Rediscovering Discourses of Social Justice: Making Hope Practical

Abstract

In times when the rhetoric of social justice has largely disappeared from education policy, many university-based teacher education programs continue to emphasize the importance of the social context of learning and socially just pedagogies. But what does teaching for social justice mean in practice? How do teachers engage with issues of educational disadvantage and social injustice in the context of mandated curricula, testing regimes and manifestly unfair education policies and practices? With reference to critical ethnographic research in Australian schools, this chapter explores how a ‘politics of possibility’ (Giroux, Harvard Educational Review, 53(5):257–293, 1985) can be brought to bear in developing more socially just curriculum in schools and teacher education courses. Beginning with an overview of contemporary discourses on social justice and education, the chapter describes the ‘resources of hope’ (Williams, Resources of hope. Verso, London, 1989) in schools and communities that enable teachers to navigate an ethical pathway between the more regressive aspects of neoliberal policies and a knowledge of what really works for students in contexts of disadvantage.