Search

Nancy Fraser describes parity-of-participation in social interaction as an important component of social justice. In this paper, we explore the participatory experiences of primary-school-children who have been labelled 'lower-attainers' in mathematics and/or writing. The paper explores justice drawing on the perspective of these pupils, in relation to how they perceive success in their school learning. We link the concept of participation to the three components of social justice outlined in Nancy Fraser's definition: a) distribution of wealth; b) recognition of status; and c) representation of voice. Our findings indicate that children who do not excel in attainment in prescribed subjects may experience obstructions to parity-of-participation within schooling which are beyond those encountered by all children. We conclude that injustices in all three senses (above) are being experienced by specific children and these injustices need urgent confrontation.

The issue of "social justice" has been regularly addressed in many published papers in mathematics education research, particularly after 2000, when the discipline took a more explicit socio-political turn. However, there does not appear to be a consensus as to what the term designates and includes. This paper is a systematic review of the empirical studies published from 2000 until the middle of 2019 that explicitly address social justice from the perspective of practising mathematics teachers and/or teaching. More specifically, we examine (a) how social justice is conceptualised in the identified studies, (b) what specific issues are investigated and methodological approaches employed to do so, and (c) the main key points that arise from their empirical findings. Implications and suggestions of how the field can move forward are discussed at the end.

Drawing on life history interviews, this paper seeks to explore the lives of a group of eight teachers, all with working experience in England, who self-identify as committed to a more socially just education system. Drawing on Levitas' "Utopia as method," this article examines these teachers' perspectives on and practices around social justice in education, such as aiming to eradicate exclusion policies and processes, and organising with like-minded colleagues. We also explore the significant professional and emotional labour that goes into such kinds of work towards a socially just education system, and the satisfaction that comes from 'making a difference'. Their perspectives also provide insight into what a vision of socially just education might look like for those in the teaching profession.

This paper is based on a quasi-experimental study which examines the effects of a school-based intervention on Omani girls' attitudes towards the notion of gender equality. A questionnaire was administered before and after the intervention to 241 girls (116 in the experimental group; 125 in the control group). A semi-structured interview was conducted before and after the intervention with 16 participants (eight from the experimental group; eight from the control group). Analysis of quantitative data in the post-intervention round revealed statistically significant differences between the two groups in attitudes towards gender equality in favour of the experimental group. Similarly, the analysis of qualitative data from the post-intervention round showed that the experimental group differed significantly from the control group in its attitudes towards women's roles and gender equality. The paper concludes by emphasising the critical role that education can play in challenging and transforming prejudicial and discriminatory attitudes.

This paper investigates the changes in educational policy in England regarding the implementing of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (henceforth IBDP) into post-16 (sixth form) education. The aim is to illustrate the unique trajectory of the IBDP in England: from its adoption in schools and colleges across the country, to its removal, due largely to a combination of specific changes, such as government funding criteria inside state education, and the tariff system for university entry that is deployed for qualifications at 18. This paper explores this combination of changes using interview data with 28 senior leaders from eight schools and colleges that have introduced the IBDP, including state centres that have subsequently had to remove it from their curriculum. Employing the idea of a neo-liberal social imaginary, this paper analyses the resulting level of social exclusion inside the English post-16 curriculum created by the educational policies adopted by successive governments since the 2008 economic recession. The paper argues that the rise and decline of the IBDP in England has resulted in a significant level of socially differentiated take up, largely in independent schools, and in state schools in London and the South-East of the country. This paper concludes that access to the IBDP is restricted with regard to both geographical and social mobility and that current access to the IBDP in England is helping to sustain a "globally mobile transnational elite group", thus reinforcing the connection established between the IBDP's wider curriculum and global capitalism.

The December 2008 special issue of the "Oxford Review of Education" provided a review of education policy during Tony Blair's tenure as Prime Minister. This paper forms a response to the ten contributions to that special issue and discusses some of the issues raised in them. While a few positive aspects of education under New Labour were identified in the special edition, it focused more on the failures of New Labour than its achievements. A common theme to emerge from the papers included the government's pursuit of neo-liberal market policies at the expense of its professed commitment to social justice. While accepting that the government's failure to tackle the differences in educational outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils constitutes a major failing, the present author argues that significant achievements, such as early years provision, were neglected in the special issue. He also discusses the electoral considerations facing New Labour and the personal role of Tony Blair in determining policy. The paper goes on to consider whether New Labour's education policy has changed since the departure of Blair and identifies some hints of a potentially more progressive approach developing under Brown. It concludes by suggesting that contributing towards a debate about alternatives to Blairite policies should now become a priority for the "educational establishment".

The paper sets out to challenge the notions of "affordable" private schools in the context of South Africa. It is guided by one main question: "affordable private schools for whom?" It argues that, contrary to claims by its public and private proponents, affordable private schools in South Africa do not cater for poor children. Their rise has coincided with the emergence, in the post-apartheid period, of a--mostly black--middle class. However, despite its imprecision, the "affordable" terminology can also be interpreted as a discursive device that obscures the class interests and distributional choices that actually shape South Africa's education system. It allows the social forces in favour of the expansion of private education--segments of the state and pro-market lobbyists--to frame their project in social justice terms. The paper concludes that the state's ambiguous position towards the so-called "affordable" or "low-fee" private schools reflects national leaders' delicate balancing act between contradictory objectives, which is overly determined by their embrace of an orthodox macro-economic model that constrains the fiscal space for public education.

This paper draws on interview data gathered from a broader study concerned with examining issues of social justice, cultural diversity and schooling. The focus is on five students in Years 5 and 6 who attend a primary school located on the edge of a class-privileged area in outer London. The children are all high achievers who are very invested in doing well in school and in life within the parameters of neoliberalism. The paper examines the ways in which neoliberal discourses of performativity and individual responsibilisation permeate the children's talk in relation to their understandings of education and their future, and their worth and value as students. Such examination enriches the findings of important research in this area that draws attention to the ways in which neoliberal discourses have become naturalised and taken-for-granted in what counts as being a good student and a good citizen. The paper problematises the individualism, competitiveness and anxiety produced by these discourses and provides further warrant for supporting students to identify, challenge and think beyond them.

This paper reports on a mixed methods study carried out within the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme at the University of Oxford on the ways that the course sought to frame and address the link between poverty and poorer educational outcomes. The study was concerned with the views held by ITE students on the effects of poverty on pupils' learning, well-being, and educational achievement. The paper initially explores why these questions are important, how they are framed internationally, and how they relate to current education policy, particularly in England. Data were collected from student teacher pre- and post-PGCE course questionnaires and a focus group discussion. The findings showed a tendency for student teachers to associate low achievement more strongly with family and cultural factors than with socio-economic or school factors, although there was some evidence that the thinking of some students changed during their programme. Implications for policy and practice in ITE are discussed with a view to ensuring that the social justice commitments espoused by many such courses are actually enabled more effectively to influence the learning experiences of beginning teachers.

It has been suggested that features of contemporary educational policy create and encourage teaching and learning practices that dampen human motivation. This paper sought to analyse and extend this discussion through the lens of self-determination theory (SDT). Key questions are discussed such as (1) what is human motivation from a self-determination theory perspective, and (2) how and why is it dampened by features of contemporary educational policy? The discussion is then extended to explore the extent to which dampened human motivation from an SDT perspective might be considered unjust if they systematically dampen motivation.

This paper scrutinises citizenship education in Turkey from the foundation of the Turkish Republic (1923) to the present and explores the extent to which it encourages inclusive or exclusive concepts of national identity and citizenship. In Turkey, where there are citizens belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, civic education plays a prominent role for promoting tolerance among citizens. Using framing questions from phase one of the International Association for the Educational Achievement's (IEA) research of Civic Education Across Countries, the civic education textbooks of Turkey are examined to determine the extent to which they promote democracy and human rights, make positive references to ethnic and religious minorities, and promote social cohesion. As Turkey was not included in phase one of the IEA study, the paper provides original information for comparative studies, reconsideration of citizenship education in multicultural societies and promoting an active national citizenry in Turkey. (Contains 8 notes and 3 figures.)

Everyone will agree that education ought to prepare young people to lead a meaningful life, but there are different ways in which this notion can be understood. A religious interpretation has to be distinguished from the secular one on which this paper focuses. Meaningfulness in this non-religious sense is a necessary condition of a life of well-being, having to do with the nesting of one's reasons for action within increasingly pervasive structures of activity and attachment. Sometimes a life can seem meaningless when it is not so in fact. In more extreme cases it may in fact be to some extent meaningless. Equipping young people for a meaningful life is a worthwhile, but not all-important educational aim. Educators should help them not only to see their lives as meaningful but also to lead lives that are meaningful. This involves continuous engagement in the nesting of reasons mentioned above. Where autonomy is also an aim, temperamental attunement to possible options--rather than exposure to all possible options--and time to explore them are important considerations. Questions arise here both about social justice and about whether current school curriculum and timetabling arrangements help or hinder pupils in living a meaningful life. (Contains 2 notes.)

In the current scenario of expansion of neo-liberal and market-oriented policies, large-scale assessment has become an increasingly pervasive technology of power. Given their consequences, and the high stakes derived from them, assessment systems put pressure on schools to an extent where their practices and internal policies adapt to the logic of these mechanisms. The behaviours that emerge from this adaptation are seen as 'gaming the system' and are often portrayed as the responsibility of test users. However, the article aims at pushing the question around the consequences of metrics further, in terms of what these strategic gaming behaviours are adapting to and to what extent predominant metrics are accomplishing their assumptions of social justice. Through theoretically discussing the concept of social justice in connection with educational assessment, the paper problematises whether current metrics and their consequences, on the one hand, are able to respond to their underlying principles of equality of opportunity, which are characteristic of justice as distribution, and, on the other hand, highlights the insufficiency of these principles to respond to current developments of the concept of social justice with regard to the dimensions of recognition and participation, with considerations for their potential inclusion in future assessment systems.

The paper provides an historical but critical context for examining the relation of the pursuit of greater equality in schooling to the development of curriculum. This requires a brief account of what one means by the principle of equality, before showing the different ways in which there have been curriculum responses underpinned by philosophical understandings which need to be examined closely. These different ways are explained in terms of: (1) "rational curriculum planning" with its detailed definition of "aims, objectives, methods and evaluation"--and thereby a "science of teaching; (2) "forms of knowledge" or "realms of meaning" to enable all pupils to have a basic understanding of the physical, social, and moral worlds they inhabit; (3) the pursuit of enquiry through which, for all learners, understanding is enlarged; (4) provision of common curriculum experience as a basis for citizenship; (5) taking diversity seriously; and (6) equalisation of opportunities through a common system of national standards and assessments.However, in the light of greater government involvement in the minutiae of curriculum reform, mainly through changes in qualifications and examinations, there is clearly a need to ask what sort of evidence is relevant to "what works".

This paper foregrounds pedagogy in the realisation of children's rights to non-discrimination and serving their best interests, as articulated in the UNCRC. Drawing on a mixed methodological study of teachers in 12 schools it does so through exploring teacher pedagogies in terms of how they "think", "do" and "talk" pedagogy, conceived as their pedagogic "habitus". Findings confirm contradictions between teachers' ideals and their practice that is significantly mediated by the socio-cultural context of their schools, gender and presence of migrant children. Especially striking is that neither social justice concerns nor children's rights explicitly emerge in their narratives, in turn influencing how they "do" pedagogy with different groups of children. This contradiction is understood as a dialectical process of re/action influenced by structures, policies and the exercise of power in local contexts. The UNCRC provides a generative mechanism within which to hold government to account for the impact of policies, especially in challenging contexts. To be realised in practice, however, it also needs to be embedded in teacher habitus, shaping their dispositions toward children's rights to non-discrimination and serving their best interests in education.

The present challenge for educationists and economists is to resolve pressing problems inherent in social choice and the technical framework of education. Among these challenges is the conflict between means and ends of educational production, the reliable development of human capital, and resolution to problems of social inequality. The authors argue that a widening of the information base of education is necessary before solutions will adhere across the institutional domain. (Contains 1 note.)

This paper explores the impact of a Teaching and Learning Audit of all government schools in Queensland, Australia. This audit has a concern with the extent to which schools ‘differentiate classroom learning’. We note that in England, since September 2012, one of the standards that teachers have been expected to demonstrate is an ability to ‘differentiate appropriately’, and thus the lessons of how this particular audit was implemented in Queensland have relevance outside of Australia. The paper draws on data collected from Red Point High School, one of the State’s 1257 schools and education centres audited in 2010. We suggest that this requirement to differentiate classroom learning was implemented without appropriate clarity or support, and that it increased teacher surveillance in this school. However, we also argue that some spaces were opened up by this audit, and its concern with differentiation, to articulate a social justice agenda within the school. We conclude that differentiation is a complex concept which is not easy to shift from a policy to a classroom context, and requires more careful explication at policy level and more support for teachers to enact. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The educational writings of John Macmurray, one of the finest philosophers of his generation, have a special relevance for us today. In similar circumstances of international crisis he argues for the central importance of education addressing fundamental issues of human purpose—how we lead good lives together, the emphasis on wisdom rather than knowledge alone, the advancement of a truly democratic culture, and the overriding importance of community in human flourishing. A pioneering advocate of education of the emotions, he champions the development of imagination, spontaneity and authenticity as key to educating ‘the capacity for change itself’. For Macmurray, educators must place relationships and care at the heart of all they do. Overemphasis on technique and its typical separation from wider human purposes is emblematic of much of our contemporary malaise. An inclusive, caring community is the precondition of our human being and becoming. The paper concludes by taking some of Macmurray’s key philosophical insights and developing a framework which enables us to make judgments about whether or not contemporary approaches to education support or diminish our lives as creative, caring human beings within a context of social justice and democratic human fellowship. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The enquiries into police action in the Stephen Lawrence murder, the Macpherson report and the subsequent race relations legislation have altered the political, professional and wider social climate of debate on equality issues, including inequalities in minority ethnic exclusions. The paper analyses the meanings given to racism and institutional racism, and the contested political territory which shapes and limits the possibilities of responses working towards equity. It considers the evidence on the extent to which the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 (RRAA) has been implemented, reporting particularly on sustained disproportionality in exclusions experienced by some minority ethnic groups. Disproportionalities, in terms of exclusion and attainment, are deemed 'institutionally racist' outcomes produced annually as a consequence of organisational practices, limited will and low levels of investment at national, local and school levels. Critical Race Theory and writings about 'white supremacy' attempt to explain the normal and enduring character of racism, but the outcomes of 'passive racism' are best comprehended as a product of neoliberal policy-making which limits interventions in aggregate performance for a group, giving primacy to individual effort and talent as explanatory concepts. The RRAA, in force since 2002, can, with hindsight, be seen as a legalistic, rhetorical step too far, unable to marshal governmental or institutional will and financial commitment to implement its requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Claims that emotional well-being is synonymous with successful educational practices and outcomes resonate with contemporary political portrayal of well-being as integral to 'social justice'. In Britain, diverse concerns are creating an ad hoc array of therapeutic interventions to develop and assess attributes, dispositions and attitudes associated with emotional well-being, alongside growing calls to harness subject content and teaching activities as vehicles for a widening array of affective outcomes. There has been little public or academic debate about the educational implications of these developments for the aspirations of liberal humanist education. This article addresses this gap. Drawing on philosophical, political and sociological studies, it explores how preoccupation with emotional well-being attacks the 'subject' in two inter-related senses; the human subject and subject knowledge. It argues that it is essential to challenge claims and assumptions about well-being and the government-sponsored academic, professional and commercial industry which promotes them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relational equality is broadly understood to be about relating to others as moral equals. I consider three questions of relational equality as applied to education: what, how, and why? Relational equality is important on a macro (societal) level, a meso (school) level structuring of relationships, and a micro (interpersonal relationships) level. I focus on micro level relational equality in schools, and connect theoretical perspectives from two neighbouring fields: education and humanistic counselling, suggesting that we might usefully draw on theory from humanistic counselling to inform our understanding of how egalitarian interpersonal relationships might manifest in education. I emphasise the importance of considering what we are trying to communicate through our behaviour and suggest that in order to treat someone as a moral equal, educators should work towards communicating empathy, unconditional positive regard, and congruence. Such an understanding gives a clearer focus for increasing equality than broader understandings of relational equality, and greater scope for challenging inequality than distributive accounts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most governments, at an official level, espouse the principles of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among its statements is that education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Yet while the façade of government education systems presents an image that instruction is free of charge, families across the world increasingly find it necessary to invest in the so-called shadow education system of private supplementary tutoring. The spread of shadow education, which is no longer confined to relatively prosperous families, has far-reaching implications for social inequalities and therefore social justice. It is a hidden form of privatisation behind the façade of public education systems; and the fact that shadow education is seen by many families as unavoidable appears to be incompatible with the spirit of the Universal Declaration. The question then is whether the spirit of the Universal Declaration should be abandoned, or whether it should be protected—and, if so, how. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phenomenon of low-cost private schools ‘mushrooming’ in poor areas of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, and elsewhere, is now well-documented. Findings from research by the author’s teams and others show that these schools are serving a majority (urban and peri-urban) or significant minority (rural) of the poor, including significant proportions of the poorest of the poor. Concerns are raised in the literature about their implications for social justice. InThe Idea of Justice, Amartya Sen asks us to rethink ideas about justice; instead of the quest for a Rawlsian ‘transcendental institutionalism’, he argues for a comparative approach, grounded in the practicalities of human behaviour. Linking Sen’s ideas on justice with the grassroots privatisation leads to the tentative conclusion that those concerned with promoting social justice could agree to help improve access to, and quality in, the low-cost private school sector, rather than focus on the public education sector. Paradoxically, this could be true even for those whose ideal is an egalitarian public education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section 12 of the Indian Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (the RTE Act) states that 25% of the entry-level places in all private schools should be free and reserved for students from economically and socially disadvantaged families. The Indian State governments will pay schools a per-child fee based on costs in the government sector, or the actual school fee if that is lower. This substantial funding, and accompanying ideological support, for private sector schools is justified mainly in terms of the need to meet Education for All targets. This article shows that there are many similarities between this scheme and the Assisted Places Schemes that ran in Great Britain from 1980 until 1997. It examines these similarities and differences between the schemes and draws conclusion about the potential effects of the Indian scheme in terms of social justice based on the evaluations of the British schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social justice in education refers to the expectation that the education system provides fairness in its access to opportunities and results. Proponents of educational privatisation believe this would not only open up opportunities for those that otherwise are restricted from attending good schools, but that it would also improve overall efficiency in the education system through pressures of market competition. This article first provides a framework for analysing a quasi-market in education and for considering the potential effects of privatisation. It then applies this framework to the Netherlands, a school system premised completely on choice where two thirds of the schools are privately sponsored. We conclude that the Dutch system, thanks to a series of policies and regulations in place, performs relatively well on social justice, when looking at freedom of choice and overall productive efficiency. However, for equity and social cohesion, despite clear policy efforts, the privatised system seems to undermine social justice for certain groups in the population. The dilemma observed here is that some private benefits of education must be compromised to achieve greater equity and social cohesion. It is an open question whether policy makers are willing to make such tradeoffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]