Doctoral Dissertations
Date of Award
12-1996
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Major
Education
Major Professor
Kathleen Bennett deMarrais
Committee Members
Clinton Allison, Kermit Blank, George Brenkert
Abstract
Theoretical perspectives of justice in general and educational justice in particular are diverse and often conflicting. Some scholars pose problems of educational justice in terms of distributive justice—who should go to school, to what kind of school, and to what kind of curriculum should students be exposed? Other scholars focus directly on the substance and content of the curriculum. Still others look at educational justice from the perspective of institutional domination and oppression. Despite the variety of theoretical approaches offered by scholars, a review of the literature shows a significant gap in empirical studies of educational justice. For example, few studies deal with participants' perceptions of justice. Moreover, the perceptions of educational justice held by students, in particular, are almost completely ignored. This study examined students' perceptions of educational justice as gained through their own experiences in the public education system. Qualitative research methods were used in the form of in-depth interviews with fifteen university students. The findings of the study clustered around two major topics: 1) participants' experiences of injustice in schools, and 2) perceptions of educational justice and how to obtain it. Experiences of injustice in schools all took the form of differentiation, that is, as violations of the principle of equality that assumes that all people are of equal value and deserve to be treated the same. When asked to describe their ideas of educational justice and how to obtain it, some participants continued to adhere to the principle of strict equality-equal amounts of time and attention devoted to each student. Other participants moved away from strict equality to express concerns over social justice, providing help to those who need it, and providing rewards for effort rather than strictly for merit. In terms of obtaining educational justice, participants' views ranged from proposing equal rules and equal punishment to the mixing of social groups in all school activities. The social context of the participant-socioeconomic status, gender, race, type of school attended, and the particular life circumstances of the participant—influenced the ideas of that person regarding educational justice. In general, those who had not personally experienced unjust practices in the school proved to be remarkably unaware of the injustices experienced and cited by others. The participants' concerns about educational justice related to several theoretical perspectives of justice, but, for the most part, participants focused on the institutional context of educational justice—what happened within their schools to real people on an everyday basis.
Recommended Citation
Stone, Eddie Michael, "Students' perceptions of educational justice. " PhD diss., University of Tennessee, 1996.
https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_graddiss/9859