Recognition and equal educational opportunities

Abstract

This article discusses how recognition may contribute towards giving underprivileged groups and students, a voice in education. Traditional measures aimed at forwarding equal opportunities for all, like redistributing resources and improving objective conditions have had limited success. The inequality gap between privileged and underprivileged, rural and urban, indigenous and descendants of colonialists persists. The article argues that the importance of intersubjective conditions for equal access and opportunity in education have been underestimated in education and as a consequence one has missed out on the delicate balance between the social and education. In this regard recognition is not an end but a necessary step towards equal opportunities. However, instrumental approaches to recognition must be avoided as recognition is imperative to developing students’ self-esteem and identity. Teachers must therefore comply with moral and ethical standards, thus safeguarding the dignity and rights of the individual student.