Caring With Relational Justice in Irish Social Care

Social justice and care are deeply intertwined; caring requires justice, and justice requires care. While social justice is recognized as central to the new profession of Social Care Work [SCW] in Ireland, critical thinking about care and justice has been, at best, marginal in practice. In response to this, relational pedagogy is a new approach to social care education [SCE] that emphasizes the link between social justice and care (Hanlon, 2022b). The focus on relational justice in pedagogical practice aims to nurture students’ capabilities in engaging in four interrelated sets of practices: critical, caring, emancipatory, and creative practices (Hanlon, 2024). The article expands on the caring practices dimension of relational pedagogy by highlighting its link with social justice and outlining the dimension’s five core attributes: attentiveness, responsibility, competence, responsiveness, and justice.