Capability Approach & Social Justice in Education Brian Turkett ED 404 Summer 2009

Social Justice vs. Distributive Justice Common Education for all (Horace Mann) –Values and traditions of European Protestants –Unequal distribution of wealth and resources –Standardized curricula and tracking Egalitarian ideals (Equal shares) “Banking Method” of Knowledge (ie. Core Knowledge Foundation) Deliberative Democracy – Non-oppression through active participation in societal processes Social injustice in schools and the community Social change through a democratic education

Capability Approach Amartya Sen –Economist and philosopher –Well-Being (Basic Needs Perspective) and Human Development A functioning is an achievement of a person. A capability is a person’s ability to achieve a given functioning. (a person’s valued ‘beings and doings’) Need equal capabilities, not resources, since people use those resources differently ‘Space of capabilities’, or the freedom people have to formulate capabilities and make resources into functionings they value. Inequality Reexamined (1992) Development ad Freedom (1999)

Capability Approach Sen did not make a list of capabilities –Societal differences require deliberative democracy –Agency = someone who acts and brings about change Equality of what? People differ on dimension Personal axis (gender, age, etc) External axis (wealth, climate, etc) Inter-individual axis (capabilities) Capability Approach = Ethically Individualistic Neo-Liberalism = Ontologically Individualistic

Capability Approach Martha Nussbaum – Gender Inequality –Basic capabilities = ‘ the innate equipment of individuals that is necessary for developing more advanced capabilities, and a ground for moral concern ’. –Internal capabilities = ‘ developed states of the person ’ or ‘ matured states of readiness ’ that ‘ are, so far as the person herself is concerned, sufficient conditions for the exercise of requisite functions ’. –Combined capabilities = ‘ internal capabilities combined with suitable external conditions for the exercise of the function ’. –Made list of ten capabilities Life, Bodily Health, Bodily Integrity, Senses, Imagination, and Thought, Emotions, Practical Reason, Affiliation, Other Species, Play, Control over One ’ s Environment Women and Human Development (2000)

Models of Education Human Capital Rights Human Capabilities InstrumentalIntrinsic and Instrumental Efficiency Lacks intrinsic importance Personal and collective instrumental social roles Government needs to mobilize resources (justice as rights) Legal vs. moral rights Rights do not guarantee resources Minimal requirement for gov’t. Government focused

Education and Capability Approach Process of “ becoming ” and “ being ” Future opportunity – ‘ learn to be and learn to know ’ Freedom to choose (limited) Capabilities of teaching and learning –Ie. Hope, autonomy, voice, friendship, aspiration, participation, agency, empowerment, valuation Multi-dimensional list –1. Autonomy, 2. Knowledge, 3. Social relations, 4. Respect and recognition, 5. Aspiration, 6. Voice, 7. Bodily integrity and bodily health, 8. Emotional integrity and emotions

Education and Capability Approach and Social Justice How knowledge and power work in schools to produce and reproduce inequalities Aspects of Capability –Well-Being Achievement – passing a year –Well-Being Freedom – the conditions to pass –Agency Achievement – Success in pursuing all considered goals and objectives –Agency Freedom – conditions to exercise agency Recognitional Justice (culture, social) – equal conversion Redistributive Justice (economy) – equal ownership Gender inequality –Cosmopolitans vs. communitarians Special Needs and Disability –Inclusion (Democratic participation) –Personal heterogeneity

Resources –Thematic groups EDUCATION “ Amartya Sen ’ s Capability Approach and Social Justice in Education ” Edited by Melanie Walker and Elaine Unterhalter (2007)