The Logic of Equity Practice in Education Queensland 2010

The particular concern of this paper is the on going debate about how to balance two key aspects of social justice redistribution and recognition of difference in education policy. A number of writers have commented on the difficulty of resolving these two aspects in policy and practice, and Fraser (1997, p. 13) has referred to the redistribution-recognition dilemma. Some writers, such as Ian Hunter (1994) have argued that conceptualisations of equality within state education bureaucracies have always been marred by contradictions, paradoxes and ambiguity (see also Singh and Sinclair, 2001). Hunter has suggested that these tensions arise from the contradictory purposes of mass public education.