Mijs, Jonathan J.B (2016) The unfulfillable promise of meritocracy: Three lessons and their implications for justice in education. Social Justice Research, 29 (1). pp. 14-34. ISSN 0885-7466
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
This paper draws on a literature in sociology, psychology and economics that has extensively documented the unfulfilled promise of meritocracy in education. I argue that the lesson learned from this literature is threefold: (1) educational institutions in practice significantly distort the ideal meritocratic process; (2) opportunities for merit are themselves determined by non-meritocratic factors; (3) any definition of merit must favor some groups in society while putting others at a disadvantage. Taken together, these conclusions give reason to understand meritocracy not just as an unfulfilled promise, but as an unfulfillable promise. Having problematized meritocracy as an ideal worth striving for, I argue that the pervasiveness of meritocratic policies in education threatens to crowd out as principles of justice, need and equality. As such, it may pose a barrier rather than a route to equality of opportunity. Furthermore, meritocratic discourse legitimates societal inequalities as justly deserved such as when misfortune is understood as personal failure. The paper concludes by setting a research agenda that asks how citizens come to hold meritocratic beliefs; addresses the persistence of (unintended) meritocratic imperfections in schools; analyzes the construction of a legitimizing discourse in educational policy; and investigates how education selects and labels winners and losers.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Official URL: | https://link.springer.com/journal/11211 |
| Additional Information: | © 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York |
| Divisions: | International Inequalities Institute |
| Subjects: | L Education > L Education (General) |
| Date Deposited: | 02 Oct 2017 09:38 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Dec 2024 01:19 |
| URI: | http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/84382 |
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