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Towards a philosophy of equity in educational effectiveness research: moving from utilitarianism to a Rawlsian paradigm

Towards a philosophy of equity in educational effectiveness research: moving from utilitarianism to a Rawlsian paradigm
Towards a philosophy of equity in educational effectiveness research: moving from utilitarianism to a Rawlsian paradigm
The uses to which educational effectiveness research (EER) are put by policy-makers cannot be blamed on the field, but it is apparent that it has become aligned with the utilitarianism of western government policy and transnational bodies like OECD. This alignment was not consciously adopted - it is more the case that in the absence of its own asserted philosophy, EER simply defaulted to that world-view - but as the field shifts to a ‘dynamic’ model and meta-syntheses, the need to reconsider the current paradigm becomes urgent. This paper attempts to reclaim the field philosophically for the academics who work in it and for the policy-makers who rely on its science. It is beyond the scope of the paper to present a full comprehensive philosophy, but describes, as a first step towards one, a new manifesto based on John Rawls’s work on justice as fairness.
hilosophy, Equity, Educational Effectiveness, utilitarianism, Rawls
0924-3453
529-544
Kelly, Anthony
1facbd39-0f75-49ee-9d58-d56b74c6debd
Elliott-Kelly, Colum
5a9ed7af-ec80-4597-9e7a-d83bbce1070e
Kelly, Anthony
1facbd39-0f75-49ee-9d58-d56b74c6debd
Elliott-Kelly, Colum
5a9ed7af-ec80-4597-9e7a-d83bbce1070e

Kelly, Anthony and Elliott-Kelly, Colum (2018) Towards a philosophy of equity in educational effectiveness research: moving from utilitarianism to a Rawlsian paradigm. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 29 (4), 529-544. (doi:10.1080/09243453.2018.1470990).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The uses to which educational effectiveness research (EER) are put by policy-makers cannot be blamed on the field, but it is apparent that it has become aligned with the utilitarianism of western government policy and transnational bodies like OECD. This alignment was not consciously adopted - it is more the case that in the absence of its own asserted philosophy, EER simply defaulted to that world-view - but as the field shifts to a ‘dynamic’ model and meta-syntheses, the need to reconsider the current paradigm becomes urgent. This paper attempts to reclaim the field philosophically for the academics who work in it and for the policy-makers who rely on its science. It is beyond the scope of the paper to present a full comprehensive philosophy, but describes, as a first step towards one, a new manifesto based on John Rawls’s work on justice as fairness.

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Accepted/In Press date: 26 April 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 14 May 2018
Published date: 2 October 2018
Keywords: hilosophy, Equity, Educational Effectiveness, utilitarianism, Rawls

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 420448
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/420448
ISSN: 0924-3453
PURE UUID: a75e5954-9fe5-4349-9c09-98e0ca59ce7e
ORCID for Anthony Kelly: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4664-8585

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Date deposited: 08 May 2018 16:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 06:35

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Contributors

Author: Anthony Kelly ORCID iD
Author: Colum Elliott-Kelly

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