Before I even began searching for an article, I looked up a
few different definitions of social justice. I wanted to make sure I understood
exactly what the term means, especially with regards to education. I found that
social justice is nearly associated in a positive way, but in some political
circles it has some negative connotations. This interested me, so I wanted to
find an article that went into more detail as to how something that is
seemingly for the power of good could sometimes be viewed as a “bad” thing.
I found an interesting article on JSTOR by John A. Clark, a professor in Education studies, that focuses on social justice and how policy makers have stretched the term,
and what that means for education. Although Clark is from New Zealand, I felt
this article really helped me understand what social justice means and in how
it can effect our classrooms here in America. After all, social justice seems
to be a universal term.
Clark begins his article by discussing how social justice
should always be worthy of our attention; however, the aim of social justice
when included in policy making and practices for education is not always seeking
to reach a common goal. Clark believes there is some misconstrued definitions
and philosophical ere in the way some policy makers explain and use the term
social justice. According to Clark, several policy makers and practitioners
believe social justice does not include rights and duties of citizens and
instead they focus more on the sole importance of redistribution. He goes on to
say, “Rights and duties are not things, like economic commodities or material
resources, to be allocated to individuals. Rather, they are that which each and
every one of us, by virtue of being members of particular groups, are entitled
to have either as a welfare right or a non-interference right” (274).
Clark spends much of his article critiquing these theorists
and policy makers, particularly Sharon Gerwitz, a leading theorist in policy
sociology, and how we should be applying social justice. He explains that we
need to “return to doing some basic philosophical work on the concept of social
justice” and gives us a perfect world analogy.
The core, and what was clearly the most valuable part of
this article, is when Clark finally gets into his explanation of the importance
of social justice in the school. He says, “teachers, as educators, have a moral
duty to encourage their students to think carefully, and critically, in an
ethically sound way about the desirability of working towards achievement of a
just society and the adoption of social justice as a criterion of human
conduct” (282). We often get so caught up in individual gain and advantage that
we lose sight of the fact that there are people who do not have the same
opportunities. If we instill in our students a genuine concern for all
citizens, we will be reaching towards a more realistic goal of social justice. Furthermore,
if we expect to see social justice emerge in our society than it is crucial
that we set our schools up in a way that promotes social justice. This means
that the way our school is ran, from classroom rules to school wide practices,
and everything in between need to be set up in a way that allows for students
to be most successful. Curriculum plays one of the largest roles in this
standard. Much of the content that is integrated into our curriculum now are
the inequalities we are fighting to remove.
What I learned from this article is that every student
deserves the right to a free education, and that every student needs to be
treated with respect and on an equal level as every other student, regardless
of gender, race, class, religious background, and so forth. We should not
silence the underprivileged; in the same way we should not silence the
privileged. Rather, allow students to see their influence and help them make
careful and critical decisions regarding their role as and individual, and
their role in the outcome for the common good of all citizens is. This has to
start at a young age; it needs to be instilled in our student’s minds if we
want to see social justice become more prevalent and our students to work
towards being moral autonomous agents. Our schools need to be arranged in a way that allows students
to have equal opportunities to be successful.
Here is the link to Clark's article on JSTOR:
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4122421?searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3DSocial%2BJustice%252C%2BEducation%2Band%2BSchooling%253A%2BSome%26amp%3Bacc%3Doff%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff&resultItemClick=true&Search=yes&searchText=Social&searchText=Justice%252C&searchText=Education&searchText=and&searchText=Schooling%253A&searchText=Some&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21104855565357
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