Meaning Of Social Justice Research Articles

Empowering Song

The aim of this study is to explore which aspects of the Empowering Song approach have been used in the process of teaching and learning music to marginalized people and how these activities can affect them, changing their attitudes and helping them to understand themselves and others, and how this can help build community. The methods used for data collection were as follows: bibliographical research, a questionnaire, semi-structured interviews, and observation at meetings of the Race, Prison, Justice, Arts project, the Voices21C choir and the Empowering Song: music with body, mind and heart course. The result of the data analysis was the organization of the activities into four categories: musical-educational, philosophical, psychological, and sociological aspects. The conclusion was that the Empowering Song approach profoundly impacts marginalized people through its interdisciplinarity, functioning as a means of social justice, allowing them to find themselves as artists and express themselves through art.

Now is the time for conservationists to stand up for social justice.

Existing power imbalances and injustices could be exacerbated by large flows of international funding for nature recovery. Conservationists are still grappling with what social justice means in practice; a major shift in mindset is required.

Thematic Analysis and Poetic Inquiry of Educators' Meaning-Making and Sense-Making of Social Justice

This paper presents a qualitative study that explores how educators in higher education construct their meaning of social justice. The data consists of transcripts of personal stories shared by three subjects in a public panel discussion. The data analysis employs two complementary methods: thematic analysis and poetic inquiry and analysis. The thematic analysis identifies two main themes: reflection from life events and heightened self-awareness, which illustrate how the subjects' life experiences and perceptions have shaped their understanding of social justice. The poetic inquiry and analysis transform the subjects' voices into narrative and lyrical poems that evoke the emotional and experiential aspects of their stories. The paper explores the consequences of the findings for campus programming and social justice education. This paper also reflects on the benefits and challenges of using thematic analysis and poetic inquiry as qualitative research methods.

Temporal dimension in recognition of prior learning (RPL) in vocational education and training from a social justice perspective

ABSTRACT An international movement is underway to promote the recognition of prior learning (RPL) as a means of social justice, especially for disadvantaged populations. This article examines the duration of the RPL pathway towards the upper secondary VET diploma from a social justice perspective. Grounded in the Sen’s capability approach (CA) and using survival analysis with administrative data, the results show that, under certain conditions, the RPL helps promote access to an upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) diploma, especially for experienced workers without a diploma. Indeed, some personal (e.g. immigration status) and social conversion factors (e.g. involvement of employers in the RPL pathway) are associated with the time until graduation through RPL. The discussion highlights the relevance of using survival analysis when examining the association between conversion factors and the RPL pathway. The conclusion sheds light on the relevance of incorporating a temporal dimension when analysing pathway in RPL and under CA framework.

Toward Indigenous Resurgence: Building Solidarities in Higher Education Through Relationality

We examine the meaning and salience of social justice and solidarity building in higher education for Indigenous peoples through the lens of Indigenous resurgence. Indigenous resurgence centers Indigenous worldviews to guide our understanding and behavior while also prioritizing relationality to determine where and how to build solidarities with others. Our piece utilizes the work of the Indigenous People’s Knowledge Community in the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators to provide a formative example of building relationality in higher education spaces.

Instructivism in Literacy as a Means for Social Justice: An Effective Path Forward with Direct Instruction Reading

Instructivism in Literacy as a Means for Social Justice: An Effective Path Forward with Direct Instruction Reading

Youth as coresearchers: Social justice means youth as knowledge makers too

Dominant knowledge systems rely on a Western perspective of creating and disseminating new information. These systems marginalize traditional ways of knowing including co-creating knowledge, personal narratives and lived experiences, as well as inherited cultural knowledge. Additionally, Western knowledge systems have centered the White adult male as the primary knowledge creator both through what has been valued in contemporary scientific traditions and culturally in the image of who is considered capable of creating knowledge. Those who do not fit this image have historically been marginalized and exploited in the pursuit of knowledge making including youth and particularly youth with diverse racial/ethnic identities. It is these narrow epistemological systems that have informed school psychology research and practice since its inception. Recent calls for social justice as central to school psychology work have challenged the status quo and emphasized the amplification of marginalized voices in research and practice. Therefore, this article outlines methodologies that subvert more traditional knowledge-making strategies foundational to school psychology work and critiques these to provide guidelines for methodologies that can truly incorporate youth as co-researchers, particularly Black, Indigenous and youth of color within a US context. A case study illustrating the implementation of these guidelines is included.

“They’re not a project. They’re people.” A study of Black educators critiquing the (mis)uses of social justice discourses

Discourses of social justice are becoming increasingly prevalent in educational spaces, with rising numbers of teachers and teacher education programs expressing their aims to teach towards social justice. Yet, recent scholarship has documented the contested meanings of social justice in contemporary educational contexts. This qualitative case study aims to build upon existing literature by examining how two equity-oriented Black educators in an urban elementary school conceptualized and critiqued the discourses of social justice circulating in their school. Through thematic and discourse analysis of data generated through teacher inquiry group meetings and interviews, it examines their experiences with the language of social justice becoming associated with dehumanization and white saviorism, and it documents the equity-oriented pedagogical positions constructed by these teachers in opposition to such discourses. This analysis draws attention to contemporary (mis)uses of social justice discourses and proposes implications for justice- and equity-oriented teacher education.

Social Justice among Adolescents and Rural Community: A Psycho-Social Perspective

Adolescence is a period of transition between childhood and adulthood. It is a phase
 of life marked by special attributes including rapid physical growth and development;
 physical, social and psychological maturity. The present review focuses on adolescents’
 social perspective taking in context of social justice as demonstrated by their awareness
 and interpretations.In this paper, focus is laid on literature related to mental health
 and social justice, social perspective that contributes to our knowledge of adolescents’
 development of comprehensions of social diversity. It provides the theoretical empirical
 background for observing adolescents’ perspective taking capacities in context of social
 justice. Another part of this paper is focused on different problems and social injustice
 towards adolescents’ which is one of the critical problems of world today.Social justice
 is defined as “promoting a just society by challenging injustice and valuing diversity.”
 It exists when “all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to
 equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of community
 resources. Social justice is generally equated with the notion of equality or equal
 opportunity in society. Although equality is undeniably a part of social justice, the
 meaning of social justice is much broader. Further, this review focuses upon problems
 the adolescents of rural community, what type of psychosocial problems they are facing
 and why they are not being benefited by governmental policies and programmes.

Perspectives on Social Justice among Hospice and Palliative Care Social Workers: Voices from the Field

Hospice and palliative care are burgeoning fields of social work practice. Within the social work profession, the pursuit of social justice is a defining ethical value. While some research exists on social justice within palliative and hospice care, no studies have examined its meaning within the context of this highly specialized field. To date, there is an absence of empirical research examining the meaning of social justice within a sample of hospice and palliative social workers. This study attempts to fill this gap. We used qualitative and quantitative survey items to ask hospice and palliative care social workers about the meaning of social justice within their unique practice setting, as well as to identify prominent social injustices and opportunities for action. Using responses from 51 seasoned practitioners, we found that social workers generally defined social justice as equitable access to three core areas—basic needs, high quality care, and education (for both patients, families, and providers)—regardless of a person’s group membership (e.g., race, class, sexual orientation). Participants also made recommendations for improving social justice in clinical practice through advocacy and other initiatives.

SPOTLIGHTING MIGRANT AGENCY: How Migratory Movements and Temporariness Drive Peripheral Urbanization in Mumbai's Agrarian‐urban Edge

AbstractIn this article we look beyond dispossession by exclusionary urbanization to highlight the complex articulation of migration histories, speculative accumulation, translocal livelihoods and political practices that make up a mini‐city in Mumbai's periphery. We think from Mumbai's periphery as a site from where theory can be made to argue that existing frameworks of peripheral urbanization are territorially fixed, and that there is a need to expand beyond a focus on land dynamics to a discussion on migration, translocal residence and livelihoods. We propose three extensions. First, we argue that peripheral urbanization must expand to include multiple temporalities and agencies that play out in line with orientations toward permanence but also temporariness. Second, we stretch the idea of autoconstruction beyond the material realm to focus on autoconstructed alliances as a central component of participating in the capitalist commodification of land but also exceeding it. Third, in a situation where residents inhabit both temporariness and permanence, they collectively produce place as simultaneously way station and place‐in‐the‐making. We conclude the article by reflecting on what a peripheral urbanization reconfigured for mobility and temporariness means for social justice and inclusion of the (migrant) working poor in the city.

Which Social Justice? Situating the Philippine Legal Concept of Social Justice Within Just Transition Research Collaborative's Analytical Framework

Social justice is often cited in literature as an essential component or an ideal end of just transition, but there remains a gap on what social justice itself entails, thus leading to confusion about what just transition truly requires. Viewed from the Philippine experience, this paper faces the broad yet fundamental question: How is the conceptualization—and subsequent operationalization—of just transition affected by differing notions of social justice? Using the Just Transition Research Collaborative's analytical framework of framing just transition (2018) as a reference, the concept of "social justice" in the Philippine legal system is used as a proxy to determine the variety of viable just transition framings in the country. After mapping the classical and humanistic notions of social justice in what Monsod (2014) described as jurisprudential tension in Philippine law, this study finds that the divergent meanings of social justice, which is usually thought to be an uncontested concept, correspond to a wide disparity of just transition framings, and consequently the policy interventions that await in the grassroots. Besides inviting a deeper analysis of foundational concepts related to just transition, such as social justice, this novel study also signals to the global community that there is indeed a widely available and untapped space for collaboration.

Epistemological Diversity, Constructionism, and Social Justice Research in School Psychology

Calls for school psychology researchers to produce scholarship explicitly centered on social justice have grown in recent years. There is a growing community of scholars dedicated to this research area but the knowledge base produced so far remains narrow and constrained in nature. We connect the constrained nature of this scholarship to the epistemological dominance of objectivism which has manifested in many ways, including calls to standardize the meaning of social justice. Social justice researchers must produce their research (whether qualitative, quantitative, or mixed) within the confines of objectivist culture even though social injustice exceeds the constraints of any one epistemological framework. We argue that in order to foster social justice research in school psychology, a plurality of epistemologies is crucial. We present the epistemology of constructionism, and provide various examples of what an epistemologically diversified approach to school psychology research, practice and teaching in social justice may look like. Impact Statement The authors critique the restrictive role of objectivism in social justice-related research in school psychology. This paper can assist the field of school psychology to broaden its epistemological boundaries through constructionism which in turn can allow equity-oriented school psychologists to have a deeper engagement with issues of power, inequity, and injustice in research, practice, and teaching.

Educational Psychologists as ‘Dissenting Voices’: Thinking Again about Educational Psychologists and Social Justice

This paper locates the educational psychologist’s (EP) involvement in addressing social justice in practice. It uses some philosophical ideas from Jacques Rancière, particularly the idea of the distribution of the sensible and dissensus, to help us question how systems that are aimed at contributing to a socially just society can limit social justice itself. Whilst the argument of this paper is applicable to educational psychologists internationally, this paper is situated within a Scottish context. It uses a vignette to draw out a philosophical reading of the EP’s involvement in the narrative. This paper gives some examples of how structures that are aimed at supporting social justice often position the EPs within these systems so that thinking, being and doing are shaped according to the structures that they inhabit. The establishment of such structures and discourses have limited the meaning and implementation of social justice. This means that the identity of both those requiring the involvement of the EP, as well as the EP and other professionals is determined in terms of their ‘proper place’ and their activity is determined in terms of its ‘proper function’. The paper argues that EPs can interrupt the procedural flow and provide a dissenting voice which can ultimately lead to social justice in ways that the normal flow of procedure does not.

Socialization and Social Justice

Students are often told that social justice is both the ideal and the reality to which they should be striving, and contributing to, as scholars and as citizens. However, they are often not given the space-and the challenge-to grapple with what social justice means to, and for, them. This paper shares the design of an upper level sociological theory assignment, Socialization as an Investigation of Social Justice Response Papers, that aims to do just that. The course units and theoretical texts are detailed, along with the response paper scaffold assignments, with special emphasis on a structured peer review process aligned with the assignment rubric. Now, having taught the course eight times to date, memorable student contributions to the course, along with an excerpt from the most memorable student response paper, are shared with the aim of inspiring faculty modification, particularly in the Social Sciences.

Reconstructing the Meaning of Social Justice in a Multicultural Society in Indonesia

Reconstructing the Meaning of Social Justice in a Multicultural Society in Indonesia

Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar’s Views on Social Justice: An Appraisal

Baba Sahib Bhim Rao Ambedkar views on social justice are the very basis of the Indian Constitution. The social justice means providing equal social opportunities to everyone to develop their personalities, associated with equality and social rights. In every state it becomes important to secure a social order based on justice and creating an equal opportunity available to everyone. Mostly, the people are being treated with discrimination in size, color, caste, religion, race in the society because of they are mostly uneducated and from marginalized sections of the society that creates a social disorder and inequality among them. Hence, the need of the social justice is an inevitable and is the only weapon to prosper the people towards their active participation in the development and mainstream of the society. However, it becomes important to establish an egalitarian social, economic and political order in diverse society like India. It’s in this backdrop the article tries to explore the concept of social justice and Ambedkar view on it. How far Ambedkar’s reflection is visible in Indian Constitution and its relevance in the present times.

Just by design: exploring justice as a multidimensional concept in US circular economy discourse

ABSTRACT Circular economies are often framed as addressing a trio of problems: environmental degradation, economic stagnation, and social ills, broadly defined. Our paper centers on this last claim – that circular economies promise social benefits. There is a dearth of literature focused on the social dimensions of circular economies (Geissdoerfer, Martin, Paulo Savaget, Nancy M. P. Bocken, and Erik Jan Hultink. 2017. “The Circular Economy – A New Sustainability Paradigm?” Journal of Cleaner Production 143 (February): 757–768. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.048.), and even less attention to the meaning of social justice in the context of circular economies, let alone how it might be enacted in policy and practice. Drawing on data generated from focus groups with circular economy experts and a content analysis of US-based governmental, NGO, and business literature on circular economies, we explore whether and how justice emerges in circular economy discourse. We explore the narratives that these actors use to describe justice, and the barriers they see in achieving just and inclusive circular economies. We aim to identify the ways in which social justice is defined and discussed – or not – by the actors who seem to be most actively pushing for a circular economy (CE). Our work addresses the critical need to articulate clearly what it is we mean by social justice in relation to the CE. For if the CE is to contribute to sustainable social transformations, justice must be more than a buzzword – the CE must be just by design.

A Just Wage: Social Justice in the Labor Market

The author deals with a question of the just wage, its rationale and practical implementation from the perspective of classical philosophy and Catholic social teaching. In the methodological section, the author argues that because moral and political philosophy stands higher than economics in the hierarchy of sciences, the wage-justice perspective should take precedence over the just-wage perspective. In the section on education, the author calls for a real inter-disciplinarity in education which would eliminate the arrogance of a one-discipline approach and establish a relevant-discipline approach. This paper wants to be an example of such a relevant-discipline approach. The author contends that the term “just wage” can be perceived in two meanings: 1) in the meaning of legal or social justice as a family wage; 2) in the meaning of commutative justice as a value of the employee’s performance which contributes to the production of the total physical product. Where the value of the labor performance cannot be estimated lower than the cost of authentically human living. This paper provides micro- and macroeconomic reasons for the conclusion that the legal minimum wage is not an effective instrument to make an employer pay a just wage and presents the conclusion that the only way to make the employer pay a just wage is a creation of such an institutional environment in which the owners and managers will want to pay just wages on their own, at the expense of their own profit. The author contends that a distributist vision of “restoration of property could provide a functional solution to this. The reason why popes before and during the industrial revolution didn’t criticize low incomes of peasants is, according to the author, that the family life and working life were not separated in the institutional environment of the countryside economy which is why the incomes of the peasants allowed the man to fulfill his obligations in relation to his family.

Ontologising social justice in decolonised and post-apartheid settings

One topical issue in South Africa since the 1994 democratic elections is how a socially just higher education may be advanced in the context of the decolonial demand for the recognition of diverse epistemologies in the curriculum. The challenge since 1994 however has been what social justice means in the decolonial and post-apartheid settings where injustices continue to be perpetrated on the basis of race, albeit covertly. This article examines African and South African epistemologies and ontologies of social justice, in the context of decoloniality and curricula transformation in higher education, that became more pronounced through the #Feesmustfall protests in 2015. I argue that while social justice occurs within particular historical and political contexts, it is necessary to discern some ontologies of social justice that are not necessarily reducible to contexts. Use is made of Realist (R), Critical Realist (CR) and Race Realist Theory (RRT) perspective to unpack paradoxical constructions of social justice in post-colonial and post-apartheid South Africa.