In this paper, I present pieces from a larger qualitative study on social justice at one public high school in New York City. By examining how students reflect upon, respond to, and reclaim an advisory curriculum dedicated to civic responsibility and activism, I argue that schools may have inadvertently standardized the non-standard of "justice" by applying upon it the complicities of power/knowledge, authority, behavior, and control. I draw from an attempted juxtaposition of critical theory and poststructuralist thought, more specifically Foucault's concept of docility-utility, to then argue that the containment of justice as a teach-able and learn-able objective may inhibit students from seeing themselves as already engaged in the world, as just individuals, on their own terms and circumstances. A reconceptualization of social justice may require a shift away from "social justice-oriented content" towards greater acknowledgment of "just encounters" among students and teachers in schools.
About the Author
Debbie Sonu completed doctoral work at Teachers College, Columbia University and is working as an Assistant Professor of Social Studies Education at Hunter College in New York City. Her interests include ethics and justice in urban schools, critical theory and poststructuralism, as well as issues related to youth, subjectivity, and race. Debbie Sonu can be contacted at debbie.sonu@gmail.com
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