Cultivating classroom democracy: Educational philosophy and classroom management for social justice

Abstract

Inequality and injustice in education have been viewed from the perspective of social justice. Since the emergence of John Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, social justice issues have attracted the attention of social and political philosophers. Theoretical consequences of social and political philosophy have been actively incorporated into the field of education. However, the issue of educational justice remains controversial and requires further philosophical consideration. To further philosophical consideration, this paper explores how the class or the classroom can generate space and time for democracy, by focusing on the educational specificity of the classroom community, which is called ‘Gakkyu’ in Japanese. Social justice in education is not only a policy issue, but also a practical issue which should be tackled in the classroom. Rethinking the ways of democracy to face conflicts arising due to differences and equality of children in the classroom is an important method of bridging social justice and education. In this paper, the following question will be explored: how classroom democracy can be nurtured and the classroom community transformed into a democratic place where children from various background and experiences gather and learn from each other.