Socially Just Education in the UK – Contemporary Issues and Opportunities to Interrupt Dominant Narratives

Educators are contractually and legally obliged to provide the best possible educational experiences for all students they work with, are expected to model best practice and promote government policy while navigating challenging social landscapes while simultaneously developing a morally just vision for the future. To achieve this aim, educators need to be well informed, academically agile and capable of employing creative solutions when confronting increasingly complex situations. These papers explore some of the persistent policy and social issues in education which require educators to adopt creative solution-focussed approaches to achieve just and fair outcomes. Drawing on original qualitative research which utilises narrative enquiry and cherishes the voices of insiders with direct lived experience (Bold, 2012), the papers highlight the interconnectivity of issues across and between sectors. Through the lenses of critical race theory (CRT) (Gillborn, 2008) and gender (Paechter, 2021), the papers interrogate the intersection of competing agendas and presenting pressures in education.