Educating urban youth: fair or foul?

Students’ views on fairness in education: the importance of relational justice and stakes fairness

“…Fraser's (1997) notion of 'cultural justice', in terms of the absence of cultural domination, nonrecognition and disrespect and the notion of 'associational justice', that is the enablement of different groups to participate fully in decisions that affect them (Power and Gewirtz 2001) are also useful. Our previous research identified that educational professionals saw 'justice as mutuality' and the need for fair participation within a community, as important to their practice of education (Laing, Mazzoli Smith and Todd 2016). This, we argued, suggests the need for the more explicit development of educational policy based on relational justice.…”

“…There is a need to change the way we talk about and conceptualise education, notably in the context of neoliberalism. This is something that we have been trying to do in a number of ways, for example, challenging commonly held perceptions of low aspirations (Cummings et al 2012) and current notions of 'narrowing the gap' (Laing, Mazzoli Smith and Todd 2016). There is a need to encourage a new and different public consensus about the nature of education, and what it should be for, and we argue that this has to involve a wider conceptualization of fairness as values-based, which takes account of the lived experiences of fairness in education.…”

“…In a previous analysis of current education policy in England and locally in Newcastle upon Tyne, we suggest that Rawls' principle of fair equality of opportunity and his related notion of distributional justice (Rawls 2009) is one of the key ideas of fairness in play (Laing, Mazzoli Smith and Todd 2016). This is central to the prevalent notion of 'closing the gap', the attainment gap between rich and poor, with pupil premium funding being made available for each economically disadvantaged young person directly to schools (Carpenter et al 2013).…”

“…This paper discusses a research project aimed at gathering young people's views about fairness in education in English schools. It builds upon the authors' previous analysis that identified prevailing concepts of fairness in English Government policy and also in educational practice in Newcastle upon Tyne, a city in the North East of England (Laing, Mazzoli Smith and Todd 2016). We argue that engaging with how fairness in education is experienced and understood by young people must play a greater role in shaping dominant models of social justice.…”

“…Over twenty Fairness Commissions have been established to date, mostly in England, but with several in Wales and Scotland. They rely upon a normative meaning of fairness which, as we have discussed elsewhere (Laing, Mazzoli Smith and Todd 2016) quickly elides into discussions of justice and equalitybut fairness is not always allied to equality, nor is justice always considered fair.…”