Does educational privatisation promote social justice?

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.     

Educational psychology: Some questions of status

This article provides a synoptic account of historically changing conceptions and practices of social justice in Australian higher education policy. It maps the changes in this policy arena, beginning with the period following the Second World War and concluding with an analysis of the most recent policy proposals of the Bradley Review. Concurrently, it explores the different meanings ascribed to social justice, equity and social inclusion over this time span and what these have meant and will mean for students, particularly those from low socio-economic backgrounds. It concludes that a relational understanding of social justice – ‘recognitive justice’ – is yet to inform student equity policy in higher education, although this is now what is required in the context of the planned shift from mass to universal participation.     

A roadblock to social justice? An analysis and critique of the South African education Roadmap

The article provides an analysis and critique of contemporary debates concerning the quality of education in South Africa from a social justice perspective. In particular the article focuses on the Education Roadmap which has gained support from a range of stakeholders in South Africa including key members of the newly elected government. The Education Roadmap is considered in relation to dominant approaches to understanding education quality within the education literature, namely the human capital and human rights based approaches. It is argued that the Roadmap shares characteristics of both approaches although it is particularly influenced by the former. The article sets out an alternative approach based on social justice principle that, whilst developing and extending aspects of dominant approaches, is considered pertinent because it articulates with historical struggles around education in South Africa. It is suggested that although the Roadmap demonstrates limited characteristics of a social justice approach, it falls short in other key aspects and it is these aspects that must form the basis for ongoing struggles for a more equitable education system.     

Reclaiming Commitment to Social Justice through Relevant Adult and Continuing Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Reclaiming commitment to social justice through widening access to education, using the medium of relevant adult and continuing education, requires people to have the ability to initiate ideas, to act and to take their destiny in their own hands. This article postulates that deploying relevant adult and continuing education in the quest for social justice leading to freeing oppressed Sub-Saharan Africans is possible. It was partly for this reason that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) came up with standard setting instruments measuring the effectiveness of inclusive education among its member states and, towards that goal, sponsored a limited study to assess how much has been done globally. The outcomes of that study have influenced the propositions made in the article that is structured against the background of the opportunities and/or challenges posed by the demand for social justice by way of widening access to education and learning. The article makes suggestions for ensuring that relevant adult and continuing education provides valuable service in reclaiming the needed commitment to social justice.     

The Case for Restorative Justice

Abstract

This paper discusses the significance of restorative justice practices and orientations for social work education. It describes the four basic forms of restorative justice-victim-offender conferencing, community reparative boards, family group conferencing, and healing circles, with special relevance to social work. Learning about principles and practice of restorative justice is important, if social work is to provide leadership in policy innovation and program development. Following the overview, this paper provides suggestions for integrating restorative content on this timely topic throughout the social work curriculum.     

在和谐社会视野中看教育公平问题

公平公正是和谐社会的重要内容,教育公平是社会公平的一个子系统,是社会公平价值在教育领域的延伸,并直接反映和影响社会公平。针对造成我国当前教育出现的城乡差别、区域差别、阶层差别等不公平现象,分析高等教育公平与和谐社会之间的相互关系,阐释推进高等教育公平的意义,指出现阶段我国高等教育领域不公平现象及其原因,提出推进高等教育公平、构建和谐社会的对策。     

School diversity and social justice: policy and politics

This paper focuses on the long established diversity in the English education system – independent schools, grammar schools and religious schools – and in so doing explores tensions between education policy, politics and social justice. It explores the differential access to these different types of school, their social composition and implications for social justice and for wider society. It is argued that if social justice is to be a goal of government, further policy changes are needed over and above those that have already been made. However, the political challenges, which have limited policy changes to date, would be significant.     

Social justice and the changing directions in educational research: the case of inclusive education

Inclusive education has established itself as an important element within the general field of educational research. While the increasing attention to social inclusion is apparently consistent with the general aspiration for social justice, this paper reasserts the fragility of inclusive education as a vehicle for arguing against traditional notions of special educational needs in favour of educational disablement as identity politics. It is important that in a general consideration of education research and social justice space be afforded to interrogating the shortcomings of social justice research in education with regard to disabled students. This brief discussion aims to introduce a range of issues pursuant to the intersection of education and disability politics.     

论合理配置高等教育资源与构建社会主义和谐社会

注重高等教育资源的合理配置,保证高等教育公平、实现高等教育的和谐发展,是社会和谐发展的重要组成部分,忽视高等教育资源的合理配置和高等教育公平,构建和谐社会将成为水中月、镜中花。同时,和谐社会的构建又为合理配置高等教育资源提供强有力的制度保障、物质基础和法律支撑。     

和谐社会视野中的教育公平

和谐社会建设必须更加注重社会公平，而社会公平的一个最基本的范畴就是教育公平。教育公平是当今社会关注的一个重大问题，也是广大民众倾心追求的价值目标。教育的基本功能之一，就是缩小贫富差距，促进社会平等。当前教育发展中存在一些不公平问题，需要我们从理论和实践的层面上理性思考，认真分析，找准对策，切实解决，以实现教育公平、社会和谐。     

Conceptualizing social justice in education: mapping the territory

Within recent studies of education policy, social justice has been an under‐theorized concept. This paper is an attempt to begin to remedy this situation. It critically examines some of the most prominent ways in which social justice has been and is being thought about within various traditions of social theory and concludes by sketching out a framework for conceptualizing social justice in the context of education policy research. However, the main purpose of the paper is not to provide a definitive conceptualization of social justice but to open up a debate which might usefully inform the work of the education policy research community.     

Social justice and education in the public and private spheres

This paper explores the complex relationship between social justice and education in the public and private spheres. The politics of education is often presented as a battle between left and right, the state and the market. In this representation, the public and the private spheres are neatly aligned on either side of the line of battle, and social justice is commonly seen as the prerogative of the public sphere. This paper challenges this representation. It shows how the language of what counts as public and private in education is historically specific, culturally contingent and ideologically loaded. Through drawing on a range of education policies and practices, the paper demonstrates that ‘public’ and ‘private’ are not simple opposites. Moreover, it argues that social justice can be conceptualised in ways that have complex and multi-faceted implications for public and private sphere involvement. The paper concludes that if we are to enhance our understanding of the relationship between social justice and education we need to recognise the multi-faceted nature of what counts as private, what counts as public and what counts as justice.     

Social justice education with Chinese characteristics: An example from Shanghai

This article analyses a Chinese approach to social justice in education using the example of Shanghai. In addressing schooling inequalities, Shanghai illustrates social justice education with Chinese characteristics, which revolves around the ideal of ‘educational balance’ (jiaoyu junheng). The ‘balance’ in question is about achieving a values-centred and all-round education in and across all schools through the cultivation of a school’s ‘inner quality’ (neihan). This Chinese formulation of social justice education is manifested through two representative policy measures: creating and strengthening ‘new high-quality schools’ and helping weak schools to level up. The Chinese characteristics of these action plans are seen in two ways: a focus on social justice between schools rather than between students; and an emphasis on the moral cultivation of students. It is argued that a Chinese model of social justice education promotes educational equity to some extent through the politics of redistribution, recognition and representation. However, a major critique is its hegemonic and top-down nature, which overlooks alternative and competitive voices—especially those of migrant children—as part of a politics of representation.     

Social justice,capabilities and the quality of education in low income countries

The paper sets out a theoretical approach for understanding the quality of education in low income countries from a social justice perspective. The paper outlines and critiques the two dominant approaches that currently frame the debate about education quality, namely, the human capital and human rights approaches. Drawing principally on the ideas of Nancy Fraser and Amyarta Sen the paper then sets out an alternative approach based on a theory of social justice and of capabilities. The paper develops an overall understanding of how education quality can be understood in relation to the extent to which it fosters key capabilities that individuals, communities and society in general have reason to value. It then analyses three inter-related dimensions of the quality of education from a social justice perspective. Each dimension is considered in relation to contemporary policy debates and research including the work of EdQual. The first dimension, that of inclusion draws attention to the access of different groups of learners to quality inputs that facilitate the development of their capabilities, the cultural and institutional barriers that impact on the learning of different groups and priorities for overcoming these. The second dimension, that of relevance, is concerned with the extent to which the outcomes of education are meaningful for all learners, valued by their communities and consistent with national development priorities in a changing global context, whilst the third dimension, that of democracy considers how decisions about education quality are governed and the nature of participation in debates at the local, national and global levels. It is argued that a social justice framework can provide an alternative rationale for a policy emphasis on quality that encompasses but goes beyond that provided by human capital and rights approaches; that through emphasising the importance of context and through providing a normative basis for thinking about quality in relation to development, it provides a useful starting point for re-conceptualising education quality and how it can be evaluated; and, that it draws attention to the central importance of public dialogue and debate at the local, national and global levels about the nature of a quality education and quality frameworks at these levels.     

对我国体育教育公平问题的认识与思考

教育公平是社会公平在教育领域的集中体现,也是社会公平的前提和基础。体育公平是教育公平的一个重要领域,也是我国教育公平体现最为明显的薄弱方面。由此深入而系统地针对我国体育教育中存在的各种公平问题进行研究,并就现阶段维护和实现教育公平的策略进行多方位的探讨以期促进教育公平。     

‘I was dead restorative today’: from restorative justice to restorative approaches in school

This paper explores definitions and understandings of restorative practices in education. It offers a critique of current theoretical models of restorative justice originally derived from the criminal justice system and now becoming popular in educational settings. It questions the appropriateness of these concepts as they are being introduced to schools in parts of the UK and refers to a recent Scottish Executive funded pilot initiative to implement restorative practices in schools. The paper then reflects on some findings from the evaluation of this pilot project, outlines a new notion of restorative approaches and suggests that this broader conceptualisation may offer an important way in which to promote social justice in education and to reassess the importance and inevitability of conflicting social interaction and structures inherent in schools as complex social institutions.     

融合教育在中国的嫁接与再生成:基于社会文化视角的分析

西方融合教育理论的生成与发展是建立在西方社会的政治、经济、文化基础之上的,是西方特有的社会文化发展的结果,也是特殊教育发展规律的自然体现.中国特殊教育的发展是近代以来中西方文化冲突与交融的产物,并体现了从文化的移植与到嫁接的转变.我国的随班就读模式是西方融合教育在中国的嫁接,是西方融合教育的形式与我国特殊教育实际的结合.儒家文化是融合教育在中国本土再生成的文化土壤,以公平正义为核心的社会主义和谐社会为融合教育的本土化提供了社会基础,新课程改革为融合教育在中国的发展提供了教育背景,这些都促进了嫁接来的融合教育在中国的再生成.     

Historicizing Mathematics and Mathematizing Social Studies for Social Justice: A Call for Integration

Researchers and theorists in education have offered persuasive arguments and evidence documenting the need for, and benefits of, education for social justice. Despite these efforts the intersection of social justice with interdisciplinary curricular designs remains underexplored. This article argues that social justice education is enriched through interdisciplinary curricula, in that it holds the potential for students to develop deeper conceptions of social justice and experience deeper learning outcomes related to content knowledge across subject matter areas. Central to this argument is the notion that situating disciplinary relationships explicitly within social justice perspectives encourages an emphasis on broader and richer sociopolitical consciousness among learners. We draw on historical and contemporary narratives to position social justice in mathematics and social studies education. As researchers in these two fields, we envision greater possibilities for the advancement of knowledge, and we envision learning from inequalities and resisting oppression by nurturing deeper, more explicit connections between mathematics and social studies. We conclude this article with three overviews of learning segments as potential representations of interdisciplinary mathematics-social studies for social justice work in secondary school contexts.     

Performance power: the impact of neoliberalism on social justice educators’ ways of speaking about their educational practice

ABSTRACT

Few studies have attended to the specific influence of neoliberalism on education for social justice, despite the complex ways in which the competing discourses of neoliberalism and social justice work side by side in local educational settings. This article reports data derived from interviews with 28 educators committed to social justice education from across Ontario, Canada. Participants were asked how they perceived the impact of neoliberalism on education and on their teaching practice. Findings were interpreted through critical democratic theory and discourse analysis. An unanticipated finding is the influence of neoliberal discourse on the ways that educators spoke about their teaching practice for social justice. The study found that discourse of performance is one arena where competing discourses of neoliberalism and social justice not only coexist but also intersect. This finding has important implications for the transformative potential of social justice education through more concentrated attention to the power embedded in everyday speech acts. Attending more to the performative potential of neoliberal discourse toward social justice ends can be a mechanism for resistance and teacher agency.