Curriculum for Justice and Harmony

In this book, we argue that 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.