Why Adequacy Isn't Enough: Educational Justice, Positional Goods and Class Power

Autor/in	Kissel, Joshua
Titel	Why Adequacy Isn't Enough: Educational Justice, Positional Goods and Class Power
Quelle	In: Journal of Philosophy of Education, 55 (2021) 2, S.287-301 (15 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Kissel, Joshua)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0309-8249
DOI	10.1111/1467-9752.12544
Schlagwörter	Educational Philosophy; Social Justice; Citizenship Education; Democracy; Civics; Equal Education; Social Class; Power Structure; Social Structure; Disadvantaged + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Bildungsphilosophie; Erziehungsphilosophie; Soziale Gerechtigkeit; Citizenship; Education; Politische Bildung; Politische Erziehung; Staatsbürgerliche Erziehung; Demokratie; Staatsbürgerkunde; Social classes; Soziale Klasse; Sozialstruktur
Abstract	Elizabeth Anderson and Debra Satz continue in the tradition of Plato with their work on the role of education in a just society. Both argue that a just society depends on education enabling citizens to realise democratic or civic equality and that this equality depends on sufficiency in the distribution of educational goods. I agree that education is important to preparing democratic citizens, but I disagree about the plausibility of sufficiency here, especially in the educational context. My argument is two-fold: I first reconsider a generic positional goods objection to educational inequality, I then argue that plausible sufficientarian replies to this objection fail insofar as they are premised on an impoverished conception of class and power that treats all statuses more like socio-cultural traits when they should instead be referencing the material conditions someone has inside a social structure. One cannot bring an individual X into the halls of power "and simultaneously" have X represent or compensate those who are presently disadvantaged in the way that X had formerly been disadvantaged. In short, we should worry about the realistic possibility of securing and sustaining a civic-minded elite because elites have the power and motivation to enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us. For the sufficientarian story to work, we need more that explains the realistic possibility of a benevolent ruling elite, until then, democratic equality seems to be better realised by aiming for equal educations, adequacy isn't enough. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01