This book explores schools and how they can function as social
institutions that advance the interests and life chances of all young
people, especially those who are already the most marginalized and at an
educational disadvantage. Social justice is a key theme as the book
examines the needs of youth, the concept of school culture,
school/community relations, socially critical pedagogy, curriculum and
leadership and a socially critical approach to work. The Socially Just
School is based upon four decades of intensive writing and researching
of young lives. This work presents an alternative to the damaging school
reform in which schools are made to serve the interests of the economy,
education systems, the military, corporate or national interests.
Readers will discover the hallmarks of socially just schools:
- They educationally engage young people regardless of class, race,
family or neighbourhood location and they engage them around their own
educational aspirations.
- They regard all young people as being morally entitled to a rewarding
and satisfying experience of school, not only those whose backgrounds
happen to fit with the values of schools.
- They treat young people as having strengths and being 'at promise'
rather than being 'at risk' and with 'deficits' or as 'bundles of
pathologies' to be remedied or 'fixed'.
- They are 'active listeners' to the lives and cultures of their
students and communities and they construct learning experiences that
are embedded in young lives.
This highly readable book will appeal to students and scholars in
education and sociology, as well as to teachers and school
administrators with an interest in social justice.
