ABSTRACT
Emphasis of the mainstream educational justice theories has been on justice for education and justice through education, while largely neglecting perspectives concerning justice in education, or justice in pedagogical contexts. The discussions of this book go beyond these conventional perspectives of educational justice by elaborating powerful, multi-perspectival, and sensitive notions of educational justice.
This chapter contributes to this vivid debate by examining teachers’ concrete experiences of injustice and inspires theoretical debates towards “a profoundly different – and largely unexplored – way of thinking about educational justice” The conceptions of justice and injustice have interestingly been noted also in pedagogical discussions. This chapter influenced by these pedagogical aspects argues that the focus from the positive postulates of justice, ‘positive utopias’ of political philosophy and moral philosophy should be changed to the explorations of concrete and existing injustices in the educational system.
With this focus in mind, the chapter introduces Meira Levinson’s and Doris Santoro’s recent studies as good examples of the topical injustice in the educational system. However, to get a more robust conception of injustice, the chapter elaborates on the dialogue between three authors, Axel Honneth, Meira Levinson, and Doris Santoro. This theoretical debate amends, clarifies, and, most importantly, outlines the crucial conceptual problems in the experiences of injustice that teachers are currently argued to face in their daily work. This chapter results in the theoretical avenues for teachers to become more aware of the negative factors influencing their profession.
