Rethinking Social Justice Issues Within an Eco-Justice Conceptual and Moral Framework

As the social justice issues of class, race, and gender have been the dominant concern of many educational studies faculty over the last decades, it is now time to ask whether the recent evidence of global warming, changes in the chemistry of the world's oceans, and the increasing shortage of potable water should lead to developing a new strategy for ameliorating these longstanding sources of injustice and poverty. Given the amount of time devoted to discussing class, race, and gender issues, as well as the number of books that focus on these issues, little has actually been achieved in effecting the systemic changes required for marginalized social groups to participate on more equal terms in the public arenas of politics, economics, and educational opportunities. Corporations in the United States continue to shape governmental policies that deepen the economic plight of marginalized groups who live at the bottom of the wage scale, while raising the cost of drugs and medical care beyond what they can afford. Overall, the democratic process itself has become degraded by corporate and other special interests to the point where millions of people continue to be mired in poverty and hopelessness.