Research On American Educational Policies Under The Perspective Of Social Justice

Justice is not only the eternal value pursuit and social ideal of the human society,but also the first value of social institution and public policy in different countries around the world. Educational justice is the important content of social justice. It plays an important role in promoting individual development and social equality. The state should take social justice as the basic value and ensure fair distribution of educational resources and interests by formulating and implementing educational policies. The paper selects the historical changes of American educational policies as a research object under the perspective of social justice theory, and analyzes the value of the educational policy by the way of combining normative research and empirical research.Firstly, the paper puts forward a duty judgment that educational policy should take social justice as the basic value and establishes an analysis framework about the value system of educational policy, which is based on system research of social justice theory and the educational policy theory. Distributive justice is the essence of social justice and it aims at distributing kinds of benefits made by the social cooperation system. Social justice is made of substantial justice and procedural justice. Substantial justice is the fair evaluation about the result of the social value distribution.Procedural justice is the impartial evaluation about the process of the social value distribution. In order to promote social justice, it is necessary to promote both substantial justice and procedural justice at the same time. Educational policy is a kind of authority distribution on educational benefits. How to distribute is decided by the value of educational policy. The essence of social justice and the particularity ofeducational policy determine that educational policy should take social justice as the basic value. Substantial justice is the substantial value of educational policy.Procedural justice is the formal value of educational policy. Both of them constitute the value system of educational policy.Substantial justice is closely related to the distribution principle. Its specific connotation is controversial, concrete and historical. The contradiction between the pluralistic connotation of substantial justice and concrete requirements of educational policy value determines that the analysis about the substantial value of educational policy should take substantial justice as the reference frame. The pluralistic connotation of educational policy should combine with different policy issues of educational policy and make a hierarchical and specific operation. Therefore, as the substantial value of educational policy, substantial justice can be divided into three aspects including equality of educational rights, equality of educational opportunity and fairness of educational outcome.Procedural justice focuses on the implementation process of the distributive results. According to the classification of Rawls on procedural justice, the decision-making process of educational policy belongs to the imperfect procedural justice. We should set some inhibitory procedures, which ensure the educational policy won’t deviate from the demands of substantive justice. Therefore, as the formal value of educational policy, procedural justice demands that the decision-making process of education policy should conform to two requirements. The first one is to expand the breadth and depth of stakeholders’ participation, which requires the diversity of educational policy subject and the democratization of educational decision mechanism. The second one is to restrict the public educational power, which requires the state sorting out several groups of the relationship, like the power relationship among the agencies at the same level, the power relationship with upper and lower agencies, the relationship between government and market, the relationshipbetween government and society.Secondly, the paper systematically reviews the historical development of American educational policy. It analyzes the values, policies and effects of American educational policy in different periods, in order to respond and verify the theoretical assumptions. There were three stages in the development of educational policy after the founding of the United States.The first stage was the period from the founding of the United States to World War I. In this period, the American educational policies were based on equality of educational rights. There were several factors constituted the social background of the concept of equality of educational rights, such as the establishment and improvement of democratic republic, the basic completion of industrialization, immigration and the development of urbanization, the influence of the enlightenment and the liberal tradition, the influence of European state’s educational policy. The equality of educational rights refers to the equal rights of social members to receive education,which means everyone can enjoy the equal rights to receive education, regardless of his or her ethnicity, race, class, gender, language, religion, assets, or political opinion.With equality of educational rights as the value orientation, there were a series of educational policies in this period, like promoting the movement of public schools and the establishment of modern school system. The implementation of the compulsory education laws and the establishment of the free public schools guaranteed the equal rights of social members to receive education from the aspect of law and substantive equality. But some educates’ educational opportunity had not been equally protected, including black ethnic minorities, women and low-income earners. It became the new problem to be solved in the next stage.The second stage was the period from the Great Depression to the end of the 1970 s. In this period, the American educational policies were based on eq uality of educational opportunity. There were several factors constituted the social background of the concept of equality of educational opportunity, such as th e impact of the great depression, the expansion of the federal government pow er, the rise of civil movement, the new liberalism ideological trend, the influen ce of World War II and the Cold War. Equality of educational opportunity refe rs to the equal opportunity of social members to receive education, including t wo aspects. The first one is the equal access to the equality of educational op portunity, which requires the entrance opportunity of all the educational system to be open to all the social members. It opposes any discrimination based on race, color, class, gender, language, religion, property, or even political opinio ns. The second one is the equal start to equality of educational opportunity, whi ch requires the state to support educates in adverse environment caused by soci al reasons. In order to make these educates located in a fair starting point like other e ducates, the state should take appropriate way of material support and policy inclinat ion etc. With equality of educational opportunity as the value orientation, there were a series of educational policies in this period, like the abolition of apartheid an d war on poverty. These policies reduced the inequality of educational opportunit y of educates in adverse environment, including black ethnic minorities, women and low-income earners. But the educational equality of public schools had bee n worse since 1960 s, which became the new problem to be solved in the next stage.The third stage is from 1980 s to the present. In this period, the American educational policy is based on fairness of educational outcome. There are several factors constituted the social background of the concept of fairness of educational outcome, such as the volatility of economic growth and improvement, the ascension of federal power, the change of population structure, the widening gap between rich and poor, the debate and fusion of liberalism and conservatism, the end of the Cold War and the globalization of the world. Fairness of educational outcome is thefairness of the individual in the academic achievement and development prospect under the condition of guaranteeing the equal rights and equal opportunities of the educated. With fairness of educational outcome as the value orientation, there are a series of educational policies in this period, like standardization, accountability system, school choice movement and so on. On the other hand, the state tried to narrow the gap between educates in adverse environment and other students through increasing financial support and compensation policy. The state transformed its educational philosophy, and the federal government changed its weak position in educational field, which both promoted and safeguarded the fairness of educational outcome.Finally, on the basis of the above analysis, the paper summarizes kinds of experiences and lessons from the formulation and implementation of American educational policies. Then, the paper forms the beneficial enlightenment for the development of China’s educational policy. On the concept of policy, China’s educational policy should be promoted from equal rights to equal opportunity and fairness of outcome as soon as possible. On the decision-making mechanism, China should establish a more democratic mechanism. On the implementing measures,China should set up more perfect educational fiscal transfer payment system and educational resources compensation system for the vulnerable groups.