Socially Just School

This volume draws from nearly four decades of researching, writing and publishing about the lives, experiences, and educational aspirations of thousands of young people from disadvantaged contexts. The big idea behind this book is that schools ought to be social institutions that advance the interests and life chances of all young people, especially those who are already the most marginalized not the interests of the economy, education systems, the military, corporate or national interests. The authors have crafted an archetype they are calling the socially just school an idea that has a genesis stretching back almost two decades. Like any symbol, prototype, storyline or set of narratives, this archetype is organic and evolving, but it is committed to producing a very different set of outcomes to current educational reform approaches that are de-forming and crippling a generation of young people. The book starts by explaining what the authors mean by youth voice as conceived in schools thought about in socially critical ways. In the broad, this will necessitate a discussion of how schools need to re-configure themselves to create the spaces within which young people can speak back . The next chapter posits a school reform framework that embraces the notions of: (a) reculturing that involves changing values, beliefs, assumptions, habits, patterns of behaviour and relationships in school organisational culture ; (b) restructuring around organisational reforms such as use of time and space, groupings of staff and students, staff roles, organisation of curriculum, and use of technology ; and (c) changing pedagogy around classroom teaching practices, the teaching and learning process and student learning outcomes . The overall focus of chapter 3 is the intersection of youth with school/community relations in ways that seek to redress inequities. The following chapters draws on Freire s notion of teachers as cultural workers and Giroux s vision of teachers as intellectuals to advance a socially critical pedagogy of teaching in conservative times. The authors also consider the crucial role of educational leadership in creating schools that are committed to improving the education and life chances of all young people, irrespective of their socio-economic, ethnic and racial backgrounds. Further, the authors challenge the underlying assumptions on which a crude economistic view of education is based and pursue Freire s notion of critical hope as expressed in Pedagogy of Freedom both the aspect that involves indignation as well as the courage to work for a more socially just world.