Recent technocratic trends that value the quantifiable aspects of education have led to the marginalisation of social justice education and critical pedagogy, such that the conversation has shifted away from education towards notions of schooling, where it is generally agreed that one of the most important functions of education involves the transmission of knowledge and skills for the attainment of qualifications. The function of education does not stop there, however, for even the simplest provision of knowledge and skills already produces a certain way of (re)presenting the world. Together with qualification, there is also socialisation going on – the explicit, but often also implicit (re)presentation of cultures, traditions and practices deemed of higher value, as the research on the hidden curriculum shows (Biesta, 2020).
Social justice
Social justice aims to expose and alter the institutions that perpetuate systemic oppression. While these systemic structures are external to the individual, they implicate variables in the oppression individuals may experience. External barriers and institutional limitations hinder the individual from achieving access to opportunities that lay outside the self. This form of social justice is typically grounded in a Marxist or Freirean critique of an unjust social order and has facilitated the articulation of multiple perspectives to emancipate the voices of those historically ignored, including those of minorities, women, LGBTIQ+ and those living in poverty. Critics of social justice have argued that ideology, indoctrination and liberal political values are somehow intrinsic to the social justice concept in education. Yet, how often do these critics ever consider that the values of social justice are inherent to the project of democracy?
Democracy
A sense of equality is not innate; it does not present itself automatically but must be nurtured through active dialogue, revision, dissent and questioning. Democratic education infused with social justice aims must include perennial questions as outlined by Ayers (2008): Education for what? Education for whom? Education toward what kind of social order? These questions and the conversations they inspire should be revalued and given more space in education policy and teacher education programmes. The principles of democracy and social justice demand that we pose disturbing questions, take risks and look at the familiar from new perspectives. This is achieved through critical literacy.
Critical literacy
Critical literacy involves the analysis and critique of the social structures that create inequality and the texts that embed these unequal relations, as well as the active engagement in the reconstruction of these social structures. Young people's ability to critically analyse their communities' socio-political histories, cultural life and practices will help them participate in the process of reading and re-writing their worlds and to navigate through and overcome the challenges they encounter (Freire, 1970). In Freire's worldview, learning from the standpoints of disadvantaged populations could lead to curricular justice by changing what counts as valued knowledge.
The curriculum in focus
The fact that education has come to be perceived in terms of its adequacy in imparting skills for a future characterised by technological advancements makes it more urgent than ever to interrogate standard and national curricula globally.
What might constitute "curricular justice"? Whose interests are represented? What do we value as legitimate knowledge? What is open to question and negotiation? Which kinds of social justice might be needed to inform our critical literacy curriculum designs? What types of dilemmas are faced daily by educators in schools serving our most disadvantaged young people, their families and communities? The knowledge and skills provided by education will be increasingly significant to the quality of life that young people can enjoy. Given that schools serve increasingly diverse student communities, have responsibility for educating students in continuously changing digital and communication technologies and address escalating pressure to raise and sustain measurable standards, it is more challenging, but even more essential than ever, to prioritise equity frameworks. When literacy becomes both the problem and the solution to educational inequities, and when families and communities are held responsible, attention is deflected from structural injustices.
‘Texts of terror’
The media sometimes contribute to the meta-narrative of blaming the disadvantaged (Maguire, 2007; Berliner, 2013). One oft-repeated narrative tells of poor folk who spend their welfare money on the wrong things – alcohol, gambling, trendy clothes and so on. Another narrative is of the likelihood of violence and drugs in deprived areas. These stories of communities become "texts of terror" (Rappaport, 2000) – dominant cultural narratives that actively reproduce dangerous stereotypes and change how marginalised young people might be seen by their teachers and society. Designing a curriculum with a social justice agenda requires knowledge about the relationships between people, places and poverty.
Critical literacy with and for the other
The social, cultural and political forces that influence the context from/with which our interpretations are constructed need to be continually questioned and reinterpreted such that new horizons will tend to emerge as we see things differently with revitalised lenses from one situation to another. Tensions, paradoxes and divergences enhance debates and should not be considered a problem. The aim is to engage in continuous reflexive (self)critique (Takaki, 2020) to understand the historical motives that make one think, feel, behave and act in particular ways and not in others.
Everyday life entails ubiquitous learning from myriad historical, cultural and political positions. When neoliberal forces (re)shape young people's inter-subjectivities, their meaning-making can hardly be immune to the ideological market orientation. Thus, critique plays a central role in the reinvention of schools towards legitimised participation of the "missing people" (Braidotti, 2019). Education, literacy, language and curriculum policies, designed to address the disadvantage experienced by diverse students, need to extend beyond the school to ensure that the viable conditions for exchanging their capital are normalised. This entails that social, economic and literacy education policies work synergistically (Luke, 2019).
If we cannot be the other, speak for the other and act for the collective other, new investigations are needed to foster comprehension of the unknown meanings from its/his/her/their perspective(s). Social justice brings about the recognition that difference enhances the possibility of ethics/social justice if constructed with the other (Freire, 2005), for the other (Levinas, 2014). As we encounter the other and otherness, we can change and grow in and through the resulting space for learning, unlearning and relearning from/with/for the other.
Audrey Friggieri is a PhD candidate, educator and author