It goes without saying that education plays a key role in many aspects of life — from the basics of how we live, to how we communicate with one another and how we treat one another. It helps in creating a just society and strengthening a democracy. Something that societies across cultures continue to strive for is to be fair. There is always a need to be vigilant while creating a civil society. One major way this can be done is by producing graduates, from higher education in particular, to contribute to a society that continues to aspire for justice. So, how do we go about achieving this?
Perspectives
According to Gabrielle Appleby, there are two key points to this. First, keep in mind when teaching students not to just focus on knowledge transmission but to have a questioning mind. It is not only about understanding the way things are carried out, but to question, “Can they be done better?” And a part of developing this questioning mind and voice, is to expose students to the perspective they have not already been exposed to. Often, these perspectives could be of different ethnic groups, racial groups, religious groups, or minorities’ voices within societies. By being exposed to these perspectives, students can better understand how the current practices, institutions and laws affect other members of society and in return, begin to question the assumptions they may have about the way society is governed.
The next step is to expose students to real-world challenges — it is not about merely teaching them about the laws in books, but exposing them to challenges faced by people in society. To this, Appleby adds that one of the ways that the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Law works is that students have to work in a ‘clinic’, which is a law firm run by the university, where they work through their problems and get hands-on experience in understand the types of challenges thrown at them.
Opportunities to grow are ample in regards to education in the law sector to ensure more informed minds about more just societies in India as well. Appleby discusses how with the law school in UNSW, there is an enormous potential for collaboration, bringing Australian academics and working with Indian academics whilst tackling the many challenges that are confronting India in relation to the justice system. For example, UNSW Law offers a course which they are co-teaching – that is with UNSW and ILS Law College, Pune – on gender justice in India. This course entails students and professors, who are experts regarding the topic in their respective countries from both the institutions - looking at the challenges that are posed in Indian societies, particularly in communities in relation to women and to people with mental illnesses. They visit orphanages, communities, NGOs and working together with them to better understand these issues and then through that collaborative experience, hopefully have a brought perspectives on a better understanding for solutions. It brings together the minds of both teachers and students.
The reality is that every society is still reaching towards the idea of justice. The idea is to work towards understanding why this kind of injustice exists and how to combat it. Is law the best way to combat it? That is why students need to be taught to think, “How can we make things better?”
Challenges
There are challenges faced by higher education institutes, particularly in their mission to educate graduates with a questioning mind and voice. A couple of prominent challenges are, first, in relation to ensuring that a university education is open to all groups and individuals within society, and not just to those from privileged backgrounds. It is important that these groups have the social mobility that education gives them but also that their voices are heard in classrooms and they develop their own voices to be heard when they graduate.
Second, if universities are seen as a commercial activity, there is a real danger that students start to be seen as customers. This develops a number of problematic issues from the universities’ perspective — it develops a mind-set where there is a need to graduate as many students as possible as quickly as possible because it is a money making enterprise, which is not what education ought not to be — it leads to poor pedagogical decisions. Students must be given attention and be individually challenged in their education, to develop a questioning mind. It is not just about knowledge transitioning a large lecture; it is about being questioned by your teachers and peers, and having them engage in challenging discussions.
Civic awareness
At the same time, Appleby discusses how the youth also need to be taught about justice from an early age, questioning institutions and principles and understanding how it affects different members of society. Civics education is important, which does not necessarily have to wait until university, because not everyone goes to university, and it is important to encourage a sense of understanding and questioning at an earlier age — therefore, civics curriculum in high schools are important in developing a stronger sense of justice.
