the perspective of social justice in teacher education

7/30/2019 The perspective of Social Justice in Teacher Education

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Te n s i o n s a n d p o s s i b i l i t i e s f r o m a c r i t i c a l d i s c o u r s e

a n a l y s i s

The perspective of social justice inpre-service teacher education

Fernando Murillo

State University of New York

March 2013


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Initial Ideas

Importance of discourse: social practice that conveys modes ofconsciousness and the configuration of realities.

What is at stake in curriculum is the modeling of structures ofthought that predispose professionals to act in a determinedmanner.

Social justice not as a content, but a perspective.


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Context

Public policies centered on quality of education.

Focus on teacher education as a central component.

Inequalities as a fundamental obstacle for improvement.


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Social Justice

A polysemic and controversial concept that needs to bereconceptualized.

Some critiques:

is an ambiguous and vague slogan with multiple instantiationsand inadequate theoretical grounding (Cochran Smith 2008:626)

it is allowed to float around freely in the air, as if anyone couldrecognize it the moment it appears (Novak 2011:11)


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Conceptualizations around Social Justice:

the distributive paradigm

o Social justice is solved in the equal distribution of goods,services and benefits.

o It requires equal possibilities of participation.

o SJ provides a parameter with which to value distributiveaspects (Rawls 1971:3).

o Access and merit.

o BUT.


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2 problems with the reduction of SJ to the distribution of

goods or positions:

it hides the institutional and social contexts that

determine that distribution.

distribution represents goods as if they were staticobjects instead of relationships and social processes

(Marion Young 2000: 33).

A post critical perspective recognizes that:


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Distributive Paradigm: solving the question of who and howmuch requires a moral consensus around principles fordistribution.

Mouffe (1999): such consensus is neither possible nordesirable;

It denies central aspects of its political nature: pluralism anddivergence;

Serves the interests of a post liberal agenda: totalitarizes thesocial realm with the right to consume.

A post critical perspective recognizes that:


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Recognition Paradigm

Not all injustice and inequality has to do with socio-economic factors, but with social and cultural structuresthat generate relations of exclusion, oppression andinequality.

A transit from categories such as "exploitation to otherswith a more vindictive character that recognize differenceand diversity.

Focus on actors, their identity configurations andpossibilities of transformation.


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Towards a perspective of Social Justice

Affirmation Transformation

Redistribution Liberal welfare state

Surface reallocations of

existing goods to existing

groups; supports group

differentiation; can

generate misrecognition

Socialism

Deep restructuring of

relations of production;

blurs group differentiation;

can help remedy some

forms of misrecognition.

Recognition Mainstream

multiculturalism

Surface reallocations of

respect to existing identitiesof existing groups; supports

group differentiations.

Deconstruction

Deep restructuring of

relations of recognition;

destabilizes groupdifferentiation

Fraser 1997:47


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[ ] [ ]Distribution ofgoods

Practical Rationality

Redistributive

View

Distribution ofopportunities,

power, dignity,honor.

Critical / post critical Rationality

Recognition

View

Domination,oppression Difference,alterity,

Poliphony,epistemic

decoloniality.(Mignolo 2009)

The Social Justice continuum


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Left pole:

- Inequalities are explained by problems of distribution.

- Access and mobility are assured by proper training and

learning of the contents that are lacked of, but depends

on effort and merit.



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Right pole:

- Inequality and injustice appear in different dimension of

the human experience (not just economic).

- Requires a problematizing view, one that is critical andtransformative of relations and structures.

- It involves actors, processes of reflection and collectiveaction.



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In conclusion (or opening!)

SJ is not an stable concept, but a positioning along a

continuum of epistemic/political beliefs.

Adopting a pro social justice stance in education involvesbeing explicit about the assumptions and the

commitments we adhere to.

A socially just education requires situating oneself in a

position that combines different forms of justice.

the perspective of social justice in teacher education

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