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Education for Social Justice

Ed4SJ is concerned with social justice and inclusive education across all age ranges and in all educational settings.
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Ed4SJ draws on the knowledge and experience of interdisciplinary academics and practitioners to further research that promotes social justice in education.

We form partnerships on local, national and international levels to explore issues that are central to the current educational context.

Our particular research areas include social inclusion and exclusion of learners and education for global citizenship.

Projects:

Since 2016 the YVC have been consulting with young people and working with academics and practitioners to better understand how serious violence manifests itself in young people’s lives. We have spent the last five years examining the root causes of youth violence in England, Scotland and Wales in our search for solutions. We held a series of evidence sessions in Parliament and worked with our academic partners to produce an interim written report with policy recommendations in summer 2018.

This was followed by the publication of our final report  in July 2020, which also considered the added pressures created by the COVID-19 crisis.

Building on previous research into stakeholders' aspirations for RE that reflects the 'real religious landscape', this project showcases ways in which teachers are engaging with a 'worldviews approach' as proposed by the Commission for Religious Education (CoRE, 2018). These resources are aimed at both supporting teachers in adopting a 'worldviews approach' and at further stimulating discussion around reform of RE.

The Exploring Worldviews Education & Citizenship in Schools project is funded by the Canadian Social Science and Humanities Research Council and led by Schulich School of Law, Dalhousie University.

Partnerships: 

Group members are involved in a range of projects and collaborations. Below are a sample of our project partners.

  • After Religious Education: Curricula Principles for education in Religion and Worldviews
  • Our Shared World

Members Include:

  • Zoë Leadley-Meade
  • Dr Martha Shaw
  • Fabienne Benoist
  • Julie Gariazzo
  • Anna Jones
  • Sophie Mackay
  • Prof. Nicola Martin
  • Katherine Pechey
  • Prof Shaminder Takhar
  • Helen Thomas
  • Edlene Whitman
  • Simon Wickenden
  • Dr. Helen Young
  • Tracey Celestin-Radix
  • Andrew Ettinger

The Education for Social Justice research group has a range of events scheduled for the upcoming academic year.

Upcoming Events 2023

  • Date TBA - Education Across The Divide Conference 2023: Education in and for Community
    • The conference explores how educational research and practice is supporting and working with communities to build sustainable futures in these challenging times. There will be presentations and workshops lead by a range education practitioners and researchers showcasing ongoing innovation within this area that helps address some of the pressing challenges of current times, such as the impacts of the cost-of-living crisis, global uncertainty and the need for sustainable development.

Past Events

Education Across the Divide

Lightning talks Online:

  • 11 February 2021 - Education Across The Divide: Research Partnerships and Inclusive Practice
  • 11 November 2021 - Worldview Literacy as Active Citizenship education with Dr Martha Shaw (Lightning Talks)
  • 10th February -  Neurodiverse youth development; The current challenges with Gavin Hoole (Lightning Talks)
  • 6th April 2022 - Researching Placebased Facilitation Projects with Zoe Leadley-Meade (Lighting talks)

Education Across the Divide conference posters by Sandra Howgate

and Dr Pen Mendonca

Publications:

Jerome, L., Liddle, A. and Young, H. (2021 - forthcoming). Talking Tolerance: Being Deliberative about Fundamental British Values. PRISM

Jerome, L., Liddle, A. and Young, H. (2021). Talking about rights without talking about rights: on the absence of knowledge in classroom discussions. Human Rights Education Review. 4 (1), pp. 8-26.

Young, H. and Jerome, L. (2020). Student voice in higher education: Opening the loop. British Educational Research Journal. 46 (3), pp. 688-705.

Coakley, R (2019). Teaching Science, Design and Technology in the Early Years by Dan Davies (2019). 2 chapters. In press.

Dinham, A & Shaw, M (2020) Landscapes, Real and Imagined: ‘REforREal’ in Chater ,M. eds. Reforming Religious Education: Power and Knowledge in a Worldviews Curriculum. UK: John Catt Education Ltd.

Leadley-Meade, Z. and Goodwin, R. (2019) Pre-entry self-assessment and mapping to relevant services as a means of developing learner autonomy in undergraduates. Journal of Inclusive Practice in Further and Higher Education. 11.1 in press

For all general enquiries please contact our Group Leads:

The Ed4SJ group is happy to supervise projects in relevant areas of research. As a PhD student supervised by a member of this group, you will receive support from the wider research group and the research centre. If you are interested to apply for a PhD at LSBU on this theme, get in touch with the following academics listed below:

Education Across the Divide 2022: Reimagining Educational Futures

This event, Education Across the Divide: Research Partnerships & Inclusive Practice, provides a forum to explore research partnerships within and beyond the academy that promote inclusion in education. The how, who, what and why of research are all relevant questions that will be explored at the conference.