UW–Madison’s Kyoungjin (Jin) Jang-Tucci, a PhD candidate in School of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies, is the author of a new peer-reviewed article published in Teachers College Record.
In the article, “Making Sense of Injustice at Work: College Interns’ Struggles to Name and Navigate Unjust Workplace Practices,” Jang-Tucci draws on interviews with 11 U.S. college students to explore how interns perceive, interpret, and respond to injustice at their internship placements.
While internships are widely promoted as high-impact learning experiences that prepare students for future careers, Jang-Tucci’s research highlights how these experiences can also expose students to exploitative, discriminatory, or inequitable workplace conditions. The study finds that such injustices are often implicit and embedded in everyday routines, making them more difficult for interns to recognize. This challenge is compounded by interns’ peripheral and temporary position as neither full students nor full employees.
As a result, many interns come to associate silence with professionalism. Jang-Tucci argues that learning to name workplace injustice is itself an interpretive process. The article also points to a broader institutional responsibility, suggesting that colleges promoting internships should create reflective spaces that help students recognize and articulate these experiences.
Read the full article online to learn more.