Elusive Justice: Wrestling with Difference and Educational Equity in Everyday Practice

"Elusive Justice" addresses how educators think about and act upon differences in schools--be they based on race, gender, class, or disability--and how discourse and practice about such differences are intimately bound up with educational justice. Rather than skip over contentious or uncomfortable dialogues about difference, Thea Abu El-Haj tackles them head on. Through rich and detailed ethnographic portraits of two schools with a commitment to social justice, she analyzes the ways discourses about difference provide a key site for both producing and resisting inequalities, and examines the dilemmas that emerge from either focusing on or ignoring them. In interrogating fundamental assumptions about difference and equity, Abu El-Haj deftly blends critique with a search for hope and possibility to ultimately argue for ways educators might translate ideals about justice into effective practice.