Integrating philosophy, sociology, and dialog-based instruction in the social & criminal justice classroom

Abstract

In creating this analysis of pedagogical strategies, we began with the recognition that criminal justice education currently tends to be limited in its scope. The focus on courts, law enforcement, and incarceration dominate the curriculum in the university context. We hope to broaden this scope within social and criminal justice courses, and here we outline effective pedagogical strategies. The focus is primarily on cultivating student consciousness of foundational bases of justice using perspectives from philosophy alongside sociological and criminological research. Descriptions of philosophical and sociological content and concepts around justice are accompanied by an analysis of dialog-based instructional methods and the use of Michael Sandel’s Justice: What’s the Right Thing to do? From this approach, we address fundamental philosophical perspectives on virtue, maximizing general welfare, and freedom; and we tie this content with studies of core sociological issues of civic engagement and social solidarity, economic/racial/gender inequality, institutional anomie and deviance, among others.

Keywords:

• Teaching strategies
• social justice
• criminal justice
• philosophy of justice
• crime and deviance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Sandel’s more recent book ‘The Moral Limits of Markets’ would undoubtedly be a useful reference.

2. During the civil war, those who were drafted by the Union could hire someone to take his place.

3. The film ‘Maria Full of Grace’ (2004) is one potential artistic representation of these issues that can help facilitate discussion.

4. Initial arguments from student on the definition of justice often include, ‘the government should not control what I do as long as I’m not hurting anyone else.’ The difficulty of figuring out the limits of free choice and when one is ‘hurting someone else’ are often the source of ongoing class discussions that are (thankfully) complicated by Sandel’s examples.

5. Sandel presents an example of the ‘leaky toilet’ to complicate thoughts around consent and contracts in chapter 6 to illustrate the complexity of this question.

6. See Barry Schwartz’s TED Talk on ‘The Paradox of Choice’ available at www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_the_paradox_of_choice.html

7. The first author taught the two 2012 classes while the second author taught the two 2013 classes.