Democracy and social justice in schools: Dimensions for thinking and improving educational practice

Abstract

Democracy and social justice are mutually involved. This statement is valid for our society and is also true for our schools. With Nancy Fraser's ideas on Social Justice as a framework, this article proposes five dimensions to improve Social Justice and Democracy in schools. First, Redistribution of opportunities and benefits of education, as a way for schools to break the social inequalities perverse circle; the second dimension is the Recognition of cultural values and social diversity, through which the dominant cultural values in education are questioned, and the different school's member identities, perspectives and lifestyles are respected and learned from. The third dimension refers to democratic school governance, a governance based on responsibilities distribution, proactivity and plural networks cooperation. The fourth dimension is Critical and Participatory Curriculum and the fifth and last one is a Democratic School Culture. These dimensions contribute to identify abstract concepts in the concrete ways in which they are carried out in schools, reflect on them and suggest practices to improve them.