This article is a reflection on the concept of justice as practiced in the public schools in the United States. Examples of justice denied or misconstrued are included. Cases, stories, and concepts invite educational leaders to reflect anew on delivering justice in education to all children. Underlying the article is the belief that understanding the concept of justice is vital if an educational leader is to act justly and model just behavior in schooling.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BreyerS. (2005). Active liberty: Interpreting our democratic constitution.New York: Knopf.
2.
CornfordF. M. (Trans.). (1964). The republic of Plato.New York: Oxford University Press.
3.
Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, 119 S. Ct. 1661 (1999).
4.
DaytonJ. (2000). Recent litigation and its impact on the state-local power balance: liberty and equity in governance, litigation, and the school finance policy debate. In TheobaldN., & MalenB. (Eds.), Balancing local control and state responsibility for K–12 education (pp. 93–120). Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education.
DeweyJ., & TuftsJ. H. (1908). Ethics.New York: Holt.
7.
Doe v. Taylor Independent School District, 15 F. 3d 443 5th Cir. (1994).
8.
DuffC. (2009). Judicial business of the United States courts.Washington, DC: Statistics Division of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
9.
DurantW. (1926). Story of philosophy.New York: Simon & Schuster.
10.
Education Amendments of 1972, Title IX, 20 U.S.C. 1681 (1982).
11.
FirstP. (2001). The new superintendency as guardian of justice and care. In Cryss BrunnerC., & BjörkLars G. (Eds.), The new superintendency (pp. 249–266). Oxford: Elsevier Press.
12.
FirstP. (2007). Financing Arizona's schools: Faltering steps toward “the good society.”Journal of Education Finance, 32(3), 273–282.
13.
FirstP., & RossowL. (1992). An enormous victory for women and girls. School Law Reporter, 33, 1–2.
14.
Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools, 503 U.S. 60 (1992).
15.
GalbraithJ. K. (1996). The good society: The humane agenda.Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
16.
GilliganC. (1982). In a different voice: Psychological theory and women's development.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
17.
GilliganC., WardJ., & TaylorJ. (Eds.). (1998). Mapping the moral domain.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
18.
GordonJ. A. (1998). Caring through control: Reaching urban African American youthJournal for a Just and Caring Education, 4(4), 418–440.
19.
HavelV. (1997). The art of the impossible: Politics as morality in practice (P. Wilson, Trans.). New York: Knopf. (Original work published in 1994)
20.
Hejka-EkinsA. (1988). Teaching ethics in public administration. Public Administration Review, 48, 885–890.
21.
HeldV. (2001). Caring relations and principles of justice. In RachelsJ., & RachelsS. (Eds.), The right thing to do (pp. 78–84). New York: McGraw-Hill.
22.
Horne v. Flores, 129 S. Ct. 2579 (2009).
23.
KingM. L. (2009). Letter from the Birmingham city jail. In SandelM. (Ed.), Justice.New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
24.
KnoeppelR., & FirstP. (2010, March). The intersections of adequacy and justice: Judicial interpretations of the adequacy for ELL students. Paper presented to the American Education Finance Association, Richmond, VA
25.
KolodnyA. (1998). Failing the future: A dean looks at higher education in the twenty-first century.Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
26.
LindemannH. (2006). An invitation to feminist ethics.New York: McGraw-Hill.
27.
MartinJ. R. (1992). The schoolhome.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
28.
McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act of 1987, as amended, Title VII, Subtitle B; 42 U.S.C. 11431–11435, reauthorized as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Educational Act (2001).
29.
MinowM. (1997). Not only for myself: Identity, politics, and the laws.New York: New Press.
30.
MooreL. (2010). Anything goes: A biography of the Roaring Twenties.New York: Overlook Press.
31.
No Child Left Behind Act, Pub. L. No. 107–110 (2001). 115 Stat. 1439, codified as amended at 20 U.S.C. §§ 6301 et seq. (2003).
32.
NoddingsN. (2003). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral education.Berkeley: University of California Press.
33.
PestalozziJ. (1885). Leonard and Gertrude.Boston: D. C. Heath.
34.
RachelsJ. (2009). The right thing to do.New York: McGraw-Hill.
35.
RawlsJ. (1971). A theory of justice.New York: Belknap Press.
36.
ReganH. B., & BrooksG. H. (1995). Out of women's experience: Creating relational leadership.Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
37.
Sacramento City Unified School District, Board of Education v. Rachel H., 14 F.3d 1398 (9th Cir. 1994). Safford United School District v. Redding, 557 U.S. (2009).
SantayanaG. (1905). The life of reason; or, the phrases of human progress.New York: Scribner's.
40.
StefkovichJ. A. (2006). The best interests of the student: Applying ethical constructs to legal cases in education.Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
41.
StrikeK., HallerE., & SoltisJ. (2005). The ethics of school administration (3rd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press.
42.
ThompsonD. (1987). Political ethics and public office.Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
43.
TongR. (1993). Feminine and feminist ethics.Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
44.
VanzettiB. (2001). The story of a proletarian life. In MooreL. (Ed.), Anything goes: A biography of the Roaring Twenties.New York: Overlook Press.
45.
VerstegenD. (1998). A new ethic for children. Journal for a Just and Caring Education, 4(4), 393–417.
46.
WeberM. (1987). Bureaucracy (H. H. Gerth & C. Wright Mills, Trans.). In ShafritzJ. M., & OttJ. S. (Eds.), Classics of organizational theory (Rev. ed., p. 81). Chicago: Dorsey Press. (Original work published in 1946)
47.
WilliamsB. T., & DeSanderM. (1999). Dueling legislation: The impact of incongruent federal statutes on homeless and other special-needs students. Journal for Just and Caring Education, 5(1), 34–50. Williams v. Ellington 936 F.2d 881 (6th Cir. 1991).
