Alternative Educational Programmes Schools And Social Justice

Alternative education caters and cares for students whose regular schools have failed and excluded them. Fifty years of international research reports that alternative settings are characterised by close and powerful staff–student relationships, a curriculum which is relevant, engaging and meaningful, and the strong sense of agency afforded young people by the opportunity to make decisions. Together, these three practices produce increased life chances for alternative education participants. However, despite these apparent successes, alternative education seems to have had little impact on mainstream schools. This collection of papers addresses the important question – what might regular schools and teachers learn about socially just pedagogies from alternative education practices? In providing answers to this question, authors interrogate the taken-for-granted wisdom about alternative education while also taking account of ongoing policy shifts, differing locations and populations, and persistent and intersecting patterns of raced, classed and gendered inequalities. They draw on a range of theoretical and methodological approaches to interrogate the ways in which alternative schools and alternative education both challenge and legitimate the kinds of schooling most of us expect for our own and other people's children. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Critical Studies in Education.

This book examines the experiences and perspectives of students and teachers at an alternative music school, which caters for young learners who have been marginalised and disenfranchised from mainstream schooling. The school utilises a rich music-infused curriculum that connects to the lives of its students, alongside a democratic ethos and ethic of care for members of the school community, including the students, teachers, and parents. The combination of personal narratives together with detailed critical discussion, provides a compelling argument for how schools can make a major difference to the lives of young people. The case study presented in this book offers one potential response to the institutionalised social and educational inequities that young people continue to face, and highlights the important lessons from alternative schooling for education more broadly. It will be of particular interest to researchers in the areas of education and sociology, especially those concerned with matters of social justice and equity in education.

This book explores the unique phenomenon of public alternative schools in Toronto, Canada and other large urban areas. Although schools of this kind have existed for more than a century, very little has been written about the alternative school movement. These alternatives focus more on child-centered instruction, give many students (and teachers) opportunities to organize the school differently, provide a greater voice for teachers, students, and parents, and engage students far more with experiential learning. When traditional school structures are failing to meet the needs of many children and youth, there is a rapidly growing need for information and discussion about alternatives that will encourage their talents and serve their needs. This book draws attention to the issue of alternative schooling to help make it more accessible to a wider audience.

This book provokes a conversation about what supportive schooling contexts for both students and teachers might look like, and considers how schooling can contribute to a more socially-just society. It takes as its starting point the position of the most marginalised students, many of whom have either been rejected by or have rejected mainstream schooling, and argues that the experiences of these students suggest that it is time for schools to be reimagined for all young people. Utilizing both theory and data, the volume critiques many of the issues in conventional schools that work against education, and presents evidence ‘from the field’ in the form of data from unconventional schooling sites, which demonstrates some of the structural, relational, curricular and pedagogical changes that appear to be enabling schooling for education for their students. It will be essential reading for students and researchers in the fields of education, sociology and social work, and will also be of great interest to practising teachers.

Autonomy, Accountability and Social Justice provides an account of recent developments in English state education, with a particular focus on the ‘academisation’ of schooling. It examines how head teachers, teachers and others working in diverse education settings navigate the current policy environment. The authors provide readers with insight into the complex decision-making processes that shape school responses to current educational agendas and examine the social justice implications of these responses. The book draws on Nancy Fraser’s social justice framework and her theorising of neoliberalism to explore current tensions associated with moves towards both greater autonomy for and accountability of state schooling. These tensions are presented through four case studies that centre upon 1) a group of local authority primary schools, 2) an academy ‘chain’, 3) a co-operative secondary school and 4) an alternative education setting. The book identifies the ‘emancipatory’ possibilities of these approaches amid the complex demands of autonomy and accountability seizing English schools. Informed by a consideration of market parameters and social protectionist ideals, this examination provides rich insights into how English schools have emancipatory capacity. Autonomy, Accountability and Social Justice makes a major theoretical contribution to understandings of how the market is working alongside the regulation of schooling and the implications of this for social justice. By drawing on the experiences of those working in schools, it demonstrates that the tensions associated with autonomy and accountability within the current education policy environment can be both productive and unproductive for social justice.

The book is directed at all who are concerned with progressive school change and the promotion of democratic citizenship and social justice.

Many young people failed by the school system are those who face a range of social and economic challenges due to multiple forms of injustice. This book provides an insight into the educational practices that work to re-engage young people who have become disenchanted with traditional schooling. It examines the lives of students and workers who participate in education sites on the fringes of mainstream education, and includes a rich tapestry of personal experiences from those who have been failed by their schooling experiences. The book draws upon research of international relevance conducted in a range of ‘Flexible Learning Centres’ and ‘democratic schools’ in Australia and the UK; it suggests that improving the retention levels of young people in formal education will require schooling practices to change. Students who have become disengaged from mainstream schooling do re-engage in the learning process of many alternative schools, indicating that teaching practices and forms of organisation which work in alternative sites can also provide lessons for mainstream schooling, thereby encouraging a more socially just education system. Included in the book: contexts of contemporary schooling who chooses flexible learning centres and why democratic schools: students and teachers working together teaching in ‘the margins’ case studies: ‘oppositional alternatives’. All young people have the capacity to learn and to enjoy learning; they do not ‘fail school’, rather, schools fail them. The teachers, workers and students who have shared their stories provide significant insights into how we might change this situation, and the book will be invaluable reading for postgraduates and researchers in the fields of education, the sociology of education, school reform and social work.

The Handbook of Social Justice Interventions in Education features interventions in social justice within education and leadership, from early years to higher education and in mainstream and alternative, formal and informal settings. Researchers from across academic disciplines and different countries describe implementable social justice work underway in learning environments—organizations, programs, classrooms, communities, etc. Robust, dynamic, and emergent theory-informed applications in real-world places make known the applied knowledge base in social justice, and its empirical, ideological, and advocacy orientations. A multiplicity of social justice-oriented lenses, policies, strategies, and tools is represented in this Handbook, along with qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Alternative and conventional approaches alike advance knowledge and educational and social utility. To cover the field comprehensively the subject (i.e., social justice education and leadership) is subdivided into four sections. Part 1 (background) provides a general background of current social justice literature. Part II (schools) addresses interventions and explorations in preK-12 schools. Part III (education) covers undergraduate and graduate education and preservice teacher programs, classrooms, and curricula, in addition to teacher and student leadership in schools. Part IV (leadership) features educational leadership and higher education leadership domains, from organizational change efforts to preservice leader preparation programs, classrooms, etc. Part V (comparative) offers interventions and explorations of societies, cultures, and nations. Assembling this unique material in one place by a leading cast will enable readers easy access to the latest research-informed interventionist practices on a timely topic. They can build on this work that takes the promise of social justice to the next level for changing global learning environments and workplaces.