1.16 "Schooling as a white good" with Dr. Benjamin Justice

In the sixteenth episode of Public Good, Shannon and Stephen are joined by Dr. Benjamin Justice. Benjamin Justice is Professor in the Department of Educational Theory, Policy, and Administration at the Rutgers Graduate School of Education. He is also an associate member of the History Department at Rutgers—New Brunswick and is a Senior Research Scholar and member of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale Law School. Dr. Justice is immediate past-president of the History of Education Society. Dr. Justice holds a B.A. (history) from Yale, and a M.A. (history) and Ph.D. (Education) from Stanford University. His scholarship is wide-ranging and interdisciplinary, appearing in journals in education, history, law, social and political science, and philosophy, as well as in mainstream periodicals, radio, and tv. In 2016 he co-authored the book, Have a Little Faith: Religion, Democracy, and the American Public School. In this episode, Stephen and Shannon speak to Dr. Justice about his recent piece in History of Education Quarterly, Schooling as a White Good. Our conversation begins with a discussion of the Little Rock Nine--and the disparate ways this moment in history is viewed, and still echoes. Dr. Justice speaks about the ways that schooling has always been a white good, and shares his rationale for the intentional use of the terms gaslighting, hobbling and white cartel behaviour. This discussion encourages the listener to think about the public that is served by public education. This is not a call to dismantle public education, rather the conversation invites educational historians and public education advocates to consider their complicity in upholding the current education system. As Dr. Justice says, he is in favour of public education--and looks forward to the day that we have it.