Overview
- Uses intersectionality as a running theme between chapters and topics
- Draws from a range of educational policy settings, from early years to higher education, in the UK and continental Europe
- Argues that a good society is one in which social rewards are broadly distributed between all social groups
Part of the book series: Education Science, Evidence, and the Public Good (EDUS, volume 1)
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About this book
This book presents a series of analyses of educational policies – largely in the UK, but some also in Europe – researched by a team of social scientists who share a commitment to social justice and equity in education. We explore what social justice means, in educational policy and practice, and how it impacts on our understanding of both ‘educational science’ and ‘the public good’.
Using a social constructivist approach, the book argues that social justice requires a particular and critical analysis of the meaning of meritocracy, and of the way this term turns educational policies towards treating learning as a competition, in which many young people are constructed as ‘losers’. We discuss how many terms in education are essentialised and have specific, and different, meanings for particular social groups, and how this may create issues in both quantitative survey methods and in determining what is ‘the public good’.
We discuss social justice across arange of intersecting social characteristics, including social class, ethnicity and gender, as they are applied across the educational policy spectrum, from early years to postgraduate education. We examine the ways that young people construct their identities, and the implications of this for understanding the ‘public good’ in educational practice. We consider the responsibilities of educational researchers to acknowledge these issues, and offer examples of researching with such a commitment. We conclude by considering how educational policy might contribute to a socially just, equitable and inclusive public good.
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Keywords
- accountability structures of disadvantaged children
- role of family and finance in higher education decisions
- parental engagement in education
- parents buying educational advantage for their children
- masculisation of the teaching profession
- curriculum diversity and social justice education
- young peoples' construction of political identities
- engagement of teachers in school-based research
- the public good
- Intersectionality in educational research in the UK and Europe
- Methodology of educational research
- Testing and the use of league tables in education
- Researching social class and economic inequalities in education
- Researching gender inequalities in education
- Researching ethnicity and ‘race’ in education
Table of contents (14 chapters)
Editors and Affiliations
About the editor
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Educational Research for Social Justice
Book Subtitle: Evidence and Practice from the UK
Editors: Alistair Ross
Series Title: Education Science, Evidence, and the Public Good
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-62572-6
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-62571-9Published: 23 June 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-62574-0Published: 24 June 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-62572-6Published: 22 June 2021
Series ISSN: 2524-8421
Series E-ISSN: 2524-843X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVIII, 330
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Educational Policy and Politics, Education, general, Sociology of Education, Social Policy, Politics of the Welfare State, Social Work and Community Development