Global schooling and social justice: Oscillations, tensions, and dilemmas

Abstract This conceptual article identifies tensions and dilemmas that cut across global schooling and social justice, albeit in context-rooted and multifaceted ways. We pay particular attention to social justice dilemmas and tensions, and oscillations between them in school governance, curriculum, and identities. We argue that a global analytical tool for enhancing a socially just approach to schooling must include (1) a redistribution of resources, (2) principles of curriculum justice supporting powerful and locally relevant knowledge and avoiding labelling and marginalization, and (3) non-material aspects, such as support for empowerment, personal dignity, care, and representation. A global lens simultaneously highlights national and supranational cultures and dynamics. It implies a focused approach on continuities and discontinuities in governance arrangements from a historical perspective, as well as a spatial approach to variations in pedagogical cultures, encompassing societal, political, and personal values.