Book Launch: Curriculum for justice and harmony: Deliberation, knowledge, and action in social and civic education

Group Submission Type: Book Launch

Description of Session

This book presents a global vision for education, one that can guide students in the pursuit of societal justice and harmony. Drawing from diverse philosophical and cultural traditions, including Confucianism and Indigenous philosophies, as well as empirical research, we introduce curriculum principles designed to motivate and inform students’ thoughtful and compassionate deliberation of public issues.

Schools must prepare young people to act on issues of justice and harmony—societal ideals that are central to all communities. A curriculum centered on justice, grounded in a capabilities approach to human development, orients students toward advancing well-being, reducing manifest injustices, and removing barriers that limit opportunities. A curriculum premised on critical harmony, meanwhile, engages students in considering how to enhance relational dimensions of social life while embracing conflict and tension, valuing difference and diversity, and striving for balance among voices.

Deliberation for public action also requires knowledge. Students must engage with knowledge of other people’s concrete circumstances in order to extend their natural sense of benevolence to people, places, and events with which they are less familiar. Students must also listen to the voices of distant others in order to understand the perspectives and insights of those who differ from themselves, so that they can make better informed and more inclusionary decisions. And to exercise the discretion necessary to take wise action, students must make use of knowledge of the causes of social issues, consequences of policies taken to address them, and strategies available for influencing society.

Reaching decisions about these matters depends on collaborative deliberation: inclusive, goal-oriented discussions characterized by trust and reciprocity, non-adversarial problem-solving, and diverse forms of expression. Throughout the book, we illustrate these curriculum principles with case studies of topics such as public housing, food insecurity, climate change, gender bias, public health, exploitation of domestic workers, incarceration of racialized minorities, impact of development and environmental change on Indigenous communities, and other pressing global concerns.

Sub Unit

• Pre-Conference Workshops, Book launches, and Visual Art Exhibits / Book Launch

Chair

• Min Yu, Wayne State University

Book Launch Presenters

• Li-Ching Ho, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Keith Barton, Indiana University