The authors argue that education requires researchers’ renewed examination and explanation of its involvement in the construction of social and economic differences. Specifically, we make the case for researchers to consider the theoretical work of Pierre Bourdieu, outlining what we understand by a Bourdieuian methodology, which is informed by socially critical and post--structural understandings of the world.
The purpose of this report is to describe the extent of educational marginalization in the UK and to consider the effectiveness of UK policy with regards to reducing this marginalization1. During recent decades the UK Government has introduced a wide range of policies aimed at both increasing educational quality and participation generally, and narrowing socio-economic, gender and ethnic gaps in education achievement.
The aim of this paper is to apply some of the insights of the human capital model to better understand the education outcomes of Indigenous Australians. Regional and individual data from the census is interpreted alongside a selection of key articles and reports in order to help understand why it is that so few Indigenous people are undertaking formal education in Australia today.
The Teaching and Learning Modules in this book provide a practical way forward for schools to broaden their awareness and develop an informed and grounded understanding of the nature of Australia as a culturally diverse nation. In addition to enhancing students’ understanding and sensitivity towards cultural diversity, the Teaching and Learning Modules impart valuable skills.
So many books and articles address the issue of social justice and schooling that it is virtually impossible to map the field. The author provides an outline of references that he has found useful in pursuing his research interests in the field of public education and school reform for social justice. Like any map, certain features are given prominence and others do not appear on the landscape.
This Policy Brief looks at how to improve equity in education in three key policy domains: the design of education systems, practices both in and out of school, and resourcing. It proposes ten steps which would help reduce school failure and dropout rates, make society fairer and help avoid the large social costs of marginalised adults with few basic skills.
Educational inequality remains an on-going problem in Australia and elsewhere, and equitable provision of education remains on Commonwealth and state education agendas, if less centrally in recent years. The particular concern of this paper is the on going debate about how to balance two key aspects of social justice - redistribution and recognition of difference - in education policy.
This paper reviews some of the recent qualitative literature on children’s perspectives on economic disadvantage. The idea of asking people who experience disadvantage about their own situations is still a relatively new one in the social sciences, and the idea of asking children about their own perceptions of economic and social disadvantage is even more recent. Nine analyses, all published since 1998, and all of them involving in-depth interviews or groupwork with children aged between 5 and 17, are examined in detail.
After observing that texts in educational administration have largely failed to address the problem of the justice and fairness of social and educational arrangements, this article goes on to examine the necessary relationships between ethical leadership, community and the notion of social justice. Such relationships are argued to be necessarily political, although the field of leadership has historically seen administration as a substitute for politics. The relationship between social justice and disadvantage is examined, as are current approaches to community, choice and diversity.
The authors focus on the ways in which the terms "inclusive" and "at-risk" came to represent the "new deal" on educational equity in Queensland, and replaced terms such as social justice and target group equity. This "new deal" was orchestrated by senior policy actors in consultation with key stake holders. It was designed to steer the education department into the new millennium, and ensure that it was responsive to the push-pull forces of global informationalism.
