Epistemic Injustice as a Form of Misrecognition: Exploration of Student Experiences in Bulgarian Higher Education Institutions
Epistemic Injustice as a Form of Misrecognition: Exploration of Student Experiences in Bulgarian Higher Education Institutions

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to contribute to the ongoing scholarly discussion on the importance and practical applicability of social justice perspectives when studying the effects or outcomes of modern higher education. It analyses context-specific experiences and perceptions of higher education students through Axel Honneth’s more general notion of misrecognition and Miranda Fricker’s concept of epistemic injustice. Data comes from semi-structured interviews with a cohort of full-time first-year students in medicine and pedagogy at three Bulgarian higher education institutions and complementary academic staff accounts of student experiences. The analysis reveals patterns of academic structure and practice as linked to misrecognition or dysfunctional relations of recognition as well as to instances of systemic testimonial and hermeneutical disrespect or injustice. Selected experiences are discussed from the critical perspective of both theories in order to identify and characterise potential deficiencies, interventions needed in the higher education institutions’ organisational and institutional environment, or the conditions they provide for student self-formation.

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