In All’s Fair??” Burt Web writes about fairness and how it has different meanings for different people and different contexts, that fairness is not just one thing but many.
A teacher’s fairness matters because how a student feels treated in the classroom affects how they learn. In addition, how you treat your students becomes part of what you teach. You teach, however subtly and implicitly, how an authority, meaning you, does and might treat students. By acting, you tell your students that what you do is acceptable, that your culture and society would find it supportable, that the student might themselves do something similar when in your position. This may or may not be true, any of it, but that is what a teacher communicates to a class of students.
In Burt’s article, he identifies three types of fairness, which, simply put, are 1) equality: all receive an equal portion; 2) mercy: to each goes what they truly need; and 3) justice: giving what is earned.
These three definitions are often incompatible. Providing equal portions conflicts with giving according to need which in turn conflicts with what is earned. Does the student who needs more attention but is uncooperative “fairly” deserve more attention than other students, or less? What is an equal portion of attention? Of teaching? Who determines need, justice, equality?
As the teacher of the class, you do. You decide what type of fairness you use, what is an equal portion, what is just, and who needs how much. Everything you do as teacher declares what you think is fair and how it should be given. Tone of voice, a good mark, a smile, a reprimand — how do you allot these?
Equal shares are not possible because no two students value the cake — your teaching attention — the same way at the same time. There is no objective comparison of need between two students whose hearts and minds change from minute to minute. There is no perfect justice, which is why our laws attempt to err on the side of the innocent.
And yet you must address the issue of fairness among your students. In any society, mutual expectations of fairness are key to how people treat each other, and your classroom is a society, however small. If you cannot apply fairness, at least under these definitions, and you cannot ignore it, what can you do?
Begin with understanding. If these definitions of “fair” suit you, then in what order and proportion? If none of these reflect your values, what does? Clarify your own view on fairness and how you apply this in your classroom. Seek your ideals of justice, equality, and need — whatever it is that you believe to be the essence of fairness in the classroom.
And then look for how you fail to achieve these ideals. Whatever you intend to accomplish, look for the gap between that and what you actually do. See the difference between what you would need to know about the hearts and minds of your students and what you really can know.
It is in this gap, if you avoid it, that you will lose your students’ faith in your ability to be fair, because they will sense your confusion between what is so and what you think should be so. It is also in this gap, if you explore it well, that you may find something worth teaching.
Whatever brand of fairness you practice in your classroom, you can also discuss the nature of fairness itself. You can explore how such beliefs travel the range from social assumption to profound conviction. You can lead your students to examine what they believe and how they treat each other, by showing them the gap that you straddle.
No matter what age your students are, your classroom is a social laboratory for them. It is practice for their next gathering. You have an opportunity not only to examine your own views on fairness, justice, need, equality, and the gap between ideal and practice, but also to lead your students to do the same.