Educational Justice: Liberal ideals, persistent inequality and the constructive uses of critique

For a long time now, both liberal democratic theorists and politicians have championed schools as the quintessential space to promote equal opportunities and to prepare young people to become citizens for the wider world. Accordingly, there is a loud and persistent drum beat of support for public schools, for citizenship, for diversity and inclusion, and increasingly for labor market readiness with very little critical attention to the assumptions underlying these agendas, let alone to their many internal contradictions. In this book I examine the philosophical, motivational, and practical challenges of liberal education theory, policy, and practice in the twenty-first century. As I proceed, I do not neglect the historical, comparative international context so essential to better understanding where we are, as well as what is attainable in terms of educational justice. I argue that we must constructively critique some of our most cherished beliefs about education if we are to save the hope of real justice from the rhetoric of imagined justice.