Explore Social Justice in Minecraft: Education Edition with Good Trouble
It’s a crucial moment in the ongoing movement for social justice. More and more, calls for fair and equal participation in society are ringing out around the world. To help educators explore these important ideas with students, we’re introducing a new set of resources designed to help your learners join the conversation around social justice.
At Minecraft Live, we announced Good Trouble: Lessons in Social Justice for Minecraft: Education Edition along with a donation to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Today, we’re announcing that the first lesson in Good Trouble is now live! This lesson, based on the life and teachings of Civil Rights leader and US congressman John Lewis, guides learners through historic and present-day social movements around the world. Lewis believed that being a catalyst for “good trouble” was a powerful way to help build a better world by encouraging others to speak out and stand up whenever they see injustice. Get started with Lessons in Good Trouble here!
Over the next several months, we’ll be releasing more lessons centered on social justice, identity, diversity, and inclusion. We want to make this content easy to access, so soon you’ll be able to explore these activities in an all-new Equity and Inclusion category in our in-game library. To make sure as many learners as possible can access this important content, the world is also available in the Education Collection in the Minecraft Marketplace, available in all Bedrock versions of Minecraft—any version that doesn’t have “Edition” in the name. Bedrock players will be able to access this world at no additional cost!
Lesson 1: Lessons in Good Trouble
Lessons in Good Trouble was developed in partnership with three educators from the US with over 40 years of experience between them: Felisa Ford, Natasha Rachell, and Ken Shelton. This material also relied on support from Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center that provides free resources to support social justice and anti-bias education in K–12 schools.
In this activity, students meet Congressman Lewis to learn about his philosophy and the story of his life. Then they’ll join him on a journey around the world and back in time to meet leaders of social justice movements who have had an impact on millions of lives.
- Students will start in modern-day America at a peaceful Black Lives Matter protest where they’ll learn about the movement.
- Next, they’ll encounter Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan to learn about her courageous stand against the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education.
- Then students will travel to South Africa in the 1990s to meet Nelson Mandela and learn about apartheid.
- From there, students will visit crucial moments in 1960s segregation-era America to meet Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the activists behind the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins before visiting the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
- Further back in time, learners will travel to colonial India to encounter Mahatma Gandhi.
- From India, students will visit Victorian-era London to meet Emmeline Pankhurst, who caused good trouble in her drive for women’s voting rights.
- The tour ends back on Black Lives Matter Plaza, where John Lewis stands alone, asking students to reflect on the social justice movements they’ve seen and answer his challenge to become a catalyst for good trouble in their own communities.
Learners research and take notes using the in-game Book and Quill as a Good Trouble journal while they learn more about John Lewis and other social justice luminaries. They can also provide examples of how they’ve stood up for someone else in their own lives. Encourage students to take a selfie next to the historical figure that resonates with them the most using the in-game camera and add their selfie to their Good Trouble journal. Close the lesson by encouraging learners to share their reflections, either in person or through a Flipgrid video recording of their experience in the Good Trouble world. Get started with Lessons in Good Trouble here.
Over the next few months, keep an eye out for subsequent lessons that will provide a deeper look at each of these social movements and reveal some of the insights students can gain from studying historical milestones of social resistance. This material will raise difficult questions, but it’s essential to help students navigate social justice in order to be a force for good. Join us in inspiring today’s learners to build a better world!
If you’d like to access these social justice resources but you’re new to Minecraft: Education Edition, get started at education.minecraft.net.
