Justice and education

Abstract

Resting on Walzer’s distinction of Spheres of Justice that defines education as a specific justice sphere, we discuss in this chapter five educational subspheres where resources and rewards (or sanctions) are being constantly distributed and their “fairness” is evaluated by its main beneficiaries-the students. The five spheres that we discuss are: Access to education (and resource allocation to realize the access), allocation of learning places, allocation of teaching methods and pedagogy, grading, and teacher-student relations. Although education is a major domain of societal action in the modern world and “equality of educational opportunity,” which is clearly a justice slogan, leads the public interest and academic research, the clear approach to education as a distinct sphere of justice, much of the educational and academic discussions focused on “inequality” or “gaps,” and the investigation of sense of justice among students, teachers, and parents, is a relatively new field of study that is growing considerably in recent decades. Following Jasso’s definition of the central questions that guide investigation in the justice domain, our discussion in each of these subspheres is structured to deal with the “just,” the “actual,” and the “consequences” of injustice in their distribution, summarizing the theoretical discussion and empirical findings to best of our knowledge.