Tokenism, Philosophy Education, and Epistemic...

Tokenism, Philosophy Education, and Epistemic Justice: A Critical Conceptual Inquiry

Author Name : Dr. Anirban Kisku

DOI: https://doi.org/10.56025/IJARESM.2026.1404260033

ABSTRACT This theoretical work critically discusses the issue of tokenism in the philosophy of education and how it applies to epistemic justice. Even though modern educational practises are increasingly valuing diversity and inclusion, this is often taken to be only at the surface, where there may be a tokenistic inclusion of marginalised knowledge systems without necessarily questioning the epistemic hierarchies that underlie them. Based on the epistemic justice, critical pedagogy, sociocultural theory, and decolonial theoretical framework, the paper suggests that tokenism is a structural process of epistemic injustice. It shows that tokenistic practises discriminate against other epistemologies, degrade their authority as epistemologists, reproduce structures of hierarchal knowledge, and generate hermeneutical gaps in the educational setting. The paper constructs a conceptual framework, which explains how tokenism, philosophy of education, and epistemic justice are interrelated, with the processes of pedagogy and institutions serving as the mediator. Moreover, it suggests the ways to epistemic justice by reforming curriculums, dialogic pedagogy, epistemic pluralism, and restructuring of institutions. The research processes by going beyond representational inclusion to structural transformation in order to add to current discussions on the decolonization of education and puts the philosophy of education as a critical location of promoting inclusive and equitable knowledge systems.