Injustice_in_Education

Deconstruction of a social justice incident or ongoing social justice issue in education McInerney (2007) explains that injustices and oppressive practices visit classrooms on a daily basis. This was most definitely the case witnessed in a middle-socio economic dominated high school that had a high percentage of immigrant students and students from non-English speaking backgrounds. A specific white, middle-class teacher in this secondary high school implied that these students are not worth teaching because of their cultural heritage and race. In addition, the teachers in this staff room had very low expectations of these students, did not particularly want to be involved in the students learning and finally she was reluctant to take on this ethnic class of students. Primarily this can be recognised as an ongoing social justice incident as racism is involved as the teacher stereotypes her students. Furthermore, this incident focuses on how students future will be affected by the teachers lack of commitment to them, ultimately highlighting how power relations of society become involved within this incident and how a teacher within the educational society has the ability to affect a students academic achievements and upward progression through life. The term 'social justice’ is used to signal the unifying factors underlying the general movement towards a fairer, less oppressive society (Griffiths, 1998). Thus, social justice is an attempt to achieve an “idyllic” society, which involves equality and fairness. In terms of racism within schooling, social justice looks at the education system as a social structure. Education is a major source of social transformation, providing learners with those critical and reflective forms of perception and understanding that will primarily enable them to participate in the creation of an improved and more desirable form of social life than that which currently exists (Walker, 2003). Accordingly, the incident of the teacher being racially prejudice about the ability of her students, is definitely a social justice issue. Stereotyping and racism will prevent immigrant students and non English speaking background students from achieving high results; this will ultimately affecting their chances of getting a higher education and improving their self capital. Discourses of racism and stereotyping can be examined using the theoretical understanding of Bourdieu’s Cultural Capital. The notion of cultural capital merely refers to a culturally specific ability even if one which is unequally distributed and which is efficient, as a power in a particular social setting (Weininger 2005). In Bourdieu’s view, social class is determined on different status or lifestyle that is a manifestation of social class differences. (Weininger). The four forms of capital Bourdieu theorised include cultural capital, social capital, symbolic capital, culture, and power as a form of capital (Jaeger, 2007). Therefore, when a teacher stereotypes her students because of their ethnicity and cultural heritage, she is automatically suggesting that she has more social and cultural capital than that of her students, furthermore, she is suggesting that her symbolic capital is higher and thus is unconsciously reflecting her dominance over culture and power within the classroom. In so far, it is evident to see how this incident is easily relatable to Bourdieu’s theories of personal capital. Yet it is important to recognise that this social justice incident relates primarily to racism; however, the discourses of whiteness and stereotyping are combined in order to assess the affect of the incident. Racism is a major problem within society today, not only does it reflect deepening problems of social injustice but it permeates each class of society and ultimately adds to cultural and class differences. Critical theorists believe that historically constituted power relations mediate thought and the fact is some groups in society are privileged over others, and this privilege leads to differential access to services, goods, and outcomes (Rogers et al, 2005). This can be seen in the case of the teacher, she has high cultural capital as she is a white, English speaking, educated woman who is stereotyping, a primarily non English speaking immigrant class. She knows that she has power over them, and she understands that she is more privileged than her students are. Her racist stereotyping affects the dynamics of the classroom, and ultimately, affects the achievements of the students. Dee explains that proposals for promoting racial equity often emphasize the need for improvements in teacher training and professional development (2005). Tthrough racial stereotyping and the connection of social capital, this teacher is affecting the achievement of her students and contributing to their inability to progress and build their own capital. When a teacher holds low expectations of her students, there is an automatic disadvantage placed on the students. In this case, racism is the key to disadvantage. Furthermore, it must be noticed how this social justice incident relates to the discourse of “whiteness” and stereotyping from the teacher. Again affecting the student’s ability to achieve within the education system or to build capital through life. The notion of “whiteness” corresponds to the idea of “white privilege” which ultimately means that if you are white you automatically have higher capital than that of any minority group (Solomona et al, 2005.) In relation to social justice and education, this is of high importance when it relates to white teachers stereotyping their students. In relation to the social justice incident, it is obvious that the teacher is racist to immigrant students and students from no English speaking backgrounds. Furthermore the fact that the teachers whiteness is coming to the vanguard, it also affects white students, ultimately it can be seen that this teacher will favour other white students and ultimately affect their ability to achieve in an unwarranted way. It has been discovered that in a school that is of mix-raced students, with the same socio-economic background, students that are white benefit from their race, regardless of the hindrance of their class background (Morris, 2005). This is so unjust for minorities that the student’s ability to achieve is substantially limited; this highlights how great this social justice incident is. It is obvious to see how the discourses of race, whiteness and stereotyping affect the educational system within Australia. From a Poststructuralist perspective people are seen as building blocks of social structures, it emphasizes the parts of the structure that make up the whole; it confronts the structural view of the whole as agent of its smaller components and allows relationships to be the materials of analysis (Niemi, 2005). Therefore, since this teacher is an important component of the social structure of the school she holds importance within this relationship. Ultimately, post structuralism views society as being culturally conditioned, it holds bias and prejudice and it favours knowledge. For the teacher that hinders her student’s academic achievement, she is simply an aspect of the social structure, for the student that is limited in achievement because of the teacher, it is their role to move beyond this or else they will continually be controlled and that ‘other’ within society will always hold the power. In any school, the teachers’ enforcement of ‘appropriate behaviour’ is simply a way in which racism is naturalized in the context of post structuralism and inequality (Niemi). It is clear that the post structuralist framework does not help the social injustice incidents within the educational system. Power relations can also be analysed in relation to the relationship between the teacher and the student and the inequities that this relationship provides. The concept of power relations has a strong connection with authority and knowledge within the educational system (Kogan, 2009). Furthermore, the power relations that are evident in this social justice incident highlights how the students are at a constant disadvantage due to the fact that in any schooling system, the teacher holds power. Combine this with the discourse of whiteness compared to the social capital of ethnics and it is obvious that the teacher is in complete control of these relations. Lawrence (1997) explains that the ideology of whiteness is influential in society and refers to policies, beliefs and practices, which ultimately enable whites to maintain power and authority in all aspects of society. Therefore, differentiating discourses within society will keep white people in power; will maintain to let racism permeate society. The power relation between teacher and student, which consequently will continue to disadvantage the student, because of the excess of power and authority that the teacher holds. Ultimately, through the analysis of this social justice incident: a white, racist, stereotypical teacher we have seen that a student’s ability to achieve in academics, to progress through life and to gain cultural and social capital is hindered. Unfortunately, the school as an “institution” did not react to the teacher’s racism, nor does the school realise how serious the incident can be for the students. Society should not be able to allow students to be disadvantaged by their teachers. It is important that teachers take on their role as professional educators of social justice. They must respect all members of the diverse society in which they live. It is an obligation for members of society to recognise that Australia prides itself on multiculturality. It is important for the teachers to understand that their learning and teaching has to incorporate multiple sites of new knowledge regarding race and racialization (Solomona et al.) High expectations from teacher to students and comparatively from student to teachers are a necessity within the educational section of society. Social injustice is an issue, which needs to be addressed; if the education aspect of society can move beyond the injustices they would be setting the perfect example for the remaining building blocks that constitute a complete society. Reference List Dee, T,S. (2005, May) A Teacher like Me: Does Race, Ethnicity, or Gender Matter' The American Economic Review.95:2.158-165 Griffiths, M. (1998, June) The Discourses of Social Justice in Schools. British Educational Research Journal. 24:3. 301-316 Kogan, M. (2005, Jan-Mar) Modes of Knowledge and Patterns of Power. Higher Education. 49:1/2. 9-30. Lawrence, S. (1997) Beyond Race Awareness: White Racial Identity and Multicultural Teaching. Journal of Teacher Education.Vol.48. Niemi, N,S.(2005, December)The emperor has no clothes: examining the impossible relationship between gendered and academic identities in middle school students. Gender and Education. 17:5,483 — 497 Rogers, R. et al. (2005, Autumn). Critical Discourse Analysis in Education: A Review of the Literature. Review of Educational Research. 75:3. 365-416. Solomona, P. et al. (2005, July) The discourse of denial: how white teacher candidates construct race, racism and 'white privilege'. Race Ethnicity and Education. Walker, M. (2003, Jun) Framing Social Justice in Education: What Does the 'Capabilities' Approach Offer' Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the Society for Educational Studies. 51:2. 168-187 Weininger, E. Foundations of Pierre Bourdieu’s class analysis. In Wright, Erik Olin. (2005). Approaches to Class Analysis Retrieved 15 March 2009, from http://www.myilibrary.com/Browse/open.asp'ID=42230&loc=Cover