Third ISA Forum of Sociology (July 10-14, 2016)

JS-61

Justice and Inequality in Education

RC04 Sociology of Education (host committee)
RC42 Social Psychology

Language: English

Education is a distinct sphere of justice (Walzer, 1983) where resources and rewards are constantly distributed at the macro (system) and micro (individual students) levels and the fairness of their distribution is judged based on comparison with ideas (or accepted norms) of deservedness. Deservedness is determined based on three possible principles of distribution: equality, equity, need, or some weighted combination. 
The sense of (in)justice becomes thus a significant experience for students throughout their schooling and questions about antecedents and consequences of (in)justice at school, at both the individual and the group level, are attracting both theoretical and empirical academic discourse. By the same token, equality and equality of opportunity are at the heart of public and academic educational discourse, based on a seemingly accepted assumption that inequality is unjust. 
We call for papers dealing with the sense of (in)justice as well as the intersection of (in)justice and (in)equality in education/schools. For example, what are teachers’ and students’ ideas about a just distribution of various resources at school and in the society at large? In which domain, and for whom, inequality is considered unjust? What are the academic, attitudinal and behavioral consequences of experiences of injustice at school? Does it relate, and in what sense, to dimensions of (in)equality of opportunities in education? Both theoretical and empirical papers, as well as comparative research are welcome. Posters: