La Justicia Social en Educación: Nuevos Desafíos para un Concepto en Transformación

Abstract

The concept of social justice in education needs to be updated to address present-day transformations without losing the critical force of its foundational traditions. This article proposes a conceptual framework that retains the distributive, recognition, and political-participatory dimensions while incorporating two additional demands: the epistemic and the relational. Alongside these dimensions, it distinguishes three transversal axes—time, territory, and intersectionality—that reconstruct how injustices are formed, inherited, situated, and given specific configurations. The framework is examined against four scenarios: the ecological crisis; artificial intelligence and the transformation of knowledge; migration, borders, and segregation; and democratic erosion and exclusionary discourses. The proposal rests on a demanding criterion: any expansion of the concept must demonstrate its irreducibility, analytical gain, clarity of level, and educational fecundity. Its contribution lies in distinguishing which demands of justice are being violated, how injustices take concrete form, and against which contemporary conflicts the framework must demonstrate its explanatory capacity. The framework seeks to strengthen the capacity of education, research, and policy to recognise relations of power, avoid reductive diagnoses, and guide responses capable of transforming the conditions that produce and reproduce injustice.