Justified to suffer? Recognition and the politics of educational suffering

Suffering occurs in schools and universities worldwide, yet it is often examined in the form of discrete categories, such as bullying, stress, structural inequality, or a lack of resources, as opposed to a broader moral and relational phenomenon. Suffering in educational contexts also lends itself to justification as a productive or necessary part of learning. These claims are rarely viewed as acts of recognition that position learners and shape how they are understood as either resilient or weak, strong or deficient. In addressing the above, this paper introduces the concept of ‘educational suffering’ to define the relations through which suffering is interpreted and legitimised within educational contexts. Drawing on Axel Honneth’s theory of recognition, we posit that educational suffering is a systemic, relational phenomenon which is shaped by various related institutional, structural, intersubjective and pedagogical forces. To critically investigate this phenomenon, we develop two analytical dimensions: (un)productive educational suffering and the dialogical justification of educational suffering. We argue that the claims and justifications of whether educational suffering is productive or necessary function as recognitive judgements.