Educational administration and social justice

Abstract

This paper argues that social justice is central to the pursuit of education and therefore should also be central to the practice of educational administration. Social justice in education, as elsewhere, demands both distributive justice (which remedies undeserved inequalities) and recognitional justice (which treats cultural differences with understanding and respect). But, given that cultures are always in the process of change, education is a key agency for negotiating cultural change through the exploration and negotiation of difference. Educational administration as a field can no longer escape the consideration of such issues as they are brought to the fore by the recognition of the failure of schools and school systems to ameliorate injustice in the distribution of resources and to recognise and celebrate difference as a means to social and cultural progress. We still need a model of educational administration centered around the problem of the justice and fairness of social and educational arrangements. Given the renewed interest in such issues, perhaps what was impossible twenty five years ago might now be achieved

Fy ardal/my neighbourhood: How might pupils’ orientations to their neighbourhood contribute to a pedagogy of place?

“…Similarly, while Wales is promoted as the physical, social, cultural and conceptual cornerstone of place in the Curriculum Cymreig, this curricular initiative and the national curriculum fail to provide teachers and pupils with meaningful ways to address the disconnectedness of curriculum and Cymru; of the disparity between displaced knowledge that is deemed important for pupils to know and the emplaced knowledge they currently possess or will discover through their daily routines and beyond (Smith 2010 In concluding this paper, I again refer to Freire's concept of conscientization (1985), and assert that a place-based pedagogy in Wales must be willing to challenge established discourses of identity, culture and place (Cutts 2012) Educators should be curricularly empowered to "address the specificities of the experiences, problems, languages, and histories that communities rely upon to construct a narrative of collective identity and possible transformation" (McLaren and Giroux 1990, 263) . In other words, they must be given opportunities to enact a pedagogy of place within their classrooms, with the intention of perceiving discourses that can obfuscate obstacles to a more socially just community (Apple 2008;Bates 2006). For such a lofty call to be successful, it must be founded upon sustainable intergenerational transmissions and practices (Mckenzie 2008; Mannion and Adey 2011) and engage people in examining the contradictions between their meaning-making practices and the discourse, structures and institutions constantly at play in their lives (Freire 1985;Freire 2006;Giroux 2010b;Giroux 2011;Giroux 2012).…”

Policy With an Asterisk: Understanding How Staff in Alternative School Settings Negotiate a Mandatory Attendance Policy to Meet the Needs of Their Students

“…Educational policy in this sense is therefore "best conceived as a practice of wielding power" by those who might never be on the ground-floor of policy implementation (Levinson et al, 2009, p. 771). Authorized policy is intentionally vague to be reflective of the general population, but such standardized uniformity often fails to meet the needs of the increasingly pluralistic youth populations (Bates, 2006). Whereas, policy is intended to be generic enough to accommodate diverse populations, the policy implementers must then liaise between the generalist policies with their specific and local student populations.…”

Learning Welshness: Does the Curriculum Cymreig positively affect pupils’ orientations to Wales and Welshness?

“…Welshness through the development of their critical literacy (Apple, 2008;Bates, 2006;Freire, 1985;Freire, 2006;Giroux, 2010b;Giroux, 2011;Giroux, 2012). Specifically, I turn to…”