What is just and unjust in education? Role of inter-ethnic tensions in defining justice in education through the prism of media debates

Abstract

By exploring carefully selected education-related debates that have taken place in and through news media in five European countries, the current study investigates the role of inter-ethnic tensions in organizing public imaging of justice in educational matters. It focuses in particular on analysing in what ways and on what levels of moral reasoning justice-related tensions in the realm of education are permeated with inter-ethnic conflict. The results show that among the various justice-related controversies in educational matters, tensions around the imagined ‘who’ of (in)justice, the alleged winners and losers of educational policies, and the perceived victims and victimizers are absolutely crucial, determining the preferred definition of (in)justice as well as the choice of principles that should govern the realization of justice. Current analysis also shows how claiming victimhood by members of majorities pairs with ‘shifting blame’ and turning minorities into the agents of majoritarian suffering.