Teaching for Social Justice

The topic of this chapter is social justice. It introduces a framework of concepts and language for thinking about social justice. It argues the validity of social justice for education, where knowledge of social justice theories and concepts enable teachers to interrogate current policies and practices, from the perspective of who benefits and who may be disadvantaged by their implementation. It advocates that education can play a key role in addressing social injustices - such as various forms of discrimination, bias, prejudice, bigotry and violence - provided that teachers recognise how social injustices are reproduced, and how they are able to take appropriate action that can lead to socially just teaching. The first part of the chapter is concerned with the meaning of social justice, followed by a discussion of why social justice matters in education and in the wider society. There are competing accounts of what constitutes social justice and of how it might be achieved. This is evident in the different meanings of social justice, which are discussed in the following sections, along with their application to education. Recognition of such differences, however, does not diminish the value of social justice.