1st Edition
Social Justice in Practice in Education Understanding Tensions and Challenges Through Lived Experiences
Exploring Social Justice in Practice in Education focuses on the tensions and challenges to issues of fairness and social and cognitive justice in the sphere of education.
The terms ‘fairness’ and ‘social and cognitive justice’ are often used to justify particular policies and practices in the sphere of education. In providing a clear definition of what they should mean in practice, this book includes a discussion of, and, in some cases, potential resolutions to, tensions and challenges in relation to notions of fairness, and social and cognitive justice that are implicit within individuals’ lived experiences across all phases of education. Through their personal narratives, the authors illustrate how such tensions and challenges have played out in their own lives. They go on to explore differences in interpretations and consequent challenges in putting concepts of social justice into practice. Chapters consider important implications across different sectors and phases of education, including special educational needs, leadership and higher education.
This insightful volume will enable educators, at all levels, to hear from students, family members, significant adults/carers and professionals, their experiences of fairness and social justice in education, and about what could be done in the future to redress injustices. It will appeal to readers at all levels in education including those studying for or teaching Education-related degrees at bachelors’, masters’ and doctoral levels.
0. Introduction
Janice Wearmouth and Neil Hopkins
1. The impact of life experiences on learning and the return to formal education in the HE classroom
Susan Lane
2. Experiences of autism in higher education
Gareth Farmer
3. How reforms of teacher education challenge principles of social justice
James Shea
4. Reflections of a mathematics educator: What can we learn from those we teach?
Karen Wicks
5. Reflections on the challenges faced by school leaders
Michael Catchpool
6. Inclusion, exclusion, social justice and children’s rights to education. Reflections of a former secondary school inclusion manager
Karen Lindley
7. How far can student voice enable teachers to adapt teaching in classrooms and support improved teaching and learning?
Lucia Bonforte and Janice Wearmouth
8. Roots and Wings: enabling a sense of identity, social inclusion and opportunities for growth in the Early Years curriculum
Julie Beams
9. Reflections on mindfulness and its implications for social justice in the Early Years
Abigail Gosling
10. Teaching assistants as facilitators of learning and engagement: promoting social justice for students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)
Sophy Hughes
11. Engaging with the views of young people with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties
Niamh Butler
12. It takes a village to raise a child. Issues from a parent’s personal narrative of raising a young man with learning difficulties supported by family, friends, and the wider community
Rosemary Abram
13. An autistic teenager’s experiences through the years of schooling
Noah Smith and Martha Smith
Biography
Janice Wearmouth is professor of education and co-director of the Institute for Research in Education, at the University of Bedfordshire, UK.
Karen Lindley is a senior lecturer in education at the University of Bedfordshire, UK.
Uvanney Maylor is professor of education and co-director of the Institute for Research in Education, at the University of Bedfordshire, UK.
James Shea is the portfolio leader for all the teacher education courses in the School of Education at the University of Bedfordshire, UK.
