Schooling for Social Justice, Equity and Inclusion - (Emerald Points) by Denise Mifsud (Paperback)

About the Book

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.

Presenting theoretical pieces and case studies from Malta and Australia alongside applied social theory, Denise Mifsud unravels the conceptual confusion around the terms social justice, equity, and inclusion in relation to schooling.

Book Synopsis

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online.

Discourses of social justice, equity and inclusion are often presented as given constructs to schools, with the expectation for school leaders to construct schooling provision and practices to 'solve' a wider societal, national, and global plaguing problem. While schools are crucial to ensure the provision of equitable education, they may also contribute, advertently or inadvertently, to the transformation of socio-economic inequalities into educational inequalities. Presenting theoretical pieces and case studies from Malta and Australia, in addition to using examples of applied social theory, such as Actor-Network Theory, Denise Mifsud unravels the conceptual confusion around the terms social justice, equity, and inclusion in relation to schooling and highlights the numerous persistent challenges faced when striving for equity in education.

The critical conceptual arguments and empirical research presented in Schooling for Social Justice, Equity and Inclusion will be of interest to academics, policymakers, and practitioners in the educational policy and leadership fields internationally. Additionally, each chapter features pedagogical elements, including discussion questions and annotated bibliographies, that will help take the scholar experiment with novel methodologies and social theories and apply these to their own context while transporting them across disciplines in researching issues of social justice, equity and inclusion.

Review Quotes

This book is essential reading for researchers and practitioners of social justice, equity and inclusion in education. It draws on insights and analysis from two of the critical field's leading thinkers and researchers to interrogate and trouble assumptions that are commonly held or deployed about leading for social justice and equity in schools. This vital book represents a significant leap forward in our understanding of how schools work when they aim at practice and outcomes which are socially just and inclusive. The book is exemplary as a critical text in its expert theorisation of the landscape, mechanisms and outcomes of schooling--and leading--for social justice. Its dual, comparative focus on the cases of Malta and New South Wales, Australia is illuminating and incisive, and points the way to new ways of thinking internationally.

This important book interrogates key educational concepts of social justice, equity and inclusion through a thought-provoking and novel approach. Drawing on Actor Network Theory, Bacchi's post structural analytical approach to policy, and empirical studies of Malta and Australia, it raises crucial questions and insights for theorising and conceptualising some of the most major but intractable issues in schooling today.

About the Author

Denise Mifsud is Associate Professor in Educational Leadership, Management and Governance in the Department of Education at the University of Bath, UK. She has many years of practitioner experience in education settings in both teaching and top-level leadership roles within the Ministry for Education, Malta, in addition to higher education experience in Malta, Scotland and England She has published in several international top-rated journals, in addition to monographs and edited volumes, as well as won awards by the AERA, EERA and SERA.