Teachers, school reform and social justice: Challenging research and practice

Abstract

This paper is about what ought to be done within the parameters of enhanced funding, more redistributive funding, new social justice policy statements and a new federal policy settlement on school funding. Within this framework, the paper argues that schools need to become learning organisations and that teacher learning focussed on enhancing student learning needs to be at the core of schools' cultures and substantive professional conversations within schools so as to create teacher professional learning communities. Equity and social justice matters need to become an inherent concern of pedagogy. The article draws on the Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (QSRLS) to document the nature and value of such productive pedagogies and indicate how traditional social justice concerns can be incorporated into pedagogy.