Opportunity and Justice: Building a Valuable and Sustainable Educational Experience for Disenfranchised and Disengaged Youth

Abstract

Building a valuable and sustainable educational experience for disenfranchised and disengaged youth remains a challenge for secondary schools. This article examines successful schools located in areas of deprivation through the lens of Rawlsianism, particularly those ideas stated in A Theory of Justice (1971). Case studies from 16 schools located in England and Wales are examined for characteristics identified by heads, teachers and pupils which support their overcoming low performance, poverty and social disadvantage. The article reports both the 15-year quantitative outcomes of the schools on national performance measures and qualitative findings on strategies used by the schools and students to reach comparatively higher levels of success than students at more privileged schools reach. Central to these characteristics is the schools' ability to offer adequate basic rights or opportunities to all pupils. These schools were able to diminish social and economic inequalities for the least-advantaged students without diminishing these same opportunities for all students.