Labeling Students as a Form of Epistemic Injustice

This article discusses the ways that labeling students can contribute to epistemic injustices. The harms of labeling are discussed, and Patricia Carini’s practice of descriptive review, along with her general philosophical approach to teaching and education, are offered as ways of mitigating against these harms. The main goals of this article are to uncover new ways of thinking about epistemic injustice and to introduce Carini’s work to philosophers of education and readers who think philosophically about teaching and education. I suggest that Carini’s lived approach to philosophy deserves the widest possible audience, and that her approach to teaching and education present a model for how we might resist forms of injustice that are all too common in schools.