A NARRATIVE APPROACH EXPLORING NOTIONS OF JUSTICE IN EDUCATION

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ABSTRACT The use of narrative has been a time-honoured way of exploring complex ideas, and a valuable way to learn. An obvious example that epitomises this thesis, are the dialogues of Plato. Indeed, what gives significance to these dialogues is the way in which complex ideas are revealed through the struggles and conflicts of one or more characters. With this in mind, one of my aims is to present my own fictional dialogue that I have created between two academics who are in conflict over a student who is deemed to be ‘at risk’ by an educational institution as a means to explore notions of justice in education. Although there is much that can be learned about justice from formal arguments; however, I argue that narratives are useful devices to learn about complicated concepts, and at the same time, serve as a catalyst for debate about principles that are fundamental to education. Consequently, this article uses a narrative approach for the dual purposes of elucidating the concept of justice exhibited through the characters found in the narrative, which in turn offers the means in which to critically discuss and analyse the narrative in relation to justice in education.