I did not feel I was able to fully understand how to integrate
praxis into my career. I understand that this was a form of privilege that I had during this time.
Second, I did not feel I was able to understand the career area I am currently in. I had a very
bright and shiny view for the first months as I was not fully integrated into the office. As time
has passed and I have been able to become a working member within the office, I have been able
to see past the bright and shiny outer layer and dig deeper into inner workings of the office. I
feel that as time goes on I will see more and more of the details that I am now able to dissect and
take action on throughout the two years. Going into future careers I think it will be crucial to
utilize praxis immediately when entering a field. By engaging in this reflection early on, like we
have done within this course, you are able to see what development takes place and further
dissect items that may be concerning for you. I hope to be able to do this in order to facilitate and
maintain my understanding of much of the information learned within this program. I will
continue this practice in order to maintain a critical worldview and further develop this practice.
By doing this I will allow the learning process I have started, to continue as I develop
professional.
Being an individual with a developing critical worldview means to constantly be aware of
the ways in which we see power, oppression, injustice, and inequity take place. Instead of letting
certain tendencies, jokes, actions or inactions take place developing a critical worldview means
you note these things and work to improve them. Developing this view means to question the

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things that have not been questioned, to analyze the things that are just the way they are, and to
question the regulations that restrict individuals. Asking these types of questions is something I
will continuously ask myself in order to engage in a critical worldview. Focusing on these
questions both in the workplace and in everyday life is crucial in order to become a socially just
practitioner and member of society. We, as student affairs professionals, need to understand how
we can engage in these practices in every aspect of life.
Throughout all of these topics, there are various of my own social identities have
contributed to my meaning of social justice and impacted the previous experiences. For example,
my identity as a person who identifies as white has forced me to think much more about race
than I would have naturally. I feel that in developing my meaning I had to examine many of the
privileged identities I hold to develop a meaning that assists those who do not hold these
privileges. By learning to examine these identities I am now able to look at how these put me at
an advantage and how to assist those who do not have the same position and how I can work to
develop my actions to combat this preexisting privilege. In the first few weeks of class we
discussed the difference between equity and equality which was incredibly impactful in the
development of my understanding of social justice. This understanding helped me see past the
racist ideals that had been imprinted in my understanding of diversity. My positionality also a
woman has also impacted the way in which I bring meaning to social justice. I feel that this is my
primary identity that has been marginalized and in such I am constantly aware of it. However, I
do feel that it is important to note that after reflection on how intersecting marginalized identities
impact experiences are vastly different than the experiences of my one primary marginalized
identity. In order to continually engage in a critical worldview, I will make it a regular practice to
assess how I my identities and position impact the way in which I understand social justice.

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Developing a constant reflection is crucial in my opinion because I have seen numerous

departments on campus that get into the this is how we have always done it mindset and
develop habits that are not just. As I go through life and further develop my identities and
positions, my meaning of social justice will continue to develop and shift in order to best suit
those I am serving as noted above.
Although there are areas in which I have developed, I still do believe there are areas in
which I have continuing questions. Something that I still struggle with understanding is how to
best continue the education process as we progress out of the direct education system. I strive to
make sure that I am able to best serve my students and as I fall outside of the education realm I
want to make sure that I am not focusing solely on a career but always consider continuous
development. I am learning how to become a critical learner but figuring out how to become a
critical professional is something I dont entirely understand. Another question that I still have is
regarding the change so many of us are seeking. I believe that after conversations with peers, that
many of us are here because we want to see change but after much discussion I still have a hard
time believing we can make a change. After thousands of years of white men making rules and
regulations, it seems like there is little hope for change. We have talked a lot about all of these
topics surrounding social justice but I am at a loss for how to move beyond the critical analysis
and into action.
After 14 weeks, I feel that I have made great strides into the right direction in order to be
a socially just professional. These past 14 weeks have been just the initial steps in opening my
eyes to how my actions must be social justice driven. I expect these strides will continue
throughout my education journey and I hope to continue this journey throughout my life.