Behind claims to bring about fair educational policy or, indeed, budget cuts that are as fair as possible lie a mass of contradictory meanings. These contradictions are rarely made explicit. However, we argue that it is crucial to do so if it is going to be possible to debate what a fair education system might mean, and to find whether fairness in education is indeed possible. This chapter looks at the ideas of fairness underlying particular current national and local educational policy and practice and tries to assess implications for a fair education system. The context of this chapter is English education policy with examples from the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. However, similar policies are found in many international contexts.

The approach we take is to look at current educational policy and practice and identify the key ideas of fairness that seem to be portrayed. We first look at the accessibility and attractiveness of the concept of fairness and explore why it seems to be in vogue. Next we consider the focus in flagship educational policy on fairness as equality of opportunity as expressed in the targeting of resources on those deemed disadvantaged. We then consider additional aspects of fairness, which are not central to policy, but which are important to broaden current conceptions beyond distributive justice notions around ‘closing the gap’ in attainment between rich and poor, and beyond a marketised framework for organising schools. We assert the need for a focus in policy on many aspects of relational justice and suggest our seven principles of educational fairness as a way to operationalise both distributional and relational justice.

Understanding fairness

The idea that something is deemed either fair or unfair is one that is, pretty much, accessible to the general public. Young children have a keen sense of when something is unfair, and are often ready to declare this to those around them. In general parlance, fair is understood as good. Politicians, to indicate policies that will bring about a better life, use fairness as a key concept.

It is not difficult to find evidence for the need to improve – or indeed ensure – fairness. The view that inequalities in society in a number of key areas are not good for anyone is becoming an idea of our time, with the success of the book The Spirit Level (Wilkinson and Pickett, 2012).