Social Justice in Educational Psychology Practice: experiencing aporia

This presentation reflects an ongoing research project inquiring into the practice of educational psychologists and how such practice helps to bring about social justice. Based on Standish’s (2001) view of ethics as “that broader conception in which it is recognised that values permeate our lives” (487), this research seeks an understanding of educational psychology practice as constantly ethical, rather than seeing “the ethical com[ing] in, as it were, at points of conflict” (487). The research question that underpins this research presentation is: how do practicing educational psychologists construct social justice through their practices?

In past writing, we have argued that the structures which are aimed at supporting social justice often position educational psychologists who inhabit them, so that their thinking, being and doing are shaped by these systems. This is because structures tend to fix the meanings and implementations of the values they are created to support, such as social justice, as well as determine the educational psychologists’ identity and their function. This is also the case for other professionals and educators working within these structures, and also for those requiring the involvement of EPs and other professionals.

In such an environment, it is easy to forget that every thought, decision and stance is ethical, and can have an impact on promoting social justice. Practitioners are “lulled into a sweet sense of security” as established procedures and policies effectively replace thinking and reduce complexity in situations. In this presentation, through the use narratives, we argued that that EPs can interrupt the procedural flow and provide a dissenting voice which can ultimately lead to social justice in ways that the normal flow of procedure does not.

In this presentation we would like to frame this invitation for EPs to recognise their interruptions and dissensus (with what feels like the natural order of things) as ethical and just, although it can lead to discomfort in practice. We draw upon Jacques Derrida’s (1992) writing on aporia to distinguishes between law, as seen in procedures and prescribed practices, and that which spurs us to question them because of a specific situation. Derrida calls this questioning a reaching out for justice, as it “involves reinventing, rejustifying and reaffirming (or otherwise) that which is prescribed” (writing and aporia paper). Merely following the law or a rule is legal, it is procedural, whereas for a law to be just there must be ‘fresh judgement’ where the person thinks and evaluates again whether the procedure is the appropriate course of action in the specific circumstance.

This presentation will use narratives constructed from research carried out with educational psychologists working in Scotland. International literature (see for example Shriberg et al. 2008; Schulze et al. 2019) indicates that educational psychologists contribute to understanding their role in supporting social justice within complex educational contexts. This presentation contributes to this international literature by introducing Derrida’s notion of aporia, as irresolvable internal contradiction for educational psychology practice, where often educational psychologists have that unsettling feeling of uncertainty, discomfort and self-doubt. Thus this presentation seeks to make strange what is familiar (Allan 2004) and is an acknowledgement that it is impossible to ever capture all in a system, method or law.

This presentation is based on a qualitative research study that has theory as its foundation. We are a group of 6 academics with an interest in social justice, four of whom are also practising educational psychologists.

Engaging with the work of Nancy Fraser (2008), the research team developed a shared understandings of social justice in educational psychology practice. This was followed by engaging in reading Jacques Derrida’s work, and the contribution of one of the researchers who works in philosophy of education was helpful to support such reading. Following from that we carried out a conversational interview with educational psychologists in practice in Scotland. We follow a phenomenological methodology as we were keen to ask EPs about their lived experiences in practice of moments of aporia and the impact of such recognition on their agency for social justice.

Analysis involved both eliciting narratives from the interviews as well as generating themes influenced by Derridean philosophy. Several meetings took place during this process to check out that the thematic analysis was reliably done by all of us and there was consistency in the process and analysis. This presentation shares this research experience.