Social Justice Agenda Research Articles

Learning About Mental Health Lived Experience in Social Work Education

ABSTRACT Lived experience education occupies an increasingly important space in mental health education for social workers. Despite being plagued by practices that continue to be discriminating and exclusionary, the mental health policy and practice context demand robust attention to the meaningful inclusion of service users and their families to achieve genuine partnership, reciprocity, and equality in mental health service provision. For social work educators, lived experience education is now an indispensable component of a critically informed mental health curriculum and pedagogy. Framed within an appeal for epistemic justice, this article reports on qualitative survey data from social work students who experienced teaching from people with lived experience. Findings show that students greatly valued lived experience education, as it created opportunities for authentic and more diverse understandings of mental health that fostered critical reflection. A curriculum that supports epistemic equality and a social justice agenda would help scaffold lived experience expertise for student learning. IMPLICATIONS Mental health lived experience education positively impacts social work students’ values and attitudes towards mental health service users. Lived experience education supports social work students to expand their understandings of mental health and recovery beyond dominant biomedical perspectives. Genuine valuing of lived experience knowledge and expertise in social work education helps address epistemic injustice.

Exploring the Factors Influencing the Development of Teacher Agency for Culturally Responsive Teaching

Culturally responsive teaching (CRT) is a pedagogy that promotes social justice by improving the educational experiences of students of color. This study aims to explore factors that influence teachers’ agency to implement CRT. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with sixteen teachers who had adopted CRT practices in the South-Central Appalachian region of the United States. Employing a qualitative design, a hybrid thematic analysis approach was used to analyze the interview data. This exploratory study is significant in several ways. First, the study advances theoretical discussions on what constitutes the construct of teacher agency for social justice based on its empirical evidence, which captured teachers’ lively voices. Second, it introduces the unique perspectives and experiences of South-Central Appalachian teachers into the discussion on the complex and less-known construct of teacher agency for social justice. Third, this study offers practical implications for school administrators, teacher educators, and policy-makers regarding what actions can promote teachers to develop and pursue social justice agendas using CRT in growingly diverse public education settings. The results discuss how the teachers perceived their sense of purpose, competence, autonomy, reflexivity, and commitment to professional development opportunities in enacting CRT in their educational practices.

Just Participatory Research with Young People Involved in Climate Justice Activism

This commentary reflects on the tensions inherent in enacting creative, co-produced, and participatory methods with younger co-researchers who are also climate justice advocates. Whilst participatory research with young people involved in climate justice work has the potential to build intergenerational networks of solidarity, such research is contoured with complexity. The authors, two university-based researchers, juxtapose the social justice agenda at the foundation of participatory research, with the climate justice agenda, and consider the resonances and tensions between research and social movements. They advocate for an intersectional climate justice approach to participatory research that positions young people as co-researchers and co-authors, aiming to counter epistemic injustices and amplify the voices of those first and worst affected by climate change. Simultaneously, the felt value-action gap (between the justice sought and the injustices that persist within research) generates questions about the profound differences, even incommensurability, between university-generated research and the pursuit of climate justice in movement spaces. A series of questions are offered to those engaged in participatory research with younger people to prompt collective reflection on research processes and practises. The commentary concludes with a call for university-based researchers to engage critically with the power structures within academia and to prioritise the needs and goals of younger climate justice advocates over institutional demands.

Reclaiming the Colombian English Language Teaching Field to Sow the Seeds of Change Through Self-Study

A growing interest in teacher identity and decision-making has emerged in language teaching; however, studies where English language teaching (ELT) educators reflect on their own practice are limited. We engaged in a self-study to understand how our experiences influenced our ELT educator identity at a public university in Colombia. A constructivist paradigm enabled us to focus on intra and interpersonal reflection as we created artifacts and met to discuss our teaching experiences. Using collaborative analysis, we developed our main themes represented by a red poppy. Based on the findings, our teaching identity is shaped by our families and teachers (roots), teaching misconceptions (leaves), new teaching experiences (new blossoms), other identities (petals), world views about education (cotton soul), and social justice agenda (seeds of change).

Social Justice Language Education and Critical Language Education: Integrating Perspectives for Teacher Education in Colombia

This reflection article makes a call to the language teacher education field in Colombia to integrate social justice language education and critical language education perspectives to advance a social justice agenda in language teacher education. Its overall intention is to invite critical language teacher educators to expand the scope of their work by being knowledgeable about the theories or dimensions of social justice - redistribution, recognition and representation - and including social justice frameworks and principles in their practices. These elements are fundamental to tailoring teacher education programs and guiding pedagogical practices that prepare future teachers for social action and transformation.

Being with uncertainty: A reflective account of a personal relationship with an asylum seeker/refugee

Background:Violent political instability in countries such as Syria has seen the worldwide number of forcibly displaced people rise to levels not seen since World War 2, with over 150,000 asylum seekers and refugees hosted in the UK alone (UNHCR, 2015). Despite this figure, many UK residents have only a limited understanding of the experience of seeking asylum.Content & Focus:This article features a reflective account of the author’s experience of being in a relationship with an asylum seeker/refugee in the UK. It begins with the author’s reflections on the harsh asylum process and encourages those of us with a right to remain in the UK to consider how we would cope in such circumstances. Opportunities for personal and professional development that have arisen from the relationship are outlined, with particular emphasis on the experience of uncertainty and powerlessness. Finally, indignation at the inequalities faced by asylum seekers and refugees is presented as a catalyst for the development of a social justice agenda both within and beyond the therapy room.Conclusion:Being in a romantic relationship with an asylum seeker/refugee offers a unique vantage point to learn about the asylum process in depth. Furthermore, even such overtly challenging experiences can be transformed into opportunities for personal and professional growth, including the development of a social justice agenda in our counselling psychology practice.

Clergy Political Actions and Agendas: New Findings from the National Survey of Religious Leaders

ABSTRACT We use the National Survey of Religious Leaders (NSRL) to extend prior research on clergy’s political activism and agendas. We find that christian clergy engage in political cue giving at similar rates across religious traditions, though evangelical clergy are less likely than other clergy to engage in direct action. Regarding issue priorities, evangelical clergy focus almost exclusively on a moral reform agenda, with a particular focus on abortion. Both mainline Protestant and Black Protestant clergy often address a social justice agenda, but Black Protestant clergy tend to focus more on community empowerment while mainline Protestant clergy tend to pursue social justice activism that seeks to transcend class and national boundaries. Catholic clergy are more likely than others to advance a wide range of issues. Taken together, these findings update and extend our knowledge about clergy political activities, broadening the traditional two-agenda characterization of clergy political agendas into a four-agenda account.

The 1973 Migrant Workers’ Conference and Histories of Multiculturalism

Nowhere is the alliance between leftist organisations, trade unions, migrant workers’ clubs and ethnic welfare societies better represented than in the migrant workers’ conferences held in 1973 and 1975. This article argues for the historic importance of these overlooked moments in the history of twentieth-century labour migration. It explores the inter-ethnic and social justice aims of grassroots multiculturalism in Australia – a model that has been lost in subsequent official renderings of multiculturalism. What was the social and political position of non-Anglo migrant labourers and the migrant rights activists representing their interests? How did they engage with the labour movement and the Far Left? What political alliances formed around this question of migrant labour and migrant welfare for ethnic minority workers? And what were the outcomes of these conferences? This article will explore the improbable alliances and tensions that formed the migrant rights movement in the early 1970s; track its fracturing after the mid-1970s, when economic crises rendered its more ambitious redistributive aims unachievable; and examine how the ideological direction of state-endorsed multiculturalism diverted its inter-ethnic social justice agenda.

Reimagining our space: Taking social justice principles online?

Issues of social justice have been at the forefront in the quest to support students at the faculty-specific writing centre that is the focus of this study. This is in an effort to ensure that the centre remains not just a safe but a brave and non-judgemental space. The onset of Covid-19, and its imposition on our daily practices, required a hasty re-evaluation of our offering. This paper will outline our migration to a fully online mode of support and aims to establish whether the social justice principles harnessed in face-to-face support can and have been applied in the online platform. We approach this inquiry by evoking the voices of the writing centre consultants who spearhead our social justice agenda, with a view to determining their perceptions regarding this issue. Findings from such a study can be applied to the training offered to consultants in the hope of improving our offering.

Calling for (r)Evolution: the rise of the educational phoenix of audacious hope

ABSTRACT Existing educational and social inequalities within colonised nations have been amplified by multitudinous health, racial, climate, and social crises. It is a time to act collectively and boldly pivot towards equitable, socially-just futures. This perspective article contextualises schools within a social eco-system contending with the convergence of childhood adversity, pandemics, increasing climate, human-rights, political, and economic crisis around the globe. Profound uncertainty has shaken the expectations and systems that have been relied-on by those communities which they privilege. We call for educators to apply a transformative praxis with critical and cultural pedagogy to disrupt the educational status-quo that privileges Western-colonial epistemologies – knowledge and ways of knowing; the ‘whitewashing’ of schools and curriculums. Leveraging comprehensively applied trauma-informed principles within a social justice agenda is presented as a way of positioning schools to be way-finders and change-makers as they partner with communities. The time is now to (re)construct a fully rights-based school (r)evolution. Humility and courage will be required to lean into the hard questions and challenges; to revolutionise and humanise education. This paper presents schools as potential truth-hearing and historical truth-telling agents of urgent social change building communities of healing and audacious hope, led by communities.

Reading for pleasure: scrutinising the evidence base – benefits, tensions and recommendations

Compelling international evidence illustrates the potential of reading for pleasure for enhancing student reading achievement along with other learning and wellbeing outcomes. Yet profound challenges exist for nations seeking to encompass attention to students’ volitional reading. In this paper we critically review the growing research evidence in this area by drawing systematically on cognitive psychological studies of reading attainment and motivation, educational studies of classroom practice, and the work of literary scholars and medical professionals. We consider and critique the methodologies deployed and read between the lines, exposing contradictions and complexities across this interdisciplinary field before considering the demands of operationalising this agenda in education. Through a dual focus on England and Australia, where, exemplifying international trends, young people’s voluntary reading continues to decline, we examine difficulties and dilemmas which play out in policy and practice contexts. Our points of commonality and comparison surface key issues for consideration in countries working to reconcile the push and pull of performativity and reading for pleasure agendas in order to nurture children’s volitional reading. To conclude, we examine ways forward for research, policy and practice which deserve increased global attention, and offer future-focused recommendations to advance this significant social justice agenda.

The contribution of Teacher education to universities: a case study for international teacher educators

ABSTRACT This paper reports on the initial stage of a research project which aims to develop deeper understanding of the contribution teacher education, as a sub-discipline within Education, makes to Higher Education in England. The study is located in the intersection between the domains of teacher education and higher education scholarship, which in England represents a contested and ambiguous professional space. Tensions between competing accountability measures, pulling away from university-based to exclusively school-based teacher education, are exacerbated by proposed policy changes arising from the government's recent market review. Findings drawn from analysis of qualitative data from a national survey are discussed in the context of Elizabeth Povinelli's critique of late liberalism and previous scholarship on the nature of teacher educators’ work. Evidence from the study demonstrates numerous benefits to higher education of hosting teacher education departments, including contributions to standard metrics, regional development and knowledge exchange within a strategic social justice agenda. However, teacher educators themselves may find articulating these benefits difficult, because of marginalisation from the dominant ways of achieving and accounting for excellence in the modern university. These findings offer a cautionary tale to international colleagues whose governments may be embarking on equivalent paths of teacher education reform.

Social justice attitudes in a deep divided society: the case of Jewish Arab bilingual schools in Israel

ABSTRACT This paper uses Israel as a case study to investigate the contribution that schools have on their graduates’ social justice attitudes. Using (Ajzen, I. 1991. “The Theory of Planned Behavior.” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 50 (2): 179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T) theory of planned behaviour alongside the social justice scale developed by (Torres-Harding, S. R., B. Siers, and B. D. Olson. 2012. “Development and Psychometric Evaluation of the Social Justice Scale (SJS).” American Journal of Community Psychology 50 (1-2): 77–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-011-9478-2), this study aim is to investigate whether Jewish Arab bilingual elementary schools who foreground social justice as part of their educational mission contribute to their graduates’ attitudes towards social justice. In order to carry out our investigation, a quantitative method was used and two types of schools were chosen: state schools, whose main objective is to create solidary among the Jewish majority in society, and Jewish-Arab bilingual schools, whose aim is to promote understanding among Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel and a social justice agenda. Our hypothesis was that perceptions of social justice would be significantly higher among Jewish Arab bilingual schools’ graduates when compared to state schools’ graduates.

Before solidarity: the process politics of relationality, receptivity, and attunement

ABSTRACT This article critically considers the notion of solidarity in times of division, marked by a neoliberal competitive environment alongside rising neo-nationalisms and identity politics. Concerned with a politics of equality, it asks what forms of solidarity might support a social justice agenda. Rather than considering where solidarity has already manifest, the enquiry pursues a processual approach in exploring what might come before solidarity and may lead to its emergence. It critically considers the ethics and politics of relationality in socio-political and philosophical terms, examining the ways in which relating per se can create concrete alternatives to individualism, further exploring the notions of receptivity and attunement. In thinking with and through the practice of British performance artist Jamal Harewood who creates audience-led performances, the article further considers the ways in which performance practice can contribute to the creation of more equitable futures.

Shifting Away from Normative/Hegemonic Language Assessment in Graduate Programs in Brazil and Espousing a Social Justice Agenda: Insights from Assessment Practices with Indigenous and Deaf Students in Two Universities

Shifting Away from Normative/Hegemonic Language Assessment in Graduate Programs in Brazil and Espousing a Social Justice Agenda: Insights from Assessment Practices with Indigenous and Deaf Students in Two Universities

Espaços ordinários e transformações extraordinárias: o combate à fome da Ação da Cidadania

Abstract This article examines the creation and the first year of existence of Ação da Cidadania to comprehend how it established a social justice agenda in Brazil by creating awareness and promoting solidarity. The movement redefined the issue of hunger, previously associated with poorer classes, as a problem that affects all sectors of society. Through an analysis of Betinho’s manuscripts and memoirs, promotional material from the organization, and secondary geographical data, this study presents the campaign's role as an intermediary for hunger under a framework of space as a producer of social relations. Ação da Cidadania serves as an example of partnership and solidarity for social change, creating non-state public spaces and inspiring civil organizations and social movements.

The advocacy process in Canadian community health nursing: A collaborative ethnography.

To shed light on the process of advocacy in the context of community health nursing, through a methodology inspired by the epistemologies of the South. We conducted a collaborative ethnography in a community health centre in Canada. de Sousa Santos' epistemologies of the South, a typology of advocacy and main themes from historic research informed the methodology. Data were collected between 2016 and 2018 through 420 h of fieldwork observations and three group discussions, including a collective process to co-construct interpretations with participants. Twenty-one nurses participated in the study. Nurses had sufficient work flexibility to practice advocacy actions focused on individuals and groups. They also engaged in attempts at policy reform in the form of defending access to appropriate care and changing the mode of care organization. However, these were curbed by bureaucracy and administrative rules, resulting in the eventual dismissal of health promotion actions and experiences of moral distress. Despite the political climate of their work environment impeding social justice agendas, nurses' advocacy practices showed a persistence of moral values and ideals in coherence with the regional nursing legacy. Acting at the organizational level and involving field nurses in decision making are potential avenues for increasing policy advocacy efficacy. Examining contexts through another epistemic lens and methods of research drawing on history and anthropology has shed light on a process of advocacy. This research shows that organizations need to equip themselves with mechanisms to promote the sharing of realities between nurses, thereby building collective advocacy. The research adheres to the EQUATOR guidelines with SRQR and COREQ methods. No patient or public contribution.

Examining the Factors Impacting Integrated Service Delivery in Leprosy Elimination Programs in Bihar

The disease control program is critical to the agenda of social justice. A generalist approach to the disease control program involves understanding its complexity and prevention from various perspectives, including ecological theory. The integration of the disease control program into the existing healthcare delivery system has been advocated over many decades, with an emphasis on the medical model of disease control. Integration has been widely considered as a means to achieve an effective and efficient health system. This approach has been widely adopted in low-middle-income countries to integrate vertical programs such as leprosy, malaria, HIV/AIDs, and others. However, studies suggest that there is a lack of evidence about the effectiveness of health system integration. The available evidence shows that integration of the health system can have a mixed, negative, or no impact on the health system. This growing enthusiasm toward health system integration is primarily based on the perceived benefits of an integrated approach. This discussion paper draws on the experience of the integration of the National Leprosy Elimination Program in India. It highlights the factors that affected the integration of leprosy programs in Bihar and also affected the pursuit of social justice for people who have been marginalized in our modern world.

Transformative pedagogy for inclusion and social justice through translanguaging, co-learning, and transpositioning

AbstractThe idea of translanguaging has disrupted much of the thinking in bilingual education. A common misunderstanding, however, is that translanguaging was intended to be a language teaching strategy. This article seeks to explore what a translanguaging approach to language teaching entails, with specific reference to the education of minoritized and racialized bilingual and multilingual learners in the school systems in English-dominant countries such as the UK. In particular, I highlight the connections with and contributions to the inclusion and social justice agenda that the translanguaging project aims to make. Translanguaging takes one step further from multilingualism in challenging the raciolinguistic ideologies that view bilingual learners as having separate languages and languaging lives. It instead views their racial/ethnic identities and linguistic practices together, that is, their translanguaging being. My main argument here is that to use translanguaging as a pedagogy for inclusion and social justice requires a change of mindset, not just practice – that is, translanguaging pedagogy rather than pedagogical translanguaging – which can be achieved through processes of ‘co-learning’ and ‘transpositioning’.

From Theory to Action: Staging a Feminist Production of The Taming of the Shrew

ABSTRACT This article advocates for scholarship-informed theatre practice, demonstrating how feminist criticism of The Taming of the Shrew shaped and informed a production of the play staged on the London Fringe in 2017. With reference to the production’s editing, casting, and staging choices, the article foregrounds how scholarship supported the process of textual interpretation and feminist elucidation of the play’s taming plot in performance. Highlighting the opportunity provided by Shakespeare’s plays for ‘covert activism’, this article suggests that bringing feminist scholarship into conversation with Brechtian performance methods can radicalise Shakespeare-in-action and contribute to a wider social justice agenda.