Working with a group of upper elementary students today we had an unexpected conversation about equity and justice. We had just run a relay and the students begged to run it over again. One group suggested remixing the teams, the other group was uninterested. #PhysEd 1/

Can you guess who was who?
I spoke with the group that lost the first contest who also wanted to remix the teams. I observed that they were interested in change but the other group was not. I asked them why they thought that was. 2/

"They won." "They have an advantage."
Right, so what would make them want to keep their group the same?
"So they can keep their advantage." "So they can win again." 3/

I spoke with the group that had won and shared the same observation. What makes you reluctant to remix the teams?
"We're happy with our team." "We want to see if we can win again."
What about the other group's request to mix up the teams? What do you want to do about that? 4/

I asked, are you all interested in fairness? In equity?
"Yeah, but this is just a game."
Well, you're choosing to keep your advantage rather than share it, right? Are we interested in justice and how it works?
"No... I mean, yeah, we just want to be w/ our friends..."
5/

Do you see where I'm going with this, friends? We say we want fairness but when we have the advantage, we don't want to give that up.
Remix your teams and let's see what happens. *New teams are formed.* 6/

They run the relay with new teams, end up with a very close finish. Truly a fair match-up.
It was an important and concrete conversation to have. There were no hard feelings, they got the message. And it wasn't along racial or gender lines or even ability. 7/

Their preferences reflected entirely typical grade level hierarchies of popularity and in-group/out-group dynamics. Having them observe, notice, reflect and then change the groups' composition becomes a hands-on means of putting concepts into practice. 8/

Social justice can be in practice wherever people are gathered. Our dialogue was not in my lesson plan but it's part of where our lesson went and I followed it. The terms equity and justice were familiar to them. We had occasion to break down how those fit in this context. 9/

Let's be brave about trusting our students to practice fairness with our guidance. Let them wrestle with the implications of their self-interested and group-interested choices. They can do that. It's not about spoiling fun, it's about growing awareness and efficacy. 10/

We ran the relay again, after all. And they were satisfied with the outcome. We will be in a better place next time we need to form teams or groups. The questions of fairness and equity will come up again and again. We're building practice. #SoJuPhysEd 11/end