Is Comprehensive Liberal Social Justice Education Brainwashing?

Abstract

In both the United States and Canada conservative critics have charged that Social Justice Education (SJE) represents an "abuse of power" that results in "brainwashing" students. 1 To avoid succumbing to these charges, philosopher of education Lauren Bialystok argues that the political views taught in SJE, at least in Canada, must meet five conditions. Each condition supports a form of "comprehensive liberalism" (CL) that she takes to be both reflected in Canadian law and to be the morally correct basis upon which to adjudicate the content of public schooling in Canada. In this essay, we argue for a negative thesis: that Bialystok's arguments, while mounting a compelling defense of SJE on the grounds of CL, do not establish that the content of SJE in Canada or elsewhere must be justified on the basis of CL or the five conditions. Through this ground-clearing work, we seek to carve out space for a future justification of SJE rooted in the autonomous epistemic, ethical, and political value of promoting learning.In section one, we trace Bialystok's CL account of the ends of SJE. In section two, we assume for the sake of argument that CL is the true end of politics and education. Under that assumption, we disambiguate the scope of Bialystok's account. We then argue that on the most plausible disambiguation the five criteria Bialystok identifies PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION | Winston thompson, editor