In this submission I explore the role played by discourse in the development of pupils' understanding of school-subject knowledge in secondary school classrooms in England, following changes to GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) specifications in 2015. Changes to the structure, the subject content, and the assessment of GCSEs were made in an effort to focus on 'powerful knowledge' during the Key Stage (KS) 4 curriculum (for pupils aged 14 - 16 years old) and in order to promote an emphasis on knowledge that is based on academic disciplines. My research looks at the concept of powerful knowledge, based in a critical realist epistemology and a social realist theory of knowledge, and the extent to which all young people are likely to access knowledge that is powerful in the classroom. I argue that access for all pupils to the means by which to judge knowledge claims and thereby challenge and change society - the transformational power of knowledge - underpins a social justice agenda. My research explores a less-developed aspect of the social realist debate on powerful knowledge, a pedagogic discourse to enable a move away from merely teaching factual or content knowledge. I propose that for knowledge to be powerful teachers and pupils need to be 'epistemologically aware'. My case-study research contributes new empirical findings to the literature on pedagogic discourse for a powerful knowledge curriculum. I discuss the learning trajectories of 15 pupils (including five from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds) from two Year 10 'case' classes observed over a 12-week period, during which they studied a novel as part of their GCSE English literature course. 'Thinking notes' and concept mapping were introduced as innovative data-gathering and analytical tools with which to gain a unique and detailed analysis of pupils' learning over the series of lessons given during the 12-week period. I discuss the teachers' conceptual framing of their discipline and the role that this, together with pupils' experiences and backgrounds, has in the re-contextualisation of discipline-based knowledge in the classroom. I conclude that pedagogic discourse that makes the epistemic logic and related concepts of a subject explicit - an epistemological awareness - may enable pupils from both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds to build systems of meaning that transcend their everyday understanding of the world and the context in which they view it to access powerful knowledge. I present a conceptualisation of a powerful knowledge pedagogic discourse for the study of a novel in the KS4 English literature classroom.

Enactment of social justice education is an important step toward rectifying pervasive discrimination woven into public schools and other American institutions. A social justice educator must develop diverse cultural competencies and also recognize oneself as a racialized participant in a system of racial inequity. The demographics of an overwhelmingly White teaching force and increasingly diverse student body creates both need and opportunity to understand the development of White multicultural educators. This is a case study of two White, female, middle-class first-year urban teachers who had completed a social justice-oriented preparation program. Written reflections, interviews, and focus groups captured teachers’ perspectives on their first-year intercultural, urban teaching experiences. Findings illuminated experiences with cultural disequilibrium, culturally relevant teaching, critical consciousness, learning to teach, relationships, and navigating institutional knowledge. Teachers negotiated cultural disequilibrium by both seeking new cultural knowledge, and seeking or creating experiences more consistent with schooling they experienced as students. Culturally relevant teaching emerged through teachers’ critiques of academic policy and practices that disadvantaged their students, yet were coupled with constraints that inhibited cultural synchronization in classrooms. Student achievement was considered a primary responsibility, but teachers were frustrated by accountability to fill perceived large academic gaps. Teachers simultaneously participated in and critiqued the dominant structures, stereotypes, and narratives in place in their schools Teachers viewed themselves as life-long learners and valued foundational preservice experiences and school-based relationships to build knowledge of teaching. Teachers understood the value of relationships with families and students yet felt constrained in developing those relationships to enhance culturally relevant teaching practices. Teaching in a culture of high stakes accountability and monitoring stifled innovative teaching. Implications for teacher supports during induction include preparing teachers to enter the induction process with an experience bank and foundational critical consciousness from which they can build in new contexts, providing opportunities for teachers to build community- and school-based knowledge and relationships as early as possible, and providing supportive mentoring that guides teachers’ critical consciousness in their new school contexts.

The purpose of this three-article dissertation is to explore the intersection of educational leadership, instructional technology, and culturally responsive education in pursuit of a new leadership framework called technology leadership for social justice. This dissertation employs three emerging methodologies, namely three-step latent class analysis (LCA), multilevel latent class analysis (MLCA), and meta-narrative review, to examine typologies of teachers and their perceptions of technology use and technology leadership with large-scale, quantitative data and to offer a conceptual framework of school and district technology leadership through a culturally responsive lens. The first study utilized latent class analysis (LCA) with the NCES Fast Response Survey System Teachers’ Use of Educational Technology in U.S. Public Schools, 2009 (FRSS 95) dataset (n=2,764) to identify four different types of technology-using teachers: Dexterous, Presenters, Assessors, and Evaders. I also found that teachers in low-income schools are more likely to be in the teacher subgroups that use technology in less impactful ways in the classroom. The second study used multilevel latent class analysis (MLCA) with the 2011-12 Texas School Technology and Readiness (STaR) Charts (n=6,935 schools in n=910 districts) to find three subgroups of teacher perceptions of technology leadership at the school level, High STaR Schools, Moderate STaR Schools, and Low STaR Schools, and four subgroups of teacher perceptions of technology leadership at the district level, Model STaR Districts, High STaR Districts, Moderate STaR Districts, and Low STaR Districts. I found that the Texas teachers in the school and district level subgroups with the lowest perceptions of technology leadership had the lowest student achievement outcomes and were more likely to serve students from historically minoritized backgrounds. The third study employed a systematic, meta-narrative review of the research literature exploring the intersection of technology, leadership, and culturally responsive education, integrating the findings from sixty studies into a conceptual framework of technology leadership for social justice. Each of the three dissertation articles explores the implications for the development of a more evidence-based, sociocultural conception of school and district technology leadership in research, policy, and practice.

Urban schools exist within everyday parlance as an ongoing quandary within American public schools. However, historical, social, cultural, and discursive meanings intersect and compose urban school contexts (re)producing what is known and understandable. Early–career teachers work within these intersections. How they work within and think about these intersections influence their teaching and classroom pedagogical practices. In other words, urban school discourses influence and impact curriculum, which is navigated and mediated by early–career teachers. Through Critical Race Theory and poststructural lenses, this research interrogates normative assumptions and interpretations undergirding these historical (re)productions which often constitute the families and students within these school communities. I conducted this study through individual interviews and a focus group session with six teachers who graduated from a graduate–level, university–based Urban Teacher Residency teacher preparation program and who have worked completed between three to six years as teachers in urban school settings. By focusing on the lived experiences of these early–career teachers, this study contributes to teacher education programs and to in–service induction teaching. These early–career teachers navigate district– and school–level discourses, both professionally in how they conduct their classrooms and personally in how they process their emotional lives. They continuously seek ways in which to maintain their vision for social justice and equity within urban school settings and to maintain an ethic of care for their students. Therefore, the analysis includes my reading and interpretation of teacher and student discourses within these conversations. Throughout these interpretations, I write through, integrate, and interrogate my own experiences and positionalities as an African–American woman, former student, and educator in urban school contexts. Finally, I construct a counter–story in which the teachers grapple with and support an ethic of care for their students. Counter–stories center the voices and experiences of teachers of color as they attend to systemic school inequalities. This research provides a platform for examining and revising the oft–repeated stories of urban schools so that they might become vehicles for transforming structural and cultural norms that have subordinated access and equity for all students, and especially in the context of urban schools, students of color.

La propriété intellectuelle peut être justifiée de deux façons opposées : selon la théorie utilitariste, la propriété intellectuelle est justifiée si, et seulement si, elle permet d’augmenter le bien-être de la société. A l’inverse, la justification déontologique de la propriété intellectuelle soutient que les individus ont un droit naturel sur le fruit de leur travail. Cette thèse propose de dépasser ce débat en opérant une réconciliation entre l’approche déontologique et utilitariste à la lumière de la dichotomie introduite par Rawls entre le libéralisme de la liberté et libéralisme du bonheur. La thèse examine dans quelle mesure la propriété intellectuelle peut être considérée un droit fondamental protégé par le libéralisme de la liberté tout en intégrant les objectifs du libéralisme du bonheur. Les résultats de la thèse montrent que cette réconciliation s’articule à travers la distinction entre les droits économiques et les droits moraux de la propriété intellectuelle. A la différence des droits moraux, la thèse montre que les droits économiques doivent être justifiés dans une perspective similaire, mais non identique, à la perspective utilitariste. / Intellectual property rights can be justified in two opposite ways: according to the utilitarian theory, the intellectual property is justified if, and only if, it increases the total well-being of the society. By contrast, the deontological justification of the intellectual property contends that individuals have a natural right over the output of their labor. This thesis aims to move beyond this debate in reconciling the deontological approach with the utilitarian approach in the light of a dichotomy introduced by Rawls between liberalism of freedom and liberalism of happiness. This thesis examine in what extent the intellectual property can be considered as a fundamental right protected by the liberalism of freedom while integrating the objectives of the liberalism of happiness. The results of the thesis show that the reconciliation is built mainly around a French legal-based distinction between the economics rights and the moral rights of the intellectual property. By contrast to moral rights, the thesis shows that these economic rights must be justified by a similar, but not identical, perspective to the one endorsed by utilitarianism.

Within and across all societies, some people live longer and healthier lives than others. Although many of us intuitively think of health as a very important good, general theories of justice have hitherto paid little attention to its distribution. This is a thesis about what we owe to one another, as a matter of justice, in view of our unequal levels of health. The first part of the thesis addresses the problem of social justice in health. I argue that the basic institutional framework of society must be arranged so as to ensure an egalitarian distribution of the 'social bases of health,' that is, the socioeconomic conditions that shape our opportunities for a healthy life. Inequalities in health, including those caused by differences in individual lifestyles, are only fair when people have been given fair opportunities. This egalitarian approach to the social bases of health must be complemented by a sufficientarian concern for meeting all basic health needs, regardless of whether these originate in unfair social arrangements. The second part of the thesis takes up the problem of global justice in health. Although I argue against the idea that domestic principles of justice can be simply replicated on a global scale, I emphasise the fact that there are a number of international institutions and practices that shape people's opportunities for health. One of these is the state system - the division of the world into sovereign states - which I argue grounds the idea of the human right to health. I also examine two more specific examples of global practices that contribute to global inequalities in health, namely global trade in tobacco and the global labour market for healthcare workers. Both of these, I suggest, must be restricted in light of their impact on health levels worldwide.

With the assumptions that we are all for social justice and that early childhood teacher education programmes need to take a stand on social justice and provide prospective teachers with the practical tools to work with children in early childhood settings, the author of this thesis conducted an instrumental case study aimed to illuminate a process of critical thinking towards conceptualising professional knowledge in teaching for social justice in pre-service early childhood teacher education in Colombia. The purpose of the research was to bring insights into how teacher educators’ views and understandings of social justice influence their pedagogical and practical knowledge with regard to preparing prospective teachers to work with children in Colombian early childhood settings. The inquiry was developed in three stages (an internet-based survey, focus groups and written accounts) and thirty teacher educators working in a university based pre-service early childhood teacher education programme, participated in the study. The findings showed that teacher educators’ views and understandings of social justice in early childhood teacher education were associated with global discourses of inclusion, child rights, equity and equal opportunities for All. These understandings were identified in explicit actions regarding equality, diversity and respect in early childhood education. The findings also showed that other views of social justice appeared to be embedded in local and particular understandings of equity and equality that revealed a dual perception of social justice manifested through implicit and silenced actions with regard to preparing prospective early childhood educators. These particular views which exposed intentions and sensitivity towards teaching for social justice revealed generative forces and synergies in the early childhood teacher education programme. Implications of this study suggest the influence of teacher educators’ views and understanding of social justice in their political, pedagogical and practical professional knowledge with regard to preparing early childhood educators to live on co-existence as ‘vivencialistas’ committed to be citizens in social justice working with children in early childhood settings.

Recent literature in various practical fields calls for a 'relational approach' to social justice, as a theoretical alternative that transcends limitations with liberal contractarianism to offer more penetrating analysis of social justice. I critically engage literature from radical intellectual-political traditions such as Marxism, feminism, and critical race theory to propose what can - and can't - form the basis of a cogent relational critique of liberalism and an alternative positive account. I hone this through dialogue with Rawlsian 'justice as fairness', as well as more recent developments such as relational egalitarianism. The most distinguishing feature of a relational approach is ontological: its social-theoretic account of injustice comprises supra-individual phenomena - relations, social groups, structure, historical causality - as opposed to individual locations hosting portions of a distribuend. Moreover, I define an intermediate position in the ideal vs non-ideal theory debate, arguing that a persuasive relational approach would 'start from injustice'; it would identify the primary desideratum incumbent on social justice theory as being that it enhances understanding of real injustice and thereby informs counteraction. One upshot is a closer relationship between political philosophy and social theory; in turn this reflects how a relational approach to social justice can enjoy symbiosis with the broader 'relational turn' in humanities and social sciences. The argument is furthered through exemplificatory reference to the empirical context of Brazil's post-redemocratisation experimentation with participatory democracy in the social assistance sector, as an aspect of the country's putative 'new social contract'.

This philosophical inquiry challenges the conventional perspective that ‘boys will be boys’ moving towards opportunities for social change through the lived experience of masculinities. The conservative political perspective has failed to challenge the dominant discourse on masculinity, resulting in the maintenance of patriarchal systems that perpetuate issues like sexism and homophobia in our communities. At the same time, social justice spaces are often precarious spaces for privileged males. My inquiry acknowledges masculinity as a state of ambiguity and considers future implications for social justice education through an analysis of male privilege and the epistemic conditions of this particular social location. My conceptual analysis provides a pedagogical exploration that connects interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives related to theories of the self including subjectivities, social performances, and socio-cultural structures of gender identity. My critique of the current status of social justice education directed towards men and boys is explored through dialectics, intersectionality, postmodernism, gender theory, and phenomenology which are used as methods for mapping the hermeneutics of privilege and masculine-oriented experiential knowledge. I suggest that educational reform can offer a humanist approach to learning about gender-based violence by addressing barriers to learning such as opposition, complacency, and ignorance and instead directing resources towards possibilities for change through situated knowledge. / Graduate

O objetivo deste estudo foi conhecer as percepções sobre justiça social dos adolescentes, de acordo com a Psicologia Crítica e o paradigma da justiça social de Isaac Prilleltensky. Buscou-se verificar também a relação percebida entre as condições de justiça social (pessoal, relacional e coletiva) e o bem-estar, analisar o protagonismo dos adolescentes frente às questões de justiça social e, também, conhecer como os adolescentes relacionam a atual conjuntura sociopolítica e cultural brasileira com os princípios de justiça social. Foram realizados 7 grupos focais, com 46 participantes no total, com idades entre 14 e 17 anos, estudantes do ensino médio de escolas públicas e particulares da rede de ensino da cidade de Lajeado/RS. O roteiro de debate dos grupos focais considerou como questão-chave a percepção dos adolescentes sobre o conceito de justiça social. Os dados coletados foram analisados qualitativamente. Foram identificados indicadores relacionados às categorias: poder, capacidade, oportunidade, classe social, dinheiro, raça, cultura, educação e aparência. Observaram-se a naturalização com relação à cultura sobre questões de preconceito racial e a necessidade de educação em valores humanos através da implantação de políticas governamentais. / The purpose of this study was to understand the adolescents‟ perceptions about social justice based on Critical Psychology and social justice paradigm. In addition, this study sought to investigate the relationship between the perceived conditions of social justice (personal, relational and collective) and well-being. The work also examined the role of adolescents facing issues of social justice and (also to know) how teens relate the current sociopolitical and cultural Brazilian context with the principles of social justice. Seven focus groups were conducted with 46 total participants of both sexes, aged between 14 and 17 years. The adolescents are high school students from public and private schools of teaching network of Lajeado/RS. The script of debate in the focus groups considered as a key issue the adolescents‟ perception about the concept of social justice. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively by the method of analysis of the content. Indicators have been identified related to the categories: power, ability, opportunity, social class, money, race, culture, education, and appearance. It is observed the naturalization of culture on issues of racial prejudice and the need for education in human values through the implementation of government policies.