Elizabeth Anderson and Debra Satz continue in the tradition of Plato with their work on the role of education in a just society. Both argue that a just society depends on education enabling citizens to realise democratic or civic equality and that this equality depends on sufficiency in the distribution of educational goods. I agree that education…

Bourdieu's critical analysis of capital (BCAC) is a useful tool for unmasking how schools legitimate class structure and identifying the institutional, societal, and cultural forces that structure class reproduction and oppression. In this paper, we examine the ways educational researchers have constrained the critical application of Bourdieu's…

A national system of education in modern nation-states is usually geared towards nation-building and schools play a significant role in grooming children as future citizens. While the dominant and powerful usually emerge as the 'ideal citizen' in the national imagination, the marginalized are constructed as the 'other', vilified, and stigmatised.…

There are steps formally initiated by the Government of India to maintain its adherence to the norms of Inclusive Education. Such schemes, acts and policy drafts are brought into discussion in this paper along with an appraisal of their draft and scope. This include the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan which became operational from the year 2001, The Right…

This article aims to offer a theoretical critique of the propaganda against the affirmative action programmes, as well as to unpack the veil of merit and provide justifications for affirmative action for the underprivileged in Kerala. For this purpose, Bourdieu's concept of cultural capital and its origin would be introduced as the central focus…

Through colonialism, external forces can alter and shift social structures and practices. It causes trans-generational, often normalized, invisible, and profound marginalization of the collective identities of local and indigenous populations. Decolonization is the resisting and undoing of colonial impacts. It's the process of reforming a…

Adult literacy has been on the margins of postsecondary education for so long that many in our field assume our ongoing struggle for adequate funding and a better image is somehow "normal." It is "not normal" that some 107,000,000 adults across North America are marginalized, with many hidden in society due to low literacy.…

Dalit (the 'downtrodden') students continue to experience caste-based discrimination, humiliation and dehumanization; illegal practices that are being reproduced in the school system in the state of Odisha, India. Based on a research study organized by the Center for Research and Development Solidarity, an adivasi (original dweller/Scheduled…

Research published in the special section documents how children's and adolescents' awareness and sensitivity to group-level exclusion, inequality of opportunity, and broader patterns of economic inequality in society influence and are associated with moral emotions, moral reasoning, and decisions about resource allocation. It also assesses the…

This article focuses on different ways in which socially disadvantaged parents engage with their children's educational experiences, and provides evidence of the role they play in opening or narrowing their children's access to education. Disadvantaged parents are usually associated with weak or difficult educational trajectories for their…

Chicago has long struggled with racial residential segregation, high rates of poverty, and deepening class stratification, and it can be a challenging place for adolescents to grow up. "Unequal City" examines the ways in which Chicago's most vulnerable residents navigate their neighborhoods, life opportunities, and encounters with the…

This article investigates the role of autoethnographic research as the methodological tool of choice for a Chicana who positions herself along the liminal perspective. I posit that "testimonios", autobiographical educational experiences, must be used as valid ethnographic research to contribute to existing knowledge around issues of…

Class society is vertically oriented and is reflected in such expressions as "on top" and "lower class." But solidarity, seen as respect for fellow human beings, is a horizontal relationship. Education for solidarity means an acknowledgement of human differences and a rethinking of our language implications. (CS)

One aspect of Project REDY (Rural Education-Disadvantaged Youth) was to explore the degree of upward social and occupational mobility which society might realiztically expect from residents of a rural economically depressed area. Social class structure was identified as a related factor and examined in a rural, Southern Illinois county. It was…

To explore the degree of upward social and occupational mobility which could be expected from residents of rural economically depressed areas under existing circumstances, interviews were conducted with a random sample of 85 families from an economically depressed county and 30 severely disadvantaged families. Some findings were: (1) The majority…