The challenge of shaping socially responsible teachers

post by CARMEN MOHAMED
Assistant Professor, Primary and Early Years’ Education, The University of Nottingham

If, as a community of social justice advocates, we recognise that all is not well in education can those of us engaged in training teachers create new ways of working together to act upon solutions? Many of us are engaged in research activity which is deconstructing how inequalities are perpetuated through policy and practice in schools in the UK, however, research can be a lonely and isolating business and it is only through reading published books and articles that we are able to build on each other’s ideas.

Poorest children, richest teaching

post by RUTH LUPTON
Professor of Education, University of
Manchester

It is hard to find anyone these days who disagrees with the idea that educational opportunities should be equalised or that the poorest kids should get the richest teaching.   After all, more equal outcomes demand not just that the quality of the educational experience is the same in all schools, but that it is better in places where learners are more likely to be disengaged or held back by material, social or emotional disadvantages.  So how can we make this happen?

Social justice: a common curriculum

post by TERRY WRIGLEY
Visiting Professor, Leeds Metropolitan University, England and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Ballarat, Australia

The school curriculum has been a central issue for social justice since the start of state education. From the distinct curricula of class-divided Victorian schools, the move towards a common currriculum has been uncertain and problematic. Even after 1945 divisions were continued, posited on the myth of genetic intellectual differences.

The spread of comprehensive schools, and the school leaving age raised to 16, created new possibilities around the 1970s. Innovations supported by LEAs and the Schools Council emphasised more investigative and engaged approaches to learning and a greater connectedness to daily life. Bridges were built from young people’s experience to high-status knowledge.